Fruits cake

This was a project of my friend Ewelina, that ends in this delicious cake.   

INGREDIENTS:

- Cookies.
- Mango.
- Papaya.
- 3-4 bananas.
- 3-4 natural or greek yogourths.
- Strawberries.
- Dried fruits (nuts, almonds, seeds...)

PREPARATION:

- Get a recipient to prepare the cake and put the cookies as the basis.
- Cover the cookies with a slice of yogourth.
- Pick up the bananas into slices, and create another slice with the banana slices.
- Again, cover with another slice of yogourth.
- Pick up the mango and papaya into little pieces, and prepare another slice of the cake.
- Again, cover with another slice of yogourth.
- Pick up the strawberries and spread over the cake.
- Spread the dried fruits over the cake.
- Put into the fridge and wait about 2-3 hours.
- Serve it!

Pinneaple salad with strawberries

Another sweet salad.  This time with strawberries and adding the saltie touch with iberian ham.  I hope you like this one.  

INGREDIENTS (for two people):
- Lettuce or a salads bag.
- 3-4 slices of iberian ham.
- 1-2 slices of fresh pineapple.
- 10 strawberries.
- Pistachios.

For the dressing:
- A natural or greek yogurt.
- 3-4 honey teaspoonful.
- A little white pepper.

PREPARATION:
- Put the lettuce or the salad prepare as the base into the salad bowl.
- Pick up the ham slices and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the pinneaple slices and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the strawberries and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Now, mix in another reccipient the yogurt and the honey, adding the white pepper.
- Dress the salad with the previous mix.

- Spread up the pistachios over the salad bowl.
- Serve it!

Sweet rice with strawberries

Very good idea: sweet rice.  Thanks Ewelina for your idea.  

INGREDIENTS (for two people):
- 200 grs. of rice.
- 9-10 strawberries.
- A little cream.
- A little sugar.

PREPARATION:
- Boil the rice in a bowl.
- Pick up the strawberries.
- In a container, add a little cream and mix it with the strawberries and a little sugar.  Mix it well, until the colour of the cream were a little coloured with the red of the strawberries.
- In a plate, add the rice and cover it with the cream. 
- Add the strawberries in a decorative way.
- Serve it!

Tuna Salad

An idea from my friend Ewelina.  She is master of the salads.  

INGREDIENTS (for two people):
- Lettuce or a salads bag.
- A tuna tin.
- Olives.
- A half an onion.
- 100 grs. of pickled cucumbers.

- 100 grs. of sweet corn.

- A tomatoe.
- Pistachio.

For the dressing:
- A natural or greek yogurt.
- A little basil.

PREPARATION:
- Put the lettuce or the salad prepare as the base into the salad bowl.
- Pick up the tomatoe in pieces and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the cucumbers and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the onion and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Spread the corn over the salad bowl.
- Spread the tin of tuna over the salad bowl.
- Spread the olives over the salad bowl.
- Now, mix in another reccipient the yogurt and the basil.
- Dress the salad with the previous mix.

- Spread up the pistachios over the salad bowl.
- Serve it!

Salad with boiled egg and asparagus

An idea that raised from the need to take advantadge of the ingredients I had in my fridge.  So, i prepared this simple salad with a good result.

INGREDIENTS (for two persons):
- Lettuce or a salads bag.
- A piece of leek.
- 1 tomatoe.
- 100 grs. of asparagus.
- Pistachio.

For the dressing:
- Mayonnaise.
- A little white pepper.

PREPARATION:
- Put the lettuce or the salad prepare as the base into the salad bowl.
- Boil the egg.
- Pick up the leek in pieces and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the boiled egg and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the tomatoe into pieces and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Pick up the asparagus into pieces and spread it over the salad bowl.
- Spread up the pistachios over the salad bowl.
- Now, mix in another reccipient the mayonnaise and the white pepper. 
- Dress the salad with the mix between mayonnaise and pepper.
- Serve it!

 

Broccoli salad with petals of almonds

Once again, I have to thank my friend Ewelina for this simple and delicious idea.  Thanks Ewelina!

