During one of my journey in the endlessly-seeming list of foodblogs and different recipe-sites, I somewhere found the idea to pair peppermint, orange and lemon and use them all together in a pasta dish. Sounded like fun, so I decided to try. Unfortunately I was in a mood for this dish on the very day I did not have any fresh mint leaves at hand. So here’s what I did - I substituted the leaves with peppermint tea. Just made a strong cupful using regular Lipton tea and poured it into the sauce.

You might want to be careful with the orange rind, as in case you add too much of it, you’ll end up with a rather bitter sauce and there’s nothing you can do to fix it…so be careful. And what else…I guess you can play around with the veggies, but I would recommend some mild-flavored vegetables such as broccoli, as you need something which taste wouldn’t overpower the fresh marriage of lemon and peppermint.

Serves two:

# Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan and fry onion and garlic until translucent.

# Add chicken broth and cream into the saucepan and continue simmering for 5 minutes. Add chili powder together with the grated lemon and orange rind. Stir, and also add broccoli florets into the sauce.

# Mix hot peppermint tea with flour (avoid lumps). While stirring the sauce, pour the tea-and-flour-mix carefully into the sauce. Continue simmering until broccoli florets are soft enough for you (I don’t like them very mushy, so 10 minutes was enough for me).

# In the mean time prepare the pasta (in a water seasoned with salt). When cooked, drain and pour over with some olive oil, stir to coat. Then pour the pasta into the sauce, stir carefully and serve immediately (otherwise the pasta will suck all the sauce in it and you’ll end up with super-sized pasta and no sauce).

# When serving, you may want to top the pasta with some prosciutto and grated Parmesan.

Peppermint is undoubtedly the most important ingredient of this dish - without that it would be the same old creamy pasta…Very fresh, delicate and filling at the same time. Although I had a feeling that J made some faces while eating it (I mean, you can tell if one truly enjoys the dish or doesn’t)…I guess he was trying to figure out where did all this peppermint and freshness of this dish came, as there were no visible mint leaves…but in any case, he did finish the plateful and told me it was delicious. Well trained, all I can say.

Tadaa - I finally got what I wanted and succeeded in preparing this kind of panna cotta that I was aiming for. Spoon after spoonful, I got more and more convinced that THIS was IT, the silky panna cotta I was aiming for, when I prepared this and this. Of course, this divine chocolate panna cotta was also full of tasty calories, but hey, who cares about that, when you have just managed to prepare something that has been your goal.

I also followed the advice of “Perficting panna cotta” and the result was worth it. The dark chocolate I used, had some tiny pieces of nuts in it, as you can see in the picture, but I guess the end result will be just as good with plain dark chocolate.

For two large or four small panna cottas you’ll need:

250 ml whipping cream

# Pour 150 ml whipping cream into a heavy saucepan, also add mascarpone cheese. Bring to boil and add sugar. Stir.

# Add the chocolate pieces and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat.

# Soak gelatin sheets in cold water.

# Whip the remaining 100 ml whipping cream until stiff.

# Remove excess water from the gelatin sheets and add it to the chocolate-cream. Stir until well blended.

# Carefully add the whipping cream into the mixture. Stir and let cool at room temperature for about 1 hour. Then pour into the dessert dishes or ramekins and refrigerate until set.

# When serving, dip the ramekins one at a time into a bowl of hot water for about 3 seconds, run a sharp knife around the edges of the custard and invert onto a chilled serving plate. Serve with some sweet sauce (you might get some ideas from my previous panna cotta recipes).

I only offered the simplest strawberry jam as a sauce because I did not have anything else at hand. And because I was hungry.  Nevertheless, it tasted great. It’s pretty heavy, so weight watchers, I suggest you to skip it..or maybe use cream instead of mascarpone…

Im very happy with the end result. Finally I succeeded in proving J that panna cotta can be a decent dessert. He told me that from now on I am the Queen of Panna Cottas. Yess!

Below a video which also introduces the basics of making panna cotta, but with vanilla and raspberries. It will give you a good overview of making this lovely dish and probably will take away your fears which you had on making this dessert.

Couscous is a dream come true for a person who needs a super quick meal. It can be prepared within minutes, seasoned with your favourite flavours and accompanied with any ingredients you have in you cupboard. No need to stress about having exactly what is listed in a recipe! I went the easy way and tried it with some vegetables and chicken. It was very tasty. A fail-proof couscous recipe for me from now on.

