Lorsque la bergerie italienne s’était trouvée bien vide, avec mon coloc grec nous avions fait des “cooking fights” et mis nos recettes en ligne sur sheepland sous le titre évocateur Moussaka Vs. Cassoulet. Dans la page “About”, on pouvait lire:

After several years of travel around the globe following the way of the spoon, two highly skilled cooking-ronins fight in a north-Italian kitchen. No rules, no limits.

Battles refereed by an international panel of expert forks are also expected.

Depuis mon coloc est parti vivre à Zaragoza et le blog Albergo est inactif (et bientôt fermé). Pour ne pas perdre toutes ces bonnes recettes, les voici:

Oreillettes (Par Cassoulet - 08 Sep 2007)

What:

• 250 g of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 50 g of melted butter
• 1/4 of a glass of milk
• flower of orange tree (fleur d’oranger) or rhum
• icing sugar

How:

Mix the baking powder and the flour. Make a hole in the center and add the eggs, the butter, the milk, the fleur d’oranger (or rhum).

Knead the dough.

Let it rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hours

Flatten down to 2 mm. Cut strips of 2 cm x 10 cm (around). Fry in 5 mm of oil or deep fry the strips. When cooked, sprinkle with icing sugar.

Broccoli tart (Par Cassoulet - 10 Sep 2007)

What:

• two eggs
• 600-700 g of broccoli
• grana padano
• around 100 ml cooking cream
• 250 g of poultry breast (chicken or turkey)
• garlic, chives
• one pepper (red or yellow to contrast with the broccoli)
• one pasta sfoglia (pâte feuilletée)

How:
Cut the poultry in thin strips (couple of cm x 1 cm x 3-4 mm). Fry it in a pan with some olive oil until it is white and add the chives.

Cut the pepper in strips and cook it in a separate oiled pan with some garlic.

Cook the broccoli in boiled water. Don’t overcook it, you don’t want to make a tart of mashed broccoli. When it’s done, mix the broccoli with the poultry and the pepper.

In a bowl, prepare the eggs as if you were making an omelette. Add the cream, some grana panado and, if you have it, the left over of Moussaka’s tomato sauce (link).

Put the pasta sflogia on a tart dish, prick holes with a fork and place the broccoli-poultry-pepper mixture on it. Place the egg preparation over it and top with some grana panado.

Put in a pre-heated oven for around 15 min at 200C (check it from time to time, you just need to cook the pasta sfoglia)

Gemista (Par Moussaka - 12 Sep 2007)

What:

• 4 tomatoes
• 2 peppers
• 1 onion
• 500gr minced meat (beef and pork mix!)
• 2 cups of rice…
• about 100gr tomato puree
• bit o’ salt
• bit o’ pepper
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• some dried bread (or crushed toasted)
• 2 spoons of olive oil

This one requires quite a bit of time. First, we cut the top off the tomatoes and remove the inside using a teaspoon. pic We keep that in a bowl as we ‘ll be using it later. Do the same with the peppers (only nothing to keep this time)..

Second step is to cook the minced meat. We chop an onion and cook it for a few minutes (3-5) in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Then we add the meat. As soon as it starts getting cooked getting that brown colour, we add the tomato puree. Add a teaspoon of sugar, salt and pepper and cook for about 20mins. The meat is ready!

On to the next step-the rice. Again, pan, bit of olive olive oil, medium fire. Throw in the rice and let it fry for 5mins. Then add the inside of the tomatoes that you kept. Also add 1 and a half cups of water.Let boil until the water goes away. Do not add more water. The rice is only supposed to get half cooked!

After all that, it’s filling time. First mix the minced meat with the half cooked rice. Then with a spoon, fill the tomatoes and the peppers with the mix. Allow for some space for the “cover” of each tomato and pepper. Place them in the cooking tray and spread what is left of the mix through the gaps. Add some olive oil on top of each tomato and pepper, and sprinkle with a little bread. Add a cup of water in the tray an… in it goes!

Let it cook at 160 (celcius!) for about 40 to 60 mins. Enjoy

“French Cottage” pizza (Par Cassoulet - 04 Oct 2007)

What:

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of flour
• couples of black olives
• 1 1/2 cups of warm water
• 4-5 slices of smoked ham
• 4 peppers (mix of yellow and orange ones)
• mozzarella
• one can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• Italian spices (saisoning)

How:

First, peel the peppers.

Cut the peppers in coarse pieces (3-4 per pepper) and broiled them in the oven for around 5 minutes (when parts of the peppers’ skin are burned).

Then put the peppers in ziplocs. When they are cold, just use a knife to remove the skin.

Second, prepare the pizza pasta.

