Baked Caprese Crostinis

I'm about to board a plane to Barcelona! I'll be gone until the end of the month, but I will still post new recipes and reviews when I have time between Gaudi visits. After Barcelona I will be in France. Be sure to follow @christineatsss on Instagram for daily updates of the amazing food I'll be eating! I will now leave you with this easy yet delicious canape that you can whip up in no time. 

Recipe

Makes 8 crostinis

Ingredients

8 thin baguette slices

1 garlic clove

1 medium ball of mozzarella, cut into 8 slices

8 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Torn basil leaves

Kosher salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to broil. I used my toaster oven!
2. Cut the garlic in half and rub the cut side lightly on one side of each baguette slice. Drizzle the baguettes with olive oil.
3. Layer the tomato, mozzarella and basil.
4. Sprinkle salt and pepper, then drizzle with more olive oil.
5. Bake for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.

Roasted Whole Artichokes

The first time I ate fresh artichokes (not the tangy marinated kind) was in Rome. We had artichoke hearts (boiled or steamed, slathered in olive oil) almost everyday. Restaurants in Hong Kong usually serve the hearts, either boiled, steamed, or marinated. I've only been to one place that served the artichoke whole. I loved peeling off the leaves and dipping them in mayo before scraping the "meat" off with my teeth. So when I came across this recipe, I couldn't wait to try it out! Roasting it gave it a more robust and deep flavour as opposed to just boiling or steaming. I didn't even have to dip the leaves in the garlic aioli that I bought especially for this dish! The only downside was the time. These babies took an hour in the oven. I would suggest getting them in the oven first before making the rest of your meal. 

Wash the artichoke under cold running water.

Cut off 1/3 of the top, and chop the stem off so the artichoke can sit upright. Boyfriend helped me with this because I have no upper arm strength at all.

Push apart the leaves as best as you can, and wedge in the garlic. Squeeze 1/2 lemon per artichoke and drizzle olive oil generously.

Wrap the artichokes tightly in tin foil and put them into the oven.

The artichokes will come out perfectly seasoned by the salt, lemon and garlic. Even the heart was flavourful! No mayo needed.

Recipe - adapted from Pinch My Salt

For 2

Ingredients

2 medium artichokes
Olive oil
Kosher salt
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 lemon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 425 F / 220 C. Slice off the top third of the artichoke with a sharp knife. Then cut off the stem at the base of the artichoke.
2. Drizzle a large piece of tin foil with a few drops of olive oil. Place one artichoke in the middle of the foil and open up the leaves. 
3. Wedge 3 garlic cloves into the artichoke. Sprinkle kosher salt and squeeze 1/2 a lemon onto the artichoke. Drizzle olive oil generously over the top.
4. Wrap the foil up around the artichoke, sealing it well. Put in the oven for an hour.
5. After removing from the oven, let artichokes sit until cool enough to handle before unwrapping.

Grilled Sardines with Tuscan Bread Salad Part 1

I'm all about weeknight dinners that are fast and hassle-free. Bonus points if they are healthy and nutritious! This recipe was taken from Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals. The book had some amazing recipes (and beautiful photographs), but I was skeptical about how fast a home cook could make these meals. For me, the whole process (sardines plus salad) took about 30 minutes, between prepping the sardines and vegetables, blending sauces and taking photos of everything. But nonetheless, super fast meal! I will share with you the Grilled Sardines first, and the Tuscan Bread Salad in another post. When I made this meal, I dealt with the sardines first, and started on the salad when the sardines were in the oven. The two dishes were done pretty much at the same time. 

I forgot to buy chilis at the market but luckily we had some growing in a pot outside our home! However they weren't fully grown yet and were super tiny. I decided to add them in anyway.

Baby chilis :)

The sauce consisted of spring onions, parsley, salt, olive oil, lemon juice, and chilis. For those who hate parsley, you will be glad to know that this sauce came out light and citrusy. The parsley was not overpowering.

Spread the mixture on a pan just large enough for the sardines and lay the sardines skin side up. Sprinkle the pancetta around. You can omit the pancetta, but using just a tiny bit won't do too much damage! It adds a nice smoky flavour and crunch to the dish.

After a quick 8 minutes, the sardines will be nice and crispy on top, moist and flaky on the bottom. I served the sardines just like that in the pan with the beautiful green sauce.

Verdict: I will definitely make these sardines again, but with regular sized chilis. My dish was missing a bit of heat. 

Recipe - adapted from Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals

For 2

Ingredients

4 spring onions (tops and white ends removed)

½ a fresh red chilli

½ bunch of fresh parsley

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt to taste

6 fresh sardines, heads removed, scaled and butterflied

Handful of cubed pancetta

Method

1. Set your oven grill onto high.
2. Put the spring onions, chilli, parsley, fennel, lemon juice, salt and olive oil in a processor, and blend until it forms a paste.
3. Rub the paste onto a baking tray and lay the sardines on top, skin side up.
4. Dot the pancetta throughout the sardines.
5. Grill until golden and crispy, about 8 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

It’s only fitting to start my new blog with one of the most loved (and easy) recipes of all time. I absolutely love chocolate chip cookies. But it’s even better with a sprinkle of sea salt! I find that the salt brings out the richness of the chocolate, and makes the cookie even more flavorful. This recipe uses dark or semi-sweet chocolate, but feel free to substitute for milk. There is also Greek yogurt in this recipe, which makes the cookie moist. Enjoy! These will surely impress anyone.

Brown butter – this creates an amazing hazelnut aroma which adds richness to the cookies. Make sure not to over brown it or it will taste bitter! Keep whisking!

Blend the sugars with the butter.

Add the dry ingredients bit by bit. Stop mixing once all the flour bits are gone.

Add the chocolate chips. I only had dark and semi-sweet at home, which were of different brands and sizes. But I guess the cookies turned out looking okay!

I made one batch of 16 without sprinkling sea salt on top, and one batch with. Both came out delicious.

Recipe – adapted from Serious Eats

Makes 32 medium cookies

Ingredients

•  2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
• ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¾ cup dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan. Continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. 
3. Whisk butter and sugars until blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients bit by bit and mix until combined and you don’t see anymore of the flour.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator. This makes it easier to form the dough into balls and keep a uniform shape when baking.
6. When the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350F/175C.
7. Use a tablespoon and measure out the dough to roll into balls. I used about 2 tablespoons per dough ball. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and sprinkle each dough ball with a little bit of sea salt.
8. Bake the cookies 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. Mine were done at 8 minutes. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook on the baking sheet when out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets and sprinkle with a little sea salt. 
9. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.