How to prepare the perfect sushi rice?

As a sushi lover I have to admit that if I could eat sushi everyday I would ... I'm in love with sushi <3

I love to go to the japanese restaurants and order tones of sushi but after the food is eaten the bill hurts a LOT!

That's why I decided time ago to try and make sushi at home, as it is more affordable and it's a great opportunity to invite some friends in to help you out :)

Before showing you my little tricks to make sushi easy and fast let me show you the best recipe I have ever tried for making the rice. If you follow the recipe you will see how easy it is to make sushi rice and the best thing is that it's the worst part of doing sushi :P (because you have to wait!) 

So let me share with you how to make more pleasant this "hard" part of how-to make sushi and enjoy your home made sushi rice :D

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RECIPE

SUSHI RICE (The perfect sushi rice)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of sushi rice (I have try it with a normal rice and it works as well. Just try to find one small and round rice but for best results invest on a package of special rice)
• 1/4 cup of rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/4 cup of sugar

DIRECTIONS:

First of all clean the rice with cold water very carefully, you must clean it as many times as you need until the water comes out clean and transparent. Then leave the rice in a bowl with water covering it for at least 15 minutes.

cleaning the rice you take off the starch

Meanwhile, heat the vinegar in a pan with the sugar and the salt. Heat it in medium heat until the sugar and the salt are completely dissolved (pay attention in to keep it into a medium temperature, never take it to boil!!!). Let it cool apart.

you see it...

... now you don't :)

Now it's time for the rice. In a pot put 2 cups of hot water and cook with it the rice with a real low heat until the water is evaporated (the pot can be covered or not). After the first boil keep it all the time in to low heat and cover it so you will get the sushi rice texture. 

Once the rice is cooked leave it cool apart at least 15 minutes.

At last, mix the vinegar with the rice with a wood spoon slowly and carefully. (Take the rice out of the pot and put it into a plastic or wood bowl if you think the metal of your bowl can react with the vinegar)

So here you have your perfect sushi rice! Now the funny part comes ;)

In case you need the ingredients see them listed down below:

Your cool team ;)

Lentils à la marocaine - International Kitchen

Today in our International Kitchen we fly for the first time to...

MOROCCO

The typical recipe we will have from there today can be done anywhere with no extra effort and it tastes really delicious :P

The main ingredient for today's dish will be the lentils; we know lentils appear in different recipes from different countries but this one taste pretty different as the ones we had before!

The lentils we are going to use today are the "beluga lentils" or "caviar lentils" that are smaller and darker as the normal lentils we use to eat. Click here to know a bit more about this lentils.

We hope you enjoy and try them :)

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RECIPE

Lentils à la marocaine

INGREDIENTS:

• 250gr of lentils
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato
• 3 pieces of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of paprika 
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• Pepper
• A little bit of ginger
• One tablespoon of parsley finely chopped
• Salt
• Two tablespoon of olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

First of all clean (a lot) the lentils directly under the tap water for a while. Once you see the water starts to appear more clearer put the lentils in a bowl with water and let them rest there at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile you can start with the rest of the ingredients. Cut into small pieces the onion and tomato and in half the garlic. Put the olive oil in a pot and slowly cook the onion and the garlic. Once the onion gets a bit softer we will add the tomato.

Slowly cook it until the tomato separates from its peel. Then add 1,5L of water.

Once it starts boiling add all the condiments and the lentils. Let it cook with slow heat until the lentils are soft and the water have gone down.

Now you are ready to taste the delicious flavors of the Sahara :P

استمتع بوجبتك

Your cool team :)

Delicious rice to combine with your menu

Sometimes when we are preparing our menu we don't know with what mix the meat or fish.

For those times where time is rushing and we have not much time we recommend you to try this easy recipe which will make you fuller and you can have it already prepared waiting for you in a tupperware in your fridge.

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RECIPE

Simple rice

INGREDIENTS:

• One cup of rice
• One onion
• One garlic
• Salt 
• Olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

First of all we will put some olive oil to get warm in our pot.

Once the oil is ready we will put the onion and the garlic into small little pieces to fry.

When you see the onion is getting softer add the cup of rice and let it fry for two minutes approximately.

Then add two cups of water. Mix it well and add salt.

Let it boil into the pot until the rice have absorbed all the water. You will see your rice is ready when little round air spaces appear in the rice.