Put the baking powder in 1/2 cup of warm water and wait 30 minutes. Mix the salt and the flour. Make a hole in the center and add the mixture of baking powder and water. Add the rest of water while mixing.

Knead the dough. Let it rest for 2 hours. Enough to make 2 pizze as shown in the first picture.

Third, fill your pizza

Preheat your oven at 450F.

Flatten down the pizza as you like it (the finer it is, the faster the cooking will be). A bottle of wine works fine for this. Spread some flour on the table and bottle to avoid sticking.

Spread the tomatoes. If you are using an European oven (with a good insulation), don’t put too much liquid or your pasta will never be cooked.

Spread the pepper (as they are or after been cut in strips), the ham, the olives, the mozzarella and the Italian saisoning.

Put in a pre-heated oven for around 10-15 min at 450F (check it from time to time, you may also need to adjust the temperature)

Gaïa’s Cuban Fajitas (Par Cassoulet - 05 Oct 2007)

What:

• 3 peppers (yellow, orange, green)
• Mexican cheese
• 1/2 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• garlic powder
• Italian saisoning
• minced chicken breast
• whole wheat tortillas

How:

Cut the peppers in coarse pieces (3-4 per pepper) and broiled them in the oven for around 5 minutes (when parts of the peppers’ skin are burned).

Then put the peppers in ziplocs. When they are cold, just use a knife to remove the skin. Cut in in strips.

In an olive-oiled pan, cook the chicken with some garlic powder and the Italian saisoning.

When the meat starts to be roasted, add the peppers and the diced tomatoes. Stew it for 10-15 minutes.

Put some Mexican cheese on a tortilla, spread the meat-pepper mixture on top of it. Close your tortilla.

Spinach and Cream Calzone (Par Cassoulet - 09 Oct 2007)

What:

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 cups of warm water
• 4 ground beef hotdogs
• 10 oz cut spinach
• Mexican cheese mix
• 4 fl oz heavy whipping cream

How:

First, prepare the pizza pasta.

Put the baking powder in 1/2 cup of warm water and wait 30 minutes. Mix the salt and the flour. Make a hole in the center and add the mixture of baking powder and water. Add the rest of water while mixing.

Knead the dough. Let it rest for 2 hours. Note that with this amount of past, I do 2 calzone as shown in the picture.

Second, in a cooking pan, put the hotdogs cut in small pieces (~1cm). Let them fry a bit. Add the spinach and the cream and stew for 10 minutes.

Third, fill the pizza.

Preheat your oven at 450F.

Flatten down the pizza as much as possible.Fill one half of it with the spinac- hotdog mixture. Add Mexican cheese. Close the pizza.

Put in the pre-heated oven for around 10-15 min at 450F (check it from time to time, you may also need to adjust the temperature)

Crumbled Ratatouille (Par Cassoulet - 11 Oct 2007)

What:

• 1 cup of flour
• 5 oz of butter
• 6 tablespoons of parmeggiano
• 2 big eggplants
• 8 small courgettes
• 4 yellow peppers
• half a tablet of Feta cheese
• garlic, salt and pepper, Italian saisoning and olive oil

How:

First, prepare the ratatouille. Cut the peppers in strips, the eggplants in small cubes of 1 cubic inch, and the courgettes in disks of ~ 1/3 inch. Cook the vegetables separately in pans filled with 1/2 inch of water. Remove the vegetables from the pans couples of minutes before the cooking is done.

In a pan with lid, mix the vegetables and add olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning at your taste. Finish the cooking of the ratatouille then put it on a ovendish. Mix it with the Feta cheese cut in cubes.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Place the flour and parmeggiano in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the ratatouille.

Bake in the oven for 10-20 minutes until the crumble is browned.

Chorizo wings (Par Cassoulet - 11 Oct 2007)

What:

• 16 boneless chicken wings
• 1/3 of a chorizo
• 4 fl oz heavy whipping cream

How:

Open and flatten the wings, broil them 4-5 minutes in the oven. Put the wings in a pan. Add the chorizo cut in fine slices and finish the cooking. Add the cream and serve when the cream is homogeneous yellow-red.

Arroz de pollo (Par Abuelitos - 12 Oct 2007)

What:

• 4 chicken wings
• 4 chicken drumsticks
• 1 red pepper
• 1 onion
• olive oil
• salt, black pepper
• 1 glass of arborio rice

How:

Cut roughly the onion and the green pepper and cook them slightly in a pan with some olive oil. Add the rice.

When the rice becomes transparent, add 1 glass of water.

In a separate pan, cook the poultry.

When the rice mixture is almost cooked, add the poultry and cover for 5 min.

