Summer days, healthy food, good times – you too? Issue #04/2012
How is this summer treating you so far, dear readers and followers? Particularly in Europe, it hasn’t been the sunniest so far, but they keep promising that the ‘real summer’ still might be just around the corner!
I have been incredibly busy over the last weeks, creating recipes and styling/shooting tons of images for the magazines I work with. SO here is my update for the food photography summer so far, packed in selected images – hope you’ll enjoy it! As always, be sure to check out the original recipes in the ‘So isst Italien’ and ‘Landgenuss’ magazines, and let me know how you liked those!
Here’s to a sweet, healthy and safe 2012! Issue #01/2012
Happy New Year 2012, dear readers, and welcome to the Issue #1 of this brand new year! We’ve been busy over the last few weeks – partly due to the work schedule(s), partly because this time of year is always about family reunions and friend visits. Which, of course, does mean cooking and eating in obscene amounts, so if you think we’ve been away from everything related to food these days – we haven’t!
Insalata Caprese
4 x 150g balls of buffalo mozzarella
2 handfuls of good mixed ripe tomatoes, of different shapes and sizes
the white of 1 spring onion, very finely sliced
extra virgin olive oil
good-quality herb vinegar
a big handful of fresh basil leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
I’ve found this version of the salad – that many people list as their favorite one - in Jamie Oliver’s book “Jamie’s Italy”. Which book I highly recommend – it is a great book and you might see recipes from it in our blog every now and then. If you like this salad, try the following recipe by Jamie and you’ll be amazed by the results! Absolutely easy to follow, a couple of simple secrets, but the result is incredible! So much for the intro, here is the recipe quoted directly from the said book.
P.S.: During the shooting I’ve noticed an interesting coincidence: the green glass you see in the picture above was released by a Jamie Oliver’s label:)
Got Some Beet? Bacon? Corn Salad? Read on!
for 2 servings:
1 small beet
4 slices bacon
corn salad (also referred to as Mâche – thanks Krista!)
1 tbsp mustard
juice of a quarter lemon
walnuts
Here’s another fresh and incredibly tasty composition.
Cut the raw beets in thin slices. Briefly saute the bacon on both sides. Now prepare the dressing: mix the mustard (make sure to use a sweet, grainy mustard) with lemon juice, then add a teaspoon of olive oil. Put corm salad, beets and bacon, pour in the dressing. Generously sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Enjoy!
Warm Salad Of Roasted Vegetables With A Balsamic Sauce
Ingredients for 2 servings:
2 small potatoes
2 small carrots
2 small beets or 1 medium-sized
1 pepper
1 small zucchini
several rings of leek
balsamico cremoso (balsamic cream)
grated parmesan cheese
Today on the menu: an incredibly delicious vegetarian dish. Try it and you will most probably want to have it again and again!
Rinse vegetables and slice them some 2″ (or 4-5 mm) thick, carrots can also be cut in half lengthwise. I recommend not to peel the vegetables for this dish, since the’ll be roasted. The rind is very soft, and it is known to contain a great amount of nutrients. Now pre-heat your oven to 390 F (200C). Cover an oven pan with baking paper and arrange the vegetables in one layer. Lubricate lightly with olive oil or other vegetable oil, add salt and pepper as desired. Bake for about half an hour; you know vegetables are ready when they are well browned. Remove them from the oven, arrange on plates, sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese and season with balsamico cremoso to taste. All set, enjoy!
Fast & Easy Salad
ingredients for 1 portion:
1 medium cucumber or 2-3 small ones
a few slices of smoked turkey
1 egg
yogurt / mayonnaise
Just like everybody, we have our favorite recipes – those we use not only once or twice, but regularly. One of them would be this salad. Served for lunch or dinner, it is done literally in 3 minutes, easy to do and incredibly tasty.
Simple as that: cut cucumbers, turkey and egg in small strips, and season it all with…. Now for the filling: this salad is yummy enough, even if its just seasoned with yogurt, but yogurt mixed with mayonnaise is way better. Especially with homemade mayonnaise (one day we’ll tell you how to make it too!).
Heidelberg Summer Salad
oranges
chard
cilantro
blue cheese
walnuts
olive oil
black pepper
Heidelberg is one of the best places to go to if you are in Europe (sorry for the spoiler), so when I came up with this very own salad creation of mine, I called it “Heidelberg Summer” to honor the spirit of this city (and the summer, of course).
I did not specify the quantities of ingredients needed – some people love their salads in huge portions, some would only fill a little bowl.
Prepare the dressing: take approx. 2 tbsp olive oil and mix it with 1 tbsp honey and some black pepper. If the oranges you’ve got for this salad are sour, add a little more honey to get the right sweet/sour balance. Put chard, oranges and cheese on the plates you’ll be serving the salad on. Garnish with walnuts and add some cilantro if you like (we do). Douse the salad with the dressing – make sure everything is covered properly.
