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Tag Archives: Food Blog Event
What is Pho? Pho is Vietnamese comfort soup, think noodle soup with an extra kick. The fragrant broth (either chicken or beef) is seasoned with coriander, cloves, star anise and the secret ingredient fish sauce. Before eating one garnishes the soup with bean sprouts, cilantro, chili peppers, limes and an assortment of other delicious sauces.
The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.
I remember the first time I Pho, it was with my old roommate, Lily. Lily and her boyfriend at the time, a guy from Laos, took me to this little hole in the wall in the tenderloin. We were in our twenties and had clearly over indulged the night before and he promised this would be the ultimate cure for what ailed us. We sat down at this big circular table and a small frail woman gave us 3 very tall coffees that were sweetened with creamy condensed milk. Next she sat down platters of fresh basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, limes, chillies, mint with little bowls of different sauces and finally a very hot bowl of broth with rice noodles and another platter of thinly sliced beef. We spent the next hour slurping noodles and ladling spoonfuls of warm broth into our broken bodies and he was right, we felt so much better after wards. That was my first introduction to Pho.
Lenny and I both love Pho, in fact every time we go out to Vietnamese food, which is often enough, it is a must. I have always wanted to make it at home but have just never gotten around to it. Over coffee last Sunday, I decided to see what the Daring Cooks were up too, I figured before even signing in, that I would not have time to do the challenge this month but wanted a peak. When I saw that it was a bowl of steamy Pho, I was plesantly pleased as I was coming down with something and this would be the perfect treatment for what ailed me.
Since I was not feeling well, I decided to go the short cut route and use prepared chicken stock. Normally, I would have made my own stock but since I was under the weather, this was the last thing on my mind. Jaden’s recipe was fairly simple and straightforward. I simmered a very succulent organic/cage free chicken breast with the broth and spices, over a very low heat for about 45 minutes, which left me with an amazingly moist and juicy breast. The soup was very flavorful with the addition of fresh chillies, cilantro, limes and hoison sauce. One addition that I have never had with Pho is slivers of red onion, this a nice and refreshing surprise, when slurped up in an entanglement of noodles, and chicken. The recipe made enough for us to have leftovers for lunch, I just packaged the broth and noodles separately from the veggies and reheated the next day – it was even more flavorful.
Thank you Jaden for being our hostess this month and for picking the perfect fall meal for dinner. We will be adding this to our regular “must” eats! Be sure to check out how the other Daring Cooks made their Pho.
Recipe: Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup: Pho Ga
For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce
1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)
Accompaniments:
2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice
Directions:
- To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
- In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
- Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
- Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
- Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
- Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
- Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.
Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness is the hostess for this month’s Hay Hay its Donna Day and she picked a Polenta and Parmesan Chicken recipe. I have had this bookmarked for sometime, so I was very excited that Stephanie picked something savory for us.
 
I had all intentions of making this at the beginning of the week, when the spinach I had purchased was very fresh. By the time I got around to making it, it was Friday and we were in the middle of getting ready to head to Baltimore for a few days; the spinach had gone bad! Since the spinach was not good I used baby red butter lettuce with the fresh basil as well I added some vine ripe tomatoes we had laying around. I loved the breading of parmesan and polenta which we crusted some organic, cage-free chicken breasts with. I gently pan fried the breast in grape seed oil. Grape seed oil is great to use for frying or even quickly roasting chicken breasts, as it can handle high heat, which in turn gives the chicken a nice crispy crust and very moist flesh. We were commenting throughout the meal how plump and juicy these breasts were …. yum! Half way through the cooking process, I had this feeling I was not going to like this dish, I am not sure why, just this feeling. Pleasantly surprised when we sat down and took the first bite. The honey mustard based dressing really brought the greens and the crispy but moist chicken together, it was very flavorful. This is a wonderfully light and easy dinner to make, we had it on the table in 30 minutes. We don’t have kids but I imagine it would be very kid-friendly as well.
Stephanie, thank you for picking a great recipe and for being our hostess for this month’s HHDD! Be sure to check out Stephanie’s site for the round-up of HHDD # 28 entries, I am sure there will be some great dishes from some fantastic cooks!
