It's been three weeks. The weather's lovely, just how I like it: sunny but a bit chilly. The appartement is half empty but that doesn't matter cause the smell of good food fills in the blanks.
So far I've messed up just once, but it wasn't actually my fault. I made my mom's recipe for stuffed bell peppers, but I added some cheap wine and it all started smelling like bleach. It was horrible! On the other hand, I've made some pretty awesome soups, a Japanese recipe for curried rice and Ratatouille!
The first soup I made was my own recipe, made with some vegetables and chicken breast I had left from the previous week, when my mom made a chicken noodle soup. I added some red chilli peppers and left it to boil in the soup for about 15 minutes. It was a bit spicy and it gave the soup a new aroma. The next one was the onion soup, which was great too! I added 2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary for a bit of flavor and it was genius! I don't have any pictures of the soups but I guarantee they were great! I'm gonna post the recipe for the onion soup too. Back home we only made leek soup and it's different, I like onion soup more. Now, for this week I made another soup based on some of the things I had in my pantry. I used bell peppers, onions, chicken breast, black beans, corn and rice. I also added the infamous red chilli pepper to boil in it. We love spicy food!
As for the curried rice and the Ratatouille, I'm gonna post the recipes here. I made a huge pot of curried rice and we ate it all in less than a week, so imagine how awesome it was... I tasted the ratatouille yesterday and it's just like I remembered: delicious! Oh, and very easy to make! Here goes.
ONION SOUP (8 servings)
8 onions, finely cut
2 tablespoons rosemary
1 tablespoon olive oil
pinch of sugar
1l chicken stock
toast and grated cheese for serving
Just caramelize the cut onions and the rosemary (together with salt, pepper and the sugar) in the olive oil for about 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Add the chicken stock and leave it to boil for 10 minutes. Simple as that! If you have any other ideas of flavorful ingredients to add, please let me know! I'm willing to try different stuff too.
To serve it, put a slice of toast and some grated cheese in a bowl and pour the hot soup over it. The cheese will melt and the toast will soften, resulting in pure Heaven.
Moving on to the CURRIED RICE, which is actually curried anything but not rice! You're gonna need:
3 onions, jullien cut
300 grams chicken breast, cut into mouth-sized pieces
4-5 potatoes, the same
2-3 carrots, the same, not too small
peas (if you want)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
curry (either 4 tablespoons of curry powder or 350 gr curry sauce)
1. Caramelize the onions over medium-medium low heat and don't forget to mix it from time to time.
2. In a small pot, over low heat, mix the flour and the butter until it's like a sauce.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of curry powder and remove from heat. Add mustard and tomato sauce. It's gonna look like a batter. This is going to be your curry base. You can also add chilli peppers if you want (we didn't, surprise surprise!).
1. Now that the onions are caramelized, turn the heat to high and add the meat. Mix it and be careful to fry it all well.
2. Add the carrots and 4 cups of water.
3. Turn the heat to medium and let the "soup" simmer for 10-15 minutes.
4. Add the potatoes and another tablespoon of curry powder, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Let it simmer until the potatoes are soft, aproximately 40-60 minutes.
Add the curry base and mix it well. Add another tablespoon or two of curry powder. (Now's the moment to add the peas if you want to. We didn't but I bet it's good! Let it simmer some more.)
Serve it with white rice, cause the contrast is amazing.
As for the French, they love food! Especially RATATOUILLE:
For 4 servings:
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 zucchinis, sliced
1 eggplant, diced
1 onion, jullien cut
2 ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced
50 gr mushrooms, diced
200 ml tomato sauce
1 tablespoon basil
salt, pepper
Throw them together into a medium pot, including the tomato sauce. When it starts to boil, cover the pot and leave it another 15 minutes, mixing from time to time.
Remove the vegetables keeping the sauce and leaving it to reach a further boil, then add it again over the vegetables.
Ratatouille can be saved both hot, and cold. You choose.
EXTRAS
Now let's get to the real business: SWEETS and BREADS! So far I only made a coconut chocolate tart and a very nice banana "cake" in the microwave. That one's very easy, try it! You're gonna need:
100 grams soft butter
3 very ripe bananas, piureed, plus another one for decorating
100 gr brown sugar
100 gr flour mixed with one tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
optional: 2 teaspoons cinnamon, powdered sugar, caramel, icecream for serving
1. Put the butter in a plastic or glass tray and leave it in the microwave for 30 seconds - 1 minute, until it's melted.
2. Add the banana puree, sugar, flour, eggs and milk and mix it all well.
3. Slice the other banana and place it over the cake. Microwave it for 8 minutes or until it's baked (mine took 10). Serve it warm.
For the bread, I bought a type of whole wheat flour that has already nuts in it so it wasn't necessary to buy those too. I made batter for 4 small breads or 2 small and one big loaf. I baked the two and left the batter in the fridge to use it in the next 14 days. This recipe is already here.
Until next time, have fun cooking and bon appétit!
Oh and here's my beautiful Crispy Coconut-Chocolate Mousse Tart!
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Doamne, Dada, eşti genială!
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