Cherry Clafoutis and Blog Awards

Clafoutis = custard-like texture, great flavor, quick preparation, no butter and very few calories. The recipe and new winners of food blogging awards below....

Last year in early June I woke up one happy day to discover that a wonderful blogger, Giulietta, the author of Alterkitchen, had passed my way a whole collection of awards.

I was extremely honored, and to celebrate the occasion I immediately prepared Cherry clafoutis, just as it appeared in Giulietta's award-passing post. The clafoutis turned out delicious, even my picture turned out decent, and I was all ready to publish my own post and to announce the new recipient of the awards, when I ... got stuck. When you pass on the awards you are supposed to mention 7 things about yourself. I came up with 6, and simply could not think of anything for the 7th point.

So time went on, I had to publish other posts for cooking clubs I was a member of, and so it happened that my cherry clafoutis post remained in it's unborn draft stage. Days went by, summer became winter, winter spring, and a new summer came. And with a new cherry season I remembered Giulietta's delicious clafoutis and my unfinished post. So now with only a year's delay (what's a year in the grand scheme of things ;-) ) it's finally being resurrected.

And it so happens that I have the 7th thing to add to the list of things about me. So here is my list:

1. I really love berry picking.
2. I lived without a TV for 7-8 years, and it was pretty good. Now that I have one, my default channel is the food network – surprise!
3. I recently (now a year ago) saw my first grizzly bear from up close, and he/she was very cute. Do you know that bears eat up to 35000 calories per day? And then they sleep for half a year! I want to be a bear..
4. As a kid I hated zucchini and eggplants, and did not even bother to know which was which: why bother if I would not eat either? So I called them the green ones and the purple ones.
5. Then I liked a dish that I was served in a restaurant. I thought it was a mushroom dish that I had ordered but it turned out to be an on-the-house eggplant salad. That’s how I was converted to eating eggplants.
6. I just had my second flamenco class today (this was written a year ago ;-) )– fun! Should I now make paella to celebrate???
     And the 7th point that delayed this post for a year, drums rolling...

7. When I started food blogging I discovered that there are lots of wonderful communities and sites where bloggers can share recipes. My favorites were recipe galleries. Unfortunately, many of my posts were rejected due to the photo quality. I felt quite frustrated about that: why should publishing a post be one person's decision? Why not accept all recipes and let all the visitors choose which ones they like better? And then the more popular posts can get better positions to make browsing more enjoyable.
I could not find a site like that, so I decided to build one. And now it's live. It's called RecipeNewZ http://recipenewz.com. And you can see it for yourselves.

And now that I'm finally done with my 7 things (phew...), the fun part - passing on the awards!
Actually, choosing a handful of blogs to pass on the awards to is also a very difficult task: there are just way too many amazing food bloggers out there, and if I could have my way, I'd have a hundred blogs on the list. So to simplify the decision making, and because my life now revolves around RecipeNewZ, I decided to choose blogs that have shared some of their delicious recipes there.

And now without further ado, the awards go to:

1. Julie of Mommie Cooks - she has wonderful, simple and elegant family-style recipes. And she submitted the very first post to RecipeNewZ and made me very happy!
2. Violetta of Fun and Taste - she has beautiful and very originally presented Polish (and other) recipes. And she submitted recipe #1,000 to RecipeNewZ (in just a little over a month we have had more than 1,000 recipes).
3. Barbara of Barbara Bakes - as her blog title implies, Barbara is an amazing baker: if you are looking for breads, cakes, cookies, etc, look no further! But on top of that she has a great collection of main dishes, sandwiches and sides. Barbara was also one of our early contributors and she was the first to provide RecipeNewZ with user feedback, which we value very highly because we are in beta testing.
4. Nava of Nava-K Your Lifestyle Blog - in addition to delicious Malaysian recipes she also has posts on fashion, travel and entertainment. Nava has given us extensive feedback on user experience and thus helped with troubleshooting technical issues on the site, and we really appreciate that.
5. Ann of Thibeault's Table - posts great recipes for day-to-day cooking. She has another site too, where you can find her beautiful maple cutting boards. Ann was kind enough to mention RecipeNewZ on a forum, which was a very pleasant surprise and brought quite a few new users our way.
6. Nancy of Spicie Foodie - has a blog abounding with amazing food photography. In addition, she has great photography tutorials and she hosts a monthly YBR (Your Best Recipe) event, where everyone is invited to submit one's best recipe of the month. Nancy also mentioned RecipeNewZ in one of her photography tutorials during our very first days.
    And last, but not least:
7. Christi of Mom, What's For Dinner?- she publishes delicious gluten-free recipes that have been extremely popular on RecipeNewZ. Her Cheesy Cauliflower bread quickly became and still is the most popular recipe on the site, so far generating over two thousand clicks. But it does not stop there: Christi has submitted over 50 recipes and almost each and every one of them is a hit.

