Dine

Craving potatoes…Again…

We haven’t posted a recipe in a while now… Not necessarily because we have lacked in the cooking department – in fact we kinda did, with all the construction works going on – most of our cooking has been about D cooking wonderful breakfast recipes as surprises for me during weekends, therefore, no photos were taken to document that. Since some (all) of his dishes turned out AMAZING we will re-do them and post them here. Today is all about yesterday’s dinner and me craving potatoes again.

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This is a very easy to make dish, basically you can add anything in it, but I have to warn you, it needs 1.5 hours to be ready from the point when you only have the ingredients until you can actually enjoy it, so start before you are hungry. The ingredients are basics and to be honest, we had most of them in our house. This is yet again a no-meat dish because I still seem to have an adversity towards meat these days.

What you will need for about 30 potato patties:

1kg of white potatoes (but you can use whichever type you like)
2 eggs (we use free-range eggs that my mother brings me from the countryside every week)
1 garlic head (not too big as you still want to feel all the other ingredients and potatoes tend to absorb the garlic flavour better than anything else)
about 8 young green onions
300 gr of cheddar (we used both white and red cheddar – about 150 gr each)
50 gr of butter (use full fat butter as it is better)
15 gr of fresh oregano (you can use whatever fresh greens you like)
salt
pepper

Processed with Snapseed.

What you need to do:

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
Grate the potatoes and put them in freezing water as you do not want them to turn brown. I was lucky enough to have D help me with this step as he knows how important my manicure is to me and I always seem to grate my fingers whenever I attempt to grate anything.
Cut the onions, mince the garlic and the oregano and grate the cheese.
Whisk the eggs and melt the butter (we used the microwave for the butter for about 30″)
Get a big bowl as you are going to mix all the ingredients together. It doesn’t really matter what order you put them in, but it is really important to mix them really well.
Start making patties from the mixture and arrange them on a tray (use some baking paper otherwise they will stick to the tray and that is very messy).
Put them in the oven for about 40 minutes after which time you should add some cheddar on top of them and leave them in the oven for another 5 minutes.
That’s it! Enjoy!

Processed with Snapseed.

Processed with Snapseed.

This is not the healthiest meal out there, but it is an ok one according to my UP app. Yes it is packed with saturated fat, but it is also almost equally packed with unsaturated fats and fibres. Now all the data you see here is for the entire quantity – that is about 30 patties – yes, we used two trays to bake the entire composition, but you can use half of the ingredients. That means that one patty provide about 70 kcal which, in the grand scheme of things, is not that much. Naturally, nobody can only eat one, so I’d say that one serving consists of three-four patties, so it is rather ok for dinner.

September 29, 2016

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Integra

Despite the fact that our seaside season is over thanks to all of the rearrangements we have to do in our house to make sure it is ready to welcome our little bundle of joy, we haven’t left there without having a great lunch at one of the first places we tried out in Constanta: Integra. This place was recommended to us by one of my best friends and the thing I loved about it even before arriving there is the fact that they have a raw-vegan menu packed full of delicious dishes. Naturally throughout the years I have tried most of the raw menu and I have to say, that thanks to this place my mind was changed when it came to the raw-vegan cuisine.

I do not think we ever went to the seaside once without having a meal at this lovely place. True, it does have the location advantage, meaning that it is at about a 10 minute walk away from our place there. At first glance, the place looks very nice and the interior design is a nice combo of fresh plants and lovely marble which immediately make you want to take a seat. The menu has about everything you could ever crave, somewhat of an international cuisine with a little turkish mix of dishes. And then, of course, there is the raw-vegan menu, where you literally can find everything from appetisers, soups, pasta, pizza, desserts and even a few amazing fresh cocktails.

Back to our last experience there…unfortunately, we couldn’t take as many inside pictures as we would’ve liked as the place was quite full at the time we were there and there’s always that uncomfortable feeling when you take pics of total strangers, but you can find quite a lot of photos on their site. Normally, this is the place we choose for our before the road lunch or brunch, depending on how early we wake up. This time it was definitely lunch time and because we knew we had next to nothing in our fridge at home, we decided on a full lunch: soup, main dish and a shared a raw dessert. As usual when we eat there, we start off with one of their amazing fresh raw juices, this time choosing Green energy and Fountain of Youth. These two cocktails are amazing and very healthy especially after a busy night at the seaside. Like I said, we both ate a soup, I went for my usual tomato soup which is a must-try and D chose the lentil soup which turned out to be better that I expected. As main courses I needed something savoury and light so I went for the oven cooked feta cheese with tomatoes and onion that was absolutely delicious. D chose the beef Iskender that besides looking amazing it tasted like heaven, and that, coming from me during this period where meat is the last thing that I crave, is something! As for dessert we chose to share the Rainbow Tart from the raw-vegan menu. As with all their raw-vegan dishes, this was delicious!

