Tartiflette

Oooh!  Tartiflette!  I love the name, and I love absolutely everything about this!  It's a lovely dish, a DEFINITE winter warmer, and the whole of this dish, from beginning to end is all about decadence! :D  This is definitely not a "diet-friendly" meal, in any way, shape or form.  It's originally from Haute-Savoie a tiny part of France tucked away between lake Geneva and Mont Blanc (also, incidentally, the first ever Winter Olympics were held there, in Chamonix).

This dish is such a great dish to serve with a couple of friends, it's lovely and simple, and so tasty! You could easily adapt this recipe (say, using mushrooms, or using different cheese to Reblochon) to become something that is not Tartiflette, but Tartiflette based.  I have no issue with this.  I'm sure that it would be awesome, and to be honest now I just want to try the recipe with mushrooms and Brie/Port Salut.  But that is not Tartiflette.  This is Tartiflette :)

Tartiflette!  What a great word <3

yummmm

Coq au Vin

Ah.... this is one of my favourite dishes, to make, to serve and to eat.  Like the Maltese fenkata, this is a dish best served with loved ones!! :) I've adapted it to use things I can find in a regular butcher/supermarket/greengrocer.
It really makes a difference to cook this the night before, so try to do that if possible as the flavour really develops.  Plus it's way easier if you're entertaining anyway!  If not, try and make it as early on in the day as possible, and leave to sit for a couple of hours before reheating and serving!
Really good served with some kind of roast potatoes (i made hasselbacks, recipe to follow) and/or some fresh beautiful loaf of bread (luckily there's no short supply of that in Malta!)

Delicious and nutritious comfort food :)

Lala's lasagne

This recipe is pretty much my mum's recipe.. although we always manage to make it taste completely different.  To be honest mine tastes different every time. but i must say, I do like my own (and my family's) lasagne.  There are a few other people's lasagne dishes I've enjoyed, I can literally count them on 1 hand (my Uncle Kiki's, and my Aunt Isabel's, and my best friend's mum Pat).  I'm sure there are plenty of delicious lasagnas out there but i haven't had the pleasure, and frankly, I don't even really want to try cos there's not much I abhor tasting more than a bad lasagne. 

anyway here goes:

PENKEJKZ...or Pancakes hehe

Went to Gozo for the weekend with a bunch of ladies, and we decided on pancakes for brekky on the Saturday morning :D

One of my good mates Michael has my favourite pancake recipe, so i asked him for it.  in 2 minutes he just rattled it off and voila!  in my hand it was! :D  hoolay!  These are american style pancakes, so the mixture is thicker than crepes, and also it's best to cook them on the lower heat so that they don't burn on the outside before they cook in the middle.  nice and fluffeh!

Not my photo - courtesy of http://www.prevention.com

Ghagin Tork jew Griek ("turkish" or "greek" pasta, but it's actually Maltese!)

I have no clue as to whether this pasta sauce originates from Turkey, Greece, or anywhere else but Malta, but all I know is that it's absolutely divine, and So ridiculously easy.  You will need at 1.5-2 hours of simmering, so this is not something you make when you're starving after work :)

i love the simple look of this sauce, and the meat is literally melt in your mouth!

baby balls of meat

Today and yesterday I took on the task of sorting through everything we had in the fridge and freezer, throwing out expired stuff, and arranging the rest so that it's easily accessible and ready to be used in time for it to still be good.

Sorting out the freezer was interesting, have found lovely packets of fresh artichoke hearts that my dad lovingly prepared when it was artichoke season, some delicious looking pumpkin ravioli, amongst so much other stuff like desserts, meat, veggies and a heap of ready chopped garlic and ginger :D very handy to know :D

I took out 500 grams of pork mince, as i had an idea brewing when I'd cleaned the fridge yesterday and found some pork stock (leftover from a roast this weekend - recipe to follow!) and leftover 10 minute pasta sauce (well, my dad's version of). Plenty of the other ingredients are also leftover, or bits that were found in the freezer that i thought would be nice to add.

A bolognese/ragu based sauce for spaghetti (and baked rice the next day!)

Just like many people, bolognese sauce reminds me of being a kid, it's still the ultimate comfort food dinner for me. It instantly sends me back to being little, with my sister and 3 or 4 cousins, and mum and/or one of my aunts serving up steaming spaghetti loaded with sauce and cheese. Learning how to eat spaghetti with just a fork was like graduating, I remember the pride I felt when mum stopped cutting up the spaghetti because I'd learnt to twirl it deftly around my fork without dropping the pasta everywhere :)

Bolognese is also what started my cooking adventures apparently. At the age of 3, I was at my Aunt's house, and she was making bolognese. I looked at her in shock at one point, and started telling her that "my mummy makes it like this" and went on to explain what she was doing "wrong" and how she should make it. Needless to say she was very amused, and reminds me of this often hehehe...

The recipe I'm about to give is by no means a traditional bolognese. Apparently the original bolognese doesn't even have tomatoes or garlic in it, and uses heaps of milk and even funghi porcini! So I suppose a "ragu" or "meat based pasta sauce" is the better term.