Rosti with crayfish spread

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I have a long-lasting fondness of rosti, from when my mother used to serve it as starter in the late 80s early 90s as a starter at dinner parties. The crispy buttery shreds of potato taste absolutely divine with salty caviar, sharp red onions and velvety creme fraiche. I can still crave this, and I don’t care one bit that it is so retro. It is  good!

Sometimes I make this as a light supper, but Christopher is unfortunately not very fond of caviar. I know… He does have other qualities to make up for it, I promise!

So to enjoy this this with my dear boyfriend, I came up with this little crayfish mixture, dip, spread – whatever you would like to call it. And it is good. Less salty, but just as good. This would be absolutely mind blowing with fresh crayfish tails, but mixed in with the large amount of dill and the cream cheese, the in-brine version works too.

You can also put a large dollop of this on your jacket potato, in your baguette, in a cold omelette that you roll up and make little appetizers from, and plenty more.

Crayfish spread, serves 2

180 g crayfish tails

3 large tbs philadelphia

a bunch of dill, finely chopped

1/4 lemon, the juice

1 tsp paprika

salt

white pepper

Chop the crayfish tails coarsely. Mix with the other ingredients.

Rosti, serves 2

ca 6-8 medium potatoes (not new ones)

Peel and grate. Melt butter and oil in a large skilled and place dollops of the potatoe with space in between. Flatten them out. The starch is enough to hold them together (hence the older more starchy variety). Fry until crisp on both sides. Season and serve immediately. 

Bodean’s

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A few Friday’s ago we celebrated our friend David’s birthday in one of his favourite restaurants – Bodean’s. Think proper American grub. They are known for their chicken wings and pulled pork.

We went to the Soho branch, and when I walked inside, escaping the pouring rain, I though the place looked a bit like a diner where you just have a quick bite to eat, not like a restaurant diner. But we were sat on the lower ground floor which was decorated with leather sofas, wooden tables and booths. Much cosier than on the ground floor!

To celebrate the birthday boy we started off with shots for everyone and cocktails or beer to follow.

Carribean daiquiri
Sierra Nevada porter

For some reason we felt greedy and ordered both starter and mains, which we normally do, but this was not the general place. This was an American diner, which meant huuuuge portions.

Chris started off with half a dozen hot chicken wings. And boy were they hot! Funny thing was that next to him David sat with the even hotter diavolo wings with a side of diavolo sauce!

I had the pulled pork quesadilla as a starter and it was massive. Very nice though, and not far off my at-home-version of pulled pork.

Although I didn’t finish it all, I was still incredibly full, so full I only managed a few bites from my lovely burger, sob.

I totally killed it with chilli cheese fries as well, that was a dish in itself, but very good!

I highly recommend Bodean’s, especially while hangover. Just stay well clear of the mac ‘n cheese, it tasted like it came out of a packet. The rest was very good, but sent you in food coma straight away. 🙂

Sorry about the blurry photos but it was dark and I used my iPhone.

Chicken cannelloni with bacon and mushrooms

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Yesterday my dear friends Malin and Martin arrived from Sweden, and they are staying with us until Sunday.

They arrived quite late in the evening, so I had prepared dinner so we wouldn’t eat around midnight. I made the chicken cannelloni I like so much, but I realise I have changed so much in the recipe that it needs to be written down again, because this is the best version. Just make sure you have enough sauce to cover everything in your gratin dish and then some. The pasta tubes soak up a lot of the liquid, and you don’t want this dry.

I also season the ricottamixture quite well, it should almost be too much persillade, so that you can taste it when it is cooked.

Try this guys, and you can prepare everything but pouring on the sauce in advance, which is great because stuffing the tubes is time consuming. You can roll your own cannelloni with fresh lasagna sheets, but the result won’t be as good, believe me – I’ve tried.

Chicken cannelloni with bacon and mushrooms, serves 4 (large portions)

425 g chicken fillets, diced

8 slices bacon, in pieces

150 g button mushrooms, in quarters

400g ricotta

2-3 tbsp persillade

salt

white pepper

1 packet (250 g) cannelloni tubes (De Cecco)

300 ml creme fraiche

300 ml cream

a handful grated cheese

Fry bacon, chicken and mushrooms in different pans or after each other. Leave to cool. Mix ricotta with persillade, salt and pepper. Add the bacon, chicken and mushrooms. Fill the pasta tubes with the filling (I find it easiest to use a teaspoon, but it is time consuming). Place the tubes in a greased gratin dish approx 20 x 30 cm. Mix cream and creme fraiche and pour into the dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in 180-200C fir 25-30 mins. Serve with a nice salad.