Your rice is ready to eat, alone or with good company :)

Wish you try this easy to do recipe and let us know with what will you combine it :)

Your cool team :)

Chuzo desgranado - International Kitchen

In this international kitchen post we fly back to the lovely country Colombia!

As the last recipe was really successful our Colombian friend decided to make us a new recipe: Chuzo desgranado.

This plate is typical in the coast where he is from. At first when he told us the recipe we thought it was really complicated but at the end it was easy to make and really tasty :)

Here we share his knowledge he left us with this delicious plate.

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RECIPE

Chuzo desgranado

INGREDIENTS:

• A couple of chicken breasts
• Lettuce
• 4 potatoes
• Tartar sauce, pineapple sauce or cocktail sauce (depends on each one)
• 2 cups of cornflour and 2 cups of hot water (for making the "bollo limpio")
• 2 cups of corn
• Sunflower oil for frying the chips
• Grated cheese 

DIRECTIONS:

First of all we will have to make the "bollo limpio" that is made by mixing two cups of cornflour and two cups of hot water. We mix this two ingredients in a bowl and we gently mass it until it gets all well mixed.

Now we will grab foil paper and make large tubes of this "bollo" mix. We will wrap them with the foil paper and put them into a boiling pot. We will left them in there until we can feel that the dough is harder and one good sign is to see that the foil paper is getting burned (like burned color, don't call the firefighters yet!).

We let them cool a little bit and we cut them into small pieces.

Meanwhile the bollo is being done we can prepare the rest of the ingredients!

We will cut the lettuce into large pieces but in vertical not horizontal as we would do it with the normal salad.

try to do them as long as you can so it looks prettier

Fry the chicken with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper; once done we separate it.

For making the chips it's another world, we will have to peel the potatoes and then grate them so we will end up with small thin pieces of the chips. Then we will fry them into sunflower oil as we would do for any other fried chip.

this is how will the grated potatoes

Once we have everything done it's time to make the plate :P

At the first place we will place the bollo and the lettuce in the bottom of the plate like if it was a bed for the rest of the food.

Then we will put the chicken over it and then the corn and chips we have fried.

Once everything is in the plate we will add some grated cheese and the sauce.

cocktail sauce...

... and parmesan cheese were our election

It looks like it's a lot of work but it's really tasty!!!

Let us know if you liked this new delightful Colombian plate :)

BUEN PROVECHO

Your cool team :)

Salmon en Papillote

Student life means mostly living on the edge and that involves that we (every student included let's be honest) are eating really bad. It's not strange that when we go back home our friends cannot recognize us because of all the extra weight we have gained.

The main mistake we have in our minds is that eating healthy is expensive and that eating a 2€ pizza will full us more than anything else. But we just want you to thing a little bit farder; it's not but to eat unhealthy or processed food sometimes but if you want to have a healthy life and end college without diabetes or cholesterol you better start fixing your diet.

The recipe we are showing you this week is easy to do and healthy! You won't get any pan dirty or need any extra cooking skills.

Check the easiest and tastiest way we cook salmon, the healthy fish full with omega 3 good for your heart and so :P

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RECIPE

Salmon en Papillote

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 slice of salmon per person
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• a tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 lemon
• Foil paper

DIRECTIONS:

First we put the foil paper on the oven tray but don't cut it! We will do it once it's all done. Meanwhile we prepare all the stuff we will cook, make sure you preheat the oven at 200ºC (if it's with fan make it 180ºC).

We start cutting in large pieces the ingredients, the peppers and onions; we peel also the carrots and cut them in smaller pieces as carrot is harder to get softer.

Once everything is cut we lay it on the foil paper as it was a bed for our salmon. 

Then we lay the salmon on the veggies and put lemon slices on it.

We finish all of it with the oil and a touch of salt and black pepper.

When everything is done we close carefully the food with more foil paper (that's why we didn't cut it before) and make sure there is no exit for the oil or water to scape.

We bake it in the oven for 20 minutes at least.

And it's ready to be eaten :)

We hope you enjoy this salmon and eat more healthier; just think that's good for your future ;)

Your cool team :)

Fall is here :)

This week a new season came to our lives - Fall/Autumn have arrived!!

