Rocket soup with parmesan cheese

I found this really nice recipe in a book I have bought a few years ago in Ljubljana: Juhe (Kuhinja izbranih okusov). I have tried it (and modified the recipe just a bit, as usually) and it was very nice.


Ingredients:
potato (1 big)
rocket (250 gr)
onion (1 small)
garlic (1 piece)
olive oil (1 spoon)
water (0,5 l)
knorr cube
cream ( 0,2 l)
salt
pepper
parmesan cheese (40 gr)


Cook the potato for about 25 minutes, then drain the water, peel the potato and cut it in small cubes. Clean the rocket and leave some leafs on the side for decoration. Cut the rest of the rocket in small pieces. Peel the onion and garlic and chop in small pieces. Fry them in a pan with a spoon of olive oil. Just before it becomes brown, add the water and the knorr cube, leave it on low heat until the cube melts. Add the cream and mix. Then add the potato cubes and the chopped rocket. Pass the soup through the strainer. Add salt and pepper. Put the soup in a plate, add some rocket leafs on the top and some grated parmesan cheese (it doesn't have to be really thin) and serve.

Lepinja with olives

Lepinja is a typical bread from the Balkans. I wanted to bake it for a long time and finally I did it. I found the recipe in the book Vse o peki.

Ingredients:
 flour - type 500 (250 gr)
 fresh yeast (1/2)
 honey (1 small spoon)
 lukewarm water (125 ml)
 salt (1 small spoon)
 olives (50 gr)
 oil (6 spoons)


Put the flour in a bowl and do a whole in the middle. Put the yeast there, but crush it first. Then add some water to the honey and add it to the yeast (but be careful, the water shouldn't be too hot!). Mix with the fork and leave it for 10 minutes.
Add salt, olives, oil and the rest of the water. Then mix all the ingredients until it becomes a dough. Put some flour on the top and cover it with a cotton cloth. Leave it in a hot place until it rises. After that take the dough and do 2 oval-shaped lepinjas (25x15 cm). Put them on an oven pan and cover it with a cloth until it rises again. Before putting in the oven do some little holes with your fingers and in the recipe it says you should put a few drops of olive oil (I forgot to do it, but it was good anyway). Bake in the oven. (It should be 20 minutes on high heat, preheated.)

Lasagna with asparagus

Ingredients:

for the thin pankakes:

eggs (2)

flour (3 cups)

milk (1/2 l)

salt

oil (for frying)

for the lasagna:

besciamella sauce

onion (1)

asparagus (500 gr)

carrot (1)

olive oil

chilli powder

salt 

parmesan cheese

First of all you have to fry the thin pankakes. Mix the eggs and the flour, then add the salt and the milk until you have a creamy mixture. It shouldn't be too thick. If you need you can add more milk. Then fry the pankakes in a pan. Put some oil (really a little bit) in the pan and then add a dipper of the mixture and make sure that the mixture goes all over the surface of the pan. Do them really thin and don't fry them too long, because you don't need them crispy but soft. Here is a picture of the pankakes: 

 

Then prepare the vegetable mix. Put some oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and fry for a while until it changes colour, but add the other chopped vegetables (asparagus and carrots) before the onion is brown. Add the salt and just a little bit of chilli powder, mix and cook for 15-20 minutes. 

In the meanwhile you can prepare the besciamella sauce. 

Take a baking pan and first put some vegetables at the bottom. Add some besciamella sauce and on the top put the pankakes. Add the vegetables and the besciamella sauce again and cover with the pankakes. Continue to do the layers until you finish the besciamella sauce and the vegetables. Put some pankakes on the top and add some parmesan cheese (if you want it more creamy you can make more besciamella sauce). Bake in the oven until the top becomes crispy and brown (it should take about 30-40 minutes).

Here is the picture of the lasagna, fresh from the oven. It probably doesn't look nothing special, but even my brother liked it! :)

Besciamella sauce

And finally I did besciamella sauce, I haven't just asked my mother to do it. Hihihi :D
I found a great recipe on the giallo zafferano web page and I tried it, but next time I'm gonna try a low fat version.

Sorry, the picture this time isn't that good, it was kinf of difficult to make a good picture while cooking. :)

Ingredients:
butter (50 gr)
white flour (50 gr)
milk (0,5 l)
salt
nutmeg





Heat the butter in a pan until it becomes liquid. Take the pan away from the heat and add the flour, mix well and put again on the heat adding the milk and mixing at the same time. Add the salt and the nutmeg. Mix until it become creamy as you want.
I contiuned to cook and I used it in a dish, I'm gonna post the whole recipe next time. 

Lentils soup with amaranth

Some time ago I discovered amaranth, a cereal original from central America. I had some difficulties to find it here, where I live, but at the end I found it and I've tried a recipe that I found here. I've modified it a bit, as usually.

