Stuffed squid

Published on by Hanna2 Comments

A while ago I found this recipe for stuffed squid on one of my favourite Swedish food blogs: Gittos Mat. I just felt like I had to make this dish one day and bring a part of sunny Spain into my kitchen.

I rwally like squid and can not believe how cheap it is. Another thing I can not comprehend is why you in some restaurants (not the best ones, admittedly) get horrible rubbery calamari, when fresh squid is silky smooth and light years from the rubbery texture. Why oh why, I wonder.

I love homemade calamari and all my friends who have tasted it can not believe how good it is. And it is so incredibly easy to make as long as you do not mind deep-frying. This dish however, is a bit more fiddly, but it was a joy to cook it. And to eat it too of course. Serve with white bread to dip into the sauce, and perhaps a side salad of rocket and feta like I did.

Stuffed squid, serves 2

4 squid tubes

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

2/3 of a fennel

100-150 ml fresh breadcrumbs (1-2 slices)

1 egg

75 g chorizo

a bunch of chopped parsley

plain flour

400 g chopped tomatoes

salt, black pepper

olive oil

(my addition: balsamic vinegar)

Rinse the squid and pat dry. Chop onions and garlic finely and fry until soft in olive oil. Place half in a bowl for the stuffing and keep half aside for the sauce.
Chop the fennel finely and fry until soft in oil. Add to the bowl. Also add breadcrumbs and the egg, stir and leave it to swell for 10 minutes. Chop the chorizon finely and add to the mixture. Add the parsley and season. 

Stuff the squid tubes with the filling, but not too tight. Use toothpicks to seal the ends. Coat the tubes with flour and fry them until golden in olive oil. Place in a casserole dish and add the oil too. Add the onions and chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Add a glug of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar. Put on the lid and let it gently simmer for an hour. Serve and enjoy!

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.

Chicken satay with rice, peanut sauce and Asian-inspired salad

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These juicy chicken scewers are absolutely wonderful. You can serve them cold on a picnic; with a salsa dip as a canapé or with rice and peanut sauce as a fulfilling dinner. The chicken should in an ideal world be marinated for 48 hours, but if in a rush, over night will do fine.

Chicken, rice and peanut sauce needs vegetables. Both the fresh salad with pak choi and this pickled cucumber is a nice contrast to the thick and creamy sauce.

Chicken satay scewers, serves 2

300 g chicken fillets

6 garlic cloves, chopped

4 tsp ground coriander

4 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp black pepper (no, it is not a typo)

2 tsp salt

120 ml soy

4 tsp freshly grated ginger (or dried)

6 tbsp olive oil

Dice the chicken. Mix the ingredients for the marinade. Place both in a ziplock bag (bowl covered with cling film) and marinate at least over night in the fridge. Put the meat on scewers and fry in oil.

Asian-inspired salad, serves 2

2 pak choi

100 g sugar snaps

a handful radishes, thinly sliced

3 spring onions, sliced

1/2 red onion, sliced

sesame seeds

1/2 lime, the juice

olive oil

Blanch the pak choien and sugar snaps. Plate, and add onions, radishes and sesame seeds. Add the lime juice and olive oil.

Peanut sauce, serves 2

200 g coconut milk

3-4 tbsp smooth peanut butter

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1/2 lime, the juice

Bring the coconut milk to the boil. Add the peanut butter and let it cook for a few minutes. Add sweet chilli and lime juice until it is perfectly balanced.

Asian-inspired quick pickle

1/2 cucumber

acetic acid solution (1 part acetic acid to 7 parts water)

75 ml caster sugar

1 tsp salt

a splash of rice vinegar

1/2 red chilli, finely chopped

coriander, chopped

Slice the cucumber wuth a cheese slicer, mix with the chilli. Add sugar, salt, acetic acid solution to almost cover the mixture and rice vinegar. Add the coriander. Keeps in the fridge for a few days. 

A wonderful day – spa, Busaba and cake

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I had the afternoon off yesterday to go to a spa with Jenny. We had some time before our appointment, so we started with the sauna and the pool. After an hour or so we had our hot sugar scrub that after having showered the sticky mixture off, left the skin feeling sooo soft. The next treatment was a full body massage which was wonderful, and after this we were feeling very relaxed. After a nice hot shower we felt reborn and went up to the hotel bar to have a wonderful fruit smoothie and a fruit platter, all included in the package, and that truly hit the spot.

By this point it was early evening and we were hungry, so we went to Busaba Eathai for dinner. I really like this place, founded by the man behind Wagamama and Hakkasan, it is cheap, really nice food in nice surroundings. Compared to Wagamama this feels more luxurious because of the dark wood decor and burning incense, but the idea is the same; you sit at communal tables and you can not book in advance.

