Beets with Garlic, Yogurt and Cheese Crust (Au Gratin) – A Guest Post!

Tags

au gratin, beet, beet greens, beetroot, cheese, egg, Greek yogurt, vegetables, vegetarian, yogurt

Well, it’s done. The new blog is up. The Foodie Corner is live! Would you like to take a look? Yes it will all be Greek to you, but I’d love to hear what you think of the site!
 
Now I said I would try my best to keep Spaghetti going, and I will. And a few weeks ago I had a brainwave. Why not ask my friend and fellow blogger Artemis from Wonderfoodland, to step in with a guest post? She is the first Greek food blogger I ever met in person, and we clicked right away. I love her blog (which by the way is bilingual); from the recipes that always have a bit of a twist to them and her writing that discreetly reflects her wicked sense of humour, all the way to her gorgeous photos (putting mine to shame right here…). She has really come up with the goods here. This recipe is feeling right at home on On Top Of Spaghetti. So, enjoy!

§§§

There is this thing.
When I’m invited to write a guest post by another food blogger, I’m a little bit anxious.
What will it be?
Will my recipe “fit” properly into another blog?
Will the fellow blogger like it?
Will her/his readers like it too?
What do I have to write?

In this case, I guess my recipe choice was easy: Eleni is a beet lover. I know that. I’ve seen that. I’ve tasted that. I could never forget her beet chocolate brownies at the Food Revolution Day picnic.

My writing thing was easy also: I was lucky to get to know Eleni before her food blog adventures. And I’m really glad to know that another one follows her daring heart and does what she loves; cooking, writing, shooting, styling, sharing, communicating -not only through web and not only with food bloggers- but with anyone out there who loves food. In any way.

And I was really excited to see her beautiful “newborn”, The Foodie Corner, coming to life at last!

So, here I am, writing about beets myself too, finding the chance to get experimental and cooking something else rather than boiling them one more time!

These beets are for you, my dear Eleni!

Beets with Garlic, Yoghurt and Cheese Crust (Au Gratin)

Adapted recipe by Aglaia Kremezi

Ingredients

1 kg beets (leaves and half of the roots. The rest of the boiled beetroots eat them with some nice balsamic vinegar and olive oil)
2 Tbs all purpose flour
3 Tbs of olive oil + extra for greasing the baking dish
1 ½ cup milk (any kind of milk you love)
1 cup yoghurt (any kind of yoghurt you love)
3 garlic cloves mashed
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 ½ cup grated cheese (use any kind of cheese you love that melts. I used a mix of several leftovers -Greek gruyere, gouda and kasseri, a yellow melty cheese)
3 stale slices of bread processed into crumbs (or rusk crumbs which is what I used)
salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Clean the beets: remove any not-so-good looking leaves, cut the roots from the leaves, cut the small “nose” of each beet on its other end and put them all into water baths to get washed very well -at least 3 water baths. Strain them and leave them aside.
2. Put a big pot full of water on to boil. When the water boils, put the beets in (leaves and roots). The leaves will boil quicker than roots, so in about 5 minutes check the leaves out. If they’re soft enough, take them out, but leave the roots in until they get soft too. Drain them, squeeze them (the leaves) with a fork to get most of their liquids out and set them aside.
3. Prepare the light béchamel: into a small pan, pour the 3 Tbs of olive oil on medium heat. Add the flour and start stirring quickly with a whisk until it gets slightly brown.
4. Add milk and keep stirring quickly on low heat. When it turns into a nice cream, remove it from heat and add garlic, salt and pepper. Stir well.
5. Add yoghurt, eggs and cheese too while still stirring well.
6. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease a baking dish that will fit the beets in a not very thin layer. I used several small baking dishes (one portion each).
7. Chop the beet leaves a little bit and the roots to very small cubes like dice. Mix half of the cream with the chopped beets (leaves and roots).
8. Spread breadcrumbs all over the dish, add the beets all over and cover with the other half of the cream.
9. Bake for about 30 minutes or until you get a golden crust. When baked, leave to rest for about 15-20′ before serving.

