Category Archives: Entrée

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!

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!

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