Shaved fennel salad

Even though the weather is certainly not salad-weather at the moment, I figured that maybe, if I eat enough salads, the sun will magically appear? Will that work you think? Sort of reversed psychology for the weather.. As I am typing this it is actually pouring down with rain again so sofar it hasn’t helped, but I can always try, right? As I know is the case with a lot of people that do not live in Weimar (where the sun apparently always shines..:)

I’ve also noticed that – while I am certainly not a vegetarian – I actually do eat a lot of vegetarian dishes. Most of the time that is when Tom is not home and it’s just Gizmo and me in the house. I love to eat salads (Tom doesn’t) and I love to eat cheese (Tom hates cheese) and I like vegetarian dishes (Tom wants meat) so those moments are ideal to try out new salads.

This particular salad comes from the book Super Natural Every Day from Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks. The book is gorgeous and filled with great vegetarian recipes. My friend Hermin was coming over for dinner and as always she was on another diet. I always ask her what the diet of the day is when she is visiting. Just so I know what to cook! This time it was a no-carb diet so fairly simple to cook. I prepared my favorite salmon burger and thought this salad would make a great addition to that as it included fennel and dill which I think work great with salmon anyway.

The biggest hurdle is to shave the vegetables thin enough. I don’t have a mandolin, as that would work perfect I think, so I used a potato peeler instead, which is a little trickier on the fennel but worked great on the courgette. I also added a little honey as suggested by Heidi as my lemons were pretty tart.

Paired with the salmon this was a great meal!

Shaved fennel salad

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	5 minutes
Total time	35 minutes
Meal type	Salad
Misc	Serve Cold
From book	Super Natural Every Day

Ingredients

• 1 medium courgette (sliced into paperthin coins)
• 2 small fennel bulbs (trimmed and shaved paper thin)
• 15g dill (fresh and chopped)
• 80ml lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
• 80ml extra virgin olive oil
• fine sea salt
• 4 or 5 handfuls rocket
• honey (if needed)
• 60g pinenuts (toasted)
• 60g feta cheese (crumbled)

Directions

Combine the courgette, fennel and dill in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Se aside and allow to marinate for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour. When you are ready to serve the salad, put the rocket in a large salad bowl. Scoop all of the zucchini and fennel onto the rocket, and pour most of the lemon juice dressing on top of that. Toss gently but thoroughly. taste and adjust with more of the dressing, olive oil, lemon juice or salt, if needed. If your lemons are particularly tart you may need to counter that by adding a little honey into the salad at this point. Serve topped with the pinenuts and feta cheese.

Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
is published by Hardie Grant Books.

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Baked penne dish

Did you know that the Dutch are known as ‘cheese heads’ (kaaskoppen)? I’m quite sure it is not a term a Dutch person would use for themselves but it is an internationally known term. I wasn’t entirely sure how we got to be called that, other then the fact that we sure do eat cheese a lot.

As it turns out, our friendly neighbors the Belgians, came up with that name in the period of the “Belgische Opstand” (1830-1939) when they no longer wanted to belong to the Netherlands and were calling us names. You guess what one of those names was; ‘kaaskop’. The thinking was that the round cheeses produces looked a bit like a head.

Gooey goodness

In fact when going a bit further into detail there appear to be several stories about the origin of the word but in general it is definitely something the Belgian’s call us..:) And that’s fine; there is quite some name calling involved in the relation between Belgians and the Dutch! Lol…

Now having said that; I LOVE cheese. Seriously. Any cheese really but I have a strong preference for Italian cheese, French cheeses and strong cheeses. But then I also love Old Amsterdam (strong old Dutch cheese, which is delicious!) or well, like I said all cheese.

So when I was approached by Sargento to feature one of their recipes on my blog I did not have to think long and hard. I mean… it’s cheese! When browsing through the collection of seriously yummy recipes on their site I kept going back to the one featured on the front page, which was an oven dish with baked penne and eggplant featuring some lovely mozzarella cheese. I used minced veal in this dish but the original is vegetarian so check it out here if you’re more a veggie person!

Baked penne

My father in law was coming for dinner last night so this is a good dish to serve if you have an informal dinner party. You can prepare the dish upfront and just pop it in the oven half an hour before you’re ready to eat. Tom thought it was a tiny bit on the cheesy side, but then he is not a big fan of cheese (weird man, that man of mine!!) but he did find the flavors here lovely, so this will definitely be made over and over again.

