Delicious oven tomato sauce

A friend of mine recommended making tomato sauce this way so I thought why not test it out whilst testing out my homemade gnocchi!

First off turn on your oven to 180 degrees

What you do if you’re 3-4 people is take a oven tray put oil in it and cut up the tomatoes into halves or quarters! The skin should be facing upwards and they should be fully oiled!

Then put the tomatoes in for 30 min! The oil should look brownish once it’s taken out! If not pop it back in for a couple of minutes..

In the mean time chop up some garlic and onion.

Take out your tomatoes again and toss the garlic and onion mixture onto it, placing it back into the oven for 5 minutes.

Once that’s done you can take it out of the oven again and mix it all together, you can also take off the tomato skins if you want!

And that’s it! Extremely easy to make, tastes delicious and I will surely make it again!
Also spice as pleased!

Tomatoes in the oven

Tomatoes out of the oven

Adding the onion and garlic and more olive oil

The final outcome! I forgot to take a photo of just the sauce!

Easy peasy gnocchi feeds me

A bunch of my friends on Instagram have been making gnocchi so I decided that it can’t be that hard and that I’d try it out!

Little did I know I’d be right and this will probably become one of my favorite go to recipes!

The recipe I followed said it was for four people... what a LIE so I’m going to triple the portion for you and say that’ll be four to five portions.

You will need:

750g potatoes
360g plain flour

That’s IT!

What you’re going to do is
1) peel the potatoes, cut them into smaller pieces and boil them in water for about 15/20 minutes
2) once they’re soft enough squish them (like you’d be making mashed potatoes)
3) slowly knead in the flour, only adding more once it’s completely gone
4) once the dough is soft (not sticky) roll it into a ball and cut it into four pieces
5) roll these pieces into long strips and cut them into smaller pieces
6) these you can then squish with a fork! Not completely as you still want them to be fluffy
7) get a big pot of water to boil
8) add the gnocchi, not all at once though! Bit by bit!

You’ll know they’re ready when they float to the top!

I served these gnocchi with a super delicious tomato sauce which I’ll be posting about in another post!

Good luck and Bonne appetite

The potatoes 

The dough

Rolled out dough

The cut up dough 

Before the boiling

The boiling

With the sauce (recipe in the next post)

Bonne Appétit

Hummus for days

What is up?! 

Who else has been trying out new recipes during this quarantine? I'm currently in Sweden so there is no actual quarantine going on but I am being especially careful! 

I decided to make some hummus because it's a beautiful day out and I love hummus! I mean who doesn't?

I don't remember where I found the recipe I used but here it goes! 

1 1/2 cups chickpeas (cooked)
1/3 cup tahini
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice 
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp water (or as needed)

I obviously thought this wasn't going to make a lot of hummus so I decided to double the recipe and tweak it here and there. 

I used three garlic cloves (cuz I love garlic)
and
I added a bit more lemon juice than 4 tbsp.

Once you have all the ingredients together you just blend them! 

And that's that! 

Easy Peasy and totally delicious! 

Here are my step by step photos and end result *drool*

Teriyaki Pasta Salad

Thanks to Stefan for taking these nice photos. I didn't even have to fold laundry this time-- what what!!

I saw a similar looking salad on Creme de la Crumb and couldn't get it out of my mind. I really wanted to make it for this potluck street party at Stefan's parents' street we were going to on Saturday evening. Sometimes, I get these ideas in my head and it's hard to change my mind. We had 4 bunches of asparagus and had talked about making some grilled asparagus..but then, despite having none of the ingredients for this salad, I decided to go out and buy them and make it. Stefan ended up doing most of it, as I was out at the rehearsal dinner for Kristin and Shawn's wedding. Stay tuned for an update and some photos on that. It was so much fun. What a busy weekend!!

How do you get a chef to follow a recipe? It ain't easy. Stefan was pretty good though, and mostly followed the instructions. I took the opportunity to show him how useful the ipad is for cooking and recipes. Stefan thinks my ipad is useless, as I have been rarely using it since I got my new laptop. He keeps threatening to get rid of it. Nooooo!!!!!

Our key takeaways- use good quality extra virgin olive oil. Not canola oil. It won't be the same.
Also don't mix everything together and then add dressing before serving. Instead put the dressing on the pasta right away so the flavour can develop and the pasta stays MOIST. When you are ready to serve, add spinach and the rest of the ingredients so the leaves don't get soggy.  Finally, always use fresh garlic if you have some instead of garlic powder. That's just a personal preference.

We brought it to the street party and it was a lot of fun. What a neat idea and nice way to get to know your neighbors and enjoy a nice spring evening outdoors.  There were so many delicious salads.

Our table was so beautiful! Notice the lemon and flowers in the water? What a nice touch from Stefan's mom.

