Expat Cucina

My new camera lens

Daniela — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:18:10 +0000

I got a new lens today! My bf came back home tonight with a little present for me…a Nikon 60 mm af-s…a micro lens, HURRA! Finally I can work on my pictures with a proper lens, FINALLY I can get decent photos for my blog and I’l be happy, and you all will be happy, because a good picture is as important as a good recipe!

I was sooo happy that I tested it immediately while I was making sushi for the night.

I shoot at my rice

at the cute grains on the wooden spoon

At the salmon

while I was cutting it into thin slides

At the chopped tuna, for my spicy tuna rolls

and at my cute eel/tuna rolls…look at’ em!

And Im happy and satisfied and proud of my little babies today!

Have a great weekend you all out there!

Love

- LittleDani

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Chicken Quesadillas

Daniela — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:46:27 +0000

Yesterday I made chicken quesadillas!

I thought of it

I wanted it

so I made it

I love quesadillas, I love chicken and I love cheese and when I want something I have to get it or make it or I go crazy, and I cry, and I don’t wanna cry anymore…

You can make the tortillas from scratch or just buy’ em at carrefour or cityshop…either way your quesadillas are gonna rock!

Ingredients:

500 g chicken breast
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp cumin
salt, canola oil
3 tortillas
200 g Montray Jack Cheese

Take the chicken breasts

place them in a saucepan, add water, salt

and boil for about 1 hour at low heat

Take the chicken out of the pan and let it cool down. Keep the broth

Cut the chicken breast into slices.

Heat oil and chopped onion

cook till soft

Now add the shredded chicken, cumin, pour in some broth (enough to cover the chicken)

Cover with a lid and let simmer for about 30 min.

Take half a quesadilla, spread some shredded cheese, then some chicken breast and more cheese. Cover with the other half. Place in a warm pan

and grill both sides

Cut your quesadillas and serve with sour cream.

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Post tags: Cheese, Chicken, Mexican, quesadilas, tortillas

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Good Ol’ Basic Sugar Cookies

Daniela — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:31:06 +0000

My bf is picky…oh man if he is! All he wants to eat is salty Chinese style soups…which yeah, are tasty but COME ON MAN! Give me a break here! I need to bake and experiment with new recipes all the time and I cannot, I repeat, I CANNOT, eat all I cook by myself!…for some obvious reasons…

When last Friday he asked me to make him sugar cookies I jumped out of the chair, ran in the kitchen and started baking…I was the happiest girl on earth…and trust me, I really was!

Sugar cookies are delicious and simple and delicious and sweet and crumbly and delicious and…I don’t know what else to say…They are just divine!

Let’s bake baby

Ingredients (for about 30 cookies):

1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
Frosting

In a bowl place butter and sugar

beat until fluffy

Add the egg and vanilla extract

mix well

Mix flour and baking powder and slowly add it to the butter/egg/sugar mixture

Beat until you have a smooth dough

Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and refrigerate till you get a firm roll (I kept mine in the fridge for about 2 hours).

On a floured surface roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm)

With a floured cookie cutter cut out the desired shapes…I picked this flour shape cutter…cute, isn’t it?

Place the cookies on a baking sheet and refrigerate for about 20-30 min. This will firm the dough preventing the cookies from losing their shape.

Bake at 190 C for about 8-10 min

Let’ em cool down then spread each cookie with vanilla frosting…I was too lazy to make my own frosting so I used the Betty Crocker’s one.

And here they are…

Let’s give them a closer look

Let’s give them an even closer look….

Oooooh, my little babies

One cookie provides:

Calories: 65
Fat: 3.6 g
Carbohydrates: 7.6 g
Protein: 0.7 g

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Pecan-Mocha Pie

Daniela — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:45:07 +0000

I found this recipe on Ree’ s website a few months ago and I couldn’t help but try and make it and when I did, oh when I did…I fell in love with this pie!

