Category: Vegetables

Chicken in stilton sauce with fennel gratin

Published on by Hanna1 Comment

This dish might look beige, but I promise there is nothing beige about the taste. The Stilton flavour is a bit subtle, but definitely there, well balanced by sweetness in the chilli sauce. The fennel is soft and fresh and you can definitely taste the lemon. Try this if you want a different side dish.  

I used chicken thighs for this dish, because they are more moist and taste more than chicken breasts. But if chicken fillet is your preference, go for it!

The fennel is bubbling away.
Nice and creamy sauce!

Chicken in Stilton sauce with fennel gratin, serves 2

olive oil

3 chicken thighs

10 cm leek, sliced

250 ml single cream

1 icecube homemade chicken stock (or a splash of concentrated chicken stock)

70 g Stilton

1 tsp mild chilli sauce (for sweetness)

salt

white pepper

1,5 fennel

2 cloves garlic, sliced

olive oil

salt

white pepper

1/2 lemon, juice from

500 ml vegetable stock

grated cheese

Take the skin off the chicken thighs and cut the meat into chunks. Fry them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Remove from skillet and add the leeks. Put the chicken back into the pan and add the cream and stock. Crumble in the Stilton, add the seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve with rice and the fennel gratin (below).

For the gratin, wash the fennel and cut into wedges. Slice the garlic. Fry these in some olive oil in a pan on low heat so they don’t brown. Add salt, pepper, stock and lemon juice. Bring to boil and cook for about 20 minutes until soft. Drain and place in an oven dish. Spinkle grated cheese on top. Bake in 200C for about 15 minutes.

Swedish peasant food: stewed spinach, fried potatoes, eggs and frankfurters

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My mother used to (and still does) distinguish weekday food from weekend food. On weeknights we used to have mostly peasant food like meatballs, sausages and mash, soups etc and on the weekends she would go all out with fillet of beef, seafood etc.

Fry the potatoes...
...until they're done.

I take after her, I always make the weekends something extra, I definitely spend more money on meat for the weekends, but my weekday food can sometimes be quite different from my parents’. I use more pasta and make different kind of soups, whereas my dad would be happy with boiled potatoes five days a week. I need to mix it up a little and try new things. But sometimes I go back to the peasant food. Last week I made this stewed spinach served with lots of fried things; diced potatoes, eggs and frankfurters (it works with bacon too).

Nice and green!

I have actually never made this before, or asked my mother for a recipe, but I was really happy that it tasted like my mother’s version. Yum!

Stewed spinach, fried potatoes, eggs and frankfurters, serves 2

4 large potatoes

butter

olive oil

salt

white pepper

sugar

flour

milk

nutmeg

frozen chopped spinach

eggs

frankfurters

Peel the potatoes and cut into small dices. Fry in plenty of butter and oilve oil on medium heat until they’re done. Season with salt, white pepper and 2 pinches of sugar (very important and the key to perfect fried potatoes). Make a roux of butter and flour, add milk (warm milk makes it quicker), stir the whole time and let it thicken. Season with nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Add as much frozen chopped spinach as you think is good (I used about 400 g for 750 ml milk). Let the spinach heat up. Fry eggs and frankfurters and serve with the potatoes and spinach-bechamel.

Wilted spinach

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Wilted spinach is one of my hangups at the moment. To be honest I first made it the other day, and it is sooo easy and yummy. The perfect side dish for the autumn. As usual when I get an hangup, I have it with everything, but it is actully a very versatile side dish, so try and see which your favourite combination is.

Wilted spinach

Melt some butter in a small frying pan or sauce pan. Add a large handful of spinach and stir it around occasionally and watch it shrink, then add some more, and some more until you have as much as you want. Be warned though, it shrinks a lot! Just season with salt and pepper and if there are lots of liquid left in the spinach just press it out in a sieve.

Chorizo and butter bean stew

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Christopher is of the opinion that I cook too much with butter and/or cream and sometimes I listen to what he has to say. 😉 Without any dairy products I tested (and altered) this recipe by Jamie Oliver. I’m very proud. 

