Weekend Herb Blogging #293 - Roundup

Weekend Herb Blogging, that was created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and now managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once is already in its 5th year. Anh of A Food Lover's Journey is going to be next week's host. If you'd like to participate, make sure you check out the rules and send your entries to anhnguyen118 AT gmail DOT com . Now let's see the entries!

The first entry has arrived right away from New York Citry, from Peggy from The Blog that Ate Manhattan. She shares a recipe for "Summer Sunday Pesto" with Mint, Basil and Parsley.

Tigerfish from teczcape - an escape to food from California, USA has posted about lotus root and you are going to find a recipe for a Lotus Root, Celery and Squash Stir-Fry.

 

Janet from The Taste Space from Toronto, Canada shares a delicious recipe for a miso-walnut dressing with asparagus and carrot salad.

 

Cheah from No-Frills Recipes from Malaysia, shares a recipe for long bean chicken noodles that is perfect for a lazy evening.

Stash from The Spamwise Chronicles from New York, USA, shares a recipe for braised lettuce, that nowdays forgotten French classic, served this time with peas, young onions, baby squash and mint.

Eve from The Garden of Eating  from Woodstock, NY, shares a lovely recipe for roasted fennel.

Elly from Nutmegs, seven from Cambridge has rarely and very little time to make desserts, however now she shares a gorgeous recipe for a greengage and almond cake.

Sra from When My Soup Came Alive from India, shares a recipe for a curry with drumsticks. Curious? Check it out!

Elizabeth from OUR Kitchen from Toronto, Canada shares a recipe that is just perfect for a hot summer evening: lemongrass chicken on vermicelli rice noodles.

Rinku from  Cooking in Westchester from Westchester County, New York brought a recipe for a refreshing Chilled Cucumber and Tomato Soup.

Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once from Melbourne, Australia was craving for Sformato di Broccoli, that is similar to a soufflé, but it is much easier to get it right.

 

Cinzia from Cindystar from the Garda Lake, Italy shares a unique entry for a body scrub.

Finally my entry with sour cherries:

Thank you all for participating! I hope you had as much fun as I did hosting.  See you next time!

Weekend Herb Blogging #293 - Sour Cherry

It is already the 5th time, that I am allowed to host the Weekend Herb Blogging, that is by the way already in its 5th Year! A weekly blog event was created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and since a long while it is managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. I am looking forward to your entries!

Here is what you have to do: prepare a recipe using herbs, vegetables, plants, edible flowers or fruit on your own blog, and email the link over to me ( almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com) before Sunday the 24th July.

Post about any herb, plant, fruit, vegetable or flower - read the rules to ensure that your post does qualify. Please include a link to both this post and to Haalo’s announcement post.

Send an email to almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com with WHB#293 in the subject line and the following details:

Your Name

Your Blog Name/URLYour Post URL

Your Location

Attach a photo: 300px wide

Emails must be received by:

3pm Sunday - Utah Time

9pm Sunday - London Time

8am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time

or you can use this converter to find out the corresponding time in your location.

You can also check out who’s hosting for the rest of the year at this post and find information about hosting WHB.

Sour cherries were already know by the Greeks in 300 BC. They were also very popular with Persians and Romans. There are two varieties of sour cherry: the dark-red morello cherry and the lighter-red amarelle cherry. Sour cherries, unlike their sweet counterpart, are too sour for some people's tastes to be eaten fresh, although Europeans and Middle Easterners regularly do so. The taste is a unique blend of tartness, with perfume-like aromas that affect the over-all flavor. They can also be used in cooking, especially in soups and pork dishes, cakes, tarts, and pies. Also dried sour cherries are commonly used in cooking. They are also used in combination with sugar, which balances the acidity and brings out the fruit's aroma and flavor. Thus a variety of liqueurs, desserts, preserves and drinks are made with sour cherries or sour cherry syrup. (source:wikipedia) I do love sour cherries ever since my childhood, and today I am here with an old fashioned, english cherry cake, that I baked with sour cherries.

Ingredients:

(based on a recipe by Delia Smith)

200 g butter

200 g sugar

4 eggs

200 g flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

100 g ground almond

250 g sour cherries or cherries

2 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Beat soft butter together with sugar until foamy, beat in eggs one by one. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder and ground almond. Fold in pitted cherries and sprinkle the top with brown sugar. Bake the cake in the preheated oven  on 180°C for 1 hour, then cover the top and bake for another 20-30 minutes.

Weekend Herb Blogging # 258 - Curly Kale

Until the end of the Middle Ages, kale was one of the most common green vegetables in all of Europe. Curly leafed varieties of cabbage already existed along with flat leafed varieties in Greece in the 4th century BC.


Kale is a form of cabbage green or purple, in which the central leaves do not form a head. It is considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms. Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties; kale is considered to be anti-inflammatory. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. (source:wikipedia)



Last week, I had curly kale for the very first time in my kitchen. I like the normal kale very much, so it was not a surprise that this won't be different with the curly one. I decided to preapre something rustic. A creamy polenta with dried tomatoes, sheep's milk cheese and roasted walnuts topped with kale chips.


Ingredients:
300 g curly kale
250 g polenta
1000 ml chicken or vegetable stock
handful of dried tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried majoram
1/4 teaspoon ground caraway
50 g butter
35-40 g sheep's milk cheese
roasted walnuts
olive oil
salt, pepper

Slice kale leaves but without the finning. Heat olive oil and sautee chopped garlic, spices, add kale and chopped dried tomatoes and cook for a few minutes over low heat. Add polenta and stock and cook it until the polenta is ready. Stir in butter, cheese and roasted walnuts. Season and serve.


