Gorgeous Greek Chicken, Herby Vegetable Couscous & Tzatziki

Here I am, writing out my 30th recipe for you, officially reaching my goal. 

Today is the day I also gave in all the paperwork for my Personal Project, the project whose final product is this blog. 

On one hand, this should mean I am not obligated to post or cook recipes anymore...however, I have decided to continue with this blog until I have cooked all the recipes that catch my eye from the cookbook, and then later on, who knows?

Judging by the rate the number of views are increasing which I am incredibly honored by, I may even expand this blog, put more effort into the photos and overall production, as well as maybe a professional layout..who knows?

That's just what I had in mind for the introduction, and except for that, wish me luck for Wednesday, whoever you are, as that is the day of the PP Festival which will also be my first public showcase of this product of mine. 

Now let's get on with this gorgeous meal! This is what I came up with:

(Can't decide which I prefer)

I started this recipe off by covering 2 mugs of couscous with 1 1/2 mug of boiling water, completely contrary to Jamie's instructions. 

The reason being that I find that more water on less couscous, as Jamie recommend, causes a probability of the couscous becoming mush. You are to set that aside, covered to soak in and fluff up.

I then took my chink of meat and neatly divided in three parts which would allow me to cut it into nice strips as shown below once it is cooked. 

I covered it with salt, pepper, paprika, oregano and lemon zest, and bashed it all in while flattening. 

In the meantime, I sliced the cucumber with my manual grater so to speak, because a box grater just makes it so rare and tiny, and rather distasteful. I added some salt in the bowl and let it release the water. 

After this, I chopped up the veggies, like the peppers, spring onions, chili, dill, and cooked my frozen peas for the tiniest bit. I didn't bother using my processor as I was too lazy to wash it afterwards, so I set all that aside in a bowl for when the couscous would be ready. 

Then came the time to prepare the meat. This took a rather long time, as the meat was thick even though I bashed it, and caught color fast as the lemon zest burned logically quickly. I let that turn a nice rose color and then sliced it evenly on a board (you cook it on olive oil naturally, add during the cooking if needed, its perfectly fine).

In the meantime, I mixed some yoghurt and mileram (as yoghurt is runny in Croatia and mileram is a thicker type of dairy product), added some pepper, juice of a lemon, and the cucumber. 

I decorated with some remaining dill.

My couscous soaked up the water by this time so I just sprinkled over some salt and pepper, and spread on the platter. After that I sprinkled over my veggies, then the cut up meat, then crumbled over the feta 

and voila! 

I haven't said this in a long time, but here are some closeups of this magical meal:

(Jamie's recipe coming soon, there are clouds over the window I take pictures under, yikes!)

Moroccan Mussels, Tapenade Toasties & Cucumber Salad

Last weekend was dedicated to sea food.

My family and I really have travelled a lot, and we especially find delight in countries like Turkey, Tunis, Egypt and such, and have always wished and planned and talked about going to Morocco, but never really did anything about it.

It seems as that could change this summer, so I decided to prepare this meal as a sort of an introduction to the cuisine there, even though the real deal must be breathtaking.

Nevertheless this meal was close enough, and this is what I came up with:

I jumped right in and poured the tins of chopped tomatoes, the coriander, salt, pepper, lemon juice and the saffron into the processor and whizzed until smooth. 

Before I poured that in a large pan (emphasis on large, because the mussels are coming in now!), 

I squashed through the unpeeled garlic in my garlic crusher and put in the harrisa which I covered with two tbsp of olive oil. I set the fire up thus heated that up just a tiny bit before pouring in the newly processed sauce. 

Once the sauce is at boiling point, stir in the mussels (throwing away any that don't close when tapped), and I covered this with a regular lid, but Jamie says tin foil here, and a double layer too. 

While that was boiling of, I prepared my salad. 

I firstly washed my lettuce, and then cut into quarters. Using a box grater, I grated the cucumber, added a pinch of salt, and left aside for all the water to drain out. Once I thought the water was at its max. and it wasn't getting any better, I tossed and squeezed the grated cucumber to get rid of the excess salty liquid. 

