Cheesy stuffed eggplant

   Stuffed eggplant is one of my go-to recipes when I don't know what to cook. It's easy to make and really delicious. This time I found a new cheesy recipe here and I tweaked it a bit to make it my own :D It's sooo cheesy and sooo good that it was worth sharing! So let me tell you how I cooked it:

Ingredients for 4 servings:

- 2 medium eggplants

- a medium white onion

- a small carrot

- 2-3 medium tomatoes

- 400g minced meat (I used pork but you can use a mix if you prefer)

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 2 tsp salt

- a pinch of fresh pepper

- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

- 200g grated cheese (of your preferred choice)

- 30 ml oil

Steps:

1. Cut the eggplant into 2 lengthwise including the tail.

2. With a spoon, remove the eggplant core, but leave a layer of about half a cm. Sprinkle with salt and set aside. You will see that a brown liquid will accumulate.

3. To make the stuffing, dice the eggplant core, the tomatoes, the onion and the garlic and grate the carrot on a small grater.

4. Put the oil in a pan, add the onion and the carrot and quickly cook in the pan, over high heat, for 2-3 minutes. 

5. Now add in the minced meat. Let it cook for 10 minutes.

6. Add the diced tomatoes, diced eggplant, salt, pepper and garlic and let everything simmer for another 10-15 minutes. At the end, add the parsley.

7. Preheat the oven to 200 C, fire up and down in electric ovens, medium to maximum fire in gas ovens.

8. By now the eggplant halves have softened and the bitter liquid came out. Wash them with running water and dry them well with napkins.

9. Place the eggplant halves in a baking tray, add the stuffing and then generously sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

10. Pour a cup of water in the tray and then cover it with aluminum foil, but make sure it doesn't touch the eggplants (I used toothpicks for this). 

11. Put the eggplants in the oven to tan ;)  Bake them for 40 min, then take the tinfoil off and let the melted cheese brown for 5 more minutes. 

Bon appetit! :D

Umami Chicken Wrap

   We discovered this chicken wrap by accident when one evening we wanted to eat a chicken wrap (we love house-made wraps here) and we played with the ingredients we had in the fridge. What makes it umami though is the herb mayo we used and the fresh telemea :D  Do you wanna lick your fingers? 

FYI: The measurements in this dish are very subjective. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for 3 people:

- Kania Remoulade Mayo with Herbs from Lidl

- About 500 g boneless chicken thighs 

- ”Chicken Seasoning” and ”Spicy Chicken Wings Seasoning” from Kamis (the ratio between the two  depends on how spicy you want the chicken)

- 1 medium red pepper

- 2 cucumbers

- 2 tomatoes

- 1 green onion

- 200g of ”Telemea de vacă” from Bonas (Feta cheese for people from outside Romania)

- 6 Mediteranean Herb Mission wraps

Steps:

1. Cut the chicken into strips. Season it with the seasoning mix.

2. Cook the chicken with some oil in a frying pan until it's done.

3. Cut the red pepper into strips, peel the cucumber and cut it into strips.

4. Dice the tomatoes.

5. Chop up the green onion.

6. Grate the cheese or crumble it by hand.

7. Warm up the wrap in a pan.

8. Spread some herb mayo on the wrap and then add the desired amount of each of the ingredients in the wrap. Roll it up and ... bon apetit! :D

Delicious Pasta Tuna Salad

   I know, I know, it's been more than 6 months since I last posted anything here. I won't find any excuses and just let you wonder when I'll post the next one ;) 

   Today we'll talk about something really really good that I haven't made in a loooong time (years), therefore I forgot how good it is. So, when I tasted it again I instantly thought of sharing the joy :D

   This recipe was born as a tweak from an original recipe of a friend of Oliver's so my dear husband got creative and presented me this yummilicious salad and got me in love with it ever since! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for 4 people:

300g small pasta (I used cornetti/elbows) + a bit of oil

1 red pepper

2 celery sticks

a big. red onion

3 tuna cans

1/2 cup mayo

dill

salt, pepper, chilli flakes

Steps:

1. Cook the pasta. Once it's cooked, cool it down under cold water until it's room temperature and then set it aside adding a bit of oil and mixing so that it doesn't stick together. 

