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!