Squid Ink Pasta with Seafood in White Wine Sauce

So I wanted to:

- make ink squid pasta with actual squid,

- add some big prawns (gambas),

- try to make a white wine sauce.

Here's the result:

You can't see much of the white wine sauce (I only added it to the pasta then piled the rest on top, since the pot and pans I used were not big enough to stir everything through), but it worked very well!

I used this this recipe for it, and I flavoured it with shallots, sundried tomatoes, oregano and lemon olive oil (also a few drops of Asian fish sauce and mango vinegar).

I also added some leek, green peas and yellow bell pepper. It was really nice:)

Red mullet with fennel, couscous and black olives

Kristof made this for me yesterday:) I had shown him out to make something like that once or twice before, and he did a great job!

Plus, this was not long after being able to eat only soup and yoghurt for 3 days due to gastro-enteritis, so it was really appreciated!

Basically what you need to do:

1. Chop and steam the fennel, for example in a bamboo steaming basket like this one (available from your local Asian supermarket):

This will take the longest, about 20 min of steaming (stab a thick piece of fennel to check if it's done).

2. Unpit the olives and cook the couscous (usually levelling it in a shallow dish and pouring some boiling water for it absorb is enough - Kristof used the steaming water from the fennel for more flavour).

3. Pan fry the red mullets in a little olive oil. Assemble all on a plate and drizzle some more olive oil (we used lemon flavoured olive oil which worked very well with this). Enjoy with a glass of white wine:)

Pan-fried sardines with fennel, courgette and green pepper

More easy and yummy food!! :)

For 2 people, you will need:

- 2 or 3 sardines

- 1 courgette 

- half a fennel

- a green bell pepper

- oil and spices and/or herbs (I used mild pepper flavoured oil that little peppers stuffed with cheese came in -we ate those before dinner, and the oil tasted too good not to use in something- and ras-el-hanout, a traditional Moroccan spice mix)

Preparation

1. Cut up the veggies and toss them with the oil and spices/herbs.

2. Bake at 230 degrees for 35 min. 

You'll probably want to stir it a bit halfway so it doesn't end up a bit too brown at the top and just about cooked at the bottom like mine...

3. Pan fry the sardines, with a bit of herbs and spices (I added the fennel tops).

Done!

Goat cheese, bacon, leek and rosemary quiche

This is the best tasting quiche I've made so far (OK I don't make quiche that often, but that one is really really good!).
I used this as a starting point.

Ingredients

Pie crust (I just use a store bought one, easy peasy)
1 leek
100g bacon (diced)
1 log of goat cheese (about 150-200g)
200g cream cheese
1 egg
a little milk
rosemary (preferably fresh)


Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to the temperature indicated on the pie crust packaging (mine said 210 degrees -celsius!- but this oven is a bit slow/weak so I set it to 220).
In the meantime, slice your leek, sauté it in a bit of olive oil, and add the bacon when the leek is almost cooked.

2. Cook your pastry "blind" for 10 minutes. This basically means: unroll it in your pie dish, prick it with a fork, and set something kind of heavy on it so the bottom doesn't rise when cooking. The original recipe said to use uncooked rice or pastry weights (I've never come across those!), but I just put a smaller and heavier pie dish on top, on some baking paper to not pile on the washing up!

While this is cooking, whisk the cream cheese, egg and milk, and add some chopped up rosemary.

(I thought I had added way too much milk -a generous splash- but it turned out OK in the end).

3. Get your pastry out of the oven and add the leek and bacon mix, and the egg mix to it. Spread it nice and evenly, then slice the goat cheese and arrange the slices on top of the rest.

You can add a little olive oil and pepper if you want (I'd avoid extra salt, the bacon and goat cheese are salty enough!).

4. Cook it for the remainder of the time indicated on the package, or a little more if like me you went a little heavy on the milk and your oven likes to take its time (that was 25 minutes for me, still at the same temperature).

5. Check that it is actually cooked by sticking a knife into it (not too much stabbing, that'll ruin the look;) ), let it cool down just a little and enjoy!

P.S. That extra milk/extra cooking time thing was totally worth it, it turned out really creamy and light!
P.P.S. The saltiness of the bacon and goat cheese, the soft taste of the leek, the creaminess of the filling, the hint of rosemary... Yum!!! I really hope the rest of it tastes as nice cold tomorrow!

Beignets de fleur de courgette et citrouille (courgette and pumpkin flower fritters)

Those are typical from Nice, where I spent most of my uni years...

Our vegetable garden has pretty much been taken over by courgette and pumpkin plants (those grow BIG), and since it's getting to the end of the season (the -huge- leaves are starting to brown), I thought I'd use the flowers that haven't transformed into veggies yet to make those beignets...

But not before we got this loot:

Oh and here are some of the pumpkin plants:

(Yep, the whole mass at the back and on the left side is made of pumpkin plants!)

And here are the flowers:

(The small orange ones at the bottom are courgette flowers, and the bigger yellow ones at the top are pumpkin flowers. Next to some tomatoes and spring onions also from the garden).

