Portobello con queso crema (this post is also in English)

Ha pasado una semana desde nuestro último blog, pero sí aquí estoy de regreso, no me morí con las lentejas que siempre me caen tan mal. Normalmente no las como, pero ahora ni cuenta me di que había lentejas en ese riquísimo platillo hindú… No me di cuenta sino hasta el día siguiente cuando tuve que correr a… ya saben donde. (Para todos aquellos que aman las lentejas y la comida hindú, les prometo que me voy a robar esa deliciosa receta de mi cuñada y la voy a publicar aquí. Pero no vayan con el chisme, ¿eh?)

Por el momento, tengo algo sencillísimo que les va a encantar:

Champiñones portobello con queso crema



La foto de arriba muestra unos “champiñones portobello” (a lo mejor se llaman diferente donde ustedes viven).

Y la foto de abajo muestra la parte inferior de un champiñón portobello.



Así es como los rebané:



Piqué cebolla y la cociné con un poco de aceite de canola por unos 5 minutos.


Y luego cociné los champiñones, pero estuvieron listos tan rápido (¿2 minutos?) que ni tiempo me dio de tomarles una foto en la sartén.

Este es el resultado final con un poco de queso crema y lechuga:



Ahora, dejadme explicar las razones de nuestra ausencia del blog.

Primero que nada, nos vamos a casar. De cierto modo ya estamos casados, pero eso lo explicaré otro día.

La cosa es que tenemos todas estas invitaciones que entregar. Y antes de entregarlas, necesitamos doblar el sobre (una especie de cajita que Moni diseñó) y poner todo lo necesario dentro de la cajita: la invitación, el mapa, un grabado especialmente diseñado para la ocasión, los boletos, la tarjeta de la mesa de regalos. Moni diseñó todo esto (3 meses de trabajo) y es una de las razones por las que he estado cocinando más que ella. Pero de eso se trata el matrimonio: cuando tengo tiempo, yo cocino y cuando no, ella cocina. Y cuando ninguno tiene tiempo hay una variedad enorme de fondas, restaurantes, comida a domicilio, antojitos, botanas, etc. Aunque nuestra regla no escrita es que eso tiene que ser la excepción y no la regla. Desafortunadamente, con mis parejas anteriores no pude ver la importancia de comer en casa tu propia comida y esas relaciones no prosperaron. Aunque hubo otras razones, por supuesto (quizás cuente más de eso otro día).

Pero antes de poder entregar y mandar todas esas invitaciones, necesitas una lista de direcciones que incluya los nombres y direcciones de todos tus invitados. Es mejor si también tienes los números de teléfono (casa, oficina, celular, etc.) y sus direcciones electrónicas. Nada fácil cuando tratas de encontrar los datos del primo que vive en Querétaro y que hace 10 años no has visto. Un verdadero trabajo de investigación detectivesca que a veces causa sospechas en la gente que contesta el teléfono: “¿Es su primo, seguro? ¿Y si es su primo cómo es posible que no tenga usted su número de teléfono? ¿De veras no me quiere engañar? Usted entenderá que hay que extremar precauciones en estos tiempos de secuestros y narcotráfico…”

Y además tienes que trabajar, ir al banco, a la peluquería, al podólogo, ver a tus hijos, a tus sobrinos, hacer los quehaceres domésticos, sacar al perro a pasear y cocinar, por supuesto. Sí lo sé, soy muy chillón, todos ustedes tienen también mil pendientes y a veces muchas más cosas que nosotros.

Lo que sí sé es que cocinar baja los niveles de estrés, de verdad. Hay algo mágico en tocar y oler los alimentos, escuchar el aceite hirviendo, echar la sal y la pimienta, llorar al picar la cebolla, que el perrito se acerque esperando un poco de jitomate, que la gatita maúlle pidiendo los restos del pescado. Por lo menos, a mí personalmente me sirve de terapia.

