a colorful mix of vegetable deliciousness

when it is hot an humid outside i tend to stop cooking altogether. cooking always means turning on my stove, and during summer i am clearly moving towards fruits and raw vegetables.

i just can not bring myself to eat something hot or even warm so dinner for one could easily come to a complete halt during a heatwave because tossing salad does not really qualify as cooking in my (narrow?) humble opinion. or at least it does not seem like something worth putting on a foodblog. most of my cold food is awfully simple and quick and putting something like a dip or spread on dinner for one almost seems like an insult to those aspiring chefs out there that are dropping by my little corner of the www.

so, cold food.

nothing wrong with that! as a cook i should really be more openminded here, huh?

what about all those marvellous salads that take ages to chop and prepare?
what about gazpacho and antipasti?

i thought a cold and yummie noodle salad might just be the thing to make and wrap up in another blogpost during those hot hot hot days. it is not fancy, i did not even go shopping for this salad - all i did was i raided my fridge.

but beware! this recipe clearly does not qualify as "for one". i just know i will dine on this for at least 3 days ...

750 g penne rigate (cooked)
100 g carrots
100 g green bell pepper
100 g cucumber
100 g cherry tomatoes
125 g mozzarella
1 big tbsp capers
2 big tbsp mayonnaise

1. cook the penne and rinse under cold water. set aside
2. dice 'em, slice 'em, chop 'em - just make your veggies as small as possible. you actually could throw in every vegetable you can find in your fridge
   
   
   
3. tear or cut the mozzarella into tiny little pieces
   
   
   
4. in a bowl combine the pasta with the veggies and the mozzarella
   
   
5. sprinkle over one big tbsp of capers and two tbsp of mayonnaise. my capers are marinated in white wine vinegar which adds a lovely and subtle note to the salad
   
   
   
6. mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
   
   
7. let rest for at least two hours in your frigde or preferably even overnight
   

there you go - a delicious vegetarian salad that tames my growling belly! i don't even eat big servings at once, i just take my tiny little bowl, go back for seconds and munch away while i take a siesta and hide from the heat.

winter deliciousness

i was used to go shopping four or five times a week, i'd always buy exactly what i needed, then i went home and i prepared my meal. i almost never bought convenience food, i bought my ingredients and did the cooking at home. i hardly ever had leftovers, and i did not throw away much of my food either. i figured i was making really good economic sense this way.

it never really occured to me that i was actually spending a lot of money that way too - untill i was getting interested in organic food and local produce last summer. i always thought that this is something a single person just has to deal with. i have no room for storage, i have no freezer, i can not buy cheaper family sized packages. i just have to go with the smaller packages and spend a little more money. well, that little more obviousely piles up over the days, weeks and months! but really, insted of buing single portions for my dinner, i could have easily spent money to buy quality food instead of the quick fix.

and while i always had a good example for an economical lifestyle in my mother and grandmother, i am really living a rather urban single lifestyle that is not always combinable with stockkeeping and accurate planning.

with my attention towards organic food it suddenly became very clear to me that i was actually wasting my money because all this short-term planning was more convenient. i'd always make an excuse for the easy, single & urban way out (remember? i am a cheater!).

leaning towards a more organic and more balanced diet did not exactly make me a nutrition expert, but now i spend much more time thinking about what i eat, where i buy my food and - yes, now i plan ahead! because i would never want my farm box deliciousness to go bad - well, it happened a few times, sure. but i am getting better at the whole planning. this does not really require a lot of effort but the results are very surprinsing, acutally!

i was looking through my finances the other day (i am a very accurate person when it comes to my records) i noticed something really interesting. i always figured that i just shifted my budget from expensive single portions to expensive organic food. but i was wrong! it just so happened that i now spend only about 75% of the money i spent on food before. how did that happen?!? i buy all that expensive organic stuff now, i go to local markets, i go to organic supermarkets, i buy a lot of treats (like a pack of oreos every now and then, and they are actually quite expensive here in austria and you can only get them on like ONE supermarket in town), so how on earth could my expenses drop?

it must be all the planning! i think i am really a far-seeing person now, just like my mum is and my grandma used to be! i took some getting used to, but now i think i am finally there! it might only be a little thing, but ... i am actually really proud of myself. pad me on the shoulder please!

(well, you don't have to. i did it myself already)

see that, i am rambling again :) i always do that when i talk about stuff i care about. i acutally wanted to show you my delicous winter salad! it contains things from this weeks and last weeks farm box, and everything's still crunchy and fresh and nothing is rotten (so far) ...

• lettuce
  
• radicchio (soak in warm water for a while to remove the bitterness)
  
• carrots (different colours again!)
  
• a tomato (i only started eating tomatos last summer, now i even add them to my salad)
  
• an apple
• feta cheese
  
• balsamico vinegar
  
• pumpkin seed oil
  
• salt
  
• pepper
  
• parsley
  

is it goulash?

there are two methods of cooking i frequently use when i am out of ideas: frying and stewing.

i once even had a little stewing-phase when i cooked nothing but stews for a few weeks. that phase is fortunately over but even today if i can not come up with a decent recipe or i can't decide what i am craving for dinner i'll stew something up.

i especially like all kinds of goulash, my favorite of all time being the szegedin goulash with pork and sauerkraut (my mama makes the best szegedin goulash, by the way!). every food that only resembles goulash and has lots of paprika powder in it is very comforting for me! we had it pretty often when i grew up and i could not get enough of the gazillion variations my mama is able to create.

i even invented some of my own. stews that taste a lot like goulash but use vegetables instead of meat. though i am not a vegetarian i hardly ever crave meat and i could easily live without it. actually, i often do live without meat for weeks without even noticing! when i was a child i used to push the goulash meat to the side of the plate and i only ate the paprika-sauce with lots and lots and lots of white bread. i still love to dunk a slice of bread in the sauce and i'd probably lick off the plate if you guys wheren't watching ...

i actually wanted to make hummus today and soaked some chickpeas overnight, but when i came home from work (very wet and very cold!) i was suddenly craving something else ... something goulashy ... and so i quickly added lots of paprika powder to a plain and simple chickpeas and tomato stew

1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 large hand full of dried chickpeas
(how much could that be in gramms? i have no idea!)
3 tomatos
olive oil
salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp of paprika powder

1. soak dried chickpeas in water overnight and cook them in water until they are soft enough. you can also use canned chickpeas.
2. in a pot, fry onion and garlic in plenty of olive oil
3. add the spices and keep stirring
   
4. dice and add tomatoes
5. let simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes
6. add chickpeas
7. cover the pot and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes

the rich thickness of a gulash usually comes from the meat, so i thought i'd throw in some tomatos to give the dish some hearty flavour. eat it with bread! i think that could be a side dish as well but for a single gal like me it's more of a quick fix - well, not so quick after all, stewing still takes some time!

the parsnip, the ancient vegetable

well, you must be getting tired of me rambling on about newly discovered food. but i have another one for you. i am starting to think that my diet was very dull and narrow minded before i ordered this farm box, because now i discover something new to feast on every week. amazing.

maybe i am just such a creature of habit and i only ate what i always knew. there even is a saying here in austria about the stubborn breed of humans north of the danube: "was der bauer nicht kennt, ißt er nicht" -"the farmer does not eat what he doesn't know".

totally true.

we tend to blame this on the granite and its massive, hard and tough geological features north of the danube and the resulting hardship for local agriculture.

before i get off the point again i like to draw your attention to the veggie of the week: the parsnip! apperently this veggie was quite popular in mediaeval europe until the potato appeared. the parsnip then fell completely into oblivion. time for some research, don't you think? and once again i turn to wikipedia:

"The parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) is a root vegetable related to the carrot. Parsnips resemble carrots, but are paler and have a stronger flavor. Like carrots, parsnips are native to Eurasia and have been eaten there since ancient times. Until the potato arrived from the New World, its place in dishes was occupied by the parsnip. Parsnips can be boiled, roasted or used in stews, soups and casseroles."