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting

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It has almost become a tradition for me to bake something for the office on a Sunday. I love baking, and feel I have enough time on a Sunday to spend hours in the kitchen, and most people like a little Monday pick-me-up.

Two Sundays ago now I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, their first cookbook.

I want to learn how to decorate cakes, but one step at the time, this time I piped the frosting and decorated it with glitter or rice-paper roses, all edible, but not sure the roses tasted much.

Chocolate cupcakes, makes 12-14

100 g plain flour

20 g cocao

140 g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

40 g softened butter

120 ml whole milk

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter, cocao, sugar, baking powder and flour in a bowl until sandy. Mix milk, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl/jug and add that to the sandy mixture while whisking. Beat until fully combined. Fill cupcake cases to 2/3 and bake in 175 C for 20-25 mins. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Chokladfrosting, enough for 14 cupcakes

300 g icing sugar

100 g softened butter

40 g cocao

40 ml whole milk

Beat sugar, cocao and butter in a bowl. Add the milk bit by bit and beat until the frosting is glossy. Pipe onto the completely cool cupcakes. 

Calamari, wild garlic mayo, asparagus and potato wedges

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We had this lovely supper one day in the middle of the week, last week. Why? Because we can. No, but squid is so cheap, and it makes such a lovely summery meal.

The best mayo I’ve ever made is the wild garlic mayo, and thanks to mum who dried some leaves for me I can enjoy this all year round. It didn’t work as well with the dried stuff as the fresh leaves, so next time I will try it with the frozen ones my mum has gathered for me. Mum – you’re the best!

Calamari, serves 2

4-5 squid tubes

3 tbsp semolina

2 tsp paprika powder

a pinch of salt

neutral oil  (vegetable oil/ground nut oil)

For serving:

lime and/or lemon wedges

mayo of some sort

Cut the squid into rings. Pour semolina, paprika powder and salt in a large ziplock bag and shake it. Add the squid rings and shake so the rings get coated by the mixture. Heat up 2 cm high of oil in a large pan. Check that it is hot enough by throwing in a small piece of bread. If it browns it is hot. Remove the bread and add a handful calamari. Beware of the oil splashing about. Fry until the calamaris are golden on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon or tong, drain on some kitchen towel. Fry the remaining squid in a few batches. Serve immediately!

Midsummer luncheon

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Yesterday we had a lovely lunch at Ian and Anna’s house, so us scandos (Anna and me) could celebrate midsummer. There were eight of us, and everyone brought something for the meal, so we had a very international selection of food. Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Polish and, of course, English.

The weather was gorgeous so we stayed outside in the garden and cooled down with first Pimm’s, then white wine.

The first course was fish: two types of herring (mustard and dill), matjes cheesecake (more herring), smoked salmon on rye bread, borgis (Polish cabbage stew with sausage), salad and bread.

Second course was meat: shaslik (Russian lamb scewers), meatballs, Salad Olivier (Russian potato salad with sausages, mayo, gherkins, apple..) and Polish piergi with cheese and potato.

After that we had to take quite a long break, then we had two desserts; English Eton Mess and Swedish strawberry cake (which is compulsory for Midsummer).

It was a lovely day and to be able to sit outside in the sun, eating and drinking and chatting – that is quality time well spent!

Matjes cheesecake, serves 10

6-8 slices German style rye bread

50 g softened butter

400 ml creme fraiche

200 g cream cheese

75 ml mayo (Hellman’s)

1 tin matjes herring

1 bunch of chives, finely chopped

salt

white pepper

3 gelatine leaves

1 tbsp water

Mix the bread into crumbs. Mix with the butter. Cover the base of a 20 cm springform. Press properly. Chop the herring. Mix cheese, mayo, creme fraiche, herring and chives. Season to taste. Place the gelatine leaves in cold water. Squeeze out the excess water. Melt on low heat in a pan with 1 tbsp water. Leave to cool slightly. Mix with the herring mixture. Spread it out in the springform. Cover with clingfilm and leave in fridge overnight. 

Ball

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My Midsummer’s eve was spent among beautiful girls in long dresses and men in either uniform or black tie. We went to the annual HAC summer ball together with some friends, one of them a member.

The weather was absolutely horrible to say the least, but with champagne to keep us warm it was still lovely to see the marching band play and the parachuters landing from a helicopter.

Apart from a carousel, bumper cars, several dance floors, live music and bars everywhere there were also chocolate fountains. Soo good with fresh strawberries, marshmallows, petit choux etc. Needless to say that we had a blast!

