From all that cooking, baking, roasting, cutting, peeling…. searching for new combination of ingredients is what I enjoy the most. Cashews with avocado in extremely delicious raw cake, flan made of millet, egg-less mayonnaise. Even if I spoil something, I always try until my dreamt combination is perfect in taste.
I look for inspiration almost everywhere, but the most of my new dishes ideas come from local market called Hala Targowa. This place is so colourful, full of fresh veggies and fruits. Amazing! I enjoy wandering, watching and tasting. And I just love talking to the sellers. They are so friendly and really talkative.
There is this guy with glasses and moustaches who always has something funny to say and has really hilarious labels on his veggies like “bad-skinned avocados”, “the sweetest apricots on earth”. There is also a guy who is selling a lot of spices and he always finds something I don’t have in my kitchenyet.
Even if I have no idea what to cook at the beginning, when I enter this market my brain starts to fill with new ideas. Sometimes they are classic and simple, but sometimes really weird. Like this one: patty-pan squash stuffed with fresh apricots. But not only with apricots, suddenly millet cottage cheese is on my mind, and sun-dried tomatoes, and pistachios. What a mix! But don’t worry it’s totally edible and what’s more really delicious.
Ingredients:
6 patty-pan squash (about 1200g)
200g fresh apricots
60 g sun-dried tomatoes
40 g roasted pistachios (optional)*
1 cup agurula
olive oil
salt
Millet cottage cheese:
½ cup(110g) millet
juice from ½ lemon
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp granulated garlic
3/4 cup hot water
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
pepper, salt, chilli
* 40g is the weight with shells
Wash patty-pans and cut of the tops to form “hats”. Scoop the flesh using teaspoon. Be careful not to make too deep cuts and puncture the skin of patty-pan. Season with salt and set aside for a while. Rub in olive oil (inside and outside).
What to do with squash flesh?
You can make green gazpacho, add to pasta or roast and eat in sandwiches.
Cut apricots and tomatoes into small cubes. Chop agurula finely. Remove pistachios from shells.
Cottage cheese:
Cook millet in slightly salted water (½ cup millet- 1 cup water), adding more water during cokking if needed. Add all the “cottage cheese” ingredients to cooked millet and blend until creamy but with small lumps. Season with salt, pepper and chilli powder.
If you like salty cheeses you can more salt!
Add apricots, tomatoes, pistachios and agurula to millet cheese. Mix well.
Stuff patty-pans and bake for about 30-40 minutes in 220 degrees C, until sotf and cheese become golden.
If there is an extra stuffing left, try it on sandwiches.
Nutritional info:
1 stuffed patty-pan squash:
188 calories
protein: 7,4 g; fat: 6,3 g; carbohydrate: 28g, dietary fiber: 3,2 g;
iron:2 mg; calcium: 72 mg; zinc: 1,8 mg