Friday night chef Mike, from BCB, texted me to invite me to his place on Monday for a sushi dinner…of course I said yes and of course I offered to make a pie as a dessert for the night! I was sooooooo excited. Finally, FINALLYYYY I could make Ree’s Mocha Silk Pie again!

The first time I made this pie following Ree’s instructions I got a slightly too thin crust, so this time I tried doubling the quantity for the crust and it went much better

Making the filling can take a bit of a nerve, but it is totally worth it! The cream is so soft, and fluffy and delicious I couldn’t avoid scraping the side of the bowl and leaking the spoon, I just could not not doing it (sorry for the double negative).

Make this pie, please

for you

for your lover

for your kids

for your friends…

…they will all be grateful you did!

Ingredients:

for the crust

2 cups pecans (caramelized)
1 cup brown sugar
100 g semi sweet chocolate
4 tbsp kahula

for the filling

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp coffee
1 tsp kahula
90 g semi sweet chocolate
4 whole eggs

Take 2 cups of pecans

and chop them up

Take the chocolate

and grate it

In a bowl combine pecans, grated chocolate, sugar and 4 tbsp of kahula…

now, if you, like me, don’t have kahula at home and don’t wanna lose your mind trying to find it here in Shanghai you can either make it yourself and wait 3 weeks before using it, or……use my special kahula substitute!

Just combine 4 tbsp of coffee, 2 tsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of vodka and stir well…

Mix all the ingredients together

and press’ em on a pie pan evenly and refrigerate to firm

In the meantime make the filling

In a double sauce pan melt the chocolate, let cool

In a bowl combine sugar, butter coffee and 1 tsp of kahula (or its’ substitute) and cream till fluffy

Pour in the melted chocolate and stir well

Now add the 4 eggs over a twenty minute period, meaning

add one egg

beat for 5 min

add an other egg

beat for 5 min, as so till the fourth egg. By this time you should have a light and fluffy cream…

mmmmmm

Now take the crust out of the fridge and pour the cream on top. With a spatula spread the filling…

…try it!

You can…you deserve it!

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and then ENJOY my friends!

One serving provides:

Calories: 369
Fat: 26 g
Carbohydrates: 32 g
Protein: 3.8 g

© Daniela for Expat Cucina, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chocolate, coffee, crust, mocha, pecans, pie

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Cinnamon Bread

Daniela — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:12:12 +0000

I am too sore even for only typing today, so I won’t waste words and I’ll go straight to the point! You HAVE to make this cinnamon bread, it is just too delicious to not give it a try….BUT, amigos, if you don’t have time to dedicate to it, well don’t even bother. Making bread is time consuming and require a lot, A LOT of dedication but, trust me, it is totally worse it. The bought stuff cannot compare!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp butter
1-1/2 active dry yeast
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
1- 3/4 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
Cinnamon
egg and milk mixture
oil and butter

Put the butter in a soucepan

and heat it up with the half cup of milk

Let the milk/butter mixture cool down a bit, then sprinkle in the yeast and wait about 10 min.

In a bowl combine sugar and egg

Mix until combined. Add in the milk/butter/yeast mixture and mix.

Add half of the flour and mix well

Then add the other half and keep mixing. Kneat the dough for a few minutes.

Drizzle a little canola oil in a bowl

Then add the ball of dough, toss it around to coat it in oil.

Cover in plastic wrap and put in a warm place and let it raise for at least 2 hour (even 3 if you have that time).

This is 3 hours later

Turn the dough onto the work surface and roll it out with your hands in a rectangular shape

Sprinkle on top sugar and cinnamon

Butter the loaf pan

Now roll the dough from one side to the other

and put the roll inside

Cover with plastic wrap, place in a warm place and wait 1 hour.

This is 1 h later….look how much it grew up, my little baby!

In a bowl beat one egg and a drop of milk and coat the surface of the dough.

