Garlic & Caramelized Onion Focaccia Bread

   When it Italy I knew I had to try out focaccia! I looked for a pesto one in all Genova and in the end I was victorious! I loved that focaccia bread from the first bite! 

   Now for whoever hasn't tried it until now, it's a really awesome type of fluffy bread with awesome toppings! Last summer, after returning to Italy and having one of the best meals of my life in Modena at Franceschetta 58 restaurant, I knew I HAD to make my own focaccia! One that resembled the one we had in Modena. I still feel its taste in my mouth if I close my eyes. Absolutely addictive!

   I know it took me a while to get me to actually make my own focaccia but I see cooking as art: I'm only able to produce a really tasty dish when I feel in the mood for it. Otherwise it's going to be meh. And I don't want meh. 

   So today I REALLY felt like focaccia and I wasn't diasappointed! I found this awesome recipe that I tweaked and ta-raaaaaa! Absolutely delicious focaccia! I don't know about you but I LOVE love love caramelized onions and garlic! What could be better? So try this recipe yourself! <3

   Important note, though! It's quite time consuming (about 2-3 hours, so be prepared to be patient :P) Oh, and have a standing mixer! It totally makes your life so much easier! 

   Too much talk! Let's staaaart!

Ingredients (for 6-12 servings)

- 1 packet rapid-rise dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2-1 teaspoon cornmeal, for dusting
- 3 small yellow onions thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- salt & pepper
- fresh or dry rosemary

Steps:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast with 1 cup warm water and sugar. Gently stir to dissolve and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes until it foams. With mixer on low, slowly add 2 cups of the flour to the bowl.

2. Dissolve salt in the 2 tablespoons of warm water and add to the dough mixture. Add the 1/4 cup olive oil as well. Continue to add an additional 1 1/2-2 cups of flour (I only needed the 1 1/2 cups). When the dough begins to come together, you can increase the mixer speed to medium. If needed, stop the mixer and scrap the dough off the sides. Continue mixing until the dough is a uniform ball and is smooth and elastic (5-10 minutes), adding flour as needed. Note: you don't want the dough to become too dry; if it becomes dry and hard from adding too much flour you can add a splash of olive oil and/or water until elastic and smooth once again.

3. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and fold it over itself once or twice. Form the dough into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl. Turn the dough to coat all sides with oil and cover with plastic wrap or damp towel. Place in a warm draft free spot (an unheated oven or microwave work great) and allow to rise until doubled in size, at least 60 minutes (may rest for a couple hours if desired).

4. Coat a sheet pan with a little olive oil and sprinkle with corn meal. Turn dough out onto the counter and stretch it out into an oblong shape about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. Lay flattened dough on the prepared pan and cover with plastic wrap or damp towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

5. While it is resting, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a medium skillet, add the onions, and cook over low heat for 15 minutes until the onions caramelize. 

6. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Uncover the dough and make impressions with your fingertips giving it that classic "dimpled" look of focaccia. Add the rosemary, the caramelized onions, garlic, salt, and pepper. 

7. Bake on lower rack for 20-35 minutes (20 worked for me with electrical oven) or until dough is cooked through and beginning to golden on top.

Bon appetit! :D

Colourful Egg Salad Breakfast

   If you need a new idea for a hearty breakfast I've got you covered! :) It's both very colourful and attractive but also super yummy and crunchy! And who doesn't love a bit of crunch? :)

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
- 5 free range medium eggs
- 150-200g Gouda cheese
- 2 medium sized cucumbers
- about 2 small slices of bread made into croutons (add oregano, salt and oil)
- half a leek (or some green onion)
- salt, pepper and sunflower oil to taste

Steps:
1. Boil the eggs for 8 min. We want hard boiled eggs.
2. Cut the cheese and the cucumbers into cubes and slice the leek.
3. Make the croutons. Dice the bread, add the ingredients on top and put everything in the oven for about 5-10 min until it becomes crunchy.
4. Peal the boiled eggs and slice them into quarters.
5. Mix all the ingredients together, add some oil and seasonings. Et voila! Bon appetit and Happy New Year! :)

