Gyros Layered Salad

There is just something about a layered salad or anything layered that really appeals to me. I mean, you can see all the ingredients, and they don't make sense. Then, you have a portion piled on your plate, you try it- and everything makes sense. That's the way good coking works. How could a potato be good with garlic and mayo? Fry the potato, cream the mayop with garlic and it does make sense. Somehow. I love food and the way cooking works. Drool.


You can make this salad dairly mild like this one ( I just added chili), or add crushed garlic, shallots instead of red onion, and add some tabasco or chili sauce to the ketchup. That will suprise your tastebuds :)

Type of dish: main, salad
Serves: many, many happy people
Cost: medium
Difiiculty: easy
Time: 40min
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 10 min

You'll need:
A large clear glass bowl, a tablespoon, a cutting board, sharp knife, 3 bowls, a colander, frying pan, a cup, spatula,


First of all., heat the frying pan, add a drizzle of olive oil and the chili, when hot, add the chicken and fry until the chicken is white, then add the gyros seasoning and a glass of water. Mix well and turn the heat to medium. Place the cabbage in the colander, and add 1 tbsp of vegeta. Toss and set aside on the sink. Dice the vegetables. When the gyros mixture in the chicken is thick like cream, turn of the heat and let it cool down completely.  Then place the chicken in the base of the large glass bowl. On top of the chicken, spread out 2 tbsp mayo. Spread it out evenly- all of the layers need to be or look even- this is the appealing part of this salad. Over the mayo, spread the onions, then the pickles. Then the tomatoes, corn and ketchup. Now, squeeze out as much excess water from the cabbage and fluff it out a bit and place in a layer over the ketchup corn. Spread out nicely, cover up and put in the frigde for at least 3h  for the flavours to mix:)

Spaghetti polpettas! True italian meatballs

Now once upon a time you turned on theTV and saw a movie with two dogs eating spaghetti meatballs. Fast forward a few years, you go to Ikea and eat the meatballs. They're ok, but a bit tough.
Fast forward few days ago- you just HAD to make meatballs but make them delicate, creamy even, and full of flavour.
And so simple.
And the best part is- you can smuggle in veggies :)
This recipe is just how to make the polpettas-  if you want the recipe for the sauce, try this one . And cook some fettucine or spaghetti for the base- thin pasta goes well with the sauce.

To make it you don't have to be a rocket scientist- just mix, roll balls, cook and serve. Nothing more to that :)

Type of dish: main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4
Time: 30 min
Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: 5-7 min

You'll need:
hand mixer with the chopping bowl end, a large saucepan with lid, laddle, medium mixing bowl, a large spoon, small plate, medium bowl, slotted spoon, cutting board, veggie peeler

Ingredients:

• 500 gr mixed ground meat- pork and beef
• 1 carrot
• 1 red chili
• 1 medium onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 handfull mushrooms
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• olive oil
• 1 tsp vegeta
• 1 bunch  chives, chopped
• 1 pinch each: dried herbs: thyme, dill, parsley
•  pinch salt and pepper
• 1 bay leef
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• flour, any kind

Get your blender asembled (or mixer, magic bullet, whatever you call it), pack in mushrooms, onions, garlic, carrots and chili, and mix until everything is the size of large splinters. In a medium bowl, put in the ground meat, add the minced mixture, egg, breadcrumbs, vegeta, herbs, and chopped chives. Add salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir well together and heat up the saucepan with water. Add the stock cube and bay leaf and put the lid on. In the meantime, make the polpettas. Wet your hands ( it'll be easier to make the meatballs without the meat sticking constantly to your fingers), and form small balls, that are usually about 1 heaped tbsp of the meat mixture. Turn each meatball in flour on a plate, so it's covered in flour, and set aside on the cutting board. Repeat with all the meat, and when the water is boiling, add 6-8 polpettas to the pan, giving them time to cook and to float to the surface- this takes about 5-8 min ( including 3-4 min for the floating polpettas to cook). Remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. to cool down, or, if you are making them for dinner, straight into the tomato sauce. Repeat with all the meatballs and either serve, or prep for freezing. Great for a next day office meal to share with a buddy:)

Lemon & thyme infused root vegetables

This is a slightly different, a bit rustic approach to baking root veggies- which, with a bit of olive oil and salt are delicious on their own. This version brings out a bit different tastes and an aroma that actually makes you want more, so why not?

The best part is, that this recipe seems very restaurantish and a bit exclusive in taste, which makes this a perfect side dish with some braised meat.


Type of dish: side
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4
Time: 40 min
Prep time: 10 min
Baking time: 30 min
Oven temp: 180C

You'll need:
a baking dish casserole type, tin foil, sharp knife. cutting board, peeler, grating plane or a small grater

Ingredients:

• packet of root vegetables (4 carrots, 1 celery root, 2 parsnips)
• 5 garlic cloves unpeeled
• 1 lemon
• 5-6 branches fresh thyme
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• additional: a small knob of butter
• optional a splash of dry white wine

What to do:

Preheat your oven, grease the baking dish. Peel all the vegetables, and cut off the ends.  Cut the vegetables in stalks, the lengh of your thumb and half as wide.
Place the veggies in the baking dish. Mince half of the thyme, and sprinkle over the roots.
Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over them and add a splash of olive oil and butter. Peel half of the lemon, just the yellow bit, and grate the rest onto the vegetables. Throw in the dish the garlic cloves and ev. add the wine. Cover up loosely with tin foil  (shiny side down) and bake for 30 min.
Serve hot and warm :)

Dinner Idea: pork sirloin in gravy with millet groats and peas

Some days, I sit down at home, after work, and my mind goes blank- what should I make for dinner? Then I have no idea. So I'm putting up the project with dinner ideas to keep track. These recipes take a bit more time to make, but are generally worth it and are great leftovers for the next day.

So look into your freezer- you might find peas, or carrots, or both. Or green beans, who knows?
Point is, cook them tender with butter and a bit of olive oil and some Vegeta or sea salt. And keep them warm, tucked in some newspaper and dishclothes. Same goes with the groats- you can make them ahead of time, tuck the pot in paper and clothes, and the oldschool method was to keep it under the duvet until you came home from work- and them it was still warm and perfect. And if you don't feel comfortable with groats, make rice.


