Pepper Mayonaise

There was a promotion once in KFC, where they served instead of a regular longer, it was called a pepper longer. I don't care much for KFC or any other fast food chain store, what I was addicted to was the pepper mayonaise. I could eat it by the gallon. Weird addiction, I know, but I sometimes act like a pregnant person while I'm not  (pregnant,that is). Stupid me, I didn't bother to make my own pepper mayo, and it's soooo easy! Seriously, even Listonic won't put the ingredients needed. Because all you need is your regular favorite mayonaise of choice and fresh ground black or colored pepper. Just mix the two together and you'll be forever bonded. Yummm... Sorry if I'm lame, I just love food.

Stuffed pasta shells in tomato sauce

This is a biggie for smuggling stuff kids don't usually like, such as spinach. I know, weird right? But here's the thing with spinach- if you overcook it, get gets gross. Here, we cooked for a few minutes fresh spinach with some garlic, drained it from the murky stuff that appears later, and mixed it with riccota cheese. That plus a creamy tomato sauce will make the pickiest people eat this dish without no problems. Truth is, when I have picky guests, I never tell them exactly what we're going to eat, I observe them eat, smile, and pat their tummies, then I tell them, they had spinach, or garlic, or other stuff. Like my husband. Hates tons of things and really need to hide them in the food so he eats it. Or my sister. I'm going to be a great parent :) Point is- stuffings are great for hiding food. Besides, this dish is absolutly to die for. Simple and pleasurable.  You can serve this as a snack at parties, or as a main dish. I'm drooling again, sorry, I do that sometimes when I'm hungry.


Type of dish: main, snack
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-10
Time: 55min
Preparation time: 25min
Baking time: 30 min
Oven temp: 180C
What you need to prepare this dish:
2 large saucepans and 1 lid, spoon, collander, large shallow baking dish, knife, cutting board, large frying pan, spatula, medium bowl, hand blender.

Ingredients:

• 12-15 large pasta shells
• 250gr fresh spinach
• 1 can tomatos
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 medium onion
• a pinch of dried or fresh herbs: basil, oregano, parsley, thyme
• 1tsp sugar
• salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• olive oil
• 1 cup water
• optional: 1 egg

How to prepare:
Heat water in one of the pans, add a pinch od salt and 1 tbsp olive oil. When it boils, put in the pasta shells and cook acording to time on packet. Chop up the onion and garlic. Wash the spinach. Put ricotta cheese in the medium bowl. Heat up the other saucepan, add a tbsp of olive oil and fry the onion until translucent. Then, add the herbs and te tomatoes. Add sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper and water. Stir well and put lid on, turn the heat down to medium. Look in every few mionutes to give it a stir.  Heat up the frying pan on high heat, add a tbsp of olive oil and when hot, add the garlic. When it turns golden, remove from the pan and toss in half of the spinach. Mix around so it wilts, and when all is wilted, transfer to chopping board, and proceed with the other half of spinach. When thats done, the murky liquid should drip out, wipe that away or drain over the sink.  Cut the spinach with a sharp knife and mix with the ricotta. Heat the oven to 180C.  Now, if the pasta is cooked, drain and put in the baking dish, and drizzle olive oil over the shells. Look into the pot with the tomato sauce, the tomatoes should dissolve already, and take the hand blender now and blend away happily for 3-5 min. Back to the shells. Using a spoon, put in each shell a spoon full of the ricotta - spinach mixture. Arrange them in the baking dish with the open part side up. Pour over the tomato sauce and put in oven for 30 min to bake, checking every 10 min if it's not burning. After that time, you're ready to serve. Enjoy!

Additional info:
If you have some mozzarella, you can also place a slice of cheese on the top of the shells after filling, so a nice cheese cap forms after baking. Also, you can replace the spinach with fresh parley, chives, or a meat filling instead of cheese. The choice is yours!

Crème Brulée I Love You

OK, this is officially one of my favorite deserts. Crème Brulée I Love You.

So after few tries, please find below THE recipe of Figs and Rosemary Crème Brulée.

Serving 8 people

Preparation time: 10 min

Cooking time: 15 minutes to infuse the vanilla, 1.30 hour to cook the crèmes.

Ingredients:

·         8 egg yolks

·         120 gr sugar

·         ½ liter of milk

·         40 cl liquid creme

·         1 vanilla bean

·         Brown sugar

Preparation:

First step, you have to split in two your vanilla bean with a knife.

