Month: August 2011

Back in London

Published on by HannaLeave a comment

It is insane that a week can pass by that quickly! We had a lovely time back home in the south of Sweden and got to meet up with both friends and family.

We got back last night to a pretty much closed London, the shops on our high street closed early and we were lucky to get a take away pizza before they closed as well. It seems like it was a quieter night last night though, and plenty of police on duty.

I will tell you all about our holiday as soon as I have caught up on work, washed some clothes and sorted the photos. Tomorrow in other words. 🙂

Brownies with the best chocolate frosting

Published on by HannaLeave a comment

I like to bake for the office because that way I get to try new recipes and the cakes will get eaten (by others than me) and most people in my office like something sweet with a cup of tea.

Normally we buy cakes for the office once a month to celebrate that month’s birthdays, but in July I was asked to make them instead.

I suspected these brownies to a crowd pleaser, and they were. The deep chocolate dense brownie together with the sweeter fluffy frosting was absolutely amazing. The brownie would have been nice on its own as well, but the frosting made it so much better. This frosting is the best chocolate frosting I have come across so far. Very chocolatey, but not too sweet because of the cream cheese. In the future I will definitely try this on cupcakes and in other cakes.

The recipe is courtesy of the Hummingbird Bakery, from their first cookbook. The recipe calls for walnuts and some dark chocolate, but I substituted that for hazelnuts and milk chocolate which worked wonders, so use what you like.

Brownies with the best chocolate frosting, makes 18-20

5 eggs

500 g caster sugar

100 g cocoa

120 g plain flour

250 g melted butter

30 g roughly chopped nuts (i.e. walnuts or hazelnuts)

30 g roughly chopped chocolate (I used milk chocolate)

Frosting:

200 g icing sugar

75 g softened butter

30 g cocoa

150 g cream cheese, cold

Bear eggs and sugar fluffy and white. Add flour and cocoa, then the butter. Mix thoroughly. Fold in the nuts and chocolate and pour into a lined baking tray. Bake for 30-35 mins in 170C. Leave to cool completely.

Beat icing sugar, butter and cocoa with an electric mixer. Add the cream cheese and beat for five minutes, not longer. Spread onto the cold cake. Cut into squares and serve. 

More birthday celebrations: Nopi

Published on by Hanna6 Comments

The Friday after my biryhday I got to celebrate becoming a year older together with my London based friends. We met up in the bar The Living Room after work and enjoyed a few drinks, and then we crossed Regent St and went for dinner at Nopi, a new restaurant from the team behind Ottolenghi.

Our table was a large communal one in the basement just outside the kitchen. On the ground floor is was a different atmosphere with small tables of two and four and busier than downstairs. We enjoyed being left alone a bit and to enjoy each other’s company.

To start with we were served homemade nice bread and the most amazing carrot dip. It was all orange (of course) and we could taste lemon and cumin in it. A great start to the meal, and a dip I definitely want the recipe for!

We were a group of eight, and therefore had a group menu, consisting of eight dishes all in all. We started off with two vegetarian dishes, both absolutely fantastic. The first one was a tomato salad with wasabi mascarpone. It sounds simple and it was, but the flavours were lovely. The tomatoes were great produce and the mascarpone dressing had just a hint of wasabi, enough to flavour it but not enough to make it spicy.

We also had an aubergine tart on crisp thin pastry with the mildest and creamiest goat’s cheese I have ever tasted. Fabulous dish, especially for aubergine lovers like me!

The first of the hot dishes to arrive was grilled mackerel with lentils. My sensitive stomach can’t really do lentils, but I had a forkful anyway and it was really nice. A very fresh and summery dish.

The nicest dish (I think we all agreed on that) was one of the simplest ones; broccolini and a most amazing mash. I have never had such a good mash in my life time, and yet my own versions are quite good. 🙂

Next was the meat dishes, like this smoked duck breast with nectarines, beetroot and a sweet sauce. The meat itself was perfect and had a lovely smoked flavour, but I didn’t tink the necatines and beetroot was a great match, not for each other and not with the duck.

We then had twice cooked (barbecued) chicken, which was really nice, but it is still just chicken. I prefer to eat more unusual things in restaurant, things I can’t cook myself…

For dessert we had white chocolate icecream (lovely but didn’t taste that much of white chocolate) with berries and financiers with coffee and pecans, with a maple cream.

