Recipe - Summer Prawn Salad

When it gets as warm as it is at the moment I prefer to eat something a bit cooler for dinner. Salads works great in the summer months and I'm always trying new version and variants of them.

This is just a very simple salad but it fills it purpose. As always freestyle it, use what you have at home or what you like. Mix, match and replace to your hearts content.

Salads like this one are great because you can use leftover potatoes from the day before and so on. If you feel lazy, buy cooked prawns instead of boiling them yourself. There are lots of shortcuts you can take - all depending on how much effort you want to put in.

I did actually make the sauce in the recipe, it's just that the photos with it on didn't look as nice as those without it. ;)

Ingredients
Sauce
6 tbsp natural yoghurt
1.5 tsp Dijon mustard
Lots of fresh dill, cut
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice

Salad
Prawns (cooked or cook them yourself first)
Boiled new potatoes, halved and then cut into wedges
Eggs, boiled for about 5 minutes
French breakfast radishes, halved and then cut into wedges
Yellow pepper, cut into strips
Mixed salad

Method
Sauce
Mix the yoghurt and Dijon mustard. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Stir in the dill. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Salad
Just plate the ingredients, pour some sauce over. Job done.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Frittata

I'm sure that you've all been here. It is Sunday evening and after spending the entire day successfully doing nothing you realise that you're getting hungry.

Being late-ish on a Sunday, the supermarket is closed and you're stuck having to conjure up something from what you got at home.

That is exactly what happened to me last night and this is what I came up with.

I ate this hot, but you might as well let it cool down and eat it at room temperature. It makes a really nice dish for picnics as well.

Just a quick couple of words of warning about this recipe. Make sure that the frying pan you are using actually can be used in the oven. Contrary to what you might have heard, molten plastic doesn't really add any good flavours to your food. It sure as hell messes up your oven as well.

After those revelations, let's head over to the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 2, or 1 hungry Mikey)
1 decent sized potato, cut into 1cm cubes
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
Olive oil
4 eggs
Fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
Salt
Pepper
A pinch or two of smoked paprika

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180c.

Bring some salted water to the boil. Once boiling, add the potatoes and boil for about 5 minutes. You want the potatoes to just start to soften up, not go all soggy on you. Drain the potatoes and put them to the side.

In the meantime, heat some oil in a frying pan and let the pepper, onion and garlic sweat for 10 minutes or so until they start to soften up without taking any colour.

Break the eggs into a bowl and mix them together vigourously. Add in the potatoes and the vegetable mixture. Season well, adding some smoked paprika to taste as well as the torn basil leaves.

Heat some more oil in the frying pan. When the oil is hot, add in the egg mixture and give it a good stir to make sure it is evenly distributed.

Pop the frying pan (see my warning above) into the oven and let it cook until the middle is set. This should take about 15 minutes or so.

Enjoy!

A simple summer dessert...

This is not a recipe, this is more of a trip down memory lane.

Last weekend was Midsummer in Sweden. The holiday that rivals Christmas for being the most popular holiday back there.

I've seen quite a lot of posts on Swedish blogs about how people celebrated Midsummer and what they ate and so on.

Seeing all these pictures and reading the recipes made me start to think what food memories I have of Swedish summer.

Sitting on a remote island in the western archipelago and eating marinated herring and boiled new potatoes on a perfect summer evening is definitively one of the better ones.

The one that gives me the best memories, on so many different levels, is probably one of the simplest meals though. When I say meal I should probably say dessert.

When I grew up we still had seasons in the shops. You couldn't go and find raspberries and blueberries in your local shop in December. You got them when they were in season and that was it.

Somehow I think that made us appreciate them more and I still think they tasted better than those forced through and imported fruit and veg we can get year round these days.

This dessert is something my grandmother used to make. If I stayed at hers over the weekend in the summer she would get down to the local market early on Saturday morning to get fresh fruit and veg from the farmers stalls.

If she came back with raspberries and blueberries I knew that I was in for a treat.

