Tiramisu

Ok so maybe the picture does not look super appealing but I can reassure you this recipe is very good. It's the one my mum makes and it's so yummy and very simple! I've made tiramisu many times when we had big gatherings for birthdays with my friends and I think everyone liked it :)
Hope you try making it!

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs 
• 300g mascarpone (sometimes they only sell 250g ones and that quantity is also ok. Makes the mascarpone mixture more liquid)
• 50g Sugar
• Salt
• 250-300g of lady fingers
• Lemon zest/lemon juice
• 1 dl of very strong coffee 
• 3 tablespoons of Amaretto
• 5 tablespoons of rum
• Chocolate powder

For this recipe you will need 2 large bowls and an electric mixer! (very important!)

Preparations: 

1. Prepare some instant coffee (add lots of it so it's very strong) and a teaspoon of sugar. Add the amaretto and rum and set aside so it cools down. 
2. In 2 large bowls, separate the egg yolk from the white. 
3. In the bowl with the 2 egg yolks, add 50g of sugar. Mix with the electric mixer until it becomes white/beige-ish. Add the mascarpone to the mixture (best here to just mix with a spoon/fork and not the electric mixer. Might make it a little too liquid-y). 

   

   Mascarpone mixture!

4. In the bowl with the egg white, add a pinch of salt and use the electric mixer to beat until they form peaks. As you mix, add a table spoon of sugar. It will become pretty compact and you will be able to turn the bowl upside down (and the egg white should not fall. If it does then it's not ready :P). As the cake noob that I am, I have messed up the recipe one time because I was lazy and did not wash the electric mixer (after using it to mix the sugar and egg yolk) before beating the egg white... It will stay all liquid-y so make sure there's no yolk or anything else before beating the white! (Just don't be lazy like meee! :P)

   

   fluffeeeehh

5. When it's done, add the egg white to the mascarpone mixture very delicately. For this you can either use a spatula or a spoon and mix in a circular motion not to destroy the egg's white fluffiness. 
6. Place the coffee into a bowl and dip each lady finger generously and place them in a mould (I usually use an oven dish ^^). Create one layer and add one coat of mascarpone mixture. The repeat this process (lady fingers dipped in coffee-rum-amaretto) and coat with the rest of mascarpone (ok I always have a problem here, I always either use too much in the beginning or not enough so try to make it equal unlike me :P). You may also realize that you just don't have a perfect amount of lady fingers.... (like me) so just YOLO it up. 

   

   Make it work :P
   
   
   

   

7. When you're done, cover it and refrigerate it for half a day or 24 hours (24 hours is usually better) so all the flavors sink in the lady fingers! 
8. When you are about to eat it, cover it with some chocolate powder and it's done! :D

You can cover with dark chocolate powder but I've used Nesquick as well and it works :P

How to: Afternoon Tea

I discovered afternoon tea in England. It is very typical british, and I love the way it looks. It's supposed to be taken in the afternoon (around 3 or so? until more or less 6) It makes you feel like having something super shmancy when it's actually pretty simple to make!
I've had quite a few afternoon teas here and there in England and I can tell you the ones in London are just... SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE! Always more than 15£. When you go outside of London, you can have some for maybe 12. They might not look and be as fancy as but still a nice afternoon snack ^^

Afternoon tea consists of: a couple of finger sandwiches, scones, and some cakes/pastries. And of course, TEA. Sometimes you can also have Champagne afternoon tea which can add another 15£ to it -_-
So the price of afternoon tea can be rather discouraging... why not make it at home? I think it's very nice to do when you have guests (the whole thing usually leaves quite an impression on people? :P). I would really recommend you to try making it yourself, it's fun, easy and it just looks good :D

How to:

