Sweet Potato Salad and Simple Salmon | You've Got Meal!

This dish started with us buying a couple of sweet potatoes before Thanksgiving,  with the thought in our minds to use them for a dish for that occasion.  Lazy as we (sometimes) are we missed the deadline,  but that doesn't mean that we couldn't make a delicious dish nonetheless.

The pairing between the sweet potato and the fresh salmon works really well, but you can choose to serve just the salad, in which case just use some smoked salmon pieces.

The ingredients for 3-4 portions (depending on who is eating them):

• 600 grams of sweet potato, cut into bite size pieces, 
•  soy sauce, 
• olive oil, 
• pepper, 
• the juice of 1 orange, 
•  pomegranate seeds, 
• 4-5 scallions,  
• sesame seeds, 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, 
• ginger, one thumb sized piece 

1. In a large bowl, mix together the potatoes with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, the same amount of olive oil and some pepper. 
2. Place the yams in oven proof tin lined with cooking paper, making sure they're not too crowded. 
3. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and mix in the tin. 
4. Put the potatoes in the oven, 170 Celsius,  for about half an hour or until the yams are done- do a taste test, they get creamy on the inside and with a slight crust on the outside. 
5. Put the potatoes on a plate and sprinkle the chopped scallions on top, same for the pomegranate seeds and the thinly sliced garlic. 
6. For the dressing mix the orange juice, 1tbs of olive oil, salt, pepper and 1/2 of a teaspoon of finely grated ginger. 
7. Pour the some of the dressing on the potatoes and mix to coat.

The salmon: we had a couple of steaks, 200 grams each.

1. Make sure they are boneless, move your hand on top of the meat, looking for anything resembling the pinch of a bone. Remove them before cooking. I've seen most of these bones especially in thicker pieces of meat. 
2. Sear the salmon on high heat, in a couple tablespoons of olive oil for 1 minute on each side. 
3. Next, pop the fish in the oven,  skin side down,  160 Celsius,  for around 10 minutes.  
4. In the last minute, pour a few drops of the salad dressing on top of the fish, and, if you feel like necessary, turn it up side down in order to get more of a crust on the meat. 
5. Don't put the orange juice too early, the sugars in it will burn.
6. Garnish the salmon with some chives and serve it with the sweet potatoes salad. 

Crazy-simple and goooood!

The fish and the yams go great together and, like I said before, you can choose to use smoked salmon. Or you can decide to use the yams as a side dish for something else.  In any case, the sweet potatoes are (even if a little late) a great Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish recipe.

Enjoy,

Leftover Fish Salad- Express Post | You've Got Meal!

I remember watching this cooking show on TV once and seeing this lady being asked what she and her family eats during the week.  She named some dishes, but there was one thing that kept being repeated: leftovers.

I honestly believe that, sometimes, we waste our food way too easily, creating waste and, at the same time, emptying our wallets. So this is why (maybe not often enough) we make a couple of easy, super fast dishes, that make most of leftover cooked foods or leftover ingredients. In our last post we cooked some haddock and had a couple pieces of fish left. One of the things we love to make when dealing with leftovers is salads, so we’re going to show you how we saved a couple of on the verge of being thrown away ingredients.

We used: 

• about 200 grams of haddock fillets, 
• 1 ripe avocado, 
• a salad mix (of your choice, or you can just use the leaves that you have in your fridge as long as they are eatable fresh), 
• the juice of 1 lemon, 
• olive oil, 
• chives, 
• rosemary, 
• 1 garlic clove, 
• salt, pepper.

Heat up some olive oil and throw a rosemary twig in there. Cook the fillets until they can be easily broken into flakes. Arrange the salad  mix in a plate (we had iceberg, red cabbage and carrots mix) and flake the fish on top. Finely slice a garlic clove and do the same to the avocado, add to the salad and fish. Pour the lemon juice and a good splash of olive oil, salt and pepper. Garnish with some chopped chives. And, the most important part of the recipe, open up a chilled bottle of Prosecco, pour yourself a glass and enjoy your leftovers. Because, sometimes, these can truly be the star of a meal.  

