Guest Post by Golubka: Peach and Raspberry Summer Tart

Bonjour de Provence!

We flew from Helsinki to Marseille on Saturday and were greeted by a hot and sunny weather. We are visiting my brother here in Southern France and then heading off to Paris before flying back home to Sydney. But before I share photos from our time here in the sunny Provence, I am truly honoured to introduce you to Anya from a blog I hope many of you are already familiar with, Golubka.

I adore Anya's creativeness in the kitchen: she is not only an incredibly talented cook, she also knows the art of styling and taking beautiful photos. Her raw food creations are beyond amazing and her recipes are always original, healthy and delicious.

I'm sure you'll enjoy this summery tart as much as I do! I am planning to try this recipe at first chance. Thank you again Anya!

Hello there! It's a true honor to be a guest here. 

Writing a food blog centered around mostly raw recipes, I am often asked about cooked alternatives for many of my raw dishes, especially those that involve a dehydrator. Recently, I've been experimenting with recipes, where both raw and cooked preparation is possible. As a result, I've become very intrigued by gluten free and vegan baking, to the point where I bake something new almost every day. It's fascinating how easy it is to avoid products like butter, eggs, refined sugar, and wheat by thinking a bit outside the box and instead making light, nourishing, and delicious goods.

I've never been able to pick a favourite fruit - whatever is ripe and in season quickly becomes my one true love. There is something especially wonderful about the combination of raspberry and peach though. Their colouring and fragrance speak uniquely of summer and the two work together beautifully. In this tart, I added fresh herbs - lemon balm, basil, and thyme - to continue the summery flavour story and to accent the peach and raspberry.

Peach and Raspberry Summer Tart

Note: I always soak and then dry my nuts, seeds, and grains prior to making flours out of them, for easier digestion and better taste. While I use a dehydrator to dry them, it is also possible to use an oven, or just air dry. I do those steps in advance and keep a bunch of dried soaked/sprouted nuts, seeds, and grains in my refrigerator and ready to be used for baking. A high speed blender makes flour out of any grain in seconds. You can also use a regular coffee grinder to grind your flours. Thankfully, sprouted grains and flours are becoming more and more available through retail. You can always use regular flour and nuts as well.   
(makes one 10", or four 4 1/2" tarts)

Crust

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts - preferably soaked and dehydrated

1/2 cup quinoa flakes

1/2 cup quinoa flour - preferably sprouted

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons buckwheat or millet flour - preferably sprouted

1/4 cup good quality honey

1/4 cup coconut oil - melted

1 tablespoon almond butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

1/2 teaspoon salt

zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon each chopped lemon balm, basil, and lemon thyme leaves (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F./180C.

2. Grind nuts in a food processor to achieve small pieces. Add the quinoa flakes to the food processor and grind some more to incorporate thoroughly. Add the rest of the ingredients, with the exception of lemon zest and herbs. Mix well to get a crumbly dough. Add the zest and herbs and pulse to incorporate.

3. Put the crust dough into a lightly greased tart pan, press evenly against the bottom and sides of the pan. Prick with a fork several times. Bake for 5-7 minutes and let cool while preparing the filling.

Filling

3 cups fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon good quality honey

4 tablespoons chia seeds

3-4 ripe peaches

2 tablespoons lemon balm or lemon verbena (optional)

3 tablespoons chopped basil (optional)

4-5 sprigs of lemon thyme (optional)

coconut sugar for sprinkling

1/4 cup coconut oil - melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

1. Blend 1 1/2 cup of raspberries in a blender and run through a sieve to remove seeds.

2. Mix the honey with the raspberry puree and add the chia seeds. Mix well and leave for 15 minutes to form a gel.

3. Slice the peaches thinly. Cover the bottom of the crust with one single layer of peach slices.

4. Sprinkle with coconut sugar and approximately one third of the herbs. Add the rest of the herbs along with coconut oil and vanilla to the raspberry-chia gel, mix well. Gently fold the rest of raspberries (1 1/2 cup) in.

