Ingredients

• 2 large cucumbers, peeled, halved and seeded
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill
• 1/4 cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 5 arugula salad leaves

Method

1. Peel the cucumbers and cut length-wise on half. Remove the seeds and cut into small pieces.

2. In a blender, puree cucumbers, yogurt, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, garlic, dill, parsley, salt and ground black pepper until smooth. Pour into serving bowls.

3. Cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Top the soup with the tomatoes, arugula leaves and dill. Serve immediately.

Soon the kitchen is filled with delicious roast chicken aromas. I am glazing the legs in dry herb marinade before placing them in the oven to roast until tender golden brown. When done, the meat is already falling from the bones, succulent and soft. Served with bio white rice and a simple green leave, tomato salad our chicken roast is charmingly rustic, unpretentious and delicious.

Ingredients

For the Rice

• 2 cups bio white rice
• 5 cups water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper

For the Chicken Legs

• 2 chicken legs
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp chicken mix powder
• ½ tsp sea salt, parsley, garlic mix
• 1 tsp curry powder
• ½ tsp black pepper

Method

1. Boil the rice in a medium-size pot, by mixing two cups of white rice with 5 cups of water and a tablespoon of olive oil. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat. Stir occasionally, so the rice will not stick to the bottom. Once all the liquid has been absorbed season with salt and ground black pepper. Depending on the sort, the rice will cook between 30-40 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 200C. In the meantime, lay a backing tray with aluminum foil. Mix 3 tablespoons of olive oil with the dry herbs – chicken mix, curry, sea salt, garlic, parsley, black pepper. Glaze over both sides of the chicken legs and ley them in the tray with the skin side down. Bake in for 20 minutes, then turn the chicken legs with the skin up and glaze with the cooking juices. Cook for 20 minutes more.

3. Serve the chicken with rice, micro greens, and mix green leaves and tomato salad.

Ingredients

• 300g of veal minced meat
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 potato
• 1 red pepper
• 1 egg
• 250g plain yogurt
• 50g of rice
• salt
• ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 bunch parsley
• 2 liters of water

Method

1. Mix together the minced meat and rice. Roll the mixture into balls.

2. Finely chop the onion. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot and soften the onion until tender and translucent.

3. Pour hot water (2 liters). Add the finely chopped vegetables – potato, carrot, and red pepper.

4. Once the soup starts to boil, add the minced meatballs. Turn the heat to medium-low and let the soup boil for 20-30 minutes or until the minced meat is cooked.

5. In a separate pot, beat the egg with the yogurt. Gradually add one tablespoon at a time from the soup liquid to the yogurt mixture and combine. Pour the mixture into the soup, stirring constantly, and remove the soup pot from the heat. Season the dish with salt, ground black pepper, and finely chopped fresh parsley. Serve hot.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup full-fat natural yogurt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• olive oil for frying

Method

1. In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix until evenly combined.

2. Add yogurt to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Place dough on a floured surface and knead. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky.

3. Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let it rest for 45 minutes.

4. When the dough has rested, break into small balls, roll out and flatten with a rolling pin. Roll into a sheet and cut out circles (you can use a teacup).

4. In a small pan, add enough oil to allow the dough to float in on low heat. Fry each side until golden (3-4 minutes). Drain on a paper towel once removed from the oil.

5. Serve with any toppings you like – powdered with sugar, jam, yogurt, feta cheese.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1kg plain flour
• 300ml milk
• 350g sugar
• 11g instant dry east (or 30g fresh yeast)
• 1tsp of salt
• 100g butter
• 16g Vanilla sugar
• Zest of one lemon and one orange
• 1tsp of lemon juice
• 100g Marzipan (chopped in small pieces)
• 100g sultanas (24 hours soaked in Apricot Brandy)
• Handful of almonds