Anyway... I used the recipe from this website.

Here's a translation of the important bits:

Ingredients:

• about 2 dozen courgette/pumpkin flowers
• 75g plain flour
• 10cl cold milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt & pepper

Preparation:

1. Wash the flowers delicately, checking that there are no creepy crawlies in them. Cut the stems at the base of the flowers.

2. Make the batter:

    a) Mix the flour, egg yolk, olive oil and a bit of the milk. Add the rest of the milk gradually while mixing.

    b) Beat the egg white until firm peaks form (damn, that takes a while!).

    c) Gently fold the egg white into the mixture. Season with S&P.

3. Dip each flower into the batter, and fry it for about 2 minutes, or until the batter is golden.

I don't have a deep fat frier so I just pan fried them, and that worked reasonably well.

Here's the result:

Panzanella Salad

Here's one of my go-to salad recipes, courtesy of Dutch celebrity chef Rudolph Van Veen. The Dutch call this tomaten broodsalade ("tomato bread salad"), which I find a tiny bit funny:)

Here's the original recipe, and here's my version:

Ingredients

a few tomatoes
1 or 2 spring onions
a few gherkins
some fresh thyme
2 slices of old bread
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

(The original recipe uses garlic/capers/basil/white wine vinegar instead of spring onions/gherkins/thyme/balsamic vinegar)

Preparation

1. Cut the veggies (yes, I know, botanically tomatoes are a fruit!) and herbs into pieces. 

2. Cut/shred the bread into pieces and sauté it in olive oil. 

3. Mix everything together, seasoning with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Here's what you get:


It makes a nice light dinner with some salmon filets:
 

 
And... a lot of it came from the garden:
 

 
 

 
And the thyme too, but it's now too dark to take a picture:)

Rucola pesto

Some time ago I planted some seeds in the garden, and made the (apparently "classic beginner") mistake of sowing way too many seeds in my rows. I wasn't sure they'd all come up, you see...

Well they did, and I now have big "cubes" of densely planted vegetables. Among which a rucola jungle.

    Exhibit A

So over the past few weeks, I have been bringing edible plants to my colleagues, and made some attempts at eating more salad... 

That's not really cutting it anymore though, the green stuff is growing faster than I can get rid of it:D

Then last week I found a recipe for rucola pesto. I thought I'd give it a try.

So I cut up some leaves and flowers (rucola flowers are edible, I checked... although I tried some in a seafood pasta dish the other day and I wasn't impressed... not enough rucola taste), added the rest of the ingredients and there it went in the blender.

Oops forgot the cheese...

Here's the end result:

The verdict? I'm not impressed! And quite disappointed too... 

But as the BF remarked, I'm not a big fan of pesto to begin with (my first memory of eating pesto is forever associated to my first memory of getting really sick due to a gastro-enteritis, so it's not the pesto's fault, but we kinda got off on the wrong foot!).

So the plan was to reconcile myself with pesto by trying a different main ingredient... Yeah, that didn't work...

Anyway, the BF likes it, so it's not lost... "More for me!" he said. Yep, you can have it all!

Ricotta, bacon and veg pasta

I usually cook pasta with whatever's in my fridge, however, quite often it's a variation of this...

For 2/3 people

250g pasta (I used penne rigate this time)
250g cherry tomatoes
200g diced bacon
2/3 spring onions
200g fresh spinach
250g ricotta
Thyme

1. Boil the pasta in a big saucepan of salted water (you can add a dash of olive oil to make sure it doesn't stick together).
2. While the pasta is cooking, sauté the cherry tomatoes in some olive oil for a few minutes, then add the bacon and the chopped spring onion (I usually just cut it with scissors on top of the pan to save time).

3. When everything is pretty much cooked, add the spinach and stir it around the pan. It will only take a minute or two to wilt (I usually add it in 2 batches so it fits in the pan).
4. Add the ricotta and thyme, some black paper (no salt needed as the bacon is salty),
5. While the ricotta is warming up, drain your pasta, then add it to the sauce.
Ta-Da, it's done!

Mini Bruschettas

Here's what I'm making tonight (well it should be "bruschette" to be correct Italian but hey...).

Ingredients for 6 small bruschettas:
200g "passata" (tomato puree)
125 g mozzarella, sliced
6 slices of bread (I used medium slices of brown bread, but you can use anything)
A small tin of anchovies
Black olives, pitted
Olive oil
Herbes de Provence
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
2. Toast the slices of bread (to prevent them from getting too soggy from the tomato sauce).
3. Make the tomato sauce: in a bowl, mix the passata with olive oil, the herbes de Provence, pepper and salt.
Use about 2 or 3 times the amount of olive oil and herbs you think you need (it will give a nice taste).
4. Place the toasted bread slices in an oven proof tray and spoon the tomato sauce generously over them.
5. Garnish with an anchovy or 2 (depending on the size of the bread slice and your taste for anchovies), a slice of mozzarella and some black olives.
6. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the mozzarella is melted.

Enjoy!!!