Since we ate the lovely beetroot soup at the Wolsley has someone been nagging me to cook beetroot soup. I had never cooked it before but am always keen to try something new in the kitchen. I used this Swedish recipe for inspiration but didn’t follow it eaxtly… You know me. 🙂
The combination of thyme and beetroots was lovely, and nothing I would think of myself, but I chose to top my soup with parmesan shavings instead of pecorino, because that was what I had at hand. Christopher had the day off when I was to cook this and I asked him to cook the beetroots before hand as it can take quite a long time. I had asked him to cook them with the skin on, but he only heard half the sentence and had peeled them and everything. Really great, as that is what I dread with beetroots; getting stains everywhere. I think the soup would have tasted even more if the beets were cooked with the skin on, but this was delicious anyway. A good first atempt!
Beetroot soup with thyme, serves 2
500 g beetroots
500 ml vegetable stock
50 ml cream
dried (or fresh) thyme
salt and pepper
lemon oil
to serve: parmesan shavings
Peel the beetroots and cook them in water until soft. Divide into smaller pieces and cook in vegetable stock for 30 minutes. Add cream and blend the soup until smooth. Season to taste with thyme, salt, pepper and lemon oil. To serve, sprinkle on some parmesan shavings.
A long time ago I went here now, but have simply been too busy cooking over Christmas to write about this little gem in the heart of Covent Garden.
In the beginning of December my Swedish friends Henrik and Susanna came to London for a weekend. We met up with them after work on the Friday and had a few cocktails at the London Cocktail Club and then walked around the corner to Dishoom, a bombay café I waas dying to try. I knew beforehand that it was a fairly cheap eat and I was surprised of how nice the interior was. Although Praveen at work, who recommended it to me, said that it was good indian food and a nice interior, I didn’t expect it to be this nice.
We hadn’t booked when we got there and the place was really popular so we had to wait 45 minutes. No problem, we walked to the pub two doors down and 45 minutes passed by quickly. When we got back to the restaurant our table wasn’t quite ready. They apologised and had us sat down on a sofa and offered us chai, so we weren’t exactly annoyed. 🙂 After just a few minutes a table came free, a waiter sat us down and explained that they don’t really serve a three-course meal, and encouraged us to share the food. We decided on quite a few dishes; vegetable samosas, calamari, raijta, lamb biryani, grilled chicken tikka, curry of the day with chicken and lamb kebabs. We also ordered rice and naans. and had the choice of plain or garlic naans either with butter or without. I chose a garlic naan with butter and it was excellent. Maybe even the best naan I’ve ever had… 🙂 We ordered three rice, and that was a bit much, especially since the biryani has rice in it. Even the boys were struggling to finish all the food, so the amount we ordered was definitely enough.
Not the greatest picture, but hopefully you can see naans, byriani, chicken curry and chutneys.
The food was quite spicy, especially the chicken tikka, so the raijta was popular! Great service as well, as soon as we’d finished a glass of water a new one magically appeared. The food arrived quickly and was really nice. Plenty of choice and very good value for money.
We also had a bottle of wine, and even though the food was quite cheap they didn’t have any really cheap bottles of wine that no-one wants to drink. The wines were decent and started on £18 a bottle.
The food was excellent and we got plenty of it, but what really made this a nice evening out is the interior of the restaurant. Tiles on the floor, nice and clean, simple design with a hint of the east. Dark wooden tables and chairs, an open kitchen at the back and light and spacious on the ground floor. Downstairs was even nicer with cosy booths and this is where you can have private parties I think, because there was a big group of beautiful Indian women in saris dancing around and chatting. We caught a glimpse of this when we made a visit to the loos, and they were also really nice. In every booth there was a large glass and frame and behind the glass was an array of Indian toys, toileteries and such. A nice personal touch to the place!
The food was indeed of good value for money. For the four of us, all that food and a bottle of wine was only around £70, so this is a place I highly recommend after a few drinks in town.
Dishoom also serve breakfast and lunch, and I am especially curious about the breakfast. A breakfast naan sounds pretty amazing to me! 🙂
I like to hoard (and eat, not just hoard) Swedish groceries when I go back to visit. It must be several kilos of food that I have carried in my suitcase the last 2,5 years. Last time I carried over paté, wild ducks and cloudberry jam.
I love cloudberry jam! Especially with deep-fried camembert. I remember when my mum and I used to eat it from a cheese shop in Malmö when they had the festival on. The best thing about that festival was/is the food.
I was thrilled when I saw breaded camemberts in my online supermarket and tried them asap. Instead of pan-frying them or baking them in the oven as the instructions said I deep-fried them in vegetable oil and they were all gooey and melted inside. Lovely together with the cloudberry jam! Try this.
