Colourful summer smoothie

Summer is here, and what doesn't fit better if not a refreshing colourful smoothie!

Summer smoothie

serves 2
2 green kiwi fruits
2 yellow kiwi fruits
2 handfuls of frozen raspberries
4 ice cubes
agave syrup

Peel the green kiwi fruits, slice, put into a blender with 2 ice cubes and blend until smooth. Add some agave syrup if you like. Divide between two glasses. Do the same with the yellow kiwi fruits and spoon them carefully over the green kiwi. Blend the frozen raspberries and spoon over the yellow kiwi fruits. Done!

Blog Quesadillas turns 2

Second year of my little blog has passed and I am continuing to explore our amazing world, through the kitchen. Maybe somewhat slowly, but I am loving and enjoying every step of it. I hope you do too!

For this birthday celebration I decided to make quesadillas with mini asparagus. Normal size asparagus is very German but this mini asparagus not so much. I have seen it only in one food shop so far, imported from Thailand. I was really curious about it so I bought it.

It is as big and as thin as a pencil. And it is so tender that there is no need to peel it or to cut off the ends. I just washed it and cooked it in a pan with some olive oil for about 5 minutes. It can also be eaten fresh. The taste is not that strong as of the normal size asparagus, is rather mild.

I used Italian cheese Fontal (Fontina) because it melts perfectly, although the taste might be somewhat too much intense for a quesadilla. But it did fit nicely with the mini asparagus and the corn tortilla. Happy Birthday Blog Quesadillas!

Rapeseed

This is the plant that the rapeseed oil (canola) is made of. It looks very pretty when it blossoms, fields are covered all with yellow, super pretty. The stalks have also oblong, very thin pods and inside these pods grow small seeds from which the oil is extracted.

I live very close to one of these fields so I will try to follow up its growing process.
In cooking I only use cold-pressed (non-refined) rapeseed oil as it is much healthier than the refined rapeseed oil. And to keep all the great vitamins I never heat it, I use it only in cold dishes and salads.

Wolfram Alpha

If you have ever wondered:

a) how much Vitamin C is hiding in one apple?
b) how much grams is 1 cup of chocolate chip?
c) how much iron there is in 2 tbsp of Nutella?

look at Wolfram Alpha, new knowledge engine!

Answers:
a) 13%
b) 168g
c) 1,62mg, or 9% of your daily iron intake...not bad Nutella, not bad at all!

Onion cake on strudel dough

I have been experimenting with the strudel dough for a while and this is one of the results. I re-made the German Zwiebelkuchen by using the strudel dough instead of the yeast dough. I think I like this version better.

Onion cake on strudel dough
serves 4
400 gr onion
2 dl sour cream
1 egg
1,5 tbsp flour
50 gr smoked ham
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp salt

2 dl flour
1,5 tbsp oil
pinch of salt
about 5 tbsp warm water
3 tbsp melted butter for brushing the dough sheets
bit of chopped leek

Make the strudel dough and let rest for an hour. Cut the smoked ham in small dices and together with caraway seeds cook in a bit of olive oil until fragrant. Put in a small bowl, set aside. Slice the onion thinly and cook in the same pan you cooked ham and caraway seeds previously. Let the onion become soft, takes about 20 minutes.

In a bowl mix sour cream with eggs, add flour, ham and salt. Add everything to the warm onion mixture. The topping should be spreadable but not runny.

Stretch the dough and cut out 5 sheets, 20x35 cm. Preheat the oven, 180 C. Place one dough sheet on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter. Spread bit of the ham and caraway seed mixture, leave about 2 cm edge all around. Put another sheet of the dough and repeat the process as previously until you have used all the dough sheets and ham and caraway mixture.

Make sure to brush the edges with butter well otherwise they will be dry and hard when baked.

Fold in the edges of the dough and spread the onion mixture in the middle. Put in the oven and bake about 30 minutes or until slightly golden on the top. Decorate with chopped leek.