Double tomato bulgur salad with feta

I'm a bulgur newbie. I found this great cracked wheat only about two weeks ago. I was quite bored with couscous and wanted to try something new. Unfortunately I did not find a quinoa in a common supermarket in London. I guess I have to try some health food shops. However bulgur wheat made a sufficient replacement to quinoa for now, and I took a liking to it.

First I tried a mint and parsley salad recipe from my cookbook Easy Mediterranean. We had friends over for the weekend and we split on the issue of this salad. We were three who liked it to one who did not, so it was a victory for me :) They all were a bulgur newbies same as me. For me, bulgur was a pleasant new discovery for my daily menu.

In fact I liked it so much, that I cooked it again just two days later. This time I wanted to experiment on my own. I got delicious plum tomatoes at the market just a few days ago. And lady selling them told me they were delicious roasted just with a garlic, salt and olive oil. I had a craving for it for couple of days already. It seemed like a ideal connection - bulgur and roasted tomatoes.

I added some sun-dried tomatoes to give it a real tomato kick and finished it with a fresh parsley and feta cheese. I wanted to save a portion for my boyfriend to taste it, however only an hour late his portion was gone! At least I made a shot for my blog to show him and tell him how delicious it was! :)

Double tomato bulgur salad with feta

Serves 2

Ingredients

10 plum tomatoes or 15 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 small garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp olive oil, for drizzling

80g bulgur wheat

1tbsp olive oil

1tsp red wine vinegar

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

1/4 cup fresh flat parsley, chopped

50g feta cheese, crumbled

1 Preheat the grill to high heat. Place the tomatoes, cut side up on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic, drizzle with olive oil. Place under the grill for 15-20 minutes. Let cool them down.

2 Meanwhile put the bulgur in a small pot or bowl and cover with boiling water just below the surface of the wheat. Let stand for about 15-20 minutes to absorb the liquid, until just tender but still quite al dente. Add more water if needed or drain any excess liquid in a colander.

2 For the dressing, whisk the olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice in a small bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper.

3 Mix the bulgur, shallot, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley in a bowl, pour over the dressing and check seasoning. Add the grilled tomatoes. Sprinkle with feta cheese.

Homemade yogurt without a yogurt maker

Finally!!! I have been wanting to make my own homemade yogurt for, I would say, more than a year? Phew. Yeah that long! I thought it was too difficult and that I needed a special yogurt maker and so on. The result was, I did not even try. The good news is, it is not difficult at all, quite the contrary, it is easy-peasy :)

I have noticed recently that I tend to cook at night. I am not exactly sure why. I can see several advantages though. First, I like the quiet all around. It is just me and sounds of cooking or baking. Secondly, I like the freshly baked cake or bread in the morning. Thirdly, with the winter coming slowly and days shortening day by day, I have more time to photograph my produce! And lastly, I do not know, I just like it. Well, it was about 10pm again, when I decided I would make a homemade yogurt.

I told my boyfriend: "I am going to make a homemade yogurt!". "Now?", he asked. "Yes, now. It is easy-peasy!".

I went to our kitchen and only a few minutes later my boyfriend appeared. "So, how do you do that? How do you make the yogurt?", he asked.

"Well, that is it", I pointed to a pot of hot milk. "I just heat the milk, add the yogurt, and in the morning, yogurt is ready!".

And that was it! I woke up in the morning and ran straight to a radiator where the yogurt was sleeping and maturing. I was excited like a child before Christmas! I still kind of did not believe that the milk, I just heated and mixed with a couple of spoons of yogurt, would turn into a yogurt overnight. It was a beautiful day. The sky was blue without a cloud which is very rare these days in London. I felt happy! :)

I put the yogurt in the refrigerator and let it get cold. After 3 hours, I could not wait any longer. The taste of the yogurt was delicious. Very smooth and not that sour as some yogurts might be. I ate it straight from the jar. Later that day I just mixed the yogurt with mango and shredded coconut to make a delicious snack.

Homemade yogurt

Ingredients

1000ml whole milk

5 tbsp plain yogurt with active cultures (I used greek yogurt)

1 In a saucepan, heat the milk over low heat. Remove the saucepan from heat just before it starts boiling (82-85ºC).

2 Let the milk cool down until you can keep your finger in there (42-43ºC).

3 Add the yogurt to the milk and stir well. Pour the milk into carefully washed jars and close with lids.

4 Set all jars in a warm place for about 8 hours or overnight until thickened. I placed jars on a warm radiator covered in kitchen towel to make sure they would keep warm. (The yogurt bacteria need temperature around 43ºC to grow.)

