Dublin, part I: Guiness store house and Trinity College

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On Saturday I met up with Karin at Dublin Airport; she arrived from Liverpool and I from Gatwick. Before I headed over to the other terminal to meet her, I went to the washrooms and this Irish lady started talking to me instantly. It turned all the Irish people we met during our stay in Dublin were just as friendly as she was.

After having left our bags at the hotel and had some breakfast we walked in the rain to the Guiness store house were we enjoyed the educational but sometimes a bit slow, exhibition. It was interesting to learn how Guiness is made and what gives it the distinctive dark colour (roasted barley).

Karin outside the Guiness store house

Included in the ticket was both a little taster of Guiness and also a whole pint at the top floor bar. Before we headed up there we stopped at the floor beneath to have lunch.

Seafood soup with samphire

The menu sounded really nice, but the execution wasn’t really there unfortunately. Our soup tasted quite nice, but some of the seafood looked a bit sad and it was obvious it came from a supermarket counter and not a proper fishmonger.

The was also not hot enough. We loved the dark soft bread though. We also stopped at the shop on our way out for some Guiness toffee and chocolate.

Afterwards we wanted to see Marsh’s Library, the first public library in Ireland with books dating back to the 1500s. Unfortunarely it closed early in the afternoon so we didn’t have time to visit. Walking back to the town centre the sky really opened and we had to run into a department store to escape the rain.

We found some lovely looking cupcakes there. And the store itself was an amazing building, too bad they only had boring shops like Argos inside it. It had such potential!

Trinty College

On the Sunday we went to Trinity College in the town centre and it was nice and all, but both Cambridge and my old univeristy in Sweden is a lot prettier. The sign posting was also lacking a lot and it took us a while to find the Science Gallery but it was closed because they were putting up a new exhibition. So we went to another exhibition instead; the Book of Kells. It was fairly interesting but could have been displayed in a better way. The best part however, was that on our way out we had to go upstairs to the long room, which indeed was a long room with a wonderful rounded ceiling and lots and lots of old leather bound book and statues if famous authours. That was wonderful to see!

Butternut squash soup with roasted garlic

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One of the most popular cookbooks in Sweden in the autumn was Lotta Lundgren’s amazing Om jag var din hemmafru (translates: If I was your housewife). The design of the book is very spectacular for a cookbook with glossy sexy pictures, not just of food, and the texts are amazing as well as the recipes. It is no surprise that Lotta has a background in advertising.

I bought this book as soon as it was published but haven’t have time to properly read it until now. Love it though! And it was also about time I tried one of her recipes, this fabulous soup with roasted butternut squash, garlic and onions.

The only changes I made to the recipe was to exchange a regular onion for a red onion, and to use less stock as my butternut squash was rather small.

Butternut squash soup with roasted garlic, serves 4

1 butternut squash

1 regular onion (or a red onion)

4 garlic cloves

1 lemon, the zest and juice

400-600 ml chicken or vegetable stock

200 ml cream

salt, pepper

Place the squash, onion and garlic cloves whole with the peel on on a roasting tray. Place in 200C oven. Roast the garlic for 20 minutes and the rest for 50 minutes. Leave to cool a little. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Scrape out the flesh. Cut off the roots on the onion and squeeze out the whole thing. Peel the garlic. Grate the zest off the lemon and purée the squash, onion, zest and garlic. Heat up the stock in a saucepan and add the purée, then add the cream and bring to the boil. Season with salt and pepper and add a few drops of lemon juice.  Lotta suggests serving the soups with parmesan shavings or crispy bacon, I just added a dollop of creme fraiche.


Almond cake with milk chocolate ganache, chopped almonds and seasalt

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The third cake for work last month was very popular; my colleagues are crazy about almonds.

