This former summer residence of the Kings of Spain is now open to public as a museum which surely owes its fame to the splendid gardens surrounding it. Not that I think the palace’s interior isn’t majestic enough (all the contrary: how could I possibly not admire the stunning baroque furniture and paintings?!); I guess I have always preferred to admire the palaces, castles etc. from the outside.

The luxurious golden ornamented furniture, jewels and gigantic tapestries are definitely beautiful things for the eye, however what I enjoyed the most was our stroll in the gardens, with all the trees, bushes and birds chirping, along with the numerous statues and fountains (inoperative, unfortunately) telling a story from distant past – I hope you’ll enjoy the photos!

Related posts:

1. Summer holidays
2. Laguardia
3. Medieval town of Burgos

Better late than never! I had intended to write about this traditional cake of St. James back in July (25th of July is St. James’ feast), however due to our vacation I wasn’t able to. In case you don’t know – 2010 is a so-called Año Santo Xacobeo, a Holy year – because the feast of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) falls (well, fell) on Sunday. During this entire year, the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela remains open and numerous festivals and events are held in the honor of the patron saint of Spain. As the next Holy year is going to be no sooner than in 2021(!), I’ve prepared this rich almond cake named after St. James, typically sold these days in Santiago de Compostela, and I want to share it with you as well as encourage you to make it! My version of the cake is made solely of almonds, (no flour in sight!), uses cane sugar and it’s more than simple to prepare. And don’t forget: almonds are good for your health!

Ingredients:
250g almonds, lightly toasted and ground
5 eggs, separated
grated peel of 1 lemon
180g blond cane sugar
1tsp ground cinnamon
a good splash of extra virgin olive oil
for serving: icing sugar, ground cinnamon
also: a Santiago cross pattern which you can easily find on Internet, print it and cut out with scissors

1. After having toasted the almonds, allowing them to cool down completely and grinding them, beat the egg whites in a bowl and set aside.
2. Then beat together the egg yolks with sugar, add the cinnamon, grated lemon peel, a splash of olive oil and finally, the ground almonds.
3. Now fold in the egg whites (gently!) until just combined and “pour” (or better, spoon) the batter into the prepared round cake pan (20 or 22cm), lined with baking paper, and bake at 180ºC for about 45 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil if necessary.
4. Transfer the cake to the kitchen rack and allow to cool completely. For the Santiago decoration: dust the cake with ground cinnamon first, then place the paper cross pattern in the middle of the cake and dust the whole cake generously with icing sugar.
5. Carefully remove the cross pattern and serve the cake. It keeps well in the fridge, covered, for a few days.

Note: I’m a cinnamon addict and I tend to go rather “heavy” on it, specially in cakes. If you’re not like me, you can easily skip it from the decoration and/or use 1/2 tsp in the cake batter instead of 1 tsp. I’m just sayin’. The cinnamon aroma does, however, not prevail in the cake (if  that’s your concern), it merely contributes to the glorious toasted almond flavor.

Related posts:

1. Orange and lemon ricotta cake
2. The best poppy seed cake
3. Red beet & dark chocolate cake with blood orange cream cheese frosting

Related posts:

1. Summer day
2. Summer drinks: fruit water
3. Summer drinks: Spiced rooibos sangría

UMAG

PIRAN

Related posts:

1. My guide to Piran
2. A brief Vienna getaway
3. Summer holidays

It’s time for blueberries! I think the best way to enjoy them is plain, as they are – and this goes for any sort of berry. However, who could resist using them in desserts, too? Just a single look at this tart makes me drool. I baked it last week and I can’t get it out of my mind – so delicious it was. Also, its colors are just… splendid, aren’t they?

For the tart pastry, I used the recipe from my cottage cheese and apricot tart, posted a few weeks ago. I adapted the filling of that same tart which resulted in a much smoother, creamier cottage cheese mixture. The tart itself is not complicated to prepare. As I had lots of blueberries at hand, I made my own blueberry jam from scratch while the tart was baking – of course, you could use a store-bought jam instead. But the home made stuff always tastes so much better… I always make my jams with (blond) cane sugar and lemon juice, I cook them in smaller quantities which reduces the cooking time significantly and at the same time preserves the nutrients of the fruit.
So, let’s see how you can prepare this tart:

Ingredients for a round (28cm) pan:
220g white spelt flour (or all-purpose)
a pinch salt
a pinch baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 large egg
3 Tbsp blond cane sugar
100g cold butter
420g smooth cottage cheese
3 eggs
50g sour cream
50g whipping cream
50ml whole milk
110g blond cane sugar
grated lemon peel
blueberry jam (home made, if possible)
and fresh blueberries, for topping

