Louise’s rainy day cacao cake

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Louise’s rainy day cacao cake

Servings

25

servings
Prep timeminutes
Cooking timeminutes

Ingredients

  • 525 grams sugar

  • 263 grams flour

  • 6 tablespoons cocoa powder

  • 1.5 tablespoons baking powder

  • 375 grams butter (or margarine or 250 grams sunflower oil)

  • 5 eggs

  • 3 deciliters boiling water (or milk or juice)

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 175c hot air setting
  • Mix sugar, flour, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl
  • Melt the butter (just melted, not too hot)
  • Add melted butter, eggs and boiling water with the dry ingredients while mixing. Make sure the batter is not too clumpy
  • Grease the pan with oil or margarine, and add the bater to the pan
  • Bake for 25-35 minutes depending on the oven. Check with a fork to see it it’s done. Soft crumbs = done, wet dough = more time. Enjoy!

Notes

    Louise’s farm focaccia

    louise's farm focaccia

    Louise’s farm focaccia

    Servings

    20-25

    servings
    Prep time

    1

    hour 

    15

    minutes
    Cooking time

    45

    minutes

    Ingredients

    • 250 grams oats

    • 1100 grams wheat flour

    • 3 packs of magic mac yeast (27 grams)

    • 950 ml lukewarm water

    • 2 tablespoons salt

    • 100 ml olive oil

    • Optional toppings: garlic, fresh herbs, sundried tomatoes

    Directions

    • Mix the water with the yeast until dissolved
    • Mix the dry ingredients
    • Add the water and yeast mixture, and the oil to the dry ingredients and mix
    • Let the dough rest for 45-60 minuters
    • Preheat the oven to 200c warm air setting
    • Grease a big pan with olive oil thoroughly
    • Add the dough to the pan and gently push the dough to the edges (like a focaccia)
    • If you are using, add the some toppings mixed with olive oil, being careful not to use too much oil
    • Bake the bread for 35-45 minutes
    • Let it cool a bit before serving

    Notes

      Louise’s lemon cake

      Lemon Cake Recipe

      Louise’s lemon cake

      Servings

      16

      servings
      Prep time

      15

      minutes
      Cooking time

      40

      minutes

      Ingredients

      • 150 grams sunflower oil

      • 250 grams sugar

      • 2 lemons (peels and juice)

      • 4 eggs

      • 200 grams wheat flour

      • 1 teaspoon salt

      • 2 tablespoons baking powder

      Directions

      • Preheat the oven to 180c – with a warm air setting if you have it
      • Grate the lemon peel
      • Mix oil, sugar, lemon peel, and eggs in a bowl. Add lemon juice (minimum 4 tbsp)
      • In another bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt
      • Add the dried ingredients with the wet ingredients slowly
      • Grease a pan with a little bit of sunflower or other tasteless oil
      • Add the cake batter to the pan
      • Bake for 30-40 minutes. Depends on the oven and the pan. Keep a close eye on it so you don’t bake it dry! Prick the middle of the cake as you go – there should be moist crumbs but not wet dough.
      • Cool and serve!

      Notes

        Dio’s whole grain tart with peppers, yogurt & cheese

        feta peppers tart

        Dio’s whole grain tart with peppers, yogurt & cheese

        Servings

        6

        servings
        Prep time

        20

        minutes
        Cooking time

        45

        minutes

        Tarts are super easy to make, salty or sweet, with butter or olive oil, they are a favorite to cook here. They are fast and efficient as you can put any kind of filling and they can keep you full for a long time!

