Rulou de iepurică

Ingrediente:

o căpățână de țelină
2 rădăcini de pătrunjel sau păstârnac
câțiva cartofi mici
2 cartofi dulci
iepure dezosat
fâșii de șuncă de calitate, gen Tirol Speck
hribi proaspeți sau deshidratați
mix de morcovi bebe și mazăre
o mandarină
ceva zeamă de găină

Se fac 3 piure-uri din rădăcinoase:

• cel de țelină se amestecă cu cartofii normali și pătrunjel, lapte și unt. 
• la cartofii dulci nu se mai pune nimic 
• din niște rădăcinoase sotate cu ceapă verde în ulei de măsline se mai face un fel de piure

Se întinde iepurică pe un fund și se pansează cu fâșii de șuncă și ciuperci. Apoi trebuie rulat cu grijă și legat, asta e partea mai tricky.

Iepurelu o dată încotoșmănat, se perpelește în tigaie ca să se stabillizeze un pic și să nu iasă zeama din el când îl dăm la cuptor.

La cuptor va sta cam 40min la vreun 170 grade, depinde și de grosime.

Între timp, eu am luat niște mostre de piure și le-am scăldat în uleiul în care s-a călit iepurică. Am adăugat niște supă de pui, zeama de la o mandarină și un pic de vin alb.

Am redus un pic zeama și apoi am strecurat-o prin sita de ceai sa ramână un sos finuț. Trebuie să aibă un gust strident, că se pune în cantități mici pe farfurie (stropii portocalii)

Enjoy!

Fabulous tuna cous-cous

Cristina suprised me with this awsome dish for dinner:

Ingredients:

1 green celery stalk with a few leaves, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 80g Rio Mare tuna can
1 small cup of cous cous
1/2 lemon, squeezed
salt & pepper
chopped parsley to go
good quality olive oil
optional: pomegranate seeds and/or shredded pomelo

This is an awsomely tasty and very fast dish to make for a light dinner.

Put the cous-cous in a bowl and fill with hot water/soup until it covers the cous-cous.
Place a lid on top and wait 2 minutes.
After that, mix it a bit to give it fluffiness.
Place the lid back and wait another 3 min or so or until done (all water should be absorbed)

Now mix it with the other ingredients and enjoy!

Adjust the quantities as needed for the required tasty-ness.

The tuna is very subtle and gives it a great flavour!

The ultimate tomato soup

I have always been a sucker for tomatoes in all kinds of forms (not so much ketchup nowdays) but tomato soup had a special place in my heart and also caused me some grief as I never succeeded to make a proper one, until NOW!

Armed with the knowledge gathered from the Internet, I came up with a variation of roasted tomato soup as you'll see below:

Ingredients:

2kg tomatoes, as ripe as you can get them
3-4 carrots
4-5 green celery sticks
5-6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
good quality olive oil
fresh basil
3 red bell pepper - optional

Half the tomatoes and place them in the large over tray, over baking paper, bleeding side up
Sprinkle them generoulsy with salt and pepper and olive oil :)
Cut the tips of the garlic cloves and scatter them in the tray

In a smaller tray put the cut bell peppers as well if you want to add an extra kick.

Preheat to 190 C and bake for about 40min or so or until they start to darken at the edges.

In the meantime, boil the bitesize cut carrots and celery for about 20min and leave to cool.
If you have extra tomatoes, boil them as well.

Wait for the tomatoes to cool a bit and then squeeze them out of their peel into a blender.
Do the same with the nicely baked garlic (discard if buned though)
Add the boiled vegetables and the bell pepper if you have it.

Now whizz it generously and enjoy the most delicious tomato soup ever!

Finish it with some sour cream/goat cheese and basil leaves with oil.

Perfect Carbonara

After a through research on how to cook the perfect carbonara, and all the philosophy behind it, I've come up with a variation on that which brings some green ingredients to give it a lighter touch.

Now of course, this is not the kind of dish you cook if you already can't get into your favorite jeans anymore, and if you do fit, cooking it too often will ensure you won't...

With that sorted out, here's the recipe for about 4 portions:

250 g spaghetti

150 g pancetta or bacon cut in small cubes, smoked or non smoked (purists on the link above say non smoked)

4 stalks of celery, sliced 3mm thick

half a medium sizd courgette, sliced longitudinally, then into 2-3cm stripes

a few chopped spring onions (optional)

1 large clove of garlic

3 egg yolks

fresh thyme (leaves from 3-4 stalks)

freshly ground pepper (be generous)

75g freshly grated parmesan

NO CREAM

In a pan, fry the chopped garlic in some oil olive on medium heat, then remove garlic when browned.

Add the chopped bacon/pancetta, and onion, stir fry for about 5min or so, then add the celery, stir for another 5 min or so then add the courgette and the thyme and stir again for a few minutes (up to 5 :p )

Meanwhile boil the spaghetti whole, in a generous pot with plenty of salted water (about a teaspoon of salt for 2litres).

Make sure you don't overboil, you want them al dente.

Now comes the tricky part:

Reserve a coffee cup worth of pasta water while draining the spaghetti. Make sure they're well drained then put back in the pan and mix thoroughly. While you do this, the pan may still be on the heated stove.

Mix the pepper with the egg yolks.

Now REMOVE the pan from the heat and pour the egg yolks evenly over the spaghetti, then mix vigurously. Immediately after this, pour the hot pasta water (up to 100ml or so) and continue mixing until absorbed.

Now mix in the parmesan and voila!

Enjoy!
 

Pasta with tuna sauce

Ingredients:

2 big cans of Rio Mare tuna (2x160g)
350ml italian tomato sauce
1 onion, finely chopped
few cloves of garlic
1 red capia pepper
a bit of chilli, powder or fresh
1 lemon or lime
green olives
capers
olive oil

about 300g pasta of your choice

Heat the olive oil with the onion, garlic and pepper.
Add the strained tuna (you can use the olive oil the tuna was in instead of your own if you don't strain it).

In the mean time, set the pasta aboil.

Season with salt, pepper and a subtle italian spices mix.
Add the chopped chilli or powder depending on taste (we're not aiming for a curry here though)
Turn the heat to the max and extinguish with half a squeezed lemon.
Add the tomato sauce and stir.

Toss in the capers and sliced olives.

In the meantime the pasta should be ready (watch out for al dente).

Drain the pasta and add to the sauce pan.

Give it a good stir while squeezing the other lemon half and serve. Optionally add some good quality olive oil on top.

The sweetness of the onion & capia with the tartness of the lemon & capers combined with the subtle tomato sauce make for a very flavorful dish.

Enjoy!