Risotto with Pancetta and Caprese Salad

It seems that the last few days I am just very busy. They are the lasts days before finally next week I will start working, so there are many things I want to do and I hardly have time to test new recipes. Well finally sunday I made some time to prepare a new risotto. I had some stuff in house that we need to use or soon we would have to through away, so I made up my own risotto recipe ;-)

The ingredients you need for 3 persons:

• 100 gr. pancetta in small pieces
• 4 cloves garlic (if you prefer you can use less, but we just love garlic)
• 250 gr. risotto rice
• 150 gr. frozen green peas 
• About 1 liter stock (bouillon) 
• Half glass white wine of good quality
• Grated pecorino or parmesan (I use pecorino in this case)
• Basil (dry or fresh, it depends in what you have at home)

In a pan heat some olive oil and bake the pancetta until golden, add then the garlic, bake another couple of minutes and then scoop the risotto rice. Mix all well for a minute before you add the white wine. After that is question of adding the stock slowly spoon by spoon. After about 15 minutes of doing this add the green peas, to cook with the risotto for another 10 to 15 minutes until ready. Add the grated pecorino or parmesan and some basil, mix all well, the risotto will be nice and creamy.

You can serve the risotto with some ciabatta bread or with a salad. I had some mozzarella di buffala in the refrigerator and it was getting old so I made a caprese salad, easy and always good. Just cut some tomatoes in slices, sprinkle with extra verge olive oil, sea salt, pepper and basil, then put on top the slices mozzarella, sprinkle again with some olive oil and basil. So delicious!

Big Dinner Party

Last week it was my husband's birthday, so last saturday we had a dinner party with some some friends. We were 8 adults and 7 children, it was really nice and cozy. Of course the preparation for the dinner was quite a challenge, specially when you eat with children. Still I can say it all went very good, even the kids liked it. It was a very good party!

On friday evening I already made the cakes, one carrot cake and brownies. I made it in advanced because that will made my cooking life a bit easier on saturday.

You can see the recipes of the carrot cake and the brownies in the below 2 links:

CARROT CAKE

BROWNIES

Then saturday morning I made the rest, the dinner. I prepared a very big pan with minestrone soup with pasta, 2 quiches with bacon and leak and 2 focaccias, one plain and the other one with tomato and mozzarella. Everything worked very well.

You can see the recipes for the dinner in the links below:

MINESTRONE WITH PASTA

FOCACCIA

QUICHE WITH BACON AND LEAK

We had of course some left overs after the dinner, but that is good because that way I already have the dinner for the coming 2 days ;-)

Brownies

This recipe I got it from an ex-colleague of mine years ago. I still keep using it, only some times I change some things. Normally you use 300 gr. dark chocolate, but I make it how I feel it, so some times    I do 150 gr. dark/150 gr. milk or other way. The important is to keep the quantity on 300 gr. Also I like a bit lighter so I add a teaspoon of baking powder, that was not in the original I got from her.

So these are the ingredients I use most of the times:

• 200 gr. dark chocolate
• 100 gr. chocolate with milk
• 175 gr. butter
• 150 gr. caster sugar
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 2 tablespoon vanille extract
• 125 gr. flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons cacao powder
• 75 gr. chopped walnuts

In a glass bowl put the chocolate and the butter in small pieces. Then take a pan with water a set to cook, put the bowl in the pan, the bowl can not touch the water. Let the chocolate and butter smelt completely, don't let the chocolate cook. When is ready, leave to cool down a bit.

Then add the sugar, vanilla and eggs, to the chocolate bowl, mixing all well. Sieve the flour, baking powder, then add the cacao and walnuts. Mixing all together very well. Scoop the mix into a baking tin (35x24x5) and bake in a 150 degrees preheated oven for about 45 minutes.

It is so good, you can eat like that, or with some ice cream or whipped cream, ...

Quiche with bacon and leek

This is absolutely a fantastic quiche, I made it for the first time for the dinner party we had for my husband's birthday. The dough I made it following the recipe from the book "Koken met Karin - Handboek Oven" and it really works perfectly.

To make the dough for 1 quiche (24 cm) you need:

• 250 gr. flour
• 125 gr. cold butter 
• 1 egg - beaten
• 3 tablespoons cold water
• A bit of salt

Sieve the flour and add the butter and salt. Work with your finger tops until you get a kind of crumble. Then add the egg and water, work the dough very short until is smooth, making a ball. Cover in cling film and put into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to rest, if is longer is not a problem.

