Category Archives: Recipes

Kickass Bacon Pancakes

We all love our pancakes, and I prefer mine savoury. Not just savoury, but served with crispy bacon and butter. Sometimes, when I am in no rush and fancy a big breakfast, I even cook eggs and sausages. You could say, this is my version of an English breakfast.

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 egg, lightly whisked

Serve with crispy, streaky bacon and butter (optional)

Method

  1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl
  2. Whisk in the lemon juice, whole milk and egg
  3. Leave the combined batter in the fridge for 20 minutes
  4. In the meantime, you can heat a non-stick frying pan and start cooking the streaky bacon in its own juices, until golden
  5. Clean the non-stick frying pan, and over medium heat, start frying the batter to make these lovely, fluffy pancakes. If your pan is good, you don’t need to put oil or butter.
  6. Allow around 2 minutes on one side, flip with a spatula and wait another 1 minute. Lower the heat if you notice that the pancake colour is darker than golden.

20170222_185157

With this recipe I make 9 pancakes of roughly 15 minutes in diameter. Serve with crispy bacon and butter, or anything else you might fancy for your breakfast!

And, if you don’t feel like making them yourself, look for some destinations that serve pancakes for breakfast.

Cheese-Burger Pie

Today I will share with you a recipe I have conjured while experimenting in the kitchen. I have been sick the past few days, and I thought I needed an extra boost, so decided to make a meat pie. I also felt like eating something a bit more on the lines of junk food, so I came up with the idea of making a cheese-burger pie.

Here are the ingredients I made use of:

For the pastry:
– 250g plain flour
– 110g butter
– 90ml cold water (might not need it all)
– pinch of salt

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut the butter into rather small pieces and add to the flour mix. Using the ‘rub-in method’, rub in the butter into the flour. Once this is done, start adding the cold water gradually until the mixture can hold together when pressed. Form the dough into a ball and let it chill.

For the filling:
– 300g ground beef
– beef stock
– 1 large onion, chopped
– cheddar cheese (you can use as much as you want)
–  few pickled gherkins
– mustard (I used german, but you can use your favourite)
– red sauce or ketchup
– salt and pepper

Put some butter in the pan, and once it warms up, put in the ground beef. While it is cooking, at some salt and pepper. When it is half way cooked, put in the chopped large onion and add the beef stock.steffisays-cheeseburgerpie1 Let this cook until the onion is slightly brown and soft. At this point, I added 3 table spoons of red sauce.Once the mixture is less watery, add the chopped picked gherkins and a few drizzles of mustard. You can add more, depending on how strong you like your mustard.
While I left the filling on low temperature, I greased the pie tin with butter, and started to prepare the crust.
Once this was done, I spooned the pie tin with the mixture and added 4 slices of cheddar on top and added some more pepper.
Finally I kneaded the top part of the crust, and added some sesame seeds for decoration.

I cooked the pie in a preheated oven at 180° for about 30 minutes.

steffisays-cheeseburgerpie2

Pasta Omelette (Maltese: Tarja Moqlija)

One of the ‘fry ups’ that I really love eating, but which I do not eat so often since unfortunately it is far from healthy is known as Tarja Moqlija. The English name I’d like to give it is a Pasta Omelette. If you are not sure if this is something you’d like to try, I still urge you read the recipe, it might make you hungry, or in the least: curious!

Recipe for two

Ingredients:
– 200g Vermicelli / Spaghetti
– 2 handfuls of Parmigiano Reggiano
– 2 large eggs
– 2 handfuls of cubed ham or bacon or sausage
– 1 small onion, chopped
– 6 average sized mushrooms, chopped
– Salt and Pepper to taste
You can add or change ingredients according to your taste

Method:
1. Boil the pasta until it is rather soft
2. Cook the mushrooms in some butter until the pasta is ready
3. Beat the eggs and add the other chopped ingredients in the same bowl and season it
4. Mix the cooked pasta in the same bowl
5. Put a bit of oil in the frying pan and wait until it is warm
6. Spread the pasta mix into the frying pan.
7. Fry from one side until is golden brown and then turn it around slowly
8. Serve piping hot (and crispy!)

tarja

Notes:
– Do not put too much pasta mix in the pan because if the omelette is too thick it will break
– If you feel like there’s not enough egg in the mix, you are better off adding an additional egg. The omelette will still taste as good!

Chocolate Chip Rock Buns

I will share with you my winner chocolate rock buns recipe. Now, you may think that this recipe is a bit weird, in the sense that it has ground almonds in it, but I thought this adds to both the texture and the taste of the rock buns. When I was young I used to eliminate this and replace it with flour, but boy was I missing out.

