The Clumsy Cook

  I think I always had a passion for cocktails but I started being serious about it (and it's seriously fun) only last year. If 10 years ago I was only making Bellinis and Mimosas, now I love mixing spirits, learning about the history of cocktails, and... even making my own basics - this time: sugar syrups! Sugar syrups are extremely easy to make. It's all about ratios - a simple syrup is a 1:1 ratio, and a rich one is 2:1. And you can also make a semi-rich syrup which is 1.5:1. Simple Sugar Ingredients: 1 cup white sugar 1 cup water Rich Dem Ingredients: 2 cups Demerara sugar 1 cup water Method: Method is the same for both.  Demerara sugar is a raw brown sugar and it gives your drinks a toffee-coffee aftertaste. It's amazing and goes great with whiskey or my favourite Espresso Martini (recipe for it coming soon). Combine the ingredients for your syrup in a pot over heat, stirring continuously while the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the pot from the

Unless you are Romanian, chances are you have no idea what mucenici are . And it's not even something all Romanians know and/or eat!  Basically, every March 9th, we are celebrating the Forty Martyrs , and the way we do it is by eating 8-shaped pasta in a sugary soup with crushed walnuts on top. Oh, and the men drink 40 glasses of țuică (traditional Romanian spirit) . In the Moldova region of the country (not the country Moldova, although they celebrate this too as far as I know) they have a dough pastry shaped like an 8, brushed with honey and topped with walnuts. But in Muntenia (the region where I am originally from), we make this sweet soup. The other regions of the country may or may not celebrate - actually, most people I asked in my current city, Cluj-Napoca (located in Transylvania as region), are not familiar with any of the mucenici . I was not a big fan of mucenici growing up. But for some reason this year I decided to try to make them - and surprise, surprise, I love t

Mashed potatoes is one of my favourite foods in the world - when I was a child it was my absolute favourite, especially with a sunny side-up egg with a runny yolk on top. But now I am a responsible adult and sometimes - but only sometimes - I want my mashed potatoes to have a higher nutritional value, which is when I add a lot of carrots and whatever other root veggies I have in the house. Ingredients: 4 potatoes 2 parsnips 2 carrots a bit of butter salt & pepper Quantities and root veggies can be adapted depending of what's in the fridge. Method: Peel, wash, chop veggies.  Put in a pot with cold water and salt, bring to boil, simmer until veggies are tender. If the parsnips get done faster just fish them out (they float anyway so it won't be hard). Mash the veggies with a potato masher. Add a bit of butter and adjust the seasoning. Mash them as much as you want it. Usually I make mine somewhat clumpy.  I especially like the root veggie mash with heartier dishes like coq

 No surprise here, but I love Julia Child. The first recipe I tried from her famous cookbook ( Mastering the Art of French Cooking vol 1 ) was this amazing leek and potato soup. I did not have high expectation, it's only three ingredients, very simple to make, but it instantly became a house favourite. It's a good soup, especially when you serve it with grated cheddar cheese and bacon bits. Yum! Unfortunately I do not have a better picture, which only shows how much we love this soup! Without further ado, here's how I make this simple soup. Ingredients (6 servings): 500g potatoes 500g leeks (sometimes we add less leeks but it tastes amazing anyway) 1.5L water salt bacon bits (optional) Cheddar cheese (optional) Method: Peal, wash and dice the potatoes. Clean and wash the leeks and remove the dry green parts. Slice the leeks too. If you do not have leeks you can also use onions, or do half leeks half onions .  Put the veggies in a pot with 1.5L of water and salt. Bring to b