Risalamande

Wikipedia can lead you in so many interesting directions. A friend was browsing Wikipedia and came across the entry for Risalamande and begged me to make it for him. I was intrigued, so I did. And I'm glad that I did - it is definitely worth repeating - in fact, a week later I did.

It's essentially a rice pudding made with risotto rice, a good amount of almonds, and has whipped cream folded in. Oh, and a cherry topping. It's not sweet due to very little sugar, but it is quite rich. Fair warning: Rice pudding is not the sexiest thing to photograph.

The ingredients: 
200g Arborio rice (I suspect a substitution would be bad)
1l milk (whole or low fat - your choice. I've used both)
4tbs sugar
1/2tsp salt
1 vanilla pod or 1-2tsp vanilla extract (or essence, if you don't have the extract on hand)
100g almonds, coarsely ground (easier to buy this)
50g flaked almonds, optional
250ml fresh/whipping cream

For the topping:
1 can pitted black cherries in syrup
1tbs cornflour/cornstarch
1/4 cup water

The method: 

This is time-consuming, but really simple.

The Arborio rice, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla bean (split and scraped) all go in to a pot. Bring it to boil, then lower to a simmer. Just give it a stir whenever you remember (to make sure that nothing is sticking to the bottom). When the rice is soft to your liking, it's done - I would provide a time, but it differed for the 2 times I made it. Check around the 30-40 minute mark.

 Remove from heat, and stir in almonds. If using vanilla essence instead of bean, stir in too. Let it cool down completely (I find sticking it in the fridge and stirring every 10 minutes speeds this along).

Whip the cream. Remove the vanilla bean if used, and fold the whipped cream in to the cooled rice pudding.

Spoon in to individual bowls for smaller desserts, or one big bowl for everyone to dish out. If you're going with the Danish tradition, put a whole almond in there too and have a prize standing by for whomever gets the whole almond :)

You can eat this as is, but the cherry topping just makes it so much better. Prepare it while the rest is cooling. The cherries + syrup in the can go in to a pot. Bring to boil, then add the cornflour slurry (cornflour + water, mixed till all lumps gone). Just stir until preferred thickness reached, and let it cool. Reheat when serving - warmed cherry topping on the cool rice pudding makes for a delightful winter treat.

If you have fresh cherries, or prefer to use raspberries (fresh or frozen) instead, follow the following method:
300g-500g cherries/raspberries, 250ml water, 1/2 cup sugar go in to the pot. Bring this to boil, then add the cornflour slurry and get it to the thickness you like. You can use less water if using frozen berries.

You can also serve it sans any topping, or with some heated berry jam. I do suggest making the cherry topping, as it works incredibly well together.

1 night, 3 restaurants

I'm probably coming across as a terrible blogger at this point. I have a valid excuse! An unexpected and very sudden 2-week work trip came up 3 weeks ago, with my leaving within 24 hours of it coming up. I've been back in CT for a week, and still trying to catch up. I long for the days of being bored...

Last week, a friend was visiting. Whenever this friend is around, we try to go out and try a new restaurant. This time around, we opted for the Peruvian KEENWÄ. I've heard several people talking about this restaurant and the quality of the food, so we were quite looking forward to trying it out. We got there and were sitting for quite a while catching up without any service - they had just opened for dinner shortly before we got there, so we were not put off by this and were kept quite busy by the conversation.

The manager then approached us and introduced himself and informed us we were quite early for the wine-tasting event... This was news to us, as we were just there for dinner. It turns out they were booked up for an event that night, and the kitchen was only preparing the tasting menu to go with the wines. He invited us to stay, but we didn't want to make it too difficult for them. He was very apologetic, and offered to get us some coffee on the house.

We opted instead for the Chicha Morada, a Peruvian juice made of purple corn. They also brought out some toasted french bread with what tasted like a roasted pepper dip. The pepper dip was great, and I had to stop myself from finishing all of the bread covered in it as I wanted to save space for some proper food. The drink was purple as advertised, but that's where the interest stopped. The taste was... disappointing. There was a vaguely discernible grape flavour. Not quite what I'd hoped for or what I was expecting.

