Watermelon and feta salad

We are having a glorious summer in London, it's scorching so food needs are very different. No dreams of bangers & mash or a fish pie! When there is 30 degrees outside my body requires different kind of treatment.

When it started being really warm I asked my hubby to get on his way back a watermelon. Did not think to specify how much of that watermelon I'd have liked. No instructions given so hubby got a whole big monster. I love watermelon but how much of it do I need to it every day? Needles to say I am in the only fruit lover in this little household of two.

Going through one of my favourite cookbooks ever Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty I found this recipe - super quick summer lunch, supper or snack.

Watermelon and feta salad

Ingredients:
All you need is watermelon, feta , basil leaves and olive oil.

Proportions for two:
500 g of watermelon cut into large chunks, bottom part discarded
100g of feta sliced thinly
a handful of basil leaves

Let's do it (the shortest ever!)
Arrange the three in a salad bowl drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and you are done!
Happy summer!

Yogurt cake with fruit variations

At the moment I am going through a phase of baking cakes with yogurt (and not doing posts...) Do I dare to say this? This is a modest cake if you can consider a cake this way. It doesn't contain much fat and it's not so big on the sugar either. Or is this an illusion and excuse to bake? 

Summer yogurt cake and full of fruit

Ingredients (in cups - a cup is 250ml glass) 
2 cups of plain flour
2tsp of baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 glass of golden caster sugar or any other sugar
a cup of plain yogurt, 0% fat or full fat - any yogurt will do
25g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence

300-400g fruit of your choice - strawberries, blueberries, cherries, figs, raspberries, etc. / or a mix of fruit 

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted). Prepare two bowls. Sieve flour and baking powder into one and set aside. Crack eggs into the other bowl add sugar and beat with a handheld mixer on a high speed until it's pale and creamy - around 7 minutes. Next beat in the vanilla essence. Finally gently fold in using spatula all remained ingredients - cooled butter, yogurt and flour until fully incorporated. 
Grease a 23 cm spring tin form line the baking parchment. Transfer the batter into the tray and scatter the fruit evenly. 
When it comes to fruit I am working on various combinations. Last week I made a figs& raspberry one.
I roughly chopped three big figs, melted a bit of butter in a frying pan added the figs, fried for a few minutes then added 2 tbsp of pomegranate molasses and cooked for a further few minutes until they were soft. When the figs cooled down I mixed them with raspberries ( one punnet) and arranged on the top - so far it is my winner. Today I scatter cherries and strawberries on the top. 
Bake for 30 minutes and / or until the skewer comes clean. When cooled sprinkle icing sugar on the top. 

Almond and blueberry cake

It's been raining most of the day today,how typical for Bank Holiday. I haven't baked for a few weeks now and given the weather the only conclusion I come to is "let's bake".
I go through my kitchen books and on this occasion quickly made my choice! It is
smitten kitchen's aka Deb Perlman's blueberry polenta cake. Except I decide to make it my own way, so thank you smitten kitchen for your inspiration - The-Smitten-Kitchen-Cookbook




Almond and blueberry cake with semolina

Ingredients:
115 soft butter at a room temperature
130g of caster sugar
125g of plain flour
60g of semolina
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tsp of almond essence
2 large eggs at a room temperature
80g light creme fraiche
a handful of almond flakes

Let's do it
Preheat your oven to 170C (fan assisted). Grease and lay with a baking parchment a 20 cm spring cake form or square form. 
In a bowl mix using a whisker flour, semolina, salt and baking powder, set aside.
In another bowl using a hand mixer beat butter with sugar until pale, light and fluffy (2-4 minutes) scraping the sides with a spatula from time to time. Beat each egg in separately until fully incorporated. Next beat in the almond essence. Add third of the flour mix, followed by creme fraiche and another third of the flour mix and beat briefly until just incorporated. The remained third of flour mix with blueberries and gently fold into the batter. Transfer to the cake form, sprinkle almond flakes on the top. Bake for 35 minutes until the skewer comes clean. 

Light and summery courgette fritters

It's a truly beautiful day today in London, sunny and warm pure enjoyment. After the winter and months of eating pasta, rice and potatoes my body kindly asked for something light::) So here you are courgette fritters especially for you my dear body!

Courgette fritters with herb yogurt

Serves to 2 -3 as a light meal

Ingredients

500g courgettes - small to medium washed and grated roughly

2 eggs

up to 100g of flour

chili flakes

salt and pepper

sunflower oil or other oil to fry

Herb yogurt 

300g natural yogurt

2-3 tbsp of chopped dill

2 -3 tbsp of chopped chives

1 tbsp of lemon juice

salt

Let's do it:

Sprinkle a tea spoon of salt over the grated courgettes and leave them for up to 30 minutes. Squeeze the excess of water using a kitchen towel or with your hands over a sieve. Add eggs, flour, chili flakes and season well. The batter should be only slightly runny and hold well together.