So, these are the ingredients you will need:

  • 200 g plain flour
  • 50 g ground almonds
  • 90 g butter or margarine
  • 90 g sugar
  • 90 g chocolate bits *
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 table spoon of baking powder

*this can be changed to raisins or candied peels or any other fruit you might want to have in your cookies

And this is the magic, also known as the method to make these gorgeous cookies:

  1. Before you start making the dough, make sure you start heating up the oven up to 180 degrees celsius. When making sweets, it’s of utmost important that the oven has reached the desired warmth otherwise it won’t cook the cakes properly.
  2. Sieve the flour and add the salt, sugar and the ground almonds. Make sure this is mixed thoroughly before you add in the butter or margarine. Stir this first using a wooden spoon and then using the ‘rubbing in’ method.
  3. At this moment add the chocolate bits and once this is mixed thoroughly, make a hole and add the beaten eggs. Keep stirring until you get a stiff ‘not so sticky’ mixture.
  4. Split the mixture into buns and place them on your baking tray. Make sure the buns look ‘rough’ and you can achieve this by using a fork to rough in it up.
  5. Bake for 20 minutes until they are light golden. Cool the rock buns on a wire wrack. You can add more sugar for extra sparkle but I usually skip this.

And the outcome should be something like this:

rockbuns

I made 8 buns with these measurements; they were around 10cm each, in diameter.

My Pimped up Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino

Today, I decided to take a well known recipe and pimp it up to make it more tasty. It turned out divine and thought I will share it with you. Besides… I have not shared one of my recipes with you for a while 🙂

This can be served as either a main dish or as a starter…

Ingredients (for 2)

  • 200g pasta of your choice
  • olive oil
  • garlic, crushed
  • chili oil  (optional)
  • chilies, de-seeded and chopped thinly
  • mushrooms, chopped
  • butter
  • fine herbs
  • parsley, chopped thinly (optional)
  • spring onions
  • salt and pepper
  • cheese (grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano, optional)

Method

  1. Start with cooking the pasta of your choice according to the instructions on the packet. Make sure that you leave them al dente. Drizzle some olive oil and fine herbs.
  2. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the cooking liquid in a glass on the side.
  3. In a frying pan I melted the butter and sauteed the crushed garlic and soon after, added the mushrooms.
  4. Once golden and not yet browned, I’ve put in the thinly chopped chilies, and added chili oil for the extra hot spice.
  5. Add the reserved cooking liquid.
  6. I didn’t want the spring onions to be fully cooked which is why I added them at this point. I wanted the bits to remain crunchy-ish.
  7. Once ready, add the pasta and season with parsley, salt and pepper.
  8. Toss to make sure that the pasta is covered in the mixture and everything is combined.
  9. Serve immediately with grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano.

20150319 aglio olio peperoncino pimped upBon Apetit!

3 Ingredients Brownie Cake

Tried and tested; All you need is 2 eggs, 350g nutella and 150g flour. Mix them together until it forms a rather sticky dough. Place in a dish, and put in a preheated oven, and cook at 160 degrees Celsius. It took mine 25mins to be fully cooked, but always use a toothpick to check if the cake is ready. As soon as toothpick comes out of the cake clean, switch the oven off and wait for the brownie to cool down slightly before eating it.

Below, you can find a photo of the end result. I have added almonds and chocolate chips on top of my cake:

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Bon Apetit!

New Acquisition: Pasta Maker

I have wanted to buy a pasta maker for a long, long time. But I have always controlled myself due to the fact that I worried that I would buy it and leave it there taking up space. However, a friend of mine and I have come to agreement that we will both acquire one and learn how to use the machine together. We figured, that this way we will encourage each other in majoring this new en-devour.

pasta maker

On MasterChef as well as on YouTube I have came across dozens of videos on how to make fresh pasta. The dough itself is easy to make, and most ingredients are available at every kitchen; at least at those who adore the art of cooking. The basic ingredients are eggs, flour, salt and oil. One should only add water if it is too dry to stick together. Of the dough is too wet, you just gotta keep kneading… Don’t add more flour!
At this stage, you would either make spaghetti or fettucini, or some ravioli. In the latter case, make sure you make a tasty mix of ingredients!

I cannot wait until my new toy arrives so we can get crackin`!

My Bacon & Cheese Savoury Pancakes

This is one of my comfort light on the stomach dishes I make from time to time. It is easy, tasty and gives you a feel good vibe. This is my method and I hope you like it 🙂 Continue reading My Bacon & Cheese Savoury Pancakes

Maltese Christmas Log

The below is one of my favourite dessert recipes which are quite traditional in Malta during Christmas times. However, I have made this randomly during the year too; Because I am cool like that.
Continue reading Maltese Christmas Log