Tartiflette Savoyarde

I first had Tartiflette from my friend Didier's French restaurant. I instantly fell in love with it. It is French cuisine at its best, butter, cream and obviously Reblochon cheese. Reblochon is a French cheese that comes from the Alps region of Haute-Savoie, originally in the Thônes and Arly valleys. It is made from unpasteurized cow's milk and is very soft in texture and nutty in taste. This simple dish is a delectable unique taste of France and the distinctive taste of Reblochon makes it a must for everyone who loves and appreciates French cuisine. Give it a go and am quite sure you will love it. For 4 people you will need...

• 1 Petit Reblochon (200g), sliced in 1 cm slices
• 200ml crème fraiche
• 500g potatoes
• 150g bacon lardons
• 1 large onion, sliced
• Butter & olive oil for frying

1. Start by cooking potatoes with the skin on. Make sure you do not over cook them. Use a skewer to check if they are cooked. As soon as the skewer goes through take them off the heat. Peel them carefully and slice them in 1cm slices.
   
2. Heat some butter and olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion until translucent and soft. Add the bacon lardons and cook until brown. 
3. Take the onion/bacon mixture out of the pan and in the same pan fry the potato slices until they are golden.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
5. Put half the potato slices in a buttered small oval oven dish  and pour half of the cream and scatter half of the onion/bacon mixture. Repeat the process until you use all the potato slices, cream and onion/bacon mixture.
6. Now to finish the dish, place the Reblochon slices on top and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve hot with a glass of good French white wine.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Baked Imqaret - Maltese Date Pastries

Imqaret are a very famous deep fried sweet Maltese treat. There used to be just one place where Maltese people used to buy them, "il-Gabbana ta' Bieb il-Belt' but later on they could easily be found at village feasts and local markets' mini-stalls. We missed them so much that we had to make our own. We chose to bake them and used already made pastry. If you want to make your own pastry it is quite easy to do and you can always deep fry them!! The deep frying method does give it a unique taste but in my opinion the taste is in the filling. The delicious orange blossom water that we Maltese have been using for ages, from curing a poorly tummy to creating delicious tasty sweet pastries and the use of aniseed give these pastries their unique taste. Try them out, they are exquisite!! We used only 250g dates but feel free to double the amount to make more. You will need...

• 250g dates, pitted and chopped
• 1-2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp orange flower water
• Pinch ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground aniseed
• 1 ready-made sheet shortcrust or sweet pastry
• Flour, for dusting

1. Start by blending all the ingredients, apart from the pastry obviously in a food processor. Add the water bit by bit, you do not want a very liquid mixture. Do leave the mixture a bit lumpy. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
3. Dust your kitchen bench with flour and roll the pastry sheet, using a flour dusted rolling pin roll out the sheet so it becomes thinner. Cut into two long strips, put the mixture in the middle alongside the pastry strip leaving an inch on each so you can seal easily. Wet the edges with some water and cover with the other strip of pastry and seal well, packing the date mixture well. Slice into diamond shapes or slices (see picture) and bake into the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. 
4. Serve hot or cold.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Chicken Miso Ramen チキン味噌ラーメン

We love Asian food and not long ago we went to a Japanese food restaurant and we stuffed ourselves with Japanese food. We also had Ramen which is one of our favourites as it is so filling, warm and such comfort food. We decided to have a go at preparing our own and the result was quite delicious I must say. Amanda and myself loved it. It is quite easy and quick to prepare. Unfortunately we had no Nori seaweed but we used some spinach instead! Ramen is not one dish, it is actually a broth based soup with toppings, usually the broth is either fish or meat based. Make sure you serve it in a large bowl!! Give it a go, it's delicious!! For 3/4 people you will need...

• 1 litre chicken stock
• 500ml pork stock
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 1 thumb sized piece fresh ginger, sliced
• 100g miso paste (white or red miso)
• 3-4 chicken breasts, grilled and sliced
• 2-3 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 200g sweetcorn
• Roasted Sesame seeds
• Some cooked spinach or nori seaweed
• 2 eggs, hard boiled
• 2-3 servings of ramen noodles or 300g Chinese style noodles

1. In a large pot, put all the stocks, ginger slices and miso paste and bring to the boil. Leave it on a slow simmer for about 20 minutes.
2. Cook the noodles as per packet directions, drain and cool down by rinsing under a cold water tap. Set aside.
3. Prepare two or three large soup bowls. Ladle the broth into the bowls until two-thirds full. Drop 100g of cooked noodles in one side of the broth. On the noodles place the sliced chicken breast, add the sweetcorn, chopped spring onions, eggs, sesame seeds and spinach as shown in the picture above.
4. Serve hot!!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Chocolate & Banana Loaf with Flax Seed

We discovered flax seeds not long ago and I must say they have a distinctive taste which I loved. Flax seeds are meant to be very healthy and are classified as a power food. Flax seeds are nothing but Golden Linseed which if bought from health stores as such will cost much cheaper than buying the milled flax seeds. Just freshly grind your own when you need them, they can be used in baking, savoury and sweet dishes, and also to sprinkle on salads. They add quite a crunchy texture, do make sure that you grind them though as all the nutritious stuff is in the seed itself and your body will not absorb the nutrients through the seed. This delicious chocolate banana loaf can be served with a warm cup of tea with or without some cream or even ice-cream!! Give it a go, the unique taste of linseed will give this loaf a delicious flavour. You will need...

• 80ml (1/3 cup) milk
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 225g (1 ¾ cups) strong wholemeal flour
• 65g (½ cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch ground cloves
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 150g (¾ cup) caster sugar
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp flax seeds (linseed), ground
• 1 tbsp porridge oats

1. Start by mixing the milk and vinegar in a small bowl and set aside so it curdles (about 30 minutes)
2. Preheat the oven to 190 deg C. Grease a 9x5 in loaf pan and set aside.
3. In a bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt and set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until creamy and smooth, I used an electric mixer. Mix the mashed bananas, milk/vinegar mixture, olive oil and vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Now mix the contents of the two bowls, add the liquid mix to the dry one and stir until you incorporate all the ingredients into a moist batter. Pour the batter into the loaf tin.
6. Bash the flax seeds into a mortar & pestle or spice grinder and grind coarsely. Spoon the ground seeds on top of the batter and using a clean teaspoon, stir into the batter with a slow movement so as the seeds are in the batter.
7. Sprinkle with the porridge oats and bake in the preheated oven for an hour. Leave to set for 10 minutes, carefully remove the loaf from the tin and then serve warm or let cool completely.
   

Enjoy!!

R&A

Spinach & Mozzarella

I love spinach and this dish is quick and easy to make if you need a quick side dish or a quick snack in my case! In Italy they used to market the frozen version of this dish and that's where the idea came from. Sometimes, my mum used to prepare this for us after we came back from school and always used to ask for a second helping. Give it a go, for two persons as a side or one person as a snack you will need...

• 1 fresh mozzarella ball, diced
• A handful of frozen spinach, defrosted
• A pinch of ground nutmeg
• Salt & pepper, to taste

How to...

1. Squeeze out all the water out of the spinach and put in a pan.
2. Turn the hob on high heat and add the mozzarella dice to the spinach.
3. Add the nutmeg, salt & pepper and stir until the spinach is warm and mozzarella melted. Make sure you keep stirring continuously to avoid the melted cheese from sticking to the pan.
4. Turn off the heat and serve hot!!

Enjoy!!

R&A