mid-week pile-ups

to make up for my lack of wid-week recipes here's a couple of ideas:

 

veggie sandwich

 with ovenroasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beetroot, onion, garlic) that i reheated in a pan with a little oil. just befor serving add some frosen peas into the pan and toast two pieces of bread. mix feta-cheese whith sourcream to make a thick dressing, add a squirt of lemon juice. season whith blackpepper.

 

kindeybean-carrots

 boil wheatberry or bulgur/couscous according to the directions on the packet. peel a couple of carrots and slice into thin slices. slice a leek and a clove of galic. add oil into a pot, fry the leek and garlic til soft. add the carrot. if may feel wierd to fry carrot but this is similar to wook. stirr a few times then cover with a lid. still on a medium-high temperature. stirr now and then until the carrots have a good texture, add kidneybeans and heat them. serve with the wheat and perhaps some feta? or a drizzle of balsamicvinegar?

 

cauliflowersoup

peel four large potatoes and cut into cubes/slices. chop up some onion and a clove of garlic. fry the onions with some oil in a pot. when soft add the potatoes and aprox. 1-1,5 liter water. add 0.5 dl red lentils and one broth-cube. season with chilipowder or garam masala or currypowder. boil until the potatoes are almost done. add some frozen cauliflower and some kidneybeans. serve.

biscotti

it's cold, it's autumn, i drink ridicullus amounts of tea. (also- i'm hungover and bored and trying to avoid studying for my practical exam tomorrow) so i made biscotti. or rather italian almond biscotti with lavender. yum!

n.b: these biscuits comes with a warning- they are very hard. if you do not have dentures like jaws, dunk these babies in tea or hot chocolate (or coffee although tea is the perfekt match..)

lavender biscotti
oven 175 degrees celcius

200 grams coarsly chopped almonds
3 eggs
3 dl sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt
the zest of one lemon
6,5-7 dl wheatflour
1 teasp. baking powder

Seperate the yolk from the eggwhites, beat the whites and the salt to a hard foam (think meringue). stirr the yolk, sugar and vanillasugar togeather. fold the two batters together, and add the zest and almonds. mix flour and bakingpowder and blend into the eggbatter. work together to make a dough. divide the dough into two, form a roll and place on a oiled bakingsheet. bake for 35 minutes. cut into 1 cm wide slices. bake an additional 15 minutes, 150 degrees.

 

if wanted dipp on end of the cookies in melted chocolate- although this makes the dipping-part of a liiittle complicated. chocolate-tea is... diffenent..

Another week gone by

So soon it's a new weekend, and maybe just maybe I'll have something new for you.
Tomorrow we'll go down to the southern part of the island (I think) and meet up with the family and I'm not sure but I might bake something to take whit us.
Anyhow I'll bring the camera and take some pictures to post, until then hang in there.








Just saw a funny thing apparently it's 8 am now when here in Sweden it's just gotten dark and is 17.45 hmm

Fruit, fruit, fruit

Herbert is right: I'm on the bender! No not really, but I have not had the energy to do anything, but I intend to rectify that.

Be prepared for a long post... But I also promise allot of pictures!

First out is a;

Fig, plum and apple pie

You'll need enough puff pastry to cover the dish your using (I don't see why it's necessary to make your it when the store bought is so good)
4 plums divided and tossed in flour (to help soak up the excess moisture)
4 figs cut in quarters
1 tart apple
A hand-full of almonds chopped
2 eggs
1 1/2 dl caster sugar
1 tbs flour



Now first thing to do, (after you put the oven on 175 °C) is to cover the dish with the pastry, then you toss in the fruit in any order you want (I put the figs on top).
When this is done you whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy, stir in flour and almonds into the eggs. And then pour it onto the fruits, bake in the lower part of the oven for about 15 min check so that the filling is still. Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.



