Spaghetti vongole

Who is up for some italian food? I thought it might be a good idea to add a bit of summer sea fleur into these cold autumn rainy days and therefore sharing this full of flavors italian recipe with you.

 Ingredients
yields 4 portions
1 kg small clams (scrubbed and clean)
3 cloves garlic
12 cherry tomatoes
200 ml white wine
400 g dried spaghetti
salt and pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Boil the water for spagetti. Meanwhile check your clams and if there are any not closed through them away. Put a large pan with a lid on a high heat and pour some olive oil into it. Peel and chop the garlic.

Add the pasta to the boiling water with a generous pinch of salt. Cook asper instructions until al dente. Meanwhile start preparing your sauce. Pour some olive oil into the hot pan and add the garlic. Season it with salt and pepper. Stir everything constantly and when garlic begins to get color, add the clams and pour in the wine. Put the lid on the pan and shuffle it a bit. Wait for couple of minutes and keep shuffling the pan around until all of them have opened. Turn off the heat. 

As soon as pasta is ready drain it. Then add it to the pan of clams. Toss for a further minute in order to let the sauce and juices from the clams be absorbed into the pasta. Serve right away with a touch of cherry tomatoes. You can also add them into the sauce together with garlic but I decided to have then freshly served. 

Enjoy your wonderful time and eat just like italians - slowly, in a friendly company and with good wine.

 

Asparagus Soup with North Sea Crabs

Asparagus season is officially open! From April and till end of June is exactly the right time to buy seasonal asparagus here in the north of Germany. And although in Hamburg you will mostly find white or violet asparagus from the region (not the typical green sprouts) it is definitely worth to stop by at the local farmers' market and buy this fresh seasonal product. If you do not know what can you prepare and how is asparagus eaten the very basic recipe of asparagus you can discover here. And this Baked asparagus with ham and cheese with its tenderness of melted cheese and asparagus juiciness will definitely be a pleasant surprise for you.

But today I want to share the recipe that became one of the most favourite soups in my family: asparagus soup with north sea crabs. It is easy to cook, healthy, very tasty and full of flavors. The recipe is adopted from "1000 Recipes for two" by NGV. Hope you will enjoy it as much as we do during the season.

One secret for good soup is a good base, meaning broth. Depending on your preferences it may be made with meat and vegetables or just veggies. In my case, I always leave the broth from the meat I was boiling. A good choice would also be to use the rests of asparagus once peeled to cook a broth. Just add some salt and boil them for 10 minutes. That's it!

Ingredients:

yields 2 portions

500 ml chicken broth

200 g asparagus (your choice)

100 g north sea crabs or shrimps (cooked, ready to use)

2 shallots

1/2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp corn flour

1 small egg

sprinkle of salt,Herbes de Provence and pepper

Bring the broth to boil. Meanwhile wash asparagus and cut it into 3-4 cm long pieces. Put then into the boiling water and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Take asparagus out and set aside. Peel shallot and cut it small. In a pan heat the oil and fry shortly shallot and asparagus for about 2 minutes. Add some salt, pepper and broth. Pour it all into the main broth. Separately mix corn flour with some water into a paste, add it to the soup and stir well. Taste and if needed add more salt, pepper or other spices you like. Beat the egg and pour it gradually into the soup while stirring it with a fork quickly so that the egg threads are created.

Serve it with north sea crabs and a sprinkle of herbs de Provence.

Bon Appétit!

Wok Root Veggies with Seafood and Coconut Milk

Hello February! A magic month when you already hope that spring will come very soon, yet spend your time enjoying your favourite winter attractions like skating, skiing, drinking hot wine.

Some time ago we visited Italian supermarket and apart from ricotta, mascarpone and variety of italian cheese we discovered there a wide range of different pasta types, shapes, colours and forms. And when I saw black spaghetti I knew I can make a special dish out of it. In combination with some seafood that both of us love...mmm... 

And here I was in the kitchen... checking my veggie supply in the fridge. And I thought why not make it really simple yet very interesting flavour-combinationwise. And I chose root vegetables for it. Simple and easy. Yet veeeery special!

