Churritos with Chocolate and Hazelnut Sauce

If you live in Southeast London, you have probably been to Greenwich Market, and have most likely seen the Brazilian churro stand in there.

I went for dinner with my friends yesterday and passed by the market, in the corner of my eye I could see the empty stand, and that’s when it hit me, the big urge of having their chocolate filled churro…

Apparently, my willpower is weak, and the path of bikini bod is not the smoothest.

Some of you might know that I already have a churro recipe on here, but I have found an easier and quicker way to make them. Heads up, I have tried it before just hand rolling the dough, but it is not the same. Therefore, for the best result possible, I would recommend using the piping bag.

For the Churros:

• 175ml boiling water
• 25g melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 125g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1l sunflower oil for frying

 

For the chocolate and hazelnut sauce:

• 50ml condensed milk
• 50ml milk
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 10 hazelnuts, crunched

 

For the cinnamon sugar:

• 50g white caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

 

In a measuring jug, add the water, melted butter and vanilla extract. Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl and make a little well in the centre. Pour in the liquid and very quickly beat into the flour with a wooden spoon until it’s combined. Let it cool for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, start making the chocolate sauce by combining all ingredients in a pan and gently melting everything together. Keep it warm on a low heat stirring it occasionally.

As some of you might know, I have a deep fryer, which makes it handy when making this kind of recipes. If you do not have one, simply use a large deep saucepan to fry your churritos in.

Put the churro dough in a piping bag with a star nozzle fitted. Start by piping finger length churros into a greaseproof parchment paper. Make sure you have a pair of scissors nearby, as you will need to cut the dough. Unless your aim is to have the Guinness world record for the largest churro.

Fry 4 or 5 at the time until golden brown and crisp. Once they are ready, remove them from the fryer or the pan – I like using wooden chopsticks for this job. You will need to kitchen towel, to drain any excess oil. Don’t forget to toss them in the cinnamon sugar. For that, you just need to mix the sugar and the cinnamon in a plate or bowl.

Serve the chocolate and hazelnut sauce in a small ramekin to dip the churritos in.

 

Courgette Fries

I’m terribly sorry I have not posted anything for the past 10 months. Life has changed a lot and there’s no excuse because I’m obviously still cooking.. just not writing down the recipes and posting them on my beloved blog. 

I’ve got a new job which I’m in love with, lucky to work close from home and doing a bunch of traveling this year! 

Anyway let’s get to why we are here! Courgette fries! I went to Granger and Co last week with some friends and had courgette fries there… however.. they were undercooked.. but I’m always too damn nice to send my food back, so I just chewed through tough rubbery fried disks.

I had some baby courgettes in the fridge during this weekend, so decided to make it at home. 

For this beautiful recipe: 

• 8 baby courgettes (cut lengthwise in quarter)
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch 
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1 egg

I am lucky enough (or not… depending if you’re a doctor or not haha) to have a deep fryer at home, turn your fryer to 180C. 

In a bowl, mix all of your dry ingridrients (flour, cornstarch, seasoning), slowly add the milk to the dry mix, making sure to whisk well, then add the egg. Make sure the batter is well combined. 

Dip the courgette in the batter and fry it until golden brown. If you don’t have a deep fryer, use a pan deep enough to fry your courgette fries. 

Once the fries are ready to come out of the oil make sure you use kitchen towel to drain any excess oil. Season with sea salt to taste. 

Fantastic on its own, or with a tangy dip. 

Salted Pistachio Brownies

Hello petals. 

Sorry I haven’t been so active. It’s been a bit rough. Feeling under the weather and have lost someone that was very dear to me unexpectedly. 

J was one of the best people I have ever met. 

This recipe is for you, you never liked sweet things but you liked me. 

  
Ingridients: 

• 145g salted butter
• 250g white caster sugar
• 65g cocoa powder 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 70g plain flour
• 100ml condensed milk
• 75g crushed salted pistachios 

Firstly, preheat your oven on gas mark 6. 

Start of my lining your baking tray with greaseproof paper. You will want to do this as it will make it so much easier to remove it once it’s cooled down. 

As I am a bit lazy, instead melting the butter over a saucepan, I do it in the microwave for about 45seconds. In a bowl add the butter, sugar and cocoa powder. You don’t want the mixture to be too hot from the butter, as this might cook the eggs. 

Stir in vanilla with a spatula and then add the eggs, one at a time, stirring hard after each one.

When the batter looks thick, shiny and well blended, add the flour and stir until fully incorporated. Spread evenly in lined tray. 

Scatter half of the crushed nuts on top and evenly pour the condensed milk on top of the chocolate and nut mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the pistachios on top and pat down gently with the spatula. 

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean when you insert it in the center of the tray. You will need to keep an eye on it from time to time and you might have to bake it for longer. 

Once it’s done and it has cooled down, parts of the condensed milk will have turned into caramel. 

I hope you enjoy it. 

