Category: Starters

A reminder: green pea soup

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I have mentioned green pea soup on this blog before, but that was a while ago now and I think it is time for a gentle reminder. The reason for this is, that I think this is one of the nicest soups around and probably the only one I find light enough to enjoy during the summer. Hot, that is. I don’t really do cold soups.

I live for the weekends, although I like doing things during the week as well, I adore weekends when you have time to prepare and eat a meal with plenty of time on your hands. That’s why I usually make three courses at the weekends, or at least two. And when one is busy at the weekend, then this works just as well on a Thursday.

I suggested to Christopher that we would have a nice bottle of wine with dinner, and then I made the one course weekday meal I had planned into a three course meal quite easily. The peas in the freezer made this lovely soup, the main course was the aubergine dish I had already planned (it needs some modifications until it gets posted on here) together with garlic bread. And some cheese and crackers left over from the weekend was our dessert. Easy peasy and incredibly fulfilling.

The cheese board consisted of, from the top: Rebluchon (creamy, French, cow’s milk); a lovely French blue cheese that I have forgotten the name of; Brie de Meaux (French, cow’s milk) and last but not least Ossau Iraty (Basque region, France, ewe’s milk, hard). My must-have crackers with cheese are both British; Carr’s water biscuits and Bath Olivers (the two types to the left in the bread basket).

Greenn pea soup, serves 2

300 g frozen petit pois

water to cover

a dash of concentrated vegetable or chicken stock

100 ml cream

2 dashes (3 tbsp approx) dry white wine

Place the frozen peas in a sauce pan, just about cover with water. Bring to the boil and let it boil for a minute or two. Drain but keep the water. Blitz the peas with about two ladles of the water until you have a thick soup. Pour it back into the pan, add cream, wine and stock and bring to the boil again. Add more liquid if the soup is too thick. Season. Pour into bowls and decorate them with whirls of cream and truffle oil.

Four course dinner

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Our friends Malin and Martin have been staying with us Wednesday to Sunday last week, and we did the most of eating and drinking during that time. 🙂

On Friday we met up with them after work and walked to our favourite Terroirs for a glass or two. OK, two. We take most our visiting friends here for drinks as it is such a nice a place. We were a little hungry so we nibbled on bread and nice green olives before we headed home to eat dinner.

While I was cooking we had some Pimm’s and snacks and after half an hour or so we were ready to eat properly.

We had Delia’s smashing halloumi with lime vinaigrette as a starter, followed by lamb neck fillet with French potato salad and asparagus.

For dessert we had vanilla pannacotta with strawberries and raspberries and a pinch of icing sugar, followed by a cheese board, sourdough bread, crackers and port.

Yep, we were very sleepy and full after all this. The next day the gluttany continued with a big brunch and Henley Regatta, which I will post tomorrow.

Midsummer luncheon

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Yesterday we had a lovely lunch at Ian and Anna’s house, so us scandos (Anna and me) could celebrate midsummer. There were eight of us, and everyone brought something for the meal, so we had a very international selection of food. Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Polish and, of course, English.

The weather was gorgeous so we stayed outside in the garden and cooled down with first Pimm’s, then white wine.

The first course was fish: two types of herring (mustard and dill), matjes cheesecake (more herring), smoked salmon on rye bread, borgis (Polish cabbage stew with sausage), salad and bread.

Second course was meat: shaslik (Russian lamb scewers), meatballs, Salad Olivier (Russian potato salad with sausages, mayo, gherkins, apple..) and Polish piergi with cheese and potato.

After that we had to take quite a long break, then we had two desserts; English Eton Mess and Swedish strawberry cake (which is compulsory for Midsummer).

It was a lovely day and to be able to sit outside in the sun, eating and drinking and chatting – that is quality time well spent!