        Ingredients

        • For the crust
        • 150 grams whole grain flour

        • 150 grams all-purpose flour

        • 1 egg

        • 80ml olive oil

        • 100ml water

        • salt

        • For the filling
        • 400 grams peppers

        • 1 big onion chopped in slices

        • 300 grams feta cheese

        • 2 eggs

        • 300 grams yogurt

        • 1/4 bunch of dill

        • 1 clove of garlic

        • salt and pepper

        Directions

        • First, prepare the crust by adding to a bowl the flour, salt, egg and olive oil, mix with a spoon until smooth and then work it with your hands until dough comes together. It should become a smooth paste that doesn’t stick in your fingers. If its too sticky add some flour, if too hard add some water. When it’s ready let it rest in the fridge while you’re preparing the filling.
        • Cut the top of the peppers and take out the seeds. Cut in slices the peppers, onion, garlic, and cook them in a frying pan with some olive oil for 10 minutes on high fire. When they are ready place them in a bowl with the eggs, feta in pieces, yogurt, dill, salt, pepper and mix.
        • Take the dough out from the fridge, place it on a straight surface like a table and start working it with a dowel rod from the middle to the outward toward edges. When you achieve the desired thickness (not very thick), place it in a oiled oven pan. Add the filling mix that you prepared earlier and put it in preheated oven for 45 minutes at 200°C.

        Notes

          Dio’s stuffed peppers with feta cheese grilled in the oven

          Our Lovely Peppers and how to eat them

          Dio’s stuffed peppers with feta cheese in the oven

          Servings

          4

          servings
          Prep time

          10

          minutes
          Cooking time

          20

          minutes

          This dish is best served with some rice, a fresh cut salad and maybe some other grilled vegetables like eggplants from the garden. The recipe is so easy and fast, that it can save you in situations that you have some unexpected visitors or sudden craving for a salty but healthy snack.

          Ingredients

          • 10 medium size peppers

          • 200 grams feta cheese

          • parsley

          • olive oil

          • salt, pepper

          • paprika

          Directions

          • Preheat the oven to 200°C or the grill
          • Cut the top of the peppers and remove the seeds from inside
          • Fill them up with feta cheese
          • Place the peppers in a pan where you have put some drops of olive oil first to prevent getting stuck in the bottom
          • Add salt, pepper and paprika to seasoning
          • Grill for 20 minutes
          • Serve with fresh parsley on top

          Notes

            Dio’s Imam Biyaldi

            imam

            Dio’s Imam Biyaldi

            This is a typical Greek dish (in common with Turkey) consisting of whole aubergine stuffed with tomatoes, onions and garlic simmered in olive oil. It is better served at room temperature or warm. But it is also delicious cold in the summer!

            The legend (and name) says a Turkish imam passed out from pleasure after trying the dish (or maybe from eating to much of it!).

            Ingredients

            • eggplant

            • 2-3 onions

            • 7-8 cloves garlic

            • 3-4 tomatoes

            • peppers

            • 100 ml olive oil

            • 2 tsp sugar

            • 1 tsp black pepper

            • 400 ml hot water

            • persil

            Directions

            • Peel the skin off the eggplants in stripes. Cut them in two and spoon a little the inside. Put in salty water for about half an hour to draw out the bitterness. Dry them off and fry them in oil until the flesh changes to a golden color.
            • Chop, the onions, peppers and garlic as fine as possible and fry them in olive oil until they have softened.
            • Chop the tomatoes (peal them if you are in the mood!) and add them to the onion mixture together with the seasoning. Cook for about10 minutes and turn off the heat. Add the chopped persil.
            • Place the eggplants in an olive oiled oven tray. Fill the eggplants with the tomato mix and poor the rest around.
            • Cook in the oven for 45min.

            Notes

              Dumplings in the Dio

              Homemade Vegetable Dumplings

              Dumplings in the Dio

              Course: Recipes

              Making dumplings can be surprisingly easy! Especially since we have so many canned goods like sauerkraut and onion confit on the farm, they require little cook time.