The manager was very gracious when we left, and asked us to give them a call when we wanted to go in again and he would treat us to a starter. I do plan to go back for the food - if the pepper dip was any indication, it will be very good indeed.

We then decided to go Ethiopian instead, and headed over to Addis in Cape. They serve a really good (and seemingly never-emptying, as my friend found out) pot of Ethiopian coffee with a small bowl of popcorn and some burning frankincense. The food is also pretty good. We went with the Combo offering, where you choose 2 dishes from the menu for R100.

The dining experience at this restaurant is not the usual. You're seated on low wooden chairs, and the tabletop becomes the dish when the food is served. Diners eat with their hands, and the waiter brings over a jug and bowl and pour water for you to wash your hands before you eat and wet towels to wipe up after the meal. The meal is meant to be shared, so the different bowls are turned out on to the injera which lines the big plate that it inserted in to the tabletop.

We had the Prawns Addis (prawns in a spiced sauce), Shimbera Asa Wot (chickpea cakes in a Berbere sauce), Prawns Alicha (prawns in a mild smooth-ground chickpea sauce) and Mushroom Alicha (mushrooms in chickpea sauce). I found the former 2 to be great, with the chickpea cakes and the sauce that went with it being my favourite. My friend found both those to be a slightly too spicy, but enjoyed them all the same. The Mushroom Alicha was pretty good too. The Prawns Alicha were, we agreed, terribly bland and not something we would order again.

The loudness of another table in the restaurant and the lack of interesting dessert options made the decision for us - we would proceed to another restaurant for dessert. We ended up at Jakes in Steenberg/Tokai. He opted for a hot chocolate (and was served a glass of milk with melted chocolate in a little jug, that he could pour in to make up his own) and I went with a Mochacinno (didn't enjoy it too much, also marred by the fact that the cup was chipped). We decided to share 2 desserts. The Triple Choc Fudge Brownie wasn't bad. The Deep-Fried Ice-Cream with butterscotch sauce was a winner as always. The slightly-gingery crust on the ice cream with the butterscotch sauce and the ice cream works terrifically. The only downside of this dish is the amount of butterscotch sauce - it's a lot, and can get overwhelming very easily. It would be impossible to eat this dessert alone - it has to be shared.

All in all, a very pleasant night out at several restaurants in the city. Now to pick where we will go the next time he is around...

It only takes a whole jar of Nutella...

I just made a Nutella cake. Considering the list of ingredients, it's going to be one crazy rich cake. I'll be cutting into it later for a taste, then will post with the details. If I can drag myself away from the cake, that is...

The slump

I feel like I've hit a bit of one. I've been tampering with go-to recipes, to see if I could make them easier/better. As it turns out, I've just been messing up a good thing. So it's back to basics! Or, well, not using substitute products when the real thing does it perfectly fine.

New post (with successful results) soon :)

French Apple Cake

A week ago, a friend hosted a brunch and everyone brought a little something for the table. It all turned out really great, as you can see :). My contribution was the French Apple Cake, which you can see front left. It's adapted from a Dorie Greenspan recipe on David Lebovitz's site (you can see it at http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/11/dorie-greenspan-french-apple-cake-recipe/). 

I put my own little twist on it, making 2 loaf cakes instead of one round cake this time around. I have also made half the recipe previously with great success as well. And I've made it as a standard round cake too, which worked fantastically. It's easily adaptable! 

I'm going to post photos of the process as well - don't judge me on the (bad) quality of the pics! 

Le Ingredients: 

4-5 large apples (a mix of varieties)

2 large eggs

pinch of salt

150g sugar 

3 tbs vanilla extract (or essence if you don't have extract on hand)

110g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder 

85g melted butter, salted or unsalted (note that this is a reduction from the original recipe's 115g. I prefer it with less, it's a little less oily and still tastes great. Do increase this to the original quantity if preferred.)

Le method: 

Start with the apples, but make sure you have everything in place to work quickly, as you don't want to take too long and allow the apples to brown. 

Peel and core the apples, then chop them up in varying sizes - the recipe suggests 3cm pieces, but I prefer a mix of that size and many smaller pieces, which then just melt into the cake. This time around, I only had 4 medium apples; I usually end up with a lot more chopped apple, which is how I prefer it. This is what I ended up with this time around.