Midsummer

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Wednesday was the longest day of the year, and the Friday after the Nordic countries celebrate the pagan tradition Midsummer.

It varies the way you celebrate, but most people dance around a maypole, eat traditional food such as pickled herring in different flavours, sour cream, chives, new potatoes, meatballs and strawberry cream cake.

As an expat I won’t celebrate Midsummer the same way as I would at home. First of all it is a bank holiday or half day in Sweden but a full working day here, but in Sweden you would gather with your friends in the countryside, pick flowers, hang out and prepare for the traditional meal, put the bottles of snaps in the freezer so they are really cold, put the beer in a large bucket with ice to cool that down, and usually rush in when a rain shower comes, and back out when it is over.

It is seldom sunny and warm on Midsummer’s Eve, but it is part of the tradition now. 🙂 You have to make sure you have a warm jumper at hand for the chilly evening, and you just sit together, drinking, eating, singing snaps songs and chatting.

It is a lovely laid-back affair, and as I wrote this I realise how much I can miss traditions like these. But, I will celebrate Midsummer together with a Scandi friend and a few other friends on Sunday, outside in a garden in the countryside, and I know for sure that it will be lovely!

Happy Midsummer to you all!

Bread and butter pudding

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Yesterday I posted our proper Sunday supper consisting of venison burgers and potatoes au gratin, and as that was not enough we finished it off with a super traditional bread and butter pudding. My first ever as well, and thanks to Delia, we really enjoyed it.

The most important thing with this pudding is that the bread is stale. If you use stale bread the top will go nice and crisp and the bottom layer is more custardy and soggier, and that is the way it should be. If you use fresh bread the whole thing will go soggy, and soggy bread is definitely not my thing. 🙂

Bread and butter pudding, serves 6

6-8 slices stale bread

butter

10 g mixed peel

(50 g currants – I omitted these, not fond of currants in things)

275 ml milk

60 ml double cream

50 6 caster sugar

1/2 lemon, the zest

3 eggs

grated nutmeg

Butter the bread slices and  apie dish. Cut the bead in half and place one half as a bottom layer in the dish. Sprinkle half the peel (and currants) on top. Place the remaining bread on top, and scatter the rest of the peel over it. Beat eggs, cream, sugar and zest lightly. Pour into the dish. Grate nutmeg over it. Bake for 30 minutes in 180C. Serve it warm with pouring cream. 

Venison burgers with potatoes au gratin and porcini sauce

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Although it is summer (or is suppose to be) it is mostly rainy and grey here in the UK, sob sob.

If this is the summer we’re having, then we need to make the most of it, right?! We did that on Sunday by enjoying a very autumnal yet delicious meal; venison burgers with potatoes au gratin, wilted spinach, parsnips and porcini sauce. It was indeed a proper Sunday supper, and because it is suppose to be summer, we haven’t had one for a while. Especially Christopher enjoyed this. He had seconds and even thirds, and when he was finished, he leaned back with a content sigh and said: We haven’t had a meal like that in a long time!

Maybe that was the reason why it tasted so good?! Partly perhaps, but the seasoning of the mince was spot on, and the mince itself, highest quality from a happy wild deer in south of  Sweden (my parents brought it over when they came to visit) was amazing.

Venison burgers, serves 8

1 kg venison mince

1 egg

100 ml milk

100 ml breadcrumbs

a good pinch of sea salt

1 tbsp game spice (i. e. juniper berries, garlic, black pepper)

some white pepper

Mix egg, milk, breadcrumbs and spices in a large bowl. Leave it for a few minutes for the bread to swell. Add the mince and mix well with a wooden fork (nothing beats a wooden fork). Shape to burgers, dipping/rinsing your hands in cold water in between each burger. Fry in butter and oil until cooked the way you prefer. As with all meat I like mine rare.

Potatoes au gratin with garlic, serves 4

10 medium new potatoes

100 ml milk

100 ml cream

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp plain flour

salt

black pepper

dollops of butter

breadcrumbs

Wash the potatoes and slice finely. Grease a gratin disg (10 x 20 cm) and fill it almost all the way up with the potato slices. Mix cream, milk, garlic, seasoning and flour. Whisk thoroughly to prevent lumps. Pour the mixture into the dish. Place dollops of butter on top and pour over some breadcrumbs. Bake in 200C for 30-40 minutes – until the top is crisp and the potatoes are cooked through.

You find the recipe for the sauce here, but I substituted the port for red wine this time, as I had no port at hand. We also had wilted spinach and baked parsnips with red onions )bake wedges of red onion and parsnip in the oven with oil, salt and pepper until soft).