Ingredients:
lentils (1 cup)
amaranth (2 cups)
water
onion (1)
carrot (1)
salt
black pepper
chilli powder





Cook the amaranth in the water for 20 minutes. Cook the lentils in another pan for 10 minutes, cover them with water and put some salt, but at the end put away all the restant water. Put the lentils and the other vegetables (chopped onion and chopped carrot) in another pan and add the lentils. Add the knorr cube, some water, salt, pepper and hot chilli powder. Cook for 10-15 minutes and then add the amaranth. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, but check when it's ready. Then serve. You can serve with small pieces of garlic bread (but I haven't, I didn't have time to prepare them). 

Creamy asparagus soup

It's spring time and the nature is giving us a lot of vegetables and fruits. It's good to eat seasonal food, it's healthier and cheaper (and we help the environment as well). I've tried asparagus creamy soop. I found the recipe here, but I've modified a few things.

Ingredients:
fresh asparagus (600 gr)
potato (1)
cream (100 gr)
water
knorr cube
olive oil
onion (1)
lemon juice
salt
black pepper

Chop the asparagus in small peaces, but keep the top. Chop the onion and the potato. Put some olive oil in a pan, add the chopped vegetables and mix. Cover the pan and mix from time to time. After 10 minutes add 0,5 l of water and knorr cube. Boil it for 20 minutes, then pass everything through the strainer. Add some salt and pepper and just a little bit of lemon juice. Then put the asparagus tops in a frypan with some olive oil and cook them for some time on medium heat. Add the cream in the soup and at the end add the fried tops and serve. 

Risotto with rocket

This time I did risotto once again with one of my favourite plants: rocket (in italian rucola). And once again I added some spices, it can be done without any spices.

Ingredients (4 people):
rice (4 cups)
onion
rocket
knorr cube
parmesan cheese
spices (sweet chilli powder, chilli powder, curry, masala)

Chop the onion and fry it. Add the spices and mix. Add the rice and mix again. Then add water and a knorr cube. From time to time continue to mix and add water when needed. When the rice is done add some parmesan cheese and mix. Then add the rocket leaves and mix. Leave some parmesan and a few leaves to garnish. Put the rice on the plate, some parmesan on the top, a few rocket leaves on one side and serve. 

Butter paneer masala

And here it is, the recipe for butter paneer masala. I was so enthusiastic, 'cause the paneer turned out so well, that I tried this recipe that I found here as well. Of course I had to adapt the recipe to my taste... yes, sorry, but I can't stand coriander. It wasn't that difficult, but it took me a lot of time and it was really spicy (ask my friends!) :) Here is the recipe as I did it.

I served the butter paneer masala with some basmati rice and a chapati.












Ingredients:
paneer cubes (15 pieces)
butter (40 gr)
cinnamon stick (1 piece)
red onion (1/2)
garlic (4 cloves)
red chilli (1)
ginger
tomatoes (4)
salt
yoghurt (3 tablespoons)
oil

Spices:
masala (1 tablespoon)
chilli powder (1/4 tablespoon)
sweet chilli powder (1 tablespoon)
curcumin powder (1/4 tablespoon)
ketchup (1 tablespoon)
water (2 tablespoons)

Mix the spices in a bowl and do a smooth paste.
Fry the chopped onion in a pan with a little bit of oil until brown. Then put it in the food processor with the garlic, red chillies, ginger and some water; blend it until you have a smooth paste. (I didn't have fresh chillies so I used the dry ones and I didn't have the ginger rooth so I used the powder.) Then blend the chopped tomatoes. In a non-stick pan heat the butter with a cinnamon stick. Add the paste made of garlic and onion and mix for a while. Add the spice paste and cook for 30 seconds. Add the blended tomatoes and cook for some time on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix. Add the paneer pieces and yoghurt. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, then serve. 

Paneer

And yes, I did it! :) I made my own paneer. Paneer is, for those who don't know it, an indian cheese.

And I was so exited that after that I made a dish out of paneer and invited my friends for dinner. :) The recipe will be on the blog soon.

I found the recipe here: How to make paneer. It's really well written, 'cause it illustrates everything from step to step.

Ingredients:
1,5 l whole milk
lemon juice from 1 lemon
vinegar

Boil the milk and when it starts boling add the lemon juice and mix it. The milk will start to curdle, but if it doesn't want to curdle, add after a few minutes a little bit of vinegar and continue to stir. After a few minutes put it away to cool a little bit. Put a muslin cloth on a bowl. I didn't have it, so I used a cotton cloth and it was ok. Pass everything through the cloth. The solid parts will remain on the cloth. Wrap the cloth and run cold water through it. Then squeeze it to remove all the liquid parts. Wrap it tight and put something heavy on the top. Leave it for 30 or 40 minutes. After that cut it in cubes and you have your own paneer.