Note on the apples: You can use a mix of any apples. A mix is great as you have the different  flavours playing together. This time was a mix of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Fuji. Do play around with it and try a different mix each time.

Beat the eggs until light and foamy. Then add the sugar and whisk until thick and fluffy, and add in the vanilla and beat. You will see the colour transformation when you add the vanilla. And you'll be able to smell it too :) 

Stir in half the flour, and half of the melted butter. Then stir in the rest of the flour, the baking powder and the rest of the melted butter. Don't beat to vigorously at this point - just make sure it's all mixed in.

Add the apples and fold in until all of the apple pieces are well coated by the batter. Usually, I get a batter that just coats the apples; this time around, I had a lot more batter because of the lesser apples. 

If you're putting the batter straight into the pan, butter the sides of the pan (quite generously) first. I chose to use parchment paper to make it easier to get out this time (I usually make it in a springform pan), so I buttered the parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the back of the spoon. If using parchment paper, this is the time to cut it down (I find it a better to do this after pouring the batter in than before, as it's easy for it to slip around in the pan). 

Go for a 20-23 springform pan or, as I did this time around, 2 loaf pans.

This goes into an oven pre-heated to 180ºC for about 40 to 50 minutes (one pan will need the 50 minutes, you want to start checking around the 35 minute mark for 2 loaf pans, but it should be done around the 40-45 minute mark).You can also test to see if the cake is done using a toothpick/knife/insert preferred method here.
Once you've got a nice colour on the cake and it's scented up your kitchen, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Then remove from the springform pan/loaf tin, making sure the apples are not sticking to the sides when you do so (I left one side sticking so I could show you what would happen to the cake if the apples stuck - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

When it's cool, decorate if you'd like - I went with an icing sugar/water glaze this time, but usually prefer it unadorned. 

The cake is great on its own, slightly warmed or room temperature, or with a little bit of vanilla ice cream (particularly when warmed).

 The finished product: 

Apple Waffles

I bought a new sandwich toaster this week, and it has interchangeable plates. One of the plates is a waffle plate, so I had to try it out this week!

I decided on apple waffles instead of plain waffles because I have bought a few apples that are really not as good as they could be, so I wanted to re-purpose them. I ended up adapting a recipe from Dorie Greenspan based on what I had on hand, and they came out better than I expected. They were soft rather then crispy, with the apple just melting into the batter. I ate one on its own, but added a Brazilian pepper honey to the second. Both ways worked great.

The only problem was my first batch overflowing because I'd put too much batter into the toaster! I would have gotten 6 or 7 waffles instead of the 5 I ended up with if I hadn't done that. I have frozen the rest and will update with how they taste the second time around when I have then.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of allspice
1/4 cup sugar (I used just under 1/4 cup white sugar, and added 2 tsp Muscovado sugar)
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup Bulgarian/Greek yoghurt (I used the former)
1/4 cup water (you can replace the yoghurt and water with 3/4 cup of milk)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs melted butter
1 apple, peeled and grated

Method:
Mix all dry ingredients together. In another bowl, beat the yoghurt, water, egg and vanilla until well combined. Stir this into the dry ingredients, then add the butter and grated apple and stir it all together. Don't over-mix, just stir together until everything's combined.

Spray the waffle iron and spoon in as much batter as your waffle iron can handle (or do it once to figure out how much it can handle :P). Once it's brown and smells good, remove from the waffle iron - it's quite soft, so do this carefully so you don't tear it when removing. Use 2 forks to remove; I found that the easiest way. 

Keep warm in low oven if not serving immediately. Serve with whatever you'd like :)

A fresh start

Recently, there's been a change in my life. Because of the change, I've lost all appetite and inclination to eat. I've also realised that I really dislike cooking for one - there's no one to appreciate it and no incentive to do it.

So I thought one way out of the rut was to post about what I was making every day. I love reading food sites and blogs, so why not write one? Someone out there might read it and like it and be inspired to make something I've created, which would be great too :)

So I will endeavour to take photos and write about what I make every other day, and post something new at least 3 times a week. Thus ensuring that I don't get bored with my menu for one.

