20130725 Pesto salad with Parma ham

Ingredients:

150g green salad

1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

1 tbsp pesto

Freshly grounded black pepper

1 mozzarella ball, torn into small pieces

8-10 slices of Parma ham

1/4 melon, cut into small pieces 

Method:

1. In a salad bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients well. 

2. Place the mixed salad on two plates and lay the Parma ham over them. 

3. Place some melon on the side and serve with some fresh ciabatta bread. 

20120727 Olivier Salad

I am not sure if this is the "real" Olivier Salad (if there is one) as I didn't look up any recipes. I had Olivier Salad before, so I just threw in whatever ingredients I could remember. It's not bad for this hot and stuffy Friday! But something seems to be missing. Now thinking about it, I think there may be apples and eggs in the salad too. I can't believe I always put off making this salad because the potatoes always break/mush after cooking - even when I got the waxy ones. So today I steamed the potatoes instead of cooking them in boiling water. And it works! I bet this may be a well known trick that I was not aware of, but am still very proud of myself for figuring this out.

INGREDIENTS
1 X 400g can mixed peas/carrots/corns
500g potatoes, steamed and finely diced
100g ham, cut into little cubes
12 small pickles, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
4 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp full cream
freshly grounded black pepper

METHOD
1. Throw everything into a big salad bowl and mix well. Season with black pepper, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

20111224 Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

This holiday season was a mellow one for me. I just put my feet up and enjoyed the company. I only cooked something simple on Christmas Eve night - stuffed portobello mushrooms as starter, roasted new potatoes as side dish, grilled rib eyes as main course, and some fruit yoghurt as dessert. I was even too lazy to find a recipe for the stuffed portobellow mushroom, and simply made one up myself. To be very honest, it was definitely not a WOW dish, but was a good and simple starter for sure.

INGREDIENTS
2 large portobello mushrooms
vegetable oil
1 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 fresh parsley, roughly chopped (leave some for garnishing)
1/4 cup drained oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
salt and freshly grounded black pepper

METHOD
1. Heat the oven grill to high. In a small bowl, mix the cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, and tomatoes together. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Spray a small oven dish with vegetable oil. Lay the mushrooms gill side down in the dish, and grill for about 4 minutes.
3. Turn the mushrooms and stuff them with the cheese filling. Return to the oven and grill for another 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with some roughly chopped parsley and serve.

20110305 Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks

I got a big bag of tandoori masala spices from my husband's boss last week as I asked him where to find all the fragrant Indian spices. He said TRS is a good brand for Indian spices - I guess the Brits know their Indian food. I was eager to give the lovely spices a try all week, but was not sure what to make as I don't have any recipes that gives me specific instructions on how to substitute certain spices with the tandoori masala spices. I know tandoori masala is often used for barbecue and grill, and I have some chicken drumsticks in my fridge. So I looked up several recipes of tandoori chicken, and came up with the following. I am not really confident in creating recipes myself and was anxious to find out how the chicken taste. They were really tasty! I can't wait for summer to come so I could use the tandoori masala spices for barbecue - chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, tandoori fish...!


INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp plain yoghurt
2 tbsp tandoori masala spices
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tsp grated ginger
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 chicken drumsticks

METHOD
1. Use a sharp knife, make shallow slashes in the chicken drumsticks to help the marinade to get inside the chicken.
2. In a ziploc bag, mix together the yoghurt, tandoori masala, turmeric, grated ginger, crushed garlic, lemon juice, and salt. Add the chicken to the ziploc bag and massage them to coat. Refrigerate for 4 hours.
3. Heat oven to 230 degree C. Remove the chicken drumsticks from the marinade, leave only a thin layer of marinade on them. Roast the chicken drumsticks on an oiled baking sheet for 20 to 30 minutes, turning once halfway through. Transfer the chicken drumsticks to plates, and serve with lemon wedges.

20110219 Samosa

(SOURCE: Indian: The Cookbook by Pushpesh Pant - Samosa)

This colorful cookbook, Indian: The Cookbook, packaged in a traditional Indian rice bag drew my husband and my attention at a local book store yesterday. We love Inidan food but there is no Indian takeaway here in Dordrecht (can you believe that?!). I always wanted to give a try at Indian cooking, but was always put off by the long list of exotic- and unfamiliar-sounding ingredients. This book helped me to overcome that as it has a rich glossary of Indian ingredients, which teaches me what the ingredients are and how they taste like - so if I can't find any of them, I could try to replace them with other spices of similar flavor.

So here's my first go! As I couldn't find any ghee, I used butter instead. The samosas were yummy, but they didn't look that pretty and were so spicy (!) - so I added quite some sugar to bring the heat down, and will definitely half the chilli powder and green chilli next time. Also the pastry was a bit dull and tough, so next time I will add 1 or 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and some salt to the dough. I hope I can find those rectangular samosa pads, so I could make beautiful triangular samosas next time. But overall, the first go at Indian cooking was fun, and I look forward to cooking more with this new cookbook!

