Author Archives: The Cooking spoon

Sticky Citrus Honey Soy Baked Salmon

Baked salmon in foil that’s been brushed with a sticky, citrus, honey and soy sauce that will make you cry with joy!. This recipe is so easy to make and pulls together in less than 30 minutes! The salmon is flaky and tender when baked this way and stays really juicy. You’re going to love it!
But wait, I still haven’t told you the best part — In addition to being just a quick 30 minutes cooking for this Gourmet dinner, there’s barely any cleaning up afterwards, just toss the foil in the garbage, TADAAAA! …… WIN WIN!
Let’s talk about the sauce that’s going to make this baked salmon in foil recipe your favorite way to eat fish. It’s simplicity itself. Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan and simmer until it becomes sticky and reduced, about 5 minutes. I think it would be great on anything actually, it”s just so delicious.
This is a recipe that you need to keep in your back pocket not only for weeknight dinners but also to impress your dinner guests with. ( Pssssst.….no one needs to know how easy it was).
I like to use a double layer for the baking, first tin foil and then parchment paper , no need to butter that first. Place the salmon on top and Into the oven it goes, and the most magnificent smells will torture you for the next 14 minutes of your life.

Serves: 4 – 6
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: ca. 15 minutes
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INGREDIENTS:
• 1 ¼ pound salmon (preferably wild )
• juice of half a lime (1 lime cut in half)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (1 lemon cut in half)
• 3 tablespoon orange juice (1 orange cut in half)
• 2 tablespoons Soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark Agave syrup (or coconut sugar )
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Freshly ground black Pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200ºC / 400ºF
Cut the citrus fruits in half, take the juice needed from one half and use the other halves to cut into slices to place on top of the salmon.
In a saucepan over medium heat combine the juice, Soy sauce, dark Agave syrup, the honey, red pepper flakes, garlic and ginger.
Allow to reduce to 4 tablespoon, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, remove pan from heat and swirl so the butter starts to melt.
Let cool.

Place the salmon filet in a piece of parchment paper and on top of foil. Using a brush or spoon, brush the salmon with the sauce. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Top with slices of citrus fruits. Bake the salmon for 10 minutes.
Switch on the broiler or oven grill and grill for 4 – 5 more minutes until really golden and sticky on top. Serve straight away.

Salmon and Zucchini Phyllo Quiche

9 Replies

I have always wanted to make a Quiche with Phyllo dough, it’s been in the back of my mind for ages, but I always wondered if it could stand up to the filling or even become crispy enough on the bottom.
Well, please to report, …a big fat, yes!

The phyllo is really wonderful. It gets so crispy along the edges and so pretty too. I may have gone a little overboard with the top but I was having so much fun playing with the dough. You can leave the top completely plain if you prefer to show more filling. That’s up to you.

I must add that it’surprisingly easy, very forgiving dough. I had a bit of a hard time separating the sheets, but half torn pieces worked perfectly, it really makes no difference in the end result.

Obviously for me the game changer was the fact that Phyllo is virtually fat free. So there is no going back to any other kind of dough for me.

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium zucchini, cut into 1 cm/0.5 inch slices and then quartered

1 leek, washed and sliced

1/4 cup drained corn

1 tbsp. olive oil for cooking

200 gr. / 7 oz. smoked salmon, cut into pieces

4 large eggs

1 cup light cream or whole milk

1/4 tsp. sumach

1/4 tsp. dried dill

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

10 sheets 9×14 phyllo dough (225 gr)

3 tbsp. olive oil or melted butter for brushing phyllo

4 ounces shredded Gruyere cheese, or your favorite semi strong cheese

3 tablespoons sliced green onion

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 175 C / 350 degrees.

Heat a frying pan with half a tablespoon of olive oil and cook the leek and onion on medium heat until soft. Set aside.

Add the remaining half tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and cook the zucchini on medium high heat just until golden on all sides and fork tender.

Remove from heat and add to the a large bowl to cool. A lot of liquid will release from the zucchini, you need to discard this before using.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the cream or milk, salt, pepper, sumach and dill and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Brush a 20 cm/8 inch round baking dish (I used a cake tin) with a bit of olive oil. Layer the sheets of phyllo in the dish, see pictures. Brushing the layers with olive oil or butter as you go. Torn sheets are fine.

Place the drained veggies, corn and salmon over the phyllo layer, then add the shredded cheese and green onion. Pour the egg mixture over the top.

Bake the quiche for 60 minutes or until set when you wiggle the pan.

Serve warm or chilled with a salad.

Enjoy!

Myra XO

The Best Low Carb, Tiger nut Brownies

6 Replies

These are my favorite Brownies, until I find new favorite Brownies (wink). But seriously, the flavor of these little guys is amazing. The tiger nut flour gives it an amazing bite and I am super excited to share the recipe with you. Having grown up in Spain, I have known tiger nuts all my life for making Horchata, but never knew they were also used as flour in baking. The crazy thing is that I found out about it in Germany out of all places. A lady in a shop told me, so I had to buy it straight away. After some research I came up with this…

Tiger nuts have various uses; in particular, they are used in Spain to make horchata.

Tigernuts are also said to act as a mild appetite suppressant because they contain resistant starch, a type of starch which resists digestion.

This helps keep us feeling fuller for longer, and also reduces the amount of calories we absorb from the food. Hola…would you like me to say that again?

