Apple cake

In preparation for making the apple butter I went to my bf's parents' house to pick apples from some trees they have growing in their garden. I picked, and picked, and picked, really without paying too much attention to how many apples I picked. I left their house with 2 grocery bags worth of apples. To say the least, I've had my work cut out for me trying to figure out what to do with all the apples.

Last week I made apple sauce, I've used apples in salads and in my cooking, and I am thinking about maybe having a go at making apple chutney. On Saturday, of last week, I made an apple cake. Yum! It wasn't for me though, I made it for the café at church. And as I have previously said here on the blog, baking cakes for the café requires demographics. You have to know who will show up (as in what age-group. Older people= stuff smothered in whipped cream, younger people= modern cakes, such as cheesecakes or things made of chocolate). I thought I'd play it safe this week, since Irene was making a cake made out of meringue and whipped cream (not a pavlova, but a cake called "Verdens beste"- "The world's best"), I decided to make an apple cake. Old, as well as young people love apple cakes, don't they?

I can tell you, they do. But do you know what they love more than apple cake, or "Verdens beste" for that matter? They love apple cake baked by the new volunteers at church. There I was, selling my cake, when the new volunteers showed up, German and Austrian apple cake in hand, and they barely had the chance to put the cake down before people were fighting over the pieces.

Needless to say, I returned home with half the cake... 

Apple cake
Adapted from Allt om mat
Makes about 30 slices

7 dl plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp powdered vanilla sugar
2 eggs
4 dl sugar
3 dl milk
4 tbsp (50 g) melted butter
2 tbsp apple butter, optional

1 kg apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
2 tbsp cinnamon
0,75 dl sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200° C. Mix flour, baking powder, powdered vanilla sugar, normal sugar in a large bowl. Crack the eggs in a different bowl, whisk in the milk and the melted butter, and the apple butter, if using. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in a little of the egg mixture. Stir to combine using a wooden spoon. Pour in a little more of the egg mixture and stir again, keep doing this until you have incorporated all the of the egg mixture into the flour,and you are left with a smooth batter. Do not use an electric beater for this.

2. Place the peeled, cored and wedged apples in a large plastic freezer bag. Pour in the sugar and the cinnamon. Close the bag and shake it to ensure each wedge of apple is coated.

3. Line a baking tray (30 x 40 cm) with baking parchment. Spread the batter onto the parchment. Press the apple wedges down into the batter one after another in neat rows until you have covered the entire cake with apples. Discard any left over apples, or eat them with some ice cream or some yoghurt.

4. Place the cake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake-bit of the bake comes out try and free of crumbs.

Serve the cake with ice cream or pour over some vanilla custard.

Light Chicken Korma

I made a deal with myself a while ago not to eat too many carbohydrates in an attempt to loose some weight. So far I have more or less managed to stay clear of potatoes, rice and pasta, but the tricky part is really to stay clear of bread... And since I'm not much of a pulse person, I'd pretty much rather be fat than to eat beans and lentils. So, so far I have tried to make tasty dishes and have simply left out the high carb side-dishes . I don't know if that's how one does it, and I can't tell a significant weightloss as of yet, but I'm hanging in there.

Tonight's light chicken korma was low in carbs, if one left out the bread. But seeing since I didn't have anything even close to a lettuce leaf in my house at the moment I decided to serve the korma with a side of homemade naan-breads. I did however substitute half the flour with a store bought mixed rye- and wheat flour, which I guess made it a little bit more healthy...

Light Chicken Korma
Serves 4
Adapted from BBC Good Food

4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
a small knob of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 onion, sliced
1 ½ tsp garam masala
150 ml chicken stock
3 tbsp fromage frais (I used quark)
2 tbsp ground cashew nuts
handful of baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, the green bits only, cut into 1 cm pieces
corinader/cilantro leaves
1 tbsp sultanas

1. Fry the ginger, garlic and onion in the oil until softened. Add in the chicken and allow the chicken to brown, this takes about 5 minutes. Stir in the garam masala and fry for an additional minute.

2. Pour over the stock and simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. 5 minutes into the 10 minutes of simmering the chicken in the stock, add in the spinach leaves and the green bits for from the spring onions.

3. In a small bowl, mix the fromage frais/quark and the ground cashews. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the fromage frais/quark- and cashew mixture. Do not return it to the heat or it will split. Garnish with the sultanas and sprinkle over some leftover cashews.

Serve with homemade naan-bread or rice.

