After finding out that my potatoes had gone bad (how do you store potatoes correctly?), I really didn't want to cook tonight, so I opted for Chili-fried broccoli with an omelette, tomato salad, a matze and for dessert Greek yoghurt with hazelnuts and honey.
Chili-fried broccoli, 1 person
1 broccoli
1 clove garlic
small piece red chili
olive oil
Chop the broccoli to smaller pieces. Chope the garlic and slice the chili. Put some olive oil in a hot pan, fry for a minute, add the broccoli and fry for a few minutes. Done!
I pickled it! Preserving it for the rest of my time in Stockholm ;)
I used these recipes (in Swedish): Pickled cauliflower - I have to have this in my fridge constantly and Pickled cauliflower.
Cauliflower pickles, 1 big can
1 cauliflower
300 ml water
200 ml sugar
100 ml vinegar
1 bay leaves
Chop the cauliflower into smaller pieces. Rinse them and let them drain. Boil some water in a big pot. Add the cauliflower and let them boil for 1 min. Throw away the water, let them cool while preparing the preserving juice. Add water, sugar and vinegar to a pot. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, bring it to the boil. Put the cauliflower in a big can, pour the juice over it, add a bay leave, let it cool and then seal the can. The first recipe states that you should leave it for a week in the fridge for the flavours to develop. Lasts a long time.
I love cauliflower! And everything is in season right now, so I found a pair of really nice cauliflowers at Lidl and bought two. One I made for this, the fate of the other one is coming soon.
It's a combination of two recipes. This one from Youtube: Cauliflower Tomato Curry and this one from a Swedish diet-person: Indisk blomkålscurry. I didn't have all the stuff from the Youtube cauliflower curry and the diet cauliflower curry seemed a bit thin and from having a bad experience with adding vegetable stock, I came up with this recipe.
Cauliflower curry, a lot
1 cauliflower
1 onion
1 green chili
4 tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
a little piece of ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (didn't have this, but would be nice to add)
1 teaspoon chili powder (didn't have this, mixed paprika powder, cayenne pepper, )
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cummin powder
150 ml red lentils
a sprinkle of coriander
Divide the cauliflower in smaller pieces. Rinse and let to dry.
Chop the onion roughly and slice the chili. Quarter the tomatoes and cut to smaller pieces. With the garlic press, press the garlic and the ginger. Put the spices in a small bowl.
Put some vegetable oil in a hot pan. Add the onion, fry for a few minutes. Add the chili, fry for a minute or two. Add the ginger and garlic, fry for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes, add more water if needed. Let it boil for 1-2 min. Add some water to the spices and mix around, add this to the pan. Let it boil for a few minutes, I like my tomatoes not totally disintegrated. Add the cauliflower and lentil. Add water if needed. Boil until the lentils are finished.
Sprinkle some coriander of it and serve with basmatirice and mint-yoghurt.
Pasta rood, bolognese, call it whatever you want, but when I need lunch boxes, this is the dish I do - and it's always different everytime. This time I just took what I had left in the fridge, a piece of zucchini, some carrots...Cajsa Warg would've been proud of me ;)
a la Linda June version, one substantial dinner plus 2-3 boxes
200-300 g minced meat
1 can of tomatoes, 400 g
1 red onion
3 small carrots
1/3 zucchini
2 teaspoons sweet paprika powder
1 teaspoon hot paprika powder
1 teaspoon paprika powder
a pinch chili flakes
about 1 tablespoon dried basil
2-3 teaspoons dark soy
1-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 cube chicken stock
salt
black pepper
Chop red onion. Slice the zucchini and quarter it.
Peel the carrots and grate them roughly.
Put some olive oil in a hot pan. Add red onion and zucchini and fry a few minutes. Add the meat, fry until almost finished. Add salt, pepper, the paprika powders, chili flakes and basil. Pour in the can of tomatoes (save the can and fill it up with water). Add the soy and the balsamic vinegar. Add the carrots.
Put in the chicken stock. Add some water. Reduce the heat slightly. Let it boil. Add more water if needed. Start boiling the pasta after about 10 min.
When the pasta is done the sauce should have reduced nicely. If the sauce is to acidic for your taste, serve it with ketchup.
While writing this post, I realized I forgot to add garlic, the taste was a bit thin, so this could have been what was missing, so Don't forget the garlic!!
For more about Cajsa Warg, you can read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajsa_Warg
This is one of my favorite dishes! If halloumi is on sale, I'll always buy it, because it lasts one year in the fridge. But I always use them up within a month or so ;) I don't have exact measurements for this dish, but it's more or less this way:
Roasted bell pepper halloumi pasta, 2 portions
1-2 red bell peppers
1 garlic clove
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
black pepper
dried basil, maybe 1 tablespoon, depending on how much bell peppers you got
a few big spoons of pasta water
200 grams halloumi
penne
Heat the oven to 250 degrees or use the grill. Cut the bell peppers in half, remove the seeds. Put on baking paper on a oven tray, put the bell peppers skin side up. When the oven is warm, put the bell peppers in the oven for about 20 min until the skin gets black. Put in a bowl, put a lid on and wait until the peppers get cold enough to handle. Rip the skin off. Chop into smaller pieces.
