Monday Christmas Cookie (15) - Egg Nog

Even though the weather here is still kind of Christmasy (except that is only cold and not snowy), it is the time to end the Monday Christmas Cookie series. For all these three months, I have been really enjoying writing about traditional Slovakian Christmas, yet I have to admit, I grew a bit bored of all that sugar that heaped on our table during that time. I am quite excited to have this over, so I can fully focus on what I truly adore...... Spicy Food !

Meantime, do enjoy my easy home-made:

CHRISTMAS EGG-NOG:
(vaječný likér)

• 6 egg yolks
• 1 can sweet condensed milk
• 200g powdered sugar
• 500 ml rum
  

Whip up the yolks together with the sugar, add the condensed milk and mix well. Add the rum and pour into sterilised bottles.

Cheers!

Smooth(ie) Seduction

Learning to fall in love with smoothies as deserts have been fairly easy for several reasons: one, they are sweet, refreshing and energy pumping, two they are easy to make and take no time at all, three they can be so diverse that you just never get tired of them.

After New Year, me and Tompa decided to go back on track and loose some extra Christmas kilos. It was him who introduced me to smoothies. It was me, though who ended up pressing the blender button and coordinating the ingredients. "Let´s try this. Throw in some of that! Here, let me just do it" I took over :-)
Now making Sunday Smoothies is entirely my thing. I call it "Blending Stuff".

There is no general recipe on how to make a smoothie. Basically, anything that blends can be blended. Generally, for the sweet ones, consider: fruit (fresh or dried), nuts, seeds, milk, yoghurt, ice cream, oats, chocolate chips, sugar, honey, cream, coffee, herbs (honey mint, mint), spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise...), cooked rice or other grains, marmalade or peanut butter.

As for the savory ones, try: Vegetables, herbs and spices, yoghurt, milk, seeds, nuts, seaweed, yeast pate (really!), cooked rice, other grains or peanut butter.

Here are two of our favorite:

BANANA SHAKE:

• banana
• almonds
• soy milk
  

Peel the banana, break in three, place together with almonds and soy milk and press the button!

STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE:

• banana
• frozen strawberries
• honey
• soy milk
• lemon juice

Peel the banana, break in three, place together with the rest and press the button!

Aaahhh, this is so much fun! The Strawberry one is on its way to seduce Mike for hosting Strawberry Seduction event.

Now that I think about it, crab, I should have these more often instead of all the chocolate and cookies I stuff into my greedy .... pockets. My weight is slowly increasing........ again :-S

Monday Christmas Cookie (12) - Home-Made Marzipan... Mushroom

Sounds pretty gross, eh? Yet these cute little shroomies are very friendly and tasty (supposing you love marzipan as much as I do).
Here I am tempted to share one funny love-and hate marzipan relationship, an annual gift from my mother to her "demanding" husband:

In Slovakia, we have been making these every Christmas for decades, which ended up in a general aversion towards these cute little shroomies as such. My mum revolted several times claiming that they suck and she s not going to make them again. How unfortunate, my dad (and myself) are in love with them, so mother (regardless of her personal feelings and verbal threats of her determination of NOT making them AGAIN) - she is ready to fulfil her husband´s (who cares about the daughter?) every wish. Each December towards its end, she still throws herself into a huge pile of home-made marzipan and starts folding and molding and thus surprises my dad with a nice happy family of:

HOME-MADE MARZIPAN... MUSHROOMS:
(Marcipánové hríbiky)

• 200 g ground almonds
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 1 - 2 egg whites
• 30 g chocolate or cocoa powder (I use carob powder)
  

Set aside a tablespoon or two egg whites.
Combine almonds, sugar and egg whites and mix well to for a firm dough. Set aside about two thirds of the dough and to the rest, add finely grated chocolate or cocoa powder. Mix well, so the brown color spreads evenly.

From the brown part, form the mushroom caps. From the white parts, roll out the stems. With a help of the remaining egg white, "glue" the mushroom caps to the stems. Once standing, sprinkle them with cocoa powder.

Super easy, no baking, drying, anything. Holds for weeks (gradually getting hard and tooth-breaking friendly).