INGREDIENTS
For the pastry -
500g plain flour, plus some more for dusting
180ml warm water
oil, for deep frying
For the filling -
100g potatoes
150g peas
1tsp cumin seed
1tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground turmeric
1tsp chilli powder
5cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
4 green chilli, finely chopped
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
salt
sugar

METHOD
1. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling water for 20 minutes. Drain well, then mash.
2. Cook the peas in a pan of boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour with enough water to make a stiff dough. Make into 10 dough balls, and cover them with a damp cloth.
4. Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Fry the cumin seeds for about 15 seconds. Add the ginger, green chilli, ground coriander, ground turmeric, and chilli powder, and fry for a minute. Add the mashed potato and peas, and cook for a minute. Then add the finely chopped coriander and fry for another minute. Season with salt and sugar. Remove pan from the heat.
5. On a floured surface, roll the dough balls into rounds of 12cm, and make 10. Brush the edge of the pastry with a little water, spoon the potato filling in the middle of the pastry, and then press the dampened edges to seal it.
6. Deep fry the samosas in batches in hot oil (180 degree C) for 3 to 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Drain well on a kitchen paper.

20101226 Rockefeller Mushrooms

(SOURCE: Koken & Genieten magazine - Rockefeller Champignons)

A simple starter for our boxing day dinner. This tasted a little too strong for a starter, so I would suggest replacing the brown gravy with a simple white sauce.

INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp butter
1 cup beef bouillon
2 tbsp flour
salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
450g frozen spinach
nutmeg
12 big mushrooms, about 450g, cleaned and stem removed
6 slices of bacon
1 tbsp oil
grated cheese

METHOD
1. Make gravy. Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a small saucepan and stir in flour. Keep stirring until blended well. Add bouillon and bring to the boil while stirring. Continue to stir until smooth and it thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat the grill to high. Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a pan over medium heat, and brown the onion and garlic. Add the frozen spinach and 2 tbsp of water to the pan. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer the spinach mix for about 15 minutes. Season with nutmeg and salt and pepper.
3. In another pan, fry the bacon slices until crispy. Remove bacon slices onto a plate with kitchen paper to absorb the excessive fat. Break each slice into two. Add the mushrooms to the pan with the bacon fat, and fry for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Lay the mushrooms on a casserole dish.
4. Stuff each mushroom with some spinach mix, then sprinkle with grated cheese and the gravy. Grill for about 5 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and place a piece of bacon on each stuffed mushroom.

20101008 Carpaccio with Rocket Salad

INGREDIENTS
120g beef carpaccio
100g freshly grated parmesan
75g rocket leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
salt and pepper
handful of pine nuts

METHOD
1. Lay rocket leaves onto two plates, and lay out the carpaccio on the rocket. Sprinkle olive oil, lemon juice, cheese, pine nuts, and salt and pepper all over. Serve!

20100809 Basil and Garlic Ciabatta

(SOURCE: BBC Easy Cook Magazine)

If you are adventurous, you may want to add some grated parmesan on the bread before putting them under the grill.

INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp (25g) soft butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bunch of basil, chopped
1 small ciabatta, sliced lengthways

METHOD
1. Heat the grill to high. Beat the mayonnaise, softened butter and garlic until smooth. Stir through the basil and season with salt and pepper. Put the halves of the ciabatta on a baking tray and spread with the butter. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes.

20100720 Tomato Mozzarella Salad

The key is - FRESH ingredients!

INGREDIENTS
2 Tasty Tom tomatoes, sliced
150g mozzarella cheese, sliced
handful fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
Dash of extra virgin olive oil
Dash of balsamic vineger
Freshly ground four-season pepper

METHOD
1. Arrange the tomato slices and mozzarella slices alternatly. Scatter with basil leaves, olive oil, vinegar, and ground pepper. Bon appetit!

20090809 Mini Caprese

A very healthy and easy Sunday snack!

INGREDIENTS
3 Tasty Tom tomatoes, sliced
125g buffalo mozzarella, sliced and halved
handful fresh basil leaves
dash of extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground four-season pepper

METHOD
1. Simply 3 layers - tomato slice, mozarella chunk, fresh basil leave.
2. Scatter with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Voila!

20090319 Baked Mushrooms with Ricotta and Pesto

(SOURCE: BBC EasyCook Magazine)

You may want to put the dish under a hot grill for just a few minutes to give it a little more color.

INGREDIENTS
5 tbsp olive oil
16 medium chestnut mushrooms
250g ricotta
2 tbsp green pesto
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
25g grated parmesan

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 180 degree C. Choose an ovenproof dish big enough to take all the mushrooms in one layer and generouly brush it with 1 tbsp of the oil.
2. Trim the mushroom stalks level with their caps, then put the mushrooms, stalk-side up, in the dish. Mix the ricotta, pesto and garlic and spoon some into each mushroom. Sprinkle over the parmesan and drizzle over the rest of the oil.
3. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the mushrooms are soft all the way through and the cheese is just starting to turn golden. If the mushrooms have released a lot of juice during baking, drain it off before serving.
4. Serve with a little more pesto and scattered with parsley.

20090215 Mozzarella with Crazy Gremolata

(SOURCE: Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson)

This starter is so fragrant and beautiful! Serves 6.

INGREDIENTS
2 balls buffalo mozzarella
1 long red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
6 black olives, finely chopped
Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

METHOD
1. Slice the mozzarella into 5mm thick rounds and arrange on a plate.
2. In a bowl mix the chopped chilli with the chopped olives, lemon zest and crushed garlic.
3. Tip in the salt, oil and parsley and stir together to make the gremolata.
4. Spoon the gremolata down the centers of your slices of mozzarella.