A Minty Fresh Chocolate Tart

This tart was inspired by both the marvelous mint plant we have growing in one of the raised beds and a desire to incorporate more herbs into dessert. After the success of the lavender pancakes, we have been dreaming up herby pud recipes for more excuses to bake.

Although mint chocolate is a classic combo, the freshly chopped mint flavor proved to be incomparable to that of store-bought extract.  What’s more is that the mint flavor just kept getting better by the day as it infused the cheese and chocolate with it’s cook kick.

For the crust:

2 cups of crushed up cookie- Graham crackers, butter biscuits, or even Oreos would work (We used a combo of butter biscuits and chocolate covered cookies)

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

4 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F/175C Mix together and press into the bottom of a 10 in tart pan. No need for the crumbs to go all the way up the side, but using a spoon to press into the edge is helpful to create a little bit of an edge. Bake for between 5-10 minuets in the oven, remove and let cool while you make the filling. The crust will harden as it cools.

For the filling:

16 oz. marscapone cheese

¼ cup milk

3 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder

1 Tbsp flour

100g dark chocolate, melted  (1/2 of a thick baking chocolate bar) with 1 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves, packed

3 egg whites

1/3 cup  granulated sugar

After melting the chocolate, combine the marscapone, milk, cocoa powder, flour, and melted chocolate, and finely chopped mint leaves. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg whites and granulated sugar until frothy. Pour the egg white mixture into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Then pour the batter into the tart shell and bake for 30-45 minutes  until the middle is not runny (doesn’t jiggle much) and the top has formed a slight crust. Since this is like a cheesecake, the traditional “toothpick test” isn’t a good indicator for readiness. And voila! A moist, minty, chocolatey tart that isn’t as half as sinful as it tastes!

Summer Lentil Herb Soup

When you find your fridge full of scraps of this and bits of that, it’s always a good idea to make soup! If you have beans and fresh herbs, you really can’t go wrong. The veggies we had laying around along with green lentils and summer herbs turned into a lovely lentil soup recipe that we thought was worthy of sharing with you.

2 sweet onions, diced

3 small zucchini, diced

2 carrots, diced

5 medium sized potatoes, diced

½ cup red lentil, soaked in water for 1 hour

¼ cup sunflower seeds

6 cups chicken stock

garlic chives

tarragon

sorrel

sauriette (winter savory)

bouillon cube or salt to taste

Sweat the onions, then add the zucchini and carrot once the onion is translucent. Then add the potatoes and continue to cook on a low temperature. Add lentils and sunflower seeds. Add stock spoonful by spoonful while simmering for around 25 minutes on a low flame.  Let sit for a few minutes and then add chopped fresh herbs and salt (or bouillon) to taste.  It is important that you leave the herbs to add at the end so they maintain their fresh herb kick but are still ever so slightly cooked. Then blend the soup in an electric blender or with a hand-held blender to the consistency of your liking.

Calendula Chicken and Fresh Herb Tabouleh

Since the medieval banquet in June, we’ve been feasting like royalty on the leftovers fare. Just this week we took the Torta Bianca from the freezer and it was as good as when we drizzled the eau de rose on it straight from the oven! But after going through the leftover stuffed pigeon and guinea fowl, we decided to try something different with our last TWO stuffed chickens. Inspired by the blossoming calendula in the garden that can be used in place of saffron, we came across a Moroccan saffron chicken recipe we adapted to spice things up a bit.

For the Chicken:

1 whole chicken, roasted and torn into cut into bite-size pieces, skin removed (or about 3 large chicken breasts)

2 large sweet onions, chopped medium

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tsp cinnamon

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt

Petals of 4-5 Calendula flowers

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Sweat the onions in olive oil with all of the spices except for the fresh cilantro. Sweat them on low heat for an hour or more until the onions are a caramel color and begin to dissolve into a sweet onion mush.  While they are cooking, add cider vinegar or water every so often so they don’t burn. We also added a bit of granulated sugar to help the mixture meld. Add the cilantro when the onion mixture is cooling.

For the Tabouleh:

3 cups Bulgar wheat

6 cups boiling water or chicken/vegetable stock

Raw spring onion, diced

Fresh tarragon, coriander and parsley, finely chopped

Lemon juice

Pour the boiling water or stock over the tabouleh, mix in, and let sit for a minute to absorb the moisture and cook. When cool, add the onion, fresh herb, and a squeeze of lemon juice to taste.

We arranged the dish by putting the chicken pieces in a wreath arrangement around the bed of tabouleh and garnishing the chicken with the onion to keep it moist and let the flavor sink in.

Lavender Pancakes

In honor of Sophie’s birthday and her green thumb, we had a garden-inspired brunch to start her day off right. The culinary centerpiece of this celebration was definitely the lavender pancakes. We chose an especially aromatic variety of lavender from the garden and drizzled them in lavender-rosemary honey bought from the Quillan market. After a nice warm stack, we were all feeling the soothing and scrumptious lavender love.

The Ingredients:

8 ounces plain flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp lavender flowers, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 tablespoons butter, melted and allowed to cool slightly

honey, plain yogurt and granola to serve

In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients together. Whisk the milk, eggs and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl until well combined and then add to the dry ingredients little by little. Finally, whisk in the melted butter until the batter is thick and very smooth.

Heat frying pan or griddle over medium heat, and spray with cooking oil spray or grease with a knob of butter.Spoon the pancake batter onto the griddle in equal amounts and cook until bubbles come to the surface of the batter and the edges start to curl up. Then flip  the pancakes and cook for only a few seconds more on the other side—and I mean just a few seconds–this is not a good time to walk away from the griddle!)

Makes about a dozen pancakes.

Drizzle with honey to experience the lavender to its fullest extent or enjoy with yogurt, granola, or anything else you fancy.

Calendula

Benefits/Properties

The Calendula plant contains a high amount of flavonoids which is helpful to protect the body against cell-damaging free radicals.  The plant has antiviral, anti genotoxic, anti tumor, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects. The flowers contain saponins which produce the anti inflammatory properties. Calendula flowers are also known to promote metabolism of proteins and collagen; this means that they also help to grow new, healthy cells.

The calendula is chiefly used as a local remedy and its action is diaphoretic and stimulant. Calendula teas and tinctures can be helpful for gastritis, food allergies and irritable bowel problems. The oil extracted from caledula seeds- calendic acid- is used as an antiseptic.

Fun facts: The ancient Romans used the flower to treat scorpion bites. Calendula was used by the doctors on the battlefield to treat open wounds in the American Civil War.

Cultivation

Calendula self seeds really well.  As a member of the marigold plant it is a good companion plant to other plants and as a shallow rooting annual it never becomes invasive.  It is a perfect garden weed and so is only weeded when it is in the midst of  another plant’s display and is otherwise left to suppress less welcome weeds in borders and wilder parts of the garden.

How We Use It

We love the Calendula particularly because it is such a tough old weed with beautiful cadmium yellow to orange leaves and it can flower all year around.  The leaves are the part of the plant used.  Calendula is mostly used for skin care and beauty remedies but the petals have anti-inflammatory effects, are  a potent antioxidant and have antiviral and antibacterial qualities.  We sprinkle petals on salads and use as a saffron substitute.