Strawberry fields forever

The sense of smell is such a powerful sense. It can make you travel a thousand miles away with the whiff of a perfume reminiscent of the Orient. It can make you travel years back when you suddenly smell the essence of vanilla coming out of a bakery, reminding you of your mother in the kitchen, making you your favorite honey doughnuts on a sunny morning.

Sweet smell, spicy smell, the smell of fruit, the smell of freshness...
Don't you love the smell of all things fresh? From freshly cut tulips and the pure smell of a newborn baby to the clean scent of soft, fluffy clothes straight out of the dryer and a bunch of chopped herby mint. From the smell of a hot and crunchy bread loaf baking in the oven to the sweet smell of tomatoes that hits you when you cut into them with a big knife. Of all fresh smells though, the one I love the best is that of strawberries.






I remember when I was little, the feeling I got when my mother brought home from the market the first strawberries of spring. I'd get so excited. The smell of those sweet strawberries, their incredible red color, their cute little yellow seeds; it was my favorite fruit in the whole wide world. I'd put my share of strawberries in a bowl, I'd sprinkle them with more than enough sugar, I'd take a large spoon that could barely fit into my mouth and after a minute or two they'd be gone. Strawberry juices running down the side of my mouth and in my face you could clearly read the feeling of satisfaction. Such satisfaction.






Even now, that's the best way for me to enjoy strawberries. I've come to know, cook and experiment with a lot of strawberry recipes over the years but my first instinct as soon as I lay eyes on them, is to smother them with sugar and eat them on the spot. Well, that and the urge to make a strawberry daiquiri. No patience for elaborate strawberry mousses or cakes here but instant gratification.






I recently discovered another way to use fresh strawberries that's so inspiring, so healthy and more importantly, so unbelievably tasty. Strawberry dressing over a crisp, slightly bitter rocket salad with feta cheese. It is amazing. This past week it has become my number one salad. And as long as I can find strawberries this season, this will definitely be a regular around here.






This salad has a wonderful combination of flavors. The bitterness of the rocket along with the sharpness of the feta might be enough for some. But add to the mix the awesome taste of the dressing and this salad becomes the mother of all salads. The sweet tang of strawberries, the zing of the lemon and the richness of the olive oil along with the pepperiness of the ginger and the welcomed addition of honey, make this creamy dressing a beautiful and delicious concoction.






Accompany this salad with some bread and you have the perfect lunch. Have it for a special dinner together with a bowl of pasta Bolognese and a bottle of a young Chilean red wine; the rare variety of Carmenere grape would be the best choice.






This strawberry dressing is thick and substantial and above all very versatile. You can use it not only on top of salads but on top of your favorite white cheese, on top of a cheese tart or a Greek tyropita (cheese pie) and it goes tremendously well drizzled generously on top of shrimp or fresh lobster. Yum!






By the way, did you know that strawberries are the only fruit that has its seeds on the outside?










Rocket Salad with Feta and Strawberry Dressing
Adapted from Gastronomos magazine

You can use spinach instead of rocket for this salad. I would recommend using baby spinach which is more tender and less stringy and doesn't need to be blanched before eaten.







Yield: 1 salad for two / 1 cup of strawberry dressing

Ingredients
80 g fresh rocket leaves
100 g feta cheese, cut into small cubes

for strawberry dressing
200 g fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and cut in half
3 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 heaped tsp clear honey
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup olive oil
A pinch of freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of salt

Special equipment: food processor or blender and a fine sieve


Preparation

for strawberry dressing
Put the washed, hulled strawberry halves in the food processor or blender and process them for 1 minute until they become a purée. Pass the purée through a fine sieve and into a bowl, using a spatula to force all of it through the sieve and leaving the small seeds behind. Place the seedless strawberry purée back into the food processor and add the rest of the ingredients. Process everything for 1 minute until you have a homogeneous mixture.

You can either store the dressing in a tightly closed jar in the fridge for later use or use it immediately.

for salad
Wash the rocket leaves and put them in a salad spinner or just leave them in a colander to drain off excess water and then place them in a salad bowl or large plate. Scatter feta cubes on top of the rocket leaves and drizzle the strawberry dressing on top of everything. Use as much or as little as you wish.

Serve salad.

Note: Depending on whether your strawberries are ripe or not, you may want to use more or less of the lemon juice and honey. If strawberries are not so ripe then use a little more honey, if they are too ripe then use a little more lemon juice. Taste along the way.

You can keep the dressing in the refrigerator for a couple of days in an airtight container.

