Vanilla cupcakes

Beef Lasagna

Lasagna

Lasagna is not a dish; its a way of life! - GARFIELD     :-)

Finally nailed it down. Lasagna with a firm 6 layers of goodness. The trick is not so liquidy meat sauce and used a scraper to spread the layers of meat sauce and béchamel sauce. Best of all I used homemade fresh pasta.

Ingredients:
fresh pasta
meat sauce
bechamel sauce
cheese

Fresh Pasta
300 g. flour
3 eggs

Place the flour on a flat working surface, make a well at the center and add 3 eggs. Mix the eggs with a fork and slowly incorporate the flour with the eggs until mixture forms a dough. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a log and cut every 2 inch. Shape each cut into another log and flatten with a rolling pin as thin as you can dusting with flour when necessary. Note that working with a smaller portion at a time is easier than making a bigger one. (just a personal point of view)  Cut the pasta into desired shape. (spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagna etc.)


Meat Sauce
1/2  kg. ground beef
1 onion (finely chopped)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 tsp rosemary (dried)
1 tsp thyme (dried)
1 tsp. basil (dried)
1 can tomato sauce (250 g)
4 tsp. tomato paste
salt and pepper

Sautee garlic and onion until translucent. Add rosemary, thyme and basil, add meat. Stir occasionally and let it simmer until the liquid has evaporated, add tomato sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper, add tomato paste. simmer for another 2 minutes.  The sauce must not be liquidy, it must be a little thicker like a paste.

Bechamel Sauce
3 Tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cup milk
2 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons butter
salt to taste

Peel garlic and crush it at the back of a knife  until it becomes a paste and add it to the milk, season with salt. Melt butter in a saucepan in low heat, add flour and mix it with a wooden spoon until it forms a paste, add milk and mix vigorously until it thickens.

To assemble the lasagna:

Preheat oven at 350 C.
In a rectangular pan, place pasta sheet, add a thin layer of meat sauce, béchamel sauce and cheese. Repeat the layers until the pan is full; ending with cheese on top. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees C.

Eggplant Rollatini

Eggplant rollatini

Eggplant Rollatini - grilled eggplant stuffed with fetta cheese, topped with diced tomatoes dressed with olive oil and fresh basil.

This is my favorite appetizer in T.G.I. FRIDAYS restaurant and this is a home-made version the way my taste buds interpreted it. It looks small but its really more than enough for a dinner portion, served with bread. Gotta post it here so i won't forget how it is done. I'm gonna do this every now and then. In this dish, basil is really important. The aroma and taste goes well with the mild tastes of eggplant and cheese.  Hubby added a dash of balsamic vinegar to add sharpness.  This is way better than the Friday's rollatini.

Ingredients:

2 long eggplants (1 foot long)
100 g fetta cheese
1 large tomato
fresh basil leaves
Olive oil for tomato dressing
Salt and pepper


Slice the eggplant into thin strips along with its length. Brush with olive oil and season with pepper. (didn't put salt on the eggplant as the fetta will take care of the saltiness). Grill until eggplant turns slightly brown. Allow to cool enough to handle. Spread fetta cheese on the grilled eggplant and roll up. secure with a tooth pick.

While the eggplant is grilling, prepare the tomato salad. In a bowl, put the olive oil and finely diced fresh basil, season with salt and pepper. Add the diced tomatoes and set aside.

After rolling up the eggplant with the fetta cheese, arrange the rollatinis in a serving dish and top it with the prepared tomato salad.

This served 8 rollatinis.

Chocolate cake with fresh berries - fathers day special 2011

CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE WRAPPED IN CHOCOLATE, 

TOPPED WITH FRESH STRAWBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES.