Crudités salad

Cut carrots and celeriac using a vegetable peeler. To get nice curly strips you'll have to keep them in ice-cold water for a while, but I didn't have the time. Next I added a lettuce leaf, for color. After the salt, vinegar and oil, I sprinkled a small amount of raw, unsalted sunflower seeds.

Super easy to "make" and a good idea to complete a light breakfast: toast [ I make mine in a non-stick pan, just heat the pan and place the slices there, flipping occasionally - until you feel the smell of toast and see the rich color], butter, fresh fruit, coffe, yerba mate tea.

Cheesecake no1: chocolate base and orange-prune chunks

This must be the tenth cheesecake I've made but it's the first I took [acceptable] pictures of so I'm going to consider it as my first online cheesecake.

Recipe coming soon - I misplaced the paper where I wrote the quantities and it's a personalized recipe. Until I come back with the recipe, enjoy the pics!

Super foods: spring salad

Baby stinging nettle - we always eat baby stinging nettle stew when spring comes but I've never summoned enough curiosity to test the statement that it doesn't sting when you eat it raw.
Well this year I felt a closer connection to my planet and the forest that can feed me if I respect it - I foraged for baby stinging nettle and ramsons [wild garlic - lat. Allium ursinum, meaning bear's garlic]. So, feeling that much closer to nature, I figured I can try and eat the stinging nettle raw - and it worked! Didn't sting and had a seed-nutty favour.

This inspired me to compose a spring super-salad: baby stinging nettle - a bunch, half a leaf lettuce - rolled and thinly sliced and a pinch of sunflower raw unsalted seeds, vinaigrette (sunflower seed oil and apple-cider-and-honey vinegar).

As for the ramsons [wild garlic], I decided that I wouldn't combine it with any other leaf and just added vinegar and oil.

Savory egg pate with red garden orache

Blend hard-boiled eggs, natural mustard and dried condiments of your liking together until a smooth pate is obtained. Garnish with red garden orache. 

Another take on the cheese biscuits

Using the same recipe in this post, I made cheese biscuits/scones again. I had cow's and sheep's salty cheese and wondered if it would work. As you see, they came out a bit flat but were still tender inside and somewhat crisp on the outside. This time I washed the down with Carlsberg and got to share with friends.

Simple Food: An Afternoon Snack

Bread and jam. And butter.

Green tea and honey.

A winter cake

Since I'm digging out photos from the past these days, I thought why not show them the cake my sister got for her birthday? She's born in December, hence the winter theme.

It was delicious - simple sweet icing, and a bouquet of aromas inside - chocolate mousse and chocolate crust, cranberry bits - the whole package.

After a long wait: my photo camera's first trip to Capriciosa, Bucharest

As I promised long time ago in the sneak peek post, here are shots from that one time I took my photo camera to Capriciosa Restaurant in Bucharest.

I started with Crostini Toscani - homemade chicken liver pate, topped with champignons and herbs.

I then moved on to a plate of Rigatoni con Porcini, which also boasted smoked aged cheese, but with such a long time since I went, I don't recall its name. Smooth taste and good textures.

Now, for dessert, I had:

a great millefoglie (above), classic - vanilla cream, caster sugar on top, and

my first, amazing, panna cotta - a very delicate cream dessert, which had a great red fruit sauce.

Simple Food: Breakfast

Hard-boiled eggs, cheese, olives.
Whole-leaf green tea.

Simple Food: Delicious Zander Lunch

Deep-fried zander served with carrot and beet salad, baked potatoes and a touch of flavour: raspberries and lemon wedges.

Simple and delicious.

Sneak peek: my camera's first trip to Capriciosa, Bucharest

Stay tuned for more photos and the story.

The I-would-kill-for-a-beer cheese "biscuits"

These were made and eaten a while back, when, on a summer afternoon, I remembered I had some cheese lying around in my fridge. This made me remember I had a good-looking recipe lying around somewhere in my bookmark folders.

The recipe was from Brooklyn Farmhouse and called for cheddar and sage. This is how their biscuits looked like:

I used the cheese from the back of my fridge - a traditional Romanian type, called burduf. And thyme instead of cheddar. And didn't respect the proportions at all - just added the right amount of flour and then used yoghurt and cream to moisten the dough. And then I divided it in twelve portions, to match the number of my cupcake-tray molds. This is how they looked when ready.

Couldn't eat more than one that night because I didn't have a beer so it would have been a waste.

So I recommend that these would be eaten at breakfast, lunch/brunch or even as a snack between meals. I also imagine they would perfectly accompany a natural tomato soup or yogurt/kefir.

Summer menu: a light afternoon

Courgette carpaccio and a simple tomato and bell pepper salad. Colorful, cheerful and very very tasteful in accompanying grilled chicken.
As for the drinks - what could be better than water on a hot Summer day? Watermelon. I juiced half of a decent-sized watermelon and half of his paler relative - a cantaloupe. Squeezed in some lemon juice and served it when the night set in.