I submit this post to the WHB created by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen, who passed it on to Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once, this time hosted by Cinzia from Cindystar.

Weekend Herb Blogging #257 - Roundup

Weekend Herb Blogging, that was created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and now managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once is already taking big steps forward to its 5th year. Cinzia of Cindystar is going to be next week's host. If you'd like to participate, make sure you check out the rules and send your entries to cmc AT cindystar DOT it. Now let's see the entries!


The first entry has arrived right away from Greece, from Katerina from Culinary Flavors. She shares a recipe for "Mama Blue Chicken" with a cute story behind it.


Rachel from The Crispy Cook from Saratoga County, NY, USA has a terrific post about a Poblano Peppers variety, the Tiburon pepper. You are going to find a couple of tips how to use this green beauty.

Cinzia from Cindystar from Italy, who is our host this week shares a wonderful recipe for a Pumpkin Muffins a perfect autumn treat.


Claire from Chez Cayenne from Houston, Texas, USA, shares a recipe for whole wheat apricot and pecan bread that is perfect for breakfast or even goes well with a hot bowl of soup.


Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook from New York, USA, shares a recipe for pink satin applesauce that is wonderful way to use some fresh fall apples.


Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once from Melbourne, Australia was craving for cauliflower and she shares a real delicious recipe for a cauliflower cake.


Joanne from Eats Well With Others from New York, USA likes to buy things just in case. In that case she has finally opened a can of pumpkin puree out of 20 and baked delicious pumpkin white chocolate chunk and candied ginger bars.



Brii from Briiblog in English from Valsorda on the Garda Lake, Italy shares a recipe for a vegan light shortbread crust cake with prune jam and rice pudding.


Finally my entry about quinces:


Thank you all for participating! I hope you had as much fun as I did hosting. Thank you Kalyn and Haalo! See you next time!

Weekend Herb Blogging #257 - Quince

It is the 4th time that I am allowed to host the Weekend Herb Blogging, that is taking big steps towards its 5th Year! A weekly blog event created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and now managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. I am looking forward to your entries!


Here is what you have to do: prepare a recipe using herbs, vegetables, plants, edible flowers or fruit on your own blog, and email the link over to me ( almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com) before Sunday the 31th October.

Post about any herb, plant, fruit, vegetable or flower - read the rules to ensure that your post does qualify. Please include a link to both this post and to Haalo’s announcement post.

Send an email to almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com with WHB#257 in the subject line and the following details:

Your Name
Your Blog Name/URLYour Post URL
Your Location
Attach a photo: 300px wide

Emails must be received by:
3pm Sunday - Utah Time
9pm Sunday - London Time
8am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time
or you can use this converter to find out the corresponding time in your location.

You can also check out who’s hosting for the rest of the year at this post and find information about hosting WHB.

It is great to back to host this great event after such a long time! I decided to post about quinces, because this year is the first time when I can say I do love quince. It is such an aromatic fruit and it is absolutely beautiful. The quince is the sole member of the genus Cydonia and native to warm-temperate southwest Asia in the Caucasus region. It is a small deciduous tree, growing 5–8 m tall and 4–6 m wide, related to apples and pears, and like them has a pome fruit, which is bright golden yellow when mature, pear-shaped, 7–12 cm long and 6–9 cm broad.


The fruit was known to the Akkadians, who called it supurgillu; Arabic سفرجل safarjal "quinces" (collective plural). The modern name originated in the 14th century as a plural of quoyn, via Old French cooin from Latin cotoneum malum / cydonium malum, ultimately from Greek κυδώνιον μῆλον, kydonion melon "Kydonian apple". The quince tree is native to Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Pakistan and was introduced to Syria, Croatia, Bosnia, Turkey, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine and Bulgaria.In Europe, quinces are commonly grown in central and southern areas where the summers are sufficiently hot for the fruit to fully ripen. They are not grown in large amounts; typically one or two quince trees are grown in a mixed orchard with several apples and other fruit trees. Charlemagne directed that quinces be planted in well-stocked orchards.The seeds contain nitriles (RCN), which are common in seeds of the rose family. In the stomach, enzymes or stomach acid or both cause some of the nitriles to be hydrolyzed and produce HCN (hydrogen cyanide), which is a volatile gas, not likely to remain at the scene for long. The seeds are only likely to be toxic if a large quantity is eaten. (source:wikipedia) Well, no need for the seeds in my recipe for quince mousse.


Ingredients:
3 quinces
1 piece of cinnamon
1 mace
2-3 cloves
1-2 cardamom pods
400 ml water
100 g sugar
2 egg yolks
38 g cold water
50 g sugar
1 gelatine leaf
100 g cream

First prepare the pâté à bombe: bring a pot of water to the boil and whisk together the egg yolks with cold water and sugar and put into the pot with the simmering water (the water should touch the pot with the egg yolks-sugar mixture) and cook while whisking for 40-50 minutes or until it is thick. Let it cool, sieve and beat it with a mixer until foamy. Peel quinces and poach them in a syrup cooked of 400 ml water and 100 g sugar together with the spices and let the quinces cool in the syrup. You can also preare them the day before and leave quinces in the spicy syrup overnight. Puree and set 85 g aside, the rest can be served with the mousse. Soak gelatine in cold water and stir it into the warmed puree. Let it stand for 5-7 minute and stir in 56 g of the pâté à bombe, then fold in the beaten cream. Pour the mixture into forms and refrigerate for 4-5 hours.