Kolokifakia gemista (stuffed zucchini) (Par Moussaka - 15 Oct 2007)

What

• 6-8 zucchini (depending on the size)
• 500gr minced meat
• 1 cup of rice
• 1 big onion
• salt, pepper
• dill (aneto)
• 1 shot of olive oil
• 2 spoonfuls of butter
• 2 spoonfuls of flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 2-3 lemons

How

First step is to empty the zucchini so as to make room for the stuffing. We do so using a teaspoon, by pushing and rotating just like a corkscrew.

Then we mix the minced meat, and the rice adding salt, pepper, dill and that shot of olive oil. Once the mix is ready, we stuff the zucchini with it. Any remaining mix can be made into balls (ricemeatballs..). We place everything in a pot (preferably large) and add just enough water to cover everything up. Add a bit of olive oil. Put it on fire and let boil for 30mins.

At this stage, we mix the egg yolks with the lemon juice.

In a separate pot, we melt the butter on very low fire. As soon as it melts we add the flour, mixing. When we get a uniform…thing, we add the water from the boiled zucchini -slowly and continuously mixing ! Finally, we add up the egg and lemon mix and -you guessed it!- we mix it all together always on low fire! We let it boil and as soon as it does, we empty it in the big pot, with the boiled zucchini and ricemeatballs, and give the whole thing a shake and… ready to serve!

mine wasn’t nearly as tasty as Meropi’s… but better luck to you guys!

Thanks Angy for the instructions and special thanks to Meropi for the recipe itself and all the times she cooked this fine dish for me!

El MOUSSAKA!! (Par Moussaka - 23 Oct 2007)

What

• 600-700gr minced meat (half pork, half beef)
• a big onion
• 1 pepper (red, yellow… whatever)
• tomato sauce
• salt and pepper
• about 6 large potatoes
• 2 or 3 aubergines
• bit of olive oil
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 spoonfull of butter
• 4 cups of milk
• 2 egg yolks
• parmigiano

How

Peel the potatoes and cut them in round slices. Cut enough so that they completely cover the bottom of the cooking tray. Fry them and cover the bottom of the tray with them.

Cut the aubergines in the exact same way. Slices should be about 1-1.5cm thick. Again, enough slices so that they completely cover the potato layer. Put the aubergine slices -alone- in the oven, sprinkled with a bit of olive oil and let cook for about 30mins or until they become soft.

As soon as they are ready, make a second layer that completely covers that of the potatoes.

Finelly chop the onion and pepper and fry for a couple of minutes in a bit of olive oil. Then add the minced meat, salt and pepper, mix and let cook. Just before it is ready add the tomato and let cook for another few minutes. Then spread it over the aubergine layer trying to cover it completely and maintain a consistent thickness.

Penultimate step is making of the Besamel. Put a cup of flour with salt and pepper in a small pan. Add one cup of milk bit by bit and mixing continuously. At the same time put 3 cups of milk in a different pan and let boil. As soon as the milk starts boiling add it in the first pan with the flour mix. Again slowly and mixing all the time. Put on low fire and keep mixing until it becomes cream-like. When it becomes so, add the butter and the 2 egg yolks. Mix some more! Then cover the minced meat layer with it, thrying to get a uniform and smooth finishing.

Sprinkle some parmigiano on top, and put in a preheated oven (about 160celcius) for about 45min or until the top becomes golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Croustade (Par Cassoulet - 25 Oct 2007)

What:

• 6 apples
• 50 g of butter
• 2 pasta sfoglia (pâte feuilletée)

How:

In a flat pan, put the butter and cook the apples cut en small squares.

When the apple are cooked, cool them and then spread them on one of the pasta (do not make tiny holes on the pasta). Top it with the other pasta and concealed it.

Spread some water and brown sugar on the top.

Put in a pre-heated oven for around 15 min at 450F.

Gaïa chicken nuggets (Par Cassoulet - 27 Oct 2007)

What:

• 150 g of ground chicken
• 2 tablespoons of parmeggiano
• 1 egg
• Bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• olive oil

How:

In a bowl, mix the ground chicken with the cumin and the cheese.

In a cup, prepare the egg as if you were making an omelette.

Add the egg to the meat mixture.

Spread some bread crumbs in a flat dish.

Use your finger to prepare small nuggets of the chicken mixture. Roll the nuggets in the bread crumbs so that they are covered with it.

Fry them in a pan with some olive oil.

Creamy pork chops and rissoléed potatoes (Par Cassoulet - 28 Oct 2007)

What:

• 3 pork chops
• 250 g of mushrooms (champignons de Paris)
• 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons of sourcream
• 2 lbs of buttercream potateos
• garlic powder, salt, olive oil

How:

Wash the potatoes and cut them in little squares of around 1 cm (do not remove the skin). Cook/fry them in a oiled pan and add salt.