5 Refrigerate the yogurt for about 3-4 hours before eating.

Spaghetti Puttanesca

This is going to be very short. However, I waited long for this dish. I planned it last Friday and it is Tuesday today! I have already told you about my pasta addiction and this dish satisfied it sufficiently. Actually, I have not eaten pasta for at least two weeks! Good for me :)

So if you like pasta same as I do, this is a must-try dish. I love the harmony of different tastes of capers, kalamata olives and a hint of anchovy. Finished with a parmesan cheese and fresh parsley, it is a wonderful lunch.

Spaghetti Puttanesca

Serves 4

Ingredients

400g spaghetti

2 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tbsp anchovies, drained and finely chopped

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

800g chopped tomatoes (2 cans)

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp kalamata olives, halved

2 tbsp capers, drained, chopped if large

1 tsp oregano

3 tbsp fresh parsley, roughly chopped

parmesan cheese, to serve

1 Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions.

2 Heat the oil in a pan and saute the garlic, anchovies and pepper flakes for a minute over a medium heat.

3 Tip in the tomatoes and stir well. Stir in the vinegar and brown sugar. Simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened slightly.

4 Add the olives, capers and herbs, stir until combined and simmer for another 2 minutes. Add the drained pasta to sauce adding some pasta water if sauce is too thick. Toss until evenly coated. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Chocolate muffin story - searching for a moist chocolate muffin recipe - attempt no. 1

I have decided to find the most moist and heavenly good chocolate muffin recipe. Do you know the feeling when you desperately want something sweet? All this endeavour started one evening (almost night) when I had a pretty large sweet tooth, and I was pretty sure about what kind of sweet tooth it was.

Chocolate!

However, I did not feel like eating just a plain chocolate. I knew I wanted something baked with a strong chocolatey taste.

Normally, chocolate cakes are not my favourite desserts, but this time, I would do anything to get at least a piece of it. The problem was, I did not want just any chocolate muffin or cake, I wanted a deeply chocolate and very moist chocolate dessert. And this is it. My moist chocolate muffin recipe hunting started here.

It was about quarter past ten, but it did not seem to be late enough for me. I wanted to bake something straight away. Finally, I found a recipe, and I ran to a local shop to buy all missing ingredients. Phew! I made it. I was a last customer. After I read the recipe more closely, I realised it was not the one! :( It called for a soured cream, however it was only for an icing. In addition, recipe comments were not the best. Well, I had to start again.

I finally found a recipe which seemed to be worth trying in the morning. Now, it was delicious, however not that moist a deeply chocolate as I imagined it to be. What can I do, I have to keep searching and trying.

Chocolate muffins

Makes 12 (standard size)

Ingredients

115 g unsalted butter

60g dark chocolate, chopped

42 g unsweetened cocoa powder

105 g all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

145 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

120ml sour cream

1 Preheat oven to 175C. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.

2 In a heatproof bowl mix the butter, chocolate and cocoa powder. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat the mixture until the chocolate and butter are melting. Whisk until fully combined. Set aside to cool, just warm to touch.

3 Mix the flour with the baking powder and baking soda.

4 Beat the eggs in another bowl, add the sugar vanilla and salt and whisk until creamy and fully incorporated. Add the chocolate mixture and stir well. Gradually add flour mixture, one third at a time. Whisk in sour cream until combined and the mixture is thick and creamy.

5 Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake about 18-20 minutes, until the skewer inserted in to the centre of the muffin comes out completely clean.

6 Cool muffins on wire rack until cool enough to handle. Carefully lift each muffin from the tin and set on wire rack to cool completely.

Perfect breakfast with homemade bread

I think I really want to tell you about this. I made my first homemade bread! I was thinking about making homemade bread for a while. Actually, it was since our housemates had moved away together with their bread machine. It has been about 4 or 5 months now. I love the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning. It is very easy to make a bread using a bread machine, however it is less easy using your hands and an oven. I guess, that is why it took me so long to get myself to do it! :)

Even though it did not go that well, it was even more fun. My boyfriend and I were very thrilled how it would be like. I might even share the recipe and you can tell me what was wrong. My first tip, about what could be blamed, apart from my inexperience in this area, is the yeast.

I used a dried fast action bread yeast. And to be honest, I am not still sure how to use it properly.

