Jam cookies with puff pastry

Ingredients:
450 gr frosted puff pastry
75 gr jam

Defrost the puff pastry. Use some flour, so it doesn't get sticky and roll the pastry into squares. Spread a little bit of jam on the top and roll them into a sausage. Cut the slices and put them on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C.

Pan-cooked potatoes with sausage

 A simple recipe for those rainy autumn days, when you just neer more warm and nutritious.

Ingredients:
4-5 boiled potatoes (with the skin)
1/2 onion
1 sausage
olive oil
salt
pepper
water

Peel the potatoes while they're still warm and cut them into cubes. Chop the onion and cut the sausage into cubes. Fry the onion on some olive oil until golden, then add the sausage and fry for a few minutes. Add the potatoes. Put some salt and pepper according to your taste and stir well. Cook for 15 minutes and add some water, so that it doesn't get burnt.
Eat with some vegetables or meet. 

French toast

I can't believe I didn't know what french toast is, until I went to India. Our kitchen ladies used to prepare a different kind of egg every morning for breakfast and when they did french toast my room-mate was particulary happy! I found out later that I like it as well and that the recipe is quite easy! 

 

This recipe serves 2 people

Ingredients:
4 slices of bread
2 eggs
120 ml milk
pinch of salt
butter
honey or naple syrup






Mix the eggs in a jar, add the milk and salt. Put the bread slice in the mixture and let it retain it. Heat a non stick pan with a little bit of butter and place all the bread slices on it. When it's cooked on one side, flip it over and then serve still hot with some honey or naple syrup. 

Red chutney

This is a good chutney to serve with a dosa, but don't put it too much! It's spicy!! 

 Ingredients:
2 tbsp roasted lentils
4-5 garlic cloves
2-3 red chillies
1 onion, roughly chopped
salt as required
water

In our store you usually don't get roasted dal, so for the roasted lentils you can just fry them with some oil in a small pan, until they're brown.
Blend all the ingredients and add some water until you have a smooth paste.
This chutney keeps good in the fridge for 1-2 days. 

Masala dosa

One of my relative once told me that the best way to impress your guests at dinner is to prepare some exotic food. That's not exactly why I usually prepare indian food, but he was right. I tried to do dosas at home, a typical south indian dish and everyone that's ever been in India knows that the picture below doesn't look like a real dosa. Yeah, even my experiments aren't always successful, but on the other hand the taste was good, so I'm sharing the recipe anyway! 

Ingredients: 

Dosa batter: 

240 gr parboiled rice

75 gr lentils

salt as required 

water as required

Masala filling:

2 large potatoes

1 small onion

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1tsp masala powder

oil

Wash and soak both rice and lentils 5-6 hour separately. Drain the water and grind the lentils adding needed water until smooth and fluffy. Do the same with the rice. Mix them together and add salt. Leave it for 7-8 hours in a large container.

Masala potatoes: 

Cook the potatoes with the skin in cold water. When the water start boiling, cook for 15 minutes. 

Heat some oil and fry the finely chopped onion. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Add them to the onion with the spices. Stir well and cook a few minutes. 

Heat a non stick flat pan (tawa) and add some oil. Take some batter and pour it on the pan from the centre towards the edges in a circular motion. When cooked on one side, flip it over. 

When it's ready put it on a plate, add the masala potatoes and fold it. Serve with some red chutney or with the chutney you prefer. 

Zucchini and zucchini flower lasagna

 Ingredients:
15 zucchini flowers
3 zucchini
0,5 l besciamella sauce
3 tblsp parmesan cheese

for the thin pancakes:
eggs (2)
flour (3 cups)
milk (1/2 l)
salt
oil (for frying)



First of all, you need to make the thin pancakes. I prefer to use these instead of the buyed lasagna sheets, because home-made pancakes are much more soft.
After that put the first layer: a pancake and on it some zucchini flowers (that you've carefully washed and eliminated the inside of the flower) and zucchini (that you've previously cut in the shape you prefer). Put some besciamella sauce on the top. Lay another pancake, flowers and zucchini and besciamella on the top. I used a small baking pan, so that was enough for 2 persons. When you've reached the top, cover with another pancake, put some besciamella sauce and the parmesan cheese on the top.
Bake it in a preheated oven on 180°C for around 30 minutes.

Wholewheat farfalle with home-made pesto

Do you love pesto? I adore it! It's very easy to do at home and there are tons of different ways to do it. The important is to have basil, any kind of nuts and some kind of cheese that is similar to pecorino cheese.
The recipe I'm showing is with the ingredients I had at home, so it's not the original one, but still very tasty! 

Ingredients: 

60-70 basil leaf

40 gr parmesan cheese 

65 gr walnuts

1-2 cloves of garlic

salt

5 tblsp of olive oil

wholewheat pasta (approximately 90 gr per person)

 Wash the basil leafs and put them in the blender (it's better to do it manually, but if you don't have a lot of time, the blender should also work fine), add parmesan cheese, garlic and walnuts and start blending. When you have a thick paste, add salt and olive oil until you have a smooth paste. Your pesto is now ready! (You can also put it in the freezer: put it in a jar, cover with some olive oil and freeze. When you'll need it, it will take only 5 minutes to have it ready to use.)

Cook the pasta according to your taste (I prefer pasta al dente). Mix the pasta and 1 or 2 spoons of pesto well and serve still hot!

Another idea to serve pesto is as an appetizer. Use small bread slices and spread a teaspoon of pesto on the top. You can also scratch a clove of garlic on the bread before adding pesto, it will make it so much tastier.

Cookies in a jar - gift ideas

COUNTRY OATMEAL COOKIE

Put the ingredients in the jar in layers:
60 gr white sugar
60 gr brown sugar
35 gr oats
80 gr flour
3 gr baking powder
1 g salt
70 gr chocolate chips

Attach the instructions for baking:
Preheat oven to 175°C.
In a medium bowl cream together 85 gr softened butter, with 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
Add the entire content of the jar, and mix by hand until combined. Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Lentil & zucchini soup

Ingredients:
2 red capsicums
1 zucchini
1 leek
250 gr lentils
1 l water
mix of spices for soups
salt
pepper
thyme
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tblsp vinegar

Wash the vegetables and cut them in thin slices. Wash the lentils and cook them in the water with the spices for 30 minutes (or 15 in pressure cooker). When the lentils are cooked, add the rest of the vegetables and cook 10 more minutes on low flame. Add salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar before serving and decorate with some thyme.

Parmigiana

Ingredients:
3 eggplants
5 big tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
250 gr scamorza smoked cheese
salt
oregano
basil
olive oil






Cut the eggplants in thin slices, put some salt on the top and leave them on a plate for an hour, afterwards dry them with a paper tissue. Grill them in a non-stick pan, if you want it very light, don't use oil.
Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in a little bit of olive oil until golden. Add the tomatoes cut in small pieces. Cook for some time, until you have a tomato sauce.

In a casserole put some of the tomato sauce first, then make a layer out of eggplants and cover them with scamorza cheese. Add again some tomato sauce, eggplants and scamorza cheese and cover the top with a little bit of tomato sauce.

Put the casserole in a preheated oven on 180°C for about 25 minutes and serve still hot with some fresh vegetables.