Raspberry Panzanella

First of all I want to credit Adrian for making the raspberry jam. He volunteered to help. "Is it really that easy to make jam?" Well, see for yourself.

This recipe took me by surprise. It's hassle free and yet unbelievably flavorful. Besides it 's also pretty on the plate. Adrian was already asking for a remake while his plate was still half-full. This recipe has so much potential - you can make it with other berries, different fruits, nuts, etc. I happened to have some leftover fruit salad from the day before - mango, papaya, grapes in a lemony sweet dressing -. I also added some date honey to sweeten up the plate. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Ingredients:
(serve 2)

• Frozen raspberry
• Pure coconut syrup
• 4 slices Day-old bread, sliced into 1" cubes
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup Natural cane sugar
• pinch of salt
  
• Pecan nuts, chopped
• Fruit Salad
  
• Sour cream (lemon juice + Cream)
• Poppy seeds
• Date honey
  

1. Heat and bring raspberry and coconut syrup to boiling. Turn it down to medium low and let it simmer. Stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust with more sugar or raspberry. Heat till the juices reduced to jam consistency. Let it cool.
2. Preheat oven at 150C. Melt butter, sugar and salt in a pan until the sugar caramelized. Remove from heat and toss in bread cubes. Toss to coat evenly.
3. Repeat step 2 with chopped pecan nuts.
   
4. Pour bread cubes and pecan nuts to a large baking pan in one even layer. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, tossing every 5 minutes, until golden all over. Remove and let cool to crisp up.
   
5. Place toasted bread cubes and nuts in a big bowl and mix in raspberry jam. Serve on individual serving bowl. Serve with a scoop of sour cream and fruit salad. Sprinkle with poppy seeds. Drizzle with date honey.
   

Red Sauce Blintzes

I prepared all the ingredients yesterday. Before we went to bed I told Adrian he'd be in charge of the cooking in the morning. I was very excited and hopeful of this sweet blintz recipe. Think about this: silky smooth lemony mascarpone filling, and tarty raspberry and strawberry sauce. Yummm....

Adrian, too, was ready to take on the role with me breathing down his neck. Unfortunately things didn't turn out as I thought. The batter was too thick - should I have strained it? Has it thickened overnight? Adrian managed to flip up a couple thin crepes but with hole - it didn't help to contain the filling. In the end, we got one good blintz out of 6. I was very disappointed and upset.

I got rid of this batch and whipped up another. Turned up fine this time. I must credit Adrian for being so supportive while I was sulking over a few bad crepes. And he cooked a killer omelet with sun-dried tomatoes, parsley and basil, too! Best he'd ever made, said the he-cook.

Ingredients
(make 6 8.5" crepes)
Raspberry and strawberry jam

• 1/2 cup frozen raspberry
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberry
• 1 tablespoon real maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• lemon juice to taste

Heat berries with maple syrup and sugar to melt. Adjust taste with lemon juice and sugar if needed.

Crepe

• 1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup almond meal
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• small pinch of sea salt
• 1 small egg, lightly beaten
  
• 2/3 cup whole milk
  
• 1/3 tablespoon virgin coconut oil

1. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet ingredients in another. Fold wet ingredients over dry mixture to mix. Add more milk to desired consistency if needed.
   
2. When ready to cook, strain and remove clumps if necessary.
   
3. Coat and heat a 8.5" pan with butter. Pour just enough batter over pan, swirling to coat evenly. Return the excess to the bowl.
   
4. Fry until the top is bubbly. Remove from heat and place over a plate with the fried site up.
5. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Filling

• 1/3 cup Homemade mascarpone
• 1/3 cup fresh whipping cream
  
• 1 - 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• lemon zest
  
• 1 Tablespoons powdered sugar
  

1. Freeze whisk attachment and bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes. Beat the whipping cream until it forms soft peaks. Add sugar, lemon juice and zest to beat to stiff peaks.
   
2. Gently fold the cream mixture into mascarpone to mix. Be careful not to over mix.
   

Assembly

1. Take a few spoonful of mascarpone filling and place it to the center, leaving the edges. Fold the edges as if making a package.
2. Coat and heat a pan with butter. Place blintzes seam site down to fry till browned. Flip and fry the other side.
3. Serve with Raspberry Strawberry Sauce and mint leaves.
   