Matjes cheesecake, serves 10

6-8 slices German style rye bread

50 g softened butter

400 ml creme fraiche

200 g cream cheese

75 ml mayo (Hellman’s)

1 tin matjes herring

1 bunch of chives, finely chopped

salt

white pepper

3 gelatine leaves

1 tbsp water

Mix the bread into crumbs. Mix with the butter. Cover the base of a 20 cm springform. Press properly. Chop the herring. Mix cheese, mayo, creme fraiche, herring and chives. Season to taste. Place the gelatine leaves in cold water. Squeeze out the excess water. Melt on low heat in a pan with 1 tbsp water. Leave to cool slightly. Mix with the herring mixture. Spread it out in the springform. Cover with clingfilm and leave in fridge overnight. 

Cauliflower terrine and parma ham

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Every time I go back to Sweden I always end up bringing recipes back to London, one way or the other. Either scribbles on notes (from my mothers cookbooks) or from a magazine. Since we fly to and from Copenhagen (the closest larger airport to South of Sweden although it is in Denmark) I bought a few foodie magazines in Danish on our last trip.

The languages are related so it is not difficult understand recipes in Danish. 🙂 I found this recipe for a cauliflower terrine in Spis Bedre Magazine and I just had to try it. As usual I made a few changes to the recipe, using less gelatine and adding persillade for more taste.

I really enjoyed it, where as Christopher enjoyed the flavour but didn’t like the idea of cold cauliflower or the texture that much, so consider that before making it yourself. 🙂

Cauliflower terrine

1 cauliflower (ca 500 g)

200 ml milk

200 ml cream

a pinch of salt

zest from 1/2 lemon

2 tsp persillade

white pepper

2 gelatine leaves

To serve: parma ham and crema di balsamico

Put the gelatine in a bowl of cold water. Cut the cauliflower into smaller pieces, throw the stem away. Rinse and place in a sauce pan with milk, cream and salt. Bring to the boil and cook until the cauliflower is soft. Remove the cauliflower and place in a cling film lined loaf tin. Add lemon zest, persillade and pepper to the cream mixture. Take out the gelatine leaves and add them to, while stirring. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Leave to cool completely, cover and place in fridge over night. Serve with parma ham and crema di balsamico.  

A reminder: Bruschetta

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I came down with a terrible cold on Sunday. Just bam it hit me, and I got the lot; sore throat, runny nose, fever… At least it broke out quickly and the recovery seem pretty quick as well. Fever is gone, I’m back at work and my taste sensation has come back as well. Yay!

Before this hit me, on Friday we had a lovely little basil-themed dinner. It just happened like that and it was really nice! We had one of my favourite starters to begin with – bruschetta. It is best this time of year when the tomatoes taste like they should, full of sun and happiness. Paired with lots of basil, some garlic and nice crusty bread this is a winner every time. I just wanted to remind you of that.

Bruschetta, serves 2 as quite a large starter

6 largeish pieces of ciabatta

4-6 medium tomatoes

a handful of basil, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, pressed

salt, pepper

Chop the tomatoes wuite finely and put it into a sieve to get rid of the excess water. Transfer to a bowl, add basil, pressed garlic, olive oil and spices.

Place the bread pieces on an oven tray and pour garlic on them. Rub the recently used garlic press over the bread to give it a hint of garlic. Roast in 200C oven for about 5 minutes (or until crusty on top).

Place generous spoonfuls of the tomato mixture on each piece of bread. Serve immediately – with napkins.

Mezze: Baked aubergine with pomegranate and stuffed courgettes

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As always when I go on holiday, i filled my bags with groceries when I was on my way home from Syria. Soon thereafter I bought the fabulous cookbook Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi and he uses alot of the things I brought back in his recipes. Perfect or what?!

These two recipes from Plenty don’t require any strange ingredients though, and I highly recommend you trying them. I utterly adored the aubergine dish, but my boyfriend fell in love with the courgettes. I have followed the recipes, but have veganised them where needed. You find the stuffed courgette recipe here in which I omitted the currants. It is from Ottolenghi’s culumn The New Vegetarian on the Guardian’s website, where many of the recipes in Plenty are from.

And below you find my adapted recipe for the baked aubergines with pomegranate.

