Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Pearl Barley And Roasted Almond Patties

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I love making and eating nut roasts and vegetarian patties. I have cooked and baked several types. The base for most of them is any kind of grain, spices, herbs, nuts and vegetables.

Great-tasting vegetarian patties are easy to make and more healthfully prepared when you use your own wholesome ingredients. Patties tend to be delicious things you make for a picnic or for a grill party or just for a simple lunch or dinner with a big bowl of salad and yum sauce.

Pearl barley is nutritious and chewy (although its outer husk and bran layers have been removed not like with hulled barley). I didn’t have to use an egg to “stick” the ingredients together so these cute little patties are vegan.

Pearl Barley and Roasted Almond Patties

Ingredients (makes about 20 but it depends on the patties’ size)

– 200 g pearl barley
– 150 g potatoes, peeled and cubed
– 80 g almond, roasted and chopped
– 1 onion, chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, chopped
– 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
– salt, pepper
– whole wheat breadcrumbs
– olive oil for cooking

Method

Roast the almonds in a dry non-stick pan for 6-8 minutes, chop them and set aside to cool.

Cook the pearl barley according to the instructions on the packet (usually 2 times more water than barley, a little bit of salt, boil in a pot, reduce heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes). Set aside to cool.

In a small pan cook the potato until tender. Drain and mash it with a fork. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl mix together: roasted almonds, chopped onion, garlic and parsley. Add mashed potato and cooked barley. Season with salt and pepper and mix until everything combined.

Form pingpong ball sized balls from the mixture, flatten them with your palm or a spoon. Transfer the patties to a place of breadcrumbs and press them firmly to coat on both sides (this breadcrumb coating becomes golden and crisp when they’re baked or cooked). Place the formed patties on a tray. Heat 3-4 teaspoons olive oil in a pan, add patties and cook for about 7-10 minutes until golden brown. Flip the patties and cook them on their other side until golden. Cook the remaining patties too. (Instead of cooking you can also bake them on a baking sheet in the oven at 170-180C ~ 338-356F for about 25-30 minutes. Don’t forget to sprinkle them with olive oil and turn the patties to their other sides at half time!)

Basil, Walnut and Pecorino Spelt Crackers

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I think I can say that home made cookies and home made crackers are the best. What do you think? Most of the time I bake sweet cookies but once in a while I crave after something salty, something savoury… like these crackers. 
I was curious where the crackers come from so I searched the internet and I found this: “Crackers are said to have been invented in 1792 when John Pearson of Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA made a pilot-like bread product from just flour and water that he called Pearson’s Pilot Bread. An immediate success with sailors because of its shelf life, it also became known as hardtack or sea biscuit. This was the first cracker bakery in the United States, and produced crackers for more than a century.

The real revolutionary moment in the life of the cracker came in 1801 when another Massachusetts baker, Josiah Bent, burned a batch of biscuits in his brick oven. The crackling noise that emanated from the singed biscuits inspired the name – crackers – and a bit of ingenuity, as Bent set out to convince the world of the product’s snack food potential. By 1810, his Boston-area business was booming, and, in later years, Bent sold his enterprise to the National Biscuit Company, which now does business under the Nabisco name.”

Now that I’m writing this post, watching this mouthwatering photos I know I have to bake them again this afternoon… yes, it’s this addictive. The good news: baking these crackers is easy as it gets.

Basil, Walnut and Pecorino Spelt Crackers

Ingredients

– 150 g white spelt flour
– 100 g cold butter, diced
– 100 g pecorino cheese, grated
– 10-15 lemon basil leaves, chopped
– 3 tablespoons walnut, roughly chopped
– 1 teaspoon salt

Method

In a bowl crumble the cold butter with the flour. Add salt, cheese, basil and walnut. Mix everythig together until incorporated. Divide the dough into half and transfer each of them to clingfilm and shape into logs (10-12 cm long, 3-4 cm diameter). Wrap well and place in the fridge until hard, at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170C (325F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the logs and cut crosswise into 5 mm thick slices. Arrange the crackers on the prepared pan. Bake the crackers until golden brown on the edges and lighter in the centre (for about 15 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. The crackers will keep in an airtight container in cool dry place for up to 10 days.

