17/08/2015

Mussels & white wine recipe

Hello dears!!!
Summer is here, with high temperatures and not so much desire to stay in a hot kitchen cooking :)
Well this recipe is fast and the it can be a perfect romantic dinner for your loved one.

I absolutely adore seafood and mussels in particular, especially with a glass with a wine ;)

So let's get down to business.

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilo mussels
  • 2 onions
  • 7-8 garlic cloves 
  • 1/2 kilo fresh tomatoes
  • tomato juice 
  • 1/2 glass of white wine 
  • spices
  • basil or parsley or mint 

Start by peeling and cleaning the garlic and onion, while keeping the mussels in fresh water. 
In a pot, fry the garlic and onion in a bit of butter and olive oil, then add water to cover the content. 


Be careful not to get splashed by hot oil, so cover the pot with a lid. Boil some water and then drop the tomatoes inside that pot - it helps to remove the peel faster. 
Add the tomatoes and tomato juice in the pot, along with the glass of wine and the spices. 
After 8-10 min, you can add the mussels as well. 
Cover them with a lid, and steam for another 7-8 min. Hint: the mussels which didn t open, throw them away.  


 
You can serve them warm with the sauce in which they boiled or next to some pasta. A glass of wine is mandatory :) 

Et voila: 



Kiss, kisses, 


11/07/2015

Onion soup with a twist

Helloooo :)
This time I thought to share with you a little recipe for impressive results - the onion soup.
I tried to follow the French recipe so here are the ingredients I used:


  • 1 kilo onion 
  • 1,5l water but it would be better to use chicken stock 
  • fresh black pepper 
  • butter  - 2 tea spoons 
  • salt 

So I guess the most difficult part is to cut the onion, after cutting 2 of them, I almost gave up so I remembered I have this little vegetable chopper in my kitchen: 


Then I fried the onion only a bit in the butter, then added the water/stock, spices, and let it boil for abut one hour. 
When it got a more jelly-like texture, I added again some fresh pepper ;) 

For serving, I wanted to keep it more diet friendly so instead of the French recipe which calls for croutons, I decided to replace them with fried mushrooms et voila: 


It is delicious and as you can see very easy to make. 
Let me know your opinions. 

Kiss, kisses, 




12/04/2015

Easy bake and no egg cake!

Hello :) 
Hope you all enjoyed the Easter Holidays and  had a wonderful time with your families. 
Because it is spring and we are already looking forward to the bikini body, I know cakes are out of the question, but once in a while, I guess we can indulge ourselves :) 
Here is what I managed to put together, with whatever ingredients I had in the fridge/cabinets. 
It is very easy to bake and not (very) fat either. 

So what you need: 
- 1 banana; 
- 250 gr flour; 
- juice from 1/2 orange;
- 1/2 cup sugar; 
- 2-3 spoons of oil; 
- baking powder; 
- 1 cube of dark chocolate; 
- 50 ml milk; 
- peel from an orange;
- baking paper. 


First, pre-heat the oven at 180 °C. I peeled the orange and grated the little piece of chocolate, also I smashed the banana and squeezed the juice from the orange (only half of it): 


The rest is easy: you need to mix the banana, the chocolate flakes, orange peel & juice, add the sugar, and the oil. And then gradually add the flour. I also mixed the baking powder with a bit of lemon juice and added the milk to the overall dough: 


Then I prepared the baking tray, covering it in baking paper and poured in the dough.
It stays in the over for about 30-40 min, at 180 °C. When it is done, don't take it out immediately, but let it "rest" in the oven. 



The result is very fluffy and yummy, you can actually feel the banana taste. For the future I would try to add more orange ;) 



Bon Appétit!



11/02/2015

Healthier meatballs in oven

Helloooo!!! Although Valentine's day is approaching I am not going to post a recipe for cakes to sweeten your days. I have something more filling and less "cheesy" :) 
So here it is my recipe for meatballs done in a healthier way - meaning no frying. 

Ingredients: 


  • 500 gr minced meat (whatever you prefer, I had pork)
  • 2 eggs
  • 6-7 cloves of garlic
  • one small onion
  • one carrot
  • 2-3 potatoes, depends how big they are
  • spices :) 




The potatoes are grated and then pressed between hands to release the water from them. 
The carrot and onion are boiled, garlic is just minced. 
In the mean time, you pre-heat the oven at about 150 degrees C. So now it comes to the messy part of mixing all these ingredients together, add the eggs in the end, and of course as many spices as you please. 




Then I made more or less equal meat balls and placed them on baking paper, in a tray. 




I left them in the oven for about 30-40 min at 200 degrees C. 
They become golden and the are simply delicious. 

The result: 




They can served as they are, they work like snack for beer, or next to some garnish or salad. 

The only downside to this process, is that you would have to roll them a bit in the tray when they are getting done, otherwise they will be flat on one side :) 


Bon Appétit!