Easy Tuna Deviled Eggs

 

   At my brother's recommendation, for the first time in my life, today I made deviled eggs stuffed with tuna instead of paté. OMG!!! Why haven't I done this sooner??? What have I been waiting for? I think the easiest explanation is that once you're born a Romanian you will associate deviled eggs with paté all your life and you would end up losing so many flavours! This absolutely exceptional, super duper easy recipe made me want to reinvent Romanian dishes by switching one or two key ingredients and just give them a refresh! I feel so inspired! 

So let me tell you how to make this dish yourself:

Ingredients for 6 deviled eggs (2 people):

- 3 medium eggs

- a can of good quality tuna, sifted - without the brine or oil 

- 7 Tbsp mayo mixed with greek yogurt (Choose to make your own mayo, it's always better!)

- spices: paprika, chili

Steps:

1. Boil the eggs for 8 minutes.

2. Half the eggs and take the yolks out.

3. Blend the tuna with the egg yolks and a tablespoon of mayo and yogurt mix.

4. Stuff the egg halves with the tuna mix using a teaspoon then turn them upside down.

5. Pour a tablespoon of mayo on every deviled egg.

6. Sprinkle some paprika and chili for extra zing. Bon appetit! :D

Summery fish tacos with homemade tortillas

   Who doesn't love a good taco? Tacos are perfect for quick summer dinners and they punch a lot of flavour! This time I also made my own tortillas for the first time in my life with a recipe from here and I'll show you how to make it yourself. It's easy peasy, believe me! :D The taco recipe was taken from "Yum and yummer" recipe book written by Greta Podleski. 

Tortilla recipe (tweaked the size of it and I also used half of the original recipe):
Ingredients for 8 tortillas of 11 cm:

- 1,5 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 40 ml extra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil 

- 1/2 cup warm water

Steps:

1. Combine flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook, mix dry ingredients until well combined.

2. Add oil and water with mixer running at a medium speed. After about 1 minute, or when mixture comes together and begins to form a ball, decrease mixing speed to low. Continue to mix for 1 minute or until dough is smooth.

3. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 8 equal portions. Turn each piece to coat with flour. Form each piece into a ball and flatten with the palm of your hand. 

4. Cover flattened balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes (or as much as 2 hours) before proceeding. We left them for 1 hour.

5. After the rest period, heat a large pan over medium heat. Roll each dough piece into a rough circle, about 11 cm diameter, keep work surface and rolling pin lightly floured. Don’t stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other or they will stick together.

6. When the pan is hot, place one dough circle into the pan and allow to cook about 1 minute or until the bottom surface has a few pale brown spots and the uncooked surface is bubbly. If browning too fast, reduce the heat a bit. If it’s taking longer than a minute to see a few pale golden brown spots on the underside of tortillas, increase the heat a bit. Flip to other side and cook for 15-20 seconds. The tortillas should be nice and soft but have a few small brown spots on the surface. 

7. Remove from pan with tongs and stack in a covered container or zippered bag to keep the tortillas soft. 

And now, let's fill them with delicious stuff! :D

Ingredients for 8 tacos:

Mango salsa:

- 1 diced mango (make sure it's ripe)

- 1 avocado, diced

- 1/2 red pepper

- 1 diced red onion

- 2 Tbsp minced jalapeno peppers

- 1 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro

- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

- a pinch of salt

Lime mayo sauce:

- 1/3 cup light mayo

- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

- 1/2 tsp grated lime zest

- 1/8 each chili powder and ground cumin

Fish:

- 700g white fish fillets (we used carp because we couldn't find cod or tilapia that the book recommends)

- 2 tsp olive oil

- salt and freshly ground black pepper

- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

Steps:

1. Combine all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well. 

2. Pat the fish dry with paper towels and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the fish and cook for 2-3 min or until the edges start to look brown. Carefully flip the fish and cook about 2 more minutes. Transfer the fish to a plate and squeeze some lime juice over top.

3. To assemble tacos, flake the fish or cut it into small pieces. Place it over the bottom of warmed tortillas, top with salsa and drizzle the lime mayo on top. Bon appetit! :)

Cheesy Peasy Salmon Pasta

 

   If you love pasta as much as I do and you wanna try a new recipe, you're in the right place:) Let me show you a delicious way to marry salmon, asparagus, peas and pasta :D I prepared the recipe from the "Yum and yummer" book written by Greta Podleski, but I tweaked the cooking cream and the quantity of lemon juice because ours wasn't saucy enough and I don't know about you, but I like all my pastas SAUCYYYY!!!

Ingredients for 2 servings:

-  170g uncooked bow-tie pasta

- 1 cup chopped fresh asparagus

- 3/4 cup frozen peas

- 2 tsp butter or olive oil

- 2 tsp minced garlic

~ 400 ml of light cooking cream

- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parm cheese and extra for serving

- 1 Tbsp minced fresh dill

- lemon juice from a lemon

- 1 tsp grated lemon zest

- aprox. 150g cooked salmon, cut into chunks

- freshly ground black pepper

! Important note: respect the indicated veggie quantities (I'll explain why below)

Steps:

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions and add the asparagus and the peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking time.

2. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce. Heat the butter in a pan over medium heat until it's frothy. Add the garlic and cook it until it's golden (about 1 min). Be careful not to burn it!

3. Add the cooking cream to the pan and then increase the heat to medium-high. Cook and stir until the mixture bubbles. Add the cheese, the dill, the lemon juice and the lemon zest. Mix well. 

4. Add the salmon to the pan and cook it almost completely. 

5. Drain the pasta and the veggies and add half of them to the sauce. I recommend to first see if half of it is enough to feed 2. (I didn't respect the exact measurements for the peas and the asparagus and I think I put in too many veggies because I ended up with a double recipe and I wish I had only added half of it in the sauce :) ) Add more cooking cream if it's not too saucy.

6. Mix all the ingredients and serve immediately with freshly ground black pepper and extra Parm cheese on top :) Bon appetit!

Nachos

 

   Nachos is one of my favorite summery dishes to have from back in the days of Off the Wall, the restaurant my husband had. I love how easy it is to make, how tasty and crunchy it is and you'll love it just as much cos it's a summery MUST! So, let me teach you how to make your own Nachos to share with your friends over a party or have it for lunch or dinner yourselves :) No matter the occasion, nachos will surely be a crowd pleaser! :D

Ingredients for 1 tray (aprox. 4 people):

-4 wraps

-1 big or 2 small tomatoes

-1 stem of green onion

-corn

-beans

-olives

-2 chicken thighs

-tex Mex seasoning / chicken seasoning / grill mix

-a big roll of cascaval afumat (~250g), grated

-sour cream

-guacamole (freshly made)

Steps:

1. Cut the wraps into stripes then cut them again into triangles and fry them. Put salt on them when they come out of the pan.

2. Put the seasoning on the chicken, then pan fry it.

3. Put the nachos, the chicken and the cheese in the oven for about 5 min until the cheese melts

4. Have the veggies precut (diced) so that when you take the nachos out of the oven, you can put the rest of the veggies on top right away so that they stick with the cheese before it hardens. 

5. Dip the nachos in sour cream and / or guacamole when you eat it.  That's it! Bon appetit! :D

Garlicky shrimp zucchini pasta

   We discovered this recipe HERE when we ran out of dinner ideas (after browsing this blog, recipe books and other blogs). Yep, from time to time, I get to that point when I really don't know what I would want to eat. We had lots of salads lately and it's too hot outside to have something heavy, so when this recipe was found I could hear the heavens opening and the angels singing "Laaaaaaaa" (you know what I mean :))). 

    It's pasta, but it's NOT with pasta because you use zucchini to make the body of the dish and they're called "zoodles" :D How cool is that? Add shrimp and creaaaamy garlicky sauce and you win me over every time! So I HAD to try it asap. And tonight was the night. I knew it was gonna be delish and here I am, posting this recipe so you can imagine my reaction when I had the first bite. Mmmmm, utter joy! So now, let's help you experience that joy yourselves! :D

Ingredients for 3-4 servings:

- 3 Tbsp. butter, divided

- around 500-600g medium or large shrimp, peeled and deveined

- salt

- freshly ground black pepper

- 4 cloves garlic, minced

- 3/4 cups heavy cream (~180 ml)

- 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (or more, GO NUTS, I did :)))

- 6 halved cherry tomatoes

- freshly chopped parsley

- 3 medium zucchini, cut with the peeler or the spiralizer (or about 4 cups zoodles)

Steps:

1. In a large pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Add shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Cook until shrimp is pink and opaque, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer shrimp to a plate. (Keep juices in skillet.)

2. Melt remaining butter in skillet then stir in garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Add the heavy cream. Bring to a simmer.

4. Stir in Parmesan, tomatoes, and parsley. Simmer until tomatoes have softened and the mixture has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes. 

5. Return the shrimp to the skillet and add the zucchini noodles. Toss to combine and serve immediately. Bon appetit! :D

Good to know! To make the zoodles or more like the zucchini fettucine, peel the zucchini until you reach the seeds, then throw away the core ;) 

Roasted peaches and blueberries with ice cream

   It's summer, it's SUPER HOT outside and you feel like a dessert. Nothing seems appropriate unless it contains ice cream, isn't it? Well, it just so  happens that I tried this new recipe I found on one of my favourite blogs - HERE - and I fell in love with it! Roasted summer fruit with ice cream? YES, PLEASE! Lemme show you how I made it:

Ingredients for around 4 servings:

- 2 peaches, quartered

-100 g each: blueberries or whichever other berries you have or love (including strawberries, raspberries or blackberries)

- 4 Tbsp brown sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1 Tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tsp lemon zest

- 4 Tbsp rum

- vanilla ice cream

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

2. In a bowl, combine brown sugar with lemon juice + zest, vanilla, cinnamon and rum.

3. Spread the fruit on a sheet pan, brush with the brown sugar mixture and slide into the oven. 

                                 

4. Roast for about 20 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling.

5. Remove the roasted fruit from the oven, let it cool for a bit and transfer to a serving dish. 

6. Serve with vanilla ice cream on top! Yummmm! Bon appetit! :D