These cuties march to Danielle´s Habeas Brulee, who is a hostess of this months´s Sugar High Friday (oh, yes... forgot to mention, mushrooms are sooooooo high in sugar :-S, too bad, but too good). The theme is Sweet Gifts.

During my time of hosting A Spoonful of Christmas event, I have received tons of gift-friendly food items. Here is the round-up for further inspiration.

Traditional Chinese Spring Onion Pancakes

Everyone who knows that I spent two years in China would know that due to my time there I turned into a complete spice-addict. And all that out of a pure fact. Zlamushka could not cook. I dotn mean cooking non-spicy or Western dishes, I mean nothing... zero, nadah. I even called my mum one desperate day to ask her how to boil pasta. I know,... I was 19 years old.

So in order not to starve to death, I ate out every day (or more accurately - 3 times per day). No worries, Chinese street food is more than just affordable, let alone student canteens or street stalls.

My first account with spicy food was an unbearable experience. I never even seen anything apart from A black peppercorn in our FAMILY Sunday soup. Now I was standing there, with a mouthful of different spices, coughing and sweating.

Gradually things went better, I even learned how to make dumplings and fried noodles, even spicy eggplant.

And then, after I returned back home, schnitzel and mashed potatoes simply lost its taste. I found myself dumping chillies and peppercorns onto my plate, which my parents found quite disturbing...

So I got myself a proper Chinese Cookbook and returned "back home"... One of my first attempts (the one that my parents actually fell in love with) was:

TRADITIONAL CHINESE LEEK PANCAKES:

( 葱油饼)

• 3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 tsp oil
• salt
• 1 cup finely chopped spring onions (I used leek)

In a bowl, mix the flour with the hot water until crumbled. Gradually add the cold water, oil and a pinch of salt. Form a big ball, wrap into foil and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough into a thin square, cover with a layer of chopped spring onions and sprinkle with salt. Start rolling. Once rolled up, cut into 8 pieces. Take each piece and flatten. Take the outer part of the dough and cover the cut sides, so the onions would not fall out. Carefully, roll out to a circular shape (I somehow ended up with squares, never mind) and dry-fry* over high heat (just like flat breads).

* Note: A proper Chinese would shallow fry them, which makes them crispier and tastier, but we do mind our health and shapes, eh?

Serve still hot with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and chili oil.

I made mine for Tompa and for beautiful Bindiya´s These Are a Few of My Favortie Things - with Chinese Food as this month´s theme. You have no idea how excited I am about round-up. It will be fun to remember all the foods I used to eat so often.

Chestnut Flatbread

Flatbreads are my favorite side dish to any curries. Back home, we make lokša [lok-sha] - potato-flour flatbread greased with lard. Soft and chewy - absolutely fantastic. Then once I started cooking I discovered chapatti, naan, roti, dosai, tortillas, crepes, wonton and other wonderful flatbreads. I was particularly interested in those with flour AND something else. Something to soften them up, to make them fluffier.

I started experimenting and today, I have my new favorite:

CHESTNUT FLATBREAD:

• chestnut
• flour
• pinch of salt

First prepare the chestnut puree by boiling whole chestnuts in hot water for about 20 minutes or until soft. Drain them and peel the skin off. Mash them just like you would potatoes. Add the salt and flour, enough to make a smooth dough. Divide that into small balls and roll each out into a thin round flatbread.
Heat the iron-cast pan or tawa griddle until hot and fry them one by one from both sides for about a minute.

My little contribution to this month´s Bread Baking Day #7 hosted by Chilli Und Ciabatta. The theme is Flatbreads - my favorite type of bread. Light and delicious.

Monday Christmas Cookie (7) - Carrot Truffles

Simple, healthy and sweet. A nice fusion twist on a traditional Christmas table. This was what pooped into my mind after the first bite into these juicy balls. There is no real recipe for these, just a simple guidance. Having a lot of room to experiment, one can never get tired of rolling:

CARROT TRUFFLES:
(Mrkvové guľky)

• 250 g grated carrot
• 250 g crystal sugar
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• oats
• cornflakes

Mix together carrot, sugar and a little water and sauté over the low heat until soft. Add the grated lemon peel and squeezed lemon juice. Add enough oats and cornflakes to end up with a thick porridge-like consistency. Take a tablespoon of the mixture and form to a ball. Once cooled down, serve as such.