1. Prepare the tart dough by combining the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and sugar. Mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Add the butter (diced) and the egg (lightly beaten), mix until the mixture looks like crumbs. Then use your hands to kneed it into a dough (you need to work quickly). You could, of course, use a food processor if you have one.
2. Roll out the dough forming a round shape. Transfer it into the prepared baking pan (buttered and/or lined with baking paper), trim the excess dough if needed. Prick the dough several times with a fork and blind bake the tart shell at 170ºC for 10′.
3. For the filling, mix together the cottage cheese, eggs, sour and whipping cream, milk, sugar and grated lemon peel. I recommend using a hand mixer for optimal result. You should obtain a really smooth creamy filling.
4. Pour the filling into the prebaked tart shell and bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on your oven), covering with aluminum foil when needed. Turn off the oven and let the tart sit for additional 10 minutes, then transfer to the kitchen rack and allow to cool a bit.
5. Top the tart with blueberry jam (I made mine while the tart was in the oven – it was cooked in 20 minutes) and finally, with fresh blueberries. Allow to cool completely, then slice and serve.  Store this tart covered in the fridge. It keeps well for at least a couple of days.

Does it look tempting or what?

Related posts:

1. Rustic cottage cheese and apricot tart
2. Mascarpone blueberry ice cream
3. Sweet Sunday Spoiling

Ice cream… I could eat it all day long. But I don’t (both fortunately and unfortunately, depends how you take it).
I’ve noticed that nowadays there are very few *quality* ice cream brands for sale in supermarkets. Plus, once you get accustomed to reading food labels carefully, you get put off of buying certain foods, including ice creams (hydrogenated fat, flavor enhancers, colorants – no, thank you). Good quality ice creams are now more available than ever before, yet they tend to be very overpriced.

So, what does one do, refusing to eat the bad stuff and not willing to pay too much for the good stuff? Making their own at home – of course! You don’t necessarily need an ice cream maker in order to treat yourself with icy, creamy goodness. After hundreds of attempts to recreate a real great (dairy) ice cream at home, I’ve discovered this winning combination: mascarpone + yogurt + fruit. Made it with strawberries and blueberries and couldn’t decide on which one was the favorite – both flavors (and colors!!) were equally yummylicious. A tip: don’t freeze it for too long and definitely eat it on the day of preparation.

Ingredients:
250g mascarpone
120g full-fat yogurt
90g blond cane sugar, powdered
1 small bowl or a handful of blueberries (rinsed under running water) + some extra for decoration

1. Combine the blueberries, sugar and yogurt in a blender. Run until pureed, then add the mascarpone and run again until well combined.
2. Freeze for some hours, giving it a stir every hour or so. It’s best served thick-creamy and not too frozen.  Well, that’s our preference at least. Decorate with blueberries if you like.

Related posts:

1. Mascarpone chocolate delight
2. Cottage cheese and blueberry tart
3. Red beet & dark chocolate cake with blood orange cream cheese frosting

The other day I picked the first cabbage of the season from our garden. Its leaves are so tender (comparing to the winter cabbage), and taste best if eaten raw – in a salad, that is. One big cabbage head can be, nevertheless, too much for a single eater to finish off within few days – specially if there is other “salad” produce (e.g. lettuce, arugula, green beans and cucumbers which are, again, growing like crazy) to be consumed as well.

And so while I was thinking how to put my cabbage into good use – rather than in salad – I stumbled upon a promising recipe in some random magazine. I had eaten ground meat and cabbage combo before, but in that case the cabbage was fermented (aka sauerkraut). This skillet made my lunch today and I paired it with a bowl of cucumber salad. No need for carbohydrates here – the meal was light enough to be called “summer meal”. I truly recommend it.

You need:
ground beef
onion, chopped
(green) cabbage, julienned
bay leaf
cumin seeds, crushed
rosemary, fresh or dried, chopped
grated nutmeg
smoked paprika (only a dash)
sea salt
fresh parsley, chopped
white wine, a splash of, and water or stock
olive oil

1. In a skillet, heat some olive oil. Stir-fry the ground meat, add the bay leaf, nutmeg, rosemary, paprika and salt. Add the wine and let reduce, afterwards cover with water or stock. Let simmer until there is only few liquid left. Transfer to a plate.
2. In the same skillet, heat some more olive oil and sauté/stir-fry the cabbage and onion. Season with crushed cumin seeds and salt and pour in a little water/stock. Cook for 5-10′, until softened. Now stir in the meat, turn off the stove and let the dish sit for 5′.
3. Before serving, stir in the chopped parsley. I tend to put a lot of it because I adore parsley and also, because I pick a huge bunch every week from the garden. I put it in a glass of water and it keeps well in the fridge for several days.

