I Am Delicious

Delicious Rice with Vegetables

Another rice recipe. This time we serve it with dried mushrooms - any you like. You can also use any fresh muchroom if you have. Serve hot and with parmesan topping. No meat included so perfect for vegetarians as well. I love it!!!

Prep Time: 5 minutes                                    

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 0.5 l vegetable broth (stock)
• 100 g of any kind dried or fresh mushrooms
• 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 3-4 garlic cloves - finely chopped
• 1-2 big onions finely chopped
• 350 g cooked rice
• 250 ml dry white wine
• 90 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
• sea salt (only if needed) and freshly ground white pepper
• red pepper - finely chopped
• 250 green peas
• 5-6 radish - sliced
• 1/2 cup finely hashed parsley
• fresh basil leaves to decorate
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli

Method: 

1. Fry the onion and garlic on olive oil mixed with butter for 5 minutes until softened. Season with salt and pepper for taste. Add dried mushrooms. Do not soak mushrooms in water, use dried ones because that way you will get an incredible mushroom aroma in your risotto. Fry all together for another 3-5 minutes. 

2. Add green peas, red pepper, vegetable broth, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, chilli and radish. Cook for 5 minutes.  

3. Add cooked rice and wine. Keep stirring until the rice mixes well with the mushrooms and vegetables. Should take about 10 minutes.

4. Add freshly hashed parsley to the rice and season with parmesan cheese. Keep stirring until wine is absorbed by rice.

5. Season almost ready rice with white pepper. Remember to check the taste before adding any salt. Leave it for 5 minutes to settle.

6. Serve topped with freshly grated parmesan and fresh basil leaves.

ENJOY!!!

Oven Baked Cauliflower with Smoked Loin

Takes less than one hour to prepare but it is worth every minute spent in the kitchen. This recipe can be prepared also in a vegetarian way because simply you dont need to add smoked loin. It is a different way of serving cauliflower which I love a lot. Easy and quick to prepare. Perfect dinner option.  

Prep Time: 10 minutes                                    

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• medium size cauliflower
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 350 g smoked loin - chopped
• 350 ml sour cream - 12%
• chives - hashed
• 3-4 spring onions - chopped
• 150 g grated Gruyere cheese
• 50 g grated Parmesan cheese for topping
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice    

Method: 

1. Clean the cauliflower and cut it into florets.

2. Boil a big pot of water with a bit of salt. Once water is boiling add cauliflower and cook for 15-20 minutes. To keep cauliflower white you can add to the water a bit of milk or lemon juice before the water starts boiling.  

3. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. In the meantime, when cauliflower is ready and a bit cooled, chop it into small pieces in a large bowl. I use fork to chop as it works really well.

4. Add sea salt, pepper, sour cream, chopped onion, chopped smoked loin, hashed chives and Gruyere cheese. Stir all well.

5. Place in a medium baking dish (sprinkled with olive oil on the bottom) and top with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 25 minutes. Serve hot.

ENJOY!!!

Delicious Veal with Mashed Potatoes and Tomato Salad

Veal is an important ingredient in Italian and French cuisine, but also in Poland veal is very popular in daily menu. My secret here is that veal must stay marinated for a few hours in the fridge. I love to serve it with mashed potatoes and dill and of course tomato salad in balsamic sauce. Among the different types of meat, veal is very special. Veal is tender, lean, mellow in taste and contains important minerals and vitamins. Veal is important in our menu because of its high nutritional value, easy digestibility and a good alternative when keeping an eye on calories. Perfect recipe for a quick dinner. Your family and friends will love it. Simply delicious.

Prep Time: 10 minutes 

Wait Time: 2-3 hours                                  

Cook Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 500 g veal
• 10 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp balsamic sauce with lemon - from Modena
• 1 tsp crushed chilli
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• rosemary and lemon mix
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 4-5 Tbsp soya sauce
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 500 g young potatoes
• dill - hashed
•  2 Tbsp cream
• cherry tomatoes - in halves
• 1/2 onion - chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground garlic
• 1 -2 Tbsp meat herbs
• 1 tsp white ground pepper
• 1 baking bag

Method: 

1. First you need to prepare a marinade. 8 Tbsp of olive oil, crushed chilli, rosemary and lemon mix, soya sauce, juice and zest of 1 lemon, sesame oil, ground cumin, white pepper, meat herbs and ground garlic mix well together. Combine all marinade ingredients. 

