Vessy's day » cherry tomatoes

Arugula salad with parmigiano reggiano

Vessy — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 14:23:17 +0000

An easy and delicious salad, you can whip up in no time.

I can hardly call this a recipe, cause it’s just a few ingredients, mixed in a large bowl, seasoned with good quality olive oil & parmigiano reggiano and your favorite balsamic reduction. No special dressings or ingredients.
Feel free to add whatever extra flavor you prefer or have on hands, but remember that sometimes simple things taste the best.

Ingredients:
Fresh arugula (rocket)
Cherry tomatoes
Parmigiano reggiano
Salt & Pepper
Balsamic reduction

Olive oil

Optional add-ons: pine nuts, roasted pecans, capers, sun-dried tomatoes;

Mix all ingredients in a salad bowl and serve immediately.

Gluten free cherry tomato tart

Vessy — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 12:14:57 +0000

Summer tart recipe – fresh and sweet cherry tomatoes, cheese, fresh spices from the garden and a crispy shell to make all this hard to resist.
This recipe is gluten free! Since it’s used only gluten free flour, the dough is a bit crumblier than a regular dough, prepared with white all purpose flour. The gluten itself makes a dough so elastic and stretchy and when the gluten is missing the dough turns crumblier than we want. This doesn’t mean that it is not crispy and delicious, thou, it is just a bit harder to work with, especially when it is time to fit it in the baking dish. So, don’t worry if your rolled dough brakes in few pieces, just put it together straight into the baking dish.

Other option for you guys is to use organic guar gum, which is very popular for baking gluten free. If you have some on your hands, just add a tea spoon to the dough and it will turn out less crumbly.

Ingredients for the pastry dough (makes 24cm.round pie):
140 grams (5 oz) rice flour
25 grams (1 oz) organic corn flour
½ tea spoon salt
90 grams (3,20 oz) soft butter (unsalted)
1 large egg
2 table spoon cold water
For the filling:
3 large eggs
200 ml. cooking cream
Salt & Pepper
Dry or fresh oregano
Dry or fresh basil
50 grams (2 oz) goat cheese
1 red pepper, chopped
200 grams (7 oz) cherry tomatoes
130 grams (4,60 oz) mozzarella cheese

To make the dough:
Combine all types of flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the soften butter (chopped into small pieces) and start mixing with your hands and fingers (or in a food processor if you prefer) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and knead until the dough comes together. If dough is too dry and doesn’t come together add one or two table spoons of water, one by one, until dough is wet enough to form a ball, but not too sticky. Shape dough into a disk, cover in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to firm up, about 30 minutes.
In the meantime prepare the filling:
Take pastry out of the fridge and roll on a floured wooden board or on your counter. Gently fit in the rolled pastry in the greased pie dish, cover bottom and sides of the dish by pressing with your fingers and palms.
In a large bowl, beat lightly the eggs, add cream and season with salt, pepper, oregano and basil. Pour the egg-cream mixture over the pastry. Sprinkle the goat cheese on top and then arrange the cherry tomatoes and red peppers on top of the cheese. Top them with slices of mozzarella cheese.
Bake for about 30 minutes then let cool for a bit before slicing it.

Healthy pizza with mozzarella & cherry tomatoes

Vessy — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 12:51:04 +0000

Oh, dear delicious pizza! This pizza is not only super delicious but it’s also a bit healthier than any other regular pizza. The dough is made of black wheat organic flour and rolled into a thin layer, so we don’t feel guilty about having too much dough.
Usually when I make bread or dough out of whole wheat flour, or mix different healthy flours, like rice, nut, quinoa or buckwheat, I add an egg or two to keep the dough from crumbling and falling apart after baking. If you prefer to have an egg-less dough, feel free to skip it, but keep in mind that your pizza will be a bit delicate and will most probably brake easily.