Enjoy,

Vegetable Stir Fry with Crispy Pork | You've Got Meal!

We are posting the recipe knowing that it might mean the beginning of the end for a lot of Chinese take away restaurants. Yes, people, YOUVEGOTMEAL is showing you how they make it so you can just do it yourself. Well, us and a lot of other people online, but why would you listen to renowned chefs? Now, modesty and everything behind us let’s get cracking.

For the vegetables you will need : 

• 1 red bell pepper, 
• 2 medium carrots, 
• 1 medium onion, 
• 1 thumb sized ginger, 
• 1 tbs. of five spice, 
• 1 medium hot chili, 
• 2 tbs. of dark sugar, 
• 1-2 tbs. fish sauce, 
• 2-3 tbs. soy sauce, pepper, peanut or sesame oil. 

For the meat : 

• 150 grams of pork (we had some meat from a shoulder cut that we cleaned the fat from), 
• salt, 
• pepper, 
• vegetable oil, 
• 100 grams of corn starch.

As per usual, a couple of notes before starting this dish. The title does  say crispy pork, but you can choose to just add the meat to the veggies in the stir fry and be done with it. I honestly think that cooking it separately and keeping the crunch factor brings a more special note to the whole dish.

The way we did this was by making the pork 1^st because it was a little more time consuming (compared to a stir fry, not a lot of things aren’t). Cut the meat into equal strips, and this is important because when you are dealing with quick cooking you want everything to be done at the same time and not have pieces of the same meal differently cooked. Next, season the pork with salt and pepper – easy on the salt. Run the meat through the corn starch, making sure the strips are well coated. Shake off any excess starch (it will burn badly in the oil) and cook the meat in a heavy base pan in which you have heated some vegetable oil to the blazing hot point. Cook for 3 minutes on each side or until it gets a golden color. Remove the meat from the oil onto some paper towels.  

Next, cut the pepper and carrots in sticks making sure they all have the same size. Slice the onion julienne style, clean and grate the ginger, slice the chili. Heat a couple tbs. of oil in your wok and fry the all the cut vegetables for 1 minute, until the carrots barely start softening. Next pop in the sugar, 5 spice and some grinded pepper and mix everything for another minute, making sure the vegetables are covered in the sugar and spice.  Add the soy and fish sauce, coat the veggies for another 30 seconds and remove from heat. You can add the meat to the vegetables at this point, but keep in mind that it you won’t get the same crispy outcome.

Serve the meat and the vegetables on top of some basmati rice, sprinkle some more soy sauce on top if needed.

Enjoy,

Beer Bread- Simple Recipe | You've Got Meal!

For some time, I've been saving on Pinterest some recipes for simple, beer bread. I never tried it before, although I am a big fan of homemade bread that does not require yeast and a lot of time. I was really curious to see if you could identify the taste of beer in the bread. The outcome was worth it!

What is great about the recipe is that it requires just a few ingredients, it is super easy to make and it is not time-consuming. The preparation it takes less than 15 minutes and after baking you have a great bread you made and of course, a lovely homemade bread smell for your kitchen. Who does not find that comforting, especially now that winter is knocking on our door?

Ingredients:

• 350 g all purpose flour
• 50 g rye flour (optional, or you can use 400 g ap flour )
• 125 g sugar
• 330 ml beer
• 2 tbsp melted butter

When I started making the dough I realized I didn't have enough flour so I also used some rye flour, but you can use all purpose flour only.

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the beer and the sugar. The resulting dough will be sticky. Place it in a buttered loaf tin or use some baking sheet if it makes you feel safer. I used baking sheet and it turned out ok. Place it in the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes take it out and pour the melted butter on top and return it in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.

My oven has some issues, being old and grumpy, and it tends to burn in the back, but that only affected the aesthetics of it all, the taste being amazing.

No, it does not taste like beer :), but rather like sugar. It is a bread more on the sweet side, perfect for some butter and jam. I have to say I will try it with less sugar and maybe some added salt and other flavors and keep you posted. Considering the minimum effort and the total cost of this bread it is a recipe to try and to save, the bread actually makes itself.

