just a bunch of food pics :)

rice noodles

chinese srhimp and green peas dumplings


zucchini risotto

broccoli, zucchini and chili pepper pasta

lemon potato and chicken stew

a rice cuddle

this is such a sweet cuddle.. rice pudding is an awesome thing :)
i'm still in full flu, so tonight i felt like eating something nice and cuddling myself a bit.

i use slightly salted butter because i like the taste better than unsalted butter in this recipe.. i also dont like it too sweet, if it's too sugary it tires me soon.

sweet milk&rice

100g rice
40g demi-sel butter
600ml milk
40g sugar
vanilla flavor
cinnamon, nutmeg
50g dark chocolate

cook rice with butter, milk, sugar and vanilla stirring often. let simmer for about 30min, adding ground cinnamon and nutmeg.
pour in a bowl (or single portion cups) placing a bit of chocolate in the middle. grate some chocolate on top.
you can eat it still hot, warm or let it cool in the fridge till the chocolate on top solidifies.

cabbage and rice

usually i would wrap a mix of seasoned rice (maybe sauteed with bacon cubes :) but i still have my phyllo sheets to use so today i tried to make a sort of cabbage and rice roll.

first of all i cooked the cabbage, cut in thin stripes, just with some water, black pepper, salt and chopped parsley.
in the meanwhile i boiled wholemeal rice al dente and poured hot water on the phyllo sheets to soften them.
then i mixed cabbage and rice, spread it on the phyllo and fold it like i do when i meake spring rolls.
preheated oven at 200°C for 15min.. it was awesome!

risotto and sundried tomatoes

i'm really fond of sundried tomatoes.. specially if preserved without salt (i like a lot those too but sometimes there's so much of it you lose the sense of taste for a while ehehehe) i also love to make a rough red pesto with them, fresh basil and and pine seeds.. luscious :)

anyway, this evening i decided i was going to have some in my risotto. last time i visited home back in italy, i brought some (well let's say a lot of) sundried tomatoes of my fav kind.. no salt no oil just them in their delicious delight, a cheerful outburst of summery taste filled with sunlight sensations.. their look makes me think of scorched summer afternoons in deep south of italy, thing that i actually enjoy a lot ^^


so here it is.. first of all i prepared some stock with a bit of stock cube (yep i do that sometimes even if i dont like it too much, but i cant make my own beef stock just for a dish of risotto eheheh) chopped carrots and fresh tomatoes. i made a tasty soffritto with butter, strips of dried tomatoes and chopped shallot. then i toasted the rice in it and poured a little bit of white wine from sicily, when that' was evaporated i started to pour some spoons of stock and kept on stirring.
i added some minced fresh basil at the end, as well as a bit of butter. the result was amazing, specially to be just last minute culinary improvisation.. i was kinda impressed by myself LOL