No se estresen, cocinen algo sencillísimo y delicioso como estos portobello con queso crema. Bon appétit!

Revoltijo/Mixture

Moni did the cooking today by herself because I was busy finding a word for a translation. Yes, just one word. An important one though, so we had to get other people's assessment.

Moni called me at 4 pm:
"Are you having lunch at home today? Lunch is ready".
(Well, yes in Mexico City we have lunch between 2 and 4 pm.)
It was a delicious lunch:
Noodles soup and vegetable Revoltijo.

The soup was the easiest. Moni poured the contents of the precooked noodles in boiling water.



Well, is that "cooking"?
Maybe that one is more like fast food, but I must say that it is a good idea to have one of these soups handy, especially when you are in a hurry.

But the other one does count as cooking. It was an example of cooking with imagination. It does not have a name so let's call it "Revoltijo" which is a Spanish word that means mixture.



If you are in a rush and you have some vegetables in the fridge, you can always cook a delicious Revoltijo in a few minutes. Of course, there is some chopping involved.

Our ingredients (you can add more or subtract one of these):
Some onion
A bunch of mushrooms
2 celery stalks
2 tomatoes
some parmesan cheese
a pinch of salt
a pinch of pepper

We already had some potatoes cooked (we did it while having lunch yesterday). Celery involves a few more minutes because you have to get rid of the external fiber. You also have to chop the tomatoes (2 small tomatoes for 2 people), and the onion. Then you just heat the pan for one minute, add some oil, cook the onion for 3 minutes; add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes; add the potatoes, the celery and cook for another 5 minutes. At the end, you add the mushrooms, the pinch of salt and pepper, and cook for 3 minutes. It takes a little bit more than 20 minutes.

Add some parmesan cheese when serving.

First Visitors

We are very happy because we had our first visitors to the blog today: our friends León and Eduardo.

Our friend León sent this mail:

"Me encantó su blog! especialmente disfruté el que mencionaran que el kefir es lo
mismo que los búlgaros, que los búlgaros son una mezcla de levaduras y bacterias (casi nadie lo sabe) y el post sobre el partido Irlanda-Francia. Por cierto, yo sé de algunos platillos irlandeses, si te animas a experimentar con los fish and chips hechos con "batter" de cerveza Guiness, estoy seguro de que Selene estaría encantada!"

Let me translate:

"I loved your blog! I especially enjoyed the post where you say kefir and bulgaros are the same thing and that bulgaros are a mixture of yeasts and bacteria (nobody knows that) and also the post about Ireland-France game. By the way, I know some Irish dishes. If you are willing to experience with the fish and chips made with Guiness beer batter... I am sure Selene will love the idea!"

This is my answer to Leon:

Thank you, my friend. To be honest, I did not know the name kefir. I always called the little beasts "bulgaros" just like my mother taught me. I did not know that these things were bacteria and yeasts, but Wikipedia did. You are a biologist, so you must have known. There is a lot of information on the web these days. The only thing I knew was that kefir/bulgaros yoghurt was delicious and nutritious and I wanted to share this with you all. By the way, my little beasts are growing at a fast pace and I can donate some to you or anybody interested in raising them.
About cooking Irish food, yes, we'll love that! You will be our guest chefs that day, ok?

God Save Ireland! (this post is also in English)

