Chickpea Salad

Sometimes I see a recipe and I instantly know I want to try it out. Such was the case the chickpea salad I noticed in the April 2011 issue of Bon Appétit. I've adjusted the amounts a little bit, but the most significant change to the original recipe is the additional of rocket.

This salad isn't merely a side - it's a meal in itself!

Ingredients:
- 2 cans chickpeas, about 460 g (1 lb) drained
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon (2 tbsp)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, very finely diced
- 1 yellow onion, finely diced
- 65 g (2 ¹/₃ oz) rocket
- fresh basil, chopped
- 40 g (1 ²/₅ oz) freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano

The chickpeas were rinsed, then mixed with the rest of the ingredients and tossed to mix.
Delicious - I know I'll be making this again. As promised the lemon juice, chickpeas and parmigiano-reggiano make for a really nice combination. Personally I think the rocket blends really well with that trio.

Mint Julep Cake (Round 2)

Remember the Mint Julep Cake? I thought it was delicious, but I still felt that it could be optimised a little bit.

Most importantly I was disappointed that the mint wasn't sufficiently prominent in the ganache. I realise this was my own fault for using mint syrup instead of mint extract. When I tried it a second time I used a LOT more mint syrup than I did the first time, but we still couldn't really taste the mint. That's when I started considering caving in and actually buying mint extract - but then I realised that the mint extract you can buy (at least around these parts) is always peppermint extract. Peppermint is banned in the Throat-Erator household.^[1] I realise I could try to make my own mint extract (and maybe one day I shall), but in the interest of having a quick procedure I decided to see what I could squeeze out of some fresh mint...

I bought 2 mint plants at the store, picked all the leaves and mashed them (I used my garlic press for this). The mass of mashed mint leaves didn't volunteer any juice, but when placed in a small fine sieve and pressed I was able to obtain about 1 tsp of a dark liquid with a rather peculiar smell. Now, I know that smell is highly concentration dependent, so the peculiar smell did not concern me - in fact, it encouraged me since I was aiming for a highly concentrated mint extract substitute. I went ahead and used it all - scroll to bottom for the result.

While I was at it, I also adjusted the amounts of both ganache and butter bourbon sauce.

Updated recipe as follows...

Ingredients (day 1):
- 340 g (12 oz) flour
- 400 g (14 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 225 g (8 oz) margarine
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) A-fil^[2]
- 4 eggs
butter bourbon sauce (day 1):
- 100 g margarine
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 6 tbsp bourbon (I used Jack Daniels)
minty, white chocolate ganache (day 2):
- 265 g (²/₃ of a 14 oz can) sweetened condensed milk
- 200 g (7 oz) white chocolate
- juice squeezed from the fresh leaves of 2 mint plants

In a large bowl, flour was mixed with sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla sugar.

In a separate bowl, softened margarine was whisked together with A-fil and eggs.

The liquid was poured into the dry mix and everything was mixed until a smooth homogeneous batter resulted. The batter was poured into a greased and floured spring form of 22 cm (9 inch) diameter. The cake was baked at 175 C (350 F) for an hour (the difference in baking time since the previous edition is due to the fact that I moved in between - the oven in my new apartment is different).

While the cake was baking, the butter bourbon sauce was prepared: powdered sugar, water and margarine was stirred over medium heat till melted and homogeneous (shouldn't reach boiling). Then it was removed from the heat and stirred for an additional two minutes before the bourbon was stirred in.

While the cake was still hot holes were poked in the top (with a knife) and the butter bourbon sauce was poured over. Then the cake was allowed to stand and cool while absorbing the butter bourbon sauce.

Later, the cake was covered with film and stored in the fridge overnight before making and applying the ganache.

For the ganache I first squeezed the juice out of my mint leaves as described above. Then I melted white chocolate together with sweetened condensed milk over low heat with constant stirring. When homogeneous the heat was turned off and the mint juice was stirred into the mixture.

The ganache was allowed to cool for half an hour before applying it to the cake - after which the cake was immediately put in the fridge in order for the ganache to set (I did check up on it to make sure the ganache didn't flow too much - like the first time I made this cake).

I have to say I was very pleased with the result - the extra bourbon was spot on, as was the amount of ganache. But the best part was that this time we could taste mint!

