Spelt flake and cider rolls

I don't know, if anybody else is as crazy about spelt as I am, because I don't see that many recipes made with spelt products. However, you can trust that I will continue posting spelt recipes and this one is just full of spelt! These rolls are high in fibre and iron and have a cider twist to the flavour. I recently purchased organic spelt porridge flakes in bulk, which I used for this recipe. At the moment they ensure most of my breakfasts in porridge form, but they are also very suitable for baking.

This recipe makes about 10 small hearty spelt rolls with added cider power.

300 ml dry cider

50 g butter

2 tbsp dry yeast

2 dl spelt flakes

5 dl spelt flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Warm the cider lukewarm and add the yeast and the spelt flakes in there.

Mix the dry ingredients and melt the butter.

Combine all the ingredients and knead to a dough and let it rise for one hour.

Then shape rolls from the dough and place them on a baking tray. Sprinkle some more spelt flakes on the top and let rise for further 30 minutes under a teatowel.

Bake the rolls at 200C for about 15 minutes until fully baked. Serve when they are still slightly warm.

Your VegHog

Asparagus, cheese and onion tart

I notice that I have been a little bit lazy with asparagus posts this spring and early summer. I have been cooking quite many asparagus dishes, but somehow they haven't made it to the blog. Okay, there have been at least these asparagus recipes: Spring Risotto, Asparagus Pasta and Very Green Salad, but still there's room for more.

Today I made an asparagus, cheese and onion tart, as I have been planning to make such a tart or pie for a while. I wanted to make it quite rich and cheesy, but still have asparagus proudly presented. This is it folks!

Ingredients

4 shallots

2 garlic cloves

10 g butter

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground white pepper

½ tsp Herbes de Provence

400 g shortcrust pastry

1 egg

100 ml milk

150 g Red Leicester and Cheddar cheese mix

230 g bunch of green asparagus

Method

Cook the chopped shallot rings and finely chopped garlic in butter until soft. Season with white pepper, salt and Provençal herbs. Allow to cool again.

Roll out the pastry thinly and place it into a Ø 25cm pie tin that has been lined with baking parchment.

Clean and cut the asparagus into halves and beat the egg with the milk. Mix the shallots with the grated cheese and spread on the pastry base.

Pour the milk and egg mix on the top of the cheese and shallots and place the asparagus on the top. The asparagus will then cook in the oven, no other preparation needed. I know they look slightly dehydrated on the photos, but they were still fully succulent and full of flavour.

Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes. Then let cool a little bit and serve when still warm. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mushroom and rocket spelt crust pizza

Saturday night and it's pizza time again! A vegetarian pizza is always a good option and I claim that homemade pizzas are actually quite healthy, as there's only fresh produce added and the finest ingredients used. The fresh rocket on the top of this one contributes even more to the healthy aspect.

I made once again a spelt crust for this pizza and I think it went very well with the earthy mushrooms and peppery rocket. I tend to make either a spelt-wheat or a rye-wheat pizza base each time.

This is a recipe for two medium pizzas.

Spelt crust:

2 tbsp dry yeast

200 g wheat flour

200 g spelt flour

2 tsp salt

350 ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp olive oil

Topping:

200 g closed cup mushrooms

1 shallot

250 g mozzarella

100 g baby plum tomatoes

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp nettle salt / sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

70 g wild rocket

Method:

First make the dough by mixing dry yeast, wheat flour, spelt flour and salt and then adding lukewarm water and olive oil. Knead to a pizza dough and let rise under a teatowel for about one hour.

Prepare the toppings by slicing the mushrooms, shallot, tomatoes and mozzarella.

Divide the dough in two and roll it out thinly to round pizza bases. Place the toppings and the seasoning (oregano, salt and pepper) on the bases and bake at 200C for about 15-20 minutes.

Place the fresh rocket on the pizzas before serving and it's all done.

Your VegHog

Garden update for June

I'm off to Finland next week to visit my family, so I thought to give a garden update before I go. This is also supposed to help me remember what was going on before I left, as I'm sure in the ten days I'm gone, plenty will have happened in my small balcony garden. Now the growing circumstances are at their best. Luckily I have a watering helper, who will take care of the plants in my absence.

Many small yellow courgettes are growing very well.

Tomatoes have grown tall and are about to flourish.

Some creative looking purple carrots (a couple of them are almost purple) have also emerged. I basically knew straight away that the planter I put them into was too shallow, but these are quite amusing examples. They tasted good and I was able to use them in some vegetable burgers, so all good!

I've already been able to harvest several radishes and new ones are growing. Some of these are the next generation of last year's crops, as I let some of them grow to seed and dried the pods to be used this year.

This is pretty much what's going on at the moment. I will miss following the growth for a while, but of course it will also be nice to be on holiday.

