Monday 31 May 2010

Stir-fried corn with chilli, ginger, garlic and parsley

If you know me it comes as no surprise that I have a crush on Jamie Oliver! He is an amazing chef with a relaxed cooking style which makes my life so much easier.

My friend Ingeborg left for Ethiopia about 2 weeks ago, and before leaving she offered me to borrow her Jamie's Dinner cookbook. I obviously said yes! I immediately found this recipe for stir-fried corn with chilli, ginger, garlic and parsley.

It's an amazingly easy dish which tastes delicious as a side dish with a grilled piece of steak or you can use it in a salad.

(Susanne, detta är Jamie Oliver-majs).

Stir-fried corn with chilli, ginger, garlic and parsley
Adapted from Jamie's Dinner

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tsp chopped chilli
1-2 chopped cloves garlic
handful of chopped parsley
2 tbsp soy sauce

Heat the oil in a wok pan, tip in all the ingredients and stir-fry until heated through.

Monday 24 May 2010

Thai Cucumber Salad

I found this recipe on the back of the Satay Seasoning Mix package. It turned out to be the Thai version of a similar cucumber salad I had with some Chinese friends a few years ago. It's really delicious and sweet with a little bit of a kick from the chilli.

Thai Cucumber Salad
Adapted from the back of Satay Seasoning Mix package

4 tbsp vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
5 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 cucumber, in slices
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1-2 shallots, finely sliced (I used red onions)

1. Mix the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan.

2. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

3. Arrange cucumber, chilli and shallots in a bowl. Pour over the vinegar mixture, stir, and serve.

Friday 21 May 2010

Zucchini soup with bacon

Not too long ago my volleyball team went on a tournament for the weekend. It was great fun, but I don't think we did all too well. To tell you the truth I didn't care about the results, that's why I don't know them.

For the duration of the tournament all the teams stayed at Norsjø Hotel, in beautiful Norsjø, Norway. Norsjø Hotel might not be the best hotel in the world, but the food is delicious! For dinner on Saturday we were served a three-course meal, I love three-course meals and can't for the life of me understand how anyone could eat more than a three-course meal. I guess the portions are much smaller when you eat a, say, seven-course meal.

Anyway, let's get back on track. The menu for the three-course meal was

Starter
Zucchini soup with bacon


Main course
Braised beef tenderloin served with potatoes and vegetables


Dessert
Home-made
coffee ice cream with chocolate brownie

I absolutely loved the Zucchini soup, the rest of the meal was all-right. I have had better food, but I'm not complaining.

I have been searching for a recipe for Zucchini soup ever since I had it that weekend and with a little help from my friend Susanne, who had told me before of a delicious Zucchini soup that she used to make, I set out to make a soup similar to the one I had had at the hotel.

This soup was really nice, really tasty and easy to make. And it was fairly similar to the one at the hotel. Try it yourself, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Zucchini soup (with bacon)
Serves 4
Adapted from sopprecpet.se

600-800 g green Zucchini, chopped into small cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, grated
½ tsp dried rosemary (I used thyme)
1 tsp tomato puree
8 dl vegetable stock
ground white pepper, to taste
salt, to taste

fried bacon
garlic bread

1. Heat the olive oil in a large enough pan to hold the finished soup. Tip in the onion and fry until soft and translucent. Add in the Zucchini and allow to soften some. Add in the grated garlic, rosemary, tomato puree and vegetable stock.

2. Bring to the boil and allow to cook for about 15-20 minutes.

3. With a hand blender or in a mixer, mix the soup until smooth, or to desired consistency.

4. Bring back to the boil and boil for another 10 minutes. Add in more stock/water if you want to, at this stage.

5. In the meantime, fry some cut up rashes of bacon until crisp to sprinkle on top of the soup. Obviously, for a vegetarian dish, leave out the bacon. Prepare the garlic bread. I cut up some ready-to-bake baguettes and spread some garlic butter on top, placed the bread on an oven tray and baked it in the oven for 10 min on high heat.

Serve the soup in bowls, sprinkle some bacon on top, drizzle over some olive oil and eat with some garlic bread on the side.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Pork tenderloin with thyme

I can't for the life of me remember how I did this dish, but I just love the photo and has been meaning to post it for the longest time.
Pork Tenderloin with Thyme

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Pytt i panna

Pytt i panna is a traditional Swedish dish. I love it. It's super easy to make and doesn't call for more than 3 ingredients. It's basically diced and then fried potatoes, meat and onions.

Confession time: I don't normally make my own pytt i panna, I buy it ready-made from the frozen section at the supermarket. Blasphemy!! I know, but I really like the ready-made version.

