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.

Easter meatballs

Made these for Easter. They were out of meatballs at the supermarket...

"Spicy" meatballs
Makes about 30 small meatballs

500 g ground beef
½ dl bread crumbs
1 dl milk
1-2 garlic cloves, grated
½ dl parsley
1 tsp cumin powder
salt, pepper
½ onion, chopped
1 egg
butter/oil

1. Start by combining the bread crumbs with the garlic, parsley, cumin and salt & pepper in a mixing bowl. Pour in the milk and leave to swell while you fry the chopped onion until almost see-through.

2. Add the onion to the bread crumb mix and stir to combine.

3. Add in the ground beef and the egg. Using your hands, mix to combine. If the mixture feels too loose, add in some more bread crumbs.

4. Heat some oil to medium high in a frying pan. Using you hands or two spoons, form the beef mixture into bite size meatballs. Fry until done, place on a serving platter, or allow to cool and place in freezer.

(5. The meatballs on the picture were served with a simple tomato sauce made from crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs, a little bit of red chili, a splash of balsamic vinegar and some salt & pepper).

Mexican egg rolls

I was invited to attend "Den store gavefesten" at Ibsenhuset last Tuesday. It's a big concert featuring local talents, not only singing but also line dancing, football skills and agility, sponsored by one of the local banks here in Skien. There was a great orchestra entertaining us in the foyer and we were served an assortment of finger foods, Spanish meatballs, little mini-quiches and tasty little Mexican egg rolls.

I ate quite a few of these Mexican egg rolls, hello it was free and I was hungry! and quite enjoyed myself. But I couldn't help but think of how I could improve on the flavour.

Here's my first attempt

Mexican egg rolls
Makes lots

400 g ground beef

1 yellow onion, chopped
1 packet taco seasoning
1 dl taco salsa
100 g sweet corn
2 tbsp chopped jalapeños
1 dl water

1 packet spring roll wrappers
oil for deep frying

1. Start by browning the beef and the onion in a frying pan. Pour in the rest of the ingredients and fry for 10 minutes.

2. Take out a spring roll wrapper, if using the large variety cut it in half. Place about 1 tbsp of the taco beef at one end of the wrapper. Fold in the corners and roll into a finger-looking thing. Do this until you either run out of filling or wrappers.

3. Heat the oil and deep fry until golden and crispy.

4. Serve with an assortment of dipping sauces.

Lunch: Salmon sandwich

Ever since I was a little girl I've never been very good at what we in Sweden call "fika". For those of you who are not familiar with the word "fika", let me explain it. Fika is what other people call coffee break with a few cakes or cookies, and can be enjoyed all through the day.

Growing up, on Saturdays, almost without fail, we had 11 o'clock fika at my house. This meant mum and dad drinking coffee, me and my brother drinking a glass of strawberry lemonade, and we all enjoyed a cinnamon bun and a few cookies each, most likely a Ballerina cookie and a Digestive biscuit.

My mom was, and still is, the queen of homemade cinnamon buns. I remember once, my friend Lena came home with me after school for a play date and mum served us cinnamon buns for our after school-fika. Lena didn't eat just one bun, she ate a whopping 6 buns, and when her parents came to pick her up mum gave her a bag of buns to go.

I have never tried making cinnamon buns, but maybe one day I will. However, they will never beat mum's homemade buns. They're the best. If I close my eyes I can still see the mountains of buns stacked on mum's kitchen counter, and I can smell them, the sweet smell of soft, warm, straight from the oven- cinnamon buns...

Sometimes fika also included a sandwich.

Sometimes we went on shopping trips to the local mall or to Gothenburg on Saturdays, and then dad always had a coffee craving at some point. Mum, dad and my brother always had a piece of cake or a cookie, but I almost always had an open-faced prawn sandwish. I don't know why I never felt in the mood for a piece of cake or a cookie, but I never did. So I always had a prawn sandwich made with a peice of white bread, lettuce, mayo, hardboiled eggs, prawns and a wedge of lemon and a slice of cucumber.

So, when I made today's lunch I was reminded of my childhood's fikas.

Salmon sandwich
Serves 1

1 slice of bread
butter
1 leaf of lettuce
potato salad
1, 2 or 3 slices of smoked salmon
chopped red onion
squeeze of lemon juice
black pepper

Just put the ingredients on top of the piece of bread in the order they appear above.

Homemade Chinese takeout

Buying takeout food, even something as simple as McDonald's or pizza, here in Norway is ridiculously expensive. A medium pizza cost anywhere from $15 and up- that's expensive!

With expensive takeouts in mind me and the bf decided on making our own takeout food at home. We decided on Chinese as we both love it.