We started with something to drink, of course, and I tried coconut water for the first time. It came with ice and fresh muddled raspberries and it was amazing. Why have I not tried this sooner?! I am definitely hooked now. Jenny tried an equally amazing mango lassi. It was silky smooth and tasted lovely.

We ordered quite a lot of food, vegetarian spring rolls with the best sweet chilli dip I have ever had, Pat King Talay was my choice (stir fry with squid, scallops, prawns and woodear mushrooms), Jenny opted for the Pla Sam Rod (talapia fillets with a gorgeous pomegranate sauce) and perfect coconut rice and Morning Glory as a side; water spinach with garlic and chilli – absolutely fantastic and Jenny said it tasted exactly the same as in Thailand.

A happy and content Jenny!

We were very pleased with our cheap eat, the bill only came to around £40, so very good value for money. It is definitely worth going, and it is best to come around or before 6pm to avoid the queue, but it would be worth queueing for a little while as well.

On our way to the restaurant we had noticed a few bakeries on the same street (Wardour Street) and we felt we had to have something sweet to finish off the meal. We noticed a new (for us at least) branch of the Hummingbird Bakery but they did not have much left to choose from this late in the day. Instead we went to the place next door; L’Eto who had plenty of good-looking cakes in the window. After a few minutes to decide we went for the lemon meringue pie and the mille feuille with strawberry and plum. The lemon filling in the pie was nice and creamy, and the meringue on top was the almost unbaked one which was lovely. The mille feuille has obscene amounts of cream in it, which we happily scoffed down. Delicious! This place seems to be great for lunch as well with fresh looking salads, chicken patties, baked salmon etc.

Another Friday, another weekend

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This week has just whizzed by, although the weather has been grey and miserable. I love Fridays in general and this Friday in particular; because I have the afternoon off today to go to a spa with my friend Jenny and get pampered. After that we’re grabbing a bite to eat and, later on I will meet up with some friend and play boule and drink wine.

I have absolutely no plans for the whole weekend otherwise, and I love that feeling of freedom sometimes. I can do whatever I feel like. Maybe sunbathe if the sun is out, or maybe go shopping, visit an exhibition or stay in and bake and cook.

As mentioned above, London is not a nice sight today, grey and miserable and rainy, so I prefer this photo of the twilight in Lymington, near Southampton. Much nicer…

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Lemon curd squares

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For our Midsummer lunch, I made a strawberry gateau with lemon curd cream, which was really nice when we left the house. An hour and a half later when we got to our friend’s house it was rather melted (because of a heat wave and being in the underground), and therefore didn’t look its best, so I will give you the recipe and pictures next time I make it.

I ended up with some left over lemon curd after making the cake though, and as I try to avoid throwing food away, I wanted to use it up. The result was these chewy squares with lemon curd and crispy oats on top.

I brought some with me to work, and they disappeared fast, and I kept a few for dessert the next day and served them up in the simplest way possible; with a dollop of lightly whipped cream. Delicious!

Lemon curd, about 500 ml

100 g butter

2 eggs

200 ml caster sugar

1 1/2 lemon

Grate the peel and squeeze the juice from the lemons. Place in a saucepan with butter and half of the sugar. Bring to the boil and wait for the sugar to dissolve. Leave to cool.

Beat eggs and the rest of the sugar fluffy and pour it into the saucepan. Let it thicken on low heat while stirring, it must not boil. Leave to cool and keep in the fridge for about a week.

Lemon curd squares, makes 20

450 ml plain flour

150 ml caster sugar

150 g softened butter

1 tbsp baking powder

1 egg

200 ml lemon curd

Topping:

150 ml oats

100 ml caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

50 g softened butter

Beat sugar and butter creamy. Add egg, flour and baking powder. Spread out in a 20×30 cm baking tray. Spread the lemon curd on top. Mix butter, sugar and oats and sprinkle on top. Bake in 200C for about 15 mins. 

Brunch and Henley Royal Regatta

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In England some happenings are bigger than others. The Ascot’s, Goodwood and Henley Royal Regatta are a few of those, and so far I have only been to Henley.

Last year we had a picnic with friends there, but in the afternoon so many people arrived that we no longer could see the river although we were meters from it.

To avoid such nuisance we bought tickets to the Regatta enclosure, and this is (at least for us) the way forward. When we ventured out of the enclosure to look at the shops etc., it was too many prople everywhere.

Malin and Martin, Jess and Chris and us, started the dat with a brunch at our flat. We had champagne, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, croissants, mini quiches, blueberry muffins, bread, ham and cheese and things. It was a lovely start to the day and we all enjoyed it. But then again, who does not enjoy champagne?!

To brighten up the train journey out of London we had some more bubbly, then we switched to Pimm’s at the regatta. I love events like these, when you sit by the river, watching fit men row, looking around at all the pretty (and some horrible ones) dresses, Panamas and stripy blazers.

