Crimson Red Banana

Berry Banana
(just for yourself)

You need:
- 1 banana
- 1/3 cup frozen berries
- 1 tsp strawberry jam

Preparation:
1) Defrost berries ahead of time,
2) Mix berries with jam,
3) Microwave +/- 20 sec, until it's just warm and the berries are still shapely,
4) Cut the banana,
5) Pour over the berry mixture.

A glass of summer

Quick.
Simple.
Easy.
Healthy.
Beautiful.
Delicious.
It's summer in a glass.


Pineapple Over Passion fruit Parfait
(just for yourself)

You need:
- 1 yogurt, plain
- 3 tbsp passion fruit pulp, canned
- 2 tbsp bran flakes
- 1/2 cup pineapple, diced


Preparation:
1) Start with the passion fruit layer, just place the pulp in the bottom of a glass of your choice (next time i'll try thickening it with corn startch, over heat),
2) Beat the yogurt well and pour over the first layer, creating another layer,
3) Place over this layer the bran flakes, covering the white surface,
4) Finish by placing the pineapple pieces on top of all.

The truth about food and love

Statement number 1: The way to a man's heart is his stomach
Not entirely true, but it goes a long way!

Statement number 2: There are some foods which have aphrodisiac proprieties
After reading a lot of stuff and having tried lots of things myself, I do believe that some things do have that power.

And alongside with strawberries, I think that curry always has a surprising effect ;)

 

Basic Chicken Curry

(for 2, of course)

You need:
- 2 chicken breasts, chopped,

- 2 or 3 cloves chopped garlic,

- 2 tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil,

- 1/3 cup coconut milk

- curry to taste (we like a lot of it)

- pepper to taste

- salt

Preparation:

1) Sauté garlic in olive oil or sunflower oil,

2) Add the curry and pepper and let fry until fragrant,

3) Add the chicken, seasoned with salt, sauté until lightly done,

4) Mix in the coconut milk and let simmer for a while,

5) Serve over sepparate, fluffy white rice.

Suggestions: you can also use add chicken stock cubes with the curry. Add a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro in the end. For a strongly yellow curry add some saffron. Adding vegetables before or after the chicken also turns out great. Anyway, this recipe is already a hit just this way, which is also very quick and easy, and that's what you really want after all.

Tea time that turned into dinner

Waffle making art got lost in the past along with those happy weekend mornings. So waffle iron made the trip to Oporto last monday, along with fresh eggs, and this wednesday we made a whole world of them :)




Waffles

(for 3. we made the double and it was way too much!)

You need:
- 250g all-purpose flour
- 350ml semi-skimmed milk at room temperature
- 50g butter
- 25g white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt (opt.)

Preparation:
1) Turn on the waffle iron,
2) Mix together sugar, flour, salt and baking powder,
3) Melt butter in the microwave,
4) Beat eggs and add milk and butter while beating,
5) Join both mixtures and beat until blended,
6) Slightly oil waffle iron's plates,
7) Pour batter into each section of the waffle iron and cook until crispy and golden

White Queen

I have been away for so long! :( I knew this would be a hard task to deal with!!

Yesterday was my younger brother's birthday. Despite having half the house covered in plastic and the other one still with fresh painting, my parents ended up serving dinner for the whole family in the kitchen.

I spent my morning driving between places, shopping for ingredients, coming back home to find my mother calling me to buy some other stuff that I hadn't actually bought yet and to stop by my grandma's house to get some eggs, driving to my grandma's house, taking her shopping in another place, leaving her home, coming back home once again...
My afternoon was spent in the kitchen, mostly cleaning up my mother and brother's mess. I made a Baked chocolate tart that didn't ended up as I wish. And me and my brother came up with the best birthday dessert ever!

My brother's staple dessert is as spoonable dessert that combines heavy cream and condensed milk with biscuits/cookies crumbs (we use "bolachas maria", sometimes the chocolate kind, and "filipinos", mostly white chocolate ones). We beat heavy cream and condensed milk and, in a glass deep dish, layer this mixture and the crumbs, topping everything with the bigger crumbs (we use the "filipinos" crumbs only for topping). Everything goes to the refrigerator and is then served cold.

This time, I was about to reinvent this dessert.
And it turned out great!

Semifrio de Stracciatella
(Frozen Stracciatella Cake)

(For a party ;))

You need:
- 600ml heavy cream, 30% fat
- 380g condensed milk
- 450g "bolacha maria choc" (simple and quite low-fat chocolate biscuits)
- 150g "filipinos chocolate branco" (small chocolate biscuit rings covered in white chocolate)
- 120g plain yoghurt

Preparation:
1) Crumble each of the biscuits into sepparate bowls,
2) Put aside some 1/3 cup of the first biscuits's crumbs,
3) Mix the yoghurt with the other first biscuits's crumbs to obtain a soft dough,
4) Press the dough into the bottom of a removable bottom cake pan, previously lined with parchment paper,
5) Beat the cream until it holds soft peaks,
6) Add the condensed milk while beating,
7) Mix in the remaining "bolacha maria choc"'s crumbs,
8) Pour over the cookie dough base,
9) Top with the "filipinos"'s crumbles,
10) Freeze for at least 5 hours (maybe 3 are enough, you just have to make sure the cream is frozen). Remove the cake from the pan only when it's time to serve it.

