Loaded potato skins with spring onions and cheese

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I don’t know about you, but I really dislike January. I am constantly tired, cold and it seems like the longest month ever.

At times like these one needs comfort, and I like mine in the form of food, scented candles, duvets or blankets and either a good television series or a good film.

Comfort food no 1 for me always involves melted cheese. Nothing can beat its gooeyness and oozing warmth. Paired here with spring onions for both texture and bite, sour cream for creaminess as well as a binding agent and fluffy baked potato and crispy skins. Yummy!

The inspiration is Nigella and of course America. And I will not give you a recipe – you don’t need one – just a quick sketch.

Loaded potato skins with spring onions and cheese

1 baking potato per person

grated strong cheese, cheddar or a matured Red Leicester works well

chopped spring onions

sour cream or creme fraiche

salt & pepper

Wash the potato(es). Bake it/them whole but pierced in a 200C oven until soft. This depends on both oven and the size of the potato but somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes. Cut the potato(es) in half lengthways. Spoon out the fluffy potato and place in a bowl. Mix with spring onions and grated cheese. Add sour cream and mix to combine. Season. Spoon the mixture into the potato skins. Top with some more grated cheese. Place on a baking tray and bake for another 5-10 minutes for the cheese to melt. 

Serve with crispy bacon and a salad, or just plain. 

 

Servera gärna med knaperstekt bacon och sallad. 

NYE 2012 – the dessert

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Being more a savoury than sweet person, I must admit, that when it comes to this particular dessert I may have changed sides. Because it has everything I like! Sweetness of course, different textures, creaminess and lightness and the lovely combination of sweet and salty in the sauce.

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my favourite dessert: Iced chocolate nougat parfait with honeycomb and butterscotch sauce.

Neither one of the recipes are my own, although I have altered the nougat parfait a bit. But even so, I am just proud for bringing them together. As the last of four courses and plenty of wine on New Year’s Eve people still asked for seconds and loved it. I think that illustrates just how good this is.

You can also prepare it all ahead of time, and just heat up the butterscotch sauce, which makes it ideal for dinner parties. With that said, I must admit that although most of this dessert is fairly straight forward, one element can be rather tricky; caramelizing the hazelnuts.

But fear not, Delia can provide help with this very useful tutorial.

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Iced chocolate nougat parfait with honeycomb and butterscotch sauce, serves 6

Adapted from Michel Roux Jr’s recipe.

I doubled this recipe too serve nine, but you could easily stretch just one batch to eight or nine people.

150 g caster sugar

150 g blanched hazelnuts

200 g chopped dark chocolate, not too bitter

6 egg whites, at room temperature

225 g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla

375 ml double or whipping cream, whipped until soft peaks

Start by melting the sugar in a saucepan (use Delia’s guide for a good result) until golden brown. Add the hazelnuts and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Spread/pour the mixture onto a tray lined with baking parchment. Leave to cool and set. Then roughly chop or break up the caramel by using a wooden spoon. 

In a bain marie, beat egg whites and sugar frothy until the sugar has melted. Then remove the bowl from the heat and continue to whisk until the bowl has cooled and you have stiff peaks in the meringue.

Fold in the hazelnuts, chopped chocolate, vanilla and whipped cream using a spatula. Pour the mixture either into individual containers or one large container, lined with clingfilm. I prefer to use a bread tin. Cover the mixture with cling film and tin foil. Freeze over night.  

Honeycomb, 1 batch

I used about half of this to serve nine people, but no point making half a batch, the honeycomb is so tasty and can either be eaten like sweets or used as sprinkles for icecream or other puddings.

Adapted from this recipe.

80 g butter

160 g caster sugar

80 g golden syrup

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Line a 20 cm tray with parchment paper. Heat up butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan on low-medium heat until the sugar has melted. Turn the heat up and let the mixture boil rapidly, without stirring until golden in colour, about 5 minutes. 

Add the bicarb and stir, but take care as this makes the mixture bubble a lot. Pour the mixture into the lined tray and leave to set. Then cut into pieces.

Chop or crumble in a pestle and mortar for rough crumbs for the parfait. 

Butterscotch sauce, 1 batch

One batch sauce is enough for two batches of nougat.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.

60 g butter, I used salted

110 g soft light or dark brown sugar, not Muscovado

120 ml double cream

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and let it boil for 5 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Stir occasionally. Add salt and vanilla after taste. Can be kept in the fridge for three days and can be reheated. 

NYE 2012 – the maincourse

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I was very pleased with the maincourse on New Year’s Eve, and I still am. I prepped as much as I could the day before, so I could have fun with the guests and not spend my whole evening in the kitchen on the night. It worked really well, so I am including this in the recipe below.