Anyway, yesterday I made home-made pytt i panna using a potato, a small onion and the left-over grilled meat from last night's barbeque. YUM! Tasted much better than the store-bought version, obviously!

Pytt i panna
Serves 4

4-5 medium potatoes, cut into 1 cm cubes
1 medium to large onion, chopped
3-4 pork chops or other meat, meat cut into 1 cm cubes

To serve:
fried eggs, sunny side up
pickled beet roots

1. Heat some vegetable oil, or butter, in a frying pan. Depending on if you use raw or boiled potatoes the cooking time will vary. Tip in the potatoes and fry the potatoes until almost done. About 15 minutes if you use raw potatoes.

2. Tip in the onion, fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add in the meat, and fry until done.

4. Serve with a fried egg on top and some pickled beet roots on the side.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Strawberry Cheesecake

Tonight, "the dessert-" God was looking after me, my cake sold out at the café at church. Hallelujah!

Due to me forgetting my camera at home I had to make due with the camera on my phone.... which resulted in a crappy photo of a delicious cheesecake.

Strawberry Cheesecake
12 slices
Adapted from BBC GoodFood

Base
250 g Digestive biscuits
100 g melted butter

Filling
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
600 g soft cream cheese
100 g icing sugar
284 ml heavy cream

Topping
400 g strawberries
25 g icing sugar

1. Place the biscuits in a plastic bag and seal the bag. Crush the biscuits using a rolling pin until you have a fine crumble. Transfer the crumbles to a bowl. Pour in the melted butter and mix to ensure the crumbles are completely coated. Tip the crumbs into a 23 cm wide loose-bottomed cake tin and press firmly down to create an even layer. Set to chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, make the filling. Place the soft cheese, icing sugar and vanilla seeds in a bowl, then beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Tip in the cream and continue beating until the mixture is completely combined. Now spoon the cream mixture onto the biscuit base, working from the edges inwards and making sure that there are no air bubbles. Smooth the top of the cheesecake down with the back of a dessert spoon or spatula. Leave to set in the fridge overnight.

3. Bring the cheesecake to room temperature, about 30 mins before serving. To un-mould, place the base on top of a can, then gradually pull the sides of the tin down. Slip the cake onto a serving plate, removing the lining paper and base. Purée half the strawberries in a blender or food processor with 25g icing sugar and 1 tsp water, then sieve. Pile the remaining strawberries onto the cake, then pour over purée.

I had real trouble with the filling, it would just not set... I placed the cake in the freezer for 10 min which kind of helped but after about 10 min out of the freezer the filling was more liquid than solid... Don't let this scare you from making the cake, it was delicious!!!!! I'm gonna try whipping the cream before adding it to the soft cheese mixture next time... I'll get back to you with the result.

Saturday 8 May 2010

Falafel

I have been meaning to post this recipe for falafel for a really long time now, but for some reason I've been stalling it.

I think remember the first time I had falafel, it was in London in 2003. I don't exactly remember them as an "explosion of Oriental flavours in my mouth", it was more like "hmm... these were pretty good". I think they were bought at Marks & Spencer, which might have been the reason why there weren't all that delicious. But obviously, they were delicious enough for me to want to try falafel again, so over the years I've had the odd falafel.

However, it wasn't until fairly recently, say about a year ago, that I realised I could make them at home. I had always envisioned the process time-consuming and tedious. This was until I came across an easy recipe for falafel-"burgers" at BBC GoodFood.

I know, a falafel-burger sounds pretty horrid, but the recipe is great for making small patties to stuff in toasted pita-breads and serves with side dished such as tabbouleh, crisp salad, thinly sliced red onions and a minty yoghurt sauce to drizzle on top. It sounds pretty delicious, right?!
The recipe calls for canned chickpeas, and after having tried both the canned sort and the dried sort that you have to soak in water for at least 12 hours, I can definitely say I prefer the canned peas for this particular recipe. I couldn't get the dried peas soft enough, and deep-frying the falafel didn't help to soften them one bit...

Falafel
Serves 4
Adapted from BBC GoodFood

400 g can chickpeas, drained
1-2 garlic cloves
1 handful parsley
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp harissa or chilli powder
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp oil

To serve
pita breads, chopped tomatoes, tabbouleh, red onions and yoghurt sauce

1. In a food processor, mix the chickpeas, garlic, parsley and spices plus the flour to a rather smooth mix. You can leave it chunkier if you prefer more texture.

2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry small-ish balls of the chickpea mixture until heated through, golden brown and crisp on the outside.