The world's most delicious spaghetti

There are a couple of dishes that I could eat as long as I have any in of it in front of me, this pasta dish is one of these dishes. It's not complicated, you don't need anything special to make it and you don't even have to follow the recipe that much. You can leave out any of the ingredients and still have a great meal but of course it's the best if you use a lot of everything...:) This is why I won't write down precise amounts because you can decide for yourself how much you want from each ingredient. 

Ingredients: 

• smoked sliced bacon
• fresh thyme (as much as you want)
• rosemary (the same rule applies)
• garlic
• sundried tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• mushroom
• whole wheat spaghetti

Bring a pot of water with some salt and oil to a boil and cook the pasta in it. Meanwhile you have to slice the bacon and start frying it in a pan on a tiny bit of oil. Do it until the bacon is crispy. Then you can add the sliced mushrooms and cook it until it becomes soft, right after that you can add the garlic, the herbs and the tomaotes. Give it a good stir and let the flavours come out. Then you can add the cooked pasta and give it another good stir. Sprinkle some parmesan on top and that's it... :)

Rustic rosemary - garlic bread

 

The original idea of this bread is not my own, Jamie made something like this in Jamie at home, and it made me think that I could do a different version with more herbs and not only with plain flour. I'm sure it's totally different than the one he made, but it is really delicious. Not very complicated, can be easily made in the oven and even if you don't have anything else to eat, it's perfect for lunch or dinner. 

Ingredients for a big oven pan

• a total of 75 dkgs of flour, the percentage of plain and whole grain flour depends on your taste
• 420 mls of warm water
• 2 packets of dried yeast
• 3 teaspoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• one big handful of chives
• a couple of thyme springs
• 5-6 springs of fresh rosemary
• 4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
• olive oil

Measure the flour and mix it with the yeast, the sugar and the salt plus the finely chopped herbs. If you are using a break baking machine, you only have to pour the flour in and then the water and the machine will do the rest. If not, make a whole in the middle of the flour for the water and then you can start kneading the dough until you get a flexible but soft dough. When it is ready, let it raise until it becomes double the original size. Line some baking paper into an oven pan and roll the dough to the size of the pan, lay it onto the pan and sprinkle the olive oil, the garlic and the rosemary leaves onto the dough. Then press your fingers into the dough all over the surface, but not all the way in, just make little "craters". Then put it in the oven at 200 degrees and bake it until the top becomes golden brown. 

Turkey leg roast with garlic and red lentil casserole

I haven't posted in the blog for quite a long time, I didn't reallly cook anything new either, but today I managed to go to the farmer's market and buy a really nice turkey leg. Since today isn't that hot, I thought it was time to bring out the more substantial ingredients. I forgot to soak the lentils yesterday, I made this dish with red lentils, but I think this recipe might even work better with them. It's not a very complicated thing to do, although you want to start roasting the turkey because it needs at least 2 hours in the oven to be completely soft. Those of you who like chili con carne, but want to cook something lighter with the same spices, I recommend this recipe.

Ingredients for the turkey: 

• 1 turkey leg, the upper part, without bone
• mustard accodring to taste
•  2 cloves of garlic
• salt

Ingredients for the red lentil casserole:

• a big cup of red lentils
• 2 corns on the cob or 1 can of corn
• 1 carrot
• 2 onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 can of creamed tomato
• salt, pepper
• 1 coffee spoon of chili powder or cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of grated cumin
• 3 bay leaves
• water

Take the bone out of the turkey leg and put it into a fireproof dish with the skin on the bottom. Cut match sized pieces of the garlic and cut little wholes into the meat and push the garlic into the wholes. Sprinkle salt on the turkey and spread the mustard on it. Cover it with tin foil and roast it at 200 deg Celsius at least for 2 hours. Pour some water under it from time to time to avoid burning the bottom half of the meat (this will become the gravy for the meat in the end). 

For the casserole, chop the onion fine and start cooking it with the cover on because we want to cook it, not to fry it. Chop the tomatoes fine and add them to the onions after 15 minutes. Add the bay leaves too and cover the dish. Cook it until the tomato becomes totally soft. Meanwhile dice the carrot and chop the garlic fine. Cook the corn on the cob for 10 minutes in boiling water and then cut the grains off the cob. When the tomatoes are cooked, add the carrot and cook it until it's half done. Pour some water in it, and then add the corn and the seasoning. Pour approx. 1/2 litre of water into the dish and finally, add the lentils. Keep stiring because the lentils can stick to the bottom of the dish. The lentils will soak most of the water so you will have to pour some more into it in the end. Add the creamed tomato and some more salt and seasoning if neccessary.