Thank you for reading so far. The winners are now invited to pass on the awards (but don't forget the 7 things :-) ). And we can move on to the delicious Cherry Clafoutis recipe from Giulietta!

Cherry Clafoutis

Taste: 5 (out of 5)

Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Source: Alterkitchen blog

Ingredients
- 600 g cherries, washed, stem removed (380 cal)
- 3 large eggs (210 cal)
- 100 g sugar (390 cal)
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (10 cal)
- 200 ml milk (100 cal)
- 2 tbsp Brandy, Kirsch o Rum (70 cal)
- 90 g all-purpose flour (330 cal)
- butter (to grease)
Total 16 individual 1 cup ramekins, 1490 cal, 95 cal

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Lightly butter and sprinkle with sugar a low edged cake mold or 16 individual low 1-cup ramekins.
2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and with sugar using an electric whisk, until mixture is fluffy and doubles its volume. Add the vanilla essence and flour, incorporating continue beating until incorporated. Then gradually add the milk and the liqueur.
3. Take cherries and arrange them evenly at the bottom of the cake mold or the ramekins; then pour the batter over them.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the clafoutis is soft and golden brown.
5. Remove the clafoutis from the oven, sprinkle it with sugar or powdered sugar and serve warm.

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Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Rosemary roasted potatoes - need I say more?

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: adapted from Grumpy's Honeybunch.

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1 lb Russet potatoes
- 2 stalks fresh rosemary
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
 Total: 4 servings

Directions:
1. Wash and cut potatoes into wedges.
2.  Coat with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped leaves from two stalks of fresh rosemary.
3. Cook on high power in microwave for 5 minutes.
4. Preheat over to 450F and roast for 20-30 minutes or until done.

Afterthoughts: 
- This is a perfect, simple and delicious recipe. If you love potatoes, you can't go wrong with it.
- This was my SRC assignment for May. I had visited the Shelby's Grumpy's Honeybunch blog before - it has lots of great recipes. Unfortunately, this month is just way way too busy for me, so I was looking for a very quick recipe, and I found it. And ti turned out yummy! Check out Grumpy's Honeybunch for many more goodies!
- And last but not least, a word about SRC - the Secret Recipe Club. It's a group of over a hundred food bloggers, who are assigned a "secret" blog each months. Then they choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it on their own blog on a given reveal day. Then there is a big party, where you hop form one blog to another and check what everyone's been cooking. Lots of fun! I want to thank Amanda, Jane and April for making it all possible!

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Blackberry Orange Smoothie

Ready in seconds and perfect

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Improvised

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup frozen blackberries
- 3/4 cup orange juice
Total: 1 serving

Directions:
- Process in a blender until smooth.

Afterthoughts:
- It's something I make all the time - refreshing, really easy, healthy and full of vitamins.

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Watermelon Cucumber Salad

A great healthy, easy, refreshing and delicious summer salad

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Inspired by The Healthy Foodie

Tates: 5 (out of 5)
Difficutly: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients
- watermelon
- cucumber
- feta cheese
- pistachios
- salt and pepper
- olive oil

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients in desired quantities :-).
2. Or, you can cut watermelon into thick slices, then using a round cookie cutter, cut out round bases. Using a melon baller hollow the base. Mix feta crumbles with finely chopped cucumbers and pistachios. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop a spoonful into the watermelon base. Drizzle with olive oil and enjoy.

Afterthoughts
This is a wonderful salad. Try it, you won't regret it! And all it takes is 3 minutes of prep time. I was a little obsessed with it for several days since I saw the post on The Healthy Foodie blog. And then I came across Rachel Ray's Watermelon Cups with Feta and Mint, and I could not help myself but combine the two.

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Panna Cotta

Wonderful and elegant dessert for Mother's Day

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Adapted from David Lebovitz

Taste: 5 out of 5
Difficulty: 1 out of 5

Ingredients
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ tsp gelatin
- 3 tbsp cold water
Total 4 servings in ½ cup ramekins or 16 small shot glasses

Instructions
1. In a medium heat proof bowl sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let stand for 5-10 minutes.
2. In a small saucepan combine the cream, the milk and the sugar. Heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add vanilla.
3. Pour the very warm cream-milk mixture over the gelatin and mix well so that there are no lumps.
4. Pour the panna cotta into individual serving containers (ramekins or glasses) and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Afterthoughts
- This panna cotta is not too sweet, so it is perfect when combined with a sweet and tart jam or jelly. If you plan to eat this panna cotta plain, I would add a little more sugar and maybe liquor or syrup for flavoring.
- When making the panna cotta in glasses, it can be nice to refrigerate the glasses placed on a slanted surface or rested at an angle in an egg tray, to create the “tilted” effect.