Do you have any information about the healthiness of couscous? Some say that it is super healthy, the others point out that it is rather rich in carbohydrates, those little bastards that make you fat…So where’s the truth? In any case, one thing I know - couscous is delicious, especially when you use the following recipe (serves two).

ca 100 g couscous and about 200 ml chicken broth for preparing the couscous

Sauce:

# Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the hot pan. Cook for 5-10 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown.

# Mix chicken broth with turmeric.

# When chicken is cooked, add onion and garlic into the frying pan and cook until onion is translucent. Then add the broth and most of the chopped bell pepper (keep a few tbsp of red bell pepper for the couscous).

# Steam the sauce for about 15 minutes, also add the chili powder, cinnamon and honey. Pour the lemon juice into the sauce just before serving.

Couscous:

# Place cubed carrots into a saucepan, cover them with water, season with some salt and bring to boil. When the carrot pieces are almost soft, add the remaining bell pepper, boil for another couple of minutes and drain.

# Prepare the couscous according to the directions on the package (I poured the couscous over with hot chicken broth and let it stand, covered, for a couple of minutes). When done, add some butter into the hot couscous, stir carefully and then add the drained bell pepper and carrot cubes. Give it a good toss. Everything is now ready to serve.

I really loved the colours of this dish. Chicken came out yellow - at first I thought it was weird and was checking the best before date of the package, but then I remembered that I used turmeric which turns everything yellow (I also spilled some on my white butcher board and now it is with some yellow spots). So, if you end up with yellow chicken pieces, it’s all good.

I guess you can omit the vegetables from the couscous, if you don’t feel like it. Or just omit boiling them beforehand - using raw vegetables gives some crispiness to the couscous. 

I haven’t cook something nice for a while now. I blame the football because, despite the fact that I am actually not a crazy football fan, I have succeeded in seeing most of the games. And as we don’t have a TV, every time there’s a game, we end up in a bar or a pub, have an unhealthy dinner (burgers and fries and all these kinds of pub-food). At least when Turkey-Germany game was on, S and N asked us over for pasta and football - the best dish I had when watching the football.

So, all in all, I did not have time to cook dinner in the past weeks. Everything should change now, as today is the last game, which we are going to see in one of the German pubs. Hence, soon you’ll be able to find some new dishes and recipes from this site.

In the mean time I’ll tell you about a very nice restaurant in Brussels, where I ended up somewhere in between the football games. Como-Como is located in the center of Brussels and is just too cute to be true. The food comes to you - it moves on those lovely little plates from one table to another and you can just pick the snack you want, eat it and then reach for another delicious bite. The snacks look divine and it is pretty difficult to choose which one to try next. The pictures are pretty bad - as I only had my phone with me - but should give you an idea of this very cozy restaurant.

All the snacks are divided between themes - meat, veggie, sweet, garlic, etc. The colour of the plate tells you which snack it is carrying. Just take the plate, eat the snack, think “oh, this is scrumptious” and mumble something like “mmyummymm” and reach for another snack. I can guarantee - it is the same no matter which kind of snack you try. You will be charged by the number of the plates you have in front of you. The more you eat, the cheaper the price of a plate.

To tell you the truth, I was a bit of distrustful of this place. I mean, it sells bite-sized snacks - how can one eat a dinner there. And it looked like a place for cool and fancy people only, who go there, eat a snack or two, have some wine and talk about cool stuff. And as I don’t categorize myself as a cool person, more like an ordinary one, I thought it wasn’t the place for me. Boy was i wrong!

There were four of us when we walked into the restaurant. Of course it was full and I thought the waiter is going to show us the door. But no! He kindly told us that there are some people leaving in about 10 minutes, so if you are willing to wait in one of the bars next door, I can give you a call once the table is ready. Simple as that. I was impressed.

About 15 minutes later we were sitting there at the table, as promised, and started to choose our snacks. It was difficult. They looked so good and their taste…I had no idea that bite-sized snacks can taste as little pieces of heaven. I only tried about 5 snacks because I had a terrible toothache, but with four of us we ate about 25 snacks - or more. And each and every one of them was delicious! I highly recommend this place - its a bit pricey though - but its well worth it. The food, the ambiance, the service - 10 points.

