Latkes (Potato Pancakes)

Broccoli Blue Cheese Fettuccine

1 stick (8 Tablespoons) butter
1 bunch broccoli chopped
4 garlic cloves chopped
2 large green onions chopped
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 pound blue cheese (or other favorite crumbly cheese)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
Pasta

In large pan (I like to use a wok) over medium high heat melt butter and then saute broccoli until starting to soften. Add garlic and onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add whipping cream and bring to light boil until slightly thickens (I've never had this recipe thicken on the heat, I bring to a boil and remove, it then usually thickens as you serve it). Toss with cheeses and pasta and serve.

This is a great basic recipe and you can add pretty much anything that you like that you think tastes good with cream. I usually add mushrooms and prawns.

Note: This recipe, apparently, is one of Brian Boitano's favorites.

Broccoli and Stilton Soup

3 Tablespoons butter
1 red onion (chopped)
3 large bunches of broccoli (chopped roughly)
2 Tablespoons of flour
7 cups stock
Large bunch of spinach
salt and pepper to taste
Stilton (or favorite nice melting cheese if you don't like Stilton)



In large stock pot saute red onion in butter over medium heat. When soft add broccoli and saute until broccoli begins to soften. Add flour and stir, then add stock. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer covered on stove for at least 20 minutes.


Take off heat, throw in spinach and then blend soup with stick blender until there are no large pieces. Spoon into bowl and add cheese.

Pumpkin/Squash Soup

(Photos to follow soon)

Keeping with the Portuguese style soup, this soup has pretty much just water and vegetables.

As in the previous soup, the base/cream is made with potatoes, carrots, garlic and onion. Since it was supposed to fit in with a Halloween spirit, I added a butternut squash as the main ingredient (proportionally more than any other or almost as much as all the others together (but you can have even more)). The easiest way to do the cream then is to simply cut everything in pieces, boil it and finally 'mash' it with a stick blender. Add more or less water depending on how thick you like your soup. This cream could already be 'the soup'.

In this case however I decided to add some small bits of squash, carrot, parsley, and some couscous-shaped pasta to the soup, just to make it look nicer. Wait until this is all cooked and it's ready to eat.

Don't forget to add salt to the cream/base, and I also like to use some chicken stock.

Dan's Pea Soup

Peas (Duh): About 1 - 1.5 cup(s) per serving

Vegetable stock sufficient to cook the peas, and have a bit extra

Crème Fraiche

Handful of fresh mint, finely chopped

Bacon, preferably thick, chopped into small chucks

1) Fry up the bacon, good and hot so it browns all over and starts to crisp up

2) Bring stock to the boil and add the peas

3) Cook the peas until they are almost done. They should still have plenty of bite. Don’t worry, they will keep cooking after you….

4) Drain peas – put the mint in the bottom of the colander so the hot stock drains through it. Reserve the stock

5) Mash peas with a blender / food processor. Keep them coarse.

6) Add enough stock to cover the pure and mix together

7) Taste and season – don’t forget the back will be salty, and the crème fraiche creamy!

8) Finish with crème Fraiche and top with bacon

9) Eat

Vegetable (Spinach) Soup

Dear friends,

These are some guidelines that you can use to do different vegetable soups. This time we did a spinach one, but you can do it with different vegetables.
It takes about 20 minutes to peel things, 20/25 to do the base and other 15/20 for the vegetable to cook. That is, depending on your choices, it takes between 40-60 minutes.

For the base of the soup I usually use potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic. The quantities and proportions will depend on how thick you like your base/soup and the kind of vegetable you intend to add (sometimes, for a spinach soup for example, more carrots and less potatoes tastes nicer). As a guide for a 2 litre (of water) medium thick soup, you can use 4 or 5 medium/big potatoes, about 3 big carrots, 1/2 onion and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic.

I also tend to add some chicken stock (1/2 cube); add salt to taste. Bring everything to the boil and, when its all cooked (try with a fork), take it out of the hob for a few minutes and blend it all together. You should now have a nice soup base. You can also add different items to this base such as butternut squash or pumpkin.

After the base is ready, put it in the cooker again and add your 'vegetable', washed and sliced/cut in smaller pieces, if necessary. These can include spinach, cabbage, runner beans, leeks, or anything else that occurs to you. You can even use a mix. It looks nice if you also add some sliced carrots (about 1/2 or 1/3) or pumpkin, and some bits of rice or small pieces of pasta (1 small handful). Wait until everything is cooked and add some olive oil (2 or 3 soup spoons) just before turning the cooker off. Your soup is ready to eat.

