Month: May 2012

Dinner with chewy lemon cake as dessert

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A while ago now I had my ex flatmates and their girlfriends over for dinner one weekday. I didn’t have time to prepare the supper the day before so I went shopping at lunch time and used some wellknown recipes for the dinner, but since  I wanted to try something new as well I baked a chewy lemon cake I had wanted to try for quite a while.

To start with I made Julia Child’s stuffed mushromms, served with dressed rocket and fresh baguette.

Next course was chicken thigh fillets with sambal oelek and basil, served with potato wedges and steamed broccoli.

For dessert I made the chewy lemon cake and served it with lightly whipped cream and fresh raspberries. I found the recipe on the Swedish food blog Pickipicki and it was just as popular as I expected it to be. It is chewy and gooey but light and fresh at the same time

Chewy lemon cake, serves 8

After Pickipicki’s recipe. 

2 egga
250 ml caster sugar
150 g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 lemon
150 ml flour

Beat eggs and sugar fluffy. Add lemon zest and juice. Add vanilla and melted butter. Fold in the flour and pour into a greased springform. Bake in 150C oven for about 35 minutes. Serve cold, dusted with icing sugar together with lightly whipped cream and fersh raspberries. 

Mint Leaf, West End

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Maria and Daniel’s last day in London they wanted to eat proper Indian food as it is difficult to get in the south of Sweden. My first idea was to go to Tayyabs, which I had read about on a food blog, but it is quite a trek away from both where I work and live, so when I heard from two colleagues that Mint Leaf on Haymarket was good, we decided to go there instead. (And as it was a weekday we got 50% off food with my Tastcard.)

The restaurant is really nice and divided into different rooms to make it cosy. Our waiter was friendly and helpful to an extent but he couldn’t really answer our food related questions which was a shame.

We started off with some mini poppadums and two sauces; but not the usual mango chutney and raita. We chose to share a rabbit seekh kebab with honey and mustard drizzle to start. It was nice and tasty, but the seasoning didn’t feel Indian at all, which we coluld have guessed… It was then we realised that the food on offer was Indian but aimed towards Europeans and therefore not entirely authentic.

As their maincourse Maria and Daniel chose Tandoori chicken with dal makhani and sautéed broccoli. I chose a more curry-like dish called Tariwala chicken.

We also ordered pilau rice, raita and a naan each, and the naans were great – probably the best I’ve had. The rest of the food was a bit blander than expected. It had some heat but didn’t have the flavour punch you usually get from good Indian. You want all those spices to interact but it didn’t work all the way here which was the shame. The dal was still good though.

Next time I’m in the mood for Indian I will either try Tayyabs as we intended or Lahore One Kebab House which are probably the most authentic Indian restaurants in London.

Min Leaf Restaurant
Suffolk Place
Haymarket
London SW1Y 4HX
T: 020 7930 9020

Pig’s cheek ragu with white wine and sage

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When you have friends staying over the slowcooker becomes your best friend. It feels a lot safer leaving that on the oven (plus it uses way less energy) and it is so nice to let dinner cook itself when you’re busy socialising with friends.

While we had a day out in Canterbury, the slowcooker made this lovely pork cheek ragu with white wine and sage for us. All you need to do when you get home is to reduce and season the sauce, shred the meat and mix it with the sauce and cook some pasta.

Pig’s cheek ragu with white wine and sage, serves 4-6

spaghetti or tagliatelle, cooked al dente

The ragu – step 1:

1 kg pig’s cheeks

400 g chopped tomatoes

150 ml water

3 stems sage

1 garlic clove

150 ml dry white wine

The ragu – step 2:

salt, black pepper

pinch of sugar

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

To serve:

grated parmesan

Place all ingredients for step 1 in the slowcooker, turn on low heat and leave for approx 8 hours. Remove the meat from the pot and reduce the sauce to half and season with the ingredients for step 2. Pull the meat apart and mix with the sauce. Serve.

Foodies Festival at Hampton Court

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I think the organisers were hoping for better weather…

Last weekend the Foodies Festival at Hampton Court took place and thanks to my nice friend Charlie I got free tickets.

