Spinash, Butter Bean and Ricotta Frittata

Two new recipes today, nice and easy to make for when you don't have much time or inspiration, but still are after something good :)
ok, second might take some more time to make, but is soooo good! I was really surprised by it and LOVED it! It made several of my lunches very enjoyable :D

but first things first: the Spinash, Butter Bean and Ricotta Frittata!


Serves 2 ~ Preparation 10 min ~ Cooking time 10 min
Kcal 417 Protein 32g Carbs 34g Fat 18 g (info that came with recipe in case you cared ;) )

What you need:

- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 400 g (13 oz) can butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 200 g (7 oz) baby spinach leaves
- 4 eggs beaten
- 50 g (2 oz) ricotta cheese (i had some smooth ricotta that looks more like some sort of cream cheese than ricotta... it worked, but i am sure that proper ricotta would be so much better!)
- salt and freshly ground pepper (optional)

Put your apron on and:
1 - heat the oil in a medium frying pan, add the onion and fry 3-4 min until softened. Add the butter beans and spinach and heat gently for 2-3 min until the spinach has witted.

2 - Pour over the eggs, then spoon over the ricotta and season with salt & pepper, if using. Cook until almost set, then place the pan under a preheated hot grill and cook for another 1-2 minutes until golden an set.
I didn't used the grill, but turned over the frittata using a plate like you would do for a spanish tortilla... if you want to do it my way: take a plate that can cover the pan you use, put it on top of the pan and while holding both turn over the two so that the frittata now lies on your plate and is turned over. You can now slide the frittata back into the pan to cook the side that was previously on the top.


Easy to make in advance and take with for lunch or cut in small pieces and serve as finger food at a party :)

Bon Appétit! :)
**Gg**

Chicken and green tea dumplings

I originally had this nice little lentil and salmon salad to post, but then I decided to try out this dumpling recipe on Sunday with Rafa (staying over at mine for a few days) for his last night in Sydney before bringing him to the airport. I really enjoyed making my own dumplings and it's actually not even that difficult :) am even already thinking about what else i could put in the filling next time like maybe replace the chicken by prawns or try some veggie ones with mushrooms or so :-D

anyway, enough blabla, here's the receipe:
serves: 30, preparation time: 60min, cooking time: 15min

you need:
Dough:
- 2 tbs loose leaf green tea (i used green tea&jasmine in teabags...)
- 4 cups white plain flour, sifted
- vegetable oil for frying (once the dumplings are made)

Filling:
- 250g chicken thigh mince
- 1 spring onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbs finely chopped ginger (forgot to buy ginger, used ground ginger)
- 1 tbs finely chopped garlic
- 1 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 tbs sake (used Timirin: sweet cooking sake)
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
- 1 tbs finely chopped chives

Chilli oil:
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tbs sliced red chilli
- 1/2 spring onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves

Orange ginger vinegar:
- 1 orange, juiced, strained and reduced by half
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 small knob ginger, cut into thin matchsticks (again, no ginger, but did have pickled ginger, so used that :) )

Put your apron on:
1. Preheat oven to 65°C (if you're wondering, this is for chilli oil later...)

2. For the dough, put the sifter flour in a big bowl. Bring 3 cups of water to the boil, add green tea and leave to infuse for 5 minutes. Strain tea, bring back to boil, then add 2 cups of this hot tea to the flour. Bring together to form a dough and knead for about 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Wrap in cling film and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

3. For the filling, combine chicken mince with onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sake and vinegar, then add salt and pepper to taste, then mix in herbs.

4. For the chilli oil, gently heat oil in a small saucepan (that can go in the oven!), then add chilli, onions, garlic and a pinch of salt. Leave to infuse in the oven for 1 hour.

5. For the orange ginger vinegar, combine ingredients in a bowl and leave to infuse.

6. To make the dumplings, roll the dough into logs and then cut into 30g pieces. Roll pieces into 1mm thick rounds (I found our dough a bit too thick and too much, so i guess it is important to really roll it really thin and maybe use a bit less than 30g...). Place 3/4 tbs of filling in each (ok, i don't know how they calculated this, but there is way too little filling to do this! we put less than 3/4tbs in each dumpling and still we had half of the dough left over!). Crimp over the edges in a gyoza fold. You have your fresh dumplings now, off to the cooking and eating :-D

Heat little oil in a frying pan and colour the bottom of the dumplings until golden brown. When is is done, leave the dumplings in the pan and add boiling water to come up half way on the dumpling and cover with a lid on and steam for 2-3 minutes. Remove lid and cook until the water has evaporated. (I put the cooked dumplings on a plate in a low heat oven to keep them warm while cooking the others, worked fine :))


You have ready to eat dumplings! Serve with chilli oil and orange ginger vinegar. Enjoy and bon appetit! :d
*Gg*

Triangles croustillants à l'agneau

Une recette idéale pour une soirée ou un plateau télé, inspirée d'un des livres des chefs de Mmmmh!.

Pour 20 triangles :

- 400 gr. de viande d'agneau hachée

- 10 feuilles de brick

- 1 poivron jaune, 1 poivron vert et 1 poivron rouge

- 2 oignons

- Quelques branches de persil

- 1 bouquet de coriandre

- 1 càc de gingembre moulu

- 1 càc de paprika doux

- 3 càs d'huile d'olives

Hacher finement les oignons, peler et couper les poivrons en petits dés et hacher le persil et la coriandre.

Dans une casserole, faire fondre les oignons dans l'huile. Faire ensuite revenir les poivrons, puis ajouter la viande, les épices et les herbes. Bien mélanger et laisser mijoter jusqu'à ce que la viande soit cuite. Saler et poivrer. Egoutter le mélange dans une passoire.

Couper les feuilles de bricks en deux et faire les triangles... Alors! Pour les triangles... Faites comme vous pouvez! Plier la demie feuille de brick (ronde) en deux dans le sens de la longueur, placer une bonne cuillère de farce dans un coin, laisser suffisament d'espace pour pouvoir replier le bord sur la farce, replier le reste de la bande en triangle... je sais ce n'est pas très clair... essayez, vous verrez bien! et prévoyez peut-être 2 paquets de feuilles de brick la première fois! ;)

Faire dorer les triangles des deux côtés dans un four préchauffé à 180°.

Enjoy! Virg*