2. Wash the veal and put into the marinade.  Do not cut veal in slices. It is better to have one bigger piece otherwise when cooking your veal might become a little bit too dry. Leave it in the fridge to marinate for 2-3 hours. 

3. When veal is well marinated, pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Place the veal into the baking bag together with a marinade. Close and tie the bag well. Make a few little holes in the bag so the meat can 'breath' a bit. Place the bag in a baking dish and on middle shelf of the oven. Cook for 60-65 minutes.  

4. When veal is cooked, cut open the bag - be carefull to the very hot steam. 

5. Serve with mashed potatoes: boiled young potatoes in salty water, mashed with 2 Tbsp of oilve oil and 2 Tbsp of cream. Add fresh hashed dill. Mix all well and serve immediately.

6. Serve together with a tomato salad. Tomatoes in halves mix with chopped onion and balsamic Modena sauce. Add freshly ground pepper.

ENJOY!!!

African Rub Chicken

African Rub Chicken secret are spices. I figured out some time ago how these special spices taste all together. Incredible taste and aroma. Just give it a try and you will see what I mean. 

Prep Time: 5 minutes 

Wait Time: 2 hours                                  

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 3-4 chicken breasts in chunks 
• 250 ml Greek Yoghurt
• 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp crushed chilli
• 1/2 tsp dried onion
• 1/2 tsp ground garlic
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmed
• cloves
• turmeric
• ginger
• pimento
• crashed bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 2 Tbsp cardamon oil or seasam oil
• to serve with young potatoes and grilled vegetables

Method: 

1. First you need to prepare a marinade. You need to crush all the spices. Add cardamon or seasam oil and mix with Greek yoghurt. Mix all the ingredients and add to the chicken cut in chunks. Stir well making sure chicken is well covered with the marinade. 

2. Leave the chicken in the fridge to marinate for at least 1-2 hours. 

3. When chicken is well marinated, put it on a pre-heated large pan and grill it the way you like. Also add all the marinade when cooking. 

4. Serve with young boiled or baked potatoes and grilled vegetables. 

ENJOY!!!

Delicious Puff Pastry Apple Tart

If you want to make a very quick and easy dessert that also happens to yield impressive results, here is a perfect recipe for you. Puffed pastry is very special because it bakes into a puffy, golden, textural substance that make the perfect crust for fruit tarts and any other desserts you can think about. 

Prep Time: 10 minutes                                    

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 600 g pastry for pies (at its most basic, it is a mixture of flour and fat bound with water to form a paste) - puff pastry
• 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into quarters
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 large egg - beaten 

Method:

1. Roll out the pastry in the flat surface, dusted with a bit of flour and form a rectangle. Pastry should be max 5 mm thick. Rectangle hight should be about 20 cm long.

2. Prick each rectangle with a fork. Brush each rectangle with well beaten egg.

3. Peel the apples. Cut in half lengthwise and into quarters. Do not forget to cut out stem and core. Place the apples flat side down on the pastry. 

4. Sprinkle the apples with sugar mixed with cinnamon.

5. Put the tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in pre-heated to 180 C degrees oven for 15-20 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and apples tender.

6. Serve hot. You can serve it plain, as is, OR you can drizzle some caramel topping all over the top - like I did. Some of my friends like it also with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream scoops.

ENJOY!!! 

Catalan Cream Dessert

Catalan Cream in Spanish: 'crema catalana' is also known as Crema de Sant Josep, a typical dessert of Catalonia in Spain. It consists of a custard base crème caramel and a caramelized, crisp sugar topping. The custard might be flavored with lemon, orange zest or simply cinnamon.

You will see how delicious Catalan Cream might be. It is rich and creamy and will melt in your mouth. Great dessert for spring time, since traditionally this dessert was prepared on March 19th, St. Joseph’s Day, the Spanish equivalent of Father’s Day in the USA. But to be honest, I can eat it entire year. Just try and you will see what I mean.

Prep Time: 10 minutes 

 Cooling Time: 2-3 hours                           

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 2 cups sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 2-3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 2 sticks cinnamon
• grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange
• 3 cups milk (3.2%)

Method: 

1. In a pot, beat together the egg yolks and add 1 cup of sugar. Beat until throughly mixed. Add cinnamon sticks, grated lemon and orange rind. Add the milk and cornstarch.