INGREDIENTS (for two persons):
- 200 grs. of broccoli.
- 100 grs. of almonds in petals.

For the dressing:
- Mayonnaise.

PREPARATION:
- Pick up the broccoli and put as the base into the salad bowl.
- Fry the petals of almonds without fat in a frying pan.
- Cover the broccoli with the almonds.
- Dress it with mayonnaise.
- Serve it!

Bean salad with pineapple

This is a very simple salad with legumes, that provide us iron, very necessary to avoid problems of anaemia.  I have to thanks for this idea to my great friend Ewelina, who is the creator of this salad.  Thanks Ewelina!

INGREDIENTS (for two persons):
- 500 grs. of red beans.
- A piece of leek.
- 100 grs. of gouda cheese.
- 100 grs. of pinneaple.

For the dress:
- Mayonnaise.
- A little curry.

PREPARATION:
- The night before, put into water the beans to soften them.  After it, boil the beans.
- Pick up the gouda cheese, the leek and the pinneaple into pieces.
- Put into the salad bowl the beans.
- Add the picked leek and the gouda cheese.
- Prepare the dressing by mixing the mayonnaise with a little curry.  Remove it and add to the salad bowl.
- Add the pieces of pinneaple. 
- Serve it!

Chicken salad with caramelized onion

My new idea.  Combine a caramelized onion with goat cheese, and serve it with chicken to prepare a delicious salad.

INGREDIENTS (for two persons):
- A handful of spinachs.
- Four fillets of chicken.
- 5-6 slices of goat cheese.
- A handful of peanuts.
- Olive oil.

For the caramelized onion:
- An onion.
- Three spoonfuls of sugar.
- A little balsamic vinegar of Módena.

PREPARATION:
- Put the spinachs well washed as the base into the salad bowl.
- Pick up the chicken into little pieces, and fry it, until the chicken were well toasted.
- Serve the chicken pieces toasted over the spinachs.
- Pick up the onion into thin parts, and fry it under low heat with a little olive oil.
- When the onion were browned, add the sugar, removing.
- Now, add the little balsamic vinegar of Módena, removing the mix until the vinegar were evaporated.
- Once the onion were prepared, spread it over the salad bowl.
- Taking advantadge of the heat of the frying pan, brown lightly the goat cheese, over a minute, taking care that the goat cheese were not melted.
- Serve the complete slices of cheese over the bowl, in a decorative way.
- Add a little handful of peanuts. 
- Serve it!

(1) - You can use other kind of dried berres, as almonds, instead of peanuts.
(2) - You can use a basis of lettuce instead of spinachs.

Lavender cookies with a lemon esence

The second one today.  A dessert.  Who could resist to a cookie?  Well, i adore cookies.  And, in this case, is very simple to prepare cookies.  And, you can prepare it in every moment, because i used ingredients that everybody have always in the kitchen.

INGREDIENTS:
- 100 grs. of flour.
- 50 grs. of butter.
- 80 grs. of sugar.
- 2 eggs.
- A handful of lavender branches.
- A half a lemon.

PREPARATION:
- First of all, you have to warm the butter up, until it were liquid.
- Mix the butter with the sugar.
- Add the two eggs beated to the previous mix, and remove.
- Add the flour and the lavender branches, and remove.
- Add the juice of the half lemon, and remove the mix until it were melted and thick.
- In a piece of vegetal paper, put little pieces of the dough.  Separe it well, to avoid that the final cookies were melted.
- Preheat the oven, until it had a high temperature.  Put the pieces and cook it.
- You have to repeat the previous step until you finished the dough. 
- Serve it!

(1) - You can use an orange instead a lemon, and you will obtain the cookies with an orange esence.

Dry-tomatoes risotto with chicken

First of all, i have to sorry about my absence.  But i regret with two new ones.  Starting with this one, a risotto.  You know that probably is one of my favourites dishes.  And, in this case, i've decided to use dry-tomatoes to obtain a new one.  I hope you like this recipe.