Hoy tengo sentimientos encontrados. Por un lado, estoy súper contento de que Francia haya clasificado para la Copa del Mundo de Futbol 2010. (Me considero un poco francés, aunque Moni diría que no tengo ni 25% de sangre francesa y quizás un estudio genético concluiría que sólo tengo 5% de orígenes franceses, pero me encanta cuando juega Francia).
Por otro lado, me siento triste, porque el equipo de Irlanda fue mejor en la cancha y el gol francés debió de ser anulado porque Thierry Henry detuvo la pelota con la mano después de estar fuera de lugar (dos infracciones a las reglas en la misma jugada). ¡Y los 3 árbitros no vieron nada!
Estoy considerando seriamente cocinar un platillo irlandés para equilibrar mi alma dividida después de tan flagrante injusticia.
Pero también voy a cocinar algo francés (como una sopa de cebolla vegetariana, por ejemplo) y celebrar con una botella de vino, riendo y llorando, llorando y cantando: "Allez les Bleus!"
Lo siento, se supone que este blog es de cocina, no sobre futbol. Sólo escribo estas líneas porque fue una injusticia (¿ya lo dije?) y no podía permanecer callado (incluso si nadie lee esto, mi alma sabe que estoy haciendo lo único que puedo hacer: escribir acerca de esto)
Y cocinar ese platillo irlandés ayudará también. Por lo menos me ayudará a mí (nada de esto le importa un comino a Moni). El único problema es que lo único que sé a ciencia cierta que viene de Irlanda es su cerveza. Pero no hay problema, seguro la red está llena de recetas irlandesas.
¿Y qué cocinamos hoy? Bueno, en realidad no mucho. Moni hizo un delicioso jugo de papaya…
Y yo me hice un desayuno delicioso:
1. Yogurt de búlgaros (kéfir) con leche de soya sabor nuez.
2. Amaranto, uvas pasa, nueces, endulzado con miel de maple (miel de maple real traida de Quebec).
Por lo demás, tuvimos que comer en el restorán. Tuvimos cita con la señora del banquete para decidir sobre las flores de la boda. Luego fuimos a que el retinólogo revisara mis retinas en deterioro y mis pupilas estuvieron dilatadas, así que estuve literalmente “encandilado” toda la tarde.
Pero la comida fue notable y prometo aprender a cocinar esos platillos y a reportar las recetas aquí.
Los dos comimos sopa de tortilla. Luego, Moni comió quesadillas con flor de calabaza y huitlacoche y yo una deliciosa ensalada: la mitad de un aguacate sobre una cama de lechuga, zanahoria y jitomate, con atún por encima. Sazoné la ensalada con aceite de oliva, vinagre, sal y pimienta.
Et voilà!

Nopal con huevo (this recipe is also posted in English)

El nopal es un tipo de cactus mexicano muy nutritivo. Hoy usamos la receta tradicional de mamá y lo cocinamos con tomates verdes, jitomate (así llamamos en México al tomate rojo), cebolla, cilantro, cayena y 1 huevo.




Pica los nopales y los tomates verdes en cuadritos y cocínalos con algo de aceite durante unos 45 minutos, hasta que la savia del nopal (a la cual en México le llamamos “baba” debido a su apariencia) se evapore.



Pica los jitomates y la cebolla en cuadritos y cocínalos con aceite en otro sartén durante unos 20 minutos.

Pica el cilantro sin el tallo y añádelo al sartén en donde se cocinan los jitomates. Añade algo de sal, pimienta y cayena (o chile piquín).

Cuando la mayor parte de la savia (baba) del nopal se haya evaporado, revuelve el contenido de los dos sartenes. Al final, añade el huevo batido, revuelve todo junto y sirve en el plato con aguacate.

¡Y viva México!

Tostadas with avocado

Is there a Mexican market nearby? Buy some tostadas or fresh tortillas.

This is a delicious dish that can be ready in 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

Tostadas (you can buy them or bake tortillas in the oven, with or without oil, it's up to you)
1 or 2 tomatoes
1 avocado
Sunflower seeds
Your favorite dressing
1 Lettuce (optional)



You just chop the tomatoes and the avocado. You can chop the tomatoes more than what you see in the picture. The more you chop them, the easiest it is to eat the tostada.

At the end, you can add your favorite dressing. I have already post an entry about my favorite dressing, but I'll give you the recipe again.