Soy Milk Pancakes

Making vegan pancakes has always been a challenge for me. I do not remember ever succeeding. Making them has been a breakfast nightmare for me, and for that reason I named them "paincakes" and decided that I didn't like them anyway.
Having a long commune and not much time to run around the kitchen with my apron on, I have been trying to experiment on Sunday mornings intending to bring a bit of royal flavor to the breakfast table, rather than the one of cereals with soy yoghurt or soy milk.
You probably know what I am hinting on here, yes, I did fight my paincake nightmare again this morning. Found the most simple recipe and was amazed by the results. Tompa jumped out of bed immediately and attacked his plate.

SOY MILK PANCAKES:

prep time: 25 minutes
makes: 6 big pancakes

• 125g whole grain flour (I used spelt)
• pinch of salt
• 200 ml soy milk (I used vanilla flavored)
• 1 tbsp soy yoghurt (optional, to fluff them up)
• oil for greasing
  

Mix all the ingredients to a smooth liquidy batter. Take care to break all the lumps.
Heat the non sticking frying pan until really hot, add a drizzle of oil and smear it around the pan. Pour in a laddle of batter and with a flat spatula, spread the batter evenly in round motions. Fry for about a minute, flip over and finish.

I added raisins to my batter, but originally I was hoping for blueberries.

Update Feb 17th - I just made these with savory filling and they were fantastic. I even added some curry powder to the batter for some extra flavor.

Update April 17th - Cannot get enough of pancakes, apparently. Today I have thickened the dough by adding some oatmeals. They came out perfect, just like the traditional American Pancakes.

We had ours with fresh cubed mango and whisked yoghurt with honey and carob powder. For even a more royal taste, try my No Fat, No Sugar, Nutty Chocolate Spread. Yum, yum, yum... Sundays are from now on Pancakes Days.
To show off, I am sending this to this month´s Weekend Breakfast Blogging to Rajitha over at Hunger Pangs. The theme is Soy and its by products. Enjoy a piece of health!

Monday Christmas Cookie (5) - Coconut Puffs

Everybody knows coconut kisses. It might be under different names, yet everyone cannot fail to recognize these soft, puffed up coconut chewy balls. As by tradition, coconut kisses do make their annual appearance at Slovakian Christmas "dessert tables". They are easy to prepare, gluten free, but not exactly healthy. Part of the Christmas fun for me is that even though I rarely eat them, I get to knock myself out with trying numerous baking recipes that I would generally leave where they are. Anyhow, here is a little "muah" from me:

COCONUT PUFFS:
(kokosové pusinky)

prep time: 2 and half hours
makes: lots

• 5 egg whites
• 300g powdered sugar
• 250g dried dessicated coconut

Foam the egg whites and mix in the sieved sugar. Continue stirring over a pan with boiling water for about 20 - 25 minutes or until thickened. Let cool down partially and mix in the coconut.
Scoop little piles of the mixture with a teaspoon and place them on a greased baking dish. Set the oven to the lowest possible temperature and bake until dry. This might take up to two hours.

Spinach Carrot Stir-fry

One of my absolute lazy-crazy stir-fry favorites. Great as a side dish to pretty much anything. Such a simple, quick dish, yet so festive - colorful and tasty.

One of my new New Year resolutions was to become a pure vegan for a month. Since I used to be one for more that a year, this was not a headache. The only thing I had to do is to dust off all my Good´ol vegan recipes, with this one, being a wonderful alternative to the traditional Thai Pak Boong Per daeng.
This original side dish comes from Vietnam (known as Horenso), yet the method is slightly different. The spinach leaves are boiled together with sliced garlic in salt water and mixed with sesame seeds and fresh carrot stripes. I decided to stir-fry all of it instead.