5. Spoon the mixture on top of peach layer into the crust. Arrange the reserved peach slices on top of the raspberry mixture, slightly inserting them into the raspberry gel. Sprinkle with coconut sugar.

6. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool slightly, decorate with herbs and serve.

Guest Post by Cherie Hausler from Scullery Made Tea

Hi friends!

I'm very excited to feature the first ever guest post here in Scandi Foodie! 

I met the wonderful Cherie Hausler from Scullery Made Tea at the Barossa farmer's market a couple of weeks ago. Cherie's teas and delicious home-made treats immediately caught my attention, and I was keen to find out more about her business and life in Barossa. 

I'm so happy to share Cherie's story and recipe for Wild home-cured olives with you. For further information about her business, and more of her delicious recipes, please visit her website at Scullery Made.

Thank you, Cherie!

I’ve caught myself writing my blog specifically for my Mum sometimes. Of course I love her dearly, but it’s more the fact that most of the time I imagine she’s the only one reading it. Actually if I was to be brutally honest with myself I’d have to admit my Mum doesn’t actually read every post either. Long and short of it is, that when Maria from Scandi Foodie sent me a super lovely email asking to guest blog for her I was initially just rapt to know my readership had managed to reach beyond my immediate relatives. Happy days.

So to recipe swaps… I was all geared up to do a chocolate self saucing pudding with spelt flour and rapadura sugar, coconut butter and raw cacao, you know, the kind of good-for-you-deliciousness Maria and I share a common leaning towards, but out on our little hill my husband and I woke up to a very sunny Barossa Sunday that had other plans in store. The road to great olives is paved with good intentions it would seem.

Every morning we walk past a disheveled gang of wild olive trees on our ritual start to the day, and have been eagerly watching the branches groaning under a bounty that is surely to be a season best, according to local ‘farmtalk’ - watching and waiting for the fruit’s colour change to yell ‘pick me!’ And today was that day; the very same that I had planned to dedicate to raw cacao pudding making. Our mantra of living according to the seasons and wildcrafting whenever possible, had my pudding coming in a clear second best to an entire year’s supply of organic, handpicked, homecured olives though. Plus, I figured olive hunting would be more indicative of life in our part of the world for those of you who haven’t yet managed some ‘local’ time in the Barossa. Olives in, pudding out. It seemed the only fair thing to do. So we threw on our backpacks and announced out intentions to our border collie, Stella, the-wildcrafting-extraordinaire, and the afternoon went something along these lines… 

PS. If you’re an olive fan, don’t ever let anyone put you off curing your own olives, they are absolutely worth the effort and with such a bumper crop this year you should easily find fresh olives at a Farmer’s Market if you don’t happen to have a gathering of wild olive trees within reach.

Wild Homecured Olives

Organic black olives

Rock salt

Extra virgin olive oil

Clean, decent sized bucket

1. Pick over the olives to pull out any leaves that may have jumped in to your bucket during harvesting and then fill up the bucket with fresh water. Larger olives can be pricked with a fork to speed up the curing process, but wild olives tend to be teensy so we didn’t bother with this step.  

2. Leave the olives to soak in the water for 3 days and then drain, refilling the bucket with a salty brine solution of 1 cup of rock salt per 2 litres of water. Leave in the brine for another 3 days and then drain again before returning to fresh water for the next 3 days. Repeat this process, alternating between the salt brine and fresh water for approximately a month, or until the olives have lost their bitterness.

3. Once the olives have cured to your taste, pack into sterilized jars and cover with extra virgin olive oil before sealing. Stored in a cool, dark place, the sealed olives will keep for at least 6 months. 

You can add orange zest or lemon, fresh thyme or rosemary, or perhaps some roasted garlic, but in our experience it’s always better to add any extras to your serving bowl of olives rather than during the jarring process. This helps enormously with avoiding the ultimate disappointment of proudly cracking open a jar of olives only to find our unwelcome friend ‘mould’ has come to visit. 

All photos by Cherie Hausler.