Baked Penne with eggplant, tomatoes and cheese

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Serves	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	1 hours, 5 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 15 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish
Misc	Serve Hot
Region	Italian
Website	Adapted from Sargento

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic (minced)
• 4 tablespoons fresh oregano (chopped)
• 3 pieces tomatoes (chopped into cubes)
• 3 sprigs thyme (leaves only)
• 1 shalot (finely minced)
• 350g minced vealmeat
• 400g penne (or other type of pasta)
• 1 courgette (chopped in cubes)
• 150ml tomato sauce
• 200g mozzarella (chopped or grated)
• 100g old cheese (grated)
• 1 eggplant (cut into cubes)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 C. (350 F) Brush a large enough baking dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

In a heavy skillet first brown the vealmince first until cooked. Bake the eggplant separately until cooked and set aside. Add the chopped onions to the veal, with the garlic and zucchini and bake until cooked. Add the eggplant back in and add the chopped tomatoes. Leave cooking until the tomatoes have lost most of their liquid at which point you add the tomato sauce in. I use a sofrito tomato base for this.

Mix in chopped oregano and thyme and season the dish to your liking with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Cook your penne pasta in 11-12 minutes until al dente. Drain, rinse and add a little olive oil to the pasta to prevent it from sticking. Add the pasta in your vegetable mixture and fold in 2/3 of the grated cheese. Transfer to the baking dish. Put the mozzarella on top of the dish and finish with the remaining grated cheese. Bake this dish for 25-30 minutes in the oven. If it becomes to brown then you can cover it with aluminium foil.

Junglefrog Cooking disclosure: This post was sponsored by Sargento. Though I have been compensated to write this post, all opinions expressed are my own.

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Delicious with Indian spices; courgette with chickpea salsa

If ever there is a season which lends itself particularly well to Indian flavors then to me that would be autumn. I love the spices used in the Indian kitchen, I love the hot curries (well, not too hot!), the garam masala mixes and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted an Indian dish that I did not like. It has such a high level of comfort food! Granted, there is still a lot to be discovered in that area by me,  but I’m trying. One thing that strikes me about the Indian flavors that it is fairly difficult to recreate the same at home. I’ve tasted many gorgeous Indian dishes but when I tried to make it at home, it was not at all the same. This delicious chickpea dish is a recipe by Anjum Anand. And this home version is so worth it!

pistachio and coriander

During our foodblogger connect in London she showed us a recipe of her new book (yet to come out) and I fell in love with the recipe immediately. Anjum was kind enough to share the recipe with us on her facebook page so that we could attempt to make it at home. From previous experiences I have learned (the hard way) that one of THE most important things in Indian cuisine is to use fresh spices. It will definitely make or break your dish, so be sure to use fresh cumin seeds in this recipe. The recipe has quite a few ingredients but it is actually very simple. The biggest amount of work is the grilling of the courgette. I think I could have sliced it a little better (thinner) but it was still delicious.

Don’t leave out the pistachio dressing as that is a big flavor component in this dish and will make it extra delicious. Now the big news is… it contains feta and I had Tom taste a bite and he actually liked it!! Now that’s a first when it comes to cheese, so I’m quite pleased with that. Maybe – just maybe – he’s getting used to cheesy flavors a bit more.

Griddled courgette carpaccio with chickpea salsa

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Serves	4
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	30 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Main Dish, Side Dish
Region	Indian
By author	Anjum Anand

Ingredients

• 5 courgette (large ones, you can use a mix of green and yellow)
• fresh coriander
• salt (to taste)

Pistachio dressing

• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic (small one, peeled)
• 15 pieces pistachio nuts (skinned if possible)
• 2,5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• good pinchsugar
• 2 teaspoons water

Chickpea salsa

• 300g chickpeas (1 can, well rinsed and drained)
• 100g feta
• 1/2 red onion (finely chopped)
• 1 large handful fresh coriander (leaves and roots)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoons cumin powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds (dry-roasted and powdered)
• 1 tomato (medium large, finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Heat the griddle pan until quite hot. Slice the courgettes on the diagonal into thin slices, no more than 1/2cm thick. Place on the griddle in a single layer and cook, undisturbed for 2-3 minutes or until the base has well-charred lines. Turn over and repeat on the other side. Repeat with the remaining courgettes.

As you stand over the griddle, prepare and stir together all the ingredients for the salsa. Taste, add salt to taste and set aside.

Blend together all the ingredients for the dressing until smooth, I use a good stick blender but a good pestle and mortar will also work. Adjust seasoning and keep aside.

To assemble, place the courgettes on plates, slightly overlapping at the edges. You can do this in lines or in a circular fashion. Drizzle over the dressing to mirror the pattern. Mound the salsa onto the middle of the plate or scatter across, as you prefer and serve.

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I was invited by the lovely Sanjeeta from Lite Bite to make a guestpost for her theme of Awesome Food Bloggers Healthy Living Secrets… I think it’s a brilliant idea to ask bloggers on how to stay fit, because as a group we are definitely food lovers so a little healthy advice never hurts. Now as for myself and my tips… they’re maybe not earth shattering and most of it is common sense, but still it was good to think about what I do to stay fit and healthy (not enough to be honest) and also on how I can improve on that myself.

Hop on over to Sanjeeta’s blog and check out the other bloggers who posted on AFBHLS before. You might be inspired. And yes, you will also find this wonderful recipe that I send in with quinoa, feta, tomato and courgette. Delicious!

