#12 Sweetness&Bitterness

Also this time, I have to write about how wonderful is travelling and discovering new things.

Me and Rav met a man in Bristol who was making welsh cakes, i.e. traditional snacks made from raising flour, sugar, egg, salted butter, sultanas, served hot dusted with caster sugar.

We tried this lovely, sweet cakes, though Rav was not sure because the quantity of the sugar used on them is not "healthy".

Once back to London we tried to make them on our own. The result was lovely! 

Rav made also a version  sugar-free, melting some dark chocolate and covering the top of the welsh cake. This solution is very good, but the dark chocolate is a strong flavour and you feel something is missing.

In my opinion, I found balance by the union of the two previous versions: dark chocolate on the top, caster sugar on the bottom. Yin&Yang, dark&light. Perfect combination and balance of flavor!

So the first lesson I learned is....

Be ready to try, copy, add, experiment!
 

Be aware of the possibilities, test different versions, combine them. 
You can't really taste the sweetness if you have never tried the bitterness. You can't really taste the bitterness without the sweetness. You can also give up both and eat plain, if you prefer. It's up to you.

You can change taste everyday or have a discipline and eat healthy.

Anyway...

 Love is not the topping. Love is the welsh cake.

Something so nice, that you saw somewhere, and you want to make again.

#11 Receiving

This is an important lesson, both in the kitchen and in everyday life.

There is abundance,
there is enough for everyone.

We sometimes complain about what we had for lunch, forgetting of being grateful of having a meal! We think we haven't enough for us or for offering to others. But it's not true, it's just an illusion.

Appreciating the simple things is what makes a man truly rich.

Sometimes we have just to check better the fridge, and can find some food left from the day before, then add something new (as a fresh sauce) and, over all, letting the world give us a surprise.

Just accept and receive.

This meal is made with the "art of receiving" and "food-recycling": pasta of the day before, new sauce, and the indian Samosae, received as gift.

Simply rich, very tasty... love.

#10 Admiration

Travelling with Couchsurfing is always a good experience, not only because you travel without spending money for hotel, but overall because you can meet open-minded people, with a good outlooking in life. Couchsurfers have the pleasure of giving their unconditional love and sharing their place with travellers of all the world. During my trip in Ireland I met Sona, a Slovak lady that is also a good cook. She prepared for me and Rav some healthy, tasty, vegan dishes.

Admiring her for her ability, once came back to London I couldn't wait to prepare the same things she made for us. So I made porridge for my first time (in Italy is not so popular!), using different fruits for each day, so emproving the taste little by little.

Also, Sona's recipes often needs some specials ingredients, that I had never used before. Therefore I learned something more about healthy ingredients too.

In particolar I recommend to use Chia Seeds, full of Omega 3 and natural treatment for type-2 diabetes (because of its ability to slow down digestion).

I write down 2 cake recipes  she prepared for us (oh, what nice breakfasts we had in Ireland!!!)

And this is the love lesson:

Love thrives on admiration. 

Let's have a look to the Sona's cakes I prepared at home.

Avocado vegan cake. 

Recipe taken by this website.

Crust

1/3 cup almonds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
2 dates, pitted
1/2 - 1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon melted coconut oil

Grind the almonds in a food processor.
Add the coconut, dates, and water and grind into a dough.
Add the coconut oil last. Grind again into a mixture that will hold together when pressed in your hand.
Press into the bottom of mini or 6" spring form pan (crust will be thin in a 6" - you can double the recipe if you want it thicker) and set aside.

Filling

1 large avocado
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 drops vanilla medicine flower essence or seeds of 1/3 vanilla bean
1 tablespoon melted coconut butter
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
pinch of salt
Few drops stevia, if needed for extra sweetness

Blend the avocado, maple, and vanilla in a high speed blender until completely smooth.
Add the coconut butter, oil, and salt. Blend again.
Pour the filling over the crust.
Chill in the fridge for 6-8 hours.
Note: if making in a 6" springform pan, double the crust and triple the filling recipe.

Chocolate cake. 

Recipe by Sona.

The chocolate cake goes like this: for the crust soak any nuts you like (about 4 handfulls)in water for 3 hours,then strain the water and blend the nuts with 5 table spoons of melted cocnut oil and 1 spoon of agave until kind of smooth but still a bit chunky. Smooth at the bottom of a cake spring form and leva in fridge to harden for 1/2 hour. For the chocolate filling, soak cashew nuts (4 handfuls) for 2 hours, drain and put into high speed blender, add about 150g strawberries, about 50g each coconut and cocoa butter and again a little agave if you like and vanilla - process it all on high speed till it's all quite smooth, then put on top of the set crust and put back to fridge to set for at leat 3 hours. When ready, cut around the cake with sharp knife to release it.

I am very grateful for the time we spent with Sona. I feel I learned many thing at the same time, and that all these cakes, though without having sugar, gave to me some sweetness more.
I can say that...

The good example exempts no one from imitating.

#9 Repetition - experience

Asparagus risotto with smoked cheddar

I cooked the asparagus in a large saucepan of lightly salted boiling water until tender, then took off them and cut into 3 cm lenghts. I put the rice in the same cooking water, adding again the asparagus' pieces and some slices of smoked cheddar at the last minute, stirring well.

I add black pepper on the top.