For being sincere this is not my favorite season but it gets quite close to my favorite one -Winter ^^-

Fall is one of those seasons where you find yourself lonely, things start to get darker and leafs leave their home. Birds fly back to warmer countries and you stay more time in bed than outside home.

This season can be much harder if you are leaving alone and far away from your family/home. Depression can get to you if you don't feel confortable and some tears can came to your eyes wondering why you didn't take more advantage of the summer days.

For this we have created this post, to make you fell more comfy in your new room and try to create your own "home warm" that you will need in the soon-to-be cold nights.

We think that if you follow this few steps, just changing a little bit your habits and decoration you will feel confortable anywhere and with yourself!

How to give some cozy touches to your place:

1. Get candles :)

Candles will bring you light to the darkness. Get them in orange-brown-white-red colors so you feel more the fall spirit!! And fire them up while you are studying or watching TV, but don't let them burn while you are sleeping.

2. Use "edible" decoration

Why don't you decorate your place a little bit? Just go to the market and buy some pumpkins and corns from different colors and instead to keep them in the fridge or hidden somewhere put them in your table and use them as a decorative object.

Once you get tired of them or they start to get bad you can always use them for making soup or any kind of dish!

3. Get a cozy throw blanket

The nights (and days) will get soon cooler and when you stay at home looking through the window how rainy and cold is outside you will appreciate to have a soft and cozy blanket you hug and nap with.

4. Flowers are still on season

We know most of the flowers live only in summer and spring, but autumn have also some brown-yellowish flowers which can give an extra touch to your place. Give them a try and you will see that even they don't bright as the flowers you bough on June, they will give a new look to you room.

5. Start baking

It get cooler everyday and winter clothes start to show in our closets. Baking is a great option to have your mind full and will also give your place a delightful aroma of "freshly home backed" that no artificial scent can give to you.

We can tell you that if you try this 5 steps you will see how you feel more comfy at your place this new season!!

Enjoy fall and remember to get the greatest things of each season :)

Your cool team :)

Empanadas Colombianas - International Kitchen

Today in the international kitchen we fly for the first to....

COLOMBIA

One of our neighbors, best friend and collaborator in this blog comes from the South-American country; and he loves so much his culture and food that he showed us some of their typical dishes. 

This time we tried to make together one of the typical Colombian meat pasties that came to be one of the best appetizers I ever had!

We leave you down below the recipe he used and some pics of the process. We hope you enjoy the taste of the land of the coffee :)

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RECEIP

Meat and potatoes Colombian Pastry

INGREDIENTS:

For the pastry dough:

• 2 cups of corn flour (we used "Harina PAN")
• 2 cups of warm water
• A pinch of salt depending on you

For the filling:

• 250 grams of ground meat (can be pork meat but we used here beef meat)
• 2 potatoes middle size
• 1 onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 3-4 leafs of cilantro (not mandatory)
• one tablespoon of meat condiments (we used "Triguisar")
• Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:

For the dough, we mix the flour and the water in a bowl and we mix it a bit and then add the salt. Once we feel every ingredient is well mixed and integrated with the other, we let it settle at least for 3 minutes. Now the dough is ready!

For making the filling we will cut in small dices the onion and the potato and we will start frying it with olive oil in a medium heat .

Meanwhile the potato and the onion gets softer we will cut into small pieces the tomato.

Once the potato and the onion are done we will integrate the ground meat and when this gets done we will put the tomato.

When everything get well mixed we will add the condiments (the amount depends on each person).

We let it cook for a bit more and the filling is ready!

For frying we will take a big pan and fill it with sunflower oil.

Meanwhile the oil gets heated, we will do the pasties.

We will grab a ball of the dough and put it between two sheets of plastic paper. We will press it with a plate and then with a roll we will try to make it larger but not thiner or the pastry will break.

Then we put inside the filling (be aware of not putting in any kind of liquid from the mix, it does the pastry look weird).

Then we close the pastry and try to put together the borders of the "middle moon" we have created.

We keep doing it for the rest of the pastries.

When all are done, we put them into the boiling oil at medium heat and once they turn brown we can take the off.

We will let them cool in a plate covered with kitchen paper so it can absorb the extra oil.

Enjoy it with some guacamole, jalapeños or chili pepper sauce.

They were deliciosas!! 

BUEN PROVECHO!

You will find the colombian ingredients down below in case you don't know where to buy them:










Your cool team :)