Another Left-Over ... Honey Mustard sauce Recycled!!!

Last night, made too much salad dressing, the homemade honey mustard sauce.  What else to do with it ... Pasta sauce!!!  No, I did not just warm up the sauce and threw it on the pasta (or the other way around, as what I usually do.

Decided to crushed and finely chop two garlic cloves and half a big onion ... Threw them on a hot pan with 3-4 tbs of oil in it.  While sautéing the garlic and onions in medium to medium high fire, added a knob of butter. 

When the garlic and onions were properly sautéed, I added half a cup of frozen peas.  When they were partly defrosted (it usually takes 2-3 minutes), I added the left-over honey mustard sauce and 50-75 ml of (very) dry white wine.  Let it simmer for 3-5 minutes then add frozen shrimps (I am using the 16/20 sizes) and let it further to simmer until the shrimps turn completely orange, then remove frame fire.  

By taking the sauce with the shrimps from the fire, you can avoid the shrimps from becoming rubbery and cook perfectly.

While you are cooking, time your pasta to be ready by the time you finish your pasta ...  The sauce is approximately done in 15 minutes including the shrimps' cooking time.  Start doing your MATH ... HAHAHAHA!!!

For this shrimp pasta, we had some ready-made lamb burgers which I grilled ... And still the salad leaves dressed with balsamic vinaigrette with a touch of honey.  For every one part of balsamic vinegar, I have 2-3 parts of olive oil (make sure you are using EXTRA VIRGIN ... The darker the better) plus half a part of honey ... The honey just gives a softer sweet touch to the vinaigrette ... Season further to taste with salt and pepper.

One tip I can share is when mixing salad dressings, use old cleaned bottles ... Pour the ingredients in it, screw the cap and shake till you get the proper emulsion. 

And this was dinner!!!

Left-over Roast beef slices and Frozen shrimps

It's is still warm in the Netherlands, but got some thing that I grew up with to ease the heat wave .... AN ELECTRIC FAN!!!

Now a bit cooled off, decided to cook a bit, but still using the bags of salads I have bought last Friday. Got inspired when I was watching BBC's Saturday Kitchen (just love this program, aside the reason to stay in bed longer on a Saturday Morning ... HEHEHEHE), and made a creamy honey mustard sauce where I cooked my frozen shrimps until it turned orange, but not before I slit them in the middle.  Then topped the our salad plates with pan-fried roasted beef slices, which I got from the deli.

How I made the creamy honey mustard sauce-dressing. 

1. coarsely chopped half a big onion;
2. crushed and finely chopped the 4 pieces of garlic;
3. placed the garlic then the onions on a heated pan with 3-5tbs of olive oil plus a tbs of butter, where you have pan-fried the roast beef slices;
4. add a tbs or two of flour, when the onions have turned glassy & mixing it well;
5. followed by a 100 ml of heavy cream (if you do not have cream, I'd use mayo about 3tbs), mixing it well again;
6. followed by a tbs and a half of mustard after mixing it in, add half a cup to a cup (around 150ml) of apple juice (orange juice would be fine, but using pineapple juice would make it sweeter which means lesser honey) and stir well, then follow it with a tbs and a half of vinegar (this it to have a bit of sharpness in the sauce and cut the too creamy flavour);
7. add tbs or two of honey, depending on the degree of sweetness you are comfortable with on your salad, then add the shrimps which are slit in the middle and cook them until they turn orange ... When this happens, turn off the fire and let it cook further on its own heat.  

Note:

* make sure you cook this in low or low-medium fire, to have the sauce just simmer and not boil;

* cooking time would be around 10-15 minutes;

* when serving an extra drizzle of olive oil & salt and pepper.

Too Warm to Cook ... !!!

It is official. The Netherlands has a heat wave ... July 2013. The news is stating that the last time we had it was in 2006!!!

After having it now for two weeks, the houses being constructed to keep the heat in the houses .... Which is not helpful when you have to cook ... CRAP ... !!!  

So, decided to buy a bag of 2 kilos of salad ... A kilo of lettuce melange (just a mixture of different kinds of lettuce leaves) and another kilo of ruculla leaves (just love it's bitter after taste). The next is what dressing and meat to match for lunch and dinner!!!

LUNCH

• Lettuce melange
• Ruculla 
• Home made Honey Mustard 
• Fried smoked horse meat bits (didn't want bacon, so decided to use the left-over smoked horse meat and fried it like bacon). 

HOMEMADE HONEY MUSTARD

• 3 tbs honey;
• 1 tbs mustard; 
• 1 tsp lemon juice: 
• 3 tbs olive oil;
• a pinch of salt & pepper

NOTE: Ease up on the salt, if you will add something salty in the salad

Getting in tune with social media!!!

After more than 10 years out of the advertising world, now I am trying to get in tune with the blogging social media!!!

Hopefully, I can start posting my recipes and tips that I can share to the newbie like me!!!

SOON TO COME!!!