^[1] To quote Mrs. Throat-Erator: "Makes me feel like I'm eating toothpaste!!"
^[2] The original recipe called for buttermilk - however, this is not available in Swedish stores as all buttermilk produced is currently delivered directly to bakeries. I decided to opt for A-fil because of it's tangy freshness - for more on A-fil see here.

Russian Tea Cakes

This is how it happened: We were getting close to the day that it would yet again be my turn to provide some egg-free baked delicacies for a work gathering, when suddenly Mrs. Throat-Erator tugged my sleeve and said: "Please make these so I can bring some to work for my birthday". I checked the recipe .. no eggs required. Then I checked with my boss about the detail of the nut allergy: "I'll survive pecans". And so I decided to make a large batch of cookies.

Ingredients:
- 760 g (~24 oz) margarine
- 860 g (~30 oz) flour
- 140 g (~5 oz) powdered sugar + more for rolling
- 3 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 350 g (~12 oz) pecan nuts^[1]

The margarine was worked into the flour using the hands - the resulting mixture was quite sticky. The vanilla sugar, powered sugar, water and chopped pecans were worked into the dough - which was still rather sticky.

The dough was rolled into balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter - in the end the cookies were a bit on the large side of what I'd expected, so I guess I'll aim for smaller somewhat balls next time, say 1.5-2 cm (³/₅ - ⁴/₅ inch) instead. The balls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and flattened slightly - to about 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thickness with the bottom of a drinking glass (this required a little patience and practice since the dough tended to stick to the glass). I got some 80 cookies out of this batch.

The cakes were baked at 162.5 C (325 F) for 25 minutes, then moved to a rack to cool.

The cool cakes were rolled in powdered sugar - and mighty delicious.

Since these go both by the name of Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies, I don't really know if they are truly Russian (or Mexican) - both seems unrealistic. But I do know that they go very well with tea, and I find them most appropriate since I'm currently drinking mainly Russian tea.

^[1] You'll find these cookies made with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias... you name the nut, basically. I think I'd like to try some other nuts in this recipe one of these days.

Roast Chicken with Spinach-Mushroom Stew

This came about with quite some inspiration from the 'Sunday supper' of the September issue of Bon Appétit. Some ingredients were changed but the main idea is quite similar.

Ingredients:
tubers:
- 8 medium-sized potatoes, diced
- sunchokes (about half as much as potatoes), diced
- fresh thyme
- a little olive oil
- salt & pepper
chicken:
- a 1.3 kg (shy of 3 lbs) chicken
- salt & pepper
- fresh oregano
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) dry sherry
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) water
spinach-mushroom stew:
- oil
- 2 yellow onions, chopped coarsely
- 3 portabello mushrooms, sliced
- salt
- 1.2 kg (2 ²/₃ lb) frozen spinach
- 1 jalapeño chilli, finely chopped
- pan juices from roast chicken

The potatoes and the sunchokes were rinsed, diced and put in a an oven-proof tray together with leaves of fresh thyme, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. The tubers were roasted at 200 C (400 F) for 1.5 hours.

The chicken was rubbed with salt and pepper - and leaves of fresh oregano was put wherever I could find a spot (inside, under the wing, under the leg, in every crease of the skin .. etc.). The chicken was placed in an oven-proof tray and added the sherry and the water. The chicken was roasted in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 1 h and 10 minutes.

The coarsely chopped onions were sautéed in a little oil, then added sliced portabello mushrooms and salt. After some additional minutes, frozen spinach was added together with a finely chopped jalapeño (not de-seeded). The pot was covered, but stirred occasionally until the spinach was thawed and heated through. Finally, the pan juices from the chicken roast were added and the stew was seasoned to taste with salt.

The tubers could quite possibly do with shorter roasting time, but the chicken - meat falling off of the bones goodness. The spinach-mushroom stew was a nice touch, and one that I think I'll be making variations on in the future.

Lentil Potato Stew

With heavy inspiration from this recipe, I first tried this dish back in January when the land was covered in fluffy white blanket and it was possible to walk on the ice from island to island. It's not nearly that cold yet, although the weather is changing more and more for fall these days. In my hands this soup became so think I'd call it a stew - or at least borderline so.




