Spelt with porcini mushrooms

What about a healthy fall meal? Here is an idea.

Ingredients (2 people):

250 gr spelt
100 gr dry porcini mushroom
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
pepper
salt
nutmeg
olive oil





Chop the onion and garlic and fry it in a pan with some olive oil. Add porcini mushrooms that you soaked in some water for about 30 minutes. Add spelt and mix well. Slowly cook and add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Continue to stir until the spelt is ready (about 25 minutes approximately). A tip: if you soak the spelt in water before cooking it, it cooks faster.

Coconut kisses

Ingredients:
3 egg whites
200 gr sugar
1 vanilla sugar
30 gr cocoa powder
150 gr dry coconut









Mix the egg whites until they are thick. Slowly add sugar and vanilla sugar. At the end gently mix and add cocoa powder and coconut. Put the dough with a teaspoon on the baking tray and bake in a preheated oven (140-160° C) for about 25 minutes. Cool the biscuits.

Pasta with zucchini and philadelphia

Ingredients (4 persons):

2 zucchini

400 gr of pasta

garlic powder

chili powder

white pepper powder

salt

olive oil

100 gr of philadelphia

Slice the zucchini and fry them in a pan on olive oil. Add a pinch of salt, pepper, garlic and chili and mix well. Continue to stir. After 10-15 minutes add 2 tablespoons of water and cover the pan with zucchini. In the meantime cook the type of pasta you prefer. After 10 minutes take away the cover from the zucchini and continue to cook a few more minutes until you have no water left. Put the cooked zucchini on the pasta and add philadelphia cheese. Mix well and serve still hot. 

Risotto with leek and philadelphia

Here is my new experiment. Actually I've tried it at my friend's student house first, but I didn't have my camera with me at that time, so the recipe had to wait a few more weeks before it was posted here. 

Ingredients:

rice (1 cup per person)

onion (1)

leek (1)

olive oil

philadelphia (2-3 spoons)

salt 

pepper

chili powder

Chop the leek and the onion and fry it in a pan with some olive oil. Add the rice and mix for a minute. Cover with some water and add salt, pepper and chili powder. Mix well. Continue to cook until the rice is done. At the end add a few spoons of filadelfia and mix well. Easy, right? And the taste is wonderful. 

Indian potatoes

That's a recipe that my friend Darshana taught me when I lived in India. It's easy to make and it does taste really good.

Ingredients: 

potatoes 

oil

onion

salt

pepper

chili powder

mustard seeds

turmeric powder 

water

Boil the potatoes with the skin. Chop the onion and fry it in a pan with a little bit of oil. Add the potatoes cut in cubes and add salt, pepper and the other spices. Mix well, add some water and cook for some time. You can eat it with some chapati. 

Cauliflower indian soup

I found this recipe in the book Le migliori ricette dall'India, I tried it and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

1 big potato

1 small cauliflower

1 onion

1 teaspoon of oil

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon of fresh chopped ginger

2 teaspoons of turmeric powder

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of mustard

2 teaspoons of coriander powder

1 l of vegetable soup

300 ml of yoghurt

salt

pepper

Cut the potato in cubes, the cauliflower and onion and put it in a big pan with oil and 3 spoons of water. Cook it on low heat for 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and the rest of the spices. Mix well and cook it for a few minutes. Add soup, salt and pepper. When it boils cook it for 20 minutes on low heat, then blend it and at the end add yoghurt. You can garnish with some chopped fresh coriander (but you'll never eat this in my home) or parsley. 

Walnut cake

Yesterday we had a wonderful barbecue and I wanted to bake something good for my friends. I decided for this cake that I found in the book Vse o peki. 

Ingredients: 

Cake: 

4 eggs

2 spoons of orange juice

200 gr of sugar

1 envelop of vanilla sugar

150 gr of flour

1/2 spoon of baking powder

Filling:

125 gr of very soft butter

125 gr of powdered sugar

1 envelop of vanilla sugar

200 gr of chopped walnuts

Cover: 

3-4 spoons of apricot jam

Cover 2: 

2 spoons of orange juice

120 gr of powdered sugar

1 envelop of vanilla sugar

Decoration:

whole walnuts 

a few pieces of dark chocolate

a spoon of milk

Mix the eggs and the orange juice with the whisk for a minute on the highest speed. Slowly add sugar and vanilla sugar and continue mixing for a few minutes. Add the flour and baking powder, but keep the whisk on lowest speed. Put the dough in a model for cakes with the baking paper. Bake in a preheated oven on 180°C for 30 minutes.

When the cake is cold cut it in half or in 3 parts. My cake wasn't very tall, so I cut it in only 2 parts. (If you have only 2 parts, you can make less filling to put in.) For the filling mix the butter until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla sugar. Mix well and at the end add walnuts. Cover the lower part of the cake with the filling (or the 2 parts if you cut it in 3). Put the top on it and press gently. Spread the apricot jam on the top and on the side. 

Mix sugar, vanilla sugar and orange juice and do a smooth paste to put on the top. Decorate with some walnuts. In a pan melt the chocolate with some milk and decorate with it the top of the cake. Leave the cake in the fridge for an hour.