Chicken, spinach penne in cream sauce

Sunday is the time of being together and celebrate the end of the week with romantic dinners.  I was thinking and thinking so long what to come up with, because each and every single time I am in the kitchen, the expectations are high. Then suddenly something crossed my mind: something GREEN! This is actually the biggest sin possible in our house. Green...brr.. BUT!  As spinach runs riot over the vegetable garden,  I yielded to the temptation. Well, of course I added chicken to it, to prevent complete shock. And voilá! See a miracle, a success!

Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken breast fillet
• 80 g fresh spinach
• 2 cloves garlic 
• salt, white pepper
• 1 Tbsp. oil 
• 250 ml cooking cream
• 350 g penne 
• water (for cooking pasta)

Directions:

Cut chicken into long stripes. Wash spinach and cut into long stripes as well.

Heat a saucepan over a low heat then add oil. When hot, add chicken. Flavor with salt, pepper and pressed garlic. Simmer it at medium heat for 10-15 minutes. 
Add spinach, and cover the pan. Simmer for another 15 minutes.  

As final touch, add cream and bring to boil.

Fill a large pot to 2/3 with water and wait for the water to boil. Add 1/2 Tbsp. salt and 1/2 Tbsp. oil to it. Cook the penne al dente ("to the tooth" "to the bite").
Now drain the pasta into a colander placed into your kitchen sink. Lift the colander and shake off excess water.

Add pasta to the sauce with chicken and spinach and mix well. Put in a nice bowl and serve hot. 

Chicken rolls stuffed with ham and mushroom in red wine sauce

Once there was a mission to Norway and I was left behind home. What to do? Let's move to the kitchen and create something lovely and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken breast fillet 
• 150m g sliced ham
• 300 g champion
• 1 medium onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 bunch of finely chopped parsley
• 2-3 Tbsp. liquid/melted butter
• 250 ml chicken broth (or bouillon cube mixed with water)
• salt, pepper
• 200-300 ml dry red wine

Directions: 

Take the meat and use a meat mallet to "punch" it tender and to the right thickness (which is less than one centimetre). Rub the tender slices with salt and pepper.

Wash and cut the mushroom into small pieces. According to my experience it is easier to work with small pieces then bigger ones (basically easier to roll).

Chop onion and garlic finely.
Stew the onion in butter over low heat until golden yellow (not brown!). Add mushroom and mix with pressed garlic and finely chopped parsley. Flavour with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until turns into a ragout. Take it onto a plate and let cool.

Lay chicken breasts flat and place a slice of ham then champion ragout in the middle of each breast. Roll the chicken and secure with toothpicks.
Heat some butter in a large sauce pan and place the rolls into it and roast each side of the rolls for a few minutes. One side needs approximately 2-3 minutes. Add remaining mushroom ragout and pour chicken broth and red wine over it.
Cover the saucepan and cook each side for á 10 minutes. If needed, add extra red wine. Flavour the sauce by adding salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Slice up the rolls and sprinkle with 'juice'. Serve on rice bed. 

Chicken satay with peanut sauce

The first thing I learned about Dutch people, that they LOVE Asian and Indonesian food. This recipe is the specialty of my wonderful and beloved partner. I am so thankful to him for teaching me how to make it!

Ingredients: 

For marinading the chicken:

• Chicken breast fillet (ca. 200 g / persn)
• salt, pepper
• garlic powder (or pressed garic)
• 1 pinch ginger powder
• soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• oil (if possible peanut oil)
• bamboo/wooden skewers

For the peanut sauce:

• salt, pepper, garlic powder
• pinch ginger powder
• soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• a few drops of lime juice
• milk
• sugar
• sambal olek or chilli
• peanut butter

Directions:

Cut chicken in pieces. In a mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients of the marinade. Marinate chicken for 1-2 hours.
Thread chicken onto the skewers. Put the sticks in an oven plate. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius grades (350 F). Bake the skewers for about 15-20 minutes. Brush with reserved marinade frequently.
In the meanwhile, start with the sauce. In a large sauce pan, mix the ingredients and bring to boil while constantly stirring. Taste it, and modify the taste according to your taste and habits by adding some extra from one/some of the ingredients.

Serve on rice bed, pour peanut sauce onto the top.

Note: with good weather, grill the skewers in the garden. The smoke makes it taste just perfect.

Fresh vegetables and spicy marinated chicken from the grill

It's BBQ season! Summer time means different things to different people. For you it is maybe the perfect time period to go on vacation, be lazy on the terrace or in the garden or simply just the season of sunshine. For me, summer means barbecue. As often as possible!

