Cheesy outdoors spring picnic #1

Cheesy outdoors spring picnic #1

I have not written anything for a long time since I had a lot of work and Spring has also started here therefore I tried to spend as much time out in the nature as possible.

I really had to abandon my kitchen for a while but the  thought of creating cheesy recipes for sunny outdoors events inspired me a lot.  You know you don’t always have to create something totally mind-blowing if you would like to both enjoy good weather and your favourite ingredients . 🙂

So what I figured out for a perfect picnic is…. ok, I have several ideas so lets make a series of outdoors indulgence and let  ourselves be as greedy as possible on cold beer and tasty cheese….yummmm

The 1st recipe to be shared is a Stout beer  bread based grilled cheese with fresh rucola salad.

If you only wish to have the salad or the grilled cheese on its own, its totally fine of course, but the 2 dishes together would make a match made in heaven for a Sunday eat-out with your friends or family.

So here you are… the magnificent grilled cheese and the salad….:)

STEP #1 – Preaparation of stout beer bread:

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups  of rye flour ( 350 gramms)
• ‘/4 cup milk ( 0, 5 dl )
• 1 tablespoons cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package yeast
• 1 cup Stout or Porter beer ( I used Guinness)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1  tablespoon honey
• 1 egg

Preparation:

1. Put the yeast to the slightly warm milk for 4-5 minutes  ( my grandma always said it should be just as warm as your hand)  to ferment it a little bit.

2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl till thoroughly mixed.

3. Get a small sauce pan and warm the beer on the stove, then add the butter and the honey until they are melt together ( Warning! don’t let it boil)

4. Crack the egg in with the dry ingredients, then  pour in the warmed beer/butter/honey mixture and stir till you get a mixed, slightly sticky dough

5. After you mix everything together, let the dough raise for 30- 40  mins. To help the raising cover  the bowl with a kitchen towel and put some blankets on it or put next to a heater.

6. After 30 mins of rising flour knead the dough for an additional 2-3 minutes , add extra flour if needed but its not necessary.

7. Put some butter to the bread pan to grease it and place the dough in the pan. Let it raise for an addititional 20-25 minutes back under the blankets.

8. Preheat the owen to 375 Farenheits and bake the bread for 30-35 minutes till the top is golden brown. You can also check with  a needle if the dough is ready inside. As the rye flour itself  is darker than plain flour it might get tricky if you are only checking the color changes of the crust.

STEP #2. – Stout bread Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of the freshlybaked stour beer bread
• ‘ tablespoon butter
• ruccola
• 4 slices of Old Amsterdam Gouda Cheese

Preparation:

1 . Heat 1 tablespoon  butter in a cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-low heat.

2.  Put some butter, ruccola and the Old Amsterdam cheese together as a sandwich

3.Press the sandwich slightly and place it in the skillet. Cook until golden on the bottom, 3 minutes.

4.Flip, adding more butter to the pan if needed, and cook until the other side is golden and the cheese melts, 3 minutes.

STEP #3 – Fresh ruccola salad:

Ingredients:

• 1 box of ruccola ( approx. 250  gramms)
• 1 box of blueberries ( 100 gramms)
• 2 pears ( the type does not matter, its delicious with all )

Dressing :

• juice of a half lemon
• 2 tablespoons of  honey
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil ( extra virgin)

Prearation:

Well there is not much to say. Mix the ingredients of the salad. Mix the ingredients of the dressing and pour it on the salad.  … Ready to be served 🙂

 

 

And here  you go, the perfect picninc menu to be enjoyed with a bottle of stout beer  and ones you’d like to share it with.

Have a nice sunny Sunday and let me know it the recipes worked for you as well ….:)

 

 

Source:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-Awesome-Beer-Bread-with-Yeast/?ALLSTEPS

 

The perfect cheesy brunch for a rainy Sunday :)

In general I am not a morning person but I definitelly prefer having a proper breakfast or a brunch than going out to fancy   restaurants. The whole atmosphere of these places are so mind-blowing and every time I am  having my coffee, croissant, sandwich, omlett or porridge out I feel like a real queen…its like giving yourself and early treat and having the best kick off for a perfect day. I think its really important to start a day positively and acknowledge as early as possible that you deserve to be given the best of everything…( inlcuding a shower, but that’s out of the point now…)So I decided to follow this rule each and every day and surprise myself in the morning…. also my friends if they are
fit enough to come over to my cave… actually it is better to be enjoyed with others, but you’ll never know who might show up:)

I had plenty of time to wonder a little bit ont he bus on the way back from work about the best brunch menu and I think I quite did a good job and created a list of delicious things that could fit to the autumn mood and a lazy Sunday. Of course homemade cheese took a great part in it and I also wanted to try out a farm-style fresh cheese recipe I recently found online…

Some of the dishes might need a little bit of preparation but I promise that this might help you and your friends to survive a rainy and cold Sunday.

So here is your perfect menu with YOUR homemade spicy farm-stlyle cheese, spicy pumpkin dip, fresh avocado cream and toast with garlic.

Farmer’s Cheese

• 1 gallon milk
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Fresh oregano, thyme and basil
• 1 large pot
• Plastic colander
• Cheesecloth or old bandana

Heat your milk to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and add vinegar. Leave the milk to settle for 25-30 minutes. Once the milk is separated, pour the whey and curds into your colander lined with cheesecloth over another large pot, but you also do it over the sink if you don’t want to keep the whey. ( I actually reheated the whey for extra 20 minutes and added vinegar again. The outcome was a more creamy and sweet ricotta like cheese.) So,  stir in salt and herbs to the curds, then tie up the cheesecloth with a twisting motion to press out whey. Place it back to the colander and allow to drain for an hour and voilá here’s your homemade cheese.

Spicy pumpkin dip… that’s easy also and you can prepare it while the milk is settling 🙂

• 1 small pumpkin
• ½ teaspoon coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Preheat the oven to 200 celsius, chop the pumpkin to 4 parts and put them to the oven for 25 minutes until they get a bit of roasted. Once it is done smash the pumpkin with a fork and stir it together with all the other ingredients until it gets creamy.

Avocado cream…

Peal the avocado and chop it to little pieces, add some salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, ½ teaspoon of olive oil and stir.

It seems that everyhing is ready now to enjoy the morning … except coffee, but I won’t get into details about coffee making 🙂

And finally,  toast some bread, put some garlic on top ( optional) and enjoy the last day of the week 😉

I hope you have a good morning!

Source:

http://pocketpause.com/farmers-cheese-easiest-homemade-cheese-recipe/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spicy-pumpkin-dip-recipe.html