Baking hits and misses

I, like many other bakers before me, have had my share of baking misses; especially during hectic holiday seasons. That's when everything seems to go wrong. Why? Perhaps it's the expectation of baking marvellous and exciting goodies during those times or simply it may be the fact that I get fed up with food, desserts and my crazy oven, that I can't "perform" as well as I'm able to. Who knows? But this holiday time is by far no exception.






It all started last week when I wanted to bake Easter cookies. Being away from home and needing to feel like Easter is really almost here, I yearned for the smell of cookies to fill my apartment. After coloring my Easter eggs, Smyrneika cookies, a traditional kind of Greek Easter cookies, were my cookies of choice to bake. I prepared them anxiously and enthusiastically and put them in the oven. But the baking time in the recipe I had was completely off and I ended up burning my first batch. I wasn't surprised. I persevered and I baked the next batch, but this time I was watching the oven like a hawk and happily, they came out perfect. Crumbly and buttery and smelling divine. I know I'm teasing you now, since I'm not offering you the recipe for these, but I promise I will soon.






Moving on, this week, the Holy Week, a tsoureki (a sweet, brioche-like traditional Greek Easter bread) was due. And not any tsoureki, I'm talking about my grandmother's tsoureki. The best of all times. She has given me her famous recipe two years ago but it always ended up a disaster when I made it. So, when I was in Greece last Christmas, I decided to be proactive. I had her show me how it's done. I bought the ingredients and I made her prepare it for my sake. I watched her mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough, resting it, baking the glorious bread, the whole thing. I jotted down everything, every seemingly insignificant detail of whatever she was doing. And let me tell you, that was not an easy task since my grandmother cooks and bakes with no recipe. She just follows her much exercised instinct, measuring everything by using her eyes ("me to mati" as we say in Greek) and not any cups or spoons, making it practically impossible to succeed in making one of her recipes, unless you watch exactly how she does it.

The little honey bees want to fly away...

Armored with that priceless experience of witnessing the preparation of The tsoureki, I was determined that this upcoming Easter I would make my best tsoureki ever. Well, surprise surprise. Alas, this year my tsoureki was worse than ever. Perhaps you couldn't exactly tell by looking at it, unless you're an experienced baker that is (or not), but it was stiff, doughy, flavorless, not risen, it was awful. I was so disappointed. I was genuinely sad.






I decided right then and there that I would bake something completely different, something that would hopefully be a success and I found it. Forget about chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies this Easter, have a chocolate honey bee cake! Isn't it cute? When I first saw this recipe I was completely taken by the little bees adorning the top of the chocolate cake. I had to make it. It instantly made me think of spring and since it is (almost) here, this is the right cake to bake. This is a hit!






Needless to say, this is the perfect cake for chocoholics. I bet there are many of you out there and I am definitely a member of the club. Dark chocolate and cocoa powder, what a fantastic duo. They both render their beautiful deep chocolaty flavor to the cake and along with the honey and muscovado sugar they make it a real treat for children and adults alike. It may be April Fool's Day today but this is no lie.

The real Dutch dutch-processed cocoa

This is a very moist and dense cake with a glaze that is thick and a bit sticky from the honey. It clings to your tongue a little bit, taking your taste buds for a sweet ride. This is not a cake for the faint-hearted. It is adapted from Nigella Lawson after all. You'll need a lot of exercise to burn off those calories after having eaten it, but it is worth it.






You can surely leave the bees out for a slicker looking cake or you can make fruit or other shapes using the marzipan. You may alternatively cover the cake with dark chocolate shavings for the complete chocolate experience. No matter what kind of decoration you choose make sure to use your imagination.
Oh, and wouldn't this be the best cake for a child's birthday party?












Honey Bee Chocolate Cake with Sticky Chocolate Glaze
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

It is really important to use good quality chocolate for this cake. It makes all the difference. I chose Lindt dark 70% chocolate which has a supremely bitter flavor.







Yield: 1 cake, 10-12 slices

Ingredients

for cake
225 g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the pan
100 g dark 70% good quality chocolate, cut into pieces
125 ml runny clear honey
275 g light muscovado sugar
3 medium-sized eggs
300 g all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda, sifted
2 Tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
500 ml boiling water

for sticky glaze
200 g dark 70% good quality chocolate, cut into pieces
150 ml runny clear honey
100 g icing sugar, sifted
80 ml water

for honey bees
40 g marzipan
2 drops yellow food coloring
16 blanched flaked almonds or almond halves

Preparation

for cake
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Butter a 26 cm round spring-form pan and line it with baking paper.