Tuna casserole with peas

I'm having minor kitchen accidents these days so I got a two piece casserole dish set as a consolation gift. In the bigger one you can cook for two people and the smaller one is enough for one. I tried the bigger dish out the next day with this tuna casserole :) 

Ingredients

• half a packet of penne 
• 1 can of peeled tomatoes
• 3 drops of liquid sweetener
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of tuna (in brine)
• peas according to taste
• grated cheese
• salt, pepper

First you have to cook the penne in boiling salted water. Then chop the onion and the garlic fine and start cooking it in a saucer pan. Chop the canned tomatos up and pour it into the pan. Add some salt, pepper, a bit of water and the 2 drops of sweetener. Pour in the peas and cover it with a lid. Cook it until the peas are fine, then remove the lid and let it boil for a while so that it gets thicker. Then lay one third of the penne on the bottom of the casserole dish, then one third of the tuna and one third of the tomato sauce. Repeat this twice and sprinkle the cheese on top of it in the end. You need to cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the cheese becomes golden. 

Courgettes with walnut and cream stuffing and couscous with golden onions

I am condemned not to eat meat and any kind of animal derived products for two weeks so I'm constantly cooking vegetable dishes. The day before yesterday I made chili with squash and beans with a sotre-bought chili con carne spice mix and I have to admit, it might sound weird but it was absolutely yummy. Next time I cook it I will put the recipe in here, just to shock you people :) 

This dish I made today is a good one too, the walnut is a very dear friend of the courgettes and the couscous is always delicious, no matter what you do with it. I did however violate the prohibition because this dish contains at least three tablespoons of sour cream but  a must is a must, if it's the only thing you have in your fridge.

Ingredients  

• 4 courgettes
• 2 big handfuls of walnut
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of starch
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Wash the courgettes and cut them in halves alongside. Hollow them out and chop the inside parts fine. Start cooking it in a bit of oil, while you add a little salt. The walnuts also need to be chopped fine. For the garlic use the garlic press and press them onto the courgettes, cook them together for a few minutes. Then you can add the walnut, and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat. Stir the starch into the sour cream and add it to the walnut mixture and give it a good stir. Place the courgettes halves onto an oven pan and sprinkle some salt on them. Fill the hollow parts with the stuffing and cook them in the oven at 190 deg Celsius until the top gets golden and the courgettes are soft. It's safer if you pour a little water into the pan. 

Couscous for 2

• 1.5 dl of couscous
• 3 dl of boiling water
• salt
• 2 onions

Chop the onions fine and cook them in a bit of oil until it becomes golden. Pour the water onto the couscous and cover it, let it rest for 20 minutes. When it's done stir the onions in the couscous. I also put some fresh thyme leaves in it.

Chicken and mung bean sprouts casserole with millet on the side

Until now I have always used mung bean sprouts in fake home made chinese food, which is stupid because it's something that goes with so many other ingredients. This is how this chicken casserole  was born last week.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast fillet
• 1 packet of mung bean sprouts
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of Worchestershire sauce
• 2 tbl spoons of soy sauce
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Dice the chiken breast and start cooking them on a bit of oil. You can cover it in order to cook it faster. Add the bean sprouts too, because it doesn't need much time, like the chicken. Add some salt and fresh pepper. Meanwhile chiop the garlic fine. When the bean sprouts start to become soft, add the Worchestershire and soy sauce, mix the whole thing carefully, cook it for a little bit and then add the sour cream. At last sprinkle the garlic onto it and mix it, wait until it wabbles and then take it off the heat.

The millet works the same way as rice, the water needs to be twice the amount of millet. Boil it for 10 minutes until the water disappears. You can add some onions if you like, to give it more taste. Add some salt too, once it's boiling. I usually leave the cover on after it's done so that the steam softens it even more after it's done. 

Chili-lime chiken with ginger-garlic seasoned pumpkin

Its easy and quick to make, but special and filling.The lime sets off the sweetness of the pumpkin perfeclty, and garlic and ginger is a wonderful match anyways.

