M&M Cookies | You've Got Meal!

Everybody loves cookies. They are a great dessert, guilty and yummy snacks, great companions for tea or coffee and nice edible gifts. The good thing is that they are easy to make, don't require that much time and (almost) everytime look amazing.

You could say that M&M cookies are a fun way to make chocolate chip cookies. And it is so much fun because of the colors, the simplicity and the continuous snacking on M&Ms while baking.

Once you've tried them, you will look for excuses and reasons to bake a batch of these. What better occasion than Christmas Eve? I bet even Santa will love these with milk in exchange of gifts and even the kids can help you out, just be careful they don't eat all the M&Ms before.

Speaking of Santa, do you remember that M&Ms Christmas commercial when the M&Ms met Santa and Santa fainted? That is a classic, so funny, and it is amazing how they still air it and people still love it!

Getting on with the recipe, the ingredients you will need are:

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups M&Ms

Make sure you leave enough space between them as they have to tendency to "hug", as shown above

1. With a hand mixer cream the butter (it should be at room temperature), add the sugars and cream some more.
2. Add the aggs and the vanilla extract and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients: cornstarch, salt, baking powder and flour.
4. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, scrape the sides if neccesary.
5. With a spatula, slowly mix in the stars of the show, the M&Ms.

That is basically it, your batter is done.
Of course, you will need to bake the cookies.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper and either with a spoon or (even better) with an ice cream scoop form balls and bake them for 10 minutes, in a preheated oven, at medium-high temperature until they turn golden.
Be carefull especially with the late batches, not to burn them, because the tray is hot, the oven is super heated so they might not need 10 minutes.

Let them cool on a wire rack and store them in an airtight container or a pretty Christmas cookie box. I do like to try some warm ones because the candies are so "melty", but I like them best the next day with a huuuuuuge cup of cold milk. 'Tis the season for hot drinks too, so be free to dip them in some hot chocolate or enjoy them with tea.


Enjoy,

Fish in Puff Pastry (Julia Child style) | You've Got Meal!

I’m actually super excited about writing this post, it was a wonderful thing to cook and the making of the pastry, although fairly time consuming and not easy, is incredibly fulfilling. Could be just me, but I just loved making the pastry and using it here.  I took the recipe for the puff pastry from this site.

It’s thoroughly explained and detailed and I followed every step there. I’m going to try and give you as much feedback as I can, but let’s be honest you’ll probably check Julia Child and Michel Richard. For my pastry I used half the quantities given by the 2 masters as I didn’t need all that much pastry.  

• 375 grams of all purpose flour, 
• 150 ml of ice cold water, 
• 200 grams of cold butter, 
• 1 tsp. of salt. 

They say all over the internet that the trick behind making pastry is respecting the temperature of the ingredients and there is no room for error there. The way Child makes the pastry is by first creating a dough from the flour, ice cold water and salt. A food processor does do the trick, but I used a whisk and my hands. 

1. First note here – try and use your hands at least as possible as they will heat the dough and, especially, the butter. 
2. After the dough was done, I let it cool in the fridge for 15 minutes, covered in some paper towels. 
3. For the butter, place it between  2 cling films and press it down to a 1,5 cm thickness – give it the form of a square and put in the fridge. Like I said before, limit the direct use of your hands. Also the faster you work, the more steps you can make before having to return the pastry in the fridge. 
4. Take the dough, place it on well floured, clean, dry and flat work surface and shape it in a square shape, about ½ half bigger than the butter square. 
5. Next, with your rolling pin, create sort of flaps form the corners of the dough – those wedges will be thinner and the middle will remain thicker. 
6. Place the butter in the middle of the dough and cover it with the thinned down corners. The thing I did next was to fold the dough one more time, creating something like a rectangle or a book. Keep the work surface well floured. When butter popped out of different places in the dough (and trust me it sure did) I just sprinkled some flour on top. 
7. Next, create another square by rolling the dough with your pin, make the same flaps as before and repeat the folding process.  I only did 2 of those at a time, keeping the pastry for 40 minutes in the fridge. In total I made 6 folds-I would have done more, but it was getting kind of late and I was hungry. 
8. Keep the pastry in the fridge until you are ready to cook it. 

