Homemade Croutons / Domače kruhove kocke

This was baked and photographed in the Summer. Instead of using these croutons for soups and salads, I ate them without anything. As a snack instead of chips (which is almost never eat) or popcorn. That wasn’t my intention, but they were so tasty, garlicky, that I found it difficult to resist. Sometimes Very often I think about the fact, that we humans a lot of times lack humanity. In some situations, everyone of us unintentionally behaves this way. For example, when we are watching the news and we see reports of thousands of victims, violence, human arrogance ... and before our eyes rolls footage of bloody, dead people. And we eat dinner while watching these horrible images. How strange. And cruel too. Off course many of us care about those people and truly feel bad about it. But still …. We eat dinner. With love, Neja

Tole je bilo spečeno in fotografirano že poleti. Namesto, da bi kruhove kocke porabila za juhe in solate, sem jih jedla kar same. Kot prigrizek, namesto čipsa (ki ga skoraj nikoli ne jem) ali kokic. Moj namen ni bil tak, vendar so bile tako fine, česnove, da sem se težko uprla. Včasih Zelo pogosto razmišljam o temu, kako je človeštvo pogosto nečloveško. V nekaterih situacijah si tudi sam nehote tak. Na primer, ko gledamo dnevnik in poročajo o tisočih žrtvah, o nasilju, človeški objestnosti,… in se pred našimi očmi vrtijo posnetki krvavih, mrtvih ljudi. Mi pa medtem jemo večerjo. Kako čudno. Tudi kruto. Saj marsikomu ni vseeno in ga to kar se dogaja boli. A vseeno….jemo večerjo. Z ljubeznijo, Neja

Recipe adapted from: Natasha's kitchen

The Recipe

Ingredients  3/4 lb loaf of bread, (5 cups of bread cubes) 3 Tbsp butter 3 garlic cloves, pressed 3 Tbsp dried parsley 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 8 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil + more if needed The process 1. In a small sauce pan, combine: butter, extra virgin olive oil, pressed garlic cloves, parsley, salt and pepper. Heat over medium heat until butter is melted. Stir to combine then set aside and let the flavors infuse into the oil while you chop your bread. 2. Cut your bread into 3/4″ cubes. Don’t remove the crust, it adds variety and great crunch to these croutons. Transfer to large mixing bowl. 3. Drizzle the seasoned olive oil over your chopped bread and  toss until bread crumbs have an even coating of oil. 4. Spread the bread in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 302˚F for 18-20 minutes until they are golden brown and crunchy. Store in covered airtight container for 1 week.

Sestavine 5 skodelic krušnih kock 3 žlice masla 3 stroki česna, stisnjeni 3 žlice posušenega peteršilja 1/4 čajne žličke soli 1/4 čajne žličke črnega popra 8 žlic ekstra deviškega oljčnega olja + po potrebi še več olja Postopek 1. Pečico segrejte na 180°C. V majhni ponvi zmešajte: maslo, ekstra deviško oljčno olje, stisnjene stroke česna, peteršilj, sol in poper. Segrevajte na srednje močnem ognju, toliko časa, da se bo maslo stopilo. Premešajte in pustite, da se okusi združijo z oljem. 2. Medtem narežite kruh na kocke (s skorjo vred). Kocke stresite v posodo. 3. Olje prelijte čez kocke, dobro premešajte, da bodo kocke enakomerno prekrite z oljem. 4. Na pekač položite peki papir in kocke preložite nanj, enakomerno razporedite. Pecite 18-20 min pri 150°C. Imejte jih pod nadzorom, ker se lahko hitro zažgejo. Hranite v nepredušno zaprti posodi: 1 teden.