Cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises in french)

Cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises in french) is a classic french dessert for summer that is pretty easy to make. It has actually fresh cherries in a rich custard that you can serve warm or at room temperature.
Traditional clafoutis is made with cherries that have still their pits that french say that make a difference in taste. I have used ready-made cherries that have already been pitted and preserved in a light syrup, though. It's so easy to make and so summerish that I could not resist to add it to my blog that time of the year! And if you are among the lucky ones that have a cherry tree, here's how to use your extra cherries :)

Happy & tasty summer !

Ingredients
150gr all-purpose flour
100gr sugar
3-4 eggs
50cl milk
pinch of salt
vanilla
50gr butter
700gr cherries

Procedure

1. Preheat the over at 170 degrees of Celsius and fan.
2. Beat eggs with sugar, add flour, salt, vanilla, milk and finally the soften butter.
3. Butter a round baking dish, add the cherries and pour the custard over the cherries.
4. Bake for about 50min or until it gets a nice golden color.  

Note: If it starts to get burned too fast, cover it with aluminum and continue. It is normal also if it wiggles a bit when finished baking, let it cool and it will setup. It will also inflate a bit, do not worry, it will deflate when cooled.

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Tyropita, the greek feta cheese pie!

Family was asking for tyropita, the Greek feta cheese pie, last week and searching to find the recipe in my blog I realized that it was missing! I had only the spanakotyropita recipe that is even better but more complicated. So, you can imagine the rest... had to take photos on top of cooking :)
I was extremely busy & tired and so was my daughter that I asked to take fast some photos, which explains the low quality of the result. But it's better than nothing,  no?
So, if you like feta cheese, try this recipe and you won't regret it :)
My only regret is that I had to leave immediately after so I tasted it much later at night when I came back... at least family was nice and had left me a few pieces !

Ingredients
250gr feta cheese (original, not imitations :)
250gr of various hard yellow cheeses that you prefer GRATED (here Gruyere and Comte)
4-5 eggs
500gr filo (special thin dough for greek pies)
200ml of milk
100ml extra virgin olive oil (of good quality)
salt, white pepper
sesame seeds (optional)


Procedure

In a bowl, smash the feta using a fork and add the other cheeses, salt and pepper and mix a bit.
In deep oven dish of 40x30cm that you buttered the bottom, add 3 layers of filo that you have sprinkled a bit of olive oil on each one before adding the net one. Then you continue to add layers of filo in the following way:

• add 2 every time in a way that each one covers half of the space in an accordion style,
• sprinkle all over some olive oil
• pour evenly all over some of the cheese mix
• add one layer of filo and sprinkle oil again on it 

Repeat the procedure until it's only left 3 layers of filo that you use to finally cover everything.

With a sharp knife then you cut in pieces 5x5cm all the surface. In a separate bowl, you stir the eggs and add the milk and stir once again. Pour the mixture evenly to the top and optionally decorate the top with sesame seeds.
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 30min or until it gets a nice golden color. Enjoy!

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Truffade auvergnate (sort of :)

Sometime ago, I was honored to accompany my son's class to a field trip in Auvergne (a french region), more precisely in Cantal a department in south-central France, with its capital at Aurillac.
We spent a dreaming week in a farm surrounded by animals, warm-hearted people and a beautiful, green scenery thanks to the volcanoes that the region is known for.
One of the last dinners, we had the chance to try one of their typical dishes, the delicious "Truffade Auvergnate" which is a sort of a thick pancake made with sliced potatoes, garlic and cheese (more precisely the variety called "fresh tomme" or Cantal jeune). For more information, search the web, for example wikipedia. After some scooping on the web, I've found that there exists also a similar recipe, "The Aligot", but I have never tried it yet. Maybe the next time that I will visit the region :)
Cheese is one of the typical products there, with Cantal cheese (one of the oldest in France, from the time of Gauls) but also Saint- Nectaire and Salers.
Cantal cheese is a firm (semi-hard) cheese, made from raw or pasteurized cow's milk from the Salers breed. According to the time of aging, it can be found in three varieties:

• Cantal jeune (1-2 months aged)
• Cantal entre deux (2-6 months)
• Cantal vieux ( more than 6 months)

In the recipe that I will provide you today (easy but so tasty!), I have used Cantal entre deux, that was the only one that I could find easily (sorry Celian for not being too concentrated the day that you proposed me to buy some when we were there, but I can now admit that I have some intolerance and that kind of cheese it always scares me :) 
Here it goes ....

