Winter Salad with Savoy, Bacon and Tiger Nuts

February 1, 2017 - Tobia 6 Comments

I love veggies. But I could eat more of them. During summer that is easy. During winter – not so much. It’s the time I crave soups. Something warm, soothing and filling. But I wanted to challenge myself for Claras veggie expedition. February it’s all about savoy cabbage. I could have easily made a soup… with pearl barley and beef. But no I had my mind set on salad. A winter salad.

Best lukewarm… because it’s cold out there. And also something savory… bacon is always a good choice! Are you hungry yet? Ok here is is:

Winter Salad with Savoy, Bacon and Tiger Nuts

Ingredients:

♥ 1/4 savoy cabbage
♥ Salt
♥ Bacon (as much as you like)
♥ 2 tbsp olive oil
♥ Pepper
♥ 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
♥ 2 tbsp Balsamico, white
♥ 1 pinch brown sugar
♥ 1 handful chopped tiger nuts (If you don’t have any tiger nuts you can easily use any other nut you have. I just had them in the pantry.)

Directions:

1. Cut savoy cabbage and remove stem. Wash leaves and cut into stripes. Remove veining. Boil for 3 minutes in salted water. Drain and let cool.

2. Roast bacon until crunchy.

3. Toss everything together and season with salt, pepper and caraway seeds. Add oil and vinegar. Garnish with tiger nuts and bacon. Enjoy lukewarm.

What is your favorite winter salad? Do you use savoy often? I don’t. I think its the second time ever I bought this cabbage. But with the many recipes coming in I am sure I will give it a spin. And I have 3/4 of the cabbage in my freezer. All cut up. easy to make soup…

Happy cooking

Tobia

Shrimp Risotto with Pak Choi – Risotto Love

January 22, 2017January 21, 2017 - Tobia 4 Comments

Did you know I love love love risotto? Well I do. And that is probably the only reason I would agree to walk into an Italian restaurant. Because pizza… not my thing. Not at all. Maybe once a year. Pasta ok, but than I can do this at home any day. For years I thought – and was told – risotto is so hard to cook and it takes forever. Well, guess what: not true.

I only make risotto when I am cooking for my own. The lastest risotto I made was this awesome Shrimp Risotto with Pak Choi and coconut milk. To die for. Really.

You know what’s surprising to me: it’s the first risotto recipe on craftaliciousme. How did that happen? I’ve so many yummy recipes and improvise even more. So it’s time to post this one.

Shrimp Risotto with Pak Choi

You need the following ingredients when you cook for one really hungry person (me!) or it would work for two when there is a dessert later on.

Ingredients:

♥ 1 shallot
♥ 1 cm of ginger
♥ 2 tbsp olive oil
♥ 100 g risotto rice
♥ 250 ml strong vegetable broth
♥ 100 ml coconut milk
♥ 4 shrimps
♥ 1 pak choi
♥ salt
♥ chilli powder
♥ parmesan
♥ 1/2 lime

Directions:

1. Peel and finely dice shallot and ginger.

2. Heat oil in a pot. Add shallot and ginger. When shallot glazes over add shrimp and fry a bit more. Now add risotto rice and let glaze over.

3. Add broth and coconut milk one bit after another. ( I am way too impatient to do this and usually dump it all in at once. Don’t know what the difference would be.) Reduce heat and let simmer until liquids re absorbed (approx. 20 min).

4. Wash pak choi and cut into strips. 5 minutes before rice is done add the stem pieces to the risotto. Let cook for remaining time.

5. Add salt and chill powder to taste as well as leaves of the pak choi and grated parmesan.

6. Set table and risotto is done.

Enjoy your risotto. I could eat it for breakfast. Really it’s so yummy. Do you have a favorite risotto recipe? Please leave a link in the comments I would love to venture and try new ones.

Happy Sunday,

Tobia

Spicy Chai Cookies – My all Time Favorite

December 11, 2016November 6, 2018 - Tobia 4 Comments

You know how much I love this season by now. And I might have mentioned here and there that I am totally baking crazy.

I remember one year where I bought 12 kg of flour and baked it all in one weekend. It was insane. I am not doing that anymore but I am still baking way too much. I mean there are just so many fun recipes out there. But than there are the all time favorites. And the repertoire gets larger with every year…

I have this unwritten rule with myself: For every known/proofed/favorite recipe I bake there must be an unknown one. This way it is not getting too boring but at least 50% of the cookies taste good.

