I got a pasta maker for my birthday and we seem to be eating nothing but pasta since! Though the every first attempt was far from successful, I quickly sussed it out. The fact that I naturally tend to start with the most complex things, didn't help here, either. Instead of taking baby steps and making simple spaghetti or tagliatelle first, I had a go at making ravioli :-) Well, I ate my humble pie and next time I made simple soup pasta. Successfully! :-) It reminded my of the childhood days when my gran would make a delicious soup with home-made pasta when I stayed with her. Of course, I keep hearing questions, like: why bother making something you can buy in every single shop? Well, I bother as the home-made pasta is incomparably better! :-P To make basic pasta dough you need: 1 cup of flour 1 egg a pinch of salt a dash of olive oil water if the dough is to dry more flour - if the dough is to sticky, also to sprinkle on the worktop The proportions above are enough fo...

I came across this meal in one of my mags, and it looked cool enough to give it a go. Worked so well that it has become one of our staple dishes since. Though the original recipe had Gorgonzola cheese in it, we've tried it with a variety of other blue cheeses and it worked equally well. Also, the first time I made it I used rose, instead of white wine, and must say that it probably worked even better. You need: about 0.5 of boneless pork chops 3 cloves of garlic salt pepper some dry basil and thyme a handful of fresh parsley leaves 3 tbsp of oil 5-6 slices of Gorgonzola 200 ml of wine (white or rose) Slice the meat and season it, sprinkle the herbs on top. Pre-heat the oil on  a frying pan, seal the chops on both sides (fry about 1 minute on each side, or until it turns golden brown), then move into a bake dish. Peel and finely chop garlic and parsley, place them on frying pan and fry them on a small heat in the remainder of the oil from dealing the meat. Pour in ...

Today's recipe is inspired by my favourite meal at a Chinese restaurant we frequent. Actually, less and less often, as the service is going downhill there. Anyway, that served as motivation to try to replicate the meal I enjoy so much - sweet and sour chicken with soy noodles. I also decided to "lean" it a bit - the restaurant version of the dish has deep fried batter chicken, mine wasn't deep fried, nor did it have batter, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless! ;-) For the sauce I used: 1 large can of pineapple 1 cup honey 3 tbsps dark soy sauce 3 tsps ginger powder half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon 1-2 tbsps of tomato puree 2 tsps of lemon juice 1 tsp tamarind paste salt and pepper 1 tsp corn flour Preparation: Put the pineapple into a pan, pour in the syrup from the can, add honey, soy sauce, ginger powder, ground cinnamon, tomato puree, tamarind paste and lemon juice. Stir all ingredients and simmer until they blend. Season the sauce with salt ...

The meal we had today is an attempt to copy a dish I first tried in one of the Italian restaurants in our district. I am extremely picky as far as food is concerned, and pretty merciless when evaluating Italian restaurants. I've heard a few times that Italian food is 'the blandest' ever, sadly it was the opinion of people who know the "Italian" food merely from Italian restaurants. And those, if located outside Italy rarely can do the food justice. Luckily, we live in a 'posh" area (haha), people like to pose and splash money around, which usually is either quite entertaining, or simply sad, but on the positive side there are a few places serving decent food, including two (!) Italian restaurants.  The first time I tried the dish in question I actually just tried somebody else's meal and ended up devouring half of their food! As it sometimes happens, the meal that looks nothing-special in the menu turns out to be a masterpiece combination of sce...

Every now and then I feel a need to make fuss of a meal and go for a three dish dinner thing. Today was one of those days :) The whole meal was prepared in Italian style, however after the main we were so full that  dessert comprised only of Italian espresso, still delicious though! I got the idea for the starter from one of the Italian places we frequent for lunches and dinners - bread balls (made of pizza dough) served with pesto genovese (basil based pesto), pesto rosso (pesto with sun dried tomatoes), and salted butter. For the starter you need: about half a cup of flour a pinch of yeast salt lukewarm water or milk a splash of olive oil Mix all ingredients and knead the dough well until it's soft and playable. Sprinkle olive oil onto it place it in a bowl, and leave in a warm place to grow for about half an hour. Then form small balls and place them on a baking tray, leave some space between them as they'll grow during baking. Preheat the oven to about 180C ...

Every now and again the day comes when I hear the question 'Could we possibly have some real meat?'. "The real meat" being something else than chicken, which for some reason tends to appear in a great majority of my favourite meals. So, every now and again I back down, buy some pork or beef to later ask myself why I don't do it more often! Beef, after all is actually the king of meats - not only is it tender, soft and flavoursome, but it is also filling and amazingly simple and quick to prepare. The idea for this meal has been following me for a few days, and finally today I got around to making it. This beef-based dish is great for lunch or dinner, and in my opinion gives plenty of energy to keep warm, thus it's ideal for this time of year. The simplicity of preparation and short cooking time are just a bonus here! :) I used about 250-300g piece of beef, which I sliced, seasoned with pepper and put thinly sliced garlic on each side of the chops.The thin...