Sunday, July 25, 2010

Beef braised in Chianti, courtesy of David Rocco

Awesome simple and fast recipes, this guy is great! Today I made this dish for my husband with a few twists and my husband said "this is the best meat you have ever made" my kids ate it too!!!

Check him out at David Rocco

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 pounds stewing beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 2 red onions, roughly chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 3 cups Chianti wine
  • Salt
  • 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns
  • 1 box of portabella mushrooms (I added this into my pot, check out his recipe for original ingredients this is the only thing I changed)

Ok so I have added mushrooms into my pot and since I didnt have 3 cups of wine, only 2 I added beef broth to it.

Chop onion and garlic

Pre heat oil in a pot and add all ingredients, except the liquid and mushrooms



Clean your mushrooms, I use a damp paper towel to wipe them, then chop chop and add to the pot


 Now add the wine and in my case beef broth


Salt and pepper corns.

Cook for 2 hours on low heat. Serve with rice, pasta or potatoes!
Enjoy :)
Delfi

Friday, July 16, 2010

Tortilla de Papa

Sometimes I get tired of mashing potatoes or baking them so I make this Tortilla a lot, it is something my mom always made for us as kids, and its so yummy and simple to make, try it out! Serve with a salad, or meat, or whatever you want!


Ingredients

6 Potatoes, any kind
4-5 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
1 spanish onion or any onion of choice
6 slices of bacon
salt and pepper to taste

First gather your potatoes, peel and wash.
Chop them, I like them small some people chop them bigger.
Set aside your chopped potatoes, preheat some olive oil in a deep pan. Now chop your onions and cook for a couple of minutes, on medium heat.

Now add your chopped potatoes to the onions.

Mix and cook until tender, not soft, tender without them breaking apart, you may have to mix this several times to prevent sticking and to make sure they all cook evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
In the meantime chop your bacon.

Cook your bacon in a separate pan until its a bit brown.
Remove and drain with a paper towel.
Add bacon to potatoes and mix.

mix eggs and milk
In a large bowl add egg mix, then potatoe mix and incorporate gently.
Return mix to the pan and cook for about 5-8 minutes on medium high heat.

Now here is the tricky part. Using a big plate or a lid cover your potatoes, you will have to turn around the whole thing and return it to pan so that both sides are cooked evenly.

Next without burning yourself turn it around. And slide it back gently to the pan!

Cook for another few minutes and you are done! Serve and enjoy with family.
Hugs to all!



Delfi

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Backed up!

I have been super busy with life in general, taking care of kids, husband and busy with photography, lots of tiny babies coming my way to be photographed! processing photos individually takes time so my cooking blog will have to wait until I catch up with my clients! I am still cooking of course! and photographing step by step recipes, just haven't had the time to actually upload everything.

Check back in a week or so I should have some new stuff coming up!


Hugs to all!
Delfi

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Pasta at home

I have not been able to find a pasta that I truly like, of course it is easy to buy the boxed pasta and cook when you are in a rush and you have 3 hungry kids, but let me tell you this was super easy and it only takes a couple of extra steps.

Give it a try, and you will see what pasta at home truly should taste like! and on top of that you are able to use all organic ingredients :)


Ingredients for the dough:
500g of white flour
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of olive oil
salt to taste
Water, just a little to incorporate ingredients

Ingredients for the bolognese sauce:

1/2 spanish onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 fresh carrots, shredded
1 tablespoon of fresh oregano
1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano
3-4 fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon of sweet crushed peppers, remember I use the sweet kind not the spicy
1 lb of lean ground beef
1 jar of tomatoe sauce
1 fresh chopped tomato
1/2 cup of red wine



FOR THE DOUGH (you may do this by hand or in your mixer, I chose my mixer)

In the bowl of a mixer add flour, eggs, olive oil and salt.

Mix and add a little bit of water to form the dough, until a ball is formed, then place the ball on your working surface that has been dusted with flour to prevent too much sticking.
Work your dough for about 2-3 minutes.

Let your dough rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. Once it's ready roll it out into a rectangle, at this point you can roll it out to about 1/3 inch thick and cut the strings for the spaghetti or use a pasta maker like I will be doing.

Run the dough through the pasta maker and get it as thin as you can, if the length of your pasta is too long cut it in half.

Once you achieve the thickness you want run it through the fettuchini cutter.

Now you can laugh at this next step but this works great! I dry my pasta in hangers :) this way it does not stick together, you can cook the pasta for about 10 minutes now or you can dry it if you are not ready to cook it.

Once its ready cook your pasta for 10 minutes or until al dente in a pot of boiling water.

Now for the sauce.
Drizzle some olive oil in a pot and preheat, get the rest of your ingredients all chopped up and ready.

Add the onions first, cook for a few minutes, then add the remaining of the ingredients.
Cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Then add the wine and cook for 5 minutes.

Now add your ground beef, cook for about 5 minutes, add some salt and pepper and the rest of the dry herbs.

Add the tomatoe sauce, mine is home made, I just crushed a whole bunch of tomatoes with some water and added them into my blender with some seasonings, it looks like regular tomato sauce but it tastes much better!


Cook your sauce for 30-45 minutes on medium heat, serve with pasta HOT!!
Enjoy guys!

HUGS
Delfi