In an extra bowl, I mixed the yoghurt, mint, lemon juice and salt and pepper, as Jamie really confusingly says to mix the cucumber with the yoghurt (?) something...but the picture doesn't look so, so I just arranged the cucumber on the salad and spooned the sauce over.

             

I was rather quick with my salad and I still had time with my mussels, so I heated up my grill pan and placed several pieces of a fresh ciabatta on top, turning when golden and charred. I used no oils whatsoever here. I quickly took out the tapenade and spread a thin layer over each and every one of them.

                             

Now I noticed my mussels had opened up which means they're done, so I turned the heat off, and placed them in a roasting tray I lined with tin foil to match the picture, as cooking them in that just wasn't possible for me and my kitchen.

I sprinkled over the coriander, as well as over everything else I assembled, and I was done!

(Jamie's recipe to come soon, there are clouds over the window I take pictures under, yikes!)

Prawn Linguine and Sicilian Shaved Fennel Salad

I need to be honest and say that quite some time has passed since I made this recipe and now when I am publishing it for you, dear reader, I made it two more times as everyone in my family (wow, four, such a huge number you got there) were absolutely taken by it!

What I have realized is that it really does take 15 minutes - and this is something I have been realizing for more and more of the 15 Minute recipes, which blew my mind, as I was a strong believer only Jamie could do it in the said time. 

But I guess that if you do it a couple of times, you get more practice and do it in not 15, but 5 minutes! So there is my glorious and intelligent conclusion based on my experience. 

Maybe my initial grudge that these definitely weren't 15 minute recipes is being refuted?!

Any-who, this is what I came up with (s'cuse the vibrant colors, there was an overload of reds and I have a really smart camera):

I also couldn't decide which version of the picture was better - the cropped or uncropped?

I started this recipe off by cutting 2 slices of bread into several lines, popping them in my processor along with the garlic at this point, as it "permeates" better than if added additionally, and whizzing until the wanted consistency of tiny.
While it was whizzing, I poured the olive oil in, which serves a job right after, when you are to put the breadcrumbs in a large pan and toast them. Toss regularly, or they will stick!

Breadcrumbs can be used cold, so set that aside and move on to the pasta.
Put your desired amount to cook into boiling water and a pinch of salt according to packet instructions. While that takes its time, I chopped some chili, cinnamon (I adore cinnamon so I put twice the amount and it turned out divine) and prawns (pre-cleaned of shells) as I had no saffron, on the tiniest bit of olive oil as I didn't use the anchovies and their oil, along with the squashed garlic.
Let that fry for a while and ooze out its juices, and when you deem fine, add in the passata. I covered this and took to the salad.

I whizzed halved the fennel, trimmed the celery, added the leafy half of mint and a whole lemon, then tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper. That's your salad done right there!

By this time, your sauce should be boiling, which means you are to take it off the heat, and presuming your pasta is done by this time, use tongs to directly move the pasta from its pan straight into the sauce.
Once you mix that, and arrange as desired, grate in the Parmesan as I like it melted on top, you may do so beforehand to mix in between. Pick over some basil leaves for extra taste! (It always accentuates pasta)

If you haven't already, transfer your salad into a bowl, do the same with the breadcrumbs if you kept them warm in the pan, and serve to eat!

(Jamie's recipe to come soon, there are clouds over the window I take pictures under, yikes!)

Avocado on Toast Four Ways

Another recipe I planned out to rise my count while still putting up worthy content on my blog (see goal of project). Before I started my food revolution, so to say,  a year ago, I never really dreamed of a vegetable as a an avocado. 

Laura Vitale's avocado and poached egg recipe changed it all for me, and I definitely advise you to check out her YouTube channel, "Laurainthekitchen" where there is nothing you can't find. Boost her up to that 1 million, willya? 

Anyways, I found out the richness of avocado as "nature's butter", and am obsessed ever since. It is rather a rare splurge though, as the price is rather overrated in Croatia. But when I do buy it, I make sure it is put to good use, like any of the recipes below!