Ingredients:

yields 4 portions

1 big white onion

100 g red beets (1 big or 2 middle sized)

100 g carrots (2 middle sized)

100 g parsnips (2 middle sized)

250 g seafood mix (I had prawns and mussels)

100 ml coconut milk

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp curry powder

1 lemon

salt and pepper

oil

spaghetti al nero di seppia

First of all wash and peel the veggies. Then vut them into pieces. The size is up to you. But remember that for smaller ones the cooking time has to be cut down. I chose medium.

Cook spaghetti as per instructions on the package al dente.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce: pour some oil and grated ginger into a big wok, in a minute add and fry onions until they soften a bit. Then put vegetables into the pan. You will notice how red beet colours the rest of the veggies. And that is absolutely fine. Adds some nice bright colour. Stir for about 5-7 minutes and then pour coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper. In the end add curry powder and mix well. In another preheated pan in a little amount of oil lightly fry the seafood mix. Do not overcook because prawns might get chewy.

Before serving directly on a plate mix spaghetti with root veggies and seafood. Sprinkle of pepper on top will make it even more spicy. A fresh side salad goes along incredibly good.

Voila! Enjoy a nice evening or lunch in a good company with good food.

Because good food is always a good idea.

 

Rosemary baked fish: special recipe with the best tips of fish scaling from Croatia

Hello September! I do not stop wondering how quickly flies the time. It strolls down like a mountain river leaving only memories behind... And then you stop in the rush of the day, wake up at one point, and understand how quickly is everything happening... How come that it has been already two weeks since autumn came?! (yes, I know here they count the start of the season later, but not in Ukraine:) I am still with my thoughts back there, in our dream vacation, warm Croatia and on the seaside... where you can be an idle person, lying the whole day and doing only things you have mood for. While discovering Croatia we were lucky not only to be lazy but also to get some special culinary tips and tricks, which I appreciate very much. One of those was concerning the way to scale the fish. The trick is that you do it in the sea. YES, IN THE SEA! Same actions, but just in the sea. So we took all the needed equipment (sharp knife) and fresh fish from the local market and went to enhance our skills. I have to admit in our family my husband is a professional in these tasks, so I was taking pictures ;)

That morning we decided to buy something different than dorado or sea bass... Sarpa salpa, known commonly as the salema, salema porgy, cow bream or goldline, is a species of sea bream, recognisable by the golden stripes that run down the length of its body, and which might cause hallucinations when eaten. In fact, these curious figures were unknown to us up to the time I made a research for the post. When scaling the fish in the sea, you "kill two rabbits at once" - the outcome is scaled fish and already salted (from natural source, what could be more natural?!). 

Pay attention to the fact that the knife has to be sharp in order to make everything quickly and accurately.

My main concern was - where will we throw out the rests? It is not the most pleasant thing afterwards to swim among fish entrails. But no worries! The nature has foreseen already everything and sea-gull was right there and veeeery hungry.

And here is the recipe:

Ingredients: (for 2 portions)

2 fishes (we chose sarpa)

pepper, rosemary

salted sea and sweet heart :)

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or if available prepare the grill (as we did here). Sprinkle the fish in and outside with rosemary and pepper. Bake 20 minutes under foil and another 15-20 uncovered (depending on the size of the fish).

I leave the side dish up to you. My choice was pumpkin puree as I really missed it. For my husband the only way to get full is to get some carbs as a side dish, so whole wheat pasta was his choice.

Here are some nutrition facts about fish:

• For individuals who do not consume dairy products fish and seafood can be a significant source of calcium
• Fish including salmon and sardines canned in oil as well as sea vegetables such as kombu, nori, and dulse are good sources of calcium
• Fish and seafood are good sources of healthy fats such as omega 3s which are an essential part of a balanced fat intake

Bon Appétit!

Grilled squids with lemon-garlic sauce

It's a loooong time since my last post...WOW... unbelievable. This summer was quite different from the previous ones. The major point is, of course, that Hamburg could not really enjoy the summer as there were about 5 really warm days since June in total. And then in a routine you get lost somewhere in the everyday problems between work, gym, home, cleaning, husband's birthday, wedding anniversary etc. And then you only notice - two summer months are gone :(

But nevertheless, I enjoy this season a lot. Summer is always full of fresh and local fruits, berries, meaning - a lot of smoothies, pies, desserts and even more. But today not about that. I will follow up with summer fruit recipes in my next posts. Menawhile I would like to stay in memories back in our vacation. 