The weather was definitley not the best for anything outdoors as it was grey and miserable. We walked around and tried different things, bought quite a lot of interesting products as well as ate lunch.

A few things I haven’t encountered before was the popchips that are popped potato crisps and therefore less greasy as they have not been deepfried. They were nice, but I do like proper crisps better, you kind of want and expect the greasyness.

For healthty crisps I would much rather go for Whole Food’s kale crisps, but the price was pretty steep so I prefer to make my own I think. Something we did enjoy from Whole Foods was their prosecco for £2.50 a glass (!). Suddently the weather didn’t matter that much.

There was plenty of different types of food, from like these wonderful looking pork pies…

… to healthy vegan cakes and bread with added moisture from fruit and vegetables.

We looked at this table quite a lot as everything looked amazing. I bought a spinach and ricotta strudel (to the left) and it was nice, but not as amazing as it looked unfortunately. Laura was very pleased with her salad box though, and it looked really good.

My lunch this day was a bahn mi from Bahn Mi 11 with BBQ pork, coriander, chilli sauce and carrots. It was my first bahn mi but it was sooo scrumptious it is definitely not my last.

We also had a look then the actress turned television chef Fay Ripley (from Cold Feet) cooked live. She made seabass with pesto and dressed spaghetti as well as small Italian cookies with nutella. Pictured above are Fay (left), the annoying presenter (middle) and a volunteer from the audience rolling cookie dough (right).

I really liked the look of these mini victoria sponges – adorable.

On our way out we stopped for a free gin & tonic at Hendrick’s gin. They had an old-fashioned corner with different gin cocktails and were dressed up in tweed.

Scandi tip #23: mini trips to Scandinavia

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Today I’m off to Gothenburg for a long weekend, and I advise you to do the same. It is very easy to find flights to many Scandinavian cities, and unless you are really into winter holidays the best time to visit is definitely now in spring, during summer or early autumn before it gets dark.

I have friends in Gothenburg so I have been there many times before, but it is the first time for my friend Laura to visit Sweden so I will do my best to be a good tour guide. She is also running a half marathon (that’s the reason we’re going) while I will do my best to cheer. Apart from that bit we plan to eat well, eat as much of fresh seafood as we possibly can and hopefully spend time with some of my Swedish friends.

 

Meringue cake with dulce de leche

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In my fridge there always seem to be a gathering of egg whites, sometimes just a few but more often than not quite a few. I simply hate throwing food away, and egg whites keep for several weeks in the fridge, so I rather use them than throw them away.

Meringues is always a good way to use them up, but to be honest I find meringues on their own a bit boring. But with icecream or cream it is a different matter, and that is why I like this simple meringue cake so much.

If you just have made the meringue bases all you need is a tin of dulce de leche (caramel) and some whipping cream, and it literally takes 5 minutes so assemble. The cake also keeps for a few days in the fridge although it will loose some of its crispness.

Meringue cake with dulce de leche, serves 8

Double this recipe for two meringue bases

1 tin (398g) dulce de leche

300 ml whipping cream

milk chocolate shavings for decoration

Place one meringue base on a cake plate and spread half the dulce de leche on top, then add half the whipped cream on top of the caramel. Add the other meringue base and repeat the layers. Decorate with some milk chocolate shavings.


A little trip to Canterbury

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Last weekend when Maria and Daniel were visiting we decided to escape rainy London for a day and got on the train to Canterbury in Kent. Kent always remind me of home because of all the rapeseed fields – love it.

When I lived in England the first time around (ten years ago now) I lived in Kent, not too far away from Canterbury so I have been there quite a lot, but not for a few years. Apart from the fact that it was nice and sunny and it felt like we were abroad, it is a very cute town with old gates around the town centre, a famous cathedral and university.

We had a look around a few shops, had lunch and went to the cathedral. Sadly we couldn’t see it all because of a Sunday service, but what we saw was really pretty.

