Passion Fruit Mousse

I had a dozen of Passion fruits laying on my fruit bowl for almost one week that when Sofia and Alain where coming for dinner I decided to use them to make this fresh, easy, and super tasty tropical dessert!

In this recipe I used: 1 Cup Passion Fruit pulp (6 pieces), Alpro Soya whipping cream, 1 dl condensed milk, agar-agar gelatine, lemon zest

Step 1- Cut passion fruits in half, scoop out the pulp. Combine it with whipping cream, condensed milk, lemon zest and agar-agar.

Step 2- Divide the mixture in to glasses or bowl, top with fresh pulp. Keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving!

Bom apetite!

Salmon, Cauliflower Purée with Cherry Tomato, Balsamic Reduction

Paul asked me to create a healthy yet, non vegetarian (for a change) recipe! Here's what I came up with!
Steamed Salmon steak, Cauliflower Purée with cherry tomato/balsamic reduction as a final touch!

Tip: while cooking make sure the cauliflower is nicely seasoned. It will have a good impact in the final result!

You can play with the purée, try adding spinach, sweet potato, green peas to to base recipe! I'm telling you the result is amazing!
In this recipe I kept it plain, feel free to recreate your version! (I love cauliflower/sweet potato purée- Salmon combination). 

Here's how I did:

Salmon:
200 gr. fresh Salmon steak
Salt

1/2 Lemon (juice and zest)
Garlic powder

Marinate the fish in lemon juice and zest; salt and garlic powder (couple of hours). Steam for 3 to 5 minutes, until tender (don't overcook it!!!)

Cauliflower Purée

500 gr Cauliflower

1 Onion (medium size)

4 Garlic gloves

1 Tbsp Vegetable stock powder

1 Tbsp Olive oil
Nutmeg to taste

Cook cauliflower in a medium pan with water and vegetable stock until soft.

Drain and transfer it to a blender.

Heat oil in medium heat and sauté onion, garlic until golden brown. Add it to cauliflower and purée it.

Season with nutmeg and salt/pepper if needed.

Cherry Tomate and Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

100 gr. cherry tomato (red, orange, yellow)

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper 

In a non stick pan sauté tomato until soft, add salt and pepper and finally balsamic vineger

Cook in a medium heat until "caramel" texture.

Serving: in a plate put the purée, salmon on top and drizzle the tomato/balsamic vineger.

Smaklijk!

Vegetarian Cachupa

There's so much to say about this post that I don't even know where to start! I will KIS (keep it short) otherwise... I don't even know!

I've been planing it for quite some time but I needed mom's assistance! She cooked it for me when she came for my bday.

I'm so happy for finally having it published!

I'm pretty sure more than 90% of my "page viewers" don't know what Cachupa (Catchupa- in creole) is, so first things first!

Cachupa is one of my childhood's favourite dishes! It's a Capeverdian (where my roots are from) tipic dish! 

It's a kind of stew which base ingredient is dried Corn (not to be mistaken with caned sweet corn). Before being ready to be cooked corn goes through a pre preparation process to eliminate the "skin". It would take me ages to explain you the whole process, so see below the final product ready to be used (first picture).

As most of African food, this is a heavy dish, made with "heavy" ingredients!
(If you're planing on cooking Cachupa, unless you have an african stomach- as I do, I suggest you to have it for lunch! You'll thank me later for the advise!)

This dish also calls for different types of Beans (Stone, Red Kidney, Congo, Fava, White...), Vegetables, Sausages and meat or fish. 
Depending on the variety of ingredients you cook a rich or poor Cachupa.

This particular post is all about "my Cachupa".

When I quit eating meat my mom started cooking Cachupa de Peixe (Fish Cachupa) but eventually, when I also quit fish she came up with the vegetarian version! My mom is the best mom from this world and the other!

Basically she replaced the animal protein by the vegetal option!
In this specific recipe we used : Veggies (Carrot, Cabbage, Tomato, Bell Peppers, Garlic, Onion) Yellow dried Corn, Beans, Smoked Tofu and Soy Sausages...

Step 1- Cook Corn together with Beans for about 45 min. (I like it "al dente" texture)

Step 2- In a separate pan cook onion and garlic until golden brown, add chopped tomato, carrot, cabbage. Cook in medium heat until tender texture.

Step 3- Combine vegetables with corn and beans, add cubed tofu and diced sausage, let 
simmer for a couple of minutes and serve!

Note- stay tuned for the "next day Catchupa" tip ;-)


PS- full credit goes to my mom