Second step, with your knife, separate the grains from the bean and keep them aside.

Now your vanilla is ready to be used.

In a saucepan, boil the milk and cream with the vanilla bean split in two and scraped. When the mixture is boiling it means that the vanilla has infused.
Whisk the sugar with the yolks without overworking the mixture
Pour gently the hot cream over the yolks and stir
Use a strainer to get rid of the vanilla stick
Pour into small molds
Put the same thickness of cream in each cup

Place in your oven and cook double boiler (au Bain-Marie in French) meaning for those who don’t understand what I am talking about that you put in a large pan some water,  the molds in the water and the pan in the oven.  I hope it’s clearer that way… Not sure though…
Bake at 100-180 C (it depends on your oven) but be careful, it shouldn’t boil!
Creams are cooked when they are still slightly trembling
Put in your fridge to cool down the creme
Just before serving, sprinkle with brown sugar and remove the excess
Caramelize with a blowtorch or under the broiler
Serve immediately so that remains the crunchy caramel

Bon appétit!!!

Mozzarella with figs and prosciutto ham

U la la.. We made a exquisite starter. The sweetness of the figs, the saltiness of the prosciutto, the chewiness of the mozzarella and the quirky taste of balsamic reduced sauce- all soooo good! If you manage to get a hold on fresh figs, please, please make this dish- you'll love it! We PROMISE!

Type of dish: starter

Cost: expensive

Difficulty:  easy

Time:  15 min

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 15 min

What you need to make this dish:

Cutting board, 4 plates , sharp knife,  stainless steel frying pan, whisk, spoon

Ingredients:

• 4 mozzarella
• 4 fresh figs
• 1 1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar from Modena
• Pinch ofsugar
• 4 slices of prosciutto ham

How to prepare:
Heat up on high heat the frying pan,and turn on the fan. It's gonna get hot! Pour in the balsamic vinegar and add the sugar. Mix all the time with the whisk, until the vinegar has reduced by over a half, and thickened slightly. Leave to cool. Cut the figs in 4, and cut each mozzarella also in 4, but try not to cut through completly. On each plate, place on mozzarella, put on it the 4 fig pieces, and next to it swirl around 1 slice of prosciutto. Drizzle all over the plate a spoon of the reduced balsamic vinegar and serve!

Tortilla wraps snack bites

I needed some snack for my guests and I thought- why not some tortilla wraps? They're easy to make, delicious, and can be made ahead in time. Plus, they look lovely. Why not try this out?

Type of dish: starter

Cost: medium

Difficulty:  easy

Time:  15 min

Serves: 4-8

Preparation time: 15 min

What you need to make this dish:

Cutting board, 2 plates , sharp knife,  regular knife, cling film

Ingredients:

• 3 tortilla wraps
  
• 1 tomato
  
• 1 box of cream cheese of any kind
  
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 1/2 cucumber
• 3 slices of ham
• 6 lettuce leaves ( arrugula, lamb lettuce, crinkled lettuce or romain, any kind)

How to prepare:
Spread out some cling film, around 30 cm. Take a tortilla and bend it inside one way then the other. This way you'll see which way it's easier to fold so the tortilla doesn't break. Place it that foldable side up on the cling film. Take the cream cheese and spread it all over the tortilla, to the sides in a even layer. Cut the cucumber, pepper and tomato in slices. Remove the seeds from cucumber and tomato (if you don't your tortilla will get soggy.) Rip the lettuce leaves lengthwise and put them in the middle of the tortilla. On that, place the veggies , then fold a slice of ham on the veggies. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. Now start rolling the tortilla, so the stuff you just put on is tucked away in the tortilla blanket. Yum. Now fold the cling film over the tortilla so it doesn't unfold, and put in the fridge for 10- 15 min, or until you need to serve. Or just cut in 2-4 cm slices and serve straight away. Go for it!

Gambas with lychee!

If you ever don't know what to do with larger shrimps called Gambas- this is the recipe for you! 