2. On low heat, slowly heat the mixture. Do not stop stirring. Cook until thickened. The texture should be smooth and creamy. Then immediately remove from the heat.

3. Remove the cinnamon sticks and ladle the milk mixture into ramekins or little bowls. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours. 

4. Before serving, preheat the broiler. Remove ramekins with the catalan cream from refrigerator and sprinkle the rest of the sugar over each ramekin. When broiler is hot, place the ramekins under the broiler on the top shelf and allow the sugar to caramelize, turning gold and brown. This may take 10 minutes or so, depending on your broiler.

5. Remove and serve immediately. You can also carefully glaze the sugar using a mini-blow torch.

ENJOY!!!

 

Codfish in White Wine & Dill Sauce

Cod Fish has been a staple of the human diet all throughout history. Codfish has lvery ow fat content and high Vitamin A, Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids level. Cod are omnivorous, swimming with their mouths open they will eat anything that fits, including young cod. For a long time – particularly in England, the word fish was synonymous with cod. And Codfish are believed to have existed as the species we know today for about 120 million years. What is interesting and I just found out recently, is that cod was the original fish of choice used in th eMcDonald’s Filet-O-Fish burger. Codfish live to an average age of 20-30 years. Below recipe takes about 40 minutes to prepare and the sauce is outstanding, tastes delicious and you will not forget neither the flavor nor aroma. 

Prep Time: 5 minutes                            

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 3-4 codfish fillets
• 2 onions or challots - finely chopped
• 250 ml cream 18% fat
• 350 ml white dry wine
• 1/2 cup fresh dill finely hashed
• 1/ 2 cup fresh chives finely hashed
• 2 Tbsp fresh oregano finely  hashed
• 3-4 Tbsp butter
• sea salt (only if needed) and freshly ground black pepper

Method: 

1. Pre-heat large skillet and add the butter. Add finelly chopped challots or onions, sea salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes until onion turns translucent.

2. Put the codfish fillets into the onion and add all the wine. Simmer covered for another 10 minutes or until fish is cooked.  

3. After fish is ready, remove it from the pan and put aside. Now we will prepare our delicious sauce.

4. Add cream to the onion, butter and wine, more sea salt and pepper for a good taste. Stir well. Add finely hashed dill, oregano and chives. The more, the better. Leave a bit of dill for seasoning. Stir and simmer on a low heat for another 20 minutes until sauce becomes a bit dense. 

5. Serve codfish immediately, with young boiled potatoes and our delicious sauce. Season with remaining dill.

ENJOY!!!

Delicious Roasted Duck with Oranges

Duck meat is considered to be 'white' meat, although it is darker than any other poultry like chicken or turkey. Ducks are more active than chickens, they need and use much more oxygen. Extra oxygen in their body gives their meat darker red colour. Due to that duck meat is much reacher in flavours and aromas than any other poultry. This also means, duck meat goes really well with any fruits, sweet or spicy ingredients. This is why you have so many oriental duck recipes and all of them are delicious. 

Ducks and geese have a layer of fat just beneath their skin to keep them warm. Before and during cooking this layer of fat must be removed or drained as it is not ideal to eat the meat with the fat. A perfectly prepared and cooked duck will have very little if any fat remaining and a nice, thin and crispy skin.

It takes a few hours to prepare this recipe but I consider it a special one and definitely worth all the time spent on preparations. Just try and you will not regret any moment spent on preparing your duck dish. 

Prep Time: 15 minutes 

Cook Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 1 whole duck
• 2 big oranges cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup of melted butter
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 1 tsp cloves
• 5-6 pimientos

Method: 

1. First cut off the wing tips (the last bony segment) as there's no meat on them and they will boost the flavour of the giblet stock. 

2. Remove any obvious spare fat from inside the cavity. You can, if you like, turn the duck breast-side down and press hard on the middle of the backbone until you hear a crack, it means that when you turn the bird breast-side up again it sits flatter in the pan, which helps it to cook more evenly.

3. Put the bird in a pre-heated with melted butter heavy skillet and roast for 10 minutes on the back and then breast of duck so the fat starts to run and duck skin turns yellow-gold.