Ingredients for the chiken

• chicken breast
• ginger
• juice of one lime
• salt, pepper
• chili powder

Ingredients for the pumpkin

• half of a pumpkin
• fresh ginger
• fresh garlic
• salt, pepper
• aluminium foil for the bundle

Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape the seeds out. Peel it and cut it into equal pieces. The amount of the garlic and the ginger depends on how strong you want it to taste in the end. Chop them fine and mix them with the pumpkin. Add salt and freshly ground pepper, and steam it in an aluminium foil bundle at 200 deg.
Meanwhile cut the chicken breast into pieces, and start cooking it in a bit of oil. Add salt and pepper, and when it becomes white add the chili powder and right after the lime juice. Cover it and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Then remove the cover and let the sauce densify a little. The chicken is ready, all you have to do is wait for the pumpkin to soften and then you can eat.

Mustard and rosemary drumsticks

Ingredients for 4:

• 8 drumsticks
• 2 onions
• garlic
• salt, pepper
• mustard
• rosmary
• thyme
• garlic and onion pasta

Smash the garlic and put it under the skin on the chicken. Salt both sides. Try to push the rosmary into the meat by the bone. Sprinkle the thyme leaves onto the chicken. Put some garlic and onion pasta, and some mustard on it. You can add some round peppers, and the 2 onions chopped into bigger pieces, and maybe tomatoes. It needs at least one hour at 200 deg, covered with aluminium foil. When its all soft, remove the foil and let it get a nice reddish colour. If you put all of the pastas on the chicken the day before, it will taste much better.

Hungarian style chinese, which we call 'szukijaki'

Meat can be left out, or chicken can be replaced by turkey breast. I will only mark the amounts where important, other than that it only depends on your taste, you can add more or less of each one of the ingredients according to the wishes of the family.

Ingredients for 4 (or just 3 and you have some leftovers for the next day ;)

• 1 half of a bigger chicken breast
• peas (frozen is perfect)
• 1 bigger carrot
• 2 packets of mung beans seed
• leek or red onions
• 3-4 eggs, beaten
• sliced bacon
• 0.5 kg of champignons
• rice-flour paste or rice
• lots and lots of garlic
• a bigger piece of ginger root
• soy sauce
• a little bit of sugar
• oil, salt, pepper

Preparations:

Its a quite a meticulous job to do, but the result speaks for itself. It's better to chop all the ingredients first, then you'll only have to do the frying and stuff - much quicker this way! We usually pare the carrots, to the size of a match stick, cut the onion in half and then into circles, slice the chicken in streaks and the mushrooms (the size of the bits mustn't be too small). You can also slice the bacon across - the smaller the better. Then pitch the eggs and beat them like you do when making scrambled eggs, you can also add a bit of soy sauce. Chop the garlic and the ginger fine, you'll need them twice. Don't do anything with the bean seed, the peas are fine as well just frozen.

The fun part :

Take a frying pan, the best would be a deeper one and put it onto the largest place of the stove. You will need another dish, from which you can serve the food, you will put the continually prepared ingredients in this one. First fry the bacon, it doesnt need any additional oil, it will give its grease out. When its done, get the pieces of bacon out, and leave the grease in the pan, and put the onions in it. Sounds strange but add a littlebit of sugar to the onions, it wont make it sweet but will give it a really nice taste and colour (you can add salt to it a bit later). Dont need to steam it over, just until it becomes soft. Add the onions to the bacon too. Put a little bit of oil into the pan and add the carrots, and a bit of sugar again. It needs a couple of minutes to soften a little bit, its perfect when its still a little crispy. Then come the peas, they're done when you can smash them on the wooden spoon, it takes a couple of minutes in case of tender peas. The next one is the champignons, add salt and freshly grounded pepper to it. Dont need to wait until all the water disappears from the bottom. Next comes the chicken, add salt and soy sauce, and the half of the garlic and ginger. Let it cook until the meat gets white in the middle too. The bean seeds only need a short time, just until its gets a glassy colour, then its ready. Finally comes the egg, pour it into the pan, and basically make scrambled eggs, the only difference is that you need to cut it into little bits. When all of this is done, in a little bit of oil fry the rest of the garlic and ginger, but pay attention to it, if it burns, it will become bitter. The final step is to cook the paste, it only takes 2 minutes. When everythings ready, you just have to mix the whole thing carefully. You can add soy or chili sauce before you start eating, it will give it a good taste. If you use a non stick frying pan, you can skimp the oil.