week 3

My delivery this week..

Oven roasted salmon, asparagus and potatoes

This is a very oh so simple yet oh so yummy recipe. The recipe is from here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/oven-roasted_salmon_asparagus_and_new_potatoes/

I've cooked it a few times and it's always delicious!

All the ingredients used... there's that Irish flag again!

Coat potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in preheated oven at 200'C for 30 minutes.

Slice the asparagus, chop the dill, prepare the lemons zest and garlic.

Mix all the above in a bowl.

Add to the potatoes that have been cooking for around 30 minutes (should be brown and soft).

Add the salmon and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Καλἠ ὀρεξη!!!!

Pastitsio (παστἰτσιοοοοο)...!

This is a piece of Greek heaven.. enjoy :-)

Here's a good recipe to follow: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pastitsiobeefandmaca_86776

All the ingredients.. though only the onions and garlic are from the vegetable box...!

Grate the onion

Add in the meat

Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, cinnamon stick, ground cloves, oregano, bay leaves, water, salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste, and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce has thickened but is still nicely moist.

 Prepare the pasta and in the meantime prepare the white sauce: melt the butter in a medium-sized non-stick saucepan, add the flour and cook, stirring, over a medium heat, for one minute. Gradually beat in the milk, then bring to the boil, stirring. Lower the heat and leave to simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then layer.. pasta, meat, pasta, meat, pasta then white sauce.

180'C for 40 minutes

καλἠ ὀρεξη!!!

Courgette fritters (κεφτἐδες με κολοκὐθια) with broccoli and carrot soup

I managed to use most of my vegetables today. I felt like making a soup with the broccoli and carrots but then had no idea how to cook the courgettes.. My friend Sofia once made these amazing courgette fritters so that's where the inspiration for these came from. I don't think we used the same recipe so... Sofia, if you're reading this.. can you tell me which recipe you used???!

The broccoli and carrot soup was from here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/down-home-with-the-neelys/broccoli-soup-recipe/index.html while the Greek courgette fritters was from a recipe similar to this: http://whippedtheblog.com/2009/08/04/greek-zucchini-fritters-kolokithopitta-with-tzatziki/ 

So here goes, for the soup...

Prepare the broccoli, onions and carrots (making them look like an Irish flag is optional!)

Fry in some butter or olive oil

Add the chicken stock and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

 For the courgette fritters..

courgettes, eggs, onion, yellow cheese (kefalotyri - κεφαλοτὐρι), bread crumbs, dill.

Grate the courgette

Mix everything together.

Fry in some olive oil

Enjoy with some bread, cheese, olives, salad and some wine....

Καλἠ ὀρεξη!!!!

week 2

New week.. new delivery..

Pumpkin soup (absolutely perfect!)

I was quite excited today about making this as I've never cooked pumpkins before (and I generally like to challenge myself..). So, this is again inspired by Jamie Oliver and all I can say is... I loved this soup!!!!! And the idea with double frying the bread... genius!!!! I highly recommend this to anyone who can find pumpkins..

This is the youtube video I followed (this recipe starts at 3:27).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1IsOznXiFA&feature=related

Here is everything I used.. (along with the Greek olive oil from Crete)

Chop the onions and celery and add to pot with the olive oil.

Then cut the carrots and garlic and add to the pot.

Cut the pumpkins and add to the pot along with 2L chicken stock.

When everything is almost ready cut the bread

Fry a few sage leaves in olive oil

Remove the sage leaves, fry the bread in the oil, remove, add Parmesan cheese to both sides, fry again.

Add the bread to the bowls.

Then add the soup, the fried sage leaves and enjoy with some wine! This is one of my favourite wines from Greece (you can find it it Waitrose).

Enjoy!!!!!!

Pork chops with braised white cabbage, bacon and thyme

Today's recipe follows Jamie Oliver's cabbage recipe. I just added the pork chops. The funny thing is, my red cabbage turned out to be white!! I don't have much experience with cooking cabbage... Ah well, it was still good!

To make the pork chops, I preheated the oven to 200C, put them in a baking tray with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them in the over for just over an hour. The cabbage recipe is all from here:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/braised-white-cabbage-with-bacon-thy

cutting the cabbage

Prepare bacon and thyme

Place your stock, bacon and thyme in a pan on the hob, bring to the boil and then sprinkle in your finely sliced cabbage. Mix up, put the lid on and boil furiously for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to a simmer and continue to cook until the cabbage is a pleasure to eat. Top up the stock a little bit if you feel it’s reducing too much. Add the butter, a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, season to taste and serve immediately.

Served with rocket and tomato salad... Yum!