Food Love: Tempura Cauliflower

Basically anything tastes good if you coat it with bread crumbs and fry it in olive oil. This recipe of tempura cauliflower discs is no exeption. I've never fried cauliflower before, I think I've only used it in salads or made it in oven in some vegetable casseroles.

In the original recipe the cauliflower discs are deep fried but I fried them in a pan with slightly less oil and I used Asian Panko bread crumbs instead of batter. This is no diet food. See how those florets sizzle in oil?

The crispy discs really are delicious with soy sauce. When reading the recipe I thought that soy sauce is a bit boring option for a dip, but those flavors go great together. This is definitely one of my summer favorites, and easy to make!

Food Love: Nectarine Crumble

I was craving for oven apples the other day, but it reminds me of autumn and I decided to make a crumble with nectarines instead. I'm forced to cook all my foods on the grill while I'm at our summer cottage, and with this dessert it's a must. Grilling gives this some extra sweetness and flavor.

Combine sliced nectarines, muscovado sugar, cinnamon, rolled oats, butter, cashew nuts, honey and a bit of water in a casserole foil container.

Grill until caramelized. I served this with vanilla soy milk but some coconut milk would've been good too.

Food Love: Frozen yogurt pops

I was so happy last week when I was finally able to find a frozen yogurt pops mold from Lidl. Those molds are not easy to find, I've been looking for weeks and they've been either sold out everywhere or not yet in stock for summer.

Without much planning I mixed together what supplies I had in my kitchen, so my first ever frozen yogurt pop was a chocolate-strawberry one. I used natural yogurt, cacao powder, honey, strawberries and a bit of vanilla extract.

I don't use white sugar (ever) and for me the blend was fine. It's frozen yogurt so it's supposed to taste a bit tangy, right? My mom said those pops tasted "healthy", meaning she would've wanted some sugar with that. All I can say is if it tastes good after you've mixed all the ingredients in the bowl, it will taste good frozen too.

Another thing I've been trying to cut from my diet is dairy, but I didn't have any soy yogurt in fridge so this time I made these with natural yogurt. The problem with soy yogurts here in Finland is that they are usually sweetened, and like I said I try to eat as little sugar as possible. We don't have Whole Foods or other fancy stores here, so the selection is limited. But if I make a vegan version of these pops in the future, I'll let you know.

Next time I'll skip the vanilla extract, because I couldn't taste it at all. If you're not used to the slight bitterness of raw cacao powder, you might want to use sugared one. And if we had any fresh strawberries in Finland I would've used them, but now I was forced to use frozen berries. Still, these were super yummy!

Pin It and Do It #4: Marshmallow pops

The Pin It and Do It -challenge continues. This pin was my inspiration when I was thinking of something sweet and small I could give as a present to my mom on Mother's Day. The original picture was from Cakes&Sweets tumblr page.

I'm really not good when it comes to baking or creating some dessert chocolate mini gourmet bites. I like to buy that stuff from a confectionery and not spend hours trying to create something that looks like a blob of melted sugar. That's why I was bit sceptical with this project and I had no back-up plan. It was either going to work out or I had no present at all to give!

After I had already melted all the chocolate I realized I had nothing to stick those pops into. I rummaged through my closets and found a sponge I had bought for another DIY project. I wrapped it into silk paper and my tray was ready to go.

The process of making these marshmallow pops wasn't easy either. I think the chocolate was too thin so it was really messy and dribbled all over. Also I shoud've put those finished pops straight into fridge so the topping would've hardened faster but in the end it all worked out fine for a first try and I'm quite proud with the results! I'll definitely make more later (but never for a big group of guests).

P.S. My mom loved these. She couldn't decide which one was her favorite, but she usually loves hazelnuts so I'm guessing that was the most popular option.

Food love: Slow cooked oatmeal

Good morning! What better way to start the day than with some creamy oatmeal? I had an attitude problem towards oatmeal for many years, mainly because I had eaten the quick, microwaved, slimy porridge one too many times. Another problem was that after eating that, I was always hungry half an hour later. Not anymore! I promise you will never make a yuck face to oatmeal after really making it from scratch. And the secret is to use whole peeled oats. My oats are organic whole oats from Riihipuoti. Here they are before cooking:

First, boil some water. I used 7 deciliters, which is around 3 cups. Add oats when the water is boiling. Then lower the heat and simmer for an hour. If I had more time, I would've let it simmer with a lower heat even longer. When the water has disappeared, add 2 deciliters (0,8 cup) of almond milk and some cardamom. Stir until it looks good and creamy. Eat and fall in love!

Remember, everything tastes better when you eat it from a Moomin bowl Love.

Pin It and Do It #2: Asparagus with cheese and pine nuts

I just love asparagus. The best part of spring is that all the grocery stores are packed with piles of asparagus. Another great thing about asparagus is that it's really low on calories so I can eat crazy amounts of it! I restrained myself today though, as you can see from the pic below. That is a moderate portion.

This is also the second part for Pin It and Do It -challenge. The original recipe that inspired me is from Kalyn's Kitchen. I just went crazy with it and added more stuff than in the original recipe but trust me, all these flavors go great together!

My take on the recipe has asparagus, eggs, pine nuts, serrano ham (fried until crispy) and parmesan cheese flakes. Delicious!