Gluten Free Ricotta Cake

Why are Fridays always that good?! I get up easily, go to work with a light feeling knowing that after it I am free like a butterfly: can stay awake longer without any need of getting up early the next day, can go meet my friends and not hurry up home to cook/bake/make my homework for the German classes, can just sit the whole evening reading doing NOTHING ;) Those are the moments worth to wait for from Monday through Thursday. And although my work is a lot of fun, I sometimes really need a rest. Just some time for myself, with no rush and time pressure. And for all this I love weekends. And moreover I adore days off for having more time to bake/cook something really special. Just like the recipe today. 

This is a gluten free cake with ricotta and polenta. Worth to try, I promise! A bit moist inside, yet nutty and redolent with a slight sourness.

Ingredients:
yields 18-20 cm cake

2 middle ripe bananas
50 g butter
160 g corn flour (polenta)
100 g honey or rice syrup
3 tbsp lemon zest
4 eggs
100 g almond flour
250 g ricotta
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 18 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. It may be also a 20 cm form.

As you know from my other posts you may reach additional pleasant sweetness in the pie by replacing sugar with banana. And this is exactly the case. In a food processor blend bananas, add butter, 50 g honey, lemon zest, vanilla. Then pour the egg yolks and mix well. Now it is turn of the main ingredients. Fold the batter adding almond meal, polenta and ricotta. 

Meanwhile beat the egg whites for about 1 minute. Portion by portion add honey and do not stop whisking until shiny glossy meringue. Honey may be replaced by rice syrup if you prefer. I did not have it this time.

Pour the batter into your form and bake for about 40-50 minutes  or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little. My decoration was pretty simple - sugar dust and pecan nuts.

Enjoy your weekend and save some time for yourself ;)

Wholewheat Banana-Date Bread with Walnuts

Rainy weekend... Nothing surprising for this time of the year in Hamburg. And sometimes it is not that bad because you pick your "To-do-in-rainy-weather list" and find something special to cheer you up. It may be reading of another interesting book that was waiting on your shelf for better times, or watching a movie that transfers you to a different world of adventures, or doing something useful like cleaning, sewing, knitting. For me it is usually cooking. But firstly - gathering inspiration. I start leafing through my favorite cooking books, magazines, food blogs, pinterest posts in my Recipes desk and usually come back to reality in about an hour, full of ideas and energy. This time it was very quickly. Since I finally got Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver I wanted to do this fantastic recipe: Figgy Banana Bread. And everything would be cool and smooth if I didn't realize that I don't have dried figs and almonds :(......

 But who cares?! If I have enough dates and walnuts! And a bowl of inspiration!!!

So here is my version of Bread from Jamie Oliver - Wholewheat Banana-Date Dread with Walnuts.

Ingredients:

yields 1 round loaf of bread 24 cm in diameter

adopted from Everyday Super Food by J.Oliver

250 g dried pitted dates (about 30 dates)

100 g wholemeal spelt flour

50 g wholemeal buckwheat flour

4 tbsp grapeseed oil

5 tbsp Bulgaria yoghurt

1 tbsp corn flour

2 large eggs

3 ripe bananas

1/3 tsp vanilla seeds

1 heaped teaspoon baling powder

100 g ground walnuts

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 apple

50 g whole walnuts

This bread is really packed with healthy ingredients (nuts, wholewheat flour, seeds, healthy oil), contains only natural sugar, no added. Therefore it serves a perfect snack to-go, breakfast or dessert. I personally had a wonderful breakfast today - couple of banana-date bread slices with peanut butter.... Yummy!!!

First of all preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 24 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. Wash the dates and place 200g of them in a food processor together with eggs, peeled bananas, oil, yoghurt and vanilla seeds. Blitz until smooth. Then add both flour types with baking powder, ground walnuts, poppy seeds and turmeric. Pulse until combined with the rest of the dough. Add corn flour.

Grate the apple and mix it in. Pour the mixture into the form and spread evenly. Cut the remaining dates into pieces and decorate the bread with them, pushing them a bit. Then place walnuts all over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little.

Voila! Easy and ready to be eaten: a Perfect Smooth Sweet Nutty Healthy Date-Banana Bread with Wholemeal flour and Walnuts!

All you need now is PATIENCE not to eat it all at once ;)

Strawberry Cheesecake: made with LOVE

Tomorrow is Valentine's day and you are probably willing to make this day sweet. Almond cake was my last year's creation. I clearly remember a nice nutty flavor spreading around. Perfect rasprerries were like little hearts all around the cake. And it seemed that love was in the air... everywhere I looked around! So why not to make this Valentine's day even better?!

