Additional information

I don't know if any of you have noticed the Listonic button under the ingredients in our recipes. We absolutely love this button, because, once you register to their website, all you have to do is click the button if you want the ingredients to go to you mobile. It's pure evil, I guess, but I love the idea of not having to print or write down the ingredients  when I want to make a dish. So, this is not only for us, but it's also an improvement for you guys! We love making our lives easier with this small button.  So, we encourage you to test it out too:)  Tell us what you think about our blog! Have a great weekend!

Tom Gha Kai

 

Ok, white soup, my love for hungry tummies and palate heaven. I love you, Tom Gha Kai. 

Forever.

And ever.

Alright, enough food  poetry.  More about the dish itself. Love!

The soup itself is broth, with coconut milk. And galangal. And lime leaves. And chili, lemongrass, and lots more. It’s delicious. Sweet and sour. Hot and delicate. It’s a must make for anyone ( in my humble opinion).   Bad day, hangovers, colds, this soup works like a charm. So don’t be afraid to try it, it’ll love you back too! ( I swear this soup loves me back too :) ).

Type of dish: soup

Cost: medium

Difficulty: easy

Time: 25min

Serves: 3-4

Preparation time: 10min

Cooking Time: 15 min

What you need to make this dish:

Cutting board, sharp knife, wooden spoon, medium saucepan, ladle

Ingredients:

• 1 lime

• 2 kaffir lime leaves

• 1 cube of stock ( veggie or chicken)

• 1 l of water

• 1 tbsp. fish sauce

• 1/2 stick of lemongrass ( only bottom white part)

• 1 tbsp. sliced chili

• 1 can coconut milk

• 6 slices galangal

• 1 tbsp. palm sugar

• 5-7 small mushrooms, cut in 4

• Half a small carrot, julienned

• 1/4 ball pepper, julienned

• Fresh coriander, chopped

How to prepare:

Take the lemongrass and cut discard the green woody part. With the side of your knife, pound the white part of the lemongrass so it becomes more fragrant.  Cut into thin slices. Heat the water with stock cube in saucepan, wait till it boils.  Add the galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves and sugar to the pot. Let it simmer for 5 min. then add the chili, coconut milk, carrots and fish sauce. Let it simmer for another 5 min. Now add the mushrooms and bell pepper. Let it simmer for 3 min and turn the heat off. Add 2 squeezes of lime juice and sprinkle some coriander before serving. And now you can serve. if it's not sdalty enough, add another tsp. of fish sauce. Or add some more sugar.

Additional information:

You can make this soup with chicken breast instead of mushrooms. Just cut the chicken into thin small slices and cook in the last step, like you would with the mushrooms. When the chicken is turning white on the outside, it’s almost done.

Another thing about the products- they cost more than regular stuff, but you can buy a small jar of dried kaffir leaves and keep them in the fridge. I buy also more chili and lemongrass and after cutting it, I freeze it in small ziplock bags. Palm sugar comes in a small jar that you have to scrape the sugar out, but it lasts for long. And if you don't have any kaffir leaves, just use the peel from a lime. Or, if you're lucky and have a small lemon tree, use lemon leaves instead. Use the lime juice at the end, because it quickly looses it's taste while cooking, so add it last. And don't use ginger instead of galangal! it's a totaly different taste!

Lecho

Ok, here's the deal. Every year, when I start feeling being de- summered (which is usually this time of the year), I make Lecho. Leczo, or lecho, is a originally Hungarian dish, very spicy and from what I know, it's not this dish. But I call it lecho either way. It's my way of cooking sunshine and fun, and great veggies into a dish. I love this dish. I could marry it. But I'm already married. But I love this dish. It's my seasonal lover. I could pack it later into a jar and store it for cold winter evenings, but I like to eat it so much, there's never any left for stowing away:(  Oh well.
 Anyhow, here's the how to:

Type of dish: main

Cost: cheap

Difficulty: easy

Time:  35 min

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 20 min

What you need to make this dish:

a large saucepan with lid, a wooden spoon, sharp knife, cutting board, ladle, bowls to serve

Ingredients:

• 2-3 ball peppers ( any color)

• 1 medium onion

• 3-5 tomatoes ( all colors, medium sized)

• 1 medium zucchini

• Salt

• Black pepper

• 1tsp. dried parsley

• 1 tsp. dried oregano

• 1 tsp. dried thyme

• 2 tbsp. olive oil

• ½ cup water

How to prepare:

Chop for your life! First, cut the ball peppers into dice, lets say the size of your thumbnail. Don’t cut your thumbnail! Now, dice the onion. And the tomatoes. And cut the zucchini in half, then in half, then slice it. Now, cutting time over.  Heat the saucepan with olive oil. When  it’s hot, throw in the bell peppers, stir well so they get nicely coated in oil. Let them fry a bit- this will make them softer. So, fry for about 3-5 min. Throw in the onion. Mix again, put the lid on the pot. In 5 minutes, the onion should be translucent.  Ok, now the rest- start with the zucchini, stir,  add tomatoes. Add the water, add the herbs and put the lid back on. Stir it from time to time, around every 5-10 min. you can wash up now. After 15 min turn the heat off and season to your taste with salt and pepper. Usually 1 large pinch of salt will do, and a small pinch of salt.

