Zucchini and spelt bread

Here's a recipe for a really easy and juicy homemade bread that can be made without kneading with hands.

Ingredients

1 zucchini grated

2,5dl milk

25g yeast

4dl spelt flour

3dl wheat flour

1tsp salt

50g butter melted

Poppy seeds

Grate the zucchini and mix it to lukewarm milk. Add the yeast and salt and mix. Then add both types of flour and finally the melted butter. Just mix all together with a spatula. Put the dough into a loaf tin and let it rise covered with a tea towel for about one hour at room temperature. Sprinkle poppy seeds on the top before baking.

Pre-heat the oven to 220C and bake for about 30 minutes until the top is crispy and the dough is baked throughout. Baking time also depends a little bit on the format of your loaf tin. After baking let the bread cool down for a while but then enjoy fresh.

Your VegHog

Homemade hedgehog shaped ravioli with mushroom filling, parsley and lemon butter and steamed asparagus

It's the Hedgehog Awareness Week 2013 (5.-11. May) so just to spread the word I came up with this idea to make whimsical hedgehog shaped ravioli. Asparagus is ideal on the side as it's now in season and the mushroom filling is in my opinion also very suitable to the hog theme.

All you need is a hedgehog cookie cutter, mine is from Ikea's current range and a pasta machine that makes your life a whole lot easier. You could theoretically cut every hedgehog individually with a knife or pastry cutter but that really is a massive task.

Parsley and lemon butter:

100g butter

½ lemon

A few leaves of fresh parsley

This is a fresh and quick herb butter to make and goes well with many vegetables. I find it especially tasty with asparagus.

Make this butter first with just a few easy steps. Take soft butter and squeeze the juice of half a lemon to it. Then chop parsley leaves and mix all these ingredients together. Roll to a small rod in cling film and let set in the fridge.

Ravioli filling:

A handful of porcini mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

1tsp vegetable stock powder

A few leaves of fresh parsley

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Roasted pine nuts

Bread crumbs

Olive oil

This is a very savoury and strong mushroomy filling, therefore it doesn't need a strong sauce to go with it.

Rehydrate the dried porcini mushrooms in a small amount of water containing a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder. When the mushrooms are soft heat a little oil in a pan and lightly fry the mushrooms there so that they can lose the excess fluid. Add the finely chopped garlic and fry a moment longer.

Grate the cheese, chop the parsley leaves and grind the pine nuts. Add some bread crumbs to remove any excess fluid. Then mix the mushrooms with those ingredients and let the mix set in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Pasta:

400g grade 00 pasta flour

4 eggs

Salt

My pasta dough recipe is for a large dough, which makes about 25 raviolis and they can even be slightly thicker. Please read my more thorough ravioli making tips here. Make only half of the dough if you don't have several hungry eaters.

Knead the ingredients to a firm and even dough and then let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes wrapped in cling film. Once the dough has rested long enough start either rolling out sheets of it with a rolling pin, which requires a lot of strength, or work it through a pasta machine to produce thin sheets. I personally don't find super thin pasta so good for ravioli as thicker ones hold better together and are more filling.

When the pasta sheets are rolled out start cutting the hedgehog shapes out, fill them with the mushroom mix, brush the sides with water and press two hog pieces firmly together. Repeat several times and cook the ravioli in boiling salt water for about 10-12 minutes. The ravioli are done when they float on the surface.

Steamed asparagus:

Asparagus is finally in season and you should be able to obtain lovely local produce. At the same time as boiling the pasta steam them to keep the flavour strong, glaze with the parsley and lemon butter and serve as a side dish.

Finally make a masterpiece on the plate with hedgehogs snuffling in the undergrowth. Let parsley and lemon butter melt also on the ravioli, add some fresh pea shoots to the presentation and enjoy.

Some just can't get enough of hibernation...

Happy Hedgehog Awareness Week!

Your VegHog

Blueberry pie

Summer should be coming soon and all those locally sourced fresh berries will be available everywhere. That's what inspired me to make this pretty much Finnish style pie as a quark filling is used with some fresh berries.

