Update

Apologies to all our followers.

We do keep on cooking and having a great time inventing dishes or simply trying to remake traditional dishes from our home countries. We also occasionally remember to snap photos of our amazing creations

We are just a bit busy each with our own work and studies. Sadly, this has resulted in a backlog of recipes to write up. Then I thought of letting you all know that we are working on a major catch up on the backlog and we’ll soon be back on track!

Stay tuned!

The 20-minutes Cous Cous

In a sauce pan:

Gently brown some onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add mixed vegetables (parsnip, carrot, red onion…), half a glass of water, 1 vegetable stock cube and Harissa paste to taste (I love it, so I’m fairly generous).
Stir well and let simmer.

In the meantime, prepare the cous cous adding hot water and stirring. Instructions are usually available on the package, depending on the number of portions you need to prepare.

You can add to the vegetables your favourite meat of choice, or even fish. If you cook the vegetarian version or add some fish, then the dish will be ready in 20-25 minutes.

When the vegetables and the cous cous are ready, place the cous cous in a large dish and dig a hole in the centre. Place the vegetables in the centre and add the remaining liquid from the sauce.

This is not the original cous cous recipe, which involves a few more passages and also takes a bit longer but if you need something simple and easy to make, this might work well for you. You can customise the ingredients and make it more or less spicy. I like it quite hot and I use Harissa paste I bring from Italy because I cannot find this particular one in the UK. It’s a delicious Harissa paste that looks a bit like tomato paste. We started buying it in the mid-80s when my family was living in Tunis. The company is Tunisian and it still produces the delicious paste. Long live good traditions!!

a simple but tasty “cous cous”

Pasta salad

It still definitely isn’t summer yet here in the UK, but nevertheless I’ve decided to cook some pasta salad. It’s a very easy dish and anything goes in, so you can have a vegetarian, vegan or ‘meat-eater’ salad. This one is vegetarian

Ingredients:

- wholewheat pasta (fusilli here)
- cucumber
- radishes
- tomatoes
- capers
- gherkins
- spring onion
- mozzarella
- basil
- extra virgin olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients

Preparation:

Cook the pasta very al dente (usually at least 1 minute less than recommended on the package).
Chop all the ingredients. Small dices mix very well with the pasta. Let the pasta cool off a bit before adding them. Sprinkle with a little olive oil, pepper and basil. Leave in the fridge for about 60-90 minutes before serving.

Et voilà!

Note: Other ingredients that you can use: sweet corn, tuna, different cheese or no cheese, carrots (raw or slightly soft), parsley or chives instead of basil, use rice or spelt instead of wholewheat pasta.

Crispbread

The dough

Ingredients

• 50g yeast or 5 tsp of fast action dried yeast
• 500ml lukewarm water
• 400g plain flour
• 400g rye flour
• 1 tsp crushed caraway seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 100g butter

Rolling...

Preparation

Mix the yeast and water in a bowl.

Mix flour, rye flour, caraway seeds and salt in another bowl.

Cut the butter in very small cubes and add to the flour mix, work it with hands.

Add the yeast and water and knead for 5-10 minutes.

Leave in a bowl for at least 1 hour or until doubled in size (cover with a tea towel and leave in a turned off oven).

Batch nr.1

Work the dough and roll very thin layers. Imagine you were making lasagne… more or less.

Pre-heat over at 250˚C.

Prick the layers with a fork and cut in the shapes you prefer. I made some round and some rectangular, for easier storage.

Bake each layer for 5-7 minutes at 220˚C and then let cool out of the oven.

Many other batches!

Pasta!

Ingredients:

- penne
- salmon trimmings
- zucchini (1)
- spring/salad onions (2)
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- grated parmigiano cheese

Method:

Start cooking the pasta in salted, boiling water.

In a frying pan:

Gently brown the chopped spring onions in a little olive oil.

Add the zucchini (1, thinly sliced with a mandolin) and cook at medium heat.

Drain the pasta very al dente and add to the zucchini.

Add the salmon trimmings and mix.

Add a little white wine, if available.

Lower the heat and cover for 2 minutes. The salmon will cook, the pasta will absorb the juices and be more tasty.

Serve with a sprinkle of black pepper and parmigiano cheese on top. In the photo, I forgot the cheese, but added some cherry tomatoes for decoration.

Note: Do not stir/mix with a spatula, just move the pan to flip the pasta, salmon and vegetables. Zucchini tend to become soft and break quite easily. Using a spatula will result in a “mushy zucchini” mix.

Also, the pasta having been cooked in salted water, the salmon being salty and the onions giving flavour to the zucchini, I didn’t need to add any extra salt, just the pepper at the end.

Yummy cheese cake

 

Dough:

- 250 g Philadelphia cheese

- 3 natural yoghurts (better if one has vanilla or lemon flavor)

- 10 spoonfuls of sugar – 3 spoonfuls of corn flour (Maizena)

- 3 eggs

- 10 g baking powder

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Base:

- 15 Maria cookies

- 20 g butter or margarin

Crack the cookies with a roller and mix them with the butter / margarin. Set it on the bottom of a round dessert mold and add the dough. Preheat the oven (200C) and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Serve cold!

Stuffed marrow

Ingredients:
- marrow, a.k.a. “the giant zucchini”
- rice
- tuna in spring water
- capers
- mayonnaise
- salt, pepper
- chilli flakes

Instructions:
1. Boil half the marrow in salted water for 10 minutes. It doesn’t have to be completely boiled, otherwise it’s tok soft. Let aside to cool off.
2. Cook half a cup of (dry) plain rice.
3. In a bowl, mix 1 can of tuna, handful of capers, 1 spoonful of mayonnaise, salt, black pepper and chilli flakes.
4. Add the rice and mix well.
5. Stuff the marrow with the rice mix and cook in the oven at 180 degrees until the rice has a crisp crust.
6. Let cool off a little bit before cutting. Serve with a little olive oil and a couple of leaves of fresh basil as decoration.

Note: the marrow is quite watery and as you can see from the photo, it “shrunk” quite a bit in the oven. Leave the skin on to reduce the shrinking and help it keep the cup shape.