I love risotto but for a long time I was a little apprehensive to try making it at home as for the real good risotto you need to stir a lot. Whatever people tell you, whatever cut-corners tips they give you, the real deal actually requires that much stirring. I tried loads of that advice but it just couldn’t compare to this more or less traditionally cooked recipe. I say more or less because I am not Italian and I have combined parts of quite some recipes I found and I altered them slightly. However, this is the best risotto I have ever tried, and the stirring doesn’t make me avoid cooking it on a regular basis!

(serves 3 - 4 if eaten as a main)

2-4 tbsp. olive oil

500-800 g (1-1.8 lbs) Portobello/chestnut/button mushrooms or a mix (the more you put the more mushroomy it is but 500 g is also OK) – thinly sliced

1 large onion – chopped

1 large clove of garlic - chopped

300 g (0.7 lbs) Arborio rice (or another branded as risotto rice)

½ cup dry white wine

1 L (34 oz.) hot stock (chicken, veggie, mushroom, etc.)

50 g (0.1 lbs) butter

Salt to taste

Fresh ground black pepper

Freshly grated parmesan (Don’t you dare use those powdered ones! Better skip it if you don’t have it, or use another type of mature cheese)

Fresh chives to taste (optional)

Fresh rucula/arugula to taste (optional)

Preparation:

1. Heat up a large pan or skillet to medium high and fry off the mushrooms in a little bit of the olive oil. Don’t cram them or they will be slimy in the end. You must have only 1 layer of mushrooms in your pan, if you have more just fry them of in a couple of batches. This is important! You are looking for light golden brown colour on the mushrooms, they shouldn’t be looking like boiled but they shouldn’t be all crisped up either. This usually takes about 5-10 min per batch. Set them aside.

2. You can use the same pan you used for the mushrooms. Heat up some more olive oil over medium high heat and add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook a couple of minutes until they turn transparent.

3. Add the well washed rice (wash it with cold water until the water is no longer milky looking, or your risotto will be gluggy) and fry along for a couple of minutes until a little transparent.

4. Add the wine and leave evaporate.

5. Here is the tiresome part of the recipe. Add a ladle of the hot stock (if you made it with a cube, don’t add any salt until the last minute after trying the dish as cubed and powdered stock are usually really high on salt) and let almost evaporate while gently stirring with a spatula. If you don’t know what you a looking for, it’s should look a bit like thick porridge before you add another ladle. Proceed like that ladle by ladle (your ladle should be around ½ cup) until you finish your stock. When you do try if you are content with the texture of the rice, ideally it shouldn’t be too soft, with a little bit of bite but definitely you shouldn’t be feeling like you are eating raw rice. If it’s not done yet, continue the same way, ladle by ladle while gently stirring with hot water until you’re happy with the result. The whole process usually takes between 20 – 30 minutes over medium high heat; make sure it’s not too high or your risotto might burn or you might need a lot more liquid. The final consistency of the dish should be somewhat like porridge, not like a big sticky lump but also not soupy. Have in mind that when you add the cheese in the end the risotto will get a little thicker, also those several minutes it takes to serve will make the rice suck up some more liquid.

6. Add the butter and let it melt in. The quantity might look a bit excessive, but it makes the risotto a lot more flavourful and smooth, don’t skip on it! Then add salt to taste (it might not need it) and freshly ground pepper.

I am of the definite opinion that the zucchini are amongst the most wrongfully neglected vegetables in most western kitchens. Many find them tasteless or slimy, or just gross. Not once or twice, have I noticed friends of mine pushing them aside to the rim of their plates with a grossed-out facial expressions. I have to say, when I was younger, I was definitely not a fan either! However, the thing with zucchini is that they contain loads of water and if prepared wrong they can indeed be rather slimy. So, the way I like them is when they are a bit crispier and the recipe I am sharing with you today is an amazing way to add some healthiness to your weekly meals.

I admit, I am a convinced carnivore and I would usually really miss the presence of meat at the table (don’t let me begin what kind of a failure my fasting attempts were… why do I even try?!); however, this is one of the rare vegetarian recipes, where I feel that nothing is missing. So, that’s, also, a great one to make when you have some vegetarian guests and you don’t want to either cook 2 meals, or suffer with a tasteless soy dish. It is really wholesome and is bang full of flavor! Let’s not even mention how good from a diet point of view it is, especially if you go for a low fat option on the dairy products. I am absolutely addicted to it, especially when the weather gets a bit warmer, as it’s really nice and light. You don’t feel like a sweaty pig after dinner in the summer. I am generally a fan of yoghurt-based veg dishes in the spring and summer as it adds freshness. The only thing I have found with those is that that, even though they are super easy to prepare, they usually take some time, so if you like them as much as I do, you can make a huge batch and pop some in the freezer. I use my zucchini balls as a substitute for all those frozen potato and other similar pre-made things you usually have to fry, and I have to say the zucchini dish is just as satisfying even when you’re hung-over. Without any further ado, here’s the recipe and do let me know if you decide to make it yourselves or it sounds cool to you.

(For 3-4 people)

For the balls:

1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) zucchini (baby marrow, courgette)

½  cup finely chopped fresh dill

3 spring onions, finely chopped

2 eggs

½ cup dry bread crumbs

200 g (0.45 lbs) white brine cheese/feta crumbled up

Salt

For the yoghurt sauce:

400-500 ml (14-17 oz) Bulgarian/Greek style yoghurt (should not be sweet tasting, rather either the creamy or the more sour type)

2 crushed garlic cloves

½  cup finely chopped fresh dill (if you don’t have it, don’t substitute with dried)

Salt

1. Heat up the oven to 225-250 C/ 440-480 F.

2. Peel the zucchini and grate them on the smallest setting of your grater. Put them in a sieve or colander and sprinkle them with salt, so that the moisture would be drawn out of the vegetable. If you don’t have either, you can put some kitchen paper under the grated zucchini, so it can suck up all the water. Set aside.