You can add in more stock and fromage frais at the appropriate times if you feel there isn't enough gravy.

Malaysian Chicken Curry

I came across a recipe for Black Beef Cry Curry over at Fuss Free Cooking, and I immediately knew that this was a dish I really wanted to make one day. As I am a bit low on cash at the moment, I'm pretty much in-between jobs, I figured if I could make some minor adjustments to the original recipe I would be able to make it with the stuff I had in my pantry/fridge.

So, instead of the beef I used chicken, and I did not know exactly what kind of Malaysian curry powder she was referring to so I used the Malaysian meat curry powder I made a while ago. Also, I had never heard of Ketjap Manis, nor did I have money to buy it from the shop were I to come across it, so I decided to make my own from a recipe I found online. This did not turn out all that good, I think I just let the "sauce" reduce way too much, so instead of a syrup kind of liquid it turned out like thick, thick, thick syrup. I had to dilute it with hot water to even get the spoon into it. The moral of this story is; buy the Ketjap Manis at the shop!

Here's my version of Fuss Free Cooking's Black Beef Dry Curry.

Malaysian Chicken Curry
Serves 2
Adapted from Fuss Free Cooking

3 small chicken breasts, or 2 medium, diced
1 ½ tbsp Malaysian meat curry powder
water
2-3 tbsp Ketjap Manis
about 5 curry leaves
1 onion, sliced thinly
2 ½ garlic cloves, chopped roughly
½ inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small green chilli, de seeded and halved
1 tomato, quartered
salt and sugar, to taste

1. Start by soaking the curry powder in the water for 30 minutes.

2. Heat some oil in a pan and fry the curry leaves. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and green chilli. Fry until fragrant.

3. Add in the curry and water mix and stir to combine. Fry for 10-15 minutes until the oil starts to separate.

4. Add in tomatoes, chicken, ketjap manis, and some salt and sugar. Also add in enough water to just cover the chicken and cook until the liquid has just about halved and the chicken is cooked through.

5. Serve with spiced rice or with a side of fresh salad.

I added some sweet corn at step 4 because I found an open box of sweet corn in the fridge that needed to be used up.

Focaccia bread

There really isn't anything better than homemade bread, don't you agree? However, and unfortunately, I am not really a talented bread baker. I don't know what tends to go wrong but there's always something that goes wrong, and I end up with a just good enough bread. I would want my bread to be perfect, but never.

The only bread I do seem to be successful at making, though, is focaccia bread. And it's not exactly rocket science making focaccia bread.

I haven't made any in a while though, but talking to my friend Titta, who was making her own bread, the other day got me inspired.

Focaccia bread
Makes 12 squares
Adapted from BBC Good Food

500 g plain flour
7 g fast action fry yeast
300 ml hand-warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp runny honey

Topping of your choice.
I used sun-dried tomatoes, sprigs of Rosemary and a sprinkle of grated mozarella cheese

1. Mix the flower, yeast and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, pour in the water, the oil and the honey. Pour the liquid into the flour mix and and combine to make a soft dough.

2. Tip the dough onto a floured surface, and knead for a good 5 minutes until the dough no longer feels sticky. Add a little more flour if you need it. Stretch the dough to fit a Swiss roll tin.

3. Place the dough in the tin and sprinkle over your toppings. You might want to make little indentations on the dough to ensure that the filling won't fall off. Cover with a lightly oiled sheet of cling film and leave to rest in a warm place for 40 minutes.

4. Heat the oven to 200C. Remove the cling film and bake the bread for30 minutes. When golden brown and risen, remove from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes and then cut into 12 squares.

Enjoy!

Lemony chicken wings

I saw this recipe a while back and I immediately knew I had to try it. I have been enjoying chicken wings quite a lot lately but have only ever made Spicy, honey glazed chicken wings and it felt like I needed a change of scenery, if you will.

And boy, the recipe for Lemony chicken wings was just the change of scenery that I needed. They were just delicious, just incredibly juicy and lemony!

YOU need to make these, YOU need to try them for yourself. They're really that good, I promise!


Lemony chicken wings
Serves 6
Adopted from Leila på landet

1 kg chicken wings
2 cloves garlic, grated
2,5 cm (1 inch) ginger, grated
2-3 lemongrass stalks
the zest from 2 lemons
3 tbsp tomato purée
3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp sesame seed oil

1. Place the grated garlic and ginger in a bowl.

2. Peel off the outer layers of the lemongrass, discard. Smash the lemongrass with the back of your knife. Finely chop the white part of the lemongrass and discard the more green and woody part. Add the chopped lemongrass to the bowl with ginger and garlic.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to mix.

