Homemade hamburger buns

As you might have figured out by now I am a huge fan of grilling. I think I could grill no matter season, and I have met Americans who grill outdoors even though they have to dig in about 4 ft of snow to find the grill! Those hamburgers where by far the second best hamburger I have ever tasted! Thank you, the Lehman family in Muncie, IN.

This is how much I love hamburgers. HA!

The best hamburger I ever tasted was at the local YWAM base in my hometown. I was on a work experience in 9th grade and I helped at the local elementary school. In the class where I helped out was a little American girl. It became my task to take care of her, and help her communicate with her peers, she knew very little Swedish and they knew very little English. As a thank you for helping her in school, her parents invited me over to the base, where they lived, for a BBQ. They made me American hamburgers and I can remember they were YUM! I don't know what they put in them to taste like a little piece of heaven, but they were truly divine.

Hamburgers is such a great thing to throw on the grill for a quick dinner that still tastes delicious. I hate the hamburger patties you can buy in the supermarkets over here, they are so thin and I don't know what they put in them to make them taste like... paper. I love making my own hamburger patties, and with the weekend being just a few hours away I am planing what to eat on Saturday and Sunday. I have to plan for Sunday (lunch and dinner), as all stores are closed on Sundays, which leaves no room for whims of inspiration and creativity. Extremely annoying!!!! Or maybe this is where my cooking skills really are put to the test?!
We're having hamburgers this weekend. Surprised?

As I said I tend to make my own hamburger patties, but I tend to buy the hamburger buns. I hate them almost as much, if not more, than I hate the store-bought hamburger patties. The buns here are DRY! So, to celebrate the good weather (25° C in the shade), and to stay out of the sun for a couple of hours - I'm too far from the ocean for my liking, I am making my own hamburger buns today. Found the recipe in MAISON MAT & VIN.

Before I set them to rest a second time... they grew enormous in those 45 minutes.

This is how they came out. YUM!

Hamburger buns
Makes 8 huge buns. I suggest you make 10-12 smaller buns

550 g flour
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3.6 dl lukewarm water (37° C)
25 g fresh yeast
1 egg 2 tbsp milk
sesame seeds

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and butter.

2. In a seperate bowl, dilute the yeast in the lukewarm water. Set to rest for 10 minutes.

3. Pour the liquid into the flour mix and kneed for a good 8-10 minutes. (You can do all this in your Kitchen Aid or similar device, if you're luck to have one. OR you can do as me and use the hands God gave you).

4. Cover the dough with a cloth and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour.

5. Divide the dough into 8 (or however many you decide to make) equal parts, and roll each part into a ball. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and press down slightly.

6. In a glass, or small bowl. Mix the egg and the milk. Using a brush, or the back of a spoon, brush the egg mix onto each ball of dough. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cover with a cloth and let stand for another 45 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 225° C. Bake the buns for 30-35 minutes.

8. Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container.

From my experience these buns do not freeze very well, they become too dry! So you should really try and eat them that same day or any time during the next couple of days.

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.

Midsummer is a really big thing in Sweden. More in the olden days than these days, Swedes danced around an upside-down phallic symbol, something to do with fertility apparently. These days people get together with friends and family to enjoy traditional Swedish summer food and to enjoy each others company.

Being a Swede abroad I thought I'd bring Swedish midsummer to me, rather than the other way around. I invited a friend from Sweden to come celebrate with me and all was good. I had planned on making mum's traditional midsummer dinner (probably the same as everyone else has at midsummer); herring, dill-boiled potatoes, meatballs, mini sausages, sour creme and chopped chives. But for some reason I got side-tracked, and we ended up having a savoury pie for a first course, shrimps in baguettes from our main course, and sticky chocolate cupcakes for dessert. We had already started off the festivities with a delicious, and super easy to make, salad for lunch.

Shrimps, sweet corn, tomatoes, apples, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, romaine lettuce, red onions, and yesterday's garlic chicken leftovers.

Shrimp-, crayfish-, tomato-, artichoke- and button mushroom pie. Click for recipe

Sticky chocolate cupcakes with chocolate- and coffee flavoured frosting.

Harissa chicken burger

I found this little cute can of Harissa at my local Asian/International food market the other week. I have been looking for Harissa for a long time, and I even had the perfect recipe for making it myself last year, but it got lost in the move and now I can't seem to find it anywhere. In fact, the Harissa I made myself was ten times better than the canned stuff. Gosh, I hate that I can't find the recipe.

