Coral and Jade Prawns

This was one of the first Chines recipes we found in a cookbook (Kare Jup Ha Kow) and prepared as we started to travel around Asia and missing the Asian taste once back at home.

With the time we adapted the recipe to our taste but we kept the to the combination of prawns, broccoli and baby ginger; the last one the big hit in this dish!

This need a bit of time for the preparation of the broccoli florets and assembling with the prawn, but it looks so pretty that we never skipped this step.

• Servings: 2-3 persons if served alone with rice
• Time: 30 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

• 400-500 g prawns
• 1 broccoli head
• 2 tablespoons vegetal oil
• 2 tablespoon finely diced ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½ cup of water
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce, to taste
• 1 tablespoons sliced preserved pink baby ginger

Preparation

1. Shell and devein the shrimp letting the last part of the tail as it is.
2. Wash the broccoli and with a knife prepare as many florets as the prawns. Make a point at the end of the green stalk.
3. Make an incision on the tail of the prawn and pass the end of the broccoli stem though this hole.
4. In a small bowl combine water with cornstarch.  Set aside.
5. Heat the oil in a wide non-stick frying skillet. Add garlic, and ginger and stir fry until fragrant.
6. Add the prawn with the broccoli to the skillet and fry for about 2 minutes. Turn gently and cook for one more minute,
7. Add soya and rice wine, reduce the heat to minimum.
8. Add the mixture of water and cornstarch cover, shake gently the skillet, and cook for two minutes or until broccoli begins to turn a bit soft. Add more water or soya sauce to taste if needed.
9. Just before serving top with the baby ginger.
10. Serve immediately with rice.

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

Walk to Castle “Burg Rotberg” near Mariastein

Mariastein Abbey, nestled into the lovely landscape of the gentle Leimental valley, is the most important place of pilgrimage in Switzerland after Einsiedeln Abbey.

Only a few Kilometers from the Abbey you will find other interesting places can find 7 castles around Burg in Leimental, some of them are actually ruins, but some are fully restored and in use.

One of this castles is the Burg Rotberg, actually know a the
Mariastein Youth Hostel a real special place in a fairy place.

As we visited this place, the hostel was closed, but we got the chance to visit the entrance and the wonderful landscape.

Spring in Phaistos

Phaistos, or more correctly the Minoan Palace of Phaistos, is located in the Messara Plain in south-central Crete about km from Matala. Phaistos is “Φαιστός” in Greek and you may find it also written as Phaestos, Faistos or Festos.

Phaistos is one of the most important archaeological sites in Crete and a visit to this place is recommended as it is much more quite than Knossos and the location is unique.

Cretan spring is fantastic as the unique flora and the variety of wunderful flowers which color intensity is more than stunning.

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Here some information about Phaistos and after this two Wikiloc trails, the first one inside of the archaeological place and the second on the hill over the Minoan palace.

http://www.minoancrete.com/phaistos.htm

http://www.festos-xenia.gr/en/archeological-place/

https://www.academia.edu/4205525/The_Phaistos_Disk_breaking_down_its_words

https://www.wikiloc.com/walking-trails/faistos-34401117

https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/view-over-faistos-34396997

Blue: The Color of My Choice

My favorite does’t exist! Depending on the season, the place where I’m at the moment, our activity (cooking, travel, resting…) and simply at the moment, I can be impressed by all the colors. In general I love bright colors, I love the light and I avoid the dark.

Especially on Crete, my favorite place in the world, I love to sit and look at the blue sky and the blue sea; I can understand why so many song  tel about this nature.

For this reason I decided to choose “Blue” for this challenge! I hope you will like my quick selection of photos of my travels (not only Crete! 🙂

“Post prepared for Cee’s photo Challenge”

Click to enlarge

Orange and Pink Sunsets Around the World

Orange and Pink Sunsets Around the World . “Post prepared for Cee’s photo Challenge”

Click to enlarge

Winter Landscape in Black and White (Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge)

Magic Winter Landscape in Black and White (Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge)

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Morcote

In the south of Switzerland, in the Italian speaking part of Country a small village is waiting to be admired by thousands and thousands of guest every year. It’s a very special village, placed at the border of Lugano Lake (also called Ceresio) and it southern exposition makes growing of cactus and palms possible.

From here you can walk up to the San Salvatore Mountain, but you can also simply sit down in a restaurant enjoying the panorama and the milk climate.

A small walk trough the small road of the village, up to the church should not be missed-

Here a few pictures of this place during Christmas time.

 

Ekmek Kataifi – Greek Pastry Topped with Custard and Whipped Cream

A few years ago on Crete a Greek friend offered us this wonderful cake and she gently shared her recipe. I still had the notes and finally now I decided to write this in my blog. Her recipe is a sugar-reduced one, as most of the recipes requires double quantity of syrup, I also noticed that she reduced the fat of the cream adding beaten egg white. If you don’t feel safe eating raw eggs please skip it or double the cream quantity!