Dressing:

1 tablespoon vinegar (Aceto di Modena)

3 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon French mustard

A pinch of salt

A pinch of pepper

Portobello mushrooms with cream cheese

It's been a long time but yes we are not dead, here we are, back with another easy, tasty, wonderfully easy, very easy recipe:

Portobello mushrooms with cream cheese

The pic above shows you how "portobello mushrooms" look like (maybe the name of these mushrooms is different in your country).

And the pic below shows the bottom of a portobello mushroom.



This is the way I sliced them:



I chopped onion and cooked it with some canola oil for about 5 minutes.



And then I cooked the mushroom. It was done so fast (2 minutes?) that I did not have time to take a pic.

But the final result, with some cream cheese and salad is here:

Now let me explain why we have not been blogging.

First of all, we are getting married in three weeks. In a way we are already married but I'll explain that later.

The thing is: we have all these invitations to send out. And before we can send the invitations out, we need to fold the enveloppe, we need to put into the enveloppe: the map, the invitation, an engraving especially designed for the occasion, the tickets for the reception, the wedding registry card. Moni designed all this by herself, this is why I have been cooking more than her. But this is what marriage is about: When I have time I cook, when I don't she cooks, and when we are both busy there are restaurants, fast food, junk food and all that. But that should be the exception, not the rule. Unfortunately, with my previous couples I couldn't see it, and of course I failed (there were other reasons, of course).

But before you can send out all these invitations, you need a "service list", which means: the names and addresses of all your guests. It is better if you also have their phone numbers (home, office, mobile, etc) and their e-mail addresses. This is something I have been doing. And you also have to work, cook, do the dishes (we do not have a dish washer), make the bed, etc.

We have also been having gatherings with our friends to give them the invitations, and going to bed late.

Pretty rough days, uh? But cooking easy, tasty portobello mushrooms is a good therapy. Try it!

God Save Ireland! (this post is also in Spanish)

I have divided feelings today. On one hand I am very happy because France classified today for the 2010 FIFA football soccer world cup. (I consider myself a little bit French, although Moni would say that I am not even 25% French and maybe a genetics study would show a 5% French origin, but I love it when France plays).
On the other hand I feel unhappy, because Ireland was a better team on the field today, and the French goal should have been disqualified because Thierry Henry stopped the ball with his hand after being off-side (two violations to the rules in one play).
I am considering cooking an Irish dish to even off my divided soul after that flagrant act of injustice.
But I am also going to cook something French (e.g. a vegetarian onion soup) and celebrate with a glass of wine, laughing and crying, crying and chanting: "Allez les Bleus!"

I am sorry, this is supposed to be a cooking blog, not a football blog. I am just writing this because it was an act of injustice and I could not remain silent (even if nobody reads this, my soul knows that I am doing the only thing I can do: "write about it").

And cooking this Irish dish will also help. At least it will help me (Moni could not care less). The issue here is that the only thing that I know for sure comes from Ireland is their beer. But no problem, the web must be full with Irish recipes.

What did we cook today? Well, not much, Moni made a delicious juice (papaya,...
and I made a delicious breakfast:
1. Kefir with soy milk flavoured with walnuts.
2. Amaranth, raisins, walnuts, sweetened with maple syrup (real maple syrup brought from Quebec).

We had to eat at the restaurant, though. We had an appointment with the catering lady to decide on the flowers we want for the wedding. Then I had to see my retina physiologist to check my deteriorating retinas, and my pupils were dilated, so I was literally "flashed" the whole evening.

But we ate interesting things that I promise I'll learn to cook and report the recipes here.
We both had tortilla soup. Then Moni ate quesadillas with "pumpkin flower" (flor de calabaza) and huitlacoche, and I had a delicious salad: an avocado half resting on a lettuce, carrot and tomato bed, topped with tuna fish. I seasoned it with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Et voilà!

Nopales with egg and tomatoes

Nopal is a a kind of Mexican cactus which is very nutritious. Today we used my mother's traditional recipe and cooked it with green tomatoes, red tomatoes, onion, coriander, cayenne pepper, and 1 egg.