Recipe: Parmesan and Polenta Chicken
2 cobs corn, husks and silks removed
olive oil for brushing
2 x 200g (7oz) chicken breasts
flour for dusting
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 cup(100g/3 1/2 oz) polenta
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
100g (3 1/2 oz) baby spinach leaves
1/2 basil leaves
grated parmesan cheese, extra to serve
dressing
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons honey
sea salt and cracked black pepper
To make the dressing, place the mustard, lemon juice, garlic, oil, honey, salt & pepper in a bowl & whisk to combine. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 220 C (425 F. Brush the corn with oil, place in a baking dish & roast for 25 minutes or until golden. Slice the kernels from the corn & set aside. Slice the chicken in half horizontally, dust with the flour, dip into the egg & press into the combined parmesan & polenta to coat. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat & cook the chicken for 2-3 minutes each side or until golden & cooked through. Arrange the chicken, corn, spinach & basil on plates & spoon over the dressing & grated parmesan to serve. Serve. Eat.
Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness was winner of last month’s HHDD Challenge. Stephanie will be our hostess for this month’s challenge and she has picked Parmesan and Polenta Chicken. To read more about this dish and to get the recipe please visit Dispensing Happiness.
To read the history about HHDD as well as a list of the rules for this challenge, please click here. The deadline for entry into this challenge is September 20th.
Looking forward to seeing your dishes.
Kick up the traditional brownie with an ultra creamy cheesecake topping.
It is that time again, time for Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD) and Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell, is our hostess this week. Melissa must have known that I needed the perfect dessert for us to bring to a BBQ last weekend when she picked Dorie’s Espresso Cheesecake Brownie. When I pulled up the September schedule Saturday morning, I was thrilled to see what was pick for the week. I have always loved brownies with a cheesecake topping but these were double the fun. The cheesecake was flavored with espresso and then topped with a creamy topping made of sour cream and sugar. These brownies are sure to please even the most discriminating group!
Be sure to pour yourself a big glass of milk and head over to the TWD blogroll to indulge even further.
Recipe: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies
Delicate Lemon Verbena flavors these traditional French Madeline to make a light and airy dessert or afternoon snack.
We have or I should say “had” an abundance of Lemon Verbena growing outside our kitchen door, which was a pure delight. I love to open the door in the morning and smell the wetness of the evening and sweetness of the verbena while having that first sip of espresso. I noticed over the weekend that someone or something has been chewing on the leaves. Ever so tenderly, they are eating just pieces of each small leaf. So, I grabbed some kitchen shears and saved what I could and then trimmed back the plant – I hope it does not die. With the small bowl of delicate leaves I made a simple syrup and thought about what I could make for Andrea‘s GYO event this month…..
Lenny is heading to Boston and it is his mother’s birthday, I know she loves these sweet little cookies, so I baked up a batch of madelines. I used David Lebovitz’s recipe, minus the lemon glaze, instead I dipped each little cookie in the simple syrup before delicately wrapping. The lemon verbena is lovely with this delicate cookie as it gives it a slightly lemony as well as a bit of a spicy bite, similar to basil, mixed with the sweetness of sugar; it reminds me of a late summer afternoon, light, sunny and very warm.
I am submitting this to Andrea‘s GYO event. It has been awhile since I have had the time to really participate in one of my favorite “food blog events”. Andrea’s has been one of my favorite events as it gives us a chance to showcase what we grown in our gardens, whether it is from an urban dwelling or a large garden out in the country. As well it brings all of us together from all over the world – it is really nice to see what people from every corner of the world are enjoying at the same time.
The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
We got a wonderful invite over to John & Michelle’s home for an amazing dinner. John is the chef and creative food genius behind Food Wishes. Food Wishes is an amazing site that is full of cooking video recipes. We knew he was working on some “dry aged beef” and that they would be the star of the dinner, so I had to bring a dessert that would be just as fantastic – Dobos Torte!
“The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners’ and Gingerbread Makers’ Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.” quoted from the Daring Baker’s Forum.
The recipe is fairly easy. The sponge cake was very simple to make and came out very light and springy. I decided to make individual tortes so I cut the cake into 24 small circles. The butter-cream was also very light but I was very disappointed as I used a very dark chocolate and it came out very light in color, this was not what I had wanted. The topping to the torte is a caramel topping that is made with lemon juice, I used orange with a touch of cardamon added. The topping was suppose to be some sponge cake that was drizzled with the caramel topping, I was not sure about this, so I practiced on some extra pieces of sponge cake. I was glad I did as I thought the caramel would make the cake too chewy. Instead, I attempted to spin the caramel into “spun sugar”, which ended up being a very fun process and I spent a good part of the afternoon spinning away! The end result was light and very flavorful dessert. I would make this again, but I would try to use a different butter-cream as I would have preferred it to have a much darker look and taste.