Chop the garlic. Chop the halloumi into 2-2 cm squares. Start boiling the pasta. When you have a few minutes left of the pasta, put olive oil in a hot pan. Put in the peppers and fry for about a minute. Add salt, pepper and dried basil. Add balsamic vinegar and pasta water.. Let it boil for a few seconds, add the halloumi and let it fry for about 2 minutes. If the sauce gets dry, add more pasta water.
Drain the pasta when it's almost done. Add it to the pan and stir around until the pasta is covered with sauce. Serve immediately.
Be careful with the salt, because the cheese is slightly salty, this dish can easily get over-salted, rather add more salt at serving if needed.
Another mouth-watering chicken liver recipe to put on my repetoir. The recipe is from here: Chicken liver peri-peri
Some things in this recipe I didn't have, instead of red wine vinegar I used white wine vinegar and instead of worchestershiresauce, I used my mushroom flavour soy, which from now on proved to be quite nice ;) and instead of oil and butter, I only used oil.
Chicken liver peri peri, 4 portions
Marinade:
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cummin
1 teaspoon coriander powder
2 teaspoon red chili flakes
pinch of salt
a lot of black pepper
2 bay leaves
500 grams chicken liver
1 onion
½ tablespoon tomatopaste
1 tablespoon mango chutney
1 tablespoon soy sauce
a few spoons chicken stock
a dash of whiskey
If livers are frozen, defrost, save the blood (yes, don't be afraid of it :), put it in a bowl. Clean the livers, divide them to smaller pieces. Rinse under running water, let drain for about 15 min. Put the livers in the bowl with the blood.
Chop the garlic. Put it in a small bowl and mix it with olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, cummin, coriander, red chili flakes, pinch of salt and a lot of pepper.
Put half over the livers and mix it. Put the other half in and stir lightly. Put in two bay leaves, so you can take them out later. (Don't really understand the purpose of this step with the recipe, but oh well, it's up to you) Put in the fridge and marinate as long as you can. (I did it for 30 min, the recipe states 2-2½ hours)
Chop the onion. Put olive oil in a pan on high heat. Add the onion. Fry until brown.
Put the livers in a seperate bowl, toss away the bay leaves, save the marinade. When onion brown, add the livers and fry and stir vigorously for 3 min.
Take the pan off the heat. Add soy sauce, chicken stock, tomatopaste, mango chutney.
Oh yes, I put my 12 year Jameson in this dish, I thought I had a blended scottish whiskey somewhere, but no, luxure today ;)
Put it back on the heat. Stir it for a bit. Take the pan off the heat. Add the marinade and the whiskey. Put it back on the heat and stir, always keeping an eye on it so it doesn't burn. Take it away from the heat and put a lid on and let it stand for about 10 min.
Serve it with rice.
The peri peri sauce is so delicious, I'm already thinking about other meats I can use for this one! And it's not overly spicy, so pretty much everyone can eat it. So good! I licked the plate clean :)
The essential first: I don't really care about the brand, only if I know that the other brands suck.
First, oils.
I have one olive oil and one oil with neutral flavour that I use for instance for Asian cooking. The olive oil I also put on salads, I buy one bottle and use it for everything. There's a nice shop on Birger Jarlsgatan (http://www.italspain.se/) where they sell olive oil in larger bottles, normally I go there. The one on the picture I bought at Hemköp.
The essential Asian products I use.
From left to right, white rice vinegar, mushroom soy, dark rice vinegar, Japanese soy and sweet chili sauce. I really like the vinegar bottles, they're so cute. The mushroom flavour soy was a mistake, I hope to finish it soon, because it wasn't what I was after, probably I go back to the good old Mrs Cheng (famous soy-brand in Sweden) or some other soy, this one tastes a bit off. The dark vinegar I bought as an experiment, but it's really nice. The Japanese soy I don't use that much off, so a small bottle is good enough for me.
For Asian products, I go here, all three located around Hötorget metro station:
- Oriental Supermarket, a bit more expensive, but they have a LOT
- Asian Market, have most of the stuff I use, this is the place I go for tofu
- East Trading Wang, a cute little shop
Chilisauce, one of the nicest things in life.
I can't make nasi without the sambal and a dash of the Sriracha sauce. Both two products came via Holland :P
Paprikapowder I use a lot.
This is sweet and hot paprikapowder, bought in Budapest. Paprikapowder is really versatile. It's a bonus that the cans are so cute, I love this folklore style.
Balsamic vinegar.
This is one of the cheaper ones, I like the flavour of it. It works well in bolognese sauce together with soy and paprikapowder (a mix of sweet and hot).