I will also post about the various places I go to around Cape Town - I always Google reviews of places I want to check out and don't find enough information online. Hopefully others who want to check out places will find the reviews helpful.

Here's to an excellent 2012!

Mediterranean Fish

I try to make fish dishes at least twice a week, and it gets challenging thinking of interesting ways of presenting it to someone who doesn't like fish very much. So I do a lot of searching online to find interesting recipes online. It's a hit or miss affair, so we've found some keepers and some even I have trouble finishing. This week, I took some inspiration from Dorie Greenspan, and it's a hit!


The ingredients:
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1tbs of capers, chopped up and a few kept whole, with some of the caper juice
1/2 onion, finely chopped
salt, about 1/2 tsp
pinch of sugar (may need more when you're doing the sauce)
Dried pepper flakes/black pepper, to taste
Olive oil, about 3 tbs 
Parsley, as much as you like, for topping
2 pieces of yellowtail

The process: 
Chop and mix first 7 ingredients (lemon juice and zest, capers, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil). Add any dried herb, if you like, eg rosemary. Coat the fish in this, and leave it to marinate.

While it was marinating, I started off the side dishes. I served it with potatoes, roasted tomatoes, sweetcorn and a garlic mayo.
Potatoes: Peel and cube 2 potatoes, put into a pan with a little bit of oil, and cover. Leave for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Once the 10 min are up, the potatoes will be cooked through. Sprinkle with salt and add to the tray in the oven to keep warm.
Roasted tomatoes: I had some nice tomatoes on the vine, which I just left as is and popped into the oven.
Sweetcorn: Frozen sweetcorn, also just onto the tray in the oven.
Garlic mayo: I had some of the roasted garlic from the Roasted Tomato Soup. I squeezed about 1/2 of that, mixed with mayo and some Bulgarian yoghurt. Taste and see if you're happy with it, or adjust to taste.

Once the potatoes were done and removed from the pan, put a little more olive oil in the pan. Scrape the marinade from the fish and place skin side down in the pan. Let it cook until golden, then flip and let it cook on the other side until it looks good to you. Probably about 5-7 min each side, depending on the thickness of your fillets. When done to your liking, pop it onto the tray into the oven to keep warm while you finish the sauce.

Sauce: just put the marinate in the pan and let it heat through. Taste - you may want to add more sugar at this point, it does have quite a sour kick from the lemon and the capers. When you have it how you like, dish up!

Plate the fish, potatoes, sweetcorn and tomatoes (which I put back in the oven on grill while the rest was being done, in order to blister it a bit) on the plate. Top the fish with the chopped parsley. Put the marinating sauce on/next to the fish (I prefer next to, so I can control how much I get in a bite), and add a dollop of the garlic mayo (if made) on the side.

Delicious!

Roasted Tomato Soup

I don't like soup. In fact, I actively dislike soup. It's just wrong. Why would I want to eat my food all gummy when I still have all of my teeth? It also looks weird.

The other half was feeling ill yesterday. I made him soup from a can for lunch, which he enjoyed and ate everything). But I thought I could do better than that, and toyed with the idea of making tomato soup (based on him asking if that's what we had earlier in the day). I googled a bit and checked out some recipes, and decided to wing it based on what I'd seen.

The ingredients:
4-6 large tomatoes, or a lot of little tomatoes (easier with the bigger tomatoes)
1-2 garlic gloves (use to taste, it does sweeten a lot in the roasting)
1 red pepper
1 onion (optional)
Thyme (fresh or dried) - to taste
Any other herbs you want to use (fresh or dried, I used some fresh parsley) - to taste
1tsp smoked paprika
1/2-1 cup chicken/vegetable stock
salt - to taste

The process:
Tomatoes should be halved and quartered, put on a baking tray, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Put the garlic gloves, still in their papery skin, also on the tray. Prick the skin of the red pepper all over with a knife/fork, and on the tray it goes. If using, slice the onion into rounds and put it on the tray too.

This all goes into the oven at 200 for about an hour. Turn the pepper about halfway. The tomatoes will concentrate down and release some juices.