The recipe for this cake is from a wonderful Swedish food blog called Anne’s food, and yes, it is in English. I made some slight changes to the recipe though, as I couldn’t find any good substitute for the chocolate with nuts in (Marabou’s Schweizernöt). Instead I used regular milk chocolate for the ganache and added some chopped almonds to it as well as some seasalt at the end. Toasted chopped almonds would have been even better, will do that next time.

The salt I used was a vanilla salt from Halen Môn, but using regular Maldon salt is just fine. I was just intrigued to try the vanilla salt. It is black from all the vanilla seeds and taste wonderful.

Almond cake with milk chocolate ganache, chopped almonds and seasalt, serves 8-10

2 eggs

270 g caster sugar

100 g ground almonds

75 g plain flour

100 g butter

Ganache:

200 g milk chocolate

5 tbsp cream

1 tbsp butter

Garnish:

chopped almonds

seasalt

Preheat the oven to 175C. Melt the butter and grease a round cake tin. Beat eggs and suga pale and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the almonds, flour and butter. Stir to combine properly. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool completely before spreading on the ganache.

Melt the chocolate for the ganache in a saucepan on low heat or in a bain marie. Add the cream and stir, then add the butter and combine. Spread the ganache onto the cake and sprinkle with the almonds. Let it set and sprinkle with salt before serving.

Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting

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Cake number two for work last month was a recipe from the same great blog as where I found the lemon cheesecake; Matrepubliken [The Food Republic].

Both the cake and the frosting are sweet and if you don’t have such a sweet tooth as I, then I would recommend to make a less sweet chocolate cake (any recipe will do), but do keep the frosting as it is, becaus it is perfect. Perfect, do you hear?! Do not mess with perfection.

I can’t wait to try the frosting on some cupcakes next. Just make it, if you love peanuts or peanut butter this will blow you away!

Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, serves 12

Cake:

120 g butter
200 g milk chocolate
100 ml peanut butter, preferably crunchy
50 ml cocoa
3 eggs
250 ml caster sugar
250 ml plain flour

150-200 ml crunchy peanut butter
450 ml icing sugar
200 g Philadelphia cheese

Preheat the oven to 175C. Butter a cake tin. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the chocolate and peanut butter. When it is all melted, add the cocoa. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and beat in the eggs, one at the time, with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and flour to combine. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool completely before spreading on the icing. 

Mix the peanut butter, cream cheese and icing sugar together and spread onto the cake in a thick layer. Keep in the fridge before and after serving.

Amazing lemon cheesecake

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On Friday it was once again time to bake for the office, as we have cakes once a month to celebrate that month’s birthdays. I usually make three cakes; one chocolate cake, one cheesecake and one other.

The most popular cake this time was a lovely lemon cheesecake that I found on this Swedish food blog.

When I tried the batter (bowl licking is essential) I knew it would be good, as the flavour reminded me of my mother’s lemon mousse.

I made a few changes to the recipe; for one I prefer to bake the base as I like the texture more that way. Just let it cool completely (10 minutes in the fridge helps) before adding the creamy layer. I also omitted the passion fruit from the jelly because they didn’t have any in the shop I went too. I also used a vegetarian jelling agent instead of gelatine in the creamy mixture, but I prefer to give you the recipe as I found it. The simple – but effectful – decorations are bought sugar pansies.

Lemon cheesecake, serves 10

Base:

12 digestive biscuits (half a packet)

75 g softened butter

Filling:

400 g Philadelphia cheese
300 ml sourcream
1 lemon (zest and juice)
250 ml icing sugar
5 gelatin leaves or similar jelling agent
50 ml water

Lemon jelly:

100 ml fresh lemon juice
100 ml icing sugar
100 ml water
the zest from one lemon
a few drops yellow food colouring
2 gelatin leaves

Mix the digestives with the butter into crumbs and press it onto a a greased springform base. Bake for 10 minutes in 175C. Leave to cool completely.

