Pasta pesto with ricotta and chicken

This dish is a real hit at my house! My sister’s girlfriend in particular loves this dish and no week goes by without her asking me if I can make it again (or my Chicken Parmesan, which I’ll be posting soon too). She’ll be looking at me with a grin and ask me: “It’s been a while since we’ve had that paste pesto, isn’t it?” I can’t help but feel flattered every single time.

But she is very right in liking this dish, because it IS absolutely delicious! It’s quite a simple dish, quick and with little ingredients. But the ingredients that are in there go perfect together. The original recipe used heavy cream but I decided to use ricotta instead and, in my opinion, it works perfectly! The ricotta takes a bit off the strong taste of the pesto away and mellows it very nicely so it doesn’t take over the entire dish.

Pasta pesto with ricotta and chicken
Adapted from: Martha Stewart
Serves: 3

Ingredients

• 2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips (about 445 gram)
• 100 gram pesto
• 250 gram fettuccini 
• 3 tablespoons ricotta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper and cook until golden and cooked through. Cover the pan to keep the chicken warm.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the pesto over low heat until it starts to turn liquid. Add the ricotta and stir until all the ricotta is mixed with the pesto.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Before draining the pasta, make sure to catch a little of the cooking water (about 50 ml.).
4. Stir the cooking water through the pesto and ricotta mixture.
5. In a large bowl toss the chicken, pasta and pesto and ricotta mixture and serve with some fresh parmesan cheese.

~ Enjoy!

Gong Bao Chicken

If I’m being totally honest, I must say that while I like Chinese take-out, I don’t love it. It’s okay, nice to have every now and then and hey, I don’t have to cook it myself. But most of the dishes just aren’t all that great. They’re greasy, have too much sauce with them.

So last summer I went on a 3-week trip to China. Now, China is absolutely amazing! If you ever get the chance of going there for a holiday, take it and go. So, in China I was overjoyed when I found out that in Yanshuo I could sign up for a cooking class! Of course, I went and I had the greatest fun!

I had my own station and we all cooked three different dishes.

All in all, I had a great time and the food was just amazing! It’s take-out, but better! Honestly, I am in love with this dish. It’s full of flavor, spicy and not greasy at all!

I must admit that China ruined me. Because of course, here we’re eating westernized versions of the food they really eat in China. And I find now that I’ve had real, proper Chinese food for three weeks (even though I was SO happy to come home and eat something other than Chinese food) take-out just isn’t the same anymore. I like it, as I said, but it just isn’t the Chinese food I had on my trip. But at least I have the recipes of the cooking class to help me make that food again! Here’s the first one:

Gong Bao Chicken
Adapted from: Cloud 9 Restaurant in Yanshuo
Yields: 3

Ingredients

• 250 gram chicken breast, cut into cubes
• 1 red pepper, de-seeded and cut into cubes
• 1 green pepper, de-seeded and cut into cubes
• 20 gram cucumber, seeds removed and cut into cubes
• 20 gram carrots, cut into cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Small piece of ginger, minced (I’d say use about 1,5 centimeter or more if you like ginger a lot)
• 6 pieces dried red chili, make a 1 inch cut in the chili (the original recipe called for 10 red chili’s but I found that 6 made the dish spicy enough for me)
• 2 pieces of spring onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 20 gram deep fried peanuts
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon Sichuan numb pepper
• Pinch of sugar
• Water 

Ingredients for the marinade:

• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ table spoon cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon rice wine
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 egg white

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade. Marinade the chicken and put aside for about 5 minutes.
2. Heat a wok and put in 3 tablespoons of oil. Stir-fry the chicken and move it out when it’s about 80% done.
3. With the oil still in the wok, stir-fry the garlic, ginger and dried chili’s over a low heat.
4. Put the rest of the vegetables in except the spring onions. Stir-fry the vegetables and when they’re about halfway done, add a little water (only add a little. When you’re done with the dish you can always thin it out with some extra water if you think it’s too thick).
5. Season the dish with the soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, chicken stock and sugar.
6. Add the chicken to the vegetables, put in the Sichuan numb pepper and stir-fry for about 2 minutes over a low heat.
7. Add the spring onions and peanuts, heat them with the dish for about a minute and then serve your Gong Bao Chicken.

~Enjoy!

Spring spinach salad with brie, apple and chicken

Spring is in the air! Don’t you just love it when the days get longer, the temperature rises and it’s actually nice to be outside again?

Really, I don’t like winter. It’s cold and even worse, there’s snow. So when Spring hits I get excited, go outside more often and, for some reason, I start to crave salads. Instead of a hearty, warm meal I suddenly want to eat light, cold or lukewarm salads that particularly shout Spring!

When I saw the recipe for this salad I knew I wanted to make something like it but not exactly what I found online. First off, I wanted chicken in my salad so I took the liberty to add chicken. Secondly, I don’t have a broiler so I turned creative and found some other way to make a normal, boring apple a lot more special then it usually is.

In the end, I’m glad I made it the way I wanted to because the salad was absolutely delicious! I even ate it two nights in a row and my family loved it just as much as I did. An empty salad bowl was proof for that. The sweetness of the apple goes wonderful with the chicken, creamy brie and slightly tough spinach. It’s a great combination and definitely a Spring-dish to me!

Spring spinach salad with brie, apple and chicken
Inspiration from: Tase of Home
Yields: 3 person main-course salad

Ingredients for the salad

• 200 gram spinach, cleaned
• 180 gram brie, cut into small pieces
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 ½ apple, diced
• 1 ½ tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 litre vegetable stock

Ingredients for the dressing

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Boil the chicken in the vegetable stock for about 15 minutes until it’s cooked. Drain the chicken and cut it into small pieces.
2. Coat the diced apple with the maple syrup and heat them in a pan until the apple has soaked up all the syrup.
3. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing.
4. Combine the spinach, brie, chicken and apple in a large salad bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss until combined.

Tips:
• Instead of using brie, this salad would also taste great with a “heavier” cheese such as Gorgonzola

~ Enjoy!