Cheese stuffed peppers

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Melted cheese. Is there anything more comforting? It cures (or at least helps) a hangover and tastes so so good.

Although this recipe contains a lot of cheese, it feels slightly healthy because they peppers fill you up so there is no need to add bread or pasta. And they’re delicious in their own simple way.

I used the lovely sweet romano peppers here, but use whatever peppers you like. I liked this dish so much that I first had it for supper one evening and then as lunch at the weekend. Yummy!

Cheese stuffed peppers, serves 1

1 romano pepper

3 tbsp philadelphia cheese

50 ml grated strong cheese (I used cheddar)

olive oil, salt, white pepper

To serve: rocket, olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Drizzle some oil in a roasting tray. Turn the oven on 200C. Cut the pepper in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Rinse and place hollow side up in the tray. Mix the cheese together and stuff the peppers with it. Add salt and pepper. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the peppers are soft.

Place a bed of rocket salad on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic and place the peppers on top.

Venison mince buorguignon

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Not evry long ago I saw that Annika at the Swedish food blog Smaskens.nu had been making a boeuf bourguignon with beef mince and I thought that was a nice thing to try. But then I remembered I had a kilo of lovely venison mince (from fallow deer) in the freezer from Sweden and tried the recipe with that.

As usual though, I made a few changes, but not all of them because I wanted to. For starters I had to use streaky bacon instead of lardons, because I couldn’t find any lardons in my local supermarket. Shame on you Sanisbury’s.

I also cooked the dish in my slowcooker while I was at work, and that worked really well.

Because venison mince is very lean (like all game) it really works to either cook it with some more fatty ingredients, like cream or to serve it with something richer. I went for the latter, because you should not have cream in a bourguignon! Instead I made a very creamy potato purée with lots of butter to serve with it. It was the perfect combination and also how Annika served hers with beef mince. Thank you for that suggestion!

Below is my own version of this dish, but I found all the inspiration here. If you fancy a proper Boeuf Bourguignon instead, then try the ultimate recipe by Julia Child.

Venison mince buorguignon, serves 4- 6

1 kg venison mince

1/2 bottle red wine

200 ml water

2 tsp concentrated beef stock

1 bouquet garni

3 whole cloves of garlic

2 sprigs thyme (taken off the stem)

2 tbsp tomato purée

salt, black pepper

Step 2:

another dash of red wine

2-3 slices carrots

2 tbsp maizena (corn starch to thicken)

1 tbsp tomato purée

season to taste with stock, salt and pepper

100 g button mushrooms

100 g lardon (or streaky bacon)

Brown the mince in butter and transfer to the slowcooker. Add wine, stock, water, garlic, herbs, tomato purée, salt and pepper. Turn it on low heat and leave it for 8 hours. Transfer the pot to the stove (or pour the stew into another pan) and add the wine, carrots, tomato purée and maizena/corn starch. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for 10 minutes to thicken and for the carrots to cook. In the meantime, fry the mishrooms in butter on high heat, then the lardons/bacon and add to the pot.

Season to taste with sugar, herbs and salt and pepper. Serve with a buttery potato purée (cook waxy potatoes until very soft, mix with a plenty of butter with a stick blender, season with salt and pepper) and creme fraiche. If you have leftovers the stew will only taste better the next day.

Gooey chocolate cake with cheesecake marbling

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Every month when I make the cakes for work I make sure on of them is a chocolate cake as it is always popular.

In Sweden a gooey mudcake is very popular and although the office loves the plain one I wanted to make one a little bit more interesting. And when I found this recipe on Alexandras’s Swedish blog Kärlek på tallrik (in English: Love on a plate) I knew I had to try it.

The chocolate cakes is a fairly standard mudcake recipe that you bake for 10 minutes so it sets around the edges. In the meantime you make a cheesecake filling and pour it into the chocolate batter and bake it until just set and still gooey. Really yummy, especially if it has been in the fridge for a few hours and is served with lightly whipped cream.

Gooey chocolate cake with cheesecake marbling, sreves 10

After Alexandra’s recipe.

