Cheesy New York Cheesecake

Have you noticed that life is a lot about expectations? We hope for the weather to improve, for the unemployement rate to get better, for a parking space to open when we arrive at our destination, for our problems to be solved, for love to be around the corner or for a miracle to happen (like a healthy diet based on Nutella).
But isn't the problem with expectations, that we just "expect" them? Seated on our behinds, complaining nothing ever happens. Because it's safer, because that way you can blame everyone but yourself, because if you don't do anything, how could you do something wrong?

And if we may not do anything wrong, we might not do anything right either. So here's to the brave ones, who take decisions at the blink of an eye or to the sound of a heartbeat, who dare doing something different than everybody else, who might success or might fail, but at least had the courage to try.
I do not belong to the brave ones, I can get myself to brave moments every now and than though, and that's a start. For trying is always better than regretting.

What does this have to do with cheesecake? Not much to be honest, beside the hope for it to meet the expectations of your guests, or the promise to make you travel to New York just with a spoonfull.

New York Cheesecake (based on Marcus Wareing, Cozinhar na Perfeição...)

For a 10 slices pie

60gr of Butter
135gr of Graham Crackers
500gr of Cream Cheese (Philadelphia)
150gr of Sugar
5 Tablespoons of Cream
30gr of Flour
4 Eggs

Preheat the oven 110°C with the fan. Butter a 20cm springform or cake pan.

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan or in the microwave (10-20seconds steps only). Blitz or break the graham crackers to have some sand. Pour the melted butter on the crackers and combine, than pour that in your pan and using a spoon, press down the mixture to evenly coat the bottom of your pan.

Have the cream cheese at room temperature and pour in the sugar to start mixing with a spatula. Now add the the cream and the flour and keep mixing.
Crack your eggs in an other jar, beat them lightly, before adding them to the creamcheese. Carefully whisk until everything is combined and smooth.

Pour this mixture on top of the cracker layer, try to smooth the top for the air bubbles to disappear. Place in the oven for 1h30min. The middle should still be a bit shaky went you take it out of the oven.

Leave it to cool at room temperature. Even if it's not adviced in the book, I like to have my cheesecake in the fridge, makes the texture denser and is nicer on a hot day.

Daring Baker -May 2013: SWEDISH PRINSESSTÅRTA!

Korena of Korena in the Kitchen was our May Daring Bakers’ host and she delighted us with this beautiful Swedish Prinsesstårta!

I have never been much of a princess kinda girl. Ask my parents, I wanted GI Joes for christmas, I had a tool box, a wood saw kit or a basket ball. Though my mum wanted me to keep my hair long as a child (and I was happy to cut them shorter when I grew up), I'm thankfull for my parents not pushing any stereotypes on me, I didn't have to wear a pink dress and flowers in my hair, and could be what I wanted to be.

Even though I'm still looking like a tomboy today, I believe I've learned to be in touch with my "girly" side. And making this cake was definetly a good way to that! My nieces, who are not found of desserts in general (it cuts into their playing time!!) were all over it. So I guess the cliché still stands today, and (most) little girls want to be princesses.

I've basically used the recipe given by Korena, I've just made my custard with soy milk and I was a little low on time, so I used store bought marzipan to decore it with daisy (not roses like the tradtional one). Even if it is time consuming, by taking it step by step, it does make a great cake with an impressiv result.
Thank you Korena for this fun and girly challenge, and please, I don't want to be told the calory count for each slice ;)

Traditional Swedish Prinsesstårta

Servings: 8 – 10. Makes one 9” round cake.

Vanilla Custard

Ingredients
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream, divided
4 egg yolks from large eggs
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) cornstarch
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (30 gm) (1 oz) granulated white sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (or 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract)
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, and egg yolks. Gradually whisk in ½ cup (120 ml) of heavy cream until smooth. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining ½ cup (120 ml) of heavy cream and the scraped vanilla bean and bring just to the boiling point. Remove the vanilla bean pod, leaving behind the seeds. Slowly whisk the hot cream into the bowl with the egg mixture to temper the eggs.
2. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until it becomes thick like pudding and just comes to a boil. The mixture must hit a boil for the cornstarch to properly thicken the custard, and also to cook out any starchy taste. If it starts to look curdled or lumpy, remove it from the heat and whisk vigorously until smooth, then return to the heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat. If using vanilla extract, add it now.
(If desired, pass the custard through a fine mesh sieve before continuing.)
3. Pour the custard into a clean bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until completely cold. Can be prepared a day ahead and kept in the refrigerator.

