The Hearty Black Bean Onion Corn Soup

Spring might be here, but we do love soups in this house, so I am not going to stop making them. I do not trust the Dutch weather anyway and I know I will feel soooo good once the temperature is suddenly 3 degrees in April and I will just unfreeze my perfect comfort soup. Yes, you got it right. I AM proud about this one. Basically I am proud that I managed to cook beans from scratch and I could actually bite them (that has not always been the case).
The last two weeks we have been eating like pigs, totally losing our whole food/ almost vegetarian approach. It was not our fault. We had parents visiting (bring with them all sorts of sinful foods ranging from sausages to 80% alcohol home made tsipouro). And then we visited my brother in Munich so it was just wurst-beer-wurst-beer-wurst-bread.  Even though we walked quite a few miles, I still felt this change of diet to the worse was draining my energy, so once we got back, we did a quick shift to our old healthy habits. Yesterday I soaked into warm water back beans. Then we went to a meditation class (things happen, you know...). Then we slept. Today I kept changing the water of the beans every few hours and after they have been soaked for 24h, I decided it was the time.
Ingredients
-2 cups of black beans, soaked for 24h
-wok oil
-around 15 green olives stuffed with red bell pepper
-a can of sweet corn
-two onions
-baby artichoke antipasti (anyway, canned artichokes, or just boil some fresh)
-sun dried tomatoes
-salt and pepper
-thyme
-cayenne pepper
-turmeric
Strain the water that the beans have been soaking in. Put three times as much water as the quantity of the beans in a pot. Bring to boil. Take out the foam with a spoon. Lower the temperature and let simmer for two hours. Do not go out of the house, for a coffee or shopping or to the library. You need to be there because water has this bad habit of evaporating. So, keep adding water whenever the beans seem like suffocating. You want them to float happily around. After the 2 hours have passed, chop the onions or slice them in onion rings and toss them in the pot along with all the other materials except for the sweet corn. If you put the sun dried tomatoes from the start -or any other acidic ingredient, like vinegar or lemon- the beans will just never ever become soft. I warned you. Let it simmer for another twenty minutes. Great!  Now add the corn. You can even add it from the fridge, so that your soup cools down quicker.
By the way, you do not need to keep it as a soup. You can let it simmer more and have a thicker texture in the end.
I was out of olive oil and used wok oil, witch gave an interesting nutty taste. I think feta cheese also goes well with this kind of hearty soups, but was not in the mood for it today.

Lactose Free Cinnamon Bread

So, here is the deal, I will post a picture of the bread one of the following days, ones I manage to get a new memory card for my camera because I just kissed the old one goodbye.
Cinnamon apparently rocks on so many different levels. Anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, anti-spasmodic, anti-inflammatory. It helps control blood sugar levels. It is a great source of manganese, dietary fiber, iron and calcium. The smell of cinnamon helps memory and also performance on certain tasks. There is one small risk though, when consuming huge amounts of cinnamon or cinnamon supplements, and that is coumarin. Coumarin can thin the blood, so if you are on an anti-clot medication, consult your doctor before starting cinnamon supplements, amazed by the above mentioned benefits. 
Here is how it all started: I wanted to make those fluffy deserts made of egg whites and sugar and all recipes called for a hand mixer or egg - beating forever. I thought "oh well, blender is kind of the same..". Well. It's not. There is a certain whisking speed, above which the eggs just refuse to become a thick foam and just stick to a buttermilk like consistency. So, here I was, with the egg whites of 5 eggs mixed with sugar and nothing to do with them. Except that I had one of those "!" moments. And below are the results:
Ingredients:
-5 egg whites
-10 tablespoons of sugar
-1 tablespoon of olive oil (or butter, but I wanted to keep it lactose free)
-tons of grounded cinnamon. I think I used something like 3 tablespoons.
-about one cup of self rising flour (more or less)
-half a package of baking powder
Take a mixing bowl. Throw in it the egg whites you destroyed by blending them with the sugar. Throw in the olive oil. Add the baking powder and the cinnamon. Mix well. Now start adding the flour, until you have a sticky gooey mixture, that is not as firm as a bread dough but not as runny as a brownie mixture. It should stick on the spoon and stay there. Put it in the (preheated, sorry, I keep forgetting) oven and bake at 180 C for 25 minutes. I used wax paper to cover the baking form, but I guess oil or butter would do. Leave it in the oven to cool.
Tastes great on it's own or with citrus curd. Which, by the way (the citrus curd, I mean) is made using egg yolks, which makes it the perfect combination with the cinnamon bread egg-whites. There are a few recipes I tried out and I loved for curds. 
Nutrition sources:
http://www.thehealthysnacksblog.com, http://altmedicine.about.com/od/cinnamon/a/cinnamon.htm
P.S.: Yesterday, Nicola Graimes' book "The cook's guide to whole foods" arrived at out mail box. It is great because it is illustrated. It has pictures of every little obscure seed out there and I do recommend it. You can find it here, used or new. I love Better World Books for two reasons: for each book you buy, they donate one and, secondly, you do not need a credit card to buy from them. Paypal works!