4. Now, using a knife, cut the skin all over the fatty parts at the breast and where the breast joins the leg. Don't cut deeper than is necessary just to cut the skin. You want the fat to run, but not the juices from the meat. By cutting or piercing the skin of the duck, this will allow the fat to drain out during roasting. Season the skin lightly with salt and pepper.

5. Now place oranges inside the duck. Add bay leaves and pimientos. Cloves insert into the skin of duck - see picture below.

6. Place the duck breast-side up in a roasting pan and place in the center rack of a 220 C degree preheated oven for 30 minutes to brown lightly.

7. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 C degrees and roast for 120 minutes. Remove accumulated fat occasionally with a bulb baster.

8. The duck is done to medium rare if the juices from the fattest part of the thigh or drumstick run faintly rosy when the duck is pricked, and when the duck is lifted and drained, the last drops of juice from the vent are pale rose. The duck is well done when the juices run pale yellow.

9. Another method of checking if duck is ready is to check meat temperature. A duck is properly cooked when the temperature of the meat at the thickest part of the thigh or breast has reached 75-80 C.  

10. Remove the duck from the oven, discard trussing strings, and place on a serving platter. Let sit for 10 minutes before carving.

11. To carve the bird, slice between the legs and breast, then prise off the whole legs, carefully pulling the thighbone away from the body of the bird. Cut each leg in half at the joint between the thigh and the drumstick. Slice each whole breast from the carcass, with the crispy skin attached, then cut each breast into 5 or 6 thick slices.

12. Serve on warmed plates, with the gravy and some roast vegetables or like me with roasted zucchinis.

ENJOY!!!

Italian Osso Buco with Creamy Polenta

Osso Buco is an Italian recipe of Veal Shank accompanied by delicious creamy polenta made from cornmeal. This tender dish is a special-occasion braised classic. Am sure your friends and family will love it. Osso Buco means "hole of bone" because this marrow provides the rich flavor to the sauce. A marrow spoon, one of those long skinny spoons found in old sterling silverware sets, would come in handy with this dish, as the succulent shank marrow can be tricky to extract. 

Osso Buco is a specialty of cross-cut veal shank braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata made from parsley, lemon zest and garlic and traditionally was served with rice. In my recipe I propose to combine it with polenta. 

Polenta is another delicious Italian dish which can now be found on many upscale-restaurant menus. Made with ground yellow or white cornmeal. Polenta can be served either sweet or savory. You can prepare it really simple way with just hot water and a spoon of butter, or spoil yourself and replace water with milk and adding any Italian cheese you like. Try this recipe and you will discover what I mean by DELICIOUS dinner!!!

Prep Time: 10 minutes 

Cook Time: 120 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 4 pieces of veal shank
• 250 g polenta (cornmeal)
• 500 ml vegetable broth
• 1 big onion - finely chopped
• 4-5 cloves of garlic - sliced
• 1 big carrot - chopped
• 1 celery - chopped
• 1 parsley root - chopped
• 1 leek - sliced
• 250 ml chopped tomatoes
• 200 ml white dry wine
• 5-6 Tbsp olive oil
• 4-5 Tbsp butter
• fresh thym - hashed
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method: 

1. Pat dry with paper towels veal shanks to remove any excess moisture. Veal shanks will brown better when they are dry. Season with sea salt and pepper. In a heavy skillet heat butter and olive oil over moderately high heat and fry the veal shanks, adding some of the additional butter and oil if necessary. Fry veal until turning gold brown, approximately 10 minutes.

2. Add onion, garlic, carrot, celery, parsley root and leek to the veal. Add white wine and vegetable broth. 

3. Keep cooking for another 10 minutes. Then add thym, chopped tomatoes, sea salt and pepper. Stir well and keep cooking for another 40 minutes, covered with a lid.

4. Braise the mixture and move to the baking dish in the middle of a preheated to 170 C oven for another 60 minutes or until the veal is tender. 

5. Serve with polenta prepared from cornmeal and mixed with hot water and 2 Tbsp of butter. Season with salt and pepper.

ENJOY!!!

Italian Marinated Steak

Steaks are the most popular cut of meat to prepare on a grill. The secret of this recipe is my special marinade you need to prepare. It is so full of aromas and flavors that you cannot even imagine. I love this recipe and I always prepare it well done.

