Roasted Root Vegetables with Quince

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My mum and I made some super easy roasted veg the other day. In a way they were just your standard roast vegetables, but my mum added a few slices of quince to the mix. Best idea ever. The tartness of the quince goes super well with the caramel undertones of the root vegetables. A perfect combination in my book.
In case you are interested in this non-recipe, here are the things we used for two:

1/2 Sweet Potato
2 Purple Carrots
2 Normal Carrots
1 Beetroot
1/2 Quince

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.
Cut everything in wedges, then toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Bake/roast until the wedges have the level of crispness you like. Personally I like sweet potatoes that are very close to burning but that is a personal preference.
By the way, mayonnaise goes incredibly well with these :)

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

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Today was my grandma's 90th birthday and the whole family got together to celebrate. Instead of going to a restaurant we celebrated at my parents' house and had a local chef do the catering.
What can I tell you...the food was amazing.
We had made pumpkin soup as a starter - I'm not going to tell  you that much about the soup because my mum and I agree that we've had way better soup. We managed to save it in the end but I think we should have gone for a different type of pumpkin.
Anyhow, the reason I'm telling you about the soup is that we topped the soup with some roasted pumpkin seeds.
And those were rather amazing.
What we did was roast them in a dry pan and just before taking them out, we sprinkled some salt and sugar on top. The sugar ends up caramelising, making the salt stick to the seeds. Together the sugar brings out the saltiness and the salt brings out the sweetness. I think the end result is super nice and saves even a distinctly mediocre soup.
I can only imagine what it would do with a great soup.
In case you want to make pumpkin seeds for your next pumpkin soup (or for snacking), here is what we did:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
60g Pumpkin Seeds (the kind without the hard shell)
1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt

Heat a heavy bottomed frying pan and add the seeds. Keep the seeds moving so they don't burn. I like flipping them in the pan, but that doesn't work in all pans. That or I'm too stupid to work all pans. I blame the pans. When the pumpkin seeds are fragrant sprinkle the sugar and salt over the seeds, making sure they are all covered evenly. Transfer the pumpkin seeds onto a piece of baking parchment and let them cool down. Don't try them before they are properly cooled. They get super hot when you roast them.

I hope your weekend was a awesome as mine. Now that I have a proper kitchen again, you'll get more recipes from me from now on :)

Moving and Banana Muffins

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I'm leaving Berlin in three weeks. This is partly why I have been so quiet lately - I've had way too much to do.

This is the current situation in my living-room.

Up to this morning it looked so much worse but my parents helped me pack lots of stuff this weekend. And I sold my washing machine. After carrying a the beast down four flights of stairs I am convinced I'll never do crossfit - seriously...why would I want to lift crazy-heavy stuff or my own crazy heavy body for fun (and yes, before today I was totally toying with the idea of giving it a go)?!?!?

Anyhow...on the up side - three weeks to go till the rest of my stuff descends upon my parents' house and three weeks to go till I don't have to wear the stupid ankle brace from stupid land anymore. Wanna bet I'll fall down the same set of stairs with yet another box the second it comes off? 

Before I packed up the muffin tins (they're getting a tour of East Germany right now) I made banana muffins. The original recipe was from Felix Olschewski's Urgeschmack Dessertbuch which you should have a look at irrespective of whether you have allergies, are following a Paleo diet or eat pretty much everything. Also, if you don't speak German, buy it anyway and use Google translate. The first half of the book is about ingredients and he discusses their pros and cons in a way I really liked (in two sentences he pretty much convinced me to use honey rather than agave syrup). 

Anyhow, a few changes and 20 minutes (18 of which were baking time) after deciding to make muffins I was staring at these beauties

There are a few caveats though:

If you are looking for super airy muffin-top heavy muffins, make something different, they're quite dense and I doubt you'd manage to get them to overflow properly even if you filled them to the brim.

If you don't like coconut -  don't make them because they do taste of coconut.

If you are baking for a nut-free event - there are some almonds in there.

I'm sure there are lots of other things I could warn you about, the most important one is probably:

These are some of the nicest muffins I've made in a while!