Tuna in a can, saved me many times during my studies in Delft ;)
This is tuna flakes which works well in sauces such as Pasta with tuna-tomatosauce, I've also tried it in Pasta Puttanesca, works well there too. For salads, I'd use the tuna that's in a block and just gently break it apart.
I can't go without a fully functioning freezer.
I've stocked up my freezer with chicken liver, one whole chicken, a couple of chicken tighs (yes, I love chicken), fish, bacon, spring rolls, green seasoning (in the plastic bag in the picture), 7 containers of chili sin carne, chorizo and a Swedish sausage called 'Isterband'. You can read about it here: Smoked pork sausage called Isterband Don't know where I'll get my hands on isterband in Holland, maybe it'll just be one of those things I have when in Sweden.
Soon time to get back to the usual routine after exam-period, that means I have to fill my freezer with lunch boxes, this recipe is perfect for that. You can pretty much add what ever you want, this is more a recommendation/inspiration.
This was the first time I used soybeans, I found a package in my cupboard, with expiration date in July, so better use it, it was however a really nice acquaintance, which I'm def gonna use more often.
To reduce the spiciness, remove the seeds from the chili, maybe use more sweet paprika than hot, exclude the slices of pickled jalapenos. However the food will loose some of its flavour in the freezer, so be generous with the spices and the seasoning. I like mine hot ^^
Chili sin carne, with rice probably 5-7 lunch boxes plus substantial dinner for me
A handful or two big white beans
A handful or two soybeans
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 green chili
3 small carrots
2 teaspoons hot paprika powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
a dash of cummin
1 can of tomatoes (400grams)
A handful of red lentils
1 can of corn (165 grams)
generous amounts of salt and black pepper
a few slices of pickled jalapenos
Put the beans in seperate bowls and add water, let them soak during night. Rinse the soybeans and cook in salted water for about 1½-2 hours. Rinse the big white beans and cook in water for about 1-2 hours.
Chop the onion, green chili and carrots. Put some olive oil in a pan. Bring up to high heat, add the onion, and let it fry for a few minutes. Add the chili and the carrots. Fry for a bit. Reduce to medium heat. Add the paprika powders, cummin, garlic. Let it fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes, save the can and use it for water. Add some water. Let this boil on medium heat for about 30 min. Add water if needed.
Add the lentils. Let it cook for about 5 min. Add the corn, cooked beans and pickled jalapenos. Let this cook for about 10 min.
Enough time to prepare the rice, I use basmati-rice for this dish, because I like it better when defrosted. Save some for yourself for dinner, portion the rest in food containers and put in the freezer.
This recipe I found here: Jamie Oliver's Lemon Linguine, however I didn't have rocket or fresh basil, so I used zucchini instead to get some green healthy stuff ;)
Lemon spaghetti with zucchini, 1 person
½ small zucchini
½ lemon, all the juice and some zest
about 20 grams grated parmesan
1 table spoon olive oil
salt, black pepper
Put the juice, zest, olive oil, parmesan in a small bowl and mix it together with a fork. Add a little bit of salt and plenty of black pepper.
Slice the zucchini and quarter the slices. Fry the zucchini in some olive oil for about 4 minutes.
Boil the pasta. This time I had some capellini, thin spaghetti, in the cupboard from god knows when and since I'm moving to Holland soon I need to finish my foods ^^ When the pasta is done, mix the lemon juice mixture with the pasta and the zucchini. Serve!!
This is a light and fresh dish perfect for summer. Add more salt or black pepper if needed.
This is my second attempt at vegetarian sushi, I made three Nori-rolls and I ate them all :)
Vegetarian sushi, 3 rolls
125 ml sushi rice
20 ml rice vinegar
20 ml sugar
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 carrot
1 avocado
1/3 cucumber
3 nori sheets
Rinse the rice under water until the fluid is more clear than when you started. Put it in water in a saucepan. Let it stand for about 1 hour. After 1 hour put the lid on and let it stand for about 45 min-1 hour.
Rinse the rice under water until the fluid is clear, this might take a few minutes. Normally I loose my patience and stop rinsing it when the fluid is semi-clear. Put the rice back in the saucepan and cover with water, let the water be about 1 cm higher than the rice. Bring it to the boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 4-5 min. Bring the heat down even more and let it simmer under a lid for another 4-5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let it stand for 10 min.
Time for the vinegar-mixture. Put vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan, put it on low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Let the mixture cool a bit. Put the rice in a bowl. Mix the rice and the vinegar. Let it stand for about 20 min.
Slice carrot, avocado and cucumber.
Put a nori sheet on a plane surface on a baking paper (or a sushi mat). Put 1/3 of the rice on a nori sheet, spread it evenly , leave a bit of the nori paper empty. Put cucumber, carrot and avocado slices on the rice. Start rolling, keep it tight! When you reach the empty part, put cold water on it, this will act as clue. Use the baking paper to make it a tight roll. Repeat with a new nori sheet until you're out of rice.
Serve with soy mixed with some wasabi.