Ingredients
1/2 kg of waxy potatoes (I have used Agatha variety)
250gr tomme fraiche de Cantal (I have used Cantal entre deux) 
2 toes of garlic 
some oil
salt, pepper

Procedure

Peel the potatoes, slice them thinly and cook them in a big saucepan (I have used my wok) using some frying oil like sunflower's (instead of goose fat that was used traditionally) until they are tender.  Smash them slightly using a fork.
Add the sliced garlic and season with salt and pepper. 
Cover all over with sliced cheese. Normally, you cover and let the cheese melt and then mix well with a wooden spatula. Given that I have used a harder version of cheese, I decided to put it in the grill and mix when it was well melt. The final result should give a thick pastry, a bit different from my version that was still very tasty.
Serve immediately in the table with the saucepan and accompany with a fresh green salad and some slices of ham.  
Whole family agreed that it was a nice way to remember those beautiful days spent in Cantal, sitting around a tasty dish, one warm evening in our garden... Thanks CM1-CM2! (even for the cooking recipes book that I got thanks to your tombola which included also this recipe...)

       

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Happy Easter 2017

Dear family, friends, acquaintances and just passengers from this blog,

I wish you all Happy Easter whatever that means for each one of you, if it means something.
Actually, I am so busy this period that I have realized just 2 days ago that Easter is this weekend :)
This blog proposes several traditional Greek recipes to prepare these days that each one reminds me of the Easter time that I have spent in Greece with my family at good and bad times.
I continue to prepare most of them for my subsequent family and I will be glad if my effort will help others to bring up memories from their youth in the same way or even better :) Cheers!
Recipes:

• Easter eggs
• Roast lamb leg (traditionally we roast the whole lamp in a huge barbecue, though)
• Easter cookies
• Vivian's pudding
• Ribbon cake as Easter cake
• Tsourekia (recipe is still missing but you can see what it is and get a recipe somewhere else...)

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Feta cheese balls

Remember the recipe of feta cheese pies (tyropitakia)?
It's one of our favorite salty starters and if you have never tried it before this is the moment to do it!

I am giving you an alternative that is pretty simple, much simpler than the original recipe.

You just mix all the ingredients together using the kneader tool of your mixer and you just make small balls and bake exactly as in the original recipe. 
HUmmm, delicious!

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Hummus

Ok, I won't pretend that I managed to have a nice hummus on my first attempt neither on my second, I do not know why actually, as it is one of the easiest dip recipes to make.
I want to thank Katia (my ex zumba teacher that makes the most delicious hummus :) for her recipe and Aneta for being the intermediate (and for iniating me to zumba btw :)
So, what is hummus ? It's a Lebanese food dip made of chickpeas that I just loooove and that it takes a few minutes to make at home (much better than store-bought).



Ingredients
1 can of cooked chickpeas or 250gr of cooked chickpeas
fresh lemon juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove minced
2 spoonfuls of extra-virgin olive oil (plus some extra for serving)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
some salt
1 spoonful of tahini
(Katia likes to add some parsley or celery also, so you just improvise for the rest :)

Procedure

Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Mix all the ingredients in a food processor apart from tahini.
When you have a smooth puree, then add the tahini and mix once again.
Empty in a nice serving dish, sprinkle with some olive oil and paprika and use pitas to taste it!
You can store in an air-tight container and in the fridge max for a week.

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Hearts all over :)

Last week, passed with me making hearts all over my cooking for my dear ones :)
I am not fan of St. Valentine's day but I have a very dear friend Valentine that I profit to send her a virtual hug !
I can share some of my crazy ideas but chuuut, do not tell anyone, ok?
Recipes that were used are my Homeburgers and the mosaic cake covered with white chocolate.
A big kiss to my daughter that helped me with the cake and taught me new techniques in pastry!!!

 

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