Keep cool & have a great week ahead !!!
Category: Food
Appreciating the real taste
What’s cooking tonight? – Vietnamese Phở
It’s my comfort food and get well food, an absolute favorite. This simple yet sophisticated in flavor soup is rich and enough as a complete meal thanks to the rice noodles. For me it’s the best way to have a broth, as the spices and condiments make it more festive and Asian. Hope you can try it for yourself, you’ll find the recipe below. Enjoy!
Vietnamese Phở
1 l fresh stock (beef/chicken) cooked with spices: 2 anise stars, 1 cinamon stick, 3 cloves, 1 onion, 2cm ginger, 2 cardamon seeds.
to prepare the bowl you need to fill them with cooked rice (bahn pho) noodles, ready broth and
garnish with bean sprouts, spring onion, coriander leaves, fresh chilli and sprinkle with 1/4 lime juice.
Doesn’t it sound easy? Believe me it is and it tastes just amazing!
Yummy things – salmon bruschetta
Yes, it’s been ages since my last post but hey this year passes by way toooo fast somehow. Lots has been happening around my table but slowly, I’ll try to catch up and fill you in.
Here a quick one today, a recipe for a super easy and super yummy salmon bruschetta that my sis-in-law has prepared last weekend. It’s a perfect party food! Thanks B. for the idea!
Smoked Salmon Bruschetta
3 small baguettes
3 packs of smoked salmon
1 red bell pepper
pack of shredded cheese
1 lemon
3 teaspoon of cappers
fresh dill
garlic butter
all you need to do is to finely chop salmon, bell pepper, dill and mix with cheese, lemon juice, cappers,
add a bit of salt and black&white pepper,
spread butter on a slice of baguette and add a spoonful of the salmon mix and into the oven for 10 min at 180C.
Once ready sprinkle with lemon juice and fresh dill and VOILA!
Perfect!!!
Dinner without an effort
I love dinners without an effort that are ready in a flash. This time, a super easy pasta with minimal ingredients. Recipe provided below. But in case you need more info feel free to write. Hope you find it nice and easy as well.
The how-to of the sauce:
fry spinach with garlic on olive oil
add walnuts, fresh basil, nutmeg, pepper and salt, a bit of white wine
mix with pasta
sprinkle with parmesan
Ready! Enjoy!
My ever favorite – French Onion Soup
French Onion Soup Recipe
INGREDIENTS
6 large red or yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced.
Spoon of butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups of beef or chicken stock
1 cup of dry or semi dry white wine
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon of dry thyme
Salt and pepper
8 slices of toasted French bread
1 1/2 cups of grated Swiss Gruyere with a little grated Parmesan cheese
METHOD
1 In a large saucepan, sauté the onions in the butter on medium high heat until well browned, but not burned, about 20 min.
2 Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the stock, wine, bay leaf, and thyme. Cover partially and simmer until the flavors are well blended, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard the bay leaf.
3 To serve you can either use individual oven-proof soup bowls or one large casserole dish. Ladle the soup into the bowls or casserole dish. Cover with the toast and sprinkle with cheese. Put into the broiler for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the cheese bubbles and is slightly browned. Serve immediately.
Bon Appetit!
Good start
For a good start of the day I treated myself with cottage cheese and self-made raspberry preserve (recipe below). Yummy & so simple!
The recipe:
small pack of frozen rasberries
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
vanilla & carmel essence to taste
3 tablespoons of rum
boil it until soft and sticky
Ready!
I keep it in a jar and it last for some days.
Fruit of the month – apples
The old saying “to eat an apple going to bed, will make the doctor beg his bread” has been justified by its many health-rich properties. A member of the rose family, fossil remains have shown that apples were gathered and stored 5,000 years ago and it’s likely that they were already cultivated during the Neolithic times.
Health benefits of apple
1. Apples are low in calories; contain no saturated fats or cholesterol, but rich in dietary fiber which helps prevent absorption of dietary LDL cholesterol in the gut. The dietary fibers also help protect the mucous membrane of the colon from exposure to toxic substances by binding to cancer causing chemicals in the colon.
2. Apple fruit contains good quantities of vitamin-C and beta carotene. Vitamin C is a powerful natural antioxidant. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the body.
3. Apples are rich in antioxidant phyto-nutrients flavonoids and polyphenols. The important flavonoids in apples are quercetin, epicatechin, and procyanidin B2. Apples are also good in tartaric acid that gives tart flavor to them. These compounds help body protect from deleterious effects of free radicals.
4. The fruit is a good source of B-complex vitamins such as riboflavin and pyridoxine (vitamin B-6).
5. Apple also contains small amount of minerals like potassium and calcium. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluids helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure; thus counters the bad influences of sodium.
The use:
1. For people who suffer from gout and rheumatism, eat apple regularly because it will aid healing
2. Eating 2 apples a day will reduce your cholesterol level up to 10 %
3. Drinking an apple juice, 3 times a day, is said to prevent virus from settling in the body.
4. If you have problems with indigestion, eat apples before meals.
5. Grated apple, when mixed with live yogurt may be helpful in cases of diarrhoea
Grandma’s Apple Pie
Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or hot vanilla sauce – yummy!
Vietnamese Rolls
Ok finally a moment to get the recipe from my book for you. I don’t normally use the exact amount of ingredients in this dish. You should see for yourself how many rolls you need. It’s so easy to do and you can experiment as well with the filling, I for example like to add more peanut sauce and lettuce, for my husband I need to remove coriander.
Ingredients and method:
Chopped prawns fry with chopped garlic, shallots, chinese turnip, add salt, sherry, fish sauce, sesame oil.
Rice paper dip in lukewarm water and place on a wet cloth.
Lay one piece of lettuce, peanut sauce*, coriander and a spoon of fried mixture and roll.
Important – keep the ready rolls on wet cloth and covered (the rice paper dries fast)!
Peanut Sauce*
Heat oil add garlic, 1 tbsp of tomato paste, hoisin sauce = sweet plum sauce, sugar, freshly chopped chilli, water.
Cook for 3 min and add chopped/crushed peanuts or chunky peanut butter.
ENJOY!
If you have any questions please let me know, I’ll be happy to help.
Tonight’s dinner for one
A warm hello to All! Hope your weekend has been a good one. For me was so so – my hubby away on business for 2 weeks, my son stuck at home with the flu, and all there is for me to enjoy tonight is F1 Singapore in front of the telly, a glass of French wine and homemade Vietnamese Rolls. Yummy! (recipe sooon I promise).
Around My Table 