Beets and Orange, Yogurt and Garlic

So we had those left over beets since three days now, lurking at the back of the freezer. After a bad experience of boiled beets, quinoa and alfalfa sprouts that tasted like hmm.. nothing.. we were a bit reluctant to eat the remaining beets. Still, I am a "second chance" person, so I wanted to cook them and make them rock our world, in order not to stick to the bad impression. N. was suggesting to do the blender beet soup we had done in the past, but I was too bored to do something that safe. So I googled a simple recipe about how to roast beets and I twisted it quite a bit. I do not regret it.

Ingredients:

-3 beets (just the root part)

-one orange (you will need the juice)

-a bit of olive oil

-salt, pepper

-a cup of Greek yogurt

-2 garlic cloves (I used garlic powder, because I had a laziness attack)

This is as simple as can be. Preheat the oven to 200 C.  Wash the beets, peel them, chop them to bite-sized pieces. Coat the bottom of the baking tray/ Pyrex with olive oil. Spread the beats on the tray. Squeeze the  juice out of the orange so that it goes on every single beet bite. Salt. Pepper. Done. Take aluminum foil, cover the baking dish. With a fork, make some holes, so that some steam can come out. Put in the oven. Forget it in there for 1 1/2 hours. Read a book. Books are good. But in case you are not an actual book worm, after 1 1/2 hours of "eating" your book, you should be hungry. Open the oven. Lift the aluminum foil and pierce a piece with a fork. Is it soft? Good. If it's not, give it a bit more time. Turn off the oven and put the yogurt in two cups (if you intend to share). Slice the garlic cloves as thinly as humanly possible or press them or just use garlic powder. Put it in the yogurt and mix well with a fork. Now, take the deep purple/ burgundy caramelized hot beets and put them on top of the cool yogurt. No, don't thank me, you are welcome.

Plus, beets have quite a few good nutritional things in them, including vitamins C, B3, B6, B5 and folates. Folates are particularly useful if you intend to get pregnant, as they help prevent neural tube defects in babies.

One more interesting fact is that if you eat beets and notice beeturia (red pigment passing to your urine), then you might want to check your iron metabolism.

I feel that these beets would fit great with roasted asparagus/ Belgian endives/ broccoli and goat cheese. All the above mentioned vegetables will be getting roasted the next days in our tiny oven in many different twisted ways, so stay tuned. 

Sources of science stuff: http://www.whfoods.com, http://www.nutrition-and-you.com

Rich Asparagus Mushroom Coconut Soup

I really love asparagus. They are supposed to be aphrodisiac, but I guess this is all because of their phallic shape. Today, as I was reading Barbara Kingslover's "Animal, Vegetable. Miracle" I found out that they are "one of the best sources of folic acid, vitamins A, C, and K, some B vitamins, potassium, phosphorus, and glutathione, which is a potent antioxidant and carcinogen.". We already had a bunch in the fridge, so I decided to do something with them. I roasted them in the oven with some mushrooms and we ate them for lunch with a sauce made of all the juices of the baking tray, mixed with some Greek yogurt, salt and pepper. I admit that the juices were not just water from the vegetables but also a liiiiittle bit of olive oil, with which I had coated the baking tray.
But, in order to prepare asparagus, you have to cut (basically just snap) their bottom part, which is hard and full of fibers. But I did not want to waste it, so I decided to make some vegetable stock with it, which turned out into a fabulous soup. I have a certain reason to be proud about it, but I will come back to it later. Now, gather the ingredients:
Ingredients:
-a bunch of asparagus (the hard part you would throw away - make a nice egg-white only omelet with the nice, tender part, it's great)
-one big onion
-two-three garlic cloves
-a handful of chopped mushrooms
-some coconut cream or the condensed version of it or coconut milk
-salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric (depends on your spicy-ness preference)
-two spoonfuls of butter/ margarine
-3 eggs
-2 lemons
Now, fill your pot with water, throw in the vegetables, bring to boil. Lower the temperature and let them simmer for... I don't know.. should we say one hour? The idea is that all the vegetable tastes passes to the water. Yes, we kind of kill all the nutrients this way, but some times a girl has to do what a girl has to do. Let's not forget that my first intention was to make a vegetable stock, so it was about taste. And that's how you get all the taste. Check every now and then the amount of fluid and add a bit if needed. When the pot is only half full (keep the lid on during the simmering otherwise it will happen too fast) take all the vegetables out of the fluid that we once called water and put them in the blender with just one third of the cup of water (so that the blender does not have a hard time). Blend them until they are a smooth pulp. But the pulp back in the pot and turn the heat a bit higher. Add the coconut, the butter and the spices. Stir with a spoon so that the pulp and the fluid mix well.
And now, the part that made me proud. In Greece we have this egg and lemon based sauce that we call avgolemeno. I am amazed to see there is an English article in wikipedia about it. So, this sauce requires persistent beating of eggs until the become a light pink smooth cream. Good, old housewives could do it using a fork. I tried twice, but it was never beaten well enough and when I added it to my soups, the egg white just baked, forming ugly, tiny clots. A bit like a baby's vomit. But now, I have my mighty blender! So what did I do? I put the 3 eggs in the blender with the juice of the two lemons. You can put even more lemon juice, if you like sour stuff. Then, I blended like it was my last chance to blend in this lifetime. And then, the tricky part comes in: in order to avoid the baby vomit effect, you have to take a cup of the hot soup and put each time one spoonful of it in the blender, then immediately blend. You keep adding spoonfuls and blending until the cup of soup is empty and the sauce has a warm temperature. Then, it is good to go into the pot, with the rest of the soup. You pour it slowly in and stir with your spoon. And it becomes a velvety, foamy heavenly soup! It was my personal victory on avgolemeno, which basically means that I am as of now a qualified Mediterranean cook (NOT).
Then, since on the picture you just see an off-white soup, I added some fresh green onions on top in a ridiculous food styling attempt. They suited the soup flavor though and  they do grow on our window seal, so I had to honor them somehow.