One Skillet Steak and Veg

When S moved in, he brought with him a cast iron skillet- yes!! It's awesome. I came across some recipes in Bon Apetit for one-skillet meals with cast iron skillet, and decided to try this one- mainly because I love Steak. Also it is listed as "healthy-ish" and that appeals to me.   Asparagus was on sale at Farm Boy and I stole the peas from my parents. This recipe came together super quickly , thanks to S being a great sous-chef and helping with the mis-en-place/ chopping- all while he also made a delicious soup for us to have for the week. Where did I find this guy?  In the mornings I don't like too many cooks in the kitchen, but at night it's really nice, and sometimes, like this, it goes off without a hitch. The most important was that we had dinner ready in time to watch the Sens win! Go Sens Go!

The original recipe can be found here. I modified slightly mainly just used a different cut of steak and a different vinegar, and regular onion instead of shallots, and a bit less garlic than the original recipe.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

It's super hot outside, I've just gotten back home from work all I want to do is eat and I'm bored out of my mind. So I've decided to bake some banana chocolate chip muffins.

I found a recipe online, which I've barely followed... Aber ja

What you'll need:

3 ripe bananas

1 table spoon baking soda

1 table spoon salt

1/2 cups flower 

1/2 cup brown sugar + 1/2 granulated sugar -- I just used 1 cup plain sugar cuz it's all I got!

2-3 tablespoons chocolate chips I had about 1/4 of a bag left so I just chucked them all in...

Also added some cinnamon

1 egg

1/3 cup milk I used 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup water because the dough was too thick for me 
and that's about it ..

I've set the oven to 180°C and am baking them for 10 min it says bake for 20min or until done.... I think that's way too long.

Let's see what happens. The dough tastes delicious ! 

10 minutes was too little I've added another 5

Looks good looks good. Aja the recipe was meant for 12 muffins I've had to put in a second load thats 24 till now and I've still got extra dough so this recipe probably makes up to 26-28 muffins we shall see :)

I shared half a muffin with my dad and I hate to say it but they're DELICIOUS 

p.s. the recipe made out 26 muffins :)

Quiche Saturday

So I'm on holiday in the alps surrounded by snow and decided to make a quiche for my family for lunch. I was surprised at how well it turned out although I should've pre-cooked  the quiche dough a bit longer because the bottom was still a bit white but otherwise it was delicious :)

I bought the quiche dough in the shop so that made it easier as well, and I also have to mention that I didn't have a quiche baking tin so I made the quiche in a plain flat baking tin.

I used a recipe from a supermarket magazine, it's actually from one of my favourite supermarkets called "Merkur" and they took it from a Donna Hay Cookbook, so what you'll need is:

15 grams grated parmesan
150 grams goat cheese (here I used 80 grams goat cheese and 70 grams of this thing called Topfen not sure what it is in english..)
3 eggs
60ml milk
80ml sour cream (I used about 100g)
180g tomatoes 

Here are all the ingredients laid out and mixed together (below). Oil the quiche tin and put in the quiche dough (place in oven a pre cook this for about 3-5 minutes). Then mix all the ingredients together excluding the goat cheese and tomatoes. You then pour the liquid mixture into the quiche form and crumble the goat cheese and "Topfen" on top, try spreading it out a bit (perhaps put in the goat cheese mixture first) then drop in the tomatoes and put in the oven for 12 minutes :)

This is what it looks like, I know the tomatoes look a bit silly and it might not so amazing but it was amazing! I ate it with a bit of salad and cucumber :)

Bonne Appetit and happy holidays :)

Red lentil curry

Today for lunch I cooked a red lentil curry, one of the few things I can cook which turn out great! I got this recipe from  allrecipes.com, I didn't have all the ingredients so I used what I had and made it my own.

What you'll need is;

2 cups of red lentils

1 large onion chopped up

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons curry paste

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder (didn't add this to my curry)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 teaspoon minced garlic (I used one garlic clove)

1 teaspoon minced ginger root (didn't have this either)

1 can tomato purée 

I also added two carrots, which fit in quite well!

First what I think is the most important step is to wash the lentils! If you don't wash them they'll just be gross..

Secondly measure out all the ingredients and put all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl with the garlic

Then when cooking the lentils caramalize the onions in a big pot (you'll be adding everything into there later..) once the onion's caramalized add the dry ingredients and garlic and mix on a high heat for 1-2 minutes

Add the tomato purée and the carrots and let simmer, once the lentils are cooked mix them into the pot of goodies and you're done :)

I served the curry with rice and a side salad, you could also serve it with other things.. 

Enjoy :)

Quinoa veggie burgers

 El found this great recipe online on Martha Stewart living, seeing as I'm vegetarian I couldn't wait to try this recipe so we made them straight away (through out my stay we made them a couple of times and they kept on getting better). 

What you'll need is; 

2 portobello mushrooms

1 zucchini

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup minces shallot

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

3/4 cup cooked quinoa

2 tsp salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 large egg slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs (I used pinko crumbs) and

6 whole wheat buns (we didn't end up using any buns because the burger itself is so filling) 

To spice things up we ate the burgers with some sour cream and salad!

