They used to call me Prawn-Face!!!

What you see here is:
Garlic prawns on baby spinach with potato halves!!!

It was pretty fast to do...
Which is essential to my cooking because I truly believe that the cooking shouldnt take longer than the enjoying!!! Or as one of my professors would say: It's a bad deal if the In-Put is bigger than the Out-Put!!!

Ingredients:
- frozen prawn (about 150 - 200g/person)
- garlic
- butter (or to make things simple... just garlic butter)
- different herbs (basil, parsley... etc)
- baby potatoes (about 2-3 per person)
- baby spinach salad
- french dressing
- country fries seasoning

Alright... boil the baby potatoes until they are soft enough... usually takes about 10 minutes!! In the meantime add the garlic butter and the herbs into a large frying pan... heat it up... chop the garlic as finely as you can... add it to the frying pan... add the prawns...
Also cut the potatoes into halves, season them with the country fries seasoning & pepper and add them to the buttery garlic sauce and the prawns!! Let it all cook for a little while (about 4 minutes) and take in the garlic flavour!! This should keep you safe from vampires by the way!!
Get the baby spinach out on the plates... pour some (very little) french dressing over it... top it with the prawns and have the potatoes on the side!!!
Et voilà!!! Enjoy!!!

Summer-(H)eat

Sorry!!! It has been quite a while...
I've been lazy with my cooking and my kitchen experiments...
been eating whatever was in my fridge without mixing or matching it!!!
Summer is here.... and the heat is so bad that I haven't even felt like eating at all....

So here's a summer recipe:
Easy, quick, cheap and yummie!!!! Just the way I like it!!!

Chilli-Tuna Pasta Salad!!!!

All you need is:
-Pasta (I prefer the whole-grain Farfalle: it's healthier and looks pretty!!)
-corn from can
-tuna from can
-tomato
-cucumber
-chilli oil
-yoghurt salad dressing

Cook the pasta and let it cool down.... In the meantime chop the tomatoes and cucumber into small squares (or hearts or stars or sneakers... etc)... mix the tuna with the chilli oil....
then add everything from the list above to the pasta noodles...
Mix!!! Let it cool in the fridge for a bit!!! Et voilà... Enjoy!!!

Ham, Cheese & Pear on Toast

The combination of meat and fruit is one of my favourites - fish with orange sauce, bacon with bananas and now, my new favourite...ham with pear.

Layer mayonnaise, ham, cheese, bits of pear, ham, cheese, mayonnaise on crunchy toasted bread. Two different types of salty, one sweet crunch and creamy delicious-ness makes for one big Yum!

Following Nici's last post...I just wanted to state to the world that Nici makes amazing carbonara! Everytime she comes down, my sister tries to get her to make it.

On another note, hello everyone!

It's 4.30pm, and I have yet to eat having only woken up 3 hours ago. I couldn't figure out what to eat until I found this video:



Mmmmmm...Soft-boiled eggs on toasted bread with a light Marmite spread. I love bread, I could eat bread and sandwiches allllllll day.

So I boil the water for the eggs, add a bay leaf for some aroma. Wait 4 minutes then put the eggs in cold water for awhile to stop the cooking. In the meantime, I put 4 slices of bread in the toaster.

Marmite is thick and sometimes, it gets spread unevenly resulting in blotches of saltiness and unsatisfying blankness in the bread. What my mum used to do and i follow is to pre-mix the butter with Marmite so that it spreads much better. So I spread the Marmite butter on warm toasty bread (I like mine crispy outside and soft inside), layer the soft yummy eggs on top, sprinkle pepper and some chilli flakes.

Mambo Italiano!!!

okay here's the thing... i loooove cooking because i feel like its the one thing that cant go wrong, the one thing i can actually control... its so comforting to know that you can come home after a long crappy day and cook yourself something nice & delicious that'll make you feel better and forget about all those nasty suckers out there...

so... pasta is great comfort food... of course: chocolate is too... but you cant have chocolate for dinner everytime you feel a little stressed!!! not saying you cant do it ever.... i think there have been days i've practically lived on chocolate....
anyway... i'm rambling... what i'm trying to say is: here's a great pasta recipe!!! =)

Pasta with Chilli-Mascarpone Sauce:

Ingredients: (for appr. 2)
-250g Fusilli noodles
-5-8 slices of Parma Ham
-spoon of olive oil
-3 spoons of mascarpone
-2 spoons of cream
-chilli powder
-some basil leaves
-some parmesan

cook noodles

heat the olive oil in a seperate pan and add the finely cut stripes of parma ham... stir for about 3-4 minutes... then add the mascarpone and the cream... use whatever seasoning you want.. some chilli powder... salt... pepper... what your heart desires!!!

pour sauce over finished cooked noodles... and sprinkle the cut basil leaves and the parmesan over it!!! et voilà!!! comfort food!! =)



the mascarpone is pretty much the base for the sauce... you can change the parma ham... i've used mushrooms for example in this photo instead... or you can use chives instead of basil...
i dont think its possible to mess up pasta sauces... making them is as easy as spreading butter on your bread!!!

Forget Baconnaise... try this!!!

Do you love bacon? Do you love how the smell of it says: "It's Sunday late morning! Time to brunch!"? Do you love how the taste of it makes you feel a tiny wee bit guilty... because something that is this yummie has got to have a catch?
We all know what the catch of bacon is... fat & high cholesterol...

But screw that... I'm a bacon-lover...

Here's the solution!!!
We'll combine the bacon with something healthy... a fruit... which will make up for the unhealthy bacon!! "negativ" plus "positive" equals neutral...
Ergo: bacon with fruit is neither bad nor good for you... its just plain tasty!!! =)

Alrite... usually people use dried dates... i prefer to use prunes... but be creative... you can even use apricots!!
So what you do is:
You wrap the prunes in bacon... poke a toothpick through the whole thing to make it hold together.... and then bake them in the oven at about 180 C〫... for about 15 minutes!!!



I like serving this as a starter... ya know... something to welcome people!!! It's such an interesting clash of tastes!!! Plus: it is sooo easy, sooo fast and really affordable...

So.... get me some bacon... or die frying!!! =)
Enjoy people
Love, Nic

Ooh la la... c'est si bon!!!

Alrite People... New week... New kitchen-adventure!!!

This time: Tomato-Coconut-Soup!!!

Easy. Fast. Cheap. Yummmmm!!!



You'll be needing: (for 2-3 people)
-canned sliced tomatoes (400g)
-the juice of 2 fresh oranges
-1 can of coconut milk (appr. 250ml)
-as many prawns as you like... since i'm lazy i buy the frozen prawns, which have already been peeled

All you gotta do is basically just dump everything into a pan and bring to boil and season it with some salt, pepper and chilli powder!!!
Experiment!!! Add more orange juice for a more fruity taste!!!



Bon Appetit!!!!!! =)
love, Nic