This risotto is similar to another Gorgonzola Risotto I have her on the blog. This one is featuring pear and walnuts as well as sage. I can only recommend this dish to cheese lovers!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

cooking time: 20 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Dice the onions and fry them in a large pan with some olive oil on medium heat. After a few minutes add the rice to the pan and fry for a minute or two.

Add the white wine and stir well. Let the wine reduce then add the soup cup by cup. Stir occasionally. Keep adding soup and then reducing it until the liquid is used up.

Meanwhile you can roast the chopped up walnuts in a pan for a few minutes to activate the aroma. Then add the butter and the sage. Fry for a few minutes then set aside the pan.

Cut the pears in quarters, remove the core and cut into slices.

Once the rice is al dente you can add the chopped up Gorgonzola and a fair amount of fresh pepper. Once the cheese is melted add the pears and half of the walnuts and salt to taste. Mix the risotto gently.

Set the pot aside and let it rest for a minute or two.

To serve sprinkle the remaining walnuts and sage butter over the risotto.

This salad awakens childhood memories in me. My mother used to make this salad for my father who came home for lunch. He always was into salads a lot and this one was one of his favourite ones.
Though it has lots of apple in it and also some honey in the dressing it is not a very sweet salad. Certainly not a desert. The addition of Greek yogurt with honey as a dressing is my creation, a Mediterranean variation.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

very easy recipe

Preparation:

Grate the beetroot and the peeled apple into a bowl. Sprinkle the lemon juice over it an mix well.

For the dressing dissolve the honey and the salt with the lemon juice. Then dissolve the yogurt.

Crush the hazelnuts with a knife.

Place salad on a plate, pour some dressing over it and sprinkle nuts on top.

Again the weather called for soup. I had some carrots left and decided to use them up. I started looking out for soups at my colleagues blogs and found a delicious looking soup recipe at lamiacucina. While the soup was boiling I read the comments posted on this recipe, one of them by Kochschlame . She had added coconut milk to the soup as she had ran out of cream. This I had found a phantastic idea and so I adapted the original recipe to this delicious fusion dish.

A perfect soup for a cold day for all of you who like roasted flavours with a touch of Asia.

preparation time: 25 minutes

boiling time: 15 minutes

very simple recipe

Preparation:

Peel the carrots and the onion and cut them into pieces. Mix them with some olive oil and put them onto an oven pan. Add the fennel seeds, chilli and cumin and let it grill at 200 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes. Observe the vegetables, they should get a tan but not burn.

Once the vegetables have tanned nicely put them into a soup pot, add the soups stock and some water and let it boil. about a liter of water should be fine. Let it boil for 10-15 minutes.

Blend the soup in a mixer. Season with the honey, salt and pepper. In the end add the coconut milk.

The nice thing about this salad is the dressing. The mix of sesame oil and W gives it an Asian touch. I marinate the beetroot for a couple of hours in the dressing. I like it a bit spicy, especially in winter. The combination of apple and beet root is classic,  though not often found here in Greece. After trying this version I decided to serve the apple and beetroot on a bed of salad, which gave it more colour and volume.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

simple recipe

Preparation:

Mix the Wasabi, vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the sesame oil and mix well.

Fry the sesame seeds until brown.

Peel and slice the apple and the beetroot.

Put the beetroot into the dressing and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

Place both on a plate, pour some of the dressing over it. add some sesame seeds and serve.

I had some celery root left over from my soup cooking experience a few days ago, so I decided to fully focus on the cellery. I figured that apple is great to be combined with celery root, and so it was. What a simple and delicious soup that can be done in just a few minutes.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

cooking time: 15 minutes

very simple

Preparation:

Peel and cube the celery root, then peel and slice the onion. Fry both in a pot with a bit of olive oil for a few minutes, then add about a liter of water. Let it boil for approx. 15 minutes. This depends on how small you have cut the celery root. Meanwhile peel the apple and cut it into pieces. Just before the celery root has cooked soft add the fruit. Put all into a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

TIP: You can add a small piece of butter and a sip of cream to enhance the taste.

When I arrived in the house on the top of the hill, I was stunned by how full the lemon tree in the garden was. I had never seen so many ripe lemons on the tree and I observe it since many years. It almost was a pity to harvest all of them. I ended up having almost 20 kilos of lemons which I had to use. I quickly decided that jam would be the best thing to turn them into. Aunt Bina who was in Hydra as well, told me her simple and great recipe for lemon jam and lots of cutting began.

Preparation time for 1 kilo of lemons: 20 minutes

boiling time: 35 minutes

very simple

Preparation:

Put the lemons into a big pot with cold water and bring to boil. Simmer for 30 minutes, then drain them. Let the lemons cool down, then cut them into halves.

Spoon the pulp out of the fruit and put into a colander. Press the pulp with a wooden spoon through the colander and collect all liquids dripping down in a bowl.

Spoon the white out of the skin (if existing) and throw it away.

Slice the skin very finely, then put it into a pot. Add the liquid, the sugar and the gellant and bring to boil for 5 minutes. See the instructions on the pack of the gellant in case that they differ. Fill the jam into glasses and close tight.

I love lentils in anz form but this recipe is my favourite. Probably because my mother used to cook them this way, as a stew. Lentil stew is a hearty dish with few ingredients. Growing up in Tyrol, speck was added to the dish. An ingredient the region is famous for. Often some slab was added during the cooking process, which later was removed again in order to give some extra taste to the dish. Lentil stew I can always eat, sometimes with a sausage or just a piece of bread.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

cooking time: 30 minutes

simple recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Soak the lentils over night in water. Drian them and put them to boil in plenty of water. They should be soft, but al dente after 10 minutes. Drain them once more.