I am not that keen on coffee, but this was just a hint and it worked really well with the pecans. The maple cream was superb and after a while we came up with the ultimate way of eating this dessert (i.e. getting as much cream onto the financiers) by dipping the whole little cake into the sauce bowl. Yum!

We were full in a nice way when leaving the restaurant just before midnight, and I definitely want to go back. The food feels quite healthy and I love the Middle Eastern spices.

Nopi
21-22 Warwick Street
London W1B 5NE

Mazarin cake

Published on by HannaLeave a comment

When my colleague Nicolas, who never eats cake because it is not his thing, tried this cake the response was not what I had expected. He loved it and said it was probably the best cake he had ever had. I was, as you might expect, quite surprised!

But the cake is good. Very good, even. It contains plenty of marzipan, and is full of flavour although it only contains a few ingredients and it needs nothing else, but if you want to serve it as dessert I would suggest lightly whipped cream and some fresh berries.

This is a very effortless cake, yet very rewarding and is perfect as the end of a casual meal among friends or when having people over for tea and coffee at the weekend.

Mazarin cake, serves 8

Crust:

125 g marzipan

125 g butter

250 g plain flour

1 egg

Filling:

300 g marzipan

150 g butter

2 eggs

To decorate:

Icing: 150 ml icing sugar and 1-2 tbsp water

sugar pansies

Crust: Mix marzipan and butter until smooth. Add egg and flour and pinch it together to a dough. Do not work the dough too much. Chill for 30 minutes and then either roll out the dough and place it in a pie dish or press it into the pie dish.

Filling: Mix marzipan and butter until smooth. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Pour it onto the unbaked pie crust and bake for 40 minutes in 175C. Leave to cool completely before icing.

Mix the icing sugar with water until smooth and runny. Spead it onto the cake. Place the decorations and leave for the icing to dry. 

Bubble tea at Bubbleology

Published on by Hanna4 Comments

In Soho, a stone’s throw away from China town, a few bubble tea vendors have popped up recently.

Last week, Jenny and I, went to Bubbleology to try it out. We expected a cold tea with bubbles bursting of flavour, and were actually slightly disappointed.

There were two types of tea to choose from; milky or fruity, with lot’s of different flavours like mango, strawberry, caramel, chocolate… The same type of bubbles were added to the teas if one didn’t request any of the special ones at the counter. We tried the regular thing, one mango and one passionfruit and were sorry to discover that the tapioca bubbles (more like a chewy ball actually) were quite slimy and didn’t taste much.

I loved the big straws though, which easily carried the bubbles (boba, I’ve been told they’re called) to your mouth. But after having enjoyed half the tea, we were a bit bored of the bubbles. Not even the tea on it’s own was that nice, it tasted more like squash with a bitter tea-after taste.

However, it was fun to try, and checking out all the Asians drinking the milky versions, we felt that maybe we could give it another go.

To learn more on bubble teas, have a look here.

Friday food

Published on by HannaLeave a comment

Staying in the summer house means no internet, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make, so instead of the usual Friday update I will show you what we like to nibble on on Fridays.

We really enjoy nibbles, but for dinner they need to be quite substantial. Pork rillette with pickled onions and cornichons is good, together with some nice crusted bread. And chakuterie; parma ham filled with a mixture of cream cheese and chopped sunblush tomatoes (it’s lovely!), chorizo and saucisson. We also shared a baked camembert, which is pure heaven. Adding onto the French theme we also had some proper French butter with sea salt crystals. Together with chilli mayo and crema di balsamico this was a lovely meal.

Homemade frozen yoghurt

Published on by HannaLeave a comment

I have almost become obsessed with the healthier alternative to icecram – frozen yoghurt or the shorter – fro-yo. But I think it is wrong that it costs more than icecream to buy it, and decided to try and make it myself. At the office.

It was very easy to make, and it tasted just like the real thing, only downside is that it doesn’t freeze that well, it gets too hard.

But luckily (?) there are other fro-yo obsessed people in my office, and they were happy to help me eat it.

I only added agave nectar to the yoghurt for that nice tart taste, and that is what chains like Snog use as well.

Frozen yoghurt, 1 l

2 x 500 g greek style yoghurt, 10 % fat

100 ml agave or to your taste

Mix yoghurt and agave in a bowl. Taste and add more if you like. The frozen product is slightly more tart the before it is frozen, so add a bit more agave than you think is needed. Pour into an icecream maker and  let it do its magic for around 40 mins. Enjoy straiht away. 