• Cutlery: What is essential for the afternoon tea is this little afternoon tea set, where you can place your food. This, really makes it an afternoon tea. To make it more into a british atmosphere, it is important that you have some nice tea cups. If you don't have that double/triple story set (I don't know the correct term sorreeeh) just nice looking plates will also do! :D
• Drinks: tea of course, whatever you like (english breakfast, or just simple early grey?). And if you want to make it fancier, have some champagne or prosecco (it's cheaper too :P)
• Sandwiches: try to buy the bread without the crust or otherwise you can always cut the crust out. Usually, you always have salmon one and an egg one (some places also have a cucumber one). For the salmon one, I put a thin layer of philadelphia cream cheese and salmon. For the cucumber, again a layer of philadelphia and thin slices of cucumber (remember it's supposed to be delicate and fancy so best when it's thin slices :P). And for the egg one, hard boil 2 eggs, add some mayonnaise (personally I use the japanese one) until it becomes quite creamy, pepper and a little bit of parsley. Cut the sandwiches into either triangles or rectangles and it's DONE!
• Scones: if you live in the UK, you can just buy the already made scones in local supermarkets (which is what we do most of the time :P) or make them yourself! :D (recipe coming soon ^^)
• Pastries: here you can basically make any cake you want! Sometimes I made cup cakes, or get French pastries (Eclair au chocolat? hehe). Carrot cake, cheese cake, lemon tart, nutella cake... As long as it's a small portion since you might already be stuffed from sandwiches and scones, everything is good. I've had pretty creamy/heavy cakes which I could really not finish anymore so I think keeping them either light or small portions will be best! :)

So these are pictures I have taken of the most recent afternoon teas at home! We also offered some chocolates (on the picture: Ferrero Rocher, my favorite chocolates of all time and orange-chocolate truffles).

If you want to spoil yourself some more, you can also do Champagne Aternoon Tea. Yes, it makes you feel even more luxurious and fancy. Champagne is a bit too much you say? Cheaper alternatives are prosecco or some other Italian spumante (sparkling wine)!

Prosecco Afternoon Tea I did with some of my girlfriends

With usual finger sandwhiches, steamed cup cakes, raisin scones and short bread ^^

Hope you try this at home! :D

Hayashi Rice

Hayashi rice is a delicious Japanese stew! I used to buy the roux in Japanese stores in London and in Holland but after the tsunami, it either just disappeared or the prices went up.... So finding the recipe online was perfect to solve the problem of non-availability or high prices!

I got the recipe from Cooking with the Dog on Youtube! :D It's a super good recipe and even if it looks a bit of a hassle, I would really recommend you making this! The fact that it's a video also makes everything easier since you get a visual of how to. To watch the video click here! Follow all the instructions and success is guaranteed :D

The most annoying thing is making the roux but you just need to be patient and thorough with it. Made it quite a few times now and I never burnt the roux (maybe I jinxed myself now nooo). Maybe my problem is that it doesn't become as brown as in the video (since I am always so scared to burn it).
Also don't be discouraged by the amount of ingredients! Most of them are common ingredients (ketchup, honey, soya sauce) and for the not-so-common ones I just skip them! (like bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce) and it still tastes very good. To make a liiiiittle healthier, I also skip the whipping cream at the end...

I also used fresh tagliatelle once because one of the guests I made it for was not a fan of rice ;) And I think it was a really good combo! So if you are not a fan of rice, or just don't have any, pasta also goes great together! :)

Tuna Mayo Spaghetti

This is a recipe my dad makes and it's soooo. guuuuud. As usual, it's a very easy recipe and I made it myself (Of course, it will never be as good as my dad's T.T.). There aren't many steps and the ingredients are pretty easy to find even in Europe!
It's a wafu recipe, meaning it's a fusion between Europe and Japan (more specifically Italy and Japan here)! I love these kind of wafu recipes, especially when it involves spaghetti :P Oh and wafu pasta is always made with spaghetti... Don't ask me why :P I'm sure it's still delicious with other types of pasta but for me it has to be with spaghetti...

Anyways, hope you try making it!

