levels of reality

door and window, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

The Heart of the Matter 23 - The Roundup

I asked for entries and you rose to the occasion! You can't imagine how nice it was so see your entries trickle in after fearing that this was the last edition of the Heart of the Matter-Eating For Life event - Thank you so much! And the variety of entries is also inspiring to see, we have a lot to choose from when we want heart healthy slimmer recipes and they come from all over the world too. Now I better get on with the roundup, if I missed someone or if there are links that doesn't work, please tell me!


First entry to arrive was from Andrea of Cooking Books who created a really good looking Lentil Soup for us, I like the chunkiness of it, it gives me the feeling that I will feel nicely full after eating it!

Our HotM veterans Jugalbandi are back with the most incredible Beet Chocolate Cake to slim our guilty feelings! And as usual, if it comes from Jugalbandi, you can be sure it is healthy!

My friend Meeta of What' For Lunch Honey? made me happy by sending in a mouthwatering entry, her Szechwan Pepper and Ginger Sprouts look great!

Sarah of What Smells... So Good? offers us a total lycopene kick with two bagel recipes, her Pumpkin-Spice Bagels and To-Mato Bagels really makes me feel like having a go at them!

This filling Sun-Dried Tomato-Tortellini Soup comes from Patsy K from Family, Friends and Food, it looks really good and all those vegetables are pure health.

Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe has created an amazing Miso Soup with Tofu, Noodles and Vegetables that makes me crave a serving straight away despite I'm not a miso soup fan!

Labelga of Leafy Cooking is also a HotM veteran apart from being a blog friend and she offers us a fresh Grated Salad with Budwig Mayo(naise) and gives you the recipe of a healthy mayonnaise version, I didn't realize that it could be done! Thanks!

Take a look at these Mixed Flour & Root Vegetables Paratha/Flatbread from Soma of eCurry and try to convince me that you don't want to grab one and stuff it into your mouth straight away! I won't believe you

Ching-Chong Salad is how Bird's Eye View of Food and Laughter has named this China inspired salad which has a nice spicy dressing that I must try!

We have several entries from Indian food blogs, next comes from Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and it is a Dal Panchratan ( A Five Lentil Gravy Preparation). I love Indian cooking and I wish I had the ingredients to prepare this!

My lovely HotM sister Michelle from the accidental scientist, made a really intriguing pasta dish, her Walnut, Parsley and Flax Pesto on Angel Hair Pasta sounds great, I have to try it!

Ellen of Feeding My Enthusiams gives us exactly what you need up here in the northern hemisphere right now, just the name of her entry, Sunny Citrus Chicken, cheers me up, not to talk about the dish in itself!

Then we have the Chicken Gazpacho that Navita of Zaayeka sent me and which I absolutely will try as soon as it gets hotter here!

Ning from Heart and Hearth (couldn't be more fitting for the HotM)serves us fish, her Braised Fish Fillet in Black Bean Sauce looks so incredibly good! I want it now!

Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes sent in a warming and good soup, her Tomato and Barley Soup would be perfect after being out all day in the sunny but chilly weather we are having right now!

But we need sweet food too, don't we? The Apple Oats Bars that you find over at Curry Leaf's blog Experiments, Emotions, Experiences with Food are both good and healthy so there's no need to feel guilty!

Joelen of Joelen's Culinary Adventures is next, her colourful Vegetable Frittata can easily be made even more heart healthy by using only egg whites instead of the whole eggs in case you need to be really careful with animal fat. But I think it is good as it is!

Yesterday I received a last minute entry from Lynn of Sacatomato, she has made a lentils soup with the wonderful name Black Beluga Lentil Soup, with vegetarian Beluga!

I posted a Green Cauliflower Soup with Capers and Lemon

and yes, another lentil soup, mine had green beans, sun-dried tomatoes and thyme in it.

Yet again I want to thank all the participants -Thanks for making this event!

