Grated chicory with ham and cheese

That face!

you make when you eat something bitter!

Chicory is generally a bitter vegetable. By removing the inner part and cooking it, the bitter taste softens.

Belgium was the biggest exporter of chicory, but today France is. The technique for growing these white endives was discovered in Belgium. This is why chicory also is known as Belgian endive, or as we call them in Belgium: "Brussels Lof".

Chicory can be eaten cooked or raw. It is perfect to use in a salad or as a salad! But also cooked, it is a nice vegetable, caramelized or braised for example. 

A recipe I like with chicory is grated with ham and cheese. This is how I learned to eat chicory as a child. Thank you ham and cheese!

Grated chicory with ham and cheese

Ingredients:

• 3 heads of white chicory 
• 6 slices of cooked ham (make sure they're big enough to wrap around ½ chicory)
• 250-300 gr of grated cheese
• 7 dl milk
• 30 gr butter
• 40 gr flour
• nutmeg
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Cut the chicory heads in two and remove the hard end (make sure to remove the hard end by cutting in a V-shape, this will keep the leaves together). Take a large casserole and braise the chicory for about 10 minutes. In the meantime you can prepare the béchamel sauce.

Start by melting your butter, when it has melted add the flour and mix until you get a nice paste. This is called roux. Now gently pour on the milk, little by little, until you get a liquid sauce.

Mix in almost all of the cheese, you'll need some cheese to spread on top afterwards.

Roll the chicory in the cooked ham, place in an oven tray and pour over the béchamel cheese sauce. Finish with the rest of the grated cheese and put under a grill for about 10 minutes, until you have a nice golden-brown crust.

Serve with some bread or potatoes!

Enjoy!

November 30, 2013

Hamburger Trio!

Nananananananana...

BURGEEEEER!

(Sing it on the batman tune!)

Today I was walking clueless in the supermarket, thinking what I was going to have for diner. When suddenly I saw some ground chicken. A light bulb lit and I shouted:

IT IS BURGER TIME! Well, I shouted in my head.

It was only back home, when I saw all my spices and some veggies I still had left in the fridge, the idea came to make a hamburger trio. A Mediterranean one, a Oriental burger and a Mexican style burger.

These burgers are perfect for BBQ's, birthday parties, a big snack, or to look at. Yeah, you can just look at them if you like.

And if you are a meat-craving person just change the chicken to any type of meat you like. Also vegetarians can go totally vegan with this!

Burger Trio

Ingredients:

• 400-500gr ground chicken
• 3 good looking buns (mine where about 12cm wide)

for the Mediterranean burger:

• rucola salat
• ½ tomato, thin slices
• 1tbs yoghurt
• ½ paprika, thin slices
• oregano
• balsamico vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• balsamico cream
• salt & pepper

for the Oriental burger:

• ½ paprika, thin slices
• yoghurt
• cilantro, chopped 
• tandoori spices
• salt & pepper

for the Mexican style burger:

• ½ zucchini, thin slices.
• cheese
• guacamole (find recipe HERE)
• ½ tomato, thin slices
• paprika powder
• cumin powder
• salt & pepper

Preparation:

Heat your grill or grill pan and start grilling the zucchini and the paprika.

Pepare the guacamole and the Mediterranean burger dressing: Mix yoghurt with some olive oil, crushed garlic and some balsamico vinegar.

While the veggies are grilling, devide the ground meat into 3 portions.

Let's see how to season one burger at a time.

Mediterranean needs to be seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Mix it all really well. The Oriental burger needs tandoori spices, salt and pepper for seasoning and the Mexican style burger needs paprika powder, cumin (haf the amount of paprika powder), salt and pepper.

By now the veggies will be done. So start grilling the meat.

Cut your buns, it's time to start making the burgers look like burgers!

This is how to build you burgers:

Mediterranean burger.

Start by layering the zucchini, put the burger on, add some tomato slices, some rucola salad and finish with some dressing and some balsamico cream. Done!

Oriental burger.

The grilled paprika goes on first, followed by the tandoori burger, add some cilantro on top and pour some yoghurt on it. Number two... Check!

Mexican style burger.

Paprika first, hamburger with cheese on top, a slice of tomato and spread generously with guacamole.

All three are ready to devour!

Enjoy!

Mediterranean burger, Oriental burger, Mexican style burger and all three in half.

November 21, 2013

Pasta Alla Matriciana

Basta, Basta...

No more pasta!

(Stop, Stop... no more pasta)

No more pasta?! Are you crazy? This is only my third pasta recipe. And believe me... I'm not done.

This next recipe is an easy, simple, fast pasta. Well, like almost any pasta really.

Up to now I gave you two seafood pastas, Spaghetti alle vongole and a nice Seafood spaghetti, and one pasta with meat; Pasta carbonara. Time for another one with meat!

 All'amatriciana or alla matriciana (said in Romanesco; the dialect from Rome, where I was born) is a sauce originally from Amatrice, a town in the Lazio region. This pasta is one of the most popular sauces in Italy. This sauce has even been declared 'Traditional Regional Food', but this label is only recognized in Italy.

You will need a few traditional Italian products for this, so go to your local Italiano-man and ask for them. Don't worry! If you can't find them, they are perfectly replaceable by other products.

Traditionally the pasta used in this recipe are 'Bucatini', but like I always say: "use whatever pasta you like!"

Like I said: Easy. Simple. Fast.

Lets go!

Ingredients:

• 400gr pasta
• 200gr guanciale, diced(this is bacon-like meat. But unlike bacon, which comes from the belly, guanciale is from the neck from the pig) If you can't find this, use bacon.
• 500gr nice, fresh, ripe tomatoes, diced (In winter you can easily use canned tomatoes)
• 150gr pecorino (preferably from Amatrice, because this is less salty than the Romano type. If you can't find this use pecorino Romano mixed with Parmigiano or only use Parmigiano)
• 1 small peperoncino (red pepper, but not to hot! you only want a slightly spicy taste in the sauce!)
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 10cl white wine (there is NO wine in a traditional amatriciana sauce, but I like to add it because white wine will enrich the flavors from your sauce!)

Preparation:

Start boiling your water for your pasta.

Take a large saucepan, heat the olive oil, add the whole peperoncino and guanciale or bacon and fry on medium heat. When the meat starts to have a nice golden/brownish color, add the diced tomatoes and the white wine and let it simmer on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

Start boiling your pasta. Check the time it needs to cook and make sure it will be ready approximately at the same time the sauce will be ready.

Just before the pasta will be ready, take out the peperoncino from the sauce.

When the pasta is ready, let it drain and add it to the sauce in the sauce pan. Slowly add most of the pecorino while stirring it all together. 

Serve on a plate and scatter the remaining pecorino just before serving.

ENJOY!

Guanciale, pecorine, olive oil and pasta

Amatriciana sauce with penne

november 20, 2013