Suggestion: in addition, you could stir-fry some sliced bacon together with the cabbage and add cubed tomatoes to the meat.

Related posts:

1. Cabbage
2. Winter dishes (V)
3. Lunching on a warm salad

Honestly, I’ve been having troubles finding a name for this dessert. Whatever I could think of, sounded somewhat modest. You might think now that I’m exaggerating… after all, we’re only talking mascarpone and chocolate here, aren’t we? But I’m telling you, for me creaminess got a new dimension with this dessert. Even if it consists of fairly “heavenly” ingredients, it gives you the feeling you’re eating a soft cloud rather than a fat-loaded calorie bomb thick, rich dessert.

Usually you don’t get to see (m)any such recipes here, as my cooking is all about healthy meals (and proud of that ). Nevertheless, every now and then I like to make an “exception” and treat us with something special, like in this case. I’ve fallen in love with this dessert – and I’m not even a fan of chocolate, so I can only imagine how much the chocoholics out there would love it…

A dessert for 2:
250g mascarpone cheese
100ml (full fat) yogurt
100ml whipping cream
80g white chocolate
80g dark chocolate (60 or 70%)
2 strawberries for decoration

1. In a bowl, mix together mascarpone, yogurt and whipping cream. You can also use a hand-held mixer in order to obtain a creamier result. Divide the mixture in half.
2. Melt dark and white chocolate (separately) over a double boiler, let cool a bit and then stir the white chocolate into one half, and the dark chocolate into the other half of the mascarpone mix.
3. Serve this exceptional dessert in crystal glasses by spooning some “white” mix and then some “dark” mix into it. Top with a strawberry and allow to cool in the fridge for a couple of hours. It tastes best when served cold.

Related posts:

1. Mascarpone blueberry ice cream
2. Chocolate tiramisu
3. Red beet & dark chocolate cake with blood orange cream cheese frosting

This is one seriously good cocktail, people. I mean, how could you possibly resist something that has strawberries in it? I wonder. In case you’re searching for a refreshing aperitif to sip on a summer evening, look no further – here you have it, it smells and tastes great, let alone its attractive looks.

My version is slightly lighter on booze because we simply prefer it so. And here I thought that nothing could beat an-all-time favorite cocktail of mine, gin tonic…

A cocktail for 2:
a handful of sweet, locally grown strawberries, cleaned
25ml Cointreau
25ml tequila
25ml icy water
a squeeze of lemon juice
(blond cane) sugar and lemon juice for the glass rim

1. Combine the strawberries, Cointreau, tequila, water and a squeeze of lemon juice in a blender. Puree until smooth.
2. Pour into 2 glasses which you have previously rimmed with sugar (rub the glass rim with some lemon juice, then dip the rim into sugar). Pour in the strawberry margarita and serve chilled!

Related posts:

1. Strawberry gazpacho – why not!
2. Jaffa cake
3. New year

Tarragon or dragon’s wort (estragón in Spanish) has been growing in our garden for as long as I can remember. This perennial plant, native to the Northern Hemisphere, grows best in a sunny spot and does not like too much water – I can tell that from experience as we had planted it in all possible corners of the garden and yet it always perished when planted in a bit more shady spot. We get a lot of rain here, through all seasons, and sometimes this can be fatal for tarragon.

This year our tarragon plant looks quite promising! The other day I couldn’t help it but snip some twigs. I was longing too much to make tarragon yogurt muffins, this wonderful moist and uniquely aromatic treat. You see, in Slovenia we use tarragon almost entirely in desserts – although it can be paired exquisitely with chicken and fish, too. I especially recommend you try this recipe for chicken Louisa, we ate it with pasta this week and it made one awesome lunch! So, if you like the incredibly aromatic tarragon aroma, I propose this muffin recipe:

Ingredients for 12 muffins:
200g white spelt flour (or all-purpose)
pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
260g (full fat) yogurt
2 large eggs
120g blond cane sugar
grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
3 bigger tarragon twigs, the leaves snipped and chopped
oil or butter for the muffin pan

1. Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, sugar) in a bowl. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and yogurt, add the lemon juice and peel.
2. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Finally, mix in the chopped tarragon leaves.
3. Grease the muffin pan and line with paper cups. Fill them with the batter and transfer the pan into a preheated oven (170ºC). Bake until golden (25′ or so) or until the inserted toothpick/skewer comes out quite but not completely clean. Have in mind these muffins are definitely on the moist side. Keep them in the fridge. Serve them with a cup of coffee, milk or tea… and enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Cocoa and albumin cheese muffins
2. Fruit skewers with lime yogurt dip
3. Trusted cookie recipes (II)

It has become a real challenge to find good apricots nowadays. Most of the offer consist in these huge, artificial-looking and (almost by rule) tasteless thingies that they sell everywhere. Naturally grown apricots tend to be  smaller but they smell wonderfully. Don’t they look cute with those tiny red spots? I adore how the smooth, sweet flesh meets the acidic skin when you bite into it!

My favorite way of eating apricots? Raw, as they are, and in fruit salads. Or in this wonderful rustic tart with cottage cheese filling.

For the tart dough (26-28cm round tart pan):
220g white spelt flour (or all-purpose)
pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
pinch baking soda
3 Tbsp blond cane sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g cold butter, diced + butter for the pan

For the filling:
400g cottage cheese
2 eggs
100ml milk
50ml whipping (or heavy) cream
100g blond cane sugar
grated peel of 1 lemon
8-10 apricots, halved and pitted
optional: powdered sugar for serving

1. First make the tart dough: in a bowl (of a food processor) combine the flour, salt, baking powder, soda and sugar. Process (or mix with a fork) until combined. Then add the butter and the beaten egg and process again just until the dough holds together.
2. Turn the dough out onto a (floured) work surface and roll out, forming a disc. Transfer it into a buttered baking pan and line it nicely, trimming the excess dough if necessary. Place the pan in the fridge for half an hour to rest.
3. Make the filling by combining the cottage cheese with eggs, milk, whipping cream, sugar and grated lemon peel.
4. Blind-bake the tart shell in a preheated oven (170-180ºC) for 10-15′, then pour the filling on top and decorate with apricot halves. Place in the oven again and bake for 40-50′ or until the filling is set. Cover with aluminum foil if necessary. Turn off the oven and leave the tart inside for additional 10-15′, then transfer to the kitchen rack and allow to cool completely.
5. Before serving, you can dust the tart with powdered sugar if you wish. Keep it covered in the fridge. It tastes best after having rested (and cooled) for some hours.

Related posts:

1. Cottage cheese and blueberry tart
2. Sweet Sunday Spoiling
3. Red beet & dark chocolate cake with blood orange cream cheese frosting

Gazpacho is a loose synonym for summer, sun and heat - at least for a Spaniard. The preparation varies from region to region, however they all have something in common: gazpacho is served ice-cold.

Looking at my latest purchase of strawberries, admiring their intense red color, I came to the idea to make fruit gazpacho – replacing tomatoes with strawberries! I guess I could easily call this preparation “a puree” or even “cold soup”, but gazpacho simply sounded better to me.

I prepare the classic gazpacho by pureeing tomatoes, soaked bread slices and some cucumber slices, and then decorate the whole thing with sliced tomato, cucumber and bell pepper.
I applied similar principles to the fruity variation:
I pureed strawberries (cleaned, washed and chopped) with a little addition of fine almond powder and then I topped the puree with chopped fruit like apricot, peach and strawberries. I used chilled fruit rather than chilling the gazpacho afterwards in the fridge (you know, once you process the fruit it starts losing the vitamins too quickly…). I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how refreshing this strawberry gazpacho was – just look at all those intense colors! I can’t wait to make it again!

Related posts:

1. Strawberry margarita
2. The cucumber craziness
3. Ricotta and peach dessert

Elderflower is another of those aromas that take me back to my childhood years. My paternal grandmother used to make excellent elderflower syrup which was then diluted with water and drunk throughout summer. What an amazing refreshment that was!

For several years I’ve forgotten about elderflower, unfortunately, although the shrubs grow wild all around Slovenia and it’s really no big deal to find it. However, a week or so ago, as I was making a walk in the countryside, this strong elderflower aroma filled the air and it was a hot summer day – so guess what I recalled in that moment: the elderflower syrup.

Unripe elderflower

I picked a dozen of flowers (June is the best time to do it), placed them on a newspaper (not wrapped) in the trunk of my car and off they went with me back to Ljubljana. It is a very delicate flower, and having no AC in the car, I brought them home in a somewhat poor (wilted) state. The aroma, nevertheless, persisted and you can only imagine how nice the interior of the car smelled while I was driving home!