A big thank you to Angela and Lorraine for being our wonderful hostesses this month and for picking a great challenge. Be sure to check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for more tortes as well as Food Wishes to see what else we had for dinner that night!
Recipe: Dobos Torte
Equipment
- 2 baking sheets
- 9” (23cm) springform tin and 8” cake tin, for templates
- mixing bowls (1 medium, 1 large)
- a sieve
- a double boiler (a large saucepan plus a large heat-proof mixing bowl which fits snugly over the top of the pan)
- a small saucepan
- a whisk (you could use a balloon whisk for the entire cake, but an electric hand whisk or stand mixer will make life much easier)
- metal offset spatula
- sharp knife
- a 7 1/2” cardboard cake round, or just build cake on the base of a sprinfrom tin.
- piping bag and tip, optional
Prep times
- Sponge layers 20 mins prep, 40 mins cooking total if baking each layer individually.
- Buttercream: 20 mins cooking. Cooling time for buttercream: about 1 hour plus 10 minutes after this to beat and divide.
- Caramel layer: 10-15 minutes.
- Assembly of whole cake: 20 minutes
Sponge cake layers
- 6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner’s (icing) sugar, divided
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Buttercream
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
- 4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.
Caramel topping
- 1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
- 12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
- 8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)
Finishing touches
- a 7” cardboard round
- 12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted
- ½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts
Directions for the sponge layers:
NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.
1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).
2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9″ (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn’t touch the cake batter.)
3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner’s (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don’t have a mixer.)
4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner’s (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8″ springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)
Directions for the chocolate buttercream:
NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.
1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.
2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.
3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.
4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.
5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.
Lorraine’s note: If you’re in Winter just now your butter might not soften enough at room temperature, which leads to lumps forming in the buttercream. Male sure the butter is of a very soft texture I.e. running a knife through it will provide little resistance, before you try to beat it into the chocolate mixture. Also, if you beat the butter in while the chocolate mixture is hot you’ll end up with more of a ganache than a buttercream!
Directions for the caramel topping:
1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.
2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.
3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn’t just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.
Angela’s note: I recommend cutting, rather than scoring, the cake layer into wedges before covering in caramel (reform them into a round). If you have an 8” silicon round form, then I highly recommend placing the wedges in that for easy removal later and it also ensures that the caramel stays on the cake layer. Once set, use a very sharp knife to separate the wedges.
Assembling the Dobos
1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.
4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.
Olga of Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes is our hostess for this month’s Daring Cooks Challenge. I was excited to see that she chose one of Jose Andres’ recipes, for the obvious reason, after all he is Jose and because we love the cuisine of this part of the world.
August has been a very busy month for us, so I was not sure when I would get a chance to make this dish at home. Now when I say busy, I am really not even sure why I am saying busy. Work is terribly slow, reminds me of 6 years ago when we started the company, never the less, we are busy trying to get busy. I guess you could really say, the past few months have been challenging for us. We are in the process of making decisions about work, where to live and basically the next step in our lives – BIG! Anyhow, while we have this extra down time (not working a whole heck of a lot), we have been taking a long weekends, to head to the mountains to camping, regroup and to enjoy some warmth. You see … San Francisco is not the city to be in if you love warm summers. Anyhow, I knew or at least I hoped this recipe would be perfect for one of our weekend excursions……
We planned this cookout according to a “group” camp weekend up in Tuolumne. We are very adventurous with our camp cookery but we have never made anything remotely like Paella. This would be a challenge – maybe!
We checked into our bear equipped camp late last Friday, yes, I said bear equipped. As mentioned this was suppose to be a “group” camp weekend, so we had to check in with a ranger, who proceeded to tell us Smoky and the gang had just waltzed through our site about 2 hours before. Now bears are kind of like sharks in my book, it is fine if they are around where I am playing, just don’t play on my playground! We got to our site .. no other peeps were there! So we did the next best thing, popped open a bottle of red wine, set up camp and got our camp fire going; did I mention … it was freezing! It was time to tackle Paella!