Croatia, +45 degrees C, Biograd na Moru. When having such a nice grill near our apartments we could not keep away from it and ended up having grill-dinner everyday. Because it is just amazing - meeting sunset with a nice fresh grilled fish, veggies, local wine and calm atmosphere. This was the evening of squids. My grill-chef-husband was the one to cook them and I'm lucky to share the recipe with you. 

Ingredients:

4 big squids

1/2 lemon

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp origano

1/2 tsp salt

6 garlic cloves

Firstly, the squids have to be prepared. To make it properly I (and my husband) recommend you to follow these steps:

1. Grasp the head, pull it carefully, twisting if necessary. The internal body and tentacles will come with it. 

2. Cut the tentacles from the head. They are situated below the eyes. There is a  beak in the center of the tentacles. Squeeze to remove and discard.

3. Set aside the the tentacles. Discard the head and ink sac.

4. At the top of the body, there is a clear piece of cartilage. Pull it out and discard.

5. If the squid has an outer spotted membrane-type skin, pull it off and discard.

6. Wash the tube an tenticles thoroughfully under cold running water.

Then they will look like you may see on the picture below.

It is time to prepare the sauce. Best combination for squids (and this is how they are usually served in Croatia), is lemon-garlic sauce. Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, origano and mashed garlic. Pour part of the sauce as pregrilling marinade. The rest put aside for serving.

The best way is to grill the squids on the open fire grill. They will become firmer and loose their juice. So be prepared :)

As a side dish you may also grill zucchini or other veggies (pepper, mushrooms, tomato etc.)

Of course, you can also use baking oven instead of grill. You might need a bit longer time then.
On the grill you will approximately need 15-20 minutes until readiness, changing sides every 3-5 minutes. To make them really crispy, pour the water out of them as they get ready. You will notice that they are quite juicy :)

Immeadiately after taking squids out from grill, pour them with the sauce from all sides. Being warm helps them to get the most of the flavors from the sauce.

I used 1/4 of avocado to serve. It's up to your taste, what to choose as a side dish. But a good white wine is a must here :) We chose Malvasija this time.

Enjoy the summer.

Because good food is always a good idea.

P.S. Hopefully you also like fish and seafood. Otherwise I seem to be literally attacking you with such recipes during my last posts.

King prawns with mango-avocado salsa on a carrot pillow

Once upon a time we were looking for a special occasion restaurant. Of course, when you have a really special occasion you would prefer to find a place with a perfect combination of atmosphere, food, interior and service. Once you love the interior and feel yourself free, two things like food and service still have to be tested and tasted. On one of those testing-tasting evenings I was lucky to try a dish I couldn't wait to cook at home. A little bit changed...My own interpretation :) Imagine: sweet-creamy mango-avocado salsa on a juicy pillow from fresh carrots with spicy prawns on top. I think you shouldn't be a crazy seafood-lover to have a try. Such an attractive offer comes very rarely. So don't miss it.

Tip!
If you want to reach the best taste of this dish make sure the prawns are fresh. It's better when they are with heads, perfectly when fresh cooled. Mango and avocado should be very ripe as well. The ripeness of avocado can be checked by pressing a little bit. A ripe fruit is firm, yet a bit soft when pressing on it. When we're talking about mango try to smell it first. You will understand at once. Then use your experience with avocados, mangoes also become softer as they ripen.

Ingredients:
500g king prawns
2 carrots
3/4 avocado
1/2 mango
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1tsp lemon juice
salt, pepper, herbs

First of all, prepare salsa. Wash mango and avocado, peel them and cut into little cute-form pieces. Mix the needed amounts together and add a sprinkle of salt, lemon juice, some pepper and dried herbs. Put aside, allow the flavors become friends.

Wash the prawns, de-shell them when needed. Heat the pan with some vegetable oil of your choice. Fry the prawns for 2-3 minutes. Add soy sauce and let them soak it. Spice them with some pepper and dried herbs. Take them out of the hot pan to prevent rubber-texture.

Now let us put it all together. Wash the carrots, peel them and grate. Place them as the bottom layer. Put avocado-mango salsa as a middle layer. And finally add the prawns. A tiny sprinkle of dried herbs can be a finishing touch.

Enjoy! A taste of summer is here. Even though it's getting far-far-far away...