Type of dish: main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves:4
Time: 1h
Prep time: 20min
Cooking time: 40 min

You'll need:
 a cutting board, sharp knife, large frying pan with lid, a saucepan with lid, a medium small saucepan with lid, spatula, tongs, a small bowl, plate

Ingredients:

• 1-2 pork sirloins, clean and sliced in 4-5mm slices, crosswise ( you'll have a lot of this)
• 1-2 medium onions or shallots, sliced thinly
• Optional: 3-4 mushrooms, thinly sliced, for a bit of taste
• 1 beef stock cube
• 2 cups water
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour
• olive oil
• black pepper
• salt
• bay leaf
• 3-4 juniper berries ( dried)
• fresh thyme, few sprigs
• 100gr dried groats 
• fresh or frozen peas, or carrots, or both
• knob of butter
• 1/2 tsp vegeta

Clean the groats- wash them a few times in cold water in the saucepan until the water isn't cloudy. Then drain and pour in 1 1/2 cups of water and cook according to package directions. Add a pinch of salt for flavour.
 Place the meat in the bowl, salt and pepper, then sift with 1 tbsp of flour. Mix well. Heat up the frying pan on high heat and pour in some olive oil. Start frying the meat in batches, till golden brown, transfer done meat to plate aside. When the meat is cooked, , turn down the heat, add butter add garlic and onions to the pan, fry for a bit until translucent, add 1/2 spoon of flour and mix for 30 seconds. Add the water, beef stock, juniper, thyme, bay leaf and the cooked pork. Stir a bit, and cover. Turn heat down to low and check every 3-4 min to stir.
In the small pan, pour in 1/2 cup water, the kob of butter, a drop of olive oil and some Vegeta seasoning. Add the frozen or fresh vegetables and cook 15 min, until tender.
When the sauce and meat thicken, the peas and groats are cooked, serve!

Boeuf Bourginion

I got a Le Creuset pan and I'm proud of it. And I wanted to make straight away this recipe. I will not repeat the full name, just call it "beef" , well, because I can.

First time, our friend Magali invited us over for this treat I have to say I was dissapointed. A stew? Come on. Then I tried it. Then the magic happened.
I will tell you no more, except that this is not her recipe, but it still gives off the magic of a slowly cooked meat in wine, tomatoes, and beef broth.
And the magic gets done somewhere in the oven, when the tastes frolic together. I adore it, and I will definitly advise everybody to get a cast iron saucepan with lid to make just this recipe. Go get one now if you haven't got one. Shoo!

Type of dish: main, stew
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 5
Time: 3h
Prep time: 30 min
Baking time: 2,5h
Oven temp: 160C


You'll need:
a cutting board, a sharp knife, a large frying pan, spatula, bottle opener, a cup, teaspoon, cast iron pan at least 20cm diameter with lid.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg cut beef for stew (it's diced)
• 1/2 kg mushrooms, cut in 4
• 1 can tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• few fresh sprigs of thyme
• few sprigs of fresh parsley
• fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 bottle red table wine ( medium dry or dry)
• 1 cube beef stock, or 250ml beef broth, unsalted
• 500gr  short pasta (macaroni, penne, fusili), or rice
• olive oil

 Preheat oven to 150C. Heat the frying pan, drizzle olve oil heartily over the pan, wait for it to sizzle, then pop in the mushrooms. fry them up a bit, until they brown evenly. Transfer them to the pot. Saute the onions and carrots for 5 min, transfer them to the pot. Next, add more olive oil, and add the beef to the pan. We need to brown it on all sides before we add it to the pot. While cooking the beef, add the bay leaf, thyme, black pepper, can of tomatoes, beef stock to the pot and stir around so the flavours integrate. Open the wine, and once the beef is done, throw it in the pot, and pour the wine in the frying pan, heating and scraping the bottom of the pan, to get the goody stuff in the sauce. Once the wine has reduced by half, pour it in the pot, try to stir it up a bit, cover up with the lid and put in the oven for 2,5 h. No need to check the pot in the meantime, so clean up and relax. After 2,5 hours, check if the beef and carrots have incorporated most of the liquid, and the leftover liquid is more stewish. If so, remove the pot, cook some pasta al dente and serve with a hearty serving of the beef. Garnish with freshly chopped basil leaves ,or chopped thyme.
Serve!

Bigos- Mishmash to do

Bigos is another traditional polish recipe, which now is made usualy for Christmas (two versions- one with wild mushrooms, the other is with meat of all kinds- pork and beef), which in very loose translation means nothing more than mishmash- meaning you can throw in nearly everything to this dish and it's still good.

I told my husband it's a family tradition the man makes the bigos for Christmas. But I lied. It's no tradition, I just wanted him to do something for the holidays :) I hope he reads this :P
EDIT : he did read this, and then he took away my glass of champagne.... :P
It's a heav dish, more popular for autumn and winter, and traditionally, bigos was made, by cooking it for days, if not weeks. The best was supposed to be the one made in autumn, kept in the snow for a few moths, then reheated again for occasions.
There are also two schools of making bigos- with or without tomatoes. Originaly there were no tomatoes, but try making this with and without and decide which taste is yours (mine is definitely with tomatoes).