Mini Dukan Lemon Cheesecakes and a Sneak Preview of The Foodie Corner

Tags

baking, cheesecake, dessert, diet, dukan, Dukan diet friendly, egg, Greek yogurt, lemon, low fat, oat bran

Like it? The Foodie Corner is soon to become a reality. From wire frames and sample pages to a real live blog. Just a few weeks (or even days) away now! I know most of you won’t be able to follow me there as it’s going to be in Greek (unless you’ve been taking lessons?) but I really wanted to share this image here so you guys have a small sneak preview of what is to come. I have no intention of dropping On Top Of Spaghetti, and after the first few months of ups and downs I aim to be back blogging here as often as possible. In the meantime, what do you think? Cool isn’t it? I have been working with a fabulous team of designers and developers, whom I will introduce in a later post (when you have more than just the one image to see!). They have done such a great job. So I’m adding this little gem of a picture to my side bar!

At first I thought I would just post this without a recipe. But you know me. Can’t write anything on here without sharing something delicious. And today I have an extra special treat; a Dukan dessert. I’m not on this diet anymore, but once in a while I will have a Pure Protein day (or two) because it makes me feel better. Just to remind you, the diet is based on protein and vegetables, cutting out fat and carbs. I know the human body needs fat and carbs, but this human also needs to fit into certain jeans. So a little Dukan Attack here and there won’t kill me. Also, I enjoy thinking up recipes that will help those who are on the diet. Like this one!

These mini Dukan lemon cheesecakes are based on two recipes. The first is for Dukan cookies, which I thought could be my base if made in mini form (digestives and graham crackers are sadly not allowed!). The second is a lightened up version of lemon and blueberry cheesecake using lemon flavoured yogurt, on the blog “Whatever Gets You Through The Day”. Iris took part in a challenge and used a lemony yogurt to create this lovely looking dessert. It’s pretty light as it is but not quite suitable for the Dukan Diet, so I got to thinking of ways to adapt it. There is a dairy company here in Greece called Mevgal, which produces this amazing 1% lemon yogurt. It’s like no other I’ve ever tried. (And I’m not getting paid or compensated in any way for saying that! I just love it.) For a while now I’ve been thinking of making some sort of cheesecake with it, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. So, with a bit of mixing and matching, I came up with these babies! I still can’t believe how close they are to real cheesecake! Ok, the base is not like a biscuit base, it’s much softer and -let’s be honest- not as tasty, but it does provide a nice contrast to the lemony filling. When I offered one to The Mister he didn’t believe they were Dukan approved, he was worried that at 23:50 I had finally given in and spoiled the Pure Protein day. Now that was a good sign. I had quite a bit of leftover filling because my mini muffin pan is very mini. So I just poured it into ramekins and baked it alongside the little guys, without a base. This too was very nice, I’ve just finished one now. Just sweet enough and very cheesecakey! This morning I had one with a teaspoon of raspberry jam on. Mmm! But that’s only for non-Dukaners. Right, I’ve gone on about this too much. Here is the recipe!

Mini Dukan Lemon Cheesecakes

Ingredients

For the base
1 egg
3 Tbs oat bran
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs Splenda or equivalent sweetener
2 Tbs plain yogurt (mine was 1.5% fat)

For the cheesecake filling
1 x 200g pot lemon flavoured Greek yogurt (mine was 1% fat)
100g low fat cream cheese (mine was 5% fat – a tiny cheat as it should be below 2%)
1 Tbs oat bran
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs Splenda or equivalent
2 egg whites (mine were pretty large)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan)
2. For the base: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Pour mixture into a non-stick 12-hole mini muffin tin (a regular muffin tin would work too, you’d probably get 6 or 8). You only want a little bit of mixture in the bottom of each mould, remember this is the base. Pour any leftover mixture into individual muffin moulds, you can make more cheesecakes or leave them plain – they would be lovely with scrambled egg!
3. Bake for 10-15 minutes till lightly browned (see note at end).
4. In the meantime mix all the filling ingredients together (you can use the same bowl for less washing up! yay!).
5. Take the muffin tin out of the oven and pour filling over each little oat bran base. Fill to the top, these will rise a little then fall back down. Pour any leftover mixture into some ramekins or over the stray muffins from above. Pop them back in the oven for about 20-25 minutes till set and lightly browned (see note).
6. Take out of the oven. You will be excited at how nice and fluffy and risen these will look while baking; be prepared to see them sink back down! But that’s ok because they taste good.