Base:

2dl wheat flour

100g butter

1 egg

1dl sugar

1tsp baking powder

Filling:

4dl blueberries

2dl quark

1egg

1dl sugar

1tbsp vanilla extract

Start by making the dough mix for the base. Whisk the egg and sugar to a foam. Add the soft butter. Mix the dry ingredients for the base together and then with the egg and sugar foam. Put the dough into a greased cake tin and the blueberries on it.

Mix the filling: quark, egg, sugar and vanilla extract and pour it on the top of the dough and blueberries.

Bake at 175C for about one hour. Let set for a moment and enjoy freshly baked with coffee.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Cheese and onion panini with basil

Here is a simple breakfast idea that gives the opportunity to use a griddle pan: cheese and onion panini with basil.

Take panini rolls and fill them with cheese, onion rings and fresh basil leaves. Then grill them on a lightly greased griddle pan at moderate heat until the griddle marks start to show. Press them carefully down on the pan. Flip over and enjoy hot. The cheese should melt and onions get slightly cooked and the rolls crispy.

The Bankes Arms Country Inn and Isle of Purbeck Brewery in Dorset

The Bankes Arms is an idyllic country pub on the jurassic coast of Dorset. It's located close to Studland beach and Old Harry Rocks and a walking distance away from Swanage town. The scenery in those parts is just amazing, I can only recommend a visit! Just behold the picture compilation below.

The VegHog usually snuffles its way from Swanage over the hills, past the Old Harry Rocks for relaxing in the pub's huge beer garden with a sea view. This pub is brilliant in the summer season because of its large outdoor facilities but also very cosy inside in the winter with open fires and a relaxed atmosphere.

The Isle of Purbeck Brewery is attached to the pub and you can taste their excellent beers in perfect quality and even buy a party keg to take away. They also serve good ciders and pub food. I think they could have more vegetarian options on their menu but the main thing is that they have good drinks.

Spätzle – Swabian egg noodles

Spätzle are a wonderful delicacy from the German Swabian region. They are hearty and filling egg noodles often eaten with cheese and fried onions, obviously also many meat variations exist. I have a slightly different version but I learned my Spätzle making skills directly from my Swabian friends. They taught me what the dough needs to feel like in order to produce the perfect Spätzle, firm but not too eggy. Therefore the quantities below are somewhat approximate.

You'll need:

400g wheat flour

4 eggs

250ml water

Salt

2 peppers

2 large onions

4 cloves of garlic

Grated cheese

Pepper

Oil

Do this:

First prepare the onions and peppers. Chop them and the garlic and fry them in oil until they are pre-fried but not yet quite done. Season with salt and pepper and set them to side. Grate the cheese, Emmental or Cheddar go nicely with this, and bring water to the boil in a large pot. Also pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Then start making the Spätzle dough. Put the flour into a bowl, add the salt and eggs and mix. Carefully add water to achieve a stretchy, bouncy and even dough. Scoop small amounts of the dough at a time into a potato ricer and press it straight into the boiling water. Use a large setting of the potato ricer with a hole diameter of about 5mm. The Spätzle are done when they float on the surface. They might want to stick together a little but that doesn't really matter. They'll still turn out tasty.

Place the fried peppers and onions into the bottom of a large oven dish. Put the boiled Spätzle on the top and then the grated cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

Serve with a fresh salad and a nice wine and enjoy the goodness.

Your VegHog

Cheesy zucchini oven fries

If you are tired of regular potato fries you should try these zucchini fries by following these easy steps. They are made without oil so they are fairly healthy and also look good.

Ingredients

2 zucchinis

2 eggs

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Bread crumbs

Potato flour

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Cut the zucchinis into thin lengthy sticks. Grate the cheese finely and mix it with bread crumbs. Prepare an assembly line with three deep plates next to each other: Put some potato flour to the first one, beaten eggs to the second one and grated cheese and bread crumbs to the third. Roll the zucchini sticks allover in potato flour, then in the beaten eggs and bread crumb and cheese mix.

Place the prepared sticks to an oven dish and slowly bake in the oven until the crust is crispy and golden brown and the zucchinis are soft and juicy inside. It could take about 40 minutes but it's worth the wait.

Enjoy the fries with a lovely dip. Stay hungry!

Your VegHog