Chop both nopales and green tomatoes in small squares and cook them with some oil for 45 minutes, until the nopal sap (which looks like drool) evaporates.

Chop red tomatoes and onion in small squares and cook them with oil in another pan for about 20 minutes.


Chop the coriander without the stem and add it to the red tomatoes. Add also some salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

When most of the nopal sap has evaporated, mix everything together. At the end, add the egg, mix and serve with avocado.

Pear (and other ingredients) Salad

Just look at our pear salad.

Very easy to do, you just need to chop, chop, chop some celery, jicama, and of course a pear.

Then you add cranberries, walnuts and lettuce.

Today Moni's friend, Ana Paula was in charge of the dressing which was something like this:
French mustard, honey, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar (aceto balsamico di Modena), olive oil, and a Mexican sauce called "Salsa Maggi" (does anyone know the name in English?).

I cannot give any quantity, because Ana Paula's method was adding and tasting. I mean, if she considered that more mustard was needed, then she added it. If it was too dense, then she added some water. She tasted and tasted, and added and added until she (and us) considered it was good enough.
Yummy, yummy! It was fresh and delicious!

Healthy Breakfast: Amaranth with Apple

I visited my children yesterday and had to deal with my ex-wife so I was exhausted. When I see my children I am not allowed to take them home so we eat breakfast and lunch at a restaurant. When I come home at night I am too exhausted to cook (or blog).

This morning I needed the extra energy that only amaranth and an apple can give you. I chopped the apple like this:



I added amaranth, cranberries and honey.



Finally, I gave the apple core to Cobi. Delicious and healthy!





Final dish

Busy Saturday

We had our wedding rehearsal today, so we didn't do much cooking.

We had for breakfast freshly squeezed tangerine juice and oatmeal with cranberries and walnuts, you can use your favorite sweetener.

A great breakfast: Kefir with piloncillo

Kefir (or bulgaros) is a combination of yeasts and bacteria that ferment milk and other liquids. When you add cow milk you get a sour yoghurt. I have been eating kefir since my childhood and love it, especially when it is sweetened with mexican piloncillo (a kind of "honey" made with brown sugar). I'll explain later how to make piloncillo melaza.

The first thing you need is the kefir grains. My mother gave them to us. If you feed them with cow milk everyday they will grow very fast and you have several alternatives:

1. You can donate kefir grains to your friends.


2. You can start your own business growing kefir grains and making natural yoghurt.


3. You can add soy milk instead of cow milk and you will see the grains shrink. Soy milk kefir is also delicious and even sweeter than cow milk kefir, but the grains get so small that you will need a microscope to look for them. Do not worry, they won't die. When they get tiny, tiny, tiny you can revert the process and add cow milk again.

So, the first thing to do is add milk to the kefir grains. Stir to make sure kefir grains and milk get well mixed. Use a container with a cap and leave some room for air because these little creatures need to breathe. You can let the mixture lie for 12, 24 or 36 hours. The more it rests, the more sour kefir milk will get.

The following day you will use a plastic strainer and a plastic or wooden spatula to separate the kefir grains from the yoghurt. (Never ever use an aluminum strainer).

Remove all the milk and kefir grains that sitck to the container.

Be very careful not to leave the kefir yoghurt alone with your cat!

Mmmm, delicious!

Yum, yum!

"But, mummy, can't you see I am such a skinny cat that needs to eat yoghurt!"

PILONCILLO

Piloncillo or brown sugar cones are easy to find in Mexico (I do not know elsewhere). It is very easy to make molasses (piloncillo syrup). You just have to steep a piloncillo cone in boiling water. Boil for 30 minutes or until the liquid is dense and sweet enough.

Add molasses to kefir milk and stir thoroughly. Mmmmm!

Rice Pyramids with Cream Cheese

Before I met Moni I did not even know that this delicious dish existed. This is my first time cooking it because Moni usually makes the rice pyramids. She loves them. She was supposed to help me but... she was struggling with an important event. Anyway all the credit goes to her because it is her recipe, the pyramid mold is hers (she brought it from Japan) and because... I love her.

