I like sweet potatoes in any shape or form, but it is a vegetable I have only got to know the last couple of years. It is very easy to cook with sweet potatoes because they cook through so quickly and have so much flavour in themselves.
A warming dish is this soup with cumin, coconut milk and chilli. I made some cheese straws from left over puff pastry and grated cheese, and they are really nice too.
Sweet potato soup with coconut milk and cumin, serves 4
4 sweet potatoes
a dash of concentrated vegetable stock
water
400 ml coconut milk
3 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chilli flakes
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into even pieces. Place in a pan and just cover with water. Add a splash of stock and bring to the boil. Cook until soft, about 10-15 minutes. Drain the sweet potatoes but keep the water. Purée the vegetables and add the coconut milk to the pan. Bring to the boil, season with cumin, chilli, salt and pepper. Add some water if the soup is to thick. Serve with perhaps a dollop of creme fraiche and chopped coriander.
Cheese straws, serves 2
ca 20 cm x 10 cm puff pastry
100 ml grated mature cheddar
Cut the pastry into inch-thick straws and sprinkle cheese on them. Place in 200C oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the straws are a golden brown. Serve with soup or with drinks.
Pizza with topping #2: buffalo mozzarella, salami, sunblush tomatoes, red onions, garlic and oregano
On Sunday I made homemade pizzas that were so good, that even though I have posted a similar recipe here already, I have to tell you about these pizzas. I used the same dough as always, but made with a flour called Manitoba Cream that I imported from Sweden, and it was a great flour! I then rolled it out very thin and managed to put toppings on that really worked together. I already want to make this again… 🙂
The recipe is for four people originally, but it is enough for about 3 people, on Sunday however, we managed to eat all but one slice, because it was so delicious. That last piece Christopher took to work for his lunch, and his colleagues didn’t believe it was homemade. They seem really nice his co-workers… 🙂
Pizza toppings #1: chorizo, buffalo mozzarella, spring onions, mushrooms and oregano
Homemade pizza, 2-3 portions
200 ml lukewarm water
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
1 tsp honey
1,5 tsp dried yeast
500-600 ml plain flour
Pour the liquids into a bowl and mix them, then add the salt and the yeast, make sure the yeast dissolves. Then add about 500 ml flour and knead it in. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more. When the dough has let go of the sides of the bowl, is all in one piece and is still a bit sticky, sprinkle some flour on top, place a clean tea towel on top and let it rise for about 45 minutes or until it has doubled in size.
Knead in some more flour. Roll out to desired size, I usually do two large thin pizzas.
Tomato sauce: Mix 1 part ketchup with 1 part tomato paste and 1 part BBQ, chilli or reggae reggae sauce.
Yesterday lunch time I took the tube to Baker Street and walked to Marylebone High St where one of the Skandium shops are, to buy a housewarming gift for a friend, and then occured to me that the street should have its own little post on the blog, because it is so very very nice. People ask me a lot for London tips, both on what to see and do, as where to eat, and it is nice to feature this on the blog as well.
And I have to mention Daunt Books, the cosiest book shop ever! They sell mainly travel literature but they have other books as well. The shop is full to the rim with books and helpful staff and it almost feels like an old-fashioned library, because to reach some sections you have to climb narrow stairs, almost like ladders. Sometimes they have events in the shop and can then drink wine in this beautiful setting.
If you haven’t been to London before I understand that sightseeing is more important than visiting this street in Marylebone, but if you want to find a nice oasis in the big city, this is one I highly recommend. There are lots of other nice places in London, and I promise to feature them all on here.
When I was shopping at Skandium I realised how I can miss the clean Scandi designs sometimes. Both Christopher and I like the old English style and nice old things, and I have quite a lot of Swedish and Scandinavian things as well, but to see it all in pne place and feel the bond with my part of Europe felt both fun and strange at the same time. I saw a few things that ended up on my wishlist straight away (or they might have been on there a long time, but I had forgotten about them) like the large Teema cups with saucers in dark blue, more Aino Aalto glasses, but the clear ones (I already have blue) and more jars like the one above. I haven’t seen these before today, and I really like them. Now I just have to figure out what to put in it, any ideas? 🙂
On Saturday when I took over Christopher’s mother Eileen’s kitchen for the evening, I was a little bit nervous. Partly because I don’t know where everything is in her kitchen and partly because it was the first time I cooked for her.