BROWN RICE WITH HERB MARINATED BROCCOLI, ZUCCHINI AND DAIKON - Gluten-free Friday

Another Gluten-free Friday, I have been wanting to make some cookies that are buzzing in my head but I just haven't had the time this week so that will have to wait until next week when work should be less urgent. But I do have something gluten-free for you, maybe not one of those dishes you serve at a dinner party but a very good filling comforting dinner or lunch dish. I love brown rice, I like the crunchiness it has and the flavour of brown rice beats white any day. I steamed the broccoli and zucchini and then marinated them together with raw daikon sticks in lemon juice, fresh herbs and extra-virgin olive oil. I cooked the vegetables completely because I wanted to mash them in the vinaigrette to thicken it and add to the comfort aspect of the dish but feel free to use more al dente cooked vegetables!





BROWN RICE WITH HERB MARINATED BROCCOLI, ZUCCHINI AND DAIKON

500 ml/2,1 cups brown rice
500 g/17,6 oz broccoli
3-4 zucchini
1/2 daikon root or Japanese radish
fresh herbs, rosemary, thyme, parsley or any herbs you feel like, finely chopped
lemon juice
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Peel the daikon and cut them into thin strips or slice it thinly
- Steam or cook the vegetables. Divide the broccoli in florets and slice the zucchini.
- Mix the lemon juice, herbs, salt and olive oil and pour it over the hot vegetables. If you do it my way, you mash them slightly to bt a thicker vinaigrette. Leave to marinate.
- Meanwhile you cook the brown rice, it takes about twice as long as white rice.
- Put the rice in a bowl and pour the vegetables, mix a little and serve.



Some recipes with brown rice here on Lucullian, for more see the recipe index:

AVOCADO AND SNAP BEAN SALAD WITH SUNDRIED TOMATOES, BROWN RICE AND BALSAMIC VINEGAR
BROWN RICE WITH CHICK PEAS, ONION, MUSTARD SEEDS AND ROASTED TOMATOES

infinity

infinity, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

MEDITERRANEAN MEATBALLS

This 'recipe' has been around for ages, I don't know why I never posted it when I made it, I think it was because I didn't like the photos because the meatballs were great! But now is the time to disregard aesthetic principles and go for the flavour because here we have lots and lots of flavour embedded into the meatballs, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella made them really tasty. And they are so simple to make. The only problem is that I have forgotten the exact measures so I can only give you a recipe sketch.





MEDITERRANEAN MEATBALLS

minced beef
egg but it works without, it just keeps together better with an egg
capers in salt
sun-dried tomatoes
mozzarella
salt

- Prepare two small bowls with tepid water and put the sun-dried tomatoes in one and the salted capers in the other. Leave to soak for 20-30 minutes.
- Cut the mozzarella into small pieces or cubes. Chop capers and tomatoes finely. Mix them all.
- Mix the minced meat with the egg and a little salt, not too much because the capers and tomatoes are salt already.
- Take some minced meat and flatten it out to an oval, put some of the capers-tomato-mozzarella mix along the middle and fold and press the meat over the filling. It is easiest done in the palm of your hand. Go on until you have finished the meat. You can any forms you want actually.
- Fry in olive oil all around and serve with a fresh salad or whatever you feel like.



Some recipes with meatballs here on Lucullian, for more see the recipe index:

ROSEMARY SCENTED CHICKEN MEATBALLS
HOT MEATBALL SALAD
PEA AND LEEK BROTH WITH LAMB FRICADELLEN AND BUCKWHEAT DUMPLINGS

BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH WALNUTS, SESAME SEEDS AND THYME

First of all I want to thank everyone who voted for me in the Food Blog Awards, thanks to you I am a proud 'looser' because the food blogs that won are really very good and fully deserve to win. And I got a lot of votes thanks to you! Of course I'd love to win but I also think that if I ever won it would very probably put me into a crisis, I would feel that I had to be up to it all the time and live up to people's expectations. And that inevitably brings out that little obstinate 2 1/2 year old in me and that is not a pretty sight, I can tell you. So I am happy to potter around here on my own and have my own freedom to be good or bad when I want. I feel just happy to have been among the chosen 5! Thanks again!

