Tomato soup and cheddar-Marmite twists

Malou asked me the recipe of my tomato soup and cheddar-Marmite twists.

As I mentioned in my past accomplishments post, the recipe I used came from the british cooking magazine BBC Goodfood.

I cannot take credit for the ingeniosity of this wonderful dish.

Here is the link to the original recipe.

Enjoy!

Homemade spaghetti recipe

Dead simple!

After my last post, Malou asked for the recipe of my homemade spaghetti.

For all kinds of pasta: 1 egg/100g of regular flour.  

Note: you can also use semolina flour to have a little more of a coarse dough. Be careful, the dough may be a little dry then, so adjust the quantity of semolina flour to a little less than if you use regular flour

Just make a small well in the flour, and break the egg(s) into this well. Slightly whisk them and then incorporate them progressively into the flour with your hands. I find that just twirling my fingers in a clockwise manner in the egg mixture is enough to take some flour every time, until it becomes really tacky and gooey.

Note: counter-clockwise swirling works just fine ;)

Then I just go at it full throttle, and use both my hands as I knead the dough  on a clean surface until it is firm and springy. If it is too sticky, you can use a little more flour. Then I just wrap it in cling film, and let it rest for at least 45 minutes in the fridge. 

When the dough has rested a while, I usually cut it, and make small patties of it, before I stretch it in my pasta machine. I then use the tagliatelle/spaghetti blades of the machine if I want to make long pasta; if I stick to lasagna, then I just don't use those blades.

Attention: those pasta are fresh, and cook really quickly! I think 2 minutes in boiling salted water are enough. Tagliatelle are delicious fresh. Spaghetti however are a little too "floppy" if not dried before hand.

I dry my pasta in two different ways:

1- I make little nests, and let them dry as such

2- Clothes hangers work wonders, but I suggest a little safer setup...

(I find that 5 eggs and 500g of flour will be plenty enough for a big lasagna dish)

Some of my past accomplishments

Okay...the purpose of this blog is to post a new entry whenever I cook or bake something from now on.

However, I've been cooking and baking for quite some time now, and it would take me too much time and energy to make individual posts and explanatory texts for each and every one of those dishes.

So I've decided to make one big giant recapitulatory post. If you'd like to know more about any of the dishes/recipes, don't hesitate to ask, and I'll do my best to get back to you!

Cheers!

26 September 2009: Challah

19 September 2009: Tomato soup with Marmite/cheddar twists (BBC Good Food)

24 May 2009: Double-potatoes and Halloumi bake (Nigella Lawson)

24 May 2009: Almond and orange blossom biscotti  (internet)

13 May 2009: Lamb kebabs and hasselback potatoes (Nigella Lawson)

10 May 2009: Saffron-scented chicken pilaf (Nigella Lawson)

10 March 2009: Pangasius filets with fragrant coconut sauce (internet)

7 March 2009: Fesenjan, a persian dish consisting of chicken stewed in pomegranate juice and walnut sauce

28 February 2009: Fragrant pork kebabs on lemongrass sticks (Mini C, Tanya Carr: Healthy Dairy-free Eating) 

22 February 2009: Homemade spaghetti al pesto alla genovese (recipe by an Italian colleague of mine, Andrea)

14 February 2009: Boeuf Bourguignon (internet)

31 January 2009: French kidney and mushroom stew 

23 January 2009: homemade herby lasagna

Various baking experiments: pecan pie (internet), lemon curd cake (Delia Smith) and chocolate and honey cake (Nigella Lawson)

See you soon with more recipes ;)

A taste of Louisiana

So...

Those of you who know me know that for the past 3 moths or so, I've been reading the Southern Vampire Mysteries series of books by Charlaine Harris. Those books are also known as the "Sookie Stackhouse series".

You may also be aware that I am quite obsessed with HBO's True Blood TV show (in general) and Alexander Skarsgård (in particular).

Anyway...To cut a long story short,all of those things combined have made me crave Southern food so bad...

I gave in on October 24 2009, and made myself a nice, spicy and wonderfully comforting Jambalaya.

Let me know what you think of it!

 

Slavic experiment

Homemade blinis, salmon roe and sour cream. Yumm.

11 November 2009

Creamy chorizo and chicken soup

When I got back from work tonight, I just felt like having a good, warm, hearty chicken soup for dinner.

I googled a few recipes, and found just what I was craving. The credit goes to *Fat~Dog~Lane* who posted this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/

12 November 2009

Finally... A cooking blog!

This is it!

I've finally tackled this... I've been wanting to have my own cooking blog for quite some time now, but I'd never done anything about it.

So here goes guys! I'll mostly be posting pictures of my cooking; whether my own creations, or inspired by renouned cooks.

Hope you will enjoy, and leave me comments!

Cheers*