Quick and Easy Recipes by Ella

Ingredients for two portions

• 1 smoked pork bone
• 400 g. of white beans
• 2 carrots
• 2 onions
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 laurel leaf
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper, paprika

Preparation:

1. Boil the smoked pork bone for 20 minutes, then throw away the water.
2. In the same time, boil the white beans for 25 minutes, then throw away the water.
3. Grate the carrots and the onions.
4. Boil them for 5 min in 1 l. of water.
5. Add the smoked pork bone, the laurel leaf, and the white beans.
6. Boil them, at a medium temperature, for 40 min.
7. Make sure the beans are ready, but not to soft.
8. Add the salt, the pepper, and the paprika.
9. Cut the tomatoes small.
10. Put them in the food and boil everything together for 10 min.

Ingredients

• 2 cauliflowers
• 4 chicken joints
• 2 onions
• 3 spoons of flour
• 100 g. of sour cream
• vegetable oil
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, paprika

Cooking procedure

1. Boil the chicken joints for 15 min. Salt and pepper them.
2. Fry them in olive oil 5 min on each side.
3. Detach the cauliflower’s bouquets.
4. Boil them up to the point when they are ready to be eaten, but not too soft.
5. Keep the remaining water.
6. Cut the onions small. Salt them.
7. Put them in the vegetable oil, at a medium temperature, for 2 min. Add 10 spoons of from the remaining water. Boil for 8 min.
8. Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add 5 spoons from the remaining water. Stir.
9. Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add cream for the flour not to stick. Stir.
10. Add the third spoon with flour. Stir. Add the rest of the sour cream.
11. Mix up with the cauliflower and the chicken joints.

The same recipe can be done with chicken breast.

Learning how to cook mushrooms is easy, especially if you have the basic cooking skills and practice. Mushrooms are an excellent replacement for meat, in case you are on a diet, or you are vegetarian, or even vegan. Going vegetarian is not as simple as you’d think. That’s because our body still needs proteins, and if we don’t eat animal products,. those proteins are very hard to get, as they are not included in all vegetables and fruits. We have to learn to compose meals that are rich in all nutrients needed for good health, and we need to consider food supplements as well.

Back to our mushrooms cooking, one of the recipes my family loves is this one, which mixes the mushrooms with a white garlic sauce, giving them an excellent flavor.

Ingredients for two

• 1 kg. of mushrooms
• 1 garlic
• 6 spoons with flour
• 350 g. of cow milk
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

How to cook mushrooms with garlic sauce

1. Grate the garlic. Salt it.
2. Cut the mushrooms. Salt and pepper them.
3. Fry them, at medium temperature, for 5 min.
4. Add 200 g. of hot water.
5. Continue to boil them for 15 min. Keep the remaining water.
6. Put the garlic in the vegetable oil, at a medium temperature, for 2 min. Add 10 spoons from the remaining water.
7. Warm up the milk.
8. Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add 5 spoons from the remaining water. Stir.
9. Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add enough milk for the flour not to stick. Stir.
10. Repeat until you finish the flour.
11. Put the mushrooms. Stir for 3 min.

Leave it for five minutes in the pan before eating.

Serve hot, with bread or polenta. This is a meal that is very good immediately after finishing cooking. Leftovers are not that great, so you’d better make sure to prepare only as many portions as you know your family will be eating that day.

Ingredients for two

• 1 kg. of potatoes
• 400 g. of pork and cow minced meat
• 2 onions
• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 eggs
• 100 g. of sour cream
• dill
• olive oil
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Slice the potatoes in round slices, 2 cm thick. Salt them.
2. Fry them 2 min. on each side, at medium fire.
3. Cut the bell peppers in small cubes.
4. Cut the onions small.
5. Mix them up, add salt and pepper, and fry them in olive oil for 3 min.
6. Add the minced meat, 100 g. of hot water, and stir from time to time, for 5 min.
7. Cut the dill small.
8. Mix it with the ready cooked meat.
9. Put in a pot with a little bit of olive oil and 100 g. of water, one layer of potatoes, then one layer of meat with bell pepper and onions. Repeat until you finish them.
10. Put the pot in the oven, at medium temperature, for 25 min.
11. During this time, scramble the eggs, salt and pepper them.
12. Add the sour cream to the eggs mixture.
13. Pour the mixture on top of the food and put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes

Serve hot.

