Shrimp Mushroom Alfredo

A little heavy, but delicious.

This recipe is for 2 people.

Ingredients

• 85 gram (3 oz) tagliatelle
• 150 gr (around 5 oz) mushrooms
• 100 gr (around 4 oz) shrimp
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (a little more for decorating)
• 2 1/2 tbsps butter
• Olive oil
• Salt, black pepper,cayenne pepper
• Vinegar (optional)
• Mint or parsley (optional)

Preparation

Cook pasta first according to the instructions on the package. Spare 1/4 cup of pasta water. Marinete shripms with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and vinegar about 15 minutes. Put olive oil in a pan and cook marinated shrimps until they get pink. Set aside the shrimp for now. I only had baby shripms, but it is better if you use  jumbo ones.

Then put 2 tbs butter in a pan and add sliced mushrooms and minced garlic, cook until mushrooms turn into brown.

Then add heavy cream, salt, and black pepper, and cook couple of minutes. Add the rest of the butter and  parmesan, cook until they mixed well.

Add cooked pasta and pasta water into the mix and cook couple of minutes more until it reaches a good texture.

You can garnish with parsley and parmesan. I did not have parsley, so  I used fresh mint.

Enjoy!

Fish Tacos

This recipe is for 4 tacos.

Ingredients

• 4 tortillas
• 180 gram any kind of fish, I used sea bream
• 1 ts cumin
• 1 ts cayene pepper
• 1 ts garlic powder
• 1 ts black pepper
• 1 ts red flare pepper
• 1/2 lemon juice
• Olive oil

For the cole slaw

• 1 cup of shredded cabbage 
• 1 cup of shredded red cabbage
• 1 fresh onion (optional)
• Pickles (optional)
• 1/4 cup of chopped parsley
• 2 tbs mayo
• 1 tbs Greek yogurt
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 ts salt
• 1 dessert spoon mustard
• 1 clove of garlic (minced)

Preparation

 You can use any type of fish you like for this recipe. I have used whole seabream and baked in the oven at 400F about 10-15 minutes.

Then, I took out the bones and made small pieces out of it. But if you prefer fillet you can skip this part and directly marinate the fish with all the spices listed and lemon juice. Wait about 15 minutes.

In the meantime you can prepare the cole slaw. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover it with a plastic wrap and keep in the fridge at least 15 minutes. It will be better if you make it the day before.

Put some olive oil on the pan and heat it. Cook fish until it is crispy. This will take longer if you don't bake it beforehand.

Heat tortillas on a pan, first put cole slaw on it, then fish. I garnished it with fresh mint, you can also use parsley or dill.

Enjoy!

Mahmudiye

Recently I have developed interest in Ottoman Cuisine. Unlike traditional Turkish Cuisine, Ottoman cuisine is more like a fusion kitchen. The first recipe I want to share is called 'Mahmudiye' which is a chicken dish with honey. It reminded me some Asian recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast (it is better if you use both leg and breast, but I only had breast at home)
• Butter or olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 3-4 dried apricots
• 3-4 dried figs
• 1 plum or 2 prunes
• 1/2 ounce raisins
• 1/2 ounce almonds
• 5 grams of honey
• Basil
• Parsley
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Oregano

Preparation

First boil chicken breast and then make small pieces out of it with your hands. Don't throw away the water.

Then chop figs, apricots, plum and onion. Put raisins and almonds in warm water and wait about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes take out the almonds and peel them.

Take a large pan and put some olive oil in it and after heating the oil add minced garlic and onions. Then add ingredients in this order: chicken, almonds and fruits and cook them in high heat couple of minutes.

Then add parsley, oregano, salt and basil and roast couple of more minutes and add black pepper and honey. Finally add warm water that you boiled chicken in it and after it boils reduce the heat and simmer about 10 minutes. You can serve it with rice pilaf, enjoy!
 

Cauliflower Pizza

I do not eat bread anymore, however I really miss pizza.So, I decided to make a healthy pizza with cauliflower and it turned out great!

Ingredients

For the base

• 1/2 cauliflower
• 1 boiled potato
• 2 eggs
• spinach (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• parsley
• salt
• cumin
• red pepper
• black pepper
• oregano

For topping

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Salt,pepper,oregano
• Spinach
• Onions
• Pepperoni
• Grated mozzarella

Preparation

Steam and chop cauliflowers and mix them with chopped potato, eggs, spinach, parsley, olive oil and spices. Pour it into a baking pan. Bake it in 400 F preheated oven around 30 minutes. In the mean time to prepare the sauce mix tomato paste and salt, pepper and oregano and some water. Put the sauce on the cauliflower base. Add mozzarella, onions, spinach and peperoni. Broil it 10 minutes and your pizza is ready. It will have a better texture the next day. Enjoy!

Cocoa Balls

Recently I have decided to eliminate  sugar in my life, after I discovered how the industry is trying to make us sick by feeding us with these junk food and make money our from our illness. I don't usually eat desserts, the only dessert I used to eat regularly was dark chocolate. But even if the high percentage ones have sugar in it, so I decided to make my own no sugar chocolate. I found couple of recipes online and tried. It was a successful attempt to soothe my craving. I used only mulberry and raisins cause those are the only ones I had at home, if you have any other kind of dried fruit such as dates you can use it. But be careful, dates will be sweeter.
*This recipe is for 20 balls

Ingredients

• 1/2 ounce of peanuts
• 2-3 walnuts (you can add more)
• 1 ounce of hazelnuts
• 1.5 ounce of dried mulberry 
• 1 ounce of raisins 
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• Coconut (optional)

Preparation

First put nuts into a food processor and grind them about 1 minute. Then add dried fruits and grind them one more time.

Lastly add egg and cocoa powder and grind one last time.

Take the mixture in a bowl and knead it.

I did small ones and had 20 of them. You can make bigger balls. You can sprinkle some coconut on top f them if you want.
Bake it about 20 minutes in a 350 F preheated oven. If you don't want to put egg you don't need to bake it. You can just chill in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter

I wanted to buy peanut butter the other day, but when I saw that most of them contain at least 25% of sugar, I decided to make my own. I would have done that before if I knew it was that easy!




Ingredients

• 1 cup of peanut
• Honey or molasses (optional)
• Salt (optional)

Preparation

Take a large pan and roast peanuts. I have roasted a little bit more than I have to, so mine was a little darker. Roasting couple of minutes will suffice.

Then put them into a food processor and grind them until they become creamy. Add honey and salt if you want. Your peanut butter is ready.

Enjoy!

Chia Pudding

I try to avoid sweets lately. So I decided to make a light dessert with no added sugar. I had some fruits and chia seeds. I thought why I have never tried chia pudding and here we are! I hope you enjoy:)

Note:This recipe is for 6 to 8 cups of puddings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of chia seeds
• 1 cup of yogurt
• 250 ml almond/coconut milk
• Honey/mollasses
• Strawberries(optional)
• Banana (optional)
• Shredded coconut(optional)
• 1/2 cup of water

Preparation

Soak Chia seeds in water and wait about 30 minutes. Take a large bowl add yogurt, almond milk and chia seeds and refrigerate one night. Next day, put some of it in a smaller bowl, add some honey and stir. Serve it with some fruits and coconut. The reason of the owl shape is that I put the pudding into freezer in a silicone mold one night.