(image from wikipedia)

so again i have to dive into the depths of the internet to find a decent recipe. i have quite some experience with root veggies, so making something cool should not be a problem. but then again, i wanted to experience the taste of the parsnip as pure as possible. so i went for an easy ...

parsnip au gratin (inspired by this recipe of stuffed parsnip on chefkoch.de)

275 g parsnip
1 carrot
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
butter
40 g breadcrumbs
salt
pepper

1. clean and peel parsnip
2. cut off four large discs (about 3 centimeters) from the thicker end of the veggie and throw the rest of the root into a food processor
3. cut the discs into chunks and also cut the carrot into smaller discs
   
4. place in a casserole
5. finely chop onion and garlic
6. in a pan, heat some butter and gently fry onion, garlic and the rest of the parsnip.
7. after about 5 minutes add breadcrumbs and continue to fry the mixture.
8. spoon on top of the carrot and parsnip chunks, put a few knobs of butter on top and grill at 200°C for about 30 minutes
   

this can be a side dish, but for me it was the veggie-main course of my late lunch. i ate it with a colorful mix of corn salad and radiccio. the gratin-top of the dish might also make a good stuffing for meat. i have to try that out some time.


okay, there is not much of the "au gratin" left when you ladle it onto the plate, but: oh my god! the taste was just perfect! hearty and rich, very nuttily and a little like parsley, a little like carrot ... it might become a staple food in my kitchen.

bite me!

this expression is a bit vulgar in english, isn't it? calm down, i do not mean to be rude, i just want to invite you to take a bite of my brussels sprouts, butternut squash and potatoes on skewers :) because in german "bite me" is much rather translated to "take a bite of me" or "taste me" - so it actually an invitation rather than an insult.

there you go. i was again very inspired by one of johannas recent posts and i decided to get myself some skewers and enter fall season here in austria with a little remembrance of summer and lovely nights out on the terrace barbecuing with friends. it is still lovely and warm outside, but you certainly can feel that winter is coming around again ... well, at least autumn. the children are passing me on their way to school again when i head for work in the mornings, and university will start again next week.

fall is my favorite season. i kick horse-chestnuts out of my way, i hop and skip a lot everywhere i walk and i even love it if i have to skip over puddles on rainy and misty days. i like to buy new pencils and beautiful moleskine notebooks in september, because fall has always marked a fresh new start for me. i am at university again, so stocking up for a new semester kind of makes sense. but even in the seven years i spent in different offices working for various companies i always got excited in fall. i went out and bought fresh new things for the office almost as if i was starting another semester in school. i am not nearly as excited about spring, you know? and it's not just because i just loooooove the vegetables of fall.

200 g butternut squash
12 brussels sprouts
3 potatoes
oil
rosemary
skewers

01 preheat your oven to 200 °C
02 peel and roughly cut butternut squash into bite size
03 cut each potato in 4 pieces
04 assemble veggies alternately on skewers and place on a baking tray
05 drizzle with oil and sprinkle with rosemary
06 bake for 20-30 minutes
07 serve as a side dish to meat or as a main course with a light yoghurt sauce on the side

salmon filet with potato crust plus cauliflower, broccoli and romanesco in honey and ginger

salmon filet with potato crust

200 g salmon filet
2 potatos
mustard
salt
pepper

01 peel and grate potato and squeeze out well
02 season with salt and pepper
03 spread mustard on one side of the salmon and press on grated potato
04 roast gently in a little olive oil (potato side first)

cauliflower, broccoli and romanesco with honey and ginger

200g cauliflower, broccoli and romanesco
½ red onion
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon honey
50 ml vegetable stock
2 teaspoons olive oil
salt

01 sauté cut up cauliflower, brocolli, romanesco as well as onion
02 add minced ginger and continue stirfrying
03 add honey after about 10 minutes
04 add vegetable stock
05 season to taste

this is quite a smart recipe! the ingredients are rather traditional, yet the seasoning and the combination itself is quite sensational! it tastes amazing!!!