Despite the restaurant being full, the food came decently quick and the staff was very friendly and professional. This place is not among the cheapest nor among the most expensive, our three-course lunch cost us about 40 E tip included which is really good for Constanta, especially since the food is so amazing. We will definitely come back here as often as we will come to Constanta!

August 28, 2016

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Potato cravings…

Continuing the ‘Cravings’ series during my pregnancy. Like I said in a previous restaurant post, I am currently craving potatoes in any form possible – I do prefer them fried but I am way too lazy to do them myself. It is weird, as I normally do not like potatoes very much, I do love the sweet type, but not plain potatoes, but hey, what can I do? To all those wondering out there, I am gaining fat in a normal and steady pace that is healthy for our baby, and yes, once I end this pregnancy period it will be my goal to get in better shape than I used to be before the bundle of joy decided to enter our lives.

Back to the potato cravings… I really wanted something similar with french fries, but I hate eating unhealthy, especially now, so I decided to try and cook them in the oven with as little oil as possible, and judging by the Jawbone score, these are probably the healthiest and closest to french fries I will ever get at home.

Here’s what we used:

10 small potatoes
1 sweet red pepper
2 small pots of greek yoghurt (we like the buffalo type as it is supposed to be healthier)
50 gr of grated parmesan
1 cup of grated low-fat mozzarella
15 gr of fresh dill
15 gr of fresh chives
10 gr of fresh thyme
3 garlic heads
1/2 teaspoon of hot chilly powder
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of soya sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of BBQ seasoning

The way this dinner is made is quite easy and it takes you less than 40 minutes – photoshoot included – to complete it. The steps are very simple:

Arrange all the ingredients and take photos of them
Wash the potatoes and cut them into medium sized pieces – yes, we did not remove the skin!
Dice the sweet red pepper as little as you can
Finely chop all the greens and mince the garlic
Take some more photos!
In a big bowl put the olive oil, the soya sauce, the chilly powder, the BBQ seasoning, the diced sweet red pepper,the parmesan, all of the thyme, half of the chives, one third of the garlic and the sesame oil and mix them all together really well
Put the potatoes in and make sure they are well covered in the resulted seasoning sauce
Pour them on a tray, sprinkle some parmesan over them and into the heated oven the go (we heated the oven at max) for about 30 minutes – you should start tasting them after about 20 minutes
In a bowl, mix the greek yoghurt with the remaining chives, dill and garlic and there you have it – the perfect dip!
Arrange everything as nicely as possible on a plate, put a decent amount of mozzarella cheese on top of them and enjoy after taking some more photos!

I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious this dinner was! This is definitely a very comfortable way of cooking potatoes for those people that are afraid to cook with hot oil – it seriously attacked me every time I attempted using it! My Jawbone app deems it as ok health-wise, so this dinner will occur more often during my pregnancy! Just remember that the data shown is for four servings so do the math accordingly!

August 22, 2016

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JOBEN

This is the last post from Cluj for this year and it obviously involves food. The fact that this was the last place reviewed by us is intentional as I wanted to eat here last year as well but it was too full to be able to get a table. This year, we managed to get one and we excitedly waited for our Joben food. I want to start off by saying that this is the last reviewed place because it was our least favourite restaurant in Cluj and I honestly think that it is a bit overrated. Or maybe we were expecting too much of it, either way, it did not meet our expectations, especially since all our foodie experiences here were simply amazing. It is, however, extraordinarily decorated and it deserves a visit just for that, and if you are ok with eating ok-ish food.

It is clear right from the entrance that someone very talented and passionate about steampunk decorated this place with all sorts of very specific paraphernalia. This actually helps a lot when you have to wait for your food for more than an hour, because you have all these amazing little gizmos to look at, and I have to say that we did not get bored one bit. The staff is also very friendly, but the place is a bit understaffed as it only had two waitresses for the entire restaurant area. Both of them were very nice and they struggled to satisfy every single one of the customers, but at some point, they messed up my lemonade simply because the place was full of people and mix-ups are bound to happen.