This is a dish that I often cook. It's easy, and it has a very gentle & fine taste. More I cook this dish, better it is. I guess that also love works in the same way. Repetitions of kindness, caring, affection, is not boring... it's experience. And experience gets things well done! Delicioussss

#8 Perseverance

I left this blog for a long time without updates, although secretly I continued sometimes to cook and take pictures. So these are the dishes that I have not written about.

Spelt and lentils stew, with tofu (first time I used tofu!)

Cherry tomatoes and green salad with dry ricotta cheese, pine nuts, oil and roasted bread.

Mushrooms and quinoa soup. Cherry tomatoes and green salad, egg. Blueberries. (yes....I'm still eating colours!)

Roasted butternut squash (first time cooking this nice vegetable!)


Pan cake with raspberry jam and agave syrup on the top. For a sweet breakfast.

And because during these months I didn't write anything, I did not fully understand which meanings I can  take from these dishes.

So, I have not learned anything, except what I am going to write now:

To learn, to love, to cook, to do anything, it takes repetition and perseverance.

Love requires a continue effort (to cook), and a moment of reflection about things (to write). And they must alternate with equal proportion, and in a retively short time.

#7 acceptance

I don't have new dish to show you. in theese days, in fact I had some meals provided by someone else (I work in a restaurant!)

What can I say?

Well, love is also to accept...one another's love

#6 Simplicity

Tomato fusilli,with onion, pine nuts, spices and parmisan cheese on the top. 

Sometimes a simple dish is enough, it nourishes us, makes us feel good. We don't need to be surprised everyday about the creativity of the dish.

Love is simple, like a good friend, or a cute cat sleeping onto our knees.

#5 tricolor lunch and dinner

This was my  today's lunch.

Tricolor pasta 

with:

- red and yellow pepper

- onion, oil, spices

- chopped almonds

I did two different versions: a white version

...and the red  one (with tomato puree)

My dinner was

asparagus, tomato & feta frittata

(I also used onion, garlic, parmisan, black pepper)

I put the frittata in the oven for 30 minutes, and then I grilled it for 5 minutes.

I was a bit sad at the end of the day, anyway I cooked this meal because I prefer not have time to be sad, and have more time to...love.

# 4 Color lunch

Today I ate for lunch:

- sauted and roasted new potatoes, with onion, orange and red pepper, served with warm wholemeal bread.

- blueberry

- kiwi

So, I ate: yellow, red, orange, brown, blue, green. I could appreciate how the colors were bright!

Love has various colors!

#3 sharing ...also a mistake

Yesterday night, me and my flatemate Katie tried to cook blueberry muffins. However, something was wrong. The paper we used  was not so firm, and when we put the mixture in the paper, the muffins became larger than necessary. Then, while muffins were in the oven, we took them off  too early.

However, we had fun, looking for the ingredients and cooking together, and we learnt something about cooking and love:

1) Sharing gets everything more beautiful.

2) Sharing a mistake is important to comparison, and to encourage each other to do better the next time.

3) It's important not to be impatient, and to have appropriate skills...otherwise you can ruin also the best ingredients!

P.S: We couldn't eat them. They seemed (and smelled like) an omelette!

#2 simple meal VS long time cooking

At lunch I cooked and ate a green dish:

- Boiled brussels sprouts.
- Sauted courgettes, with onion and turmeric spice.

At dinner I boiled white butter beans, while in another pan I was frying onion, orange pepper, tomato purèe, and herbs de provence, adding salt and black pepper at the end.
Then I put the beans in to the pan, and stirred well.
This dish takes longer time than the lunch's one, but it is delicious!

Sometimes you don't need much time to love well, in a simply way.
Sometimes love is more difficult, but it worth the wait.

#1 To do fast

Sometimes we eat so fast, and when the meal is finished, we can't be satiated yet. Maybe we are eating without tasting properly.

Sometimes we fall in love too quickly, we get engaged soon, and soon we break. We cant be satisfied, Because we don't feel love properly, we can't appreciate how it tastes.

My first dish is "broccoli rice". 

I just put at the first broccoli and then rice, toghether in the same pan (to do it quick!) with the boiling water and salt, and I waited until they were cooked (about 12 minutes).

At the end they were like a soft green cream; the ingredients were so united that  it was impossible to distinguish any more their different flavours. 
It was so nice, and I tried to taste it... bite by bite.

Is Love like cooking?

What they have in common cooking and love?
In both, there's not just one right way to do it,  everyone has his own particular preferences,  and certainly it must know the "doses".

It is said that a good cooker knows the doses without measuring, just sampling from time to time. This come from the experience.
And what about the experience of love? I think we need more books about love rather than cookbooks, because also learning to love requires technique, practice and patience.
Most of the people nowadays has  no time to cook and take care of themselves. But everyone of us knows what's the difference between an home-made food, cooked with love, and a take away or a precooked food.
Cooking with love is healthier, and get us more aware about what we are doing and taking care of ourself.

How can I cook better? means: How can I love myself better?

I choose to learn cooking, because I want to learn to love, and I'd like to start from loving myself.
But to become a good cooker (and also a good lover) it would be better to  choose a specialization.
This choise for me is ethic, but everyone could choose his own reason.
I don't want to eat meat because I don't like violence, so I'm going to write exclusively about vegetarian food.
While I'm going to learn how to cook, I'm sure i'm going to learn also how to eat, and to love too.
It's possible to eat (love) without overeat and guilt or dieting, but with enjoyment.
I hope that sharing this blog, you'd like to cook...and love.