Slovak Foods Recipes

Stir-fried rice noodles with vegetables, 素沙河粉 Would you like to cook a quick, pasta dish without having to boil a pot of water? If yes, try rice noodles. Rice noodles don't need boiling. In fact, I find that they can turn mushy very easily when they are boiled. Soak the noodles in cold water for about fifteen minutes, drain them and they are ready for the pan. This package has four bundles of noodles. I use a bundle per person. Use a package for three people if you want more noodles. The dried noodles are translucent and after they have absorbed the water, they become opaque. The noodles should be a bit stiff. They will soften when cooked. Ingredients: For two servings: 2 bundles of rice noodles, soaked and drained A couple of handfuls of bean sprouts 2 pieces of green onions, shredded 2 cloves of garlic, minced Mixed vegetables. I used some baby bok choy, half a package of enoki mushrooms and some celery and carrot sticks. About 8 ounces of vegetab...

Braised bamboo shoots I am sure most people are familiar with bamboo shoots which is a traditional ingredient in Asian cooking. Most likely what they have eaten was canned bamboo shoots. These taste good and I keep cans of sliced, shredded and bamboo shoot tips in my pantry for stir fries and braises. But whenever fresh bamboo shoots are available, I'll take fresh over canned any time. Try them, if you see fresh bamboo shoots in the market. It is a treat not just for the Giant Pandas. Fresh bamboo shoots tastes quite different from the canned ones. The fresh bamboo shoots I am using here are reasonably fresh, considering that they were shipped from China. I imagine that when the shoots had been harvested the outer leaves would be green coloured, whereas the ones I bought were a light brown colour. Bamboo shoots are very healthy. They are low in calories and are a good source of potassium, other nutrients and protein. One important thing to note: Certain ty...

Pappardelle with seafood sauce I read a blog post which discussed the purpose of a recipe -is it a set of instructions (commands even) which should be followed without question or is it a guide provided for the user to interpret accordingly. How do you view recipes? I'm of the latter persuasion. I find it is very difficult to follow a recipe exactly. My view is that, even if two people cooked side by the side with exactly the same ingredients, their food wouldn't look or taste exactly the same. So I don't worry and do as I please. Take this recipe, for instance. I saw it in Jamie Oliver's "The Naked Chef Takes Off" - Page 90 - "seafood broth, ripped herbs, toasted bread and garlic aioli". I made the seafood broth, more or less like Oliver's version but only ripped one herb - parsley. The toasted bread was replaced by pappardelle and I skipped the garlic aioli. Seafood broth Ingredients for 2: 12 mussels Half a pound ...

Fingerling potatoes with allioli  Who doesn't like to eat delicious boiled new potatoes and garlic mayo. Some people consider Allioli to be the sauce of the Catalan gods and I agree with them. The purists are very particular about one point though. Eggs are not used in Allioli sauce. But it is very difficult to emulsify garlic and olive oil so I took the easier way and added an egg. Just emulsify some eggs and olive oil. Ha ha! It was not that easy as you can see from my first attempt below. I got a greyish coloured, gooey mess! It tasted fine but it didn't look appetizing I tried again and finally figured it out. It takes a bit of patience but the results are well worth it. Patatas Allioli is such a simple and wonderful dish! Just boiled or steamed potatoes dipped in the allioli sauce. Potatoes and oily garlic are perfect partners! We've eaten it quite often this summer. Allioli sauce Ingredients: 1 lb of fingerling potatoes Some chop...

Pigs' trotters with ginger and vinegar, Last year, I posted a recipe for Pig's trotters with vinegar which I got by interrogating my MIL for her secret recipe. I never cooked this traditional Cantonese food myself because MIL made the pig's trotters often. There was usually a pot of it on the back burner. Sadly, MIL passed away last month and in, the process of clearing out her kitchen, I found half a dozen bottles of the special vinegar she used. I decided I would replicate her recipe. Then I unearthed a twenty year old slow cooker, unused, in its original box. I am a fan of the pressure cooker and never cooked with a crock pot. But the pig's trotters have to be simmered for hours and it seemed a good idea to use a slow cooker. I discovered that the slow cooker is the perfect pot for cooking pig's trotters. Just plug it in and let it cook all day long. The pork skin becomes soft and tender and the bones have fallen off. There is nothing to do on...

Baby cuttlefish salad How many people can go to the market and just buy what is on the list? Not make any impulse buys? You can! What is your secret? Whenever I am in a supermarket I always come home with impulse buys. I see the cooking demonstrations and generally end up buying something. So when I saw stir-fried cuttlefish, guess what, I bought a package. But I don't regret that impulse buy. The baby cuttlefish comes all cleaned and ready-to-go and it is so easy to whip up a salad or stir-fry. Now I keep a package in the freezer for quick meal. The salad I am making is based on the Vietnamese Squid Salad, Goi Muc. Well, cuttlefish and squid belong to the same family. Ingredients: 1 lb of baby cuttlefish, thawed 1 cucumber, shredded Garnish: Chopped peanuts Dressing: 2 tablespoons of freshly-squeezed lime juice A few cloves of garlic, minced A teaspoon of sesame oil A teaspoon of sugar Some crushed black pepper Half a cup of chopped cilantro Chopp...

Stir-fried noodles with vegetables, Chap Jae I bought a package of sweet potato vermicelli mistaking them for mung bean vermicelli or glass noodles. I never noticed this type of vermicelli before and didn't know how it was eaten. No problem. I googled and found that it is cooked in a similar way to the glass noodles. In fact, there is a well-known Korean dish called Chap Jae that is stir fried with vegetables. I made Chap Jae and it turned out very well. The noodles are firmer and have more bite than the glass noodles. Everyone loved the dish. In future, I'll be buying sweet potato vermicelli on purpose rather than by accident. Sweet potato vermicelli, called dang myun in Korean. Here is my version: Ingredients: A 14 ounce package of sweet potato vermicelli A quarter pound of beef, thinly sliced 2 shitake mushrooms, sliced, if using dried, soak in hot water to soften 4 dried cloud ear mushrooms, soaked in hot wate A bunch of spinach, washed 2 cups...