Strawberry Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

You can use this strawberry sauce with panna cotta, yogurt, mousse, cheesecake and many more desserts.

Ingredients:
250g strawberries
150g sugar
25g fresh lemon juice


Preparation:

Tomato Conserve

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Domates Konservesi"
PER ITALIANO "Conserva di Pomodoro"

I don't know if any of you read "A Game of Thrones", the first book in the epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" written by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin,  or simply saw the first two seasons of its TV series adaptation. Recently I find myself repeating very often their famous motto: Winter is coming! :)

This is why there is an increasing number of recipes in the blog for the things that could be stored for winter.  Since I publish what I am actually doing, with the winter in horizon, this is what I've been doing lately.

Before I proceed to the recipe I'd like to tell you about my experience with gardening.
The close followers of the blog might recall my humble attempt to grow some vegetables. This year, for the first time in my life,  I finally found enough courage to give vegetable gardening a try. In some of my earlier posts I mentioned how it all started, I sure owe you to mention how it ended as well.

In short, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers were very fruitful and so amazingly tasty!
Also the herbs (basil, sage, mint, parsley, rosemary, thyme and melissa) have been very productive.
I was a bit late to plant my aubergine plants so the number of my aubergines could be counted on the fingers of one hand, but then again I had only two plants anyway.

Only thing disappointed me was my iceberg salads. They all died one by one. I was told that highly probably the snails were responsible for that. I hadn't used any chemicals since I wanted to have an organic garden. I've recently found out a product against snails, which is suitable also to those like me who prefer organic gardening. I plan to try it for next year's crop.

As I said before, the winter is coming so I removed all the plants except the herbs and prepared the garden in order to plant vegetables for winter season. I seeded spinach and corn salad. This is the first time that I seed directly to the soil so I am very curious how they are going to turn out.
I planted fennel in the half area of the remaining land. Dear Giuliano, our close friend Andrea's father, had given me some fennel plants after he had thinned his garden.
I planted also some strawberry plants in the last part of the garden. They are expected to bear fruit in late May which I am looking forward to.
We will see what our winter gardening adventure may bring.

In addition to the tomatoes I grew myself, when Giuliano sent me a huge crate of cherry tomatoes from his very last harvest of the year, I was happily obliged to prepare some tomato conserve. It was such a generous quantity I made some pasta sauces as well besides tomato conserve. So, I had the chance to prepare also Arrabbiata Sauce, Puttanesca Sauce, Tuna Sauce, Tomato and Basil Sauce and Siciliana Sauce. I stored them as portions for 2 people as I previously did with my Pesto alla Genovese, Pesto alla Siciliana and Pepper Salsa.

Ingredients:
1000g tomatoes (cut roughly and drained)
40g onion
1 clove of garlic
40g of celery stick, roughly cut
5g parsley leaves
5 basil leaves
Optional: thyme, oregano, marjoram (I used thyme)
1 tsp salt


Preparation:

Pesto alla Genovese

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Genova Usulü Pesto"
PER ITALIANO "Pesto alla Genovese"

We've been incredibly lucky this year when it comes to growing basil.
The basil plants in the flower pot in front of our kitchen window and in our small garden have been very rewarding.
On top of that I've been recently given a huge bucket full of basil by my mother in law. So I had the chance to prepare pesto in abundance and stock up my freezer for upcoming winter. I did have lots of basil so I used some to prepare pesto alla Siciliana.

One of the most important things to make an exceptional pesto is to have a beautiful bunch of basil. Basil leaves shouldn't be worn or bruised. They need to be washed and wiped very gently.

It is pretty easy to prepare pesto sauce, no doubt that Thermomix is making our work even easier. 
The only hard part is that it takes a while to weed out all the bad leaves, pick the good ones, wash and wipe all. I must say though, it is absolutely worth it!

Well, regarding how good it is, let me tell you this much, this year I grew basil just because I desperately wanted to make as much pesto as possible! 
When you need to buy basil leaves from a supermarket, since you'd need quite a large quantity, they may add up to a considerable amount of money, hence making your own pesto wouldn't be very cost effective.

The recipe is from Io e il mio Bimby. When I tried this recipe the first time, I said to myself, that's it, search no more! ;) Since then I made it over and over again.