The easy thing about eating “gourmet” or “very well” when you are camping is to be prepared. I pre measure everything I am going to use before leaving. I freeze the items that can be frozen and the rest we keep on ice in a small cooler. As well we have a box that is filled with a couple pans, a couple plates, utensils, glasses, etc… It is basically ready to do at the drop of a hat.
I was a little nervous about making a paella while camping so I prepped a little more than I usually would. For instance I made the Sofreigit before leaving the city and froze it. This definitely helped with the actual cooking. As well I used canned artichokes since the fresh ones were pretty pricey – $3.49 each! Next time, I will spring for fresh. Not only was it romantic to cook over the campfire, but it was a lot of fun … sizzling calamari, sauteed mushrooms! I used a brown short grain rice, you know, to keep it healthy. The problem with cooking rice at altitude, it took ALONG time, a whole bottle of white wine, and 2 cups of water and the entire jar of Sofreigit. I think the best part of the evening was Lenny making the alioli by using his “big cannons” and a mason jar. He came very close but not quite there … regardless, it is a must for this dish!
Be sure to check out our highlights of the adventure as well as all the other Daring Cooks.
Highlights from the High Country!
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Recipe: Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Equipment:
- 1 Chopping Board
- 1 knife
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size)
- 1 Saucepan
Ingredients (serves 4):
- 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or frozen if fresh are not available)
- 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
- 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
- 1 glass of white wine
- 2 Cuttlefish (you can use frozen cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
- “Sofregit” (see recipe below)
300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person). Please read this for more info on suitable rices.
- Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
- Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
Directions:
Cut the cuttlefish in little strips. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”). Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.
Sofregit (a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms)
Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 2 small onions, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
- 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
- 1 Bay leaf
- Salt
- Touch of ground cumin
- Touch of dried oregano
Directions:
Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)
Alioli is an optional part in the recipe. I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Alioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste.
Alioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- Pinch of salt
- Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
- Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)
Directions:
- Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)Add the lemon juice to the garlic. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.
A cool and refreshing summer salad made with bean thread noodles, crisp green beans, mouth tingly mint and cilantro all dressed with a very flavorful dressing of lime and fish sauce. This salad is easy to make and you will have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.
Priya picked summer salads for the HHDD #27 kickoff. I love summer salads and Donna Hay has an outstanding collection of them. In order to narrow the choice down Priya found a wonderful lime and noodle salad for HHDD # 27. After reading the recipe, I could not wait to try it as there were so many ingredients that I love in salads: mint, cilantro, chilies and nuts. Now this event and the fact it is all about salads excited me, but I was even more excited when Laudalino (aka .. Lenny) told me he wanted to make the salad!
Laudalino is tossing around the idea of learning to cook. I have told him time and time again, that I thought Donna Hay recipes would be a great place to begin. He was eager, hungry and took this recipe by the horns and created a fantastic dinner for us. The salad has loads of texture, from silky bean thread noodles to spicy chilies. He did add a bit of red pepper to give it a little more color. The sweetness of the red pepper went very well with the crisp green beans and the cool cucumbers took the fire away from the spicy chilies. The salad came together with a sweet but tart dressing made of limes and fish sauce, in which he grated some lime zest as well as some fresh chili, this gave it a nice spicy bite. This salad is prefect for a hot summer evening as it is very light and refreshing.
Lenny, thanks for making a fantastic dinner!!! Priya, thank you for being a great hostess for HHDD #27!
Recipe: Lime and Mint Noodle Salad
*adapted from Donna Hay
serves 8
250g bean thread noodles
500g green beans, trimmed and halved
1 Lebanese cucumbers, sliced
¾ cup mint leaves, chopped
¼ cup coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped
¼ cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1 1/2 large red chillies, seeds removed and finely chopped
1/4 red pepper, cut in thin strips
Dressing
⅓ cup (80ml) lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1½ tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 red chili, grated
Place noodles in a bowl, cover with boiling water and allow to stand for 5-6 minutes or until soft. Cook the beans in boiling water for 2 minutes or until bright green. Drain, cool under cold water and drain again. Combine with the noodles, cucumber, mint, coriander, peanuts and chili. To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar and pour over the salad. Serve. Eat.
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