Sponge Cake

Ingredients
Fine dry breadcrumbs for the pan (such as crushed panko)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) granulated white sugar
½ cup (120 ml) (70 gm) (2½ oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
½ cup (120 ml) (65 gm) (2¼ oz) potato starch (or cornstarch)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Thoroughly butter a 9” (23 cm) round springform pan, line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper, then butter the paper. Dust the buttered pan with enough breadcrumbs to coat the bottom and sides, just like flouring a cake pan. Set aside.
2. Place the eggs and granulated white sugar in a mixing bowl and beat on medium-high speed with an electric mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment until the eggs are tripled in volume and very light coloured and fluffy, about 5 minutes. The mixture should fall from the beaters in thick ribbons. Don’t overbeat the eggs – once they form thick ribbons and stop growing in volume, stop beating.
3. Sift the all-purpose (plain) flour, potato starch, baking powder, and salt into a bowl, then sift the flour mixture over the whipped eggs. With a balloon whisk, fold the flour into the eggs until blended, keeping as much air in the batter as possible. Use large, gentle yet confident strokes, bringing batter from the bottom of the bowl to the top. Once mixed, the batter should be quite thick and smooth.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spread it out evenly, and bake in the lower third of the preheated moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown on top, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it.
Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes then run a knife around the edge and remove the sides of the springform pan. Don’t worry if it sinks a bit in the middle.
Invert the cake onto a cooling rack and peel off the parchment paper. If the cake is lopsided, press gently to make it level, then allow it to cool completely before continuing. The cake can be made a day ahead and stored, well-wrapped in plastic, at a cool room temperature.

Prinsesstårta Assembly

Ingredients
2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream, chilled
granulated white sugar, to taste (scant 1 tablespoon is plenty)
Sponge Cake, cooled
1/3 cup (80 ml) seedless raspberry jam (or regular jam pressed through a sieve to remove seeds)
Vanilla Custard, chilled
Marzipan Covering and Rose
Icing sugar, for rolling and dusting
Optional: melted chocolate, royal icing, or piping gel
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar to taste (keep in mind that the rest of the cake components are sweet, so the whipped cream should be very lightly sweetened at most) and continue whipping the cream until stiff. You want it to be sturdy enough to provide structure to the cake, but not over-whipped enough to make butter. Set the whipped cream aside.
2. With a long serrated knife, slice the sponge cake into three even layers. This cake is very delicate, so do this as carefully as possible. Use a gentle sawing motion to move the knife through the cake instead of trying to pull it through the cake. Use a spatula to help you lift off each layer after you cut it. Set aside the middle layer – this will become the top layer of the assembled cake as it is the most flexible and therefore easiest to bend into a dome over the whipped cream.
3. Place one of remaining layers on a cake board or serving platter and spread it evenly with the raspberry jam. Spread or pipe half the chilled custard over the jam in an even layer, leaving enough room around the edges so that it doesn’t spill over the sides of the cake.
4. Top the custard with another layer of cake. Spread or pipe the remaining custard evenly over it, again leaving some room around the edges.
5. Reserve ½ cup (120 ml) of the stiffly whipped cream. Pile the rest into a mound on top of the custard. Spread it into a thick layer with a thin, flexible spatula or off-set spatula, then hold the spatula at an angle to shape the whipped cream into a dome, piling it up in the middle of the cake as much as possible.
6. Place the final layer of sponge cake (the one cut from the middle of the cake) on top of the whipped cream. Do not press on the top of the cake – instead, gently tuck the edges of the cake layer into the whipped cream, so that they are flush with the cream. This will create a smooth, seamless dome on top of the cake.
7. Gently spread the reserved ½ cup (120 ml) of whipped cream over the entire cake to fill in any cracks and even out the surface. If necessary, refrigerate the cake to firm it up before continuing.
8. Dust your work surface with icing sugar and press the marzipan into a 6-inch (15 cm) disc (knead it a bit to warm it up first). Coat both sides with icing sugar and roll it out into a 14” (35½ cm) diameter circle less than 1/8” (3 mm) thick. Use plenty of icing sugar to prevent it from sticking. Alternatively, you can roll the marzipan out between two wide sheets of parchment paper (still use plenty of icing sugar).
9. Use the rolling pin to drape the rolled-out marzipan sheet over the cake and smooth it around the cake gently with your hands.
If it seems like it wants to fold or buckle around the cake, gently lift and stretch it away from the cake with one hand while smoothing it down with the other.
Trim the excess marzipan from the bottom of the cake with a paring knife or spatula blade.
10. If desired, cut leaves out of the scraps of green marzipan (you can knead in another drop of green food colouring to make the leaves a slightly darker green). Use a paring knife to score vein-like lines, then pinch one end of the leaf to give it some shape.
Dust the cake with icing sugar, then place the marzipan rose and leaves in the middle of the cake.
(You can also use melted chocolate, royal icing, or piping gel to pipe a design on top of the cake, if you wish.)
11. To serve, cut the cake into wedges with a large, sharp knife (run the blade under hot water and wipe it clean after every cut for neater slices). The cake can be served immediately but will be easier to slice after chilling in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Strawberry and Tea Jelly