We usually come to her instead of her coming to visit us in London, and that is because of several reasons: she has a lot more living space than us; we have friends in the area; it is nice to visit the countryside; Christopher’s brother lives near by etc. But it feels wrong that we invite ourselves over and Eileen has to cook for us every time, so it was definitely over due for us (me) to cook for her. Christopher was nice and helped by guiding me around the kitchen, setting the table, putting cooking music on and filling and re-filling my wine glass as well as doing the dishes, so he actually did a lot more than I did.
The recipes I used were ones I basically know off by heart and have cooked several times (you don’t want to fail in someone elses kitchen).
The starter was this simple but absolutely delicious recipe. Unfortunately the supermarket near by had no figs so we just hade some rocket with it, and that worked too. The most important thing is the parma ham, the filling and the balsamic claze, don’t forget the glaze!You can serve rocket with it like we did, a more substantial salad, figs, olives, marinated artichoke hearts or whatever you like. But please promise me to try this!
Place the potatoes in a roasting pan, drizzle some oil over them and season with rosemary, salt and pepper. Place in 200C for about 30 minutes.
The dessert was another Nigella creation, the ever so lovely glitzy chocolate puddings, that you all have to try. My dear dad that doesn’t even like chocolate cakes or desserts loved this one…
We ventured out to Buckinghamshire, were Chistopher is from, this weekend, roughly between London and Oxford. It doesn’t take long to get there, but the difference from the city is enormous. It is quieter, fresher air and a different pace. Exactly what we came for!
We met up with Ian and Anna to have a proper pub lunch at the The Royal Standard in Forty Green, one of those really English pubs and one of the oldest in the country.
There is plenty of woods and fields around the pub and outside there are plenty of benches to rest your legs on after a walk, and a few dogs are running around while their owner is enjoying a pint.
When you open the door you can’t help but notice the plaque on the door for the best pub of 2009. If you’re tall you might have to bend down to enter this old pub, but that is part of its charm. The bar is situated to the left and the kitchen is behind it, so straight ahead and to the right there are plenty of tables. The furniture is charmingly mismatched and worn. There is a fire going in the fire place and the heating is on too, so before you’ve had a chance to try the beer your cheeks are red. There are some dogs also inside and plenty of people around half one when we get here. We are lucky though an get a nice table in a cosy alcove almost immediately.
The menu doesn’t look very grand, it is just a printed sheet of A4, but there is plenty of hearty dishes to chose from. There are also some funny names, like Midsomer Murder resurrection pie, a nod to the series that have been filmed around here as well as other places.
We start with a drink and look at the menu, and after a bit of ambivalence we have finally decided. Even though Anna warns me for huge portions, I order both a Welsh rarebit and a side of chips. I mean, how huge can they be?! Ahem, enormous! The rarebit is two gigantic slices of bread, about two centimeters thick with plenty of cheese on top, and the side of chips is a whole soup bowl! Thankfully the boys have a good appetite and together we manage to clear all the plates.
Suet roll with bacon
Ian chose the homemade bangers with mash, that looks really good, and Christopher chose the rather old-fashioned suet roll with bacon. Anna ordered the Caesar salad and get a mountain of lettuce, bacon and chicken on her plate.
All the food is very good, and the portions very generous! It is nice hearty dishes prepared with love, and in this kind of environment, that is exactly what they should be serving. After the meal we went for a little walk which was much needed to digest the food. It was all in all a perfect Saturday in the country and in the evening I cooked a three-course meal in Christopher’s mother’s kitchen. What I made, I will show you tomorrow.
Paradise prawns with a twist. I used a tbsp of dry sherry instead of the wine, and added som pressed garlic and a tbsp chilli sauce. This version was really nice too! It feels right to cook this dish in a copper pan, because that’s what mummy used to do. 🙂
The simplest salad with spinach, little gem, thinly sliced red onions, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt. Some nice seeds would have worked well, but I can’t eat them. We finished off dinner with some cheese. My current favourite is Ossau-Iraty (to the left), a ewe’s milk cheese from the Basque region in France. In the middle you see truffle honey, which is divine together with cheese. Love it! On the right is a creamy Brie that I like to eat with pears. And Carr’s water biscuits is a must with cheese.
