Only a few more days before I’m off to London for Foodblogger Connect and I’m not sure if it is me, but what is all that chaos in London right now… ?? I mean seriously; first I was supposed to go to Japan and we all know what happened there, then I was supposed to have a wedding in Italy and that got cancelled due to whatever reason and now I’m gonna go to London and all hell breaks loose there too… Am I jinxed or what? I hope everyone I know in London is allright, because by the looks of the news this evening it’s been pretty bad in certain neighborhoods. What is wrong with the world? Seriously… I get depressed looking at the news these days. If it’s not one natural disaster after the other, then it’s crashing economics or people killing eachother… Not good. Not good at all. I find that it disturbs me more lately. Up to the point where I seriously start to wonder what will become of the world. Will we all be blown away by some major crashing natural disaster or will we “simply” ruin ourselves by war, viruses or the like? I’m normally a fairly optimistic person but it starts to become hard to see the light of day with all that is going on at the moment.

In light of all of the above my quest to loose weight is a simple one, but still one that can occupy my thoughts for a large part of the day. Well, let’s face it; my thoughts are already occupied with food for a big part and now there is just the added complexity of making good dishes a little leaner. One case in point was my lunch of today. I came home after working in the studio and felt like cooking something simple and quick. I had no idea what to make so I just went to the store and then saw one of their recipe cards with a recipe for gnocchi with bacon and garden peas. I liked the look of it and figured I could make that dish but then in a leaner version. And so I did! And it was delicious!

The original version had bacon, creme fraiche and a lot more cheese but my version made me feel better… I’m normally not a big fan of store bought gnocchi and I’m still not but whipping up freshly made gnocchi for this afternoons lunch felt like a little bit too much hard work, so I did opt for the store bought and with all the other ingredients added it was good. But I’m sure will be much better if you do decide to make your own gnocchi. And why not go for it?

O and I have to tell you too that I had THE best salmon hamburger tonight for dinner too!! I didn’t take any photos but I will definitely be making this again and share! Soooo good!

Gnocchi with garden peas

5.0 from 2 reviews

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Recipe type: Lunch or light main

Author: Simone van den Berg

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 1

Light and fresh dish that is literally done within 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 75 gr garden peas, frozen (or fresh if they are to be found)
• 150 gr gnocchi con patate (freshly made or storebought)
• 1 tbsp creme fraiche light
• 50 gr ham, cut into thin slices
• 25 gr rocket
• 1 sjalot, sliced
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• parmesan cheese for grating over the top

Instructions

1. Put your water with salt on to boil the gnocchi. Pay attention that they only need about 2 minutes to cook so do this at the end.
2. Heat the olive oil in a small pan and fry your onions until soft and golden. Add your ham and fry till they become a little crispy. Turn the heat down a bit and add your frozen garden peas and let it simmer slowly for about 5-6 minutes until your peas are soft and tender.
3. Cook your gnocchi at the same time.
4. Add 1 tbsp of creme fraiche to the peas and add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Once the gnocchi are cooked, drain and add them to your pea mixture. Plate up and finish with some rocket and some freshly grated Parmesan on top.

1.2.4

And who is here trying to dip her nose in and stealing a little bit of that ham??

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Goatcheese lemon pasta

I see a flutter of wings when the magpie family lands on the windowsill right in front of my office window. It’s rainy and windy outside and they’ve taken the liberty to use our windowsill as a hide-out when it gets too wet in the trees. They are curious and I think the reflection in my window prevents them from seeing me the same way that I see them. They have young ones too so I think there is a nest somewhere in our overgrown garden. Great place for birds to hang out, as it is usually very busy with the real tweets… The parents feed the young right in front of me. I think a mere 50 centimeters separates them from me. Well that and a glass pane ofcourse. On occasion they peer inside and look me straight in the face, which never fails to make me laugh. They seriously look at me and as long as I don’t move to much they will stay there, staring at me, possibly wondering who that creature is sitting there…