We enjoyed the early evening best though. When the serious people started to leave and the party crowd had not yet arrived. It was quiter and we could sit front row watching the rowing.

When the enclosure closed, we walked over the bridge into the village and had a nice meal. We must have been very lucky, walking in the six of us and managed to get a table!

Back at the train station, it was mayhem. There had been an accident on the tracks and several hundred people were fighting over the few taxis. Jess managed to find us one, and waiting for it we escaped the chaos and had a drink in a pub.

It was a perfect day with nice, but not too warm, weather and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Thanks guys!

Perfectly creamy scrambled eggs, serves six on a buffet

6-8 eggs

100 ml single cream

knob of butter

salt and pepper after taste

Heat up a teflon frying pan or sauté pan on medium heat. Add the butter. Beat the eggs with cream and season. Pour into the pan and lower the temperature. Stir the whole time with a wooden fork or a spatula, and watch the eggs slowly thicken. Remove from heat when a bit undercooked and keep stirring. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

Mini-quiches with Saint Agure and leek, 12 stycken

80 g softened butter

200 ml plain flour

1/3 beaten egg

100 g Saint Agure in cubes

10 cm leek, sliced

2 + 2/3 eggs (left over form the dough making)

300 ml cream

100 ml grated cheese

Mix butter, eggs and flour to a dough. Line 12 aluminium cases with it. Place blue cheese and leeks in the pastry cases. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. Mix eggs and cream, season with salt and pepper and divide between the cases. Bake in 200C for 20 minutes. Serve cold, luke warm och warm.

Blueberry muffins with almonds and lemon, makes 12

Oroginal Swedish recipe here. I made mine into larger muffins than the recipe suggests.

200 ml blueberries

125 g melted butter

150 g ground almonds

1 tbsp lemon zest

400 ml icing sugar

80 ml plain flour

5 eggwhites (about 160-170 ml)

Mix almonds, zest, icing sugar and flour in a bowl. Add the egg whites and mix. Add the melted butter and mix thoroughly. Place a few berries in each cake case, divide the mixture between the cake cases (fill them to 2/3). Bake in 200 C for about 15-20 minutes.  

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.

Opera Tavern

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Thanks to a great tip from Hanna aka Swedish Meatball Eats London, I ate a fabulous dinner at this establishment in the West End on Thursday, together with my Swedish friends Malin and Martin who were visiting.

The dinner was a quick affair because we had tickets to We Will Rock You an hour and a half later, but they are used to this in theatre land.

If I had not heard about this place, I would never have walked in, as both the name and exterior suggests it is a tourist trap. Inside however, it is nice in an understated way, the service is efficient and friendly and the food is amazing.

The menu offers tapas, both charkuterie, cheeses and the usual suspects like croquetas and calamari, but also a few more interesting dishes like the favourite miniburger with pork and foie gras.

Prosciutto och chroizoWe started off with some olives, bread, thinly sliced chorizo, prosciutto and a creamy goat’s cheese. All wonderful produce, and at room temperature to maximize the flavour.

After this we had scallops with pea purée and crispy parma ham; the fab burger mentioned above with a brioche type bun, caramelized red onions and a lovely mayo and the most succulent meat as well as juicy chargrilled chicken with chorizo. Nothing disappointed!

We finished off the session with more bread and aioli, chilli salami and gorgonzola. The meat was again very thinly sliced and nice and spicy. The gorgonzola was slightly cold, but came with amazing caramelized walnuts and rosemary flatbread.

We had all this and a bottle of wine between the three of us, and the bill only came to around £70 including service charge. Great value for money and a lovely hidden gem, so far at least – this a place that is up and coming. Book now because they will be full up soon…

Aubergine gratin with mozzarella and pancetta

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Before I made the absolutely gorgeous aubergine lasagne, I came up with this – its predecessor. And boy, this was good too! Can it be anything but delicious when combining aubergines with buffalo mozzarella and pancetta, I wonder? NO!

I really enjoyed this calorific dish, but on its own it was not enough. At least my body was craving carbs and not just salad. I would recommend perhaps a mixed bean salad, garlic bread or rice with this, although it is lovely on its own as well.

Aubergine gratin with pancetta and mozzarella, serves 2

2 aubergines

olive oil

100 g pancetta

400 g chopped tomatoes

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

plenty of Italian herbs

a pinch of brown sugar

salt, pepper

1 buffalo mozzarella

cheddar

Peel the aubergines and slice them lengthways. Fry them until soft in plenty of olive oil. Make a tomato sauce by letting chopped tomatoes, balsamic, sugar and herbs reduce. Fry the pancetta crisp and drain on kitchen towel. Slice the mozzarella. Pour some tomato sauce into a gratin dish, place a layer of aubergines at the bottom, then mozzarella and pancetta. Continue layering, topping it with tomato sauce and cheddar. Bake for 25 mins, 200 C.