SPINACH CARROT STIR-FRY:
(Horenso)

prep time: 15 minutes
serves: hard to say

• 1 huge bunch spinach
• carrots sliced into long thin stripes
• garlic cloves
• 1 big green (red) chili
• 1 tbsp oil
  
• soy sauce
• sesame seeds (optional)

Simply as it is, wash the spinach leaves, the chilies and the garlic. Chop the chilies and slice the garlic. In a wok, heat up the oil, add the garlic together with the chili. Stir-fry until brown. Add the carrots and after 5 minutes, add the spinach leaves.
Add a splash of water mixed with soy sauce. Let cook until the spinach leaves are done and turn off the heat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with rice.

(We served ours with plain rice topped with Peanut Podi and Cumin Potato Curry).

This is my healthy contribution to the Think Spice, Think GARLIC event hosted by Sunita.

Date Oatmeal Porridge

My favorite winter breakfast. A bowl of nice, warm oatmeal porridge to warm up my day. Making oatmeal porridge is A simple, B cheap, C fast and D easy.

The little healthy thingy about the one I make is that it is sweet, yet there is no sugar involved. The secret ingredient, you ask? Dates.... dried dates. I love to use these little friends each time sugar is required in a recipe. Work especially well when cooking.

Some of you might have noticed that if you use honey in baking, the sweetness is somehow gone (or maybe I am just using a weird brand oh no-honey?)... Anyway, the sweetness of dates stays all the time. And only one date adds enough taste for a serving... But here it is, my daily fiber-shot:

DATE OATMEAL PORRIDGE

prep time: 10 minutes
serves: 2 hungry morning birds

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup oatmeals
• 2 -3 dried dates
• pinch of salt
• (optional ingredients)
• vanilla pod
• cinnamon
• raisins
• dried fruits
• chopped nuts
  

Heat the soy milk in a cooking pan. Chop the dates finely and once the milk is warm, add them to the pan. Stir well, let the dates melt into the milk. Add the water and bring to boil. Lower the heat, add the oatmeals and salt. Stir well and turn off the heat. Cover the pan with a lid and let sit for 5 minutes. The oatmeals have absorbed the liquid and the porridge is now ready to be served.
I always add a bit of a treat on top, just to make it a bit different. My recently most favorite is dried cranberries, chopped hazel nuts and a slash of maple syrup... yum!

This one goes to the Garden Cook event. This months theme is cranberries. I only recently discovered these healthy berries, after getting sick with bladder infection. I found out that drinking cranberry juice helps a lot (and it actually did), so from then on, I always throw a couple of them to my breakfast meal.

Home-made (Seasoned) Tofu

Many of you guys seem to be very impressed by me making tofu at home. Well, not that I wouldn't be pleased to hear it (my favorite is : `I thought tofu came form a SOY COW´ ;-), but my modest ME urges me to reveal the truth: Making Tofu from scratch is NOT A BIG DEAL! Trust me, if I can do it, YOU can do it (dramatic music in the background).
I know why you re still hesitating. There are tons of recipes that advise you to have all kinds of thermometers, special dripping containers, ...etc, but my input on those is, unless you are about to win Pretty Tofu Contest this month, don't worry about those...

So, there are two ways of making tofu:

1. Long process (when you start from plain happy soy beans).
2. Short process (when you start from ready-made soy milk).

Either or, you end up having a nice smooth yummy block of warm fresh Tofu:

I have already blogged about making Soy Milk (there is also slide show available), so I will stick to the quick version. (a recipe is easy to multiply, since one liter doesn't feed the cow).

TOFU FROM SCRATCH:

prep time: 50 minutes

• 1 l soy milk
• 1 generous tsp Terra Alba
• 1 dl warm water

Note: Yes, terra alba or gypsum is that white powdery stuff you use to make paper, ceramics or whiten the walls with. HOWEVER, .... you can also use it (in small quantities) to make food items, such as tofu. Now, I don't know how healthy this is, but everybody (who is it anyway?) says that tofu is good for you, so as my primary school mathematician says: If A and B equals C, then A and C equals B... If she wasn't lying to me all those years, then terra alba must be good for you, too... Maybe it whitens your teeth, what do I know?

What I know is how to make a good tofu. There are tons of super elaborate recipes out there, but believe me, no matter how clumsy you are, you will always succeed. The worst you get will be a tofu that crumbles too much.