Sourdough Pancake

Ingredients:
(Two 8" pancakes)

• 1 1/2 cup sourdough starter
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
  
• 1TB unprocessed sugar
• 1TB virgin coconut oil
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 TB whole milk
  
• Frozen raspberries
  
• Natural brown sugar

For the topping:

• 1/4 cup macadamia nut spread
• 1TB organic raw honey
  

1. In a bowl, sprinkle a few pinches of natural brown sugar to frozen raspberries. Toss to coat evenly. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sourdough starter, egg, salt, milk, coconut oil and sugar. Gently fold in raspberries mixture. Add baking soda.
   
3. Heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat on a 8" skillet until bubbly. Pour half the batter and cook until the bottom is set and pores are forming on top. Flip and cook the other side for another 5 - 6 minutes. Repeat with the other half batter.
   
4. In a separate bowl, mix macadamia nut spread and honey together. Serve honey macadamia spread over pancake.
   

Berries Apricot Crisp

We had a very hearty lunch at this organic Thai vegetarian restaurant called Khun Churn at Ekkamai this afternoon. I didn't think we'd have dinner except something small. So I decided to make this Berries Crisp based on the Apple Crisp recipe I liked very much.

I substituted apples with fresh strawberries, frozen raspberries and frozen apricots. Instead of using walnuts for the crispy topping, I used macadamia nuts.

I didn't think much about this knowing that it would not fail. Perhaps that's why when Adrian said "I would wear it as a perfume if they had that", I was pleasantly pleased. He also likes the resemblance of its smell to some berry jam that his mother used to make - anything that stir up good childhood memories must be good, right?

To make two servings, I quartered the amount required in the original recipe. I wanted just enough topping to provide a crispy texture to go with the soft filling. Besides, it's more of a sport eat rather than anything substantial.

Berry Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Chips

This recipe is an adaptation from here. It has a very posh French name: Gâteau au Yaourt à la Framboise, a.k.a Raspberry Yogurt Cake.

A basic Yogurt Cake is just a very simple, moist and fluffy cake. It lends itself to a great variations such as the one below. You can add citrus juice, zest, or peel for a delicious lemon or orange cake, you can add chocolate chips or nuts to the batter, you can slice the baked cake in two and spread a layer of jam in the middle, you can frost the cake with a chocolate frosting -- whatever strikes your fancy. I decided to throw in some chocolate chips along with mixed berries just because they have been sitting in the far-reached corner of the fridge for quite some time now.

I'm using the almond meal that came from my Homemade Almond Milk. You can either buy from the store or simply grind some.

• 1 C homemade yogurt
• 1 C natural cane sugar
• 1/4 C virgin coconut oil
• 1 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/4 C almond meal
• 3 eggs
• 1 TB baking powder
• 300 g mixed berries (fresh or frozen): strawberry, blueberry, raspberry
  
• 1/2 C unsweetened chocolate chips (optional)
  

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Copiously grease and flour a 9" springform pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine yogurt, oil and sugar with a spatula. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition.
   
3. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and almond meal. Add flour mixture to the batter in three or four batches, and stir until just combined. Do not over mix.

4. Pour half the batter into the cake pan. Cover evenly with half of the mixed berries and half of the chocolate chips (if using). Pour the other half of the batter, and arrange the other half of the raspberries on top. Sprinkle with the other half of the chocolate chips (if using).

5. Put into the oven to bake, for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top is springy and a cake tester comes out clean.

6. Let rest on the counter for ten minutes, then run a knife around the cake to loosen it, and turn out on a rack to cool completely.

Veggie Smoothies

It began with the extra hydroponic butterhead lettuce: it came with roots and I was happily keeping it alive in a jar of water next to the sink. Few days passed and still no sign of cooking at home. I got nervous and started surfing for inspiration. Not much. Then the conversation with Fredrik about juicer came to mind. Hmm.... so I typed "lettuce smoothie". And what do you know? GREEN SMOOTHIE, anyone?

With Lettuces

Banana, blueberry, golgi berry, yogurt, lettuces and cinnamon powder.

