Greek moussaka - a lighter version

hello! :) 

It's been a while since I wrote here, but it doesn't mean I have not tried a variety of new recipes which I hope to share them here.

Today I will share my recipe for Greek moussaka . Summer time is the best time to try this recipe because you can find fresh aubergines - the most important ingredient of this dish. 

The regular recipe for moussaka calls for sour cream and grated cheese on top. I chose a lighter version: yogurt and just a tiny bit of cheese for serving. 

Ingredients: 

2-3 aubergines

1 onion 

500 gr minced meat (pork  and beef) 

2-3 cloves of garlic

tomato paste

2 eggs

250-300ml yogurt 

First, wash and cut the aubergines in slices of 1cm. Then you can either fry them with just a bit of oil, or place in the oven on a baking paper. 

While the aubergines are getting ready, you can prepare the sauce: onion, garlic chopped and then fried. Add the tomato paste, spices and the meat. 

In a tray, place the slices of aubergines, slightly one under another, like scales of a fish. Depending on how much sauce there is and how many aubergines you have, there can be more levels. So add the sauce and another level of aubergines and so on till ingredients are finished. In a bowl, mix the eggs and yogurt and then add the mix on top of the aubergines and meat. 

Bake in the oven for 45min-1h at 180 degrees Celsius. 

And voila, the final result: 

 Bon appetit! :) 

Creme brulee with a twist

 

A delicious dessert for the times when you don't wanna bother too much with the baking part. 

Here it is my interpretation of the famous creme brulee (Crème brûlée). 

Ingredients: 

- 6 eggs

- 1 glass milk 

- 6 spoons of brown sugar 

 - vanilla essence

- coconut flakes, coconut favoured sugar 

Cooking time: 1h 

Start by mixing the eggs with sugar until they double their volume. Add the coconut flakes and milk. 

The trick of baking the creme brulee is to do it in a bain marie style: pot in a pot with water. 

The oven needs to be set at a lower degree, 150 C. Bake for 45 min. 

The result is: 

it is extremely flavoured and has just the right consistency. I served it with ice cream. Enjoy! 

Home made burgers and bread rolls

Today is about burgers. And home made bread which was a first attempt, but it worked out quite nicely. 

 I enjoy home made burgers because I can be sure of the meat quality and the ingredients used. 

Considering the pandemic situation, when many of our favourite restaurants are closed, I think they make a yummy dinner. 

Ingredients: 

- for the bread: 200 gr flour (mix of pizza and all purpose flour) 

10 gr yeast

2 spoons olive oil 

spices 

- for the burgers: 400 gr minced meat (beef, or mix), 1 egg 

spices 

Bread rolls take about 40 min to prepare and bake. 

For the dough is quite easy: start with the yeast in a half a glass warm water, wait about 5 min, then start to add the flour slowly. Add the oil, some pinch of salt and knead, then let it rest in a warm place about 20 min. 

Once it has risen, you can bake them in previous heated oven for about 10-12min. 

For the burgers, I use a simple recipe: meat mixed with spices and 1 egg, make 4 flat meat balls, fry them 5 min in frying pan, then move the pan in the oven for about 15 min. 

And that' it: the recipe for a home made dinner :) 

Delicious Cream cake - no baking

 A new recipe for a delicious cake suitable for a special day! 

and what is the best part no baking! :) 

Ingredients: 

3 eggs 

cream (for cakes) 

1 cup milk 

1 can of pineapple 

lady fingers 100 gr 

Prep time: around 30 min, but it is better to leave the cake in the fridge over night 

For the cream part: mix the eggs with milk and boil them over very slow fire (baine marie). you can add some flavours: vanilla, orange, etc. Careful not to make an omelette in this way stir all the time. 

When the cream gets some sour cream consistency, it is done. Leave it aside to let it cool. 

Beat up the cream separately according to the instructions. 

Once the egg/milk cream is colder, mix it up with the cream. 

In a baking tray, place a layer of foil, then lay over the pineapple pieces. Pour the cream in tray. but keep about 6-7 spoons of this mix, you will need it for the next day. 

In the juice from the pineapple, place the lad fingers cookies, one by one for couple of seconds. then place them on the top of the cream in the tray. 

Cover everything with foil and place the tray in the fridge over night. 

Next day, you need to flip this entire thingie. so the fruits are up . something like this: 

Next it is only a matter of covering the cake with the cream saved from the previous day. 

You can decorate with more fruits and it's done. Voila! 

Healthy doughnuts - no frying!

 Hello, 

I am a big fan of doughnuts: with jam, chocolate, vanilla cream or confectioners sugar. They remind me of childhood and playful afternoons with friends, when grandma was baking doughnuts for us.

But I also tried to find a more healthy way of baking them and I found one: in the oven, no frying! 

So here it is the recipe: 

Ingredients: 

3 cups flour 

2 yolks 

100 ml milk 

10gr yeast

6 spoons sugar 

3 spoons oil 

flavours (vanilla) 

For the dough, mix all the ingredients and leave it in a warm place to have time to rise. 

