Homemade Pizza (Summer Vegetables and Chorizo) and a Spicy Pizza Sauce Recipe

It took me just one visit to the farmer’s market a couple of days ago to realize the fact that we haven’t been using enough summer veggies in our dishes lately. Sure, we had broccoli and shrimps and rice and coconut, all nice and delicious, but where is the summer? With that in mind, I went on a shopping spree in the farmer’s market (believe it or not, this thing happens a lot more often that you might think) and bought a rather large quantity of veggies (tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, cucumbers, peppers) and spices, all fresh (oregano, coriander, lemon thyme, parsley, sage, chili). 

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.

Trout Noodle Stir Fry

Instant noodles, we all know them, they’ve been there for us on those hard, lazy nights or when we were pretty much broke, and that’s a thing that can’t be said about a lot of foods. So I wanted to cook  something to elevate those bad boys, and I decided to give things a mix with some trout meat and crunchy vegetables.

For the fish, I just fried 2 of them whole in 2 tbs of olive oil until the skin got a golden color, after which I let it rest before removing all the meat from the bones, resulting in 200 grams of trout flakes, that can be prepared a day before, or you can use some leftovers from other fish dishes (cod works nice here).

For the stir fry: 3 medium carrots, 4-5 cucumbers, both cut into strips with the veggie peeler, 3-4 spring onions, white part separate from the green, 50 grams bean sprouts (soy, pea, etc., visit your local supermarket for more info), garlic, diced, 1 piece of ginger, thumb size, grated, 3 packages of instant noodles (only use the pasta, throw away those other things in there). 

Get your wok (or other similar pan) nice and hot, pour in some peanut oil, add the carrots, beans and the white part of the onion, mix for 2 minutes, add the cucumbers, garlic and ginger, cook for another minute, then add the green part of the onions (those also cut in to strips) and a mix of grinded coriander, fennel seeds and pepper. Mix this whole thing, add the flaked fish, pour in 2 tbs of soy sauce and 1 tsp of fish sauce. After stirring this combo throw in the noodles (in this case, the packages suggested a 3 minute cooking time, so I just boiled them for 2 and cooked them in the pan for another minute), and give it a strong stir, to make sure the soy sauce covers everything (add more soy sauce  if you feel like the dish needs more salt).

Enjoy!
Mr. G.

Sweetcorn Fritters with Yogurt Dip

I was watching Gordon Ramsey's cooking show Ültimate Cookery Class and it was an episode about  TV dinners and dishes that you can put together with just a few ingredients that you usually have in your pantry. Awesome episode. This specific recipe doesn't sound like such a big deal, but the result is great, truly surprising.

For the fritters you will need:

• 1 tin of corn (I used a 360 g one)
• 1 egg
• 125 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp milk
• 2 spring onions
• 1/2 bunch of coriander or parsley
• 1 chilli
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

 For the dip you will need: 

• 200 g Greek yogurt
• 1 spring onion
• salt and pepper

Sift the flour and the baking powder in a large bowl, add the egg, salt, pepper, oilve oil and milk amd mix it all together. Them add the onion, coriander, chilli and the drained sweetcorn. With a spoon, place little fritters in a heated skillet with 2 tbsp of olive oil. You basically cook them like pancakes, American pancakes. In my skillet was room  for 4 fritters each time. Let them turn golden on both sides and serve with the dip (just mix the ingredients above for the dip, adding water only if you find it to thick . We let some of our fritters turn golden-brown because I feared they weren't cooked, but they turned out perfectly every time.

Enjoy!

Express Post: Farmers' Market Tiny Haul

1. Red beets- for a chicken dish and for juicing. Beet is good for you :)
2. Tomatoes- for a summer salad
3. Lola Rosa Salad - for salads
4. Spring garlic- amazing at this time, the cloves are formed, but the skin on them is not yet dried. Amazing flavour, if you find it like this, definetely give it a try
5. Spring onion- again for salad, but also for sauces
6. Some bread- covered in seeds
7. New or early potatoes- the spring staple in our kitchen
8. Cucumbers- the smaller, the better, the spikier, even better. Also, look for the remainings of the flower on one end of the cucumber, that means they are fresh.
9. Avocado- not from the Market, but in the same bag and healthy
10. Strawberries-  so in right now! Bought them for a healthy snack, but with a lot of dessert recipes in mind.
11. Tarragon- found it fresh, so we are going to use it with some oven-roasted chicken
12. Parsley- we always buy parsley, that's it!
13. Lemons- again, not exactly from the Farmers' Market. For dressings and iced tea or lemonades.

Bye-eee!