Type of dish: main
Cost: cheap to medium
Serves: a lot of people
Difficulty: easy
Time: from 2h to 3 weeks
Prep time: 30 min

You'll need:
a cutting board, a sharp knife, a spatula, a large frying pan,  a large and deep saucepan with lid, small bowl

Ingredients: (for the meat bigos, for the vegetarian, just go without the meat)

• 1kg sauerkraut (taste it- if very salty, drain with water few times)
• 1kg mixed meat (pork, beef- sausages, kabanos, cured bacon, cold meat or cooked meat -from soups)
• 1 handfull prunes or plum jam
• 5 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1 handfull dried wild mushrooms
• 1/2 litre water

In the small bowl, put in the ddried mushrooms and cover with 1/2 litre boiling water. Set aside. Wash the sauerkraut and put in the saucepan. Add the prunes, and tomato paste. When the mushrooms regain some of their size, squeeze out the water from them, and chop them up roughly, and add them to the pot. Cut up the meat, and fry it up on medium high heat to brown it. Add with the fat from the meat to the large pot. Pour in the liquid from the mushrooms and put on the stove, on medium heat with the lid on. Mix every 45 minutes to make sure the bottom doesn't burn. Cook for 2-3 h, or if you like the traditional way, cook every 7 days, keeping the pot in the snow or your freezer.
And thats it!
Just try the bigos during cooking to check if it needs more sugar or tomatoes.

Pork Roast

In my family, pork roast was for special occasions. You would have it for Easter, the second day of Christmas, for special dinners.
And the leftovers would be eaten on thick slices of bread with the jelly from the baking process.
My mom used to do it differently than I do, I recall it being a bit spicy, which means there was a lot of pepper and marjoram.

It was good, trust me. But best the next day. Like roast chicken. Same thing.
Since I didn't have the recipe and I wanted to recreate the pork roast , I had to try to figure out what was it there. Of course, I came up with something totally different in taste, but still good.
And it's a very versatile dish, with the leftovers you can make sandwiches, or rice/pasta dishes with the leftovers cut up.
There are a few methods of making this: if you like garlic, then jab the pork with a sharp thin knige, making deep pockets in which you can push in the garlic. Or you can mince the garlic and cover the pork with it, with salt and pepper. You can also skip the garlic, and use herbs all over the meat. Fresh herbs, like sage, can be put over the meat when baking to give a wonderful aroma. Rosemary twigs put into forementioned deep pockets. You can even get some prosciutto or some thin cure bacon slices and cover it up.
But don't use butter for the meat, and don't forget to fry the meat on each side before putting the pork roast in the oven.This will seal the juices inside the meat, making it very tender and juicy.
And, like handling any meat after thermal process, before cutting and serving, leave on a cutting board to rest for a while.

I've tried making pork roast in a pan, covered with foil, in a foil bag ( Jan Niezbędny sleeve), in a casserol dish, and I highly recommend the sleeve and the casserol dish.

So how to do it?
Buy a nice 0,5kg piece of pork roast without bones, and try to get one that doesn't have a lot of the silverish skin, as we will cut it off anyway. And fatty bits are ok, they will melt out.
Since we are roasting in a closed dish, why not peel a few veggies to give extra aroma and will be a great side dish (from a one dish meal :)) . I usually peel a few potatoes, add at least 3-4 carrots (they always dissapear at once), some parsnip and parsley. And more garlic. I have a thing for garlic. If you have those small cipolina/cipoletti onions, clean them and throw them in too. They will be scrumptious after they finish baking.
Prepare your meat, best by a night of marinating. Rinse the meat under cold water, pat dry with a paper towel, and place on a board. If you plan on the garlic or rosemary pockets, do it now. Pour about a teaspoon of good olive oil on the meat, and massage it in. The massaging at this point will losen up the meat, making it less tough. Just a bit, it doesn't work on the meat like it does on us :)
Now sprinkle some salt and pepper over the meat, rub that in too, and if you're going with a dried herb version, rub that all over too. I often used dried mint and crushed green peppercorns.  If you are using fresh sage, then stick leaf by leaf on the bottom of the meat. As for the bacon wrap, you wrap it all around the meat, but you won't fry the meat then, before baking.
Once you're done with the seasoning, place the pork gently in a glass or ceramic bowl, cover with a plate and put in the fridge for at least 5h for the marinating process.
Btw, you can also marinate the meat in the same red vinegar marinade I posted a while back.
Baking time: around 40-60 min. In a sleeve, it usually takes 40 min. In a casserole dish, 50-60 min.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Take out the meat about 30min before the baking/ frying. Cold meat take longer to cook.
Put the veggies in the dish you will use to bake the pork, nest it around, pour in half a cup of water, and a bit of olive oil. Season a bit with salt and pepper.
Heat up a large frying pan on high heat. There's some searing to be done. When it's hot, turn your ventilation on, and put the meat on the pan. It's going to sizzle, but that's ok. Turn on all sides to seal the juices inside the meat (the meat will be browned), then transfer to the dish with veggies. Close it up and put in the oven to bake for the estimated time, depending on the dish you used.
If you decided to do the meat with bacon, or anything else that prevented you from the frying part, at the end of the baking time, turn on the broiler and take off the lid ( cut open the sleeve) and let it brown for 5-8 min.
Let the meat rest a bit ( 3-5 min), before cutting, and serve.
This is a recipe for just meat, if you like serving meat with sauce, then a light brown will do, or a bernaise sauce, regular dijon mustard works great too.

Cheese and butter pasta- everybody loves it

Believe it or not, but there is a way to keep pasta simple and really delicious.
The most important thing you have to know - always have some hard Italian cheese and butter. Otherwise, this will not work out. :)
Too simple to write down a whole essay about making it, so here goes:

Boil water with a tsp of salt, add enough tagliatelle for the desired amount of people you may or may not have. This is a dish to eat at once, so no waiting around for somebody to show up.
Cook your pasta al dente, according to package, and in a bowl, place about a teaspoon of butter  (if you're dieting, if not, give it a tablespoon:) ), add some grated hard cheese, like parmesan, parmeggiano, or even corregio. So?
Drain the pasta and add to the bowl and mix with a fork so the butter and cheese is evenly distributed all over the pasta. Add more cheese on top, and a good sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and you're ready to go!
It's De-li-cious!
Dreamy!
Even the most wicked person who hates butter and cheese liked it! When he was sick! Way to go!