Two days ago the weather was a little better and Gizmo, our old and slightly senile cat was outside sitting on one of the lawnchairs. I hadn’t noticed she went outside until I heard the magpie’s going completely insane and making a noise that would have awoken the entire neighborhood. Of course it was in the afternoon, so no one was sleeping. I got a little nervous and called Gizmo she had to come back inside (and believe me she actually listens when I tell her to come inside… Although I do think it is the only thing she listens too!) Magpies are fairly big and they sounded rather aggressive. An old cat would be an easy target! So better be safe then sorry. Now that I think about it; it could have been one of the neighbors cats that was lurking in the bushes as normally they don’t even react when Gizmo goes outside. As if they know she is old and slow. The sparrows will actually sit on the same chair Gizmo is lying in, teasing her…! Little buggers…

The reason I started talking about the magpies is because the weather has been lousy the last week meaning I had a lot of magpie visits on my windowsill. I am longing for long warm summer days and this pasta would be gorgeous to eat on such a day. I ate it yesterday while a storm was howling around the house and the rain was making the garden look like a pond, so I can tell you from experience that it does taste equally well on a cold day… Quick and delicious!

Goatcheese lemon pasta

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Recipe type: Main

Author: Simone van den Berg

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 1

Quick and simple vegetarian pasta dish

Ingredients

• 60 gr goatcheese
• 1/2 tbsp of lemonjuice
• 1/2 tbsp of lemonzest
• 1/2 tbsp of olive oil
• 110 gr frozen peas
• 100 gr penne pasta
• rocketcress or rocket (arugula)

Instructions

1. Bring salted water to the boil and cook your penne according to package instructions. Add the peas at the last minute so they warm through.
2. Make the dressing by combining the lemonjuice, oliveoil and lemonzest and add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Crumble the goatcheese and set aside
4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and put back in the pan.
5. Toss with the dressing so everything is coated and add the goatcheese crumbles. Some of it will melt in the pasta. Keep some separate to put on your plate.
6. Add the rocketcress or rocket at the last minute and enjoy!

1.2.4

 

 

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Scallops wrapped with prosciutto and with lemon parsley butter

Yes it is that time of the year again!! Time to do christmas test cooking!! I love doing that. It’s always something that you can – technically – do the whole year, but for christmas you do pick other dishes, more festive and well, whatever the outcome it gives you an excuse to do some extra cooking. I mean; why else would you make two different scallop dishes on a regular saturday afternoon, right? I already told you we will be going for a pre-christmas dinner with friends on the 18th of december. In addition to that we have friends coming over on christmas eve, then the 25th we go to my brother in law and his wife and celebrate with Tom’s family (his parents will be there too), then the 26th my parents will be coming over to our place for a small christmas dinner for four. The “real” cooking will be done on the 26th when my parents are coming over, but we will be doing some small appetizers both on the 24th and 25th. On the 24th we will be having a stonegrill evening, so that will be relaxing and no cooking required fun.

Scallops on a bed of peas and mint puree

And so while we have some sort of snowblizzard here today and temperatures that are well below zero C it was the perfect time to do some cooking. Just a bit unfortunately that we had to go out first to do the necessary grocery shopping..lol… We decided to walk but we could hardly see as the snow was blowing relentlessly into our eyes. But we made it to the fishmonger and the supermarket in one piece… Plus we had our exercise for the day as well.

Both dishes are very easy to make and both are perfect for a Christmas starter (or any type of starter really). My favorite was the first dish with the prosciutto while Tom liked the one with the peas more. Haha… It’s our first test so we could end up doing something entirely different… So dad, if you’re reading this; don’t expect ANY of these dishes to end up on your plate on christmas day! And why are you reading this anyway?? It’s supposed to be a surprise!!