Earlier that week we had talked about different chores around the house and I had half-heartedly complained that I always do all the cooking. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking (as well you know) but sometimes a little help goes a long way. He then said, and I have to agree that he was on to something, that whenever he tries to help I always watch him like a hawk and end up taking over because he's not doing whatever it is that he's doing the way I want it to be done... (It's not my fault that my way is the right way!!)

Anyways, I decided on handing over the responsibility for an ENTIRE dish, and lo and behold, he did brilliantly. Ok, I tried to "guide" him a few times when I sensed disaster was near, but he just told me to "shoosh and mind my own business". I was very proud of him for making an entire dish on his own, read: he chopped a lot of prawns and onions and spread them on top of bread....! But he was very proud of himself and who am I to take that pride away from him?!

Here's what he made

Sesame prawn toasts
Serves 4 as part of a meal

225 g peeled, de-veined and chopped tiger prawns
1 spring onion/scallion, chopped
½ tsp salt
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch/potato starch
1 egg white, lightly beaten
3 thin slices bread, crust removed
4 tbsp sesame seeds
vegetable oil for deep frying


In a bowl, combine prawns, spring onion/scallion, salt, soy sauce, corn/potato starch and egg white.

Spread the mixture on the slices of bread, sprinkle with sesame seeds and press down hard to ensure the topping doesn't fall off when deep frying.

Deep fry for 2-3 minutes, turning half way through, until golden brown and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper. Eat!

My contribution to the Chinese takeout was, apart from being food"gestapo"incarnate, deep fried king/tiger prawns.

Here's the recipe:

Deep fried king/tiger prawns
Serves 4 as part of a meal

16 king/tiger prawns
oil for deep frying
200 g all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
2½ dl milk
1 pinch chili powder

Peel and de-vein the prawns, but keep the tail intact.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the batter. Pour in the wet ingredients and stir until you have a thick batter.

Heat the oil in a wok. Hold the prawn by the tail and dip into the batter. Carefully drop each batter coated prawn into the hot oil. Deep fry for about 3 minutes, take out and drain on kitchen paper. Eat!

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

Midsummer tart

Shrimp-, crayfish-, tomato-, artichoke- and button mushroom pie
Serves 6

Pie crust:
3 dl flour
1 pinch salt
150 g unsalted butter
water

Filling:
2 tomatoes
6 button mushrooms
1 can artichoke hearts
300g crayfish tails
or 150 g crayfish tails and 150 g shrimps
4 eggs
2 dl heavy cream
2 dl milk
salt and white pepper

1. Start off by making the pie crust. Mix the ingredients in a food processor or by hand. Add water, a little at a time, until you have a ball of pie crust dough. Chill for 1 hour.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 200° C. Roll out the pie crust and pre-bake it for 15 minutes.

3. Dice the tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. Fry the mushrooms in a little butter until all the liquid has evaportated.

4. In a bowl, combine the eggs, cream, milk, and salt and pepper. Place the filling the pie crust, pour over the egg mix.

5. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. After 12 ½ minutes cover the pie with aluminum foil.

I must have done something wrong when I made this because I had to have it in the oven for well over 1 hour before I got it to set properly... Hope yours goes better.

Salami- and feta cheese tart

Don't look at a recipe and go "oh no, I don't have all the ingredients to make this, so I can't make this today". Instead, go "what ingredients do I have that can replace the ones I don't have at home right now". I never go "oh no", but go "ok, let's be creative". Admittedly sometimes you can't substitute one thing for something else, then you just have to deal with it, and either not cook that particular dish, or go grocery shopping. But most of the time it really pays off to go creative.

I am always quite 'oh well' when it comes to recipes. I don't always read them through thoroughly and it is not uncommon for me to somewhere down the line realize I have missed something and will have to go rummaging through my pantry for this particular thing. But I almost never discourage, except for the other day when I tried making naan bread and ended up binning the whole thing as the dough kept crumbling..., anyway, I almost always pull through and come up with something inventive way of saving the "day".

Like yesterday. I had planned on making Salami- and feta cheese tart. I had had my eye on this particular recipe ever since I saw it in one of those free recipe folders I picked up at the supermarket the other day. I mean, doesn't it sound delicious?! Salami- and feta cheese tart. (Gosh I hate that word, tart... pie sounds so much better).
I didn't have salami, or spinach, or black olives at home. So what did I do? I used chorizo, button mushrooms, and green olives instead. Not the most off-the-wall substitutions, but still.

