Millet Heaps

Dear all,

At the moment, my body hovers at a crucial point: I still have to lose a bit of the holiday weight and I need to do it now, before the Christmas and new years celebrations hit again. Do you also know these cycles? Luckily, it is only a matter of a few pounds…

I am always interested in news about weight loss. The number of diets never ceases to amaze me – and the number of people following and swearing on them. In this newsletter I want to have a closer look at two popular diets that have cropped up recently: alkaline and paleo diet.

For the purpose of weight loss I usually turn to high fibre food. In combination with avoiding sugar and alcohol I usually succeed in maintaining my figure.

This month, a friend of mine inspired me because she cured her stomach ulcer with alkaline food. This reminded me of millet, the only grain with alkalizing properties. Recently, I have found organic millet in many supermarkets. What better way than to use it in a healthy snack?

I call this recipe millet heaps because of their look. The added vegetables deliver vitamins and phytonutrients and keep the heaps moist inside. The crunchy exterior is reached by baking them on a cookie tray laced with plenty of olive oil. You can serve millet heaps as a healthy snack, a light meal with a salad at the side or a guilt-free addition to a Thanksgiving dinner.

This recipe ticks all the boxes of the alkaline diet but does little for the paleo lovers. Hard core paleo fans consider millet as poison.

Like always, I listen to my body. I like millet. It tastes great and keeps my insides running smoothly. These millet heaps are so easy to make, you can call them fool proof.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

Millet Heaps

Ingredients (for 20 pieces):

• 1 cup millet
• 4 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium carrot
• 3 eggs
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 big cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground cardamon
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• salt
• pepper

Method:

Place the millet with double the amount of water and one teaspoon salt into a pot.

Bring it to a boil and let it simmer until the millet has absorbed all the water. This takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Clean and skin the carrot. Wash the zucchini. Grate them into a big mixing bowl.

Add the spices, the crushed garlic, the eggs, the whole-wheat flour and the millet. Mix everything well and season with salt and pepper.

Spread olive oil over a cookie tray and place heaps of the millet mix onto the tray. I use an ice cream scoop for this job.

Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

If you use a gas oven, turn them after half an hour to get them crunchy all around. If you use an electric oven, this might not be necessary. Enjoy.

Spannakopitta - Spinach Pie

Nothing infuriates me more than people wasting my time. Time moves only in one direction: it never comes back.

I write this because I am still angry with the organisers of an art performance. The other day, I was invited to participate in a performance. I thought it might be interesting and fun and promised to be there. The beginning of the performance was announced for 6 pm – we were asked to be there half an hour earlier for a briefing. The evening before, an assistant even called me up to make sure I would be there at 5.30 pm sharp.

I have been educated that punctuality is a sign of respect and polite behaviour. It is ingrained in my soul. I don’t want to make people wait for me and I have difficulties if this courtesy is not reciprocated.

Goa is not known for punctuality but I thought I have to be there because they asked me to be sharp on time. Being familiar with local customs, I arrived 15 minutes late. Unfortunately, I was way too early. I had to stand around for three quarters of an hour before anything happened. The artist did not consider it necessary to apologize for the delay. He did not even mention it. He also took the fun out of the experience by forbidding all participants to laugh or to show any emotional reaction. At this point I was furious but I kept my feelings in check as best as I could.

The set up for the performance was so stupid and superficial that I deeply regretted my participation. I left with the promise to myself that I will never let anybody waste my time again and that I am done with performances that I don’t choreograph myself. Before committing my time again, I will think long and hard.

I should have stayed at home and cooked something healthy for my family – for example this month’s recipe, spannakopitta, Greek spinach pie. A real spannakopitta in Greece is made with puff pastry. I must admit that I never tried to make real puff pastry. It is one of the things I intend to learn before I die – if I don’t get caught up in too many art performances.

I make a short crust pastry with oil and whole wheat instead of puff pastry. My journey with short crust is a rather rocky one with many failures. I decided to give my spannakopitta a makeover after people complained that my pastry is too heavy. Honestly, I like a crust that I can sink my teeth into but many people don’t share this attitude.

As a consequence I learned a lot about different kinds of short crusts and I came up with the technique described in this newsletter. The main thing to remember is to move the flour as little as possible because you don’t want to activate the gluten. 

 

Ingredients:

(for 8 servings or a 29-cm, 12.5-in pie dish)

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 10 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 bundles spinach (about 500 grams)
• 2 leeks
• 2 bundles spring onions
• 1 ½ packets feta cheese (300 grams)
• 1 egg yolk
• cold water
• salt
• pepper

Method:

Clean the spinach carefully, throwing away all brownish leaves. Wash and cut into pieces roughly. Clean the leeks and the spring onions and cut them into pieces too. 

Mix the spinach, leeks and spring onions with three teaspoons salt in a big bowl thoroughly using your hands and crushing the leaves. Let it sit so the salt pulls out the water from the spinach.

Put the flour into a mixing bowl. Add eight tablespoons olive oil – also a little more would not hurt – and one teaspoon salt. Add some water and mix it carefully with a spoon. Add water until you feel that all the flour might bind.