How to De-construct a Brownie

Today, there is no recipe. I did cook stuff, but it was unhealthy brownies for my "goodbye" to my colleagues, as my internship finishes this week. I call them "de-constructivism brownies" and there is a reason for that: to transport them to work tomorrow, I have wrapped them up with bake-paper and colorful twines and added personalized thank you notes for each one of my colleagues.
They look pretty but inside the package, there is a huge mess: I made two different kinds of chocolate brownies, using a standard supermarket mix and adding in the one:
-cranberries,
-almonds,
- macadamia nuts,
-pistachios,
and to the other one:
-orange juice,
-orange peel,
-nutmeg and
-cinnamon.
Then, I de-constructed the brownies, meaning I tore them apart to bite-sized pieces and filled colorful paper cupcakes forms with several bites of the two cakes. On top, I put melted white and dark chocolate. I was not patient enough for the chocolate to cool and I wraped the brownies/cupcakes while warm, so I am pretty sure the chocolate is smudged all over the inside of my pretty package.
 

The Amazing Spelt Berries

Ahh... the spelt berries! A long long time ago, before people started crossbreeding grain varieties to end up having monocultures of one type of wheat (the most efficient one yield-wise), there were many different types of grains, each offering different kinds of nutrients. Spelt is one of the few survivors of the wheat craze. As written on  http://whfoods.org/  (don't pay attention to this scary George guy) " it offers a broader spectrum of nutrients compared to many of its more inbred cousins in the Triticum (wheat) family. Spelt features a host of different nutrients. It is an excellent source of manganese, and a good source of protein, copper, and zinc". Sounds interesting, no?
Spelt does contain gluten, so if you have Celiac disease, don't try it, but people with mild gluten intolerance might find that they can actually handle spelt.
But first things first. Where can you find it? I do not know. I buy it from the local health food store packaged but I am quite sure you can also buy it online or buy it in bulk even. You can use it in different ways: boil the spelt berries or make flour out of them.

So, what did I do with them? I followed the package directions on how to prepare the basic ingredients of my (improvised) recipe. The package suggested to leave the berries to soak in warm water for three hours. I left them overnight, just to be sure. Then I put tons of water in a pot with the berries, brought them to boil and let them simmer for one hour (I am using a gas stove and I used low temperature, but you might have to adapt this if you are using a standard student housing heating stove).  And then, I added stuff.
Ingredients (for 2-approximately):
-two cups of spelt berries,boiled
-one big zucchini
-one bell pepper
-fresh parsley
-a piece of a ginger root (you know how spicy you want things)
-one or two oranges (you will need the juice)
-salt and pepper
-olive oil (by the way, it's the only oil I use, so do not expect many surprises oil-wise)
Now, take the zucchini, slice it as thinly as you can and cut the bell pepper in small cubes. Also slice the ginger root in thiiiin slices. Put a bit of olive oil in the pan and stir around all the vegetable stuff until it looks somewhat cooked. You do not want to over-do it and kill all the vitamins though. It should take around 5 minutes to cook (that's why we sliced everything). It's high time you put the orange juice in! If I had any sesame seeds, I would also add them in this step. Salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, whatever you prefer in terms of spiciness. Done. Just put the spelt berries in two nice bowls, add on top the orange-vegetable mixture, chop the parsley, put on top. Enjoy.
Parsley, by the way, is considered anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory ant anti- in general in a good sense. It also boosts the immune system and the heart and is rich in vitamin K. Also, you can grow it in a small pot by your window seal. If I can do that, everyone can. Seriously.