I’ll go and do something useful now, before the football. I’m not sure yet which team to support, as my favourite was The Netherlands…So I don’t really care who wins, as long as it is an interesting game, with several goals, yellow cards and emotional players.

So, finally something that is not sweet for a change. One has to limit the amount of sweet dishes, after all, it is summer and going-to-the-beach time. That is why I decided to use avocados in the salad that I made, because this green little fruit is very useful for your health. Did you know that avocados help to lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure and can even offer significant protection against breast cancer?

Firstly, some tips for you on how to choose a perfect avocado from the shop or in the market:

- A ripe, ready to eat avocado is slightly soft but should have no dark sunken spots or cracks.

- Choose the avocado which has a slight neck, rather than the one which is rounded on top. Slight neck means that it was probably tree ripened and will therefore have better flavor.

- If you are not planning to use the avocado right away, you might want to choose a firmer avocado. It will ripen in a paper bag or in a fruit basket at room temperature within a few days. It is not recommended to refrigerate avocados until they are ripe. Once ripe, they can be kept refrigerated for up to a week.

These kinds of tips. Maybe they might come to use. In this salad I did not use the very ripe avocados, as I wanted them to keep their texture. Warm pasta and chicken also softened it a bit, so I think it was a good decision to choose a firmer avocado.

The recipe serves two:

# Boil pasta in water seasoned with salt.

# Meanwhile fry the chicken in a frying pan and season with salt an pepper.

# Using your hands, shred basil leaves into small pieces.

# Peel and chop avocado and place in a salad bowl. Drizzle over with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Add shredded basil leaves and mix everything together.

# Place cooked chicken pieces into the salad bowl on top of the avocado-mixture.

# Drain pasta and add some olive oil to it. Mix to coat the pasta with olive oil and place pasta in the salad bowl. Give everything a good toss and adjust seasoning, if necessary. You can add the Parmesan to the salad or just sprinkle the platefuls over with some of it - up to you. Serve when warm, as then you’ll feel and smell all the nice flavors dish easy salad has to offer.

I liked it a lot. At first I was afraid of the taste of warm avocado. Never had had it before, that is why…but it was all okay - and mainly because I used not so ripe avocado, which could keep its texture while warm.  And the taste! The tender avocado together with strong Parmesan cheese - perfect combination.

Well, I don’t know. It was suppose to be a panna cotta - but as I haven’t managed to prepare a proper panna cotta yet (as you can read from here), I don’t even know how a proper panna cotta should look and taste like. This time I ended up with something in between a jelly and a panna cotta, maybe because I changed the original recipe quite a bit… But I liked it though. As for J, this was apparently not his cup of tea. So I don’t know. Should do it again one day and serve it to more than two persons to get their opinion.

For two big or four small panna cottas you will need:

#  In a dry heavy saucepan cook sugar over moderately low heat, stirring slowly with a fork (to help sugar melt evenly), until melted and pale golden. Cook caramel, without stirring, until deep golden.

# Coat bottoms of 2 big or 4 small molds or ramekins with caramel. Set aside.

# Place gelatin sheets into cold water to soften.

# In a large saucepan bring coconut milk just to a boil, stirring. Add sugar - a few tablespoons (I added 2), until the mix is sweet enough for you (keep in mind that the caramel sauce will give you extra sweetness). Remove pan from heat.

# Remove excess water from the gelatin sheets and add it to the hot coconut milk, stirring until dissolved. Also stir in rum extract.

# Whip the cream until stiff. Carefully stir into the coconut milk and let cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes up to 2 hours. Why - read more at the bottom of this post.

# When cooled, stir the mixture well and divide among molds or ramekins which you coated with caramel. Chill desserts until firm, at least 4 hours, and up to 2 days.

# To unmold panna cottas, dip molds or ramekins, 1 at a time, into a bowl of hot water for 3 seconds. Run a thin knife around edges and invert desserts onto a platter. The caramel has been liquefied and will give you a nice sweet syrupy sauce.

I suggest to hold some crushed caramel at hand to sprinkle it on top for a garnish with nice texture.

So there you go. I liked that it was very light and that there was no need to start preparing extra sauce - everything was done in one go. But maybe I would use less gelatin the next time, so that it would be a bit less firm and more like a real panna cotta.

All in all, I was happy with it and a bonus was that I was able to use up the leftover coconut milk which I had from preparing curry for dinner.