I know that I've been bugging you about the fact that autumn has arrived in our cold country, but that's just because here on my little island the autumn colors and the cosy feeling doesn't last long (almost all of the wonderful leaves are gone and it rains almost every day).
The other week however I was out on a walk in the forest and took these pictures:







Getting on with the recipes;

Poached William pears

One of our grocary stores had a really great price on William pears so we bought 4 kg of them, 1 kg to eat straight as they were and the rest to poach because it's a great way to take care of fruit and here is how you do it;



3 kg William pears (you can use other pears as well but I prefer William because of the taste and texture)
2 l water
1 3/4 l caster sugar
5-6 pieces of fresh ginger (or as much as you like, I think I had a bit more ginger than that)
2-3 star anise
1 vanilla pod
and some lemon juice

Boil water, sugar, ginger, lemon and spices until the sugar is dissolved.
Peal the pears, half and pit them (you can either peal the pears before you start the syrup and out them in lemon juice so that they don't become brown or you can take the saucepan from the heat and put the pears in as they are ready).
Bring the syrup and pears up to a boil and let them simmer for about 15-25 minutes depending on the size, ripeness and kind of pear.

Let the pear cool of in the syrup over night or over the day depending on when you get started (it's good if you can leave them in for about 8 hours) then put the pears with some of the syrup in the freezer I portioned them to 4 pear halves per bag and enough syrup to keep them covered.



So what can you do with the poached pears?
Well anything you want, what do say about a Xantésoufflé with a pear compote?



Xantésoufflé with pear compote

55 g caster sugar and some extra for the soufflé form
3 large eggs divided into whites and yolks
1 large egg
1 large egg white
4 tbs flour
3 dl milk
1 tsp vanilla essences
2 1/2 tbs Xanté or any other pear liqueur
butter for the form

And about 10 poached pear halves

Put the oven to 180 °C.

Whisk together sugar, 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk, flour, milk and vanilla in a saucepan and gently bring it to a boil (stir the whole time) stir until it makes a thick sauce.
Take the pan from the heat and one at a time stir in the rest of the egg yolks, let the mixture cool down some then add the liqueur.

Whisk the egg whites until it forms a stiff foam, when they are firm enough take some of the egg whites and ad to the liqueur batter then incorporate the rest of the egg whites to the batter gently (turn them in, do NOT whisk).

Butter a souffléform that will hold 1 3/4 l and powder it with sugar (this will help the soufflé to rise and not get caught in the form). Cut the pears into little bits and put them in the bottom of the form and pour some of the syrup on them.

When this is done you pour the soufflé batter over the pears and bake the soufflé for about 45 minutes or until it is raised and golden-brown.

An important thing to remember when you make a soufflé: DO NOT OPEN THE OVENHATCH! That will make the soufflé implode!



And another reason for not posting is that my cat has been sick, first he had stomach problems and now he has a wound on his paw so he must wear this:





and let me tell you he's not happy about it, at all!

Well that's it for this time promise I'll be better with the posts from now on.

chocolatecake with tequila-buttercream

i've been reading (it think) a lot about the combination chocolate and tequila on blog (altough a quick google-search made me think i've imagined it) but i'd thought i'v give it a try, plus i only had tequila and flavoured vodka at home so i went with the first. i tweaked the original recipe since i wanted the texture of a spongecake but with chocolat, so i replaced some of the flour with cocoapowder, but i must have under-baked it because the cake deflated. (could also be a result of accidentally slamming the ovendoor shut. oups)

it was about here i decided to use buttercream to cover up my sagging cake. so, buttercream with tequila it was (the recipe for that i just made up- if you have a buttercream you like, use that, otherwise this one was pretty foolprof)

chocolate-spongecake 

oven 175 degrees c.
50-75g margarine or butter
2 eggs

2 dl sugar
2,5 dl flour
0.5 dl cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tps vanilla sugar
1 dl cold water

butter and bread a baking pan, aprox. 1 1/2 l.

melt the butter and let it cool. beat the eggs and sugar together "until it's white"- light and fluffy-ish. mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and vanilla sugar. stir the mixture into the eggbatter. add the butter and the fluid. stir until the batter is smooth and evenly mixed. pour into the pan.

bake for 40-50 minutes (or until it's done) in the lower part of the oven at 175 degrees celcius.*


this is how it looked when i took it out of the pan.not quite done in the middle.

