Shakshuka

Long time no see! 

I've been busy graduating, but that's finally more or less done! 

So, now I've got time again for cooking and trying out new recipes! 

Because I'm a recent graduate the recipes can't be that expensive either. I think that at least for the home cook, you're good if you can turn cheap ingredients to something amazing. 

I had just taken a refreshing bike ride on my Dutch-style bike (no sports bike here :P) and wanted something savory and hearty. I've wanted to try the Israeli egg and tomato dish Shakshuka for a while now and here it is. I got inspired from this: Yotam Ottolenghi's Shakshuka

The original recipe calls for 1 onion, I didn't have one, so I just skipped that step.

Shakshuka, 2 persons or 1 very hungry

1 green, or whatever you have, bell pepper, diced

4-5 small tomatoes, chopped

dried coriander,  dried parsley, safron (optional), (spicy) paprika, salt, black pepper 

some water

3 small eggs

Put a pan (that you have a lid to) on a high heat, add some olive oil. Fry the bell pepper for a while, add some coriander and parsley (about a teaspoon each). Fry for a little bit more until the bell pepper "turns golden", i.e. gets some spots on the skin. 

Add the tomatoes. Add safron (this is totally optional, I had some safron lying around from before, so I tried to add it, but I'm not sure if it actually adds something and aslo, I'm not sure if I actually like safron in savoury dishes). Add paprika, some salt and black pepper. If the mixture looks a bit dry, add a little water. 

Cook on high heat until the tomatoes have dissolved and the mixture is getting a bit dryer. 

Taste, maybe add more salt or sugar, depending on taste. Make some pockets for the eggs and break the eggs into the pan. Turn the heat off and put the lid on the pan and cook until the eggs are done. 

This step is a bit challenging on an electric stove. I overcooked my eggs, they weren't as fluid as Yotam's, but still delicious. I think the key for an electric stove is probably to start reducing the heat earlier and when it's on a low heat add the eggs and turn the stove on. 

Sprinkle with some coriander and serve with bread. I had some garlic sauce (home made) from yesterday. We watched the game between Holland-Spain and had a really nice dinner with a neighbour. We ate Shoarma and garlic sauce. I'll put up a recipe for that sauce soon. 

Enjoy!

What I miss from Sweden food wise

Having been in Holland for sometime now, there are a few Swedish things that I really miss here in Holland.

• Blodpudding! This sweet dark sausage is made from pig's blood and is served with lingonberry jam. This was served in the canteen at least once a month when I was at school and also at home. I have seen some kind of blood sausage here at Jumbo but I haven't tried it yet, because I don't know how to prepare the Dutch version. Homework for March! A recipe can be seen here
• Sausage! Here they have dried sausage (also delicious, try for example the Frisian dried sausage) and occassionally fresh sausage (also nice). I miss those sausages from all around the world - chorizo, kielbasa, bratworst etc just ready to cook with. 
• Cheesecake from Småland! This cake warmed in the oven and served with raspberry jam is just delicious, if I want this cake here, I have to make it from scratch - maybe also homework for March! A recipe (Swedish) is here
• Pickles! The pickles here just don't taste as good. My quickly pickled cucumber are always very popular at dinners here ^^ I miss the pickled cucumbers and beetroot. 

And a few things I'm happy to live without.

• Falukorv - this disgrace of a sausage. Pale pink, bland and creamy in texture, this was a staple in the canteen, don't try it if in Sweden.
• Expensive bacon - bacon is incredibly expensive in Sweden compared to Holland. And let's face it, bacon makes everything delicious. 

Give me sausages and beer and I'm happy :)

Of course, I could bike down to IKEA and get some nice stuff, but it's the IKEA house brand, which to be honest for some of the products isn't that good. Too bad they stopped stocking Swedish brands a few years ago. 

Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

Tonight the boyfriend is off to a concert and I'm home alone with an ear inflammation, so not enjoying Trentemoller :(
A good excuse to make something spicy!
And this dish was! I had the wok really hot and the food was smoking, like it should :)
Inspired by: Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts, 1 big portion

250 grams brussels sprouts
1 centimeter ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 spring onion
20 szechuan flower pepper corns
10 dried red chilies
1 tablespoon chili bean sauce
a little potato starch + a little water
handful peanuts

Sauce:
1 teaspoon soy
1.5 tablespoons rice vinegar
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 chicken stock cube
2 tablespoons water

Clean the brussels sprouts. Cut them in half. Wash them in water. Bring water to the boil in a pot. When boiling, add the sprouts. Let them cook for 5 minutes. Drain and put aside. 

Slice the garlic and ginger. Cut the spring onion into pieces. 

For the sauce, mix all the ingredients together. 

Heat up a wok or frying pan. Add oil. Add the dried chilies (watch out so you don't burn them!), add the szechuan flower pepper corns. Stir fry shortly. Add the chili bean sauce, stir. Add the brussels sprouts, stir fry quickly. Add garlic, ginger and spring onion. Stir fry shortly. Add the sauce, bring to boil, if not thick enough add some potato starch mixed with water. Add the peanuts and cook a little more.