Im getting all excited about different foodblog events…already found a second one to participate - Suganya is currently hosting fruit of the month and - you guessed it -  this lucky fruit is…coconut!

Another kind of pancakes. This time with filling which has seasoned with pepper. I agree with Evelin - lemon and pepper are a combination magnifico. If you don’t like dishes with a lot of pepper - just be careful with pepper and taste the filling before adding all the seasoning.

If you have a food processor, a blender or a hand mixer, you are lucky. With any of those gadgets you’ll be able to prepare this dish super quickly. No stirring and mixing with your hand, just pushing the button (off topic - I just love my blender). So anyways, I was even that lazy that used the blender to mix the crêpes’ batter. But you see - it was a weekend morning and I was terribly hungry. Excuses, excuses…

Anyway. For the crêpes, just use the kind of recipe you have used to use. I have yet to find my very special fool-proof recipe, so I keep testing every time. This wasn’t very bad actually, I got nice and thin crêpes, just the way I like them. And exactly the amount I was aiming for - 5 crêpes. So I just write it down for myself to remember.

# Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process for about 30 seconds, until smooth. Chill for at least 30 minutes during which you can prepare the filling and the sauce.

For the filling I used 250 g of ricotta, which was maybe a bit too much for five crêpes. Maybe next time I would use 175-200 g max. But you never know, one can not forecast how hungry she will be the next time she’ll prepare those crêpes…But in any case, here’s the recipe I used:

# Extra simple to prepare with a gadget - just combine everything and blend to smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking. Don’t make it too sweet, because the sauce itself is already pretty sweet. The filling can be made ahead of time as well, just keep it in the fridge until serving.

For the sauce you’ll need:

# In a medium saucepan, combine currants, water, sugar and ginger. Bring to boil.

# In a separate bowl mix water with cornstarch and add to the sauce. Boil for about 1 minute and remove from heat.

# I suggest to keep it in warm and bring to boil again just before serving.

# When all that is done, you should be ready to prepare the crêpes. Keep them warm until serving.

And now a bit about the serving. The way I did it was the following: when the last crêpe was on the frying pan, I placed the serving plates into the microwave oven for about 40 seconds, just to warm them up. You know, warm plates keep the dish warm as well.  

For rolling I used another plate: just placed a crêpe on a plate (which does not have to be warm as this will go quickly), spread about 2 tbsp of the filling to my side of the crêpe and started rolling, also from my side of the crêpe. If you place the filling in the centre, it is not that easy to get nice rolls. But I guess you know it already anyway. So, when you have the roll ready, place it to the warm serving plate. Do the same with all the other crêpes. Easy as that. As I had 5 crêpes, I halved the last roll. To be fair and equal.  

And then I poured the rolls over with the hot sauce. And served immediately, otherwise there is no point in warming the plates.

J had a few bites and then went to the kitchen, brought a banana and sliced it next to the the crêpes. A good idea. But I liked it even without the banana. Especially this lemony-peppery filling,  which, using Evelin’s words, leaves the mouth sighing warmly in the most pleasant way possible.

Yesterday I found out that Susan is planning to hold a tribute to pancakes, hosting a deliciously sounding “Pancakes on Parade“. I think my crêpes would fit in perfectly. This will be my first ever food blog event, whopee

That’s right, cheese pancakes. Very nice for the weekend breakfast. You’ll end up with about 15 pancakes if you use the amounts below - a pretty nice pile. Too much for a breakfast for two people, but leftovers will  be a nice lunchtime snack at work the next day. Or as a breakfast the next morning. Tastes good when warm or cold. Here’s what you need:

# Separate the eggs.

# Whip the egg yolks. Add milk, salt, flour and grated cheese and stir.

# Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold in into the egg yolks and cheese mixture.

# Fry small golden cakes in a frying pan.

# Serve with tomato and cucumber slices, or without any side dish. Pretty nice and filling either way.

I guess you can play around with the batter, by adding some chopped and fried bacon or some salami for example. For me cheese was enough. Salami and bacon don’t seem as something you can put inside a pan cake. You can make an omelet out of them - but certainly not a pancake.

