Egyptian food

Check out the recipes for these flavoursome and delicious Egyptian dishes over at The World On Our Plates.
 
Tagin samak bi-al-kuzbara (White fish in garlic tomato sauce)

Michoteta (Feta cheese salad with cucumber and red onion)

Onion Tart

With no meat in sight in the fridge or the in freezer, but about a ton of onions in the pantry, I set out to make an onion tart for dinner. Having never made an onion tart before I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to make, and with how absolutely tasty the finished tart was.

Next time I'm going to try and use a mild blue cheese instead of just normal cheese, to give it a little more flavour.

Can't wait to make this again!

Onion tart
Adapted from Bärbloggen
Serves 4

Pie crust
3 ½ dl flour
150 g cold butter, cut into pieces
a pinch salt
about 2 tbsp ice cold water

Filling
4 medium onions
3 eggs
2 ½ dl milk
3 dl grated cheese
salt and pepper
a little paprika powder

Preheat the oven to 200° C.
1. Start by making the pie crust, as this needs to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Place the flour, butter and salt in a food processor. Mix/pulse until you have a crumbly mix, then add in 1 tbsp of water and pulse. The dough might come together at this point, but if it doesn't, add in a little bit more water until the dough comes together. Place the dough in a plastic bag, flatten it out and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, start on the filling. Cut the onions using a mandolin, or a sharp knife, into really thin rings. Heat some butter or oil in a pan, and fry the onions on a medium to high heat until translucent. Set aside to cool off.

3. Take the pie crust dough out of the fridge and roll it out onto a floured surface. Lift up the dough and fit into a tart pan. Make sure the edges are covered all the way up if you are using a pan with low edges. Prick the pie crust and line it with some parchment paper, and fill with ceramic baking beans or rice. Blind bake for 15 minutes.

4. While the crust is blind baking in the oven, combine the eggs, milk, cheese and spices in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

5. Take out the pie crust from the oven and remove baking beans and parchment paper. Add the, now chilled, onions to the crust. Pour the egg and cheese mix on top, and place the whole thing back into the oven for 30 minutes or until the eggs have set.

Serve with a green salad.

Homemade apple butter

Canadian apple butter

It is Canada week over at The World On Out Plates, and I decided to make Canadian apple butter.

Apple butter, for those of you who are not in the know, is a really thick apple sauce. It tastes like the best apple sauce you have ever tried. I promise, you'll love it.

Apple Butter
Makes about 1 large jar
Recipe by Michael Smith from Food Network Canada

10  apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup apple juice
1/4 tsp each of ground nutmeg, cardamom,  cloves and allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place all the ingredients in a large sauce pan, stir to combine. Over medium to high heat, cook the apples until they become very soft. Let the mixture cook until the liquid had reduced with about 80% and you have a thick, dark brown sauce.

2. Remove from heat, and using an immersion hand blender, purée the apple butter. Pour the apple butter into sterilized jars.

Zucchini fritters

Tonight's dinner- Zucchini fritters

Zucchini fritters
Makes 4

1 rather large zucchini, about 30 cm long
½ red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
½-1 dl flour
salt and pepper

1. Grate the zucchini in the coarse side and place the grated zucchini in a bowl. Sprinkle with some salt, mix and set to rest for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, place the zucchini in a colander and press down to squeeze out any zucchini juices.

2. Place the zucchini back in the bowl and mix with the rest of the ingredients. The fritter "batter" should be quite loose.

3. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry as large or small fritters as you want. Flip over when the bottom has turned golden and crisp.

Serve with a dollop of yoghurt and your favourite topping, such as sliced chicken, bacon, prawns or eat them as they are.

Cupcakes

When my friend asked me the other day if I wanted to hang out and watch a movie, I said yes on one condition: that she would let me teach her how to make cupcakes from scratch. You see, I had a couple of weeks earlier been gobsmacked when said friend told me that she did a little bit of baking, but that she always used the "just add water"-cake mixes. I really couldn't believe what I was hearing, and vowed to give her a lesson in baking when I had time.

Since she didn't have any of the ingredients I had to bring flour, baking powder, sugar and eggs. The rest of the ingredients we picked up at the store on our way to her place, she came to pick me up in her car since it was raining and I don't have a car, nor do I drive.

The cupcakes turned out great and I left my friend with the recipe, she even asked for it, and said, quite a few times, while we were baking that "this wasn't as difficult as I'd expected it to be". Yay, mission accomplished!

