Chicken and Avocado Wrap | You've Got Meal!

 

The previous post was all about making the most out of chicken leftovers. A salad is always a great way to use them, but let's not forget about the wrap. Probably my favorite choice for lunches at the office. Just like in a salad, you can incorporate a lot of healthy options in a wrap, but also add lots of flavor.

We used the rest of the roasted chicken we talked about and add one by one:

• half of avocado (mashed with a fork)
• some fresh red onion rings
• some hot pepper slices
• some thin slices of tomatoes
• cress leaves
• yogurt based dressing

For the yogurt dressing I used:

• 150 ml yogurt
• the juice from 1/2 lemon
• finely chopped parsley leaves
• 1 crushed garlic clove (optional)

Adding the avocado and cress leaves and using yogurt instead of mayonnaise is a great healthy choice and I can guarantee you will not lose taste and flavor.

Enjoy,

Roast Chicken Salad | You've Got Meal!

This week we had a great organic chicken to cook and for such a beauty we had to make a roast,a simple, full of flavor whole chicken roast. There is only the two of us in this household, so we can't be done with a whole roasted chicken in one dinner, so the next day we had to use the leftovers in a fresh and healthy salad.

This is also a great way to take some of the previous evening dinner at the office for lunch. Plus, it happens to all of us, once the spring arrives we just want to make the most of those beautiful fresh vegetables.

You will need:

• chicken leftovers (for 2 portions we had half of the breast and a thigh)
• 2  handfuls of cress
• about 6-8 radishes
• 6-8 cherry tomatoes
• a handful of pomegranate seeds
• 1 medium red onion

For the dressing:

• 150 g yogurt
• the juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• fresh coriander leaves
• salt and pepper

Wash the cress leaves thoroughly, place them in a salad bowl with the chicken. We cut the chicken pieces in big cubes. Add the tomatoes, halved and the radishes cut in quarters. Cut the red onion in thin rings, add it to the bowl, then sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on top.

For the dressing, crush the garlic, add it to the yogurt, pour the lemon juice over them and season with salt and pepper. Add the chopped coriander and mix well. 

Pour the dressing over the salad and you are done! It would be great if you would comment below telling us how do you use your weekend roast leftovers.

XO XO,

Duck Breast with Fennel Sauce and Oyster Mushrooms | You've Got Meal!

It’s duck season in the Youvegotmeal! kitchen, so it’s only natural that we had to cook a duck breast recipe. We had a whole duck that we portioned  into different cuts for different dishes, keeping the legs and the wings for some “confit de canard” and the breast for this recipe. You might recognize the last part of the title- the oyster mushrooms from a previous post. Frying them in tempura batter was a great side-dish for the meat. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 duck breasts, about 200 grams each, 
• 1 medium fennel bulb, 
• 400 ml of coconut milk, 
• 250 grams of oyster mushrooms, 
• tempura batter, 
• cloves, 
• ground cardamom, 
• salt, pepper, 
• soy sauce, 
• sugar, 
• chili, 
• fresh coriander leaves.

A couple of notes about the meat. We had a free-range duck (can I say that? Is it a thing?), meaning that the layer of fat that covered the meat was a bit thicker than what you would normally get. That’s an important thing to take into consideration because you want that fat rendered and, also, it affects the whole cooking time of the breast. Before actually cooking scar the breast on the skin with a sharp knife, careful not to reach the meat- this will help the fat reduce and give a you a nice look on the breast. Also, rub the duck meat with salt, pepper and ground cardamom.

 We started with the fennel sauce for this dish, the only reason being is that it took the most time. In a tall sauce pan, pop in the coconut milk, the finely sliced fennel, 1 tbs. of soy sauce, 1 tsp. of chili flakes or half of a fresh, medium hot chili, finely diced, 2-3 cloves, the sugar. Boil it down on until the fennel is soft enough to be pushed through a sieve into a sauce – 15-20 minutes.

1. For the meat, use a heavy base pan, put the meat skin side down in it and place it on the stove on medium heat. 

2.  We cooked from a cold pan to give the fat enough time to slowly melt and not just burn. 

3.  Cook the breast skin side down for around 10-11 minutes, turn and cook for another 2 minutes. 

4.  Remove from the pan and let the meat rest for 5-7 minutes on a warm plate.

Plate the meat, the mushrooms and the sauce, and sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves on top.