By the way. According to Wikipedia, cheese is a pretty ancient food. Proposed dates for the origin of cheesemaking range from around 8000 BCE (when sheep were first domesticated) to around 3000 BCE. The origin of the English word cheese appears to be the Latin caseus. Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languages — West Frisian tsiis, Dutch kaas, German Käse, Spanish queso, Portuguese queijo and Italian cacio.

I wonder, if people at that time knew how to make those tasty cheese pancakes?

Who says that risotto has to be salty. You can actually make a lovely dessert using chocolate and risotto rice, which looks pretty qute and is very simple to prepare. Delia Smith has a recipe for preparing the dish in the oven. I have tried a different version - and was very happy with the result.

The only thing to recommend is that when you decide to serve it as a dessert, make sure you avoid a lot of rice, pasta or potatoes in your main course. Otherwise you’ll get an overdose from starch and your stomach will grow into a size of a huge beach ball.

Serves two:

# Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add rice and stir, coating the rice evenly with the butter.

# Add milk and mascarpone into the saucepan and simmer at low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Don’t forget to stir, otherwise the dish might burn. In case the milk and cheese have evaporated but the rice is still not cooked, add some more milk (50 ml at a time) and keep simmering until the rice is ready.

# Season with sugar and add chocolate pieces into the saucepan. Stir, simmer for another few minutes and remove from heat. You might want to add some cinnamon or Baileys to taste - but for me chocolate with rice was already enough.

# Serve with some fresh strawberries and strawberry jam.

J told me that this dessert tasted like Kellogg’s Rice Krispies…And when I started to wear a sullen expression, he tried to cheer me up and gave some good words and finally admitted that it was a joke and that the dessert is great and I should do it again. Most likely I will. Suggest you to try it. Its a good way to use up this leftover risotto rice which is not enough to make a proper meal but is just enough for a dessert.

Thanks to one Estonian cooking forum I finally know what risotto is. Many people - including myself - tend to call any kind of rice dish “risotto” (even if you have boiled the rice beforehand in the water, drained it and afterwords mixed it with some cooked meat and vegetables) which is why I am glad to know now, that there are only a certain types of rice you can use and certain rules you have to follow, if you want your dish to be called risotto.

Rice forms an important part of the diet of a great many people worldwide. According to Wikipedia , rice is second-most consumed cereal grain and provides more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans. There are more than 8000 different types of rice - can you believe it? Only a few years ago I only know two types of rice - white and brown. Now I know a few more, but still - I could not have imagined that there can be so many different types of it!

For risotto, the most common types of rice to use are Arborio (in the picture) or Carnaroli - rice types high in starch content, which is released gradually as you stir in hot stock, resulting in the creamy texture that, frankly, is the whole point of making risotto. You will not get that result with regular white rice. You’ll have a flavored rice dish that may be delicious, but it will not be a creamy risotto. So there.

After locating a few ingredients in my kitchen, I decided to go for this recipe, as I had ALL the ingredients it called for (it does not happen very often). Serves four:

# Heat olive oil in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir for 5 minutes, until onion is translucent. Turn heat at low.

# Add rice; stir, coating rice with olive oil and onions.

# Pour in broth and wine. Simmer covered until stock is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir while simmering. Make sure you simmer at low heat - otherwise the liquid will evaporate too quickly and rice will not cook thoroughly (you end up adding more and more liquid).

# When stock is absorbed, stir in peas, chicken, basil and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Make sure you use fresh basil as it plays a key role in flavoring and coloring this dish. Dried basil won’t give you the best result!

And how did it taste? Honestly, for me it was a bit dry. I was expecting something more creamy and moist, but as I later on discovered - there was only me to blame, not the recipe. You see, I cooked the rice in the broth at pretty high heat (I was hungry  and wanted the dish to be ready sooner) and therefore most of the broth evaporated and I ended up with this not very creamy result…So next time I’ll be smarter.

I prepared it for 4 servings and as there is only 2 of us, the next evening J decided to give this risotto a nice makeover. What he did was the following:

Heated about 200 ml cream and 50 ml white wine in a saucepan and added about 8-9 cherry tomatoes. Seasoned the cream with some hot curry powder, nutmeg and ground paprika. Also sprinkled it over with a handful of love, as he told me.

He poured the hot sauce over the risotto, simmered and stirred it for a couple of minutes and served.

I don’t know weather it was love or the curry, but it did taste better than the dish we had the day before. I guess you can’t call it a risotto anymore, but…a tasty rice dish it was!