Pan Seared Tuna in Sesame and Poppy Seeds

You guys watch Discovey? Those shows about dangerous fishing, deadliest catch, or whatever? Did you ever imagine that one of those gigantic crabs or tunas or swordfishes found a way to your kitchen? No?  I’m gonna be honest and say that that fantasy is the only reason I watched those shows, I  REALLY don’t like fishing, but I also REALLY like fish. 

So imagine my joy when I managed to get my hands of this (rather small compared to its TV relatives) tuna, weighing around 2 kilograms. With this opportunity at hand, I decided to try and cook this fish using a technique that I saw being rather hip, namely pan searing it with a poppy seed coating. I added sesame to this mix, and (thanks to the genius of Gordon Ramsay) a couple of other ingredients. 

So, here they are:

•           The fish, I just cut some sections of it, this recipe works best with some pieces of tuna steak (if you have those in your fridge right now, I would really like to know where you live)
•           Sesame and poppy seeds
•           Soy sauce, light
•           Wasabi paste
•           Olive oil

Really heat up your oil, while it does that coat the fish in : 1. Soy sauce, 2. Wasabi (don’t go overboard with this one), 3. The seed combo. Fry the fish for 2- 3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of your cut.

If you are using pre-cut tuna steaks, you need to bring the meat to the point in which it has 1-2 centimeters of white on the sides and the rest of the meat still has a powerful, dark red (if the meat is overcooked, it will flake and be impossible to cut into sections).

As a side dish, I opted for cous-cous and some oven baked veggies. 

Quantity wise: cous-cous (just pick whatever quantity you need), 1 zucchini, 1 red bell-pepper, 2 medium red onions, 200 grams of cherry tomatoes, 2 tbs of fresh chopped coriander leaves.

For the grain, make sure you have some nice, hot, vegetable stock, pour that on top of the cous-cous until it covers it for about 2 centimeters, cover the cous cous with some cling film and wait for 10-15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed, mix around with a fork to fluff it up. 

As for the vegetables,  cut the first 2 in small cubes (2-3 centimeters), the onions in medium thickness rings and the tomatoes in half, coat everything in olive oil, salt and pepper and pop it into the oven at high heat (in a non stick tray or by using grease proof paper), cook for 40 minutes.

Add the coriander leaves on top after the veggies are done. Put all of the cooked dishes on a plate, make a ½ lemon, 4 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs white wine vinegar, salt pepper vinaigrette, and sprinkle that on your fish and side dishes generously. 

Enjoy!

Chicken Salad with Yogurt and Mint Dressing

If you have some leftover chicken meat or you are left with some strips after deboning a chicken breast you can make a great salad.

We sometimes make this with some leftover grilled chicken breast to give it a different taste the next day.
First, if the chicken isn't cooked, you should just put it in a lightly oiled skillet, season it with salt and pepeer and let it cook for 8-10 minutes until it turns light brown on all sides.

In your salad bowl mix some iceberg salad, tomato slices and optional, some spring onion. Add the meat and then the dressing.

For the dressing you will need 150 g greek yogurt, the juice from 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp of dried mint  and 2 tbsp of water to make it less thick.

Enjoy your weekend!

Spring Vegetable Soup ( Sour, Vegetarian Recipe)

In East Europe soup has a very delicious and rather versatile sister, that I can only translate as “sour soup”. This kind of dish is different than regular soups (say, for example, vegetable, potato, broccoli, cauliflower, etc, that usually have a creamy consistency). Recipes vary, from chicken, beef, pork, game, or vegetable dishes, but they have in common the fact that, in the end, it is used a sour ingredient, like lemon juice, fermented cereals, vinegar or even the liquid from pickles to give it a strong, sour note.

For our recipe we used 200 grams of new potatoes (we had really tiny ones, make sure the potatoes have the same size as the tomato halves), 200 grams of cherry tomatoes (halved), 150 grams of green beans (chopped), 5 green onions (finely chopped), 4-5 baby carrots (diced), 1 medium green pepper (diced), parsley (finely diced), 100 ml of tomato sauce (basically tomato juice), 2 handfuls of chopped purple Orach leaves (also known as salt bush or Artiplex halimus, also finely diced), 1 liter of fermented cereal water (honestly, in Romanian this thing is called „bors”, no idea how to translate it, maybe this will help.

