How to Make Delicious Fresh Pasta

03/03/201430 minutes, food stories, recipesfresh noodles, fresh noodles recipe, fresh pasta, noodles, pastafoodie

how to make beautiful fresh pasta fresh pasta recipe hand made fresh pasta

My grandmother never bought noodles or pasta, it was simply not something you would buy. A mother and a daughter would meet and make fresh pasta together; sometimes it given as a gift, but never sold, never bought.

Sometimes my grandmother would take a still-warm egg and knead it with flour and salt until a golden, soft and crumbly dough was formed. Then the dough was kneaded for a bit longer, with soft touches but fast, so it wouldn’t dry too much and the dough became more elastic.

The dough was then extended with a rolling pin into a paper-thin surface. A perfectly thin, golden surface. The table-wide paper-like dough was then sprinkled with flour and quickly folded in two, in three, in four, as many as needed.

With a big, sharpened knife, the dough was cut into thin, perfectly equal noodles.

Some of this pasta was used fresh and sometimes it was put to dry out of sun and out of sight into a less-circulated space, like a table in a guest room.

I had never eaten a more delicious chicken soup with noodles than the one my grandmother cooks. In my family, we all agree she makes the best one. Her food is grown organically, and she always uses the most tasty ingredients. You know, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, apples that taste of apples.

And still, there’s something else, something so sweet, and comforting and wonderful that we’ve never tasted anywhere else. It could be the fresh herbs, but that’s not it either.

I ask her what the secret is and she says it’s… the noodles. When I ask her for the noodle recipe, she laughs, her eyes and lips creating happy wrinkles on her face. There is no recipe. No need.

You just take an egg and mix it with flour and a bit of salt…

The Importance of a Good Sushi Rice

23/02/2014dinner, eating healthy, fish, recipesfoodie

salmon and tuna nigiris with caviar salmon maki rolls

One of the most important elements of good sushi is a good sushi rice, says Jiro in Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The rice should have the right temperature (body temperature), texture (not too sticky, not too watery, not to dry) and the right amount of vinegar, salt and sugar.

It’s easy to cook bad sushi rice. I’ve done it more than a couple of times. I try to skip steps, I hurry, I don’t take it seriously enough. One thing that I learned from JP (the photographer behind this blog) is that when it comes to sushi rice you have to take your time and enjoy.

It all starts with washing the rice. You can wash it 4, 5, 6, 7 times, as much as your rice needs until the water runs clear. Then let it rest in cold water for 45 minutes in the same quantity of water, as rice. Then pour into a saucepan, cover the rice and bring to boil on high heat. When it boils, turn the heat low and cook without lifting the lid for another 20 minutes. Turn the heat of, then let it rest for another 10 minutes.

In a bowl, prepare your sushi vinegar with salt and sugar. Prepare this to your taste, but start with the proportions of salt and sugar 1/2. One teaspoon should be more than enough for a 250 ml mug.

Put your rice into a glass bowl and start adding the vinegar,a little bit each time, then taste it, all this while fanning the rice to help it cool faster. The rice shouldn’t be hot when you start adding it to makis or nigiris.

Now you are ready to make sushi.

Easy Cheesy Buns Recipe

16/02/201430 minutes, recipes, snack, vegetarianbread, breakfast, buns, cheese, easyfoodie

easy breakfast buns with cheese and nuts

What’s nicer on a Sunday morning than the smell of freshly baked bread? And what if you could cut the preparation time by 80% by using baking powder instead of yeast and making small palm-filling easy bake buns?

easy cheese filled morning buns

These cheesy buns are super easy to make.

You will need:

1 cup grated cheese for the dough (any kind will work, experiment with your favourite kind or use some cheese leftovers)
1 cup corn flour (you could also use yuca flower for this recipe)
a spoon of butter or olive oil or any kind of oil you have
half a cup of fresh or cottage cheese
a pinch of salt
a pinch of baking powder
1 egg

photo by JP Carrascal

Mix everything in a bowl until a soft dough is formed. Roll into egg-size or smaller spheres and bake in a tray over baking paper, at high heat, until golden on top. They should be ready in around 20 minutes, but you can check if they are with a toothpick. Push the toothpick in the centre of one of your buns: if it comes our clean, it’s ready, if it comes out still wet with dough, give it 5 more minutes and try again.

Optionally you could fill these with another type of cheese, with jam, olives, nuts anything you want really!

Enjoy your snack!

Crunchy Toasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Reduction

26/01/201430 minutes, dinner, eating healthy, recipes, vegetarianbrussels sprouts, goat cheese, pomegranate, quick, vegetarianfoodie

Crunchy Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Reduction

I love brussels sprouts. These miniature cabbages, part of the brassica genus are close relatives of broccoli, cauliflowers, mustard and of course, cabbage and they contain a chemical called sulforaphane, which is believed to have anticancer properties. The best way to cook them (if you don’t want to reduce amount of the above-mentioned compound) is to steam of stir fry them.