Who would have thought? No sign of green at all =)

It's not that different than our usual morning stable: banana with mixed berries yogurt smoothie. I just threw in another handful of lettuces. I was going to keep in mum but Adrian walked in and I could see the expression on his face. "It's ok. I know what I'm doing" said the cook. You got to give this man a lot of credit for the faith he has on me.

How did it turn out? Well, the tartness of the berries overpowered whatever green taste the lettuces may have. Would I do it again? Only when there's leftover lettuces again.

With Chinese Celery

Same ingredients as Lettuce Smoothie plus raspberry and Homemade Almond Milk in instead of Homemade Yogurt.

Pretty~

This was the result of a big mistake. I was looking for parsley and somehow mistook Chinese celery as the Italian flat-leaved parsley. Although I had a couple celery recipes (cream of celery soup, butternut/ apple soup)that I liked and enjoyed, I don't go around and search for celery recipe as I would with broccoli or eggplant. You know what I mean?

The damage is done and I just got to fix it, don't I? It would be a whole lot easier if I had a juicer. Since I don't just have to make it into smoothie. I found recipes for banana and celery soup, and cantaloupe, celery and blueberry salad. Well, I guess it's I can just throw in to the morning mixed berries smoothis as I did with lettuces.... how convenient.

Banana Pancake with Coconut Syrup Peanut Butter

I came across a Peanut Butter Boy who has this obsession with, surprise! PEANUT BUTTER. I took his Banana Pancake and Maple Peanut Butter Recipe with a few adaptations and didn't skip any of the optional steps. The result: it's obscene but REAL GOOD!! It was such a winner that it "kind of" removed my disgust for the Banana Peanut Butter Omelet on its website...... Plus, I found out "someone's" childhood addiction of runny egg (boiled for exactly 3.5 minutes!) scrambled with jam and peanut butter for breakfast......hmmm......
The recipe makes an awful lots of pancakes. I went ahead with the volume and kept the remaining batter in refrigerator. It should keep good for 7 days. I can't wait to experiment with different toppings for our next servings.

Ingredients:
*Makes 12-15 (3″) pancakes.

Pancakes:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cottage cheese with pinch of salt (I used ricotta)
3 eggs
2 bananas, divided

Optional:

Blueberries (I used raspberries)
1/4 cup mini dark-chocolate chips
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
Mix the chips and walnuts together in a small bowl

Coconut Syrup Peanut Butter:
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter (I prefer chunky)
1T Coconut syrup (PB Boy uses Maple syrup + 1Tablespoon of sugar)

1. To make pancake batter blend oats, cottage cheese, eggs and 1 banana in a blender until smooth and creamy. Slice remaining banana into thin slices and set aside.

2. To make peanut butter spread, pour coconut syrup and peanut butter into a jar and stir until well mixed.

3. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with a splash of butter. Place about 1/4 cup of batter in each spot and flatten with the back of a spoon. Place 3 slices of banana in each pancake along with raspberries and optional ingredients. Cook for about 1-2 minutes. Once the top starts to set, flip and cook for an additional minute.

4. Spread peanut butter spread on top. I finished it with a very generous dash of maple syrup. YUM!!

*Storing: The batter will keep in the fridge for about 7 days. When you remove it from the fridge, it will be much thicker due the temperature and oat absorption. Add milk, 2T at a time, to achieve desired batter consistency.

Berry Lemon Ricotta "Bear"

I bought a Teddy Bear mold that is just insanely cute I had to use it no matter what or how. And so instead of using muffin tray (which I don't have anyway), I quartered this Cherry Lemon Ricotta Muffin into a Berry Lemon Ricotta "Bear". This recipe is a real keeper. It's moist enough with the right touch of lemon zest. I wish I had made more than just one Bear.

Ingredients:

(makes 12 muffins)

1 cup ricotta
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (1 tablespoon lemon juice+1 cup milk)
1 tbsp vanilla,
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I used coconut oil in 1/2 the volume of butter)
2 cups all-purpose flour (whole wheat for me)
¾ cup sugar (I used a mix of natural cane sugar and unbleached white sugar)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 ½ cup blueberries, strawberries or cherries (I used frozen raspberries)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper cups or spray with oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk cheese, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and butter and mix well. Set it aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and lemon zest. Add ricotta mixture to flour mixture and gently stir until just combined. Fold in the berries.

Bake for 25 minute or until golden.