Spinach Sandwich Bread step by step recipe

Hello September! The season I like the least... But who knows?! Maybe this year it appears to be the second summer. I have decided to cleam my to-do list and post the recipe you were most interested in. So many questions I have got on my Instagram account about this one.... And it is definitely worth it!

This year I was lucky to visit Le Cordon Bleu short courses to learn among all the rest how to bake my own bread. Apart from the other recipes we were making a spinach sandwich bread which looks so good that you just can't stand :) Very aromatic, spinach green and so fluffy you will definitely like it. Let's go!!!


Ingredients:
135 g  flour (I use spelt flour)
80g fresh spinach
2,75 g salt
5,5 g sugar
5,5 g fresh (compressed) yeast
17 g butter
15 ml  water room temperature 

additionally for decorating:
softened butter for the mould
1 egg yolk for brushing
seeds, sesam (*optional)


Get all the ingredients ready and weighted. Wash the spinach leaves and drain then well so that the liquid is gone.

Place all the ingredients except butter and water into a bowl of a blender. Mix them well adding water little by little.

 The dough should get smooth, have nice green colour and be sticky.

 Then transfer the dough into a bowl of the stand mixer with a dough hook. I adopted this recipe to non-professional kitchen equipment, because my stand mixer for example is not that powerful to combine spinach with flour into a dough.

In a stand mixer using a dough hook mix the dough on a higher speed and add butter. Mix until well combined. The dough has to be about  25 degrees Celcius. Mine was 26, so I left it a bit longer to cool down.

 Cover the bowl with a plastic film and leave for 45 minutes to rest.

 Form a ball and let it rest for 20 minutes.

 Shape the dougn into a long form like shown in the pictures below. At first, make a flat oval out of it, then flip one side towards you.

 After that flip the opposite side over it and stick well together.

 Then form a long form bread.

Put it into the form and brush with some egg yolk. If you want you can sprinkle some seeds on top of it. Or just leave it as it is. Or my version: take the scissors and bruch them in egg yolk a bit. Then make small cuts in the dough in each side lengthwise. Prove for 1 hour at room temperature.

 Bake at 145 degrees for about 30 minutes.

 Enjoy your colorful bread when it cools down! And don't forget to smell it! So lovely!!!!!

From home-made to gourmet!

#gourmetbalance

Fresh Basil Pesto

No idea what to cook? Trying to do something new but in the end failure? Here is what guaranteed pimps your everyday nutrition plan - fresh home-made basil pesto. Just think about the richness, spiciness and freshness you get when you make it at home. And all in all - 5 minutes. So you just HAVE to try :)

 Ingredients:
 2 cups basil leaves
80g Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano)
2 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
salt, pepper
*water if needed for consistency

Step 1
Prepare all the ingredients. Wash basil, you will need only the leaves. On a hot pan golden the pine nuts for more flavour.

Step 2
In your food processor mix all the ingredients and blend them until smooth but not creamy consistency. I find it really cool when pesto has these small chunks which intensify the flavour. If you see that the mixture is not coming together, add a bit of water. Or if you don't mind additional fat then add more of extra virgin olive oil.

Step 3
There is actually no step 3 :) Now you can enjoy the fresh pesto of your own preparation. It is well combined with tomatoes, or just pasta or the classic Caprese salad. Just go ahead and be creative.

 Look at this amazing pic with all the ingredients you need. Pin it to your Pinterest board and enjoy anytime :)

From home-made to gourmet there is only one step. So stay with me not to miss it :)

Ombre Home-Salted Salmon Loin

Long time, no see and here I am. A lot of things changed but my passion for cooking is still there. So let us together create something
FANTASTIC
MAGICAL
STUNNING
and UNBELIEVABLY TASTY! 

Today we will make a salted salmon with ombre effect. You have probably seeen my home-salted salmon already. I have got this recipe from my mother and use it quite often when we bump into a nice salmon loin during grocery's shopping. But today's idea was inspired by Chef Gordon Ramsay and I was so excited to try it out that I definitely advise you to do the same.

What do we need?!

Ingredients:
1 bigger or 2 smaller beetroots 
300-400g salmon loin
3 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Step 1
Wash the salmon loin under cold water thoroughly and dry it with a paper towel. Set aside

Step 2
In a bowl grate the beetroot, add salt and sugar and mix well until the mixture gets juicier. This happens due to the fact that salt pulls water out of the beets.

Step 3
Cover the loin with the mixture from all sides, put under pressure and keep in the fridge for 3 days. Every day make sure that excess water is being removed

Step 4
On the third day the fish is ready to eat. Collect the beetroot and wash the loin shortly to remove excess salt. The fish always soaks as much salt as it needs.

The good thing is: you can use rainbow salmon loin in a lot of different dishes and combinations. For example, as a snack on a piece of fresh crispy bread like here:

or even take it to work in your lunchbox in order to elevate your usual salad with various veggies and some seeds or nuts:

Just give it a try and see how easy it is to make a reastaurant dish at home. 

From home-made to Gourmet.

