EAT | Mushroom Risotto

One of my favorite things to eat is Risotto. Mushroom Risotto to be more specific. It's such a simple dish, but so heart-warming and cozy. I love to eat it just with a poached egg on top. And I have a fool-prof recipe, that you can make with just some pantry staples. 

- 100g of arborio rice (or any other short grain rice)

- 150g of sliced mushrooms (fresh is better, but canned also work)

- 1 Shallot

- 1 garlic

- 1 tea spoon of chopped parsley

- 1 table spoon of olive oil

- 1 table spoon of butter

- 1 cup of shredded cheese (mozzarella, emmental, parmesan -- whatever you have on hand)

- 1 Knorr Natura Chicken Stock Pot -- I don't like to use stock cubes, but if that's all you have, do it.

- 500 ml of water

- Tree table spoons of white wine

- Salt and Pepper

Start by heating up the water to dissolve your Knorr Chicken Stock Pot in. Just drop the content of the chicken stock pot on hot water and stir for a minute until it's fully dissolved.

Move on to finely chopping the shallot, the garlic and the parsley.

On a wide pan, on medium heat, add your butter and your olive oil and wait until the butter is almost melted. Add the shallot and the parsley. When the shallot is translucid add the garlic, the mushrooms and the pepper. Let the mushrooms cook for maybe 5 min, string once in a while so that nothing burns. When you feel like your mushrooms are cooked -- I always taste them -- add the rice. Keep string, and let the rice cook and absorb all the yummy-ness going on on that pot. Once you have pretty much no liquid, add the white wine and keep stirring The trick here is that you always need to stir the rice because string helps releasing all the starches that make a super creamy risotto. When all the wine is absorbed and you can't smell alcohol anymore, add two ladles of the stock to the rice and stir. Wait until most of the liquid is absorbed, add two more ladles of stock, and keep repeating this process until the rice is al dente or until you run of of stock -- (you wont tho, 500ml of stock is more than enough). When you feel like the rice is cooked, add the cheese. Add as much as you want, and as much as you like. There's no such thing as too much cheese.

Right at the end, taste the rice to check it for salt. Sometimes the stock or the cheese is really salty and you don't need to add any more salt, other times you may need to add some salt, so I always wait until the end to do it. And it's ready.

OSCARS RED CARPET 2019 TOP 3

For me these were the 3 best dresses on the red carpet this year. I love the simplistic elegance while being sexy and slightly avant-gard. 

-- Kiki Layne in Versace --

-- Charlize Theron in Dior -- 

 

-- Amy Adams in Versace --

RANT | HBO Portugal

Finally FINALLY we have HBO in Portugal. And oh my god I've waited for this for a really long time.

HBO is a streaming service, much like Netflix, that produces a bunch of movies, documentaries, and tv-shows. Yes, the one where Game of Thrones, Westworld, and Sex and The City come from. Ever wonder why these shows aren't on Netflix? Well, it's because they belong to the competition. HBO works exactly the same way as Netflix does -- it's pretty much the same thing, actually. The price is 4.99€/month, and the first month is free. You can add up to 5 devices to your account but you can only watch on two screens at the same time -- which is actually better than the cheapest Netflix option! They claim to have 4500 movies and shows, including Game of Thrones, True Detective, Westworld, and the 90's classics The Sopranos and Sex and The City -- which I am dying to re-watch. 

And yes, the last season of Game of Thrones will be available on the Portuguese App at the exact same time as it is in the US, so no more spoilers and no more having to wait for the next day to see the new episode!

Sounds too good to be true? Well in fact, it is... But only if you are an iOS user. They don't have any app available on the App Store for iPad or iPhone and it is not possible to see the contents on the website trough safari -- if you try to open any content, it says that you need too download the app -- that doesn't exist -- and it has a link that does nothing. So yeah. So much hype for nothing. They even had an awesome lunch-party, with a bunch of famous people -- that probably all own iPhones and that can't see their contents -- ironic much? -- From what they say on their website they don't give you the possibility to watch on an iOS mobile device -- only android. I wanted to subscribe but now I won't because I am always on the go and I like to watch stuff on my iPhone. I subscribed anyway, and Ive been watching on my laptop. But if they don't come up soon with an app for iOS I will just stick with Netflix.

EAT | Dear Breakfast, Lisbon

Ok, I’ll admit. I’m into brunches. I absolutely love breakfast food and I to able to have - a lot of it — for lunch and not be judged it’s awesome. Eggs, Croissants, Cheese, Jam and Butter, all together, that’s my jam.

This time, my love for brunch took me to this lovely coffee in São Bento — Dear Breakfast.

Dear Breakfast has been on my list forever. It’s one of the first Brunch places I’ve hear about. And people talk really good about their eggs Benedict and their pancakes! I was drying to try it and last weekend I finally had the opportunity to visit it.

Dear Breakfast is small, like many of these trendy bunch places, but it didn’t had a 45 min line at the door -- They sat us down right away. Their menu is filled with all these different amazing things, but to keep it simple they only have one brunch menu that is designed to make you drunkenly roll out of your table. Yes, drunkenly. Because this menu includes three drinks that can be plain old orange juice, a Bloody Mary or -- my favorite -- a sparkly Mimosa. Trust me you can get DRUNK at 11 AM. And yes, it's awesome! If you follow my IG you may have seen some drunken stories. The menu also comes with a yummy french flaky croissant, perfectly toasted bread and they also give you a little dish of butter and jam for you to put eat as much as you want. The brunch menu gives you the option to chose between eggs or pancakes, but being the fat-ass I am, I asked for both and just payed the pancakes separately. I had their famous eggs Benedict and their sweet pancakes, with chocolate and fruit.

The croissant, the toast, the butter and the jam, where good. But you know, it's
bread. It feels you up so much. But the eggs. THE EGGS WERE AMAZING. They were perfectly poached, laid on top of some nice yummy crispy bacon, and covered with the most delicious zingy hollandaise sauce. I could go trough life only eating these eggs, really. They were so good. I asked for a cappuccino -- that was yummy, but all cappuccinos are yummy. And I had the three mimosas that I was entitled for. At the end we asked for the pancakes and that took a while to come, but since we had booze, we were fine. And it was so worth the wait. The pancakes were light but tall and fluffy, and they were covered with a rich dark chocolate that was so tasty and that just went perfectly with the sweetness of the fruits. Just perfect. My mouth is watering just from thinking about them. 

This was not not a cheap brunch -- well, but to be fair when is Brunch cheap? In fact, you could eat a full meal in a good restaurant with the money we paid, but it's worth it. You will be full, and drunk, that's for sure. And if you can splurge, do it. Do it once in a while. Go to one of these instagramable places and have cool yummy food. It makes you feel like a million bucks.