Chocolate cake:

150 g butter
2 eggs
300 ml caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
150 ml plain flour
4 tbsp cocoa

Cheesecake filling:

2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
75 ml caster sugar
400 g philadelphia
the juice from 1/2 lime

Preheat the oven to 175C and butter a cake tin. Melt the butter and leave it to cool a little. Beat eggs and sugar for the chocolate until pale and fluffy in a large mixing bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl and incorporate into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla and melted butter and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 10 minutes. In the meantime mix all the indgredients for the cheesecake filling: beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy then add the cream cheese and lime juice and beat until smooth.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into the chocolate cake anyway you like, I poured it into the middle. Bake for another 30 minutes or until the cake is just set but still gooey. Leave to cool and chill in the fridge before serving. Serve with icecream, lightly whipped cream or on its own.

Almond meringue tart with custard

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The next cake for work have also featured on the blog before, but it was a while ago, so I think it is fair to let it into the limelight once again.

The recipe for this cake is from one of my mother’s many cookbooks and is courtesy of the chefs at Svaneholms Slott in Sweden once upon a time (it is an old book) but the nice thing is that this hotel is in an old castle just 15 minutes from where my parents live.

My colleague Michael loved this cake so much that he asked for the recipe straight away, and I do agree with him – it is a wonderful cake.

It works just as well to end a dinner party as to serve with tea or coffee on a Sunday aftrenoon. The texture is creamy and chewy at the same time and the flavours are really nice. Also it is very simple to make, but it might not look it.

The original recipe calls for flaked almonds to top but I, however think it looks nicer with some fresh raspberries.

Almond meringue tart with custard (gluten free), 8 portioner

150 g ground almonds

5 eggwhites

200 g icing sugar

Beat the eggwhites until stiff peaks. Fold in the icing sugar followed by the ground almonds. Pour into a buttered dish and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes in 175C.

Custard:

3 egg yolks

200 ml double cream

150 ml caster sugar

1,5 tbsp butter

Add the ingredients to a saucepan. Let it all melt while stirring and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Leave to coll and pour onto the meringue base. Leave to cool a little and decorate with raspberries or flaked almonds.

Scandi tip #19: Leila

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Sweden’s answer to Nigella is definitelty Leila Lindholm. She is equally good at whipping up girly cakes as to cook for a dinner party. She’s a famous face in Sweden after her TV shows, and her cookbooks have been translated into English.

The newest addition to her empire is her online shop Leila’s General Store. It has some vintage kitchen items and lots of nice baking accessories and other nice things for the kitchen. Some of the items are quite pricey, but I would still buy from there.

Victoria sponge

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As you might know by now, I bake the birthday cakes for my office once a month. We haven’t got a budget big enough to get patisserie cakes and we were all so bored of the supermarket varieties. So the company pays for the ingredients and I bake away one night a month. I really enjoy it as I get to choose what to make and I have always loved to bake.

This month people had requested a traditional Victoria sponge so I made this classic with only one little addition – fresh strawberries. It went down a treat and it really is a wonderful summer cake.

I hade made this before, but this time I made the cake slightly higher and below is that recipe. The cake is incredibly easy to make, just don’t open the oven door until 30 minutes have passed (to avoid it sinking in the middle), then you’ll be fine. I prefer to make one sponge and cut it in half with a serrated knife, but feel free to use two cake tins (same size) if you wish.

Victoria sponge, serves 10

260 g plain flour

260 g caster sugar

260 g softened butter

5 eggs

1,5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

200 g strawberry jam

200 ml whipped cream

150 g sliced strawberries

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat together with an electric whisk. Pour into a buttered and lined cake tin (or two of the same size). Place in a 175C oven for 35-40 minutes. Do not open the oven door until 30 minutes have passed.Cut the cake in half with a serrated knife and let it cool completely.

Place the bottom sponge on a cake plate and spread the jam onto it. Add the sliced strawberries and on top the whipped cream. Place the other sponge on top. Decorate with a few strawberries and dust with icing sugar.

The Bull & Last, Kentish Town

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This past weekend was absolutely glorious with the sun shining both days so to go for a for a nice long walk followed by a pub lunch was the perfect Sunday activity.

With sunglasses on I met Laura at Belsize Park around lunch time, where she showed me around her new neighbourhood. We then walked across Hampstead Heath and onto The Bull & Last for our 2.30 reservation.

We liked the pub immediately. The decor is traditionally pubby with some nice touches, like double doors to the loos, stuffed animals and hunting trophies.

The groundfloor was really busy and quite loud when we walked in, perfect for chatting with friends, but it was nicer to eat upstairs in the more quiet dining room, like we did.