Grilled Peaches, Halloumi and Mint "Caprese"

   It's summer, it's hot and you don't feel like eating a heavy meal. I totally get you! Oooor, you're like me, and you find a new recipe involving halloumi cheese and you decide you HAVE to try it! :D And you do. That's how you discover this amazing recipe that is also recommended as a side but which you can easily eat on its own on a hot summer day :) 

   It was my first time eating grilled peaches and I have to admit I had a "why didn't I try this in all the 29 years before?" face. Now I know. I will eat grilled peaches again! :D

Ingredients for 3 servings:
- 3 medium peaches
- 250g halloumi cheese
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- chopped mint (about 1 Tbsp)
- sunflower or olive oil as needed

Steps:

1. Cut the halloumi in half on its length. Grill it on both sides. Slice it after it's grilled.

2. Slice the peaches, then drizzle them with oil and sprinkle the brown sugar. 

3. Heat grill pan really well. Grill the peaches, pulp side down, until grill marks appear (about 10 minutes). 

4. Let the peaches cool a bit, arrange on plate with halloumi, and sprinkle with chopped mint. Enjoy!

Teo's Sweet and Spicy Meatballs and Rice

   One of my favorite Romanian home cooks is Teo Rogobete from Teo's Kitchen. She puts a lot of passion in cooking and you can tell. She recently cooked this mouth watering meatball recipe that I really wanted to try first because it looked so good and second because it's so healthy (baked instead of fried)! I really loved the delicious surprise of the sweet and spicy sauce on the meatballs! Try it too and see for yourself :)

Ingredients for 3 servings:
Meatballs:
- 600g of pork minced meat (Teo used beef)
- 1/2 cup of bread crumbs
- a large egg
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp ginger, grated
- 1 tsp Tabasco sauce
- 1 onion, minced
- 2 cloves of garlic, grated

Sides:
- 300g rice
- 250g broccoli (my addition, you can replace it with something else), slightly boiled

Sweet and spicy sauce:
- 200g apricot jam
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp Tabasco sauce

Extra:
- some leaves of parsley or some green onion for decor on top

Steps:

1. Add the minced meat, the bread crumbs, the egg, salt, pepper, ginger, Tabasco sauce, onion and garlic in a bowl and mix well. 

2. Let the composition rest for 10-15 min.

3. Preheat the oven at 200ºC.

4. Form the meatballs and put them on a baking tray, over some baking paper.

5. Put the meatballs in the oven for about 20 min, making sure you turn them around at half time.

6. Cook the rice and the broccoli.

7. Make the sauce by mixing the apricot jam, the soy sauce and the Tabasco sauce. Heat the sauce for a minute and keep stirring.

8. When the meatballs are ready, put them in a bowl, then add the sweet and spicy sauce over them. Let them cool down.

9. Plate your dish: a bed of rice, some saucy meatballs and the broccoli on the side. At the end sprinkle some parsley leaves on top of the meatballs and enjoy! :)

P.S. Add some refreshing craft beer to go with your dish!

For Romanians, here's Teo's recipe video:

Waldorf Salad

   It's SO hot in Cluj these days that you can't eat anything else but salads. Today we made the Waldorf salad from the Looneyspoons book for the first time and we decided to add our twist: fresh telemea from the farmer's market and chicken thighs. Fresh and delicious! You should try it too! ;)

Ingredients for 3 servings:
Dressing:
- aprox 180ml yogurt
- 2 tsp honey mustard (you can make your own by adding the 2 ingredients together)
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp salt
- a pinch of pepper

Salad:
- 250g chicken thighs without bone, cut into strips, salt and pepper and fry
- 200g telemea cut into cubes (Telemea is a Romanian cheese, but if you don't live in Romania, you can replace it with Feta)
- 200g pasta
- 4 small or 2 big red apples, cut into cubes
- half a small celery root, cut into long strips
- 35g toasted chopped walnuts
- a small red onion, minced
- 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley

Steps:

1. Make the dressing by combining yogurt, honey mustard, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Put in the fridge until ready to use.