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Low Fat Carrot Cake with Pineapple and Walnuts

 Fruits + nuts + veggies = cake?!! and a delicious one :-)

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Adapted from Amanda’s Cookin’

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 2 (out of 5, the most difficult part shredding carrots)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 ½ cups (3-4 large) shredded carrots
- ½ cup applesauce
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- ½ cup pineapple chunks + ¼ cup pineapple juice (from a can)
- ¼ cup walnuts
Total: 13x9 pan, 16 servings

Directions:
1. Finely chop pineapple chunks and walnuts and shred the carrots.
2. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with no-fat cooking spray.
3. Beat the eggs slightly, add the rest of the liquid ingredients, and mix. Add the sugar and mix until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. At the very end add the pineapples, the carrots and the walnuts.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until the cake is nicely browned and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven (50 minutes in my case).
5. Let the cake cool in the pan before cutting and serving.

Afterthoughts
- This is a really wonderful cake: it’s moist, it’s sweet, it’s delicious, it has a little crunch thanks to the walnuts, it keeps well in the fridge. It can also be frozen, but it will be eaten in no time at all :-).
- Amanda’s recipe had cinnamon and raisins, 2 ingredients which I unfortunately have not yet learned to love. So I had to find substitutions, and I think orange zest and pineapples worked just fine. The original recipe also had frosting, but again I, with my strange taste buds, prefer most cakes sans-frosting, so I skipped that part (which also saved me about 50 calories per serving ;-) ). Check out Amanda’s post for the original version.
- This recipe was my SRC assignment. "Now what is SRC?", you might ask. It’s the Secret Recipe Club, where every month each member is assigned another member’s blog and is supposed to choose a recipe from it and post it on a predetermined reveal date. No-one knows who’s got whose blog, so it’s a lot of fun to browse all the posts when they are revealed. I discovered many wonderful food blogs though SRC. And this month I had the honor of making something from the blog of the inventor and founder of the club: Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’ :-). She has a wonderful blog, you absolutely must visit it if you have not yet. It was very difficult to choose only one recipe, but when I received my assignment I had a lot of applesauce and carrots, which I wanted to use up. So I figured this carrot cake was meant to be made. I baked it the day after I had received my assignment :-).
- I also want to thank Jane Bonacci of the Heritage Cook, who is our group organizer at SRC. The organizers are doing a lot of the logistical heavy lifting to make the participation more fun for the rest of us, and for that I am very grateful! And Jane has a beautiful blog too :-)

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Pan Fried Trout Filet, Apples and Pears, Lingonberry-Glazed

My favorite way to eat fish

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Improvised

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients
- 2 8-pz pieces red trout fillet with skin
- 1 large apple, cored, cut into 8 wedges
- 1 large pear, cored, cut into 8 wedges
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp Lingonberry syrup from Ikea, or other berry syrup
- salt and pepper to taste
Total: 2 servings

Directions
1. In a large skillet heat the butter on medium heat, until it melts. If using unsalted butter sprinkle the melted butter with salt once it melts.
2. Spread the apple and pear wedges evenly on the skillet and cook for 10 minutes on medium-low heat on one side.
3. After 10 minutes flip the fruit wedges to cook on the other side.
4. At this point, season the trout with salt and pepper and add it to the same pan, skin side down first. Cook for 4-5 minutes.
5. Turn the trout fillets skin side up and cook for another 4 minutes.
6. When the trout is ready, pour the lingonberry syrup onto the fish and cook for 30 more seconds. Remove the fish and the fruit from the pan, pour the juices from the pan over the fish and serve.

Afterthoughts
- A really simple, no-fuss recipe, but the fish turns out very moist, salty and sweet, and a bit tart from the syrup. And the pan fried apples and pears keep the dish light and healthy, but add a little twist, that makes this meal feel special. At least that’s what I think :-)
- You can also add grapes to the pears and the apples.
- If you prefer, use red wine, or red wine reduction instead of the syrup, or together with it.
- Tip: to core apples and pears cut them in half and remove the core with a melon baller.

To Recipe...

