Day 22 Stay at Home or In the Garden: Greek Chickpeas Soup

Missing Crete and missing Greece, we made a culinary excursion to Sifnos preparing and enjoying a super simple and delicous chickpeas soup called “revithia soupa” (ρεβύθια σούπα).

The ingredients for this soup are super simple: chickpeas, lemon, oilive oil, onion, water and salt. 

As traditionally these soup is prepared in the night from Saturday to Sunday with the remaining heat of the wooden oven and we really used the wooden oven the day before, this was just the right moment for this soup.

More about the history of this soup and the recipe: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/revithia-soupa-greek-chickpeas-soup/

 

 

 

Day 21 Stay at Home or In the Garden: Bread and Honey

Best way to start the morning: a delicious homemade bread, with homemade honey and fabulous coffee.

The recipes:

Sourdough Bread Baked in Wooden Oven

Hot Golden Spiced Frappuccino

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 20 Stay at Home or In the Garden: First Fruits

Apples flower are here, as well as plums, cherries, rosemary and bay.

At the meantime apricots flowers are already gone, but the first fruits appears; we all hope that our efforts of staying at home will bring fruits soon.

Day 19: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Arancini di Risotto allo Zafferrano

Every time we prepare saffron risotto (Italian Pilaf), we prepare some more as next day we love the leftovers lightly fried in the skilled until it becomes a crunchy crust.

Today I noticed a recipe form Sicily called “arancini”, this was the inspiration for mine, and I created a North Italian version with North Italian ingredients….and the ingredients I have at home now after two weeks of “stay at home” and without shopping trips!

In the fridge, we had some grated mozzarella, but I suggest it possible to use the fresh one (cut into cubes) or another soft North Italian or Swiss Italian cheese as for example “formaggella”.

Arancini di Risotto allo Zafferrano

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: active time=20 min; resting and cooking time=30 min
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

     

Ingredients

Oil for the baking try and for your hands

• 1000 g cold saffron risotto, mine was prepared with dried porcini
• 5 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese or better formaggella, quantity to taste
• 150 g mozzarella, grated or cut into cubes
• 6 tablespoons bread crumbs
• Dried herbs to taste (I suggest rosemary) to taste
• Salt (I used my homemade salt with dried basil flowers) to taste
• Pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Combine the risotto with the parmesan if this was not included already in the saffron recipe. Dived it into about 12 portions.
2. Dived the cheese into the same quantity of portions.
3. Coat your baking tray and your hand with oil.
4. Take the first risotto portion with you hand, flatten it little bit and place the cheese inside. Carefully close it into a ball and place it on the tray. Repeat with all the rice and cheese portions. Remember to coat your hands when needed.
5. Combine breadcrumbs, herbs salt and pepper.
6. Roll the first ball into the crumbs mixture and place it on the tray again.
7. Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake the balls until golden brown and crispy. This takes about  25-30 minutes.

Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 18: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Bees going Home

Always a speculale: landing of bees!

I could stay hours there looking at them as they make me feel happy.

 

Day 17: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Green Bean Salad with Red Onion and Olives

We prepared this recipe by Papa D  for the first time long time ago during for our annual cooking games (for South Afrika).

This easy, quick and simple recip turned very popular in my family, because it is well balanced in flavours, the red onion gives a special touch and it looks always beautiful.

Green Bean Salad with Red Onion and Olives

• Servings: 4
• Time: active time=15 min; resting and cooking time=30 min
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

     

Ingredients

• 250 g green beans, washed and trimmed
• 1/2 medium red onion, diced (alternative white sweet onion)
• 1/2 cup olives, sliced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Boil bean in salted water until just tender.
2. In the meanwhile, in a small bowl prepare the other ingredients.
3. Drain bean, add the other ingredients, season with salt and pepper, stir and cover immediately.
4. Let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Transfer the beans in a serving bowl.

Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/

Day 16: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight

The winter came back and brought us snow again. It was cold all the daylong.

During the afternoon the sun came from time to time trough until finally in the evening another spectacular sunset remembered that tomorrow a new day with more sun will bring us the spring and the HOPE again.

In Matthew 16:2b–3, Jesus says:

When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather; for the sky is red.”
And in the morning, “It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 15: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Spanish Vermouth with Oranges

Today’s travel went virtually to Spain, or better to Andalusia were a few month ago we enjoyed a wonderful week visiting amazing places and we were introduced to the trendy Spanish way to serve Vermouth.

If you are not traveling and you have to stay at home, you can prepare it yourself and enjoy it with you family with some tapas or simply olives!

There are different way to prepare it. Here some suggestions, from super simply to more sophisticated, depending on what you still have at home.

Spanish Vermouth with Oranges

• Servings: 2
• Time: 5 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Recipe 1

• 2 slices orange, with peel
  • 4 ice cubes
  • 200 red vermouth

Recipe 2

• 2 slices orange, with peel
  • 4 ice cubes
  • 200 red vermouth
  • 4 drops amargo de angostura
  • 2 tablespoons orange liquor

Recipe 3

• 4 ice cubes
  • 100 ml red vermouth
  • 50 ml gin
  • 100 ml orange juice
  • 1 orange and/or lemon peel strips

Procedure

Add to the glass following the order of the ingredients and enjoy!

Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/

Day 14: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Swiss Alps

View from Restaurant Bühlberg by Lenk of the Swiss Alps….it was only 4 weeks ago.

When everything will be over, we will travel again and we will enjoy every second! 🙂

Day 13: Stay at Home or In the Garden: Dandelion and Bee

 

Taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. Dandelions are a group of flowering plants that grow in many parts of the world. They are also known as Taraxacum spp., though Taraxacum officinale is the most common species. You may be most familiar with dandelions as a stubborn weed that never seems to leave your lawn or garden. Gardeners either want them in the yard or they don’t, and both sides are correct.

Dandelions are also know for many culinary uses. They are high in vitamins and the leaves are good in salads, the taproot can be ground into a coffee substitute, the flowers make wine and with the addition of sugar, some people make a honey-substitute. However, be careful, not all dandelions are suitable for cooking.

In keep in our garden ad beehive, flowering fruit plants and big bright dandelions with almost no bees. At the moment I can imagine that flours are so abundant that bees prefer other flowers than dandelions; it was not so easy to find and take a picture of bees over dandelions, but at least a few of them discovered these flowers. When cherries blossoms, apple blossoms… dandelions will turn more attractive for bees.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.