Additional information:

If you’re ok with garlic, add a smashed garlic clove when you’re adding the onions. Tastes great either way.

Serve with ideas:

Bread. Best is with bread. Or, if you prefer a heartier meal, boil a few potatoes, they will do nicely as well.

Cheese quiche

There is a moment in everyones life, when they open their fridge and see only small leftovers and pretty much nothing else. I think we had that moment that day. All we found was pieces of various cheese hanging around in the fridge, mocking us, nearly saying- ooh, we're safe, no one will eat us, there's not much of us left, let's throw a smelly party! Yay!
But we kicked them out and turned into a delicious crumbly quiche insted. Apart from the lovely smell of baked cheeses, the aroma of french puff pastry is mind- blowing , especially when you're hungry. Mhmmmm. Food.

Here's the how to:

Type of dish: main

Cost: medium

Difficulty: easy

Time: 40

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 15 min

Baking Time:  25 min

What you need to make this dish:

 Shallow baking dish, cutting board, scissors, knife,  bowl, spoon, fork

Ingredients:

• 1 packet pre made French puff pastry

• 2 packets of grated cheese Ementaler

• Salt

• Pepper

• Nutmeg

• 1 Mozarella

• 1 goat cheese log

• 3 eggs whole

• 1 cup cream

How to prepare:

Heat the oven to 180C, cut the cheese in slices. In a bowl mix together the cream, the spices, the eggs and grated cheese. Put out the pastry in dish, leaving the paper underneath, make holes in the pastry using a fork. Fill the pastry with the sliced cheese, and pour over the cream/egg mixture. Put in the oven to bake for 25 min until the top is light brown and the kitchen smells of quiche.  Serve hot!

Additional information:

You can use any leftover cheese you have in the fridge. We had goat cheese,ementaler and mozzarella. Anything works!

Serve with ideas:

serve with a green salad

Presenting you the Apple tart!

This is probably the easiest and fastest apple pie anyone can make. We like the thin slices of apples on the top, giving it a slightl rustical look after baking. And it's soooo good! Shock your friends and family with this pie- they will ask you where you bought it- and then you'll say with a savvy smile: Oh, but I made it myself. It was easy- peasy! HA!
Here's how to impress them:

Type of dish: dessert

Cost: medium

Difficulty: easy

Time: 40

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 15 min

Baking Time:  25 min

What you need to make this dish:

 Shallow baking dish, cutting board, scissors, knife,  bowl, spoon, fork

Ingredients:

• 1 packet pre made French puff pastry

• 4 large apples, peeled

• 1 jar of apple filling

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

How to prepare:

Heat the oven to 180C, cut the apples in  thin slices. Put out the pastry in dish, leaving the paper underneath, make holes in the pastry using a fork. Fill the pastry with the apple filling and top it by laying apple slices. Sprinkle the sugar on top and put in the oven to bake for 25 min until the top is light brown and the kitchen smells like home. Serve hot!

Additional information: if you have apricot jam, a good idea is to smear some on the apple slices before sprinkling with sugar. That way, the apples get a nice glazed look.

Serve with ideas: vanilla whipped cream, vanilla icecream.

Salmon tagliatelle

 

We had this today for lunch and we have to say- it’s simple to make and really delicious! The best part is, you serve it in the saucepan you were cooking the pasta, which makes it less messy. This is a recipe great for people who don’t like cooking all day, want a simple but tasty dish made fast. Here’s how to make it:

Type of dish: main

Cost: medium

Difficulty: easy

Time: 10 min

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 6 min

Cooking Time: 4 min

What you need to make this dish:

Medium saucepan, a wooden spatula, cutting board, knife, colander, grater, bowl

Ingredients:

• 1 package of smoked salmon

• 2 medium tomatoes,

• 1 package tagliatelle

• 1 mozzarella

• 1 lime

• Fresh parsley

• Olive oil

• Salt

• Pepper

• 4 tbsp olive oil

• Water for cooking pasta

How to prepare:

Heat the water on high heat in saucepan.  Dice the tomatoes, mozzarella, slice the salmon. Place the salmon in the bowl, and grate over the lime. Then squeeze out the lime and add the juice to the salmon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour in the olive oil and add the mozzarella and tomatoes. When the water is boiling, cook the pasta according to the package( in our case 3-4 min). Drain the pasta once cooked and place back in the saucepan. Add now the ingredients from the bowl and chop up some parsley. Add the parsley and mix well. Serve from saucepan or if you like to wash a lot, in a bowl.

