Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms Caps

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms Caps




Ingredients
6 Portabello Mushrooms
1/4 cup of Toasted Pinenuts
Package of Baby Spinach, finely chopped
1/2 cup of Red Bell Pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup of Sundried Tomatoes, finelychopped
1/4 cup of Kalamata Olive, finely chopped
1 cup Feta Cheese, crumbled
4 garlics gloves, minced
1 cup Sweet Onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup of panko or breadcrumbs
Herbs (Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, basil ...)
Extra Vigin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper


Preparation
Clean the mushrooms with soft mushroom brush or with a dry paper towel. Do not wet/wash the mushrooms.
Twist the stems of each mushrooms to remove and reserve the stems. Do not discharge the stems.
Season the caps with salt and pepper. Brush mushrooms caps with extra virgen olive oil.
Pre heat the oven on 400F.
Cut the tip of the mushrooms stems. Chop all the mushrooms stems finely.
Saute Onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped mushrooms stems, red bell pepper, and sundried tomatoes for about 5 minutes. Add spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute.
Place all the sauted veggies in a bowl and let it cool down. Add panko, toasted pinenuts, fetacheese, and Kalamata Oilves.
Drizle the veggy mixtures with Aceto Balsamico (Balsamic Vinegar), crak fresh black pepper, and salt to taste. Be easy with the salt.
Fill each cap with the mixtures
Bake for 12 minutes!


You are going to love it!!
Share the recipe on Facebook with your friends if you like it....
As always from my heart....


Sarabelle Sylva

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese


S(strawberry) S(Spinach) S(salad)
by
S(Sarabelle) S(Sylva)
;D
With Goat Cheese, Walnuts,
Balsamic Vinegar, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil



Ingredients
3 cups of baby spinach
2-3 cups of strawberries sliced in half lengthwise
1 cup of caramelized walnuts
1 cup of crumbled goat cheese
Balsamic Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper


Preparation
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.
THAT IS IT!!
Sarabelle Sylva


How to caramelized the walnuts??
In a small saute pan, heat up 1 cup of brow sugar and 1 tablespoon of water. Heat on medium heat mixing constantly for about 5 minutes. Add walnuts and mix until they get caramelized and all liquid is absorbed. Lay the walnuts on wax paper (parchment paper) to cool down.


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Eggplant's Salad with Goat Cheese



Warm Eggplants Salad with Goat Cheese 


fused with Olive Oil and Aceto Balsamico!!








Ingredients

·   1 large eggplants, washed and ends trimmed
·   2 garlic cloves
·   Extra-virgin olive oil
·   1/2 cup pine nuts
·   Goat cheese, crumbled
·   8-10 basil leaves thinly sliced
·   8-10 mint leaves chopped
·   Aceto Balsamico Balsamic vinegar
·   Salt and fresh cracked black pepper


Preparation

  • Cut the eggplants into circles of about 1/2-inch.
  • Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and place them in a colander to drain for 20 minutes.
  • Wash the eggplant slices with water and pat the slices with paper towel until thoroughly dry.
  • Using a garlic presser squeeze the garlic cloves and mix with 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper. Brush one side of the eggplant slices with the mixture. 
  • Turn on the grill on high. You can also use a grilling pan and do it in your stove. I used a gas barbecue grill. The ideal will be to use a charcoal grill. 
  • Place the eggplant slices brushed with olive oil down on a hot grill and brush the other side with the olive oil mixture.
  • Grill the eggplant slices until tender and grill marks appear, around 5 minutes per side. Set aside on a serving dish.
  • Toast the pine nuts. How? It's easiest to do in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Shake the skillet frequently. The pine nuts are small and full of rich oil, and will burn quickly if you don't watch carefully. When the nuts are fragrant and browned, take the pan off the heat. Transfer the pine nuts to a plate to cool.
  • Sprinkle the eggplants with the goat cheese, pine nuts, mint, and basil. Drizzle with olive oil, and your best aged balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper. 

