Category: Vegetables

Weekday wonders: hash with chorizo

Published on by Hanna2 Comments

Bubble and squeak and the Swedish version hash are both great dishes for using up leftovers, so the other day I made a version of it that turned out really nice. But chorizo is a bit like bacon – it makes everything nice!

This is hardly a recipe, you can use which vegetables and volumes you like, but this is how mine turned out. I served it with a poached egg and a simple cold sauce made from creme fraiche, mayonnaise and a Swedish herb seasoning.

Hash with chorizo, serves 2

3 potatoes, unpeeled, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1/2 broccoli, cut into small florets

1/4 chorizo ring

a pinch of sugar

salt, pepper

2 tbsp chopped onions (any kind you like)

butter and oil for frying

Served with: poached egg (description below)

Heat up oil and butter in a large frying pan. Add the potato and fry covered for 10-15 minutes or until almost soft. Stir occasionally. Add the carrots and fry for a few minutes. Remove it all to a bowl. Add more butter to the pan and fry the broccoli on high heat for a minute. Add to the potatoes. Fry the onions and chorizo for about 5 minutes, then return everything to the pan and let it warm through.

Poach the egg(s) while the hash is warming. Bring a large saucepan of water to simmer uncovered. Crack one egg at the time into a cup and lower it into the simmering water one by one. You don’t need vinegar in the water or to make a swirl in the water, but the fresher the eggs the better. Don’t poach more then three eggs at the time. The eggs are done aftre 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Transfer to kitchen towel to drain so the eggs don’t go cold.

Pasta with spinach and peanut sauce

Published on by Hanna3 Comments

I thrive on inspiration from other blogs. Isn’t it great what the internet can provide us with?

Last week I found this recipe on a Swedish food blog I follow; Kryddburken [The Spice Jar] – a wonderful pasta recipe with a fabulous sauce made with spinach, peanuts, lemon, garlic and parmesan. It was utterly simple and tasted lovely. I think this will stick to my weekday repertoire.

I adapted the recipe a little (omitted pine nuts and halved it). You find my version below.

Pasta with spinach and peanut sauce, serves 2

Adapted from this recipe.

200 g pasta of your choice

100 g spinach, roughly chopped

50 g salted peanuts

200 ml half and half (half cream, half milk)

1/2 lemon, the juice

75 ml grated parmesan

1 small garlic clove, pressed

1 tsp chilli sauce

butter and oil for frying

salt and black pepper

Cook the pasta accordingly. Chop the nuts with a knife or in a food processor. Add the butter and oil to a frying pan on high heat. Add the spinach and nuts. Cook until the spinach has wilted and the water has dried away. Add the half and half, garlic and lemon juice and let the sauce thicken while stirring. Season.

Remove from the heat after about 5 minutes and stir in the parmesan. Serve with the pasta.

Ottolenghi inspired beans with spring onions and feta

Published on by Hanna7 Comments

I have probably raved about Ottolenghis vegetarian cookbook Plenty enough for you to know that I love it and use it quite a lot.

The only ‘problem’ I have with the some of the recipes are the more uncommon ingredients that are sometimes required. At least uncommon when not found in a London supermarket. If you live in the countryside and have your own garden it is of course different.

I found a lovely recipe of fried butterbeans with feta, springonions and sorrel. Sorrel being that difficult ingredient to find in a London supermarket this time of year.

Because of omitting the sorrel and making a few other substitutes, this is not an Ottolenghi recipe anymore, but close enough. If you want the real deal, then look in his book and make sure you source some sorrel.

I ate this bean salad as it is with some nice bread for supper, but you can easily serve it as a side dish at a barbecue, instead of mash with sausages or any other way you want.

Ottolenghi inspired beans with spring onions and feta, serves 2

1 can (400g) cannellini beans

plenty of butter and oil for frying

1 garlic clove

1 red chilli, finely chopped

8 spring onions, chopped

2 tsp sumac

1/2 lemon, the juice

1/2 tsp salt

more olive oil

as much crumbled feta as you like

Rinse the beans and drain. Heat up the butter and oil in a frying pan and only add enough beans to cover the bottom, to fry them in batches. Fry until the beans are golden brown, remove and fry the other batch(es). Add the garlic, chilli and onions to the last batch. Fry for a couple of minutes and add the other beans. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and sumac. Add salt and olive oil and lastly the feta.

Pork belly, Jerusalem artichoke purée and creamy black trumpets

Published on by Hanna3 Comments

In a way it has been liberating food wise to move to the UK. It might sound silly, but in the UK everyone eats. In Sweden not so much.

Maybe it is because the world’s perception of Swedish people as blond, slim and beautiful that Swedish girls in general don’t eat much. They are all very conscious about what they eat and unless it is low-carb, low-fat the food is merely pushed around the plate instead of put in the mouth.

