Mango, Mozzarella and Prosciutto Salad

Hello, today I decided to publish this salad since some people asked me about it when I uploaded a picture on instagram few days ago. So here you have it, an easy and healthy salad which I use to eat quite a lot. My favorite ingredient in this dish (of course, beside the ham) is the mango, it gives a very special taste. It is very important you use a very ripe mango, you can substitute it also for a peach or even orange or mandarin. Hope you enjoy it!

Mango, Mozzarella and Prosciutto Salad

ripe mango
fresh mozzarella
cherry tomatoes
serrano or prosciutto
rucola
mint and parmesan cheese for topping

Dressing: olive oil, balsamico vinegar, salt and peper

Place the rucola in a salad bowl and top with the mango pieces. Cut the mozzarella into bite size pieces and put them on the salad. Drizzle with the dressing. Finally place the prosciutto on top, the cherry tomatoes and top with few mint leaves and parmezan flakes. 

Hope you liked this salad and see you next week with a sweet recipe.

Have a nice week  ♥

Custard Pots

What happend if the oven gets broken? actually for me it's a big disaster! but there is always other alternatives, that's what I did during almost a week. Yes my lovely kitchen friend didn't want to work any longer, actually the door got broken and could not be repared. It was actually an old oven, but it was the one I used since I moved to the Netherlands, by the time I am writting this post, so one day before to publish it, the new oven has been already intstalled today. So I had no time to try how it works at all, it really looks perfect and I baked potatoes for dinner, let's see if it bakes as good as I hope! I will let you know next week.  

So in the meanwhile I've been without baking for a week, and last friday I had friends for a quick dinner and I did custard pots which was also a request of one of my guests. I decided to take some pictures just in case, and here they are. This is the recipe we used in my mum's home, this is a very traditional dessert in my country. You can have a look to this recipe as well if you like this kind of dessert. Hope you enjoy them as much as me, it makes me remember when I was a little one!

Custard Pots

Serves 6

500 ml milk
4 egg yolk large
1 cinnamon stick
90 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar (8 g)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
cookies and ground cinnamon to decorate

Whisk the egg yolks, the sugars and the cornstarch in a bowl until smooth. 

Put the milk and the cinnamon stick in a saucepan and cook until just before start boiling. 

Remove from the heat, alow to rest for a while and gets the cinnamon flavour.

Pour the milk into the previous mixture bowl slowly and mixing at the same time.

Put everything back in the saucepan and cook over low heat whisking constantly until starts to thinken, remove remove from heat and pour the mixture in the moldes, let them cool completly and refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

Dust with cinnamon and you can top with a cookie before serving or put them at the bottom of the tin, just like I did, in my case I used my favorite cookie, Oreo.

Hope you liked and you try this easy recipe, do not forget to let me know if you do them!


Enjoy your week  ♥

Cheese, Bacon and Olive Bread

Hello how are you doing? One more year I do not surprise you with a velentine's recipe, that maybe would be the proper for this week. It is not caused cause I don't consider myself a cheesy person, yes I realize I am! but the time has caught up and no  But instead I hope you like this totally different type of recipe, a savory loaf bread, very easy and with a large variety of ingriendients. This is a simple loaf, no rise, no kneading just mix it well, put into the tin, bake and enjoy.
I like to enjoy this bread with a simple salad or also with a white risotto. You will see is a heavy crumb but very moist, perfect to bring to the job the lunch box.
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Savory Bread source

Makes a 22 cm tin

250 g flour
1,5 teaspoon baking powder
175 g grated chesse (I used Old Amsterdam)
4 large eggs
50 ml olive oil
1 large onion
150 g bacon
75 g black olives
75 g green olives
50 g dried tomatoes in olive oil
fresh rosemary and parsley
salt and peper

Preheat the oven to 175º.

Sift the flour and the baking powder in a bowl.
Cook the chopped onion in a low heat with some salt, add the bacon, remove onces the bacon cooked, do not make it crunchy, just baked lightly, set aside.
Drain and chop the tomatoes. Slice the olives. Chop the parsley and the rosmary, I used about one tablespoon each.
In a separtate bowl beat the eggs with 20 cl olive oil, add the the olives, herbs, tomatoes, onion, bacon, grated cheese and add some salt and pepper at your taste.
Gently mix it with the flour mixture. You will see it will be a very thick dough, add some water to make it thinner.
Pour the batter into the greased tin, level with a spatula and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and later transfer to a wire rack. Serve it cold. Keep it covered at room temperature up to 3 days.

If you like this kind of side dishes try this muffin recipe which is one of my favorite.

Enjoy your week ♥

Chel­sea Buns

This is a traditional Bristish bun, created on the 18th century in the Chelsea Bun House, a shop located in this famous neighborhood which became very famous between the British high society. Close to the american version cinnamon roll, the process of making these buns is very similar. Tis recipe is usually made of a rich yeast dough flavoured with lemon peel, cinnamon or mixed spice. This is my version of a Jamie Oliver recipe, which is contains orange instead lemon. You can actually fill them with any ingriedient at your taste. They are perfect for breakfast or a tea-time treat with a coffee or a cup of tea, I like to spread some creamy butter.

Chel­sea Buns

Makes 12

500 g flour
1 sachet of dried yeast (7g)
6 tablespoons honey
1 small orange
85 g raisins
50 g soft butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon mix spices
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
65 g pecans, chopped
65 g brown sugar
400 ml warm water
a pinch of salt

Grate the zest of the orange and squeeze the fruit out. Put the raisins, the orange zest, the juice and some mineral water in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl mix the brown sugar and the cinnamon, set aside.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour about 250 ml of warm water into the well, add the yeast, 1 tablespoon of the honey and a pinch of salt. Stir with a fork from the middle quietly in the flour. Once the mixture is thick and sticky and difficult to stir, slowly go add more flower by stirring more flour in making larger circles in the bowl. Little by little add some more water (maximum of 150 ml) in the middle and mix everything together into a cohesive dough. Add if necessary some water or flour .

Dust the sticky dough with flour and knead the dough by hand on a floured surface for about 10-12 minutes, or until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise 45 min, or until the dough has doubled in volume.

On a floured surface knead the dough with your hands, add the soft butter, egg yolk and mixed spice gradually into the dough. If the dough is sticky you can dust it with some more flour. Roll the dough into a flat shape,  about 1 cm thick. Dust with flour while rolling.

Brush the dough with the liquid of the raisins, sprinkle with pecans, the cinnamon, the sugar and stir in the raisins on top. Keep the rest of the liquid of the raisins aside. Roll the dough from the long side and when finished rolling, press the outsides a little bit in to close it off.

Cut with a sharp knife into 2 cm slices and put them on a buttered baking tray. Keep some space between them because they will grow in size. Leave them 30 minutes in a warm place to grow, or until they have become double in size.

Preheat the oven to 180º. Brush the rolls with raisins moisture. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked, remove them from the oven. Heat 5 tbsp of honey in a small saucepan. Brush the rolls generously with the honey and put them another 2-3 minutes in the oven, or until golden brown and delicious sticky along the edges. Let them cool on a rack 30 minutes and serve. .

Enjoy your week ♥