Flambéed Mixed Mushroom Pasta

This pasta dish started with the gift of a bottle of brandy. We aren’t really drinkers, so I started wondering what other uses I can have for the brandy. After reading up about the original recipe of Stroganoff, I decided that I would play around with it a bit and come up with a healthier, vegetarian version.

The first time I flambéed the mushrooms, I almost lost my fringe! But the taste that came out was worth the fright! I also made it on my birthday for lunch when my parents, brother and sister came over. While I was making the dish I could hear everybody laughing and talking behind me (we are a loud family), once I added the brandy and set it alight, all was suddenly very quiet behind me. After a couple of seconds my mom joked:

“Ok Jouré, we won’t be naughty any more…”

So here is it. The dish for those that behave themselves 😉

Ingredients:

Smoked salt – the clumpy ones

½ teaspoon whole coriander

½ teaspoon whole mustard seeds

1 clove fresh garlic – crushed

Butter

Pepper

4 heaped tablespoons of plain yogurt

125ml cream

50-75 ml of Brandy

1 punnet of small brown mushrooms – roughly chopped

1 punnet of mixed wild/exotic mushrooms (Enoki, Oyster, Porcini, etc) – roughly chopped

Method:

1. Dry fry your mustard seeds, coriander and salt for about 1 minute on high heat. Take out of the pan and put it aside
2. Fry your mushrooms and garlic on high heat in the butter. You will see how much they need. Mushrooms usually need quite a bit to make them extra creamy
3. Add you fried spices and pepper
4. Add the brandy and light it up! It will burn for as long as there is alcohol in it. Let it burn out by itself
5. Add the yogurt and cream and let it simmer – it will thicken by itself. It isn’t a very thick sauce but that is what makes it so great. It will cover your pasta and there will be sauce left that you can scoop up with some delicious home made bread

Avocado Dip

 

I make this dip so regularly I can do it my sleep! It is very quick and very easy. I make this for chips, nachos, veggies and even to use as spread on a toast! It is really healthy and very, very delish! ♥

Ingredients:

1 large ripe avocado
1 tub of low fat cottage cheese
15 ml lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Peel the avocado and remove the pip
2. Add all the ingredients, besides the spices, in a blender and wazz it up
3. Scoop it out into a bowl, and stir in your spices.

Viola! Done! How easy is that? ♥

Roasted Garlic Aioli

 

This is one of the most delicious things to make, and always such a treat! It beats any Aioli that you can buy in any shop. And it is really easy! It just takes a little patience 🙂

LEARN TO LOVE GARLIC! ♥

I recently read a book about a woman and her family who moved to Provance to make goat’s cheese. Somewhere in the story they made and ate aioli. It sounded wonderful. I searched high and low for a recipe, found one, made it, with raw garlic like you should, and put it in a nice bottle. A couple of days later we made prawns, so I took the bottle out, and we proceeded to eat it all, it was THAT good. But raw garlic consumed in vast quantities, is not to be recommended. We had garlic reflux for at least 5 days. So, I changed the recipe. The roasted garlic makes it a lot milder, and gives it a fantastic smoky flavor.

“A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.” – Old New York proverb

Ingredients:
1 house of garlic, the end chopped off, sprinkled with olive oil, and baked at 180 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes, or until soft.
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon cold water
1 cup olive oil – or if you prefer: ½ cup olive oil and ½ cup sunflower oil mixed

Method:
In a mortar, and with your pestle, grind the salt and garlic in ONE direction, until it’s a paste.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the garlic paste, mustard and yolks until smooth.
Add the water and lemon juice, whisking all the time. (Here is where an electric mixer comes in handy)
Add the oil, literally drop by drop, while whisking constantly. NEVER STOP WHISKING.
If the mayonnaise separates, you may add an extra yolk.

This will make just over 250ml of aioli, and will keep in your fridge for no more than a week. It’s best to make it when you want it.

Bagna Cauda

♥ This is a warm vegetable dip called Bagna Cauda.
I ate this for the first time at an ex-boyfriend’s house when his mom made it for his 21st. I fell in love with the dish immediately, and over the years have been researching recipes and perfecting my own version of it. It is such a sure way to get people to eat raw vegetables. I even ate raw broccoli! 😉

Be sure to serve it with a warm, fresh bread. Also, since most people don’t like a meal without meat, I sometimes make a steak and cut in into strips for those that want it. ( I can hear the men say AMEN!)

This dish always works best if you keep it in a hot plug in pan thing, and dish it out in small quantitites as you need it.

So here it is, with lots of love ♥

Ingredients
1/2 cup peeled, crushed garlic
1/5 cup olive oil
500g butter
1 tin capers
1 tin anchovy fillets
250ml double cream

Method:
1. Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic and the olive oil to form a paste
2. Cook this paste over a low heat
3. Add the butter
4. Add the capers and anchovies – cook until the anchovies start melting
5. Add the cream, bring to almost boil (just bubbling) and serve

*Tip: If you are sensitive to the garlic smell, soak your garlic in whole milk for at least an hour before you use it. This will remove a lot of the garlic smell.