What needs to be done;

Firstly pulse the mushrooms in a food processor and place into a mixing bowl. Grate the zucchini onto a paper towel to soak up the liquid then add to the mushrooms.

Moving on, heat up two tbsp of oil in a large pan over medium heat and add the shallot and red pepper flakes till softened, add the mushrooms and zucchini, cook till tender. Place this all into a mixing bowl, add the Parmesan, quinoa, salt and pepper. Let cool and then stir in the egg and breadcrumbs (in my case the pinko crumbs), place into the fridge and let cool for an hour.

Lastly heat up the remaining olive oil and start frying the burgers until golden brown and cooked through.

Below are a couple of photos I took whilst making these delicious things.. 

The zucchini and mushrooms mixed together

Everything in the pan

The burgers before frying 

The end product..

A close up of the burgers! 

They were delicious and I highly recommend any veggie out there to make these!

The recipe says it makes 6 burgers but we got more out of it! 

Enjoy :)

Healthy veggie mini pancakes

Today for brunch I had these mini healthy veggie pancakes with some avocado and lemon, they were delicious with the recipe I found I managed to make 7 small pancakes which was more than enough to keep me satisfied throughout the day till dinner. They're quick and easy to make, the ingredients used are mixed together in a bowl and that's it!

What you'll need is;

1 egg

2 tsp water or milk (I used water) and 

2 tbsp flour 

The recipe should normally make 8 mini pancakes but wtv.. You can then add whatever veggie you want from carrots to peas and so on. I used tomatoes and shallots which ended up being a great match!  

Here is what mine looked like mhmmm

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Lasagne with Goat Cheese, Sage and Breadcrumbs

A couple of weeks ago we had bought a couple of butternut squashes and didn't really know what to do with them so we searched and searched for a recipe till we found this one on finecooking.com and modified slightly.

It's not very hard to make but takes quite a bit of preparing and patients. So far we've made this recipe twice the first time it took us a while and the second time we were more organized and got everything prepared a couple of days before wanting to eat the lasagne.

It's delicious and worth the hard work and time..

The ingredients you'll need are;

Prawn Curry

I got this recipe from my cousin J, who saw it in a magazine (stylist UK), tore it out for me and then brought it to me in Austria. It was in Vienna, London and then sat in my suitcase for a few days until; I finally unpacked. it then sat in my apartment a few days until I did groceries and found the time to make it. So glad I did!! Thanks Juju for thinking of me.

If anyone sees a recipe that looks good, please send my way.  I'm always looking for new things to try.

So D came for dinner and I made this with the rice pilaf. In my little kitchen it was a lot on the go to make everything at once but didn't make too much of a mess. Emily joined us after and said she loved it!! yaay! In my opinion it really tastes like a dish you would get in an indian restaurant. So if you like Indian food (and frankly who doesn't?) then this is for you! It could be fun to serve with Naan bread instead of the rice.

I served it with a salad made with fresh vegetables from my vegetable share. I am a huge fan of veggie shares- and can't say enough good things about the one I get- Rochon Gardens! I remember a few years ago my roommate and I got an urban plot veggie share and it was disastrous. We litterally got a few pieces of lettuce and a few pitiful veggies. So when choosing a CSA be sure to chose a real farm!!

Okay enough about that, here's the recipe!

Saffron Rice Pilaf with Red Pepper

I apologize for the lack of updates. I was in Austria for my grandma's 90th, and then in London visiting and touring. It was so much fun. I barely cooked on my trip, but I did eat lots of delicious food. I looove the food in Austria, If I lived there i would weigh at least 500 pounds.Schnitzels, pastries, cakes, rolls, potato salad..yum yum yum.  I also had no idea London had such delicious food. I thought for some reason that the food wouldn't be good. My mistake was that British food may not be good, but Britain is filled with delicious ethnic restaurants and wonderful markets.

When I finally got a chance to get in the kitchen, I decided to make this rice pilaf to accompany a delicious clementine chicken recipe that my mom had made. The recipe is adapted from Fine Cooking that I'd bought in the airport. I was so proud of myself, because usually I fail miserably at making rice. It is either too crunchy or super mushy. I will definitely make this recipe again. We were 9 people and there was enough for everyone, but not enough for everyone to have seconds. I probably should have doubled the recipe..oh well better to leave people wanting more right?

Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroons

 I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine, it looks like there are a lot of steps but it is actually not too bad. Great little baking project for a rainy Sunday afternoon. They would make a great treat for colleagues or for a bake sale. Most people I shared them with really liked them- even D one of the pickiest eaters  I know  " I wasn't expecting to, but I really liked them". Emily and I weren't that crazy about the filling inside-  intense dark chocolate flavour- so if that's not your thing, feel free to make just the meringue parts without the filling, or just use nutella instead!