Our nearest supermarket is a real messy one. The other day I was looking for glue for 15 minutes before I gave up, and before that I was searching for lightbulbs for 10 minutes because it wasn’t signposted or logical at all in there. On top of that, the fish counter is terrible, they only have salmon, and all over the shop they sell out or don’t stock it properly. It’s not for me. And since it’s not a Waitrose either (I heart Waitrose) I’m incredibly happy with my Ocado deliveries. It is great to avoid the stress of shopping while hungry on your way home from work, and lovely not to have to carry the heavy bags at all.  

Only downside is that when they are out of stock, they choose what to replace it with. In this case I had ordered proper chorizo sausages, but ended up with the thinly sliced version. No harm done, it tasted lovely, but the texture of the other sausage would have made it so much better. Oh well. Next time.

Chorizo and butterbean stew, serves 3-4

1 onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, pressed

250-200 g chorizo, sliced

olive oil

400 g tinned chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

a dash concentrated stock

salt and black pepper

2 tsp smoked paprika

400 g tinned butterbeans

a large handful spinach

optional: vegeble stock to thin the stew

Heat up some olive oil in a pan and fry the inion, garlic and chorizo for a couple of minutes, without browning very much. Add the tomatoes, stock, vinegar and spices and season to taste. Let it simmer for a few minutes, and add some stock if you think it is too thick. Add the beans and the spinach and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Serve with rice and garlic bread. Autumnal and warming!

Burgers with potato wedges, parsnips and feta creme

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Beef mince is great weekday food. It is cheap, healthy and very versatile. I often make these burgers served with feta creme and potato wedges instead of in a bun.

Burgers with potato wedges, parsnips and feta creme, serves 2 + a lunch box

Burgers:

500 g beef mince

1 egg

3 tbsp milk 

ca 100 ml breadcrumbs

1,5 tsp sambal oelek

a splash of lemon juice

1 tsp onion granules or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

salt and white pepper

Potatoes and root vegetables:

5 potatoes

3 parsnips

a few carrots

olive oil

rosmary

salt, white pepper

Feta creme:

1/2 packet proper feta

200 ml creme fraiche

a splash of lemon juice

salt, white pepper

Peel the parnsips and perhaps the carrots (I used chantenays so it wasn’t necessary), cut into wedges. Wash the potatoes and cut into wedges as well, put it all in a roasting dish, drizzle over some olive oil and season. Toss and roast in 200C for about 45 minutes. 

Mix all the ingredients for the burgers apart from the mince. Leave it for a few minutes so the breadcrumbs can swell, then mix in the meat. Incorporate thoroughly and shape into burgers. Put them on a plate until needed. When the potatoes have 20 minutes left to cook, fry the burgers in a frying pan in a knob of butter and some oilve oil.

Crumble the feta in a bowl and mush it up with a fork, mix in the creme fraiche, squeeze in some lemon and season with salt and pepper.

I also served some broadbeans with this, sautéed for a few minutes in olive oil with some finely chopped onions, lemon juice and a few chilli flakes.

Quick lasagne with aubergine and courgette

Published on by Hanna4 Comments

I love aubergine! So this is a weekday favourite of mine. Christopher doesn’t love them, but tolerates them, and together with pasta he quite enjoys it. This is a speedy version of lasagne as you use a tub of cream cheese instead of the bechamel sauce. Together with the soft vegetables the cheese becomes nice and creamy. 

Quick lasagne with aubergine and courgette, serves 4

1 aubergine

2-3 courgettes

oilve oil

lasagne sheets

1 tub (200 g) Philadelphia

1 can chopped tomatoes with basil (I love Ciro’s)

vegetable stock

salt pepper

grated cheese

Wash the vegetables and cut the ends off, slice in 5 mm thick slices. Fry these until soft in olive oil on medium heat. Make them in batches. Meanwhile, pour the chopped tomatoes into a saucepan and reduce on low-medium heat, add vegetable stock and season. In an oven dish, start with a layer of tomato sauce, next a layer of pasta, a little bit more tomato sauce, a layer of courgettes, dollops of cream cheese, and start again from the pasta layer but substitute the courgettes with aubergine this time around and use courgettes in the top layers. Finish off with pasta sheets, tomato sauce and the grated cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes in 200 C.