It is not really difficult, just a lot of different things to juggle. But follow my lead and it will turn out well. Promise.

Pan-fried fillet of veal with Pommes Duchesse, yellow beet, mushroom hash, red wine jus and thyme foam, serves 9

Everything apart from the meat you can prepare the day before and reheat before serving. If you prefer to cook it all at once, you have to make sure to time everything well.

DAY 1: 

Pommes Duchesse

1,8 kg King Edward potatoes 

50-100 g softened salted butter

salt, pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut into similar sized pieces (so they cook evenly). Place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Add salt. Bring to the boil and boil on medium heat with the lid half on until soft. Drain and let the steam evaporate. Mush with a masher or an electric whisk. Add the butter in batches until a good consistency. It should be firm but smooth. Season. Leave to cool and put in the fridge until the next day. 

Yellow beets

1 kg yellow beets

Wash the beets and place in a saucepan. Cover with water, add salt and bring to the boil. Boil whole until soft. 

Drain and let cool a little. Once you can hold them with your hands without burning peel off the skin with your hands or scrape it off with a small knife. Trim them into rounds. Leave to cool and put in the fridge until the next day.

Mushroom hash

200 g chestnut mushrooms

150 g shiitake mushroooms

plenty of salted butter

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, pressed

salt, black pepper

1 handful chopped parsley

Brush/wash the shrooms and slice. Fry in batches in plenty of butter on a high heat. Lower the heat, add more butter and the pressed garlic. Return all the mushrooms to the pan and season well. Stir in the chopped parslet. Leave to cool and put in the fridge until the next day. 

Red wine jus

This is not a recipe, because I didn’t make notes, but a rough sketch you can work with. Just taste if often and adjust the flavours.

2 onions, whole with skin on

3 garlic cloves, whole with skin on

mild oil

1 part red wine 

1 part beef stock 

2 parsley stalks

1 bay leaf

salt, pepper

balsamic vinegar

brown sugar

1 tbsp Maizena if needed

Cut the onion into wedges, unpeeled. Place on a roasting tray with the garlic cloves. Add oil and roast for about 20 minutes in 180C. 

Place onion and garlic in a large saucepan. Add wine and stock, parsley and bay leaf,. Reduce until half. Then add to your taste: balsamic, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour it through a sieve. To thicken add Maizena and bring to the boil. Stir until thick enough. Leave to cool and put in the fridge until the next day. 

Thyme foam

300 ml cream (single or double)

1 large handful fresh thyme sprigs

salt, pepper

Bring the cream and thyme to the boil. Reduce until half. Season to taste. Leave to cool and put in the fridge until the next day (leave the thyme in). 

DAY 2:

Pommes Duchesse

Mash since the day before

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

Heat the mash covered in 160C oven. Then add one yolk at the time and fold/beat into the mash. Season. Either pipe (with a sturdy piping bag) or shape into eggs with two spoons. Place the shapes on parchment paper, 2 shapes per person at least. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes, 170C. 

Yellow beets

the cooked beets

butter

Slice the beets into 1cm thick slices. Fry them in butter until golden and warm throughout. Season. 

Mushrooms hash

Heat up the mushrooms

Red wine jus

Heat up in a saucepan. Adjust the seasoning if needed and check thickness. Add water or maizena to adjust.

Thyme foam

the thyme-infused cream

100 ml skimmed milk

salt, pepper

Remove the thyme by pouring through a sieve. Pour the cream into a saucepan and add milk. Bring to the boil to heat up. Adjust the seasoning. Beat the mixture foamy with an electric whisk or stick blender. 

The veal

1,8 kg trimmed fillet of veal, at room temperature, cut into two

butter for frying

salt, pepper

Heat up a frying pan until very hot. Add the butter and brown the meat on all sides, including the ends. Season well. Place in a roasting tin and pierce the thickest part of the meat with a meat thermometer. Roast in 160C oven until the inside temperature of the meat is 68C (for medium). Remove from oven and cover the meat with cling film. Add the meat juices to the jus. Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes. Then cut into 2 cm thick slices. 

Serving

Place two beet slices in the middle of the plate. Top with a spoonful of the mushroom hash. Place two Pommes Duchesse shapes on one side. Place one or two slices of meat on top of the beets and mushrooms. Spoon the jus around the plate. Pour the foam on top of the meat.  

NYE 2012: starter II

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IMG_2675The second starter on New Year’s Eve, was also a seafood dish. Nice big scallops fried on high heat with a truffled celeriac puré, apple caramel and crispy apple. Sooo good!