Ingredients:
80g basil leaves (gently washed and wiped)
50g parmesan, roughly cut
30g pecorino romano, roughly cut
30g pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
150g extra virgin olive oil
Salt


Preparation:

Chocolate Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Çıkolata Sosu"
PER ITALIANO "Salsa di Cioccolato"

Although I planted only 2 cucumber plants we can't keep up with their pace.
I don't know if we've ever eaten this many cucumbers in a season.
Much to our surprise, as inexperienced farmers, cucumber is a such fast growing plant you can see a big difference from one day to another, even from morning to afternoon.
It was so new that we just had our first harvest.
You see below our very first cucumber and pepper harvest.

And here is the latest photo of our plant which I believe will be grown even bigger until I will have this post written and posted.

So, yesterday I made Cold Cucumber Soup.  It was a recipe that I saw in a magazine, tried and posted some time ago. It was a nice choice in these hot days.

How about we put aside cucumber and soup talk and come to our main and essential topic which is Chocolate Sauce? Well, I couldn't agree more :)

This chocolate sauce recipe is from Io e il mio Bimby which is the Thermomix guide book in Italy.
It is a quickie and a very versatile sauce that could be used with your cakes, ice creams and many more.. Areas of usage are all up to your gusto and imagination. I will soon post two recipes where I made use of this chocolate sauce.

It is thousand times better than bought ones. Speaking for myself, even if not a must, using dark chocolate with 70% cocoa makes it taste even better.


Ingredients:
150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
20g butter
100g milk
1 bag vanillin sugar or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or aroma


Preparation:

Cheese Mousse

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Peynirli Mousse"
PER ITALIANO "Mousse di Formaggio"

The recipe is from Io e il mio Bimby. I had published tuna version some time ago.

It is a very handy recipe which could be served for many different occasions such as with bruschetta, mini quiche, grissini, crackers, vegetable sticks...

Ingredients:
10g parsley or 10 chives
200g ricotta
250g soft spreadable cheese
A pinch of salt
Optional: black pepper, red pepper flakes

To be precise, I used 200g di ricotta, 100g di Crescenza and 150g di Philadelphia. Instead of Crescenza I sometimes use Stracchino. You can try with some other kinds of soft spreadable cheeses due to your palate and accessibility.


Preparation:

Tuna Mousse

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

This is an easy peasy tuna-ricotta spread.
Here are the ingredients and procedure:

Ingredients:

250g canned tuna, oil-drained (drained=250g)
4 anchovies
300g ricotta


Preparation:

Back from Holiday, Absence of Cigarettes and Hummus Recipe

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN

  
After a long break hi again everyone!

During this period I saw that the number of the blog's followers has increased.
I'd like to welcome all of you and thank everyone who've been following until this day.

It's been a while since I am back from holiday but I've just found time to take care of the blog. The main reason may be that I am not trying so many new recipes as often as before. I used to try at least 3-4 bread, cake, dessert and all sorts of recipes a week (even more) and publish the ones that I was satisfied with. Instead, recently I've been trying to limit our excess carbonhydrates and calorie intake.


My act of quitting smoking may have some effect as well...
Yes, I quitted! Even though I didn't have neither minumum intention, nor any plan on my mind, all of a sudden, just like that... 

When I got sick and had sore throat unluckily just 1 day before our departure, thinking that I wouldn't enjoy smoking at that moment anyway and feeling that I wouldn't wish to pass my limited vacation days as being sick, I said "Let me not smoke a couple of days". Following days thinking " I wonder how long I could last" or "I wonder if it would really be possible for me to stop for good" and saying "let me try another day... one more day.." I've arrived from 3rd August of 2011 until today. At the begininning, since I wasn't convinced myself of what I'd been doing, when i was asked if I quitted smoking I answered  "I don't know". After 1 month I am now able to answer that question saying "Yes" accompanied by a feeling of discontent though.

Some may wonder where this discontent is coming from. Let me put it this way:
Everbody for sure heard about health risks of smoking, it would be foolish to deny. 
When I stopped smoking however, I expected to feel some sort of relief, relaxation or expected to say "I am so disgusted with it now I can't even bear staying around when someone is smoking" - just like in those success stories which we often see in newspapers or on TV. None of them happened. I didn't get any estrangement feeling either as often mentioned. 
Instead, I had thought that it would day by day get easier and my pleasure, desire and tendency for smoking would ease off with time. And what's more, I had already reduced smoking in the last 5 years from 1 pack to 5-6 cigarettes a day. Nowadays I am discontent wondering if i will always be feeling like I am on some kind of diet for the rest of my life, I mean it sometimes feels like not eating high caloric desserts during a diet. Even then, when you finish dieting you can spoil yourself every once in a while knowing that you could balance it later some other way. It's not even like dieting. In short, this is where my discontent lies

I still can't bring myself to throw away 2.5 packs of cigarettes left at home with the dream of  enjoying one maybe, one sweet day accompanied with a pleasing chat and some nice coffee... It seems like I still have a very long way to go...

