it's "Fruit Trivia Friday"!

I have smooth and pink skin, but I look sort of like an artichoke. When you open me, I am white and fleshy, with a lot of little seeds. I taste sort of like a kiwi, but less sweet. What's my name?

(damned if I know... but I ate it :P)

miam miam!!

I made my very first lasagna tonight. I was nervous, since Katja had made it just last month, and it was so yummy - so I had a high standard to meet. Well, guess what?

It was FABULOUS!

Here's how I did it
(serves 6 people, but not if you go back for 2nds)

chop up:
5 cloves of garlic
2 onions
2 hot chili peppers

slice:
4-5 tomatoes
a handful of mushrooms
5 small carrots

you also need:
lasagna noodles (I mixed mine by layer, regular and spinach flavor)
2 containers of ricotta
parmesan shavings
cooking cream
tomato sauce

ingredients for a bechamel, which can be made from scratch or from a mix

Heat olive oil, toss in onion, cook on low, add garlic, when it smells really good, toss in the carrots and chilis and let that all cook a bit. Then you'll want to add 2 containers of vegetarian meat crumbles... mix it all up, add some seasoning to taste.

On the side, make your bechamel sauce (you should need about 700 - 800 ml) and also make a tomato cream sauce.

For my tomato sauce, I sauteed a few cloves of garlic, then mixed in about a half a jar of tomato sauce. I then stirred in a bottle of cooking cream, and fresh basil... you have to heat it on low, and stir with a whisk constantly so it doesn't break.

Butter your baking dish and lay your first layer of noodles (all uncooked)

I layered like this (upwards):

noodle, sliced tomatoes, meat mix, bechamel, ricotta, repeat

The top layer gets noodles, bechamel, ricotta, and tomato cream sauce. Don't add all the tomato sauce... the primary toppings are the white items, and the red sauce is merely mixed into it a bit. Save the rest for later. Sprinkle with an ample amount of Parmesan cheese flakes.

Bake for 40 or so minutes at around 220 degrees... it will be bubbly and charred on top. The noodles should be cooked after 40 minutes, but if you're really picky about your noodles being very soft, cook it longer.

I served mine in a bowl, first spooning in the tomato cream sauce, and then a nice square of the lasagna into it..

I got rave reviews from the roomies.. and I'll happily make this for you, given the chance!

I know what I'm doing this Sunday....

Todd Thrasher’s Tomato Water Bloody Mary

4 pounds fresh vine-on tomatoes
2 stalks of lemon grass
4 serrano chilis
1 small Bermuda onion
Salt
Cheesecloth
Citrus-flavored vodka

In multiple batches, coarsely chop and puree tomatoes, onion and chilis in a food processor. Add salt to taste. Transfer pulp to a cheesecloth and suspend over a large stockpot. Leave to strain until pulp volume has reduced by two-thirds (about 12 to 24 hours). Makes 1 liter of tomato water.

To make the bloody Mary: Mix 1.5 ounces of citrus flavored vodka with 5 ounces of tomato water. courtesy of the NYT

fun in the kitchen!

Another night, another meal. Last night I made stuffed peppers, a recipe favorite from "Essential Middle Eastern Cooking." It's pretty easy, healthy and aromatic for sure, with mint and cinnamon spices. yum!

After you clean the peppers, you boil them for 5 min. and set aside. You prepare the meat by first cooking both onions in the o.o. for 5 min. Add meat and brown. Add garlic, peas, rice, herbs and spices, 1/5 lemon juice, tom. puree, and season with s + p. The mixture then goes into the peppers, and they go into a pot with the tomatoes. Before simmering, add a knob of butter and the remaining lemon juice to the sauce. Lid it, and go relax for 45 min.

This dish can be made with lamb, as it calls for, or with ground turkey, beef, a mixture, and even vegetarian soy crumbles.

On the side, I prepared a yogurt, which is basically plain yogurt, paprika, onion, parsley, cucumber, salt and pepper. Just add to taste. This ends up blending with the tomatoes perfectly, and adds a zesty bite to the already savory flavors.

I also recommend serving this with naan or a flat bread.

(notice how my cooking partner has set the cutlery.... )

serves 6

6 mixed peppers
2 tbsp o.o.
1 onion, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
250 g meat
garlic (as you like)
50 g yellow peas
75 g rice (cooked)
30 ml parley/mint/chive
1 tsp cinn.
juice from 2 lemons
30 ml tom puree
400 g chop. tom.
butter
s + p

it's quickly becoming a classic

Persian Chicken. The first (and maybe second and third) time I had this dish, it was prepared with love by my amazing and inspirational friend Di over at her place (known as chez Kiwi) in Antwerp. I adored this meal so much that I politely demanded the recipe, and promptly tucked it away into my "best ever" collection.

Later when I made cookbooks as Christmas presents, Persian Chicken was one of the staple meals that I included. This is the sort of dish that everyone should have, even if only once in their lifetime.
It's very easy to prepare, and what I like most about it, is that you don't have to measure anything and there's a lot of room to improvise on ingredients. I think it's all about your own feeling as you chop and prepare. In the end, the dish will always offer something a little bit different :) You'll find that using different fruit from one time to the next will change the dish completely as well.

You can find the recipe over at Di's...

I like to serve my Persian Chicken over a white, aromatic rice with some naan bread on the side.