Delicious Italian Parmesan Meatballs!

I think of meatballs as a little boring, but always love it!
This recipe is certainly not boring, but creamy and full of flavour. I am sure it will be a succes with everybody in the family.

Start with the Tomato Sauce:
Olive Oil
200g chopped onions
3 chopped garlic cloves
2 cans of peeled tomatos
1 tbsp tomato pure
8-10 fresh basil leaves

Saute the onions and garlic in the oil. For about 4-5 min.

Add one can of tomato, and only the tomatoes from the other one, chopped. Save the juice. Add also the tomato pure and the basil leaves.

You can put more or less of the garlic and basil in, after taste. I like when there is only a hint of basil, and not too much.

Let it simmer for about 20 min. If it is too wet, remove the lid the last minuts, if it's too dry, add a little of the tomato juice.
Add salt & pepper, and more basil if you like.

For the meat:
500g minced beef meat
2-3 tbsp bread crumbs
4 tbsp milk
1 egg
3-4 tbsp grated parmesan
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp lightly chopped capers
salt & pepper
a little butter and oil

Mix all the ingredients. Careful with the salt, the parmesan is salty. You can fry a little taster, to check the salt and pepper.
Again, here you can put more or less of the taste you like. Careful with the capers though. They can get too overpowering.

Form small meatballs, and fry them golden on all sides in the butter and oil. When they are done, put them in the sauce.

If you make the meat before the sauce, cover it and put it in the fridge.
If you fry them in advance, they just need longer time in the sauce to get hot.

Stir carefully so they don't break, and let it simmer for a couple of minuts.

Serve with spagetti and parmesan on top. Enjoy!

Homemade Ratatouille!

Love ratatouille, and I feel so healthy afterwards.
It must be vegetarians favourite dish :-)
This is the homemade version. I will try to make Remy's later, you know, the one from the movie :-)
Start by going to the local farmers market, grocery store, or where they have lots of different good and fresh vegetables.

This is what I came home with.

Wash all of it thoroughly, and it is ready to be cut in to bite-size pieces. Around 2 x 2 cm.
You can choose to put more, less or nothing of each ingredient, after you own taste.

Saute onions and garlic in butter (or you can choose olive oil) a few minuts in a heavy bottomed casserole. I love garlic, so I used a lot. Add celery, and saute a few minutes more.

Add the rest of the vegetables.
I added 1/2 a large green zucchini,
2 small indian zucchini,
1 thin local aubergine,
1 small red pepper,
1 large green pepper,
1 medium pepper &
1 carrot

Let it saute about 15 minuts at good heat, and stir often so it doesn't brown.
I like the red pepper, but only added a small, because I didn't want it to be too sweet. And the carrot and yellow pepper gives sweetness as well.

I choose the 2 different kinds of zucchini because of the texture. The big one I slices and then quartered, and they get very soft. The small one I just sliced, it stays more firm.

Next time I think I will try to add mushrooms. But really, add the vegetables you like.

After 15 minutes, add 2 cans of peeled and chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper.
Stir, and add fresh whole pricked chillies, (after taste, I don't like this to be too hot) 2 bay leaves, and fresh or dried rosemary.
Let it simmer until very soft, around 1 hour. Remember to stir once in a while so it doesn't burn.

Remove the lid at the end, so it reduces.
Add salt, pepper and dried chilli to taste. Mums.

Serve it with delicious bread. I used my carrot breads, my earlier recipe. 

Added the day after:
I had a small portion leftovers. The day after I made a steak with rice, sauted green beans and ratatouille. It was just as delicious as the evening before.
So if you have a something left, keep is as an accompaniment to what ever you are having tomorrow. :-)

Carrot Breads.

This recipe is from my 6th grade, when I was 12-13 years old, so it's...... old :-)
I have made them soo many times since, and they are light and healthy.

Normally I make a double portion, so I have lots to put in the freezer. And they always disappear fast.

50g margarine or butter, melted
4 dl milk
1 dl youghurt
1 packet of instant yeast (11g)
2 tsp coarse salt
2tsp sugar
2 carrots, grated (around 150g)
2 dl wheat bran
13-14 dl flour

1 egg and a little wheat bran to put on top.
20 min at 200C.

Mix all the wet ingredients, add salt, sugar, carrots, wheat bran and yeast. Add the yeast to the first 5 dl of flour you put in, and hold some of the flour back, sometimes I only uses 10-11 dl, it's different, because of the carrots.