So now I have to hurry on with the recipe, I need to finish a photo job today plus that we don't have almost anything to eat in this house so my minutes here counted! Brussels sprouts again, yes but let's enjoy them because they are good to eat and good for your body!






BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH WALNUTS, SESAME SEEDS AND THYME

250 g/8,8 Brussels sprouts
100 ml/0,42 cup walnuts
1 tblsp sesame seeds
1 or 2 sprigs of thyme
1 clove of garlic, optional
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Clean and quarter the Brussels sprouts and put them in a skillet with some oil and the garlic.
- Start cooking them on a low flame/temperature, add the thyme and cook until the sprouts are soft.
- Meanwhile chop the walnuts and add them and the sesame seeds to the sprouts. Go on cooking for a couple of minutes.
- Serve as it is or with couscous, rice, quinoa-you name it!



Some recipes with Brussels sprouts here on Lucullian, for more see the recipe index:

CROSTINI WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR BRAISED BRUSSELLS SPROUTS AND GOAT´S CHEESE
LIME BRAISED BRUSSELS SPROUTS
BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH PANCETTA AND DRIED FIGS

Portrait of my dog

Portrait of my dog, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

POLENTA AND CARDAMOM CRISP ROLLS

One of my fondest food memories from my childhood is me sitting at the kitchen table, drinking milk and eating crisp rolls or skorpor as they are called in Swedish. There were different ways to eat them, you could put butter on them or marmalade but my favourite way was to dip them into the milk and let them soak so that they became softer. Sometimes they got too soft and half the crisp roll remained in the glass and I had to get it with a spoon. I don't know how many times I must have been doing this, hundreds I suppose. I'm not much of a crisp roll eater nowadays but I still like them, especially when they are crunchy and put up some resistance before they succumb to my grinding jaws. The other day I found a scrap of paper with an old recipe I created years ago but that I obviously wasn't satisfied with as I had written suggestions for changes. Well the next try was last week, more than ten years later and this time I was satisfied with them. Not too sweet and the polenta flour gives them a nice crunchy texture that I really like!





POLENTA AND CARDAMOM CRISP ROLLS
about 40

25 g/0,9 oz fresh yeast
500 ml/ 2,1 cups milk
100 g/3,5 oz butter
200 ml/0,85 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
350 ml/1,5 cup polenta flour
800-900 ml/3,4-3,8 cups flour + more to be added before the second rising

- Melt the butter in small pan, add the milk and let it warm up to about 37°C/98,6°F.
- Mix the yeast with a little of the liquid until it has dissolved. Add egg, sugar, salt and cardamom and mix very well.
- Add the polenta flour and then the normal flour and stir well. The dough will be wet because the corn flour need to absorb the liquid so you better work it with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes.
- Let the dough rise for 1,5-2 hours.
- Work the dough on a floured surface, adding enough flour to make it an elastic and non-sticky (possibly) dough.
- Divide the dough into 20 parts and work these into small oval or round buns that you put on baking sheets and leave to rise for about 40 minutes.
- Bake the buns in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) for 8-10 minutes. Take them out and turn down the oven to 100°C/210°F.
- When the buns have cooled down a bit, you take a fork and stick it into a bun all around its 'waist', in this way it is easier to divide them into halves. Do the same with all the buns.
- Put the crisp rolls to be on baking sheets and dry them in the oven for at least 1 hour.
- Serve with marmalade or any other topping you feel like.



Some recipes of baking with polenta here on Lucullian, for more see the recipe index:

GLUTEN-FREE ZESTY LIME AND POLENTA COOKIES
POLENTA AND PLUM JAM COOKIES
PEAR & PINE NUT POLENTA CAKE (GLUTEN-FREE)

CLEMENTINE AND GINGER JELLY TRIFLE

Third Friday in a row that I am keeping my commitment of posting recipes for my Gluten-free Friday. I started GfF because I dreamt about it one night but also because I want to show that gluten-free food not necessarily have to be complicated or difficult for those of you who think so and that a lot of food is naturally gluten-free. There are a lot of incredible food blogs about gluten-free eating that are far more creative and knowledgeable than I am; Lucullian is a food blog about 'normal' cooking but I want to support those who have to live a life without gluten and help those who maybe don't know what to cook when they learn that they will have a gluten-free guest for dinner. Today's recipe is a great dessert for any dinner I think but then I am childishly fond of jelly, it brings back childhood memories of those neon coloured jelly puddings you made out of a box and that probably modified my genes in unforeseen ways - how I loved them! Nowadays I refer to make my jelly with fresh fruit juices and they are a world apart from those I had then! Fortunately.






