Πέμπτη 15 Ιανουαρίου 2015

Salad with legumes



SALAD WITH LEGUMES
Ingredients
130 g white beans  
130 g black-eyed beans
130 g lentils
130 g garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
130 g husked wheat
3 carrots
100 g black pitted olives, chopped
80 g olive oil
1/2 bunch of dill
350 g of pickles
1TB hot mustard
 
Instructions
Overnight scour the wheat and put it in a bowl with water to soak.
Put in a pot the white beans, the black-eyed beans and the chickpeas.
Pour plenty of water in the pot to soak these legumes.
Leave them all night in the water.
The next morning rinse them thoroughly.
Pour clean water into the pot with the legumes and put it on high heat to boil.
As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to medium.
Boil the legumes until they become tender.
Put the wheat in another pot and boil it separately.
Put the lentils in a third pot and boil them.   
Lentils boil faster than all the others.
Drain the boiled lentils with a colander and put them in a salad bowl.
Pour into the salad bowl a little oil and mix well with a spoon.
Chop the pickles put them into the lentils and mix.
Clean the dill and wash it well. Chop finely the dill into the lentils.
Peel three carrots cut them in small pieces and put them in the salad.
Drain the boiled wheat and add it in the lentils.
When the beans and the chickpeas are soft and tender, drain them well with a colander.
Put them in the salad.
Add the chopped olives in the salad. 
Add the remaining olive oil.
Last add the mustard and mix all the ingredients well.
Taste the salad and if it needs salt add some.



Δευτέρα 12 Ιανουαρίου 2015

Spaghetti with meat sauce ( Μακαronia me kima in Greek)


SPAGHETTI WITH MEAT SAUCE
(Recipe for 4 people)
Ingredients
Sauce
600 g. ground beef
2 large onions
5 cloves garlic
150 g. olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 seeds allspice
4 large ripe tomatoes (700g approx.)
Salt, pepper
Very little red chili pepper

Pasta 
Ingredients
500 g. spaghetti or linguini no 7
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste
250 grams grated parmesan cheese.

Instructions
Sauce
Put over medium heat, a saucepan. Put in it oil, chopped onions and garlic and stir.
Let onions to sauté and stir them from time to time.
Add the mince meat, some salt and little red chili pepper.
Mix often the minced meat with a wooden spatula and break the lumps that form.
Cover the saucepan with its lid and decrease the heat more.
Let the minced meat produce all its fluids and boil slowly in them.
Mix often the minced meat and check its fluids.
Rinse tomatoes and mash them in the blender.
Once the fluids of the minced meat are reduced, pour into the saucepan the mashed tomatoes and stir.
Let the meat boil until it softens and absorbs most of its fluids.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and try the taste of the sauce.

Spaghetti
Put 4 l of water in a pot.
Place it over high heat.
Wait for the water to boil and put some salt in it.
Add the pasta and stir well to avoid sticking.  
Pasta takes about 8 minutes to boil.
The time required to cook each kind of pasta is written on its package.
Let the pasta to boil until it becomes as soft as you like it.
Put the pasta in the drainer and let it drain well.
Put the pasta back into the pot and add to it two tablespoons of olive oil and four tablespoons of the meat sauce.
Mix well so the sauce covers all the spaghetti.

Serving
Put the pasta in a deep dish.
In the center of spaghetti put as much meat sauce as you want..
Put over the sauce grated cheese.    

Κυριακή 11 Ιανουαρίου 2015

Burgers in the oven or on the barbeque


Burgers in the oven or on the barbeque
Ingredients
1 k. ground beef or 700 g. ground beef and 300 g. ground pork
3 large dried onions
4 cloves garlic
Salt, pepper, oregano, very little ground cumin
50 g. breadcrumbs
90 g. olive oil + 3 TB
1 medium potato
1 medium ripe tomato

Instructions  
Peel the onions and garlic.
Put them in the blender and chop.
Put some salt in the minced meat and knead well.
Put the chopped garlic and onions in the minced meat.
Knead the minced meat to mix it well with the onions.
Add the oil into the minced meat and knead again.
Add the ground pepper, oregano, and very little cumin into the meat and knead.
Peel the potato and pulp it in the blender.
Add it to the previous meat mixture and knead again.
Mash the tomatoes, add them in the meat mixture and knead again.
Add breadcrumbs in the meat mixture and knead all the ingredients together well.
Put the burgers in the fridge for at least two hours, so the flavors will mingle.
If you make the burgers the previous night, their taste improves.

Burgers in the oven

Put 3 TB Olive oil in a dish and dip your hands into it.
Get a piece of ground beef in the size of a tangerine from the above mixture.
Place it on your left palm and turn it until it takes the shape of a small ball.
Pres with your right palm the meat ball to take the shape of a burger.
Continue this way until you make all the burgers possible from the ground beef.
Smear every burger around with olive oil.
Slightly grease a baking tray and put the burgers on it side by side.
Bake in the second top rack of the oven at 180 C degrees for 25 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven. Turn the burgers upside down to cooke their other side.
Put the pan back into the oven and bake 10 more minutes..
When the burgers are cooked, their color gets darker.
As soon as they get ready remove them from the oven.
.

Barbeque

Use a grill that folds and has a handle.
Smear the grill with oil with a brush.
Arrange the burgers in the grill and close it.
Place the grill with burgers over hot coals.
The fire should not be too strong, because the patties burn outside but remain uncooked in the inside. 
When the burgers are cooked from one side, turn them to the other side.
Turn them often to avoid burning them.
When you have invited a lot of people you need many burgers very fast.
It is impossible to cook many burgers at once.
In this case it is better to half cook the burgers in the oven in advance.
So when the people arrive, the burgers need only two minutes on the barbeque to get ready.
Shortly before serving put them on the grill and place it on the barbeque.
This way you prepare many burgers quickly.