              Ingredients

              • Dumpling dough
              • Water

              • Flour

              • Salt

              • Eggplant and basil dumpling filling
              • Eggplant

              • Basil

              • Salt

              • Creamed chard dumpling filling
              • Chard

              • Butter

              • Heavy cream

              • Raisins

              • Sauerkraut and onion confit filling
              • Sauerkraut

              • Green onion confit

              Directions

              • Dumpling dough
              • In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add water while stirring to combine. Use a 4:1 ratio of flour to water. Transfer the dough to a flat surface and knead for a few minutes until the dough is smooth and soft. Form the dough into a ball and cover with a thin towel for 30 minutes.
              • Divide the dough into two large pieces. Then, roll out each piece to make them long and thin. Cut these long pieces into 1/2 inch pieces. These are your dumplings.
              • Take a dumpling and roll it out until it is thin and forms a circle. Place a spoonful of filling in the center of the dumpling. Take two pieces on opposite ends of the dumpling and bring them together. Then pinch along the crease to close the gap.
              • To add detail, press a fork along the edge of the dumpling.
              • Eggplant and basil filling
              • Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in a pan. While that is cooking, chop eggplant and basil.
              • Place the eggplant and basil in the pan, and cover with olive oil
              • Sauerkraut and onion confit filling
              • Simply take the sauerkraut and onion confit from the can, mix them together, and place in the roll dumpling dough! It is also easy to substitute these canned goods for kimchi.
              • Creamed chard dumpling filling
              • Heat the butter, add the chard, cream and raisins and cook until wilted.
              • Cooking the dumplings
              • Fry in oil or boil in water.

              Annabelle’s food preservation and sterilization methods

              jar sterilization

              Annabelle’s food preservation and sterilization methods

              There are various ways of preserving food, including sterilization

              Important points 🚨
              Hygiene is very important for successful sterilization: clean cloths, work surfaces, equipment and hands. This will prevent the proliferation of bacteria, and more specifically botulinum toxin, and ensure successful sterilization!

              Equipment

              • Clean jars and lids

              • Clean dish towels

              • Large saucepan or oven

              Directions

              • Preparing the jars
              • Check that the jars are in good condition and not chipped.
              • Wash the jars in hot, soapy water and pat dry with a clean towel.
              • For vinegar-based preparations or jams, sterilize the jars in boiling water (10 minutes at 100°) or in the oven (20 minutes at 140°).
              • Sterilize the seals by scalding in boiling water for 10 minutes.
              • Turn the jars out onto a clean cloth.
              • Preparing the vegetables or food
              • The quality of your jars depends directly on the quality of your food 😊 choose the freshest vegetables possible, never thawed vegetables.
              • Clean vegetables thoroughly.
              • Blanching vegetables. This technique involves plunging vegetables into boiling water for a very short time and then plunging them into cold water to stop the cooking process.
                – Hardy vegetables such as carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, courgettes, green beans, etc. can be blanched for between 2 and 3 minutes.
                – More sensitive vegetables or small fruits such as tomatoes, mushrooms, cherries, etc. should be blanched for just 1 minute.
              • Drain well.
              • Putting the food in the jars
              • Fill the jars with the still hot food, up to 2 cm from the rim, taking care not to leave an ‘air pocket’ in the jar.
              • Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean kitchen towel.
              • Close the jar by tightening the lid. At this point, the lid is still “raised”!
              • 🚨 Sterilize: there are several ways to sterilize: oven, pan of water, sterilizer, etc. 🚨
              • Oven sterilization
              • Place the jars in a tray at the lowest point in the oven, in a pan of water. Important: to avoid thermal shock, place the jars in the oven as soon as they are switched on. Do not preheat the oven.
              • Heat the jars for 1 hour at 150°C.
              • Leave the jars to cool in the oven for 40 minutes before removing them.
              • Sterilization in a saucepan
              • Choose a fairly high saucepan, at least 5 cm taller than the jars.
              • Place the jars in the pan, without them touching the bottom or each other, to prevent them from colliding. To do this, place cloths between and under the jars, or a wire rack underneath.
              • Fill the pan with water up to 2-3 cm above the jars.
              • Heat the water to 100°C. The cooking time for the jars begins when the water comes to the boil.
              • Each vegetable or preparation requires a specific cooking time. See the notes below.
              • Turn off the heat and wait for the jars to cool completely before removing them from the water. ⚠️ The lid is now sucked inwards.
              • How do you know if the product has kept well? Before storing the jars:
              • Check that the jars are airtight by turning them upside down to check for leaks. If small bubbles appear, sterilization has failed. In this case, eat the contents quickly.
              • Check that the lid is pressed down slightly! If these two points are correct, sterilization has been successful. Congratulations! 😊
              • Storage
              • Stick a label with the contents, date and year on each jar.
              • Store the jars in a dry place away from light.
              • First in, first out: rotate and place new jars at the back.