This dough was a bit more than I expected ;) 

Time for the work with the roller pin. Roll the dough in a layer of 1cm thickness. Then use a glass to cut the doughnuts. 

Place the doughnuts on baking paper in a tray and leave them again for 30min or so to rise up. 

Once they look puffy, it s time for the baking: 180 degrees C for about 10-12min. 

when they are done, they look like this: 

You can cover them in confectioners sugar and/or fill them up with jam or chocolate.  

More healthy and no more trouble with the frying. 

Enjoy! 

Cinnamon rolls - yummy choco

Who doesn't like a cinnamon roll? why not bake them yourself instead of buying them? this recipe for the beloved cinnamon rolls comes with a twist: chocolate ganache. 

 Ingredients: 

 dough: 

 350-400 gr flour

 2 eggs 

 100 gr butter 

7-8 spoons of sugar 

50 ml milk

10 gr yeast

filling: cinnamon,  jam, coconut flakes, raisins and/or cranberries 

ganache: 1/2 dark chocolate, 2-3 spoons of butter, 1 tea spoon cacao, milk

For the dough: yeast mixed with warm milk, flour, sugar, eggs, butter and a pinch of salt. Knead for 10 min until the dough does not require more flour, then leave the dough in warm place until it doubles the volume. 

When the dough is ready, then you need to use the roller pin to flatten it, until it is about 1cm thick. 

Cover the dough with butter, then cinnamon, sugar. Or with jam and dried fruits. 

Then roll the dough and cut it in equal parts, either with a knife or with a thread. 

Lay the rolls one by one in a baking tray which was previously prepared with butter. 

Put the tray in oven and leave it on a very low setting of heat for the rolls to raise again. 

Bake for 15 min at 180 degrees C. 

For the ganache, you need the ingredients listed above. It is made in the bain-marie method so the chocolate does not stick. Low heating, mixing till the consistence is like a sauce. 

Then pour it on the rolls when they are not so hot anymore - about 10 min after you take them out from oven. 

They look like this and they taste fantastic! Enjoy! 

Autumn joy: Plum cake

Hello :) 

Autumn is just an amazing season, with the richness of goodies we can find and  the mild days to bask in the sun. 

So for those quiet moments when you just crave for something sweet here is a quick and easy recipe for plum cake: 

Ingredients: 

5-6 plums 

5 eggs

100 gr (1 cup) of flour 

10 spoons sugar 

vanilla sugar or essence 

4 spoons oil (sunflower) 

1 tablespoon of baking powder 

Baking time: 25-30min; Prep time: 15 min

Wash and cut the plums into small piece and then cover them with 2-3 spoons of sugar. 

Eggs are whisked with the rest of sugar until they triple the volume. Then you can slowly add the flour and incorporate it into the eggs mix. Now it is the time to add the oil and the baking powder too. 

On the tray for baking, lay a thing layer of oil and then flour. Add a first row of fruits and then the batter. Add the rest of fruits and the rest of batter and it's ready to go into the oven.

The oven needs to be preheated at 200 degrees C. 

I baked it for 25-30 min at 200 degrees C and then just checked it with a toothpick.  

The result is amazing: a soft and extremely flavoured cake, the nice aroma filled the whole house. 

Enjoy! 

Tomatoes soup - a delicious recipe

hello,

Long time has passed since I posted here. well, now the time has come for a new recipe, something light for summer days, because it can be served both cold and hot - the one and only Tomatoes soup!

this soup has so many recipes and ways to cook it, but I'd rather use fresh tomatoes and keep as much as possible from the fruit itself. Yes, tomato is considered a fruit :)

Ingredients: 
2 kilo tomatoes
celery
2 onions
1 carrot
1 parsnip
1 spoon of olive oil
spices (pepper, salt, thyme)
1 glass of water
cooking time: 1h 

First, we make a soup using the vegetables listed above. In the same time, we need to prepare the tomatoes: we want them without peels and any hard part found inside. for this we have two options: either we boil them in hot water until the peel is cracking or we put them in a tray in the oven till similar result is obtained.

Then in  separate pot, we fry the 1 onion in olive oil and then add the peeled and cut tomatoes. We add a bit of water - 1 glass - and let it boil about 30min until all the flavours are mixed.
We add the vegetable soup over tomatoes and boil for another 10min, adding the spices too. At the end, we add some thyme.

It can be served with toasted bread with garlic.
It is so tasty that I usually go for the 2nd bowl :)

Bon appetit! 

Black currants cake

Hellooo :)
Today I am presenting you a delicious cake - easy to bake, but amazingly tasty.

I love forest fruits and this time of year, you can find them in every supermarket. Black currants for this cake - very smooth taste, so you won't need much sugar.

Ingredients: 
 250gr black currants
200 gr flour
4 eggs
vanilla sugar
sugar - 1 glass - I guess 100 gr or less
rum essence

The process - is the same, shown in many other posts.
The result is extremely delicious!

till next time, kiss, kisses