Easy and fun cooking for everybody™
Couple days ago my favourite neighbour Wojtek sent me by email one of his latest creations. Wojtek likes to cook and actually does it really good. His greek fish is spectacular and his zurek even better 😉 I know cause Marta (his wife) and himself …
Previous Saturday I had just woken up, when Cookies was going out to work and by his sophisticated goodbye I heard: what are we eating today WOMAN? just lovely, when you wake up groggy after a Friday night marathon of Danny Trejo movies 0_o Unfortunately …
Even if Poland is sea country, we don’t have salmons in Baltic sea which makes the price actually little overwhelming. So when I buy it, it’s either a special occasion or good promotion in one of my favourite stores 😉 This time it was the special occasion, our 7th wedding anniversary. Yeah, imagine that 0_o and we are both still ALIVE!! not saying sane but nonetheless alive LOL
Actually I didn’t have any idea how to prepare my noble fish, as I could do the never boring steamed salmon with broccoli but I thought the special occasion allows me to actually prepare something FRIED!!! Evil, I know 0_o.
Well, since salmon is tasty on it’s own I didn’t want to exaggerate with spices. Just thought the simplicity is the best in this case, and I used 3 ingredients including the salmon. One of which is the honey and raisins mustard I found lately while scavenging my favorite supermarket…
When I was kid, many MOONS ago, I enjoyed a lot of the Chef Boyardee products. I guess it added to my “mass”… HAHAHA, anyway, one day out of the blue I made for Magda a similar creation, of Beef-A-Roni… and its literally become one …
So I was given the task of “what to eat?” this is a beast that lives in the Magda Cooks household. The movement is on to avoid excess or ANY carbs, and to try to make something to go onto the blog. So I went …
Roasted Cauliflower
Since I got my halogen oven I can’t stop finding dishes I can make in it. Since I’m trying very hard not to eat too many carbs, so I decided this recipe for roasted cauliflower with cayenne pepper would be great. Found to go with it a simple chicken breast recipe with cream-mustard sauce. It was awesome idea, because flavours was complementary to each other. I bet you never ate cauliflower with so much fire. Actually next time I’ll make it only with half of cayenne pepper 😉
I found this recipe on one of the blogs and changed it a little, cos of Cookies aversion to garlic and limited access to certain ingredients.
Ingredients:
1 big cauliflower head fresh
¾ tsp cayenne pepper or chili pepper
1 tsp sweet pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
parsley or coriander
drizzle of oil.
Preparations:
Cut the cauliflower into florets. Mix spices without oil. Place cauliflower into bowl and sprinkle good with the mix. Toss the bowl to cover florets with all the spices, drizzle oil and put into oven heated to 160C (325F). Roast for 1 h. Don’t forget to stir it from time to time (I did it every 10 min). When it’s soft and ready sprinkle with parsley or fresh coriander.
Ingredients:
2 chicken breast halves
2 tbsps oil
¼ cup chicken broth
½ cup sour cream (18%)
2 tbsp Dijon mustard or any other you have
1 tsp dried tarragon or oregano (in my OWN spices store I didn’t have tarragon, which is damn surprising, cos i have 3 baskets and 1 shelf full of spices 0_o)
salt and pepper
Preparations:
Cut every chix breast horizontally in half, beat the meat a little bit to make sure it’s not too thick. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper, set aside.
Add oil to a large skillet or pan. Fry chicken breasts on medium-high heat until cooked through, about 10-12 minutes, turning once. Take it out of the pan and make sure it won’t get cold.
Pour chicken bouillon into hot skillet. Whisk in the cream, mustard and tarragon or oregano. Cook and stir for about 2-3 minutes, until sauce thickens.
Serve chicken with poured cream-mustard sauce with cauliflowers as a side dish. I treated it as potatoes so I prepared also The Mullen Household Standard Salad.
Until next time, take care of yourself and each other 0_o
P.S. Cookies thoughts: That Cauliflower really surprised me, and the chix breast, which I just can not get enough of… oh wait… I do… STILL an excellent meal, complemented by Magda Cooks… it just right.
My 2nd Contribution to Magda Cooks By: The Infamous “Cookies” Recipe : Sour (Pickled) Cucumber Soup Cookies again —-> IN. On occasion we collaborate on a meal. Depends on various factors, like time, and day, but, its usually SOUPS or something that requires a LOT of …
NOOOOOO Chicken again…. And I said yeah, it’s chicken again but… you will be happy, it’s new and completely different. Look, I got your favourite fresh tagliatelle from your favourite store… 0_o And it will contain CAJUN spice again!! Weeeee, goodie! Damn, Cookies is hard …
Magdas All Time Favourite Meal
I bet everybody has meals that you love from the past, the flavours you remember and seek when you’re an adult. I have a couple of meals and products like that. One I already shared with you – potatoes with cream cheese. Another is meatballs with hot beetroots and potatoes.
Yes, I know for some of you it may sound terrible – I believe Cookies was frightened when my mom served him this meal first time. But in time he learned to like it alot and now I just have to buy over 2 kg of beets, so I can serve this dish for 2 days. This meal is relatively cheap and can be easily served 2 or in extreme cases even 3 days in a row – I could actually eat it 3 days in a row 0_o. But I just love it!
I won’t give you recipe for meatballs cos I bet you have your own, created few generations ago and enhanced through years. Potatoes are the best served mashed… but whole can be as well, you can just mash it with beets on your plate 0_o.
Ingredients:
2 – 2,5 kg (4-5 lb) beetroots (buy bigger ones – it will be easier to grate if you don’t have a mixer-grinder)
200ml 18% sour cream
1 lemon, juiced
salt to taste
3 dag backfat (słonina)
Preparations
Clean beets and place in the big cooking pot. Cover with cold water and boil until a fork goes easy in (Cookies boils it in the morning, drains it and I finish when I come back from work). Let it cool down.
Use rubber gloves and peel the beets, shred/grind beets on the smallest edges – it has to create complete pulp. Don’t worry with juice running while shredding/grinding. If your gloves rip and your hands become fuchsia – don’t worry again, use some lemon juice to get rid of the discoloration.
Dice backfat into cubes, add into a high sides pot and fry until you have around 2 tablespoons of grease and some cracklings (my mom was adding a tablespoon of flour but I don’t think it’s necessary). Put beets on the grease and stir fry until hot and bubbly. Spice with sour cream, salt and lemon juice.
If beets taste to sour or bitter add a teaspoon of sugar, fructose or splenda.
Beetroots taste the best with meatballs and potatoes. Though you can serve it with anything you like.
Until next time, take care of yourself and each other 0_o
P.S. Cookies thoughts: I really despised these at first, and then seriously I come around to them, to now the point, I actually “crave” them with the meal… now on the other hand, I have yet to warm up to BEET SOUP, and I seriously doubt I ever will. But strange stuff has happened… henceforth my liking of WARM MASHED BEETS 😀
My Contribution to Magda Cooks By: Cookies Recipe : Pork and Mushrooms in a Sour Cream Based Mushroom Flavored Sauce with Barley Cookies —-> IN. So, every once in awhile, it ends up “My Turn” to cook something. Usually as a result of my own volition, …