Ingredients:
- 125 g (4-5 oz) bacon, cut in smaller pieces
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 jalapeño chillies, finely chopped
- fresh ginger, finely diced
- yellow curry powder
- turmeric
- 1.8 kg (4 lbs) potatoes, diced
- scoop of flour
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) chicken stock
- 500 g (~ 1 lb) green lentils
- salt
- cilantro, for serving




In a large pot, the bacon was fried on medium-high. When crisp the bacon was removed, but the fat that had been rendered out was left in the pot. To this was added onion, garlic, chilli, ginger, curry powder and turmeric.^[1] When the onion had softened, the potato dices where added. A scoop of flour was added and the contents of the pot were stirred - just so the flour coated the potatoes. Then the chicken stock and the lentils were added. The pot was brought to a boil before covering and reducing the heat. After simmering for about an hour the stew was seasoned to taste with salt and served with bacon bits and freshly chopped cilantro on top.

^[1] Yellow curry powder of course contains turmeric, but I wanted a blend that was richer in turmeric.

Kladdkaka

There's chocolate cake and there's chocolate cake - and then there's kladdkaka. I guess it's symptomatic of my level of proficiency in Swedish that until recently I though kladdkaka was simply an abbreviation from chokladkaka, meaning 'chocolate cake' (yes, I assumed wrongly that chocolate in Swedish was spelled chokladd with double 'd') - when in fact it simply means 'goo cake'. The name hints at the fact that when done right, the centre of the cake is in fact quite gooey - soft, viscous and not at all dry.

By now you might be thinking of a good moist brownie - which is essentially what kladdkaka is. Tradition dictates that it is round and that wedges are served with a dollop of whipped cream. This was how I first encountered it, in the cafés in Stockholm where it is one of the staple cakes along with the ubiquitous cinnamon rolls.

I'd been wanting to try my hand at it for a while when a friend directed my attention towards the winning recipe (in Swedish) from the 2009 Swedish championships in kladdkaka (!!) - which I proceed to describe below (with minor modifications). The spiced fudge included in this recipe is pure luxury - the kladdkaka without the fudge is perfectly delicious in it's own right - although I suspect the fudge was part of what set it apart to become the winning entry in the kladdkaka competition.

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 340 g (12 oz) sugar
- 90 g (¹/₅ lb) flour
- 40 g (1.4 oz) powdered cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- ¹/₄ tsp salt
- 100 g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted
fudge:
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) cream
- 1 tsp honey
- 2 tsp powdered cinnamon
- 2 tsp powdered cardamom
- 200 g (7 oz) milk chocolate
to serve:
- whipped cream

The eggs and the sugar were whipped to a white foamy mass. Separately, the flour was mixed with cocoa, vanilla sugar and salt before stirring it into the sugar-egg mass. Lastly, melted butter was stirred in before pouring the batter into a greased and floured spring form (diameter ~ 22 cm / 8.5 inches). The cake was baked in the bottom of the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 20 minutes.


While the cake was cooling a bit, the fudge was prepared. This is where I deviated from the original recipe: as I don't have a mortar I used powdered cinnamon and cardamom rather than freshly (lightly) crushed cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds. The original recipe brings the cream, honey and spices to a boil, then lets it stand for minutes to extract flavours from the spices before reheating, filtering off the bulk of the cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds and mixing with the milk chocolate. Since I used powdered spices, there was no need for filtration, and thus no real reason to let the warm cream stand to extract flavours - I simply let the cream stand long enough to break the milk chocolate to bits before mixing.

The fudge was applied on top of the cake and the whole thing was cooled in the fridge for 1.5 hours before serving with freshly whipped cream - delicious perfection.

It's rather heavy, so I didn't have enough guests to finish it off right away. Leaving it in the fridge overnight, I found that the texture wasn't quite right the next day - at least not when coming straight out of the fridge. Also, I do think less fudge could suffice.

Ungerslaw

For a couple of years I lived together with some friends in a house in California. On of them made - from time to time (and as I recall it often as a side to a nice grilled roast, tri-tip or something like that) - a coleslaw that was IMHO the best I've ever had. When I asked him about the recipe he said the 'secret' was the fresh, home-made mayonnaise - and then told me how to make it. As a tribute to him I name it "Ungerslaw".

