I LOVE FENNEL

Fennel is one of the vegetables I use the most in my kitchen in this period of the year.
You can find it on the market from autumn to early spring when it is readily available and
at its best.
I like very much the freshness, crunchiness and sweetness it adds to the Mediterranean cuisine.
I mainly use it raw, in salad form, thinly sliced and mixed with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Inspired by my favorite magazine “La Cucina Italiana”, today I have boiled it to make
a delicious timbale.

FENNEL TIMBALE

For 5 small ramekins.

Warm up oven to 350 F (or 170 C).
Boil 500 g of cleaned and sliced FENNEL for 10 minutes,
drain and cool it down.
In a mixer, blend fennel with half cup of CREAM, 1 EGG,
1 TBS chopped parsley and a pinch of SALT.
Chop 2 TBS of roasted and salted peanuts.
Butter 5 ramekins and cover bottom with the peanuts.
Then add 2 TBS of fennel mixture and sprinkle with
grated Parmesan, add other 2 TBS of mixture and
top it with Parmesan again.
Put ramekins in oven for 25 minutes.

Remove timbales from mold turning it upside down
and serve them warm as a side dish.


Check
http://lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/
for great cooking ideas!

Mini chocolate souffles

In a rainy day
in a day when we desperatly wait for Spring to come
in a day when joy is hiding behind the clouds.....
I treat myself with a decadent chocolate souffle!

Ingredients for 2 people
(you need to share in a moment like this, so find a gourmand friend)

Start with warming up oven up to 450F (or 250 C)
Butter and flour two ceramic ramekins.
Melt 4 TBS (or 60 g) of BUTTER, cool down.
Mix together 2 (organic, free-range) EGGS with
2 TBS white SUGAR till creamy.
Add butter to mixture.
Melt half bar of dark chocolate (60g)
(make sure it's a good one, Lindt for example or any Fair-trade one),
cool down and add to egg mixture with 1 TBS of cake flour.
Pour chocolate cream in ramekins and bake for 10 minutes
(make sure it's only for 10 minutes so to keep center moist).
Open oven and after 30 seconds take out ramekins and
with the help of a knife "de-ramekin" gently.

Serve them warm with a berry sauce or with sour cream!

You will see that after eating it the sun will come out!

(I have borrowed this recipe from my dear friend Ingrid....
...thank you my dear!)