Ingredients for two:

• 600 g. of gumbos
• 3 spoons with vinegar
• 100 g. of tomato sauce
• 2 onions
• 3 spoons with flour
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Cut the gumbo’s edge out.
2. Put the gumbos in hot water with vinegar.
3. Boil them for 10 min. Take them out of the vinegar water.
4. Cut the onions small.
5. Boil 100 g. of water.
6. Fry the onions for 3 min., than pour on top hot water, 2 spoons. Stir for 2 min.
7. Add 1 spoon with flour. Stir. Add water.
8. Repeat until you obtain a white sauce.
9. Mix it up with the gumbos and add the tomato sauce, the salt and the pepper.
10. Boil it, at small fire, for 3 min.

Serve hot.

Ingredients for two portions

• 1 kg of eggplants
• 400 g of pork and cow minced meat
• 1 big onion
• 2 eggs
• 100 g of sour cream
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Cooking procedure

1. Skin off the eggplants. Slice them longitudinally, in stripes of 2 cm thick.
2. Salt them. Leave them aside for 15 min.
3. Press them and throw away the black liquid which results.
4. Fry them 2 min on each side, at medium temperature.
5. Cut the onion small.
6. Boil it with the minced meat, at medium temperature, for 5 min. Add salt and pepper.
7. Put in a pot with oil and 100 g of water, one layer of eggplants, then one layer of meat with onion. Repeat until you finish all ingredients.
8. Put the pot in the oven, at medium temperature, for 15 min.
9. During this time, scramble the eggs, salt and pepper them.
10. Add the sour cream to the eggs and stir well.
11. Pour the mixture on top of the food in the pot, then put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

Serve hot.

Ingredients for two

• 10 carrots
• 4 parsley roots
• 1 small celery root
• 2 apples
• 200 g. of mayonnaise
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Grate all the vegetables and the apples on the medium side of the grater.
2. Dry them by wrapping them in a clean towel and pressing gently.
3. Mix them up with the mayonnaise, the salt and the pepper.

Serve after refrigerating for 10 minutes. For fancy dinners, put the salad in small bowls, cover the surface with a thin layer of mayonnaise and decorate with pieces of olives, red peppers and parsley.

Ingredients for two:

• ½ kg. of green beans
• 250 g. of mushrooms
• 300 g. of mayonnaise
• salt, pepper

Procedure:

Boil the beans; leave them to chill up and cut them small.
Fry the mushrooms; leave them to chill up and cut them small.
Mix up the beans with the mushrooms, the mayonnaise, the salt and the pepper.

Refrigerate for about 10 minutes before serving. It is suitable as a cold appetizer.

Suggestion for serving: make some small garlic toast (you can slice a baguette), put on each slice of toast a teaspoon of salad, arrange them nicely on a plate, and decorate with a small cube of red pepper or some parsley.

Important tip from the chef: make sure the mushrooms and the beans are cold when you mix them with the mayonnaise, otherwise you may have the surprise that the mayonnaise becomes watery.

Ingredients for two:

• ½ kg. of potatoes
• 4 eggs
• 2 onions
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 mild pepper
• 200 g. of bacon
• 100 g. of olives
• garlic sauce
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Cut the potatoes in small cubes and boil them for about 15 min. Leave them to chill up.
2. Boil the eggs for 5 min. When they are cold, cut them in small pieces.
3. Cut the vegetables and the bacon in cubes.
4. Mix up all the ingredients and add salt, pepper, and garlic sauce.

You can skip the bacon in case you are vegetarian.

Ingredients for two:

• 500 g. of chicken breast
• 5 endives
• 100 g of red bell pepper
• 3 potatoes
• 200 g. of mayonnaise
• 1 lemon
• salt, pepper

Cooking procedure:

1. Boil separately the chicken breast and the potatoes. After that, leave them to chill up and cut them small.
2. Add the salt and the pepper.
3. Cut the endives and the bell peppers in small pieces, salt them and pour the lemon juice on top. Leave it like this for one hour.
4. Mix up all the ingredients.

Refrigerate for minimum 20 minutes before serving