Ripe elderflower

Once home, I set myself to prepare this gorgeous elderflower drink: all you need are 3 simple ingredients (besides the flowers, obviously): sugar (blond cane sugar in my case), water and freshly squeezed lemon juice. And the preparation is even simpler: after making sure the flowers don’t carry any of uninvited guests, you place them in a glass pitcher (10-12 ripe flowers per 1.5 – 2l water), add lemon juice (1-2 lemons for the before-mentioned quantity) and water in which you’ve diluted the sugar (the quantity really depends on your taste – I’m not such a sweet tooth so I use less sugar).

If I had a shrub or two growing in my garden, I would surely preserve elderflower syrup for later times – but here I just prepared two bottles of the refreshment and so I didn’t bother with pasteurizing it. The prepared refreshment “disappeared” within a day. And I was content having tasted it again, after so many years! Juanpi tells me the elder grows in Spain, too, it is however not used for consumption. I’m planning on making another trip to the countryside to pick more flowers before they wither… If elder grows where you live, and you find its aroma pleasant, you should really give a try to this drink!

Related posts:

1. Chive flower vinegar
2. Home made grape juice
3. Ode to oranges

Finally another fish recipe here! It’s been a while, yes. Today we’re having sardines! I hope you will like this simple, yet incredibly tasty recipe – sardines with parsley oil and potato salad, a perfect summer lunch (or dinner)! For the potato salad recipe, please follow this link.

You need cleaned sardines (or clean them yourself by making a cut along the bottom of the sardine, then remove the intestines and entrails, rinse and pat dry with a paper towel). I let the tails attached because once fried, they are super crunchy to eat.

Salt the cleaned sardines and lightly coat with flour. Fry them on couple of tablespoons of olive oil (or coconut fat), both sides. Transfer to a plate with paper towel, to allow the excess fat to drain.

For parsley oil, coarsely chop the parsley leaves and stalks, peel and chop a garlic clove and place everything in a tall (blender) bowl. Add a pinch of salt and blend for a few seconds.

For serving, place the sardines on a plate, drizzle generously with lemon juice, then with parsley oil, and serve with potato salad on a side. Also, I recommend to place extra lemon wedges on (each) plate, because after finished eating, you will use their juice to clean your fingers. This way you’ll efficiently get rid of the fish aroma. Good appetite!

Related posts:

1. A Portuguese bean dish
2. Seabream with potatoes
3. Pasta and potato hotchpotch

Chamois fillet in mushroom sauce with cranberry marmalade and potato croquettes

We’ve been invited to a restaurant located at the foot of the Kamnik Alps that specializes in game meat. I had only tried game once before (wild boar in Portugal), so I was looking forward again to order something rather exotic to my palate. My dish of choice was chamois fillet (rupicapra rupicapra balcanica; goat-antelope species, they can be found all over the Alps and in many other parts of the world).

The meat was tender, not chewy at all as well as without that strong game-y flavor I’d been anticipating. Served with a so-called “hunter’s sauce” (containing several types of mushrooms, swimming in creamy, velvety goodness), cranberry marmalade (our cranberries are rather small as they grow wild in the nature, they are of the size of peppercorns) and potato croquettes – it truly made a meal to remember.

Juanpi wanted to try wild boar to compare it to the one we had had in Portugal, however it had been temporarily out of the menu, so he opted for turkey in green pepper sauce instead. To my surprise, the rest of folks ordered the common dishes that they cook and eat every week in their homes. Which made me *the only* one of the group to have ordered a specialty. On one hand I even felt bad for a while because almost everyone else had a typical (and the cheapest) Sunday Slovene menu consisting in beef soup, Wiener Schnitzel, potato fries and mixed salad (a standard meal (with slight changes every now and then) for a Slovene to order when eating outside). But on the other hand I was like, *why* invite to a specialized restaurant and then, indifferently, order a daily menu.
I’m definitely not trying to be snobbish here – I’m just asking myself what is the purpose. I know a lot of people who do it. Is it simply the habit? Playing safe? Hmmm.

Our tomato "house"; tomato plants are those to the right, and to the left there are pepper plants

Food issues aside, it’s been a beautiful summer day here in Ljubljana. Tomorrow I’m visiting my hometown to check on the garden, specially the tomatoes I transplanted a couple of weeks ago. I’m also taking another 8 tomato plants which are now big enough to be transplanted – it’s going to be a busy day.

Have a good week, everyone!

Related posts:

1. Spring lunch
2. Life on my window sill
3. Tomate frito revisited