4. Place the chicken wings in a large Ziploc bag or in a 5 litre plastic bag (you might want to put one bag into another bag to ensure that if the bag rips the marinade won't cause a mess). Pour the marinade into the bag with the chicken. Close the bag, pressing out as much air as you can while you close the bag. Massage the chicken wings to ensure each wing is coated with the marinade. Place in the fridge to marinade, preferably overnight.

5. Fire up the barbecue and grill the marinated chicken wings until done. To check if the wings are done, pierce the thickest part of the wing with a knife, if the juices run clear, then the wing is done. If the juice is a little bloody, keep grilling the wing until the juice runs clear. If you use small wings, like I did, you can place a double layer of aluminium foil on top of the grid/grate to keep the wings from falling onto the charcoal.

6. Serve as finger food at a party or as part of a BBQ-meal.

Enjoy!

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.

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.

Spicy, honey glazed chicken wings

Sometime last year I bought a little Chinese cookbook at the local supermarket. You know, the small cookbooks with no author but published by one of the more well-known publishing houses. I have a whole stack of them, they are so practical when you don't have a lot of time to search for a recipe for a quick and cheap dinner.

The recipe for "Spicy, honey glazed chicken wings" was really easy to make. It didn't call for a lot of preparation, all you have to do in advance is to marinate the chicken wings 1-2 hours before you plan to start cooking dinner. The ingredients are store-cupboard essentials for most of us, and if you don't have them at home they aren't very expensive to get at the store.

So, from me to you, on this Valentine's Day, enjoy!

Spicy honey glazed chicken wings

Adapted from Den lille kokebokserien "Kinesisk"
Serves 4

450 g chicken wings
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Marinade

1 crushed dried red chilli

½-1 tsp chilli powder
½-1 tsp ground ginger
zest from 1 lime

Sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp clear honey
2 grated garlic cloves
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Start preparing the chicken wings about 2 hours before you plan to start on dinner. Make the marinade by mixing the crushed dried chilli, the chilli powder, the ginger and the lime zest in a small bowl. Transfer the spices into a large ziploc bag, add the chicken wings. Lock the bag and massage to mix the spices with the wings. Place in the fridge to marinate.

2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large wok pan. Add the marinated chicken wings and fry for 10-12 minutes until golden and crisp. Be sure to stir continuously to keep the wings from sticking to the bottom of the wok.

3. In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, hoisin sauce, honey, garlic and sesame seeds. Pour the sauce over the chicken wings, stir to coat.

4. Lower the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the chicken wings are cooked. Make sure to stir continuously.

These wings are freezer friendly, meaning you can freeze them cooked or raw (+ the spices for the marinade).

Spring rolls in September

It was Saturday, the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, and where was I? Inside, in front of the TV, watching Ching's Kitchen with Ching-He Huang on BBC Lifestyle. And did they only show one episode? No. Two? No. Three? No. The truth is they showed a whopping 8 episodes, from 1-4:30 pm.
Needless to say, I am a big fan of Ching. She makes Asian food easy.

Both me and the bf were inspired by her recipe for spring rolls and decided on making it for dinner. Our previous plan had been to make what we had had the day before, which was pan-fried pork fillets with herb-crusted oven roast potatoes and Bearnaise sauce.

Here's Ching's recipe for spring rolls

Spring rolls
Makes 6-8 large spring rolls

2 small chicken breasts, or equivalent amount of other meat
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese five spice
4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes and drained
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cm ginger piece, grated
75 g bean sprouts
2 large spring onions, or 5 cm leek, finely sliced
1 medium carrot, coarsely grated
1 tbsp oyster sauce
12-16 spring roll wrappers
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp water
750 ml vegetable oil, for deep frying

1. Chop the chicken or other meat into very small pieces, almost minced-looking. Heat the 1 tbsp oil in a wok, or frying pan. Stir-fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes, stirring all the time. Season with soy sauce and five spice powder. Take the chicken off the heat, and allow to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Coarsely chop the mushrooms. In a large bowl, combine the vegetables. Add the cooled chicken and the oyster sauce, stir well to combine.

3. Place two spring roll wrappers on top of each other. Place 1-2 tbsp of the filling in the center of the sheet. Mix water and cornflour. Dip the tip of your finger into the mixture, and brush the edges of the wrapper. The mixture will act like a glue, stopping the rolls from opening when you deep fry them. Fold in the corners, then roll it up into a cigar-looking thing.