Baked aubergine with pomegranate, serves 4 or 6 as a buffet

2 medium aubergines

olive oil

thyme

150 ml soy cream

1 garlic clove

juice from 1/2 lemon

salt

pepper

pomegranate seeds

Cut the aubergines in half lengthways and place them skin down in a greased roasting tray. Cut a diaond pattern in the flesh with a knife, being carfel not to pierce the skin. Brush with olive oil a few times, so it gets soaked up by the aubergine. Sprinkle with thyme leaves and a few thyme sprigs. Add salt and pepper. Bake in 200C for 40 minutes. Leave to cool completely.

Mix the soy cream wuth garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. Pour it over the aubergines just before serving and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Wild garlic mayonnaise

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On Friday we had a simple dinner consisting of salad, tigerprawns, bread, nice Swedish cheese (gräddost) and the main act – wild garlic mayo.

I had some wild garlic left that I needed to use up and although I knew I wouldn’t be able to re-create the amazing wild garlic mayo I had at Trinity, I still had to give it a go. And it was delicious! Of course not playing in the same league as Trinity but for being homemade on the first attempt, it was pretty awesome! Especially the next day when the flavours had evolved even more.

Because of this lovely mayo we enjoyed the same starter both Saturday and Sunday (and I would happily eat it once a day for the rest of my life); green asparagus with wild garlic mayo, parmesan, extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Delicious!

Wild garlic mayonnaise

6-7 wild garlic leaves

200 ml vegetable oil, maybe more

2 egg yolks

1,5 tsp dijon mustard

salt

white pepper

Mix the oil with the wild garlic until you have a smooth green oil. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks, mustard abd seasoning. Start whisking with an electric whisk while adding the green oil bit by bit. If you want the mayonnaise to be even thicker, add plain oil while whisking. I noticed that the mayonnaise was slightly thinner the next da.

Asparagus with wild garlic mayonnaise and parmesan, serves 2

8 sparagus stems

wild garlic mayonnaise

parmigiano reggiano or other matured parmesan

extra virgin olive oil

Maldon sea salt

Break the ends of the asparagus, where it breaks naturally. Steam in salted water for 4-5 minutes. Drain. Place a large dollop of mayonnaise on each plate. Place the asparagus next to it, add shavings of parmesan, drizzle some olive oil and add a pinch of sea salt. Serve with crusty bread or as it is. 

Spring luncheon

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On Sunday Christopher’s mother came over for lunch. It was lovely and sunny outside and it is such a shame we don’t have a patio or a balcony, but with windows open it felt quite summery inside.

We had a lovely Sunday and managed to show Eileen all the photos from Syria (without sending her to sleep), enjoyed a nice bottle of Chablis and had a spring-themed three course lunch.

We had Julia Child’s stuffed mushrooms as a starter, followed by trout, dilly baby new potatoes and the best sauce for fish ever. For dessert we had a new tweaked version of the pannacotta with raspberry syrup. I made the syrup from 150 g fresh raspberries, 75 ml sugar and 2 star anise, and that made all the difference – adding more star anise.

Julia Child’s stuffed mushrooms, (Champignons Farcis) serves 4

The recipe calls for 12 smaller mushrooms, but I used 4 of the large flat mushrooms, and the quantities work fine.

4 large flat mushrooms (or 12 smaller)

30 ml melted butter

3 tbsp finely chopped onion

butter and oil for frying

3 tbsp chopped spring onions

the stalks from the mushrooms, finely chopped

3 tbsp breadcrumbs

30 ml grated Swiss cheese (I used Emmenthaler)

30 ml grated Parmesan (I used Cheddar instead)

1/2 tsp dried tarragon

4 tbsp chopped parsley

salt & white pepper

2-3 tbsp cream

20 ml grated Swiss cheese

30 ml melted butter

Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and put aside. Wash the mushrooms and dry them. Grease a roasting tina, brush the mushrooms with melted butter and place them in it, hollow-side up.