You could be using canned lentils as well. In this case start form here.

Peel the carrots and slice them finely.

Peel and dice the onion. Fry both in a big pot with some oil on medium heat.

Cube the speck or bacon and fry it in a small pan until it is crusty.

Add the honey to to carrots and onions and mix well.

Cut the leek into stripes and add to the carrot mixture. Stir and fry for a minute then add the vinegar. Add the bay leaves, the bacon (speck), the mustard and the lentils and stir well. You might want to add a cup of water. The ingredients should be covered in liquid and simmer for 20 minutes.

Season with salt and peper. Ready to serve.

I discovered this delicious apple cake at Smiten Kitchens blog. It seemed to be a fairly easy recipe and the thought of caramel in connection with apples and molasses was convincing me. A moist gingerbread batter combines perfectly all wintery flavours.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

baking time: 50 minutes

simple recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation of the toping:

Melt the sugar with the butter in a small pot on the stove. Save some butter to grease the pan.

Let the sugar boil for a moment, it will caramellize. Now add the salt.

Pour the butter sugar mixture into the baking pan. Now make cirkles with the apple wedget ontop of the caramel. This is crucial for the visual appearance of the cake later on as this part will be faving up.

Preparing the batter:

Mix Butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy.

In a seperate bowl mix the egg, the honey, the buttermilk and the molasses.

In a third bowl mix the flourer, the baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and salt.

Now you start mixing ingredients into the butter mixture. Tage a few spoons of the egg mixture and blend it into the butter mixture. then take some o the flour mixture and blen it into the butter mixture. Repeat these steps until all ingredients are mixed. Step by step.

Now pour the batter over the apple nd spread out well.

Bake in the pre-heated oven at 160 degrees centigrade for 50 minutes. (mine took a bit longer). You cn always poke with a tooth pick into the cake. When the toothpick comes out dry, the cake is done.

TIP: You can serve the cake with ice cream, creme fraiche or whipped cream.

The German version of this recipe you can find here.

When I saw the Vichyssoise soup at Paules blogI got temted to try this potato and leek soup myself. Also this Spanish blog I am regularly reading, has a version of this soup, but this time with fried ham. I researched a bit and the version I finally decided to do is a la Paul Bocuse. The potato-leek soup is upgraded with some butter and a touch of cream.

preparation time: 5 minutes
cooking time: 30 minutes
very simple recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

remove the outer layer of the leek and cut it in half along its length. This makes it easy to wash it and free it of sand.

Peel the potatoes, then cube them.

Cut the leek in stripes (only the white bits)

Put some butter into a pot and gently fry the leek. Add the potatoes and fry those gently.

Add the water to the pot. Put the stalk of thyme and parsley into the pot and heat the pot up to boil lightly. Let the ingredients simmer until the potatoes are soft.

Remove the parsley and the thyme stalk. Drain the potatoes but keep the poiling water.

puree the potatoes while slowly adding some of the boiling water. Also add the cream sip by sip until the coup has the right consistence. This is depending on how thick you wish the soup to be.

Mr. Bocuse lets the soup cook down and fridges it for 2 hours before he re-heats it and seasons it.

I skip this step and serve it straight. Adding some salt and a few flakes of butter, the soup is ready to be served.

These little, soft cookies that are dipped into a Honey syrup you can only find around Christmas here in Greece. Melomakarona are made form late November on, they are the classic Greek Christmas cookie. You can find them in bakeries but also may of the small grocery stores around the neighbourhood sell these home made sweets on big trays. I love this juicy cookie so I had to try to make them. Melomakarona, as well as Ravani, are sweets that a baked dry and then dipped into a Syrup from honey, orange, cinnamon and cloves. The trick is to make them soft but not soggy, light but not falling apart.

A great french language version of this cookie I found at en direct d´Athenes as well as a “Greek moms version” on Yannis blog, my little baklava.

Preparation: 15 minutes

baking time: 25 minutes

have to sit over night

medium difficult recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Mix the olive oil with the sugar and the orange juice.

Blend half of the flour with the baking powder. Mix the fower mixture with the olive oil orange juice mix.

Add the metaxa, the wallnuts and the semolina adn mix well. Add orange and lemon zest to the dough.

This should result in runny bur thick dough. Now you have to knead the remaining flower into the mixture until you have a hunid, non sticky gough.

Let it rest for an hour.

Now you can form the little oval cookies that are just like oversized olives. Place them onto baking paper on a tray. Press them with a fork jsut a loittle bit, so they get an inprint. This the typical pattern of the cookies.

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven at 180 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes. Then let them cool down.

Fpr preparing the syrup you have to just put all the ingredients into a small pot and let them simmer for a few minutes.

Dip the cookies into the syrup and let them soak for a couple of minutes. Then place them on a roasting tray. They should sit on the roasting tray over night in order to soak perfectly. You can check on them occasionally and even dip them once more. It is good to use up all the syrup that you made. The cookies need some time to soak and will develop their taste fully over night. This is true slow food!

Be careful though that the cookies never sit for a long time in the syrup in order not to get soggy.

The next day place the cookies on a plate and sprinkele some crushed wallnuts over them.

The cookies will be good for approximately 10 days.

The German version od this recipe you will find here