Potato pie with veggies

I usually don't do pies, because even though they look nice, they usually don't taste that great. I did this one because potatoes are cheap, I had veggies that I had to use or else I would forget about them, and I did have some odd pieces of meat (bacon, ham, some sausage). But you can make this meat- free, and it still tastes good.
A plus- if you make  or have too much mashed potatoes leftover, store them in the frigde and make the next day wonderful, fluffy and light gnocchi
There is a lot of peeling involved, some cutting, some mashing action, grating too, and in general, there should be a light gravy sauce to make this pie perrrfect.
Purr.
:)

Type of dish: main, pie
Difficulty: easy
Cost: cheap
Serves: 4
Time: 1,5h
Prep time: 45 min
Baking time: 45 min
Oven temp: 180C

You'll need:
peeler, cutting board, sharp knife, large frying pan, a large saucepan with lid, a deep round baking dish, spatula, masher, big mixing bowl, grater, spoon

Ingredients:

• vegetables of your choice (carrots, brocoli, parsnip, turnip, leek, peas, onions, cauliflower)
• meat of your choice ( bacon, ham, cold meat, leftovers, sausage)
• 40gr grated hard cheese like parmesan or pecorino
• 0,5 kg potatos, peeled and cubed (cooks faster)
• olive oil
• Cheese grated (edam, gouda, doesn't matter)
• 1 tbsp flour or breadcrumbs
• 1 egg and 1 yolk
• S&P
• nutmeg
• 2 tbsp butter
• herbs like thyme, basil, parsley,

How to you do? How to do:
Heat a pot  of water with the potatoes, salt a teaspoon, and cook 15-20 min. When the water boils, turn down heat to medium high and let it simmer. When the potato cubes are soft, you can pierce them easily with a fork, drain and transfer them to the bowl. Mash them up, adding butter, nutmeg and cheese as you go. When the potatoes aren't so hot anymore, add the eggs and mash more. Set aside.
Peel the veggies you'll use, and slice them. Cut up the meat. Cut up some fresh herbs.
Heat up the frying pan on hig meat, drizzle some olive oil and throw in the vegetables and fry them up, so they won't be as hard. Start by the harder vegetables, like carrots, parsnip, turnip, adding later cauliflower, brocoli florets and onions and leek at the end. At the very end, add the meat to heat it up a bit. Then remove from heat and when it cools down a bit, add the grated yellow cheese.
Heat your oven to 180C. Take the baking dish, smear some olive oil on the sides and bottom. Sift some flour or breadcrumbs on the inside surface. Take the cooled mashed potatoes and start covering the insides. Make  the crust at least around 1 cm thick. You should have some leftover mashed potatoes, roll them into logs and flatten out to 0,5cm.
In the midle toss the veggies from the frying pan, and cover the sides with the flattened logs. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on your finger and gently cover the rim with the oil. Sprinkle the herbs on top of the veggies and put in the oven for about 45 min. When the top starts turning golden brown, it's time to turn off the oven, and serve,

Creamy cheese spinach sauce with pasta

I adore baby spinach. It's cute, taste good, looks innocent, and you can put it anywhere and some people won't notice ( I'm doing the sneaky look now).

I want to clean out a bit the pantry and frigde by using up what I have.
I had spinach leftover after minestrone soup to which at the end you can add spinach for more fiber and vitamins. And I had heavy cream, cream cheese and some pasta I had no idea I bought. How did that happen?

I'll let you in on I little secret of mine. Are you ready? " This is a heavy dish, so don't serve dessert or more cheese afterwards, or at least give it an hour to set in or you will have nightmares".


But as everything I post, it's yum yummylicious.

Type of dish: pasta, main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2 hungry, 4 less hungry people.
Time: 25min
Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 20 min


You shall need oh so much:
cutting board, skarp knife, spatula, frying pan, medium saucepan with lid, collander, cup, plates.

Ingredients:

• 100-200gr cream cheese ( the hochland type)
• half a packet of fresh baby spinach, washed
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 cup of milk ( to thin out the sauce)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube or 1 glass of broth.
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 chilli pepper, minced
• fresh ground pepper
• optional: bacon cubes or pancetta cubed, a handfull
• 1 onion, diced
• olive oil
• salt
• pasta of your choice

If you don't know what to do, read this:
Heat water in saucepan with lid on. When it boils, add a pinch of salt and add as much pasta as you need. For example, when using small pasta like for mac n' cheese, just add one bowl of pasta. That's enough for 2 people. In the meanwhile, in a large frying pan heat on medium high some oil, add the onion, garlic, chilli and bacon. Fry until the bacon is cooked. Take the pan off the heat for a second, pour in the liquids and add the cream, cheese and stock. Use your spatula to smash a bit the cream cheese so it dissolves faster. Stir constantly, otherwise your cheese may bubble over the pan or dry out. We don't want that. Add by a handfull the spinach, stirring it in the hot sauce so it wilts and makes more space for ther next handfull. When you have incorporated as much spinach as you need, stir, remove from heat and serve over pasta. If the sauce is too thick, before serving, add a glass of milk and mix to thin it out.
If you can't have pasta, but for some reason you can have cheese, serve this over broiled salmon.

Asian chicken with cold noodles

This is really good to eat, looks really hard to make and has that "wow" factor because you had to julienne those carrots to perfection:)
But it's very good, and if you're not a fan of chicken, use tofu instead.
So prepare yourself and your guests to be suprised and delighted. And if they're not, tell them gently to get out:)

Type of dish: main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: medium
Serves: 4
Time: 45 min
Prep time: 30 min
Cooking time: 15 min


You'll need:
a frying pan, blender, 4 small bowls, 1 large serving bowl, tongs, salad spoons, sharp knife, cutting board, paper towels, kettle, large bowl, strainer, spoon,

Ingredients

Dipping sauce ( make this first):

• 6 tbsp fish sauce
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• juice from half a lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 small thai chiles thinly sliced with seeds, or 1 large red chilli with seeds ( you want it hot) 

Peanut sauce:

• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 6 tbsp unsalted peanut butter
• thumb sized ginger piece, peeled and sliced coarsly
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• pinch of cayenne pepper
  

Chicken salad:

• 2 chicken breasts, cleaned and diced
• 1 package rice noodles
• 1 medium cucumber, deseeded and cut in half, and in diagonal slices
• 2 medium carrots, julienned
• 1 medium red bell pepper, julienned
• 1 handful of soy sprouts
• 6 scallions, chopped
• handful of fresh mint  and basil, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, coarsly chopped
• 4 limes, cut in wedges for serving
   

 First of all, make the dipping sauce by mixing all the ingredients, until the sugar dissolves, then pop it in the fridge for at least 15 min to combine the tastes better.
Make the peanut dressing by blending all the ingredients to a smooth paste, the thickness of cream. put in 2 small bowls.
Marinate your chicken by stirring together half of the dipping sauce and half of one bowl of the peanut sauce, in a medium bowl, with the chicken cubes, for 15 min at least.