buttercream
100g butter
1-1,5 dl confectioner's sugar
1eggyolk
2-3 tsp tequila

since i don't have an electical mixer i whisked the butter over a pan of simmering water, making it really easy to mix everything. so mix the butter with the sugar, yolk and tequila to taste. i used 3 tsp but 2 tsp whould also have sufficed. also 1,5 dl sugar makes the cream rather sweet so start with 1 and taste. in sweden we don't really have any problem with salmonella so for me using raw egg isn't a problem, but if you are there are probably recipes for buttercream out there without egg.

cut two slices of the cake, spread a layer of buttercream inbetween and on top and add some sprinkles if wanted.

found a version on the back of the packet of sugar for cupcakes; same batter (milk instead of water, heated with the butter) with higher temperature, 225 d., for 10 min, this makes 20 avrage sized cupcakes. also if you want to make a standard spongecake without the cocoa, try using cordial, elderberry is a classic in our home, instead of just water or add juce from half a lemon or orange.

been obsessing over these cupcakes from a café in town, when lc told me she'd seen them on bakerella and sure enough, the cupcakes my café called mums-mums cupcakes (mums-mums is a swedish kind of pastry/candy) are called hi-hat and are apparently all rage right now so i tracked down the recipe from martha stewart, eventhough that lady really scares me. so now i can make my own hi-hat. nah. can't be botherd.

images below from bakerella:

 

wow- this post is pretty long but on final thing: this pretty blog
just look at these pictures!

oh. now i'm hungry again.

i'm back!

ok, so apparently lc on the bender and i've been eaten by a runaway sourdough judging from the last weeks (?) lack of posts. nah, not really. what lc's been doing/eating i don't know, but the only explanation i can give for myself is very booring food and not bothering enough about anything to update anything (blog, facebook, emails), but im here now and boy do i have something yummy to share! it's BREAD! (sorry. i know you're probably fed up with our bread by now, but i like baking bread and the cake i made was a flunk. so bread it is)

sourdough:
day 1: mix 3/4 dl flour with 0,5 dl water, cover with cling/plastic wrap and keep in roomtemperature and draught free.
day 3: stirr in 2 dl flour and 1,5 dl water
day 5: remove dough so 1 dl remain (not to sure about this, 'caus i accidentaly whisked the dough before and it roughly made 1 dl so i didn't bother with this)
day 6: ready for use!

levain-bread

makes one loaf

5 dl cold water, but not ice cold.
10 dl wheatflour
1 dl rye flour
2dl sourdough
1 tblsp salt
*
mix everything but the salt together and knead for ten minutes (keep the workbench/table floured since the dough, though it's very easy to work, tends to stick), then add the salt and knead another minute.

oil a pan about twice the size of the dough, add the dough and let rise for one hour.

fold in the edges of the dough and gently flatten the top of the dough, to slightly flatten it. let it rise to aprox. dubble size, which can take from 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on temperature and dough (also the weather can influence the rise of the dough)

carefully turn the dough unto a bakingsheet with parchment and sift flour over. bake for 30 minutes in the lower part of the oven. to make sure it's done, remove from the sheet, turn upside down and knock at the bottom of the loaf. if it sounds hollow, the bread is done!

*i made some alterations to the original recipe like removing 10 gram of yeast, since i felt it was redundant, also for variation, try increasing the amount of rye, deducting from the wheatflour or add spices such as carawayseed, aniseed and fennelseed- classic breadseasoning

a quicker sourdough

this is a bread i made from a recipe similar to the one lc published but not the same... 
makes two loaves.

sourdough
25 g yeast
1,5 dl water
1,5 dl sifted rye-flour

day 2
3,5 dl water
2 tblsp oil or melted butter
0,5 tblsp salt
aprox. 12 dl sifted rye-flour

use lc directions for the 2:nd variety, altough her bread were prettier than mine.. also a little tip:
if you're not able to bake both loaves at the same time, and can't fit the second loaf in the fridge (and thereby making it rise slower) DON'T make the loaves at the same time, simply make one and let the other rest in the bowl, and shape into a loaf when you're baking the first. otherwise the second will over-rise and become flat.