I'm so sad for not having a photo to share, because this cake was surprisingly beautiful!

Although I can't eat heavy cream, I tried this and it was very good. Fortunatelly for me, the thing I loved the most about this dessert was it's base, that was "oh-so-good"! This crust is better than regular crumb crusts (that are made with butter or margarine), healthier but with great texture and taste!

No sun, no work...

Grey windows make you want to cuddle up in the sofa, not really to spend an afternoon drawing and erasing lines with a 5H pencil and a charcoal rubber, over and over again. But what if you can't really work with grey skies? What if you need the sun to pass through the windows, through your previous drawing so you can copy it to another sheet? Why can't I have a transparent table with a parallel ruler included? Damn geometry.

Faux Risotto aux Deux Herbes
(Two Herbs Faux Risotto)

(Did it for five, maybe it is just enough for four)
You need:
(I'm not sure about white wine, olive oil and herbs measures, I just added everything as I felt like!)
- 1 cup rice
- 1 + 1/2 cup water
- olive oil
- white wine
- salt
- 1 or 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
- 1 or 2 tablespoons celery, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
Preparation:
1) Heat the olive oil (1/4 or less cup) in a cooking pot over medium-high heat;
2) Stir in the rice with salt, let it fry a little until it turns translucent;
3) Add the white wine (1/2 to 2/3 cup) and let the rice absorb it, stirring constantly over high heat;
4) Add the water and stir, let it come to a boil and then cover it and let it simmer over medium/medium-low heat;
5) When the rice is almost ready, stir in the chopped garlic, cilantro and celery.

There's something spicy about mangoes...

A sunny morning made me wake up and it was asking for an exotic dish. A yellow, spicy but sweet dish. Something hot, yet refreshing. And something different. And I guess I was in the mood for shrimp, curry and saffron. And yes, I had been looking at that mango pulp can for a while. The recipe was already cooking in my mind by the time I got on my feet and I could feel the flavour in my mouth before I even jumped out of my bed ;) Today I woke up later that I use to. When I arrived at the kitchen our homemaid had already taken some codfish out of the freezer and came in through the backdoor asking if I knew how to make "empadão de bacalhau" (which is something like a codfish shepherd's pie). Unfortunately, and this is something that used to happen once in a month, my mother had told her to cook lunch (most of the time it is my father that decides what she may cook for lunch). Fortunately, I didn't have to argue at all, since we had no onion and she was already convinced that this dish without onion wasn't worth doing. My way to the stove was free! As I believe that recipes are much more taken into account when they are accompanied by a picture, this time I took my camera to the kitchen and made my homework!



Sweet and Spicy Mafalda Corta
(for five exotic food lovers)
You need:
- 350g mafalda corta pasta noodles
- 600g frozen raw whole jumbo shrimp
- white wine
- juice of 1 large lemon
- 5 garlic cloves
- 3 tablespoons canned mango pulp
- 1 tomato (well chopped or even pureed)
- a pinch of ground black pepper
- curry powder
- saffron
- fresh cilantro
- sea salt
Preparation:
1) Take the shrimp out of the freezer about half an hour before you start cooking;
2) Take off the heads, legs and unpeel the shrimp, leaving the tail untouched;
3) Marinate the shrimp in white wine (maybe 1/3 cup), the lemon juice, 3 finely chopped garlic cloves, and sea salt for 15-30 minutes;
4) Meanwhile, boil the pasta 'al dente' in water with sea salt and a little olive oil, so it won't stick together later. Once it is cooked, wash it with cold running tap water to avoid sticking;
5) Sauté 2 finely chopped garlic cloves in some olive oil over medium heat on a saucepan without browning it;
6) Stir in the spices and keep mixing for a few moments, until fragrant;
7) Stir in the shrimp with the marinade, mix and cook both sides of it over medium-high heat (I keep adjusting the heat while carefully watching over the behavior of whatever I'm cooking);
8) Remove the shrimp and most of the garlic from the saucepan and set aside, leaving the juices and some garlic over low heat;
9) Add the mango pulp, stirring over medium-low heat. Let it simmer for a while and add a little water if needed;
10) Add the tomato (although I think that it should have been added and sauteed before adding the mango pulp I only decided that the taste of tomato would go fine after I've already used the mango) and let cook over medium-low heat for a while, stirring so it won't stick;
11) Stir in the pasta and mix it into the (scant!) mixture carefully until well mixed and all the pasta is yellow and juicy. Let it saute for a while, as the pasta should be cold by now;
12) Remove from heat, transfer to a serving plate, top with the shrimp, the garlic and chopped fresh cilantro.


Although the final presentation was not quite as I had thought it would be, the final taste was exactly as I had imagined it. I loved its spicy but so sweet taste, but the best part was that my oldest (yet younger than me) brother, who dislikes mango and doesn't really fancy cilantro, went for a second and even for a third serving, saying it was the best! I asked him to guess what I had put in it, telling him that it was something that he usually hated and he couldn't believe when I finally told him what it was!