In a frying pan heat 3 tbsp of sunflower or other oil, lay a table spoon of batter on the hot oil and fry on each side until golden - this may take up to 5 minutes on each side.

For the herb yogurt mix all ingredients and serve over the fritters.

I am one year old! but I forgot about it and...

... no one knows so from myself to myself belated Happy Birthday Bake& Beat:) :)
It's funny how I hardly told anyone about the blog, not sure why. Just did not happen. I am enjoying writing it and keeping as a repository of recipes. Surprisingly when I look back the memory fades and there is no chance I would remember what I cooked a year ago.
I am celebrating with Mexican feast: huevos rancheros, guacamole and frijoles refritos!

Mexican feast

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Huevos rancheros - inspired by Smitten Kitchen 
4 eggs
tin of plum tomatoes 
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 small/ medium banana shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
few tbsp of black beans (optional) 
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp  of chili flakes
grated cheddar
salt and pepper

Frijoles refritos - inspired by Mexican Food Made Simple
a can of black beans (reserve the liquid from the can)
20 g of butter
1 big banana shallot or half a white onion
1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp of chili flakes 
dry epazote (optional)

Guacamole
1.5 - 2 avocados, peeled and mashed with a fork
quarter of a big or half of a small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
juice from a half of small lime
salt and pepper

Additional suspects:soured cream and corn tortillas

Let's do it:
Let's start with huevos rancheros as they take the longest to cook. Using a hand blender blend tomatoes, onion, garlic, chili flakes adding salt and pepper. Transfer into a ovenproof dish, add beans if using and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes.
Preheat the grill in the oven to 250C 
Break the eggs across the dish, cover the pan and simmer gently for 10-12 minutes. Remove the lid, sprinkle cheddar and grill for a few minutes until cheese melted and is coloring. Serve with soured cream and tortilla.
Somewhere in between when working on huevos rancheros start working on frijoles refritos. Blend the beans with around 100-120ml of the liquid from the tin until a smooth puree. In a pan melt 20 g of butter with a 1 tsp of sunflower oil next add the onion sprinkle some salt and pepper and sweat until soft, add garlic, chili flakes and epazote and fry for a few more minutes. Add the bean puree, simmer for 10 minutes stirring often. Add more reserved liquid if needed to have a smooth puree not too thick. Season well. Serve with grated cheddar and sour cream, chopped parsley.
Finally if you are good in multi-tasking start preparing guacamole. Using pestle and mortar mash the quarter of the chopped onion with salt and mix with the mashed avocado and the remained onion. Add more salt if needed and lime juice - mix well.

All serve with corn tortillas ( I did not make mine, they are shop bought) and sour cream tossed with a generous sprinkle of lime and chopped fresh parsley. ¡Buena fiesta!

Grilled mango and mozzarella salad

Here is a very quick veggie recipe for a light sunshine bringing lunch, starter or supper.
The only downside is peeling and cutting mango, something I simply have never liked doing and never will. 


Grilled mango and mozzarella salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 ripen mango, peeled and cut into thick rectangular pieces
1 pack of mozzarella (125g)
rocket leaves
olive oil
balsamic glaze 
salt & pepper

Let's do it:
Heat the griddle pan, do not use any oil - grill the mango pieces on each side until looking charcoal, remove and let it cool. In the meantime arrange rocket leaves, torn mozzarella pieces over, add seasoning and a splash of olive oil. Arrange cooled mango pieces and finish with the balsamic glaze all over the salad.

No egg quick cake in two variations - chocolate&almond ; chocolate&coconut

A need is a mother of invention - here comes a very quick and easy egg free cake in two variations - coconut and chocolate, almond and chocolate.

All ingredients are measured by 1 cup - 250ml glass

Chocolate and almond egg free cake

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients - 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar preferably Rapadura whole cane sugar but any brown sugar will do, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup ground almond
Wet ingredients - 1 mashed medium banana, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 cup almond butter, 1 tsp almond essence, 3 tbsp milk

And 40 grams of chopped dark or milk chocolate

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted).
In one bowl mix all dry ingredients and in another all wet ones. Add flour to the wet ingredients and mix well  until combined.
Transfer to a small loaf tin (grease if necessary - mine is silicone so no need), scatter chocolate on the top and gently push into the batter. Bake for 30 minutes / until a skewer comes clean. 


Chocolate and coconut egg free cake

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients - 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar - preferably Rapadura whole cane sugar but any brown sugar will do, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
Wet ingredients - 1 mashed medium banana, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 cup sunflower oil, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 2-3 tbsp milk

And 40 grams of chopped dark or milk chocolate

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted).
In one bowl mix all dry ingredients and in another all wet ones. Add flour to the wet ingredients and mix well  until combined.
Transfer to a small loaf tin (grease if necessary - mine is silicone so no need), scatter chocolate on the top and gently push into the batter. Bake for 30 minutes / until a skewer comes clean.