Cooking Session in Berlin

With a mum and her kid!

We had such a good time.

Here I'll share the recipes with you.

My client chose very good products and I brought some specials of my own, we improvised a little around the quantities available and all went smoothly, everyone being helpful and sharing the interest.

Preparing the cooking session: choosing the recipes that will please everyone, 4 recipes is good for a 2-hour session.

Choosing what we want to start with, taking baking time - and lunchtime - into account.

It's gonna be the cake which has to cool before adding the icing.

As beetroot is in season, why not make a carrot cake with some more colour?

CARROT CAKE

The filling:

250g carrot and beetroot, grated

Preheat the oven at 180°C.

To mix:

2 eggs

1 orange, juice and zest

100g apple puree (sugar-free)

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted in the cake tin (abt 2min in the oven)

30g ground almonds

180g wholemeal rice and/or oat flour

1 bag baking powder

pinch of salt

4 tsp spices (cinnamon, ginger, turmeric)

some ground vanilla

A very helpful kid, she loves mixing with the spoon and get her hands dirty. Go for it, feel your food!

=> mix the dry mix into the wet mix.

Add the grated veggies,

100g crushed nuts

6 medjool dates, soaked and finely chopped or pureed.

Pour the dough in your oiled tin (you can put a stripe of parchment paper into the tin to get the cake out easily)

Bake for 40 minutes.

Let it cool before scraping the edges with a knife and transfer on a rack.

Frosting:

1 cup/120g cashews, soaked a few hours and drained

3/4 cup coconut cream (solid part of a cooled can)

1/4 cup coconut oil (20g/1 tbsp)

3 medjool dates, soaked and empied, cut in 4

some ground vanilla

2 tbsp lemon juice

pinch of salt

1/2 cooked beetroot, cut in pieces

=> blend and leave to cool before spreading on the cool cake.

Plus I made beetroot flowers beaucause hey we had a little girl in the house.

Soft, tasty, colourful and just sweet enough, what do you want more in a cake?

SPINACH TART

Buckwheat is traditionnal in Brittanny (France) and even in a region in Germany. With the gluten-free trend, you find more products made from buckwheat on the market now. It's a pseudo-cereal with a very good amino profile. There are some combinations that work really well with buckwheat, but you might have to adapt some recipes, or just try new ones.

Crust:

250g wholemeal spelt/buckwheat/oat flour (feel free to mix according to taste and needs)

10 cl. water

5 cl. olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

(dried herbs)

Start to mix with a spoon, then put some heart into it. Finish it off with your hands and press the dough together to make a firm ball. Then press it onto the tin from the middle towards the edges.

Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes.

Filling:

750g spinach leaves/baby spinach, wash and stir at low heat in a big pan to melt them down a little

250g fluffy/creamy goat cheese

3 eggs

+ salt, pepper, cumin

optional : some orange zest

vegan version : replace cheese and eggs with 1 can chickpeas (including aquafaba) and 4 tbsp nutritional yeast (blended)

Bake for about 35 min.

The vegan version:

1 chickpea can, including 1-2 tbsp aquafaba (you can also whisk it like egg whites)

4 tbsp nutritional yeast

greens (baby spinach, chard...), mixed

optional: some pine nut or other

Here I blended everything together, so it makes a kind of puree, but you can add the greens extra (2nd pic)

When I use chard, I mix the thick leaves before adding them to the dough.

GLUTEN-FREE JACKFRUIT WRAPS

The cabbage mixture:

1/2 orange juice

1 china cabbage, chopped

1 apple, grated

+ salt, pepper, galanga...

fry at medium heat until soft. Add a dash of water/olive oil if needed.

Wrap dough (makes 6):

100g buckwheat

30g chickpea flour and 20g lupine flour (adapt quantities to your taste)

1 tsp psyllium

1 tbsp sesame (you can also fry and blend it for more taste)

1 tsp turmeric

pepper, salt, cumin

water

2 tbsp olive oil

(1 egg)

Mix the dry ingredients, then add water little my little until you get a pancake dough (rather thick than runny). Add olive oil, egg is optional.

Fry in the pan like crêpes.

Tahini dressing:

3 tsp tahini

6 tsp yoghurt (I like coconut yoghurt)

1/2 lemon (you can probably use 1 tbsp apple vinegar or water...)

sal, cumin, cinnamon

optional: some garlic

+water to make in runnier

Jackfruit coating:

1 jar / 1 bag plain jackfruit

buckwheat flour

sesame/gomasio

salt

optional: add some tahini dressing later in the pan

Mix the jackfruit into the flour & co, then fry in olive oil.

Dress your wraps:

First the sauce, then the cabbage mix, and the coated jackfruit.

Nicely rolled and pressed together.

OKONOMIYAKI (wheat-free, makes 4)

350g white cabbage, grated/mixed very thinly or pre-cooked

240g oat/wholemeal rice flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

salt, pepper

1 tsp freshly grated or 1/2 tsp ground ginger

4 eggs

250 ml water with 1 tsp veggie stock (you can boil the cabbage in it if too thick)

Mix dry ingredients, then add eggs, vegetable stock and cabbage.

Heat the pan at medium heat, add oilve oil and pour 1/4 of the dough into the pan, like a big pancake. It needs about 4 minutes on each side.

Dressing: tamari, spring onions, chives, seaweed, fried seame or homemade rapseed oil mayonnaise.

A pretty thick okonomiyaki. You can cut it in 4 to bring along in a picnic box or share with friends with some sauce and salad.

(...)

Dégustation! Tasting time is the moment of revelation.

Thanks to my client for these amazing pics. Food is so much more appreciated when it is nicely put forward like this! I do love the wooden background which reflects the traditional aspect of the buckwheat tart.

My favourite memory <3

very emotional and personmal pic but then I was like, why wouldn't I share the best and most beautiful moment of the cooking party? Emotions makes more sense when shared than to stay on the phone.