I don't know if it is because of a long break or lack of nicotine I am very talkative today ;)
I wouldn't wish this very delicious hummus recipe to get lost among the lines though!
It is very easy too.

HUMMUS is very well-known and appreciated throughout the Middle East as well as Turkey. Because of its nutritional values, great taste and low glycemic index values it is recently becoming very popular also among vegetarians, vegans and those following Glycemic Index Diet.

It could be consumed as appetizer, meze, spread or dip at breakfast, lunch or supper as well as snack depending on your traditional way of eating.

I hope you enjoy it


Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas (1 can=400g, drained=240-250g)
25g reserved liquid from canned chickpeas *
50g fresh lemon juice
50g tahini
25g extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
Salt


* Do not throw the liquid from canned chickpeas, we will use 25g of it while making our hummus

Pepper Salsa

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Ingredients:
600g red and/or yellow pepper (seeds removed, roughly chopped)
50g white onion (quartered)
60g carrot (roughly chopped)
100g tomatoes (roughly chopped)
20g parsley leaves
100g extra virgin olive oil
5g sugar
10g vinegar
Salt

Preparation:

Vinaigrette Dressing

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO


Some time back I published Citronette recipe which is made with lemon.
Today it is time for Vinaigrette.

150g extra virgin olive oil
50g white wine vinegar
10g Dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper

• Mix all ingredients together for 15 seconds on Speed 3-4
• Store the remaining vinaigrette dressing in a glass bottle in the fridge. Shake it before you use it next time

You can try also different variations using any desired salad oil instead of extra virgin olive oil, and any desired vinegar such as cider, balsamic, red wine vinegar etc


Afiyet olsun...

Citronette Salad Dressing

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Citronette, which is often used with salads and steamed/grilled vegetables, is a lemon based salad dressing.

100g fresh lemon juice (filtered)
150g extra virgin olive oil
10g Dijon Mustard
A pinch of salt
Cayenne pepper (optional)

• Blend all for 15 seconds on Speed 3-4

Store the remaining citronette dressing in a glass bottle in the fridge. Shake it before you use it next time

You may halve the amount of the ingredients

Bechamel Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
 

It is very easy and practical to prepare bechamel sauce with Thermomix. I believe you might have a recipe in the book that is given when you bought Thermomix. The recipe I am using, which is from Io e il mio Bimby, is as follows:

FULL RECIPE (with 1000gr milk)

1000g milk
100g flour
50g butter or margarine
1 tsp salt
Nutmeg, black pepper

• Put all the ingredients in TM Bowl and cook for 12 minutes at 90ºC on Speed 4

HALF RECIPE (With 500g milk)

• Halve the ingredients and cook for 7 minutes at 90ºC on Speed 4

Note: If you would like a thicker bechamel sauce you can add flour, if you would like a thinner one you can add milk. (I am using the mentioned amount of ingredients with no addition of any flour or milk. In my opinion it results just the right texture) 

Yogurt: Version 3

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

I posted a couple of yogurt recipes before (Recipe1, Recipe2). I am trying alternative recipes in the search for the best results. I make yogurt at least once a week. I'd like to share the recipe and method which I've been using recently.

Ingredients:
2 litre full fat milk
120g full fat plain yogurt (Turkish/Greek kind)

Preparation:

Yogurt (2nd method)

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

I published a yogurt recipe before. This is an alternative one. It seemed to me this one came thicker. The ingredients remain the same but the preparation is different

Ingredients:

1 liter whole milk
100g yogurt

Preparation:

• Warm milk for 17 minutes at 80°C on Speed 2-3
• Let it cool until 37°C, check every once in a while
• As soon as it reaches at 37°C add yogurt and mix for 10 seconds on Speed 3-4
• Warm for 17 minutes at 37°C on Speed 2-3
• Remove TM Bowl, close with Measuring Cup, wrap it with polar blanket and let it rest for 12 hours (Or you can simply transfer it into Thermo Server and let it rest for 12 hours)
• Transfer it into an airtight container and store in the fridge

Enjoy....