For the dough (makes 2×30 cm. / 2x12inch pizzas):
470 grams (16,60 oz) organic black wheat flour
50 grams (2 oz) rice flour
10 grams (0,35 oz) easy blend yeast
Salt and pepper to taste
230 ml. warm water
1 tea spoon sugar
2-3 table spoons olive oil
1 egg (lightly beaten)

For the topping:
Tomato puree
Cherry tomatoes
Mozzarella cheese, sliced
Fresh or dry basil
Black olives, chopped
Slat & pepper
Olive oil
A handful of rocket

Prepare the dough:In a large bowl, add the black wheat flour, rice flour, easy blend yeast, salt and pepper. Mix to combine.
In a small bowl add water, sugar, olive oil and the egg.
Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and knead until you form a nice ball of dough, a bit hard to the touch. Push the dough with the tip of your finger, your finger will make a hole in dough. You will know the dough is ready if the dough brings back it’s round form, and your fingerprint hole disappears quickly.
Transfer the dough to another bowl, greased with olive oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and set aside to rise. Once the dough doubles it’s size, knead again and divide into two equal balls.
Preheat your oven to 180C fan-forced (350F).
Roll each ball into a circle and place on a greased pizza baking sheet. Brush the top of the rolled pizza dough with olive oil.
Spread a thin layer of the tomato pure over the pizza dough, sprinkle with cherry tomatoes, olives, season with salt, pepper and basil. Top with the mozzarella slices and bake for about 25 minutes.
Once ready, remove from the oven and sprinkle a little bit of olive oil on top. Serve hot from the oven with a side of rocket.

Bruschettas with halloumi and malidzano

Vessy — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 16:28:39 +0000

If I can explain with words how delicious these bruschettas are, but I guess, there are no words to describe this delicious bruschettas, that are not only yummy, but super easy, quick and healthy. In the season of outdoor food and fun, I am trying to share easy and quick recipes, perfect for an outdoor event. These bruschettas could be prepared on a BBQ, while enjoying the company of your friends and family.

Ingredients:

Bread, sliced thinly, grilled, if you prefer

Halloumi cheese, grilled

Fresh zucchini, grilled

Cherry tomatoes, sliced

Spicy malidzano Mama’s

Spring onions, chopped

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Spread one layer of the malidzano over the bread. Top with pieces of halloumi cheese, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and spring onions. Season with salt and pepper.

That’s it, super easy!

Risotto with scamorza and olives

Vessy — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 14:19:06 +0000

One of my favorite vegetarian recipes – creamy risotto with olives, scamorza and cherry tomatoes.
Risotto is very easy to prepare and super quick, so it is perfect for a mid week dinner at home.
I have written all steps, tips and tricks of making a good creamy risotto below.
Hope you will enjoy it!

Ingredients:
160 grams (5.6 oz) risotto rice
About 350 ml. hot vegetable broth
7-8 cherry tomatoes
50-60 grams (2 oz) of black olives
A couple of table spoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped finely
About 70 grams (2-3 oz) scamorza cheese, shredded
Basil
Thyme

Prepare the broth – you will need about two and a half times the quantity of the rice you are cooking, so if you have 160 grams of rice, you will need about 350-390 ml. of broth. You will have to adjust the quantity of the broth on the go, depending on the type of rice you cook.
Start by cooking the onions in the olive oil on low heat. Cook until translucent and soft. Add the rice and mix with the onions, just enough to heat it, not fry it ( on low heat).
Turn the heat up on medium and gradually start adding the hot broth, part by part as you stir the rice repeatedly – stirring is important because it helps the rice to loose the starch, which creates nice creamy texture of the sauce. Make sure to stir your rice almost constantly but gently because you don’t want to smash it. Let the rice absorb almost all of the part broth you have added, before you add more broth. Keep adding broth until the rice is almost cooked – the rice should be al dente and moist – this means that risotto is usually served with it’s creamy sauce. The creamy sauce comes from the broth and the starch that the rice looses. If you see that your risotto gets dry but it is almost cooked and you have to take it off the heat, then just add enough broth to moisten it and cook it for another minute.

Total time for cooking the rice is about 20-25 minutes, so usually about 3-5 minutes before the rice is ready add the olives, cherry tomatoes, thyme, basil and scamorza cheese. Stir to distribute the cheese evenly.

Chicken empanadas

Vessy — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:47:33 +0000

Empanadas are little treats, which could be filled with pretty much anything you want or have in the fridge. Empanadas are perfect for a party or picnic and the best part is that they could be prepared ahead of time (up to a month), frozen, and on the day you need them, just be baked or fried.

My empanadas are filled with sweet chicken, mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes.

I find this combination perfect, as it is light, but still very rich in taste.
If you have followed most of my posts, you would know that I fry food very rarely, and again preparing these empanadas, I preferred to bake them, instead of fry. As a person who would bake “french fries”, I have to say that most of the time the result from a baked dish is much more successful than from a fried one. But of course, when baking, it is important to know the ingredients you bake and their texture. After all, we all prefer to eat healthy, but the meal needs to be delicious as well.
That is why when baking chicken meat, I make sure to use thigh fillet, I add more butter and spices so, the meat is not dry and tasteless. In today’s recipe I added juicy cherry tomatoes and soft mozzarella cheese, which I believe completed the dish perfectly.