2. Chop up in small cubes the red pepper, the celery sticks and the onion.

3. Chop up the dill.

4. Drain the oil from the tuna and mix the tuna with mayo.

5. Mix all the components together in a bowl.

6. Add salt, pepper and red chilli flakes to taste

7. Bon apetit! :D

Mediterranean Cajun Chicken Drumsticks

   I know, spring has passed and now summer is here and it looked like I abandoned you guys. Not true. I just had some pretty intense couple of months and no OMG recipes to share, but fear not, the day has come for yet another OMG recipe!
   My motto with this blog was that I would only share brilliant recipes people MUST try. Not OK, not pretty good, not average but absolutely delicious recipes. You'll probably say you can't always find OMG recipes and you're right. That's why, I prefer quality over quantity. I'd say it's a pretty good trade-off, right?

   Now let's get started! This recipe was inspired by a delicious one made by my wedding godmother consisting in baked chicken drumsticks and cherry tomatoes. I forgot all the rest, but thank God cooking means improvising because creativity is exactly what made this recipe come together into a mouth watering feast! I just finished eating it and I still have its aftertaste in my mouth! Such an amazing, rich sauce, tender meat, plump baked tomatoes, sweet pepper and onion and then... there's the fresh telemea. Oh My God! You really REALLY must try it!

Here are the ingredients for 2 servings:

- 600g of chicken drumsticks (5 pieces)

- a pack of Cajun Marinade from American Week @ LIDL (you can still find it in stores, so rush!) or a simple cajun rub with pepper, garlic powder and some oil

- a red pepper

- 2 medium red onions

- about 8 cherry tomatoes

- a big piece of  fresh "telemea de vaca in saramura" from Delaco (It MUST be this one! It's absolutely addictive!) - foreigner friends, sorry, you don't know what "telemea" is since it's a purely Romanian type of cheese, but you can replace it with Feta cheese with no problem

Reference photos:

 

Even if it says it's enough for 350g of meat, believe me, it will do just right with 600g as well.

        Delicious!

Steps:

1. Cover the chicken drumsticks in decadent marinade and leave them soaking overnight (if you have time), otherwise, just put the marinade on the chicken and let it sit for a few minutes.

2. Put a bit of oil in a cooking tray.

3. Cut the red pepper in long stripes, then Julienne the red onions.

4. Add the pepper, onions and cherry tomatoes in the tray. Just randomly sprinkle them around.

5. Add the marinated chicken on top of the veg. Casually sprinkle a bit more oil on top of everything. 

6. Cover the tray with aluminum foil then put the whole deliciousness in the oven for 45 min at 220ºC. 

7. Cut the fresh telemea while you're smelling the amazing flavour coming from the oven.

8. Plate your dish: chicken, veg, fresh telemea and plenty of that amazing brown sauce! Mmmmm! Bon appetit!

Tuna Salad

   After having some heavy winter dinners we felt like switching things up so tonight we prepared this tuna salad that we love so much (my parents are raving about it even though they don't really try out new dishes a lot). It's so easy, fresh and healthy you will want to go for seconds! :)

Ingredients for 2-3 servings:
2 cans of tuna chunks (I'd recommend chunks instead of shredded tuna because you can get a better taste of the fish this way)
1 can of red beans
4-5 cherry tomatoes
2 cucumbers
1 medium red onion
2 green onions
some olives
a small can of corn
Optional: lettuce

Dressing:
4 Tbsp oil (from the tuna can)
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp grainy mustard
2 Tbsp water
A pinch of salt

Steps:
1. Dice the veggies.
2. Strain the tuna chunks but keep the oil from the can.
3. Make the dressing using oil from the tuna can.
4. Put the veggies, the tuna, the beans and the dressing in a bowl and mix well.
5. Enjoy your healthy dinner! :)

Thai red curry stir fry

   Stir fries are one of my favorite dishes in the world: they're fresh, crisp, full of flavour and saucy! I love combining all sorts of veggies with different condiments and sauces! Stir fries encourage you to be creative and that's a plus in my eyes!
   Today Oliver and I tried a new stir fry with a thai red curry sauce we found in a supermarket:

   We decided to use the veggies we had in the pantry so here's what we picked:

- 1 medium red onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 zucchini
- 200g broccoli
- 1 green pepper
- around 50g of peas
- some cashews
- a whole chicken thigh
- noodles

Wanna know the steps?
1. Dice all the veggies.
2. Put the chicken thigh in a tray with some water and leave it in the oven for 30 min at 180˚ so you can easily take the meat off the bone.
3. After you take the chicken out, cook the veggies for some minutes.
4. Add the chicken in the wok and cook it a bit more then smother everything in the spicy thai red curry sauce.

5. Separately fry some cashews in a pan for a minute or so to give them a nice crunch.
6. Cook the noodles.
7. Plate the dish: noodles, veggies and chicken, cashews on top.

Et voila! Bon appetit!