INGREDIENTS (for two persons):
- A glassful of rice.
- 2-3 mushrooms.
- 2-3 pieces of chicken.
- 6-7 units of dry-tomates.
- An onion.
- A quarter glasful of white wine.
- A handful of grated cheese.
- Olive oil.

PREPARATION:
- First of all, you have to dehydrate the dry-tomatoes.
- Once the dry-tomatoes were dehydrated, grind it in a little wine until you obtained a paste of it.  Reserve.
- Cut the chicken and the mushrooms into little pieces.
- Fried up the chicken tighs and the mushrooms into a frying pan.  Retire it. 
- Cut the onion.  Sauté it into a bowl with a little olive oil under a low heat.
- Once the onion were prepared, add the rice and remove it. 
- Once the rice were loose, add the white wine, and remove until the wine were evaporated.
- Add water.  I recommend double quantity of water than rice.  Remove.
- When the rice were prepared, mantain the heat and add the dry-tomatoes paste, removing until it were completely mixed with the rice.
- Retire from the fire and add the chicken and mushrooms pieces.
- To serve, add a little grated cheese.
- Serve it!

Chicken salad and yellow tomatoes with a spinachs basis

I restarted my activity yesterday.  And now, i'm preparing new dishes.   The last times, i start to use spinachs!!  So, today, i've decided to create a chicken salad with a spinach basis, and yellow tomatoes.  This is a "sweet" salad.  Let we start with the recipe! 

INGREDIENTS (for two persons):
- A handful of spinachs.
- 4 chicken tighs.
- 2 pieces of avocado.
- 10-12 yellow tomatoes.
- 2 greek yoghourts.
- 2 honey spoonfuls.
- A handful of almonds.
- A pinch of pepper.

PREPARATION:
- Put the spinachs as the basis into the salad bowl. 
- Peel and cut into pieces the avocados and spread over the bowl with spinachs.- Fried up the chicken tighs into a frying pan, picking its while they're frying and spread the pieces over the bowl.
- Spread the complete (don't cut its) yellow tomatoes over the bowl.
- For the dressing, mix up the yogourth with the two spoonfuls of honey, and add a pinch of pepper.
- Dress the salad with the dressing prepared in the previous step.
- And to complete the salad, pass the almonds during 2-3 minutes in the frying pan, and spread it over the salad.
- Serve it!

Eggs in the nest

I'm here again!!  After a long time, i've prepared a new dish.  Thanks to a friend of mine, i think in preparing something very easy and delicious.  Something that have so much ways to prepare it, and so much combinations.  It consist on fill a piece of bread with a filling and an egg.  The filling i choose for today is a mix of fried potatoes and sauté spinach.  I hope you like it!!!

INGREDIENTS (for one person):
- A piece of little bread.
- A little potatoe.
- A handful of spinachs.
- A little spoonful of milk.
- A clove of garlic.
- A pinch of salt.
- A pinch of pepper.

PREPARATION:
- Cut the potatoes into slices. 
- Fried up the potates slices into a frying pan on a slow flame, picking the slices while they're frying.  Add the clove of garlic into little pieces.  When the potatoes were well done, not toasted, retire it.
- Stir the spinachs into a frying pan for 2-3 minutes and retire.
- Cut the high part of the bread piece, retire the crumb.
- Wet the bread piece with the milk, to avoid the bread were hardened.
- Put the mix of spinachs and potatoes into the piece of bread (the nest).
- Break the egg into "the nest" of bread, adding a little pepper and salt.
- Put "the nest" of bread into the oven during 5-10 minutes, until the egg were prepared.
- Serve it, accomplished, as example, with little pieces of tomatoes, as in the example.

ADVICE:
- As i said before, you can use another kind of filling.  Please, try with another ingredients.  The result will be as delicious as this one.  

Cherries clafouties

INGREDIENTS:
- 150 grs. of cherries.
- 20 grs. of flour.
- 30 grs. of powdered almonds.
- 80 grs. of sugar.
- 2 eggs.
- A little vanilla.