One year I made 12 different cookies. So it was a surprise the other day when I realized there is not one Christmas Cookie Recipe on this blog. Time to change that and today I spill my most favorite recipe of recent years.

Spicy Chai Cookies

While I love cookies and sugared goodies this time of year it just sometimes gets too much. And that is when those cookies come in. They change up the cookie jar with it’s spicyness and a bit savory taste.

What you need:
∗ 125 g butter, soft
∗ 75 g sugar – I usually use about 50 g
* 1 pinch of salt
* 1 egg
* 4 bags of Yogi tea / chai tea – I only use the ones based on black tea and found this one to be the best
* 1/2 tsp grounded pepper – sometimes I add more
* 100 g brittle
* 250 g flour
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 tbs milk
* 2 packs of vanilla sugar

Directions:

1. Whisk butter, sugar and salt until smooth. Add the egg.

2. Cut open tea bag and put into a bowl. Add half of the tea, pepper, 50g of brittles and flour to the butter mix. Knead until you have a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Try not to eat too much dough.

3. Preheat oven to 160-180°C. Roll dough onto floured surface and either cut cookies with knife or use a cookie cutter. Put cookies on baking sheet lined with baking paper.

4. Mix egg yolk and milk and coat cookies. Add remaining brittles and vanilla sugar to the remaining tea and cover cookies. Bake for about 7-10 minutes until golden and crunchy.

This makes for approx. 100 cookies. And they usually don’t last long. Unfortunately! My supply this year is already gone. Maybe I make another batch.

What is your favorite cookie recipe? Please share I always want to try new recipes.

Happy baking

Tobia

Pannakakku – Finnish Pancakes

February 28, 2016January 14, 2017 - Tobia 2 Comments

Hello you all…

It is Sunday. I like Sundays. When I am lucky the sunshine will be bright and hit my chair where I sit every morning writing my journal and drinking my coffee.

Sundays are for “me time” and “us time” and chilling and relaxing.

Sundays are for special treats. I hear a lot of people do waffles for Sundays. We never had those when I was growing up. I don’t know why. Maybe because we just knew no-one with a waffle iron… What we often did on Sundays though was having “Plinse” a very local variation of pancakes. Either we took a bike ride and stopped in one of the quaint inns in one of the villages or my mom made some. I am way too impatient to flip pancakes for eternity in the kitchen.

So good thing the Finns are not so patient either and came up with pancakes out of the oven.

And I would like my Pannakakku – Finnish Pancake Recipe

♥ 3 eggs
♥ 70 g sugar (or more if you desire)
♥ 1 pinch of salt
♥ 475 ml milk
♥ 150 g flour
♥ 60 g melted butter

Preheat oven to 230°C
Combine sugar, flour and salt. Add eggs and milk and mix until smooth. The dough is very fluid. Cover your baking pan with melted butter and add rest to the dough. Mix again.
Pour dough into your baking or casserole pan. Bake for 30 minutes. The dough will rise a lot during the baking process but will collapse as it cools down. Cut pieces and serve with powdered sugar, jams, fruits or dessert sauces.

I find it so interesting that about every culture has it’s own variation of pancakes. How do you do your pancakes? Is there a special family recipe or a local variation?

Happy Sunday,

Tobia

Colorful Red Beet Coconut Soup

January 17, 2016 - Tobia 4 Comments

Hey you all,

so how is 2016 treated you? My last two weeks have been rough. I don’t feel well, I have a tough time adjusting to work life again and I am sooo tired. But the other day I was able to do home office and therefore used up the tiny bit of daylight to take a picture.

Do you remember Soup Sunday? No? Well maybe because I haven’t posted many soups lately… But I finally have a great one I want to share.

I am so into red beets lately and I feel like I eat them every other day. Time to have them make an appearance on the blog, no?

Here is my latest favorite – for all who care its vegan too

Red Beet Coconut Soup

♥ 650 ml water
♥ 250 ml coconut milk
♥ 350 g red beets
♥ 150 g potatoes
♥ 1 small fennel
♥ 25 g ginger, chopped
♥ salt

Preparations are rather easy {always a plus, right?)

Bring water and coconut milk to boil.
Peel potatoes and red beets and cut into cubes.
Clean fennel, remove stem and cut into cubes as well.
Add vegetables and ginger to boiling liquid and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Puree everything and add salt to taste. I kept a bit of the veggies because I like something to bite in my soup. But its up to you if you wanna puree everything.

Enjoy your yummy soup.

What is your favorite red beet recipe? Please share… As I said I eat a lot of them so a bit of variation can’t hurt.

Happy Sunday,