luni, 28 iunie 2010

Fusilli Salad with Chicken Breast

250 g fusilli, salt, 3 tablespoons oil, 250 g chicken breast, pepper, 200 g mangetout, 1 red pepper, 1 bunch chives
Dressing: 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, salt, white pepper, a pinch of sugar, 4-5 tablespoons of oil, 150 g yogurt, 4 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon pesto

Boil pasta in salted water, drain and mix with one tablespoon oil. Wash the meat and then cut it into strips, fry it in remaining oil, add salt and pepper, then allow to cool.
Clean the pea pods and boil them in salted water, cut in half. Cut the pepper into narrow strips. Cut the chives in rings.
Mix all the ingredients of the dressing with the pasta, the pea pods, peppers and the chicken. Allow 15 minutes for the flavours to penetrate.

miercuri, 23 iunie 2010

Spinach Lasagna with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts

300 g spinach (frozen), 150 g goat's cheese, 1 shallot, 1 clove of garlic, 30 g pine nuts, 2 tablespoons Olive oil, 100 ml cream, 1 mix MAGGI fix & fresh broccoli gratin, 8 sheets Buitoni Lasagne, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 200°C. Thaw spinach, crumble the feta cheese. Peel the shallots and garlic and chop finely. Toast pine nuts in a pan without fat and remove it. Heat the oil and saute the shallots and garlic for about 1-2 minutes. Add spinach and sauté another 2 minutes. Add 300 ml of water and pour in the cream. Add the Maggi fix & fresh broccoli gratin and stir until boiling. Stir in pine nuts and half of the goat cheese. Alternate layers of Lasagne with the vegetable sauce in a baking dish. Mix the remaining cheese with bread crumb and sprinkle over the casserole. Add the butter on top of the casserole and put it in the oven and bake about 30 minutes.

luni, 21 iunie 2010

Jamie Oliver's Chocolate Tart

To celebrate my departure to Riga the day after tomorrow I decided to bake a cake.
And I asked myself what kind of cake should I bake? With fruits or with yoghurt because it's so hot outside? It was a tough call and I finally decided that the best fruit is chocolate ;) so I asked Jamie for a quick recipe... so here it is:

140 gr unsalted butter, 155 gr best quality cooking chocolate, (70 percent cocoa solids), 8 tablespoons cocoa, powder, sifted, 1 pinch salt, 4 eggs, 200 gr caster sugar, 3 tablespoons golden syrup, 3 tablespoons sour cream or 3 tablespoons creme fraiche, 1 10-inch flan or tart shell, baked blind

Place the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar together until light and well creamed, and then add the golden syrup and sour cream or crème fraiche. Stir the chocolate mixture into this mixture, scraping all the chocolate out with a spatula. Once you’ve mixed it well, pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated 150C/300 degree F/Gas 2 oven for 40 to 45 minutes. During cooking a beautiful crust will form on top. Carefully remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes, during which time the skin will crack and the filling will shrink slightly. Serve with cream or vanilla icecream ;)

vineri, 18 iunie 2010

And then was the concert...

Absolutely amazing concert, the boys from Reamonn were great as ever, and the fact that Sebi played the saxophone for Supergirl was the perfect bonus ;)
The Aerosmith oldies made a great show, I can't believe Steven Tyler is 62... he was acting like a total teenager, drulling over the Romanian Women... who were screaming their heads off for every song (maybe that's why I can't hear properly since then - vuvuzelas are nothing compared with female rock fans)
We were lucky with the weather too, not too cold, not too hot, and no Killers storm :))
And the fun continued after the concert, trying to find my friends to go for a drink in the city center. After seeing a sea of people coming my way, and getting dizzy because of that, we finally met and then the complicated part started, first trying to find a decent taxi and then trying to put 8 people in just one car...
But all is well when it ends well, drinking a Guinness in an Irish pub and chatting till the early hours of the morning.
I must be getting old, because I was surprised to see so many people on the streets at 4 o'clock in the morning...

And now for the people who couldn't be at the concert, here are a few glimpses...