Fry the onion in butter and oil for a few minutes until soft but not browned. Add spring onions and the mushroom stalks and fry for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add grated cheese, parsley, tarragon, breadcrumbs and season. Pour in the cream spoon by spoon to make the mixture come together but without making it too creamy. Fill the four mushroom caps with the mixture and flatten with a spoon. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and pour over drops of melted butter. Bake i preheated oven, 190C for 15 minutes. I served the mushrooms with rocket and crema di balsamico. 

Asparagus with poached pheasant egg

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If I see something unusual or interesting food wise, I usually can’t resist the urge to buy it. So when I saw these pheasant eggs at Daylesford Organic on Saturday, I just had to buy them. They also had the more common duck eggs and quail eggs, which I have tried before, but pheasant eggs were new to me.

The eggs are quite small (but a lot bigger than quail eggs), the shell is grey and hard compared to regular hen eggs. The flavour was a bit different too, even though it tasted like eggs. But if you compare chicken to wild birds and do the same thing to the eggs, then you can figure out what it tastes like.

Asparagus with poached pheasant egg, serves 2

8-10 green asparagus spears

2 pheasant eggs

white wine vinegar

butter

salt

truffle oil

Break off the ends of the spears. Place in a pan and cover with boiling water. Add salt. Cook for a few minutes until they are ‘al dente’. Drain. Fill another pan with boiling water and 1/10 vinegar. Set the heat so that it is simmering. Break one egg into a mug/cup and lower it into the simmering water. Cover with a lid and take out the egg after 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with cold water. You can either poach both eggs at the same time – break the eggs into different cups and lower them into the water after each other, or poach them one by one. While the eggs are poaching, heat up some butter in a skillet and fry the asparagus for a couple of minutes. Divide between two plates, add salt, place the egg on top and drizzle truffle oil on top. 

Salmon tartar with cream cheese top

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I hope you all had a nice Valentine’s day! We did. My cupcakes and chocolate biscuits disappreared quickly at work, which is a good sign and when I got home Christopher and I exchanged cards. The same card! Out of all the thousands of different Valentine’s day cards we had managed to pick out the exact same one. In different shops. So we had a good laugh about it. It is rather funny, and hopefully a sign that we are supposed to be together. We clearly know each other well… 🙂

A bit later Jess and Chris arrived, and brought lots of goodies; champagne, red wine and Jess had got us all a heartshaped chocolate box each. So sweet!

I served a salmon tartar as the starter. I found the recipe in one of my mother’s many cookbooks but do not remember which one. Great recipe though! And I was quite pleased I managed to plate it nicely as well. 🙂

For the main course we had pork fillet en croûte with parsnip purée and asparagus, and for dessert creme brûlée and blueberries with lime sugar. I will post those two recipes later, but you will get the salmon tartar recipe now. Do try this, it was delicious and so fresh and perfect for spring. You start off by curing the salmon, so this is proper gravad lax – very Swedish. But then you mix in some tarragon, lemon juice and dijon. Lovely!

Before curing
Homemade gravad lax

Laxtartar med cream cheese-täcke, 4 portioner

Step 1:

300 g salmon fillet

1 tbsp sea salt

1/2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

Step 2:

1/2 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon

1/2 tsp dijon

juicefrom 1/2 lemon

salt, white pepper

Step 3:

200 g Philadelphia

1 tbsp cut/chopped chives

1 tsp paprika

Start with step 1 48 hours before servning. Cut the skin off the salmon. Mix salt, sugar and dill and pat into the fish. Put in a shallow dish and cover with clingfilm. Refrigerate for 48 hours.

Step 2: Dice the salmon. Mix tarragon, dijon and lemon juice in a bowl and add the salmon. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 3: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Place a round metal ring (6 cm in diameter and 4 cm high) on a plate and put 1/4 of the salmon in it. Press down to flatten with a spoon. Put a layer of creme cheese on top and smoothe it out. Carefully remove the ring. Repeat with the remaining three plates. I placed rocket around the tartar and decorated each with a lemon slice and some dill. Serve with nice bread.