Ingredients (3-4 nomsters):

• 400-450g of spaghetti
• 1 can of Tuna (no oil no nothing)
• Couple of spring onions 
• 1 onion
• 4 table spoons of Japanese mayonnaise
• Somen/Soba tsuyu
• Wasabi (Optional)
• Sea weed (Optional)
• butter
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil the water for the pasta
2. In the meantime, cut the spring onion as thin as possible, you can use the photos as guide line :P Place them in a bowl in the meantime as you will only need them at the end.
3. Cut the onion into large stripes. In any case, you don't have to be super thorough with the cutting ;) Yey!
4. Before cooking the onion, open the can of tuna, and place it into a bowl. Add the Japanese mayonnaise (you can use normal mayonnaise of course, but the Japanese Kewpie Mayo has more flavour I think.) and mix well. I put 4 table spoons but you can also put more or less. It's up to you :). Add some pepper and a little bit of salt. Make sure not to add too much salt as the tsuyu is already quite salty. Set aside. 
5. In a large pot, add a little bit of butter and cook the onion. 
6. When the water is boiling cook your spaghetti. When they are cooked, drain them well and throw them (not literally... water might splash everywhere and you might burn yourself/make a mess) into the large pot that contains your onions. At this point, add somen/soba tsuyu. Just add enough so that it coats your spaghetti and mix well. 
7. Place on to a plate with some onion. Add a spoon or two of the tuna mayo sauce, add the spring onion. Rip some sea weed into small pieces and wasabi! On the picture, the wasabi is in the middle but usually I just put some on the side of my plate and add some to every bite I take ;)
8. You mix a little yourself and ready to nom nom nom....

I recommend using Japanese sea weed for this recipe (Korean/Chinese sea weed is also nice but they have a stronger smell/taste). 

Enjoy! :D

Alfajor -Review-

Alfajor is like THE most devoured snack in Argentina. Recently, when my relatives from France visited and went to Portobello Road in London, they found alfajores, cookies filled with dulce de leche (a form of caramel very very popular in Argentina). There are MANY MANY different types of alfajores in Argentina and they can vary greatly from one to another (I remember having alfajores from Milka as a school snack sometimes). Obviously, in Europe you cannot find them easily. The Havanna brand, is I think the most commonly seen brand outside of Argentina and also the one people bring back the most when they go visit. This brand has other confectionaries than alfajores (like little chocolate drops filled with dulce de leche and white alfajores etc.). I remember people saying that the Havanna brand was considered to be the best kinds of alfajores and these are the ones you find at the airport! The box is pretty easy to spot being all yellow :P

Anyways, it had been a while since I ate these... And to be honest, I didn't even eat that many alfajores when I was in Argentina... I was kind of sick and tired of dulce de leche to begin with because everything had dulce de leche :P (cookies, doughnuts, churros, toast, EVERYTHING). I think the fact that I am not much of a sweet tooth matters (and alfajores and dulce de leche are both pretty sweet products). It was nice to eat one the other day though, reminiscing of the good old days.

Gold wrapping :P

If you ever go to Argentina, you will most definitely have many choices for alfajores and I would definitely recommend you trying some (any brand really... Maybe try to try other ones than the Havanna ones, those you can't find in Europe or other places)! The Havanna one I had is pretty good, though for me, half of it is enough. But if you are a big sweet tooth Nomster, this should be on your must try list! :)

Dulce de Leche in the middle! :)

Yo-yo Kitchen

Today I will be reviewing this place called yo-yo kitchen in West London. It's a Japanese place where you can buy bento (lunch boxes) and other nibbles. I've been going there to get some lunch boxes for the past 4 years now and it's super delicious! 

They have quite different varieties of bento and other take away dishes (Japanese curry rice, gyuu-don, katsudon, gyoza etc). They also have already made sushi and onigiri (the 'little rice bowls' they eat in Pokemon :P). 

They also sell random stuff like Japanese notebooks to practice your ideograms and basic for Japanese cooking (soya sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, etc). They also have different Japanese drinks and you can even eat instant noodles there (have to pay for the boiled water though I think hehe). 

Anways, you can eat it there or take it back home! My all time favorite is definitely the karaage bento (Japanese fried chicken), sooo yummmzzz! Price is decent (6£ for my favorite bento) so you should really try if you are around! ^^ It's the best way to have real Japanese bento! :D

Leaving the site over here you can check their menu! It's right next to West Acton tube station!

---> http://www.yoyokitchen.co.uk/

Here are some photos of their nom-nomz!  :)

Teriyaki chicken bento

Kara-age bento ><

Inari zushi

Courgette Feta Quiche -Recipe-

Once you know how to make one quiche, you will be able to make a billion of other ones. This is a recipe of mine that I tried making last night.  As usual, it's easy to make (too lazy to make complicated stuff anyways :P) and I think it was pretty tasty too :P Hope you try this at home!

