Pork stuffed Round Zucchinis - Gluten Free.

As you must have seen these past few days, fall is definitely here. It's not the season we prefer for sure, but it has one good point for food(ie) lovers: Fall is the period when you can enjoy great fruits and vegetables like figs, pears, dates, squashes, chestnuts, ... It's also the right time to start cooking comfort food again. And that's exactly what we did today with this new recipe. It's actually a combo of comfort food and Italian ingredients - have we ever told you about our shared obsession with parmesan cheese and fresh basil ? Well, now you know ! Hope you'll enjoy it !

Ingredients:
for 6 servings - or 3, for hungry people

- 6 round zucchinis
- 400g ground pork
- 5 shallots, diced
- a handful of dried raisins
-  a handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 1 tb grated parmesan cheese
- pepper & salt
- olive oil to brown the shallots and to coat the round zucchinis


Directions:
Preheat the oven at 300°C

1) Pre-cook the round zucchinis in boiling water for 10min. They must remain firm. Remove from heat and plunge them into icing water.
2) Meanwhile, brown the diced shallots in olive oil in a frying pan.
3) Cut the top of the round zucchinis, remove the flesh -don't forget the flesh of the zucchini tops as well. Wipe if necessary.
4) Dice the flesh of the zucchinis, it will be part of the stuffing.
5) Incorporate all the ingredients of the stuffing together. Season.
6) Stuff the round zucchinis. Coat generously with olive oil and put in the oven for 30 to 40minutes. Lower the heat if they begin to burn. Drizzle the round zucchinis with their juice every 10 minutes - every 5 minutes is even better actually because the most often you do it, the tastier and tender they will be.


Serve hot with mashed potatoes or rice.

Enjoy,

K&B.

Quinoa, Beef and Portobello Mushrooms stuffed Bell Peppers.

A few years ago I didn't like bell peppers, I don't really know why. But now I do like bell peppers, in fact I love bell peppers.It took me a few years, but by tasting them in different recipes I guess my palate just got used to the taste and I don't regret it because now I like to put bell peppers in almost everything I cook especially in the summer! So the recipe is not vegetarian, it could be healthy -if you get rid of the ton of Swiss cheese I added on my bell pepper- but it's perfect because even if it looks rich and fat it's actually pretty light - but only if you're reasonable enough not to eat more than one!-

Ingredients:

- 4 Bell peppers
-200g quinoa
-1 cup water
-200g ground beef
-100g Portobello mushrooms
-1 onion
-Swiss cheese
-Parsley
-salt, pepper
-1 tbsp vinegar
-olive oil

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 450F. Cut off the tops of the bell peppers and remove the seeds. Put them in a large dish and drizzle with olive oil. Put in oven for 40 minutes.
2) In a sauce pan, cook 200g quinoa with 1 cup salted water for about 12 minutes. 
3) Meanwhile, cut 1 onion. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and  add the cut onion. Add 1 tbsp vinegar to caramelize the onions. 
3) Saute 100gr Portobello mushrooms with the caramelized onions, parsley, salt and pepper for a few minutes.
4) Mix in 200gr ground beef and cook the whole mixture over medium heat for a few minutes.
5) When the quinoa is cooked, add it in the frying pan and stir with all the other ingredients.
6) Remove the bell peppers from the oven and stuff them with the mixture.
7) Put back in a 375F oven for about 10 minutes.
8) Remove from oven and add a pinch of shredded Swiss cheese on each bell pepper.

Enjoy, K.

4-Hand Cooking : Pork Meatballs and Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce with Homemade Spaghetti.

To make it short, we were dying to try B's new purchase : a pasta maker. And we were craving for comfort food - the winter was quite severe in France at the time we made the recipe, i.e. two weeks ago. So we spent the whole day cooking, shooting, and blogging. Another happy day ...

Ingredients:
For 4 servings


For the meatballs (about 18-20 meatballs)
- 500g pork
- a handful chopped basil
- a handful chopped parsley
- 2 garlic gloves
- 2 shallots
- 1 egg
- 1 tb parmesan cheese
- pepper, salt 

For the tomato sauce
-  a dozen cherry tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic glove
- 2 celery stalks
- olive oil
- 300g tomato puree
- basil
- pepper, salt

For the homemade spaghetti
- 4 eggs
- 400g flour + 100g
- 2 tbs olive oil




Instructions:

For the pork meatballs 
1) Put all the ingredients together in a food processor.
2) Roll the meatballs and fridge for about 20min.
3) Fry them in a pan with olive oil. When they're done, incorporate them to the sauce.