This is so simple, yet this is what brings out memories of Swedish summer for me. All you do is that you wash your blueberries and raspberries, put them in a bowl, pour milk over them and put them in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to let the milk get some of the flavours from the berries. If the blueberries are too sharp, add some sugar.

Eating this on a warm summer evening - life doesn't get much better than that.

Recipe - Baked Ham, Tomatoes and Eggs

This is one of my fridge-cleaning recipes. Since I (almost) always got garlic, onions, eggs and some kind of tomatoes at home I use that as a base and then I combine with whatever I find in the fridge that needs using up.

This time I had some smoked ham that was getting close to it's use-by-date so in it went, together with some basil that was starting to flag a bit.

I've cooked this with corned beef, chorizo, pork sausages etc and it all works, it is just a matter of using your imagination.

For some (or rather one in particular) of our Danish visitors: If you are going to try this recipe please remember that passata and polenta are still two very different things and that they are not interchangeable. ;)

After that gentle reminder, let's head over to the recipe...

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
Olive oil
500g passata
4 - 6 slices of smoked ham, roughly torn
4 - 6 basil leaves, roughly torn
Salt
Pepper
2 eggs

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180c.

Gently sweat the garlic and onion in some olive oil on a very low heat until they start to soften.

Add the passata, season to taste, and let this simmer on a low heat until it starts to thicken.

Once thickened to your liking divide the mix between two oven safe dishes, mix in the ham and basil evenly between the two dishes. Crack an egg on top of each dish and season again.

Chuck this in the oven and bake until the egg sets, normally about 10 - 15 minutes.

Serve with a side salad and some nice bread to mop up the sauce with.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Meatball and Beetroot Salad Sandwiches

Now that we got something that resembles summer even here in the UK it can be a bit too hot to cook in the evenings.

My answer to that is quite often to go for a Scandinavian style open sandwich of some kind. As those go, meatball and beetroot-salad ones are quite high up there when it comes to being classic.

I can honestly not say if it was us Swedes or the Danes that invented this one, the only thing I can say though is that since there's no gjetost involved - the Norwegians had nothing to do with it. :)

You could go the whole way and roast your own beets as well as make your own meatballs but it is summer - give yourself some time off and use some pre-made stuff for once.

If you can find Scan's pre-made meatballs in your shop, they're the ones to go for. They are the classic ones, the ones that all Swedes now exactly how they taste. The quick tip is to fry them quickly so that they get a little bit of extra texture. That actually gives them quite a bit of extra flavour.

The beetroot salad works really well as a side salad for when you have grilled or fried meats as well.

Enough chatting, let's have a look at the recipe...

Ingredients (makes enough beetroot salad for 2 - 4 sandwiches)
4 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp creme fraiche
5 - 6 pickled baby beetroots - finely diced
1 red apple - halved, cored and finely diced
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice (if needed)
Meatballs, fried and halved.
Bread

Method
Thoroughly mix the mayonnaise, creme fraiche, beetroot and apple together. Season well and give it a taste, if you think it's too sweet - add some lemon juice.

Put the bowl with the beetroot salad in the fridge for as long as you can, at least an hour, to let the flavours mix.

To assemble the sandwiches remove the beetroot salad from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Put some beetroot salad on a slice of bread, top with meatballs.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Falun sausage (falukorv) pasta bake

After yesterdays psyche out I thought I'd better post a recipe that is a bit saner in most peoples eyes.

Falun sausage is one of the staples in Swedish day-to-day cookery and trying to find variations on how to cook it can be a problem.

I'm not sure how many times I was fed heavily fried falun sausage with pasta as I was growing up but it sure was many a time. This recipe is a bit of a twist on that recipe with the addition of some more flavours than just ketchup. Besides mustard, ketchup seemed to be the only condiment as I was growing up.

So yet again, if you find yourself with a piece of falun sausage after a visit to IKEA and you have no idea what to do with it, try this recipe - you might like it.

You could either use one roasting/gratin dish or split it up into two. My 600ml Pyrex roaster was perfect for one portion.