Anyway, the local soccer team (ODD Grenland) played a home game on Sunday, and we had planned on having friends over after the game for, what we call a BBQ but what the rest of the world refers to as a grilling or a cook-out. When we have BBQ's at our house I take care of the condiments, such as potato salads, vegetables, sauces... yeah, that kind of stuff, and each guest brings his or her own meat to grill. That way me and my boyfriend don't end up feeding the entire neighbourhood each time we have a cook-out.

For Sunday's cook-out I had decided on making chicken burgers and since I had just bought the can of Harissa I wanted to try it out. The result was good, but not as spicy as I had hoped, and wished, for. It actually started to rain when we were on our way back from the game, which we won by the way, so we decided on going out for dinner instead. So, in order not to spoil the hamburgers, I had already made them before the game, I ended up frying them, and then we had them for dinner the next day. I think they would have been much more tasty had I grilled them instead of frying them.

Harissa chicken burger
Makes 4 large patties, or 8 small

400 g ground chicken
½ small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, grated
2 tsp harissa

1 egg

1 dl breadcrumbs

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set to chill in the fridge for no less than 1 hour.

Heat a nonstick pan, or fire up your grill. Dip your hands in cold water. Divide the chicken mince into four equal parts using your hands. Roll each part into a ball. Place the balls in the pan, and flatten them into hamburger-like patties. If grilling, you will need to make the burgers before placing them on the grill. fry, or grill, til the juice runs clear. Serve with your favourite condiments, such as tomatoes, onions, pickles, ketchup, lettuce and dressing. Don't forget to heat your hamburger buns. I popped mine in the toaster for about ½ minute.

På svenska
Harissakryddad kycklinghamburgare

Friday treats #2

It was a little runny, but oh so good!! Maybe if I had used a little more mayo and a little less sour cream...oh well, maybe next time. This dish is called "Västkustsallad" in Swedish. Translated into English- "West coast salad". In England we used to call it "The prawn thing". It's made from sour cream, mayo, prawns, button mushrooms, dill, and lemon juice, salt & pepper.

We ate this with baked potatoes on Friday night. I don't know why, but I always have trouble getting my baked potatoes perfectly cooked. They are always real hard in the middle, no matter how long I have them in the oven for. Unless I microwave my baked potatoes, of course. Then they come out perfect, but then I have to put them in the oven to crisp up the skins... What a hassle!

Calzone

I used to love pizza. I can't remember when I had my first bite, not like I do with my first candy-experience (but that's another story for another day). However, I do remember what we used to call pizzas in my house. I think it was my dad's -may God rest his soul- idea and it kind of stuck with the rest of us. He used to call it "en rund en"- "a round one". Probably not the most inventive nickname, but I think it's cute and it became like a secret word in my family. I think dad was pretty proud of his nickname, his very own contribution to the family dictionary.

My favourite pizza growing up was called Mexicana. This pizza had a thin spread of super-hot minced meat and a slight sprinkle of cheese. I loved it, I still love it. And you can get a variety of it almost everywhere in the world. Another kind of pizza that I love is "Kebab pizza". However, this pizza is very hard to come by anywhere else in the world, except for in Sweden. I have been to a number of corners of the world and have never come across a satisfying kebab pizza. Why is that, I wonder?

Anyways, here's my attempt at a Calzone, my brother's favourite pizza. However, he likes it stuffed with ham and cheese, only.

Calzone
Makes 2 pizzas

Pizza dough
25 g fresh yeast
2 ½ dl finger warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
7 dl all-purpose flour

Filling
meat from one rotisserie chicken
1 can crushed tomatoes with basil and oregano
1 small can button mushrooms
1 clove garlic, grated
1 medium onion, cut into pieces
½-1 tsp hot chili powder
salt & pepper
4 dl shredded cheese

Set the oven to 230 C.

1. Crumble the yeast into a small bowl. Pour over some water, and stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add the rest of the water, oil and salt. Put the flour in a bigger bowl. Make a small well in the flour, add in the yeast-mix and by using your hands, make a dough. Add more flour if needed. Cover with a cloth, and set to rest in a warm place until the dough had doubled in size.

2. Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients, except for the cheese, in a bowl.

3. Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a flour-dusted surface (preferably a piece of parchment paper). Kneed the dough for a bit, knocking the air out of it. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Keep one covered while working with the other. Roll out the dough into a large disk. On half the disk, spread in layers the cheese, and the filling. Flip over the top half and press the two edges together using your fingers or a fork.

4. Place the pizza on a warm pizza stone, or a warm oven tray and bake for 13 minutes or until the dough is golden and the cheese has melted.

På svenska
Calzone

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