The Recipe Room

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, when I was living with two Japanese people, they taught me how to mix soy sauce with different ingredients. Here is a simple recipe for oven toast with avocado and goat cheese that includes a dash of that salty treat. In my opinion, avocado and soy sauce are simply a divine combination because the subtle avocado offsets the saltiness of the soy.

Avocados are full of vitamin E which plays an important role in having and maintaining healthy skin and hair.

Bearing in mind that avocados are a real super-food, there is no reason not to use that fruit in abundance in your cooking or as a starter. I personally adore them and try to eat them once a week at least. My friend told me they help you maintain beautiful skin, so I try to get my fill!

One of the best ways to eat them is in Mexican Guacamole, which is basically mashed up avocados with a few seasonings. Although delicious, you have to be careful how many crisps you use for dipping!

Avocado is especially popular in vegetarian dishes since it can substitute meats in salads and sandwiches. It is rather high in fat, but luckily the fat is of the “good” kind.

This green wonder has a long history and has been reported to have been mentioned thousands of years before Christ! And, did you know that apparently the Aztecs called the avocado ‘the fertility fruit’? Food for thought…

Chicken is so tasty! Really, flavour is my number one priority, but chicken has two other advantages as well: it is a lean meat, and it is a reasonably cheap. In other words, it´s an ideal ingredient for students!

I also like chicken because you can add virtually any spice or herb, and it usually works great. In this recipe I have added cinnamon for a slightly surprising taste.

The other day one of my friends came over, and I found out last-minute that she was a vegetarian. So, I found this hearty seitan stew recipe, played around and combined the two for her. You can do the same to create your own unique recipe!

The chilli adds the spiciness and gives this dish a bit of a sting. Did you know that Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to discover the chilli upon his arrival in the Americas?

This veggie is surprisingly good for you. They say it speeds up your metabolism and has more vitamin C than oranges. Adding it to dishes which are a little bland in taste will spice it up perfectly AND it may help you lose those extra pounds before summer that many of us still have left from the Christmas season.

This is a really simple and delicious dish that is put together in a jiffy! Enjoy!

I´m a big fan of Italian cooking, but usually I don´t have time for more than throwing a handful of macaroni and some vegetables into a saucepan and letting them boil together. Last Friday night I thought I´d try a more elaborate pasta dish and found this recipe for mushroom lasagna with mozzarella and tomatoes to be easy enough even for a busy student like me.

Although the preparation does take some time, after that the lasagna makes itself in the oven while I bury my head in the books. Half an hour later, the dish is ready and you can have yourself a well-deserved treat!

What we need:

• 300g dry fusilli pasta
• 450g of sliced mushrooms (frozen or fresh)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1/2 a courgette
• 400 grams of chopped tomatoes from a tin
• 400 of crème fraîche
• 400g of mozzarella
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• a pinch of salt and pepper
• a sprig of fresh basil (optional)

How we make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.
2. Meanwhile, boil the pasta, but not too much as it will later go in the oven as well.
3. If you use frozen mushrooms, place them in a frying pan and fry until the liquid is gone. Place them on a plate for later use.
4. Peel and chop the garlic, onion and courgettes.
5. Fry them along with olive oil in a frying pan and then add the chopped tomatoes and the sugar. Let it boil for around 10 minutes.
6. Heat the crème fraîche in a saucepan and take half of the mozzarella and place it in lumps in the crème fraîche. Let them melt together. Add the salt and pepper.
7. Take an oven-safe form and put some of the tomato sauce in the bottom.
8. Place a layer of the fusilli on top, covering the form.
9. Now, alternate between the crème fraîche sauce, tomato sauce and fusilli pasta.
10. On the top, place the rest of the crème fraîche sauce and add the rest of the mozzarella cheese.
11. Place in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and sprinkle over the fresh basil.

Serves: 4
Time needed: 50 minutes (including oven time)
Level: easy – intermediate

Baked potatoes are my favourites for Friday evenings because I just love the smell of potato that fills the room and the anticipation after it has been in the oven for a long hour. Also, you can be sure that it will be tasty with just about any topping. A baked potato with a savoury topping and a glass of white wine sets me in the mood for the weekend!

Here is a recipe that uses mustard and honey as base for a yoghurt sauce. I have also used aubergine and tomatoes, mainly because I hardly ever eat aubergine, but this recipe would work just as well with almost any vegetable. I use smoked salmon in the yoghurt sauce because I wanted to make it more “meaty,” but it can also be made as a vegetarian dish.

Baked potatoes, if small enough, also make for a great accompaniment to a meat dish. If you are a meat and potatoes person, try this recipe for lamb with crushed baked potatoes.

