Best Caesar Salad you'll ever try!

I found this recipe a few years ago and I love it so much. I hope you will love it as much!

Serve: 4

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

2 TB lemon juice
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 raw egg
1 small clove of garlic that needs to be crushed
3 anchovies

For the salad:

Cos lettuce (you need about 4 to 6 cos lettuce leaves per person)
8 rashes of bacon (you need to fry it until crispy)
Anchovies (for those who like them on top of the salad!)
Bread croutons (you need about 6 to 8 croutons per person and you can make them in small pieces or larger if you wish - you will need to fry them in a little bit of olive oil in a pan until golden and this takes a few seconds only!)
4 free range eggs (poached)
2 chicken breasts (you need to half each fillet as it is enough per person - fry it)
Shaved parmesan

Make the dressing:

In a hand mixer put the lemon, the raw egg, the garlic and anchovies together and mix it.
Add the olive oil and mix again. The mixture has thickened a little.

Prepare the salad:

1. Cut the cos lettuce in smaller pieces. Then mix the dressing together.
2. Add the bread croutons around the place or on top.
3. Add your chicken breast on top, the poached egg, the crispy bacon, and the anchovies.
4. Top it all up with the parmesan.

You will love this recipe!

Speady Pavlova in no time

I invented this recipe one day I didn't have much to time to make a nice dessert and I had cream, strawberries and some meringue I previously made the other day.

You just need to layer the whipped cream, sliced strawberries and crumbed meringue (my husband likes it with lots of cream and me with very little so you can put as much as you like!) in a nice cup and thats it! It tastes great too...

Pasta 'Crazy' Prawns

This recipe was invented by my dad. He is a great cook! You need just a few ingredients and it takes no time to make it and impress guests! It is named that way by my dad (don't ask me why :P).

Serve: 4

Cooking and preparation time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

400 ml cream (I go light and it is the same as full cream I find!).
600g king prawns (uncooked) - about 150g per person
1 TB of tomato pasta
2 lemons
50 ml whisky
Lots of pepper

cooked thin spaguetti (type angel hair but standard spaguetti are good too)

1. In a frying pan put 2 TB of olive oil. Add all your prawns and fry them until they start changing color. Add the whisky while hot while being careful as you are going to 'flambee' them ('flambee' means when you add alcohol to something and then lit it with fire). Let the alcohol burn until there is no flame anymore. Remove just the prawns from the pan.

3. Add to the pan the tomato paste, half a lemon juice and fry a few seconds. Then add the cream and about 1 TS of pepper. Let it reduce until thicker (about 5 minutes).

4. Put the prawns back in the sauce and cook for another minute (you don't want to overcook the prawns).

Add the pasta to the pan and stir for a few seconds until the juices/sauce penetrates the pasta a little.

Ready to serve and eat! Yummm

Sauerkraut or 'Choucroute' recipe (Alsacian or german cabbage stew)

This recipe is very popular in the region of Alsace in France. This region still keeps so much German influence and you can find that influence especially in their dishes. I love this one is winter as it is quite rich in flavour and very special too. My mother would make the sauerkraut from scratch but I can't be bothered! it is a very long process and it needs to cook for a long time to make the cabbage. So most of the time I will buy it but I have made it before too. This recipe is probably not the authentic one as I don't put pork or some other meats in it but it still pretty close to the original one.

Serve: 4
Cooking time: 1h

Ingredients:

2 to 3 large potatoes
1 pack of sauerkraut from the supermarket
300 g diced bacon
2 kransky saussages
4 strasbourg saussages or frankfurt (the essential is to put saussages that are a little smokey so you can choose which ones to put it)
oil or butter to fry
1 onion
6-7 cloves
1 apple
2 TS cumin
2 bay leaves
lots of pepper (from a grinder)
1 glass of white white (preferably dry)
500 ml of boiling water
some different mustard to serve with (type french mustard, english, wholegrain)
butter to serve with

1. Rinse the sauerkraut quite well 3 to 4 times (this will make it less acidic).

2. Put the cloves in the onion (pick it) as the picture shows.

3. In a large heavy pan put some oil or butter and heat it a little. Add the cut apple in small dice, the sauerkraut, the onion, the cumin, the bay leaves, and about 2 TB of pepper. Fry the lot for a few minutes. Add the bacon and then add the glass of white wine.

4. Let it simmer for 30 minutes until the water has slightly reduced.

5. Add the potatoes cut in half and the saussages. Let it cook another 30 minutes with the lid on.

Serve it when ready with served best with a Riesling wine or any dry wine will do (you can even use the one from the recipe too!)