Sorry for the bad lighting... No natural light in London T.T

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g melted butter 
• a pinch of salt
• a medium egg 

Filling:

• 1 Courgette
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 tomato (optional)
• 1 block of feta cheese
• some garlic
• 50g of grated cheese (I used emmental)
• 200-250ml of creme fraiche
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks

Preparation:

Shortcrust Pastry:

1. Add the flour, salt and butter and mix well. 
2. Beat the egg and add enough of it to bring it together and it becomes a dough
3. Make a little ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least 30min or in the freezer for 10-15min before placing it in the mold.
4. Using a rollin pin, flatten the dough (More or less 1cm thick. First time I made dough it was so thick it was basically raw... Nasteeh. So make sure it is thin enough!)
5. When already placed in the mold, use a fork to make little holes all over the pastry. 

If you are lazy like me you can also use already made shortcrust pastry and just place it in the mold hehe

Filling:

1. Cut the onion into small pieces and cook it with garlic. When it's cooked, set aside and let it cool down
2. In a bowl add the 2 whole eggs, the 2 egg yolks, and mix well. Add the cheese, salt and pepper. I prefer not to add too much salt because cheese is already salty. But quantity is up to you! :)
3. Cut the courgettes into very thin slices (as thin as you can and try to make sure they are the same size) and cook them with a bit of oil and garlic without breaking their shape.
4. Cover your mold with the dough of the quiche. 
5. Cut the feta into very thin slices as well and cover the entire bottom of the quiche. 
6. When the onion has cooled down, add it to the creamy mixture and mix well. You can then empty the bowl on to the dough (make sure the onions are spread out equally)
7. With your hands, take each slice of courgette and starting from the outside, line them one next to the other until reaching the center (maybe easier to check the photo :P).
8. Optional step: when I made it, I was feeling creative (haha) and I added thin slices of tomatoes in the center. My idea was to create a 'tomato flower' or something... Anyways, you don't have to do this of course :P Another way to use tomatoes is to have one circle of courgette then the next is diced tomatoes etc. I think it's a nice combination of colours, and taste wise tomato goes great with feta and courgette ^^ 
9. You can sprinkles the left over feta if you want or keep it for salad :)
10. Bake at 180C for 30-40 min depending on your oven! :) If your oven does not bake equally everywhere like mine, turn your quiche around every now and then so there isn't just one side cooking... 

Enjoy! :)

Creme Anglaise

So I've been talking about creme anglaise a couple of times already so here is the recipe!
It's super easy to make and what I like about this recipe is that it is not too sweet. Goes great with a variety of cakes (like the Nutella cake or the hazelnut cake I previously posted but also simple vanilla flavored ones). I also feel like it brings something refreshing and is especially great with cakes that may be pretty dry. Anyways, I am always a fan when my mum makes it and I just literally have to fight over it with my brother (who really just drinks the creme when there's no more cake).

Ingredients:

• 1L of milk
• vanilla pod or vanilla extract
• 6 egg yolks
• 150g sugar

Preparation:

1. In a pot, heat the milk with the vanilla extract. If using real vanilla, open it in half and take the little grains out with a knife and drop them in the milk! Add the empty pot to the milk and stir until ebullition. When it boils, cover with a lid to let infuse.  
2. Beat the 6 egg yolks and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until it becomes white and fluffy like on the picture below

      3. Remove the pod from the milk and add the very hot milk to the egg-sugar mixture little by little while mixing so you don't get clump. Once everything is added, transfer it back to the pot.