Additional information:

You can use lemon  if you don’t have lime, and use fresh dill instead of parsley (I know some people don’t like parsley)

Baked carrots

 

We felt like carrots. Baked carrots, salty and infused with garlic and rosemary. And we wanted a side dish, so carrots it is. Here’s how it goes:

Type of dish: side

Cost: cheap

Difficulty: easy

Time: 30 min

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 5 min

Cooking Time:  25 min

What you need to make this dish:

Cutting board, knife, frying pan, wooden spatula, medium sized baking dish

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 4 cloves garlic (unpeeled)

• 2 twigs of rosemary

• 4 large carrots, peeled

• Coarse salt

• White pepper

• 1 sliver of butter

How to prepare:

Begin by cutting the carrots in diagonal slices,  heat the frying pan on high heat, pour in the olive oil, when it’s hot, put in the rosemary twigs and garlic in the pan, swish around until rosemary is fried and the pan smells like rosemary. Remove the rosemary and garlic  and put it in the baking dish  rubbed with the butter. Set aside for later. Preheat the oven to 180 C. now, place the carrots in the frying pan and fry them for 7-9 min, until they are changing color to orange- yellow. Remove them from the pan and put them in the baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 25 min. Turn off the oven and take out the dish. They  are ready to serve.

Additional information:  the garlic is also edible after the frying and baking process, it’s great to use as a spread for small pieces of bread.

Serve with ideas: you can serve this with any kind of meat, or as a salad for parties.

A small extra to make you see why we started this in the first place

...and thats why:)
Have a great week!

Best carrot cake

 

Over the years, carrot cake has become very popular, nearly every coffee and tea shop sells it. Funny thing is, first time anyone heard  about a carrot in a cake was saying : Ewwww. Even my dad, although he definitly took a liking to this cake:) It was the first cake I learned to make, the best one, one which had everybody asking me for the recipe all those years. The recipe came from my godmother who at the time was making all kinds of delicoius stuff, and since it was the late 80 and early 90, back in the days everybody was writing down recipes on old envelopes or napkins (OMG- how does that even sound?!) . Well, we moved from AU to PL where nobody heard about putting carrots in a cake but it quickly found its way to many hearts and stomaches.  So, here we present you- THE CARROT CAKE YOU'VE BEEN DROOLING ABOUT!

Type of dish: side

Cost: medium

Difficulty: easy

Time: 60 min     

Serves: 6-10

Preparation time: 15 min

Baking Time: 50 min

Baking Temp: 180 C

What you need to make this dish: 
big bowl, egg beater , baking dish, spatula, fork, cup, teaspoon, small bowl

Ingredients:

•  3 eggs

•  3 cup grated carrots

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 flat tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract

• 1 1/3 cup plain flour

• 1 ½ cup sugar

• ½ cup oil

• 1 cup crushed walnuts

 

For the topping:

• 100gr philadelfia cheese, natural

• 2 tbsp soft butter

• 2 cup powder sugar

• Rind from 1 lemon

• Juice from 1 lemon

How to prepare: First, in the small bowl, put in all the ingredients for the topping, and using a fork, mask it a bit toghether so when you start using the beater, the sugar won't fly all over the kitchen (and you, for that case).  beat toghether till fluffy, and put in the fridge to cool down for later.

In a big bowl, place egg whites, and beat with sugar, adding a little beat at a time. When the egg whites are stiff, add one by one the yolks. Beat with round movements with your mixer one way untill the eggs are straw in color (or pale yellow). Put aside the mixer, now use the spatula. First: add the oil, mix well. Now the flour, adding a little to incorporate with the rest of the mixture, step by step. (if you throw it in at once, you'll have problems stirring in the rest of the ingredients). Next add the spices, powders, walnuts and grated carrots. Mix it! Preheat the oven to 180 C, top and bottom. Prepare the baking dish by pouring a little oil in the dish, and cover the dish evenly in oil. put in a spoon of flour and shake the dish vigorously to coat the oil with the flour. Now you can pour the batter in the pan and put in the oven for 50 min. Check at 45 min with a match if the batter has baked or not.  At end of baking time, turn off the oven and leave for 5 min the cake in it. then remove out and place somewhere to cool down. It has to be cooled down completely before you procced with the icing. Spoon on the icing and smooth down with the spatula. set aside for the icing to set. Done!