Ingredients:
- 1 head of cabbage, finely sliced
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 red long sweet pepper, diced
- 1 can of corn
- bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
Mayonnaise:
- 1 egg yolk ^[1]
- zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
- 2 tsp mustard
- 3 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt
- pepper
- smoked paprika
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) rapeseed oil ^[2]
- 2 tsp lemon juice

The mayonnaise was prepared first: The egg yolk was beaten for 15 seconds before adding lemon zest, mustard, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. After beating for an additional 30 seconds, the oil was poured in slowly with constant beating - the mixture emulsified as planned. Finally the taste was adjusted with lemon juice, salt and pepper. As the picture shows the resulting mayonnaise was rather yellow - no doubt my choice of vinegar and the amount of paprika used played a part in this. The mayonnaise was covered and stored in the fridge while cutting the vegetables for the 'slaw. The 'slaw was mixed in a large bowl and served immediately.

For this occasion, I served it with a beef roast that was covered (I didn't prepare, so there wasn't time to marinate) with a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, chopped chipotle chillies^[3], and salt; roasted at 175 C (350 F) for 1 hour and sliced thinly. The chillies made the roast nicely spicy - but only on the outside.

^[1] Since all chickens in Sweden are supposedly free of salmonella I just used an egg yolk from a fresh egg - had I been elsewhere, I might have gone shopping for pasteurised egg yolks or tried to sterilise the egg shell before breaking it.
^[2] Rapeseed oil is a comparatively taste-neutral oil (I see from the label on the jar of store-bought mayonnaise in my fridge that it also based on rapeseed oil). In particular you should be careful basing it on extra virgin olive oil, as it can give an off taste.
^[3] Chipotle chillies are smoked, dried jalapeños. In one of the shops near my new home there's a really good selection of dried chillies - a subject which I am sure I shall return to on this page.

Paprika Glazed Shrimp & Sausage Skewers

The June edition of BACC sneaked up on us: not only have we been busy moving, we haven't even received our June edition of Bon Appetit. Fortunately there's Fluffy White Icing to remind us about it, and the original recipe available at the Bon Appetit website.

As always, a few modifications were made:

• We didn't want to buy a bottle of sherry vinegar just to use 4 tsp of it for this dish, so we used instead a combination of red wine vinegar and actual sherry.
• I thought (as often before) the amount of oil suggested sounded excessive, so I cut it in half - this did mean that there was only enough glazing for the initial glazing and nothing left over for serving, but I didn't really feel I was missing any.
• We couldn't get the suggested sausages at the store we went to. It was hard to tell if any of the sausages at the store were in fact fully cooked or not. We ended up picking up a couple of beef/lamb merguez, which may have been a slight mistake (see below), and slicing them so thinly that we thought they had a chance of getting cooked during the broiling.
• Yes, that's right: we used the oven broiler instead of a grill.

Ingredients:
- ~ 20 shrimp, peeled
- 300 g (²/₃ lb) beef/lamb merguez
- 1 red onion, cut in wedges
- 8 small tomatoes
- bamboo skewers
glazing:
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) olive oil
- 5 tsp sherry
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¹/₂ tsp salt
- ¹/₂ tsp pepper
- 3 tsp smoked paprika
- bunch of fresh thyme
to serve:
- asparagus, broiled
- lettuce on the side

The glazing was made by stirring all the ingredients together.

Shrimp, sausage slices, onion wedges and small tomatoes were skewed, placed on a foil-lined baking sheet and glazed with the glazing.

After 8 minutes under the broiler, they came out and were allowed to stand while broiling the asparagus (which took another 10 minutes).

Then served. The glazing worked really well on the shrimp, but the merguez were too spicy in themselves for the glazing to really make a difference, so in that sense I think another sausage would have been more interesting.

And in writing this, I've just realised that we've ended up using asparagus for every single BACC we've entered into so far... honestly, I swear we don't eat asparagus as often as that might make you think.

Salami & Pesto Pasta

Being out to lunch one day I noticed on the menu that a special of the day was pasta with pesto and salami - I didn't order it, but I thought it sounded pretty good so I made a mental note of it. By the time I got round to trying it I had decided that it would work nicely to add some rocket to the mixture. I've been using Milanese salami for it so far, but that's hardly essential.

Ingredients:
- wholegrain linguine
- pesto
- fresh rocket
- Milanese salami

The pasta was boiled in lightly salted water, the rocket was rinsed and the salami was cut in strips - everything was stirred together with some pesto. Served immediately..