Precook the chops in a pan. Slice the mushrooms and cook them apart with some garlic.

When the potatoes are almost done. In a separate pan (the one with the mushrooms), reheat the meat. Then add the whipping and the sour creams. Let it evaporate a bit (the sour cream will release water).

Couscous vegetarian salad (Par Sabine - 30 Oct 2007)

What:

• Tomatoes chopped
• half a red onion sliced
• little bit of crushed garlic
• tin of tuna
• 1 yellow pepper sliced thinly
• handful of olives (black)
• sliced cucumber (I used half of one)
• small tin of sweetcorn, chives chopped, salt & black pepper
• some cooked couscous.

How:

Just mix these altogether.

Creamy chicken breast (Par Sabine - 30 Oct 2007)

What:

• 1 chicken/turkey breast
• Butter
• Sage leaves (salvia)
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1 glass of white wine
• 1/2 pack of grounded nuts
• 1/2 tub of cooking cream (panna per cucinare)
• Salt & pepper

How:

Fry the chicken breast in the butter until the meat is sealed.

Add the onion and the sage leaves, fry gently for a few minutes.

Add the glass of white wine and let it evaporate for a few minutes.

Cover all the meat with water, cover and let boil for 1 hour or so.

When half the water is evaporated, add the ground nuts.

Cook for a further 20 minutes and 5 minutes before the end of cooking time, add the cream. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Tarte aux noix de mémé Odette (Par Mémé Odette - 10 Nov 2007)

What:

For the “sanded” paste (Pâte sablée)

• 1 egg
• 250 g of flour
• 125 g of brown sugar
• 125 g of butter

For the topping:

• 250 g of crème fraîche
• 100 g of brown sugar
• 100 to 150 g of walnuts

How:

First the paste, mix all ingredient and make a compact ball. Let is rest 15 to 20 minutes in the fridge. Then prepare your tart bottom.

Mix all the ingredients used for the topping and put the mixture on your tart.

Put the tart in the oven for 35 minutes (four moyen so I guess around 200C).

Lamb tajine with plums and honey (Par Abuelitos - 10 Nov 2007)

What: For 6 persons

• 1.2 kg of lamb’s shoulder (or turkey or chicken)
• 4 plums per person
• 2 large onions
• 1 big tablespoon of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon of safrano
• olive oil, salt, back pepper

How:

Cut the lamb into large pieces. Fry it in the oil until the meat is sealed in a cocotte. Add chopped onions. Continue to fry for a couple of minute.

Cover all the meat with water, cover and let boil gently for 40 minutes or so.

Add the plums, cook during 10 minutes. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Remove the cover to let some liquid evaporate. Add the honey just 2 minutes before serving (with cooked couscous or rice or potatoes).

Open a bottle of guerouane (Moroccan wine) and enjoy.

Simple Tuna Mousse Sandwich (Par Sabine - 12 Nov 2007)

What:

• white bread roll
• 1 tin of tuna
• 1 tablespoon of Greek yoghurt
• mayonnaise
• lettuce leaves
• 2 salad tomatoes
• 1 spring onion (cipollotti)
• few slices of cucumber
• salt

To get your tuna mousse, mix very well the tin of tuna (minus the oil) with the greek yoghurt and 3 teaspoons of mayonnaise. Set aside. Cut the breadroll in half and spread one side thinly with mayonnaise. On top of this, spread your tuna mousse generously. On the other side of the breadroll, place the lettuce leaves, thinly sliced tomotoe & cucumber and finely chopped spring onion. Sprinkle with salt. Put 2 sides of breadroll together.

Note the tuna mousse is also nice served on small wedges of bread/tuc biscuits as an antipasta but then of course, you would need to add your pinch of salt directly to the mousse.

Cassoulette de dinde aux champignons (Par Cassoulet - 18 Nov 2007)

What:

• 200 g of mushrooms (Champignons de Paris, Agaricus bisporus)
• one glass of red wine
• a quarter of a big white onion
• 200 g of turkey breast
• garlic, salt and black pepper
• one teaspoon of flour

How:

Cut the turkey into small pieces. Fry it in the oil until the meat is sealed in a cocotte. Add chopped onions. Continue to fry for a couple of minute. Add the wine and cook until the wine has evaporated. Add the mushrooms and the garlic.

Cover all the meat with water, cover and let boil gently for 40 minutes or so.

Season with salt & pepper to taste. Remove the cover to let some liquid evaporate.

In a glass, mix the flour with cold water. Add it to the cocote just a couple minutes before serving.

Open a bottle of première côtes de blaye and serve with rice, enjoy.