Bring soy milk to boil, let simmer for 7-8 minutes, let cool to about 75 degrees (no need to fiddle around with thermometer, I usually turn the heat to the lowest and let it stop bubbling for about 5 minutes).
Meantime, mix the terra alba with warm water, so there are no lumps left.
Pour this mixture slowly into the soy milk, mixing constantly. Stop and let the soy milk curdle.
When you see the ´meat´separating from the water, turn of the heat and let sit for another minute or two. Strain carefully.



Transfer the tofu (by now it is mainly a homogenized goo of not really holding together tofu) into a musselin cloth (or something a bit ´airy´) and onto a colander.


Wrap it carefully and heavy with a plate. Let sit in the sink.
The water will drip away and tofu gets firmer and firmer. It is up to you to decide when it is ´ripe´.
Unwrap the cloth, take the tofu out and enjoy.

If you don't want to eat it immediately, transfer to a container that has been filled with water, soak in and close. Keep in refrigerator. The water keeps it fresh. However, eat within 5 days (change the water once or twice)...

Now, this much for the plain tofu. Now what I like to experiment with is:

1. Savory variety
2. Sweet variety
   

Often times when making tofu (right before I wrap it to let the water drip away), I like to add diferent spices (cumin seeds, paprika powder, black pepper, oregano and salt is a good combo) and let sit to absorb all the flavors.

My sister, on the other hand, likes to add vanilla or cinnamon-flavored sugar.
Both taste great.

Stinging Nettle - Remedy or Food ?

My passion for herbs has always urged me to participate Kalyn´s Weekend Herb Blogging event. I use herbs in each and every one of my recipes, so that is not the problem. I just felt like all the herbs has been already blogged about, with some great detailed info, which I wouldn´t come up myself. I was looking for something unusual. Trying hard, I realized the only thing I needed to do is go back to my native Slovakia and there they are, growing wildly all over the place....

Besides parsley, dill or celery leaves, stinging nettle (Žihľava or Pŕhľava - hard to pronounce, I know) is one of the most common and widely available herb in Slovakia. There are enormous ways of utilizing it, whether dried or fresh, as a remedy, a cooking herb, as a tea or even as a cosmetic item. I will not go into the details, since they are more profound articles written about it, I will just outline some of my personal usage of stinging nettle.

• Being a great anti-rheumatism, my dad would always cut a big bunch of them (found anywhere in the countryside growing wildly in the fields) and whip our legs with it .... NOW, I see you going: `Ok, ... aaand?` WELL, the ´aaand´ part means that the adjective ´stinging´is not there for fun. Just couple of friendly whips with this thing will make your legs itchy and scratchy and .... just unbearable... (bleh, I am a real city girl, what can I say, running around the stinging nettle field is just not my thing)

More interesting usage for me is the one in the kitchen:

• drink - dried stinging nettle makes a great tea. The tea has a mild minty after taste and is rather thick (I guess it is the furry leaves).
• food - dried chopped stinging nettle leaves are great with eggs to make your breakfast omelette.

• cosmetics - lots of companies use stinging nettle to make shampoo. At home, rinsing your hair with a cup of stinging nettle tea leaves your hair shiny and dandruff-free.
• remedy - being digestive-friendly, a cup of stinging nettle tea helps with urine troubles and eases menstruation pains.

What I really like the most is to:

1. Make a large kettle of hot stinging nettle tea and drink it during the day. Making it is very simple. Take boiled water, pour over the dried stinging nettle leaves and let sit for about 10 minutes. Strain, but keep the leaves aside.

2. Leave a cup of the tea to warm down and rinse my hair with it.

3. Use the leaves (from making the tea) to make :


STINGING NETTLE PATTIES:
(Žihľavové fašírky)

prep time: 25 minutes

• stinging nettle leaves (leftover from making tea or soaked and drained well)
• salt
• black pepper
• oatmeals
  

Take the leaves, squeeze out most of the water and chop them really finely. I usually buy pre-packaged tea, so after making a cup, I simply open the pack and use the ´mush´). Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix well. Add oatmeals and form into a big compact ball. Leave for at least 10 minutes for the oatmeals to soak up the liquids and homogenize with the tea leaves.
Break up the ball into small pieces and form small patties.
Shallow fry them from both sides in hot oil. Serve with any kind of dip or salsa while still hot. I served mine with roasted bell-pepper salsa (the yellowish mush on the pic below). I´ll post a recipe some other time.


