dates in bacon

Dates in bacon are the ideal Tapa or Mezze. They go perfectly with wine. Ideally you serve them right out of the oven when the bacon is crispy and the dates are still warm inside.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Baking time: 10 minutes

difficulty: very easy

Preparation:

Heat up the oven to 392 F.
Cut the dates up length wise with a small knife and remove the stone.
Cut the bacon slice into half’s. Wrap a piece of bacon around a date and secure it with a tooth pick. Place on a baking tray. Repeat until all dates are warped.
Bake for 10 minutes until the bacon is crisp. (Air and broiler)

This recipe in German.

Fennel and cauliflower baked is the ideal warm salad but you can also let it cool off or serve it slightly chilled. Feta cheese goes well with these veggies and it does not require much time to prepare.

Preparation time: 25 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Heat up the oven to 392 F.

Cut the cauliflower into pieces. Cut the fennel into stripes. Add to a bowl.

Crush the garlic in a mortar with some salt and pepper. Add the fennel seeds, the coriander and the sumac and grind until it has the consistence of a paste. Add some olive oil and mix until all the spices dissolve. Pour this sauce over the vegetables and mix them well.

Put the vegetables onto a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes.

Take the tray out of the oven. Drizzle the cheese and some lemon juice over the vegetables and serve.

I love to cook this dish when I want a healthy meal and have not much time to prepare it. This light and tasty risotto is cooked in roughly 20 minutes. It is great when I have guests surprising me because I always store some Antipasti Mushrooms in a jar at home.

Preparation time: 3 minutes

cooking time: 20 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Dice the onion and fry it on low heat in a big pan for a couple of minutes. Then add the rice and fry that too.

Now add the soup stock and stir well. For the next 15 minutes or so you need to stir the rice only occasionally.

Grate the cheese and drain the mushrooms from the oil.

Once the risotto has absorbed the liquid and is cooked add the cheese and a bit of thyme and stir well. Then remove the pan from the heat, add the mushrooms and mix them with the risotto. Let the risotto sit for a few minutes, then serve.

I got the idea to these savory biscuits at 101 Cookbooks .I had no muffin baking tray at home but really wanted to try the recipe, so I decided to skip the muffin form. These savory biscuits are a great snack or finger food for parties. They are best served out of the oven, having cooled off just a bit.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Cube the squash, salt it and sprinkle some olive oil over it. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven at 400 F for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let the cubes cool off a bit.

Meanwhile mix the eggs and the milk. Cube the Feta cheese, chop the green onions and grate the Parmesan. Mix the cheese, onions, the mustard and the Parmesan in a bowl. Now add the milk mixture and the squash. Mix well while adding the flour to the ingredients. Season with chili, salt and pepper. When the dough turns out too liquid add some flour.

Use a table spoon to form little cookies and place them straight on the oiled baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes.

Beet root, Feta and anchovy is a bit of a particular combination. The taste is great though. I new that Feta and beetroot go well together as they are served in combination in Greek taverns. The anchovy ads a fine, earthy taste to the dish.

Preparation: 5 minutes

cooking time: 50 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Wash and boil the beets. Drain them and put them aside to cool down. Peel the beet roots and cut them into thin slices.

Spread some olive oil in a baking tray.

Make one layer of beets. Then crumble some Feta cheese and some chopped anchovies on top. Now drizzle some lemon zest over it. Repeat this step until the ingredients are used up. Keep some Feta to drizzle on top of the dish for decoration.

Bake in the oven at 290 Degrees F for 20 minutes.

At Cucina Casalinga I discovered an interesting way of preparing cauliflower. What had caught my attention was the anchovy sauce that the cauliflower was served with. The aroma of the baked cauliflower mixer very well with the lemon and garlic in the anchovy sauce. The fish does not taste as strong as expected but adds a bit of salty flavor to the dish.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Banking time: 25 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Wash the cauliflower and cut it in slices. It might crumble a bit but that does not matter. Now place the cauliflower on a baking tray and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes at 400 F.

For the sauce I am adding boiled garlic, lemon juice, some brown sugar and a good sip of olive oil to a mixer and blend it well. Boiling the garlic in water for a few minutes makes it smoother in taste.

Boiled potatoes taste great with this dish.

Trachanas is a type of fermented cracked wheat with yogurt. It can be found in Turkish, Albanian, Persian, Greek and Bulgarian language, so I assume it is quite spread in the these regions. Often it is turned into a soup but one can also make a pie from it as you can see above.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

baking time: 40 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Cook the trachanas, then drain them. How long they cook depends on the type of Trachanas. Check the instructions on the package.

Place the Trachanas in a bowl and add the milk. Grind the feta cheese and add to the bowl. Add the eggs and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Oil a baking pan. Add the Trachanas and cheese mixture. Bake for 40 minutes at 340 degrees F.

When done, remove from the oven and let it cool down before you serve it.

I discovered this at the German blog of my fellow blogger kochessenz, which means as much as the essence of cooking. I had never tried the combination of fennel and Feta cheese, but it sounded tempting.
I also liked the idea that it was very easy to do.

This dish is great as a snack meal but also perfect as finger food at a party. Alternatively one can bake it with a muffin tray.

Preparation: 10 minutes

baking time: 20 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Remove the puff pastry from the package and let it defrost.

Slice the fennel and the onion very finely and put into a bowl. Add the pitted and chopped olives and the chopped capers.

Cube the Feta Cheese, chop the garlic finely and add both to the vegetables. Season with some pepper.

Mix the veggies well.

Lay out the dough and cut it with a circular form. Lay half of the dough out on a baking paper on a tray. Place a spoon full of filling on top of each piece of dough. Cover then the filling with a blank piece of dough. Press carefully together at the edges.
Apply some egg to the pastry using a brush. Then bake the pastry for 20 Minutes in the 200 degree Celsius preheated oven.

Not everybody likes Okra. For many people it seems to “slimy” once it is cooked. In Greece you con find it often cooked in a tomato and onion sauce which leads to very soft okra. Here they are called Βamies (Μπάμιες).

I have just fried them in some olive oil which results in crispy okra. The cumin sauce in combination with the pomegranate syrup add a lots of flavors to the okra.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Wash the okra and dry it off with a towel. Cut of the ends of the okra.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the okra for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile crush the garlic on a board with a bid knife. Use some sea slat to turn it into a paste.
Mix with the yogurt and some olive oil. Season with pepper and cumin and stir well. Dilute with a bit of water.

Let the fried okra drain on a bit of kitchen paper. Then place it on a plate and drizzle the cumin dressing and the pomegranate syrup over the okra.

A great light summer dish. If you like eggplants and oriental spicing, this is your dish. The eggplants gets marinated and baked with a orange and garlic mix which gives it and exotic flavor.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

baking time: 60 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Cut the eggplant in half. Crave a grid into the flat side of the eggplant.

Chop the garlic and mix it in a small bowl with the orange marmalade. Add salt, chili and some oil. MIx well.
Spread the mix onto the carved side of the eggplant and place the eggplant into the oven. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 1 hour.

Meanwhile boil the cracked wheat for 10 minutes. Drain and cracked wheat. Chop some sint and add to the cracked wheat. Add as well some raisins and season with herbal salt. Pour a sip of olive oil over it and mix all ingredients well.

Remove the eggplant form the oven and put on a plate. Put some cracked wheat aside and serve with a spoon full of yogurt.