Broccoli and Anchovies Tagliatelle | You've Got Meal!

This recipe is about using some of the most common items in your pantry, in order to create a super simple and easy to cook fresh pasta recipe that is sure to give you a lift after a hard day’s work or accompany a nice glass of Pinot Grigio for brunch.

The ingredients are: 

• Tagliatelle, of course (home made from 200 grams of flour and 2 eggs, quantities that make enough for 3), 
• 8-9 anchovies fillets, 
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, 
• 400 grams of broccoli florets, 
• about 100 grams of red pepper (we used the Kapia for this because of the shape), 
• 50 grams of capers, 
• the juice from half a lemon, 
• salt, pepper, chili flakes,
• fennel leaves or parsley for garnish

We talked a lot about homemade pasta in past posts, and we most certainly hope that you guys give it a try because it’s definitely worth the extra effort. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil; it should be big enough to give both the pasta and the broccoli room to boil. I suggest starting with the sauce (if you can call it that) after the water starts boiling as it takes very little time and you want the pasta done in time. So, in heavy base large frying pan, heat up some olive oil on medium heat and pop in the sliced peppers and anchovies, cook them until the fish dissolves in the hot oil, it will take about 3 minutes. Again, keep in mind that you need to synchronize your pasta with the anchovies very well. 

For the homemade tagliatelle the cooking time was about 5 minutes, so we added the pasta to the water at the same moment as we started cooking the fillets. So, next, add the garlic and capers in the oil and cook for 1 minute. At the same time pop the broccoli in the pasta water and cook the vegetable and the tagliatelle for 1 minute – you want to sync the capers&garlic with the broccoli. After that, use whatever kitchen tool you need to remove the broccoli and pasta and put them in the anchovy pan. Mix the ingredients well so the tagliatelle are covered by the anchovy flavored oil. Remove from heat and sprinkle the lemon juice on the whole thing, feel free to add more if you find it necessary. For garnish you can use some parsley leaves, but we went for some fennel.

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.

Fried Shrimp and Spicy Broccoli

This recipe is one of the first ones that made us into thinking we should make a blog and one of the recipes we like cooking the most. It’s a very easy to make, delicious and packs a lot of flavor. And, hey, you’re eating broccoli, that’s gotta be healthy for you.

For the shrimps, we used frozen (500 grams), but you can use fresh. The idea of cooking the seafood is that you will both boil and fry it for short periods of time, so it doesn’t over cook.

Lemon and Garlic Chicken- Slow Roasted Goodness

This turned out to be the perfect dish for us during this weekend. The time spent preparing the ingredients is minimum, but the result is perfect. While the chicken is cooking, you have time to watch some bad TV to do other things around the house, but because is slow roasted, the chicken is very tender and juicy, so nobody will complain.

You use few ingredients, but with great impact and flavor:
1 free range chicken, cut into pieces
2 lemons, cut into chunks (we peeled most of the skin because it was very waxed)
7-8 garlic cloves
some thyme
1 glass of white wine
3 tbsp oil

Place the chicken in an oven tin, add the garlic, thyme and lemon, then the oil and rub the chicken on all sides to soak in the flavors, then pour the white wine. 

Cover the tin with foil and put in a preheated oven for 2 hours at low heat, as Nigella suggests :).

After 2 hours, remove the foil and let the chicken cook for another 45 minutes, at medium-high heat this time.
As you can see, we used free range chicken, it was pretty wild, a fatty compared to the ones we usually find in stores. The skin is thicker and it won't win first place in looks, but the taste is so much better. Cooking it this way just brings out the best in it.

The lemon, alongside the wine and the slow roasting, makes the chicken sooo tender, but also caramelises the skin in the end, when the foil has been removed. Delish!!! Try to think of a reason not to try it....see? No reason not to try it.

Enjoy,

Express Post: Simple Green Bean Side Dish

I will start by saying that Mr. G. is really a little obsessed with green beans. He could have them as a stew, with or without meat, boiled in a salad, in soups and so on. Actually, I think is pretty cool considering that green beans are good for you, they are rich in beta-carotene (pretty surprising), lutein, B vitamins and antioxidants. Not to mention they are so easy to cook.

No wonder that, in the summer, using fresh green beans as a side dish becomes such an easy solution. Just boil them and season them however you like, complementing the taste of your main dish.

We served it with some Italian style meatballs that will be in the next post and we kept it simple, just drizzled some olive oil on top, salt and pepper, parsley and some thin garlic strips.