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Low-Fat Brioche

Rich and delicious, and you choose to knead or not to knead

Source: Inspired by Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients
- 1 ½ tbsp active dry or instant yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm water (between 100-110F)
- ½ cup honey
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup honey
- 8 egg yolks / about half cup liquid yolks
- ½ cup canola oil
- 7 - 8 cups flour (more for dusting while shaping the bread)
- 1 tbsp salt
Total: 2 large (2 lb) loaves

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix the water and the yeast with 1 tbsp of honey, and let stand for 5 minutes, until the yeast dissolves and looks bubbly.
2. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix. Then add 3 cups of the flour, the salt, then another 4 cups of the flour.
3. If you are not using a mixer it’s better to stay with a wetter dough, so just mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon and once everything is incorporated. Cover the bowl with a wet cloth, a wet paper towel, plastic wrap or a lid, and let it rise on the counter for 2 hours.
4. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook (like my beloved KitchenAid), knead the dough with the mixer for 10 minutes. After about 5 minutes start adding the flour gradually. Eventually the dough should not stick much to the sides of the bowl, when kneaded. I ended up using 7.5 cups of flour. Cover the bowl with a wet cloth, a wet paper towel, plastic wrap or a lid, and let it rise on the counter for 2 hours.
5. By the end of 2 hours the dough should have doubled in volume. Now you are ready to shape it. If you have kneaded the dough, it will be easier to shape, so you can flour a working surface and braid your loaf (like Challah), or roll small balls and place them next to each other in a pan to make small buns. If you are using wet dough, it might be too sticky to shape, so it’s best to make 2 loaves in 2 9x5 loaf pans.
6. Once you’ve shaped the dough, let it rise for another hour, again covering the bread with wet cloth. After about 40 minutes, turn on the oven to preheat it to 350F. It should be hot enough for the bread just in time.
7. Before baking, brush the top of the bread with egg wash (egg white, mixed with 1-2 tbsp water and optionally 1 tsp sugar).
8. Bake the bread for 45-50 minutes. I baked both loaves together for 50 minutes.
9. After removing the loaves from the oven, wrap the bread in a kitchen towel, to keep the crust soft. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Afterthoughts
This bread turned out to be great - moist and soft and rich. I would not suspect it of being low fat if I did not know better :-). I will be making much more of it.

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Bannock - skillet-fried Native American bread

Delicious, quick, no-yeast bread

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source Adopted from “A Feast for All Seasons: Traditional Native Peoples' Cuisine” by Chef Andrew George Jr.

Taste 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup water or whey
½ egg
½ tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp vegetable or bacon fat for the skillet
Total: 8 servings

Directions
1. Mix all the ingredients and let rise for 5 minutes.
2. In a large skillet heat the bacon or the cooking oil on medium-high heat.
3. Grease your hands with a little oil to prevent dough from sticking. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, and flatten them with your palms.
4. Before placing the bread onto the skillet reduce the heat to a little below medium and fry for about 5 minutes on each side or until the bread is golden brown and puffed.

Afterthoughts
Wonderful bread, pretty similar to scones, but much quicker - no need to preheat the oven! Love it!

To Recipe...

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Buttermilk Pancakes

Fluffy and rich pancakes - a perfect Sunday brunch

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Mrs Happy Homemaker blog

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp / 60 g butter, melted and cooled
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Total 12 small pancakes

Directions
1. Beat the egg lightly. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well (I used a hand held electric mixer).
2. Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.
3. Place a griddle or a large frying pan over medium heat, and when it’s warm, melt a little more butter on it.
4. Using an ice-cream scoop or a ladle pour the batter onto the griddle. Cook over low-medium heat for several minutes until bubbles appear on the pancake. Flip and cook several more minutes.
5. Keep the pancakes in an oven preheated to 200F until ready to serve.

Afterthoughts
- Delicious pancakes! I served them with maple syrup, butter, fruit salad and whipped cream - yum!
- The original recipe calls for less sugar, but I like my pancakes sweet :-). Also, Crystal, the author of Mrs Happy Homemaker blog, recommends adding chocolate chips to the pancakes, so you might want to keep that in mind if you try this recipe.
- This recipe was my March assignment for SRC (Secret Recipe Club), a group of food bloggers who once a month are randomly assigned another member’s blog and are supposed to choose a recipe from it and post it on their own blog on the Reveal date. It’s a lot of fun, and I would like to thank Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’ for coming up with this great idea. Also, thanks to Jane of the Heritage Cook, my group’s hostess, and Crystal of the Mrs Happy Homemaker, the author of my assigned blog :-)

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