In a tall heavy base pan, heat up 2 tbs of olive oil, then saute the carrots and the onions for 3-4 minutes. Add water until it fills about ¾ of the pan. Let it boil on a medium high heat. You can use a lid and reduce the cooking time, it’s up to you. Taste one piece of carrot, when it’s cooked half way , add the beans, pepper and cook for another 10 minutes, after which add the potatoes and the cherry tomatoes. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add the tomato juice and the Orach leaves, let it boil for 5 minutes, then add the “bors” or lemon juice, reduce heat, simmer for another 5 minutes, then add the parsley and bring to another boil before removing from heat. This combination of vegetables was one of our tries, you can always mix it up, just remember that if you plan on using hard boiling vegetables (like celery root or parsnip) throw it in the pot at the beginning or sauté it first. And, of course,  add any delicate vegetable  in at the end (we made this one with baby lettuce and it was delicious, just added it with the parsley).

Enjoy!

Zucchini Patties

3 medium zucchinis

4-5 garlic cloves

1/2 cup of breadcrumbs

1 bunch of parsley

1 tbsp oil or 1 egg

flour

salt and pepper

Start by grating the zucchinis. We peeled 2 of them and let the skin on the third one. If you are planning on using egg to bring everything together it is best to drain the zucchinis well before mixing them with the other ingredients.

We decided to keep the dish vegetarian, so we used some vegetable oil instead. Add to the zucchinis the minced or grated garlic, breadcrumbs, finely chopped parsley, the oil and season it with salt and pepper.

Depending on how big your zucchinis are, how much you drained them you might need the add more breadcrumbs. You should have to be able to form some balls with the mixture, but it should still be sticky. Then flour the balls and pat them to get burgers or patties.

Then, fry them in oil on both sides until they turn golden-brown.

We served them with avocado and tomatoes salad, presented here.

Enjoy!

Avocado and Tomato Salad

Red onion + avocado slices + tomato slices + oil + lemon juice + salt + freshly grounded pepper

We love this salad, it is obvious it is super fresh and perfect for summer or spring, but also in the winter, avocado is a great substitute for cucumber, which I find not so tasty outside its season.

You can serve it with meat, but it is absolutely amazing with vegetarian dishes and especially veggie patties or burgers, essentially because the oils in the avocado makes the whole meal more filling.

Enjoy!

Fast Breakfast- Avocado Toast

This is not a recipe post, obviously avocado toast is the easiest thing to do, but it is so delicious and addictive that even if it needed more effort and time it would be worth it.

Lately, it has been the breakfast I think about when I wake up. What can I say? Avocado toast is the new bread and jam. Just toast some slices of your favourite bread.  Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit and with a spoon betwen the skin and the pulp remove the skin. You can smash it and put it on the toast like a spread, you can cut it in slices or chunks. As you can see we chose both, chunky slices. :)

Drizzle some olive oil on top, some sea salt and some pepper optional. Depending on your taste , add some fresh lemon juice.

Have a great day!

Simple Breakfast- Spicy Scrambled Eggs

Good morning!

Sometimes, for a pick-me-up you need a rich egg breakfast.
My choice today: eggs + spring onion + hot pepper + salt + pepper. All scrambled and delicious.

Have a great day!

Tin Foil Thai Trout- Simple Recipe

Last night we tried one of Lorraine Pascal's recipes, a sort of Thai recipe for super easy and time-saving trout cooked in tin foil, in the oven- Tin foil Thai Trout- try to say that fast! :)

You will need:

4 fish fillets (we used trout)
1 carrot
1 bunch of spring onions
1 celery stick
1 bunch of coriander
3 cloves of garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
1 chilli
2 limes
soy sauce
oil (the original recipe calls for sesame oil)
salt
pepper

First, prepare the fish if necessary.

Then, the only thing that it will take some time is to cut the vegetables. You have to cut the ginger, carrot, chilli, spring onions and celery into long sticks, the garlic in fine slices.  In the oven we will use only the stalks from the coriander, the leaves are to be used when served.

Cut squares of tin foil and divide the vegetables in 4, for each fillet. Arrange the fish in the middle, then add some carrot sticks, onion, celery, ginger, garlic, chilli and coriander stalks. Season with salt, pepper and a tablespoon of oil, one of soy sauce and  some lime juice.

Wrap the fillets in foil, seal it well but be sure there is room for air to circulate, because the point is that the fish should be steamed.

Cook it for 12 minutes in the oven, I just placed each package on the oven grill, but you can also put it on a baking tray. The 12 minutes worked perfectly for us, the fish was cooked to perfection.

Just serve it in the tin foil and enjoy the beautiful sauce that surrounds the fish. Sprinkle some coriander leaves on top and some lime. We served it with some plain bean thread noodles, the transparent kind of Chinese vermicelli.

Enjoy!