Make the noodles according to package, cool them under cold water and drain, set aside. Heat your frying pan on high heat and fry the chicken, marinade and all, for max 6 min, until the chicken is cooked throughout. During the frying process, wash the marinating bowl and put the drained cold noodles in it, add the veggies, then the chicken. Pour in a few tablespoons of the dipping sauce and peanut sauce, and mix, top with the chopped hearbs and crushed peanuts. Serve with the limes and sauces for individual use and enjoy!

Or, to make it fancy and give your guests a feeling of control what's going on, serve everything seperatly with bowl for the guest to help themselves.
Does this even make sense?

Pasta somewhat Aglio Olio

No pics available yet, but I did make this, was suprised with the flavour and yes, it' fast and easy to make.
Have some parmesan  on hand so if you feel that your pasta is way too spicy for you, add some grated cheese on top to make life a bit better:)


I wasn't saying, but this time we where with Julia walking around town thinking already about late lunch on a saturday, and we decided to give it a go at home.
We are the one you talk to when you diet or want to diet. "Oh yeah, sure, I hate chocolate, I won't eat pasta because I'll gain 20000000kg, but what I really want right now is spaghetti Aglio Olio."
But I want chili peppers just because I like them and I had everything at home. Except for spaghetti. So we had taggliatele.
I know. Totaly badass.

What you do? What do we need? Where do we go? Where do you go?


Type of dish: main, pasta
Difficulty: easy
Cost: cheap
Serves: 2
Time: 15 min
Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 10min

You shall need:
cutting board, sharp knife, large frying pan, medium saucepan with lid, spatula, grater, 2 plates

Ingredients:

• pasta for 2, of your choice, but stringy types are best for this sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• half a chilli pepper, minced
• coarse sea salt
• Extra virgin olive oil
• optional: a few halved cherry or grape tomatoes.
• parmesan to grate

 This is such an awesome easy recipe.
Heat water with lid on in the saucepan. When it boils, add a pinch of salt and add the pasta. Cook according to package time.
When you boil the pasta, heat on medium high heat the pan, when still warming up, add the garlic, chili, a large drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. When the garlic and chilli starts smelling really intense, open a window, add the tomatoes if you have them, and now your pasta should be already cooked and drained. Add it to the pan and swish around so every strand is coated in oil. Turn the heat off and serve on plates. Grate some cheese on top for some mildness and get on with it! Serve!

Gnocchi with a simple sauce

I like gnocchi. They are similar to polish Kopytka, except you make them with less flour, cook them shorter, but they are still de-li-cious.
Man, I made some today and even though I ate a whole bowl, I could still eat more of those fluffy delicate clouds of potato mash.
Yes, potato mash. Made mashed potatoes yesterday? Great, set aside a bowl of the mashies, they're gonna make great gnocchi.
Look at them:

So, what do you need to know about gnocchi? They are not that hard to make, you can skip the fork mark, you can freeze some non cooked gnocchi, you can add fresh or dried herbs to the potato mix for extra taste,  you can add some frozen spinach for colour. I even added grated parmeggiano and butter, because I was making mashed potatoes the day earlier. I added eggs, which you can omit, but try them with eggs and without.
To tell the truth, this is poor food made fancy. But it's got everything I like in it, so I really don't care.

Let's get it cracking.

Type of dish: pasta, main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 25 min
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 10 min


You'll need:
cutting board, fork, saucepan, frying pan, spoon, spatula, sharp knife, slotted spoon, plate for serving, medium mixing bowl,


Ingredients:
 For the sauce:

• 5 slices cured bacon or pancetta, diced or cubed
• 1 handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 a small chili pepper, sliced, diced ( optional)
• 1 pinch dried basil /or 10 leaves fresh
• shaved parmesan cheese
• olive oil
• 1 tsp butter

For the gnocchi:

• around 300gram mashed potatoes
• 1 egg and 1 yolk
• 40 gr parmesan grated
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tbsp butter
•  1/4 cup flour (have some extra for cutting)

 Heat up your frying pan on high heat, add some olive oil, when hot add the onion, garlic and chili and fry up until very fragrant ( your eyes might sting), add the bacon/pancetta,  after 2-3 minutes, add the tomatoes. At this point, lower the heat to medium, and stir avery now and then.
Heat up water in the saucepan on medium with a lid on. This won't take long, and neither will making the gnocchi.
In the mixing bowl, add together all the gnocchi ingredients,and mix with your hand until you have a small ball of not that sticky dough. It will be sticky, but fluffy- this means they'll be fluffy.
Tear the dough in 4 pieces, sift some flour on your working place, and gently roll out the dougn in long ropes but thick as your thumb. Sift more flour over them and using a fork, take off gnocchi sized pieces ( the length of a long fingernail? ) and press the tings of the fork over to make those fancy marks which are supposed to make the gnocchi hold sauce better.
When your water is boiling, add a tsp of salt, stir and using the slotted spoon, gently put in max 20 gnocchi at once. They will fall to the bottom of the pan, so stirr around so they don't stick together. They will emerge in a minute, so remove them then to a plate, or, in the sauce in the frying pan.
Cook how many you need, toss the ready ones with the sauce and serve with shavings of parmesan cheese and a sprinklung of fresh chopped basil for extra colour.
BEWARE: this is a spicy sauce, so remove the chili from the ingredients for the sauce if you can't stomache this.