4. Heat the oil in a wok, or deep saucepan. DO NOT HAVE THE KITCHEN FAN ON as if the oil catches fire, the fire will get sucked into the fan!! Deep fry the spring rolls until golden brown, 3-5 minutes. Drain on some kitchen roll paper. Serve with sweet chili dipping sauce.

På svenska
Vårrullar

Filled mushrooms

I haven't made filled mushrooms since I don't know when. It's not the most healthy thing out there, but it's so delicious. Try it!


Filled mushrooms
Makes 10

10 button mushrooms
50 g butter
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried or fresh basil
1 tsp dried tarragon
2 spring onions, chopped
salt & pepper

Mix the butter and herbs in a bowl. Remove the stem form the mushroom. Fill the cavity with the butter. Grill or place in a 210 C warm oven 'til the butter has melted.

Any left over butter can be frozen.

På svenska:
Fyllda champinjoner

Thai Green Curry

Me and my boyfriend had a friend over for dinner tonight. I decided to make a Thai chicken green curry, a dish that never fails to please even the most picky eater. I'm not saying the friend we invited is a picky eater, but let me put it this way; he had no idea that Thai food was food inspired by Thailand, but thought it was some kind of Mexican food. However, I think he was happily surprised by my Thai Green curry, even though I am pretty sure he found it a tad bit too spicy... I thought it was delicious, and cannot wait to devour the leftovers tomorrow.

Thai Green Curry
Serves 4

3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 generous tbsp green curry paste
1 tsp coriander/cilantro powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 can coconut milk
1 clove garlic, grated
1 cm ginger, grated
4 chicken breasts (or fish, or prawns, or pork, or beef) cut into bite size pieces
350 ml chicken stock

3/4 courgette, sliced and halved
3/4 aubergine, sliced and halved
10 small button mushroom, halved
1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp lime juice
handful coriander/cilantro leaves

1. Heat the oil in a wok, sauce pan or saute pan. Add the curry paste and stir for 2 minutes. Add in the spices, and garlic & ginger and fry for another minute, keep stirring.

2. Add coconut milk, chicken stock, and chicken pieces and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until the chicken is almost cooked.

3. Tip in the vegetables, add fish sauce and lime juice. Simmer until the aubergine is soft. Sprinkle coriander/cilantro leaves on top.

4. Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

- You can make this dish vegetarian by cutting out the meat, and using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

- The flavour develops when you freeze this dish, so put the leftovers in the freezer to enjoy another day.

- If you find this dish a tab bit too spicy, serve it with dollop of creme fraiche, yogurt or sour cream.

Fetajuttu

Once upon a time there were two girls from two different countries, one girl was Angélica (me) from Sweden, and the other was Titta from Finland. The two met in a Westlife-chat room many years ago, and a friendship blossomed out of countless hours of mutual adoration for said boy band. The friendship is still going strong after almost 10 years, despite the fact that we have actually never met in person. The adoration for said boy band is, however, long forgotten. I received the recipe for "Fetajuttu" from Titta to share with the rest of world. I have not made it myself, but Titta assures me it is delicious.
"Fetajuttu" means "the feta thing" in Finnish.



Fetajuttu
serves 2-3

400 g feta cheese
1 red pepper
400 g crushed tomatoes
ground black pepper
olive oil

Heat oven to 200 C

1. Cube or crumble the feta cheese. Dice the red pepper.

2. Put in an ovenproof dish and pour in the tomatoes. Season with ground pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

3. Place in the oven for 30 minutes.

Spread on top of bread or eat it as it is. Can be reheated, and might be freezer friendly.

- Comments are love

Challenge #1

The challenge for this week is to make a curry paste popular in Malaysian and Singaporean cooking:

Make Laksa curry paste

1 onion, quartered

2 tbsp ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic

2 stalks lemon grass, white part only

6 dried chillies, soaked and chopped

4 macadamia nuts

1 tbsp shrimp paste

6-8 Vietnamese mint leaves (Laksa leaves)

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1-2 tbsp sunflower oil

Mix everything together in a food processor or use a pestle and mortar. If making it in a p&m, leave out the oil unless the paste looks very dry. Store in an air-tight jar or freeze.