 They are super moist from the banana, they don't have that baking soda taste to them most other muffins have (because the eggs and banana are used as raising agents), and last but not least, since I really like coconuts and bananas they are pretty much my personal version of the ideal food.

All right, you can preheat your oven now :)

Banana Muffins (adapted from Oschlewski)

4 Eggs

2 medium Bananas

50g Chopped Almonds

125g Desiccated Coconut 

40g Coconut Oil (melted)

Vanilla Extract (optional)

Pinch of Salt

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 180˚C.

Mash the bananas with a fork, then whisk the mush with the eggs until the mixture is frothy.

Add all the other ingredients and stir until things are just combined. I don't actually know whether that makes a difference for this recipe because I was worried I had combined them for too long and they didn't turn all solid and leathery or however you want to describe the weird state lots of other muffins go into if you over-mix the wet and dry ingredients.

Fill 12 lined muffin tins with the batter and bake for 18 minutes or until they start to brown.

Wait until they are cooled before you eat them. Trust me. It's worth waiting.

'Everything' Free Porridge

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Last time I told you about the grain free porridge I've been making. It's actually grain free and nut free. More importantly, though, it tastes really nice and makes for a really nice start of the day.
I prefer it cooked because that way the chia seeds thicken faster and it starts having a similar texture to millet porridge. But if you're in a rush, it's still really nice eaten cold.
That said, since I'm already venturing into allergy-land with this recipe, if you're doing Whole 30, you won't want to make this (chia seeds), if you are allergic to compositae, then I'm very sorry because that really sucks but more importantly, keep in mind that when you're replacing the sunflower seeds - they add a buttery touch to the mix so you might want to look for something that will do that as well.
Now to the fun part :)
This porridge is super nice with frozen raspberries added just before serving, but the other day I had no fruit left but some roasted butternut squash was staring at me from the fridge. That was a really lovely combination. You should try it.

'Everything' Free Porridge
1 cup Pumpkin Seeds (raw, not roasted and smothered with stuff)
1 cup Chia Seeds
1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut
1/2 cup Ground Flaxseed
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

Stick everything into a food processor or blender and whizz until you the texture resembles porridge oats. I am completely convinced this is part of why this tastes so nice - I mean if it looks like porridge it will obviously taste as good as porridge...
Done :)
When you're ready us make your porridge, use about one third to half a cup of the mix and cook with some water and/or coconut milk.
If you wait for a few minutes, the chia seeds will begin to thicken, the flavour doesn't change though. So if you can't wait, you could also just eat it cold.

How ice-cream made my day

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You were supposed to get a recipe for grain-free 'porridge' but the time since my last post tells you something about my motivation. It's actually super nice but it's kinda boring. That has been a general theme with the food I have been eating. I enjoy what I eat but whenever I ask myself whether somebody else might want to know how to make the same thing I never feel that's the case. I guess red velvet cupcakes are sexier than grain-free zucchini muffins. Please tell me if you disagree but I am currently operating under the assumption that there are enough allergy/paleo blogs around so I don't need to start writing about that stuff.
Anyhow, enough complaining for today. I made ice-cream the other night and it blew my mind. Perhaps that's because it was the firs time I have used anything other than fruit to sweeten my food in a month or so. It was glorious. And I sat around in that haze like a 5 year old who has just stuffed their face with way too much cake and gummy-bears at a birthday party (before the hyperness starts...).
I'm aware the photo doesn't look very exciting. I'm sure the chocolate version of this, which is my next project, will be more photogenic :)
That said, coconut and bananas - winner!

Coconut-Banana Ice-Cream
400ml Full Fat Coconut Milk (the stuff that doesn't come from the dairy alternative section of your supermarket)
2 very ripe Bananas
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Honey (if you want the ice-cream to be super sweet you might want to use more)
1/4 tsp Salt (so the freezing-point is lower)

Whisk all ingredients together.
Done.
Not really, but nearly.
Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof container (e.g. an old 500ml ice-cream tub - hence the quantities) and freeze for an hour or two before scraping down the crystals that have formed on the sides of the container with a fork. Over the next few hours keep coming back to break up the crystals that are forming so you end up with one giant popsicle. Personally, I prefer it slightly thawed because then the banana flavour takes centre-stage but that might just be me :)
This ice-cream goes really well with a cup of coffee after dinner. 
Have a fab evening! I'm gonna eat some more ice-cream.