Beef Tenderloin with Herbs, Grilled Vegetables and Wine Reduction

As you may remember I wrote some time ago a post about herb crusted beef. Check it out here.
I've had some really nice beef tenderloin and I decided to cook it almost in the same way, but to serve it in a different way, with a grilled  veggies tower and a simple wine reduction.

Massage the meat with some oil, salt and pepper, chop some rosemary, parsley and thyme and massage it again. Cook the meat on every side in a ovenproof pan with just a bit of olive oil just until it changes its colour, for 1 minute on each side, then transfer the pan in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, depending on how you like it.

In the meantime, prepare the vegetables. One zucchini, one eggplant and around 6 champignon mushrooms should be enough for 2 serving.  We really enjoyed them so we had two towers each.

Clean the mushrooms, wash the zucchini and the eggplant and cut everything into medius slices then just grill them.

In a sauce pan pour 1 glass of red wine (whatever kind you have been drinking while cooking this :)) and some of the same herbs you used on the meat. After it has reduced, add some stock and wait again to remain only 1/2 of the liquid, turn down the heat and add 1 tbsp of butter at room temperature. Stir well and add salt, pepper or lemon if necessary

Pour some more wine in glasses and enjoy your meal!

Fancy a Snack?

Lentil Burgers Recipe/ Vegetarian Burgers + 4 Toppings

Burger recipe: I used red lentils, but you can replace those with any kind you have in the house. So, around 400 grams of lentils, 4 large eggs, a finely chopped medium onion, around 150 grams of bread crumbs, 1 tbs olive oil, salt, pepper. Boil the lentils, drain them a little and place them in a blender with the eggs, salt and pepper. After that I added the bread crumbs, until i had the desired consistency (you can always add more bread crumbs if the composition is to soft, or an egg or water if it's too hard), which should be like moist enough not to get to hard when you cook it, but firm enough to retain it's shape. It may sound tricky, it' actually very easy when you get to it. Form a couple of burger patties, honestly as thick as you like them, and cook them either in the oven (around 5-7 minutes on each side, depending on thickness) or fry them in vegetable oil until golden. This combo gives you a kind of neutral burger, so you can mix it up and use extra flavouring in the recipe (thyme, oregano, curry, chilli, whater makes you happy), but I liked like this so I can add the flavour with the other ingredients of the burger.

Tomato topping:

Grated cheese (I used grana padano, you can replace that with whatever you like, but I went Italian for this one) + tomato slices + chopped basil.

 Eggplant and Saffron Yogurt topping:

Grilled eggplant slices, guess how you do those :). For the saffron yogurt, put a quarter of a teaspoon  of saffron in 3 tbs oh hot water, let it infuse. Crush 1 clove of garlick, and put that in about 300 grams of yogurt, along side with a tablespoon olive oil, same amount lemon juice, the saffron-infused water (without the condiment), salt and pepper, and mix it up.

Sun dried Tomatoes topping:

Coat both sides of the bun with some oil from the sun dried tomatoes jar, add capers and tomatoes.

Avocado topping:

Iceberg salad + burger + onion + avocado

RO: Chiftele de linte/ Burger vegetarian cu 4 toppinguri

Burgerii: 400 gr linte, eu am folosit rosie, 4 oua mari, o ceapama mare tocata foarte marunt, 150 g pesmet, 1 lingura ulei masline, sare, piper. Lintea fiarta si scursa merge in blender cu ouale, ceapa, sare si piper, se adauga apoi pesmet, pana se obtine o consistenta dorita (se poate adauga oricum pe parcurs pesmet daca e prea moale sau apa/ oua daca e prea tare), adica destul de umeda ca sa nu se intareasca in cuptor, dar destul de tare cat sa poata fi modelata in bile. Formati astfel chiftele/ burgeri si coaceti-i in cuptor (5-7 minute pe fiecare parte) sau prajiti-i in ulei de floarea soarelui pana devin aurii. Gustul e destul de neutru, dar puteti adauga diverse arome: cimbru, oregano, chilli), eu am preferat asa pentru a putea adauga arome diferite prin celelalte ingrediente.

Topping de branza : branza rasa, gran padano + felii rosie + busuioc tocat

Topping de vanata si iaurt cu sofran: vanata la gratar + 1 catel usturoi, 300 g iaurt, 1 lg ulei masline, 1 lg suc lamaie, 3 lg de apa infuzata cu 1 lingurita sofran, sare, piper.

Topping de rosii uscate: ungeti ambele felli de chifla la interior cu ulei din borcanul de rosii uscate, adaugati capere si rosii uscate

Topping cu avocado: Salata iceberg + ceapa + avocado.

Enjoy!