Guacamole

I know that any self respecting food related site either has already given the guacamole recipe or doesn't regard it as important to repeat. Anyway, I live in Romania, Eastern Europe, so, for me, the fruit of avocado is a relatively recent addition to the diet as well as to the market shelves. The same goes for the tortilla chips, although I've eaten a lot of corn flour products (polenta, "mamaliga" in Romanian, for example).

Long story short, I've decided to make guacamole for some chips because it's summer and the cooking should be light. And because I picked up a couple avocados from the supermarket and they had to be used. 

Yes, it's the first time that I eat both guacamole and nachos. But they taste good just the same if made well from fresh ingreds.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 or 2 ripe avocado fruits;
• 1 clove garlic;
• 1 medium onion;
• the jiuce from 1 lime (I used half a lemon);
• can use 1 tomato pealed and cubed (I didn't).

HOW TO MAKE:

Take out the big seed of the avocado fruit and scoop out the pulp with a spoon. Chop finely the onion and garlic. Mash the avocado pulp with a fork (it should be easy, if the fruit is ripe). Mix well the avocado, onion, garlic and lemon juice. Now start dipping!

Chicken Drumsticks With Onion & Zucchini

This recipe is easy to make and requires minimum effort. Just a bit of preparation, as it is best to first marinate the chicken drumsticks in a sauce. You can do this over night or just for an hour before you pop the whole thing in the oven. It's an all year round recipe. Everybody will like it What's not to like: baked glazed chicken drumsticks, delicious garlicky zucchini slices and sweet caramelized onion sections. Delicious!

INGREDIENTS (serves 3):

• 7 chicken drumsticks;
• 2 medium zucchini (or one large);
• 1 large yellow onion (or 2 small);

FOR THE SAUCE/MARINADE:

• 1 tbspoon soy sauce;
• 1 splash worcestershire sauce;
• 1 splash vinegar (regular or balsamic);
• 2-3 tbspoons olive oil;
• (can use 1 cm finely chopped ginger, 1 teaspoon honey, dijon mustard, whiskey, hot chilly pepper)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or grated;
• salt, pepper, dry time. 

HOW TO MAKE:

First mix well together the ingredients for the marinade, and use depending on your preference, more or less of the sweet or spicy ingreds. Wash well the chicken drumsticks and coat well with the marinade. Save some of the marinade for the vegetables, later. Let the chicken sit for at least one hour, up to overnight in the fridge. When you are ready, cut the zucchini in one inch thick slices and the onions into bits about the same thickness. Mince one clove garlic and rub it on the vegetables along with some of the sauce that you have marinated the chicken in. Put them all in a baking tray lined with tin foil or with damp backing paper (for easy removal at the end). Bake in the preheated oven at 200 Celsius for 30-45 minutes covered with tin foil. Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and caramelized onion bits. Enjoy with salad!   

Tagliatelle With Fresh Green Peas

A must do recipe for the beginning of the summer is pasta with fresh green peas. And I mean fresh, because the dish simply isn't going to work with canned or even frozen ones. The recipe requires only that you pre boil the peas for 5 minutes in salted water. I was fortunate enough to receive the peas from a neighbor of my parents who was just picking them of the stem in the garden. She gave the peas to us in the pods, so my wife spent 15 minutes just taking the cute little green pearls of the stems. Pleasant 15 minutes, though!

INGREDIENTS (serves two):

• 150-200 gr. fresh green peas;
• tagliatelle pasta (can use fettuccine or other ribbon like pasta);
• 3 tbs. olive oil;
• 3-5 strips bacon or pancetta;
• 1 clove garlic;
• 150 ml. cooking cream;
• 50 gr. parmesan cheese, grated;
• salt, pepper, oregano (optional).

HOW TO MAKE:

First set up some salted water and boil the green peas for no more than 5 minutes.

Heat up some olive oil in a pan and add the bacon cut up into thin bits. Brown the bacon for 5-7 minutes. Add the chopped garlic to flavor the oil. Do not brown the garlic (adjust the heat to low). Immediately add the cooking cream to form a sauce. Salt and pepper. Add some dry oregano. In a nearby pot the pasta should already be boiling according to the instructions on the pack. If the sauce is too thick, add a ladle of the pasta water. When the pasta is al dente, strain and add it to the sauce in the pan. Stir well to coat the pasta with the creamy sauce. Add some more of the pasta water to thin the sauce, until it has a silky consistency. Add the strained fresh green peas,  and the grated parmesan cheese. Stir well. Plate and enjoy hot, immediately!

Quick Meal: Potato Garlic Chicken Fry

Sometimes you just do not have the time and the necessary stamina to cook yourself something great, but don't want to settle for something mediocre either. What a dilemma! What to do?

When in doubt, drink another glass, a friend of mine would say. But no, really, for this situation there are some ways out. One is always a dish of pasta. Pasta done well takes literally minutes and tastes excellent and gourmet. Another way is to just go with your instincts in the kitchen and improvise something that takes you to the older and simpler times of "antand", when you were younger, food was just food, and someone else payed for everything. Even if that means the dish you are about to make is not at all what you would call a recipe.

For me one of these improvised dishes is a pan fry of potatoes, chicken bits in vegetable oil with lots of garlic.

So, here goes:

INGREDS for 3 servings:

• 6 chicken bits, wings and dark meat, with skin on;
• 3-5 medium potatoes, depending on the size of the pan;
• vegetable oil;
• 2-3 cloves garlic, pealed;
• salt, pepper, a little time (optional).

HOW TO MAKE:

Start by cutting the chicken to bits or just use wings or legs or thighs. Season well with salt and pepper. Leave skin on. Peal the potatoes and cut them in finger thick chunks (I prefer larger). Heat the (3-5 tbs.) oil in a frying pan and fry the meat just for 2-3 minutes on all sides (or just one, if you're lazy), add the potatoes, add water (or stock, you snobs)  just to cover. Let simmer for as long as it takes for the water to boil away almost completely, while you knock o beer or watch a favorite show. It usually takes about a half an hour or so. After 15 minutes you can turn the chicken bits on the other side and stir the potatoes a bit. Season again, if needed.

Just as you turn off the heat, chop the garlic cloves finely and add to the pan. You are done! Do not worry if it sticks to the pan and it breaks a little as you put it in a bowl. The messier, the better. Remember, you are starving. Enjoy!

Dressed Broccoli

One of the simplest most delicious side dishes to meat is this garlic oil dressed broccoli salad. It is nothing more than blanched (boiled briefly) broccoli cut into florettes. It is important to bring the water to a boil before you submerge the broccoli into it, because if you subject the vegetable to heat more than a minute or two it will turn all soft and not nice. I think it is best served while it holds a little firmness to its structure. 

Then it is also important to put a fair amount of salt into the boiling water (i suggest course).  It's like when you boil potatoes whit skin on or pasta.

If you want to be thorough to the end, you should extract the broccoli from the water after a minute boil and immediately put it into a bowl with ice water. This is so the bright green color doesn't turn darker if left to cool in open air.

The dressing should also be put over the broccoli when it is still hot. It's simple. Almost always good food is simple! Good quality extra virgin olive oil, pepper (freshly ground) and crushed and finely chopped garlic. It's a delight anytime for me, as I discover more and more how great vegetables are.