I never know what to serve with this dish, it feels a bit unnecessary to serve a salad with this amount of vegetables, have you got any tips?

Panfried celeriac with mushrooms

Published on by Hanna6 Comments

This is not a dish I can take any credit for at all, apparently it was a very popular veggie dish in the 80’s (at least in Sweden) but I found out about it a couple of days ago on this blog. I really wanted to try and make it because a) it sounded really nice, and b) because I had half a celeriac left in the fridge and no idea how to use it. So ok, b) was the strongest motivator! But this is a great way of using up left over celeriac and it tastes great together with the mushrooms. We were soon thinking of other ways to use it, maybe with some parmesan mixed in with the breadcrumbs or some chilli flakes? We will see how we do it next time. There is definitely a next time.

This is my version, with what I had at hand, but do have a look at the blog above and google translate it.

Panfried celeriac with mushrooms, serves two as a starter or side dish

1/2 celeriac

soy sauce

1 egg

plain flour

breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

a large handful mushrooms

some parlsey

1/2 clove of garlic, pressed 

Peel and cut the celeriac into 1 cm thick slices. Boil them in water and a little soy sauce for about 10 minutes, or until it is nearly cooked through. Drain. Coat the slices with first plain flour, then beaten egg and last breadcrumbs. Fry on medium heat in a frying pan with a lot of olive oil, first one side and then the next until golden (about 2 minutes on each side). Add salt and pepper. While you fry the celeriac, fry the mushrooms in some oil and butter over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, add some salt and pepper, pressed garlic and parsley. Serve with tzatziki or another cold sauce.

Shoulder of lamb with root vegetable hash and parsnip puree

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I’ve wanted to try this recipe for a while, and finally got around to it on Sunday, but I exchanged the beef for lamb. For once I actually followed the recipes but I was slightly disappointed. I think I just require more flavours in my cooking to be satisfied. But on paper it is a good idea, so I am sure I will modify it and make it more flavoursome! Stay tuned… The lamb however was really good!

Shoulder of lamb with root vegetable hash and parsnip puree, 2 portions

Half shoulder of lamb

olive oil

salt & black pepper

1 packet fresh rosemary

3 small parsnips

butter, softened

cream

root vegetables (I chose potato, carrot, celeriac and swede)

rye bread

Rub the lamb in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Make small cuts in the meat and stick the rosemary into the meat. Add some garlic too if you like, I had ran out. Place the meat in a oven dish and cover with tin foil, place in 180 C oven for about 2 hours. After 1,5 hours, start cooking the trimmings.

Crumble the bread onto a hot but dry pan and make it crispy (I think it will be nicer to fry it crispy in butter though), leave for now. Peel the parsnips and cut them into pieces, place in a pan and cover with water, cook until soft. Peel the vegetables and cut them into small cubes, feel free to chop an onion too, try it all in butter until soft, season with plenty of salt and perhaps some herbs. Drain the parsnips and mix with butter and cream, season. Take the meat out of the oven when it is ready, it should be very tender at the ends. Leave to rest in the tin foil for about 10 minutes until serving. Serve with the trimmings, and sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the puree.

Pickled cucumber

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In Sweden we call pickled cucumber pressgurka and it is very easy to make. I love it with paté on a sandwich, but it is great with meatballs, boiled potatoes and creamy gravy as well.

Pickled cucumber – pressgurka

1/2 cucumber

1 tsp salt

75 ml granulated sugar

acetic acid solution (in Swedish ättika, mix 1 part acetic acid with 6-7 parts water)

1 tbsp water

chopped parsley

Thinly slice the cucumber. This is easily done with a cheese slicer or potato peeler. Put the cucumber in a jar and pour in the salt and sugar, next add the acetic acid solution and water. Stir and make sure the salt and sugar dissolves. Throw in the parsley and stir again. Put on the lid and leave in fridge until the next day. Use within a week.