You need a plastic triangular mold like the one in the pictures (my hand is to show the actual size of the mold):





The mold has a top and a bottom that you use to press the rice and make it compact:




You also need a grill (broiler) and grill tongs (sorry, this picture was taken with my cell phone and has less resolution):



Ingredients
1 cup sushi rice
1/2 cream cheese bar

Directions

Cook the rice (we just got this rice cooker as a wedding present and we love it, no more rice burnt with a thing like this):




1. Fill the mold with rice and cream cheese using a tablespoon. There has to be a layer of rice at the bottom and a layer of rice at the top. The cream cheese goes in the middle.

2. Press the contents with the mold top. Try to get as much rice as you can into the mold and press with the top as hard as possible to get a very compact rice pyramid (mine were not so compact and they can fall apart while you grill them).

3. Press down the moving bottom of the mold to help get the rice pyramid out of the mold.



If it is sticky, use a teaspoon and push gently. Make as many rice pyramids as you want. With a cup of rice you can make up to 8 rice pyramids.

4. Put the pyramids on the grill using low heat. Use tongs to constantly move the pyramids so that all the borders get cooked.



Yum.

Moni and Cobi loved them. Look at Cobi asking for more



:-)

Challenges and Oatmeal

We have 2 challenges:

1. Cooking together everyday for one year.
2. Writing about our experience everyday on this blog for one year.

It might sound like not too much but many things can be achieved through this. Maybe no one will read this blog, but at least we will be cooking and eating our own food. We will be having fun at the kitchen, we will be creating new things, and we will be doing this as a couple. At the end we are going to benefit a lot from this practice.

Today I (Mozko) cooked my favorite breakfast: oatmeal.
I must say that cooking has been a great breakthrough in my personal life. Moni is the third woman I share my life with, but this is the first time in my life that I've been cooking almost everyday, that I've been engaged in the kitchen, and that I'm not afraid of experiencing new ideas.

I will tell you later about this breakthrough. For now let's record our cooking of today.

Oatmeal is something that everybody should try at least once in their life. It is easy, fast and fun to cook. Here are the basic directions for 2 people:

INGREDIENTS
1 apple (chopped)
some walnuts
some raisins
1 stick cinnamon
half a cup oats
1 and a half cup water

DIRECTIONS
Boil the water and throw all the ingredients in the pot.
Stir frequently because the oats can stick to the pot.
Serve with some sugar or your favorite sweetener.

I don't advise freezing the oats many days. The flavor is not improved.

While I was chopping the apples, Cobi was watching me, waiting for a crumb to fall. Cobi is our poodle. Luna was miaowing because she wanted fresh water. Moni did not eat my breakfast beacause she is following a juice diet.
We will talk about all of this later.
You can also be creative

Pumpkin Soup

We cooked a very easy and tasty soup today, ideal to cook with your partner, because it doesn't require any previous training.
We bought 3 small orange pumpkins, the kind you use for Halloween decorations.
We cut them in half, boiled them in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes.
Then we let them cool down a bit and then we spooned out the seeds. We left the seeds on the side (to toast them later) and spooned the pulp into the blender. We added water, salt and pepper, a tablespoon of grapeseed oil, a teaspoon of fine dry herbs, (basil, laurel, sage leaves, tarragon, thyme, oregano, rosemary, mejoram).
We blended everything together, heated it and voilá! Yum!

Welcome to Couple Cooking

Hi there!

We are Moni and Mozko and we love cooking together.

We have a busy life like many of you and could be buying fast food or eating every day at the restaurant of the corner but instead we decided to give a try at cooking and have found it a rewarding experience.

One of our goals is to motivate couples to cook together. We also think that this world would be a better place if political opponents would change their weapons for kitchen utensils. Can you imagine Bin Laden cooking with George W. Bush?