Quinoa salad with courgetta and feta

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Serves	2
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	20 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Salad

Ingredients

• 75g quinoa
• 1 piece courgette (big)
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 spring onions (finely chopped)
• 100g cherry tomatoes (quartered)
• 1 red chili (finely chopped, seeds removed)
• 100g feta (crumbled)

Directions

Cook the quinoa (about 10 minutes), drain and rinse with cold water. Leave to drain

Cut the ends of the courgettes and slice with a potato peeler into thin ribbons.

Add the oil and the vinegar together, mix well and season with salt and pepper

Put everything together, pour the dressing over and stir. And you're done! Enjoy!

Note

Perfect for a light summery lunch

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Stuffed courgette

Now how very Italian does that title sound?? Sooo much better then stuffed zuchini or stuffed courgette, wouldn’t you agree? I just love the Italian language, even though I have absolutely no idea what they are saying except when they say something useful like ‘ciao’ or arriverderci (which I am probably writing down wrong…) Did I tell you already that we will be leaving for Italy in about four weeks time? I can’t believe it is only 4 weeks away but I am so excited about it. We will be travelling around Tuscany with friends; we decided more or less on a route and we will see where we will end up. Definitely on the list to visit is Florence, but also the coast and obviously I would love to visit some special food related places. Markets, but maybe also little farms that make special produce, cheese, wine, olives and oooo, all that other fabulous stuff that Italy is so well known for! I have been to Italy twice but both only for a very very short time. The first time I visited was years ago and the reason of the visit was work related, so we stayed only one lousy day. I mean, seriously, one day in Italy; that doesn’t even count does it?? We stayed in the town of Mantova, lovely old little town (although I am quite sure it was called Mantova I have recently started to question my memory since I have heard that Mantova is nothing like the Mantova I remember! So forgive me for getting it wrong – maybe)

Mantova by night

But even in that very short time I decided to get up at 5 am to have a walk around town and to see a little bit of Italy. The night before – after work – we did go out for dinner and I even managed to talk some shots of the little church by night as you can see on the left, but it really was far too short.

The second time I went to Italy I went with Jacqueline and I told you a little bit about it here. While we had loads of fun and I got to see a little bit more of Italy, it was only 5 days and most of those were filled with househunting. Plus – if I am being honest – the area of the Gardalake would not be my choice of scenery as I find it too overexploited for tourism. You can still find lovely little markets and lovely little towns in the area, but overall; too much tourism. It’s a fine balance for a country I think between giving in to the lures of tourism and to keeping it’s own identity.

Tuscany in itself is also quite touristic ofcourse; if you ever ask anyone where they are going in Italy then you are bound to hear they are going to Tuscany. Initially we wanted to go to both Tuscany and Umbria but since we are driving ourselves and we did not want to spend most of our holiday in the car, we decided to stick to one provence and maybe explore Umbria next time.

So in reality this is – or at least it feels that way to me – really the first time I am really visiting Italy and even then; Tuscany is just a small part. But it’s a good start!

How did I end up talking about all that; when I started with the lovely Italian dish we had for dinner the other day…

The thing is that we finally bought “The Silver Spoon” (Il cucchiaio d’argento) which is a cookbook featuring about 2000 Italian recipes and is said to be the classic Italian cookbook you have to have… Well, I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that the book – while shockingly not containing many photos – is very useful for when you are looking for a recipe to go with a certain ingredient. It is all listed by ingredient. So have courgette leftover? Look under courgette and you’ll find plenty of suggestions of what to do with them.

So while I cannot tell you yet if all the recipes are good, having tested only one, it does look promising and this particular recipe was definitely worth it!

Making it was a breeze; it just needed some cooking time. When I first read the recipe I would have thought that it was made in the oven, but it is not. But have a try for yourself; I garantuee you it is tasty!

BARCHETTE DI ZUCCHINE RIPIENE (or stuffed courgette/zucchini)

(serves 4)

100 gr ham, cut into strips

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 clove garlic, mashed

50 gr pancetta, chopped

100 gr ground beef

2 tbsp of parmezan, freshly grated

1 egg

4 large courgette cut lengthwise in two

50 gr butter

2 tbsp of oliveoil

1 onion

2 tbsp of passata

salt and pepper

Mix ham, parsley, garlic, half the pancetta, the ground beef, the parmesan and the egg into a bowl with salt and pepper to taste. With a little sharp knife (or use a spoon) cut out the meat from the courgette but make sure to leave the shells intact. Fill them with your meatmixture.

Heat the butter and oliveoil in a wide pan (it will have to fit the courgettes too!), add the onion and the rest of the pancetta and bake for about 5 minutes on low; stir occasionally.  Add the courgette and bake them also for a few minutes.

Mix the passata with 175 ml of warm water and put the mixture in the pan. Add salt, cover and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until the meat is cooked and the courgettes are tender.

Put them in a hot bowl and pour a little of the cooking sauce over the top.

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