Knead the dough well. (gives nice arms)

Cover and let it prove for 1 hour.

Give it a good kneading on a floured table until smooth and elastic (5-6 min minimum), maybe you need to add more flour.

Divide the dough. I make 20 breads, it's a good size, I think.
Shape them into breads, 10cm long. And then let them prove again for 20 min under a wet cloth.

Brush the breads with the egg, and cut 3-4 times on the top in each bread.
Sprinkle with Wheat bran, and bake for around 20 min at 200C.

 

 

If you are using fresh yeast:
Add the milk to the melted butter. Crumble the yeast in a bowl, and add a little of the milk/butter mixture, enough to dissolve the yeast, add the rest of the mixture, and add all the rest of the wet ingredients.
From now on it's the same as with the instant yeast.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away!

One way of eating an apple a day is, Apple Crumble :-)
A classic, easy, everybody likes it.

 

 

Start with the apples. One apple pr. person. Peel the apples, chop, and make a stew out of them. it takes around 10 min. over low fire.
4 apples
40g sugar
20g butter
a little cinnamon. Careful, too much, and that's all you can taste.
Note, you can't just halve this part of the recipe. It will need more butter, but careful not to make it too sweet.

I had trouble with my crumble. It was so hot in the kitchen, so eventhough I put it in the fridge a couple of times, the butter almost melted for me.
I had the a/c on, but with 45C outside and the oven on.........it gets hot in my kitchen :-)

25g flour
15g butter
10g sugar
Rub it together and do not knead it. Like when you make a pie crust.

Put it in a mould, and cover with the crumble. Bake in the oven for 7-8 min. at 180C.

Serve it with Cream Anglaise, also called English Cream.
I made mine without vanilla, the apples taste of so much. But you can add it if you want, it is good.
My Cream was a little thick, but tasted wonderful :-) good I made a big portion. Actually way too much.

Everyday Risotto!

Everyday, because there is no double cream in and only a little parmesan & butter :-)
It doesn't make it slimming, if that's what you want. But if you love risotto like me, you will enjoy this one as well. And who doesn't love it :-)

2 tbsp butter
2 small onions chopped finely
2 gloves of garlic, chopped
200g arborio rice
1 dl white wine (I didn't use this, this time)
7-800 ml vegetable stock (homemade if you have)
150g asparagus
100g peas
parmesan, salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter and saute onions and garlic for 1 min. Add the arborio rice, saute for 1 more minute.
Now add the white wine if you use that, and let it be absorbed while stirring.
Add the stock 1 dl at a time.
Keep doing this till the rice is almost done, or as you like them. I like mine al dente.
Add the asparagus, peas, a little parmesan, and let it all get warm for 1 minute or 2.
Sprinkle with parmesan on top, and serve right away.

Ravioli, with blue cheese & walnuts!

Last time, when I made pasta, I said that next time I would make it another color. But for these ravioli, I think the plain color is the best.

I used 250 g pasta flour & 3 eggs. Careful with the eggs, maybe you don't need it all.
Normally it is 100=1 egg, but it shouldn't be too dry.

My tip is, before I begin to mix the eggs into the flour, I oil my hands with olive oil. That way my dry hands don't steal any of the moisture. That tip is good for kneading anything.

All the ingredients needed

Pasta dough, rolled out thin.

100g blue cheese
50g chopped walnuts
1 egg
1/4tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 black pepper, freshly grounded

Mix together all the ingredients to the filling.
If you want to make this as a starter, you can use the centre cheese, very blue cheese. If you will have it as a main course, use some of the outer cheese, which is whiter. I find if it is too blue, it can get too much after a while.
It sound like a lot of nutmeg, but really, you will only taste a hint of it.

The mixture doesn't look that delicious when ready. Use a glove to mix it, unless you would like your fingers to smell of blue cheese the rest of the day...

 

Place a small teaspool of mixture every 4 cm on the rolled out pasta dough. Around each mixture, brush water. Then place another pasta on top, dust with a little of flour. Press around each mixture, make sure no air is inside, that can ruin them when boiling.
Allow the ravioli to dry for an hour, then boil the ravioli over slow fire in lots of water. Mine took about 5-6 min.

I wanted something not too powering with the ravioli.
I made a classic white sauce, with parmesan, uhmm.
Easy, 14g butter, 14 g flour, 300 ml milk, or add until it has the thickness you want.
Add white pepper to taste, add the parmesan, then add salt. Careful, cause the parmesan is salty.

