foodie - Choice of Magic

Zucchini and Pea Soup with a Touch of Pesto

September 20, 2021

Inspired by Ottolenghi´s courgette, pea and basil soup, this #homemadeMonday recipe is a soup just perfect for the incoming autumn (yes, I refer to it as incoming as I still spend my weekends at the beach for the time being and am in denial). While Ottolenghi´s recipe contains double the basil of mine, I added a few teaspoons of pesto to enhance the taste, a green onion to give it a punch and I topped it up with some truffle oil. Oh, and I changed the proportions quite a bit. Keep reading for my interpretation of what is possibly one of my favourite green soups of all time (in case you, reader are Portuguese – don´t worry, caldo verde is up in the top too).

Italian Vegetarian Dinner Food

Pizza with Chevre, Arugula and Peanuts

September 13, 2021

Before you tell me peanuts on a pizza sound weird, let me just stop you there. This pizza flavour is seriously one of the best ones I´ve ever tried. Nothing new about combining chevre with honey and even arugula. The innovation here comes from replacing the traditional tomato sauce on the base of the pizza with (wait for iiiiiiit) fajita sauce. Genius or idiotic, I don´t know. But I swear by it. And then the crushed peanuts on top – omg. Don´t even ask me how we came up with this combo, part of it was a fortunate accident, part just sheer madness. But it works. And you need to try it. So here goes.

Mediterranean Seafood Food Lunch

Shrimp on a Bed of Salt – Simple as That

September 8, 2021

This week´s recipe is not much of a recipe to be honest, but I did feel the need to record it here on my blog, just like I would in a physical recipe book. I stole the idea of this shrimp on a bed of sea salt from one of our gourmet dinners in Mallorca, at the Belmond La Residencia hotel. This was one of the nine courses we had there and its utter simplicity and amazing taste made us want to redo it at home. So we bought ourselves the two ingredients – shrimp and sea salt, and a little wooden tray that would resist maximum temperature in the oven, and we got to cooking. It took less time to cook it than it did to write this intro. You absolutely have to try it!

International Dinner Food

Sirloin Steak with Roquefort Sauce

August 23, 2021

You´re probably looking at this picture upon reading the title of the recipe and scratching your head. You are correct, the picture does not depict a sirloin steak, instead a fine chicken breast steak, on a bed of potato purée and coated in Roquefort sauce. For this recipe we´ve been experimenting with sirloin steaks AND chicken breast and while the sirloin version is definitely the yummier one (or so says hubby), I only managed to snap a picture of the chicken one. And even that picture kind of looks like a failed Michelangelo. The recipe, however, does not fail in the least. It´s bulletproof. The purée is the creamiest you´ll ever eat, and the sauce, albeit super flavourful might just convince you Roquefort is a pretty awesome cheese after all. Curious? Keep reading.

International Food Lunch

Punched Potatoes with Bacon and Yoghurt Sauce

August 16, 2021

Inspired by all the potatoes I ate in my recent trips to Amsterdam (hello wedges!) and Mallorca (hello patatas bravas!), this #homemadeMonday (freshly back from my holidays) brings you yet another potato recipe – punched potatoes (batata à murro as the Portuguese call them) with bacon and a yummy yoghurt/mustard sauce. They´re super easy to make, aka perfect for the first day back from holidays when you´re in meetings back to back. Keep reading for the full recipe.

Mexican American Food

Dutch Baby (but make it Mexican)

August 2, 2021

I returned from Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago with the ardent conviction that I needed to once and for all learn to make a Dutch baby (the dish, not an actual tall, blonde baby). This is not because I had eaten Dutch baby pancakes in Amsterdam, but rather because I couldn´t find any there. Which comes at no surprise when you actually find out there´s nothing Dutch about Dutch baby pancakes – they´re actually American, and haven been derived from the German Pfannkuchen. The deceiving “Dutch” in their name is simply a corruption of the “Deutsch” word. Upon finding this out, I thought “you know what? if they´re not Dutch, nor entirely German, let´s bring them yet another twist and make them Mexican!”. So I adjusted the original recipe to make them less sweet and added a Mexican layer to them. They were absolutely delicious (I have made them twice so far) and so so easy to make I think I´ll be making these a Sunday regular!

International Food

Julie´s Roasted Chicken

July 26, 2021

Confession time: this is probably the most impromptu #homemadeMonday and #guestchefseries I´ve ever done. I had to take a last minute trip to Romania and didn´t get to plan ahead, so today I found myself in Bucharest, at my friend Julie´s house, with a calendar full of meetings and no plan for what to share. And since I would have really felt like I was letting you down if I came up with nothing today, I convinced my friend Julie that the roasted chicken she was preparing for us for lunch is totally worth going up on the blog, especially as it has a special ingredient I would have never thought of adding to it! Keep reading to find out more.

Italian Dinner Food

Prosciutto and Fig Pizza

July 19, 2021

For my first ten years of eating pizza, I always, always, always went for the prosciutto e funghi option. I guess that´s not so unusual for a kid, to find THE pizza and stick to it until adulthood. Maybe a bit more unusual (to not use the word sad), is that once I reached teenagehood, I found myself a new pizza I stuck with for about ten years, and that was Hawaii (outrageous, I know). And now, in adulthood, I´ve been stuck on Diavola. So essentially, it´s been three pizza flavours defining my life, and I rarely strayed from them. Recently, though, I found myself twice (and that is a lot!), choosing pizzas with figs in them, a combination I never thought would work. And boy, did I like it. I liked it so much that after doing some testing at home, I came up with an own prosciutto and fig pizza recipe, which I´m happily sharing with you this #homemadeMonday. I promise that even if it doesn´t sound like your cup of tea (or slice of pizza), you´ll be amazed by how good this combo tastes.

Middle Eastern Vegetarian Food Lunch

Couscous with Fried Apricots and Halloumi

July 12, 2021

I´m typing this #homemadeMonday from the Hoxton´s lobby (take it as a great recommendation if you want to have a nice drink while you´re in Amsterdam). I´ve just head some poached eggs on an English muffin and half an avo toast, but my mouth is still watering at the thought of this week´s recipe – a couscous with fried apricots, halloumi, sundried tomatoes and mint. I just find the combination so utterly perfect, that I never want to try couscous any other way. Although, I will also continue making it in hubby´s favourite fashion – find the recipe here.

International Food

Prosciutto Wrapped Pears

July 5, 2021

Pears are definitely not in my top five favourite fruit, but I find myself adding to dishes over and over again – like in this drunken pear risotto or in this perfect winter salad (shhhh, it´s perfect for summer too!). And then when Pinterest gave me the idea to wrap them in prosciutto, with a bit of creamy cheese and a mango chutney topping, I felt like I died and went straight to heaven. It´s a stretch to call this an actual recipe, considering there´s no cooking involved, but I thought I´d nonetheless put it on the blog for your next brunch session.

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