Vietnamese mint is also called Vietnamese coriander/cilantro, Cambodian mint, hot mint, and in Thailand it is called Pak Pai. If you can not find this at your local Asian food store, don't worry, you can skip it.

- As made by Jill Dupleix for Good Food Live

Green curry paste

Green curry paste is used a lot in Thai cooking, and it is surprisingly easy to make. I love it, and I keep a jar of it in the fridge at all times. Mix with coconut milk and add prawns, spring vegetables and noodles for an easy lunch!

Green curry paste

Makes 125 ml

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

6 green chillies, de-seeded and chopped

2 stalks of lemon grass

3 tbsp coriander/cilantro root, chopped

2 cm galangal, or ginger

1 shallot, large

zest and juice from one lime

1 pinch salt

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

Just put everything into a food processor and blend into a smooth paste. Store in an air-tight jar in the fridge.

Freezes well up till 2 months.

- As seen in Ching's Kitchen

Thai prawn balls

I made these prawn balls the other week and they went down a treat. They are truly delicious! I served them with boiled Basmati rice and a sweet and sour sauce, but I think they might be even better just served as a treat on a Friday-night in. Or if you would still like to have them as a main course, make a double batch.

Thai prawn balls
makes 16 small balls

200 g tiger prawn, for a vegetarian version use canned sweet corn
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 cloves of garlic
1 chili, de-seeded and finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine, can be left out if you can't find it in your local Asian shop
1 tbsp rice flour
50 g coriander/cilantro, finely chopped
salt

Chop the prawns coarsely, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Fry in hot oil for 2 minutes per side, squeeze some lemon over the top and serve immediately.

Freezes well, cooked, for about 1 week.

- As seen on Ching's Kitchen

Salmon log with chives

This is another "dish" I made for Easter. I served it on a piece of Swedish "knäckebröd". It's a great hors d'oeuvre and goes well with a glass of white wine.

Salmon log with chives

250 g cream cheese
2 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 spring onions, finely chopped
420 g cooked salmon/smoked salmon
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
40 g pecan nuts, finely chopped
20 g chives, finely chopped
80 g dill, finely chopped

1. Mix cream cheese, sour cream and lemon juice to a fine paste. Mix in the spring onions, salmon, black pepper, pecans and chives. Allow to rest in the fridge for atleast 2 hours to ensure the mixture is firm when you move on to the next step.

2. Put the mix onto some cling film and roll into a firm log shape. Allow to cool once more and then roll the log in the chopped dill.

Slice and serve ontop of savoury crackers or "knäckebröd".
Will freeze well for a couple of days, maybe 1 week.

Smoked salmon and spinach tart

Ok, it's time for my first recipe. It's one of my favourite "new" recipes. The last time I made this tart was for Easter and everyone, me and my boyfriend, loved it. However, I couldn't find any spinach at the supermarket so had to improvise and ended up using broccoli instead. (My boyfriend actually prefered it with broccoli, so I guess that'll be what I'll be making from now on).

Smoked salmon and spinach/broccoli tart

Pastry

3 dl all-purpose flour
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

125 g unsalted butter or margarine

2- 2½ tbsp cold water

Filling

1 small leek

100 g fresh spinach, or frozen broccoli

100 g smoked salmon

1 dl grated cheese

2 eggs

1 dl heavy cream

2 pinches salt

3 pinches lemon-infused ground black pepper

Heat oven to 200 C.

1.Mix flour, Parmesan cheese and butter so that it looks like crumble. Add water, a little at a time, and make a dough. Set to rest, covered with a damp cloth, for 30 min. Press the chilled dough into a round, loose-bottomed mould (23-24 cm), letting the pastry come up around the edges about 5 cm.. With some aluminum foil, cover the edges so when you bake it the edges will not collapse. Prebake the pastry for 10 mins.

2.Clean and chop the leek. Put some oil in a pan, heat and steam the leeks for a few minutes allowing them to get soft. Roughly chop the spinach, if you are using frozen broccoli cut the florets lengthways, add to the pan allowing the spinach to wilt or the broccoli to heat. Pour out on a plate to chill.

3. Cut the salmon into strips and mix with the spinach/broccoli.

4. Combine eggs, cream, salt and lemon-infused pepper in a bowl. Add the grated cheese and the spinach-salmon mix.

5. Pour the mixture into the prebaked pastry, be sure to remove the tin foil first!

6. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 35-40 minutes. The tart should be firm to the touch when done.

Serve with a fresh salad.

Can be served hot or cold, and is excellent to freeze for up to 3 months.