PREPARATION:
- Beat the two eggs in a recipient.  Add the sugar, the milk and the vanilla while still beating.
- Add to the previous mix, the powdered almonds and the sifted flour.
- Spread the mass into little recipients, not plenty.
- Pick up the cherries, and add to the recipients.
- Heat up the oven at high temperature during almost five minutes.
- Put the recipients into the oven, and wait almost 10-15 minutes, or the mix was settled.
- Serve it.

A FINAL ADVICE:
- We can use strawberries instead of the cherries.

Rice with fruits and scent of strawberries

And now, an experiment.  I wanted to prepare a different dish of rice, with fruits, but not a salad.  Starting for the selection of the fruits, we have too many options.  Here we have the first one i chosen.  Preparing with bananas and apples, and using to cook the rice a little strawberrie juice, the final result adquires a red dye, that marks the difference over any other kind of rices.  So, let we go with the recipe.

INGREDIENTS (2 people):
- 200 grs. of rice.
- 200 grs. of strawberries.
- 45 grs. of raisins.
- 2 bananas.
- An apple.
- A cinnamon stick or a little powdered cinnamon.
- A little piece of butter.

PREPARATION:
- Cut into pieces the strawberries, and blend it with a blender.  Reserve the obtained juice.
- Cut into pieces the bananas and the apple.
- Put a bowl under heat, and add the butter. 
- When the butter were melted, add the pieces of banana and apple previously obtained and sauté it. 
- When the fruits were a golden aspect, add the strawberries juice prepared in the first step, the raisins and remove the mixture until it begins to boil.
- When the mixture starts to boil, add the rice and remove it during 1-2 minutes.
- Add water to the mixture in little pieces, removing it until the rice were well boiled and the liquid disappeared.
- Let rest the rice during 15-20 minutes.
- Serve it!

Cherries crumble

Here we have the cherries!!  And to start the season, we have to prepare a very simple dessert, but delicious.

INGREDIENTS:
- 150 grs. of cherries.
- 45 grs. of flour.
- 30 grs. of cold butter.
- 30 grs. of sugar.
- 15 grs. of grindend almonds.
- A pinch of salt.

PREPARATION:
- Cut and pit the cherries.  Put as the basis into the recipients we will use to serve the crumble.
- In another recipient, mix up the flour, the sugar and the grinded almonds.
- Cut in little pieces the cold butter, and add it to the previous mix.
- To manage the mixture, we join the ingredients using the fingertip, preparing little crumbs.
- Spread up over the recipients with the cherries basis, the "crumbles" prepared in the previous step.
- Warm up the oven.  When it was heat up, put the recipients and cook until the surface were a golden aspect.
- The ideal is to serve 15-20 mins. after it were cooked, avoiding to keep it into the fridge.

A FINAL ADVICE:
You can use strawberries instead of cherries.  The final result is delicious too.  A little example:

Seafood and wild asparagus covered by a poached egg

INGREDIENTS (2 people):
- 200 grs. of elver.
- 100 grs. of prawns.
- 10-12 wild asparagus.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 2 eggs.

PREPARATION:
- Cut the wild asparagus into little pieces and fry it gently into a frying pan with a little garlic cutted.  Retire.
- After it, fry the elver and the prawns gently into the frying pan, with a little garlic.  Retire.
- Now, we have to poach the eggs.  We have to do it as we saw into the eggs benedict recipe. 
- To serve, put the elver, the prawns and the asparagus as the basis for our dish, sitting the egg in the middle of the dish.
- To start eat this dish, break the egg yoke, and deliver it over the elver.

Eggs Benedict

INGREDIENTS (2 people):
- 8 eggs.
- 2 pieces of sliced bread.
- 250 grs. of butter.
- 4 slices of bacon.
- 1/2 lemon juice.