Cupcakes
Makes about 20 cupcakes
Adopted from Laila bakar

100 g butter, melted
2 2 eggs
1.5 1.5 dl caster sugar
1 1 tsk vanilla sugar
2 2 dl milk
1 1 lemon, the zest
4 4 dl flour
2 2 tsk baking powder
1 1 pinch salt

Frosting:
100 g Philadelphia cheese
60 60 g soft butter
300 300 g chocolate/strawberry flavoured powdered sugar
0.5 the juice of ½ lemon

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200 C fan, or 220 C if you use a normal oven.

2. Start by beating the eggs and the sugars until you have a pale yellow, fluffy batter.

3. Pour in the melted butter, milk and the lemon zest. Mix to combine.

4. Using a wooden spoon or a spatula, fold in the flour, baking powder and salt.

5. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and fill each liner 3/4 of the way up. Place on the middle shelf of the oven for 10 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out dry and clean.

6. Allow to cool some in the tin before tipping the cupcakes out to cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Make the frosting:
Cream butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice. Mix in the cream cheese.
Spread or pipe onto the cupcakes and garnish with sprinkles or flowers.

Mushroom, mozarella and spinach ravioli

I have been wanting to make ravioli for ages but have never gotten around to it, until now that is. I set out for the store yesterday to buy myself some ingredients for the filling. I had in my mind decided on making a mushroom, spinach and mascarpone filling, but they didn't carry mascarpone at the supermarket. What kind of a country do I live in wherea decent supermarket doesn't carry mascarpone? The answer is Norway, also known as "FSC" or "friend-stealing-country" to some of us!

Well, I had to rethink and decided on putting some shredded mozarella in the filling instead. What a wonderful idea, and I am sure it would have been so tasty had I invested in some proper mozarella instead of relying on the pre-shredded stuff we bought at the supermarket the other week.

I was also a little worried the process of making the actual ravioli would be extremely time consuming, but all went well, it didn't take long at all. Maybe all that dumpling making finally paid off?!

Anyway, to make a long story short, the ravioli were good, but could have been so much tastier had I used the ingredients I first intended to use. Ah well, next time I'm making ravioli I'm going to have a go at making homemade mascarpone. Wish me good luck, I think I'll need it!

The filling

Ravioli. I made some different shapes, mostly because my
ravioli folding skills need some work.

Yum, the finished product!

Mushroom, mozarella and spinach ravioli
Serves 1-2

pasta dough for 1 person
5 smallish button mushrooms, thinly sliced
125 g baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
150-200 g mozarella (a little less than a ball)
salt and pepper

1. In a frying pan, melt some butter and add in the garlic and the spinach, allowing it to wilt. Remove and place on a plate to cool down.

2. Using the same pan, tip in the mushrooms and cook until most of the water has evaporated. Add in just a little butter and salt and pepper, stir. Remove and place on a plate to cool down.

3. Make the pasta dough while the vegetables cool down.

4. Using a pasta machine, roll the pasta dough to desired thickness.

5. Place the rolled dough on a clean and floured surface. Cut out squares.

6. Place the cooled vegetables in a mixing bowl, add the mozarella, stir to combine.

7. . Place 1 tsp of the filling in the centre of each pasta square.

8. Fold the square diagonally to create a triangle. Press down on the edges to ensure the filling doesn't leak out. Lift up the triangle and place it on your index finger with the base pointing towards the palm of your hand. Wrap the two corners that stick out around your finger to create a ring. Pull the ring off of your finger and place on a floured plate. Do this until you have no dough left.

9. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Tip in the ravioli and boil for 2-3 min or until the tortellini float up the surface.

10. Drain and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a few shavings of parmesan cheese on top.

Roasted Chickpeas

Last Friday we arranged a farewell-/birthday for friends who are leaving to go back to Germany this summer after a year in Norway working as volunteers at our church.

A few days before the party I stumbled across a recipe for "ROASTED CHICKPEAS WITH GARLIC, CUMIN AND PAPRIKA" at The Perfect Pantry. I didn't want to just serve the girls potato chips so decided to make the chickpeas.

I also made a pavlova, which was tasty, but the girls liked the chickpeas better I think. (Correction: Hannah LOVED the cake but "you can't eat too much of such a cake"). I had to give most of the cake away the next day but I didn't have a single chickpeas left by the end of the evening.

Michaela turned 20

Roasted chickpeas with garlic, cumin and paprika
Serves about 6
Adapted from The Perfect Pantry

1 can (400 g) chickpeas
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, grated
3/4 tsp ground sweet paprika
3/4 tsp ground cumin
salt
pepper

Set the oven to 220C.