Baked crusty salmon with fresh dill sauce

I like salmon. At least I'm beggining to like it. I'm not big on fish. But anything that has a crispy crust, without a smelly interior, plus a great tasting sauce like a fresh dill sauce makes my day. Or evening. I prepared this with nice looking rice with peas and cumin seeds, but finally it would work better with plain rice, as the cumin is very fragrant and dominated the salmon. ( what?!)
When you buy ready fillet salmon, try to get the wider fillets. The smaller ones, which are more traingular in shape, are from the tail section of the fish, and have tougher meat. The wider, middle section is much more tender.

The salad is a nice addition to the salmon, and it very easy to make, just slice diagonally the cucumber with the skin on, add some fresh chopped dill and a bit of red bell pepper for color, and season with S&P plus some lemon juice with olive oil. Et voila!
PS. if you make this for a romantic dinner, skip the garlic.

Now get the salmon and sauce crackin'

Type of dish: main

Cost: medium

Difficulty: easy

Time: 40-50 min

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 15min

Baking Time: 20-30 min

Oven temp: 190C

You'll need:

a blender, paper towels, tablespoon, cutting board, sharp knife,baking dish for the salmon, tin foil,  gravy boat, small laddle, plates to serve

Ingredients: 

For the sauce:

• fresh dill
• 1 cup natural sugar free yoghurt
• 1 tbsp mayonaise
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 squeeze lemon juice
• 1 tbsp pepper 
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried or fresh parsley
• 1 tbsp dried oregano

For the salmon:

• 1 salmon fillet
• S&P
• Olive oil
• Lemon slices

Extremely hard to make. 

Preheat your oven. Pour olive oil in the baking dish and spread it around. Wash your fillet in cold water, and pat dry with paper towels and put in the baking tray skin side down. Rub a bit of oil on top of the fish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay enough lemon slices on top to fairly cover it up. Cover with tin foil and pop in the oven for 20 min with the foil on, then take off the foil and remove the lemons and bake for 5 min more. Turn on the broiler for the last 5 minutes for a nice crispy crust.

Fish is done. You can cut it in half and serve. If the skin sticks to the baking dish, don't worry, you weren't going to eat it anyway.

Sauce: 

Put all the ingredients in the blender and pulse until you have a nice green sauce with specs of dill. Pour in a gravy boat and keep in fridge until fish is ready.

How to serve:

If serving fish with rice, place fillet gently over bed of rice or next to it, and pour some dill sauce over it.

Addtional info:

The sauce is great as a dip sauce for croutons or pita.

Chicken Parmesan

There are lovely days, when you have a great day outdoors, you eat brunch or lunch or whatever anywhere but home, and then you come bach to the formentioned home to discover that your fridge is more than partialy empty and there is a very hungry person you need to feed in aproximatly 30 minutes or they will go off like a time bomb. And I'm not talking about myself, even though that does happen to me ( I'm like a man- no food- grumpy), I'm talking about my better half ( he is better).
So, to be savvy and smart and prepared for the unpreparable, I freeze, as I probably have mentioned before. In ziploc baggies and in small portions, so it's easy and quick to defrost a sad chicken cutlet left behind in the depths of the freezer, cold to death (?), waiting to be defrosted in a bath of water.

Type of dish: main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 1
Time: 15 min
Preparation time: 3 min
Cooking time: 10 min

You'll need:
cutting board, sharp knife, spatula or tongs, a medium frying pan, plate

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken cutlet, fresh or defrosted, cut off any white bits
• fresh grated parmesan cheese
• S&P
• olive oil 
• 1 tsp butter

Heat up your frying pan on medium high, and when it's hot, but not omg hot, add the olive oil, then the butter and swirl around  so the butter doesn't brown immeadiatly.  Season your chicken on both sides, and sprinkle over both side. Put gently in the pan, to prevent any cheese falling off the cutlet. When golden on one side, turn to the other. This should take in general around 6-10 min.
Remove form heat and serve.

For a  fast dish serve with easy couscous.
Ps. This works well even with the ready grated cheese.

Easy cheese soup recipe

I hate autumn. I want to eat more then, and it's usually the stuff I shouldn't, being lactose intolerant. But there I go, from one cheese to another, like a butterfly.
It's useless.

So, having in mind a cheese soup from a place not far from our previous apartment, which, unfortunatly, closed down (WHY?), that  served this soup with ham and mind blowing croutons, I wanted this soup.
So I made it.
Suprise suprise- it's easy to make. I swear. By the moon and the stars in the sky... I'll be there..
Name that tune.

Anyways, it's not complicated, I made it from leftover chicken soup for T ( he had a cold).
So I'm going ahead  and thinking you have your chicken soup, or chicken broth, or you make it with stock cubes and all.:) Love you too.

Type of dish: soup, main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Coking time: 15min

You'll need:
a medium saucepan with lid, veggie peeler, cutting board, sharp knife, hand blender, laddle, spoon, bowls to serve

Ingrdients:

• 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube or 1,5 l broth
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
• 2 cream cheeses ( hochland flavours: ham and creamy)
• 4 frankfurter sausages
• 1 bowl croutons
• pinch of salt
• fresh pepper
• optional: fresh chopped parsley for garnish

How to you do:
Heat up your broth/stock in the saucepan, add the carrot and creamcheese, crumbled. Mix well. Put in the sausages. Plop the lid on, make sure the heat is medium, and go away. Clean up or something for 15 min, just checking if it's not overboiling- if it is, turn down the heat a notch.
After 15 min, prep your blender, remove the pan from heat, remove the sausages and put them on the cutting board to cut in bite-sized pieces . Blend your soup until you see no more carrots and the soup now has a pleasent orangish- yellow color. Taste and season if you need to.
Divide the sausage in two or more bowls, and pour the soup over. Serve with a side bowl of croutons.

Addtional info: This seems like a hearty soup, but in fact, it isn't. So prepare some salad or pasta course later.

