Millionaire's shortbread

serves a party

Ingredients:

For the biscuit:

* 180g flour

* 70g sugar

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 100g cream butter

* 1 pinch of salt

For the caramel:

* 50g cream butter

* 400g sweet condensed milk

* 4 spoons of brown castor sugar


For the top layer:

* 100g milk chocolate

* 100g pure chocolate

* 25g white chocolate

Preparation:

Preheat the oven on 180C.

We will start with the biscuit. Cut the butter in small cubes, and knead it together with the rest of the ingredients until you have a equally distributed dough. 

Take a rectangle shaped oven dish, cover it with a baking sheet and push the dough on the bottom, distributing equally over the bottom. Put in the oven and leave alone for 15 - 20 minutes, until the dough turns gold brown.

Take out of the oven and let it cool down completely.

Now we will prepare the caramel. This part is a bit tricky.

Take a saucepan and melt the butter. Now add the condensed milk and the sugar, and stir with a whisk on low heat until the sugar melted. Turn the heat higher and beat with the whisk while the mix starts to cook. Make sure you don't put the heat too high, or you will get crispy bits in your caramel, or it might burn. The caramel is done when you stir and you can see the bottom of the pan.

Take of the heat and pour the mixture over the cooled down biscuit. Let it cool for at least one hour before going to the next step. If you don't wait, the chocolate will mix with the caramel and we don't want that to happen.

Melt the pure and milk chocolate together in a pan by using the au bain marie method.

Pour the molten chocolate over the cooled down caramel. Now make sure the pan is clean so you can melt the white chocolate the same way.
Take a spoon and pour the white chocolate on the milk/pure mix in strips. Now take a cocktail pick and make wave movements on the white chocolate so you will get a nice looking marble effect.

Now put the oven dish in the fridge and let it cool down until the chocolate has harden a bit.

You can easily take it out by lifting the baking sheet.

Cut in pieces and serve.

I hope you like this recipe

Yours truly,

Mike

Couscous with merguez sausage

serves 3 - 6

Ingredients:

* 500g merguez sausages

* 275g couscous
* 1 red paprika

* 1 yellow paprika

* 1 green paprika

* 400g carrots

* 1 jar of black olives 

* 1 courgette

* Olive oil
* Lemon juice

* 2 garlic cloves

* 1 red pepper
* Provencal herbs

* Feta cheese
* Salt to taste

Preparations:

Finely cut the pepper and the garlic, or use a garlic press. Prepare a dressing from equal amounts of olive oil and lemon juice. Add the garlic and pepper and the Provencal herbs, mix well and leave alone for a few hours so that the garlic and pepper spread their taste.

Heat up a frying pan without oil and add the merguez sausages. Don't worry about the oil, the sausages produce enough fat for them to fry. Turn around every now and then. Repeat until done.

Meanwhile cut the vegetables in thick slices. and heat up a saute pan. Stir fry the carrot first until soft, then add the rest. Saute the vegetables, stirring every now and then. Meanwhile cut some Feta cheese in cubes. Not too much, it's for the taste only.

Prepare the couscous like on the package.
What I did was boil 500ml water, put it in a pot, and add the couscous, stir, close the lid and leave it for 5 minutes. After that stir again and it's ready for use.

The vegetables should be soft by now. Add the olives and stir fry for about 1 - 2 minutes more. Now add the couscous and blend well. After that take the pan from the heat and mix the Feta cheese in the couscous.

Serve while still warm, with a sausage, and pour some of the dressing on the couscous mix.

I hope you like the recipe and hopefully until soon.

Yours truly,

Mike

Smoked salmon lasagna

serves 2 - 3

Ingredients:

* 250g ricotta

* 600g spinach

* 6 big tomatoes

* 300g smoked salmon
* 100g grated cheese

* Lasagna sheets (preferable fresh)

* 2 garlic cloves

* Nutmeg
* Salt
* Pepper

Preparation:

Use some oil or butter to cover the oven dish.
Preheat the oven on 180 C.

Meanwhile finely cut the garlic. Heat up a large pan and softly simmer the garlic. Now add the spinach bit by bit and wait until it shrinks. Keep adding and stirring until everything is shrunken. Now remove from the heat and let the water leak from the spinach. Blend the ricotta with the spinach-garlic mix, and use the pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste.

Meanwhile cut the tomatoes in slices, and cover the bottom of the oven dish with the lasagna sheets. On top of the sheets, add the tomatoes, the spinach mix, and the smoked salmon slices. Repeat the same pattern until you run out. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and put in the oven for 30 minutes.

I hope you liked this dish and hopefully until soon.

Yours truly,

Mike

Pasta a la creme

serves 3 - 4

Ingredients:

* Pasta
* 125ml Creme fraiche

* Red pesto
* 400g mushrooms

* 1 leek
* 300g turkey breast

Preparation:

Cut the turkey in strips and the mushroom and the leek in slices.
Heat up a saute pan and stir fry the turkey until it stars to colour. Add the vegetables and stir fry until soft. Now add as many spoons of pesto as you like, and add the creme fraiche. Mix well and serve with the pasta once done.

I hope you like the recipe and hopefully until soon!
Yours truly,

Mike

Brie sandwich

serves 1

Ingredients:

* Brie

* Coburger Ham
* Curly lettuce
* Cucumber
* Honey
* (Honey) mustard
* Butter (if desired)
* Bread of choice

Preparation:

But butter on one side of the bread, followed by cucumber, lettuce, ham, brie, a few drops of honey and put some mustard on the other side of the bread. Close the bread to finish.
I hope you enjoy your sandwich!

Yours truly,

Mike

Pasta carbonara

serves 1

Ingredients:

* 100 gram spaghetti

* 100 gram smoked bacon cubes (for the authenticate recipe, use pancetta)
* 2 eggs
* 40 gram grated Parmesan 

* 4 season pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a bowl, beat the eggs, and add the Parmesan. Add pepper to taste.

Bring water to the boil. When it boils, add the spaghetti, and immediately fry the bacon cubes with 1 spoon of olive oil in a skillet. Let them simmer, they shouldn't be too crisp.  Boil the spaghetti al dente, and pour the water out. Lower the heat of the bacon and put the spaghetti in. Mix well so that the flavour gets blended evenly. Now add the egg and mix that through the spaghetti, the egg should not become hard! Take it off the heat and serve immediately. Decorate with some parmesan and pepper.

I hope you like the recipe and hopefully until soon.

Yours truly,

Mike

Grilled chicken sandwich

Serves 3 - 4

Ingredients:

* 500g chicken breast
* 8 bread rolls
* Cheddar

* Jalapeño slices
* Canned tomato cubes

* 1 green paprika

* 1 onion
* 3 garlic cloves

* Coriander

* Salt
* Chili powder

* Paprika powder

* Tomato ketchup

* Lime juice

       

Preparations:

We start by making the salsa sauce.
Finely cut the garlic, onion and paprika and heat up some oil in a pot. Softly cook the vegetables and let it simmer. Now add the tomato cubes and stir. Immediately add the coriander, salt, and the powders to taste. Add a dash of lime juice and add 1 to 2 spoons of tomato ketchup. Stir well and remove from heat. Leave it alone to cool.

Now we take a grill pan and grill the chicken on both sides. Be sure to grill it through, in case of bacteria. Now cut, or pull the chicken in strips.

On the rolls; put the cheddar and let it melt (I used the microwave to do this) then add the chicken, salsa sauce and decorate with jalapeño.

I hope you like the recipe and hopefully until soon!

Yours truly,

Mike