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Dry them off on kitchen paper. Place then in a bowl, add the olive and garlic to the bowl and shake to ensure that all peas are covered.

2. Spread the chickpeas on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Roast the chickpeas for about 20 minutes, shaking the tray every few minutes so that the peas are roasted evenly.

3. While the chickpeas are roasting, line a plate with kitchen paper. Place the roasted chickpeas on the kitchen paper to drain. While still warm, sprinkle over the rest of the spices. Transfer the chickpeas to a serving plate or allow them to cool down before storing them in a airtight container.

Sorry Doro, but that's the only photo I have of the almost empty plate!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Potato and spinach quiche

I'm back, as per usual I don't have a good reason for being away from such a long time.

I found the recipe for this quiche well over a year ago on the back of the bag that the potatoes came in. I scribbled it down and put it in my recipe folder thinking I'd get around to trying it out sometime soon. This was not the case, I forgot all about the recipe and only came across it again a few days ago when I was rummaging through the recipe folder looking for inspiration for dinner. Next time I make it I'm going to add in some feta cheese for a little extra flavour!

Potato and spinach quiche
Serves 4

Crust:
150 g butter
3 dl flour
2-2½ tbsp ice cold water

Filling:
300 g boiled, cold potatoes
200 g baby spinach, roughly chopped
1 red onion, cut into thin rings
50 g sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 eggs
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 dl heavy cream
1 tbsp dill, chopped
salt & pepper

Set your oven to 200° C.
1. Start by making the crust. In a food processor, combine flour and butter. When crumbly, add in a little water at a time until the mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic film and place in the fridge to chill for about 1 hr. When chilled, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and line a springform pan, 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. Pre-bake the crust for 10 mins.

2. While the pastry is chilling in the fridge, prepare the filling. Cut the potatoes into slices and then cut the slices in half. Mix with the spinach, red onion and the sun-dried tomatoes. In a separate bowl, crack the eggs, add the heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, dill and salt & pepper, whisk to combine.

3. Place the dry filling in the now pre-baked crust, and pour in the egg mixture.

4. Bake the pie at (the recipe says 170° C but I had to use 200 ° and my oven is only about 3 years old- I say, if it doesn't set at 170° C up the temp to 200° C) 170° C for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Gaeng Chöt- soup

I gave my boyfriend a task yesterday; to find a soup to have for dinner before going out last night. He found a soup called Gaeng Chöt- a pork meatballs and glass noodle soup from Thailand ( I would say it's more Chinese, but who am I to judge?), over at the Norwegian site "Mat Prat" (Food talk).

It's a really easy soup to make and it tastes surprisingly good. I wasn't all too excited, it doesn't look like much at all... but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't have any ground pork at home but I had plenty of store bought meatballs in the freezer, so... And I really hate the look of glass noodles, they remind me of jellyfish tentacles, so I used Chinese wheat noodles instead.

To make this dish vegetarian friendly, simply substitute the meatballs for tofu.

Gaeng Chöt
(Adapted from matprat.no)
Serves 2

Meatballs:
300 g ground pork
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Soup:
4 dried Chinese mushrooms- shiitake
50 g glass noodles or other kind
5 dl / 2 cups water
½ dl soy sauce
1 spring onion, chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced lengthwise
1 tbsp coriander/cilantro leaves

1. Soak the mushrooms in hot water for at least 20 minutes. Soak the noodles, or cook until almost done.

2. Mix the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl. Make small meatballs.

3. Bring water and soy sauce to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer the meatballs for 5 minutes.

4. Cut the mushrooms in half, add the mushrooms and the noodles to the soup.

5. After a couple of minutes, add in the vegetables, take the pan from the heat. Sprinkle the soup with the coriander soup, and serve.

Malaysian Meat Curry Puffs

Malaysian meat curry puffs
(adapted from Spicie Foodie)
makes about 13 puffs
These can of course be made vegetarian-friendly.

Filling
5 tbsp oil
1 medium onion
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 ½ tsp meat curry powder
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 large cooked potatoes, diced
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt

400 g cooked meat, I used meat from a rotisserie chicken
60 ml water

1. Fry the onions and ginger until the onion is golden. Add curry, turmeric and chili and cook until fragrant. Next add potatoes, sugar, pepper and salt and cook for 10 minutes. Add chicken and water and cook until the mixture is almost dry. Set aside to chill.