I have ever only used a fresh yeast. It was the only form of yeast I could buy in Czech Republic. I can confess here, it was not always the best success neither. I can very clearly remember the day, when I called my mum to ask her, how should I activate my yeast. I got the answer that fresh yeast is a living organism and it must be handled in the right way in order to work properly. For example, it needs food to become active and its favourite food is sugar. Than it needs warmth and moist. And the warmth is really meant to be warm not hot, as I found out lately.

After a half an hour when my yeast was supposed to proof it is still alive and active by producing little bubbles, nothing really happened. The surface of my yeast liquid was still, mirror-like. Not a good sign. I called my mum again, describing the state of the yeast. "You killed it...!", I heard. Gosh! "Was the milk warm or hot?" she asked. Well, it might have been a little bit more warm, maybe hot? "Oh yes, you killed it!", she said. "Ok, what am I supposed to do know?", I asked. "It is dead now, you have to start again." Luckily, I only used a half of it, so I started again. I made sure the milk was really only warm, not hot. And it worked! Yippee!! :)

I should have probably said, that the bread was actually quite good, definitely tasty, though it was a bit tough for my taste. I think the dough did not rise properly. Anyway, for the first try not that bad result. Definitely not bad enough to keep me away from trying again!

Here is the recipe I used.

Seedy bread

250g strong bread flour

150g wholemeal bread flour

50g pumpkin seeds

50g sunflower seeds

2 dl lukewarm water

7g dried yeast

1 tsp ground coriander and ground cumin

1 garlic clove, crashed

1/2 tsp salt

1 Mix the yeast and water and let the yeast to dissolve. In a bowl mix together both flours. Add the salt, spices and garlic. Pour in the mixture of the yeast. Stir well and knead the dough for 15 minutes until smooth. Now add the seeds, and knead to incorporate. Sprinkle the dough with flour, cover with a towel, and let rise for an hour in a warm place until it is doubled.

2 Divide the dough to two portions and form two loaves. Place the loaves on a baking tray lined with a baking paper, and let the loaves to rise again for about 20 minutes.

3 Bake in a preheated oven to 170C for about 40 minutes.

Quick supper - Broccoli Tart

I have recently taken a liking to savoury tarts. They are perfect as a very quick and easy lunch or supper and almost any vegetable, cheese or ham leftovers can be used. My favourite one is leek and bacon tart. This time I bought too much broccoli to make a broccoli soup and I was thinking what to do with rest of it. Actually another reason led me to make the tart. I have defrosted puff pastry planning to make a pumpkin parcels. However, after a complete fiasco with a thai pumpkin soup I decided it wasn't the best idea. I very rarely throw food away, but the pumpkin soup was an exception. We managed to eat a bowl each, but we could not bring ourselves to eat another one.

On the other hand, this type of tart was never a disappointment. It is very tasty hot, straight after baking, but it always makes a great job next day too. I found out it is very important to check the tart frequently to prevent the broccoli to be burned. Unfortunately, I burned some pieces which were not covered with cheese, even so it was delicious.

Broccoli tart

Serves 4

Ingredients

500g pack puff pastry

150g soft cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)

1 garlic clove, crashed

1 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh chive, finely chopped

2 tbsp milk

2 heads of broccoli, broken into small pieces

10 spring onions, sliced

200g hard cheese (e.g. cheddar), grated

1 Preheat oven to 180C. Roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface to the size of your baking tray. Lay the pastry on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

2 Mix together the soft cheese, milk, garlic and fresh herbs, season to taste. Spread the mixture over the pastry. Cover the cheese with the broccoli and scatter over the spring onion and grated cheese.

3 Flip the edges of the pastry over the filling. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden.

Evening stroll

I love evening strolls. Well, I should specify it. I love such evening strolls like the one I took couple of weeks ago. I could still feel late summer in the air and the sky was almost clear with just small clouds. The sun was going down and beautiful evening colours were all around. Then I took a tripod and walked to a nearby park to take a picture of London City. I run around many times, stopping for a second to catch this view.

My favourite czech food - potato dumplings with smoked pork meat and spinach

I love to experiment, especially when talking about food. However, I have several all time favourite dishes I can eat very often and never get tired of them. Czech cuisine is quite different from other european cuisines. I can not say it is my favourite, though I like several czech dishes and I can not imagine living without them. When I think about it, it is difficult to say which one is the most favourite one. I like potato fritters called "bramboraky", my mother's mushroom white sauce served with homemade bread dumplings called "houskove knedliky", "bryndzove halusky" - it is quite difficult to translate, I would say something like gnocchi ("halusky" little dumplings made from potato) with "bryndza" - very soft, sheep milk cheese. Actually, "halusky" are more slovakian food. And I can go on...

