Cauliflower Chowder

I liked this chowder. Particularly because you can add or leave out some of the vegetables or change the quantity. You can just through together what you have.
For example I had almost no cauliflower, so I substituted it with potatoes. I love onions, so I added some more of those. A little different but still good.

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Cauliflower Chowder

6 stripes smoked ham
3 tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves
2 onions
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
2 cauliflower heads, small
2 bay leafs
3 tbsp parsley
1/2 cup flour
6 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups milk, low fat
salt
pepper

1. Skin and mince the garlic cloves.
2. Skin the onions. Cut them into medium sized cubes.
3. Peel the carrots. Cut them into medium sized cubes.
4. Wash the celery stalks and dab them dry. Cut of the bottom and the leafs. Afterwards cut the celery into medium sized cubes.
5. Cut the cauliflower into smaller florets.
6. Let the butter melt in a big sauce pan.
7. Add the garlic, the onions, the carrots and the celery to the pan. Cook everything until it's tender, about 4 minutes. Stir occasionally.
8. Add the cauliflower and the bay leafs. Cook it until it's tender, about 4 minutes. Stir occasionally.
9. Stir in the flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until it turns brown.
10. Gradually add the vegetable stock and the milk.
11. Stir constantly until it is thicker, about 4 minutes.
12. Bring to a boil.
13. Let it simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender.
14. In the mean time cut the smoked  ham into small pieces and fry them until they are crispy. Put them on a paper towel and leave them for later.
15. Mince the parsley.
16. If the chowder is to thick you can add some more milk.
17. Season with salt and pepper.
18. Stir in the parsley.
19. Serve with some ham strewn over it.

Bon appétit!!

Painted Vanilla Cookies

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The recipe for the Vanilla Cookies. 

Bon appétit!!

Vanilla Cookies

I had nothing to snack on so I thought I make myself something sweet.

A few days before I've seen some painted on cookies on pinterest and I really wanted to try that out. It's kinda like painting in watercolors and I'm not that bad with those.
So I found myself a cookie recipe that would work for that. I'm satisfied with this recipe. The edges stay sharp after baking. But you still have to be careful not to break of the corners. And of course they taste good.

I actually didn't eat all that many of them. Effectivly only those you can see on the picture at the top.
On all the other cookies I put some royal icing, as you can see on the picture beneath.

This was the first time I used royal icing. It was harder to use than I thought. I need some more practise until I can make a straight line.
I had some problems with making the royal icing. I just couldn't get stiff peaks, only really soft soft peaks. The reason for that was most likely that I didn't use cream of tartar. I've never seen it in a grocery store, couldn't find a substitute and I didn't want to buy it online (the shipping costs are as high as the buying price).
But the consistency is alright for cookies.

So my fist try at painting cookies worked out better than I thought. It's really more or less like watercolors. I used Wilton Gel Colors and diluted them with water.

I didn't have the time nor did I fancy to come up with my own motif. So I found myself some illustrations online. Except of the panda (I found that on pinterest), I used illustrations from the French artist Benjamin Lacombe and the German artist Anne Pätzke/Trenchmaker. I love them both. And now I made fanart on cookies.

Another reason why I chose this motifs is that they all have a rather simple form. I could sketch the outlines on the icing with severely diluted black but I couldn't erase anything. So the first sketch had to be more or less perfect. I did't make exact copies. Some things I had to change because of the dimension of my "canvas" and some I changed because I liked it better that way.

So I as I said I was rather satisfied with the outcome. The cookies looked really good. So good in fact that I couldn't bring myself to eat them. But I just couldn't let them laying around either. So I thought I send them to my mom. Not that I think she is going to eat them, but that way it wouldn't be me that has to suffer.

You can see the cookies up close here.

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Vanilla Cookies

Dough

225 g butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 g vanilla sugar, optional
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
4 1/2 cups flour

1. The butter shouldn't be to soft, it's enough if you take it out of the fridge one hour before you need it. Put the butter, the vanilla sugar and the sugar in a big bowl. Mix everything together with a hand mixer until it's creamy.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.
3. Add baking powder and salt and mix well.
4. Add the flour, one cup at a time. Use the dough hook to mix everything together.
5. Dust your work station with a little flour. Roll the dough out on it. It's easier if you only roll out small portions at a time. Cover the dough you aren't working with with saran wrap, so it doesn't dry out. If you don't want to ice the cookies they should be about 0,5 cm thick. If you want to ice them make them thicker, about 1 cm.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
7. Put baking paper on a baking sheet.
8. Cut out the cookies with a cookie cutter or a knife.
9. Place the cut out cookies on the prepared baking sheet. Don't place the cookies to close, they will raise a little during the baking.
10. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes, depending on size. The edges should have a light gold-brown color.

The dough is enough for 2 1/2 - 3 baking sheets.

Royal Icing 

3 egg whites
500 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1. Clean out the bowl you will use, to make sure it is absolutely fat free.
2. Sift the icing into a bowl.
3. Put the egg whites into the cleansed bowl. Beat them lightly for a few seconds.
4. Add the lemon juice.
5. Add the icing sugar one tablespoon at a time, while continuously whipping the egg whites on high.
6. Whip the egg whites for about 5-10 minutes. Until you have stiff peaks (soft peaks worked too).
7. Cover the bowl with a clean damp towel, while you are not working with the icing. To keep it from drying out.

To Assemble

piping bag
decorating tube, small round
decorating tube, medium round
3-6 tsp water

1. Prepare a piping bag with the small round decorating tube.
2. Fill some icing into the bag.
3. Pipe an outline onto the cookies.
4. To make the icing to flood the cookies, add water to the royal icing. One teaspoon at a time. To test the royal icing for the right consistency, move something through it. When the icing smooths out after 15 seconds, than it has reached the consistency you want.
5. Prepare a piping bag with the medium round decorating tube.
6. Fill some icing into the bag.
7. Flood the "outlined" cookies with the icing. Shake them a little from side to side to smooth it out.
8. Let the icing dry over night.
9. Paint the cookies.

Bon appétit!!

Zucchini Pizza

Well, if you are looking for a healthy pizza dough substitute, you won't find it here. There is just to much cheese for that. Way too much for my taste, so I reduced it some.
The dough doesn't really get crusty like normal pizza dough, it's more along the line of a casserole.

I didn't use normal pizza sauce. I have a dry bruschetta mix you make with some oil. I love it. I always have it on hand, something less to buy, and it's not to strong when you only have a minimum of toppings.

Since this was about the "dough", I chose a topping that wouldn't overpower the taste of it. The "margarita" topping goes really well on the zucchini pizza. The problem is that it's to wet. I had to dab of some of the excess water from the tomatoes. I would say dry toppings are more suitable for this.

 

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Zucchini Pizza

4 cups zucchini
2 eggs
3/4 cup mozzarella
3/4 cup gouda
1/3 cup parmesan
1 tsp salt
pepper
topping of your choice

1. Wash and dry the zucchini.
2. Grate the zucchini, make it as fine as possible.
3. Put the zucchini in a colander, season with salt and leave it for at least 20 minutes.
4. Squeeze out as much water as you can.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 205°C/400°F.
6. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet.
7. Grate the mozzarella, the gouda and the parmesan.
8. Put the zucchini, the cheese and the eggs into a bowl. Mix everything together.
9. Spread the "dough" evenly on the baking sheet.
10. Bake it for 20 minutes.
11. Take the sheet out of the oven and spreed the prepared toppings on it.
12. Bake the pizza for another 15 minutes.

Bon appétit!!