Ricotta stuffed mushrooms with persillade, parmesan and lemon

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Just like the French I really enjoy a meal with two or three courses. Not because I always want to indulge but because eating the food in batches is good for me (anf my tummy). If I am really really hungry (starving) I am not a pleasant person to be around, and when food is then put in front of me I can’t control myself, my inner cave woman takes over and inhales the food, which most often than not gives me a tummy ache. Not ideal and yet I do this over and over… So the best way for me to eat is to break up the meal in courses so I can’t inhale so much food at one single time.

Also I love starters and finger food and see this argument as a good excuse…

Anyway – stuffed mushrooms are great, and I have a few different recipes on the blog already, but I still had to give you this recipe, because it turned out really well. There is enough lemon in the ricotta to feel fresh and zesty but not so much that it overpowers the parsley and garlic, instead the flavours just marry together. Serve as a starter with some rocket, balsamic vinegar and nice bread or as little rustic canapées.

Ricotta stuffed mushrooms with persillade, parmesan and lemon, serves 3

250 g chestnut mushrooms

150 g ricotta

100 ml grated parmesan

zest from 1/2 lemon

3-4 tsp persillade

salt, white pepper

melted butter for brushing

Rinse the mushrooms and remove the stalks. Brush all around with melted butter and place hollow side up in an oven tray.

Mix ricotta, parmesan, lemon zest, persillade, salt and pepper in a bowl and stuff the mushrooms with the mixture. Bake in 200C for about 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Lunch at Daylesford Organic, Notting Hill

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Saturday was a particular rainy and grey day in London. Not what you want when you have Swedish friends in town, but not much more to do than grab the umbrella. We went to Portobello Road, which was more painful than usual as all you could see where umbrellas everywhere. Also I think the whole population of Italy was there that day. After a few pit stops in shops and at Hummingbird Bakery we escaped tourist central and entered the real Notting Hill; Westbourne Grove.

We had lunch at Daylesford Organic and a look arond their shop and it was so nice to feel dry before heading out in the rain again.

If you want lunch here it is normally a queue, which is fine, but this time we didn’t have to wait very long at all, and the service in general had definitely improved since last time I was here.

The menu is quite simple and offers an eclectic mix of dishes; some brunch dishes, a few starters and some more substaintial platefuls. Daniel, who was really hungry had the burger with potato wedges while Maria and I chose some lighter dishes but made up for it by sharing a cheeseboard as well.

Daniel’s burger was really nice and came with a homemade bun, chunky potato wedges and strong melted cheese. He also got to try their own ketchup which was really tasty. Plenty of tomato flavour and perfectly balanced sweetness.

Maria had the soup of the day; asparagus soup and liked it although it was rather plain to begin with. It somewhat improved after a few spoonfuls.

I had a Cornish crab toast which was really nice, so nice that my table neighbour got order envy once she saw it arrive.

The cheese platter was also nice, consisting of three hard cheeses and one creamy goat’s cheese, all from their own label. It came with apple wedges, celery, bread and a chutney and was a nice finish to our meal.

Daylesford Organic
208-212 Westbourne Grove
Notting Hill
London W11 2RH

 

Vanilla muscovado icecream with lime marinated strawberries

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One particular Swedish food blogger is in my opinion the Queen of Icecream. This recipe is courtesy of her.

Both myself, Maria and Daniel can vouch for the excellence of this icecream, because we managed to almost finish the whole batch after having had both starter and maincourse – and that is quite something.

Vanilla muscovado icecream

After Annika’s recipe.


400 ml cream

200 ml whole milk

1 vanilla pod (I used 1 tsp vanilla instead)

4 egg yolks

150 ml light brown muscovado sugar

Beta the egg yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Heta up the milk and cream with the vanilla. Pour the warm half and half over the fluffy eggs while stirring. Place the mixing bowl in a bain marie and whisk while the mixture thickens. Let it cool down, then place covered in the fridge over night.

Freeze the container to put the icecream in. Then pour your icecream mixture into the icecream maker for about 45 minutes. Transfer to the cold container and freeze for at least an hour before serving.

Lime marinated strawberries

300 g fresh strawberries

1/2 lime, the juice and perhaps some zest

2 tbsp icing sugar

Clean the strawberries and remove the green. Cut in halves. Place in a bowl and add the lime juice (and zest). Mix in the icing sugar.