When speaking about czech food, the reason why it is not my favourite is that it is kind of oily and rich. You will need to take catnap after having a proper czech lunch, washed down with a pint of czech beer! :) All kinds of sauces, dumplings, potato side dishes and meats are typical for traditional czech cuisine. The most typical dish is "vepro knedlo zelo" - pork meat with bread dumplings and sour cabbage. You have to drink at least a little glass of bear to digest this food!

Some of czech delicacies, nothing really for vegetarians :)

You see now? Compare it with, for example a british common lunch - a light sandwich or salad, coffee or juice and that's it (at least, that is what I have experienced so far)! My brain still works after such lunch.

But back to the today recipe. Potato dumplings with smoked pork meat and spinach. Not really a kind of light food either, but still my favourite. If you want to try this, reserve it for a lazy weekend afternoon :)

When I used to prepare this meal in Czech Republic, I usually bought a ready cooked smoked pork meat/ham and I steam cooked it. However, I did not find anything like this here, so I used an uncooked smoked gammon joint, which I pan-fried. I also mostly use instant potato dumplings as it is much faster.

Potato dumplings with smoked pork meat and spinach

Serves 4

Ingredients

600g potatoes, cooked in their skin

100g wheat semolina

100g plain flour

1 egg

salt

500g smoked pork gammon joint, sliced to 1cm thick slices

500g frozen chopped spinach

1 tbsp oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1-2 slices of bacon, finely chopped

1 tbsp plain flour

100-200ml milk

2 garlic cloves, crashed

1 egg

1 Boil the potatoes until tender. When cool enough to handle but still warm, peel and rice or grate the potatoes. Let the potatoes cool completely before adding other ingredients. Incorporate the flour, semolina, egg and salt into the potatoes and knead the dough. The dough should be moist but not too sticky, add more flour if needed. Cut into 4 pieces and make 4 small rolls, about 5 cm in diameter thick. Cook in salted boiling water for 15-20 minutes. When cooked, take them out of the water and cut each in half. This will keep them nicely feathery.

2 Heat the oil in a small saucepan and fry the onion and bacon until lightly browned. Add the flour and stir well, fry for a while. Gradually stir in the milk, whisking well to prevent any lumps, add a little more of the milk if needed until it creates a smooth paste. Now add the spinach and stir often to prevent burning. Cook on a medium heat until the spinach is completely melted and heated through. Add the garlic, seasoning and heat for another 5 minutes. When almost finished, break in the egg and stir for a further minute until the egg has cooked.

3 Meanwhile, pan fry the sliced ham on each side for about 10 minutes, until nicely browned and cooked through.

4 Slice the dumplings and serve with the ham and spinach.

Blackberry and apple Yorkshire puddings

Making Yorkshire puddings was a very messy experience for me. Though, these are really easy and quick to make, if you use too much oil as I did, you will end up with a kitchen full of white smoke. Luckily, we don't have fire alarms installed, otherwise they would had been sounding crazily the whole time I was baking my Yorkshire pudding! :) Nonetheless having a hot oil is a key factor in making Yorkshire puddings. Other important thing is not to open a door of a oven during baking.

Luckily for me, after ventilating kitchen and cleaning oven, I tasted one pudding and they were just scrumptious! We ate most of them still warm and we had the rest for a breakfast the other day. I can say that they are great both hot and cold. I especially liked a custard-like inside of these puddings.

Blackberry and apple Yorkshire pudding

makes about 12 small puddings

Ingredients

25 g butter

140g golden caster sugar

4 apples (I used Bramley apples), peeled, cored, cut into bite-size chunks

1 egg white

2 eggs

140g plain flour

200ml milk

150g blackberries

2tbsp oil

1 Preheat oven to 220C.

2 Heat the butter and 100g of the sugar in a pan, add the apples and cook over a high heat for 3-4 minutes until slightly caramelised and just starting to soften. Do not overcook them, they should stay quite firm with a bite left in them. Set aside.

3 In a clean bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy, then whisk in the rest of the sugar, the whole eggs, the flour and the milk. Stir the apples and the blackberries into the batter. Meanwhile add a splash of oil to each hole of your baking tin and place the tin in the oven over a high heat. The oil should be really hot before you pour the batter in.

4 Spoon a large ladleful of batter into each hole. Put the tin in the oven and leave for 15 minutes, without opening the door, until puffed up and golden. The secret here is not to open the door during the baking time, otherwise you loose the height.

5 Remove from the oven and carefully place each pudding onto a plate. You can serve immediately or leave them to cool down.