So on to the important part; the recipe…. Here they are! The first is taken from the BBC Good food website (which has tons of great recipes!) and the second one is from the book Cooking for two which I received last year from the Daring Kitchen and have loved since…

Prosciutto wrapped scallops with parsley & lemon butter

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Serves	4
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	40 minutes
Allergy	Shellfish
Meal type	Appetizer
Misc	Serve Hot
Website	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 24 pieces cherry tomatoes (on the vine)
• 24 pieces scallops (small)
• 12 slices prosciutto (each cut into 2)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 1 lemon (juiced and zested)
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)

Directions

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Arrange the tomatoes on a baking tray and season. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and set aside. Reduce the heat to 120C/fan 100C/gas 1/2.

Put one scallop on each piece of prosciutto, roll up tightly and secure with a toothpick. Heat a frying pan until very hot. Add the olive oil and sear the scallops until the prosciutto is browned and crisp on both sides. Keep warm in the oven while searing the rest.

Add the butter and garlic to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on a low heat. Add the lemon rind and juice and heat through. Add the parsley. Serve the scallops with the tomatoes and the garlic butter drizzled over.

Note

Very easy dish that is perfect to use as a festive starter for Christmas or any other occassion really

Seared scallops on a bed of fresh english pea and mint puree

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Serves	4
Allergy	Shellfish
Meal type	Appetizer
Misc	Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen peas (recipe states English peas, but not sure if there is any difference!)
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint (coarsely chopped)
• 1 clove garlic (chopped)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
• paprika (large pinch)
• 12 scallops (large)

Directions

Fill a small saucepan with a couple of inches of water. Bring to a boil, add the peas and cook until tender, about 3-5 minutes for fresh peas, about 1 minute for frozen peas. Place the peas in a blender and add the mint, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth. Place the pea puree in the saucepan to keep warm.

In a medium heavy saute pan (preferably cast iron) heat the butter over medium-high heat. Add the lemon juice and paprika. When the butter begins to foam, add the scallops. Cook for 2 minutes per side or until just cooked through and each side is golden to amber brown on top.

Spoon the pea puree into two shallow soup dishes, creating a bed, then place the seared scallops on top and serve.

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Delicious greens

I know there have been several occassions that I complained to you about my weight and the eternal struggle to get back to a healthy weight. Well, let me tell you that I am still nowhere near that goal at this point in time. It appears that I just love food too much, but as with everything in life; it is important to find the right balance, so…. I am going to be starting a fresh with the weight struggle…

I’ve decided to join Weight Watchers online, as I’ve tried it on my own, but don’t think I was that successful there. I’ve looked at several different options in terms of diets, but to be quite honest, most of them are too restricting. It’s all good and well to want to lose weight, but I do not see how it can be healthy to leave out either carbs, protein or fat alltogether. They’re all there for a reason right? And what I like about Weight Watchers is that you can eat just about anything as long as you stick to the rules of not exceeding your ‘points’ for the day. And the good news is that doing sports will get you extra points, which you could then use for a nice glass of wine with your meal. Plus some of the more healthy foods such as fruits and veggies, are almost no points at all. Plus they are filling and good for you…

Plus I don’t have to follow someone elses recipes (that are usually crap) but can use the recipes I pick. I mean, it’s not that I don’t know what healthy food is, I just eat too much other stuff in between. It’s not exactly rocket science. I’ve just been too busy lately to bother eating healthy foods. Getting home late and just grabbing whatever is available or – even worse – ordering takeout. We’ve had a lot of serious illnesses in our circle of friends and families lately, which also makes you aware of how important it is to look after yourself. It’s no guarantee for safety but at least you provide your body with whatever means you can to fight the bad stuff. At least that is the way I look at it. I am not saying that food is the answer to everything but it is important and everyone sort of knows that obesity is becoming number one as the cause of deaths worldwide. So what more reasons could I possibly need to get my ass moving and start eating better? So that is what I am gonna be doing from now on. You might possibly not even notice as I am still following the pastry course; I might just not eat it all myself! Haha…

For lunch today I had a wonderful warm salad with peas and feta which was a breeze to put together and very very tasty. In fact it was so good that I might be eating it again tomorrow. I still have all the ingredients leftover.