Yours sinscerely,

@gourmetbalance 

The Easiest Way To Salt Samon At Home? Crispbread With Mashed Avocado And Salted Salmon

After living in Germany for 4 years now I can with confidence and big disappointment say: people do not cook here. Ok, not to be very negative. They do cook. But very rarely and if they do - then rather something very easy and quick and usually unhealthy. No wonder that obesity has become a big problem here since the last decades. My impression is that with all the food industry offers us people got so lazy that they stopped caring anymore... Eat to live?!

Coming originally from Ukraine I find it very positive that we were taught to cook from childhood. Home-made pies, Sunday pancakes, fresh warm food every day. That is what I have been brought up with. And that is what I am going to go on with when building my family traditions. Because what could be better than a wonderful cozy morning with pancakes flavours flowing around, children making their own pancakes in different forms and filling them with various fillings, big hot pot of tea standing on the table and everyone united by this nice tradition.

YES, I am a big fan of food and I make my memories often related to food or flavours that I tried or ever experienced. And this is the right way to do I think. We live only once! We have to do it good. Therefore today I prepared a gourmet recipe for you: home-salted salmon, a family recipe from my mom that always work.

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Ingredients:

300 g salmon fillet with skin (can be less or more depending on your wished amount of salted salmon)

3 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

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In order to salt salmon at home you need to wash the fillet carefully in cold water, soak the rests of the water with a paper towel. Prepare a food box with a lid or some deep bowl where you will keep the salmon.

Then mix salt and sugar in a separate bowl. The proportion is always 3:1. If you have a much bigger piece you might need more salt and sugar. No worries, the fish will take only the amount it needs. So just keep the proportion three portions of salt to one portion of sugar. Rub the proportion into the fish and put it into the food container or a bowl. Keep it in the fridge for 3 days and then take it out, wash slightly under the cold water to remove the rests of salts which is not needed. And Voilà! Your home-salted salmon is ready to be eaten.

I personally love the combination of salmon with avocado. Therefore I propose an easy recipe to enjoy it.
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Ingredients:
4 whole-wheat crispbread slices (in Germany it is called Knäckerbrot)
1 avocado mashed
12 slices of salmon
dill for decoration
black pepper
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Just put some mashed avocado on the crispbread, cover it with salmon and decorate with dill and freshly ground black pepper. Easy, right? That is the way from home-made to gourmet!

Healthy Spring Summer Rolls

Have you ever realised that you just go with the flow and you desperately need to stop and stare? This has been my condition for couple of weeks recently until I just couldn't neither sleep well, nor relax. And then I decided it was time to change. Maybe not fully change everything but at least my attitude. Because in the end work is just work and "life is what you miss when you are busy making your own plans", right?

Nowadays, we are victims of a speedy life when time is precious and everything is done on our ways. But the thing is, when we are trying to recall even what we ate yesterday we can hardly remember the menu... Hm... Of course! If a person eats, watches a movie, talks to a friend and checks an extremely interesting Instagram account she has bumped into by chance and all of it simultaneously, the brain does not really concentrate on a particular activity. Which means that our body is actually not really expecting the food we are consuming at such moments and we do not even notice how we eat our daily portion in a bite. 

And therefore another trend gets even more popular. SLOW FOOD. Slow living, slow time, slow food... Whatever you call it. We have to just go back to the basics. Eating and enjoying each bite. Because that is what brings us the most benefit. Add a good company to this, cook your food together and then enjoy it at the big table. That is what a slow life should be like... 

My input in the slow living today is a wonderful recipe of spring rolls. Made in the summer but that does not matter because they taste perfect during any season. Done very quickly. And suitable even for parties.

Ingredients:

yields 8 rolls

8 rice paper sheets (*easy to find in the Asian stores)

200 g fresh salmon

1/2 avocado

1/2 yellow bell pepper

1/2 cucumber

10 cherry tomatoes (*my choice San Marzano)

2 cups salad leaves

1 cup precooked black rice

1 cup precooked quinoa

Philadelphia cheese 

fresh herbs

soy sauce

1 tsp Wasabi

The trick with the rice paper is that you need to soak it in a cold water in order to make it flexible and sticky. So prepare a bowl with cold water and set it aside. Wash the veggies and cut them into pieces (medium size, not turning into mush). Wash salmon loin and cut it into long pieces about 1 cm wide and 0.5 cm thick. Put the first sheet of rice paper into the water and keep an eye on it. The water should just cover it. Wait until it gets flexible and take it out. Put it on a plate and start filling. So just put a salmon string into the middle, Then some rice beside it, add veggies alongside, Philadelphia and herbs. Then fold as shown below.

   

Do the same with the second sheet and continue until you wrap all of them. As you've already understood you can use any vegetables you like and be creative.The original recipe would contain sushi rice but using black rice or red rice, quinoa will be much healthier and more beneficial for you so the choice is up to you :)

Serve the rolls with say sauce mixed with wasabi. Just dip the roll into the sauce and enjoy the taste...

Fro home-made to gourmet. 

XoXo

Anastasiya