Perhaps you noticed that the name “Ekmek Kataifi” doesn’t sound Greek: historical this recipe was a bread pudding, created during the Ottoman empire and served during the Ramadan time combined with kaimak (a creamy cheese similar to mascarpone).

Note: sometimes you in Turkish shops you can buy already roasted kataifi in the shape of a round cake; in this cake skip the first two steps.

• Servings: 12
• Time: 2 hr + resting
• Difficulty: easy-medium
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Credit :Artandkitchen

Ingredients

• Base

  • 250 g frozen kataifi pastry
  • 50 g butter, melted

  Syrup (may be doubled if you wish)

  • 100 g sugar
  • 50 ml water
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon mastic, powder (optional)

  For the Custard

  • 3 tablespoons fine semolina
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 70 g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 500 ml milk

  Whipped cream

  • 100 ml heavy cream, chilled
  • 1 egg white, from very fresh egg (skip and double the quantity of heavy cream if preferred)
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

  Topping

  • roasted slivered almonds or pistachios, for serving
  • 8 candied cherries (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160 °C.
2. To begin making the base. Make the Kataifi pastry as fluffy as possible; spread it on the Springform (of about 24 cm) and brush with the melted butter. Toast the Kataifi strands until golden brown, this takes about 30-40 minutes.
3. In the meanwhile, prepare the syrup by boiling the sugar with the water in a small saucepan for about 5 minutes. You can also add some mastic powder. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and spoon the hot syrup over the toasted pastry base.
4. Combine semolina, cornstarch and half of the sugar in small bowl; whisk in egg yolks and a few tablespoons of cold milk; whisk to remove any lumps. In another pot (or simply in the microwave) heat the milk with the rest of the sugar. Before this comes to boil, remove this from the heat and add it to the egg mixture stirring constantly; Place the saucepan over medium heat and let the cream thicken, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and let cool down until lukewarm.
5. Spread the custard evenly over Kataifi. Let it cool to room temperature, cover with cling film and put in the fridge. Leave best overnight as so that the tastes will bind better.
6. Make the whipped cream just before serving: in a clean bowl beat egg white into stiff peaks, add sugar and beat again until glossy. In another bowl, preferably chilled, beat chilled cream. Gently fold beaten egg whites into the whipped cream and spread over the cold cream.
7. Sprinkle with roasted slivered almonds, top with cherry and serve best with a cup of real Greek coffee!

 

Cretan Summer 2018

Souvenirs of our beloved Crete

Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas

A tagine is such a wonderful way to prepare and serve a complete meal at once.

The combination of meat, vegetable and carbs makes this possible and super easy!

The special spice mix, which I call “Moroccan Spice Mix”, is a wonderful very versatile balanced combination of flavours; I use this in many different ways, mostly spontaneously according to the ingredients I have on hand at home.

In the recipe below, I added some honey from our own production; this made the plate really really delicious!

• Servings: 2-3
• Time: 1 hr
• Difficulty: easy
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Moroccan Spice Mix:

• 2 teaspoon ras el hanout spice mix, if available, optional
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon turmeric

Tagine:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 500 g chicken skinned, cut into big pieces (if you prefer deboned)
• 2 medium onions, peeled and cut into quarters (wedges)
• 1/2 lemon with peel, cut vertically in wedges (skin on)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and chopped
• 6 teaspoons Moroccan Spices Mix (see above)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 4 Roma tomatoes
• 1 cup chicken or vegetal broth
• 1 can chickpeas, about 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• ½ lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoon raisins (+ some for decoration)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parsley for decoration

Prcedure

1. Prepare in advance the ingredients taking care to prepare the tomatoes. To peel the tomatoes dip them in boiling water for two minutes, place in cold water and remove the skin. Cut into half and with your fingers remove the seed, cut into 1-2 cm pieces.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet (provided of lid) and fry chicken for 2 minutes, add onion and lemon wedges and fry for other 3 minutes.
3. Add garlic, ginger and spices. Stir fry shortly until fragrant.
4. Add tomatoes and sauté for 1-2 more minutes. Set aside a few pieces tomatoes, one lemon and one onion wedge for decoration.
5. Add the broth and stir well-
6. Add chickpeas, lemon juice, honey and raisins.
7. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
8. Cover and let simmer covered for about 30 minutes or better one until the chicken results tender. Stir and add little water from time to time as it should not result dry.
9. Just before serving top with the reserved lemon and onion wedges, the pieces of tomatoes, a few raisins. Cover for a few seconds.
10. Top with parsley and serve with a smile!

 

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