Minestrone

Some time ago I already post a recipe for minestrone, well this one is a different one, you still use a lot of vegetables but it looks and taste different that the one I published in October last year follow this link.

For this version of minestrone I made quite a lot, so I could freeze some for another time, that's the good thing of a big pan. The ingredients you need for this one are:

• Pancetta in strips
• Fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 carrots, in small pieces
• A bit of celery in small pieces
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1/2 broccoli in florets
• 1/2 cauliflower in florets
• 1 can of beans
• 1 hand of frozen green peas
• 2 cubes chicken stoke
• 75 gr. rice
• 75 gr. macaroni
• 2 chicken breasts

Bake in a big pan the pancetta with some olive oil and the chopped rosemary until crust, when ready put in a bowl and keep warm. Keep the pan in the fire add the carrots, celery and onion and season with salt and pepper, crumble the cubes chicken stoke (bouillon), mix well, add the rice, pasta and cauliflower in the pan, pour about 1.5 liter boiling water and put the lid on. After a few minutes add the chicken and let it cook for about 10 minutes. In that you can prepare the Salsa Verde, this are the ingredients:

• Some dragon
• Some parsley
• Some mint
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 1 garlic clove squeezed
• Extra verge olive oil (3 to 4 tablespoons)
• Red vinegar

Put in the blender all the ingredients except the vinegar, mix well. Scoop in a bowl and add 1 soup spoon of the stoke, the vinegar and a bit more olive oil, if the sauce is too dry you can add a bit more bouillon. 

Once the chicken is ready, take out of the pan. Then add in the pan all the beans and the broccoli, let it cook for about 10 minutes again.  Meanwhile cut the chicken in strips and lay in the salsa verde, sprinkle with the pancetta.

Serve all together with some grated parmesan, bread and a good glass of white wine. Enjoy this fantastic meal!

Irish soda bread and Italian roasting pan

This might look like a strange combination but it isn't, actually it was fantastic to eat together, all easy to make and delicious to taste.

The first I made it was of course the bread, this recipe it was following the one from Paul Hollywood's Bread, program from the BBC. As this is not my recipe, you can see how to make this extremely easy bread at the BBC LINK . Mine doesn't look so dark because I couldn't find organic wholemeal, it was a combine version, so it's a bit lighter but still very good.

Then I made the Italian Roasting Pan with my own twist. The ingredients you need for 2 adults and 1 child are:

• 4 to 5 potatoes (or what you think you can eat) with skin and diced about 2 cm big.
• 4 chicken thighs with skin and bone
• 5 to 6 italian sausages
• Fresh rosemary
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Salt, pepper and olive oil

This is really simple, what I did it was bake in a pan with olive oil for about 15 minutes the potatoes until the start to get golden. In a roasting pan put the potatoes, the chicken and the sausages. Then add some chopped rosemary and also a few small branches. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with olive oil. Bake in a 220 degrees preheated oven for about 1 hour, maybe less, just keep an eye. Serve with the soda bread and good red wine.

Pasta with tomatoes, basil and brie

On Wednesdays my husband is off, normally he cooks something special this day, so when I get home from work I have a nice meal on the table ;-) Last wednesday it was one of the best meals he has prepared for us for a while, so I thought I have to put it in my blog.

The ingredients you need for this pasta are (2 adults and 1 child):

• Extra verge olive oil
• 6 vine tomatoes, without seeds and diced
• 3 to 4 garlic cloves in slices
• 275 gr. any lint pasta (parpadelle, tagliatelli) better if you use fresh pasta
• 175 gr. brie in slices
• Fresh basil

In a pan bake in olive oil the garlic for about 3 minutes, then add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and take out of the fire. 

Cook the pasta following the package's instructions, pour the pasta when ready and add to sauce, mix well, serve with the brie and the basil seasoning a bit more with pepper and salt if necessary. Serve with a ciabatta bread and/or a caprese salad (see my recipe in another post CAPRESE ). It is absolutely fantastic, taste good and is easy, definitely something to eat in a busy day.

Frittata with left over's (2)

Every now and then we all have to clean our refrigerator, we have to many left over’s like a bit of vegetables or meat or … that is not enough to prepare a meal but if you combine you can make something fantastic, like a frittata. So yesterday I decided to do so, “clean up” my vegetables and make one.

My ingredients yesterday for 1 frittata (enough for 2 adults and 1 child):

·         1 leak

·         Some champignons

·         Few spring onions

·         1 sweet red pepper

·         3 to 4 garlic cloves

·         Few cherry tomatoes cut in half

·         6 eggs

·         75 gr. grated parmesan

·         Quite a lot fresh basil, chopped

·         Fresh rosemary, also chopped

·         1 table spoon dried sage, of course you could use fresh if you have.

You could start with the eggs, in a bowl beat the eggs, then add the parmesan and the herbs, mixing all very well, add a bit of pepper.