I received some cookbooks today that I’d ordered from Amazon. The Moomin cookbook is really cute with drawings and anecdotes but the recipes were a bit boring. The Hummingbird Bakery book is lovely and I really want to get into cupcakes a bit more. But the best was Plenty. OMG, I want to cook all the fabulous recipes in that book. Amazing!
I met up with two ex-colleaugues yesterday after work, Sinead and Katie. We met at a thai restaurant in Soho, which I have heard lots of good things about, and it was actually on the Time Out list as well – Busaba Eathai.
I apologise for the fuzzy iPhone photos.
Sinead finished work earlier than us, so she managed to get there before the crowds and grabbed seats for us, because you can’t book in advance.
During my walk to the restaurant I walked through China Town where they were celebrating the Chinese New Year (it is now the year of the Rabbit) and there were lots of people about and lanterns swaying in the sky. It is at moments like that I realise how much I love this city!
A few minutes walk later and I reached the restaurant, which I first walked past because of the subtle signage. The restaurant was really nice and furnished in dark wood. Straight a head to the right was a cloak room and along the wall at the back was the open kitchen. The tables were large square ones with room for eight people, so if you were a smaller group than that you had to share. I quite like the idea to share with strangers. It fascinates me what food people order and it is fun to guess how they know each other. Love people watching.
The breaded prawns and the spring rolls.Chicken satay
All three of us were starving so we ordered three starters to share and a main course each. The starters were: large breaded prawns with a nice dip, vegetarian spring rolls and chicken satay. The prawns were juicy but crispy on the outside and the dip was delicious. The spring rolls were a bit disappointing even though they were crisp, but they lacked a lot in flavour. I wouldn’t order them again. The chicken was lovely though, very moist which is not always the case with chicken satay, and the peanut dip was really nice too.
Rose apple and chicken wok
For mains, Sinead ordered the rose apple chicken wok and Katie and I chose the pad thai, and I tried the thai roti as well, because I have never had it in a thai restaurant before.
The pad thai
I love pad thai and this was a really nice version. It could have been a bit heavier with ginger, but it was still delicious. There were plenty of prawns, and had the peanuts on the side. The roti was a deep fried round bread, quite similar to langos, but I don’t think it had potatoes in the batter. Nice but not amazing.
The service was good, and even though the queque was growing outside (the queque was as long as the front of the restaurant) we didn’t feel rushed. The food arrived quickly after we’d ordered it and the Sauvignon Blanc was cold and crisp and we got ice water without asking for it which is nice.
All this only cost around £60, for the three of us, which is great value for money, especially considering it included a bottle of wine.
I highly recommend this place! There are a few restaurant to chose from but the Wardour St one, which we went to, seems to be one of the more buzzing ones.
Scallops are one of my favourite things from the sea. I love both the taste and the soft texture. And every time I eat them I feel like I’m treating myself to something a bit luxurious…
The inspiration for the sauce I found in one of my mum’s old cookbooks when I visiting home last. As usual I didn’t follow the recipe much, but went my own way, but I would never have come up with pairing scallops with a saffron sauce if I hasn’t seen the recipe, so all credit to this book, but I have no idea which book it was… The dish turned out really well, and I think serving the scallops with a yummy sauce is so much nicer than serving it with a little herb salad or something. This just feels fresh, a bit extra and it really works!
The most important thing is the produce though. Rather buy a few nice scallops instead of buying the small tasteless ones, and make sure you avoid the frozen ones, they taste nothing but water. Two large scallops per person is enough as a starter and is not very expensive. I’d rather go for quality than quantity any day… 🙂
We got these placemats in the Harrod's sale. Love them!
