Lamb Liver Risotto with Sage & Marsala

This was our second time cooking risotto and as the first time it was a success! It turned out delicious. I love liver and the combination with fresh sage and the Marsala wine that it is cooked with made this recipe taste wonderful. If you do not have Marsala use red wine, the taste will change but will definitely turn out as good. All you need for a perfect risotto is patience, it takes between 20-30 minutes to cook a good risotto and you have to keep stirring all the way to make sure the rice soaks up all the stock. So do have a go at the recipe. For 4 people you will need...

• 1.5 litres boiling water
• 2 vegetable stock pots (or cubes)
• 300g Arborio rice
• 250g lamb liver, cut into small pieces
• 6 fresh sage leaves
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 celery stick, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 100ml Marsala wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 60g (½ cup/½ stick) butter
• 60g grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper

How to...

1. Start by preparing the stock. In a large pan dissolve the stock pots or cubes in the boiling water, bring back to the boil and turn off the heat.
2. In an other small pan put 50g of the butter and the sage leaves and heat up until the butter has melted. Add the chopped liver, season with salt & pepper, stir well and cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. 
3. Now add the Marsala to the liver and cook on high heat until all liquid has disappeared. Remove from heat, remove the sage leaves and set aside.
4. In a large heavy based frying pan or pan (I prefer a frying pan because it spreads the heat evenly during cooking), add the olive oil, carrot, onion and celery and cooked covered on low to medium heat until soft, about 10-15 minutes. 
5. Now add the rice turn the heat to medium and toast the rice for a couple of minutes stirring continuously. 
6. Add a cup of the vegetable stock whilst constantly stirring until all stock has been absorbed by the rice, this takes about 2 minutes. 
7. From now on, keep adding the remaining stock ½ cup at a time, always adding the next one when the previous one has been completely absorbed by the rice.
8. After you have used half of the stock, stir in the cooked livers and continue adding the remainder of the stock until all stock has been used. This process took me about 25-30 minutes.
9. After all the stock is absorbed, stir in the grated parmesan and the last 10g of butter. Serve immediately!!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Pineapple & Coconut Kebabs

Watching afternoon TV, I felt like a sweet treat but remembered that I did actually promise myself not to have sugary treats during weekdays and so far I have stuck to it. So, we had a giant pineapple sat on the kitchen floor (that is where we leave it to ripen) and thought that is quite sweet. Obviously, for myself munching on just freshly chopped pineapple is not enough so I came up with these sweet and delicious kebabs. Very quick and easy to prepare and cook you will have a great healthy, sweet treat in minutes. You can used canned pineapple chunks if you like but believe me fresh ripe pineapple is so so good, so do try and get your hands on a fresh pineapple. They are also great to grill on the BBQ to finish a great meal. Give them a go...for 8 kebabs you will need...

• 32 large pieces fresh ripe pineapple
• 6 tablespoons desiccated coconut
• ¼ teaspoon mixed spice
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 bamboo skewers

How to... 

1. In a bowl or plate mix the coconut, mixed spice and cinnamon well. 
2. Roll the pineapple pieces in the coconut/spice mixture and put 4 pineapple pieces on every skewers.
3. Grill on a hot grill pan or BBQ for a couple of minutes on each side until slightly charred.
4. Serve.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Meatloaf

Meatloaf needs no introduction whatsoever. According to Wikipedia, meatloaf originated in Europe, mainly in Germany and Belgium and is also closely related to Dutch meatball. Although, in the 5th century Roman cookery collection called Apiciusas, minced meat was mentioned. The infamous American meatloaf has its origins in scrapple, a mixture of ground pork and cornmeal served by German-Americans in Pennsylvania since Colonial times. Actually, the contemporary version of the American meatloaf has been a must on every American cookbook since the late 19th century. In our version we used only beef but feel free to mix two or three types of meat like lamb or even pork. We found this recipe when we got married in one of Amanda's cookbooks and we adapted it and made it our own ever since. Just give our version a try and you will love it. We serve it with a kind of sweet and sour tomato sauce. So for a loaf you will need...

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 green pepper, finely diced [optional]
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1kg minced beef
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs [we used Panko]
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Freshly ground pepper

• 1 cup tomato passata
• 1 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp vinegar
• About 4-5 baby onions, boiled, to serve

How to...

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 
2. In a small pan heat the butter and fry the onion, green pepper [if using] and garlic until soft. When done set aside to cool a bit.
3. In a large mixing bowl put the beef, cooked onion, pepper & garlic, beaten egg, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, oregano and black pepper. Mix well with your hands until well mixed (if you do not like messing your hands up use a wooden spoon) but I believe using your hands will infuse the meat with all the flavours.
4. Now transfer the meat mixture into a loaf pan and press down with your hands. Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour and 15 minutes.. 
5. In the meantime, put the passata, vinegar, sugar and mustard in a small pan and heat through. Set aside.
6. When the loaf is done, drain all the excess fat and carefully invert upside down on a serving plate, top with the tomato sauce and onions. Serve hot!!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Tuna Empanada Galician style - Empanada gallega de atún

Empanadas are quite common on dinner tables all over the Hispanic world. in Spain they are usually baked as large pies and cut into squares and can be served as tapas. In Latin America, empanadas are small pies with different fillings. Originally empanadas came from the Spanish regions of Galicia & Leon but basically became popular all around the whole world. I had this Galician empanada when I went to Spain a couple of years ago and I had to recreate it over here as it was so good. It can be served either hot or cold. I used two sheets of pre-made pastry which makes things way easier. So give it a go and we're quite sure you will try it again! You will need.... 