Dough
500 g flour
150 g butter
200 ml water
½ tsp salt (ONLY if you use unsalted butter)

Mix all ingredients into a smooth pastry. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes in a warm place.
Cut the dough in half. Roll out the pastry, using a cookie cutter (10 cm) cut out circles.
Take 1 tbsp of the filling and place in each cut out circle.

2. Fold in half

3. Using a fork, press the edges together.

4. Place the puffs on an oven tray.

5. Bake the puffs for 30 minutes at 180 c. Serve warm or at room temperature with a spicy dipping sauce.

Malaysian Meat Curry Powder

I managed to get a hold of fennel seeds in Sweden, and set out to make the Malaysian Meat Curry Powder one night when my bf had a friend over.

Making the powder was really easy and well worth the effort. However my spice grinder, an old fashioned coffee grinder, did make the actual process of grinding the spices somewhat tedious and difficult. But plans are that I'm buying an electric spice grinder in the near future. Can't wait!

Malaysian Meat Curry Powder
(adapted from Spicie Foodie)

10 whole cloves

10 whole black peppercorns

4 whole cardamom pods

1(5cm) cinnamon stick

4 whole dried red chilies

4 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp turmeric

Roast the spices according to size on medium heat starting with cloves, peppercorns and cardamom. When the spices start to smoke and release their fragrance tip onto a plate and allow to cool. Next toast cinnamon and chilies, then coriander seeds. Last but not least, toast the cumin- and fennel seeds.

Grind the toasted spices, either in a coffee/spice grinder or in a pestle and mortar, into a fine powder. Add in the turmeric.

Homemade Tahini

With nothing else to do I found myself watching BBC Lifestyle's Chef At Home with Michael Smith. Today's inspiration was Morocco, and he made a chicken stew and some other dishes, one of them being hummus. One of the ingredients in hummus is Tahini. Tahini is a sesame paste, made from sesame seeds and vegetable oil, used alot in Middle Eastern- and some Asian foods.

My friend Hanna once gave me the recipe for hummus, and one day I decided I'd make it for a dinner party I was hosting for a few friends. As the recipe called for Tahini I went to the local Middle Eastern food shop and the only jar I found was a huge plastic thing. Well, I needed Tahini so I bought it, and then only used however much the recipe called for and then never again.... I think I threw it out when I moved here...

So, inspired by Michael Smith's Moroccan feast and Hanna's hummus in mind I decided on making my own Tahini, so that I have a batch at home when I feel in the mood for some Middle Eastern flavours.

Tahini

1 cup hulled sesame seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Roast the sesame seeds in a 170° C oven for 5-10 minutes, keep an eye on them so they don't
burn. Chill



In a mixer, tip in the seeds and half of the oil. Mix to combine. Stop to clean the sides with a rubber spatula from time to time

After about 1 minute, slowly pour in the rest of the oil. Don't add all of it at the same time, as by adding a little at a time you can control how thick or thin you want you Tahini.

Store the Tahini in an air-tight jar in the fridge for quite a few weeks.

Quick dinner

I opened my fridge and found.......... NOTHING! And it wasn't even like I had an empty fridge, I just couldn't find a single thing in the fridge that I felt like cooking for dinner. I hate when that happens, I have a full fridge and still nothing to cook.

In the end, I made homemade pasta- gosh, I just love my pasta machine- fried some button mushrooms and grated garlic in a frying pan. Poured over half a tub of creme fraiche, and sprinkled some fresh basil on top, gave it a good stir, mixed the pasta and the sauce together in the pasta casserole, and served.

Thai Red Curry

Thai Red Curry
Serves 4

500 g boneless chicken (I used pork), sliced
1 generous tbsp red curry paste
2 tbsp sugar
5-6 lime leaves, shredded
1 can sliced bamboo shoots
400 ml coconut milk
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1. Pour one cup of coconut milk into a wok, bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Add in the curry paste and stir until red oil appears at the surface.

2. Add in the meat, simmer until cooked.

3. Add in the rest of the coconut milk, lime leaves, and bamboo shoots. Also stir in the sugar, and the fish sauce. Bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes.

4. Serve with rice

(As always I didn't use the exact ingredients. This time I used my trusty frozen wok vegetable mix instead of just the bamboo shoots)

- You can make this with other kinds of meat, or with no meat at all, but you will then have to add mushrooms or aubergines or something similar to make it a bit "meaty".

På svenska:
Thai Röd Curry

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

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