Here's the original recipe:


Salami- and feta cheese tart
Serves 4-6

Pie crust
3 ½ dl all-purpose flour
150 g margarine, or butter
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp water

Filling
100 g fresh spinach, or 50 g frozen
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
100 g feta cheese
8 cherry- or cocktail tomatoes, cut in halves
10 black olives, pip removed
50 g pepper- or regular salami, cut into strips
1-2 tsp dried oregano
3 eggs
3 dl Low fat Creme Fraiche

1. Make the crust by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor, or by hand until you have a solid but pliable dough. Set to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Press the chilled dough into a round, loose-bottomed mould (24-26 cm) allowing the pasty to come up around the edges about 5 cm. With some aluminum foil, cover the edges so when you bre-bake it the edges will not collapse. Pre-bake the pastry for 10 minutes in a 225 C hot oven. Remove the foil.

2. Wilt the spinach in a hot pan, season with salt and pepper.

3. Add the spinach, feta cheese, tomatoes, olives, and salami to the baked crust.

4. In a bowl, mix the eggs and the creme fraiche. Season with the oregano. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

5. Bake the pie, on 200 C, on the bottom rack of the oven until the filling has set nicely and the top has turned golden.

(My tart came out a little loose, don't really know why).

På svenska:
Salami- och fetaost paj

Dim Sum

Dim sums are one of my favorite Chinese dishes. I tried dim sums for the first time when my Chinese friends Ruby, Vivi and Shirly made them for me one night at uni. Up until then I had always thought they looked kind of slimy. But watching my three Chinese friends make them from scratch with such speed and dedication, impressed me to the point where I had to try them for myself + they looked pretty darn tasty. And they were tasty, oh so tasty! The girls served the dim sums with a dipping sauce, and three sides (spicy cucumber salad, fried shredded potato, and steamed egg rolls filled with chicken).

Dim Sum
Makes lots

Dough:
4,5 dl all-purpose flour
1,5-2 dl cold water

Put the flour in a bowl. Mix in a little water at a time until you have a smooth dough that does not stick to your fingers or the side of the bowl. Cover with a damp towel, and set to rest in the fridge. You can also use ready made store bought wonton wrappers, - very convenient!

Filling:
300-350 g minced meat, chicken, pork or beef
1/5 (about 10 cm) leek, chopped
1 cm root ginger, finely chopped or grated
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 cm red chili, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seed oil
salt & pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Dipping sauce:
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp vinegar, rice- or white wine-
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
2 cm leek, chopped
1 cm root ginger, chopped
a pinch of sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a small serving bowl.

Making the dim sums:
Take the dough from the fridge. Kneed it for 5 minutes. Cut the dough in two, and cut then each
half in half. Take one piece of dough, set the other three pieces aside under the damp towel. Using a rolling pin, roll the piece of dough into a large, very thin, square. Using a mold, I made a mold (9x9 cm) from a piece of paper, and used a glass jar Ø 9 cm, cut out squares and circles. Put 1 tsp of the filling in the center of each sheet. Fold the dim sums like this 1) or 2).

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Drop in 1/4 of the dim sums into the water. When the dim sums float to the surface, cook for another 5 minutes. Take one out of the water, cut in half to check that the meat is cooked. Take cooked dim sums out, and tip in the next load, until all the dim sums are cooked.

NOW - EAT!

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

Meatballs

My boyfriend's personal trainer has put him on a diet, and I have decided to try and follow the same regime. We'll see how well I do, I am absolutely sure that I will be the one who crumbles and falls first. Thankfully, Saturdays are "eating days" which means that we can eat "normal" food instead of following the diet. Can't wait for Saturday!


Meatballs
Serves 4

400 g ground pork/beef

1 dl bread crumbs
½ red onion, finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

1-2 clove garlic, grated

1 tbsp dried mint leaves

2 tbsp milk

salt & pepper

(These meatballs can be used as either part of a main course or as part of a platter of starters).

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Shape the mix into small balls. Fry in a non-stick pan using no oil. Drain off any excess fat on kitchen paper. Serve with pasta and a tomato sauce.

Enjoy!

Thai prawn balls- revisited

I made Thai prawn balls again yesterday! They, as last time, turned out delicious! I really didn't feel like making them last night, it was late and I had just returned from volleyball practice. But I had already defrosted the prawns so had to make them or else I'd end up throwing the prawns in the trash. After a quick stop at the supermarket on my way home from practice I picked up all the ingredients I knew I didn't have at home; lime, spring onions and eggs. Once home I realized I didn't have soy sauce either, but I simply substituted the soy sauce for 1 tsp Thai fish sauce. Like last time I served the "balls" with rice and a sweet chili sauce. I also added a couple of florets of broccoli to add some greens to the plate. YUM!

Enjoy!

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.