In a pan that also in the oven can go, bake in olive oil the leak, add the sweet red pepper, champignons and garlic, bake then a few minutes. Add the spring onions and bake another 2 minutes. Pour the eggs mix into the pan, scoop all well, bake about 3 minutes and then put the half tomatoes in the frittata, like in the picture below. After that in a 150 degrees preheated oven, bake about 20 minutes, until the egg is ready. Serve with a nice salad and of course ciabatta bread.

You can make your own combinations, to give more taste you could have some salami or Serrano ham, also pancetta or bacon is perfect, spinaches, green peas, anything can go. About herbs, you can use thyme as well or dragon. That is what is so great about frittata you can give your own touch and every time will taste different but still so good! Enjoy cleaning up your refrigerator ;-)

Spaghetti Carbonara

On Sunday was in Haarlem  what is called the Bloemencorso, it is a very beautiful parade made all with flowers. We were lucky this year because it was very good weather as well, so we could enjoy a bit the spring. Then for dinner a nice spring pasta is the best and Spaghetti Carbonara are for us one of the bests.

The ingredients you need for 2 adults and 1 child are:

·         250 gr. spaghetti

·         150 gr. bacon in dices

·         125 gr. double cream

·         2 eggs

·         3 to 4 garlic cloves

·         75 gr. grated parmesan or grana padana

·         Fresh parsley

Cook the spaghetti following the instructions on the package. When they are ready keep some of the water, you might need that later.

In a bowl mix well the eggs with the double cream with some salt and pepper. Bake the bacon in a dry pan, add the garlic and bake for another minute of so, then let drip in a paper towel the bacon. Mix the spaghetti with eggs mix and let it get a bit warm, then add the bacon mix, parmesan and the parsley, scoop all together, if you feel that is a bit dry you could add some of the boiling water you saved. Serve with a green salad and some bread, fantastic with a glass of rose wine.

Pancetta with vegetables and saffron rice

On Friday I felt like making something easy and still healthy. So I decided to use my wok to prepare some fantastic vegetables with pancetta combining with self made saffron rice.

The ingredients you need for 2 adults and 1 child are:

·         100 gr. Pancetta

·         1 red onion

·         1 sweet red paprika

·         Some champignons

·         3 to 4 garlic cloves

·         3 to 4 spring onions

·         Dried Italian herbs

·         250 gr. Good quality rice

·         Saffron

To start boil water with some salt and the saffron, then cook the rice until ready.

In a wok pan bake the pancetta in olive oil, add the red onion, after a couple of minutes add the paprika, garlic and champignons, mix well, bake for about 5 minutes, then add the spring onions and a table spoon of the italian herbs.

Serve all together with a nice ciabatta with pesto and a green salad. Easy, delicious and healthy!

Chocolate chip muffins and other cupcakes

Last saturday we had the kids party for my daughter's birthday, actually it was a sleepover party. So 6 girls between 9 and 10 years old sleeping all in the same room! Well I have to say it was not that bad.
I didn't want to make a cake again and just to make it a bit a party I made some cupcakes for decoration and also chocolate chip muffins, just to have some kind of cake.

The ingredients you need for 12 chocolate chip muffins are:

• 100 gr. soft butter
• 225 gr. muscovado sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150 ml full fat yogurt
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 275 gr. flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 175 gr. dark chocolate in small pieces

Mix the butter and the sugar until is very light and creamy, you can use a mixer that will make it easier. Then add the yogurt, milk and eggs, beat slowly. Sieve the flour and soda and scoop into the mix until everything is good mingled. Then scoop the chocolate pieces. Divide the dough into the muffin cases. Bake in a 190 degrees preheated oven for about 25 minutes. Let the muffins cool down 5 minutes before you take them out of the form, let them further cool down in a rooster.

For the party I thought it would be fun the make cupcakes and let the girls decorate. So I made 12basic vanilla cupcakes, that way there would 2 per girl. The did a very creative work with the marzipan. You can see below for and after. If you would like to make the cupcakes yourself the recipe I already publish in another post, just follow this link CUPCAKES

2nd Birthday Cake and dinner

On Sunday we had the family party for the 10th birthday of my daughter. I made again a cake with marzipan, this time was a Victoria Sponge as base. You can read the recipe on the post MY BIRTHDAY  I made it exactly the same only the decoration was different, my husband is the creative one and he made all the marzipan decorations.

Also I made a CARROT CAKE , one of my specialties. This was because only one cake for 12 adults and 5 children was not enough ;-) and my daughter loves carrot cake.

About the dinner I prepared the following, you click on the link to see the recipes, all I have made them before:

• Ratatouille with couscous  (No steak today like in the link)
• Quiche
• 2 salads with what I had at home and a nice dressing.
• 2 bloomers (I made 2 this time and were fantastic, see the picture below)

That was a very successful party and dinner, coming saturday we will have the children pijama party, 6 girls sleeping over, mmm, but that will be another story!