are you ready to crumble? today: rhubarb & cardamom against ginger & vanilla.

Okay. We had the savory crumble experiment with cauliflower. Still, nothing tops a classic, sweet and soft crumble when we crave for comfort food. And as Napoleon Bonapartes once said “”The way to a man’s heart goes through his stomach” I would freely interprete to “yummy food just makes you feel better” 😀 As I really wanted to cheer up a friend in need, I knew there is only one way: fulfill his long desired wish for a rhubarb crumble. No sooner said than done!

I flicked through my mum’s little red recipe book where I collect all my family’s recipes and found the recipe of my aunts yummy crumble. She originally prepares it with apricots and plums, served with a fresh lemon mascarpone cream. But as my friend was specifically longing for rhubarb I adapted it a bit. After some brainstorming I decided to give the rhubarb a twist by adding some cardamom, some finely chopped up  fresh ginger, as well as natural vanilla essence (thanks mum for always having an open ear for you culinary cooking brainstormings on the phone ❤ ). Due to my friend’s dairy intolerance I went for soy vanilla pudding instead of the mascarpone cream.  Within short time this is what came out of it, – definitely won’t be the last time. Next time hopefully without a crisis but just for the pleasure of it 😀

CHEER ME UP RHUBARB CRUMBLE WITH GINGER, CARDAMOM AND VANILLA

Ingredients:
For the crumble: 200g of flower, 100g of sugar, 125g of butter (room temperature, cut in little pieces, some cinnamon, a tiny pinch of salt.
For the rhubarb: big bunch of rhubarb, a bit of water, a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger (finely chopped), a ground cardamom capsule, a tiny shot of natural vanilla essence, some agave sirup (depending on your taste of sweetness), a dash of lemon juice.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Mix all the crumble ingredients until everything blends and creates the crumble. For the rhubarb put all the ingredients in a small pot and let it simmer for like 5min. Pour of the juices with a sieve and keep the rhubarb which soaked up all the nice flavors. Put it in an ovenproof dish an top up with the crumble mix. Bake for approx. 30min and serve with soy vanilla pudding. YUUUUUUMMMMMMMM!!!

Crispy cauliflower crumble.

Everybody knows crumble. Crumble with apples, with pears, with rhubarb, with apricots and many more. One thing they all have in common is that they are sweet. As you might guess from the name, this cauliflower crumble isn’t. It’s savory and full of lovely spices. It’s another dish, invented because of using seasonal veggies – and it came out really really nice. Might sound weird – but give it a try, it’s worth it!

Ingredients:
1 big cauliflower –  broken into florets, 1 large onion – peeled and diced, 1 fresh green chilli (or dried if you don’t have fresh one) – finely chopped, thumb-sized piece of ginger – peeled and diced, 3 tbsp of oats, 2 tbsp sunflower seeds, some cumin, mustard seeds and coreander seeds, curry powder, sea salt, cayenne pepper, some Dukha, 1 knob of butter, 1/2 pack of feta cheese – crumbled.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180° C. Steam the washed cauliflower until al dente in a steaming basket (approx. 7min). Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Roast onions on medium heat. Add the ground cumin, coreander and mustard seeds – fry until they start poping. Add fresh ginger and green chili and finally some oats and sunflower seeds to roast. Now add curry powder, sea salt, cayenne pepper and 2,3 thin slices of butter. Mix with the steamed cauliflower and put the mix in a baking dish. Top with feta and sprinkle with Dukha if you get it somewhere (if you don’t have it skip it or mix it yourself – it’s delicious). Put it in the oven until the feta cheese is nicely getting brownish.

Enjoy 🙂

Oven roasted veggies. So yummy. So easy. And easy is right :-)

There are so many complicated ways to cook. All kinds of techniques, recipes which take you hours and hours of preparation. You know what? I maybe like to eat them, but not to cook them. AT ALL.

For me cooking shall be easy, down to earth and no problem to prepare. And what I love most is spontanious cooking with what you have at home. As I leave to Austria tomorrow, I had a lot of veggies to use up from my visit to the farmer’s market last week. Gosh – and it was so worth it! For the second day in a row I made a vegetarian meal, which was so easy and tasty – just perfect for my taste, that I want at least to share one with you.

OVEN ROASTED VEGGIES with a quick sundried tomatoes dip (serves 2 hungry people)

Ingredients: veggies whatever your fridge gives you. I used 6 potatoes with the skin, a big piece of pumpkin, 2 carrots, 1 green pepper. Also works fine with any other vegetable like tomatoes, fennel, sweet potatoes, mushrooms etc.
For seasoning: rosmary, oregano, olive oil, sea, salt and pepper.

Method: preheat the oven to the max (220°C), chop up the veggies in bite-sized pieces and put them in one large or two smaller oven-proof dishes. Drizzle with olive oil and season with rosmary, oregano, salt and pepper. Also add some garlic and pieces of onion if you like. Cover the dishes with a double layer of aluminium foil and bake it for approx. 1 hour. Then take them out, take away the foil and put them back into the oven to make them crunchy and brown for another 20min or so. Prepare the dip in the meantime.

For the dip: half of a box of cream cheese (I like Philadelphia light), fresh herbs like parsley and coreander, some sundried tomatoes (in oil, not the Maltese salty ones, they are just too salty for my taste), salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil & milk to make it creamy.

A simple and sooooo delicious meal! Buon appetito 🙂

P.S. If you have leftovers, the cold roasted veggies also taste lovely on top of a salad or as a kind of cold antipasti.