Enjoy,

Oven Baked Whiting with Fennel Fondue

We bought this fish for the 1st time and wanted to see if it’s worth keeping it on our sights. The price was a reasonable one and the fish proved to be a quite tasty one, so we will be cooking it again for sure.



When trying new types of fish, I tend not to overdo it, just keep cooking to a minimum, so I can really taste the meat, in a very natural form, without overshadowing it with too many flavors.



So I just cleaned the fish (we had 2 whiting fish, about 250 grams each), drizzled it with some olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and I popped in a hot oven, in a tray with some oven proof paper, for around 10 minutes. For the fennel, I used 1 onion, 1 fennel (reserve the leaves for garnishing), 3-4 cloves of garlic, 200 ml of dry white wine, in this case a 2010 Chenin Blanc form South Africa, some lemongrass, 75 grams of butter, salt, red pepper, sugar, lemon, cream (optional).



Start of by melting the butter and cooking the sliced onion, fennel, and garlic on high heat for 2 minutes, then turn the stove down to a minimum, add the sugar, lemon grass, salt and pepper and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add the wine, and let it reduce. After that you can add some cream and mix for another minute, but I preferred to do this without it. Plate the fish and the fennel, sprinkle generously with lemon juice and fennel leaves.



Enjoy,

Spicy Chicory (Endive), Bacon and Egg Pasta

And many other things! Seriously, I’m proud of this recipe for a simple reason: it is our 1^st original (I hope, the internet is big and I’m too lazy to search it all) pasta recipe, and we love pasta. So let me get cracking. 

For our home made spaghetti (3 portions), we used 

2 chicories, 

250 grams of smoked bacon, 

2 eggs, 

4-5 medium hot chillies, 

3 garlic cloves, 

3-4 peaches, 

parsley, 

salt & pepper, 

olive oil, 

parmesan.

This needs a couple of things to be done at the same time, but you can always cook those ingredients in advance (like 30 minutes or an hour, not the day before). So, start of by frying the bacon cut into cubes for 5 minutes, then add the chicories (slice them however you want, but remove the middle, I, at least, found it too bitter for my liking) and sliced garlic. Cook for another 4 minutes.

. Remember when I said that you can have things cooked in advance? Well, for the chillies, you need to roast them and you can do that in advance. After you remove their burned skin, remove the seeds if they are too hot and cut the roasted chilies into strips. Also, the peaches need to be grilles, so cut them in halves and then into 3 each half and grill them on an ultra hot grill for 2 minutes on each side. The fruits will get some very nice grill marks and, because of their sweetness and delicate flavor, will balance with the bitter taste of the chicory. Make sure the fruits aren’t all that mushy, keep them firm.

So, mix the bacon, chicory, garlic, chili, peaches, salt, pepper on the fire for another minute. Add the pasta, cooked al dente, about 50 ml of the pasta cooking water. Meanwhile, poach the eggs and have them ready to be placed on top of the plated pasta, after you’ve sprinkled some parmesan, olive oil and parsley on them. The idea behind this is that the soft yolk will also serve as a sauce that binds the spaghetti together.

So, there you have it, my 1^st try at a recipe and, I have to say, it couldn’t have been anything else except pasta. The result was an interesting dish, with flavors that combined pretty nicely. I guess you can add or remove things from this, but, overall, we were happy with the outcome.

Have a great day,

Express Post: Garlic and Thyme Bread

Ok, some maybe some of you read one of our most recent posts and saw a crispy looking bread behind that mouthwatering fish stew. 

So, as to have the complete picture, we decided to bring the bread also in the spotlight, it most certainly deserves it. We saw this being made by Jaime Oliver and, despite not being more than some glorified bread, it really went well with the stew.

So just grab a ciabatta or another type of medium-density bread and make cuts along the length and width of the loaf, so that you create some sort of cubes. Be careful not to cut all the way through. Stuff sliced or crushed garlic and fresh thyme leaves (even better, flowers) in the created spaces.

Sprinkle a generous amount of olive oil on top and pop it in the preheated oven (“full whack” as Jamie would say) for around 10 minutes. We went for a crispy outcome, you can always reduce your cooking time. So there you have it, garlic and thyme bread, easy mode, super tasty and with many more possibilities of adding flavors like rosemary, sundried tomatoes, zucchini or just herbed oil.

Enjoy,
Mr. G. 