Firstly there is the "Avo&Egg", for which you simply fill and boil a kettle while you toast a nice piece of bread. When the kettle has boiled fill a pan of your preferred size (whatever you feel comfortable to poach with, I use a rather small in radius but deep pan which I also use for oatmeal if that helps) with that same boiling water and add a pinch of salt. 

The water should fill up most of the pan as that will make the poaching much easier and more comfortable, it being a tricky job. 

When the water is boiling, you obviously turn the heat down a bit you stir it with a fork and crack in a super-fresh egg. While it poaches to your liking (the longer you leave it in for, the less liquid your yolk will be), you destone, peel and slice 1/2 a ripe avocado. 

Take the toast out and rub half a cherry tomato on, drizzle with some olive oil, and assemble once your egg is done! 

Here I added some chili, and salt and pepper, as both the avo and egg seem to need some in my opinion. 

Secondly, there is the "Avo & Crispy Pancetta". 

You basically grill three rashers of pancetta to your liking on a hot griddle pan with a nice piece of bread on the side to soak up the tasty fat. 

Then you destone and peel 1/2 an avocado and squash/spread it into the bread. Add a little salt and pepper, a squeeze of lime or lemon, some fresh red chili, basil leaves and crispy pancetta on top!

Done in no time!

Thirdly, we have the "Avo & Smoked Ham".
After your bread is toasted (toast your bread in whatever means you have), simply drizzle it with some olive oil, lay 1 slice of ripe beef tomato and 1 slice of cooked ham on top.
Destone and peel 1/2 an avocado and place on top, with a pinch of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon/lime juice.
Speed-peel cca.10g Emmental cheese on top, or whatever you have in the fridge, then scatter 4 fresh basil leaves, and voilá!

And finally, the "Avo&Smoked Salmon". 

Toast a slice of nice bread in whatever means you can, and drizzle it with olive oil. 

Cover with 35g of smoked salmon or how much you prefer of course, and use a teaspoon to add small bombs of cream cheese on top. I had no cream cheese so I simply ripped off chunks of some regular meltable cheese and it did the job well. 

Destone and peel 1/2 an avocado, then use that same teaspoon to curl small nuggets of flesh over the toast. 

Grate a little lemon zest to bring out the flavors, and add a pinch of pepper.

Note: The recipes stated above have been used from the cookbook, but have been interpreted in my way. The recipe can be found on pg.248 of the "Breakfast" section for a true recipe.

Bon Appétit!

British Burgers, Shred Salad, Pickles & Things

First off, I love the title of this recipe...Pickles & Things?! I mean come on.

I have recently went on a cooking spree and cooked four days in a row, so expect a couple recipes coming your way! 

On the other hand, I picked up some unholy virus along the way and have been sick for a week now, blah! I couldn't even rest it off, but had to go to school and write out essays and projects and work I am definitely not capable of. But it is the weekend so I am hoping to recuperate. 

Getting back on track, these british burgers were a blast to make with a 38C temperature, but I pulled through and watched the others enjoy, so it was kind of a win :)

This is what I came up with:

Once you read through this text, you'll see how obscenely easy this is and how the only improvement from a regular burger are the spices/seasoning, which then truly is great!

Before anything, I made my super-simple and healthy bread dough which I used for my little baps, and let to rise. If anyone at all is interested, I will be glad to provide this few ingredient recipe which I use for any type of breads and find always to work top notch!

I seasoned my mince with salt, pepper and 2 tsps of mustard instead of one, keeping away from the beer/ale as no one drinks it in my household and I didn't exactly want to go out and buy it for the sole purpose of using a couple drops on my meat. I left that to soak in while I prepared my other ingredients!

In my processor, I grated the carrots, cabbage, pear and red onion. When I achieved my desired grate-ness I guess haha, I set aside in a bowl as dressing the salad now would only make it wet and soggy and life-less by the time I ate. 

While I was at the veggies, I sliced some pickles and tomatoes for the burgers itself, but any other veggie could be included to you liking!

