Between Kitchens

Crimson Red Banana

2011-06-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-04T11:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-08-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

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!

Cooking for Five

2010-04-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

At home with my family it is my father who does most of the cooking. He’s the one who passed me the love for cooking and who introduced me to the art of mixing simple ingredients and adding them a special touch. We only argue over how much meat meals are too much, since if it was for him he would eat meat most of the time and I wouldn’t mind being a vegetarian.

This week, as I’m staying at home for holiday, I did most of the cooking. And I must say I come up with some nice ideas. Since I wasn’t thinking about sharing them, I haven’t been taking photos of my cooking adventures, which is something I’m now regretful for.

Anyway, Tuesday I was really up to try something original and tasteful, and my challenge was to make halibut an interesting food for the men of the house, who are fonder of meat than of fish, especially what they call “diet fish”, like halibut that is not battered and fried.

I haven't measured ingredient quantities at the time, because I often make readjustments while I’m cooking, so this is based on visual memory that has been submitted to rational thinking.

Golden Crust Halibut

(for a family of five)

You need:

- 5 frozen halibut fillets

- some milk

- 1 egg

- 1 + 1/2 cup LIDL breadcrumbs (coarse breadcrumbs work best)

- 3 finely chopped large garlic cloves

- 1/3 cup finely chopped onion

- 3 to 5 tablespoons oregano

- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper

- olive oil

- salt

Preparation:

1) Prepare the halibut beforehand: once defrosted, pour some milk over them and let them immerse for a couple of hours. Season with salt and a little white pepper and turn them;

2) Beat the egg with a fork;

3) Place the halibut fillets side to side on a olive oil coated pyrex and coat them with a bit of beaten egg, just until they have a more or less even egg coat on every side (just half or a third of the egg will do it);

4) Mix well breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, oregano and pepper;

5) Cover the fillets with this mix and finish by pouring over a little olive oil;

6) Bake in the oven at high temperature (like 220ºC) until the fish is cooked (I like it slightly undercooked) and the crust is slightly golden and crispy.

(April 2011 edition - check comments!!)

As a side dish for the halibut I made up my own Pommes-de-Terre au Gratin (think potatoes, béchamel sauce and cheese!), which recipe I’ll share with you next time.

The result was no halibut left and a completely empty pyrex, thanks to my younger brother, who totally loved the crust and made the remaining of it disappear in a blink of an eye. Think I conquered the meat-lovers this time!

Starting from Scratch

2010-04-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but never had the courage to start, and I really hope I can handle this challenge.

I'm an 18 year-old architecture student, which in Portugal belongs mostly to the “arts” lexicon, but I also love physics and maths. Living in two cities at the time, I always find time to do whatever I want. I won’t skip college work or homework (I mean real home work), but always get to go out with my friends and/or my boyfriend and still find time for myself to go running, go to dancing classes, to attend driving school, and still have time left for whatever comes up in a sudden.

But the reason I created this blog is that I love to cook. I love to cook for my beloved ones and it’s so rewarding to get rave reviews from them! I see cooking as an art, even if I’m just making a quick lunch for myself. I love to have lots of spices, herbs and all kinds of condiments at hand, but I can also do well without them. I definitely have a hard time choosing what to cook too often, because I always have too much ideas going on my mind (it’s useful in architecture, not when I’m trying to decide what to cook for a five stomachs family who will be sitting on the table famish in less than one hour. I rarely save my recipes, I always improvise, but I’m working on recipe storing, that being another good reason to keep this blog. I used to cook for my family until college, now I divide myself between kitchen’s: hometown kitchen, my rented apartment’s kitchen and many other kitchens for whose owners I have the pleasure to cook.

I really want to be a more experienced, confident and trusted cooker, so I’m always searching for ideas, trying new ingredients and recipes and trying to learn more about ingredients, other cultures eating habits and food chemistry on my own, always working towards being a more skilled, cultivated, versatile, smart and also a more frugal cooker.

Wishing to hear from you!