Summer menu: blueberry muffins

A good dessert to finish a light summer meal.
Make muffin batter. Add a teaspoon of homemade fresh blueberry jam to every cupcake liner.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Let cool. Eat.

Summer menu: celeriac and celery soup

Saute an onion or two sping onions in butter and oil until translucent. 

Add cubed celeriac and celery stalks. Water, salt, pepper.

Bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes. 

Add a small bunch of celery leaves.

Let cool, puree.

Serve with oven-baked soft sweet corn and a dash of butter.

Summer menu: Broccoli gratin

Heat broccoli in a non-stick frying pan until its color intensifies.
Place in a tray and cover with the assortment of cheeses of your desire. Salt, Pepper.
Bake until golden.
Garnish, serve.

Egg muffins

Got a muffin tray? Got muffin paper/tray liners? Then this is as easy as breaking an egg.
Line the muffin tray with muffin paper [number of muffin papers must match the number of eggs you want to cook]. Place an egg into each paper.
Place into hot oven for about 8/10 minutes.
Retrieve cooked eggs, grate cheese on top, slice smoked bacon and garnish with spring onions.
Enjoy.

I love tea, just not in BLOOD flavour

I'm not a vegan and I sometimes wear fur if it's vintage. I believe in leather as suitable for shoes and so on.

So I'm not PETA's most perfect spokesperson.
However, testing tea on animals is quite nasty/cruel/horrible/however you may put it.
I love tea, but not in blood flavour.
If you care, read HERE and help PETA in the best way you find appropriate.

http://www.peta.org/action/action-alerts/Tell-Lipton-Tea-to-Stop-Torturing-Animals.aspx

LATER EDIT: Lipton and PG tips announced they stopped unnecessary torturing of animals. By unnecessary they mean that they will still experiment on animals in countries where this is required.

Food for the eyes: Baracca, Cluj

When I'm traveling I almost always find special places where the food is great and where my eyes can have a feast too.
This time it's about Baracca in Cluj, Romania. They say their food is "design food".
I only say that I had a great experience there.

The first time I went there I had a homemade ice-cream and I had to try all three flavours [the pink one's raspberry], so I wouldn't leave thinking that I missed anything. I'd been ranting around about the fact that I couldn't find locally made ice-cream at restaurants in my country for quite a while so finding it there was just perfect.

To be honest, I knew I would have a good time there from the first moment I set foot in the cleverly designed space. It was just perfect chemistry.

There were little green  leaves greeting me from metal pots on every table and huge lamps promising to lighten up my night. And so it was.

My ice-cream was good - so smooth and subtle. I thought I had everything and nothing could push me off my pink cloud.

But then I saw it: a tiramisu cake served in an individual jar - so chic and thoughtful! So my complete beatitude turned into need. I needed to have one of those. So I asked for one. And they brought it with a smile on their face. 

I had a red dry wine to complement my dessert spree - it was brutal and astringent - but I loved it.

I took a few seconds to admire the wall art upon leaving. Simple messages were scribbled on the walls. Some were lists of world renowned chefs or restaurants and some were clever and cute quotes.

There was a sense of relaxation I left with, turning my head once again to get a last glimpse of my table.

Prepare a body scrub in the kitchen

I've never found a scrub that properly does its job so far. They are always too rich in oils or they lack scrubbing particles.
Tired of failing when shopping for scrubs, I thought of making one myself. After trying many combinations I came up with this "recipe".
Mix cornmeal with sea salt and just a pinch of rice. Add coffee grounds and mix well. Now you need the "wet" part of the scrub. Here there are many options: 1. use the scrubbing mix of particles together with your favourite shower gel; 2. add honey until it binds the particles; 3. add oil until it binds the particles; 4.[the best version] add honey and just a drop-or-two of oil.
If you chose to use shower gel in the process, just wash normally as if you had a store-bought scrubbing shower gel. Otherwise, wash first using soap/shower gel/shower cream and then take a walnut-size portion of the scrub and gently rub it on your skin. Leave on for five minutes or ten - so that the honey/oil has enough time to moisten your skin and then wash it off and - voila! your skin will be soft and glowing and happy.

Observations:
Use coffee grounds that are finer than the salt or cornmeal particles. That way you create a spectrum of particle sizes which will ensure that your scrubbing is effective.
The oil can be any vegetable oil but you should aim for olive oil, grapeseed oil, flaxseed oil - if you use the latter, prepare minutes before you use because it won't keep.


Other things you can add:

• salicylic acid/other acids used in cosmetics for a peeling effect
• essential aromatherapy oils - the scrub, if you follow my recipe, would have a nutty flavour
• coloring substances/extracts - to make its color more appealing

You can store it in small dark glass recipients. It makes a great gift.