I got 2 thumbs up for this one :-)

CCC.

No, not Chili Con Carne, but Crispy Coconut Cookies.
I had some extra coconut, and wanted to use it for some cookies. Not macoroons, though they are good, but crisp cookies.
These looked delicious, and like what I was looking for. And now I can tell you, they taste delicious as well :-)
My delicious chili con carne recipe will come later.

They are very easy, goes as follows:

250 g icing sugar
2 eggs
150 g unsalted butter or margarine
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
200 g coconut powder
2 tsp baking powder

Whisk icing sugar and eggs, melt the butter and add, mix.
Mix the rest of the ingredients, and add, mix.
On baking sheet, put small teaspoons of dough, and make room for them to spreed a lot.
Bake them in the oven till golden, 6-8 min, 200 Celcius. (they will rise, and then collaps)
Cool on a rack, and enjoy!

Let me know what you think :-)

Mother of Thousands.

In fall I bought a plant. Actually, I don't know it's name, but pretty :-)
After a week or so, I could see some tiny plants around it. I very gently replanted them, and this is how one of them look like now.

It has lots of tiny new plants on its leafs, and a quick look around my garden and other pots..... the name suits it perfectly :-) Some call it invasive, maybe I will later as well.

I love the green colour it has, so fresh. I just repotted it, not a good time I know. But the first pot I put it in was small, I didn't know them what it would turn out to be. And it is growing fast.
Read on the internet that it can get more than 1 meter.... I guess if it likes the summer here, I will have to repot it again.

The other little plant died for me, or it looked so ugly and half dead that I threw it out. My guess is too much direct sun light. But I only got rid of it because, I already had new little plants :-)
This is what it looks like now, just repotted, so still wet soil.

I hope they can handle the summer here. In my little garden the temperature will be above 50 degrees celcius for minimum 2 months.

I have them in pots, so I can move them around. Then I can place them where there will be a little shadow during the day.
If any of you have suggestions for plants, that like the high temperature and sun, please let me know.

Salsa Aglio Olio Peperoncino.

This recipe, I think, is one of the simplest you can find. Also called Pasta A.O.P. And P is not for pomodoro, which doens't belong in this dish.
It is garlic, oil and chilli.
Each of you can add after taste, but I love love garlic, and I like it hot.
I made the pasta myself, and of course it will be much quicker if you buy it. For this recipe, I like the fresh pasta, soft, not al dente.

For the pasta dough:
200 g Pasta flour/Durum wheat flour/or what you prefer.
2 no of eggs. Keep a little back, and see if you need it all.
Then you knead, knead and knead, till your biceps are sore :-) around 10 min, You can feel it when it is done. I'll bet this is as good as push-ups, which btw still is my plan to start with again....soon.
Let the dough rest for 15-20 min.

I used a pasta machine, actually I've never tried making it without one, and made fettuccine.
While boiling the pasta (about 5 min) in lots of water and salt, I made the salsa.

Ready to cook.

2 Sliced garlic cloves, or more
Chilli, as much as you like
2 tbsp of Olive oil

Heat the oil, add the garlic and sweat shortly, add chilli and let it toast a little. Toss the hot boiled pasta in it and serve.
It doesn't need much time on the heat. I like the garlic to be a little crispy, but be careful not to burn it, it turns quickly from light to dark brown. And if it becomes too dark or burnt, it gets bitter and you have to start over.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you have any good tips for making different doughs. I would like to try to make one with high content of fiber, and still haven't tried to make one with semolina.
Though, next time, I'll make it a different colour :-)

Eating!

They are sooooo good. And when they are eaten in the garden, still a little warm......
Better than the best you can buy!

I'm not the only one who likes them though. The birds are crazy with them as well........
I've now picked the ones ready to ripe, thrown some on the ground for them to eat, and hope they will leave the yellow ones alone, so I can have them :-)

The plants doesn't look good anymore.
After the windy weather, they look like they will die down. One suggestion is that they didn't like the salt in the wind...... I don't know.

Next time I'll try bigger tomatoes. And the watermelons already sprout.

My Gardens Birds!

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These two lovebirds is in our garden everyday.
Well, I'm not 100% sure it's the same two, but they sits the same place, always close, and looks a little more chubby than the others. SO cute!

Waiting.

Now I'm just waiting. I have lots of tomatoes, but they're still green.....

The leaves are not pretty anymore, they've turned yellowish. Maybe they need more manure?
But, I'm sure they taste great.