Tender pork sirloin in red wine vinegar marinade

I cruise on the internet, I don't surf. I had a pork sirloin in the fridge, that I was going to make anyway with mashed potatoes and peas. For an uncomplicated dinner, but I wanted something better. And I came across the Pork Mommy, who made this with pan sauce. I dodn't bother with the pan sauce, although I could, but mainly I went with the recipe becuase T said he would be gone longer and dinner time was moved. So I had more time to do fun stuff, like pour in random liquids, plop in the meat and forget about it for a few hours.

The marinade is really vinegarrry- and your eyes may burn and pop out of your sockets, so I halved the quantities, as I was using only half of the sirloin anyway.
But it makes the meat really tender ( probably the lemon juice), and half cooked before you start frying it up. And it does make a delicous sauce, especially if you ignore either recipe and go for adding cream to the marinade for a sauce.


Suprise, it's easy.
Make his for saturday dinner, making the marinade in the morning.

Type of dish: main, meat
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 45 min
Preparation time: 10 min
Frying time: 6 min
Baking time: 30-40 min
Oven temp: 180C

You will need:
cutting board, sharp knife, tablespoon, paper towels, a medium bowl, a medium baking tray, tin foil, a frying pan, tongs, cup



Ingredients:

• 1 pork sirloin
• 1/4 cup oilve oil
• 5 tbsp soy sauce
• 5 tbsp red wine vinegar
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Wash your sirloin, and cut off the silverish pieces so your diners won't make weird faces while eating. Pat it dry with paper towels and cut into medallions, 3-4 cm thick for faster cooking and more flavour.
Mix all other ingredients in a bowl, it'll have a nice lot of oily pearls on the surface, put your medallions in the marinade and set aside. Come back after an hour to turn the meat in the marinade if the liquid level is lower then the meat.
Give it best 2-3 hours to marinate, and once it's done, preheat your oven, and heat up a frying pan on high heat. Get the pan really hot before you put your meat on it- we want to seal the moist inside the meat so when we bake it, the meat doesn't dry out. And becuase you have medallions, it's easier to fry than a whole sirloin, trust me.
Fry on each side 3-4 mins, pop back in the marinade, cover with tin foil, shiny side down and put in the oven for at least 30 min.
During this time you can either cook and mash your own potatoes or use ready made puree or whatever else you want to serve this with. Rice is a nice option too.
Before serving, you can reduce the remaining marinade using the frying pan and add during this process, add a knob of butter for a richer flavour or go all the way by mixing it with 2 tbsp of cream.
Pour over the medallions and serve.

Italian cabbage dumplings

Cabbage dumplings are a polish tradition. You take a large, heavy cabbage, boil the hell out of it so it's finally soft, then you cut out some more hard, woody parts from the leaves, then you cool it, then you make the meat mixture, then you roll it, cook it again, make the sauce, and FINALY, EAT IT.

It take so long that most polish women don't make them anymore, leaving this to their grandmas or mothers, or mother-in-law to make it in their spare time when they come over. But they are good.

The problem is with the cabbage. AE came up with the delicate italian version, using, italian cabbage.

SUPRISE!

It's really pretty, you basicaly do the same, but it does take less time, and mind/hand cramping effort. You don't need to be a superhero with this one, just remember, that the wrapping meat part is the most delicate thing to do. Wrap it too tight, and it'll fall apart. Wrap it not enough, it'll fall apart. They always fall apart if you don't do them good, man. But they still taste good. Man.

Anyway, this is a weekend recipe for all you fellow people who start cooking at 11 pm because they finally feel like it:) Just cook the cabbage during the day.

Ok, let's kill the cabbage.

Type of dish: main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: medium
Serves: 4-6
Time: 90 min
Preparation time: 60 min
Cooking time: 30 min

You'll need: 

cutting board, sharp knife, large bowl, spatula, tablespoon, slotted spoon, large, deep saucepan, toothpicks or those fancy silicon ties, colander a fork

Ingredients:

• 1 meidum sized italian cabbage ( the very wrinkly kind)
• 1/2 kg ground pork
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs or 1 small crusty old, dried out bun
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground pepper
• optional: 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 cube vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Take your cabbage and lay it down, so you see the stalk part. Take a sharp knife and try to cut it out, as much as possible. Place the cabbage in the saucepan, stalk part down, and cover with water. Put a lid on it and put on stove with high heat. Once it boils, turn it down to medium low heat and leave the lid on. Tip: If your water is bubbling over the edge, means you used a too small pan. Cook this way for 30 min.

In the meantime, prepare your meat filling. In the bowl, mix the ground meat, spices, milk, oil and bread/crumbs until it looks like a ugly pink paste. Done? Cover up and put it aside. You'll have more important things to do, than look at ugly meat pastes.

Your cabbage is cooked, the time is right, pour out the water, , put the cabbage in the colander and pour cold water over it to chill it down. Let's call this, "chillax time". For the cabbage. Unfortunatly.

Okay, cabbage chilled down, put the cabbage on the cutting board and have fun. start peeling off the leaves, trying to keep them in one piece. The first leaves, if they shred, don't worry, you won't be using them. The middle and tiny leaves are what we're going for.

 You should have at least 12 leaves intact, pure, cooked and whole. Check them to see if the stems are very stiff and thick. If they are, then using a knife of veggie peeler, gently cut it off, like slither it off.

Don't cut it out completly.

Now, clean your saucepan or get a smaller one, but wide. on the bottom, place the biggest leaves from the cabbage. The frist ones that shreded. Now, take a middle leaf, a spoon of the meat paste, ans put the blob of meat on the bottom of the leaf, where the stem is. Next, start gently byt firmly rolling it upwards, tucking in the sides, so you form a dumpling. Pin the top together with a toothpick or two, or use the ties, and put in the pot. Repeat with the rest and set aside. Now pour in water to cover the dumplings and add the stock cube. Put on medium heat with a lid on and cook for about 25-30 min.

After that time, remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and serve.