Ana 

Braised Duck Legs with Butter Bean, Asparagus and Courgette

Hello my fellow foodies! I hope you are all well – I have to say that this past month has been quite a good month for me and that I have been inspired to cook and pursue my passion. Everything becomes quite easy when you have people that believe in you.

This recipe is the bomb and you should definitely try it. 

  
Ingredients:

• 2 duck legs
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 400ml chicken stock
• 100ml red wine
• 2 cans of butter bean
• 2 small courgette chopped in batons
• 1 bunch of asparagus tips
• dried rosemary
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and season duck legs with salt and pepper.

In a large oven proof pan heat the coconut oil and fry the legs, skin sides down, over moderately high heat 10 to 15 minutes, or until skin is crips.Turn legs over and cook until browned on the other side, about 2 minutes. Add the onions, garlic, red wine and chicken stock.

Put the pan in the oven and let it braise for 1 hour  (total cooking time is 2 hours). Once they have cooked for 1 hour add the two cans of butter bean and let it cook in the oven for half an hour. Finally add the courgette, asparagus and the rosemary- you might have to remove some of the liquid/stock out, just leaving enough to cover the beans.

After another half  an hour of cooking, the duck legs should be extremely tender. Serve duck legs with some of the sauce, butter beans and vegetables.

Let me know what you think!
Ana x 

 

 

Kale and Cauliflower Cheese

Good evening!

Hope you have had a good start to your month of March. 

I have had some ups and downs already.. But nothing will stop me from doing what  I love the most.. Cooking! 

  
Ingridients: 

• 1/2 head medium cauliflower
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 75g frozen kale 
• 1.5 tablespoon plain flour
• 200ml milk
• 150g grated cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons breadcrumb
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Salt and Pepper

First, steam or boil the cauliflower and kale together. Once their cooked, set aside and drain any excess liquid. 

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and once this is melted add in the flour and stir. Add the milk bit by bit and keep stirring until you get a lump free rue (sauce) and season it with salt and pepper. 

Add in the grated cheddar cheese to the sauce and keep it on a low hit until the cheese has melted. Put the kale and cauliflower into a oven proof dish and pour the cheese sauce over it. 

Sprinkle the the breadcrumb and Parmesan on top and bake it for 25minutes or untilthe top it’s golden brown. 

You can serve this with your Sunday roast! Or serve it on toast! Yum! 
Ana x 

Savory Waffles with Salmon

Good day! 
I have created this brunch meal that I’m absolutely obsessed with, and I will be posting different variations of this. 

  
You will need a waffle machine for this recipe, I have bought mine from Amazon brand VonChef for about £20 and it makes 4 waffles at the time. 
For the waffle batter: 

• 250g Plain flour 
• 7g Baking powder
• 20g Caster sugar
• 5g Salt
• 475ml Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 30ml Vegetable oil

Other ingredients you will need: 

• Smoked Salmon or Gravlax Salmon
• 1/2 tablespoon  Philadelphia Garlic & Herb cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• 2 tablespoons  Lemon juice
• 1 Spring onion chopped or strips for garnish
• 1 Poached egg 
• Salt and Pepper

To make the batter, break the eggs into the milk and beat the mixture. In a big bowl place all the dry ingredients and slowly pour the liquid mixture in an stirring at the same time. 

Add the oil and mix all ingredients together until all the large lumps have been disappeared. Do not over mix otherwise the waffles will not be fluffy when you cook them! 

Turn on the waffle maker, while you’re waiting for the waffle to heat up, prepare the salmon by cutting into strips. When this is hot pour a bit of a batter – without covering all of the holes, quickly evenly distribute the salmon pieces on top and then pour more of the batter over covering all the holes – make sure you don’t get too excited and overfill it. 

You will know when the waffle is done when it stops steaming and its golden brown. 

While the waffle cooks, prepare the honey drizzle by mixing the honey, with the lemon juice and some salt and pepper to taste – this is the part that you can let your mind go free and add whatever spices/flavours to your sauce.  I find that lemon and honey are enough for this. 

Serve the waffle hot with a poached egg and the lemon! 

Enjoy 

Penne with Pesto and Black Olives

Happy new year by beautiful people! Sorry I haven’t been very active with my posting, you have to understand that I have been in multiple food and alcohol comas during the holiday season! 

My other excuse is that I can’t take good pictures of the food due to the stupid winter and not having natural sunlight! However I have solved that problem by buying a mini studio set up with lights. 

  
I’ve decided to post quite an easy, healthy and quick meal for you today (also I haven’t done food shopping yet and I was dying to test out the studio set and lights. 

I’ve chosen to use penne, but you can use any pasta you have – if you have fresh pasta that’s even better! 

Ingredients you will need for this recipe:

• 1 cup of pasta
• 1 tablespoon of pesto
•  8 black olives (chopped) 
• 1 fresh chilli (chopped) 
• salt and pepper

Cook the pasta to your liking, I like mine al dente, about 10-11min on boiled water in medium high heat. 