On to the food… At first glance, even from last year, I knew there were quite a lot of things I wanted to try and after much pondering I settled for the White Chicks – even the names of the dishes are really funny – which are essentially crispy chicken strips, served with french fries and apple jam. D opted for ribs, naturally, but we both decided to start our lunch with a plate of Spicy Fried Pickles as that got both of our attention early on in the menu. The appetisers were extremely interesting and good which basically made us really anxious for out main dishes.My chicken was very good, but there was absolutely nothing special about it, maybe except for the fact that I had to dip it in jam. The fries were homemade, so that was a big plus but I did feel the need for a more spicy and tasty dip for them. D‘s ribs were ok, and you can see from the photos that there was nothing special about them whatsoever. They were plain oven cooked ribs with no special seasoning or anything. His potato chips were very good though, but again, they seriously needed some sort of dip. We did not want to wait to get dessert as that would’ve meant another hour of waiting as we did not order it from the get-go, so no sweet photos here.

To be honest, aside from the interior design and the fact that they had a Pokestop, there was nothing special about the place, nothing that will make us come back next year. It was even worst as they did not seem to have any air conditioning, which during the summer makes eating there nearly impossible. I did hear that their coffee is great, but neither of us had any as we were both on our way back for another nap. The check came at about 30E which is ok, but we did leave there feeling very disappointed of the place. Maybe had there not been so many people the food would’ve been better, but that is no excuse as most of the places we ate at during the long weekend we spent in Cluj were full and the food was amazing.

August 19, 2016

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LIVADA

As you’ve probably noticed, our life at Untold festival revolved around sleeping, eating and enjoying great music. Even though it seems that our only goal in Cluj was to try as many restaurants as possible, I promise that we did other stuff as well, like going to the actual festival. The bummer about pregnancy, especially in the first four months is that between the eating, dancing and sleeping, I did not have any energy left to actually take some fashion photos. So far, the two fashion posts are the only ones you’ll see of us while in Cluj. But fear not, the Untold posts will soon end and trust me when I say that we have not reviewed one restaurant that is not worth visiting while in Cluj.

The place we are going to talk about today is Livada. This place is just so great no matter if we are referring to the food, the design or the service. Some of the dishes in their new menu are signed by Chef Patrizia Paglieri, you know her from the Romanian Master Chef. That’s not to say that the dishes that are not signed by her are not delicious, on the contrary, actually everything on the menu is amazing and this is one of those places in Cluj where everyone can find something to eat on the menu. No matter if you are a traditional food lover or fan of the more modern cuisine, thanks to this new and exciting collaboration, Livada now has it all for everyone to enjoy.

All of us eating lunch there had a sort of combo of dishes, therefore you get to see quite the diversity. I had the carrot soup with a hint of ginger and the homemade french fries with garlic and pickled cucumbers. Hey, I’m pregnant and like never before I am craving potatoes in any shape and size. And, I am a sucker for homemade french fries as I am always too lazy to actually make them myself and they are a rarity in Bucharest. Moving along from the french fries and let’s talk a bit about the carrot soup. The secret to the carrot soup is to actually feel the carrot taste skilfully combined with another ingredient. This is definitely what’s going on with this one, the ginger perfectly compliments the carrots. I really see no point in talking about the perfection of the fries as the photo says it all. D had the Gulash which is a traditional Hungarian dish that judging by the fact that he ate in exactly 5 minutes, I’d say was very, very good. Our friends that joined us for lunch had the cheeseburger which according to them was very good. Like I said, you can find everything your heart desires at Livada.

For dessert, D and I shared the traditional dumplings, and what I loved about them was the fact that they came in bite sized pieces which made it really easy and enjoyable to eat. Our friends ordered the signature Tiramisu which turned out to be delicious but way too big for only one person. We all had different types of lemonades, and I am mentioning them because they are really worth a try. Not surprisingly, the check for me and D came at about 35 E, so this one is at the normal price range for a great restaurant in Cluj. Service wise, this was good, but not amazing, we were however thankful that we did not have to wait for an hour for our food. This is a place we’ll definitely have to revisit next time when we are in the area!

August 17, 2016

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ZAMA

This is the one restaurant I was talking about in an earlier post. The one that almost dethroned BARACCA for me. The only thing that really mattered and made a difference between the two is the quality of service, otherwise, for the kid in me ZAMA would’ve been the best place to eat in Cluj. Unfortunately, the service was so slow and at some point we honestly thought that the lady waiting on us did not understand what we were saying. This was the actual deal breaker for us.