 I decided to review my posts I find for each wish a separate one. For the ones who prefer classical recipes with minimum preparation time and complexity level, I would highly recommend chocolate souffle. You will have two in one - healthy and romantic dessert. Maybe some of you want to make a perfect cake for this occassion and here it is. Just a pinch of patience ;) 

Of course, you can make the sweet treat really simple and clever. Like chocolate hearts with marzipan. I think everything with a heart shape is acceptable on St.Valentine's Day. Having no heart forms does not mean you are not able to do anything. Just check this one. All you need is a kitchen blender and your hands. What I decided was a perfect strawberry cheesecake. The basic recipe you will find here. I decided to make it LOVE-ly adding strawberries on top.

Ingredients:

for 28 cm round baking form

100 g wholewheat cookies

40 g butter

3 tbsp cold water

1 kg low fat cottage-cheese

200 g creme fraiche

2 bananas

3 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

5 eggs

zest from 1 lemon

1 pack of vanilla pudding powder

250 g fresh strawberries

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp strawberry jelly (for glazing)

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

For the crust blend the cookies into dust and mix with butter and water. The powder should get sticky enough to form a nice bottom for our cheesecake. As soon as it is well mixed put a sheet of baking paper into the form and using your hands or a spoon make a nice thin layer on the bottom of the form. Bake it for 10 minutes. If it raises a bit do not worry. The filling will press it back down.

And here is the filling. 

Separate egg whites from yolks in different bowls. Put the egg whites into fridge. Meanwhile mix yolks with 2 tbsp of sugar and mashed bananas. Add vanilla seeds, mix well. As for cottage cheese I usually take low-fat cheese. If you prefer 20% or even 40%, go for it. Put cheese of your choice, pudding powder and lemon zest into yolk-banana-sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Now leave it all aside and get the egg whites out of the fridge.

Beat egg whites as explained in a tip here. Fold the carefully into cheese mixture and get your baking form with a crust inside. Pour the ready cheesecake mixture into the form. Cover the bottom of the form with foil and place it in a bath. In other words, take a bigger form and pour 1-2 glasses of water into it. That would be a bath for our form with cheesecake. If you have no bigger form you can use just any heat resistant folder with water as a bath. Put it then on the bottom of your oven. This trick will insure you a velvety structure of the cake. And believe me, that is something worth to reach.

Baking time - 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 140° C and bake 20-30 minutes more. It depends on the height of the cake. The higher - the longer baking time.

After that let it cool down until room temperature. Meanwhile wash the strawberries and melt strawberry jelly. Then mix it with the berries in order to reach glossy skin. Then decorate the top of cheesecake with strawberries and put it into the frigde for about 2 hours.

Here it is: a nice glossy strawberry cheesecake, tender, smooth and sooo tasty!!!

Have a SWEET Valentine's Day! Love and be loved! Catch every moment and enjoy it as much as you can!

Made with LOVE! By #GourmetBalance

Wok Root Veggies with Seafood and Coconut Milk

Hello February! A magic month when you already hope that spring will come very soon, yet spend your time enjoying your favourite winter attractions like skating, skiing, drinking hot wine.

Some time ago we visited Italian supermarket and apart from ricotta, mascarpone and variety of italian cheese we discovered there a wide range of different pasta types, shapes, colours and forms. And when I saw black spaghetti I knew I can make a special dish out of it. In combination with some seafood that both of us love...mmm... 

And here I was in the kitchen... checking my veggie supply in the fridge. And I thought why not make it really simple yet very interesting flavour-combinationwise. And I chose root vegetables for it. Simple and easy. Yet veeeery special!

Ingredients:

yields 4 portions

1 big white onion

100 g red beets (1 big or 2 middle sized)

100 g carrots (2 middle sized)

100 g parsnips (2 middle sized)

250 g seafood mix (I had prawns and mussels)

100 ml coconut milk

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp curry powder

1 lemon

salt and pepper

oil

spaghetti al nero di seppia

First of all wash and peel the veggies. Then vut them into pieces. The size is up to you. But remember that for smaller ones the cooking time has to be cut down. I chose medium.

Cook spaghetti as per instructions on the package al dente.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce: pour some oil and grated ginger into a big wok, in a minute add and fry onions until they soften a bit. Then put vegetables into the pan. You will notice how red beet colours the rest of the veggies. And that is absolutely fine. Adds some nice bright colour. Stir for about 5-7 minutes and then pour coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper. In the end add curry powder and mix well. In another preheated pan in a little amount of oil lightly fry the seafood mix. Do not overcook because prawns might get chewy.

Before serving directly on a plate mix spaghetti with root veggies and seafood. Sprinkle of pepper on top will make it even more spicy. A fresh side salad goes along incredibly good.

Voila! Enjoy a nice evening or lunch in a good company with good food.

Because good food is always a good idea.