Now get ready to impress yourself and your guests with another great recipe!!



Sarabelle Sylva

Lamb Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Stuffed Cabbages
Cabbage Rolls
Golubtsi
Golubtsy
Kåldolmar



Stuffed cabbages is a very comforting dish and very popular in Easter Europe, Middle East, Sweden, and Balkans countries. There are so many variations and recipes of stuffed cabbages. I will be making them with ground lamb and without carb this time. Usually their filling contains any type of ground meat or combination of two meats. Also the filling is mixed with a type of grain like rice, barley, kasha, farro, etc.

It looks like a very difficult dish but one you make it for the first time and learn your own way to wrap the cabbages leaves it wont  be as hard as it looks.

I love making them when I am alone in the kitchen. It really relaxes me.....

They are very tasty and a very nice family meal. They can be frozen or keep it in the refrigerator for a week. They taste better after next day of being prepared!

I am sure you are going to enjoy them!!


Ingredients
  • 1 large head of green cabbage
  • water
  • A splash of white vinegar
  • 2 lbs ground lamb
  • 1 large onion
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 1 small carrot cut in 2-3 pieces
  • 1/2 red bell pepper cut quarters
  • 1 celery stick
  • 1/2 bunch of parsley
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
  • 1 cup of White wine
  • Another small onion thinly chopped
  • 1 small shredded carrot
  • 4 more garlic cloves
  • 2 spoons of tomato paste
  • 1-2 cups of Organic Chicken or Vegetable stock
  • Sour cream or Greek plain yogurt
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Panko or bread crumbs (for ground meat leftovers)

Preparation


1. First prepare a big stock pot with water, salt, and a splash of white vinegar. Fill the pot with water half way only. I like to use my big pot to cook pasta with a colander insert. It makes it easier to take the cabbage from the boiling water. Bring the water to boil. Cut as much as you can of the cabbage core. Place the whole cabbage in the inner colander of the pasta pot. Cook the cabbage head until leaves get soft, about 10 minutes.


2. To prepare the filling, place the onion cut in quarters, garlic, carrot, red bell pepper, celery, and parsley in the food processor. Pulse the food processor several time until you chopped all the ingredients. Place the ground lamb in a bowl, egg, chopped veggies, salt, and pepper. You can add rice at this point too or any other grain like farro or quinoa. I made them this time low carb.


3. Remove the strainer from the pot carefully and let the cabbage head cool down a little bit. Start removing the inner soft leaves carefully. You can place the cabbage head in the water again if you feel the inner leaves of the cabbages are too hard too get. You should get around 15 leaves. Reserve the first leave you removed from the cabbage and all the broken ones to use at the bottom of your cooking pot or dutch oven. Cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.



4. Now it time to fill the leaves with the ground lamb mixture. Place about a spoon of the mixture in the middle of the cabbage leave. Wrap the leave like a envelop. Look at the picture bellow. Roll away to enclose the filling, then flip the sides to the middle, and roll again until close. Start placing them inside your cooking pot already prepared with leaves at the bottom of it. Continue doing the same until you run out of filling or run out of leaves. If you have some ground meat left after done filling all your leaves add some panko or bread crumbs to the ground lamb mixture and make some meat balls. Place them on top of your stuffed cabbages.



5. In a small skillet heat olive oil and saute your extra chopped onion, carrots, and fresh pressed garlics. Whisk the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and white wine. Let it boil and reduce to simmer. Add 1 cup of chicken or vegetable stock.

6. Poor all the tomato sauteed liquid to the cooking pot. Add more stock if necessary. Bring it to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook covered with the lid for 1 hour until cabbage leave are tender and all the top meat balls are cooked through.


7. Serve with sour cream or plain Greek yogurt. I ate mine with home made tzatziki sauce! I will be posting that recipe too....

Happy New Year 2012!!
Start your New Year Cooking Healthy!!
Buen Provecho!
Sarabelle Sylva