Baked Coconut Chicken Pieces

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Have you missed me? I definitely missed you but I didn't really have anything to write about. At least on the food front and I wanted to spare you a German-election rant (since when is it ok to base your campaign on 'vote for us cos we are the party of your current chancellor' or 'if you want the current chancellor to be re-elected, then vote for us' (yes, that was actually a different party who pulled that one...) and don't even get me started on the things some of the other parties decided to talk about before the election)...or bore you to death be telling you all about my new haircut (which I love).

So, food - I've been cutting out everything that makes me sick again and while I feel ten times better, I am also keenly aware that most of the stuff I eat these days is not what any of us would consider exciting. At least that was until I had the idea of coating pieces of chicken breast with shredded coconut. Think the texture of buttermilk chicken inside and a crispy coconut layer on the outside. It's like going on a holiday for dinner...well, not really but it's made a huge difference to me actually wanting to eat dinner rather than forcing myself to eat another plate of boring food.
Oh, and it's dead easy to make.
If you are making potato/sweet potato/beetroot wedges to go with the chicken, you can put those in the oven before you start making the chicken, that way they will be done around the same time.
Also, when I talk about coconut milk I talk about the stuff that has coconut and water in it (the kind that normally comes in a tin and if you're lucky in a tetra-pac, not the stuff you buy in the dairy section of the supermarket that is full of sugar and other weird stuff). I buy mine at an Asian market because they sell a brand that has no E numbers or thickeners in it.

Baked Coconut Chicken Pieces
1 small Chicken Breast per portion
Coconut Milk (enough to coat the chicken breast pieces 2 tbsp tend to be enough for 1 chicken breast)
Unsweetened Shredded Coconut (desiccated works just as well)

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.
Cut the chicken breast into chunks the size of a matchbox (I literally can't come up with another description...I've been thinking about this one for 5 minutes...I just cut them in a way that feels natural with the meat I'm working with but that is approximately the size I tend to end up with), put them in a small bowl and cover them with the coconut milk. You don't need crazy amounts of coconut milk here. Put the shredded coconut onto a plate. Here you'll need enough to cover the chicken pieces which varies for me depending on how much coconut milk ended up on the chicken. Start off with three tablespoons and use more if you need to. Transfer the chicken pieces onto the plate and coat them with the coconut. I tend to coat them individually because that way if I run out of shredded coconut I can just pour more onto the plate. Also, I have less of the leftover coconut milk end up on the plate.
Lay the chicken pieces out on a non-stick baking tray or a brownie tin if you're only making one portion and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Check with the biggest pieces to make sure they're not still raw on the inside.
These chicken pieces go incredibly well with sweet potato wedges and some guacamole but I'm sure you can come up with better combinations yourself :)

Lemony Sweet Potato Wedges

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In line with my lack of cooking lately this is more of a non-recipe. It's one you should try, though. Like really :)

Have you ever noticed how when you make sweet potato pie or cheesecake and you add lemon zest it really makes the sweet potato flavour pop? I ended up wondering whether that would work as well when making wedges. Short answer - it does. Really well.

The long answer is that you don't loose the sweetness of the sweet potatoes but I find these work better with savoury stuff than their overly cinnamony siblings.

Lemony Sweet Potato Wedges (perfect for one)

1 Sweet Potato

Zest of 1/2 Lemon

1 tsp Salt

1/2-1 tbsp Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.

Peel the sweet potato and cut it into wedges.

Rub the salt and lemon zest together using your fingers. Combine with the olive oil. What I do is start off with half the oil and safe the rest for later.

Toss the wedges in the lemon-mix. If you feel they are not properly coated add a bit more oil but keep in mind that you don't want the oil dripping off the wedges either.

Bake for 20 or so minutes (until the the edges are crispy).

Now, the wedges are lovely on their own with some humus, but they work particularly well with some ragu or some other stew you found hiding in your freezer.

I hope you have a fantastic week!