3. Mix all the products for the sauce and set aside, so the garlic can make the mixture more aromatic.

4. Get rid of the residual moisture from the zucchini. You can either squeeze it out by hand or through a muslin cloth, but make sure you leave no water in whatsoever! Otherwise, the dish will be slimy. Nobody likes a slimy ball!

5. Mix the squeezed-out zucchini with the rest of the products for the balls, form little…well balls (better be flat so they bake faster) and bake for 30-45 minutes in a baking tray laid with baking paper (no fat is needed here) until golden.

6. Serve with the sauce. They are actually really good cold, as well. You can also freeze them (without the sauce) and when you want to have them just defrost them and pop them in the oven till warm.

Zucchini balls, roasted

Zucchini balls with sauce on top

The only thing I was concerned about those was the atrocious amounts of red colouring needed to achieve a bright red colour. As I’m not a big fan of additives, I didn’t put by far as much as I should have, so mine ended up on the brown side. If you decide you want them super red, you have to add enough red colouring to the mixture that it looks like blood, as it darkens a bit later. My cupcakes are covered with a delicious cream cheese frosting, which goes so incredibly well with them. On the inside there was a hidden surprise: a caramelized piece of white chocolate, which gave a lovely complex texture to the cake. But enough of me yapping, there’s the recipe:

Red velvet cupcakes

Red velvet cupcakes recipe

(makes around 9)

For the cake:

1 cup sugar

1 egg

½ cup oil (I used sunflower seed, it’s very good because it’s tasteless, don’t use anything rich in flavour like olive or sesame seed oil!)

½ cup milk with a couple of drops of lemon juice in it

½ tsp. apple cider vinegar

½ cup brewed coffee (room temperature, otherwise it will scramble the egg)

1.25 cup flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 tbsp. cocoa-plain

1 packet of vanilla sugar/ 5-6 drops of vanilla flavouring/ 2 tsp. vanilla extract/ 2 vanilla pods

Red food colouring (depends how much you need to use on the type you buy, just read instructions on the packaging)

Around 9 pieces of white chocolate

Cupcake/muffin baking tray

Cupcake paper wrappers

For the cream cheese frosting:

½ cup cream cheese

½ cup sifted confectioners’ (powder) sugar

2 tbsp. softened butter (no margarine!!!)

½ packet of vanilla sugar/ 3-4 drops of vanilla flavouring/ 1 tsp. vanilla extract/ 1 vanilla pod

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 165 C/325F

2. Beat the egg with the sugar until creamy (with a mixer) then add slowly while mixing the oil, milk, vinegar, coffee, flour, baking soda and powder, salt, cocoa, vanilla.

3. Add the food colouring, as mentioned before, if you’d like a bright red cupcake, your dough must look very very bright red, as it darkens with baking.

4. Pour the mixture in a jug, so it’s easier to pour in the cupcake shapes.

5. Put your cupcake wrappers in the holes of the cupcake baking tray.

6. Pour the mixture in each wrapper, so it fills up to 2/3 of the wrapper. Add one piece of white chocolate (if you don’t have white, just skip it, other chocolate won’t fit as well with the other ingredients). The white chocolate will drop to the bottom and caramelize, making for a lovely rich milky caramel. If you’d like something different, you can also put a white chocolate truffle or a Lindor chocolate covered in flour, in the middle of your mixture (poor half of the needed mixture for 1 wrapper, put the chocolate, poor the rest of the mixture). This way your chocolate won’t drop to the bottom and make for a nice surprise in the middle.

7. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.

8. Wait for the cupcakes to fully cool down before you put the icing on top, otherwise, it will melt.

9. For the icing just beat together all the ingredients and with a butter knife spread it on top of each cupcake. I used a piping bag for a cleaner effect, but don’t expect to be able to make any shapes with it, as the mixture is a little on the runny side. If you’d like to decorate with the icing, you have to put more icing sugar, so the mixture stiffens, but then it won’t be as silky, light and delicious.

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Creamy butternut pumpkin soup recipe

(Serves 8)

800g/1.8 lb cleaned and peeled butternut squash

1 large carrot, washed and peeled

1 red bell pepper (it could be a different colour but definitely not green!), washed and quartered

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

3 garlic cloves, peeled

½ cup cream cheese (I like using a light one with herbs)

Salt and pepper to taste

Roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)

Drizzle pumpkin seed oil (optional)

Preparation:

1. Bring 1l/34 oz lightly salted water to the boil (better use a 2-2.5 l/68-85 oz  pot). It is important that the veggies are put in the already boiling water, so that the colours are preserved.

2. Put the butternut squash, carrot, bell pepper, onion and garlic in the boiling water. The veggies don’t need to be cut finely at all, as they will be blended with a stick blender later. Boil for 30 minutes.

3. Blend the soup with a stick blender (or whatever blender you have/ pass it through a sieve). Add the cream cheese and blend again. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. You can definitely stop at step 3. The soup is beautiful just by itself. It tastes creamy and rich even though it is quite healthy. However, if you would like a different variation, you could add any spices to completely change the feel of it. Add some thyme and oregano and/or crisped up Prosciutto and you have yourself an Italian inspired creation. I have also tried it with a Chinese 5-spice and it turns into a completely different dish. My favourite must be the Austrian style of serving it, with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil and roasted pumpkin seeds. You can be as creative as you’d like, this dish allows it. Bon appetit!