• 2 ready to roll shortcrust pastry sheets
• 2 large or 3 medium red sweet peppers, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon pimentón dulce (sweet paprika)
• 1 teaspoon pimentón ahumado (smoked paprika)
• 2 cans tuna chunks (in oil), drained
• Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
• Handful green olives, stoned and chopped
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil mixed with a pinch paprika, for brushing on final empanada

How to...

1. Pour oil into a fry pan over medium heat and add in garlic. Cook it for 2 minutes, until golden. Then add in onion,pepper, paprikas, tomato paste, salt & pepper to taste and cook until onions and peppers are soft, about 10-15 minutes.
2. Take off the heat and let cool. Once cool, add in tuna, olives and parsley and mix well.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C
4. Roll out the first pastry sheet and spread the tuna/veg mixture in the middle, leaving about one inch from the sides. Crumble the eggs on top and cover with the other pastry sheet. Seal the edges well with a fork and baste the top with the oil/paprika mixture and snip the empanada with scissors with in three or four places (so as steam can escape).
5. Bake for 25 minutes until reddish golden. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Kawlata bix-Xikel tal-Majjal - Maltese Vegetable Soup with Pork Shank

For the majority of Maltese people, this is heaven in a bowl. It is a simple dish made out of the freshest vegetables and meat. If you are not so keen on the meat bit, just eliminate the pork shank, although this has now turned into another recipe as a Kawlata  without meat is called Minestra. Anyway, I could not resist when we got our vegetables box delivered and saw all that colourful and fresh produce in front of me, I had to prepare a good old Maltese vegetable soup. When we do this, we do a huge pot of it and in fact the amount of ingredients that we prepared for it were enough to fill a very large pot. After we just freeze what is left in portions, although if eating during the following days just store it in the fridge for a couple of days and reheat as necessary. In Malta it is traditional to serve it with grated cheese and Maltese crusty bread. The best thing about this soup is that when I chop the vegetables I chop them roughly to give the soup a very rustic look :) Also, slow cooking makes sure that all the flavours infuse together. We use the a cured pork shank for this soup, this can also be found labelled Ham Hock or Ham Shank here in England. It gives the soup a delicious flavour and when the soup is cooked, you can flake the meat it in the soup as Amanda likes it or else after having a bowlful [or two] of soup, eating it on the side with some bread. Heaven!! Well, enjoy making it, the ingredients list is very versatile and the amounts can be changed depending on the size of the pot. For a huge pot you will need...

• 1 Pork/Ham shank
• 3 large Potatoes, roughly diced
• ½ butternut squash or 500g pumpkin, diced
• 1 small Cabbage, chopped
• 1 courgette or Marrow, diced
• 4 small Onions, split into 4 pieces
• 1 small Cauliflower, split into florets
• 4 Carrots, diced
• 1 Turnip or ½ a swede, diced
• 100g Pulse mix or yellow split peas (pre-soaked overnight or longer)
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 vegetable or pork stock cubes or stockpots 
• 75g of small shaped pasta such as ditalini
• Salt & pepper
• 2 litres of water

How to...

1. To start with, put the pulse mix or yellow split peas in a small pan cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Drain and set aside. 
2. At the bottom of the large pot, put the shank, skin part down and then add all the other ingredients, apart from the pasta. Give the pot a stir with a wooden spoon. 
3. Bring to the boil on a medium heat and then turn heat to low and simmer for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. About 10-15 min before turning off heat, add the pasta and cook until pasta is done. Serve with grated cheese and some crusty bread!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Green Olive Dip

In Malta as is all of the Mediterranean for that matter, olives are part of our daily diet. We use them in salads, pizza toppings, sandwiches, stuffed, to produce olive oil and more. In this tasty and quick recipe we just whizzed up a delicious dip, paste, pâté, tapenade, call it whatever you like. You can serve this at a dinner party with some crackers, use it in salads or even in recipes like our delicious Pasta & Aubergine Bake. Olives are very healthy, in fact they are a great source for Vitamin E and they are great for snacking. Give this recipe a go and am quite sure that everyone at home will love it. You will need...

• 300g green pitted olives, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• A small bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil

How to...

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz slowly whilst adding the olive oil until you get the desired consistency. Do not put too much as you do not want it too oily and runny.
2. Serve with bread, crackers or whatever you prefer.