      4. Put on very low heat and mix continuously so the creme thickens. You really have to make sure you mix because otherwise it might get all clumped up >< Heat it up until the creme coats the spoon! I usually like it when the creme anglaise is still quite liquid-y but maybe you like it a bit thicker? In any case, just heat it up until you acquire the right consistency :)

      5. Transfer to a big tupperware that was previously stored in the fridge. It is also advised to mix once in a while so the egg doesn't cook and you have a smooth creme. Once it has cooled down, put in the fridge and enjoy with a nice cake :)

Nutella cake with creme anglaise

Hazelnut cake with creme anglaise

Enjoy and let me know how yours turned out! :)

Chez L'Ami David

Chez L'Ami David is a French restaurant in West London, and really one of the best ones you could find around concerning price and quality of the dishes. I've been to that restaurant quite a few times (like 5? :P) and it was delicious every time. The chef makes all the dishes himself so there isn't a vast amount of choice. BUT, my parents always say that the smaller the menu, the better the restaurant because it means they make everything themselves and that it is not microwaved food. One of my favorites, for example is the smoked salmon as a starter. You might say 'Smoked salmon isn't really French -_-' but the chef smokes that salmon himself and I can tell you its just ... nom nom nom! Worth trying! ;)

In this restaurant, you can eat simple but tasty french food. This is actually the restaurant where I had my first frogs legs! ^^ The menu also changes depending on the season which is why my parents and I have been a few times (to discover the new dishes hehe :P). This restaurant is a nice way to discover traditional French food, the one eaten during every day life.
Price wise it's pretty affordable (I mean some French restaurants are super snobby -expensive and little food on your plate-) with more or less 18£ for a 3 course menu.

Anyways, the best way to is to check the photos below of some of the dishes my parents and I had :)

Starters:

Avocado  with prawn cocktail salad 

Duck salad

Smoked salmon

Frogs legs

Pate made by the chef himself! With some caramelized onions

Main course: 

Rabbit with a mustard sauce, served with tagliatelle

Had tartare for the first time in a restaurant and I absolutely loved it! Raw meat (something I was a bit skeptical about) but at the end I didn't get sick so it's all good :P

Steak Tartare!

Spinach risotto

Some fish (forgot which :P) with courgette, potatoes and creamy sauce

Pot au feu

Creme brulee

Creme caramel

Somehow, I didn't have many photos of desserts... They had chocolate mousse, citron tart, profiteroles, etc. Good desserts as well :P
Anyways, I say you should definitely try this restaurant out if you are in London and EVEN if it's a bit away from the center.

I will leave their Facebook page over here so you can check more photos and the address if needed :)
https://www.facebook.com/ChezLamiDavid

Maapo Harusame

As a massive noodle fan, having learned how to make maapo tofu, my next step was to make maapo harusame (maapo with rice vermicelli). I actually don't know if they eat this in China since I always had the Japanese version (from already made packs). Rice vermicelli are very thin, transparent noodles and I think you can easily find them in local Asian grocery stores :)

In an earlier post I explained how I made maapo tofu. If you mastered this already then you will be able to make this dish too! It's a pretty easy recipe and you just need to replace tofu with a bag of rice vermicelli and buy a pack of shiitake mushrooms (this was not in the maapo tofu recipe).

Ingredients (for approximately for 4 big nomsters):

• 3 teaspoon of chicken stock diluted into 500ml of water
• 2-3 teaspoon potato starch (to thicken the sauce)
• 4 teaspoon soya sauce
• 3 teaspoon sugar
• a drizzle of sesame oil
• 3 cloves of garlic or 4 teaspoon of mashed garlic
• 4 teaspoon of minced ginger
• 8 green onions (white parts and green parts)
• Doubanjiang (chili bean paste; you can easily find it in asian supermarkets)
• 400 g of minced beef (you can also use minced pork)
• a bag of more or less 250g of rice vermicelli (available at local asian grocery store)

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix the chicken stock, potato starch, soya sauce and sugar. 
• In a deep frying pan or a pot, add a drizzle of sesame oil and add the garlic, ginger and white parts of the spring onion on medium heat. When it's cooked add the minced meat. Try to make sure to break the clumps of meat with the spatula :)
• When the meat is almost cooked, add the shiitake mushrooms (I cut them into very small bits but you can cut them bigger of course)
• In a pot, boil the water for harusame (rice vermicelli). 
• When the meat is cooked, add the doubanjiang. I did not put a specific amount in the recipe because I always just randomly add the paste. I just keep adding until the meat is evenly covered and becomes red-ish.
• Mix the sauce that you kept on the side one last time before adding it to the pot. 
• Let it boil until the sauce thickens
• When the water in the pot is boiling, add the rice vermicelli. Check the package to know how long you need to boil them (mine were 5 min). When they are done, drain them and rinse them with cold water. This is to ensure the cooking stops completely. Drain them well and add them to the sauce. 
• Serve with fresh rice (optional) and sprinkle the green part of the green onion as decoration. 