This name is very much deceiving, as these cookies don’t taste at all like gingerbread, BUT they do look like them and I guess that is why they have this name.
Apparently I made these with my dad as a child. I can’t recall the actual baking process, but I do remember the cookies. Quite thick, white and chewy. At Christmas I wanted to make them again and my dad helped – just like old times. 🙂
These are very child-friendly to bake because the rolled out dough is quite thick, these are really easy to make.
Blond gingerbread cookies, makes 50
200 ml caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking ammonium (hartshorn)
200 ml milk
approx 800 ml plain flour
Mix the ingredients in a bowl until the dough is smooth. Roll it out, about 1/2 cm thick and use cookie cutters to make the cookies. Place on a baking sheet and bake in a low oven, 175C for about 5 mins.
My favourite dessert is without a doubt creme brulée! That’s why I was so happy when I got a creme brûlée torch for Christmas from my parents. I was really keen to try it out as soon as possible and that’s the reason why we had creme brûlée for dessert on New Year’s Eve. Not that anyone was complaining… 😉
I worked a half day on NYE and to avoid being stressed in the evening I made these the night before, put them in the fridge over night, took them out a few hours before serving and caramelized the sugar with my torch just before serving.
Receptet hittar ni här från Tinas mat, men jag uteslöt kardemumman.
Vanilla creme brûlée, serves 4-6
5 egg yolks
100 ml caster sugar
350 ml cream
150 ml milk
1 vanilla pod
2 tbsp caster sugar
Turn on the oven on 110C. Bring the cream and milk to a boil. Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthways and add it to the cream mixture. Stir the yolks and the sugar – don’t beat it! Pour the cream mixture over the egg mixture and stir (don’t beat or whisk) until the sugar has dissolved. Take out the vanilla pod.
Pour into baking dishes/ramekins and bake for 35-40 min (my oven needed about 1 hour). Sprinkle the caster sugar on top and use a torch to caramelize it or put them under the grill. Serve!
When I went home to Sweden for Christmas, my parents gave me three wild ducks to take back with me to London. Thank you! And it worked out really well to bring them back in the suitcase. They were frozen and wrapped in plastic and newspapers and hadn’t defrosted one bit by the time I got home. So these treasures became our main course on New Year’s Eve. First I browned them all around and then I put them in the oven together with fresh thyme, juniper berries and port. The meat juices went into a simple sauce together with cream and I served Hasselback potatoes, small carrots and a chicory gratin with it.
Wild duck with port and thyme, serves 4
3 wild ducks with the breasts on the body (I didn’t use the thighs)
olive oil
butter
100 ml port
fresh thymr
some juniper berries
Brown the ducks on all sides in butter and oil. Add salt and pepper. Pour over the port, add some juniper berries and some sprigs of thyme. Put a meat thermometer in the middle of the thickest part of the bird. Put the frying pan in the oven (make sure you use one without plastic handles) in 200C until the mat has an inner temperature of 62 degrees. Let the meat rest in tin foil while you get on with the sauce.
Carv the meat into slices before serving. I don’t know much (if anything about carving) but it seemed easiest to cut the around the breasts to loosen them from the body and then slice them up.
Creamy sauce, serves 4
the meat juices
300 ml cream
150 ml milk
maizena or other thickening granules
a splash of port
concentrated game stock
salt
white pepper
The meat juices tasted fabulous so you don’t need to add much to make a seriously nice sauce. Pour the meat juices through a sieve and into a sauce pan. Add milk, cream, maizena and bring to a boil. Season to tast with port, salt, pepper and stock.
Chichory gratin
chicory
single cream
salt
pepper
grated gruyére cheese
Wash the chicory. Cut off the stems. Put in a pan and cover with water for 1 hour to remove the bitter taste. Drain. Put back in the pan and cover with cream. Bring to a boil and cook on low heat until soft. Pour this into an oven dish. Add salt, pepper and cheese. Bake in 200C until golden brown on the top.
This might sound very corny and retro, but I love fondue. I know that here in England a fondue means a cheese fondue, but in Sweden the meat fondue is more common and that is what I’m talking about here. I enjoyed this with my parents on the 23rd.
I love the fact that it takes quite a while to eat this meal, which gives plenty of time for you to enjoy the trimmings and sauces and to have a nice long chat with the people around the table.
You can either make fondue with oil or buillon. My family has always made the oil version so that is what I know and love. It can be a bit dangerous so do take it easy.
We usually have both pork and beef, diced, fresh mushrooms in wedges and serve it with potato wedges or other crispy oven baked potatoes. Vegetables, bearnaise sauce and barbecue spice is a must and we usually have a few dips and sauces and maybe some garlic bread.
As a little starter we first had some smoked wild duck, horseradish and tomatoes. Simple and lovely!