Asparagus & Pancetta Linguine

For the May BACC various circumstances forced a number of modifications on the dish - although I believe it still carries the spirit of the original recipe - to wit:

• Fettuccine did not appear to be available where we went shopping, so instead we went for wholegrain linguine.
• Peas are not yet in season here in Sweden and as we did not feel like using frozen peas we left the peas out.
• Turns out we did not in fact have any garlic (and we did not want to fetch some by the time we started cooking...)
• Although we could easily have gotten some Parmigiano cheese, I decided to use the rest of our Pecorino cheese instead.
• Since we are getting ready to move all our graters had been packed down, so for the cheese and the lemon zest we had to go for 'finely chopped' rather than grated - lending the dish a slightly more rustic feel.
• I did not add any olive oil as that seemed a bit superfluous.
• The dark green parts of the scallions were not stirred in but instead sprinkled on top together with last of the basil and parsley.
  

Ingredients:
- ~ 250 g (~ 9 oz) wholegrain linguine
- 80 g (2.8 oz) very finely sliced pancetta, cut in strips
- 250 g (8.8 oz) asparagus, cut in inch-long pieces
- 125 g (4.4 oz) scallions, sliced - parted by colour
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
- ~ ¹/₂ dL (~ ¹/₅ cup) pecorino romano, finely chopped - parted
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- zest of ¹/₂ lemon, finely chopped
- fresh parsley, chopped - parted
- fresh basil, chopped - parted
- salt & pepper

The pasta was boiled in lightly salted water - when cooked the water was poured off, but about 2.5 dL (1 cup) of it was retained for later use.

While cooking the pasta, the pancetta was fried crisp.^[1] The pancetta was removed from the pan and the asparagus pieces were sautéed in the pancetta drippings for 3-4 minutes before adding the paler ²/₃ of the scallion slices. After an additional 2 minutes this mixtures stirred into the cooked pasta and added cream together with lemon juice, lemon zest, about 1 dL (²/₅ cup) of the pasta ccoking liquid, most of the cheese, half of the parsley, and half of the basil. The mixture was tossed and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

It was served immediately, sprinkled with pancetta pieces, the dark green slices of the scallions and the rest of the cheese, the parsley and the basil.

Delicious - despite all the short cuts performed. I've had pasta dishes with lemon before, but I cannot think of one where the lemon blended as nicely with the other flavours as in this one.

^[1] Pancetta is sometimes referred to as 'Italian bacon' - like other types of bacon it has been salt cured, but in contrast to most other types of bacon it has been spiced. This was actually my first time ever using it, and I found the spicy bacon smell from frying quite interesting. The variety of pancetta I bought was very thinly sliced (I would say that ordinary thinly sliced bacon is about 5 times as thick as this pancetta) - but since it was my first time buying it I don't know if that is the norm for pancetta.

Potato-Spinach Curry

Around New Year I went to London - for the first time ever (as being in Heathrow for a few hours doesn't really count). On one rainy day we went to a busy Indian restaurant and had a lunch special which included three different dishes. This is an attempt to emulate one of those dishes - and the following makes for rather a lot of it.

Ingredients:
- 2.7 kg (6 lbs) small potatoes
- 5 onions, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 orange adjoema chili^[1], finely diced
- salt
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground allspice
- 3 tbsp mustard powder
- 500 g (1.1 lb) frozen chopped spinach
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) cream

The rinsed potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

Meanwhile, the chopped onions were sautéed in oil in a large pan. After a few minuted the onions were softened and all the spices were added, followed by the spinach. The pan was covered while the spinach thawed. At last the cream was stirred in and left on the heat for a minute or two before removing.

The boiled potatoes were mixed with the onion-spinach mixture in a large bowl (or in this case in two large bowls) and served immediately. Goes nicely with naan - but the later will have to wait for some other time.

Update: For the bread, see here.

^[1] I happened to have one of these Surinamese chilies - in case you can't find one, a habanero would most likely work as a good substitute.

Sweet chili glazed salmon

Mrs. Throat-Erator decided we should join in on the Bon Appetit Cover Challenge (BACC) hosted by White Fluffy Icing. Although we didn't start in January, this is not the first dish from that series that we made - but it is the first one to make it to this page (so far).