Melt chocolate in a glass bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Set aside and let cool slightly.

In a large bowl, beat with a hand-held mixer the sugar with the softened butter until light and creamy. Then add the honey and beat for 1 minute. Add 1 egg beating it in with 1 Tbsp of the sifted flour. Then add another egg with another Tbsp of flour and then the third egg with another Tbsp of flour. Beat well.
Fold the melted chocolate in the mixture with a rubber spatula and then add the rest of the flour followed by the baking soda and cocoa powder and pour the boiling water on top. Beat the mixture very well with the mixer. You will end up with a runny batter. Pour it into the spring-form pan.

Place pan on the lower rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Then move pan to the middle rack of the oven and bake for further 30-40 minutes or until when inserting a knife in the middle of the cake it comes out clean.

Note: After a total of 35-40 minutes of baking has passed, check the cake and if it's catching on top, cover it with aluminum foil so it doesn't burn.

Take cake out of the oven, place on a wire rack and when it has slightly cooled, take it out of the pan and let it cool completely on the wire rack.

for sticky glaze
In a small saucepan, pour water and honey and bring to the boil over high heat. Turn off the heat and add the chocolate pieces. Stir gently the chocolate around with a rubber spatula until it melts. It will have an almost grainy texture. Leave it for a few minutes and then whisk the mixture. It will become glossy. Add the sifted icing sugar and whisk vigorously until you have a smooth and shiny glaze.

Glazing the cake
Choose the plate or stand where you'll place your cake, cut four thick strips of baking paper and form a square outline on the plate. This will ensure that your plate or stand will not be covered with glaze when you pour it over your cake.
Place the completely cooled cake on the plate and pour over the glaze, saving some of it in the pan, and evening it out with a palate knife, letting it run over the edges. Smooth the edges and let it set. It will take about 2-3 hours for the glaze to completely set. Once it has set, carefully slide out the baking paper strips.

for honey bees
You can prepare the marzipan using this recipe. This will yield quite a lot of marzipan so you can use the rest for making small chocolates or save it for another dessert.
In a small bowl, place the 40 g of marzipan and pour two drops of yellow food coloring. Knead the marzipan so that it becomes a bright yellow color. Cut the marzipan into 8 pieces and shape little bees.
Dig two flaked almonds or almond halves in the sides of each bee gently and using the left over sticky glaze and with the help of a toothpick, paint stripes on the back of the bees and eyes at the front.
Place your honey bees on top of the cake.


Serve cake and enjoy!


It keeps for 2-3 days, covered, at room temperature. If you bake this at summertime, store it in the refrigerator.





HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!!!

Giant beans and small chilies

Easter is less than two weeks away and the period of Lent is well under way. It's a difficult time for people who fast, being deprived of meat and dairy products. I'm not included in that category but I do know that for some people it's worse than others. Many crave juicy steaks and fried eggs, many dream of feta cheese pies and meatballs and most of them wait anxiously for Easter Day to come in order to enjoy the oh-so-incredible lamb.

In Greece, on Easter Day, every household roasts a whole lamb on a spit (sorry for any vegetarians out there but that's the tradition) and enjoy a "kokoretsi" which is (vegetarians look away!) seasoned offal like sweetbreads, kidneys, lungs, hearts that is wrapped with lamb intestines and roasted on a spit. I know it sounds kind of gross for those of you who are not familiar with it, but let me tell you, it tastes absolutely marvellous. But that's another post and of course I must be in Greece to write it because in Holland you can't go to your butcher and ask for a kokoretsi. When you explain to him what it is, he'll probably have a heart attack right then and there.






Now, what does lamb has to do with beans? Well, ostensibly nothing, but for me it's the closest thing to meat that you can have without actually having meat. So, in essence you get all the nutrients and fibers without all the toxins. Isn't that great? When I say beans though, I don't mean the small little pathetic canned beans that most people eat. I'm talking about dried giant Greek beans, perhaps the best beans in the world.






Giant white Greek dried beans are absolutely delicious legumes. They're so fulfilling and substantial and in Greece we use them to make an excellent dish. Baked giant beans or "Fasolia gigantes sto fourno" which is my favorite white bean dish. The beans are first cooked in water to soften and then you smother them with a deliciously tomato and red pepper sauce and you bake them in the oven until they crisp up. As with any other Greek dish, every home cook adds his or her own twist. My twist is a rather fiery one. Hot red chili peppers in addition to boukovo. Boukovo is the Greek equivalent to dried red pepper flakes and it is hot. Add too much and the dish is ruined.






