Dark chocolate mousse

For those who still don't know me, this is my true passion (food wise, naturally). I just love chocolate. I truly am not a "sweets" kind of person, I would rather have a piece of fruit after dinner than eat any other kind of dessert... except for chocolate, especially DARK chocolate.

So I made this recipe yesterday evening and ate it today with my parents. It is very good and not too sweet, perfect for cacao lovers. It stays rather solid but still fluffy.

Ingredients:
140g dark chocolate (min. 60%)
50g butter (non salted)
150ml liquid cream
2 egg yellows
3 egg whites
45g sugar

First start melting slowly the chocolate with the butter (in a water bath). Let it take its time. Meanwhile whisk the cream in a big bowl and after it is fluffy add the yellows gently. Refrigerate this mixture until the rest is ready. Now whist the egg whites and add the sugar little by little until the whites are firm.
Take the yellows with the cream out of the fridge and add slowly the whites. In the end add the melted chocolate until you have a homogeneous dark mixture but do it gently (we want to keep the air bubbles inside!). Put it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before it is served.

This recipe worked just fine for me. Next time I will try to put a bit of milk and turn it into a kind of very caloric ice cream!

Yummy!

Latest news on Carolina

Just arrived from the hospital. Everything is fine with my little princess. However we don't know if she will wait for Daddy to arrive in Lisbon. I am full of contractions (for now mostly painless)and she still has some amniotic fluid surrounding her. The good news is she is not very heavy, a bit over 3 kg and 2 weeks to go.

Lets wait and see!

Leek summer salad

I just ate this salad, it's one of those recipes that marks the beginning of Summer. Yes, today (in my opinion) was the first summer day in Lisbon this year.

Anyway, this recipe is easy, healthy (not too much) and for "onion/leek taste" lovers (like my Davor, who will chew a whole raw onion for dinner without any consideration for me, who will sleep next to him and wake the next morning the same way!). The quantities are not important, you can put more or less of each ingredient according to your taste. This is the ideal salad to eat after having a very cool bowl of gaspacho (I'll post our family recipe another day).

Servings: 6 (4 if very hungry!)

Ingredients:

- 4 or 5 apples, pealed and chopped into cubes
- 1 or 2 thin but long leeks, well cleaned out of soil and chopped into 3mm slice)
- 300g of cow cheese (simple, without holes, yellow or orange, can even be "light"), cut into 1cm cubes
- 300g of plain pig smoked ham (or turkey, or chicken), cut into 1cm cubes
- 3 to 5 tb.sp. raisins
- 3 tb.sp. chopped walnuts

For the dressing (home made mayonnaise diluted in natural yogurt - it's healthier):
- 1 egg
- 1 tb.sp. mustard
- 1 tb.sp. apple vinegar
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup other vegetable oil
- 125g natural yogurt (no sugar)

It is as easy as it gets: You add all the chopped ingredients in a big bowl and start preparing the dressing. In a mixing cup put, in order, the egg (try not to break the yellow), mustard, vinegar, salt, olive oil and other oil. Now get a "cup blender" (the thin one that you put inside the mixing cup) and put it straight to the bottom of the cup. Now blend (always close to the bottom) until you have a thick mayonnaise. In the end add the yogurt with a spoon, softly. The amount of yogurt will depend on your personal taste and how "healthy" you want to go with this sauce. Now the dressing is ready to be added to the salad. I to je to!

If you like grilled chicken (the one that you can buy readymade in supermarkets), you can replace the ham in this recipe by pieces of chicken without bones. This recipe is very usefull specially when you have meat leftovers (dry enough, without sauce/dressing) and you do not know what to do with them.

BUT BEWARE: do not make this salad if you don't like raw leek or raw onions!

Dobar tek!

Easy and very portuguese recipe: Caldeirada de Bacalhau

This is a very easy meal to make and only one pot is required, making it so much easier to clean afterwards! I did it yesterday for dinner and I didn't get tired at all, which is quite rare given my 37 weeks of pregnancy!

The challenge lies in finding salted (only, not fresh or smoked) cod fish (bacalhau). Another important thing about this fish: if you buy it salted you have to put it in water for 3 days and change the water 2/3 times per day depending on the thickness of the meat. You can only cook the cod fish AFTER it is desalted. However, in some supermarkets you can already find the "desalted salted cod fish" - kind of a weird phrase, isn't it? For Croatian readers, I found out that in some supermarkets (such as Lidl) and in the fish market near the Zagreb Cathedral you can find salted cod fish at a reasonable price.

You can make this dish with other fish (the best are the strong tasted ones) such as sardines, shark or ray. If the fish has scales (e.g. sardines) you have to ask someone to take them off before you buy them in order to make this meal.

Portions: it really depends on how much you eat. For women I would say 4 portions, for men maybe only 2... ;-)

Ingredients:
2 big onions
3 big potatoes
1 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
3 medium sized red tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
1/2 Kg salted cod fish (already desalted)
salt and pepper (to taste)
2 tb.sp. paprika (mild or hot, depending on your taste)
5 tb.sp. olive oil
3 tb.sp. any kind of strong brandy

The preparing and cooking process is rather simple. You get a pan (big enough for all of these ingredients) and start cutting the vegetables in 1/2cm slices and laying them down on the bottom in the form of layers. First the onions, then the potatoes, then the peppers (you can cut them in 2x2cm squares) and the tomatoes on top. Don't forget to put salt over the layer of potatoes and the layer of tomatoes. At this point you chop the garlic and spread it over the tomatoes along with the bay leaves cut in half and a pinch of freshly grounded black pepper. Over it you put the cod fish (big or small pieces, it is up to you) and season it with paprika, olive oil and brandy (which will take the paprika to the lower layers of this stew).
To cook this dish simply leave it covered over a medium/low flame for as long as it takes to cook the tomatoes and the cod fish well (you just open the lid from time to time to check it out). It shouldn't take more than an hour. In the end you will serve a delicious stew full of vegetables and some protein, with a wonderful sauce where you can dip a piece of bread during the meal.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did,


Ana

Who would say that...

...so many portuguese speaking women would fall for and leave their homes for Balcan men?

They really must be worth it!

;-)

Re-launching Adriatic Breakfast

After months of silence (I confess I don't really know why...) I am restarting the Adriatic Breakfast. It was supposed to symbolize the start of my new life but from now on it will have a broader purpose: to share little important details of our new family - Carolina, Davor and I.

I intend to post pictures, mark events, post successful recipes, share good news and ask lots of questions (is there any parent without doubts?).

For now I am in Portugal expecting Carolina's arrival in three or less weeks. Davor will join us in less than two weeks (oh, we miss him so much!). In the end of August I will return to Zagreb where our joint Odyssey will continue.

For my dear friends, I miss you all so much. I hope that this blog will keep us closer despite the distance (for some).

[I was thinking about it but I guess if I crashed a bottle of champagne on the computer screen I would probably break the laptop instead of the bottle... so much for the maritime tradition!]

Vidimo se!