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

Pretzels - Laugenbrezeln

One of Amanda's favourite breads/snacks, Pretzels are delicious German bread that some say were first baked by German monks long time ago. Their toppings vary from sweet to savoury, coated or sprinkled. We prefer the traditional savoury ones sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Personally I thought that pretzels are hard to prepare but after doing them for the first time I can confirm that they are easy to prepare. We prepared them know to commemorate the start of the Oktoberfest season in Germany, we also prepared some Obatzda, a German Camembert based spread which is served with the Pretzels. We will post the recipe for Obatzda in our next post. Give these home-made Pretzels a go and you and all your loved ones will love them. You can top them up with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or even grated cheese. If you love them sweet you can dip them in melted chocolate...why the heck not!! So, for about 10 medium sized Pretzels you will need...

• 500g plain flour
• 1 packet instant yeast (7g)
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• 350ml lukewarm milk (2 minutes in the microwave)
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1½ litres water
• 2 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda

• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

How to...

1. In a large bowl mix the flour, yeast and sugar. Add the milk and salt and knead into a sticky dough (you might want to flour your hands). Knead for 5 minutes, put back into the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm/dry place until doubled in size, about an hour.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead for about 10 minutes and shape into a 20cm sausage shaped roll.
3. Cut 10 equal pieces from the roll and re-roll into long strands. Shape the pretzel by twisting the ends towards the centre of the strand.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
5. In a large pot, bring the 1½ litres of water with the bicarbonate of soda to a rolling boil, leave to boil for about 10 minutes. Now carefully drop each pretzel into the boiling water separately, leave for about 30 seconds and take them out with a slotted spoon. Put them on a baking tray covered with greaseproof/baking paper and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Repeat the process for the remaining nine pretzels. 
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes.
7. Serve warm
8. Enjoy!!

R&A

Penne alla Carbonara

This is how a proper Carbonara should be. This is a rustic pasta dish that comes from Rome although its origin is questionable as some Italians say it came from the Umbria region, some say it comes from the Lazio region and some say that it was invented by an inventor from Naples from the Campana region. Anyway, whatever the provenance it is a very tasty dish and a very quick and easy way to flavour your pasta. We used penne but spaghetti go very well with this type of sauce as well. If you do not have pecorino Romano you may use Grana padano or Parmegiano Reggiano. Make sure you use free range eggs so you get a lovely yellowy colour. The original recipe uses guanciale which similar to pancetta only that guanciale comes from the cheek of the pig (guancia means cheek in italian hence the name) and pancetta comes from the belly of the animal (pancia means belly in italian hence the name). Give it a go! For 4 people you will need...

• 300g penne
• 4 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
• 100g grated pecorino Romano
• 150g Guanciale or pancetta, diced

How to...

1. Start by cooking the pasta al dente. 
2. Cook the guanciale or pancetta in a hot pan (no oil is required as guanciale and/or lardons have enough fat on them) until crispy.
3. When the pasta is cooked, drain it but leave a little cooking liquid with the pasta to avoid having a dry pasta dish. Cover and set aside.
4. Start making the sauce by whisking the egg yolks and one whole egg in a bowl. Whisk until they are combined well. Add the cheese and combine well with the eggs. Now add the guanciale or pancetta. Mix again and add everything to the cooked pasta.
5. Mix slowly until all the pasta is covered with the sauce and serve.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Parmigiana di Melanzane - Italian Aubergine & Parmesan Bake

This recipe originates from Sicily (although some say it comes from Naples and some even say it comes from Parma). It is a sort of lasagne but using slices of gorgeous grilled aubergine instead of pasta. Parmigiana is one of our favourite dishes and it ignites your Mediterranean taste buds with every bite you munch on!! So here goes our take on this delicious recipe...you will need...

• 4 large aubergines, sliced lengthwise in 1cm slices
• 4 large vine tomatoes, sliced and deseeded
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes [polpa]
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• Fresh basil leaves
• 2 [x125g] mozzarella balls, sliced
• 100g parmesan, grated
• Ground black pepper
• Olive oil
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• Coarse sea salt

How to...

1. Put the sliced aubergines in a colander across each other and sprinkle with salt between the layers. Put the colander in a bowl or sink and leave covered with a plate for about 90 minutes to remove the bitter juices from the aubergines.
2. In the meantime prepare the sauce by gently frying the onion and garlic until soft and transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes, about 6 large hand torn basil leaves, the ground black pepper to taste and a glug of olive oil and simmer for about 30 minutes. Set the sauce aside.
3. Wash the aubergine slices from the salt and make sure you pat them dry well by using kitchen paper or a clean tea towel.
4. Pre-heat the oven at 175°C.
5. Start frying the aubergine slices until tender, drain on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.
6. When all the slices are done, start layering the Parmigiana. Start with a layer of tomato sauce, then a layer of aubergines, loads of grated parmesan, about 6 basil leaves, about 6 tomato slices and some sliced mozzarella.
7. Keep repeating this procedure until all ingredients are used, make sure to cross the pattern of the aubergines, for example, if you put the first layer down horizontally, put the next vertically and so on.
8. Finish the top by more parmesan, sliced tomatoes and torn basil leaves.
9. Put into the pre-heated oven and bake for about 35 minutes or until you a nice bubbly golden surface.
10. Leave to stand for about 10-15 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!!

R & A