Prep Time: 5 minutes 

Wait Time: 1-2 days                                  

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 2-4 lean beef steaks 
• 250 ml olive oil
• fresh basil leaves
• fresh oregano
• fresh thym
• fresh rosemary
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 3-4 garlic cloves - sliced
• a few pepper seeds
• 5-6 pimientos
• sea salt (only if needed) and freshly ground black pepper

Method: 

1. First you need to prepare a marinade. Olive oil, basil leaves, fresh oregano, thym, rosemary, bay leaves, garlic cloves, pepper seeds and pimientos mix well all together. Also add ground pepper and a bit of salt. Combine all marinade ingredients, mixing well to dissolve the salt. 

2. Put the steak fillets into marinade and leave it aside in the fridge for 1-2 days.

3. When steaks are well marinated, put it on a pre-heated grill and grill it the way you like. Also add all the marinade when grilling. 

4. Serve with baked potatoes or like me in this case with baked romaine lettuce.

5. Season your steaks with freshly ground black pepper.

ENJOY!!!

Risotto with Mushrooms

Another Italian risotto recipe. This time we serve it with dried mushrooms. Serve hot and with parmesan topping. No meat included so perfect for vegetarians as well. I love it!!!

Prep Time: 10 minutes                                    

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:                                  

• 1.25 l vegetable broth (stock)
• 100 g of any kind dried mushrooms
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 3-4 garlic cloves - finely chopped
• 1-2 big onions finely chopped
• 400 g risotto rice (Arborio)
• 250 ml dry white wine
• 90 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
• sea salt (only if needed) and freshly ground white pepper

Method: 

1. Fry the onion and garlic on olive oil mixed with butter for 5 minutes until softened. Season with salt and pepper for taste. Add dried mushrooms. Do not soak mushrooms in water, use dried ones because that way you will get an incredible mushroom aroma in your risotto. Fry all together for another 2-3 minutes. 

2. Add the rice and keep stirring until the rice softens a bit and becomes translucent as well. Should take about 5 minutes.

3. Add wine. Keep stirring until wine is absorbed by rice.

4. Slowly add vegetable broth - spoon by spoon - waiting until rice absorbs previous portion and turns creamy. Cook for about 20 minutes until rice absorbs all the broth. Rice should be slightly firm in centre and look creamy. Do not stop stirring.

5. Season almost ready risotto with white pepper. Remember to check the taste before adding any salt. Leave it for 5 minutes to settle.

6. Serve topped with freshly grated parmesan and fresh basil leaves.

ENJOY!!!

Swordfish a la Siciliana

This is one of the easiest fish recipes I know and I learnt to prepare it a few years ago in Sicili. Excellent option for quick, light and healthy dinner. Swordfish have long bill that looks similar to a sword and that is where their name comes from. One of the most fascinating swordfish facts is the way that they can select organs to heat. They are cold-blooded and they can heat only their brain and eyes which significantly improves their vision. Out of 25,000 bony fish species, swordfish are one of the only 22 that have this ability. Swordfish are not social and do not swim in schools.  They prefer to swim completely alone. This food is a good source of Vitamin B6, and a very good source of Protein, Niacin, Vitamin B12, Phosphorus and Selenium. Swordfish has only 146 calories in a 3-oz. serving - and this is what I like the most. Enjoy!!!   

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 500 g of swordfish fillet cut into 5 cm pieces 
• 1-2 red onions finely sliced
• 1-2 chopped tomatoes
• 1 red, green and yellow pepper - cut in pieces
• freshly ground black, red and white pepper
• sea salt
• 4 Tbsp of extra vergin olive oil
• 75 g black olives - sliced
• 150 ml dry white wine
• fresh basil leaves or rosemary. Basil should be hashed but if you decide to add rosemary, you don't need to hash the leaves. 

Method:

1. Wash the swordfish fillet and season with freshly ground red, black and white pepper. Sprinkle with a bit of oilve oil. Cur fish into 5 cm pieces.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and fry for 5 minutes peppers, onion and black olives.

3. Add swordfish, tomatoe, basil or rosemary and wine to the vegetables and fry for another 5 minutes until fish is ready. Make sure you do not overcook, otherwise fish will turn dry. Season with sea salt and pepper.  

4. Serve immediately.

ENJOY!!!