Carefully press the mixture together until you have a big clump of dough. Never mind if it is not mixed completely and still a little crumbly.

Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest for half an hour in the fridge.  

Drain all the accumulated juice from the spinach mixture in a sieve and put it into a mixing bowl. Cut the feta cheese into cubes. Mix the drained vegetables with the cheese, two tablespoons olive oil and pepper. Taste it, probably you won’t have to add salt.

Spread olive oil over a pie form with.

When the dough has rested enough, spread cling film over your working surface. Take a bit more than half the dough. Never mind if it looks spotty. This ensures a flaky crust. Place it on the cling film, flatten it a bit and cover it with cling film.

Roll it out as thin as possible. You need to lift the upper cling film as the dough spreads out to give it room.

Make sure that the dough is big enough to cover the bottom of the pie form and more than height of the sides.

Pull off the cling film from the top and place the sheet upside down into the pie form with the help of the rolling pin. You need the dough to overlap the sides of the form.

Spread the spinach in the pie form and tuck the overlapping dough over it.

Roll out the rest of the dough between cling film and cover the spinach. Cut off any overlapping dough from the cover. You can use leftovers to cut out some decorations if you feel inclined to do so. I always make a few leaves.

Mix the egg yolk with a pinch of salt and brush the surface of the spannakopitta. Poke some holes with a fork so the steam can escape during baking.

Bake the spinach pie in the oven at 190 degrees Celsius for about one hour and 20 minutes until it is golden brown. It tastes good warm or cold.

Beetroot Salad

I cannot help but feel intimidated when I start browsing the web in search of healthy recipes. There is a tidal wave of information out there. When I read through articles, I cannot fend off the feeling I am doing something wrong or not enough. Somehow, I never seem to be able to eat enough vegetables and fruits. Somehow, my appetite does not conform to the never-ending lists of super foods you should consume. Somehow, I feel being torn between the urge to eat healthy and the need not to indulge in naughty pleasures.

Fundamentally, I believe in home cooking without spending the full day in the kitchen or doing shopping. Although I might slip and indulge in naughty stuff from the supermarket, I continuously enlarge my repertoire of dishes that put the right kind of food into our bodies.

One of them is this layered beetroot salad. It is loaded with nutritional goodness. Beetroot and walnuts regularly feature in the many lists of super foods. Sage is known for its benefits, and at this point most of us know the virtues of olive oil. Blue cheese may be an acquired taste for some. If you don’t like it, exchange it for any other cheese or simply skip it. However, I discovered a new study. According to its findings, you should make blue cheese a regular addition to your diet if you like the taste.

Thanks to the proteins of the cheese, this salad makes an excellent starter for a festive menu and is a complete light meal by itself. I present it in layers because it looks a lot nicer than mixing all the ingredients together.
 

Happy cooking always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 500 grams beetroot
• 200 grams blue cheese
• 100 grams walnuts
• 10 sage leaves
• 3 red chillies, preferably Thai
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 9 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 small cloves garlic
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

Boil the beetroots until they are tender. I use a pressure cooker for this purpose. Place the beetroots into the pot, cover them with water, add salt and cook them for half an hour after the first whistle. In a normal pot they take about three times as long. Beetroots are cooked when the skin comes off easily. Let the beetroots cool down, then peel and slice them.

Carefully slice the blue cheese and keep aside. I used Gorgonzola made in Auroville, which I can recommend. However, any blue cheese will do. If you don’t like blue cheese, take any other cheese. I have to say, the contrast between the tender sweetness of the beetroots and the tangy, rich saltiness of the blue cheese combined with crunchy toasted walnuts makes this salad so attractive for me.

Take a small pan and roast the walnuts carefully over a small fire. When roasting nuts, you have to watch them. Roasting turns easily into burning when the process is left unattended. Place the roasted walnuts on a plate for later use.

Pour the vinegar into a vessel. Add about one teaspoon of salt and pepper according to your taste. Wash the chillies and chop them finely. The bright red adds a nice colour contrast to the purple beetroots. If you want your salad spicy, keep the seeds. For a milder zing remove the seeds.

Peel the garlic cloves. Spread about three tablespoons olive oil into the pan you used for toasting the walnuts. Add the garlic cloves to infuse the oil. Turn on the heat. When the oil is hot, add the sage leaves and fry them until crispy. Spread them on a kitchen towel to drain excess oil. These crispy sage leaves add another texture and layer of taste to the salad. However, they don’t stay crispy long so you need to do this shortly before serving the salad. If you don’t want go to this trouble, skip it. The salad is nice also without crispy fried leaves.
 
Finally, it is time to assemble the salad. Add the remaining olive oil and the garlic infused oil from the pan to the vinegar and stir well. Layer the beetroots and the blue cheese on the plates. Sprinkle the toasted walnuts, the chillies and the crispy sage leaves over the vegetables and the cheese. Spread the vinaigrette over all the ingredients. There should be enough dressing on the plates to coat every beetroot slice. Enjoy!