Now, I think, vaguely, I said something about some fish? I got a little carried away with the pastry, so let me get to the filling.

• 3 pieces of perch, 100 grams each (cod works just as well, like sea bass or sea bream), 
• 3 pieces of leek (the white part) cut into slices, 
• 1 chili- optional, 
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, 
• parsley, 
• dill, 
• salt, pepper and olive oil. 

1. Start of by cooking the leek – you can do this while the pastry cools in the fridge. This way will also give you the time you need for the leek to cool, as it needs to be this way before being put in the pastry. Cooking the vegetable is super easy, on medium-low heat sauté the leek (and the finely chopped chili- if you choose to add it) in 3 tbs of olive oil for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
2. Crush the garlic with some salt in a mortar, add 50 grams of water on top, mix and pour the garlic in the leak pot. Cook until the liquid has evaporated and the leak has softened enough to create a base for the fish to have under. 

You can now begin to assemble your dish, roll a sheet of pastry, about 0.5 cm thick, big enough to fit your piece of fish. Place some leek on the dough, the fish on top, sprinkle some salt (careful here, remember that the leeks have also been salted), pepper and some whole leaves of parsley and dill. Close the dough creating (in my case) a wallet. Brush the dough with some whisked egg white, this will close the pocket and it will give a nice shine to the dish. Place the fish in a preheated oven, on medium high heat for 15-17 minutes or until the pastry has a golden- slightly brown color.

The result is a versatile dish, that can be served warm or at room temperature, you can make it in smaller portions and serve it as an appetizer. Use some fresh, crunchy boiled green beans as a side dish, or maybe similar mange tout. Give yourself the time (and the courage) to try and make the dough, it will be worth it. If you’re in a hurry, use some premade frozen pastry and just follow the instructions on the package. Whichever way you approach, you can be assured that this French themed dish is a definite keeper in your kitchen. 

Enjoy,

Easy Chestnut Gnocchi Recipe | You've Got Meal!

It is entirely Mrs. G's merit for introducing chestnuts in our kitchen and it was a stroke of inspirations from her. We first ate the woody fruit boiled and, although I have to admit my reticence, I really enjoyed the sweet, nutty,  taste of the chestnut. And, from that to gnocchi there was just one more step.

Chestnut gnocchi is a dish cooked in North Italy, in the mountainous region where wheat flour was often substituted with chestnut flour or buckwheat flour (Pizzoccheri della Valtellina comes to mind here). The gnocchi is really easy to make, either with pureed fruit or with flour, depending on what you can get your hands on. There isn’t much of a difference in texture or taste, but you have to keep in mind the fact that if you boil the chestnuts and mash them, they will have some water left in them. If using flour, also use potatoes (boiled or baked) and replace the wheat flour (all or part of it) with the chestnut flour.

Anyway, this the way we made the gnocchi: 

• 300 grams of blitzed (in a blender) boiled chestnuts, 
• 200 grams of wheat flour,
• 1 egg, 
• a healthy splash of a good quality, fruity olive oil, 
• salt.

1. Mix all the ingredients together, adding more water if necessary to make the dough. Knead it until you get a silky outcome and let the dough rest in the fridge for half an hour. Quick note here: love the color of this gnocchi – dark brown, similar to a classic toffee. 
2. Next, we split the dough into 4, and worked each piece into a, let’s call it snake form, 2 cm thick. 
3. Cut each string of rolled dough in equal 2-3 cm gnocchi dollops. 
4. In order to give them the classic look, roll each gnocchi on the back of a (preferably long) fork. 
5. In order to cook the pasta, bring to a boil a nice amount of salted water and put in it some gnocchi, put make sure you don’t overcrowd the pot, they will need room to rise and cook – I kept mine around 4 minutes longer after they’ve raised to the surfaced. 
6. Remove from the pot and let them steam for 2 minutes.

 

You know from previous posts that we enjoyed the butter-sage mix for the gnocchi, so we decided to play it safe for our first chestnut cooking attempt. 