Enjoy,

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli | You've Got Meal!

This is our first ravioli making experience, so we wanted to cook something on the easy side, but also a well known dish, so we went for safe and picked the spinach and ricotta recipe. 

We used 4 sheets of pasta dough, about 40 cm long and 6 cm wide, enough to make around 20 pieces of ravioli. 

For the filling: 

• 200 grams of fresh spinach leaves- hard stems removed, 
• 130-150 grams of ricotta, 
• 4-5 tbs. of parmesan, 
• nutmeg, 
• salt and pepper. 

We also made a fresh tomato and basil sauce using: 

• 1 can of whole tomatoes, 
• 300 grams of passata, 
• 3 garlic cloves, 
• 2 tsp. of dried basil leaves, 
• salt, pepper, 
• cloves, 
• olive oil. 

1. Start of by making the dough for the pasta -  as usual, we used 200 grams of plain flour and 2 free range eggs, resulting the sheets of pasta described above. 
2. While the dough rests, awaiting to be rolled, cook the spinach in a couple tbs. of olive oil for 2 minutes, enough for the greens to melt. 
3. Remove the spinach from heat, dripping any excess of juices that remained in the pan – those will make the filling way too runny and most likely cause the ravioli to open while cooking. You can choose to leave the spinach leaves whole, finely chop them or just coarsely break them, take your pick. 
4. After the spinach cools for some minutes, mix them well with the ricotta, nutmeg, salt, pepper and about 4-5 tbs. of Parmesan. 
5. You can either cut the ravioli pasta pieces before putting in the filling or you can spread lumps of the spinach&ricotta mix on the sheet of pasta, and then cut it. Use a beaten egg to brush the edges of the pasta so that the pasta sticks -  you can also use a fork to press the edges of the ravioli, but make sure to remove the air from inside before. 
6. The ravioli cook fast enough in the salted boiling water, about 4 minutes. 
7. When removing them from the water lightly drizzle them with olive oil to make sure they don’t stick.

The sauce keeps the same super easy line of cooking – on medium heat, bring to a boil the canned tomatoes (use a wooden spoon to break them in the pot), 300 ml of tomato passata, the finely sliced garlic cloves, the basil, salt, pepper, 2-3 whole cloves, and cook until the liquid is reduced to about two thirds. Next, push the sauce through a fine sieve (don’t forget the garlic slices, they will be soft enough to be pushed through) in order to create a smooth, light tomato and basil sauce. 

That’s it really incredibly easy to make ravioli, accompanied by an light and elegant sauce that will complement the pasta perfectly. Garnish with some fennel leaves or basil or parsley, grate some Parmesan on top and you are done.

Enjoy,

Mussels in White Wine Sauce (Moules Mariniere) | You've Got Meal!

Mussels are one of our favorite choices when we want to cook seafood in the Youvegotmeal! kitchen, and for obvious reasons. They’re delicious, light, easy to cook and look great at the table. 

Unfortunately, when dealing with fresh mussels the most difficult part is cleaning them, but you can’t skip this part, especially when you’re using them whole. Scrub the mussels with a wire wool and make sure to remove the “mustache” or “beard” of the clam, meaning the algae that sometimes hangs from inside the mollusk.

 Cooking the mussels in some white wine sauce is one of the classic ways to do it and I’m sure you can find dozens, if not hundreds, of variations of this dish on-line. The concept is a simple one, and we made best with ingredients at hand:

• 1,5 kg of whole mussels, 
• 1 medium onion, 
• 3-4 garlic cloves, 
• some nice dry white wine, 
• coriander, 
• parsley, 
• salt, pepper,
• olive oil, 
• cooking cream

• First of all separate the leaves and stalks of your greens. The idea is to use the leaves, that are more tender in the end of the cooking process and the stalks from the beginning. 
• Bind the stalks of coriander and parsley with some string in order to easily remove it later – you can also add some lemon thyme springs to the coriander and parsley stalks and create a very nice bouquet garni. 
• Next, start  cooking the finely diced onion and garlic cloves in the hot oil, on medium heat, for 3 minutes, with the stalks in. 