Sorry again

I regrett to say that I have not had time to post anything today, right now I'm sitting with Inger and Stefan and I'm drinking so today is a no go... Maybe something tomorrow, I hope.

The pub is closing for the year and the booze is hopefully half of so we'll be heading there soon, but I hope you'll understand, right now we're talking about plastic surgury (can belive I managed to spell that, Stefans drinks are dangerous).

Had a great time with Henrik yeasterday, we whent for a two hour walk between nine and eleven at night.

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

I just want to say that I'm sorry I know it's some time now since I promised to update with recipes and pictures, the only reason I can give you is that I've been a bit down, nothing serious but the weather is affecting me :(

I promise I'll post a lot of recipes and pictures in my next post, hopefully tomorrow because today is a cleaning day and later tonight I'm heading out to meet Henrik. If I remember to bring my camera you'll get to see pictures (but I'm not promising anything because my camera is a bit on the big side)

So until tomorrow, I hope you have a lovely evening!

A little something to cheer you up

it's magic!

ok so this is just a teaserpost. right now i'm feeling like a mix between this:



and this:



so make a long story short, since yesterday i've had two predoughs living behind my couch, (it's draught portected) and i've just taken out my last loaf of the first batch out of the oven(trying out two versions) and when i checked on the other dough i saw that it was alive! (now i'm terrified that i'm going to kill it but thumbs crossed and on sunday i'm finding out if i will get bread next week too!) so tomorrow pictures be posted. 'til then: more elo!

stuck in the mud-sort-of-thing

sorry for leaving you hanging like that, but the evening ended with me eating nothing of substance. as usual i'm getting sick, the flu or something like it, so dinner isn't that much of a priority. however, feeling productive and homely today(doing my laundry, cleaning, mending clothes); i decided to bake. The result is two baguettes and one chocolate cake. the baguettes are a basic recipe and actually so is the cake- but oh soo good.

baguette  
makes two
oven temperature 225 degrees celcius

25 gram yeast
3 dl water (lukevarm)
1 tsp salt
1 tblsp oliveoil
7 dl flour

dissolve the yeast in the water, add the salt and oil. mix in most of the flour, but save some for later. knead the dough (with some utensil. like a wooden spoon) in the bowl and leave to rise for about one hour until it has doubled it's size.

Then split the dough into two, take one piece and place on a work surface that's dusted with the leftover flour. Knead some more but not to much, then shape it into a baguette form. i usually twist the dough because i imagine that that will make it rise eavenly when baking, also this eliminates the cutting diagonal slices (less dirty dishes..) place on a bakingtray lined with parchment or place into a greased loaf-pan. let rise for about 30 minutes. brush the top of the loaf with water and then bake in the oven for aprox. 25 minutes.

the chocolate-cake is a kind of swedish mudcake (having never tased mudcake i cant vouch for that translation but id sounded better than stickycake). the edges are chewy and the middle is sticky. very nice with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

chocolate-cake
oven: 200 degrees celcius

2 eggs
3 dl sugar
1 tsp vanillasugar
4 tblsp cocoapowder
1,5 dl flour (not self-raising)
1 dl melted butter or margarine
a pinch of salt

grease and cover a spring pan, about 24 cm or smaller, with breadcrumbs.
mix the ingredients, by stirring, not whisking. (i add the butter last so it'll cool down and to avoid making an unplanned omelette)

pour into the pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. when the cake has come of the edges of the pan, it's done. the middle should be soft, almost runny (if served with ice-cream, then the runnier the better!)

friday i'm in love

what am i going to do today? well, i am going to cook, eventually. i'm thinking perhaps a classic swedish dish? also; i'm off to buy a ticket to a cocktail party, scout for a new phone, pay a visit to the local charity shop and go to the gym. and when all this is done i am going to drool over the photos och dishes made by a blog i've recently discovered: What Katie Ate. with the prettiest pictures and chocolate cakes, i have a sneaky suspicion that i'm going to get tonnes of inspiration from her. just look at this:

 (the pictures are of course from her blog)