The recipe is courtesy of Daniel Clifford, and I found it in an Electrolux folder I picked up at the Taste of Christmas fair.

Pan-fried scallops with truffled celeriac puré and apple caramel, serves 9

Adapted from Daniel Clifford’s recipe.

The scallops are best cooked really quickly on high heat. Treat it them as a steak. You want the maillard effect or the surface to caramelize, but they shouldn’t be cooked all the way through, nicer with a slight wobble in the middle. If overcooked they are often rubbery.

The celeriac puré can be made in advanced and reheated when serving., just like the apple caramel. The apple sticks can be cut ahead of time too; just make sure you cover them with lemon juice and place them in an airtight container to prevent discolouring.

18 large scallops, side muscles removed

butter for frying

salt, pepper

1 lemon, the juice

Celeriac ipuré:

700 g peeled celeriac cut into pieces

milk and water

300 ml double cream

truffle oil

Apple caramel:

1 litre freshly pressed apple juice 

Garnish:

1 green apple, cut into matchsticks

truffle oil

Place the celeriac in a sauceoan and cover with half milk half water. Add salt. Bring to the boil and cook on medium heat until tender. Drain. Bring the cream to the boil in a seperate saucepan. Mix celeriac and cream to a puré. Add lemon juice and truffle oil to your liking. Season. 

Pour the apple juice in a saucepan and let it reduce on high heat until 1/3 of the liquid is left. Or reduce further until you have a thicker liquid. 

Heat up a frying pan on high heat. Add butter. Dry the scallops on a towel to remove liquid so they can brown easier. Season well and fry for 1-2 minutes on each side, only turning them over once. Place on a plate to rest. Squeeze with lemon juice.

Plate; first the puré, then the scallops on top (2 per person). Spoon over the caramel and drizzle with truffle oil. Top with the apple matchsticks. 

NYE 2012 – starter I

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I cooked us four courses on New Year’s Eve so we could enjoy a long and nice dinner. It was all traditional Swedish with snaps and snaps songs, and we also had a few interludes to cheer Happy New Year in places further east than us, so more or less the whole of Russia were celebrating midnight at one point during our supper.

This first starter, a lovely prawn mousse, was great to start off with, as it can all be prepared ahead, kept cold and decorated a bit ahead of time as well.

The texture is not as mousse-y as a chocolate mousse, the cream is there more to combine the other ingredients and bring them together. I served this with some homemade Toast Melba, just to add some crunch, and it worked really well. But bread or perhaps a side salad with avocado would work well too.

The recipe is courtesy of fellow Swedish blogger Annika. I followed it promptly but changed the method slightly as I used vege gel instead of gelatin and that requires a different approach. I also doubled it, and that was enough for nine, and even ten, people.

Prawn mousse, serves 4

Adapted from Annika’s recipe.

200 ml créme fraiche

150 ml double cream

2 tbsp chopped dill

2 tbsp chopped chives

2 tbsp finely grated fresh horseradish

1 jar lumpfish caviar (60-80 g)

salt and pepper

1 tbsp lemon juice

700 gram frozen shelled Icelandic prawns, defrosted and peeled

1 bag vege gel

dill, chives and horseradish to garnish

Peel the prawns. Set aside 5-6 per portion or the prettiest prawns. Chop the rest and add to a bowl. In a saucepan, mix creme fraiche, cream and the vege gel powder. Turn on the heat and bring to the boil while stirring. Cook for about 5 minutes as it thickens. Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Chop the herbs and add to the chopped prawns. Also add the horseradish, caviar and lemon juice. Mix it together. Add in the cream mixture and mix well. Season. Pour the mixture into 4 glasses or serving bowls. Place in fridge for at least two hours to set and cool. Decorate with the prawns, dill, chives and horseradish. (I added a lemon slice as well).

NYE 2012 – the canapé

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Happy New Year!

And sorry for the silence over the holidays, I was busy cooking and hanging out with friends and family and having a well-earned break.

I have a lot to share with you, and I thought we’d start with some glamour and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

My friends Emma and Claes hosted a lovely dinner, I cooked and they took care of everything else. It was nice to share the responsibility and to be able to focus on only one thing. A great team effort!

When the guests arrived we started off with champagen (Palmer & Co Brut) and this lovely canapé – chives pannacotta with vodka on a bread base, decorated with salmon caviar and dill. Incredibly Scandi and absolutely delicious!

As we had a few non-meat eaters among us I used vege gel as a setting agent, but it is even easier to use gelatin leaves. (2 leaf gelatine to 1 bag vege gel).