While your pasta is cooking, start prepping your sauce. Cut the fresh chilli in half and remove the seeds by scrapping it with the back of your knife – I love spicy food but I think this pasta benefits with just a bit of heat. Chop up the black olives, or if you want you can mince it, it’s to your preference. 

Once your pasta is cooked, make sure you drain it well and add all the ingredients. Salt and pepper is to your preference, I like to let the pesto speak for itself so I barely add any salt. 

I will be posting  my recipe for the pesto soon, I think everyone should try and make their own pesto st least once! 

Enjoy! 

Ana 

When in Switzerland

I haven’t been anywhere this summer, so to treat myself, I decided to go see a friend in Switzerland.

I have to say that the country has stolen a piece of my heart. Cheese and chocolate, what else do I need?  Yesterday, was my last night in Basel and we decided to have cheese fondue at home!

 
I have had a lot of fondues in my life.. Like meat fondue, chocolate fondue or the Chinese fondue. Never really had cheese fondue until last night.

The classic dip for this would be bread, but I went a bit crazy.. I started googling ingridients that would be nice for dipping… No, unfortunately no nachos! On the table we have boiled cauliflower and new baby potatoes. Also have pears, cured sausage, pears and our main guest: bread.

You’ve guessed right, there was no cheese left behind.

We have bought ready grated cheese pack for fondue. I’ve done my research and the simple version seems to be from Neuchâtel, which only uses Emmantel and Gruyere. Add about 200ml of white wine – I cannot stress enough about this, but please use a wine that you would drink. If you wouldn’t drink that wine then why would you use it to cook and eat? To the wine, add two tablespoons of strong white flour or ideally cornstarch, once the mixture is warm, add the cheese and melt it. The consistency should be thick but a bit runny.

It’s the perfect social dish for winter.

Ana xx

Mamamia Pan Grill Pizza

 
We all love a good pizza take away! But I like my pizza crispy thin, like a cracker! So no take away pizza will ever satisfy me. This recipe is quick and too easy!

I’ve cheated on the dough and used pizza base mix from sainsbury’s, I can make two thin crust pizzas with one pack. You will need 100ml of water to add to the mix, combine it well and leave it to rest for a bit. While your dough is resting you start on your tomato sauce. For mine I used tomato purée, olive oil, water, 1 shallot and 2 cloves of onion, some salt and pepper. Blitz it in your blender or food processor, I don’t like the the sauce too smooth, so I leave small chunks of the shallot and garlic.

For the filling, I used smoked mozzarella and chili luganica sausage meat, but it’s your pizza so you can use whatever tickles your fancy.

I roll out half of the dough thinly, and fold the “corners in”, spread the tomato sauce, add the grated cheese and then the meat… Then the cheese again! In a frying pan (big enough to fit your pizza), heat some olive oil and transfer the pizza to the pan once the oil is hot. Yes, we are “frying” the pizza base first.

 
Once the base gets dark, take the pan off the stove and put it under the grill. Make sure you keep an eye out on the pizza, as you don’t wanna burn it.

The cheese will start to bubble and you’re pretty much done once the meat and the crust gets a bit of colour!

If you can get your hands on some rocket, I would definitely suggest adding at the end to give this crisp freshness to your pizza.

Not to blow my own trumpet, but I make a good damn pizza!

I hope you enjoy!

Pastéis de Bacalhau – Salted Cod Cakes.

I love my Portuguese roots and I am a bit disappointed that I don’t cook enough Portuguese dishes!

To show my appreciation, I’ve decided to make one of our most popular snacks. To be honest with you, I had left over mash potato from my lamb stew earlier this week, so why the heck not.

 
You can get Bacalhau in any Portuguese food store, or for the cheaper option, you can go to any Afro Caribbean food store, and you will be able find salt fish!

Depending on the thickness of the dry fish, you will have to soak it in water for 1 to 2 days. Don’t forget to change the water every 12 hours. Pinch some of the cod and taste it, it should not taste salty but slightly salty is right. If it doesn’t taste of any salt you will need to adjust the salt in the recipe later.

• 400g Salted Cod
• 200g Mash Potatoes
• 1/2 onion (minced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• Handful of finely chopped parsley
• Vegetable oil for frying

Boil the cod. You can boil the cod without any flavourings. When the cod is cooked it will come apart when probed with a fork. When this is cold, you will need to debone, skin and shred the fish.

If you do not have mash potato laying around like me, you will need to make some. Boil them potatoes and mash them.

Add the cod with the mash, and mix this well, then add the rest of the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Mix everything very well again until all is incorporated and homogenized. Make quenelles shaped of any size and take it to refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes.

 
Fry in a very hot and generous amount of oil. At least half of the cakes must be covered when frying. Let it golden and then turn the cakes around and golden the other side. Remove from pan and let the cakes dry in paper towel for few seconds and then serve.

 
It should be deliciously crunchy. Serve it with a lime wedge or some hot sauce!