Ingredients:

• 250 g champion
• 1 pc.zucchini
• 1 pc. red paprika
• 250 g chicken breast fillet
• salt, pepper, curry powder,
• 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/4 Tbsp. oil

Directions:

Cut chicken into cubes. Make a marinade from the above mentioned ingredients (salt, pepper, curry powder, soy sauce and oil). Marinate the chicken for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
In the meanwhile: cut champion, zucchini and paprika. The small pieces get quicker grilled and look better.
Well... your only thing to do is to put on the grill, set the table and start.
Don't get in panic if it's raining outside. The solution for you is the table grill! Wonderful interactive family event at the dining table. Each member can grill his own food. Fantastic!

Note: if you are using table grill, please, make sure you only put one portion each person on! It ensures the grill doesn't get over loaded and creates a nice long, conversation-filled eating. Use wooden grill spoons to avoid scratching.

Bavarian cream (Bayrisch Creme)

My mom was born on 8th Mai. This cake is meant be a tribute to her big day with a tornado like kitchen helper next to me.

Mom, happy birthday! Wishing you many years of health and happiness to come!

For the recipe, I would like to say hereby a big thank to my ex co-workers from Munich. My going away gift included a German recipe book (Peter Ploog: Bayerische Küche). In this book I happened to find this recipe. Thank you guys, you are awesome! 

Ingredients:

• 250 ml cream
• 125 ml milk
• 1/2 inside of a vanilla bean
• 3 sheets of gelatin (transparent)
• 2 egg yolks
• 50 g powdered sugar

Directions:

Whip cream until stiff peaks form and set aside.
Cut open vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Add bean, seeds, and milk to a pot. Bring to a boil. Add gelatin to 1 dl cold water.
Mix the sugar with egg yolks until creamy. Pour some boiling milk by constantly stirring into the egg mixture. This will heat the eggs without scrambling them. Put the milk back over the heat and put the egg mixture into the milk, while  stirring constantly. Bring milk&egg mixture to a boil while constantly stirring again. Add gelatin and mix well.
Allow the mixture to cool to the point where it begins to thicken.
Fold in the whipped cream then put the whole mixture/cream into a nice pot.
Allow to set in the refrigerator for a few hours.
According to the original recipe, garnish with raspberry sauce. Unfortunately I didn't have it home, so I used red cranberry sauce instead. Worked well.

Tuna pate

Fish rarely gets on our dining table as for the fact that my beloved one doesn't really show enthusiasm for it.  But I love it, so sometimes I trick him and smuggle a few bites -masquerading it - in front of his nose. Sometimes the trick works, and food ends up in his stomach with the compliment: "Hm.. that's not that bad..." So happened with grandma's recipe tuned up with new ingredients as well. Happiness is in the air!

Ingredients:

• 1 can of tuna
• salt, pepper
• 1 Tbsp. margarine
• 1/2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
• 2 drops of lime juice
• fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, pressed

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients, and stir it until smooth. Put into refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Serve on fresh white bread or take a piece of crackling scones. Slice it into 3 and fill the layers with the paste and serve it as a sandwich.

Honey BBQ chicken wings with home-made French fries

Nice weather and weekend again. Nothing is better then to enjoy all the beauties of nature and season with the both of you, sitting on the terrace and having a wonderful dinner. 

Ingredients:

• 10 chicken wings 
• 2 cloves of garlic minced 
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder 
• 2 Tbsp. of lime juice 
• 3 Tbsp. BBQ sauce 
• 1/2 Tbsp. chili (replace with tomato if you don’t like hot) 
• 2 Tbsp. honey

Directions: 

Make a chicken- marinade from all the ingredients. Marinade the wings for at least 1 hour (1 night would be the best).

Put the wings on the grill and grill from at least 15 minutes until golden brown. Brush with remaining marinades.

Serve with fresh home- made French fries or on a bed of salad such as cucumbers, lettuce and cabbage.

Crispy Corn Flake Chicken Nuggets

Awesome kid's snack and lovely finger food. My family loves it.

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken breast fillet
• 2-3 eggs
• flour
• salt, pepper
• pulverized corn flakes
• palm fat for deep-frying 

Directions:

Slice the chicken crosswise into nugget-sized chunks. Flavor the meat with salt and pepper.
Prepare 3 deeper boards. One for the flour, other one for the eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper and the third one for the pulverized corn flakes.
Put the chicken chunks first into flour, roll them in it, then take them into beaten eggs. The last step is to move the (from the eggs a little bit sticky) nuggets into the corn flakes.
Preheat palm fat (or frying oil/sunflower oil/etc.) to 180 Celsius grades (350 F) and fry the nuggets until they get golden brown.