After an hour, take it out of the oven and put the tomatoes and any juices in the pan into a pot. Put the pepper in a bowl and cover with clingfilm (this will allow you to easily remove the skin from the pepper so you can just use the flesh). Split the garlic clove and squeeze the roasted garlic into the pot too (be careful, it's hot!). Once you're done with that, the pepper should be ready - pull the skin off, and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Put the pepper into the pot too (I reserved some strips to put on the top). If you have onions, put them into the pot too.

Add the stock, and let it cook for about 5 min to reduce the liquid a bit. Add some smoked paprika, thyme (fresh or dried) and any other herbs you may want to add (fresh or dried).

Get out the stick blender and puree it. You can leave it slightly chunky or go all the way smooth - whatever floats your boat. Add salt to taste. If you want it thicker, cook it down further.

When ready, spoon into bowls and garnish with the roasted pepper strips.

I served this with some toasted cheese sandwiches made with mature cheddar on wholewheat. It works really well together.

Chicken Sloppy Joes

Easy and relatively quick dinner. Had some wholewheat rolls.
Into the hot pan went some olive oil, chopped onions, chopped green peppers. When those were softened, in went a few tsp of minced garlic and half a tsp of minced ginger. 1/4kg chicken mince followed, with some salt, crushed coriander seeds and tumeric. When the chicken was cooked, added in some chopped tomatoes, and miscellaneous sauces. Reduce down to a yummy thick consistency, spoon onto rolls, top with some lettuce and serve (salad or chips on the side).

Quinoa, Chickpea & Spinach Salad

This is definitely one that is going to be repeated! A salad that's pretty simple to throw together, yet looks great and tastes even better. Incredibly filling as well.

1 cup quinoa, rinsed, then (perhaps damp rather than dry) toasted in the pot to get a bit of nuttiness into it. Add 2 cups of water to that, let it boil then reduce heat and cover, for about 20 minutes until the water's all absorbed and it's lovely and fluffy. Once it's done, it's into the fridge for a quick cooling (stir a few times to quicken the cooling time).

While that's on the go, the rest can be put into a (very large, to allow you to mix easily) bowl:
1 can of chickpeas, drained
2 rather large handfuls of baby spinach. I cut the leaves in half to make it more manageable (I hate large salad leaves and trying to shove it into my mouth gracefully) and chopped up the stems for some crunch
About half a cucumber, sliced into quarters lengthwise, centres removed so the salad wouldn't get soggy the next day, and then slices
A few cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters and seeds removed (see note about not wanting it to be soggy)
As much feta as you think is a good idea, some in largish chunks and some crumbled
A decent amount of mint leaves, chopped up
A good sprinkling of toasted flaked almonds (or you can just top the salad with this when serving, so it retains the crunch nicely)

When the quinoa is cooled, mix it into the salad.

Time for the dressing. 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 1-2 teaspoons of smoked paprika, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and a good few drops of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce. These are mixed together, then mixed into the salad. And toss toss toss. I might make more of the dressing in the future.

Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Tastes great as leftovers the next day too!

Mediterranean Fish Parcels on Leeks

This was actually pretty quick to put together. Chopped up some leaks and put it in a pan with a bit of olive oil and a small piece of butter, and cooked until they were soft and delicious.

The fish were put into foil parcels with a bit of sundried tomatoes, chopped olives, sliced red pepper, salt, black pepper and lemon juice. Then into the oven until done.

Quick prep and delicious.

Dessert was steamed gemsquash. Purely because we're trying to be healthy and didn't have anything else on hand :) .
Ok, so I added sugar to mine and boyfriend added honey to his; but still, better than cake! :D

It's been a while

Tons of stuff came up over the last few months, so I had barely any time to update. That must change! So, for starters, 2 meals :)

Lunch was 3 mini pizzas. I've finally found the perfect pizza dough recipe, which I'll touch on another time. I'd made extra dough last week, and froze it for use when the pizza bug struck again.

The 3 variations:
- Garlic, sea salt and rosemary (and a little butter)
- Tomato base (sauce left over from last time; recipe to follow at another time), mature cheddar cheese and thyme
- Parmesan, feta, and some sliced green onion on the top once out of the oven.

Dinner is going to be ostrich burgers with thick chips and a salad. Not very high on the skill level, but I am working through the night again. I had wanted to make some onion marmalade for the burger, but there was no time today. Perhaps some of the Devil's Sauce (look out for the recipe soon) will go over well with it...

