Pizza day!

Yesterday was a very special day, my fiance had his birthday so he asked me if i could make pizza for his birthday dinner. How could i say no to him? So yesterday was a pizza day!

For the dough you will need:
5 tea cups all-purpose flour
4,5 dl milk
50gr yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil.
(This will give you 2 big pizzas, or 10 small ones)

For the tomato sauce you will need:
400 gr tomato sauce (crossed tomatoes)
2 cloves garlic
Salt, pepper, oregano, fresh basil
Olive oil
Water

For the pizza topping you will need:
Cheese, (any kind of cheese you like ) mushrooms, yellow and red peppers, prosciutto, fresh basil, ham and anything else you would like to put on your pizza!

Prepare the sauce first and while its cooking you have the time to make the pizza dough.

Heat some olive oil in a sauce pan, chop the garlic in small pieces and throw it in, when its getting some color add the tomato sauce, some water, salt, pepper, oregano, fresh basil and some olive oil. Stir well and when it starts boiling turn the heat down at half and let it boil for 20 min without a lid and stir from time to time.

Now its time for the dough.

In a big bowl put the flour, the salt and the olive oil. Warm the milk (i use the microwave and i put it 1 min) and add the yeast inside. Be careful the milk must not be very warm. To make sure that it has the right temperature for the yeast just put your finger inside the milk and if its not burning then you can add the yeast. Stir well and add it to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Use you hands to knead the dough and add more flour if needed. When its ready and it doesn't stack in your fingers anymore, cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for about 15 min.

Now you can prepare your pizza toppings. Cut all the ingredients in small or big pieces, it depends how you want them and have them ready in a big plate so its easy to add them later on the pizza.

When the sauce and the dough are ready its time to make your pizza.

Take the half of the dough, sprinkle it with some flour  and work it on a big surface. Make it as big and thin as you want and transfer it to your pizza pan and then add some tomato sauce, the cheese and the rest of the ingredients you prefer for your topping. Take the other half and do the same or if you want you can make some small pizzas or you can save the dough in the freezer and make pizza another day.

Put your pizza in a preheated oven and bake it for 15-20 min at 200 degrees with warm air.  When its ready add some fresh basil on the top and...

Buon appetito!!!!

Greek food tonight

Since i was working today i didn't had time to cook so after work we decided to go out and eat. We chose to go to our favorite Greek restaurant in Stockholm, Elias Taverna in Södermannagatan 8 which is run by our good friend Mr Elias, a restaurant with authentic Greek food, great service and prices! When ever i am there i feel like home...

We sat in our favorite corner next to the window and we ordered. We ordered dolmades and saganaki cheese for appetizers. Dolmades is stuffed vine leaves with rice and saganaki cheese is fried yellow cheese that you add lemon on the top and we drank AΛΦΑ beer which is of course what else? a Greek beer!

For the main course we ordered paidakia (lamb chops) and bifteki (mince meat with spices). As you can see in the pictures our meat didn't come alone but it was served with potatoes, salad and tsatziki!

After we ate everything and we literally didn't left anything on the plate (only the bones from the paidakia) we felt that we could share and nice home made dessert so we ordered galaktoboureko which is a dessert of custard (sometimes flavored with lemon or orange) in phyllo dough.

Thank you Mr. Elias for a fantastic dinner and i am sure we will see again you very soon!!!

Pasta with white sauce with zucchini, mushrooms and garlic

Today i was in the mood for pasta and since i didn't had a lot of free time to cook i decided to make a fast end easy recipe with what i had in the fridge!

You will need:
Pasta (any kind of pasta you want, i use brown pasta lately )
2 dl creme fraiche (i use the low fat)
1,5 - 2 dl water
3 fresh mushrooms
2 fresh onions
1 clove garlic
1 small zucchini (if its big use the half of it)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper


While you boil your pasta (you decide how much pasta you want to make) start preparing the sauce, until the pasta is ready the sauce will be too! The sauce is for 3-4 portions.

Chop the onions, the garlic and the mushrooms in small pieces. Remove the skin from the zucchini, cut it in half and cut it in thin pieces. Put the olive oil in a sauce pan and when its hot throw in the zucchini and the mushrooms, stir often and after a while add the onions and the garlic, continue to stir and when its soft and has colour ( you can taste a zucchini to see if its cooked ) add the creme fraiche and slowly the water, if its to thick you can add a little bit more water. Add some salt and pepper and when it starts boiling turn the heat down to the medium and let it cook without a lid for about 10 min.

When you pasta is ready serve it with the sauce and some Parmesan on the top!

Bon appetit!!!!!