Btw, best served with a easy fast tomato sauce made from: 3-4 tbsp tomatoe paste, lemon juice, 1 tsp sugar, S&P, 2 cups water, some 18% cream and mix it well in a small saucepan. Warm it, mix it, pour it over the dumplings. Add a blob of fresh cream for that extra oompf:)

Additional info:

You can add some leftover rice to the meat mixture to enrish it a bit, and you can freeze these babies for more future use.

Minestrone soup- the good stuff

Ok. I will confess. I hated thinking about minestrone soup. It was a memory of a taste of pure hell, along with a particularily bad memory of some breakfast oatmeal with grits, warm apple slices and cold bananas topped with a shitload of honey. Memories from childhood can be a tragic blocker for kids or grown ups, to eat regular food without the terror coming back in the form of brussel sprouts.  And while I think everybody may have a dislike or distaste for certain things, thanks to some shitty granny or any other stupid grown-up, who force-fed us with "healthy" food, I know how hard it is to overcome this fear later as a grown up. So, forgive me for writing a "healing" post:)

I still haven't completely overcome my fear of certain foods, but I think I'm doing pretty well, considered the amount of trauma I had going on, for like, a long time.
Minestrone soup always brings to mind those nice holiday trips to Bulgaria or Croatia, camping out by the sea, and cooking that god-awful soup out of a bag. It was REALLY  DISGUSTING.
Whenever I'm in a store and I see this one on a shelf, I turn around and run. Looks quite weird. If you ever see somebody doing that in the ready-made soup aisle of a store, you just lost a chance to meet me:)
But, as I'm a sucker for making things at home, making them easy, as you may have noticed, and I know I'm a badass, but I try to give things and people a second chance. Hence my trial with this soup.

I'll tell you how to undo a terrible mind process like hating a specific thing. Food, of course, I'm not a shrink.
Either you hate the whole dish, or you hate just a piece of it, like fish. In a fish main course. Then it's hard to undo it, but still managable. Start out with shrimps:)
If you, or your loved one hates the whole dish, it's good to go through the ingredients. Like looking under the bed or checking the closet for monsters. You see there is nothing to be afraid of. Are you afraid of a can of tomatoes? Or a handful of pasta? Or, maybe you're terrified of broth? Baby spinach? Seriously, baby spinach can't hurt anybody. It's a baby, right? And it's cute. That helps.
So, now we see that the soup/thing is not that scary, you're in control, you're an adult and you know your worth. You rule!
Second option- you don't like broccoli? Oh, you poor thing, thank god we don't have to add it to absolutly everything:) Just take it out of the recipe and subsitute for something else. Green beans are usually stress-free. Hopefully.
Life gets real easy, if somebody just took the time to tell us those things before.

Ok, enough pschology for free. Time for a recipe!

Type of dish: soup, main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-4
Time: 15 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Cooking time: 10 min

You'll need:
a medium saucepan with lid, a teaspoon, a ladle, bowls

Ingredients:

• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 cups baby spinach
• 1/2 a yellow bell pepper, diced
• 2 cups water
• 1 cube vegetable broth or chicken stock
• 1 cup dry penne or rigatoni pasta
• 1 tsp dried basil or 1 tbsp fresh chopped
• 1 tsp garlic powder 
• for garnish fresh shaved parmesan and a few basil leaves
• optional- half a onion, thinly sliced, or a handfull of green beans
• S&P
• squeeze of lemon juice, pinch of sugar

Drain the chickpeas, rinse them, drain again. Mix all the ingredients in the saucepan, apart from the spinach and S&P , and heat on high heat till it boils. Turn down the heat to medium low and cook covered for 10 min, until pasta is cooked. Add the spinach and mix so it wilts, then taste and season. Spoon in bowls and top with parmesan shavings and fresh basil leaves for extra flavour.

This is nothing like the packet soup, and thank god for that!

Additional info: You can serve this with croutons.

Beef steak vs 2 "french style"

I'm commited to beef if you haven't noticed yet. It's a long process but I'll get there.
This one came out as an atempt to bring back a flavour of a sauce T. once had with his beef in Il Sole. Turns out they don't serve it anymore, woohoo, too bad. For them. Basicaly, the sauce had an amazing amount of tarragon, to which I am a slave. It's a strong, nice smelly herb that I use sometimes with a certain salad you will read about soon. Smelly in a good way, I mean. It's not that rich, I mean it's good but not fat, and I had it with a salad. Yes, green salad with nothing but olive oil and lemon juice. Disgusting.  So be more french than I was, and serve please with cooked, blanched green beans with either olive oil or melted butter. And for God's sake, use salt. I beg you.

Type of dish: main
Cost: medium, expensive
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 40 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Marinating time: 10 min
Frying time: 10 min at most


You'll need:
a cutting board, a mallet ( meat beater, tenderizer), a kitchen cloth ( to put under the cutting board), a piece of cling film, paper towels, a medium bowl, 1 teaspoon, a grill pan with a heat proof handle, spatula

Ingredient:

• 400 gram beef steak
• 3 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp dried crushed tarragon
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• S&P
• Green beans, cooked, or green salad with vinaigrette.

Do it:
Prep your board- put a cloth underneath. Wash the meat under cold water, pat dry with the paper towels. Cut your meat in two slices 2-3 cm thick if your butcher hasn't done that for you. Cover the meat with cling film on one side and beat it like a lady (gently) with the mallet so it flattens out a bit. We don't want it schnitzel thin, just 1,5 cm thin. Beat both pieces of meat and set aside. In a bowl mix together the oilive oil, mustard, tarragon and add a pinch of S&P. Mix well and put in the meat, and try to coat well  with the mustard mixture. Set this aside for at least 10 min, best overnight and clean up your mess. Well aren't I an Anthea T. :P
Before frying your meat- if you put it in the fridge, take it out about 15 min before frying. This way it will cook faster.
Heat up on high heat your pan, and when very hot, turn down to medium high and put on the meat. Fry however long you want it to on one side ( from well done to rare, it's usually 2-3 min for rare, and 3-6 for a well done steak).Try to spoon out as much as you can of the marinade on top of the cooking meat. After cooked to your likes, set aside on cutting board for at least 2-3 min so it "sets", then serve.

Serve with the salad or green beans.