Dough:
350 grams plain flour
200 ml water
10 grams dry yeast
2 tea spoons salt
60 ml vegetable oil
1 large egg (lightly beaten)

1 large egg yolk

Sift the flour into a big bowl and make a well in the middle.
In a small bowl, mix the water, salt and yeast.
Add the water and yeast to the flour, as you stir constantly with your fingers or a spoon. Add the egg and olive oil and continue to stir.
Flour your counter or large wooden cutting board and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

If you have a food processor, you may use it to knead the dough, with the dough attachment.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.

Ingredients for the stuffing – keep in mind that the ingredients in this recipe depend mostly on you – if you want to add more chicken or more mozzarella, so adjust them to your taste and the size and quantity of empanadas you are preparing:

Chicken (minced or cut into small pieces) – 400 grams
Cherry tomatoes (cut in half) – about 20 tomatoes

Mozzarella (shredded or cut into small pieces) – about 200 grams

1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

100 grams ketchup

1 tea spoon chili flakes
1 tea spoon dry basil

1 tea spoon dry marjoram

4 table spoons olive oil/butter

Salt and pepper

In a large skillet heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and cook for a few minutes until lightly crisp. Add the meat and cook for a couple of minutes (it should turns white as it cooks).

Add the ketchup, basil, marjoram and chili. Cook another few minutes until the sauce starts to thicken. Add salt and pepper and turn off your stove.

To assemble the empanadas:

You have many choices at this point. You can make small calzone empanadas, small open empanadas or just one big. I decided to prepare small closed empanadas, and just for fun I left two of the empanadas open.

So, sprinkle a little bit of flour on your counter.

If you prepare the empanadas in one big pie dish, just take 2/3 of the dough for the base and save 1/3 of the dough to close the dish on top.

If you make small empanadas, just divide your dough in two, this way it will be easier to work with it.

Roll the first half of the dough as thin as you desire. I preferred to roll my dough as thinner as possible, because I want to have more of the filling instead of baked bread.

Cut circles or rectangles (depending on your dish shape) out of the rolled dough and spread them on the bottom of your dish/ramekins. Make sure to spray your dish/es with olive oil before you add the dough to avoid sticking. Other option is to place baking paper on the bottom of every dish.

On the base of dough, add one layer of the chicken filling, then add a couple of cherry tomatoes and finish with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle some basil on top and you are ready to cover the filling with the top layer of the dough.

Roll the rest of the dough and cut small circles/rectangles to cover the empanadas.

Place the dough on top of the filling. Using your fingers, piece together the bottom and top layers of dough.

Using a fork, make a couple of small holes in the top layer of dough, so that while baking, all hot air exits.

Beat the egg yolk with a little bit of water in a small bowl and paint all tops of the empanadas.

Bake about 30 minutes for small empanadas (180 C/350 F) or 40 minutes for a bigger dish.

Pasta with cherry tomatoes and capers

Vessy — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:53:20 +0000

If you are looking for an easy and non-sophisticated pasta recipe – this is the one!

It is vegetarian, simple but still very delicious and aromatic.

This is s typical summer recipe, because it is light and quick, so you don’t have to run around the hot kitchen appliances for hours. Try it and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

300 grams (10.5 oz) uncooked pasta (any type you prefer)

300 grams (10.5 oz) cherry tomatoes (cut in half)

4 table spoons olive oil

5-6 garlic cloves (minced)

3 table spoons capers

125 grams (4.5 oz) mozzarella cheese (shredded)

Salt & Pepper

1/2 tea spoon chili flakes

Optional: Shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions (save 1 coffee cup of the water).

Heat up the olive oil in a deep non-stick skillet.

Add the garlic and capers. Cook until the garlic gets light golden crispy look.

Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 7-8 minutes. The cherry tomatoes should not be overcooked until soft and mushy – they should be still fresh, but warm. Add a bit of salt, pepper and chili flakes.

Place the pasta in a large bowl, together with the water. Add the shredded mozzarella cheese and stir until well combined. Add the cherry tomatoes and capers and mix well.

Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese or just plain.

Enjoy!