Hasselback Potatoes

In Sweden these potatoes are called Hasselbackspotatis, name derived from the restaurant where they were created and served first in 1940: the 3 centuries old Hasselbacken Restaurant in Stockholm.

The recipe is simple.
Its gorgeous taste depends from the special way potatoes are cut, a shape that requires some care.
So prepared, potatoes become crispy outside and very soft inside.

Ingredients for 6 persons: 12 medium potatoes, 40g of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of olive oil,salt and bread crumbs.

Gazpacho Andaluz

Isabel Gonzales in his book Round ricos de Comida, Comida pobre writes:  

Sòlo decis que hay tantos gazpachos como pueblos incluso come familia, pues cada una le da su toque, su punto especial, quie es, desde luego, el mejor. Los gaszpachos veraniegos, ya sean majados o no, pues tutavia hay quien sigue majando y no por ello ha de ser octogenario, se hacen, cuando menos, a base de tomate, pimiento, pan, ajo, sal aceite y vinagre. Segùn los casos, les pueden anadir otros ingredientes. 
(There are many gazpacho many villages or families, everyone gives his special touch, which of course is the best. Gaszpachos the summer, which may or may not be purées without necessarily intended to be an octogenarian, prepare at least with tomato, pepper, bread, garlic, salt, oil and vinegar.Depending on the circumstances, you can add other ingredients.)

This is the queen of cold soups, a salvation for appetite in hot summer days

Ingredients: 1kg of Ripe red tomatoes, 2 green peppers, a cucumber average, a clove of garlic (optional), Mollica Bread or Crackers Corn, Olive oil, a tablespoon of vinegar, 3/4 of a liter of water and salt.

Lebanese Rice with Apricot Compote

I combined the recipe for Lebanese Rice&Milk  with an easy apricot compote to get a fresh and delicious dessert that fits well in the heat of these days

Ingredients for 6 servings: about 125g of small grain rice or basmati rice, the same volume of water, 1 liter of milk, 150g  sugar (preferably raw and cane sugar), 2 tablespoons scented water (orange blossom or thousand flowers), 1 kg of apricots cleaned and without stones, juice of 1 lemon, 300g of water.

Lebanese Rice&Milk

Ingredients: 3.5 ìl. of milk, 200g rice, 50g of orange flower water, 20g of cold water, 500g of sugar

Heat milk in a saucepan and add the rice when boiling.
Let boil gently for about 50 minutes.
So turn up heat and stir constantly until it becomes thick and dense.

Finally add orange scent water and sugar and let it boil longer.
Pour into a bowl or on a large individual dish and let it cool.
Serve garnished with a fruit compote.

Benefits of the sun

Nature Santé Innovation, a site to which contribute doctors and researchers, sends to readers a very interesting newsletter with contents often overlooked or little known that may be beneficial to our well-being .
From one of these letters I have drawn the following.

What we often forget about sun 

A hat, sunglasses, long sleeves, total sunscreen, stay in the shade and also in house from noon to 4pm. These prescriptions we believe are usefull to protect ourself from skin cancer. But this is not just a way to ruin our vacation and our fun in the summer, it is also bad for health.
The sun indeed has many beneficial effects often not known by all.

Sauce of Mushrooms

Ingredients: 50g Mushroom , approximately 30 grams of any kind of mixed mushrooms (optional), 1 Shallot , a small piece of Butter, ½ glass of Port, 1 cup of beef broth concentrate, little Parsley, Salt and Pepper.

Finely chop the shallots.
Clean  mushrooms and cut them into slices.
If you have them available, cut in pieces also the other mushrooms (Pleurotus and even frozen mushrooms).

Pot-Roasted Duck

Ingredients: 1 Duck, Goose grease, Olive oil, 2 cloves of Garlic, 2 Shallots, a spring of Sage, 1 wineglassfull of Red Wine, Salt and Pepper.

Clean and flame the duck and cut it in small pieces.
Arrange them into a baking pan with the goose fat, garlic cloves and thyme.
Season with a little olive oil and sprinkle with coarsely chopped shallots.
If you do not have goose fat, replace it with a few bits of bacon and increase the amount of good olive oil.

Cover and place in preheated oven at 180°C.
After about 20 minutes, add the glass of red wine, turning the duck pieces over so that they all brown evenly.
Add salt and pepper.
Cook for at least 1 hour.

The goose fat is a noble fat, delicate and fragrant. It gives a delicious taste to foods.