              Notes

              • Artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, green beans, carrots, peas, parsnip | 100c | 90min
              • Mushrooms, spinach | 100c | 60min
              • Onions | 100c | 70min
              • Tomatoes | 80c | 30min

              Alsacienne sauerkraut

              Sauerkraut DuckDuckGo

              Alsacienne sauerkraut

              Course: Dinner, RecipesCuisine: German, FrenchDifficulty: Easy
              Cooking time after fermentation

              1

              hour 

              58

              minutes
              Fermentation time

              2

              weeks

              One spring we had a lot (35kg) cabbage. Luckily we had all the ingredients to make it ferment and save it for later: some salt and a big sealed container! Pretty easy right? Here are the few steps and tips to turn beautiful big cabbages into savory sauerkraut.

              Ingredients

              • For the lactic fermentation
              • 4 big cabbages

              • Salt (2% of the total cabbages´weight)

              • Ground pepper and juniper seed (2/3 of the amount of salt)

              • To cook the sauerkraut
              • Carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves and pepper

              • White wine (10 cl per person)

              • Potatoes (100 gr per person)

              • Sausage (1 per person)

              • Olive oil

              • Lard

              Directions

              • How to ferment cabbages ?
              • Take of the big and bad leaves of the cabbages, put aside some of the big green leaves for later.
              • Clean and shred thinly the cabbage (as thin as possible: like a spaghetti size).
              • In a large and sealable container (with some joint on the lead) put a layer of cabbage (around 5cm) some of the spices and repeat until you used all the cabbage.
              • Put the leaves of the cabbage that you saved at the beginning on top of everything, press and add some previously cleaned rocks (or other weight).
              • Seal the container well, put it in somewhere with moderated temperature (15 to 20 degrees) and away from the light.
              • 2 weeks after the sauerkraut is ready to be cooked: the cabbage should be softer and have a fermentation taste. You can leave it longer if you want the taste to be stronger or put it in the fridge to stop the fermentation.
              • How to make sauerkraut
              • The raw sauerkraut can be eaten, it has a lot of good properties but a real Alsacienne sauerkraut is cooked for a long time with some seasoning ingredients. In a nutshell:
              • Rinse the raw sauerkraut, put half of it in a pot with some oil, add the sliced lards or chopped carrots: Put the other half and add the rest of the seasoning ingredients (onions, garlic, bay leaves and pepper).
              • Let it fry a little and then deglaze it with the white wine for 1 hour at low heath and with a lead.
              • Add the chopped potatoes and keep it on cooking for 50 minutes (make sure at the end of that time that the potatoes are cooked and tender)
              • Add the sausages if you have some and cook it for 10 minutes more ! Here you go with a little bit of patience you got a fantastic dinner.

              Notes

              • Make sure the weight is evenly spread on the sauerkraut during the fermentation.
              • You can easily do it meat-less by forgetting the lards and the sausages 🙂

              Marion’s lentil salad

              lentils-salad

              Marion’s lentil salad

              Course: Lunch, Dinner, recipesDifficulty: Easy
              Servings

              15

              servings
              Prep time

              35

              minutes
              Cooking time

              25

              minutes
              Calorieskcal
              Total time

              1

              hour 

              After a hard morning of work under the beautiful sun of Greece, a salad is always welcome.

              Ingredients

              • 500 gr of green lentils

              • 2 full onions

              • 1 large bowl of spinach (at least as much as the amount of lentils)

              • 500 gr of cherry tomatoes

              • 250 gr of feta

              • Lard (optional)

              • Seasoning
              • Dijon mustard

              • Olive oil

              • Salt and pepper

              Directions

              • Chop the white part of the onions and sweat them in a pan with olive oil. Split them in two.
              • Put half of the onions in a pot with the lentils and add some water and a little bit of salt.
              • Lentils are ready when they are soft (15 to 20 minutes of cooking time). Take them out of the water and cool them on a flat plate.
              • In the meantime : in the pan with the rest of the onions add the lards. When the lard is cooked add the tomatoes cut in two and let them fry just a little. Put it with the lentils.
              • When everything has cooled down, mix it with the chopped feta, spinach and green parts of the onions, add the seasoning to your liking and serve!

              Notes

              • Sam’s tip: to add the perfect amount of water and have some super tasty lentils cover them with water with no more than half a thumb above the lentils level.
              • Matteo’s tip: the lentils cooking water is full of good things and taste amazing, do not hesitate to keep it as broth or stock.