Battle 18 – Bro: Flower Power

Great to be back in the battle, with that summer theme « flower power »! However, with warm sunny days, I have lately spent a lot more time in than out, and my kitchen hasn’t been used a lot. Currently, I’m out at the famous Roskilde Festival, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe.

Of course, who says « festival » definitely also says « flower power »… At these events, everybody suddenly becomes friendly, helpful, attractive and tolerant. This happy breeze can actually last during a few days, and it feels so good! But, of course, at the end, everybody gets tired, useless, dirty and close-minded again.

However, the dream is on, and it’s time to enjoy it before that soufflé comes down. So, my flower power tip for the festival: go straight to the west camping canteens, and choose the Burger de Luxe, that you can get for 60 Danish Crones, and 20 minutes queue. Delicious warm bread, double juicy burger, cheese, and everything. Top it with 4 cold Tuborg. Join a group of other joyful innocents, and bite in the steaks! Finally, pull your temporary friends to the concert of Mono! Dejligt, ikke?!

The next battle will happen in 10-15 days, Cam being on the road! Personally, at the end of the week, tired of beers and burgers, I might get tempted by a good wine and a more elaborated dish. Therefore, theme for next battle: "best match for Pinot Noir"! Ohooo, fancyyyyyy !

Battle 18 - Sis: Flower Power

3 hours to wait in Dubai airport...perfect time to finish writing this post! Before leaving Switzerland, the garden was getting so colourful that I could not resist to use those beautiful flowers in recipes ;-) Here is the outcome!!

Rose and almond cream

Ingredients for 2 persons

1 tsp corn starch

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 dl milk

0,5 dl rose water

0,5dl cream

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tbsp almond purée

1. Mix in a pan the egg with sugar, corn starch, milk, rose water and cream. Heat it slightly until it starts to thicken. Take it out of the heat and add the vanilla sugar. Let it cool down and finally add the almond purée.

2. Serve with fresh strawberries and decorate with colourful flower petals.

Well, and during that looooong 24hrs trip, I can finally discover all the new music you gave me, Bengt! And there is one band I particularly love: The Handsome Furs.

Open battle: it's all about painting

We could not resist to show you this! This is a late contribution we got for the Open Battle. Isn't it so fine and elegant? It's really like a Chinese painting....Congrats Zoé!!!

Next battle theme: FLOWER POWER!! And the deadline is already..tomorrow! You better be quick, little bro;-)

OPEN BATTLE: OUR TOP 3!

Wow, that was not easy to pick our TOP3 out of the recipes we got! Congrats and thanks so much to everyone who took part in the challenge!!! We hope that you'll be as creative as you were for the next open battle ;-)

We got recipes from all over the world and so are our winners ;-)

Val, from China

We absolutely loved your super colourful and creative salad. On n'a qu'une envie: la croquer au plus vite!!!

Shanghai Summer Delish

Ingredients for 2 persons

- 180g of rice vermicelli

- 15 cherry tomatoes (cut in half)

- 10 asparagus (cut in 3 cm bits)

- 1 can of straw mushrooms or 15 straw mushrooms (boiled and cut in half)

- a handful of coriander leaves

- 3 stems of spring onions (cut in 3cm bits)

- 15 ready made longxia or crawfish deep-fried in oil and chili

- 30g of minced pork

Sauce: 3 tablespoons of Chinese vinegar, 3 coffeespoons of sugar, a few drops of soy sauce

1- Soften the vermicelli for 5 mn in boiling water, strain and leave to cool in the fridge.

2- Deep fry the crawfish with their shell in oil with chili peppers for 5mn. Leave to cool

3- Boil straw mushroom (unless you use canned ones), then cut in half. Cut cherry tomatoes in half as well and put aside.

4- Boil the minced pork for 5mn in salted water, strain and leave to cool.

5- Cut the asparagus in strips of 3 cm, boil in salted water for 5 mn, strain and leave them to cool.

6- Cut spring onions in strips of 3 cm and put aside.

7- Peel the shell off the crawfish except for 2.

8- Mix all the above ingredients evenly with the vermicelli.

9- Mix the ingredients of sauce until sugar has melted, add in salad and stir.

10- Sprinkle coriander on top, and decorate with the two unpeeled crawfish

Inspirational music; Jungle Drum by Emiliana Torrini

Mofo, from Greece

With your picture&recipe&music, you made us directly travel. That's what we loved! We could almost see the white houses with a wonderful view on the sea;-) We litterally had a short escape in Greece... loved it just before holiday :-)

Tsatziki: (how it’s REALLY done)

1 litre of real Greek yoghurt

1 cucumber

1 table spoon of lemon juice (fresh lemon, not concentrated)

½ table spoon of Greek virgin olive oil

2 fresh cloves of garlic

Salt, pepper

Chop the cucumber carefully into squares ■.

Add it to the yoghurt with ♥.

Squeeze the lemon juice into the yoghurt. Mind not to get seeds into the yoghurt.

Crush the garlic into the yoghurt.

Add the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Always let the Tsatziki get ready in the fridge at least 8 hours before enjoying it. Taste! maybe you’ll need to add more garlic, salt and/ or pepper…

To drink: Cold Greek Retzina wine, preferably the brand of Malamatina (in the image). Add some drops of soda bubbily water.

Retzina has been made for at least 2000 years. Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels, particularly amphorae, with Aleppo Pine resin in ancient times. Before the invention of impermeable glass bottles, oxygen caused many wines to spoil within the year. Pine resin helped keep air out, while at the same time infusing the wine with resin aroma.

JAMAS! (Clic to take a trip!)

Supa, from Germany

The picture was really cool and original!We know that we have readers asking all the time for a potato salad, so Gé;-), here is the recipe for THE perfect potato salad (à en faire tomber un viking, dixit B.)!!And it looks yummy!!

Potatoe salad with pesto!

For 2 persons you need:

500 gr potatoes

a bunch of basilicum

2 garlic cloves

salt

black pepper

one hand full of pine nuts

5 tablespoons of sherry vinegar

10 tablespoons of olive oil

parmesan cheese

Boil the potatoes, peel them and slice them. Afterwards let them cool down.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in the blender to get a pesto. Mix pesto and potatoes and put the salad in the fridge for 2 hours.

When eating it on a sunny summer day, while having a bbq in your garden, listen to something hearty, like "Give it away" from the Red hot chili peppers.

Enjoy!

TODAY 8AM

(Une parenthèse)

Entre coquelicots et vignes...

A breathe of fresh air on Valais Wine Path...

SUMMER SALAD!!!

Em, em, we are still deliberating about the kitchen battlers and the recipes we got ;-) By the end of the week, you will discover the winners....suspense, suspense...

Till then, here is the sister's version of a Summer salad. It's full of aromatic plants (mint, basil, chive and parsil), and there is a pink touch with strawberries and beetroot chips!!

To go with this funky touch, don't miss my alumni colleague and accessoirement our national hip-hop king: Stress!