After that in a 24 cm quiche form, greased and sprinkle with flour, roll the dough out and put it in the form, then with a fork prick few times. Cover with baking paper, put some baking beans and in a 200 degrees preheated oven bake the dough for about 15 minutes. After that you take out the baking beans and baking paper, put back in the oven and bake another 5 minutes.

For the filling you need:

• 250 gr. organic bacon cubes
• 2 leaks in small rings
• 3 eggs
• 250 ml double cream
• 75 gr. grated cheese

Bake the bacon in a dry pan until golden, when ready let them drain in a kitchen paper. Bake the leak in the already greased pan for about 5 minutes.

In a bowl beat the eggs with the double cream, then add the cheese, bacon, leak and some pepper. Put the mix into the quiche form and bake for about 30 minutes in the oven, same temperature. When is ready leave to rest a few minutes before you cut it.

Rigatoni Milano

I found this recipe years ago, but I have no idea why I never really made it. Yesterday suddenly I felt like it and what a fantastic idea was! It is absolutely delicious, easy, simple. You need only few ingredients, most of them you have them standard at home so you can just make it.

The ingredients you need for 3 people:

• 1 chopped red onion
• 3 or 4 garlics cloves (you could use less, but we love garlic)
• Fresh chopped rosemary leafs
• 300 gr. good quality organic minced meat
• 200 ml. passata
• 200 ml. beef stock (organic)
• 250 gr. rigatoni pasta of good quality 
• Fresh chopped parsley
• 60 gr. grated parmesan
• 75 ml. double cream

It is important that you use very fresh and good quality products, that will make a big difference in your meal. In a big pan bake in olive oil the red onion until nice brown, then add the minced meat and garlic, bake for another 5 minutes. When ready add the rosemary, passata and stock (bouillon), add some salt and meat if you need to, cook slowly for about 15/20 minutes until the sauce is a bit thick.

In another cook the rigatoni in water with salt following the instructions of the package. When is done, add the pasta to the sauce with the parsley, double cream parmesan, mix well and serve with a ciabatta bread and good red wine. You will really enjoy this meal, I think after yesterday has become one of our favorites, soon I will make it again!

Blueberries Crumble Cake

Today is my husband's birthday, on a monday, not a very nice of the week. So yesterday we had a small celebration with his parents and some neighbors. Of course then you have to make cake ;-) Some time ago I made a lot of crumble and I had still some in the freezer so I thought it would be nice to make a crumble cake and what a good idea! It was fantastic. I think it was one of my better cakes ever! My new "KitchenAid" did a very good job!

The ingredients you need are:

• 375 gr. crumble
• 225 gr. frozen blueberries (frozen work better than fresh, that's my experience)
• 140 gr. soft butter
• 225 gr. caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 175 ml. full-fat natural yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanille extract
• 300 gr. flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Using the mixer whisk the butter and the sugar until a very light mix. Then add the eggs and the vanilla, mix all well again. After that add the yogurt mix once more. Sieve the flour, baking soda and powder in the mixing bowl and scoop very careful until is well mixed. 

Put the dough in the baking tin (about 26 cm - greased all around and with baking paper on the bottom), then add the blueberries, well divided into the tin, do the same with the crumble. Bake in a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 1 hour, after 50 minutes take a look to see if is ready, sometimes needs longer. When ready leave the cake in the tin to cool down for about 15 minutes, then take out and leave to cool completely before cutting.

It is so good, you can eat like that or with some whipped cream or yogurt. Enjoy!

Pancakes

It is saturday, one girlfriend of my daughter came yesterday for a sleep over. Two 9 years old girls in the house ... Last night we watch Tintin DVD and this morning they were ready for anything. So we thought that will be nice to have pancakes for breakfast. In on of my books it was a special recipe, coincidence we had all the ingredients in house, first time we tried and they were fantastic, we are definitely making them soon again!

The ingredients you need for 12 pancakes:

• 150 gr. flour
• 75 gr caster sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and half teaspoon baking powder
• A bit of salt
• 200 ml full fat milk
• 200 ml full fat natural yogurt
• 3 eggs (split)
• 75 gr. melted butter

Put all the dry ingredients in one big bowl and mix. In another bowl mix the milk and the yogurt. Add the egg-yolks to the milk/yogurt and mix well. Scoop all these to the flour and mix until smooth, then scoop the melted butter.