This time, the WHB Event is hosted by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once. I hope you ll enjoy this one...

Raisin Stuffed Chili Pepper Pickles

This is a very unusual pickle recipe that I got from my dad who claims to have it from a lady that used to babysit me thousands years ago.... He accidentally ran into her last week (after considerable amount of time he still seems to remember her) and was talking pickles with her. (This is not a pick up line, mum :) Right now, there is a pickling season in here (did I mention I was down in Slovakia again?), so preserving and canning is "in" right now. So, when meeting old accuaintancies talking pickles is more inventive than talking weather.

PLUS! This type of small talk is lot more productive, since you happen to learn lots of unusual recipes. Just like:


RAISIN STUFFED CHILI PEPPER PICKLES:
(zavárané feferónky s hrozienkami)

spice ladder: ****

prep time: forever

• big chili peppers
• raisins
• pickling solution (1:1:1 ratio)
• water
• vinegar
• honey

* Note: We used jalapeno and these little round ones, we call them peperoni. I couldnt the word for them in English, not even after consulting it with this Awsome Chile Database.... If you guys know the word, help. They re pretty spicy...

Preparation is easy, but time consuming. Gather all the chilies and wash them. With a sharp knife, cut off the green tops and with the back of a spoon, scoop out al the insides. Wash well.

With the help of a long chopstick, stuff the peppers with raisins.

Place into a pickling jar, very tightly.

Combine the ingredients for the pickling solution and bring to boil. Set off the fire and let cool down. Pour into the pickling jars and close tightly. (The lids should be very clean, so I advice you to boil them for a minute to sterilize them).
Place the jars into a big pot, cover with water and bring to boil. Set off the fire and let cool down. Take them out of the water adn store in a dark cool place for about 3 weeks, so the chili peppers soften up. Open and enjoy :-)

This is my contribution to a great event: Waiter, There Is Something In My .... Savory Pickle hosted by The Passionate Cook. Enjoy!!

UPDATE (Oct 10th): I am proud to hear that Joey of 80 Breakfasts decided to re-create my recipe. She adds sage and thyme for extra kick... Look at all her pictures, now that is something. Thanx, Joey. Hope you enjoy them.

Aglio Olio e Pickled Jalapeno

To be completely honest, I am not always up for pasta dishes. For one simple irrelevant fact that they usually come with rich heavy cream, cheese or meat sauce. That is it for eating out. As for home cooking, this is a different story. Tompa is the chef when it comes to cooking pasta (hope you all have tried his awsomely awsome mushroom red wine sauce). But now that he is gone to Japan and I am sitting here, jealously alone, I became all of a sudden, pasta-homesick.

Not having much to do, but being lazy enough to go to the store, I decided to go for the simplest, but delish Italian Classic :

AGLIO OLIO e PICKLED JALAPENO:
(Garlic Oil And ...)

spice ladder: ***

prep time: 15 minutes
serves: 1 lonely soul

• pasta of your choice
• 3 garlic cloves
• olive oil
• 2 pickled jalapeno peppers
• salt

Cook the pasta according to the instructions (you want it Al Dente, meaning "just done", not soggy and not raw). Slice the garlic and chop the jalapenos (with some liquid, too, no need to squeeze it out). In a wok, heat the olive oil (be generous, that s all you re getting pretty much, plain pasta with flavored oil) and roast the jalapenos together with the garlic. Add salt and once ready, toss it all with pasta. Super easy, super quick.

(I usually add chopped seasonal veggie, like this time it was zucchini).

Here are some tips on how to enrich the basic sauce:

1. Use chopped seasonal veggies (like I did on the pic above), such as brocolli florets, zucchini or grilled eggplant.
2. Experiment with salt and herb mixtures (again, like I did on the pic above). I usually use VEGETA - "vegetable salt". It is a richer alternative to plain salt. Or, sprinkle some of Herb De Provence on top of it for extra herby flavor.
3. Dont hesistate to put some parmesan cheese or fried bacon bits for the meat eaters.
4. Go with fresh herbs - basil, thyme, ... they all work well.