Serve with French fries and dipping sauce.

Peppered pork ragout with peas- Borsos tokány

This dish probably originated from Transylvania, which used to belong to Hungary long long time ago. It is said that the recipe originates from the time before red paprika appeared in Hungarian cuisine. Originally it was based on lamb meat, later on this place was taken by pork or beef. Nowadays, you can actually use all kind of meat you like. This dish is strangely similar to Hungarian stew (pörkölt) but the meat is not cut in cubes but stripes (=in old Hungarian language it means tokány). The another difference is the absence of red paprika powder and significantly much more ground pepper is added. Not to mention peas I added to enrich the meal.

Ingredients:

• 500 g pork fillet
• 2-3 tsp. lard
• 1 small cup of sour cream (tejföl)
• bacon
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 3 small pieces bay- leaves
• salt, pepper
• flour
• water (on demand)

Directions:

Cut meat and bacon into slices.
Fry bacon on the pan. Add the meat slices, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Sauté for a few minutes. 
Press garlic and add to the ragout. At last add peas and cook it together until cooked. If necessary add a little bit of water. 

Mix flour with a small cup of sour cream (tejföl) and thicken the ragout. 
Boil it up another time then serve hot with rice. 

Thai chicken nuggets with sweet chili sauce

Just because it is not hot or it is raining outside, we don't have to stop enjoying the pleasure of grilling. Here there is an example to illustrate how to make something delicious and tasty withing seconds. Whether it's an easy appetizer or a main course, you surely will score good points at your family and friends.

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken fillet
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 pinch chili (Erős Pista)
• salt, pepper, ground ginger
• 1 tbls. peanut oil
• 1 pc. double baked bread (Dutch toast)

Elkészítés:

Get your mincing machine. Cut the chicken and onion into pieces, peal the garlic cloves and wash the parsley and remove the leaves from the stem. All of them
Grind all of them (meat, garlic, onion and parsley) then mix them with the rest of the ingredients. (Note: crush the Dutch toast with your hands into powder!). Mix until homogeneous and easily formable.
Form small nuggets with wet hands and grill them for 5-10 minutes.
Serve hot with sweet chili sauce.

Semolina cake

Anything with semolina says “childhood” and “kids” to me… BUT! After sniffing on the google for a few hours, I had to realize that this deliciously easy and uniquely impressive cake is extremely popular in many countries in the world, especially Italy, UK, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and some Arabic countries. This recipe of mine is the combination of the original Italian variant and my mom's secret recipe.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 50 g unsalted butter
• 75 g flour
• 12,5 ml water
• sugar
• pinch salt

Ingredients for the semolina pudding:

• semolina
• 300ml milk
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 package of vanilla sugar

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients of the dough and knead it until you get a homogeneous dough. Form a ball of it then put it in the refrigerator for an hour (covered in cling film).
After one hour take your pastry board. Sprinkle it with flour and roll out the cookie dough with a rolling pin. Cut out the form and size of your cake tin (a round springform pan is just perfect). This layer of dough is going to be the bottom of our cake so you have to line the bottom of the tin with it. 
In the meanwhile: mix all the ingredients for the semolina pudding in a sauce pan. Cook it on medium heat until it gets thicker.

When cooled off, pour on the dough and spread and disperse in the pan. Use the rest of the dough for decorating your cake (before it goes into the oven) - e.g. flowers and leaves.

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius degrees (350 F) and bake for 25 minutes.
Serve cold or warm with icing sugar, fruit syrup or chocolate sauce.

Authentic Hungarian chicken ragout soup

I felt a little sick so the last few days I spent in bed. This 'experience' motivated me to surprise myself with a soup that makes me stronger again.

Ingredients:

• carrot
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• green peas
• salt, pepper
• parsley
• chicken fillet
• chicken bouillon
• oil
• vermicelli

Directions:

Wash and cut the vegetables into pieces. Heat the oil in a large pot. Turn heat down to medium and add the chicken (chopped into cubes). Add salt and pepper. Keep stirring and sauté for a few minutes.
Add the chopped vegetables (except for peas otherwise it gets overcooked and falls apart!). Don't forget to lightly salt them as well.
Add the chicken bouillon (or water mixed with bouillon cube). Bring soup to a very slow simmer, but don't allow to come to rolling boil. Cook it this way for about 1,5-2 hours or until meat is soft. Don't cover your pot.
After about 1,5 hours add parsley and peas. In the last 5 minutes add vermicelli. If needed, adjust with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Polish milk soup with home made noodles

The milk soup is originally a traditional Polish soup, which was - just like the spaghetti carbonara- food of poor people. My grandma used to make it for me, I loved it since I was small. There is also a sweet version of it, but the salty one rather fits my taste.