If you prefer smoother soups, you can cook everything at the same time and blend it all together. You can also add water whenever necessary/desired (but it is faster to cook the base in just enough water and then add for the vegetables' part). If your soup comes out too thin, you can cheat a bit by adding mashed potatoes (flour).

Coleslaw and Beans

Coleslaw

I love this recipe because it is creamy but not too mayonnaisey.

1/4 cup (50 ml) mayonnaise
1/4 sour cream
1 T (15 ml) sugar
2 t (10 ml) lemon juice
1 t (5 ml) mustard
1/4 t (1 ml) salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 a head of cabbage shredded
1 carrot shredded
1 onion finely chopped

Toss all ingredients in a bowl. The longer it refrigerates the better it will taste, however you can eat immediately.

Baked Beans

500 g of navy (haricot) beans
1 onion peeled and cut in half
350 ml maple syrup
1 T (15 ml) apple cider vinegar
1 t (5 ml) ground mustard
1 t ground ginger
1 t salt
ground black pepper to taste

1. Soak beans in water overnight.
2. Boil beans until the skin cracks when blown on.
3. Drain and rinse the beans in cold water.
4. Make sauce while beans are boiling. Combine maple syrup and seasonings with water (2 c/400 ml) and bring to a boil.
5. Place onions, beans and sauce in oven proof dish (if there is not enough sauce to cover you can add more water).
6. Bake in oven 125C for about 6 hours.

Red Onion, Feta and Olive Tart

Serves 4-6
Health information - Per serving (4) - 646 calories, protein 11g, carbohydrate 53g, fat 44g, saturated fat 18g, fibre 2g, added sugar 8g (depending on how much you add), salt 4.07g (depending on how much you add)

Ingredients
-25g butter
-2 medium red onions, finely sliced
-2 tbsp light muscovado sugar (I find this a bit too much so I use 1 and a half tbsp)
-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-flour, for dusting
-450g puff pastry, thawed if frozen
-100g feta, crumbled
-175g black olives, pitted and chopped (use as many olives as you want, I use less than this)
-1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-shredded basil leaves, to garnish
-green salad, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, gas mark 6, fan oven 180 degrees. Heat the butter in a pan and add the onions. Add a pinch of salt and fry for about 10 minutes, until caramalised. Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar and cook for a further 5 mins, until the juices are reduced and syrupy. Leave to cool.

2. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use to line a baking tray or swiss roll tin (30x22cm/12x8and a half inches). Cover with the onion mixture and scatter over the feta and olives. Season and drizzle with the olive oil.

3. Bake for 15-20 mins until the pastry is risen and golden and the base is crisp. Scatter over the basil leaves and cut into wedges. Serve with a green salad.

4. Sit back and enjoy!

Savoury muffins

Ingredients to 12 pop-overs (muffins)
- 125g of flour
- 210g of milk
- 2 whole eggs
- half a tablespoon of sugar
- one and a half teaspoon of salt
- a tablespoon of olive oil
- optional: grated parsley, grated cheese

Preparing the muffins:
Put everything together in a bowl and whisk quickly with a spoon or fork. You can add grated cheese, parsley, or ham. Do not use a mixer because the mixture needs to remain grainy to cook well.
Pour the mixture in a lightly greased cup cake baking tray (fill up to 3/4 of each hole)Place in a preheated oven at 200C: the muffins will magically start to rise!



Cooking time: between 40-55 minutes, but it depends on the oven.
You need to give enough time for the inside to bake fully so that the muffins don't fall once removed from the oven. And most importantly, do not keep opening the oven before the muffins are ready!

Greek Salad and Waldorf Salad

Here are two very easy, healthy, and tasty salads! :)

1 - Greek Salad

Ingredients:
- tomato;
- feta cheese;
- cucumber (sometimes I use olives instead);
- olive oil;
- oregano.

Now the hard part: cut the tomato, cucumber and feta in cubes (not too small); add some olive oil and oregano as you wish. Mix everything and enjoy! :)
Note: I usually use about 1 large tomato and around 5 cm of cucumber for 1 or 2 persons.



2 - Waldorf Salad

Ingredients:
- celery sticks;
- granny smith apple;
- yogurt;
- walnuts.

