Mama que "Rico" Penne Pasta and Olives

A really easy and economical recipe for every pasta lover out there, this is something I do make a lot of time in my house. And my kids always love it, so does the wife as this is vegetarian.

Recipe Ingredients:

• 4 Spring Onions thinly sliced
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 small pepper (red if possible) chopped
• 1 large handful of black olives pitted cut in half
• 1 large bunch of parsley finely chopped
• 1 can of pomodoro tomatoes chopped
• 200grs pomodorino (fresh tomatoes, baby pomodoro, any sweet baby tomatoes will do) cut in halves
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
• enough olive oil
• 2 soup spoons of tomato paste (concentrate)
• 400grs penne pasta (or any other durum wheat pasta you like)
• 200grs grated cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large carrot (very thinly sliced)
• 200grs green round beens roughly chopped

Just cook the pasta until it is "aldente" which means virtually cooked but still quite firm (little trick pasta tends to foam when cooking if you add a little oil to the water it virtually eliminates the froth, this applies to any pasta including spaghetti).

On a separate pan put some olive oil, them put in both onions chopped9the spring and the normal one) also add the chopped red pepper, as well as the minced garlic add also some salt and pepper and let this cook until the onion is semitransparent (about 10 minutes) then add the olives, carrot, green beans, chopped tomato, the pomodorino tomatoes and the tomato paste with a glass and 1/2 of water, taste and add more salt if needed.

Cook for another 15 minutes, however after the fist 10 minutes add the cooked pasta so that it gains the flavours, thus the reason to be aldente, if the sauce gets too dry you can add more water or if you prefer a couple of glugs of red wine, maybe some you forgot to drink.

Lastly add the chopped parsley stirring it in well, plate it and garnish it with the grated cheese on top, mature cheddar will suffice or if you really posh add some real parmesano cheese, and a little more black pepper freshly milled.

Pork and Pineapple Skewers and Potato Grattin

Receita em PORTUGUES Clique AQUI

Above you can see in raw part of a simple yet very efficient recipe, I purchased a couple of pork cutlets and I wanted to feed 4 people, but I didn't want to do the conventional grilled pork with chips or mash, but also I didn't want to do anything laborious. So I decided to do skewers, and being quite partial to sweet and sour, and with influences from gammon steak...I decided to do pork and pineapple skewers and for the accompaniment just potato onion and tomato, grattin.

So I cut the two chops into squares, also got a tin of pineapple and cut them into chunks as you can see on the photo, prior to putting the pork on skewers I marinated it in a little port, paprika, chilli powder and lemon juice, salt and black pepper of course, after letting it marinade for 30 minutes I put them on a skewer with the pineapple and left it marinading again while preparing the potatoes.

For the potato dish, you need one onion, eneugh potatoes for four people (5 large ones should do), peel and cut both the potatoes and the onions very thinly then boil the sliced potatoes for about three minutes, on a tray put a little olive oil and smeer the bottom of it to cover it, then cover the bottom with a layer of potatoes then you leithal some chopped tomatoes to cover the potatoes, then spread some onions to cover the tomato, then sprinkle some salt black pepper and some slithers of garlic, repeat the process, and finally cover it with a third layer of potatoes, cover all of that with some foil and place it in the oven for 40 minutes, after that take it out remove foil cover it with greated cheese and sprinkle some oregano, dried or fresh either will do. Back in the oven for 15 minutes more (gas 200c all the time).

Ten minutes away from them being cooked you should heat very well a grill pan and drizzle a little oil and start cooking the skewers, browning and turning around and so on until all sealed in then cook until fully done.

Serve it on a plate and you're done...so easy you don't even need a recipe and again under a £5.00. Don't say I never helped you. :)

Cheesy Meat Balls

Receita em Portugues clique AQUI



I needed to make something fast the day before yesterday as we were all hungry and I had left it too late to cook dinner as had been working on making a menu on a PC for a friend and time passed very quickly, so I decided on a traditional recipe and added a little surprise inside.


Recipe Ingredients:

• 500grs minced beef
• 60grs bread crumbs (I used old bread and crumbed it)
• 1 egg (medium)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 tea spoon chilli powder
• 1 large onion
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• a little bunch of parley
• 600grs rice
• 2 bay leafs
• some olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• Some cheddar cheese
• 2 soup spoons of tomato paste
  

This recipe was very fast and very easy to make, is not fattening at all and the garlic and chilli help the blood circulation, and at this time of the year I suppose it is welcomed, also was very cheap to make.

For the rice just put it in boiling water with a crushed garlic clove inside and a couple of spoons of olive oil and salt to taste, after 10 to 12 minutes is cooked depending on the rice you using (I like basmati) once cooked rinse it in a sieve with boiling water and drain it ready to plate.

For the sauce I chopped the onion very finely and the remaining two garlic cloves one to add to the mince the other for the sauce. The meat balls were made as follows, I put the mince in a bowl adding to it the egg (whole) the bread crumbs, one spoon of the chilli powder, one garlic salt and pepper to taste, and mixed all with my hands until was all blended in, then I cut the cheese into little squares and making a little disk in my hand with a portion of the disk mixture I placed the cheese square in the middle, folded the meat around and rolled it into a ball and set it aside until all the meat was spent.

Then in a pan I put some olive oil, let it get hot and added the chilli, onion (diced), bay leafs, garlic, and the meat balls swirling the pan around from time to time until the balls were sealed (you can see this as they turn from red to brown) at this stage I added the tomato a small glass of water and the tomato paste, I let this cook for 20-30 minutes, obviously only started making the rice 10-12 minutes before the rest was ready, so all comes out at same time, and on the last 1 minute of cooking of the balls I added the parsley chopped. As simple as that.

Now you can use spaghetti if you prefer, I do but the family wanted rice and I had to go with the majority.

Rico Almond and Coconut Biscuits

Receita em Portugues Clique AQUI.

One other day I made a spaghetti carbonara my own recipe ,and used 3 egg yolks to achieve a velvety cream, I was however left with 3 egg whites, I know I already made a cake here on the blog to use egg whites ...well this is one more way of using them and is so easy I beg you all to make them really, maybe with some alteration add some dried figs or anything they are great (I invented them today) with other left overs I had in the cupboard.

Picture on the left shows them still in the tray after cooking on the non stick Teflon, which is a great idea for cookies/biscuits, especially if they have no "grease" as this ones take no butter oils or margarine's..nothing....

Recipe Ingredients:

• 100grs ground almonds
• 100grs rice flour (fine)
• 50grs coconut (dessicated)
• 4 spoons of self raising flour
• 1 tea spoon of baking powder
• 3 egg whites
• 250grs of sugar
• (optional lemon zest and or vanilla essence)
• some whole almonds with skin.
• a little of thick granulated brown sugar

Preparation:

This is soooooo easy you must really make and please spread the word on my blog address to others I am making all this economical and good recipes but so little views I am finding it frustrating that not many people are benefiting from them.

Here it goes, in a bowl mix the egg whites with the sugar beat it so hard that it becomes a very dense white cream, then throw in all the dried stuff all well mixed, fold it in with a spatula until homogeneous, then with two spoons shape each biscuit and put them on a tray preferably with a Teflon sheet, if not grease it and flour it, or anything else you do for them not to stick. Place and almond in the center of each and some brown granulated sugar on top, bake in the oven (180c) for 17-20 minutes depending on the oven, take them out let them cool and eat them all without sharing them .....lol....just joking share them with your loved ones ...and maybe send me some too :)