To create the sauce, you are to include some yoghurt, which is very thin and runny in Croatia, so I mixed in some "mileram", which is just a thicker dairy product, with a tablespoon of mustard, as I couldn't find Worcestershire sauce. Use what you have!

I then turned to the most time consuming part of the recipe - the meat. I really don't know why it takes me so long to prepare the meat, maybe its because my gas top doesn't work, or I just like it "too" well-done. Any way, it took me the longest, maybe 10 minutes for 1 batch, but I had like 2-3 burgers which wouldn't fit and plonked in as soon as the first burger was done. 

I didnt divide the mixture into 4 because if I did I would have a pattie as big as my head. Instead, I rather made more small patties so we could all have seconds. This resulted in over 10 patties which were soon gone. 

And that is literally it! 

P.S. I also took the time out of my day to create these little flags which are a super fun party trick!

Another true 15 minute recipe, this is a tasty twist on a regular American-style hamburger. The mustard in the patties is definitely the unique component, squashed in by homemade baps and the proposed sauce, yum! If you are organizing a casual get together with some good friends, everyone will go crazy after these, and they will only take you 15 minutes!

To achieve this recipe, you will need:

Ingredients out * Oven at 130C/250F/gas 1/2 * Large frying pan, medium heat * Food processor (coarse grater)*

Serves 4, 532 calories

Ingredients 

Burgers
500g lean beef mince 
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
1 swig of quality beer or ale 
olive oil
4 wholewheat baps
2 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt
Worcestershire sauce
1 ripe beef tomato
2-4 gherkins
tomato ketchup, to serve 

Salad 

2 carrots
1/4 of a white cabbage (roughly 250g)
1 pear
1 small red onion
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar 
70g rocket

Start cooking

Put the mince into a bowl with salt, pepper, the mustard and the beer or ale, then with clean hands scrunch and mix together. Divide the mixture into 4 and with wet hands shape into patties about 2.5cm thick, then put into the pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning when crispy and golden, and pushing down on them with a fish slice so they're in good contact with the pan.

Place the baps into the oven. Put the yoghurt into a small bowl, add a good splash of Worcestershire sauce, then stir and ripple it together. Slice the tomato and gherkins on a nice serving board.

In the processor, grate the trimmed carrots, cabbage, pear (stalk removed) and peeled red onion. Put the extra virgin olive oil and vinegar into a serving bowl, tip in the grated veg, toss together and season to taste, then mix in the rocket. Get the baps out of the oven, cut them in half and dollop with ketchup. Top with a slice of tomato and the burgers, then let everyone build their own at the table. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is stated above. 

Bon Appétit!

Super Smoothies - Four Ways to Kick Start Your Day

As my deadline is getting closer and my recipe count is still not where it should be, I decided to give myself a boost with one of these smoothies...which turned into the testing of a recipe because of me being greedy and wanting them all, so I thought what a great idea it would be to post this while I'm at it!
I do have to say the smoothies were great, I just wish I had a liquidizer rather than my blender, as the smoothies would have been so much more liquidy and tasty, because my blender just sliced the ingredients into tiny pieces, leaving the produce rather fibery and chewy, which made the overall sensation decrease immensely. 

I decided to pack all four into this one blog post rather than spread it out into four different ones to have all of Jamie's ideas in one place (pg.260 "Breakfast" section), just like in the cookbook, so here we goooooooooooooo!

Firstly, we have the "GREEN". 

You achieve this smoothie by blending 1 large peeled banana (ideally pre-chopped and frozen for a creamier and colder texture and taste), 200g baby spinach, 250ml of fresh apple juice (if you have a juicer and use a fresh juiced apple for this that would be great), and the juice of one lime. You just whiz until smooth or a desired consistency!

Secondly we have the "PURPLE".
























You achieve this amazing purple smoothie by liquidizing 2 small pears, 150g frozen blueberries and 100ml fresh apple juice! That's it! 

Thirdly, there is the "ORANGE".




