Again, the 'hard part': first cut the celery in medium slices, then the apple in cubes and immediately add some yogurt (this will prevent the apple from getting yellow, though that is still perfectly eatable, just not as good looking). Add some chopped walnuts. Eat and enjoy! :)
Note: about 3 celery sticks and 1-1,5 apples are enough for 1 or 2 persons.

Pizza, pizza, pizza...

Today, our second meeting was about pizza. Well, not only about pizza. We also had two types of salad and a lime mousse.
It was a lovelly afternoon and I hope people are getting more excited about our meetings.
Now, recipes!



Ingredients for the base (for 3 pizzas, 11 inches each):
- 500g plain flour
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 250ml warm water
- 2 tsps dried yeast
- 1/2 tsp sugar

Preparing the base:
Put the yeast, sugar and 50ml of water in a cup and mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes until it develops a foam on top.

Put the flour into a bowl, add the olive oil and salt.
When the yeast is ready add it to the flour, and add the rest of the water.
Mix with your hands and knead until you have a smooth dough that does not get stuck in your hands (In this point, you can freeze the dough and use it some other time).
Cover it with a clean, dry tea towell and let it sit for an hour.
In the meantime, prepare the sauce.

Ingredients for the sauce (to cover the base):
- half red onion, chopped
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 red pepper, chopped
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 pack of passata (500g)
- 1 tsp oregano
- fresh basil
- freshly ground pepper
- paprica




Add the olive oil to a large frying pan and fry the onions, garlic and pepper for a few minutes.
Add the passata and the carrots, mix well. Add the oregano, ground pepper and paprica, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the basil leaves, tearing them small to release the flavour. Stir well and simmer for more 5 minutes.




The dough should like like this after it has risen.
Take 1/3 of the dough and spread it with your fingers into a pizza pan. You can use a rolling pin instead of spreading if you prefer a very thin and crispy base.
Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes so it can rise again.



For the topping, start spreading the sauce all over it.
Then add your favorite toppings. Our choices were:
- parma ham with mozzarella, red onion, tomato and basil
- pancetta with gorgonzolla chesse and red pepper pesto
- parma ham, pancetta, black olives and mozzarella.

The mozzarella should be the last or next to last topping on it, as it will melt over the other ingredients.



Put into the oven for approximately 25 minutes (200 degrees if fan assisted ovens; 240 degrees if electrical ovens). The heat should come only from the bottom of the oven to cook the base properly.



Enjoy!

Greek cheese pies (and how to fold a flag)

Ingredients:

• 200 gr feta cheese
• 1 pack filo pastry (200 gr) (you can find it in Sainsbury' s)
• 2 eggs
• black pepper
• dry spearmint
• sunflower oil
• kitchen paper
  

Grate all the feta cheese in a deep bowl.
Add the two eggs (white + yolk) , some black pepper and some spearmint. The amount of black pepper and spearmint is your choice :)
NB: If you don't have spearmint then just add black pepper.

Fill of the cheese pies:
Mix all the ingredients together in the bowl using a fork. Don't use force. You want to mix them not flatten them!

Filo preparation:
Clean some space on a flat surface and lay the filo pastry.
NB: The filo pastry that is not being used, should be covered with a clean kitchen towel so that it doesn't become dry.
Use a sharp knife to cut the filo in half along its length so that you have stripes of 5-6 cm width and approximately 30 cm length.

Cooking:
Put some sunflower oil in a frying pan and heat it. You don't need to put a lot. Perhaps 1 mm depth.
With the fork take a small amount of the fill, add it on the edge of a filo stripe and start folding the pastry as you would fold a flag (see Fig. 1 bellow) until you have a triangle.

Fold a cheese pie:



Repeat this with each stripe and when you have the triangular cheese pies ready, reduce the fire to minimum and place them on the frying pan. Be aware as they cook very fast so you will need to turn them as soon as you see them becoming golden at the bottom. When they are ready, place them on a plate on top of which you will have laid some kitchen paper that will soak the excessive oil.



The oil in the frying pan must be quite hot when you put them to cook, but while cooking them the fire must be low. You want to make sure that the egg is cooked and that the pies are golden and not black!

It is likely that you will not use all the filo that is in the 200 gr pack. In that case, fold the remaining filo and cover it with some cling film as it was when you opened it, so that it is not in contact with air. Store it in the fridge.

Enjoy the cheese pies.