Let me tell you a little something about myself and that way you will probably understand better why this traditional restaurant could’ve been more to my taste than the much classier BARACCA. My grandparents on my mother’s side grew up in this area and therefore my entire childhood I’ve been fed everything that you can currently find on the menu at ZAMA and much more. I really wanted to give this place a try mainly because I miss the flavours of my childhood – grandma is a great cook but she is old and I can’t order food like I were in a restaurant – and I could hardly believe someone else could cook quite as good as her. I was skeptical going in, but by the end I was so in love with this place that managed to take me back to my childhood that not even the slow service could’ve annoy me anymore.

When I say slow service, I mean it took us almost 3 hours to eat lunch, with about one hour of waiting for the first course, which, if you are a festival goer, you know that lunch is actually breakfast and basically you are starving by the time you reach any restaurant. I am well aware that traditional Transylvanian food is why the term ‘slow-cooking’ was invented, but this was on a whole different level. However, all that changed when the food actually came and therefore, if by that time I wasn’t sure that I was going to write about this place, that all changed the second I took my first sip of soup – this was definitely, food wise, my favourite restaurant!

The food… I ordered the lettuce soup which is a soup that you will not find anywhere else and I do admit that at first I was skeptical but when I tasted it, I was surprised to see that it tasted exactly like my grandmother’s. D chose the wild mushroom soup that was also done in true Transylvanian fashion. Again, for both soups, the quality of the ingredients is extremely important and, like I said before, from the first sip we knew this place was really special and needed a good, great actually, review on our blog. Since there were four of us that got annoyed by the long waiting time, the upside was that we got to see and taste double the amount of dishes that if it was just the two of us.

As a main course, our table hosted two types of traditionally made polenta, and I have to say that both of them were actually the best either of us ever tasted. Good polenta is not hard to make at all, but in order to get great polenta specialities, it has to be made in a certain slow cooked way – my grandfather used to take about two hours to achieve polenta perfection. To get a clue about how easy it is to make good polenta, it takes both me and my mother 5 minuted max, but we could never compare it with my grandfather’s. If you’re ever at ZAMA, try both specialities! Also on our table, we had the smoked pig leg with traditional cooked beans that, again was amazing and I had the one thing that I was craving for days, ever since I got to Cluj – the spinach puree with fried eggs! This is actually my favourite food ever since I was a little girl and while you might think that this combo is quite easy to make, well, it isn’t. The spinach has to be done a certain way in order to satisfy my tastebuds otherwise I can’t eat it – I’ve tried it in a lot of places. Needless to say that this one tasted amazing!

Dessert was yet again a roam through my childhood! We ordered boiled cottage cheese dumplings, bird’s milk – a better version of ile flottante, that you can find on the menu under the name of somloi galuska, and a traditional cheesecake that doesn’t taste like a normal cheesecake and that really needs to be tried out at least once. To be honest, as with all the other dishes, the desserts were amazing! Right to the point where my whole childhood meal was completed! I am telling you, the wait was well worth it as the food was one of the best I have ever tasted and everyone at the table loved it. This is not just a place to satisfy one’s childhood memories, this is a place that satisfies all those food lovers out there!

The check for me and D was about 30 E, so this is really a very cheap place if you consider that we both ate three courses each, plus drinks. ZAMA is really a must visit restaurant if you truly want to experience traditional Transylvanian cooking, but I am warning you, you will wait quite a lot for your food, but it will be well worth it!

August 15, 2016

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BARACCA

This is by far my favourite restaurant in Cluj, if not Romania, or so I thought until another one, that you’ll read about soon, came quite close to dethroning this one. Good thing these guys at Baracca have a really well trained personnel as that is what really made the difference in the end and kept this one as my personal favourite. What can I say, I’ve loved this place since we first ate here last year and I vowed to never pass through Cluj without enjoying at least one meal here. The problem with this area of the country is that there are so many great places to eat that I only manage to eat here one time every year and that really bugs me. I think that no matter how short or long our stay here is, we always find new and exciting places we want to try.

The main difference between the restaurants here as opposed to the ones in Bucharest is not the mastery of the chef, on the contrary, I think that chefs in Bucharest are a bit more competitive and therefore more creative, the main difference, and trust me it is big, are the ingredients and more specifically their quality. You can always taste the difference mainly in salads and vegetable based dishes as those are the ones you can’t spice to cover a fad taste, nor can you cook them long enough to loose their natural taste. Thankfully, most of the time I choose vegetable based dishes and trust me, you can tell the difference.