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (Albert Einstein), cooks, bakers and food blogger must be really sane people! As our time spend in the kitchen is mostly about trying, changing ingredients, temperatures and proportions to finally come to the expected result.

Because in life, much like in the kitchen, we should all learn from our mistakes. Not falling back to old patterns, we may know as familiar, but that will end up being bad for us. This is how I think we grow, even if we all have our crosses to bear and our walls to break.
Coming back to food, if desserts, chocolate or sugar would be illegal, I'd be an outlaw for sure. But I know I have to be (most of the time) carefull and wise, that's what this dessert is about.

I hope I'm not making this sound too boring, because even if I came up with this recipe in order to have a lighter dessert, I really enjoyed this and will do it again. Plus, you can mix and match teas and fruits. Regular gelatin could work too, but Agar-Agar is a healthier option in my opinion and is quicker to set. If there was any sun around, it would be a nice summer dessert.

Strawberry and Tea Jelly

Serves 3

1/2 a Liter of Water
2 Tablespoons of Strawberry Flavoured Black Tea
2 Tablespoons of Agave Nectar (Syrup)
2gr of Agar-Agar
10 Strawberries
6 Tablespoons of Vanilla Yogurt

Prepare your tea, boil the water and let the tea infuse for about 8 to 10 minutes. Pour your tea in a sauce pan thru a sieve (to remove all residue from the tea) add the agave nectar (or honey if you prefer) and the Agar-Agar (mine is powder), bring to the boil and set aside, check if it's sweet enough for your taste.

Wash the strawberries, than cut of the top and slice them not too thinly. I used 3 glasses (20cl), place the sliced strawberries evenly in each glass, than pour the tea slowly over. Leave it too cool on your kitchen counter, before placing them in the fridge. They just need a couple of hours to set, but you can leave them overnight.

To serve, pour 2 tablespoons of vanilla yogurt on top of each jelly and enjoy.

Greek salad meets couscous, or the other way around

You know it's a bad start into the week when you put on your "bad days" jeans, and they feel a bit tight. Ahhhh, just the kind of monday I enjoy... But I have an explanation to this: I've recently discovered the joy of stretch-fabric jeans, did you know they made these???
Not being very aware about fashion and stuff, I use to buy the old kind of way jeans, the ones you need to wear for months until they soften somehow, the one that would not forgive you any extra slice of desert, at the risk of running out of air, and you have to put them on lying on your bed (you know what I'm talking about, right?)

Enters the stretchy jeans. Oh the joy! They adjust, adapt and expend if needed! But how sneaky is that in the end? I didn't notice that extra slice of pie made any difference (ok, I may have gone ignorant on purpose here too). It's like my old jeans were my too-much-dessert-chastity-belt... ehm.. so to speak.
The weather being so cold here doesn't really help on switching to a "summer" diet either. But I'm not looking for any more excuses, I know better than that by now, I just enjoyed my food lately, and now is time to be a bit more carefull and wise.