Serve with rice.

Chocolate covered cupcakes

I couldn't just give my sweetie Goulash, I made these medium-sized cupcakes with chocolate frosting as well ;)

Cupcakes - Basic recipe, about 10 medium ones

50 grams butter (I use unsalted)
100 ml milk
2 eggs
200 ml sugar
300 ml flour
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Melt the butter and add the milk, put aside. Whip eggs and sugar until the mixture goes cream white. Add the butter and milk mix and the vanilla sugar. Mix the flour and baking powder and add to the egg mix. Pour into cupcake paper tins. Bake in the oven at 225 degrees for about 20 minutes. 

Chocolate frosting for 4-6 cupcakes

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 tablespoon milk
80 ml icing sugar
1 tablespoon cacao

Melt the butter with the milk. Add icing sugar and cacao, mix. Let the cupcakes cool before you spread a generous coating of chocolate on them. Let the frosting set before serving.

Goulash - Perfect for the depressing weather!

It's been raining all day and I wanted to cook something rich and nourishing, and I wanted to eat meat, so goulash seemed like a good choice. And it was! Inspired by: Food wishes goulash

Goulash, 2 persons

300 grams meat suitable for a stew
4 small onions
some salt, black pepper
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
a pinch of spicy paprika
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
a little dried thyme
2-3 cups of chicken broth
70 grams tomato paste
1-2 garlic cloves
a little salt, to taste
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Cut the meat in 4cm by 4cm cubes. Mix it with some salt and pepper. Roughly chop the onion.

Brown the meat in a pan. Put half of the meat in at a time. 

Remove the meat to a stew pot. 

Fry the onion 3-4 minutes in the same pan as the meat. 

Remove to the stew pot. 

Crush the caraway seeds in a morter. Add caraway, paprika, spicy paprika, marjoram and thyme in the same pan as the onion. Toast for a few minutes. Add some chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Add the spice-broth mix to the stew pot. Add tomato paste, pressed garlic, bay leaf, sugar and balsamic vinegar and some more chichen broth to the stew pot. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours until the meat is tender. If the stew has to much liquid, just let it simmer without the lid. Serve with rice and a click of sour cream on top of the meat!

Ginger Juice

The most annoying thing about Dutch weather is that it's so wet, raining most part of the day most of the time. It makes me supercold. You might think a Viking from the North ;) could handle it, being slightly warmer here than back home. NO! this humid stuff is too much, I don't mind it getting darker, but the wetness is driving me crazy. When it's raining I just want to stay at home and drink something. Like this juice I tested the other day, inspired by this: Cookingwithalia's Ginger Juice

Ginger juice, 1 cup

2 cm piece of ginger, chopped
around 150 ml pineapple juice
sugar to taste, I used 1 teaspoon

Put the ginger, juice and sugar in a bowl. Mix the ingredients with a mixer. Pour in a cup or glas and drink!

Swedish Meatballs

Exam week for the boyfriend, so I'm in charge of the cooking. He's been begging me for Köttbullar (meatballs) for ages. There was an action on minced meat at Coop; with 1 kilo minced  meat we have made fried rice with minced meat, bolognese sauce and now lastly Köttbullar. Served with cream sauce, potato slices, brussels sprouts and Swedish cucumber salad (I used the second version today) this is a hearty meal indeed!

Köttbullar, 2 persons extremely full afterwards

2-3 tablespoons bread crumbs

1/2 tablespoon potato flour

75 ml milk

about 350 grams minced meat (beef)

1/2 egg

plenty of salt

plenty of white pepper

plenty of dried majoram

For the cream sauce:

cream

soy

salt

Mix bread crumbs with the potato flour, add the milk and let the mixture swell for about 30 min. If it's still too wet, add some more bread crumbs.

Add the minced meat to the bread mixture. Add egg, salt, white pepper and majoram. 

Mix well until the meat strings have dissolved, giving you a grainy pink paste. If you use beef you can taste now and adjust accordingly if you want otherwise you can do that later.

Put water in a big pan. Bring it to the boil. Make balls out of the meat mixture, if you haven't tasted yet, make a small one and taste it and adjust the seasoning. If the taste is fine, make balls and put them in the boiling water, when they float up, take them out. Let them cool and dry a little. For this amount of meat, it took me two times to cook all the balls.  Have a bowl of cold water near by to wet your hands, then the rolling goes easier.

Put butter and oil in a hot pan and fry the balls until brown.

I had to fry them in two batches. Put some cream in the pan (still with the fat in it), add a little soy, let the cream boil and reduce a little, to thicken the sauce put a little potato flour in a cup, mix with a little bit of water, add this to the sauce in the frying pan. Salt to taste.

This is how I served the Köttbullar:

My plate, don't put the cucumber on the plate, it gets too wet :P

Boyfriends plate, notice the mayonaise ;)

This is not fast food, it takes about 1-2 hours to prepare, but it's worth it. Real Swedish comfort food!

I miss Swedish food!