Using a mixer whisk the egg-white until is a bit stiff and then add to the other ingredients scooping slowly. Bake in portions in a dry pan (don't greased, the dough is already very fat) or use a griddle, bake a few minutes per side.

Serve with syrup, we had Golden syrup at home, but any other will be just fine. Enjoy your weekend!

Risotto with leak and goat cheese

What an incredible week has been this one! Last monday I had a job interview and everything turn so well that yesterday I went to sing the contract. From February 1st I will be working again, that means I will not have so much time as now to update my blog but still I will keep doing, in any case we still have to eat every day ;-)

I was so thrilled that I wanted to eat something special, good, delicious, healthy but festive. As I already said in earlier posts, my specialty is in risotto's so yesterday I made a risotto with leak and goat cheese, hmmm.

The ingredients you need for 3 people:

• 2 leaks, in small rings 
• Dried thyme, you can also use fresh if you prefer
• 1 liter vegetable stock (bouillon)
• 250 gr. risotto rice
• 150 gr. soft goat cheese in cubes (I use with honey, but natural is also good)
• 1 chopped red paprika
• 2 or 3 garlic cloves (optional)
• A bit of white wine

Bake the leak in olive oil until is a bit soft, add the garlic baking for a couple of minutes more. Scoop the rice and some thyme and bake 1 more minute. Add the wine, when is evaporated add the stock slowly, bit by bit, wait until is evaporated to add some more.

In another pan you could bake the paprikas or leave them raw. Since I have my food allergy I need to bake them about 5 to 10 minutes in olive oil, otherwise I can not eat them. When the rice is ready, scoop the paprikas and the half of the cheese, if needed add some salt and pepper.

Serve with some extra thyme and the rest of the cheese. Perfect with a good white wine and some ciabatta bread.

Linguini with broccoli and spices

Also in the weekend I made some good food of course, on saturday we had dinner at our friends house, very good tomato soup and quiche, specially the quiche was very good, I have to try that one soon. On sunday then I decided to make some pasta with broccoli again, but in different way. Broccoli has a lot of vitamins and since it was almost not cooked we got them all ;-)

I think I didn't mention earlier, my recipes are always for 3 people, since we are 3 at home. The ingredients I used were:

• Good quality linguini (I had all'uovo, more tasteful)
• Butter and olive oil
• Pancetta in small pieces
• 2 chopped shallots
• Garlic (I used 3 cloves, but you might want less or more)
• Half spanish pepper
• Broccoli
• Grated pecorino
• White wine
• Some fresh chopped basil
• Some fresh chopped parsley
• Grated parmesan

Cook the linguini in water with some salt following the instructions of the package, when is ready just leave the pasta in the water to rest for a while.

In another pan warm up some butter and some olive oil and bake the pancetta, then add the shallots, spanish pepper and the garlic, bake for a few minutes, then add the broccoli and bake for about 10 minutes, add the pecorino and 1 glass of the cooking water from the pasta and a bit of white wine. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the sauce is a bit thicker. After that add the linguini (without the water of course) to the pan and mix all well, with the basil and parsley.

This meal is also very good with some almonds and self made croutons. You just need to roast in a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 7 minutes some almonds, when they are ready chopped them and keep a side. Then in a 200 degrees preheated oven roast some bread that is cut in small pieces for about 6 minutes. Add the bread to the almonds, sprinkle with some extra verge olive oil and fresh thyme leaves, mix all well.

Serve the linguini with parmesan and the almonds/croutons. A very good and healthy pasta!

Lemon cake

Since my last post I have been quite busy with a lot of different things, my house, my kitchen, my family, applying for jobs, having interviews ... but finally this morning I have some time to write some of my cooking from last weekend. I will start with the lemon cake I made on sunday. Well it didn't work how it suppose to be, but it was very good. Only next time I need to use a different baking dish, a bit bigger and lower that way it will not be so moist.

The ingredients you need:

• 225 gr. cane sugar
• 50 gr. butter
• 4 eggs, divided
• 50 gr. self-rising flour
• 225 ml full fat milk
• 2 lemons (grated zest and juice)
• A bit of double cream

The baking tray you need to grease also a the same time put a roasting pan with water into the oven and warm up to 180 degrees.