As you can see pretty straight forward preparation! My only problem was the rice vermicelli... I didn't want to use the entire pack at first but it was impossible to cut them. Tried with scissors, knife... I put the entire bag and there were some left overs. 

Luckily, this dish was still good to nom-nom the next day. If you have leftovers you will see the vermicelli will drink up aaalll the sauce and they will look a bit fatter than the day before. But no worries the taste will still be the same! :) 

Enjoy!

Nut Cake to go nuts for!

Pretty :3

For New Years Eve, my mum made a hazelnut cake! This is considered an all time classic in our household for being delicious, simple, and yeah just delicious. If you are allergic to nuts, then yes, this is definitely a recipe to avoid… You can also replace hazelnuts with walnuts (also yumz). Anyways, here is the recipe as my mum makes it!

Ingredients:

• 100g of butter
• 200g of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100g of hazelnuts (crushed)
• 80g of flour

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 200C. 
2. Butter the mold and add some flour so the cake won't stick. 
3. Melt the butter, and add the sugar. Mix well.
4. Add the eggs one by one while mixing, and add the crushed hazelnuts and the flour. Mix until smooth.
5. Add the mixture into the bowl and bake it for 30min.

When ready, you can add a think layer of nutella and other decorations (ie. chocolate sprinkles). You can also serve with creme anglaise like we did. For New Years, my mum also added some chocolate chips/sprinkles inside!

Enjoy! :)

Recette en Francais:

Ingredients:

• 100 g de beurre
• 200 g de sucre en poudre
• 3 oeufs
• 100g de noisettes broyes 
• 80 g de farine

Preparation:

1. Faire fondre le beurre, puis dans un saladier, le travailler avec le sucre.
2. Ajouter les oeufs un a un en brassant, puis verser les noisettes et enfin la farine. Le melange doit former une pate homogene.
3. Verser le tout dans un moule a manque beurre et farine. Enfourner a 200C (th. 6/7) pendant 30min. 

You can see the chocolate chips on the side ><

Receta en Español: Torta de avellanas

Ingredientes:

• 100g de manteca
• 100g de azúcar
• 3 huevos
• 100g de avellanas molidas
• 80g de harina

Preparación: 

1. Ablandar la manteca y agregar el azúcar. Mezclar bien. 
2. Agregar los huevos uno por uno mezclando. Después, agregar las avellanas y la harina. Batir todo hasta que la mezcla sea homogénea. 
3. Meter el todo en el molde (el molde tiene un poco de manteca y harina para que la torta no se pegue) y al horno durante 30min a 200C!

Se puede agregar chispas de chocolate y/o nutella! 

Chives dip

Dip, cheese and champagne for NYE!

As I am more of a savory nomster than sweet, I LOVE chips. And what do I love with chips? DIP. OOH YES. I made this dip many times and its super fresh and goes perfectly with lightly salted chips! When you see the ingredients you will understand that it is a pretty fatty preparation so it is important to consume with moderation! :P

Super easy and fast to make, you should definitely have this for a nice chill movie night at home or when you have guests over for a little nibble before dinner!

Ingredients:

• 200g Philadelphia cream cheese (normal or light)
• 200g of creme fraiche
• 25g Chives 
• Tabasco
• lime juice
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, mix the philadelphia and cream fraiche. 
2. Cut the chives into small bits and add it to the mix. 
3. Add salt, pepper, lime juice and a little bit of tabasco to taste.
4. Sometimes I like to add a little bit of mashed garlic for a stronger taste, but this is optional. 
5. When everything is mixed leave it in the fridge for half a day so the chives and garlic scents the dip. Serve with some salted chips (best not to have flavored chips so you can really feel the dip).

The photo does not reflect the yumminess of this dip T.T 

Enjoy! :)