Note: I think with these times mine turned out a little overbaked as they were sliiiightly dry. This might just be due to the ingredients, especially the oat bran, but I think it was the time in the oven. Iris made a whole cheesecake and baked hers for 25 minutes so I think my tiny muffins really didn’t need that long! I liked the fact that they were browning (goodness knows why) and left them, but next time I will check at 15′ by touching the surface. If it’s set I’ll take them out. Don’t forget the base has already been cooking quite a while.
Also noteworthy is the fact that these are much better the day after! Sounding all the more like proper cheesecake!

Protein Packed Chicken & Egg Salad – Dukan Perfect

Tags

buttermilk, chicken, dressing, dukan, egg, low fat, protein, salad, tarragon, yogurt

Antique Russian silver spoon dating to 1845 – on kind loan by The Collector

I really should be packing right now. And I’m expecting 3 different repair people today, electrician, solar water heater fixer and handyman who will be taking over the evening ritual of watering my tomato plants. I haven’t even rummaged through our store room to find a suitcase. Where am I off to? The 5th Food Blogger Connect conference in London! I can’t believe it was November when I booked my place; where has the time gone?

I’m so looking forward to this gathering. I am hoping to experience, learn, taste, enjoy and make loads of foodie friends! And above all, fill my head with ideas for my blog! Do you know that amongst the speakers are David Lebovitz, Penny De Los Santos and Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen? Wow. Any food blogger reading will know that these are seriously interesting people! There are many more of course, like David Loftus (a photographer who works with Jamie Oliver), a team from the Food Network and a group of well known UK bloggers.

Right, on with the recipe so I can get on with the packing! I have been back on the Dukan for a couple of weeks now, trying to get into shape. This is so I can stuff my face without a second thought during the conference. Then it will probably be back to square one, but it will have been worth it!

I noticed this salad on The Perfect Pantry, a site which has inspired me more than once to adapt recipes for this particular diet. Lydia makes many lovely light dishes which, with minor alterations, are perfectly suitable and make a great change to the same old grilled chicken breasts.

Here we have a chicken and egg salad, with a gorgeous vinaigrette dressing which I have lightened up even more by using runny natural yogurt instead of olive oil. You could also use buttermilk. Make sure it’s under 2% fat though for the diet! Dukaners can also eat this on Protein Only days, limiting the parsley quantity (use as an aromatic herb rather than a vegetable). If you are on a Protein and Vegetable day, let your imagination run wild and add whatever you fancy! The original recipe includes celery leaves which sound lovely.

This is a great way to eat up leftover chicken. I usually make a whole one in the slow cooker, with just a few herbs rubbed onto to the skin (ok, I help them stick with a tsp or two of oil, but what’s that for a whole chicken, right?). I pop it in for 8 hours on low, no liquids or anything else added, and hey presto – rotisserie style chicken. Which leaves me with loads of lean protein to enjoy in my lunch for a couple of days.

Serves 1 hungry Dukaner

Ingredients

1 cup cooked chicken, chopped or torn into bite size pieces
2 hard boiled eggs, cut into bite size pieces
2 Tbs chopped parsley
3 Tbs runny natural yogurt or buttermilk (under 2%)
1 tsp mustard (I used Dijon)
¼ tsp dried tarragon
2 tsp white wine vinegar (it’s quite tart, use less if you don’t want that)
salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Add chicken, eggs and parsley to a bowl.
2. Add the dressing ingredients to a clean jam jar, cover and shake well.
3. Pour over salad, toss and dig in!

Notes: You can make more dressing and leave it in the jar for later or the next day. It is also lovely with smoked salmon.

Due to limited time today I’m not sharing the blog love. Click on the box “Food Blog Search” located on my side bar to search through loads of great recipes. See ya!

Simple Salmon Frittata – For Dukan Protein Thursdays or Any Thursdays

Tags

dukan, egg, frittata, salmon, smoked salmon

You may recall that during the summer I went on the Dukan Diet. This diet consists of four stages, the last one of which is “the rest of your life”. Scary sounding or what? It’s not that bad really. Dr. Dukan makes you promise that after you’ve lost the pounds and stabilized your new weight, you’ll stick to three rules. For ever. These are:

• Eat 3 tablespoons of oat bran per day (it’s got magical powers!). Not oats mind you, oat bran. It’s different. Oat bran is the outer layer of the oat grain and contains loads of good stuff. See this and this for more info.
• Walk at least 20 minutes per day and never use lifts or escalators again. Gulp.
• Once a week on a day you’ve set, go back to the Attack phase (1^st stage). That means eating only protein. Lean meats, fish, seafood and fat free dairy. Dr. Dukan calls this Protein Thursday.