This is a generalisation of course, but for a foodie, this environment felt rather hostile. Moving to the UK almost four years ago, I could not believe it when the really slim women in my office had a sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch. I mean bread? Crisps? And they still stayed slim. Was that even possible? Of course it was. In the UK people ate the way we did when I was young; everything in moderation. And it works.

But you can imagine that if people don’t want bread for lunch they certainly wouldn’t eat crackling. In Sweden a few years ago it seemed that it was only chicken breasts and salmon fillets that people ate. Some still do, and I am sick and tired of both. But foodies eat differently, thank God, and restaurants with the same philosophy as St John are opening up everywhere in Sweden and it seems more OK to actually eat there now. Or maybe I just don’t care anymore.

Pork belly, Jerusalem artichoke purée and creamy black trumpets, serves 2

2 slices pork belly

salt

a few sprigs thyme

300 g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled

3 tbsp salted butter

1 handfull dried black trumpets, soaked in water

1 tbsp butter

1 garlic clove

a splash of dry white wine

50 ml cream

1 tsp concentrated vegetable stock

salt, white pepper

Preheat the oven to 125C. Place the pork belly slices in a buttered dish. Rub salt into the crackling and add some salt all over. Place the thyme on the meat. Let it cook for at least two hours or until tender.

Cut the artichokes in equal pieces, cover with water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook until soft. Turn the oven up to 250C and cook the meat for another 10 minutes until the crackling crisps up.

Squeeze the water from the mushrooms and chop roughly. Fry in the butter on high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the wine and let some evaporate. Add the cream and stock and let it thicken.

Purée the artichokes with the butter, season ieth salt and pepper.  

Celeriac tartiflette

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I wasn’t sure if this dish should make the cut for the blog or not. Not because it wasn’t good, but because a normal tariflette might actually be better.

This is the first tartiflette I have made, although it is not entirely authentic, and I so wish I had started with the regular all potato tartiflette, but after a fridge inspection I really wanted to use up some celeriac I had left. Ergo this version.

It was really nice, but I might suspect that a regular tartiflette is just as nice or even better. Pretty soon I will make one to compare and report back.

Tartiflette is basically a potatoes au gratin with lardons and rebochon cheese, courtesy of the French, but of course.

However I used cured smoked bacon cut in small pieces instead of lardon and cheddar instead of rebochon.

Celeriac tartiflette, served 1-2

1/4 celeriac, peeled

2 medium potatoes, peeled

3 slices cured smoked bacon, cut in pieces

50 ml creme fraiche

100 ml cream

salt, white pepper

a handful grated cheddar

Cut potatoes and celeriac into thin slices. Bring to the boil in salted water and cook for a few minutes. Drain. Fry the bacon crispy in a frying pan. Grease an ovenproof dish and add half of the potatoes/celeriac. Sprinkle some cheese and bacon on top and put the rest of the potatoes/celerac on top. Finish off with the rest of the bacon and cheese. Mix cream and creme fraiche, add salt and pepper and pour into the dish. Cook for at least 30 minutes in 200C or until the gratin is soft.

Spinach and aubergine lasagne for one

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Lasagne is a great dish to make if you’re feeding a large number of people, but it can as easily be reduced to just one portion.

One evening last week I found myself with an open packet of fresh lasagne sheets and a bowl of left-over homemade tomato sauce, and of course I thought it would be a good idea to make a lasagne.

The way I make it, without a cheesy bechamel, is a quick and truly delicious approach, and the best way if you’re making a smaller lasagne.

Spinach and aubergine lasagne, serves 1

1 small aubergine

150 g fresh spinach

3 fresh lasagne sheets

100 ml tomato sauce (homemade if possible)

150 ml creme fraiche

100 ml grädde

1 handful grated cheese

salt, pepper

olive oil and a knob of butter for frying

Wash the aubergine and cut it into slices lengthways. Fry these until soft in olive oil on high heat. Put aside. Add the knob of butter to the same pan on medium heat. Add the spinach and stir as it wilts. Add salt and white pepper and drain away the excess water from the spinach. Mix creme fraiche and cream in a bowl. Add salt and pepper.

Spread some tomato sauce in the bottom of a small ovenproof dish (10 x 10 cm approx), cut the lasagne sheet to fit and place it on top of the tomato sauce. Add another layer of tomato sayce, then a layer of aubergine followed by the spinach and then finally the cream mixture and grated cheese. Start again with another lasagne sheet and repeat until the dish is full. Top with a some cream mixture and grated cheese. Place in a 200 C oven for about 30 minutes. Leave to set for a few minutes before serving.

Melanzane parmigiana

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I certanily hope that you have been watching the River Cottage Veg Everyday series?! One of the chefs at the River Cottage canteen made this in one of the episodes and it looked so good I had to make it myself.

I only glanced at the receipe and then made my own version. Business as usual in other words.