So today it's all about vegetables, I couldn't choose between making a greek salad or some couscous, so I decided to mix and match. This works hot or cold, as a main dish or as a side (see how flexible I can be). I used the vegetables I had at hands, feel free to add the ones you like to the recipe.

Greek Couscous

Serves 2/3

150gr of Couscous Semolina
2 Carrots
1 Kohlrabi
1 tin of Chickpeas
1/2 a Celeriac
1 Liter of Vegetable Brothe
1 Teaspoon of Ras El Hanout
1 Teaspoon of Red Paprika
1 Teaspoon of Cumin
1 Tomato
2 or 3 Green Fresh Onion
4 or 5 Pink Radish
1/2 a Cucumber
1 Tablespoon of Capers
50gr of Feta Cheese
Olive Oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt

Start by making the couscous vegetables ready. Peel the carrots, the celeriac and the kohlrabi, slice the carrots and dice the celeriac and kohlrabi. In a pan place those vegetables in 1 liter of vegetable broth with the spices (ras el hanout, paprika and cumin), cook it for about an hour, try the vegetables they should be cooked thru and a bit spicy.

In the meantine, make the salad vegetables ready. Wash the radishes and slice them (I used a mandoline to have something even), than cut the green onions thinly and place them in a bowl with about 2 tablespoons of the vinegar.
Clean the tomato, remove the stem and the seeds inside just to keep the flesh and dice it quite small. Peel the cucumber, remove the seeds aswell and dice it the same size as the tomato, set aside.
Chop the capper and the feta cheese too.

If your vegetables are almost cooked, add the drained chickpeas so they heat up. In an other pan, heat up the volume of salted water that matches the volume of your 150gr of couscous semolina. When it's boiling, take it of the heat, add the semolina, put the lid back on and let it sit like that for 5 minutes.
After those 5 minutes, pour some olive oil on it, and using a fork, separate the little grains of couscous.

Drain the couscous vegetables in a colander, you can keep the water to add to your plate if you like it spicier. In a bowl, still using a fork, pour in the semolina, the tomato, the cucumber, the radish, the onion (with the vinegar), the capers and the feta cheese, stir to combine all ingredients. In a deep plate, pour in carefully your couscous and salad mixture so it forms a dome, than make a bit of a well in the middle and place the drained vegetables on top. Serve cold or hot.

Bulgur Croquettes for a tiny celebration

I like that on international worker's day, I do close to nothing, at least nothing work related. There is an irony there, that Alanis Morissette could have sang about. But beside celebrating work (or the lack of it, in my case), the 1st of May is also the day I started this blog, and it's been 2 years already! It was only yesterday that I realised that, otherwise I would have planned a cake recipe.

So thanks to everyone out there on the internet, who drops by occasionally, by mistake or on purpuse, it has been a great deal of fun for me so far. Let's hope for many more years to come, a lot of discoveries, recipes and culinary adventures on the journey.

Lately I've been trying to refrain on the purchase of magazin, because as much as I pick my books up every now and than, the magazins tend to be read once and end up on a pile. But the nice covers and  promise of great recipes always get me!

So let's make it usefull and try one of the recipe of this month "Saveurs", from it's vegetarian section: Bulgur croquettes. I'm not the biggest fan of frying stuff (mostly because I don't like the smell afterwards), but those are really nice finger food to enjoy in front of the TV and a day like this.

Bulgur Croquettes and Red Bell Pepper Dip

Makes about 12 croquettes

100gr of Bulgur
100gr of Flour
1 Egg
50gr of Cheese (I used Comté)
1 Small Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
Fresh Chives and Rosemarin
Dried Marjoran and Oregano
Olive Oil
Salt Pepper
1 Red Bell Pepper (or 4 small ones)
1 Greek Yogurt
1 Lemon
Balsamic Vinegar

Heat up a pan of water, when it starts to boil, add the bulgur and leave it to cook for 11 minutes, then drain the water and set aside.

In a small blender, blitz together the small peeled onion, the clove of garlic and the fresh and dried herbs (adjust the quantities to your taste), than add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the egg, blitz some more and set aside.