We scaled the dish down a bit and decided on sherry rather than rice wine - we didn't have either of the two so we had to get one or the other. As it turns out I expect to more readily find uses for the rest of a bottle of sherry and it was also easier to locate sherry in the specific Systembolaget store we ended up in that day. Finally we decided to add some grilled asparagus and serve the whole thing with wild rice.

Ingredients:
- 4 salmon fillets
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₄ cup) sweet chili sauce
- 2 + 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 + 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely diced
- 1 large garlic clove, finely diced
- bunch of asparagus
- sesame oil
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) sugar snap peas- 100 g (3.5 oz) pea sprouts
- 2 tbsp dry sherry
- boiled wild rice

The salmon fillets were placed on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with a glaze made by mixing the sweet chili sauce with 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp ginger. The salmon fillets were allowed to stand at room temperature for half an hour.

While waiting, wild rice were boiled.
The rinsed asparagus were placed on a separate piece of foil in the same baking sheet. The salmon and the asparagus were broiled for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile a little sesame oil was heated in a wok. To this was added the garlic and the rest of the ginger. After stirring for 30 seconds to a minute the sugar snap peas were added and stir fried for a couple of minutes. The sherry was added together with the pea sprouts and the rest of the soy sauce and stirred for about a minute.


I quite liked the end result. A reminder that marinating salmon isn't such a bad idea - most of the time I just have it 'plain'. I also liked the stir fried pea sprouts - in the past I've used them only in salads.

Bean-Onion Salad

This is a quick attempt to copy a very nice bean-and-onion salad I tried at a vegetarian buffet not that long ago.

Ingredients:
- 4 cans of beans (mixed brown, white and red)
- 1 large red onion
- 1 large yellow onion
- a large bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- salt & pepper

The canned beans were rinsed with cold water and left to drip off a bit.

The onions were peeled and quartered along the axis, each quarter of an onion was further quartered to give onion wedges.

The parsley was chopped coarsely.

The oil, vinegar, salt & pepper was mixed in a large bowl and everything else was stirred in.

I like the raw onions in this salad - but they become overpowering if not balanced by a reasonable amount of beans. On this occasion I had this salad as a side to some baked potatoes and a piece of baked fish.

Cauliflower in Vinaigrette

After seeing this recipe in a newspaper I wanted to try it - it was suggested as a side for roasts, but I felt like something fast, so I just had it as a main with some creamy polenta on the side.

Ingredients:
- 2 heads cauliflower
- 2 red onions, finely chopped
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp mustard
- salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp capers
- large bunch fresh parsley, chopped
creamy polenta:
- 5 dL (2 cups) vegetable broth
- 1.25 dL (¹/₂ cup) cream
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) polenta
- pepper
- grated pecorino cheese

The cauliflowers were rinsed and cut into florets, which were boiled in lightly salted water for 5 minutes.

While boiling the cauliflower florets, the vinaigrette was mixed by stirring together oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.

The boiled cauliflower was mixed with the chopped onions, the capers, the chopped parsely and the vinaigrette in a large bowl.

The cooking time of polenta varies quite a bit, but the general guideline is to boil with stirring until a suitable thickness has been attained. To make creamy polenta, the vegetable broth and the cream was brought to a boil, the heat reduced and the polenta was stirred in. It turned out that the polenta I used was of a fairly quick-cooking type, so after a few minutes I had a polenta the texture of a thick porridge. The pot was removed from the heat, and pepper and freshly grated pecorino cheese was stirred into it.

Served immediately. Upon tasting, the first thing we noticed was that somewhat reminiscent
of this potato salad - which in hindsight isn't surprising.

Chickpea and Red Pepper Soup

Chickpeas and red peppers are some of my very favourite ingredients, so when I stumbled upon this soup, I knew I had to try it.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 5 large red peppers, de-seeded, coarsely chopped
- 3 onions, coarsely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 red chillies, de-seeded, finely chopped
- 2 tsp ground coriander seed
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 3 cans chickpeas, each 240 g (8 oz) drained
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) vegetable broth
to serve:
- fresh mint
- lime juice


In a large pot, using a little oil, the onions were sautéed till just soft before adding the bell peppers. After an additional 10 minutes the garlic, spices, chickpeas and vegetable broth were added. The pot was brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting the soup simmer for 40 minutes. The soup was partially liquefied with an immersion blender and seasoned to taste with salt and black pepper.