Roast lamb chops with sweet potato fries

I'm still trying to perfect cooking lamb, and tried a new recipe tonight. One of the better ones so far!

Dry roasted 3 tsp crushed coriander seeds with 1.5 tsp of cumin and about 1 tsp of dried sichuan pepper. Then mixed that with about 3 tbs of olive oil, and rubbed this onto both sides of the lamb chops and left it to marinate for a while.
After about an hour, flash fried the chops (both sides) in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, then put it in the oven to finish cooking. About 30 minutes later, it was perfectly cooked through and browned on the outsides.

Sweet potato fries - a current favourite. Cut the chunks a bit thicker this time. In a bowl, add some olive oil, soy sauce, seasoning salt, garlic powder and pepper flakes to the sweet potato chunks. Lay out on oven tray and bake until soft and slightly crispy. Turn and allow other side to crisp up a bit.

This was soo delicious.

Quick healthy bean wraps

Last night, I got home quite late, and wanted to make something easy and healthy. I had frozen wraps (purchased and stored in freezer for easy use) and a can of kidney beans in the cupboard. Wraps it was.

Fried up some onion, chilli, garlic, ginger, then added the red kidney beans (from a can, drained). Threw in some salt, paprika, dried origanum and tomato paste. Mashed some of the beans and let it heat through.

Put the tortillas in the oven for a little while to defrost and finish cooking. When all was ready, spooned the kidney beans in a line down the centre of the tortilla, topped with some grated cheddar, folded over and served.

Easy, delicious and nutritious.

Lebanese Aubergine Moussaka

This is something I made last week. Have been out and flying for work, etc, so have only been able to get online now to post this.

I had a huge aubergine and no idea what to make with it this time around, as the other half isn't a fan. I've made eggplant parmesan for him before, and he loved it, but I wanted other options. Started Googling (as you do) can came up with an adapted Nigella Lawson recipe using eggplant: http://www.roamingtales.com/2009/03/08/recipe-lebanese-aubergine-stew/. I had seen a few variations of this, but liked this version, so I decided to follow it with my own twist.

I cubed the eggplant and fried it off in 3 batches (it was really big) in a bit of oil until softened and coloured, and removed from pan. Then I friend off onion, garlic, a bit of giner and chilli in some oil in the pan until onions and garlic we soft, then added chickpeas (from a can, with water drained), and fried it a bit more. I didn't have pomegranate molasses, but I did have some pomegranate cordial. Thought 'what the hell', and put a bit of that in. I then added the aubergine back, some tomato I had previously liquidised and frozen (easier to use that way, and cheaper), and some salt, black pepper, cinnamon, ground ginger, dried mint, and a dash of paprika. Added a cup of water, let it boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer for the next hour or so while I got on with other things.

I did this the day before we planned to eat it, as it took a long time to get done. When it was done, I spooned it back into the bowl I'd stored the eggplant in, and into the fridge it went. The next day, I heated it up in the  oven (easier) for a while, and served with cous cous.

This made quite a lot; we got 2 days' dinners (huge portions) for 2 out of it. Well worth the effort, as it cuts down on cooking for another day :).

To make the cous cous:
Fry some onions, peppers, chilli, whatever you want in a little bit of oil. Add some mustard seeds too. When ready, pour in 1 cup of water, and bring to the boil. Turn off stove, and add in 1 cup of cous cous. Stir to incorporate and wait for it to absorb and become all fluffy. Done!

Blue cheese pizza

Something that's become a favourite option is experimenting with pizza toppings. The most recent was blue cheese option.

I haven't gotten around to making my own pizza bases yet. For the moment, the store-bought pre-prepared bases will suffice. I buy 3 bases, and slice them all in half before freezing (size limitations of freezer). That way, I can make several different toppings for each half base.

The only cooking (besides baking time) in these pizzas went to caramelising some onions. I've recently bought the McCain pre-chopped onions, which work fine for these as well (they're convenient and I don't have to worry about not having onions or onions going off). A little bit of olive oil in a pan, and cook them on a slow heat while chopping up the rest of the ingredients if necessary (I've already pre-chopped all and put them in tubs in the freezer, ready to use as need be). You can add some balsamic vinegar for a good taste towards the end (I didn't have any). A little bit of sugar towards the end also helps to get it looking and tasting great.

