My homemade pesto

Pesto ingredients

Who says that you have to make pesto with exactly the same ingredients as recipes? You can add in whatever you fancy until you find the version that you like. Here is my version:

·         Fresh basil 100grs
·         Roast almond flakes 100grs
·         1 garlic clove
·         Salt 1 pinch
·         Olive oil 50ml

Rinse and chop the basil leaves, place them in the blender, crush the almonds, add the salt and blend until smooth while continuously adding oil. Done

Basil is the fresh tomatoes and mozzarella’s best friend. But, you can also try it with tomatoes and radishes, pitta bread or put a dollop on freshly cooked rice noodle…

Serving suggestion Tomato & Radish

Compote au riz rouge de Camargue

Ingredients for the dessert

Rice dessert:

·         6 medium strawberries
·         2 apples (any would do)
·         1 banana
·         2 tea spoons of sugar (optional)
·         50grs red Camargue rice
·         Rice milk
·         A hand full of dry currants (for serving)
 

Method: Peel the apples and cut in small quarters, peel and cut the banana the same, cut the strawberries and rinse. Also rinse the rice and place all the above in a small sauce pan with the sugar and rice milk. Put enough rice milk to cover the content of the pan. Cover and leave to cook on medium heat for 30 minutes.

Just ensure that the rice is well cooked before removing the pan from the heat. Do not let your pan dry or run out of liquid. This will help when blending the content of the pan.

So, once the rice is cooked, transfer the content of the pan in a blender and liquidize the lot. Leave to cool down and place in the fridge for an hour before serving topped with few currants.

Enjoy!

Serving suggestion

 

 

Roast potatoes medley

Often wondered about how else you could use left overs roast potatoes in a really tasty and original way… Well, here is one to try at home. Tastes good too!

Get a piece of baguette to clean the plate with...

Dinner for 2

Ingredients (from scratch):

For the potatoes:

·         200grs baby potatoes – Or salad potatoes
·         2tbsp vegetable oil
·         Salt and black pepper

For the tahini “sauce”:

·         1 medium onion, finely chopped
·         3 garlic cloves finely chopped
·         2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil
·         2 tablespoons of tahini paste
·         1 tablespoon of mustard paste
·         ½ knor vegetable stock cube melted in 150ml of warm water
·         1 small bunch of fresh parsley

For the roast potatoes (if you haven’t got let overs)

Take a bag of 200grs salad potatoes, rinse them and cut each one in half. Place them on the oven tray face down with 2table spoons of vegetable oil, salt & pepper. Put the potatoes in the preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes. The skin should be crispy and the potatoes slightly firm.

In the meantime, prepare the tahini base of the medley:

Chop the onion into really fine pieces, heat 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil in a saucepan, brown the onions, don’t let them burn. Now add the garlic, tahini paste and the mustard. Stir for 2 minutes then add a glass of water and leave to simmer gently for 5 minutes uncovered. Stir from time to time so it doesn’t stick.

Now, add the potatoes and do not forget to scrape the bottom of the oven tray (more flavour there) and add it to the mix. Stir well and poor in 150ml of stock. Cover and leave on medium heat for 15 minutes. What we are looking for is the sauce to stick to the potatoes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Now take the pan off the heat and add the chopped parsley. Mix well and serve immediately.

Bon Appétit

Note: This dish was created from some leftover potatoes from dinner the day before. Any leftover roast vegetables could be used in this way. Do not worry if you normally roast your potatoes with other vegetables. No need to separate them, just chuck it all in the “sauce” and enjoy!

Homemade Houmous

 

Ready houmous

Making houmous is a good way to use leftover chickpeas. Use it for work lunch or for a Saturday afternoon snack.  The plate you see below is my lunch on my work place’s kitchen work top.
 
Ingredients:
·         Half a tin of Chick peas
·         30 ml of olive oil
·         2 cloves of garlic
·         Salt & black pepper
·         1 small slice of red chilli pepper

Method:

Rinse the chickpeas and put them in a bowl with the chilli pepper and the peeled and chopped garlic. Using a hand blender, blend for 2 minutes, then add salt and pepper blend again for 2 minutes while adding the olive oil slowly as you blend. Do not add water, it is meant to be a very slightly hard paste.

It is much cheaper to make your own than to actually buy it ready made. Be adventurous and create your own flavoured houmous.

Serving suggestion

Just in case you have never heard of it, houmous very popular in North Africa and in Arabe countries in general. Houmous is the Arabic name of chickpeas and is used as a dip, just like we in the West use mayonnaise, Tara masala, yogurt and chive etc…

On my plate here you can see broccoli, celery, carrots, sweet pepper, but you can also use bread, pitta or naan bread for your platter.

Et voila! It is not magic.