Enjoy,

Roasted Red Peppers Cream Soup

Sadly, it is that time of the year... we start to think about comfort food, warming stews, creamy soups and slow roasting. Me, personally, I will cling on to summer as much as I can, I'm just not a winter girl.

This recipe is perfect for every season, it is creamy and warming served hot in the colder days, but also quite light and silky served at room temperature in the summer.

You only need a few ingredients, you can go all vegetarian if you want, or you can add some cream  for more consistency.
5-6 roasted red peppers
2 small onions
2 bay leaves
3 springs of thyme
2 tbs olive oil
1 l vegetable or chicken stock
5 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
optional- cream for garnishing
optional- hot sauce or chilli flakes

Start by roasting the peppers. if you choose to roast them in the oven, also add the unpeeled garlic cloves in the tray. 15 minutes should be enough for the peppers and the garlic to be roasted. You can also roast the peppers on a grill or on a special oven top tray.

After roasting, peel the peppers and cut each one in half, removing the stem and the seeds. Also, squeeze the garlic out of the cloves and place it separately.

Heat up the oil in a large sauce pan and add the onion, the bay leaves and the thyme leaves from 2 springs. Cook this for 5-10 minutes, until the onion softens, add the stock, about 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 pepper, the garlic and the peppers. Cover, reduce heat and let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

Check for salt, turn off the heat, remove the bay leaves and with a hand blender or a food proccesor blend until smooth and creamy.

Serve in bowls and garnish with some cream (optional) and the remaining thyme spring. It is a wonderful dish and the smell of roasted peppers is irresistable to me, so it gets extra points for that. :) It is also so simple to make, you barely need any cooking skills and it is healthy. You can serve it with croutons, or if you want to fancy it up and impress someone you can also put together some parmesan crostini or garlic bread for added flavor.

Enjoy,

Hummus

Ah, hummus, one of those foods that I just love to have around. It’s so versatile and keeps for long enough to be savored along side meats, vegetables or just plain and simple with some olive oil and pita bread. And seeing as I always keep in our fridge some tahini paste, that proved to be rather handy when we decided to have a nice hummus meal. This recipe is so easy that, literally, anyone can do it. 

Honestly, I think that hummus is one of those basic world-wide famous recipes that can be cooked, at different levels, of course, by both experienced or novice foodies (avoided to say chefs/cooks here because they can make hummus in their sleep). The main things that you need here are a food processor and tahini paste, which is basically a thick sesame paste that gives the flavor to the mashed chickpeas that make the body of the hummus: my idea is the more the better, and I love that slightly nutty, maybe a bit heavy taste to a tahini rich hummus. 

Of course, you need to balance that, and you use 2 things: garlic and lemon juice. For the chickpeas, you can either go with the canned, pre-boiled ones, in which case you can pop them straight into the blender/food processor, or you can boil you own. In this case, I suggest leaving the beans to soak in cold water over night, it really helps the boiling. You’ll know the chickpeas are done when you take one out and you can easily mash it with your fingers (I have to say here, I honestly don’t think chickpeas can be over boiled or that would be bad for hummus). So, chickpeas in, add the tahini paste (for 500 grams of boiled beans I put in 6 big tbs. of paste), the juice of 1 and a half lemon, 3 crushed garlic cloves, 4 tbs. of olive oil, about 2-3 tbs. of salt and water (you can use some of the water you cooked the chickpeas in).

Blitz everything together and taste frequently for taste and check for thickness, adding more water if necessary (you want it to have a thick oatmeal consistency). The way I like to eat this is with a lot of sumac, which also has a light sour note and gives a beautiful color and with some good quality olive oil, and pita bread. Feel free to add some extra ingredients to the mix or on top, after (mint, paprika, parsley, some fat yoghurt, etc., go crazy and try different combinations).

Also for this meal, we decided to make some salad, also inspired by another Levant classic, fattoush. You’ll love this dish it has intense taste, a good level of sourness and some nice crunch, and it all mixes incredibly with the hummus. Details in the next post.