This time around, I went with the following:

1. Onto the base went some pureed pumpkin (one pumpkin earlier in the year, which I'd roasted in the oven then scooped out, and separated into one-cup servings and froze. This was the last of it!). This was followed by grated mozzarella (previously grated and frozen) slices of brie and crumbled danish blue cheese. I then scattered some of the caramelised onion on top, as well as some cubed red and yellow peppers and some sliced chilli. Into the oven it went, until the cheese was melted and slightly golden. Delicious.

2. A little bit of caramelised onions on the base, followed by mozzarella (very little). Peel and slice a pear, and arrange artfully. Between pear slices, put slices of brie. Into the oven as before. So good.

3. The quattro formaggio! Most of the caramelised onion went onto this base. A bit of mozarella and loads of brie and danish blue followed. I arranged some slices of chilli on top, and sprinkled toasted sesame seeds and pine nuts over it all. When it had come out of the oven, a good generous grating of parmesan over the top made it deeeeeeelicious.

It's been a while...

And with good reason :)

Things got really busy towards the end of the year, and I didn't have much time. At the beginning of this year, I started seeing someone. He is the biggest fan of my cooking, so while I have been cooking a lot, I haven't had much time to write it down or take photos, etc.

But I keep wishing that I remembered to write down recipes that I'd made! Since I can never remember them later. I think I'll use the blog for that :)

I'll start off with what I'd made yesterday, and keep it updated each day. I can't promise photos, though, as we start eating as soon as I take it off the stove!

Pizza!

 

Ok, so I was having a lazy day and decided to buy dinner. Still managed to go semi-healthy, there. At the top is brie, caramelised onions and sesame seeds, and below is spinach, roasted peppers and feta. Yum. Bonus: There's more than enough for another meal this week. 

Chicken Wrap with The Salsa

 

This is one that does take a bit longer in the prep time (I did it all in 30 minutes), but it's well worth it. You can do what I did today, and make a little extra of The Salsa (it deserves the capital letters, trust me) so you can use it later in the week.

   

I'd bought some aubergine in the week. I sliced one up, and sprinkled with salt and put it on a baking sheet in the oven while I got on with the rest.

   

I then got on with the chicken. Sliced a chicken breast into strips. Hot pan, a little oil, a teaspoon each of the pre-crushed garlic and ginger, toss the chicken in with some dry spices, and stir and let it dry fry while I got on with the rest.

  

For The Salsa, the longest part of this meal to prepare, there is some slicing/chopping. I've decided to use cherry tomatoes instead of the big ones, ad they make more sense for one person. Chop up the tomatoes into cubes. Chop up some peppers, chilli peppers (which I love, and I left the seeds in this time as I wanted the heat), red onions. Zest a lemon (a few passes over the finer side of the greater is all that's needed; put the rest into a tub for future use), and squeeze a quarter of the lemon's juice into the bowl containing the remainder of the ingredients. A little balsamic would be ideal, but I didn't have any, so I just used half a teaspoon of brown vinegar. A little bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper, and leave it to rest. The flavours infuse beautifully after a while, and you're left with The Salsa, a flavour explosion that's well worth the little bit of extra effort that goes into it.

 

It looks really good, and tastes amazing. Trust me on this one. Everyone I know loves it when I prepare it. 

   

  

Assembling the wrap:

1. Warm up the tortilla. These can be bought in any store; my mum made these for me.

2. Two teaspoons of any tomato-ey mixture to line the wrap. I had recently gotten a piquant pepper spread on special, so I opened that up and used that.

3. A little bit of grated cheddar onto that (I've pre-grated a little and put it into an airtight container, to cut down on prep time).

4. Lay the aubergine slices down.

5. A few spoonfuls of low fat chunky cottage cheese follow that.

6. The cooked chicken strips are placed on top.

7. Then, it's time for The Salsa. Use as much as you like; there can never be too much. Also spoon some of the juice that comes out of the veggies on.

8. A sprinkling of cheddar cheese again.

9. Roll it up, and enjoy.