Roast pork shoulder with fresh pineapple salsa

To make a long story short, I have found myself with a lot of time on my hands this autumn, so, I've spent a lot of this time cooking.

Tonight's dinner was great, although I wish I'd let the pork marinade in the spice rub for a couple of hours as the inside of the roast didn't taste of much other than pork.

The spice rub is made from cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, pepper corns, ground ginger and salt (pounded in a pestle and mortar or ground in a spice grinder). The pork shoulder is rubbed with the spice mix (preferably left to marinade for a couple of hours), then seared on all sides in a hot pan. Glazed with  honey and then placed in a 200C oven to roast.

The salsa is just chopped pineapple, chilli, tomatoes, banana shallot, lime zest and juice, and coriander.

Yum!

So, as you can tell I haven't updated this blogg in about a year's time. What can I say, I think getting a job working with food killed my inspiration. I know that probably sounds really weird, but that's what happened. I started working at the deli counter at the local supermarket and all of a sudden my cooking mojo left the building. I think it's working around all that pre-packed crap that we get at the store that killed it for me. You'd think working around that all day, I'd be inspired to cook healthy food from scratch when I got home, but unfortunately that wasn't the case for me.

I will try and update this blogg more often. I do want to keep it going.

Angélica

Norwegian Almond Cake - Suksess Terte

Long time no blogging. And as always I really don't have a good excuse as to why I have not been blogging lately. I do have a theory though: I work with food all day, at the deli at the local supermarket, so when I get home from work the last thing on my mind is more food. So, not only has the work at the deli killed my joy for blogging about food, it has also managed to kill most of the joy I get from actually cooking good food. Very sad!

Anyway, here I am, back in the saddle. Or so I hope. I have a few recipes to share with you, some that I have made during my absence.

I'd like to start you off with a delicious Norwegian almond cake. I baked it for church a couple of weeks ago, and lo and behold, I sold out! That has not happened in I don't know how long.

Norwegian Almond Cake "Suksess terte"

Base
250 g almonds
250 g icing sugar
5 egg whites
1 tsp baking powder

Chocolate spread
100 g dark cooking chocolate
2 tsp instant coffee powder
2 tbsp water

Custard
5 egg yolks
100 g icing sugar
1 dl (100 ml) heavy cream
4 tsp vanilla sugar
100 g butter

Heat the oven to 180 C.

1. Start off by grounding the almonds. Leave the skins on as this will make the base a lovely dark colour. Mix the icing sugar and the baking powder into the ground almonds and set aside. Whisk the egg whites until fluffy and fold in the almonds. Stir to combine.

2. Line a 9 inch/23 cm cake pan and pour in the base mixture. Bake on the bottom rack for 30-35 minutes. Allow the cake to cool off still in the pan.

3. Chocolate spread: Melt the chocolate using a bain marie (water bath). Pour the water into a small glass and stir in the instant coffee powder. Add the coffee to the melted chocolate, and spread the chocolate/coffee spread onto the cake. Allow the chocolate to set a little before applying the custard.

4. Custard: Add egg yolks, icing sugar, heavy cream and vanilla sugar to a sauce pan. Stir to combine and keep stirring and heat on a low heat until the mixture thickens. Do not up the heat as the custard will go from not thick to THICK in a matter of seconds. Allow the custard to cool off a little before adding the butter. Keep stirring while the butter is melting. Spread the custard on top of the chocolate spread.

Sprinkle some sliced almonds on top and serve.

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)

Homemade butter

Break didn't last very long. I guess the act of saying to myself that I don't have time to blog, made me realize that, actually, I do have time to blog. I've just been lazy- shame on me!

Anyway, I was browsing the net the other day and came across a video made by the people over at showmethecurry.com where they demonstrated how to make homemade butter. Honestly, I can't believe I haven't made my own butter before. I mean, it's dead easy and it requires a whooping 1-2 ingredients; whipping cream and salt.

The more I thought about making my own homemade butter the more I realized that I have known all along how to make it. A push from the smtc should not have been necessary. I heard it as a mantra every time I whipped cream as a kid: "don't whip the cream too much, or it'll turn into butter". Sound familiar? I guess I never thought it was true. But, lo and behold, it is true.

That is really how you make homemade butter. It's as simple as that.

Homemade butter
Adapted from showmethecurry.com


3 dl whipping cream
salt, to taste (optional)

1. Pour the whipping cream into a bowl. Using electric beaters, beat until you have made whipped cream. Continue to beat until the creams gets kind of heavy. Keep on beating 'til the liquid separates, and voilá, you have now made butter.

2. Take the butter out of the bowl and mix with salt. At this stage you can also go on and add herbs, spices or garlic to make flavoured butter.

Store the butter in an airtight container in the fridge.
The flavoured butter will keep for about a week in the fridge.
Butter with no flavours, except salt (optional), will keep in the fridge for a good couple of months.
Both flavoured and plain butter freezes really well.

I'll be back shortly...

I hate when blogging becomes a must instead of a want... therefore I am on a little bit of a blogging-vacation.

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.