Enjoy,

Lazy Dinner for the Working Men: Sauteed Chicken Livers with Parmesan Polenta

Behind the title: something simple but filling for those long and exhausting weekday evenings when you come home from work and you just don't want to cook, but you want something cooked and you don't want to spend much time on it because you don't have much time and you don't want to spend a lot of money on ingredients because you are tired and you might mess them up.

Cauliflower and Cumin Fritter with Lemon Yogurt Dip- Appetizers August (5)

To keep going (rather slow) with our Appetizers August, I was thinking of a nice dish with vegetables, to take advantage of the summer goodies. Cauliflower is not something I always loved, when I was a kid I would only eat it pickled. Now, we came to better terms and I appreciated now.

I always like when I think of a vegetable to know at least 3 totally different ways to cook it. Fritters and patties are always a nice solutions, you can serve them cold, you can pay with size and serve them as appetizers, you can take them the next day to work/school for lunch. So, I found in Ottolenghi, The Cookbook a recipe that was promised to be very flavorful.

I followed the recipe completely and I'm showing it to you exactly like that.

Eggplant Ricotta Bites- Appetizers August (2)

To start on an honest note, I have to say at first I wanted to cook eggplant rolls filled with ricotta, but I got really lazy and I tried to find a different solution. And I found an idea, obviously, on the Foodnetwork site.

This turned out to be perfect, because I had some gorgeous white eggplant, but it was a short fatty :), so not very suitable for rolls. That is why you can notice the slices are kind of big, not actually bite-size, but you get the picture, if you have guest coming over and your eggplants are normal size and shape you will get the perfect bites, delicious and fresh.

Let's get down to business! You will need to cut the eggplant into rather thin round slices and salt them.
To fry them you will need to put together 3 bowls: the first one with flour, the second one with 2 beaten eggs and the latter with 1 part grated parmesan and 3 parts breadcrumbs.

Heat up some oil in a skillet. To get your eggplant slices ready for frying, toss them in flour, then in the eggs, them in the parmesan-breadcrumbs mix. Fry them until they turn golden brown, about 1 minute to each side. They can burn pretty fast, so make sure you check. Also, I found it necessary to add more oil between batches.

Beet-pickled Deviled Eggs- Appetizers August (1)

I have a great fascination for appetizers, they are highly appreciated at every party, they look good, they are usually finger food and it is easy to make an impression. It is a pity we don't make them often enough for ourselves.

Personally, I find that, at parties, especially wedding parties, I am only impressed by or drawn to appetizers. Maybe because you can have more flavors and tastes on one plate and my greedy, exploring taste buds appreciate that. With that in mind, I am going to dedicate this hot month to those simple bites that prepare us for the main course.

 

For today, I put together  some deviled eggs with goose pate, that as a bonus, are also mildly pickled with beet.

First, you will need to hard-boil 10 eggs and remove the shell.

For preparing the pickled eggs you will need:

1 red beet
1 onion
3 cups water
1 cup white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp sugar

Bring this to o boil, then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Let it cool completely and then cover the boiled eggs with this mixture. In order for the eggs to get a nice colour you will need to let them in the beet water for at least 1 hour, and for a great taste also it need 2 hours. You can also let it sit overnight it is more convenient for you. The more you let it, the more color you will have when you cut them in half.

For the filling I used:

100g goose pate
2 tbsp sweet mustard
2 tbsp pickled horseradish (also beet-pickled)
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Mix all the ingredients above. Of course, you can use your usual horseradish, it happened that I had one with beets and more pink couldn't possibly hurt. If you don't have horseradish at all you can use a spicier mustard or you can just skip it alltogether for a sweeter finish.


When your mixture is ready and you are satisfied with its consistency, fill the eggs halves and garnish as you like.You could make it less thick with mayo or cream, but taste wise is definitely better without and they last longer to.

Don't they look good? Trust me, they are also very tasty and if you boil your eggs and the beet the day before it doesn't take much time or effort to put it together when you need it.

Enjoy,