PREPARATION:
- The first we must prepare, is the "dutch sausage".  Melt the butter over low heat.  When it was prepared, retire the white part of the melted butter and reserve it.
- Put a pan plenty of water over medium heat. 
- Meanwhile, retire 4 egg yolks into a different recipient, and put over the pan with the water, as a double boiler, while we beat it.
- Add the melted butter slowly while we're still beating the eggs yolks until the mix were thicken, adding finally the lemon juice.  Reserve it.
- Now, taking advantadge of the boiled water, we're going to poch the 4 remaining eggs.  Add a little vinegar to the boiled water and, one at a time, break the 4 eggs and, slowly, slide its into the boiled water, retiring it when it were well poched.  Reserve it.
- Pass the 2 pieces of sliced bread over a frying pan, to get two toasted bread.
- Pass the 4 slices of bacon over a frying pan.  Reserve it.
- To serve, put the 2 pieces of toasted bread.  In every piece, put two slices of bacon and 2 poched eggs, sliding a little "dutch sausage" over it.     
- Serve it.

Dates dressed with a bacon band

It's a simple dish.  A very simple dish wich have so many chances... Put a date, dress it with a bacon band and put it into a frying pan over one or two minutes.  Different ideas to complete this?  To unite the bacon with the date, we can use a toothpick.  Well, this toothpick could be acomplished with, in example, a piece of goat cheese... it's only an idea.... Probably i will try it soon... I tell you the results.  Meanwhile, enjoy this simple "caprice".

Poached eggs with elver

INGREDIENTS (2 people):
- 200 grs. of elver.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 1 chili pepper.
- 2 eggs.
- 2 spoonfuls of white wine vinegar.

PREPARATION:
- Pick up the clove of garlic and the chili pepper into little pieces.  Fry it into a frying pan with a little oil.
- Add the elver, and remove it until it were well done.  Reserve it.
- Crack one of the eggs into a separate recipient, while were boiling a little water with the vinegar.
- When the water were boiled, slide out softly the egg over the water.  Let it boil during roughly a minute and a half, and retire with an skimming spoon.  Reserve it.
- Repeat the same operation with the oher egg.   
- Put the elver as the botton of the dish.  Over it, put the eggs yolks, separing the egg white part.
- Serve it.

Palak paneer with spicy rice

Today i want to share with you a oriental dish.  As every oriental dish, this is very spicy and you have to be careful with the quantity of spices that you use.  But it's very good and simple to prepare.  It's something that prepare some time ago, and with a good result.

INGREDIENTS (2 persons):
For the rice:
- 200 grs. of rice.
- A chilli pepper.
- A little saffron sticks.
- 1-2 little spoonfuls of nutmeg.
- A half a chive.
- Cinnamon sticks.
- Olive oil.

For the spinachs hotpot:
- 5-6 slices of goat cheese.
- An onion.
- A half a spoonful of fresh ginger.
- A little spoonful of cumin.
- A little spoonful of fennel.
- 1-2 cloves of garlic.
- A litlle spoonful of chilli paprika.
- Pepper.
- 2 spoonfuls of tomatoe sausage.
- A little salt.
- 500 grs. of spinachs.

PREPARATION:
- Boil the rice with the cinnamon stick.
- When the rice is well boiled, retire from the heat and drain it, quiting the cinnamon stick and reserving it.
- Put the spinachs and the ginger into a cooking pot with a little salt.  Cover it and boil roughly 3-4 minutes.
- Retire the spinachs, grind and reserve it.
- Cut the onion into little pieces and, into a frying pan under low heat, brown it with a little oil, adding the picked garlic and the fennel, frying it gently during 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cumin and the paprika, remove it during rougly a minute, and add the spinach paste.  Up the heat a little and sauté it during 1-2 minutes. 
- Add the tomatoe sausage and sauté it to obtain a creamy paste.  Add the pepper and keep it under the heat roughly 1-2 minutes more.
- Once the spinach paste is finally prepared, retire from heat and reserve it.
- Pick up the half chive, and sauté it with a little oil.
- Add the chilli pepper picked up, the nutmeg, the saffron and the rice reserved in the early steps of this recipe, to mix up the different tastes.  Keep under fire roughly 1-2 minutes.
- To serve it, in one recipient put the spinachs paste putting over it the goat cheese slices pìcked.
- In another recipient, put the spicy rice and, in an ornamental way, put the cinammon stick over it.
- Server it!