Lemon & Lime Marmalade-DIY

Lemons and limes combine to create a fantastic flavor and a beautiful color and clarity to marmalade to the stretch onto our bread and biscuits or use it in other sweet concoctions in our Kitchen, as cakes, tartes, tortes, refrigerator sweets, sweet pies etc… At the time when lemons are in abundance we make and fill jams with lemon marmalade, where many of these become gifts for friends.
Lemons, high in pectin and acid, make a great marmalade although the actual flavor of fruit and its color varies.
We use only three ingredients to make this marmalade. Lemons, sugar and water. Without having to add pectin or other perfumes. Although the recipe is simple, it takes time to carry out, but the end result is worth it!
Yours!

work: 2h:00′

time: 1 ημέρα

easy:

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Very tasty Sun-Dried Tomatoes are made from mature regular tomatoes or from anhydrous tomatoes (a special variety of tomatoes, which is common in many islands in the Aegean Sea and resembles the Italian pomodori or roma variety). Dried under the sun they evaporate the water they contain. On drying, tomatoes lose 88% of their weight while larger tomatoes lose 93%.
Sundried tomatoes have the same nutritional value as fresh and to produce a kilo of sun dried tomatoes need about 14 kg of fresh tomatoes. They are rich in lycopene, antioxidants and vitamin C. They are preserved in sterilized jars in olive oil and various aromatic herbs and spices, like coriander & cardamom.
Sundried tomatoes have a great variety of colors, sizes and flavors. They have many uses in the Mediterranean Cuisine. Traditionally they are served with olive oil, feta cheese & basil for a very tasty meal.

work: 20′

time: 2-3 days

very easy:

Peach Compote & Jelly

This year our peach production was small. Some of these we enjoyed fresh and cool and some were made compote to keep them as long as we can and have them for various pastry preparations I had in my mind.
Basically the story behind this compote recipe was to make an ethereal blancmange (from the French blanc-manger). In retrospect, I realized the huge range of sweets, where we can use our hot or cold compotes. From the simplest dessert, such as on a velvety cream or yogurt, to something more complex, such as on or inside a fridge cake.
Today's suggestion is peach compote and jelly. Once the fruits have been prepared and made compote to become jelly it was the simplest dessert we could make and enjoy.
Yours!

work: 10′

time: 15′

very easy:

Aromatic Pickled Caper

We meet the plants of Caper to grow freely in nature. It is a magical plant that grows in places full of sunshine and hot to very hot summers and in very poor soils almost without water. But it insists on being and giving its little flowers -her immature buds- to become the Golden Apple of Discord among humans, birds and ants.
In order to make pickles, we collect, with respect to the plant, its flowers when they are small before they are blooming, its tender leaves and its fruits, and those small, tender, crisp, which are created after the flower is fertilized & inside there are the seeds of the plant.
Yours!

work: 1h:00′

time: 2h:30′

very easy:

Picking & Drying of Fresh Oregano-DIY

Oregano.
Ladies & Gentlemen, the Greater Oregano!
Native, perennial aromatic plant, medicinal, industrial, excellent flavor, and great bee-keeping plant, known since antiquity. Who knows if it is fresh and blooming, how many have collected and dried it, how many we use it, or how much it is unknown?
Rhetorical inquiries about the oregano in order to make an effort to approach the matter and see how we can harvest, drain or even cultivate -why not- our own oregano, not least the Greek village tomato salad with feta cheese and Oregano is our gourmet ambassador around the world!
And here I am going to tell you a secret… if you are near mountains, hills, and slopes go out and meet her. If you are urban, you can not have a balcony, a sunny window will be there, then cultivate your oregano and then everything else that smells like a oregano will never be yours anymore!
Its therapeutic properties, look for them and you will find, here today we learn to gather, dry it, scrub it to show its aromas and to put it in jars to taste our food and our mood!
Yours!

work: 1h:00′

time: 1 εβδομάδα

very easy:

Vine Leaves Maintenance 2-DIY

In an earlier post we saw a dry way of Vine Leaves Maintenance. Today Kitchen Stories suggests another way to boil the leaves and then freeze them.
The season of fresh leaves is in May and June, depending on which area we are talking about. Find and cut your own fresh spring vine leaves, the first ones that Greek vineyards make or buy ready-made cuts from your neighborhood and prepare them to get into your cupboards so you can use them at any time. And do not forget the best leaves are gathered when they are still tender only by the climates of the Sultanina variety or Debina variety.
The suggested method is simple and very easy. Packaged this way, they will keep perfectly in your freezer. Yours!

work: 45′

time: 45′

very easy:

