Auntie Nena's Brigadeirão ♥

This is a delicious and very easy to make dessert. As my auntie told me, it's ready in 11 minutes: 1 in the blender e 10 in the microwave... :)

Ingredientes:

1 can of condensed milk

1 can of single cream

1/4 cup of sugar

1 cup of cocoa powder

1 tbsp butter

3 eggs

Sprinkled chocolate

Blend everything (except the sprinkled chocolate :P) and put it in a buttered microwavable cake mould.

Microwave it for 10 minutes, full power.

Take it off the tin while still warm and sprinkle the chocolate :)

195 calories per serving (12 servings)

Banana, Apricot and Walnut Cake

I've been making this banana cake for several years... usually using only bananas.
I decided to be a bit adventurous today and added apricots and walnut and it turned out quite nice. So here's the (very easy) recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups of breadcrumbs
2 cups of sugar
1 tbsp of baking powder
1 cup of dried apricot, chopped
1 cup of walnuts, chopped
* 3 bananas
* 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
* 3 eggs

Method:

Blend all the items marked with *. Pour the paste into a bowl, add the other ingredients, gently mixing (baking powder last). Put it in a buttered cake tin sprinkled with cinnamon and bake it at 200C for about 30 or 40 minutes. To check if it's ready, stick it with a toothpick (clean, please) and see if it's dry.

Eat moderately, so you don't get fat :D

Calories: 295 (serving size 100g)

Baked Aubergines (Caponata)

This is one of my favourite dishes of all times. It is very easy to make and everybody loves it. I got the recipe from Sérgio, my friend's stepdad, in a very fun day of food, cards and wine, years ago.
I have made this aubergine so many times that I consider it mine now. :)

Ingredients:

1 large onion
8 garlic cloves
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 green pepper
1 cup of raisins
2 medium-sized aubergines
1 cup of olives

"Sauce":
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of vinegar
1 cup of water
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp dried oregano

The amount of each ingredients vary according to taste, obviously. The above are more or less what I usually use. Today, for example, I used two onions, because they were quite small. And a good amount of garlic, which I randomly called "8 garlic cloves" for the sake of giving you a quantity :P
Always remember that you are free to cook however you like. Recipes are for inspiration only, not to restrict you.

How to make it:

Chop everything... and I mean everything! (except the raisins :P) Mix it all and put it in a baking dish. Make the "sauce" by mixing it in a cup and throw it upon the vegetables. Cover it with foil and put it in the oven for about 40 min or until the aubergine is very soft. It smells great, so you need to control yourself and leave it for as long as necessary, so that the aubergine is soft... the longer you wait, the better it tastes :)

Here is a picture of the vegetables in their "sauce" before going inside the oven


Serve it hot or cold with pitta bread or as a side dish.

Vegetable "pie" (or cake? I don't know)

I had a bit of an accident at home: I left the spread outside of the fridge and it got really strange, as it melted.
How could I possibly do that? Forget the spread outside of the fridge? "How silly!", one would think.
But you have to remember, dear reader, that in England it is normally OK to leave stuff out of the fridge overnight, because it is a COLD COUNTRY. I am not used to the existence of a proper temperature inside my home without having turned the heater on.

But anyway.

Since I hate wasting anything, I looked for a recipe with lots of butter/spread... and found one here (in Portuguese).

Ingredients:

"Dough":

- 4 tbsp plain flour
- 2 cups of milk
- 4 tbsp of butter or spread
- 4 tbsp grated cheese (anyone you like. I used cheddar this time)
- 4 eggs
- 1 cube of vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp baking powder

"Filling":
Whatever you want :)
I used about half a recipe of Aubergines in the oven and a chopped courgette.

Put the eggs, butter and milk in the blender. Then, add the flour and vegetable stock and let it blend for a few minutes. Put it in a bowl and add the cheese, the baking powder and the filling of your choice.

Bake at 200C for about 30 min, or until brown.