Summer is here my friends. I just love it, don’t you? I am trying to be outside as much as possible and I along with my son planted also our tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I am showing you some pictures. They are small plants but they will grow and I hope in two months we will be able to enjoy their fruits.

My son told me that, if I was going to write about our plants in this blog, I should mention that he has done all the hard work and should give him credit for this. So, I must admit that, indeed, he has planted all vegetables by himself. I only guided him how to do it and afterwards I watered them. There, I just gave him all the credit he wanted lol.

I was trying to figure out what I was going to feed my family with and I stumbled to yet another one recipe of Vangelis Driskas -a very famous Greek chef- for a Chicken cooked in goulash style infused with yogurt.

Goulash is a winter dish but the addition of yogurt in this one makes it appropriate even for warmer days. Chicken is a very versatile meat and goes perfectly with almost anything. As I expected, it was delicious and I immediately added it to my ‘favorite dishes’ file!

Chicken in a Yogurt-Paprika Sauce

Ingredients

1.400 gr. /3 lb. chicken breasts cut in cubes

1 onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

4 tbsp olive oil

1 red and 1 orange pepper cut in slices

½ cup white wine

1 tbsp Hungarian paprika

1 cup water

1 cup Greek yogurt

Fresh parsley for garnishing

Salt and pepper

Instructions

In a frying pan in medium heat sauté the chicken pieces with the onion slices, the garlic and the olive oil until they will get a light brown color.

Throw the peppers and continue to sauté until they will become soft.

Pour the wine, salt and pepper and the paprika and reduce heat to low.

Add 1 cup of water and let it boil for about an hour.

Throw the yogurt let it boil for another 5 minutes and remove from stove.

Garnish with fresh parsley.

You can accompany it with rice or even pasta!

I am sending this to Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen!
I received two beautiful awards from two beautiful bloggers. One is Kiki from Tante Kiki a Greek food blog full of delicious Greek meals and the other one is from Ambreen from Pakistan and her blog  Simply Sweet and Savory in which she cooks many tasty dishes from her country and the rest of the world. Thank you so much for the awards, I am going to hang them in my gallery! I am passing them to all of you, who visit this blog!

Now this is a totally crazy post. I’ve been trying to write about this recipe since the day before yesterday, but things are really hectic around here the last few days. I had only got sometime today before I took my son to his fencing class and I just seized the opportunity.

I also want to apologize for the pictures as they were taken in a real hurry. Ok, let me just describe you under which circumstances those pictures were taken.

I just took the tart out of the oven and I was prepared to take a picture of  it, just like I do every time. Immediately, my son and my husband came and stood next to me having me in the middle with their eyes wide open and their forks ready for battle.

As you can understand, I was in a very stressful situation having two pair of eyes watching every move, waiting for me to finish and start devouring the thing.

They completely ruined my good photographic intentions and I blame them for this lol. Next time I know what I will do. I am going to sneak the food out of the oven or the pot and have it photographed without them even noticing it. Anyway, back to our talking about this tart.

This time of season vegetables and fruits start to make their appearance and I love making things with them. The summer is coming really fast here in Greece and we started wearing our T-shirts and summer pants. The temperature rose to the 30’s Celsius and everyone has started feeling a little bit more optimistic.

I went to the supermarket and I bought fresh zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and then I was wondering what to do with them.

To my rescue came Vaggelis Driskas a famous Greek chef and his vegetable tart. When I saw it, I immediately decided how I was going to use my vegetables. I made some minor changes and I went ahead and baked it!

It was a very easy and quick tart packed with Mediterranean flavors. The combination of the specific vegetables and feta and haloumi cheese was amazing!

Vegetable and Feta Cheese Tart

Ingredients

1 puff pastry sheet (you can make your own or you can use store bought, I was in a bit of a hurry so I used store bought. You can use tart pastry as well).

4 zucchinis cut in quarters

250 gr. /9 oz.  fresh mushrooms (I used white button ones), cut in slices

1 red and 1 yellow pepper cut in slices

2 onions, cut in slices

2 cups feta cheese, crumbled

12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

200 gr. /7 oz.  haloumi cheese cut in slices

½ cup olive oil

3/4 cup evaporated milk or light cream 15% fat

1 egg

Instructions

Preheat oven at 200° C/390° F.