Pork souvlaki

Published on by Hanna4 Comments

At this time of year, I want to barbecue every meal, but living in a small flat without garden or balcony I can only dream. And invite myself over to other people with outdoor space and a barbecue.

But some dishes work quite well in a frying pan, although they won’t have the smoky taste a barbecue provides.This dish worked really well on the hob, and because I fried in I didn’t bother to put the meat on scewers, but I would advise you to do that if you are barbecuing.

This souvlaki is made with pork and absolutely lovely. The lemon juice tenderises the meat, and adds flavour together with garlic, olive oil and plenty of oregano.

Served with feta cheese and homemade strong tsatziki and pitta, this is a fab summer summer. A nice Greek salad would be a nice addition as well.

Pork souvlaki, serves 2

320 g pork shoulder, diced

50 ml olive oil

juice from 1 lemon

1-2 tbsp oregano (it needs a lot)

1 small garlic clove, pressed

black pepper

salt

Mix all the ingrediens in a bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge for ideally 48 hours. Fry on high heat in a frying pan or put on scewers and wack them on the barbecue.

Tzatsiki, serves 2

200 ml thick Greek yoghurt, 2 % fat

8 cm cucumber, peeled and grated

3 tbsp olive oil

1-2 garlic cloves, pressed

salt

white pepper

more olive oil to drizzle

Squeeze the water out of the grated cucumber and mix with the yoghurt. Add garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Leave for at least 20 minutes to develop flavour. Drizzle some olive oil on top before serving. 

A week’s holiday

Published on by Hanna1 Comment
Copenhagen

Today is the start of our holiday. One week in sunny (please?) Sweden coming up!

We have plenty planned already; lots of dinners, catching up with old friends, and hopefully some time on the beach.

I can’t wait to once again visit Gränden in Malmö with friends, a cheap place that mainly serves barbecued scewers, but it is so cozy to sit in their courtyard a warm summer’s evening. Most likely we will go to Copenhagen for the day and we’re having a few friends around for dinner as well.  We might venture to Ystad and enjoy a wander and a meal there, but most of all I am looking forward to just seeing friends and family and the sun that has stayed clear of Britain all summer.

The blog will still be updated, and I will try to send you a little postcard.

Have a great week!

Chocolate cupcakes with LOVELY vanilla frosting

Published on by Hanna2 Comments

I have, for a while now, been wanting to try a frosting recipe I found at The Pioneerwoman cooks. The post was called: That’s the best frosting I’ve ever had, and that was enough to make me curious.

The frosting was absolutely lovely, but not that far from the Hummingbird Bakery version I normally make. It is buttery, but a bit less sweet than the HB one. In fact, it wasn’t the taste that was the best thing with making this frosting. No, it was that you don’t need icing sugar. Not using icing sugar means that my kitchen wasn’t covered in it when I had finished baking, and that made me very happy.

The frosting is actually very nice, and a girl at worked thought it was the best one she’d ever had. It is completely different to other frostings though it contains a roux. Try it, at least for the novelty.

You should’t eat frosting on it’s own (although you can), so I decided to try another Pioneerwoman recipe, that stretched to 12 cupcakes and one small round cake. The cake is very moist, thanks to the buttermilk, even a few days after it is made, but id didn’t taste enough of chocolate to be called chocolate cake in my opinion.

Chocolate cupcakes/cake, makes 12 +  a small round cake (ø 15 cm)

475 ml plain flour

475 ml caster sugar

1 pinch salt

4 tbsp cocoa

225 g butter

235 ml boiling water

120 ml buttermilk

1 tsp bicarb

1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the cocoa and the boiling water. Let it boil for 30 seconds, then turn off the heat. Mix with the flour mixture.

Lightly beat the eggs and mix with buttermilk, bicarb and vanilla. Incorporate into the cocoa mixture. Pour into cake cases and bake in 175 C for 20 minutes. Leave to cool completely.

Vanilla frosting, for12 cupcakes and one cake

5 tbsp plain flour

235 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla

235 g butter

235 ml caster sugar

Pour milk and flour into a saucepan, heat up and stir until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla. Leave to cool completely until moving on to the next step.

Cream sugar and butter. Add the roux and beat thoroughly to prevent lumps until it mixture has the consistency of heavy whipped cream. Decorate your cakes.