• Add the wine, about 100-150 ml, bring to a boil, kick the heat up and pop the mussels in. 
• Cover the pan and let the clams open in the wine steam for 4-5 minutes- throw away any mussels that don’t open. 
• Remove the top, add some cooking cream for color (about 50 ml) with the parsley and coriander leaves. 

Serve the mussels with some crunchy bread and the rest of your white wine.

Enjoy,

Chicory, Green Apple and Mozzarella Salad | You've Got Meal!

Simple and healthy croutons salad idea. A recipe using endives, apple and Mozzarella. Perfect lunch/light dinner salad or as a starter.

Can’t believe that it took us so long to actually make a post about this dish. We’ve been making it for the past couple of years and we got the recipe from either Jamie Oliver or Good Food, can’t quite remember who we have to give credit.

Nonetheless, it’s a great salad, full of crunch, flavor, and it’s so light that you can use it as a starter to a longer meal. 

You’ll need:

• fresh mozzarella (for 2 generous portions we used 2 balls with roughly 150 grams each), 
• 1 rather tart green apple (Granny Smith), 
• 2 medium sized chicories (or endives, if you know them by that name), 
• a couple of slices of bread, 
• salt, pepper, 
• olive oil, lemon juice. 

1. Just roughly chop the endives – by the way, the salad looks better if you can find and use both red and yellow - tip types, and cube the bread. 
2. Heat up some olive oil on medium high heat and stir-fry the chicories for 2-3 minutes, remove from the pan and set aside. 
3. Next, in the same pan add the bread croutons, splash a small amount of olive oil on top and cook them until they are slightly crunchy and browned all sides.
4.  Meanwhile, cut or break the cheese in any way you like, dice about 1 quarter of the apple per portion and add it to the mozzarella. 
5. Make a vinaigrette of 1 part lemon juice/ 3 part olive oil, salt, pepper and pour it over the endives, apple and mozzarella. After that, pop in the croutons and mix well.

The next part of the recipe is optional, but we definitely recommended it: open your very well chilled bottle of Prosecco, pour yourself a tall glass of the bubbly and enjoy this great salad that will make you love it at first taste.

Cheers,

Fish Roe Salad | You've Got Meal!

This has to be one of the best and easiest to make appetizers out there, but it can have an acquired taste for some people – you are eating raw fish eggs in the end. There are a lot of possibilities from which to choose when deciding what type of fish’s roe to use, and for the recipe we went for pike. In my book, pike roe is in the top half, alongside trout roe. I like the fact that it has a medium granulation and the texture is a lot smoother than other types of roe that you could use for salad, like carp or hering. I’m pretty sure this is a well known fact, but the roe you use in salads are not the fresh ones, they are preserved with salt and plenty of it, so keep that in mind.  

Ingredients: 

• 50 grams of pike roe, 
• vegetable oil (make sure you use a bland oil, without a very strong flavor), 
• lemon juice, 
• a small onion, 
• soaked bread (optional). 

Making the salad is a very similar process to the way you make mayo, it’s about adding periodically small amounts of oil and incorporating it into the roe. You can either use a fork and work out in the kitchen using your hands to mix the salad, or plug in the hand mixer on a low speed, it’s up to you. 

For about 50 grams of the roe we used about 100 rams of sunflower oil. We like to start by just mixing the roe without any other ingredients, in order to break some of the eggs, but not all of them -  they give a nice, pearled look to the dish. The amount of lemon juice you add is up to you, same as the moment you add it to the salad (we do that at the end).

The idea behind the use of the soaked bread is to create volume and to cheat about the amount of salad you make. You need to soak the bread in water, drain really well and incorporate it in the salad so there aren’t any lumps (don’t use crust for this). Finely slice the onion and incorporate it in the salad. You can choose to grate it if you’re not going for the crunch factor, but make sure you drain the onion really well then.

So that’s it, easy fish roe salad. For me, this always reminds me of 2 things:  Mrs. G.'s mother, who makes some great hering roe salad, and the taverns in Greece, that served this as antipasti alongside some Retsina wine. So, what about you guys, any thoughts about the dish or recipe?

Enjoy,