Beef Strips with Worchester Sauce Coating and Oven Baked Vegetables

Talk about a long title. Nonetheless, it was the only (reasonable) title that I could think of without sounding silly (not that is a genuine concern of mine). Again, this dish is one that represents one of my core beliefs about cooking: versatility. This meat you can cook and use for salads, serving as steaks, sandwiches or wraps and it’s super easy to make (you can also cook it in advance and store it for a day or two), and the vegetables make it justice with a simple saffron yogurt dressing (oh, yeah, the title could have been longer).

So, the meat, use a 3-4 cm thick piece of beef, that would be nice to be flat and even. Season your meat with some pepper, toss it in your dried herbs of choice (you can use rosemary, thyme, parsley, coriander, tarragon) and pop it in a preheated pan with 2 tbs of olive oil. The reason for using a less thick piece of meat is because we are gonna turn it once every minute or so for about 5 minutes, so we kinda make sure that the heat stays in all the time and it doesn’t dissipate through the meat. 

So, on high heat, meat in, turn it every minute for 5-6 minutes, depending on your desired taste and meat size and then add a generous amount of Worchester sauce (4-5 tbs). The thing is the sauce will caramelize very fast, and you need to make sure you coat the meat with it on both sides. After that, take the meat out and let it rest. 

For the veggies, it’s a matter of choice, I went with carrots, courgette (both diced), onion (sliced in rings), and I also used 3 garlic heads (I used a sort of baby garlic, not that it was small in size, but it was very young, without all of layers formed, it has a much sweeter taste with a bit of a green, grassy take). Mix everything (except the garlic) with some olive oil, salt and pepper and put them (including the garlic) in an oven, on high heat, for 20-25 minutes, after which you just have to put the veggies on a plate and sprinkle some chopped parsley on top. 

For the sauce, heat a up a tiny amount of water (couple of tbs), put in a pinch of saffron and let it infuse for 3-4 minutes. Then, in a pestle squish and bash with a mortar the contents of a baked garlic head (you’ll have a sort of a baked garlic puree, one of the most delicious things ever discovered), then put in the saffron infusion (condiments included), 1tbs olive oil, 150 grams of yogurt (I used the greek type, with 10% fat) and mix everything into a beautiful dressing for the meat.

And, hey, if you don’t feel like sitting at the table for this dish, then don’t: just grab yourselves a tortilla wrap, put the meat, veggies and sauce in and take it on the go, either way, it’s delicious. 

Enjoy,

Mr. G.

Paccheri Pasta with Broccoli and Anchovy Garlic Sauce

A perfect light dinner!

First of all, the paccheri pasta are very impressive, they make the dish special. They are similar to the calamarata type, large, tube shaped pasta.

So, we took a break from pasta homemaking and decided to keep this simple an full of flavour.

For the sauce you just have to saute the olive oil and garlic (do not burn the garlic), then add the anchovies and they will break into pieces as you stir. One might say they even melt. :) Add salt if necessary.

Paccheri pasta + boiled and seasoned broccoli + sauce + parmesan/ lemon juice = you're done

You can serve it with parmesan, but we also tried it with lemon only and liked it better.

Paste Pachheri cu broccoli si sos de ansoa si usturoi

Cina light perfecta! In primul rand, pastele paccheri sunt foarte impresionante si fac aceasta reteta foarte speciala. Sunt similare cu calamarata, paste foarte mari cu forma de tub. Deci, am luat o pauza de la paste facute in casa si am decis sa facem un fel simplu si plin de savoare. Pentru sos, trebuie sa caliti putin usturoiul in ulei de masline, fara sa il aredtei, apoi adaugati ansoa care se va farama in timp ce amestecati. Putem spune chiar ca se topeste. :) adaugati sare doar daca mai e necesar. Paste paccheri + broccoli fiert si asezonat + sos + parmezan/ suc lamaie = Gata! De fapt, ne-a placut mai mult cu lamaie decat cu parmezan.

Enjoy!

Fried Sardines and Garlic Sauce

The easiest way to eat fish. The sardines are fried in maize flour after being seasoned.
Served with crushed garlic + lemon juice + olive oil + salt.
Ideally, you would would also have some polenta around.

15 minutes meal for busy weekdays.

Sardine prajite cu sos de usturoi

Cel mai usor mod de a servi peste. Condimentat cu sare si piper, dat prin malai si prajit in ulei.

Servit cu usturoi pisat + suc de lamaie + ulei de masline + sare.

O masa gata in 15 minute pentru zilele de lucru aglomerate.

xoxo

Grilled fish with artichoke heart

Seasoned fish, grilled.
Boiled and seasoned artichokes.
Garlic and yoghurt sauce.
Sorry about the lighting.

Enjoy!
xo