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Basic Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

Heyo peeps!! Been a little while, I've been moving house and getting back into the groove of Uni. Life's good.

Before moving out of my last student accommodation, I had a little board game night with my roommates. Before that, though, I cooked one last meal in that quaint student kitchen: Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Spaghetti with garlic and oil). I actually ended up making a little too much, and it took me a couple hours to finish it all... but it was worth every delicious bite.

Just before eating, I saw my roommate in the hallway getting ready for bed and showed her my creation. She said that it smelt very good, although she couldn't try any due to brushing her teeth. Today she asked me for the recipe so she can make it herself. This one is for you Eline! <3

Disclaimer by the way, this is not my recipe. It is a classic Italian dish that I love to eat, and so I must share it :)

Ingredients (for about 2 servings)

160g of spaghetti (about 2 👌fulls)

a nice glug of olive oil (about 6 tbsp)

3 cloves of garlic cuz we're garlic girls

a good grating of parmesan (I used Violife) / nutritional yeast

a handful of parsley (fresh or dried, but fresh is better)

salt + pepper

Method

In a large pot, bring about 1.5 litres of water to a boil. You want to make sure that there is not too much water so that the resulting pasta water is starchy enough to thicken up the sauce. Once the water is boiling, add in a lot of salt so it's as salty as the sea, and then add in your pasta. Cook this for just a couple minutes less than the package instructions.

Whilst the pasta is cooking, heat up your olive oil in a medium/large frying pan. Whilst this heats up, mince your garlic gloves and parsley.

Add the garlic to the oil, stirring around till wonderfully aromatic. Make sure to keep a low to medium temperature for this, as burnt garlic tastes really bad.

Next, add the parsley and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper to the pan, and stir until fragrant.

The pasta should be done or almost done at this point. Once it is, drain the pasta, and save about a mug-full of the pasta water.

Add the pasta to the frying pan and toss it around a bit. Then add in the pasta water, little by little, and stir together until the sauce coats everything beautifully.

For a little extra loveliness, add in your parmesan/nutritional yeast now.

Give everything a good stir, and serve up straight away. If you like, you can garnish with a little extra parsley and parmesan/nooch.

Bonne Appetit / Eets smakkelijk :))

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I won't have an accompanying YouTube video this time as I am in the middle of moving all my stuff, and it's a little difficult to film without all of the things I need :) I drew a little picture instead.

<3 <3 <3

[zogsblog1]

Millionaire's Shortbread with Date Caramel - Blog Post 2

This one took a little longer than expected, but that's okay. I appreciate taking the time to make little treats. It is a very simple recipe however, with very few ingredients.

Millionaire's shortbread makes me think of one time when I was in school, and the teacher asked us what all our favourite foods were. One girl said millionaire's shortbread- she is now a professional athlete. So cool to know how people grow over time :)

You will need:

For biscuit layer:

8 digestive biscuits

3 tbsp metled butter

For date caramel layer:

8 dates

200ml boiling water

salt

For chocolate layer:

100g chocolate (I used dark)

3 tbsp melted butter

salt

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To start, place the biscuits into a blender and blend until you reach a sandy consistency. It even looks like sand too. Then add in your melted butter, and blend on a slow setting, or in pulses, until it looks like slightly wet sand. This has me thinking of the beach :)

Next, get your desired container for the shortbread. I used some ramekins, but you can use any tin pretty much. Either a pop up kinda tin, or one lined with parchment.

Press the biscuit mixture into the container, making sure that it is compact. We don't want the caramel seeping through to the bottom.

Now this can go in the fridge for about 15 minutes... In the meantime, we can get on to the date caramel.

Soak your dates in about 200ml of boiling water for about 20 minutes. During this I watched an episode of The Office, which timed it perfectly.

Then pop your dates and the soaking-water into a blender with a hefty pinch of sea salt. Blend on high speed for 10 second intervals, scraping down the sides as you go. The end result should be a thick, gooey caramel sauce. You can also use this for other things, for example as a topping for ice cream.

Fetch the biscuit layer from the fridge and spoon the caramel on, smoothing out evenly.

As the caramel is still a little warm from the boiling water, I recommend placing this in the fridge to chill before the next layer.

Lastly, for the chocolate layer, break your chocolate into a heat-safe bowl and place into a pot of boiling water. This is also known as a Bain-Marie, or a double boiler. Whilst you could microwave it, I feel that the texture of the chocolate is better when using a Bain-Marie.

The chocolate should melt pretty quickly. As soon as it's all silky smooth, add in your butter. My mum, from France, says that everything is better with butter, and I couldn't agree more.

Now, to piece everything together:

Spoon the melted chocolate onto the shortbread, being careful to not mix it into the caramel. It should coat the top nicely. Then you can place the almost-finished millionaire's shortbread into the fridge so that the whole thing can set. About 4 hours should do the trick.

If you use 1 large tin, cut the shortbread into little snack-size pieces. Be sure to clean the knife between each slice so that it's neat.

You'll then have yourself some lovely treats to share with people you love.

Notes:

you can sub the butter for coconut oil.

any dry crumbly biscuit can also work as an alternative for digestives.

[zogsblog1]

Spaghetti with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar - Blog post 1

Hey peeps, hope you're having a lovely day.

Been meaning to do this for a while, so I'm happy to finally upload my first cooking video. I hope you enjoy it, and that you enjoy the pasta even more.

For me, cooking is a wonderful way to make memories, peruse on the previous ones, and learn lots of new lessons. Food not only nourishes the body, but the soul.

Here's the video so you can follow along :)

Recipe:

it’s cheap, its yummy.

the sweet tastes cherry tomatoes and balsamic really complement earthy flavours of basil and olive oil, so this is really nice for a light dinner.

great for a date night or hanging out w another person. it’s for 2. or for one hungry peep.

160g spaghetti + pasta water*

6 tbsp olive oil

8-10 cherry/piccolo tomatoes

2 big cloves of garlic (or 3 regular sized ones)

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 good pinches of basil (dried or fresh)

*don’t cook the pasta in too much water, as the resultant pasta water won’t be starchy enough if you do. always aim for 1l (ish) of water for every 80g of pasta.

get yourself a deep pot and put about 1.5 litres of water in, and bring to the boil. make sure to put hella salt in it, it should taste like the ocean. once it’s boiling, add your spaghetti and set a timer for just a couple minutes less than the package instructions.

whilst that’s cooking get your olive oil and pour it into a pan and wait for it to heat up. 

in the meantime, mince your garlic and place asside. do the same with your cherry tomatoes, cut into your preferred thickness. personally i prefer less chunks, so i dice mine small.

place the garlic in the pan with the oil, and be careful if it spits at you. tell the garlic that it’s not nice to spit at people.

make sure to turn the heat down once the garlic starts cooking, as you don’t want to burn it. If you’re using basil, add that in too. stir around on low-medium heat until it smells real nice.

add in your cherry tomatoes, and stir around a little more. 

if your pasta is now cooked, drain it through a colander, and save about 1 cup of pasta water.

add in 1/2 a cup of pasta water to the tomatoes+garlic, and wait for it to cook down and become a little saucier. if you prefer it more liquidy/saucy, adjust the amount of pasta water you add.

add in your drained spaghetti and mix it well with the sauce. if you’re a pro sauté-er like me you can toss the spaghetti until it’s coated with the sauce.

before serving, pop your plates into the microwave for 30 seconds. it’ll keep the pasta warm whilst you eat it.

serve with a lil parm and basil if you like. enjoy with a nice glass of wine, or any other nice drink. even chocolate milk.

<3