I LOVE FENNEL

Fennel is one of the vegetables I use the most in my kitchen in this period of the year.
You can find it on the market from autumn to early spring when it is readily available and
at its best.
I like very much the freshness, crunchiness and sweetness it adds to the Mediterranean cuisine.
I mainly use it raw, in salad form, thinly sliced and mixed with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Inspired by my favorite magazine “La Cucina Italiana”, today I have boiled it to make
a delicious timbale.

FENNEL TIMBALE

For 5 small ramekins.

Warm up oven to 350 F (or 170 C).
Boil 500 g of cleaned and sliced FENNEL for 10 minutes,
drain and cool it down.
In a mixer, blend fennel with half cup of CREAM, 1 EGG,
1 TBS chopped parsley and a pinch of SALT.
Chop 2 TBS of roasted and salted peanuts.
Butter 5 ramekins and cover bottom with the peanuts.
Then add 2 TBS of fennel mixture and sprinkle with
grated Parmesan, add other 2 TBS of mixture and
top it with Parmesan again.
Put ramekins in oven for 25 minutes.

Remove timbales from mold turning it upside down
and serve them warm as a side dish.


Check
http://lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/
for great cooking ideas!

Mini chocolate souffles

In a rainy day
in a day when we desperatly wait for Spring to come
in a day when joy is hiding behind the clouds.....
I treat myself with a decadent chocolate souffle!

Ingredients for 2 people
(you need to share in a moment like this, so find a gourmand friend)

Start with warming up oven up to 450F (or 250 C)
Butter and flour two ceramic ramekins.
Melt 4 TBS (or 60 g) of BUTTER, cool down.
Mix together 2 (organic, free-range) EGGS with
2 TBS white SUGAR till creamy.
Add butter to mixture.
Melt half bar of dark chocolate (60g)
(make sure it's a good one, Lindt for example or any Fair-trade one),
cool down and add to egg mixture with 1 TBS of cake flour.
Pour chocolate cream in ramekins and bake for 10 minutes
(make sure it's only for 10 minutes so to keep center moist).
Open oven and after 30 seconds take out ramekins and
with the help of a knife "de-ramekin" gently.

Serve them warm with a berry sauce or with sour cream!

You will see that after eating it the sun will come out!

(I have borrowed this recipe from my dear friend Ingrid....
...thank you my dear!)

SINFUL BACON

Who doesn't love bacon?????
It is so tasty and rich and crispy and yummy that
sometimes it must be included in our diet!
....I said "SOMETIMES"!
Tonight it's that time!
I have prepared a "matriciana",
meaning pasta with bacon, onions and tomato sauce....
how simply delicious is that?

Here is the recipe!

FUSILLI ALLA MATRICIANA
(usually the pasta used for this dish are the "bucatini",
so if you want to be precise go buy them!)

Ingredients for 4 people:

500 g (1 packet) of pasta...yes 500 g because
everybody will want to have more!

1 big onion
100 g or 2 thick slices of bacon (the good one: no nitrites or msg)
1 can of tomato sauce
1TBS olive oil
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of sugar

Cube bacon and cook in a hot frying pan till all the fat starts melting
and the bacon becomes curly.
Remove bacon from pan and add 1TBS oil plus the thinly sliced onion.
Let it cook till translucent then add back bacon, tomato sauce, salt,
cayenne and sugar.
Let it cook for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile in a pot with boiling salted water cook the pasta till "al dente".
Drain it when done and add it into the frying pan with the tomato sauce.
You can serve it with some grated "pecorino" cheese!

THAT'S IT!

EGGPLANT WITH AN ASIAN TOUCH

My family loves eggplants!
I make nice "melanzane alla parmiggiana" and roasted eggplants flavoured
with herbs and mediterranean ingredients like sundried tomatos and capers.
This time I want to share my Asian version of roasted eggplants....
...a delicious recipe that you can use to accompany coconut chicken or any
other Asian dish.

EGGPLANT IN SOY SAUCE

Ingredients:
1 big eggplant
extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1 TBS chopped fresh ginger
3 scallions
3TBS soy sauce

Slice thinly the eggplant, brush with olive oil and then cook
gently on both sides in a hot frying pan till browned.

Remove eggplant from frying pan,add 2 TBS of olive oil and fry chopped garlic, ginger and scallion for 1/2 minutes.
Add a little bit of water and after 1/2 minutes add soy sauce and cook for other 5 minutes.
Add to sauce the eggplant and cook covered till eggplant slices are well soaked in the sauce.

Serve eggplant as a side dish for chicken or fish!

I LOVE CHOCOLATE!

Did you know that cacao is good for you???!!!!
When we eat dark chocolate possibly made by organic,
fair trade cacao beans, we boost our energy and
improve our mood.
A piece of dark chocolate is also very good for our heart.
Cacao is a sacred, ancient, medicinal food of the Aztecs.
The Aztecs called cacao "yollotl eztli", which translates
to "heart blood".
Cacao physically supports heart health with its high
concentration of magnesium, omega-6 fatty acids, vitamin C,
iron and antioxidants.
Cacao is a warming food so a bit a day is going to be very
good for you during winter time.

I would take the advice to add some cacao into your diet
very seriously!!!

ENJOY IT!