Probably most apetizing potatoes EVER!

 

 We were looking for a way to prepare potatoes for a special dinner party AE was throwing. I had once potatoes gratin, served in a small tower (the cook had probably cut it in slices and cooked with butter and cream in a small oval ceramic dish, they were cut to fit the dish). I liked the idea of a pre-cut potato, similar as you would do with garlic bread, baked in an oven until golden like french fries, and creamy inside. Please note we made just five, to try out, but probably 3-4 is enough per person. We made it like this:

Type of dish: side

Cost: cheap

Difficulty: easy

Time: 40-55 min              

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 10 min

Cooking Time: 13 min

Baking Time: 20-35min

What you need to make this dish: 
baking rack, parchment paper, vegetable peeler, sharp small knife, cutting board, large saucepan (2l), large plate to serve

Ingredients: 

•  6- 8 potatoes( medium oval one- they should fit your palm at least),

•  salted butter,

• chives,

• coarse salt

• water to boil

How to prepare:

Peel the potatoes, and cut down a bit from the bottom so it lays flat. Using a sharp knife, cut into 2-3 mm slices, careful not to cut through the potato (just like garlic bread slices are attached to the bottom).  In the meantime, heat the water in the saucepan so when you are finished slicing the potatoes, the water is boiling and  then put the potatoes in the unsalted water for 13 min. If you have smaller potatoes, cooking time will be 10 min, if larger, then 13 min.( you want them a little bit cooked).  Now turn  the oven on at 180 degrees to warm it up before you put in the potatoes. Drain the potatoes after the required time place on the parchment paper on the baking rack and cutting slices of the butter, lay on the potatoes, so their warmth will melt the butter and it will sink in the cuts you made earlier. Repeat this with every potato until the butter pools around each potato. Sprinkle on a pinch of coarse salt and put in the oven for 20- 30 min, until they start getting golden in color. Then remove the rack from the oven, apply each potato another slice of butter and pop them back in the oven for the remaining time and  turn on the broiler for the last 5min. when done, transfer to a large plate and sprinkle with thinly cut chives and some more coarse salt. Of course, you can serve it like we did, with a spring of rosemary on the side.

Additional information:

These are very well looking potatoes, but time taking. We’d recommend making these if you really want to impress someone, as for sure they will be delighted with the taste and appearance. If you don’t have salted butter, just regular, easiest way is to mash a bit with salt in a bowl, and freeze for 10 min so its solid. You may also add then some crushed garlic or finely chopped parsley to the butter. It will be tasty too.

Sushi Ninja!

 

Today, we were very hungry with Anne Elise. So hungry her stomache was growling at her! So, we made some sushi. It's just too easy to make. Seriously.  We had some prepared sushi rice from yeasterday( if you can't make it, you can buy it ready at any sushi bar, it costs next to nothing), sharpened a knife, killed an avocado and fished some crabfingers. Ah, we also killed in the process half of a cucumber. What we also found in the frigde was mayonaise and some grilled mushrooms. Guess what? 10 minutes and you have a delicious, healthy lunch! Wow! Here's how we made it (video later, when I master the terrible art of posting on Youtube)

Type of dish: lunch, dinner

Cost: cheap

Difficulty:  easy

Time: 10min

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 10 min

Cooking Time:-

What you need to make this dish:

Sharp knife, bamboo mat, bowl with warm water, plate, small bowl for soy sauce

Ingredients:

• Nori paper

• 200 gr sushi rice, cooked and cooled

• 1/2 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced

• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and sliced

• 3 crab fingers

• 4 grilled mushrooms, cooled

• Mayonnaise

• Soy sauce

How to prepare:

Prepare the bamboo mat, place on it a piece of Nori, and spread out a thin layer of the rice on 4/5 of the Nori, leaving free space at the top of the Nori. Flatten the rice, so it sticks well to the paper. Now put some mayonnaise in a line near the center, more to the bottom side of the sushi. On it you can put now the avocado, cucumber, crab fingers  and mushrooms. Next, lift the bottom of the bamboo mat and turn over the part with the filling so its covered. Now, you have to squish it a little so it sticks, then, giving it a little tug and making sure the filling is securely under the Nori, start rolling to the top, until you have the un-riced space left. Here you use your finger. Wet the finger with water, and moisten the Nori so that it sticks to the rest of the roll. Now roll the rest and you’re nearly done. Now you have to take a sharp knife and cut in a sawing way the roll, so it doesn’t fall out in the edges, and the slices are even. Serve on a plate with a small bowl filled with soy sauce. You’ve finished!

Additional information:

You can use nearly anything you want in sushi fillings. Have some leftover  cream cheese? Put it in. Tomato? Slice it in also.