Note: If you'd like to prepare yogurt with 2 liters of milk, warm milk for 20 minutes

It's adapted with a few changes from Valerie's yogurt recipe
 

Cream Cheese Like Philadelphia

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN

It’s been quite an adventure to make this cheese. I found the Philly recipe in Forum Thermomix however I couldn’t find the right ingredients. So I decided to try with the ones I had.
I must say that it doesn’t taste like Philadelphia %100 (maybe because I’ve changed the ingredients) but you can be sure of that you’d have a very nice and tasty cream cheese also with the ingredients I’ve used

I took the photo before I put it in the fridge. After resting in the fridge it gets even thicker.

With this recipe I've got about 950g cheese. You can find below the original ingredients together with my substitutes

500g Quark cheese (I’ve used ricotta)
250g butter
200g sour cream (I made it myself**)
½ - ¾ tsp salt

Procedure is very easy. Put all the ingredients in TM Bowl and cook for 5-6 minutes at 70ºC on Speed 4. Put it in a container or a jar, let it cool down first, then close the lid and keep it in the fridge.

Buon appetito…

** I didn't have sour cream either so I made it myself. I mixed 200g of fresh cream and 50g of yogurt in a glass jar, I closed the lid tight and left it at room temperature for 1 day. Then I put it in the fridge for a few hours before I used.

Note: I’ve tried to use this cheese to make cheesecake. I can’t say that it tasted bad however it releases lot butter during baking. So I wouldn’t recommend to use it as a cheesecake ingredient

Roquefort Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

It is a very delicious and easy sauce which is also one of our favourites. 
We use it many different ways.
We spread it over on our bread for example.
We dip our chips or vegetable sticks.

Ingredients:
100g Roquefort cheese, roughly chopped
100g Philadelphia
100g plain full fat Greek yogurt
20g extra virgin olive oil


Preparation: 

Yogurt

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO 

The recipe is coming from Io e il mio Bimby which is the official Thermomix Guide book in Italy.

Ingredients:
1 litre whole milk
110g whole yogurt

Preparation:

• Put milk and yogurt in TM Bowl. Warm milk for 5 minutes at 50°C on Speed 3-4.

• Remove TM Bowl off the base. Close with Measuring Cup. Wrap it with a polar blanket and let it rest for 12 hours. (Or simply transfer it into a thermos bowl and let it rest for 12 hours)

• Transfer it into an airtight container, store in the fridge.

  

Black Olive Pate

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

You can use your pate simply with bread or in your recipes

It is very delicious and easy to make. 
I prepare it very often.

Ingredients:
300g pitted black olives
1 clove of garlic
90g extra virgin olive oil  (60 + 30)
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (*)
1 tsp dried oregano or thyme

Preparation:

• Close the lid of TM 31 and start on Speed 6. Pour olives and garlic through the hole of the lid and chop for 20 seconds

• Scrape down the sides and the lid of TM Bowl with Spatula. Puree for 2 seconds on Speed 7. If you wish scrape down with Spatula and repeat this step a couple of times.

• Add 60g of oil, salt and oregano. Mix for 1 minute on Speed 3-4

•  Put it in a jar, add the remaining 30g of oil and store in the fridge

Afiyet olsun...


(*) Before you add salt, check how salty your olives are and adjust accordingly

Note: Keep in the fridge at least a couple of hours before you have it.

It's adapted with a few changes from Io e il mio Bimby.

 

Gianduia - Chocolate and Hazelnut Spread

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Gianduia - Çikolata ve Fındık Kreması"
PER ITALIANO "Crema Gianduia"

This recipe is from Io e il mio Bimby which is the Thermomix guide and recipe book in Italy. 
The taste of Gianduia spread is very similar to Nutella so it could be used for similar purposes.

Ingredients (for 1 jar) :
100g sugar
60g toasted hazelnuts
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100g whole milk
70g butter, cut into pieces


Preparation:

• Place sugar and hazelnuts in TM Bowl. Polverize for 20 seconds on Speed 10.
• Add chocolate and grind for 20 seconds on Speed 8.
• Add milk and butter. Cook for 6 minutes at 50°Con Speed 3.
• Transfer immediately into a jar, close the lid. Store in the fridge.

Note: It will thicken in the fridge.