Served immediately with a little freshly squeezed lime juice and a few leaves of fresh mint.

Liver with Bacon and Capers

Not so long ago I went out for lunch. My eyes scanned the short menu and upon seeing the 'Veal liver with bacon and capers in red wine sauce' there was no turning back. I had to try that. And after trying it, I had to make it myself as well.

Ingredients:
- potatoes
- green beans
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 50 g (2 oz) thinly sliced bacon
- 650 g (1.4 lbs) beef liver, sliced
- salt & pepper
- 1 dL (¹/₂ cup) red wine
- 1 dL (¹/₂ cup) cream
- capers
salad:
- lettuce
- baby plum tomatoes
- pea sprouts

I started by preparing the salad, then rinsed the potatoes and boiled them in lightly salted water. The green beans were boiled in lightly salted water in a separate pot (on account of needing less time).

The bacon was fried till nicely crisp, then removed from the pan and chopped - in the same pan, the liver slices were fried with salt and pepper. When the liver slices were done, they were removed from the pan, and the onion rings were caramelized - then removed. Lastly, the red wine was added to the pan, allowed to concentrate a little before adding the cream to obtain a sauce.

The fried liver slices were served with bacon bits and capers on top. The potatoes with onion rings, and red wine-cream sauce, green beans and salad on the side. And a glass of the red wine..

Next time, I think I'll try a different approach with the red wine sauce - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite like the one I had at the restaurant either..

Potato Pizza 2

We read about a variation on this concept .. and realised it was sufficiently different to merit a post on its own. I think the two are equally good - just different.

Ingredients:
- 2 portions pizza dough
- olive oil
- 4 yellow onions, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- fresh thyme
- salt & pepper
- 8-10 potatoes, thinly sliced
after baking:
- parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated
for serving:
- fresh arugula (rocket)

The finely diced onions were caramelized in a little olive oil together with crushed garlic, fresh thyme, salt and pepper - then set aside.

Each portion of the pizza dough was rolled aided by durum flour.

Each pizza was topped with a layer of caramelized onions, then potato slices and sprinkled with oil, salt and pepper.

The pizzas were baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F) for 20 minutes.

After baking the pizzas were sprinkled with more fresh thyme and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano - and served with a little fresh arugula.

Green Enchiladas with Prawns and Chèvre

I admit it: when I was living in California, I neglected enchiladas. Why? I'm not sure, I was vaguely aware that they existed, but for some reason I underestimated their potential. Last year I realised this had been a mistake when I went to dinner at a friend's place and had some enchiladas there. Then I kinda forgot about it for a while, until I saw a recipe for green enchiladas in bon appetit, but thought I couldn't do anything about it as I hadn't seen tomatillos anywhere since leaving California. But recently I found some at a market right here in Stockholm, and here follows the result.

Ingredients:
- 12 tortillas (medium sized)
salsa verde:
- 4 tomatillos
- 7 jalapeño peppers
- 2 cloves garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- salt
filling:
- 400-500 g (1 lb) tiger prawns
- 1-2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 large red onion
- small bunch fresh oregano
- 2 jalapeño peppers
- 8 scallions, chopped
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) chèvre
topping:
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 avocado

I started with the salsa verde:
The tomatillos were de-husked, rinsed and boiled for 15 minutes, then blended with crushed garlic, jalapeño peppers, lime juice and a little salt.

The prawns were fried with ground cumin, then added onion boats, oregano, and finely chopped jalapeño peppers.

The bottom of an oven-proof tray was coated with a little less than half the salsa verde.
Working one at the time, the tortillas were added a line of prawn-onion mixture down the middle, then added chopped scallion and a little chèvre. The tortilla was then rolled and placed in the tray. The tray was nicely filled up once all the tortillas were rolled and the rest of the salsa verde was spread over them. They were baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

The enchiladas were served with freshly chopped cilantro and avocado wedges.

Delicious! Now I really want to make more enchiladas...

Leek-Lemongrass Soup

Seeking inspiration for a soup I came across the notion of a leek and lemongrass soup - and immediately thought: that sounds good... soup with lemongrass sounds like just what I want right about now.