This one goes to Ruth of Once Upon A Feast for her Presto Pasta Nights (lovely roundups there)... I know this is not the most ellaborate one, but let´s call it simle, but great...

No Fat, No Sugar Chocolate Nuttie Spread

Honeyyyyyy? I would like something sweet! No, not a chocolate, that´s ....hm... way too heavy right now.....Something.... I dont know, something sweet, but not really... no, not THAT... Dried fruit? That´s so booooring... Nuts? No, too ...hm... dry.... Well, I want something little, but I dont wanna put on weight.... But I dont knooooow, what do YOU think :(.... fine... Forget it, then ... (storming out of the kitchen)

(exerts from a conversation with my helpless Tompa on some long boring evenings with nothing better to do than roaming around the kitchen)

BUT! This was happening BEFORE I actually found my favorite combo: Sweet´n´guilt-free :)
Here is the secert (come closer to the screen and (looking around to see who is peeking) ....shhhh):

Two tiny-miny wholegrain digestive cookies with a generous teaspoon of Sooper Dooper Chocolate Nuttie Spread are so wirdly good, your loved ones will wonder (raising their eyebrows): Hey, where is the cranky YOU tonight?.....

Sooo, without much further ado-o-o, here it is:



CHOCOLATE NUTTIE SPREAD:

prep time: 5 minutes + 2 hrs soaking time
makes: 1 cup

• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp instant de-caf

Soak raisins in 150 ml water for at least 2 hours. Together with other ingredients blend in a mixer until it resembles nice chocolate consistency. This one is soooo great that, supposing you make whole basket, it is possible, that there will be some left. In this case, cover tightly and refridgerate.

NOW: The best part is actual experimenting. You can make this spread 100 times and never make it the same. Here are some suggestions:

1. Add a teaspoon of rum or your favorite liquor.
   
2. For non-alcoholic version, add a few drops of vanilla essence.
   
3. I have used wallnuts and hazelnuts, but feel free to use any kind you have.


4. I have even used sunflower seeds instead of nuts.


5. Substitute prunes or other sour dried fruit instead of raisins.
   
6. Halve the amount of nuts and add coconut flakes.


7. Add a pinch of cinnamon, cardamom or nutmeg.

And that was just a start :)

Slovakian Cucumber and ´Cucumato´ Salad

Just came back from my little cute home country and I can still taste the flavors of my childhood. I took pictures of all of the dishes I ate there and would like to share a few recipes with you. Let me start with my utmost favorite - Cucumber Salad. I know, it is a very easy recipe, which I was taught by my dad, who is an expert at making it. A typical man in the kitchen: no measurements, lost of flavors. Here is the ´recipe´:

CUCUMBER SALAD:
(Uhorkový šalát)

prep time: 25 minutes
makes: as much as you wish

• cucumber
• garlic
• salt
  
• dressing :
  
• vinegar *
• sugar
• black pepper

* NOTE: On the picture, you might wonder, where the vinegar is. I didn't have one last time I was making it, so I used tamarind juice instead (its pulp is on the bottom left corner, yup, that gobble of brown stuff). Not Slovakian, but VERY tasty for a substitute.

First, wash the cucumber and grate it into thin slices (do not peel). Chop the garlic cloves and add to the cucumber slices. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for at least 10 minutes, so the cucumber release its juices.

Meantime, make the dressing:
Combine the vinegar, black pepper and sugar in a small bowl. Pour over the salad ad mix well. Adjust the final taste. Some people like it rather sweet, I prefer lots of black pepper and vinegar.


BUT!!! What really interested me on my last visit to Slovakia was, how the making of this salad changes according to the regions. My sister´s wedding took place in the eastern part of Slovakia. We arrived there late Friday night and were served a lovely dinner. Our host prepared a very traditional dish: Boiled cauliflower with fried breadcrumbs, baked potatoes and cucumber salad. HERS, though, was a mixture of what we call ´cucumber´and ´tomato salad´.