coconut milk / turkey / curry - freestyle

300 g turkey breast
300 ml coconut milk
1 teaspoon of curry powder
olive oil
salt, pepper
ground chili
parsley

01 cut turkey breast
02 fry in a pan
03 add 1 teaspoon of curry powder
04 stir until the meat is slightly roasted
05 add coconut milk
06 let simmer till the meat is roasted thoroughly
07 season to taste

since i had no salad at home i figured i could try to marinate an orange. this would go well with the curry thing.

1 orange
olive oil
herbs, salt, ground chili

01 peel and cut the orange
02 sprinkle witz salt, herbs and ground chili
03 drizzle with olive oil

any kind of flat bread goes well with this asian-inspired dish

falafel and hummus

another fine dish i tasted for the first time when i lived in london was falafel with hummus. when i came back home i tried to get hold of all the ingredients which was quite a challenge. i also had to make everything from scratch. i used to make the tahini myself because in the small town where i used to live back then i just could not get foreign food or foreign ingredients. today even good supermarkets have foreign food sections and the recipes become more affordable :) i usually serve this dish with bread and salad. or i just eat the bits as fingerfood appetizers

falafel
400 g chickpeas
1 piece of white bread
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic
coriander,
parsley
cumin
salt
pepper
50 g bulgur (can be substituted with 3 EL flour)
1 tbsp baking powder
oil for frying

01 put chickpeas and white bread in a food processor and puree untill smooth
02 add herbs and season to taste
03 finally add bulgur or flour and baking powder
04 heat oil, form small balls with a spoon and fry until golden-brown

hummus
50 g chickpeas
¼ clove of garlic
15 g tahini
juice of ½ a lemon
1 tsp olive oil
black olives, finely chopped
salt, pepper
cumin

01 put ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth

it was funny when i served hummus the first time when i was still living at my parent's house. if you pronounce "hummus" the german way it means something like "mould". so my family really was rather sceptical and they where looking at me in distaste when i proudly announced that i had made "h-u-m-u-s". their reaction was like:

humus?
ieeew!
how icky! do we have to eat soil now?!

i had to explain them that it was a dip of chickpeas, garlic, olives, lemon juice, and a sesame seed paste called "tahini". it is a dish from the middle east and i tasted it in a greek restaurant for the first time. they where delighted and even my father who hardly ever tries new tastes and flavours took a bite and welcomed the dish with an approving grunt:) my sister got hooked immediately and since she is an exceptionally gifted cook (way more willing to experiment than i am!) this was the kickstart to our adventures in cooking foreign dishes.

putengeschnetzeltes with potatoe wedges

putengeschnetzeltes ... is there a translation for "geschnetzeltes"? originally it is a swiss dish. it's small pieces of white meat, usually pork, turkey or veal, cooked in a pan with onions, garlic and a heavy cream and wine sauce. it is usually served with rice, noodles or spätzle.

150 g turkey (hen)
125 g onions
150 ml vegetable stock
5 tbsp. sour creme
salt
pepper
parsley
olive oil

01 cut turkey into small pieces
02 heat oil and roast turkey gently
03 remove meat from pan
04 cut onions into thin slices
05 stirfry onions till slightly brown
06 add vegetable stock
07 let simmer for 10 minutes
08 add sour creme and stir well
09 reduce heat and let onion sauce boil down till creamy
10 if necessary add some flour or starch (farina) to thicken the sauce
11 add meat and let simmer for about 10 more minutes
12 season to taste, add chopped parsley
13 enjoy with a nice glass of white wine!

oven roastet potatoe wedges

3 potatoes
salt
herbs (i took ground cili)
olive oil

01 cut potoatoes lengthwise into wedges
02 place in a pan
03 drizzle with olive oil
04 if desired sprinkle with salt and herbs
05 stir to coat
06 bake uncovered at 220 °C until tender