Type of dish: main

Cost: expensive

Difficulty:  medium

Time: 30  min

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking time: 15 min

What you need to make this dish:

Skewers, large frying pan, tablespoon, blender

Ingredients:

• 12 Gambas
• 1 can of lychees
• 1 vanilla stick
• 20ml coconut milk
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 spring of flat fresh parsley
• 1 medium shallot
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 lime
• 2 springs of coriander fresh
• 2 tbsp honey
• Pinch salt
• Pinch white pepper

How to prepare:

Defrost, clean and devein the gambas. Put one gambas on a skewer, then one lychee, then another gambas until the skewer is filled. Put the parsley, garlic and shallot in blender and blend till well chopped, or you can chop it up yourself if you don’t trust your blender. Heat frying pan on medium heat, pour the oil in, fry the skewers until the gambas are pink in color. Add salt and pepper and add the vanilla pod cut in half, then cook for 3-4 min in medium heat. After that pour in the soy sauce, honey, chopped herbs and coconut milk. Cover with lid and leave to cook on low heat for 2-3 min. Then add the lime juice and roughly chopped coriander. Serve immediately with the sauce. You rock!

.

Additional info:

Serve with ideas:

Jasmin rice or basmati.

Cauliflower Gratin

That’s what can happen when I go shopping with my husband, at some point he looks at something and he has an idea.

Yesterday it was a cauliflower, he saw this brain look vegetable and he told me, it’s beautiful I buy it.

You will think: So What???

Thing is - he hates cauliflower!!!

And guess what, he LOVED my recipe as well as the kids!

So now don’t hesitate and just do it!

Preparation time: 10 min

Cooking time: 20 min for the cauliflower

Baking time: 25 min for the gratin

Ingredients:

·         1 beautiful cauliflower

·         Cream cheese with herbs (or a regular one mixed with fresh herbs like chives, parsley, etc)

·         Fresh liquid cream 250ml

·         2 eggs whole

·         150 gr grated ementaler

·         Pinch of Salt and Pepper

Let’s do it!

First, separate the cauliflower into small pieces, rinse and boil your cauliflower in salted water until your knife can enter the cauliflower easily.

Preheat the oven 210 C.

While the cauliflower is cooking, mix the eggs with the cream cheese, the fresh liquid cream and add salt and pepper.

When the cauliflower is cooked, drained - put in an oven dish. Pour the eggs, cheese and cream mixture and sprinkle the grated cheese over it.

Now your oven is hot and turn in grill position, your Gratin can grill until he has a nice brown color (for about 25 minutes).

It’s ready! Bon appétit!!!  

Home made greek yoghurt

We like greek yoghurt. The kids even liked it, which was a suprise, but they do. Cool part is, you can make it yourself. All you need is a thick woven clean cloth, a collander and some time. You can make it overnight, or in 3 hours, then it's ready to eat. And absolutly delicious. You can add raisins, nuts, drizzle honey over it, or some jam, maybe add some fresh fruit. You can have it for breakfast, or as a dessert, like in Greece. The difference in greek yoghurt and regular yoghurt is that the greek kind has less whey in it. Whey is the liquid in yoghurt. If you ever opened a container of yogurt after a few days of buying, sometimes it has a thin layer of liquid on the surface- that's the whey.
Also, try out first your regular yoghurt, because depending on the thickness you can make greek yogurt. If you find yoghurt that isn't runny, like most, custard-y like when wobbled, but breaks up easily when touched with a spoon, you got great stuff to make greek yoghurt.
Anyway, you can make this with your kids, or by yourself- it's a great project to do:)

Type of dish: snack, breakfast, dessert

Cost: cheap

Difficulty:  easy

Time:  3 - 12h

Serves: 1-2

Preparation time: 10 min

What you need to make this dish:

Clean thick woven cloth, a colander, a bowl or pan to fit the collander, spoon, medium bowl

Ingredients:

• 1-2 0,5l container of plain yoghurt (I use the Zott kind)
• 1 tbsp honey ( or any other topping)
• 1 tbsp nuts of any kind
• 1 tbsp dried or fresh fruits

How to prepare:
Put the collander in the bowl or pan. Place the cloth on the collander.Put in the plain yoghurt inside the cloth, bring together the ends of the cloth and start squeezing the yoghurt at the bottom. The liquid will start to seep through the cloth, Squeeze out all you can, twisting the ends so the pressure also forces the whey to drip out. This takes roughly around 5-10 min. Put the cloth with the yogurt back into the collander and put in frigde for 3 to 12 h. After that, you can take out the cloth, and using a spoon, scrape out the remaining yoghurt. As you'll see, the size is reduced by half. Put the now greek yoghurt in the bowl, give it a good mix so it all blends together and you can serve it, topped with honey, nuts, or anything else you like. Store in fridge, covered with cling film.

Additional information:
This recipe makes 1-2 portions, so if you need more, just double the amount of yoghurt, but check to see if it will fit your cloth.