For the sauce
1) Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Season and coat with olive oil. Bake until they are roasted.
2) Meanwhile chop the onion and the celery stalks.
3) In a pot, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic gloves and the chopped onion. Stir. When the mixture is golden, incorporate the celery stalks. Stir.
4) Incorporate the tomato puree. Add a few basil leaves. Cover and cook for 20min.
5) Incorporate the roasted cherry tomatoes. Cover again and cook for 20min.
6) Add the meatballs and season. Stir.
Serve with parmesan cheese and chopped basil leaves.

For the spaghetti
1) Put 400gr flour on a board, make a well in the flour and add 4 eggs and 2 tbspoon olive oil .
2) Beat the eggs and the olive oil and incorporate the flour by adding it in the well with the eggs and olive mixture.
3) When the dough starts coming together, knead it with both hands until you get a cohesive mass. (after about 5 minutes)
4) Re flour the dough and let it rest for 25 minutes at room temperature.
5) Put it in the pasta maker and shape as desired and don't forget to flour them.
6) Boil water and cook the pasta for 5 minutes. Keep stirring  to prevent them from sticking together.

Enjoy,

K&B

Oatmeal Chicken Nuggets.

 We wanted to try something healthier than the traditional chicken nuggets and honestly, we also wanted to try something lighter than our usual diet when we eat together - cookies, ice creams, sugar, cakes, butter, cream - and it actually turned out pretty well because the oatmeal gives an amazing crispiness to the chicken and it doesn't absorb oil that much. 

This recipe is also quick and easy to prepare.

 Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 egg white
- flour, oatmeal
- salt and pepper
- olive oil

for the barbecue sauce
- 2 tbspoon ketchup
- 1 tbspoon honey
- 1 tbspoon red wine vinegar
- tabasco

Directions:
1) Cut the breasts into small pieces, salt and pepper
2) Flour them, put them in the battered egg white and roll them in the oatmeal flakes
3) Fry them with olive oil; serve with the sauce and a salad.

Enjoy,

by K&B.

4-hand cooking. part 1 : Turkey rolls

Last Monday, we've watched the French version of Top Chef (we LOVE this show) and two cooks made chicken rolls. And, big surprise, we decided to try to make some too ... So today, we spent the day together cooking and watching TV (and particularly the first episode of America's Next Top Model ... this 16th cycle promises to be once again so exciting!) We don't cook together so much but each time it's a real pleasure; we spend hours in the kitchen, trying new recipes and imagining others to come - and the list of recipes to come is very, very long ... It was our first attempt with turkey rolls but it turned out pretty well and we ate all of them! The rolls can be served either as appetizers or in a salad. We wrote below four recipes inspired by food around the world we love; hope they'll please your palates!

Instructions:

1)Tenderize the turkey/chicken breasts and place them on food wrap

2) Spread some of the preparation chosen on all the surface of the breast the if you want to obtain a spiral shape or on one side

3) Roll the breast firmly in the plastic wrap beginning with the side you spread the preparation upon ;

4) Fridge the rolls for 30min

5) Pour some water and a bouillon cub in a saucepan and let the water simmer (it mustn't boil); Plunge the rolls into water and cook for 15min

6) Let them cool down before cutting them. If you want to bread them, let them cool down first, then coat them with breadcrumbs, fry them in a frying pan and let them cool down again for 5min before cutting them.

Italian style

Ingredients :
-Ricotta
-Spinach leaves
-Salt and pepper.

For the breadcrumbs :
-Dry bread
-Walnuts
-Flour
-Olive oil (you can also use an egg... but I didn't have any, so we replaced it with olive oil and it worked perfectly well)

British style

Ingredients :
-We've used Ploughman's pickle ("made with BRITISH carrots, apples, cauliflowers and swede")

Southern France style

Ingredients :
- A few diced green olives
- A few diced bell peppers
- Chopped basil
- Goat cheese
- salt and pepper

Asian style

Ingredients :
-4 Baby corns
- 2 Black mushrooms
- 1/2 carrot
- 1 tspoon soy sauce
- 1 tspoon ketchup
- 1 lump granulated sugar



By K & B.