Muffins with chocolate and puffed rice

Ingredients:

190 gr butter

150 gr sugar

1 pinch of salt

vanilla sugar (1 envelope)

100 gr dark chocolate

200 ml milk

3 eggs

13 gr baking powder

320 gr flour (type 400)

80 gr bitter cocoa powder

30 gr puffed rice

Put the butter in the food mixer and mix for a few minutes, then add sugar and continue to mix until it's smooth. (Leave the butter at the room temperature before using it.) Add the eggs and mix well. Slowly add the lukewarm mil and afterwards the flour with the baking powder, salt and vanilla sugar. At the end add the cocoa powder and when you have a smooth paste, add the chocolate in small pieces and the rice mixing very gently. 

Bake the muffins at 180°C for approximately 25 minutes. I made 18 muffins. :)

Zucchini and peas risotto

Ingredients:
300 gr rice (roma)
4 small zucchini
1/2 onion
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 fresh chili
olive oil
salt
200 ml tomato sauce
oregano
basil
water (as needed)
parmesan cheese

Cut the onion and fry it on the olive oil. Add the cut chili, zucchini and peas. Mix from time to time and when the zucchini are a bit softer, add the rice and mix. Add the spices and the tomato. Mix well and add some water from time to time until it's ready (continue stirring in the meantime). Cook for approximately 15 minutes (but check the instructions on your pack of rice).
Serve hot with some parmesan cheese on the top.

Pizza with sesame dough

The summer just doesn't want to show up and I'm getting more and more stressed, but at least I can do some creative work in the kitchen. This time I've tried to bake a special pizza.

Ingredients:

Dough:
250 ml lukewarm water
13 gr salt
13 gr sugar
200 gr wholewheat flour
100 gr flour type 500
100 gr flour type 400
20 gr yeast
30 gr olive oil (approximately 3 spoons)
30 gr sesame seeds (approximately 3 spoons)

200 gr mozzarella for pizza
200 ml tomato sauce
1 tblsp olive oil
oregano
salt
6 cherry tomatoes
a few leafs of fresh basil

Melt the yeast in the water and add it to the flour that you've previously mixed. Add salt, sugar, olive oil and sesame seeds. Mix everything in a bowl, then cover it with a tea towel. Leave it aside (you can put it inside your cold oven) for at least 2 hours.
Roll the dough in the baking tray. Mix the tomato sauce, olive oil, oregano and salt in a bowl. Put it all over the dough (from this recipe you'll get dough for two trays). Bake in the oven at 180°-200°C, after 10-15 minutes add the mozzarella cheese, that you've previously cut into pieces. 5 minutes before it's ready, add the fresh cherry tomato cut into half.
Serve with some fresh basil on the top.

Tasty salad

Ingredients:
lettuce - 10 big leafs
rocket - 10 leafs
mozzarella - 1
cherry tomatoes - 6
pumpkin seeds - 1 tbsp
apple - 1/2
salt
olive oil
vinegar

Wash the lettuce, the rocket and the tomatoes carefully, then cut them in small pieces and put them in a jar. Cut the mozzarella and the apple. Add them to the lettuce and the sunflower seeds. Put salt, olive oil and vinegar according to your taste.
You can serve with some roasted wholewheat bread and it's a perfect dinner for this season, waiting for the summer to show up.

Strawberry mousse

Here we are, strawberry season again! If you enjoy this fruit, you'll enjoy this recipe even more! 

Ingredients:

500 gr strawberries 

a few strawberries for decoration

250 ml cream

5 spoons of sugar

8 gelatin leaves

Clean the strawberries and mix them with the sugar until it's smooth.
Whip the cream. Put the gelatin leaves in cold water and soak them for 10 minutes.
Squeeze them and melt them in a small pan on very low flame.
Add the gelatin to the strawberries and mix one more time.
Gently mix  with the whipped cream and put into glasses or moulds.
Put in the fridge for 4 hours or in the freezer for 1 hour.
Serve with some fresh strawberries.

Easy winter soup

I've always said, I'm not a good blogger, spring has already come and I still have pictures of my winter dishes I didn't put on the blog. 

Ingredients:
3 patatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
160 gr pearl barley
water
olive oil
salt
pepper
chili powder

Soak the pearl barley in the water for at least 12 hours.
Cut the onion in small pieces and fry it until golden on a little bit of olive oil. Cut the potatoes in cubes and the carrot in very small pieces. Add the vegetables to the onion and add the pearl barley (without the water in wich it was soaked). Add some water (approximately 1 liter, but it depends on your taste), salt, peper and a little bit of chili powder (still depends on your taste). Cook stiring for approximately 1 hour (if you've soaked tha barney for 24 hous, in 40 minutes it should be cooked).

Serve hot with a slice of bread or just like that and enjoy your meal. :)

Menih (Monk)

This time I made a traditional Easter dish. In slovene it's called menih (english: monk) and it's common in west Slovenia and in my region, Friuli, in north east Italy. I used to do it at home with my mother, now I've tried to make it by myself.

Ingredients:

500 gr white flour (type 400)
20 gr yeast
a few spoons of lukewarm milk
125 gr of butter
125 gr sugar
5 yolks
2 eggs
vanilla sugar
lemon zest
salt
rum


Make a dough out of 150 gr of flour, yeast and milk. Leave it until it rises, then make small pieces out of it and put it in the rest of the flour. Make a smooth dough from the yolks and sugar. (Mix approximately 30 minutes.) Slowly add the other ingredients, but the flour only at the end.
Split the dough in two parts. From half of the dough make 3 long "sausages" from which you'll make a braid, but on one end you'll put an egg (as you can see in the pictures).
Leave it covered over night and bake it the next day at 180°C for 30 minutes.