What we need:

• 2 large baked potatoes
• 100g smoked salmon (optional)
• 1/2 aubergine
• 2 tomatoes
• 170g full fat yoghurt for cooking or crème fraîche
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 of grainy French mustard
• 1 tablespoon of sugar or slightly less honey

How to make it:
1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
2. Wash the potatoes carefully and place them in the middle of the oven for 60 minutes.
3. Wash and peel the aubergine. Cut into small pieces and place in a frying pan in the olive oil.
4. Wash and chop the tomatoes into small pieces. Place in the frying pan. Let it all fry together until soft and mushy.
5. Take the yoghurt or crème fraîche and place in a bowl. Add the mustard and honey or sugar. Mix carefully. If you are using smoked salmon, cut it into the yoghurt sauce.
6. When the aubergine and tomato mixture is soft, press a clove of garlic into it and mix carefully.
7. When the potatoes are soft and ready, place on a plate and cut a cross in them. Place 2 tablespoons of the vegetable mixture in the potatoes and top it off with 2 tablespoons of the yoghurt /mustard mix.

Serves: 2
Time needed: 60 minutes (in oven)
Level: Easy

Sometimes in the evening I just want a little something. I feel like a small snack to put me to bed without a rumbling stomach so that I get my daily beauty sleep and well-deserved rest. (If I do say so myself!)

On other occasions, I have a house full of dressed-up friends and want to keep them entertained while they wait for the main dish. Sometimes on those occasions, a single glass of white wine just doesn’t cut it because their stomachs are rumbling.

Mini pancakes with savoury toppings is a great way to keep my mingling guests happy while still hungry enough to tuck into the main dish once it arrives on the table.
Be it an evening snack or a formal appetizer, these mini pancakes are perfect and always welcome. Spinach and mozzarella blended with tomatoes and pine nuts are a heavenly combination and will do the trick on any occasion. They are delicious – and so easy to make.

Be prepared to receive recipe inquiries!

What we need:

• 2 eggs
• 75g of flour
• 5 decilitres of milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 125g of mozzarella cheese
• 150g of fresh spinach
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 1/2 decilitres of pine nuts

How to make it:
1. Whip together the eggs, flour and milk.
2. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the mixture.
3. Pour the paste into a mini pancake cast-iron skillet (or one by one if you don’t have one) and fry on middle temperature.
4. Crumble the mozzarella cheese over the mini pancakes when they start to harden.
5. Let the cheese harden.
6. Fry the spinach and garlic in a saucepan using some butter or olive oil.
7. Chop the tomatoes.
8. Add the chopped tomatoes and pine nuts to the spinach and garlic.
9. Place a tablespoon of the mixture onto the pancakes and serve immediately on a large plate.

TIP: If you don’t have an iron skillet for mini pancakes, you can use ready-made blinis found in most supermarkets. Or you can try a similar basic pancake batter recipe.

Serves: 8
Time needed: 20 minutes
Level: easy

Broccoli and bacon make a great combination. I especially like broccoli salad with bacon because of the contrast with the leafy green veg and crispy meat. In this recipe for pasta salad with broccoli and fried bacon, I add pasta to the mix, as well as a few more veggies for good measure.

I am aware that pasta salad is considered a summer food, but being the eternal optimist, and having seen the latest weather forecasts for London, I believe we soon enough will be visiting the park for a spring picnic. One can only hope!

It is not important whether we have to eat it inside huddled on the couch or, with better luck, on a picnic blanket in the park. Regardless of the weather, a pasta salad is easy to make and is a quick and cheap lunch to bring to University in a plastic box. Plus, it stays fresh for 1-2 days in the fridge! Make a large bowl and you are set for lunch, dinner AND picnic time!

What we need:

• 500g of Penne pasta
• 1 large red onion
• 200g of broccoli
• 200g of Feta cheese
• 100g of black olives, without pits
• 200g of sliced bacon
• 100g of sun-dried tomatoes
• 3 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 3 pinches of ground pepper (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 and ½ decilitre of crème fraiche (sour cream or natural thick yoghurt for cooking)
• 2 cloves of garlic

How we make it:

1. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the packet. Drain and put in a bowl for later.
2. Chop the onion into thin slices.
3. Chop the tomatoes and cucumber into squares.
4. Chop the olives into halves.
5. Put all the chopped vegetables into a large bowl.
6. Fry the bacon in the oil. Take off excess fat with paper and let it dry.
7. Once cool, cut the bacon into slices and place in a bowl.
8. Grate the Feta cheese over the salad and add the sun-dried tomatoes.
9. Mix all the ingredients and carefully put the pasta in the large bowl.
10. Add the pepper according to taste.
11. Pour the crème fraiche into a small bowl and press the garlic cloves into it. Mix carefully and pour into a salad bowl. Mix with all the ingredients.

Serves: 3-4
Time needed: 20 minutes
Level: very easy