CUCUMATO SALAD:

• Cucumber
• tomato
• onion
• salt
  
• dressing (see recipe above)
  

She pretty much skipped the garlic and added finely chopped tomatoes and sliced onions. Pretty good twist, I must admit.

Hot And Sour Chinese Chili Sauce

It has been a while since I made my own real Chinese chili sauce. My recent kitchen activities has been focused mostly on Indian food. But now that Nupur asked for a 麻婆豆腐 ma po dou fu recipe in her Saturday´s article, (did you get the one I sent you, btw?), I somehow got a sudden urge to dust off my cooking Chinese skills. So just a couple of minutes ago, I made a jar of goes-well-with-whatever:

HOT AND SOUR CHINESE CHILI SAUCE:
(酸辣酱) Suan La Jiang

spice ladder: ***

prep time: 10 minutes
makes: 100 ml

• 5 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp chili flakes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt

In a bowl, mix in lime juice with sugar. In a small pan, bring it to boil. I microwaved it for 1 minute instead, because it saves time and there was not that much of sauce anyway. Let cool down partially. Add salt, chili flakes and pressed garlic and mix well.

Store in an airtight container.
There are zillion of ways to use the sauce, e.g. as a:

• Dipping sauce - to any kind of tempura (probably not to my fiery hot Beer Batter Stuffed Chili Pepper Tempura) or spring rolls, or on omelet.

• Glaze or marinade - for firm veggies or Tofu.
  

• Stir-fry sauce - simply add a few tablespoons to stir-fried vegetables.

For today´s lunch, I tried Lisa´s Gobi Manchurian, whose blog I discovered only recently. I loved the recipe as soon as I saw the beautiful picture. Here is my (un-deep-fried) version of her recipe for my reference:

• 250 g cauliflower
• 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
• salt to taste
  
• 3 tbsp oil
  
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1'' piece ginger
• 2 green chilies, chopped
• Hot and sweet sauce (combine the following)
  
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp Hot and Sour Chinese Chili Sauce
• 1/2 tsp vinegar
• splash of Worcestershire sauce
• spring onion, as a garnish
  

Wash the cauliflower and separate into florets. Sprinkle with some salt and white pepper powder. Fry in a wok, in 2 tbsp oil.

Meantime, heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add chopped onion, green chilies, minced garlic and ginger. Saute over the high flame for 5 minutes until they turn slightly tender. Lower the heat and mix in Hot and Sweet sauce. Saute again for 3 minutes.
Add the fried cauliflower and mix them so all the florets are covered with the sauce. Remove from flame and garnish with chopped green onion and coriander leaves. When serving, add a final splash of Worcestershire sauce onto each plate. Serve with rice.

Ok, mine isn't as gorgeous as Lisa´s, but.... I fried the florets in almost no oil, so they turned slightly black (= crunchy) and the sauce is home-made, so naturally it´s missing all the artificial fancy red colorings :(
This one was very spicy and simply fantastic. Thank you Lisa for a wonderful recipe. I will definitely be making this one, again :)

Plum Cocoa Strudel

I am not a big fan of sweet stuff and I definitely don't like cakes. What´s wrong with me? I don't know, ask my family... ;-)
The only sweet things I really enjoy is some sugar in my morning coffee, dried fruits or digestive cookies (All right, I can eat lots of those....) Occasionally I have a home-made cookie (just because I am stingy with sugar, so I don't put a lot :) Dark chocolate is OK, too... Other than that, I am a SAVORY SPICE FREAK, remember?
BUT!!! I like to bake for my loved ones. And the one I (supposedly) do absolutely the best, is STRUDEL. Don't be surprised. Back home (in Slovakia), strudel is the 'rice of Asia'.
So ever since I moved to Sweden, this has been a sneaky way to Tom´s happy face :) Each time sweet time, poppy seed strudel is the one he s always ready for...
I have rolled up so many poppy strudels that I need a rehab :) So this time, I made another traditionally popular one, with PLUMS and COCOA powder. Tom decided that this one is his favorite, too :)
I decided that it is anti-oxidant enough to be submitted to Sweetnicks´ ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday Food Event. Sweetnicks, here is a Plum, Prune and Raisin Cocoa Strudel for you :














And he