Ingredients:
- 6 leeks, sliced at 45 degree angle (to give oval slices)
- 3 sticks lemon grass, finely cut
- oil
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- 3 egg yolks
- 6 tbsp Turkish yogurt
- 1.5 L (6 cups) vegetable bouillon
- ground nutmeg
- salt & pepper
coriander raita
- juice of 1 lime
- same amount olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 8 scallions, finely sliced
- 1 bunch coriander, coarsely chopped
for serving
- bread


The coriander raita was prepared first, so it could stand while preparing the soup. The juice of a lime was stirred with an equal amount of olive oil, then added salt and pepper. Finally, coarsely chopped coriander and finely sliced scallions were stirred in.

For the soup, leeks and lemon grass were cleaned, cut and mixed. The leek-lemongrass mixture was sautéed quickly in a little olive oil in portions (if you have a really huge pan you might get away with doing it in one go) making sure not to give them so much that the leeks browned or turned soft. The sautéed leek-lemongrass mixture was collected in a bowl and added lemon juice.


The egg yolks were stirred together with the yogurt and this mixture was stirred into hot (recently boiling) vegetable bouillon. Then the leek-lemongrass mixture was added together with ground nutmeg. The soup was brought to a boil and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. Then removed from the heat and served immediately with coriander raita on top and bread on the side.

Mint Julep Cake (Round 1)

I happened upon this concept one day as I was searching for ways to use the rest of a can of sweetened condensed milk - I didn't go for it on that day as I lacked several other key ingredients, but it wasn't long before I returned... that it ended up being a project which took me several days to complete, is then another matter.

Ingredients:
- 340 g (12 oz) flour
- 400 g (14 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¹/₂ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 225 g (8 oz) margarine
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) A-fil^[1]
- 4 eggs
butter bourbon sauce:
- 75 g (2.6 oz) margarine
- 85 g (3 oz) powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 tsp bourbon (I used Jack Daniels)
white chocolate ganache:
- 1 can (397 g / 14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- 300 g (10.6 oz) white chocolate
- 6 tbsp mint syrup

In a large bowl was stirred together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla sugar - this dry mixture was then left with a crater in the middle.

In a separate bowl was whisked together margarine, a-fil, and eggs (hand-hell mixer on low setting). This wet mixture was then then whisked into the dry mixture (above) - at first on low speed to merely mix the two, and then 3 minutes on medium speed to create a homogeneous batter.

The batter was poured into a buttered and floured 9 inch spring form and baked at 175 C (350 F). It took an hour and 10 minutes before the cake was sufficiently done (knife inserted at the middle came out clean) - obviously a bundt cake or a sheet cake would require different baking times.

While the cake was baking the butter bourbon sauce was prepared: powdered sugar, water and margarine was stirred over medium heat till melted and homogeneous (shouldn't reach boiling). Then it was removed from the heat and stirred for an additional two minutes before the bourbon was stirred in.

While the cake was still hot holes were poked in the top (with a knife) and the butter bourbon sauce was poured over. Then the cake was allowed to stand and cool while absorbing the butter bourbon sauce.

Later, the cake was covered with film and stored in the fridge for a couple of days before I could continue.

The ganache was prepared by heating condensed milk and white chocolate on low heat with constant stirring until the chocolate melted and the mixture became homogeneous. Then mint syrup was stirred in (again till homogeneous) and the ganache was allowed to cool for 10 minutes before trying to apply it to the cake.

At this point the ganache was far too runny and only about half was applied. Then the cake was placed in the fridge for 15 minutes to let the applied ganache set (and let the rest of the ganache cool down further). Then more of the ganache was applied, but it was still a bit too runny - after cooling the cake in the fridge for an additional 20 minutes the rest of the ganache could finally be applied.

The cake was served with a few leaves of fresh mint - very delicious. However, next time, I think I'll try more bourbon in the butter bourbon sauce, as well as more mint in the ganache - and quite possibly less ganache and of course more cooling before applying it.

Update: For an updated version of this recipe see here.

^[1] The original recipe called for buttermilk - however, this is not available in Swedish stores as all buttermilk produced is currently delivered directly to bakeries. I decided to opt for A-fil because of it's tangy freshness - for more on A-fil see here.