Take a rectangular pan 30X40 cm. /12X16 inches.

Butter it very well.

Put the puff pastry making sure it covers the bottom of the pan and its sides.

In a bowl put all the vegetables and add the ½ cup of olive oil and mix well.

Arrange the vegetables on the puff pastry.

Throw on top the crumbled feta cheese.

Decorate with the cherry tomatoes and the haloumi.

Beat the egg with the milk or the cream.

Pour it on top of the tart.

Place in the oven and bake at the lowest rack of your oven for about 45 minutes or until the puff pastry is baked underneath.

Take it out of the oven, drizzle some olive oil and throw some fresh basil or rosemary or oregano, whatever you have available.

Serve while is hot.

I am sending this to Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen.

I have a friend. Her name is Lefkothea. Lefkothea was a sea divinity who saved Odysseus when he capsized close to the island of Phaeacians, his last destination before home.

I know Lefkothea, my friend, since 1979. I was 10 years old when we moved to a new home and I went to a new school. And there I met her. We were at the sixth grade of elementary school and we continued to be friends and colleagues up to the end of high school. I know her for 33 years and I consider her to be one of the most honest, straight forward and kind persons I have ever met. We are different in many aspects of our lives, but alike in so many others.

Anyway, now she is married just like me, she has a son just like me and she likes to cook just like me. Couple of months ago we went at her place and she served us a beautiful dinner, but what has won our hearts and especially my husband’s was the dessert.

Of course I asked the recipe and of course she gave it to me. This torte comes from a family recipe. Her mother makes it and has given it to my friend and she in turn gave it to me. She has given me another one for another great dessert, but I will post that one a little later. Anyway, as I said, I wanted to make something non-chocolate to please my husband plus I wanted to tell you about my friend. The torte is delicious and I encourage you to try it, if you like the lemon taste in your sweets. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients and instructions, I wanted to be as thorough as possible. It certainly needs time to prepare, but it is not difficult at all. I did it in two days. The first day I did the cake and the cream and the second day I did the syrup and the assembly! Let’s go and make it then.

Lemon Torte di Lefkothea

Ingredients

For the cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

4 eggs

Zest of one lemon

1 hipping tsp baking powder

 For the cream

1 can evaporated milk

1 can water

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest from one lemon

1 tbsp butter (I used margarine)

3 tbsp flour

4 tbsp corn flour

1 cup sugar

For the syrup

½ cup sugar

½ cup water

1 tbsp white rum (but you can add whatever you like)

For the decoration

2 X 200gr./7 oz. heavy cream

4 tbsp sugar

M&M’s or whatever you want to give color

Instructions

For the cake

Beat the egg whites until they become meringue.

Add to it the sugar, the egg yolks, the flour with the baking powder and the lemon zest.

Pour the batter to a round pan about 29 cm/11 to 12 inches.

Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C/345° F for about 30 minutes at the lowest rack of the oven.

When it cools, take dental floss (yes, yes, you saw it right, dental floss with no flavor) and cut the cake in two equally heighted pieces.

For the cream

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale.

Throw the flour and the corn flour dissolved in 3 tbsp of the cold milk.

Place the rest of the milk along with the water in a pot. When it gets hot, but not bubbly, throw the egg batter and whisk until it starts to thicken.

Just before removing it from the fire, throw the lemon zest and immediately after removing from fire, pour the vanilla extract and the butter.

For the syrup

In a pot throw the sugar and the water.

Boil for about 5 minutes and remove it from fire.

Pour the liquor

Assembly

Take a platter big enough to put your torte.

Take one of the cake pieces and place it on the platter.

Brush it with half of the syrup quantity.

Pour half of the cream and spread it evenly.

Place the second piece of cake.

Brush it with the rest of the syrup.

Pour the rest of the cream.

Refrigerate until it stabilizes.

I decorated it on top and on the sides with 2 X 200 gr. /7 oz. of heavy cream whipped with 4 tbsp of sugar as Chantilly. But you can decorate it as you like!

Note: If you want the cream to be more than the cake layers then just double the quantity!

I am sending this to Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen and to Around My Kitchen Table and Sugar Me Up hosted by Wendy!