Method

1. Sift the plain flour into a large bowl.
2. Warm the milk (it should not be hot to a touch), pour in a deep bowl the instant dry yeast, adding one spoon of sugar and mixing well until the sugar and the yeast have been dissolved. Add two spoons of flour and mix well with a wooden spoon. Let the yeast rise for at least 15-20 min.
3. In another bowl whisk with a mixer the remaining sugar, the vanilla sugar and the 5 eggs and one egg white, leaving the egg yoke aside. Beat the mixture until light and fluffy. Add the lemon and orange zest and the lemon juice into the egg mixture.
4. In the meantime, the yeast mixture should have risen. It not visibly enlarged, wait a few more minutes until the yeast have had sufficient time to activate. Add the salt into the flour bowl. Add the egg mixture into the flour bowl mixing with a wooden spoon the liquids and the flour. Add the yeast mixture into the flour bowl and continue to mix with a wooden spoon. Add the melted butter into the bowl and continue mixing. When all liquids have been absorbed into the flour, take away the wooden spoon and start folding the dough within the bowl with your hands until all the flour has been absorbed.
5. Lightly cover a table surface with flour and take the sweet easter bread dough out of the bowl and start kneading the dough with a strong but light touch. Knead for 2-3 minutes than stop, take the dough into your hands, raise it high and slam it into the surface with force several times. This will enable air to get into the dough and let it rise even more. Repeat this process for at least 15 minutes.
6. Grease the inside of a large bowl and let the dough rest inside until it has doubled its size (at least one hour). Let the dough rest somewhere at a warm place as the warmth will help it rise.
7. When risen, take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a lightly greased surface. Cut it into three equal parts. Spread each part open by stretching the dough aside and fill the inside with sultanas and marzipan. Roll the surface of the dough until all the inside filling has been covered. Twist the dough ribbons and bind in a braid.
8. Grease the surface of a deep baking tin where the sweet bread will be baked. Place the sweet bread dough inside and let it rest for at least one hour until doubling its size. When risen, cover the surface with beaten egg yoke, sprinkle with sugar and almonds.
9. Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the sweet bread inside and let it bake for 10 min then decrease the oven temperature to 160C. Bake for additional 30 minutes until golden brown on top and baked inside (a tooth pic should come out clean when inserted inside the pastry).
10. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 2 min in the baking tin, then take it out of the tin and let it cool.
11. Keep in dry place and the sweet easter bread could last for a week.

Ingredients

For the White Dough:

• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 60 g sugar
• 170 g flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 g instant dry yeast
• 20 ml warm milk
• 60 g butter, melted
• 8g vanilla sugar Dr. Oetker extract

For the Chocolate Dough:

• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 60 g sugar
• 150 g flour
• 50 g cacao powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 g instant dry yeast
• 20 ml warm milk
• 60 g butter, melted
• 8g vanilla sugar Dr. Oetker extract

For the Filling

• 30g melted butter
• powder sugar
• candied orange peels
• marzipan
• almond flakes
• dry cranberries

Method

1. For the White Dough: Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar on high speed until light, fluffy and doubled in size.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, yeast and salt. Add the beaten eggs into the flour mixture together with the milk and soft butter. I find it helpful to bring the dough together using the stand mixer, helping with a spatula just to get things going. Then it’s about 10-12 minutes on the mixer with a dough hook to knead. If you prefer kneading by hand, the dough will feel very soft and wet. It will feel like you need to add more flour, but don’t. We want to achieve a very stretchy consistency that doesn’t stick to your hands, so a mixer is really helpful. Keep kneading until the dough is soft, elastic and stretchy. If you try pulling on it slightly, it should not break.
2. Repeat the same as step 1 preparing the chocolate dough.
2. Place the dough into two bowls, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Once the dough has risen transfer it onto a working surface slightly dusted with flour. Divide in the dough half if you want to bake two smaller breads. Or leave as is for one bigger bread.
3. Working with one half at a time, roll out the white dough into a thin sheet. Smear it with melted butter, sprinkle with candied orange peel, cranberries, almond flakes and marzipan. Roll out the chocolate dough into a thin sheet as well. Lay the chocolate dough over the white dough. Roll the dough into a log and using a sharp knife cut it in half to split it into 2 strands.
4. To make one big bread, carefully bring the first strand curling it around itself to form the base of the bread. Then curl the second strand around the first one going upwards. Cut side always should be facing out, so we can see all the beautiful layers on the finished product. Hide the end of the second strand inside the formed dome. To make smaller breads cut the roll into equal portions and twist to achieve a similar effect like as described above.
5. Carefully transfer the bread into panettone springform. This will make 1 big bread or 12 small bread, muffin size. Cover the bread with plastic wrap and let rise for another hour or so.
6. Bake at 175C for 30 minutes for smaller breads. And for larger one bake first 10 minutes at 200C, the reduce heat to 175C and bake for 20-25 minutes more. If you see the top starting to burn cover it with foil and continue baking. Let the breads rest for 10 minutes in the form then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Dust cooled breads with powdered sugar and serve.