In a bowl, put in the flour, the grated cheese, the cooked bulgur and the herbs/egg mixture from the blender, season with salt and pepper and combine with a spatula.

Form the croquettes using 2 spoons (or your hands if you prefer). In a pan, heat up some olive oil on a medium heat, and start cooking them for about 5 minutes, turn them so they color evenly. Place them on a kitchen towel when they have a nice golden color. You might need to do a few batch depending on the size of your pan.

Wash and dice your red bell pepper, and start cooking it slowly in some olive oil. When it has cooked for about 10 minutes and seems tender, add about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in the pan, leave it to cook on a higher heat for 2 minutes and set aside to cool a little.

Add the juice of half a lemon to your greek yogurt, than the red bell pepper that has cool down, mix a little and place it in a service bowl.

Voilà, enjoy both together, or as suggested in the magazin you can also have the croquettes with some tomato sauce.

Daring Baker - April 2013: Savarin!

Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

One of the good thing about participating to the daring bakers, is that it gives you the little push you need to take on a recipe that may seem too complicated or time consuming in the first place.
The savarin belonged to that list to me, it's a classical dessert but everytime I read the recipe, I thought I'll have to plan this ahead of time rather than last minute. The funny thing is I have a savarin mold for years now, I just used it for cakes so far.

And I'm so glad I got that little push, the savarin is a elegant dessert with a rich dough, and we got to choose the kind of filling we wanted to. I guess I didn't choose the lightest version there is, but a combination that I think works very well: Chocolate, Pear and Vanilla. So a chocolate mousse filling, a vanilla/pear tea syrup and fresh pears to decorate.
I think a good standmixer is a big help in the process, and I would advice to be prick a few hole in the savarin's bottom when you soaked it, because it is a bit easier to get your syrup into it this way, and it won't show when you place it on your serving dish.

Savarin

Servings: 8/10

Ingredients
2½ cups (600 ml) (12-1/3 oz) (350 gm) bread flour
2 tablespoons (30 ml) water, lukewarm
6 (320 gm) large eggs at room temperature, separated
½ satchel (1½ teaspoons) (4 gm) instant yeast or 15 gm (½ oz) fresh yeast
4 teaspoons (20 ml) (20 gm) sugar
2/3 stick (1/3 cup) (80 ml) (75 gm) butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) orange and lemon zest (optional)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
¼ cup (60 ml) (2 oz) (55 gm) butter for greasing the work surface, hands, dough scraper & baking pan

Directions:

Sponge
In a small bowl mix 2 tablespoons (30 ml) lukewarm water, 3 tablespoons (1 oz) (25 gm) flour and yeast , cover with cling film and let rise 60 minutes

Dough
1.After 30 minutes put the egg whites in the mixer bowl and start working with the paddle at low speed adding flour until you have a soft dough that sticks to the bowl (about 2 cups or 270 gm) and work until it comes together , cover with cling film and let rest 30 min
2.Add the sponge to the mixer bowl along with a tablespoon of flour and start mixing at low speed (if you wish to add the zests do it now)
3.When it starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl add one yolk and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
4.Add the second yolk , the sugar and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
5.Raise the speed a little
6.Add the third yolk and the salt and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
7.Keep on adding one yolk at the time and the flour saving a tablespoon of flour for later
8.Mix the dough until is elastic and makes threads
9.Add the butter at room temperature and as soon as the butter is adsorbed add the last tablespoon of flour
10.Keep on mixing till the dough passes the window pane test
11.Cover the dough with cling film and let it proof until it has tripled in volume 2 to 3 hours.
12.You can prepare the Pastry cream now if you chose to use it, and refrigerate it
13.While you wait prepare your baking pan buttering it very carefully not leaving too much butter on it
14. Grease your dough scraper, your hands and your work surface and put the dough on it and fold with the Dough Package Fold two or three times around (5 folds twice or three times). Cover with cling foil and let it rest 15 minutes on the counter
15.Turn the dough upside down and with the help of your buttered dough scraper shape your dough http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta2_h6Qogp0 in a rounded bun
16.Make a hole in the center with your thumb and put it in the prepared pan
17.Cover with cling film and let rise in a warm spot until the dough reaches the top of the pan about 1 hour
18.Pre-heat oven to moderate 340°F/170°C/gas mark 3
19.Bake the Savarin for about 40 minutes until the top is golden brown
20.Meanwhile prepare the Syrup
21.When the Savarin is done take it out of the oven, let it cool and remove carefully out of the pan
22.You have two choices now : you can immerse it in syrup right now or you can let it dry out (so it will lose some of his moisture that will be replaced by the syrup) and soak it later on.
23.To immerse it in syrup it is a good idea to place it in the mold you baked it in (I’m afraid a spring-form one wouldn’t work for this) and keep adding ladles of syrup until you see it along the rim of the pan. Or you can just soak it in a big bowl keeping your ladle on top of it so it doesn’t float. Once the Savarin is really well soaked carefully move it on a cooling rack positioned over a pan to let the excess syrup drip
24.The soaked Savarin gains in flavor the next day
25.Whatever you decide the day you want to serve it glaze it and fill the hole with your filling of choice and decorate it. You can serve the Savarin with some filling on the side
26.Enjoy it !