1. Melt 75 grams of butter on medium heat and cook 2-3 tbs. of chopped sage in it for 30 seconds. 
2. Pop the gnocchi in the pan and mix well in order to make sure it is well coated with the sage and butter, cook for 2-3 minutes. 
3. Plate and grate a fair amount of Pecorino Romano, maybe add a tiny splash of olive oil. 

As a couple of conclusions to this dish, I have to say that chestnut gnocchi is not a bad option at all from the classic recipe, I would come back to it on special occasions, but I think I would stick to the spuds for the “everyday” gnocchi. 

The sweet and nutty taste is something special and it does give a rather unique feel to the whole dish -  also quite filling, I couldn’t eat my usual portion of pasta. And it does have the wow factor when presented at a dinner table, so keep that in mind when trying to figure out a menu for an occasion like that. 

Enjoy,

Beef Steak with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

One of our favorite dinners in the YOUVEGOTMEAL kitchen is a tender, juicy, delicious beef tenderloin steak. And when paired with some crispy on the outside, tender on the inside potatoes, these 2 make for a memorable dinner (red wine also helps- it ALWAYS helps). We had 3 pieces of beef, about 150 grams each, 500 grams of potatoes, cut into wedges and washed 2-3 times in cold water, 4-5 garlic cloves, a couple tbs. of fresh rosemary, olive oil, 2-3 tbs. of red vinegar, salt, pepper. 

This whole meal screams comfort food, and you can choose to add some ingredients both to the meat or to the spuds -  for example use some herbs to crust the meat or change the flavor package for the potatoes (I’m gonna get to that in a while). 

Take the meat out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before cooking it, heat up a non-stick pan with 2-3 tbs of olive oil and fry the steak on medium-high heat for 1 minute on all sides. Next, pop the meat in the same pan that you’ve seared it in for 7-10 minutes (depending on how rare you want it)- make sure the pan doesn’t have plastic components.

The potatoes- put them in salted water and boil them for 7 minutes, then remove them and let them steam for 3 minutes- make sure you give each wedge plenty of room. Next, put the potatoes in an oven tray, again, making sure, they have enough room, and give them a small splash of olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook the potatoes on medium heat for 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, lightly crush the garlic cloves and mix them with the rosemary leaves and the vinegar, plus a little more olive oil. Sprinkle this mix on top of the potatoes and cook them for another 10 minutes. 

We served everything with a fresh and crispy salad made of salad leaves (something lettuga bowl) and  endives with a simple lemon-olive oil dressing. Sometimes, less is more, even in the kitchen.

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,

Homemade Lamb Burgers "a la Purple" | You've Got Meal!

Take that for a title, internet! Honestly I had no idea what to call this other than lamb burgers, but it does have a powerful purple touch because of the veggies used. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

For 400 grams of minced lamb meat, prepare an infusion of spices: smoked paprika, ground ginger, cardamom, garlic powder, salt, pepper.

Also, mix in the burger meat a small amount of olive oil  and 1 egg or 2, this will help bind the lamb together. The rest of the burger components are red onion, beet, fries and a yogurt- garlic sauce that I will get to a bit later.

The onion and the beet I’ve cooked in the oven (just clean them, wrap them in some thin foil with some olive oil and salt, cook the onion for 20 minutes and the beet for twice more- I had a big beet) . This will give you sweet, juicy vegetables that bright up the plate. Oh, and the fries you just make them by frying potatoes, I think J.

We also served the burgers with sime small tempura zucchini, that turned out really nice, semi-crunchy and fresh..

A quick note here: I didn’t have and I was too lazy to go buy, but some crispy iceberg salad and fresh tomatoes work really well here.

Now, the sauce:  greek yogurt, salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, a crushed clove of garlic, finely chopped mint. Mix everything together, balancing the oil and the lemon juice.

Place all the components in a warmed bun, grab a cold beer (a chilly Spitfire works for me with these burgers) and remember summer. It’s only 6 months before it comes back again….. L

Enjoy,