Saint-Agur Pasta

This is a little recipe I made about 3 times now. It has a little french twist since I used a French blue cheese called Saint Agur. It's a free style recipe, meaning I just added ingredients I like and it became how it is now :P
Being a cheese addict, cheesy pastas are one of my favorite dishes to make. It's easy, yummy and unhealthy T-T I've made this dish before for people who don't like blue cheese and they still liked it! :D
Must try at home!

Ingredients (for 4 nomsters)

• Pasta (any kind, in the photos I used 500g of fresh tagliatelle)
• 1 onion
• 1 courgette
• 1 pack of mushrooms (the quantity is really up to you, I just love mushrooms so used a lot :P)
• 3 cups of milk
• 3 teaspoons of flour
• Around 1 teaspoon of mashed garlic
• Saint-Agur (or any other type of blue cheese)
• Cherry tomatoes
• Wild Rocket

Preparation

1. Boil water for the pasta
2. Cut the onion into thin stripes and the courgette into cubes. Cut the mushrooms into stripes
3. With a little bit of oil in a pan, add the onions. When they start to become transparent, add the courgette. Once the courgettes start to soften, add the mushrooms and the minced garlic. 
4. Add the flour (to thicken the sauce), mix well so it covers the ingredients equally. Add the milk. 
5. When the milk starts to warm up add blue cheese little by little (I diced mine) and mix so it slowly melts :3 The quantity is really up to you. I love blue cheese so I like to put a lot of it in the sauce but some people don't like it when the taste is too strong. Best is to try the sauce as you go until you find the perfect taste! Little advice: the more cheese you add the less salt is needed as blue cheese already contains natural salt! :) It's also best to not let the milk boil as it gives a strange appearance (it becomes kind of grainy) and it's just better to let the cheese melt really slowly hehe
6. Cook the pasta, drain it well!
7. On a plate, place some rucola or rocket on a plate. It will be like a little bed for your pasta :3 Place the pasta in the center and add a generous amount of sauce and some pepper to taste. Place the cherry tomatoes on the side (I cut them in half) and it's ready! :D 

I think blue cheese and rocket goes together really well! I am not a fan to rocket usually as it's so bitter but I think it counters the strong taste of blue cheese really well! For this recipe I used french blue cheese called Saint Agur but of course gorgonzola is also great with it! You can also add more cherry tomatoes on the side (but can also just be little decorations) as it brings some freshness to this cheessy dish!

Enjoy! 

Carbonara a la Rithuu 1

Today, I would like to post about how I make Carbonara. I have different ways of making it and this is the first one which would be the closest to the traditional one. Some people might accuse me of misusing the term Carbonara but this is why this post is called 'Carbonara A LA RITHUU' :P And its number 1 because there will be another post about my Japanized Carbonara in the very near future. Very exciting, I know.

I actually think Carbonara is quite difficult to master (I think it took me 3-4 years to become confident about how I make it) but do not be put off! Maybe I was just an extreme noob :P (high possibility hihi)

This recipe is very easy and fast to make! It's extra creamy and garlic-y and I think Carbonara is one of the best comfort food evaaaa! 

Despite not being the traditional recipe, I hope you still enjoy this post and try making it at home! :)

Ingredients (for 2 nomsters):

• Spaghetti (approximately100-120g per person) AL DENTE
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons of milk + half a cup of milk
• One pack of bacon (some people like to put a lot others not so much so quantity is up to you :))
• 1 Onion
• LOTS of garlic = 1 tablespoon of mashed garlic
• 1 tablespoon of white wine
• 3-4 table spoons of Parmesan cheese (or any other type of hard cheese)
• Grated Emmental cheese or any other kind of grated cheese (optional)
• 2 teaspoons of flour
• Salt and pepper
• Parsley (optional)

Preparation: 

1. Boil the water for the pasta
2. In a bowl, add the egg yolks, mashed garlic and 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix well. Then add the parmesan cheese and a little bit of salt and pepper. 
3. Cut the bacon into bite size pieces. Cut onion into stripes. In a large pan, (large enough to contain your cooked spaghetti afterwards) add the bacon. I don't use any oil or butter as the bacon already has plenty of those! When the bacon starts to get cooked, add the onion. 
4. When the onion starts to become transparent, add some white wine. At this point you can also add extra garlic ;)
5. When the alcohol completely evaporated, add the flour. This will help the sauce become creamier by just adding milk. Let's be honest, cream is delicious but also really fatty... This will help making this recipe a little healthier! :D Mix the flour evenly on the bacon and onion and add the milk.
6. Let it simmer and you will see that the sauce will start to thicken! At this point you can add emmental cheese (around 2 tablespoons) and mix well. At this point everything will look like this: 

Hi, I'm creamy. 

7. When your spaghetti are cooked, drain them well and add them to the bacon and onion pan. Lightly mix and add the egg yolk mixture and mix well again! You should still have the stove on at this point so the egg yolks are lightly cooked, making the sauce thicker. But make sure it doesn't over cook and become clumpy >< (it also shouldn't be too liquid)
Aaaand it's done, YEY! You can add some parsley as decoration. Now, just enjoy this delicious comfort food.

Oh and little warning, since it uses A LOT of garlic, best not to make this when you have date? ;) Or reduce the quantity of garlic hihi

Quite a lot of bacon

Add some pepper! :D

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