There is a fondue restaurant here in London, called St Moritz, and I would love to go. Maybe something for you to try if you like fondue just like me.
No recipe is needed. Just dice tender meat. Cook some potatoes, make a few sauces and add a salad or cooked vegetables. Heta up vegetable oil on the hob until it is really warm. Lit the burner and pour the oil into the fondue pan. Start dipping the meat and maybe mushrooms. Remember that the pork needs to be cooked all the way through, but that the beef can be eaten bloody or pink. Enjoy!
NYE was a great night. I finished work already at noon, went to pick up my lobsters and to do some last minute food shopping. The whole tube ride home from London bridge (I bought the lobsters at Borough Market) I was scared that one of the lobsters would poke it’s claws through the bag or start wiggling the bag and be noisy. Thankfully they both behaved! I then had trouble to fit them one at the time into my 5 l pot, they were huge!
They were so tasty though! I cooked them in salty water for 7-8 minutes and then let them cool down in cold water. I served them gratinated in garlic butter and parsley with nice crusty bread, a lemon wedge and homemade aioli. Simple but delicious!
Gratinated lobster with garlic and parsley, serves 4
2 cooked lobsters
4 tbsp soft salted butter
1 garlic clove, pressed
chopped parsley
4 lemon wedges to serve
Cut the lobsters lengthways in half. (My best tip is to use boning scissors. With those I managed to get the meat from the claws out in one piece too.) Remove the arms and claws. Take away everything but the meat in the shells and rinse. Mix the soft butter with the pressed garlic and spread over the meat in the shells. Scatter parsley on top. Bake for 10 mins in 200C oven. Sprinkle some more parsley on top before serving. Serve with one whole plain claw on the side, a wedge of lemon and crusty bread and aioli.
Aioli
2 egg yolks
2 tsp dijon mustard
1,5 tsp white wine vinegar
some salt
some white pepper
3 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
250 ml regular rapeseed/vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, pressed
Mix the yolks with mustard, salt, pepper and vinegar in a tall bowl. Add the whisk to the stick blender and pour the oils in a gentle stream while whisking. Add the garlic and maybe some more salt.
2011 is already here! I started this year with an egg and bacon breakfast and a 3 hour nap. Think I needed both!
New Year’s Eve was a real good night. David and Gaby came around for a delicious meal and then we split up to go to different parties.
When they arrived we had some bubbly, Taittinger NV Brut, and canapés. I am thrilled that Waitrose has Swedish crustades to buy. They are crispy and thin and nice to fill with whatever you can think of. I came up with two fillings that really works!
Wait to put the filling into the crustades when you’re guests has arrived, otherwise they can go soggy. We had about 4 canapés of each kind each, but it is difficult to know how many to make, it depends on how hungry the people are.
Crustades with basil cream cheese, tapenade and tomato
Crustades
Philadelphia
Fresh basil
Black tapenade
Sunblush tomatoes
Chop the basil and mix with the cream cheese. Place a dollop of this in each crustade. Add a dollop of tapenade and half a tomato wedge.
Crustades with serrano ham, goat’s cheese and crema di balsamico
Crustades
Serrano ham
Creamy goat’s cheese
Crema di balsamico
Cut a ham slice in three. Roll each piece and stand it up in a crustade. Add a piece of goat’s cheese and let it melt in a 200C oven for 5 mins. Add some crema di balsamico.
My mother is very much into her gardening, and she’s very good at it too, everyone who has seen her garden can verify that. One of my mother’s favourites within gardening is a Swede called Hannu Sarenström, and he does recipies too! We found this recipe in his book Vinterkalas (Winter parties), and my mother and I made this at Christmas. It might be a bit late to post a recipe for a Christmas paté after New Year’s, but there is nothing Christmassy about this paté apart from the name. You can make this paté all year round.
We nearly followed the reipe this time, but made a few changes. We used 200 g chicken liver and 200 g mixed mince instead of pork mince and smoked ham instead of smoked bacon. We just added slightly less liquid and that worked really well. We also used a food processor for everything but the mince, so ours is a bit smoother. Really nice!
Hannu’s Christmas paté (called Barbro’s traditional Christmas paté in the book)
300 g chicken liver
300 g lean pork mince
1 packet smoked bacon
1 onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tsp salt
2 tsp marjoram or oregano
1 tsp black pepper
100 ml dry white wine
2 eggs
100 ml plain flour
100 ml double cream
2-3 tbsp chopped parsley
Chope the liver and add to the mince. Cut the bacon into small strips and add to the mixture. Add onions and garlic. Add salt, oregano (marjoram) and pepper. Stir in the wine, eggs, flour and cream. Add the parsley.
Put the oven on 200C. Grease and coat a dish with flour, fill it with the mixture. Cover with tin foil and bake for 1 1/4 hour.
Scandelights 