Flavored Extracts-DIY

Flavored vanilla, mint and citrus extract.
So cute, both practically & as welcome gifts for friends and relatives for Cooking, Pastry & Cocktails. We can we make them from time to time, they are so easy and we use them so often in our Kitchen!
Make a series of transparent bottles or jars of various shapes and decorate your kitchen shelves. I find it beautiful and create pleasant mood.
Extraction is a natural process by which a substance is transferred from a first ingredient in a liquid solvent. Extracts are made the same way from many other ingredients such as: Coffee, Chocolate, Mint, Lime, Rosemary, coconut, almond, bitter almond, various Berries etc. Choose whatever you like.
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 15′

very easy:

Sweet & Spicy Apple Chutney

Chutney or Chatni is a sauce/spicy jam from Kitchens of India, which can vary… One offshoot has rooted in Anglo-Indian cuisine to gain even as many variations and adapt to another flavor culture.
It is usually with vegetables and fruits, such as onion, garlic, rhubarb, apples, peaches, orange, plum, etc. with which one can make a milder pickle. Add vinegar or apple cider vinegar in recipes of Chutney English style, aimed traditionally give long life, so as to maintain for use throughout the year. Brown or dark sugar (usually Demerara to replace the jaggery in some Indian sweet chutney) and spices, which are usually used, fenugreek, coriander, cumin, cinnamon.
The whole produces a sweet and spicy pickle, with sweet and fruity flavors, with a strong presence of ginger, but a softer product, which in Western Kitchen is built to accompany savory dishes. Usually eaten with Cheddar cheeses or cured meats and poultry, usually in cold meals a pub.
Yours!

εργασία: 15′

χρόνος: 30′

πολύ εύκολο:

Turmeric - Curcuma

Turmeric is one of the strongest therapeutics of nature. The active ingredient is curcumin and is used for over 2500 years in India where probably first used as a dye.
Often used to paint with the bright yellow color, foods such as drinks, ice, yoghurts, cakes, orange juice, biscuits etc. It is also a key component of curry.
The medicinal properties of this spice revealed gradually through the ages. It was long known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Recent research has shown that turmeric is a natural miracle that proves beneficial for the prevention of many different diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.
In Medieval Europe it became known as the "Indian saffron", as it was widely used as an alternative to the very expensive spice, saffron.

Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce, classic, delicious and for varied uses, flavored with oregano and basil. An easy sauce that accompanies perfectly meat and vegetable dishes. But also pizzas, bruschetta, sandwiches and of course pasta, any kind of pasta, where it takes off with its presence the flavor of the dish.
Tomatoes are rich in flavor, have high liquid content, have very soft flesh which breaks down quickly, and are a suitable composition to thicken in the sauce when cooked. All these properties make it ideal for a simple and attractive sauce.
Auguste Escoffier ranks it among the five basic sauces (mother sauces) of French Cuisine with:

• Béchamel
• Spanish Sauce
• Velvet
• Dutch sauce

work: 15′

time: 45′

easy:

Oven Dried Tomatoes & Maintenance: Homemade

Dried tomatoes in the oven. This a straightforward and quick recipe, with endless possibilities to liven and spice every meal.
Add them in sandwiches, in sauces for pasta, in salads, savory cakes and of course as a spread for crostini or anything else you can think of.
Since they are often referred for home sufficiency or domestic luxury, lets make homemade dried tomatoes. I guarantee that they have nothing to do with those you tried from the S/M.
Try them!

work: 15′

time: 1h:45′

very easy:

The recipe

Oven Dried Tomatoes & Maintenance:Homemade

can be found in the book «Μεζέδες».

Mini Lemon Curd Cakes

Lemon Curd or Lemon Cream. Tasty, soft and smooth texture. With an intense aroma of lemon or lime. Made with whole eggs or just yolks, lemon juice and zest and little butter for more velvety texture. Often replaces, in many desserts, the pastry cream.
Here used with the whipped cream to fill delicious, small, individual cakes with festive view and romantic style.
Yours!

work: 1h:00′

time: 1h:40′

difficult:

Watermelon Rind Pickles

Peel sweet watermelon in spicy pickle!
It's very simple to do, using the peel of watermelon, which we throw.
Is very special sweet and spicy at the same time because of the spices with a little bite of chili pepper in the aftertaste.
If you are interested in new dimensions in taste, dare to try even a small amount, just to test!

work: 40′

time: 3 days

easy:

Fatty Acids in Nutrition

We read many things about fats in nutrition. Saturated, unsaturated, omega, butter, margarine good better and bad. All are bad or good depending on what we read and who is the author.
So what emerged from my research?

Flax Seed

Flaxseed in our diet.
Flax (Linum usitatissimum = Flax the useful) is part of a larger family (Linaceae) flowering plants native to the area from the eastern Mediterranean to India for more than 5,000 years.
For many years it was underrated. The used mainly in fiber production, oil, nets, twines, ropes, and animal feed. Only the poor consumed it for the low (obviously) cost.
Recently researchers discovered the great health benefits and the well-known since antiquity seed suddenly became one of the "magic" super foods.