Vanilla-Pear Syrup

1 liter of Tea (vanilla pear)
225gr of Sugar

Heat up the water, let the tea infuse for 10 minutes, than pour it in a sauce pan with the sugar. Bring it to the boil and keep an eye on it for 5 minutes, than remove to cool.

Chocolate Mousse

20gr of Butter
180gr of Dark Chocolate
1 Tablespoon of Milk
10cl of Cream
3 Eggs
15gr of Sugar

Leave the butter out, for it to reach room temperature. Break the chocolate to small pieces, and transfert it to a bowl.
Heat up the cream and milk until it boils, then pour over the chocolate and whisk for a couple of minutes. Add small cubes of butter and keep whisking.

Separate the egg yolks and white. Whisk the egg white to a soft peak with the sugar, in the very end, add the egg yolks and whisk just until combined.
Add a little of the egg to the chocolate mixture to make it lighter, than carefully add the rest and combine gently. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Glaze

Servings: 1 savarin

Ingredients
2 tablespoons (30 ml) apricot Jam
2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1.In a saucepan mix jam and water and warm up
2.When the savarin is cool and soaked brush it with the glaze

Storage & Freezing Instructions/Tips:
You can store the dried savarin for 5 days in a closed container. If you have soaked it cover well with cling foil and store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Additional Information:
Folding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta2_h6Qogp0

Garlic and other ingredients (but mostly garlic)

I've often shared here my questionning about having a sense of belonging, about what official paper may say, compared to how I feel and how strange and scary the "national pride" turns out to be these days...
After weeks of avoiding watching most of the news, for it being filled with hate and anger, France finally did something good. I couldn't be more grateful for the women and men who fought to make this law pass, to become, as a friend of mine said, a civilized country.

But, on a lighter note, I do have something very french about me: my love for garlic!!! Yes, it makes your breath smells for hours and it's not the best pick for a recipe on a romantic evening, but who cares when it's so good. It's has been used for centuries for both food and medecine in many cultures. And also, I think it's worth mentionning that it's a great way to keep Vampires away!

So when you use ingredients with a mellow flavor, such as spinach or shrimps, like in this recipe, there is no better way to kick it up a notch with some garlic. If you have everything in your pantry, this can be made under 15 minutes, even by someone as slow as me. So no excuses here, let's all have garlicky breath for the evening!

Spinach Garlic and Shrimps Mie Noodles

Serves 2

80gr Mie Noodles
80gr Spinach (just steamed and shredded)
80gr Shrimps
3 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tablespoons Sunflower Seeds
Sunflower Oil
Rice Vinegar
Soy Sauce

In a non-sticky pan, with no fat, roast the sunflower seeds until there have a nice golden color and set aside.

Heat up some water, bring it to the boil than take it off the heat, add the mie noodles in the water, place the lid on and leave it like that for about 5 minutes.

In the same pan you roasted the sunflowers, on a high heat, pour in about a tablespoon of rice vinegar and soy sauce then add the shrimps to glaze them. Add a bit of sunflower oil, the spinach and the crushed cloves of garlic, stir to combine.

Add the drained mie noodles with just a bit of the water it cooked in. Serve with the roasted sunflower seeds and add soy sauce to your taste.