Melanzane parmigiana, serves 3-4

2 aubergines

1 buffalo mozzarella

100-200 ml grated hard cheese, i.e. Emmenthal

olive oil for frying

Tomato sauce:

400 g tomato chunks

200 g passata

1 splash or water

1 tbsp Italian herbs

1 msk balsamvinäger

1 garlic clove, pressed

salt, white pepper

Pour all the ingredients for the tomato sauce in a saucepan. Stir occasionally while it bubbles away and thickens, takes about 30 minutes. Wash the aubergines and cut them, skin on, into 1/2 cm thick slices. Fry in (plenty of) olive oil until soft and brown. Tear the mozzarella into chunks.

Butter a gratin dish (10 x 20 cm) and pour some tomato sauce into it. Add a layer of aubergines on top, and top that with mozzarella chunks and grated cheese. Repeat until you have three layers/used everything up. Bake in 200C for about 40 minutes. Serve with some bread and perhaps a salad.

Marinaded beans with smoked paprika

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One day last week when we needed a quick supper I tried this marinaded beans recipe I found on the wonderful blog Smaskens.

To flavour beans this way is genius and the marinade was so so good. It didn’t take long to prepare either and turned out a perfect Monday supper paired with Toulouse sausages and some nice bread to soak up the juices with.

Marinaded butter beans, serves 2

Translated and adapted from this recipe.

1 tsp sweet smoked paprika

50 ml olive oil

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 shallot, finely chopped

400 g tinned butter beans, rinsed and drained

chopped parsley

1 tbsp acacia honey

Warm the oil in a large pan. Add paprika, shallots, garlic and chilli flakes. Stir while the onion cooks without browning. Add the beans and heat them up. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool. Add parsley and honey just before serving.

 

Ottolenghi’s one pot wonder

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As I might have told you several times already, I am a huge fan of Ottolenghi’s cooking. Mostly I adore his cookbook Plenty but I also like the Ottolenghi cookbook that was published before Plenty.

This recipe is another one of his creations, an all-in-one-pan-kind-of-meal with quite basic ingredients (potatoes, onions, chilli, garlic, yoghurt, eggs) and some unusual seasoning (sumac and tahini) but it made a perfect weekday supper, would be perfect for breakfast or to cure any bad hangover.

Unfortunately I was all out of tahini without realising it, when I made this dish, so I substituted for the next best thing; za’atar and that worked really well.

Ottolenghi’s one pot wonder, serves 2

Adapted from Ottolenghi’s recipe.

olive oil

3 onions, thinly sliced (I only used one red onion)

200 g baby potatoes, sliced into 5 mm thick slices

1/2 red chilli, finely chopped

1/2 tbsp sumac

salt & black pepper

1/2 tsp caster sugar

1 clove of garlic, pressed

100 g Greek yoghurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

300 g cherry tomatoes on the vine

4 eggs

1,5 tbsp tahini paste (I used 1 tbsp of za’atar instead)

1 tbsp chopped coriander (which I forgot)

Heat up olive oil in a sauteuse pan. Add the onions, potatoes, chilli, sumac, salt and pepper and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Then add sugar and garlic, and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Mix yoghurt, lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl and set aside. In a seperate pan, add the tomatoes, vine facing up, when the pan is hot and cook the tomatoes for 3-4 minutes until well charred. Remove from the pan.

Spread the potatoes and onions evenly in its pan and break four eggs on top. Try to keep the yolks whole. Fry for three minutes, until the whites start to set. Then cover and cook for another minute or two for the whites to set completely. Add dollops of the yoghurt, avoiding the yolks, then sprinkle with tahini or za’atar (again, avoiding the yolks). Place the tomatoes, still on the vine, on top and sprinkle with coriander. Serve straight from the pan. 

Cepe confit

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I’m really into duck and goose fat at the moment, perhaps because it is the season for roast potatoes again.

If you want to make the most wonderful roast potatoes, you need this type of fat. Vegetable oil just doesn’t cut it, both the taste and the texture is different. I mean when my British boyfriend’s British mother compliments my roast potatoes, I know I have done it right. 😉

But it can be even better than that, with goose fat flavoured with cepe mushrooms (also called porcini). You achieve this by making a confit and then saving the fat.

But the mushrooms are nice too, although I must admit I made this more for the idea of the roast potatoes. Served on toast with some parmesan, this is a real treat.

Cepe confit, serves 2 on toast

400 g cepe mushrooms, brushed and sliced

400 g goose fat

Place the mushroom slices in a glass dish and cover with the goose dat. Place in 85C oven for ,5 hours. Leave to cool. Drain away the fat and keep it and cherish it. Place the mushrooms on a plate and put in the fridge.

Later fry the mushrooms brown and crunchy in some olive oil. Place on buttered toast and add parmesan shavings and some parsley if you have. Enjoy!