Introduction and the Hot Miniature Breads

Hi.  
(Forgive me, be kind with me, I am not a native speaker. I love British accent but I am to embarrassed to use it and I improvise directly translating my thoughts from Greek to English. I am writing in English because of my friend M.I., who does not (yet) speak Greek.)
I am a very bad photographer. Possibly, one of the worst. Thank God this blog is not about photography. It is (one more) blog about food. How is it different from others? Well, it is a bit too personal and experimental. I am not a cook. I hate following instructions. I am not even a caring mother and housewife. I am just an architect, who happens to go through these "hippie /healthy" phases. My best friend can for sure recall the time that I was drinking hot tea during a super hot Greek summer because "the Bedouins do it! They know better, they live in the dessert!". Until this September it was just spasmodic incidents of healthy living that lasted for a couple of months and then faded out. And then I started my master graduation project entitled "Food City". I know it is quite hard to understand what the hell does architecture have to do with food, but it is not the purpose of this blog to explain that (Carolyn Steel in her book "Hungry City" does that really well). The point is that I had to deeply research into food production, processing consumption, even food waste. So I ended up like poor Adam and Eve, with the bite of the forbidden fruit in my mouth, meaning that now I know the huge impact that our food choices have on the environment. I was never a super carnivorous person anyway and white meat is my preference when it comes to animal protein, but now the aim is to reduce meat consumption as much as possible (so without ending up depressed about it) and incorporate new protein sources in my cooking. I cook for two and I am lucky that my partner (I feel that "boyfriend" is quite a silly word once you are more than 20) enjoys the whole exploration.
The basis of our diet the last two months (yes, kind of a "new year's resolution" that seems to be lasting) has been lots of fruit, vegetables, seeds and in general whole food products. We are Greek living in the Netherlands, which can be an extra reason to prepare your own food, instead of eating ready-made supermarket meals. We are used to a very rich kitchen from our home country while the Dutch culture is not that much concerned about food. It is treated more like fuel for a day full of work and sports. For me -thanks to my mom- food is exploration and creation and expression and fun and cooking is a great way to unwind at the end of a stressful day. Cooking is one of the reasons that the burnout of the title has been avoided so far.
Having a very full program, I can assure you from personal experience that there is always time to cook and it is always worth sleeping half an hour later or waking up an hour earlier to prepare a little delicious something that will nourish you and your loved ones during a busy day.  Since I started cooking and taking food with me at the university I am looking forward to the lunch brake, while before it was a moment of choosing with what kind of deep fried unidentified stuff I would block my arteries. Let me make something clear here: the Dutch do not eat usually a warm lunch. They eat a sandwich or even just bread with a piece of ham. I guess that they have warm dinners at home. For me, having the cultural background that I have, lunch is a full meal and I need it to keep me going through the day.  And I do find, that since I cook my own food I feel a lot better.
Since this is the beginning of this blog, the first posts will come the one after the other, just to give you an insight in my view to enjoying food. Then, I will probably get bored and post every one in a while extraordinary recipes.
So, what you see in the pictures is what I call "Hot Miniature Breads". And it is an improvisation, like all else that will appear on this blog. So, the recipe won't be that exact either.
Ingredients:
Three cups of self rising flour
One table spoon of baking soda
3/4 cup olive oil
About one cup of water (keep it near and we will decide how much to put in)
As much and as many as you like of the following herbs:
-basil
-parsley
-oregano
-thyme
-onion powder
-garlic powder
-cayenne pepper (lots of it, otherwise they wouldn't be called "hot", right?)
-salt
So, now you put all the dry materials in a bowl. You add the olive oil. And s-l-o-w-l-y you add water, while mixing with a fork/your hands. You keep adding water until you have a nice, firm dough. It should not stick on your fingers very much. Now go to the oven and preheat it to 200C. Take a baking tray and spray it with a bit of olive oil (I do not use a spray, I just use my fingers to make sure the whole baking tray has a thin coat of oil). Now make your miniature breads :) Do they look cute? I hope so. Now put them on the tray and the tray in the oven. I baked them for 20' and turned on the grill for another 7', just to make them blush a bit on top. The bag that you see in the first picture was full of Hot Miniature Breads. Now, one hour later, is not full anymore. They are delicious on their own or with cream cheese or pesto sauce.