2. Make the salad by adding the ingredients in a large bowl, add dressing and mix well. Chill for one hour before serving. Bon appetit! 

Oven BBQ Ribs

   Finger-licking good!!! Two nights in a row of first time tried recipes that took me to heaven. We bought these ribs from Lidl (of course, did you still expect something else? No, Lidl doesn't pay me to promote them, I just love it either way :))) ) and we played around with some BBQ marinade from American Week @ Lidl and some BBQ sauce from Auchan and... ta-ra! Deliciousness on a plate! I have to admit this is aproximately the third ribs recipe that we tried for me to love, but man, we hit jackpot this time! ;) Wanna hit jackpot too? This recipe is not necessarily about what marinade/sauce you use, but about slow cooking the dish :) Niiiiice and sloooow :)

Ingredients for 2-3 servings:
- 1 kg of pork ribs
- a pack of barbecue marinade from American Week @ Lidl (for 350g of meat)
- AND/OR a bottle of BBQ sauce (we used "Sos pentru gratar Steakhouse V6 BBQ" from Auchan)
- salt and pepper
- a big tomato cut into slices
- about 250g of broccoli, slightly boiled

*We used both the BBQ marinace and the BBQ sauce because the marinade alone wouldn't have been sufficient for 1 kg of meat, but if you can't find the exact ingredients I used you can just take a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and it will do.

Reference photos:

Steps:
1. Put salt and pepper on each side of the meat.
2. "Brown" the meat (i.e. cook it) for a about 3 minutes on each side.
3. Put it in a baking tray and cover it with marinade.
4. Fill up about half-way the rest of the tray with a pool of BBQ marinade (marinade can be created by mixing your BBQ sauce of choice with water).
5. Cover the tray with aluminium foil.
6. Pre-heat the oven to about 120 degrees.
7. Place the tray in the oven at that temperature for about 2-3 hours.
8. Periodically check to make sure that the marinade pool has not evaporated (if need be add more water/marinade).
9. Serve with a side of tomatoes and broccoli or other favorite veggies. Bon appetit! ;)

Thai Beef and Pineapple Red Curry

   Oh my God, you guys! Tonight I reached culinary Nirvana once again. You know a recipe is good if it makes it on the blog. If I had tried it in a restaurant I would have totally wanted to make it at home! It's the best combo between Lidl, Auchan and a friend's pineapple :))) I know it might sound weird but bear with me. It all started from randomly finding a red curry marinated beef @ Asian week at Lidl, then receiving a fresh pineapple from a friend and looking up recipes that contain those two ingredients. That's how we found this amazing Martha Stewart recipe (who doesn't love Martha?) and then we ended up in Auchan to buy the rest of the ingredients: more red curry paste and coconut milk. Auchan has a great variety of International ingredients! You'd be surprised! (For foreigners, Auchan and Lidl are two supermarkets found in Romania.)

   I just LOVE how Oli and I find new absolutely mouthgasming recipes so randomly. Or maybe it's fate? Hmmm... Let me bring fate in your life by giving you this amazing, MUST TRY recipe:

Ingredients for 2 servings and a bit of leftovers:

- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup red curry paste (@Auchan)

- 1 pound sirloin steak, trimmed and cut against the grain into very thin strips

-  225g green/yellow beans, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
- 2 cups large diced fresh pineapple (fresh is always king, even though it might seem like a pain in the ass to peal it)
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (@Auchan)

- cooked jasmine rice, for serving
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn (dry basil is OK as well if you don't have fresh one)

Steps:

1. In a large skillet or wok, heat oil over medium-high. 

2. Add curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. 

3. Add steak and cook, stirring, until browned, 2 minutes. 

4. Add green beans and pineapple and cook, stirring, until pineapple starts to release juices, 1 minute. 

5. Add broth and coconut milk and bring to a boil. 

6. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer until green beans are crisp-tender, 8 minutes. 

7. Serve over rice, topped with basil. Bon appetit! :)