So this is a hot and spicy Greek dish. At least my version is. Of course you can adjust it to your own tolerance of heat, which is the beauty of it, but there are certain ingredients you just can't toy with. One of them is the parsley, flat-leaf parsley not the curly, useless, only-for-decoration one. Parsley is so underestimated it bothers me. It is a beautiful herb with such a fresh and aromatic flavor that really complements the giant beans, balances the hot notes and brings the whole dish together.






It's a main dish that can feed and satisfy a whole family. I serve it with a side of feta cheese, a big chunk of feta cheese that I sprinkle with Greek dried oregano and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and some wonderfully tasty Kalamata olives. Make sure you also have lots of bread around to gather up all that flavorful sauce that covers the giant beans.






What's very interesting about this dish is that, apart from being a hearty main dish, it's also a traditional Greek mezes, served on a small plate and accompanied by ouzo or beer. So keep that in mind the next time you plan to have friends over, have a mezes dinner party with some tasteful little plates of yummy food, including these delightful beans.












Fasolia Gigantes sto Fourno-Plaki (Greek Hot & Spicy Baked Giant Beans)

You can use any kind of red hot chili pepper you prefer or can find. It's a matter of personal taste as well as heat-tolerance. I used Thai chili peppers because I love how hot they are but beware, don't use them unless you enjoy enormous amount of heat in your mouth. I wouldn't suggest using them or any other extremely hot chilies unless you're familiar with them.
If you can't stand the heat of chilies or simply don't like them omit them from the recipe altogether.
Boukovo I suppose is hard to find outside of Greece but you can use dried red pepper flakes or the Turkish equivalent, Pul Biber, or Aleppo pepper, which are very much like boukovo. I wouldn't suggest omitting boukovo from the recipe. It is not that hot if you use a small amount, as in this recipe, and it gives a great flavor to the dish.







Yield: 4-6 main-course servings

Ingredients
500 g giant Greek white dried beans or dried large butter beans
Water
2 1/2 cups bean cooking liquid
1/2 cup olive oil
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, sliced
400 g fresh tomatoes, skinned, seeded and cubed or canned diced tomatoes
3 tsp tomato paste
2 large red bell peppers, cut into thick strips
A pinch of sugar
Salt
1/4 tsp boukovo or dried red pepper flakes
2 fresh red hot chilies (optional)
2 Tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley including stalks, chopped, plus extra to serve (only leaves)


Preparation
Soak the dried beans by placing them in a large bowl and filling it with tap water so that the beans are completely covered. They need to be soaked for 12-16 hours. It's better to do this overnight.
Drain them in a colander and rinse them very well under running water. Then put them in a large pot, cover them with water and bring to the boil over high heat. Turn down the heat to low and let beans cook for about 1 hour until they're soft but not cooked all the way. Ten minutes before they're done sprinkle some salt in the water. Don't add salt as soon as you start cooking the beans because they will become tough.
Drain the beans and reserve their cooking liquid.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile start preparing the sauce.
To prepare the chilies cut them lengthwise, remove membranes and seeds with the tip of your knife, wash them under running water and finely slice them*.
In a medium-sized saucepan heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the onions. Sauté for 3-4 minutes until softened and add the garlic. Sauté for further 1 minute and add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, sliced chilies, pinch of sugar, salt and red pepper flakes (boukovo). Stir everything around the saucepan and pour 2/3 cup of fresh water. Stir again and let it come to the boil. Immediately turn the heat down to low and let sauce simmer for 20 minutes. Five minutes before the sauce is ready add the red bell peppers and stir. When sauce is ready remove from heat and set aside.

Transfer the cooked beans into a large ovenproof glass or ceramic baking dish (I used a 36cm x 25cm ceramic baking dish) and pour the sauce all over the beans. Stir everything around so that the beans get coated with the sauce and add 2 1/2 cups of the reserved bean cooking liquid into the baking dish. There should be enough liquid in the dish to cover the beans. Put baking dish carefully on the lower rack of the oven and bake for 45 minutes until beans are soft, almost falling apart on the inside and a bit crunchy and golden brown on the outside.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with some chopped parsley and serve.


*When handling chilies, especially the very hot ones, it is better to wear rubber gloves. Otherwise you need to wash your hands thoroughly after working with them and avoid contact with your eyes, nose or mouth.