This may be the one that requires most ingredients, a 2cm piece of ginger, 1 carrot, juice of 1 lime, 1 small frozen chopped mango and 200ml of fresh orange juice. Again, it would be best to liquidize an orange before-hand and use that for the juice (or add an extra orange to the mix!).

Fourthly and finally, the "WHITE" and my personal favorite.

You put 1 large peeled banana (ideally pre-chopped and frozen for the texture), 3 tablespoons of ground almonds, 250ml of semi-skimmed milk and 1 tablespoon of runny honey.

I actually made the fourth smoothie a hundred times before I realized it was in this recipe, and I can say say for sure that you do not need honey, so much milk, or already ground almonds. In the end, it comes to what you like, so here are some tips; if you like a more liquid smoothie, don't freeze the banana and add enough milk to cover your banana. Tip 2 is that you can use any nut in the world for this, depending on your taste. I recommend that you use a blender for this smoothie, as you can control the thickness and amount while in a liquidizer it all sort of blends together in one taste. With that in mind,  the longer you blend it for, the finer the nuts will be, and I prefer to hear a crunch. 

As for the other three, they were not much to my liking, purely because of the blender part, as none of the smoothie recipes are meant for blenders except for the WHITE. 

*Each serves 2*
Green - 146 calories
Purple - 100 calories
Orange - 113 calories
White - 340 calories 

 Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit! 

Beef Chimichurri, New Potatoes & Crunch Salad

As soon as I knew there was a chunk'a beef in the refrigerator, I went on a wild goose chance after the perfect recipe! 

I rarely pick these 'heavy meat' recipes just because they aren't to my liking or health, despite Jamie's stunningly nutritional meals which always incorporate protein, vitamins, fiber and such. 

I figured why not give it a whirl and produce what turned out to be a rather plain'n'basic Sunday lunch, made-up all fancy with the placement for photography and recipe.

This is what I came up with:

After spending a crazy amount of time in various supermarkets, selecting the tiniest and most beautiful of all the potatoes, I came up with 800g of hard work. 

I then put some more hard work in, scrubbing them away twice to get rid of any gnarly skin or dried mud as I wasn't peeling them.

I added enough boiling water to cover the potatoes in a pan, put a whole lemon I rinsed off earlier and cut both ends off, and salted before I put the lid on. That cooks the longest so I recommend to put it to cook first. 

Then I went to the sauce, which I have two things to say about. Firstly, Jamie obviously loves coriander as it is in every single one of his recipe - I however, do not. What I got according to his directions was a puddingy coriander mass. I did not like it nor any of the other members of my household, just putting that out there. 

However, what you do is whiz the garlic, spring onions, oregano, chili, bay leaf, coriander, vinegar and a splash of boiling water, along with salt and pepper until smooth.

My potatoes still hard, I washed and chopped the lettuce, tomatoes, mint and rucola instead of cress, and placed it in a bowl with the peas to wait until serving time.

                                     

I then cut half of my steak into edible pieces as I like my meat well done. Jamie leaves the whole chunk to cook, which then leaves the inside raw which does not tickle my pickle, but I left half for picture purposes. 

I rubbed it with salt and pepper, and placed on the hot frying pan with a tablespoon of oil. 

That took rather a long time, probably because I waited for it to darken a lot.

                            

In the meantime, I drained my potatoes, and in the same pan, squashed the lemon juice and olive oil over the potatoes and went heavy handed on the salt, pepper and dill. Don't be scared though, a lot goes a short way!

After that was done, all it took was to assemble the board!
I put the hot potatoes in the very left row, followed by the combined salad which I dressed with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper, followed by the freshly done meat and bowl with the coriander chimichurri. 

This is the perfect example of how a crazily simple meal of meat, salad and potatoes can be dressed up to look like a culinary masterpiece. 

No different than what was served on Sundays at my house before my Jamie Oliver takeover, this just looks fancier and tastes a bit more bland, to speak honestly. Nevertheless, to achieve this meal follow the recipe below which I was again too lazy to type out, but I have done my best for you to still understand it!

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit!