Fried Rice with Eggs, Chicken and Chorizo

I have a small problem with eggs.
I can't stand eating eggs, I just hate the way they taste. My mother, however, insist that I eat eggs, so I had to find ways to make them tasty.
That's how I came up with this recipe.

You'll want to get:
-1 cup of white rice
-2 cups of water
-2 eggs
-1 handfull of chopped chicken
-1 chorizo 
-soy sauce (both the sweet and the "normal" kind)
-vegetable oil



First of all, wash the rice and put it in a pot with the water. Let the water boil, then put the heat down and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.


While the rice is cooking, peel the chorizo and crumble the sausage.
Then heat some vegetable oil in a pan and throw in the chicken. When the chicken is close to done, add the chorizo and after about 20 seconds, the rice.
Stir the whole thing for some time, then crack the eggs and add them to the rice.
Now, stir quickly, to make sure the eggs mix well with the rest. This way, you won't taste them.

Stir for about 1-2 minutes, then add soy sauce to taste. First the sweet one, then the other one.
Serve hot and enjoy non-eggy eggs!

Tips:
1. You can use leftover rice. In fact, this is the perfect way to use up some leftovers.

2. I don't like onions, but this dish probably tastes even better (to the rest of the world), if you just toss some chopped onions into the oil before adding the chicken.

3. If the chorizo is tough, you can cut it into small pieces, but usually it's enough to cut of the "crust" and tear apart the rest with a knife and a fork.
4. This tastes great in a lot of variations as well. You can easily leave away the chorizo, for example, or replace the chicken with some beef or maybe add some scallions,...

Marinade for Tuna Steaks

Hi everyone!
During the past week, temperatures have risen again and it's the perfect time for a little barbecue.
Now, I love meat, but tuna's almost better, especially, when marinated the right way.

So, to make absolutely delicious tuna steaks, just go out and get this:
-tuna steaks, one per person
-olive oil
-the juice of 2-3 limes
-1-2 tsp coarse salt
-some mixed dried herbs (your favourite mix will be the best choice)
-3 garlic cloves
-pepper to taste

First of all, put some olive oil in a bowl, about as much as you'll need to cover the tuna steaks.
Then, add the lime juice, the salt and the herbs. Halve the garlic, remove the green sprout and crush the garlic, then add it to the marinade.
Add pepper to taste and put the tuna steaks in the bowl, making sure that all of it is well covered.
Let the steaks rest for a while and when the tuna starts to look "cooked", you can take it out of the marinade again.

Tips:
1. This marinade works well with tuna, but also with other firm fish, like trout.

2. The tuna should still be pink in the middle when served, so make sure to only get fresh fish.

3. The type of herbs you use can change the taste of the marinade a lot, so experiment until you find what works best for you.

Apricot Jam

We have a small apricot tree in our garden and about two weeks ago, the apricots were ripe and ready to be eaten.
Unfortunately, nobody wanted to eat that many apricots... So I decided to make jam!

Unless you've got an apricot tree in your garden, you'll want to buy some.
And some other things you'll need for this:
-apricots, about a pound of them
-sugar, about half a pound
-1 cinnamon stick
-1 star anise
-3-4 cloves
-some black peppercorns (whole)

Wash the apricots, halve them, take out the pit, halve the halves and put them into a pot.
Set the heat to medium-high and add the sugar. Stir the fruits and the sugar regularely, till they release their juice and then lower the heat to medium-low.
Now add the spices.
Let the jam simmer for some time, stirring all 10-20 minutes, then lower the heat some more and let it simmer some more, till the jam reaches the consistency you want.

Remove the cloves, the cinnamon, the anise and the pepper, then pour the jam into a jar.

Tips:
1. Add more sugar, if you want it sweeter, I halved the "normal" amount of sugar you use for jam.

2. Try the recipe with differen fruits and spices. How about plum and cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves? Or berries and lemongrass/peppermint?

3. If you have fruits that aren't perfect (too sour, too ripe, not ripe enough, ugly,...) for eating, use them for jam. You can balance out sourness with sugar or leave sugar away, if the fruits are too sweet and no one will see that the fruits used to have some bumps in them after cooking...

Chicken Mousse

Hi there!

I always wanted to try something like this, so the other day, I just went to the store and bought all I needed.


You'll want to do that, too, and get:
-1 whole chicken
-3 eggs
-mayonnaise
-sour cream
-curd cheese
-laurel leaves (dried)
-onion
-garlic
-lemon
-mustard
-black peppercorns (whole)
-salt
-thyme (dried)
-rosemary (dried)
-olive oil
-water

Now, first of all, you have to cook the chicken.
Halve the onion and peel one half. Peel the garlic, cut it once lenghtwise and remove the small, light green part inside of it.
Pour some olive oil into a pot and roast the onion.
To do that, you put the onion into the hot oil, flat side down, and let it rest for a while, until the onion is brown, but not burnt.
Put some water into the pot (about as much as is needed to cover the chicken and 1-2 inches more.
Add black peppercorns, some salt, 2-3 laurel leaves, the garlic-clove-halves and let it boil.
When the water is boiling, add the chicken, whole.

While the chicken is cooking, boil 3 eggs for about 9 minutes or till they're hard.
Put them in cold water (I add ice) to cool them and make them easier to peel, then, when you can bear touching them/they'r cooled down, peel them and throw away the shells. Now chop the eggs roughly.

When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the water and on a plate.
Now, with a fork and a knife, remove the meat from the bones and put it on another plate. Throw away the bones or let them cook a little longer with the soup for more taste.

Put the chicken into a blender and add about half a cup of the chicken broth, or better, less.
Blend.
Add the eggs, about 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 1/2 tblsp of curd cheese and 1 1/2 tblsp of sour cream.
Blend again. If the mixture is too dry, add a little of the chicken broth, mayonnaise or sour cream, if it's too liquid, boil another egg and add half of it.
Add a pinch of dried thyme and a pinch of dried rosemary, as well as a teaspoon of mustard and the juice of half a lemon.
Blend.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the mousse into a tupperware or a bowl or whatever you have lying around and refrigerate.
Serve on white bread, toasted white bread, crackers,...

Tips:
1. Add some tabasco, if you'd like, to spice it up.

2. If you halve a garlic clove lengthwise, you will see a thin, usually light green or yellowish thing in the middle. This is some kind of shoot, it's the part that will grow into the plant, if you put the garlic into the earth (or let it sit around for a long time in a dark place). Remove this and you will reduce garlic breath and body odour the next day.

3. To give a broth a stronger flavour and the "typical" golden colour, halve an onion, peel it, and roast it flat side down in a little oil. The brown residue in the pot and the browned part of the onion cause the colour and make the broth taste better. (If you want to be fancy, you can add some burnt sugar, otherwise known as caramel).

4. If you're cooking the chicken for the meat, let the water boil first, then add the chicken, don't let it cook for too long, just till it's done.

If you want a good chicken soup, put the bird into the water when it's still cold, then boil. This way, the soup will taste more of chicken, but the meat will be drier.

5. If you remove the meat from the bones of a chicken, put the bones, the skin and all little bits you couldn't get off the bones, back into the water and let it cook a little longer. This way, you'll get tender meat and a good-tasting soup.

6. To peel eggs easily, I crack the shells in the middle, all the way around the egg, then I carefully press and pull to peel away the shell. Sometimes this tears the egg apart, but if you don't need it whole, like for this recipe, this doesn't matter.

This way is easier, because you usually don't have to clean off tons of small pieces, but you have to be gentle.