Ingredients:

• 1000 ml milk
• 200 ml water
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• salt to taste
• 1 egg
• flour

Directions:

Mix egg, salt and flour in a large bowl. The amount of flour: you must have a hard dough. Rasp the dough onto a board of salver. Strew with flour so that it doesn't stick and let it dry.

Boil water with milk, sugar and salt in a sauce pan. Add noodles and cook until it tastes cooked. Serve hot.

Cheese cream soup with garlic

If I have a late breakfast, I am never hungry with lunch. To make sure I can survive until dinner time I often cook a quick soup for myself. You can also serve it as a soup/main course with dinner of course.

Ingredients:

• 500 ml chicken bouillon
• 1 tbls. oil
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 3 liquid cheese
• 150 ml thick cooking cream (can be omitted)

Directions:

Press the garlic with a garlic press. Heat oil in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the garlic paste and cook just until the paste begins to color, stirring constantly. Add about 100 ml chicken bouillon and when it starts boiling, add liquid cheese. Cook until it gets homogeneous and add the rest of the chicken bouillon. Boil it for another 10-15 minutes (stirring constantly). Serve hot with croûtons (=piece of sautéed or rebaked bread, often cubed and seasoned).

Fruit shake

Another try to start a completely healthy life. Fridge is full of vitamin bombs. How to deal with the overdose? Serve a delicious and healthy fruit shake instead of giving a coke to everybody.

Ingredients:

• 1 mango
• 2 bananas
• 1 kiwi
• 2 mandarins
• 1 orange
• 1 small package of yogurt
• 100 ml milk
• honey

Directions:

Wash and peel the fruit. Cut it into small cubes. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until just smooth. Let it cool in the refrigerator then divide the mixture between 2 cups and top with fresh mandarin.

Advice: on hot summer day you can combine the shake with ice

Strawberry - banana shake

Before we go on traveling or holiday we always make a plan how to empty the fridge the quickest and best. Today I looked around in the fridge and only found some lonely bananas, a few pieces of strawberries and a couple of mandarins. I didn't have time to bake, so decided to make a shake. Alright. How to make it? No yogurt, no ice home. Let's improvise! I've got milk. So voilá.

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas
• 2 mandarins
• 3-4 pcs. strawberries
• 1 big tsp. honey
• 200 ml milk
• 1 pinch cinnamon

Directions:

Wash and cut the fruit. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until just smooth. Divide the mixture between 2 cups and top with fresh banana or strawberry.

Banana- peanut butter shake

I like banana. And I like peanut butter even more. This passion helped me to create this drink by adding extra orange flavor. 

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas cut in pieces
• 4 oranges, washed
• 4 tsp. peanut butter
• 250 ml yogurt
• 2 tsp. milk

Directions:

Cut one banana into slices and put them on a baking paper into the freezer for about an hour. Rasp 2 orange peels and squeeze the juice of 2 oranges. 
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until just smooth. Divide the mixture between 2 cups and top with a frozen banana slices or rasped orange peel. 

Summer sandwich

An idea how to create a delicious and healthy breakfast even on the busiest days.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of toast bread
• Philadelphia cream cheese
• 4 slices smoked ham
• zucchini (tiny sliced)
• sandwich skewers

Directions:

Roast the bread slices. Spread cream cheese on bread slices. Put ham and zucchini on them and your sandwich is done. Decorate with sandwich skewers and serve.

Make your own lavender tea

Herbal teas, which have grown immensely in popularity, can be made from herbs grown in a backyard, patio, or kitchen herb garden. It is so easy. And lavender is not only a popular aromatherapy herb, but also a flavorful herb for tea.

Ingredients:

• •1 tsp. white or green tea
• 1/2 tsp. dried lavender flower
• •3 dl water
• honey

Directions:

Mix the dried lavender flowers with your chosen tea and put them into a herb ball. Boil water. Place the herbs in the cup first, then pour in the water. Cover the cup and leave for 5 minutes before straining out the herbs and drinking.

Home made herbal honey with lavender

I am so happy for finding this video on youtube. It took me pretty long time to get ready, but it was absolutely worth waiting so long. The result is awesome! (although the color of mine is much lighter then the one's on the video).

 

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFVKJl_0evA 

Ingredients:

• dried lavender flowers
• honey

Elkészítés:

Add dried lavender flowers into a jar and fill it up until ¼. Then fill up the jar completely with honey and stir it with a chop stick / wooden spoon.

Close the jar with its top and stir the honey each and every single day for one week. Then allow you honey to infuse for two more weeks. (It is really worth to wait that long).

Before using, filter it!