Ingredients for 1 person:

125 gr frozen peas

50 gr feta

1 tbsp of olive oil

salad of your choice

pepper, salt

Bring some water to the boil with salt and cook the peas for about 3 minutes. Put some salad leaves on a plate (after washing them ofcourse) and once you’ve drained the peas toss them over the salad. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper and crumble the feta on top.

Now how incredibly easy is that..?

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Delicious pasta

What I sometimes like to do and I am sure I have told this before, but o well, I am getting old so then it is allowed to repeat onces self (within reason ofcourse..lol) When I need to work in the studio I sometimes decide I want to prepare a nice lunch; first to eat it ofcourse, but also so I can take photos and try some settings while I am at it. And I always love a good pasta for lunch. The “lunch culture” in Holland is very much of the boring sandwiches kind of lunch, although obviously you can spice any sandwich up to looks something like this or this... Just let your imagination run wild. But having pasta for lunch; I don’t know… it makes me feel good and I just loooooove pasta to bits. So I was browsing the internet this morning for ideas on what to make for lunch that would taste good, have mascarpone in it and look good (yes, yes, I know it’s rather pathetic to pick dishes out because they have a potential to look good..) and I stumbled upon this gorgeous dish on the Good Food website. I have changed it slightly as the original called for angel hair pasta and I just do not like angel hair pasta. It’s too…. angel like..

It also reminded me of one of the first pasta dishes I did that completely looked like the worst pasta dish ever!! In fact it was so bad that I deleted the photos… and I never delete photos that are technically correct. And on top of that I switched blogs and the original photos in the original post that I wrote about this disaster were also gone… So I can’t really show you how far I have come since then. Anyway… just believe me when I say that this looks much much better…! I did learn some stuff about foodstyling in the process… But I just decided I will cook that recipe again soon… I just have to do better! (update; I just found the photos again which had been misplaced. I reuploaded them in the post from last year but you will be able to see a before and after if I redo this dish!)

So, here I am, in the studio frying some bacon in the pan and it’s a good thing I do not have a smoke alarm there or it would have gone completely crazy! I don’t have a proper stove in the studio so I cook on those little portable burners which work fine most of the time but I also don’t have a ventilationsystem so I have to rely on the open window, which did not work very well… Man, there was some serious smoke forming! It’s a good thing my customer came hours later or they would have called the fire department upon entering the building! (well, ok I do like to exaggerate a little from time to time)

Thankfully the open window did help in getting rid of most of the smoke soon, so no harm done… As for the pasta; it’s another one of those great recipes which you can adjust to your liking. I loved it and I got to use some of my leftover mascarpone (which you will find out all about on saturday!) I only forgot to bring my parmezan cheese so I had it without, which was also good, but definitely would be even better with some nicely grated parmesan on top! Btw; did you also notice a lot of peas in my meals lately? I just notice it myself all of a sudden…

Tagliatelle with saffron, bacon and peas (serves 2, ready in 15 minutes)

few slices of bacon

1 pinch of saffron

olive oil

1 garlic clove

200 ml of white wine

2 tbsp of mascarpone

1 lemon, zested

150 gr frozen peas, defrosted

100 gr tagliatelle

basil, chopped to serve

freshly grated parmesan

In a non stick frying pan (preferably a deep one) heat the olive oil and cook the garlic and the bacon until golden. Crush the saffron in a small bowl and add 1 tbsp of boiling water. Allow to sit for 1 minute and then add to the pan. Pour in the wine and season well.

Reduce by half and then add the mascarpone, lemon and peas and heat through. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain well and add to the pan with the sauce. Serve with basil and grate some fresh parmesan on top.

And did you notice how incredibly quick this is?? The taste was surprisingly good. Better then I even had imagined it to be…

I am sending this dish in for Presto Pasta Nights #152 (which is my first time, can you believe it??) which is hosted by Michelle of Italian Mama Chef this week!

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• Gnocchi with garden peas
• Creamy pasta; then and now…
• Green peas and broadbeans with mint and mozarella
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