White chocolate cookies with crushed macadamias

I learnt this recipe in Australia but I am unsure if it is Australian. I suppose with the macadamia nuts it might be. I love this recipes and people love it too.

Makes: about 20 cookies
Temperature: 180 degrees C
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup of whites chocolate bits
1 cup of macadamia nuts (crushed)
125 g of soft butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 lightly beaten egg
1 TS vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup self-raising flour (sifted)
1 pinch of salt


1. Put together the soft butter and brown sugar and mix thoroughly until it it light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and mix together.

3. Add the sifted flour and the salt to the mix. You will end up with a very soft dough barely sticking to your hands (so try not to mix it too much either).

4. Add the macadamias and the chocolate bits to the dough.

5. Take about 1 TB of dough and make a small ball. Roll it gently and put all of them on a cooking rack (put on a cooking rack some baking paper so the cookies will not stick to the rack). Don't forget to leave some space between each cookie as they will spread a little.

6. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until they are lightly brown.

Yum!

Plain Sushi recipe

This recipe is so delicious if you can eat raw fish! (you need it very fresh). It might look very technical at first but try a few times and you'll be able to master it! I will also show you one day how to make Korean Sushi which is very different.

Ingredients (for 3 people as a main course):

3 cups of medium grain rice (Korean or Japanese type)
3 cups of water
6 TB of rice wine vinegar
3 TB salt
5 TB of white sugar
1 medium ripe avocado
1 salmon fillet
half a cucumber
nori sheet
wasabi
soy sauce
pickled ginger

Tools you will need:

A hand fan
A rice cooker
A rice scoop
A large bowl to put the rice in before and after cooked
Bamboo rack (to help fold the sushi)

1. Put 3 cups of rice in a large bowl. Wash the rice thouroughly 5 to 7 times in cold water until the water runs clear. Drain the water completely. Cover the rice with a plastic bag or glad-wrap. Let it dry for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the rice appears whiter in colour. Put the rice in a rice cooker and cook it. When cooked, let it sit in the rice cooker for at least 20 minutes.

2. Put the vinegar, sugar and salt in a saucepan on loaw heat and cook it until dissolved. When the vinegar mixture is dissolved put it in a small bowl.

3. Scoop the rice out and put it in the large bowl you have used before. Put the vinegar mixture in the rice while the rice is hot. Keep stirring with the rice scoop.

4. With a hand fan and while stirring keep fanning the rice to help it dry and the mixture to penetrate the rice and become sticky. Continue doing this for about 10 minutes.

5. This rice should be cool now.

6. Cut a 1 cm thick slice (as long as the nori sheet) of salmon per sushi (you will need a very good knife), same for the avocado and same for the cucumber.

7. Put on a bamboo rack the nori sheet. spread some rice on half of the sheet. Ad
d on the side of the sheet your 1 cm thick slice of avocado, salmon, and cucumber. If you wish add a little bit of wasabi too.

8. Start rolling the sushi while being very tight with your hands as you roll. At the end bits, put some grains of rice to help stick when you finish rolling.

9. You can then slice your sushi in 2 cm thick slices.

10. You can also with this recipe, make some different sushis. Make some oval balls of rice using wet hands. Press tightly. Cut some very thin slices of raw salmon and put it on each ball of rice. Wrap it with small stripes of nori sheet as shown on picture.

Enjoy!

Caribbean Stew from my grand-mother

This recipe is from my grand-mother who has travelled a lot with my grand-father. I remember eating this as a kid and I have always loved it. If you want your children to eat veggies they will love this one!

Ingredients: (based for 2 people)

1 can of green lentilles
6 saussages (you can buy any but my grand-mother always used strassburgs or frankfurts and I find they are best)
2 TB of ground cumin
1 cup of boiling water
2 TB of tomato puree
1 TS salt
1 TS pepper
1 onion (half for the salsa and the other half for the stew)
3 cm of ginger
1 tomato
parsley
2 small lemons
2 cups of cooked rice

To make the salsa:

Press the juice of 2 lemons. Put it in a small bowl. Cut the tomato in small dice. Same for the onion. The ginger should be cut in tiny dice so the flavour is not too strong when you eat it. Add a little bit of salt and pepper.

To make the stew:

1. In a frying pan put a little bit of olive oil and fry the onions for 5 minutes. Put in the ground cumin and stir for a few seconds. Add the lentilles and stir again. Add the tomato puree and stir again. Then add the saussages.

2. Add 1 cup of boiling water (you might even need another 1/2 cup) to the stew and let it reduce for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. In each plate, put some rice, some stew (the main part should be the stew) and some salsa. Then shred some parsley on top of it.

Very fast recipe!