Back to the subject at hand, Baracca, this place never seizes to amaze us. They did change the menu a bit from last year, but it’s all for the best and now you can easily find more options in the appetisers area as well as the veggie area. This obviously made me very, very happy, but they still kept the lovely carrot cake and a few other dishes unchanged. We ate there on the first day of the festival, at lunch, right after we gout our bracelets and took a few photos (that you’ll see later on), therefore we were starving which is always a good thing as we ordered an appetiser to share, a main dish each and a dessert each and we left there having enough food photos to write a review.

As an appetiser we chose to share the goat cheese mousse which was more than enough for both of us, especially since we had plans for another two courses. This appetiser was one of the best goat cheese appetiser I had ever tasted, the combo of cheese and lemon jelly was amazing. As main courses I chose the pumpkin seed soup while D chose the duck breast. I had the duck breast last year and I have to say that I envied D with every bite he took, but fear not, next year I will have the duck breast (I can’t eat meat medium cooked and in my opinion, some meats, duck included, taste like shit if it is well done). The meat came with a sweet potato puree that was absolutely amazing. My soup was a big surprise as I was expecting the classic pumpkin soup but in fact it was actually made out of pumpkin seeds and tasted great, to say the least. For dessert I chose the carrot cake that I had my mind set on since last year and I have to say that I am amazed by it every time, while D chose the Mascarpone cream which he gave a maximum score!

Like I said in the beginning, the one thing that set this place apart and kept in in my personal favourite top list is the well trained and friendly staff, the fact that the food came quite quickly despite the fact that it was almost full and last but not least, the great quality of the food – but that is something normal in Cluj-Napoca. The check came at around 40 E which is more that decent considering the fact that we left satisfied and full. As you’ve noticed, I did not say anything about the interior design, simply because yes, it is great, but there are so many other reasons worth mentioning to give this place a try! I know for sure that we will always eat at Baracca every time we will be in town!

August 13, 2016

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POLO

So here we were, on the first night in Cluj, at around 8 o’clock in the evening (told you it take about a day to travel across country), both of us starving and me craving eggs. The problem about craving eggs in the evening is that most restaurants do not serve breakfast past 12 o’clock. This is how we ended up having dinner/breakfast – in my case, at POLO. True, the fact that it was near our hotel was a big plus, because even though we spent most of the day sitting down, I did not have the energy to actually travel a lot for food. To be honest, the moment I lay down on the bed I seriously considered going to bed on an empty stomach.

Back to this wonderful place that was able to provide a frittata at 8 in the evening. The first thing I loved about it, and, to be honest, about most of the restaurants in Cluj, was the way it was decorated. This one is a Polo themed restaurant and it followed that theme to the letter. Needless to say that is something I love about any place. We were lucky enough that everyone was having their dinner on the terrace so we were able to take as many photos of the interior as we wished without annoying anyone.

On to the food… I ordered a frittata and D ordered the beef steak with home-made potato chips and pepper sauce. My frittata was just perfect having everything I love in it: goat cheese, onion, bell peppers and tomatoes. It was cooked just right, as most cooks tend to make it too dry for my taste, and, just like any frittata, it came in a hot pan which means that I literally burned my taste buds because I couldn’t wait to eat. D‘s steak was good and the combo of potatoes and pepper sauce meant that the plate was left without a gram of food in it. Both our plates were left as if someone had cleaned them in the dishwasher. That’s how hungry we were from the road.We couldn’t leave without tasting the desserts, and as we couldn’t decide, we ordered all three types of dessert. They were amazing, and I have no idea which one was best, so if you do decide to give this place a try, make sure you go with at least two other people so that each can get a different desert.

We loved the fact that the staff was very friendly and they actually aided us in our photoshoot of the place. The check was about 30 E, tip included, which is normal for great restaurants in Cluj, but quite low for an equivalent restaurant in Bucharest or at the seaside. Surely, have there not been so many amazing places to eat in Cluj, we would have definitely come back during our short stay there, but we will surely come back here next year.

August 10, 2016

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#UNTOLD online recap…

We’re back from our favourite festival of the summer, Untold, and we are so glad that we got to be a part of it this year as well. First of all, I was a bit scared of the possibility of going to a festival while four months pregnant (almost five), but in the end I decided that whenever I felt like I needed to rest we would just go. Fortunately, our little bundle of joy seemed to be in sync with our musical preferences and behaved wonderfully. Obviously, my schedule was something like : EAT, SLEEP, EAT (again), SLEEP (again), DANCE, REPEAT. All in all we didn’t miss one main event and all I can say right now is that this festival managed to surprise us in a very pleasant way yet again (I mean the way it is organised) – but more on that in the longer post that will soon be up! These are photos and videos that we posted while there on our Facebook page and our Instagram accounts (L and D).

