This is a variation from the basic Chocolate-Olive-oil-almond-and-ginger Cake to which I have added a middle layer of cream, and some sour cherries.
I doubled the recipe, making a round, simply decorated cake, and a log, for Marianna and Leonida Allamani’s 16th birthday.
See the BASIC RECIPE to make the cake and the chocolate Glaze. (more…)
I have never tried to make carrot jam, as the ones I have tasted were sickly sweet, lacking any aroma or distinctive tang. But I was intrigued by the ‘Carrot Cake Marmalade,’ at Food & Wine. The recipe originated from “ Molly’s Rise and Shine in New Orleans, where diners rave about the yogurt bowl served topped with marmalade,” as the recipe’s intro states.
I liked the idea of adding warm spices, but increased the number of other fruits –oranges, apples, and particularly lemons—which beautifully complement the carrots’ one-dimensional sweetness. Also, I didn’t over-process the fruit to get a very smooth jam, as the recipe suggests.
My carrot jam is somewhat tart, much closer to my most favorite citrus-fruit marmalades. But you can add more honey or sugar to make it sweeter, as most people probably would prefer it…
Serve with creamy, thick yogurt, with fresh cheese –like myzithra or ricotta– or with the very creamy manouri cheese. I also like to spread it on slices of my Orange, Lemon or Tangerine Olive-oil Cake.
At Molly’s Rise and Shine in New Orleans their very smooth carrot jam is served with granola and yogurt, topped with orange segments and blackberries.
Makes about 2.2 quarts (liters) (more…)
I whipped up this fast and quite delicious dessert using the last nectarines of the year. But you can also use apples, instead.
I caramelized some sugar, then laid the peach or apple segments on it and cooked for a few minutes, before covering with two layers of pastry and baking.
I bought quite a few nectarines the other day, as we at end of October, far beyond peach season. Although they looked unripe, when cut, their flesh was overripe, almost rotten around the stone –probably because they were refrigerated for far too long.
Since they were not good to enjoy as part of my morning fruit-plate, I thought of using them to make an upside-down tart, using frozen, store-bought puff pastry as the crust.
I have had quite a lot of misses in the past trying to bake upside-down fruit tarts, but this time I used my new, very light, aluminum, non-stick Neoflam skillet which made it so easy to bake and invert the tart perfectly, for the very first time…
Serves 8-12 (more…)
I love to make risotto with our Mediterranean wheat berries (farro) or with pearl barley. I use the grains on their own or complemented with some rice; in these combinations I prefer to add the long, basmati rice instead of Arborio or medium gran rice.
The cooking is a variation of my usual risotto with leafy greens, but on this occasion I prefer to cook the grains with a more substantial green, like kale or cabbage.
A few years back we managed to grow some Russian, as well as Tuscan Kale in the garden; but unfortunately we have not been able to grow these wonderful greens again, so I use cabbage for my hearty grain risotto.
See also Kapuska: Cabbage with Ground Meat and Cabbage.
Serves 4-6 (more…)
There are countless variations of slow-cooked chickpeas all over the Mediterranean. Most are vegetarian, like this one, inspired by a dish Stelios Tylirakis prepares in his wood-fired oven at Dounias tavern, high in the mountains above Chania, Crete.
In Crete chickpeas are commonly flavored with bitter (Seville) orange, while in most other islands lemon is used. I think orange peel is a wonderful substitute for the bitter orange, along with some lemon juice. This simple chickpea dish, like the one without squash, should be made with the best quality, preferably organic dried chickpeas, not the canned ones. Their flavor is so much more interesting.
I add mustard, something I learned from my mother who claimed that it made all pulses more digestible. I’m not sure it does, but it certainly deepens the flavor of the beans and chickpeas.
I start describing the long, old fashioned oven-cooked method, and then I add my way of making the dish fast, with pre-cooked, frozen chickpeas without losing its original flavor and texture –by the way I, as most Greeks, like the chickpeas meltingly tender, somewhat mushy, not chewy.
Serves 6-8 (more…)