Chives pannacotta with vodka on a bread base, decorated with salmon caviar and dill, makes 24-30

Translated and adapted from Pytte’s Swedish recipe.

200 g dark rye bread (Swedish or German style)
80 g butter
100 ml single cream
200 ml soured cream
2 bags vege gel
1 tbsp decent vodka
1 bunch chives
salt and pepper

80 g salmon roe
dill

Mix the bread into crumbs in a food processor. Melt the butter and mix with the crumbs. Line a 20 cm by 25 cm dish with cling film and add the crumbs. Press them onto the bottom of the dish. Let it set in the fridge. Mix the cold cream with the vege gel and heat up in a saucepan while stirring. The mix will thicken so stir continuously for a few minutes. Let it cool a little and mix in the soured cream. If the mixture curdles, push it through a sieve. Chop the chives and add to the mixture. Add the vodka and seasoning. Pour the cream mixture onto the bread base and leave in the fridge to set for a few hours. Before serving either cut into small squares or cut out rounds with a small cutter. Decorate each canapé with a dollop of caviar and some dill.

New year’s eve is approaching…

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I have spent the whole day today in the kitchen preparing for tomorrow’s new years eve party. My best friend Emma and her husband Claes are hosting and I’m doing the catering. I’ve had so much fun cooking away today that I thought I would share the fabulous menu with you. Recipes will follow in the next week or so.

New Year’s Eve Menu 2012

Vodka and chives pannacotta on bread base with salmon caviar and dill canapé

Prawn mousse with Melba toasts

Panfried scallops with truffled celeriac purée and apple caramel

Fillet of veal with yellow beet, mushrooms, Pommes Duchesse, red wine jus and thyme foam

(For the fish eaters: Panfried Arctic Char with Pommes Duchesse, herb cream sauce and braised fennel)

Iced nougat with butterscotch sauce and honeycomb

Happy New Year!

Curly kale crisps

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You can easily buy these healthy green crisps at Whole Foods, or even easier; make them yourself. I served them with a Nigella-inspired aperitif consisting of rose vermouth, pomegranate juice, lime juice and a splash of honey, and although the drink isn’t that sweet, these salty crisps complement it perfectly.

Curly kale crisps

2 bunches curly kale

1 tbsp mild olive oil

2 pinches sea salt

Remove the leaves from the stalks and shred into crisp size pieces. Add the oil to a medium-sized roasting tray. Add the leaves and salt and toss to coat the leaves. Place in a 150C oven for approx 20 minutes or until the kale have shrunk considerably in size and turned crispy. Serve.

God Jul – Merry Christmas

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Christmas greetings from the South of Sweden! We celebrate Christmas today on Christmas eve, so after a lunch with boiled eggs and pickled herring, we are awaiting the relatives who will join us for supper. We’re having meatballs, prinskorv (smoked sausages), Jansson’s temptation (potato bake with anchovies), red and caramelised white cabbage and Christmas ham as the first course, followed by salted ling with mustard bechamel, potatoes and peas. To finish we have a very creamy rice pudding called ris a’la Malta and coulis.

God Jul!

Gingerbread cheesecake

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Gingerbread. Is there anything more Christmassy than the mixture of ground ginger, cloves and cinnamon?! I think not.

As much as I love traditional gingerbread, last year I also made this gingerbread cheesecake. The base is of course ginger biscuits, and the cheesecake filling has the same ratio of the three spices as gingerbread. More of cinnamon and ginger, less of the pungent cloves.

Do try this at a gathering or just for your family – it is delivious, and a fun way of serving traditional flavours.

Gingerbread cheesecake, serves 10-12

200 g ginger biscuits (I used Ginger Nuts)

75 g softened butter

600 g Philadelphia cheese

2 eggs

100 ml golden syrup

50 ml caster sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cloves

1 tbsp milk

1 tskp gelatin powder

Topping:

150 ml sourcream

50 ml golden syrup

Mix the biscuits into crumbs in a food processor. Add the butter and mix until the crumbs has the consistency of wet sand. Press the crumbs onto the base of a buttered and lined springform tin. Bake for 10 minutes in 175C. 

Beat Philadelphia, eggs, sugar and syrup with an electric whisk. Add the spices and stir to combine. Add milk and gelatin and stir to combine. Pour the cheesecake mixture onto the slightly cooled baked base. Bake for 20 minutes in a low oven or until the cake   is almost set.

Mix sourcream and syrup in a bowl and spread onto the cheesecake with a spatula. Bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool, then refridgerate for at least 2 hours before serving.