Flour of roasted tiger nuts is used in baking as well as in making oil, soap, and starch extracts. It is also used for the production of nougat, jam, beer, and as a flavoring agent in ice cream and in the preparation of kunnu (a local beverage in Nigeria). Tiger nut oil can be used naturally with salads or for deep frying. It is considered to be a high quality oil.

Known by different names, such as chufa sedge, nut grass, yellow nut sedge, tiger nut sedge, edible galingale, water grass or earth almond, it is a crop widespread across much of the world. It is found in most of southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Since I am mad about Brownies I am constantly trying to come up with ways to make them delicious and heathy but still with the right consistency, which is half cakey/half fudgy. I have used a combo of both coconut flour and tiger nut flour and they are just perfect. We have been eating them a lot lately, since they are actually good for you and so simple to make.

Prep Time : 5 mins
Cook Time : 25 mins
Total Time : 30 mins

Servings: 16 or 9 big ones

Ingredients:

250 gr. Black Beans, drained
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 L. Eggs, room temperature
1/2 C. Cocoa
3 tbsp. Tiger nut flour
4 tbsp. coconut flour (finely ground)
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
a pinch of salt
3 – 4 tbsp. milk of choice, unsweetened
1/4 C. unsweetened apple sauce* (see note)
2 tsp. Liquid Stevia Extract* (see note)
1/4 C. mild flavoured olive oil
1/3 C. 70% Dark Chocolate, roughy chopped**
chopped walnuts, (optional)

Instructions:

1. Pre heat oven to 180 C / 350 F.
2. Line a square 20 cm / 8 ” baking tin with parchment paper.
3. Start by blending the drained black beans with the apple sauce in a food processor until very creamy and smooth.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips and walnuts.
5. Start with 3 tablespoons of milk and see if you need the remaining one. It should be thick but still pourable.
6. Blend for a few minutes until completely smooth.
7. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts if you are using them, and pour into the prepared baking tin.
8. Sprinkle with some more chocolate and/or walnuts.
9. Place on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.
10. You can insert a wooden skewer to test if they are done, it should come out just dry.
11. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes in the tin.
12. Remove from the tin and let cool completely on a rack before cutting, the colder the better.
13. Will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. They freeze well too.

Myra XO

* Replace apple sauce and stevia for same amount of maple syrup.
**Chocolate chunks will first melt, but once the brownies have cooled the chocolate will solidify, giving you great chunks. So yummy.

Nutritional value
Despite its name, tiger nut sedge is a tuber. However, its chemical composition shares characteristics with tubers and with nuts. It has been reported to be a “health” food, since its consumption can help prevent heart disease and thrombosis and is said to activate blood circulation and reduce the risk of colon cancer This tuber is rich in energy content (starch, fat, sugar, and protein), minerals (mainly ), phosphorus and potassium and vitamins E and C. Tiger nut tubers contain almost twice the quantity of starch as potato or sweet potato tubers. The oil of the tuber was found to contain 18% saturated (palmitic acid and stearic acid) and 82% unsaturated (oleic acid and linoleic acid) fatty acids. The moderately high content of phytosterols further enriches the quality and value of tiger nut oil as a food source.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

3 Replies

The smell coming from the oven while this cinnamon swirl banana bread was baking was simply amazing.

This banana bread, with it’s incredible moistness and sweet banana flavor has tons of very very ripe mashed bananas, this is what makes the bread so sweet and moist and generally very yummy, also yoghurt for freshness (and less butter) and a cinnamon brown sugar swirl in the middle.
Lots of vanilla in it too, because I just love real vanilla, I love it almost more that chocolate.
Making this (and from this day forward your favorite 😉) banana bread is so simple. It’s very straight forward, however it is necessary to have all the ingredients at room temperature.
Get everything out, measure correctly and throw it together.
First mix the dry ingredients and set aside. Then in a stand mixer, mix the wet ingredients.
Mixing the dry with the wet should be done with a rubber spatula because over mixing will turn your banana bread into rubber. And that would be such a shame. Just about 8 strokes with the spatula until all the flour is absorbed. No more.

⏰ Prep time : 10 min
🍧 Cooking time : 40-45 min approx.
🍴 Makes : 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups (250gr.) all purpose flour or half whole wheat and have plain or even spelt flour.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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• 3/4 cup (150gr. ) packed coconut sugar or regular light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (115 gr.) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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• 2 tbsp. coconut sugar or light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350° F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the brown sugar and butter on medium speed until well blended and creamy– about 3 minutes.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, and vanilla. Mix on the lowest stand for just a minute or so.
6. Remove bowl from mixer.
7. Add the dry ingredients in one go and gently fold to mix with a spatula. Do not overmix. Just until all the flour is no longer visible, about 10 folds.
8. Mix the cinnamon and the sugar for the center swirl.
9. Spoon half of the batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar in one straight line on the batter. Cover with more batter and make swirls or zig-zags with a knife.
10. Top with remaining batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool completely on the wire rack.
11. Slice and enjoy.
12. Banana Bread will keep for about a week in an airtight container.

Enjoy!
Myra XO

If you make this, don’t forget to snap a pic and post it on Instagram. Remember to tag me in your picture @thecookingspoonblog so I can see your delicious creations.