Scallops in saffron sauce, serves 2
4 large scallops
100 ml dry white wine
100 ml fish stock
100 ml cream
1 large pinch of saffron threads
1/2 pressed garlic clove
1 chopped shallot
Cut the hard muscle off each scallop. Pour wine, stock, cream and saffron into a sauce pan. Bring to the boil and let it simmer and thicken for a few minutes. Season to taste with saffron, garlic, salt and white pepper. Fry the scallops on medium heat in butter (and maub a little bit of olive oil). Season with salt and pepper. Put two scallops each in two bowls. Pour the sauce around the scallops. Sprinkle with chopped shallots.
I just love this salad! And I actually really like salads in general, but because of my way-less-fiber-diet-to-keep-the-stomach-happy, most salads are difficult for me, but a Caesar sallad is in a way a non salad. I know it has lettuce in it, but that is the only green, the rest is just nice proteins to make it taste nice, and that is the best kind of salad to me. One that fills you up, makes it feel lighter than a carb-heavy meal but still tastes absolutely delicious. Chicken, bacon, parmesan, croûtons and dressing – what’s not to like?!
For us it was nice with a break from the heavy food we tend to eat during the cold months. I really have to remember to eat more soups in the winter and more salads in the summer, because as much as I like my meat, fish and potatoes, I really do like soups and salads. Especially this one.
The reason for making a quick dressing was just that I was out of eggs, and if you have the bacon and chicken ready since the day before, this is a quick meal to whip up. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. In fact, this very minute I am really looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch. 🙂
Caesar sallad eith quick dressing, serves 2-3
2 romaine lettuce heads
3 fried chicken thighs (prefferably fried in the oven)
5-6 slices crispy bacon
3 slices stale bread
1 clove garlic
olive oil
parmesan
Dressing:
100 ml creme fraiche
100 ml mayonnaise
2 anchovies in oil, finely chopped
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 pressed garlic clove
1-2 tbsp finely grated parmesan
a tiny pinch of salt
white pepper
Mix the ingredients for the dressing and leave it while preparing the salad. Trim the edges off the bread and cut into large cubes. Heat up olive oil on medium-low heat and add the pressed garlic, throw in the bread and fry them until golden all around. Add more oil if needed and take care not to burn the garlic. Rinse the lettuce and tear into pieces. Put on plates. Take away the bones and skin from the chicken and distribute it on top of the lettuce. Tear the bacon in pices and scatter on top, add croûtons and slices of parmesan. Drizzle the dressing on top. Alternatively, dress the lettuce before putting onto the plates and place everything else on top. Finish off with some black pepper.
In this week’s issue of Time out, they’re listing London’s 50 best retsaurants, and I am proud that one of our favourite places came in as number 1. Applause for Terroirs! Here you can see what I have written about them in the past.
Last time I was there was in October when it was Christopher’s mother’s birthday, but I forgot to write about it then. We were sat in their new addition then, in the basement. They have different menues on the two floors and a bar on each. We started off with a glass of bubbly in the lower bar before we proceeded to our table and had dinner. The food was very good, without being to weird or to innovative, just very well cooked. I can’t remember exactly what we had, since it is such a long time ago, but I do remember that it was really nice!
We often come here for a glass of wine, champagne or sometimes in Christopher’s case, sherry. We love to sit by the bar and chat to the friendly bartenders. It has happened that they let you try something, otherwise the lovely nibbles will keep you happy. How about salty duck scratchings, rillettes or nice French cheeses?
This is one of these really cosy places you want to go back to time after time. The atmosphere is friendly, knowledgeable and professional, all at the same time. The wine list is impressive, the food is good and you just know that you will have a great time if you come here.
When my best friend Emma came to stay with me last time we popped in here on the Friday after I finished work for a glass of champagne, and she liked it so much she wants to go back when she and her fiancée are coming to stay in March. 🙂
The location is really good as well, the restaurant is a few minutes walk from both Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Charing Cross, and luckily for me, only 5 mins walk from the office. 🙂 This place was full every night before Time Out ranked them the best restaurant in the big smoke, so make sure you have a reservation if you want to eat here.
Other restaurants on the top 50 list that I like are Dishoom (read about them here and here) and The Wolseley (read here and here), both very good restaurants in completely different ways. There were also lots of restaurants I have heard good reviews about and who recide on my (ever growing) to-do-list.
The Time Out list for 2010 is not yet on their website, but you find the one for 2009 here.
Scandelights 