Last year the pub won an Observer award for best Sunday lunch and as we walked through the pub we could see just how popular the roast beef with yorkshire pudding was. It looked delicious but after a walk in the sunshine we were up for something a bit lighter. All the maincourses were quite heavy so we had two starters each instead. Well I did anyway. 🙂

I chose a salad with beetroot, horseradish, smoked eel and cod’s cheeks and it was an absolute delight. It had different textures (smooth eel, crunchy beetroot crisps, creamy horseradish) and lots of nice flavours. Laura had some of it and we also had a side of triple cooked chips. I mean, how could we resist?

They were lovely and crisp on the outside and soft in the middle and served with homemade mayonnaise. Need I say more?!

Instead of the maincourses we chose a board each; fish for Laura and meat for me. They were huge and it would have been perfect to share one for two people as a starter. As a maincourse it was definitely enough and we were pretty full by the end of it.

The fish board consisted of a haddock croquette, sprats, mackerel paté, potted shrimps and beautiful gravadlax (with beetroot for the colour I presume) and soft soda bread.

My meat board was equally packed with goodies; the chicken liver parfait was velvety smooth and probably my favourite as well as celeriac slaw, thin slices of duck breast, duck rillette and a lovely ham hock terrine. The pig’s head was shredded pieces of meat in a croquette and the bread was toasted and brioche-like. I enjoyed it all, although some things could have done with a tad more seasoning.

As I said, the boards were quite filling, but not having icecream on a sunny day is almost a crime, so we had a scoop each after a little breather.

Laura’s prune and armagnac is above and my mint chocolate chip is pictured below.

We spent around two and a half hours in here and enjoyed every moment. The service was good and relaxed and you definitely didn’t feel rushed. And since we were part of the late lunch service they probably didn’t need our table until dinner service a bit later anyway.

As soon as we stood up it hit me how full I actually was, so we decided to walk some more to digest the food. After a stroll to Highgate and over the Heath we were back at Belsize Park and it was time to go home.

We had a lovely Sunday and to go for a nice long walk combined with nice food is just great. We will definitely be back to eat our way through the menu, which might prove a challange as we were told it changes every few days…

The Bull and Last
168 Highgate Road
London NW5 1QS 
020 726 73641

Chicken drumsticks with za’atar marinade

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I discovered the lovely herb blend za’atar on my trip to Syria about a year ago. It consists of sesame seeds and dried thyme, but depending on the blend it can taste quite different. I bought a large bag of my favourite blend, a special blend a Damascus spice wholesaler made so it is probably one of the best you can get.

I love to cook with this blend and have used it in a few different dishes. Last week I marinaded drumsticks in a mixture of za’atar, lemon juice, Japanese soy, olive oil and garlic for about 48 hours and the cooked chicken was lovely and moist and coated of a golden layer or the marinade.

I used dried limes (also purchased in Syria) and whole cardamom pods to flavour the rice, which is popular in the Middle East. Once drained and the spices removed I sprinkled some sumac on it for extra flavour. The sauce is a simple mix of creme fraiche/soured cream, sambal oelek and fresh lime juice.

If you don’t want to eat the chicken with rice for supper the drumsticks work well on a picnic as well.

Chicken drumsticks with za’atar marinade

6 chicken drumsticks

4 tbsp za’atar

1/2 lemon, the juice

2 tbsp Japanese soy

2 whole garlic cloves

1/2 olive oil

salt, black pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a large ziplock bag and shake to combine. Leave in the fridge to marinade for at least 24 hours, but preferrably 48. Cook in a 200C oven on a rack with a tin foil covered roasting tray below for about 20 minutes.

My city: lovely London

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Yesterday I went to Tate Modern with my friend Maria and her colleague Hannan. The exhibition was Boetti and Kusama. In general I don’t really like modern art (probably because I don’t get it most of the time) but I really enjoyed Kusama’s work.

Since it was a beautiful evening I decided to walk across the Thames from my office and wander down the Southbank. I love that stretch of the river bank and the view is lovely. You see Westminster and Big Ben looking left, near you you have the London Eye and to your right you have St Paul’s Cathedral and The City.

On days like this, when I have time to really experience my London, I get an instant reminder of why I chose to live here and why I’m still here four years on. I just love my city! That is of course why I wanted to share these pictures with you.

The pictures are taken with my old iPhone, but they turned out pretty good this time.