Lemon Rosemary Butter Cracker

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I was craving after some savoury crackers. I found a package of butter in the fridge that wasn’t very fresh so I thought I should use it and bake something salty. It is a very easy and quick recipe. And the rosemary smell coming out from the oven… is amazing!

Lemon Rosemary Butter Cracker

Ingredients

– 150 g white spelt flour
– 50 g whole wheat spelt flour
– 100 g cold butter
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 organic egg
– 1 lemon’s greated zest
– 2 tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped
– 1-2 teaspoons salt
– pepper

Method

In a bowl crumble the cold butter with the flours. Add salt, baking powder, pepper, rosemary, lemon zest and the egg. Mix everythig together until incorporated. Divide the dough into half and transfer each of them to clingfilm and shape into logs (10-12 cm long, 3-4 cm diameter). Wrap well and place in the fridge until hard, at least 1 hour. 
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170C (350F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the logs and cut crosswise into 5 mm thick slices. Arrange the crackers on the prepared pan. Bake the crackers until golden brown on the edges and lighter in the centre (for about 15-20 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.  The crackers will keep in an airtight container in cool dry place for up to 10 days.

Cheese Biscuits with Poppy Seeds

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I baked this cheese biscuits on Saturday afternoon just to have some snacks for our evening wine tasting. During the baking the whole flat smelt like cheese, I had to open the windows. 🙂 But when we tasted it… we couldn’t stop eating it. Just some left for the wine tasting…
The recipe is adapted from Anne’s blog, I only did a bit of chaning.

Ingredients

– 100 g unsalted cold butter, cut into cubes
– 100 g parmesan or pecorino, grated
– 100 g white spelt flour
– 100 g whole grain spelt flour
– 1 organic egg, yolk divided from egg white
– water
– pinch of salt and pepper
– poppy seeds

Method

In a bowl mix together flour (both of them) with butter. Rub together until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add the cheese, salt, pepper, egg yolk and water (0,5-1 dl). Work together everything into a dough. If it’s too moist, add more flour. If it still crumbles, add more water to it.

Divide the dough in two pieces and roll into two logs (about 12-15 cm long, diameter 3-4 cm). Brush both logs with the egg white and roll them in poppy seeds. Wrap the logs in cling film and place the logs in the freezer for about 15 minutes. The dough should be hard but not very frozen.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C (350 F). After 15 minutes take out the logs from the freezer, unwrap them and cut into slices of 5-7 mm wide. Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake them for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

So crunchy, so delicous but when you bake it the flat will smell like cheese! 🙂

Fresh Corn Pancake with Coriander Cream Cheese

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This time of the year, we see ears of fresh sweet corn everywhere we turn, tumbling out of crates at the farmers market and piled high at the grocery store. I love sweet corn and coriander so much. These flavours remind me of my Mexican trip back in 2005 when I visited my dear friend, Maria and her family.

Maria’s mom made comforting home cooked meal for me everyday. I don’t speak Spanish, she doesn’t speak English but we understood each other somehow. 🙂 I loved every bite of the meals. She used so much coriander, avocado, lime, tortilla and corn in her cooking. I hope if I visit them again one day I will have the opportunity to cook with her!

Ingredients (makes 8-10 pancakes)

– 60 g white spelt flour
– 50 g whole grain spelt flour
– 20 g unsalted butter, melted
– 80 g fresh corn, cut off the cob (you can use frozen corn as well)
– 0,25 l coconut milk
– 2 organic eggs
– 1 teaspoons baking powder
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 100 g cream cheese
– 1 clove garlic, chopped
– coriander, chopped
Method
In a bowl mix flours, baking powder, coconut milk, egg yolks, melted butter, corn, stirring it until smooth. Whip the egg whites with the salt until it becomes stiff and add it to the corn mixture. Cook on a hot pan until lightly browned on the bottom. Turn and brown the other side.

Mix the cream cheese with the coriander and the garlic and spread the pancakes with this cream.