Place the gelatin leaves in water, squeeze out the excess water and let them melt in the water on low heat. Leave to cool. Mix the cream cheese, sourcream, icing sugar, lemon zest and juice with the gelatin in a mixer/with an electric whisk until smooth. Pour it over the base and leave to set in the fridge for at least an hour.

Place the gelatin leaves in water and squeeze out the excess water. Melt the icing sugar in a pan with the water, on low heat. Add the gelatin to dissolve. Leave to cool and add the lemon juice, zest and food colouring. Pour the yellow mixture onto the set cake and leave it to set in the fridge for at least two hours before serving.

Cocktails at Bob Bob Ricard

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Photo: Bob Bob Ricard.

On Friday the plan was for me, Laura and Jess to go to a nice pub in Chelsea, but we ended up having cocktails at Bob Bob Ricard in Soho instead, before heading to another bar for food and some more drinks.

 

Pear bellini

Once we decided to stay central we actually wanted to go to Mark’s Bar at Hix, but it was full and it was too cold to hang around waiting. Instead we walked two blocks to Bob Bob Ricard. It was the first time we were here, but we liked what we saw (and experienced).

When we opened the heavy door, at least four staff members greeted us, took our coats and showed us to our table in the downstairs bar.

The whole place is in art deco style and it looked really nice. The bar downstairs was all in red and had little booths with sofas and little flap chairs. The cocktail menu had lots of interesting English cocktails, as well as little nibbles like olives and popcorn.

Jess and I had a pear bellini each, which was lovely, and Laura’s choice of a Garden drink with Pimm’s, elderflower and mint was very refreshing and it was fun to see what else you can do with Pimm’s apart from serving it with fruit and lemonade.

We agreed that this is a perfect place to start a date or just go for a drink or two when in need for some instant glamour.

Weekday wonders: Egg-fried rice with chicken

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If one, like me, never ever seem to get the quantities right when making rice, then you will probably end up with a lot of left over rice. And as I really dislike to throw away food, I want to use it up. The quickest (and tastiest) way to achieve that is to make egg-fried rice. It is a speedy supper that tastes wonderful.

You can vary it in any way you want; I used what I had at hand; green pepper, romano pepper, chicken thighs and salad onions. I enjoyed this with a dollop of a sauce made with creme fraiche and sweet chilli sauce because I had some left in the fridge. It is a nice addition, but it is nice without it too.

Egg-fried rice with chicken, serves 2

3 chicken thighs

1/2 green bell pepper

1 romano pepper

3 salad onions

neutral oil for frying

500 ml cold cooked rice

1 garlic clove

1 egg

a few drops sesame oil

soy sauce

sweet chilli sauce

salt, white pepper

Skin and de-bone the chicken and cut the meat into strips. Fry in oil on high heat until just cooked through, won’t take long. Add salt and pepper. Remove from the frying pan. Cut the peppers and salad onions into strips and fry in the same oan for about 5 minutes. Remove as well. Add more oil to the pan and lower the heat. Fry the rice for a few minutes until it is warm. Beat the egg with the sesame oil. Make some space in the frying pan by pushing the rice to one side. Pour in the egg onto the empty surface and let it set a little before mixing it with the rice. Fry for a few minutes. Add the vegetables and chicken. Add the garlic, soy sauce and sweet chilli after taste. Fry for another few minutes and adjust the seasoning. Serve and enjoy.

Scandi tip #11: Marylebone

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My friend Jenny, who has recently moved to West London, texted me a few days ago to ask if I knew there was a Nordic bakery near Marylebone. I must confess I haven’t been to the Nordic Bakery, I always tend to go to the Scandinavian Kitchen, but I can vouch for plenty of baked goods courtesy of the former, as my friend Anna shops there a lot.

Marylebone is the Swedish area in London, this is where you find the church and the pub. It is also home to the design shop Skandium, which I have mentioned before, and lots of other non-Scandinavian shops like the Conran shop and Divertimenti, as well as lots of nice restaurants, pubs and cafés.

Note: the picture is courtesy of this page.

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.