Bake at 180 C for about 30 – 35 min.

and here we go….

Yummy!

One slide provides:

Calories: 65
Fat: 2.4 g
Carbohydrates: 10 g
Protein: 1.4 g

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Emergency 15-minute-meal

Daniela — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:51:44 +0000

I finally got the x-pole. They delivered it to my bf’s office and it came in this huge box with a lady hanging out of a pole on the cover…that was not the kind of discrete packaging I was expecting…so the secretary called up David and said “赵先生您刚收到一个铁跳舞管” (Mr. Slavich, you just got a dancing pole”)… so he went at the front desk and tried to explain that the pole wasn’t for him but for his crazy gf…Anyway, that wasn’t really a big deal, since I’m not even sure his secretary knew what pole dancing is. It was more trying to hide it from his big American boss…

So he scootered the pole back home and we started trying to install it . Whatever they say about “easy installation” it’s not true! Installing the pole took us a solid 3 hours…and at the end we didn’t even figure out how to have the fucker spin…So we ended up tired and hungry and I needed to come up with a quick idea for making dinner…something that didn’t require a cooking time longer than 20 min…all I had left in the fridge were 3 slices of bacon and a few cherry tomatoes and so this is what I made…took me 15 min to get it ready and I don’t know if it was because we were too tired and hungry but it seemed really yummy!

If you got a pole to install in your living room, this is the perfect dinner idea!

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

3 slices of bacon
a few cherry tomatoes (I used 12 small)
chilly powder
180 g tagliatelle pasta
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
salt and black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
Basil leaves

Wash and peel the skin off the tomatoes

Chop’em

Cut the bacon into strips

In a skillet heat some oil with garlic and saute the bacon

Cook it till it gets crispy, add black pepper and chilly powder

Add the tomatoes, salt and cook at medium – high heat until cooked. Watch out, you don’t want the sauce to dry too much, so keep an eye on that!

It wont take more than 8 minutes for the sauce to be ready at this point. Chop some fresh basil and add it to the skillet.

Meanwhile boil your tagliatelle pasta (always in salty water please) and drop it into the sauce.

Saute’ well and serve on a plate

with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

One serving provides:

Calories: 495
Fat: 24 g
Carbohydrates: 56 g
Protein: 11 g

© Daniela for Expat Cucina, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bacon, Pasta, tagliatelle, tomatoes

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Double Chocolate Muffins

Daniela — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:54:18 +0000

I know I am on a non-sweet-diet, but if one of my friends asks me to make double chocolate muffins I can’t say no, I just can’t!

Merton is a “special colleague”, he is one of that kind of person always ready to help you if you need it and if he asks me to cook him something, no matter what it is, no matter if I have to fight myself for not tasting the delicious, creamy, chocolate batter…I do it! That’s just the kind of friend I am.

So I did last Sunday……do the same and serve this muffins with some fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream…YUM!

Ingredients (for about 6 muffins)

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Now here comes the hard part…buttermilk????????? Do China and Chinese ppl even know what buttermilk is…I haven’t been able to find it anywhere here in Shanghai…BUT, DON’T PANIC! I have DANI’S BUTTERMILK BACK UP PLAN: take slightly less than 1/2 cup of milk

and pour in enough vinegar to bring it up to 1/2 cup…wait for a few minute and you will have homemade buttermilk!

Now we can start!

In a bowl combine egg, butter milk, melted butter and vanilla extract

In an other bowl mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder.

Now fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well

Add now the chocolate chips and mix well scraping sides of the bowl. DO NOT OVER MIX!

Now divide the batter into 6 muffins cups (slightly greased).

Bake at 190 C for about 20 min.

One muffin provides:

Calories: 228 (from fat 86)
Fat: 10 g
Carbohydrates: 31 g
Protein: 4.6 g

© Daniela for Expat Cucina, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chocolate, chocolate chips, Muffins

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Bow tie ai Peperoni

Daniela — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:21:56 +0000

I did it, I’ve just ordered my x-pole to practice pole dancing at home! Hurra! I am so excited…The school I take class at sells poles for 1600 rmb, I have found mine on taobao for only 410 rmb, and I’m sure it’s the same exact one my school sells…
Anyways, moving from pole dancing to kitchen dancing, yesterday I’ve made this delicious pasta dish. It is so simple and easy that it is really hard to believe it can be so tasty!

Let’s get started

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

2 sweet peppers (one red one yellow)
5 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 clove garlic
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, fresh parsley, capers
250 g bow tie pasta
1/2 cup vegetable broth

First thing, take the sweet peppers, wash them and start cutting’ em into slices

In a skillet heat the oil and garlic

Add the sweet peppers and saute for a bit, add salt and black pepper

Pour in the broth, cover with a lid and let simmer for about 20-30 min or until the sweet peppers are soft.

Mean while wash 5 cherry tomatoes

Peel’ em and chop’ em and add them into the skillet. Keep cooking

Prepare the heavy cream and chop some fresh parsley.

When the sweet peppers are cooked, add the heavy cream (adjust with salt) and let cook for a few minute.

Throw in bunch of capers

Now roughly puree the sweet peppers. You don’t want them to become tooo creamy, you still want some piece of sweet peppers in there. Add some fleshed chopped parsley.

Boil in salty water your bow tie pasta and pour it in the sauce

Mix well and serve…Enjoy!

One serving provides:

Calories: 347 (from fat 135)
Fat: 15 g
Carbohydrates: 44 g
Protein: 9.8 g

© Daniela for Expat Cucina, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: heavy cream, Pasta, sweet peppers

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Rice Cake

Daniela — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:07:34 +0000

Last Friday I experimented with rice…and the result, oh the result was soft and sweet and addictive!

This rice cake has no butter, nor oil or flour so perfect if your are trying to control/lose weight but still don’t wanna totally give up on something sweet, like me!

Try it, you have to, cause….because …… it’s Monday and I’m at work and this is depressing enough so bring a smile on my face by making this cake today

Ingredients (for about 10 servings):

100 g rice
500 ml milk
60 g sugar
2 eggs
25 g butter

Take 500 ml milk

Bring it to a boil and drop in the rice. Cook till rice is soft and creamy

Meanwhile separate egg yolks from egg whites

Whip the egg whites

When the rice is ready, turn off the heat and add eggs

Sugar and vanilla extract

now slowly incorporate the whipped egg whites.

Grease a baking pan and cook at 180 C for about 40 min

Let cook down then cut into slices.

You can eat it for breakfast with some milk, or (if you can), add a scoop of whip cream or ice cream and enjoy your cake at home or with friends.

I have put it in a box and brought it over a friend’s house! She loved it! You will too.

Also because one slide of rice cake only provides:

Calories: 117 (from fat 36)
Fat: 4 g
Carbohydrates: 16 g
Protein: 3.5 g

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Grilled Eggplants

Daniela — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:12:20 +0000

Always spurred by the “let’s cook light to lose weight” wave, here we go today with a light vegetable side dish. These grilled eggplants are also perfect to be incorporated into you salad or – if you are not on a diet – on your pizza, or in a sandwich…or wherever else they will make your skirt fly.

Ingredients:

Eggplants
Olive oil
Mint
Wine Vinegar
Garlic
Salt

Go to the market and get some of this sweet, round eggplants (they have lass skin than the other long and narrow kind)

Cut’ em into slices (about 3-4 mm thick).

Get your griddle hot and grill the eggplants

Once they are well grilled, place’ em on a plate, sprinkle with salt and let cool down

Place the eggplants in a bowl or a container and dress them with fresh mint leaves

Olive oil

and wine winegard

add some chopped garlic cloves and refrigerate to chill.

© Daniela for Expat Cucina, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eggplants, grilled, vegetables

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