Monday, June 20 Kitchen Mess | Sintra's Pie

Truth be told, when my father said the ingredients that this takes I thought to myself "that doesn't sound good, it's probably going to rubbish", only because I was not familiarized with the mixture, but what a fool I was for thinking that!

I remember when I was little and every time we went to Sintra we ate little things called Queijadas de Sintra and we loved it so much. At first I didn't know the name of the recipe, but when I first took a bite all the memories from Sintra came back to me, the taste was almost the same and it was delicious.

Since I enjoyed the pie (a lot) that I made with my father, I would love for you to try it as well, alone or with your dad as well!

You'll need:
2 Fresh Cheese, 100g All Purpose Flour, 250g Caster Sugar, 4 Egg Yolk, 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon, 1 package of Shortcrust Pastry

Preparation:
First of all, preheat your oven at 160ºC. Then, lay the pastry in a form for pies with the paper that comes with - I bought mine because it's easier, but you can make it from scratch and add the grease proof paper - and poke some holes in the bottom with a fork.
For the filling you start by mixing the fresh cheese with the egg yolks, until it's a smooth consistency, then add the caster sugar and mix. You'll have to mix very well between each thing that it's added. Finally add the sifted flour and cinnamon (if you don't think that's a good amount of cinnamon you can add a little bit more) and mix it.
When all the mixing is done it's time to pour it to the tray with the pastry and put it in the oven for 45 minutes. I think I left a little longer, but 45 minutes is a good time to take a look, if the edges os the pastry are not as wish them to be (golden) you can let it stay for a little longer but not to long.

Hope you enjoy making it as I did and I swear, it's one of the best things you will taste from my country!

Sunday, March 27 Kitchen Mess | Chickpea Salad

Every now and then people should focus on what they are eating and see if it's the right thing for them. I don't eat right, tend to miss meals and sometimes not eating at all during the day, so the other day I stopped and took a look at what I've been eating lately and the most it's meat.

Wait, I'm not going vegan or vegetarian, but I do have to cut some meat out of my meals if I want to get fit and live better. And in that note, one of the things I want to start doing more is salads, for many reasons, because they're cheaper, lighter, healthier and easy to make.

I had in my fridge a couple of tomatoes and a couple of peppers waiting to be eaten, and before they rotten, this chickpea salad was created!

You'll need:

1/2 Pepper, 540g Chickpea, 1/2 Onion, 1 Tomato

Preparation:

First you start by preparing the pepper, tomato and onion, I took the seeds out and chopped the pepper and the tomato and then put them aside; then I cut the onion half and chopped in tiny pieces.

My chickpea was in a flask, I took them out and passed water on them to take the liquid that they usually come in. And now, this is the tricky part: you have to mix it all together! 

At last and not least you season it the way you want, I went for olive, pepper and garlic, but you can use mayo or other type of sauce.

This recipe did three meals for me.
Hope you enjoy this little treat and as you can see is pretty easy to make!

Thursday, February 18 Kitchen Mess | Cod with Cream

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to eat and make is cod with cream, here in Portugal is a very well known meal, and one of the most easy to make.


You'll need:
200g of Codfish, 100ml of Cream, 200ml of White Sauce, 500g of Cube Fries, 1/2 Onion, 1 Garlic Clove, Dash of Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Breadcrumbs


Preparation:
To be honest, most of the time I only use the measures above as a guide line, you can follow them or do as I do
and impersonate or inner chef! I tend to leave the codfish in warm water overnight, but it depends in the kind of codfish you use, mostly I use one that comes already shredded.

First thing you do is cut the onion and garlic to a pan, and then add the salt (if needed, because codfish can be a little salty) and pepper and let them be until the onion becomes a translucent. In the meantime you can start frying your fries (I use frozen ones, but you can cut yours) and shredding your codfish (if not shredded yet).
When it's all done you just have to add everything to prep done with the onion: first the codfish and let cook until there's no water, then you add the fries, the cream and the white sauce and mix in (you can do this last part with the stove off).

After all is mixed pour into a serving dish and powder with some breadcrumbs (some people and cheese to it) and bake in the oven until the breadcrumbs are a gold-ish color, and voilà!

I actually made my own white sauce, it's easy and you can follow the recipe below if you want to make your own, although I have to warn you, this measure is not 200ml.

You'll need:
3dl of Milk, 1 tablespoon of Unsalted Butter, 1 table spoon of all purpose Flour, Nutmeg, Salt, Pepper


Preparation:
Melt the butter with the flour in a low heat and mix it until it's combined. And the milk (at room temperature) all at once and mix until you no longer see crumbs of the previous mixture, then you can season with the nutmeg, salt and peeper, and keep stirring until it starts getting thick.

Take it from the stove. And it's done!

Hope you enjoy it and give it a try.