Mix first the butter with the sugar until very light, I have to say some how it didn't work well, maybe if you use a different kind of brown sugar will work better, I will try that next time. Slowly add the lemon juice, the lemon zest and the egg yolks. Add the flour, mix slowly adding the milk. Keep mixing for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Using your mixer whisk the egg-white with a bit of double cream. Add to the other ingredients, slowly. Then pour all together in the baking tray, put the the baking try into the roasting pan that is in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake has a nice brown color. 

Serve with some icing sugar, really good as cake or dessert.

Pasta with tomatoes, garlic and almonds

Of course after the family visit went home it was kind of late to make something complicated, so my option was for a simple pasta, fully vegetarian and also light to compensate the Christmas holidays.

The ingredients you need:

• Fettuccine al uovo or another good pasta
• 200 gr. ripe cherry tomatoes
• 2 tablespoon grated pecorino
• 1 garlic clove
• 20 gr. yellow sultana's
• 2 tablespoon capers
• Extra olive oil
• 40 gr. white almonds

Cook the pasta following the instructions of the package with salt. When the pasta is ready keep one of 2 glasses of the cooking water.

To make sauce put all the other ingredients in the blender, mix well, add then some or the cooking water until you get a nice smooth sauce. Put the pasta and the sauce together, mix well, add again some cooking water. Serve with basil, bread and salad.

Biscotti with Cranberry's and nuts

After eating all kind of sweets and cakes for about a week, it's time for something lighter but still kind of sweet. On the New Year Day we got some family visit, so I thought it would be nice to bake something  that will go very well with the coffee or tea, so I decided to made biscotti, normally you have all the ingredients at home, I didn't have enough but my improvised version was absolutely tasty, so good they were that I am planning to make some more again in the weekend.

The ingredients I had:

• 75 gr. caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 125 gr. flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• The zest of 1 orange or 1 lemon
• Nutmeg 
• 50 gr. pistachio nuts
• 25 gr. white almonds
• 50 gr. dried cranberry's

Mix the egg and the sugar until the is very lighted, then add the orange or lemon zest, slowly add the flour, baking powder and nutmeg. When all mixed add the nuts and cranberry's. Dust a working area with flour and also your hands, then take the dough out of the mixing bowl and make a kind of bread form 25x5 cm.

Bake the biscotti in a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 25 minutes. When ready leave to cool down for about 5 minutes in a griddle, after that cut in 1 cm. slices. Put again the biscotti into the oven for 10 minutes, then turn them and bake another 5 minutes. Leave to cool completely in a griddle. And enjoy!!

 

Good Steak for New Year's Eve

First of all Happy New Year to all! Let's made from 2013 our year.

It has been a few days since I had posted something. During our Christmas holidays we have been busy rebuilding our kitchen and finally, just before New Year's Eve, was kind of finished. I am so happy on how finally did turn out, soon this week I will take some picture to put here in my blog. Meanwhile, yesterday I made a fantastic meal again.

We wanted to eat something special but easy as well, so after looking into my books I found this recipe and it was absolutely delicious. From the book "Nigellisima" I prepared the Tagliata for two, but a bit changed to our own taste and for three instead of for two, with some rosemary baked potatoes and self made All i Oli!

The ingredients you need for the steak:

• 2 Sirloin Steak (about 200 gr. each) from very good quality. (Not cheap though).
• Dried oregano
• Extra Vierge Olive Oil
• Chili flakes
• Sea salt and pepper
• Red vinegar
• 300 gr cherry tomatoes cut in half
• Rocket leafs and parsley

In a bowl mix the oregano, some oil, the chili flakes, sea salt, pepper and red vinegar to prepare the marinade. Heat a grill pan or steel pan very hot. Then sprinkle some oil in the steaks and bake about 3 minutes per side. Take the steaks from the pan and let marinade about 5 minutes per side. After that cut the steak into slices, put the tomatoes into the marinade and mix well. 

Then as side dish you can have rosemary baked potatoes. Just take good potatoes, wash them, no need to peal, cut them in quarters. Bake in some olive oil for about 15 minutes. Put in a baking dish with some sea salt and fresh rosemary into a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 30 minutes. 

I also made All i Oli, it is simple and much better that the one you buy in the shop. You just need one or two garlic cloves, 1 free range fresh egg, a slice of bread without crust soaked a bit in vinegar, salt and extra verge olive oil. Put all the ingredients in a blender and add slowly the oil. Add some oil as All i Oli you want, more oil means more sauce.

Serve all together, like in the picture below, with some bread and a good red wine. We had a fantastic dinner!