Another thing you’re supposed to stick to although not actually mentioned in the rules, is drinking 2 litres of water a day.

To be honest I’ve broken 2 out of the above 4 rules. I can’t keep up with the water and I can’t deal with the metro station stairs at 8:00am. I know I know, water is vital, I’ve read all the same magazine articles as you. But I just don’t get thirsty enough to guzzle that much, plus the loos at work are on a different floor (sorry, too much info). Anyway. I try. As regards the walking, I figure since I ride twice a week I can get away with not walking that often. Or, ahem, not walking at all. Moving on.

Oat bran and Protein Thursdays are a different story. These I have stuck to religiously. My Thursdays are actually Mondays, but you’re allowed to switch. Mondays are crap anyway, so how much worse can they get? To be fair, eating pure protein (even back in the diet days) wasn’t as hard as I had expected. I’m lucky because I like all the allowed foods – and really love cottage cheese, yogurt and eggs, which are stars in this particular show. The only really hard part was, still is, thinking up creative and exciting meals for those times when a plain chicken breast just doesn’t cut it.

Last Monday I decided my dinner was going to be smoked salmon and eggs. Now normally I would scramble the eggs and have them on the side, but I was in the mood for something different. And I’d already had one scrambled egg for lunch! So I went with a frittata, which I think is one of the most versatile dishes you can bake up. The proper way to make it is start it off like an omelet in a skillet, and finish cooking it under the grill. But you can also just bake it (less washing up).

It’s a great “clean out the fridge” dish, as you can throw in a number of veggies or leftover meats. This one is of course pretty basic, as veg is not allowed on Pure Protein (PP) days, but if you’re on the Cruise Phase (or not on a diet at all) some chopped red pepper, or cooked broccoli florets, or spinach would work well. Cooked chicken, bacon, sausage or deli ham and turkey are also great in frittatas. Since PP days allow a little greenery as flavouring, chopped chives and dill were what completed my version. I could have also added some capers but I, um, just thought of that now. Just so you know, I ate the whole thing all on my own which upped my intake to a total of 5 eggs that day. I’m on the side of those who say the egg/cholesterol thing is a myth.

Another cool idea is to put the mixture into silicone muffin cups (don’t use your muffin tin. Egg sticks. Trust me.) and make egg muffins. Perfect to keep on hand for snacking as the protein will keep you going for much longer than a carb-loaded regular muffin, or sandwich, or bag of crisps. Unless it’s one of those days when only crisps will make you feel better!

Simple Salmon Egg Frittata – For Protein Thursdays or Any Thursdays

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 Tbs milk (0% fat for Dukan)
200g smoked salmon, cut into small pieces
2 Tbs chopped fresh dill
2 tsp chopped chives (or some chopped spring onion, according to you taste)
pepper to taste (don’t add salt as the salmon is salty enough)
Sprinkle of chili pepper flakes or paprika
Low fat cooking spray

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a small baking pan with the cooking spray. Don’t skip this step!
2. In a bowl, lightly whisk the eggs and milk.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir.
4. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until the egg is set and cooked through.

Note: Stabilisation (4^th) phase Protein Thursdays are stricter than Attack and Cruise phase PP days, so by rights I shouldn’t have eaten 200g of smoked salmon – max is 125g for oily fish I think. Just FYI.

Other eggy bakes from around the web Kalyn’s Kitchen (I didn’t need to look further, check out this fab collection of egg recipes)
Breakfast Casserole with Spinach, Leeks, Cottage Cheese and Goat Cheese by Kalyn’s Kitchen (easily adaptable to Dukan Diet Cruise Phase by omitting oil and goat’s cheese. Sautee leeks in a non-stick frying pan with a tiny bit of water and use more low fat cottage instead of goat’s cheese)
Roasted Green Bell Pepper and Roasted Tomato Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Oregano by Kalyn’s Kitchen (easily adaptable to Dukan Diet Cruise Phase by omitting oil and substituting feta with rinsed low fat cottage cheese)
Egg Muffins with Ham, Cheese, and Green Bell Pepper by Kalyn’s Kitchen (easily adaptable by omitting cheese (try rinsed low fat cottage cheese if you want) and using low fat ham. I’ve also made them with leftover cooked chicken chunks and they were great)