Home Made Hamburgers

TGIF!! Yeah baby.. it is friday... it is summer - well for most people out there. In my beloved Amsterdam that I so was looking forward to moving to, it is cloudy, rainy & cold! Seriously NOT cool.

But once the sunshine is out, the whole Dutch population drops whatever it is they're doing and runs outside, dusts off their sunglasses to put them on their white little faces and right after they have a chilled beer they turn on a BBQ at home or in a park nearby to put on some juicy burgers!! That's summer for us, once in a decade... sigh!

Ingredients:

• a man
• 1-2 burgers per person
• 1-2 buns per person
• cheddar
• tomatoes sliced
• pickles sliced
• cucumbers sliced
• salad
• mayonaise 
• ketchup

How to make it:

Dust your BBQ and find a man to do the hard work of preparing the BBQ. Playing with fire is just their cup of tea so you shouldn't have any trouble in finding a volunteer. If you do, just say you will reward him with a big fat home made burger. No man on earth will resist you! (did I just come up with a new theory on how to seduce a man???)

Hmmmm meat!

Once the BBQ is hot and steamy, put on the rack and throw the burgers on there.

Twist and turn until done; this should take around 7-10 minutes depending on the thickness of your burger.

Add the cheddar on the burger a minute before it's done so that it can melt nicely.

While the burgers are cooking, open up the buns.

Build your burger to taste.

Home Made Hamburgers

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

Cherry Fudge Ice Cream

Cherry Season!!!

When I left my old job at Adverteam, I brought my dear colleagues something to remember me by: Cherry Fudge Ice Cream, made of panna ice cream which is basically ice cream of whipped cream, fresh cherries and caramel sauce. It was divine!!!

I think I gave them a last good impression... and some pounds!

Cherry Fudge Ice Cream

 Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

Perfect Roasted Potatoes

Potatoes, a vegetable so easy to use in so many ways and on top of that one that comes in so many forms. You have big, small and tiny, firm, fluffy and medium... you even have red and sweet potatoes. You name it and a the potato might exist in that shape or form. You can even pronounce this veggie in multiple ways: potAto or potAHto! ;)

But where does the potato originally come from? Good question... so I did some research.
It is well known that the potato is mostly eaten in the western world with an emphasis on the northern part of Europe. One might even think the potato originally comes from the Britain Islands as a bad crops created a famine in the 18th century. Even though the potato has become an important form of nurishment in northern Europe, it is actually originally from Southern America and was planted by the Inca's!!! Who would have thought!

Today I am giving you roasted potatoes....


Ingredients:

• small new potatoes including skin (4-5 pieces per person)
• fresh rosemary
• 3 crushes garlic cloves
• olive oil
• sea salt (big chunks give a better taste)

How to make it:

Turn on you oven on 200 degrees Celcius.

Cut up your potatoes in quarters to give them a french fry kind of shape and put them in an oven tray. My favorite potatoes are the small ones with skin as the skin contains the most vitamins and fibres, but you can take any potato you like. 

Add the rosemary leaves to your potatoes, as well as the crushed garlic cloves (you crush them with a big knive, take off the skin and voila you have crushed garlic cloves) and the salt.

Pour over a generous amount of olive oil. You want the potatoes to be crunchy and golden brown, hence the need of quite some oil. Olive oil however is better for you than ordinary sunflower oil. It is full of omega 3 fats which your body needs.

Toss the potatoes in order for all of them to be covered with oil, salt, rosemary and having touched the garlic.

Now put the tray in the oven for 40-45 minutes, but keep an eye on them after half an hour. You can also turn on the grill the last 10 minutes or so, to make them even crunchier.

Outcome: Perfect roasted potatoes. Many people boil their potatoes before which is also an option if you don't have a lot of time or when you have very big potatoes, but I discovered it is not obligatory to have perfect roasted potatoes.

Perfect Roasted Potatoes

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

Super fast IKEAnized Salmon

Dear Peeps,

I can officially say: I am back!!!! It has been a crazy month as I mentioned before. I was so extremely busy with moving at first and then recuperating from it. I needed a little holiday from everything so I went to my parents house, or as I call it: Spa Hamilton! The only thing I do there is sleep, run and cook! This time was no different except that I still had so many things on my mind that I still had to do for the move and the start of my new job....

After my Spa treatment I finally finished my room, and it looks amazing! I feel super duper at home. The kitchen is really nice too and my dear roomies gave me a green card in the decoration so that I can cook the way I want to cook. Guess it is also in their benefit eh...;) The only left to complete is the living room but that will come with time.

Today I also started my new job, and even though it will be super busy there too I decided I needed to pick up blogging again as it gives me so much joy. So I am just going to try to keep it up but don't expect daily things. I will continue cooking daily though so at least I will have continuous material to post!

First things first: my first dish made for my dearest friends Julia & Stef cooked in my brand new kitchen and served on my little balcony.
Moving means going to IKEA right? And what else is there at IKEA besides furniture? The IKEA food section with the most famous swedish meatballs and the Gravlax sauce based on mustard and dill which is exactly what I got and that I served my friends.

Ingredients:

• 700 gr salmon steak
• salt and pepper
• Broccoli cut in florets
• Parmigiano 
• Gravlax sauce

How to make it:

You heat up your grilling pan to a sizzling heat while you salt and pepper your salmon steak to taste. When the pan is nice and hot, you start grilling the salmon. Depending on the thickness of the salmon and your personal taste you grill the fish 3-4 minutes on each side. I like my salmon nice and crispy on the outside and still a tad raw on the inside.

While grilling the salmon you cook the broccoli in boiling salted water. This doesn't take longer than 5 minutes but again this depends on the size of the pieces you cut the broccoli into. Sieve the broccoli once it's done.

Serve the salmon and broccoli on a plate and add the parmigiano on top of the broccoli and the gravlax sauce on top of the salmon.

Voila you're done in less that half an hour! 

Output:

Super good healthy dinner that will fill you right up after a day of moving and a visit to IKEA!

IKEAnized Salmon

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

Absent Note: Moving

Hey everyone,

Voila, I am back with an absent note. It has been so crazy busy..... First of all by saying bye to everyone and doing those last minute bucket list things. After my last post I went another weekend to the seaside in Liguria with my amazing friends and then started my hell week: MOVING!!!
You have no idea how frustrating it has been.

At this moment I am in Amsterdam, decorating and working on my new house. Hence the lack of cooking and lack of posting because I literally do not have the energy nor time for it!

Have been living on eating out and some cakes and sweets here and there.... Last night was the first meal with kilos of vegetables in a week time. I missed my greens. I miss Italy as well..... :S

Anyways, will be back soon, I promise! At a regular basis. Untill then: keep cooking!!! and don't forget to send them to me including your pictures because remember, we need you!

Buon Appetito 

Chef Steph