This recipe keeps the sprouts crunchy yet with that wonderful toasted flavour. The mix of the goat cheese with the acid green apple and pomegranate seeds is wonderful.

crunchy brussels sprouts with goat cheese

Ingredients:

brussels sprouts
one pomegranate
goat cheese
a handful of almonds
fresh ginger
fresh parsley
one orange

Optional:

one teaspoon sugar for the pomegranate reduction
lettuce
garlic

Season with salt and pepper.

Time needed: 30 minutes

First wash and cut your brussels sprouts in halves. Wash and dry some fresh parsley and chop some ginger into not so small dices.

brussels sprouts ginger and parsley

Then pit your pomegranate and chop a handful of toasted almonds.

winter granadilla

pomegranate seeds and almonds

Cut the goat cheese in big chunks and then sprinkle the juice of half an orange on top of it.

goat cheese orange and garlic

Take your pomegranate seeds and a teaspoon of sugar and start boiling them at very low heat until they juice becomes a thin sauce. Add the juice of the other half orange while they boil.

pomegranate reduction

In a pan toast the sprouts. You don’t need a lot of oil, a drop is enough. If you have a bit more time (30 minutes) you could toast them in the oven. Just put some olive oil in your palms and massage the sprouts, then sprinkle some salt and roast at high heat.

If you’re in a hurry, the pan will roast your brussels sprouts in a few minutes. toasting brussels sprouts

When everything’s ready chop some apples and mix everything together.

Bon profit!

crunchy brussles sprouts

Final Pie Breakdown

27/11/2012desert, did you knowfoodie

Everybody loves pie. Pie is comforting, sweet and pretty.

According to a survey and infographic by Coupon Cabin, the top 3 most popular pies are: Apple Pie, Strawberry Pie and Pumpkin Pie, followed by Cherry, Lemon Meringue and Pecan Pie.

Mmm… pie…

An Idea to Try: Sweet Potato Hummus

20/11/2012dinner, lunch, snack, vegan, vegetarianfoodie

You know when you see a recipe and you instantly feel excited thinking how amazing it will taste when you’ll cook it later in the evening?

I love this sweet potato hummus recipe from New York Times’ Dawn Lerman, author of the Fat Dad series.

To make this hummus you will first need to bake the sweet potato. When it has cooled off, add the canned chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and any other spices you like in your hummus. Serve with raw carrot and celery chips and warm pita breads.

Yum!

(image by moxlux on flickr)

On Why You Should Stick to Healthy Diets

17/10/2012eating healthy, inspirationfoodie

Rebecca Harrington writes a both funny and insightful piece about what Marilyn Monroe said she ate in an interview for the Peagant Magazine, in 1952.

Marilyn says she only eats two raw eggs in milk for breakfast, skips lunch and eats a broiled dinner of liver, steak or lamb and eat it with 5 raw carrots, after which she would have an fudge sundae.

This morning, I wake up and know one thing: I am hungry, and today is the day liver comes into Whole Foods. I am very excited because I have never had beef liver before. As I drink my egg milk, I imagine the liver awaiting me, quivering in its meat case. What I should do with it? Could it be good with ketchup?

Harrington writes.

I am so hungry that I eat a lamb dinner at 3 p.m. Feel very tired and heavy. Can’t tell if I am losing weight. I suspect this is a diet one can only do while also using recreational barbituates.

If you’re trying to motivate yourself to eat healthier do read this piece. It will remind you of what bad food does to you.

Grilled Broccoli with Hummus Sauce and Roasted Sesame Seeds

03/10/2012inspiration, lunch, recipes, restaurants, snack, vegetarianfoodie

This has to be one of the easiest dinner ideas ever. You only need: fresh broccoli, canned chickpeas, lemon, salt and pepper. Some fresh parsley would be nice too.

Make the humus first: add 2 garlic cloves to a can of chickpeas and the juice of half a lemon and zzzap everything together until creamy and soft. Add salt and pepper to taste, but don’t overdo it. If you’re brave add a small pinch of cinnamon and a spoon of honey to it, it’s really tasty.

Proceed to roasting the sesame seeds in a small pan. Add a teaspoon of water and the third of a pinch of salt, the keep the seeds moving in the pan until they turn a warmer brown (not black :).

On to the broccoli. Get some olive oil into the palm of your hand and rub your hands together, then massage the broccoli florets with it before grilling it. You don’t need to put too much. Grill then mix with the humus, as you would with pasta.

Photo and Idea adapted from Babble.

Soft Top Apple Pie Recipe

26/09/2012cake, desert, recipes, vegetarianfoodie

I found this beautiful perfumed green apples the other day and I bought more than I needed. Everyone in the house thought “apple pie” the moment they saw them on the counter; so I obliged. I wanted to do something new though so I tried this new recipe. It turned out great so I am sharing the how to below.

Let me know if you liked it!