Your VegHog

Crêpes

Every time I think of making crêpes I can't help being transported back to my childhood. As a child I spent most of the weekends and school holidays at my grandparents' farm. My grandmother would quite often make crêpes (“Lätyt” as we would call them) and us kids didn't mind at all eating them all in one go. Sometimes we would help grandmother frying them and it was such fun. The sizzling of the melting butter, the smells, the exciting process of the turning – all so exciting! My granddad sometimes turned them by throwing them in the air and would get some chuckles and admiration.

These memories came back to me again today when I decided to make crêpes for lunch. I happened to have some new local strawberries, so wanted to have those with the crêpes. In the childhood we would quite often pair the crêpes with strawberries as well, or just eat them with some extra butter melted on the top – divine!

Unfortunately my version will never quite live up to my grandmother's one, she was a great cook. But anyway, this is my easy recipe that makes about six large (full pan) crêpes. Double the recipe if you have more mouths to feed.

2 eggs

4 dl milk

2 dl wheat flour

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

Butter for frying

Strawberries or other summer berries for serving

Whisk all the crêpe ingredients together into a smooth batter. It's easier to avoid flour lumps if you add the flour slowly to the milk and eggs and keep whisking throughout.

Heat little bit butter in a frying pan. Add new butter to the pan for each crêpe.

Pour a ladle of batter into the pan. You can make large ones that fill the whole pan, but of course also smaller ones.

Fry the crêpes on both sides until golden brown. Turn them around carefully.

Serve straight from the pan with fresh strawberries on the top.

Enjoy the tasty dish!

Your VegHog

Tomato focaccia

I got The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson for my hog birthday (old in snuffler years). The Forest Feast is a unique blend between an artbook and a cookbook as Erin puts it herself. It's full of wonderful recipe ideas and beautiful illustrations and photos. It's also rare for me to have an American cookbook, so I'm very excited about it.

When I saw the picture of the “Polka-dot Focaccia” in the book (p. 40-41), I was instantly inspired. In the end I made the focaccia according to my own recipe, but the look is similar.

This is my tomato focaccia recipe, try it!

Ingredients

Selected small colourful tomatoes

500 ml wheat flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

200 ml lukewarm water

2 tbsp olive oil

Dried wild rosemary

Sea salt

Method 

Mix the flour, dry yeast, sugar and salt, and then add the lukewarm water and olive oil. Knead to a dough. Stretch the dough on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and let rise for about 40 minutes under a teatowel.

Place the tomatoes on the dough and press them down gently. Sprinkle the sea salt and dried rosemary on the top.

Bake the focaccia at 220C for about 20 minutes and serve fresh. The focaccia is perfectly good on its own, but also great dipped into basil infused olive oil.

This is very easily done and makes a good addition to a summery serving table. I'm again full of hope for the summer as it has been warm here in England for a few days now!

Your VegHog

Broccoli and cheese nuggets

Today my three part burger meal series comes to an end, and I shall end it with my recipe for broccoli and cheese nuggets (have a look at the previous posts: basic burger buns and pea and leek burgers). Don't you also think that vegetarians are still discriminated by the poor choice on vegetarian nuggets? If you're lucky you can get either plain cheese or cheese and chilli nuggets, but I think that a nugget is a great way of combining different vegetables and cheese, and I promise you to make other ones as well in the future.

These broccoli and cheese nuggets are oven baked, so there's neither playing around with hot oils, nor is there any need for a deep fryer. That's why I claim that these are more healthy in comparison to the deep fried ones, as no fat (or additives!) is used. Vegetarian nuggets make quite a nice change to the normal fries and burger combination. You might even be able to convert some broccoli haters with these. I have already managed to do so! So, here's how.

Ingredients to make about 12 chunky nuggets

1 broccoli

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

180 g mild Cheddar

2 eggs

100 g breadcrumbs

Method

Steam the broccoli florets until they are cooked soft, and then let them cool. Chop them into fine pieces.

Also chop the shallot and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Season them with oregano, salt and pepper and let cool.

Grate the cheese and combine the broccoli, shallots and cheese.

Separate the eggs; add the yolks to the nugget mix and set the whites to side.

Use half of the breadcrumbs (50 g) to the mix and the other half for rolling the nuggets in. Prepare a production line with two plates with the beaten egg whites on one and the breadcrumbs on the other.

Shape small nuggets of the mix. I made mine triangle shaped, but you can shape them as you like. Roll the nuggets in the egg whites first and then in the breadcrumbs. Then set them to a baking dish.

Bake them at 200C for about 20 minutes until the surfaces are crispy.

Serve with a dip as a part of a burger meal. I had the Lyme Bay Winery's gorgeous Spicy Tomato Chutney with Jack Ratt Cider on the side. This is a really good chutney!

So, this was my vegetarian burger meal suggestion posted in three parts, how did you find it?

Your VegHog