BEFORE – The road to UNTOLD

Yes, we left a day earlier just incase I wasn’t feeling way because even though there are only 320 km from Bucharest to Cluj-Napoca, it does take almost an entire day to get there (yup, no highways!).

DAY 1

This was actually the first day of the festival with more details and photos soon to come! Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike smashed the house just like last year!

DAY 2

This was the day I was most excited about as this was the first evening a main event was someone I haven’t seen yet. Needless to say that HARDWELL killed it!

DAY 3

This was the day of the King – ARMIN VAN BUUREN! No more words needed!

DAY 4

Done a bit of shopping during the day from the amazing Fashion corner and then we got ready (read: ate and slept) for the closing night of this amazing festival! This was also the night when I decided that AFROJACK was my favourite of the four days! Martin Garrix did not disappoint either.

This was all our online activity during the festival – yes, I know, not much, but I did sleep most of the time there as the little one seemed to be needing a lot of sleep. More photos and details soon!

August 9, 2016

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Double the trouble…Cravings!

This has to be the most complicated kitchen experience we’ve ever had. It was complicated because of a multiple of factors like the fact that this is a very slow recipe, I mean it took us about 4 hours in total to get from ingredients to an actual dinner. Why we did so many things? Well because I craved sweet potatoes and D craved honey turkey breast. Did I ever mention that D lives this pregnancy all the way? I mean extra kilos, cravings and sleepiness. Therefore, we both needed to get satisfaction out of our dinner and we ended up cooking an entire day just to devour our plates in maximum 10 minutes – yes, we were starving by the time everything was done.Needless to say that this dinner was extremely satisfying for both of us.

The entire day started with me craving sweet potato in basically an form and D wanting to eat some sauce infused turkey breast. The entire cooking experience started with D breaking two glass bowls, my favourite glass bowls, which did not result in a fight, if you might think that. No matter how much I like a certain breakable object, especially if it’s from the kitchen, I’m actually glad when it breaks accidentally because in my mind it means that all my bad luck just broke. So no harm done!

Back to the recipe, or should I say recipes, because this really is a double recipe post. This is by no means a difficult dinner, I mean, come on, we managed to do it, but as I said, it does take a good chunk of your day to do it. You can try and do it like we did, attempt at doing more than one thing at a time, or just do one or the other. Either way, each dish, be it the potato or the meat, will take you about three hours in total. There will be no nutritional information this time as my UP app decided to crash a bit and I can’t really add any of the ingredients. Maybe I will update it later.

Here’s what you will need for both dishes:

1 turkey breast
30 gr ginger root
6-8 hot peppers
300 gr fresh mozzarella
1 garlic head
4 large sweet potatoes
200 gr sour cream
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
200 gr sweet corn
30 gr chives

Since there are a lot of ingredients, a lot of instructions will come your way, but trust me, at the end, every effort that went into this recipe will be so worth it! From this point on, I will treat each recipe different.

The Sweet Potato

Cut all the potatoes into halves.
Mince half of the garlic, all of the chives and cut the mozzarella into small cubes.
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and put the potato halves in it for about an hour. You should check if they are done by using a fork: if it goes in easy, they’re done!
Take out all the potato core being careful not to ruin the skins as you’ll use them for the next step.
Mash all that potato goodness while adding a dash of butter and the sour cream.
Then it’s time for all the other interesting ingredients to come: the chives, the garlic,the corn and the mozzarella cubes.
Mix everything well and, using a spoon, fill the potato skins and off into the oven they go again for another 20 minutes.
That’s it for the potatoes, and it should take you a total of 2-2 1/2 hours.

The Turkey Breast

Cut the meat into bite sized portions.
Grind the ginger root, mince the remaining garlic and finely chop one chilly pepper.
In a bowl mix 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce and 2 tbsp honey and stir everything well.
Add the ginger root, minced garlic and the chopped chilly pepper and stir well.
Put the meat into the bowl making sure that it is well covered with the sauce, cover it with foil and leave it in the fridge for at least one hour.
After the meat absorbed all the wonderful aromas, put everything (sauce included) into a cast iron pan, cover it and leave it on a small fire for 20 minutes.
Take the cover off and leave it until almost all of the sauce is gone.
On a grill pan put the remaining chilly peppers for 5 minutes and be careful as they tend to pop from the heat – D got attacked by them!