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.

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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!