CLEMENTINE AND GINGER JELLY TRIFLE

jelly cubes:
500 ml/2,1 cup clementine juice, freshly squeezed
3-4 tblsp sugar or more. Or less. It depends on how sweet your clementines are
12 g gelatin in sheets or follow the measures on the package.
fresh ginger, finely chopped, OPTIONAL

cream:
200 ml/0,85 cups fresh cream
200 ml/0,85 cups milk
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
4 tblsp corn starch
1-2 tblsp citrus liqueur, I used a mandarin one but any kind of citrus fruit would work

- Put gelatine leaves in water to soak for 10 minutes.
- Heat up the juice and sugar but take it off the heat before it gets too hot. Add gelatine, ginger and liqueur and stir well.
- Pour the liquid into a low, preferably square, bowl. Not to big, the jelly should be about 2 cm/ 3/4 in high. Leave to solidify for 3-4 hours.
- Mix the ingredients for the cream in a small pan and heat it up stirring constantly, whip if necessary, until the cream has thickened. Leave it cool down completely.
- Cut the now solid jelly into small cubes.
- Spoon a layer of cream into portion sized bowls or glasses, then make a layer of jelly cubes that you cover with an abundant layer of cream and then top with more jelly cubes.
- The dessert is now ready to be served. I put some finely chopped candied orange peel on top but that is very optional!



Some jelly recipes here on Lucullian, for more see the recipe index:

ROSEMARY SCENTED APPLE JELLIES
TEA AND GINGER JELLIES
PEAR AND BEET ROOT JELLY WITH LIME AND GINGER (scroll down for recipe)

oh to rest my head on this ..

oh to rest my head on this .., originally uploaded by ilva-b.

bell ringing

bell ringing, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

EGG HALVES WITH HOT TOMATO AND ANCHOVY SAUCE

Sometimes I wonder how it would have been to have just one child, to have stopped at one and never continued giving birth to the other ones. I wonder if it would have been easier or not. Not that I am not happy to have the other two, I remember vividly how good it felt when no 2 was born, it was as if our family had gained the right balance, but I still wonder. Just as I now have three children to rejoice in, with one I would only have had one to worry about. Or is the sum of worrying constant and the amount of my worry is now divided in three instead? I suppose we all are worriers to different degrees, I don't consider myself a great worrier and I am not that apprehensive when it comes to my children, but it is there somewhere. Nagging. Better not think too much about it.

In France you often get a hard boiled egg as a starter and I have always liked it, I often make it when we have guests. Here I have made an Italian variation.





EGG HALVES WITH HOT TOMATO AND ANCHOVY SAUCE

hard-boiled eggs
sweet tomatoes
chili paste. You can use ground or fresh chili too
anchovy fillets in oil
parsley, finely chopped
chili pepper, in paste or ground or chopped
lemon juice
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Chop the tomatoes finely and unless they are extremely watery, keep the liquid.
- Chop anchovy fillets finely.
- Mix tomatoes with anchovy, chili paste, parsley, lemon juice and olive oil. Check the salt and add a little if needed.
- Divide the hard-boiled eggs in two length wise, put them on a plate and and spoon the sauce on top of each egg.



Some recipes with filled eggs here on Lucullian, for more see the recipe index:

ASPARAGUS AND PESTO FILLED EGG HALVES
SARDINE EGGS WITH CHILI AND GINGER
EGG AND COUSCOUS SALAD SERVED IN EGG HALVES