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 portions of macaroni pasta, cooked just until tender
Olive oil
250g - 300g falukorv, diced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 onion, finely diced
1 green chili, sliced (keep some of the seeds if you want more kick)
Salt
Pepper
120 ml single cream
Grated cheese

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200c.

Start by sweating the vegetables in a frying pan on a low heat. Once the pepper starts to soften, remove the pan and pour the veg into the dish you are baking in.

Put the pan back on the stove, raise the heat to medium and add the falun sausage. Fry until the falun sausage starts to brown and crisp up. Once again, remove the pan from the stove and pour the falun sausage into the baking dish.

Pour the cooked pasta into the same dish, season and make sure to mix it up well. Pour in the cream and finally cover well with grated cheese.

Pop into the oven until the cheese is melted and starts to get a nice brown colour, about 20 minutes or so.

Serve with a green salad on the side.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Flying Jacob (Flygande Jakob)

This is a dish that probably will freak quite a lot of you out. "You put what together with what?"

Trust me though, it's well worth a try and it is actually very tasty. This used to be a standard dinner party dish in Sweden from the mid 80's and about 10 years on.

I mentioned it to one of my Twitter friends from Sweden and he went something along the lines of: "Flying Jacob, haven't had that for 15 years. Will have to cook that really soon".

I've freestyled the original recipe a bit. Traditionally you would buy a whole grilled chicken and use the meat from that but I had some chicken breasts at home so that was that.

As for the topping, you'd normally whisk the cream but I really couldn't be bothered with that and it worked really well this way too.

Finally, I just can't seem to find the kind of chili sauce we had back home so this time I used Heinz Piri Piri & Lime Twisted Ketchup, which worked just as well.

Ok, let's move on to the recipe - you'll probably be well freaked after reading this one.

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 portions cooked white rice
6 - 8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
4 skin- and boneless chicken breasts, cut into bitesized pieces
3 ripe bananas, sliced
125 ml chili sauce (or spicy ketchup)
350 ml single cream
Peanuts

Method
Preheat the oven to 200c.

Fry the bacon slices in a pan on medium heat just until they start to crisp up. Move to the side and let them rest on some kitchen roll. Once they're cool enough to handle, cut them into smaller pieces.

In the meantime, season the chicken pieces and fry them until they are nicely golden and cooked through. Cook in batches if needed to avoid crowding the pan.

Mix the cream with the chili sauce (or spicy ketchup) and make sure to stir it really well.

Put the rice on the bottom of a roasting dish (a 35cmx23cm one should do the trick), top with the chicken and bacon. Finish off with the slices from two of the three bananas.

Pour the cream and chili mixture on top, making sure to distribute it evenly. Top with the remaining banana slices and a good handful or two of peanuts.

Bake in the oven and let it bake until the sauce gets a bit darker. Normally 15 - 25 minutes.

Serve with a crisp side salad.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Twice Baked Potatoes

This is yet another dish which is fairly easy to cook, but you get quite a lot back from it. It might take some time from start to finish but you are not doing anything for most of that time.

My recommendation would be to sip on some nice wine or drink a beer or three while you wait for the potatoes to finish in the oven.

I haven't given any exact proportions for the butter, creme fraiche or grated cheese since mash is normally a very personal thing. As for the other ingredients, if you don't like my proportions - change them. This is definitely a dish that leans towards freestyling. Cook it the way you like, don't follow this recipe to the letter.

These potatoes makes an excellent side barbecued meats but you can also have them as a dish on their own if you want. Match the moment.

Let's see how to make this then....

Ingredients, makes 4 halves
2 large baking potatoes
Olive oil
Creme Fraiche
Butter
Pepper
4 rashers smoked streaky bacon, cut into pieces and cooked until crispy
Grated cheese, I used Monterey Jack
3 spring onions, halved and sliced

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200c.

Wash and dry the potatoes. Prick them all over with a fork and apply some olive all over them. Put them directly on the wire rack in the oven.

Let the potatoes cook for about 1hr 15min and then remove them from then and let them cool down a bit.

When cool enought to handle, use a kitchen towel or oven mitt, split them halfways. Scoop out the potato flesh, being careful not to pierce the potato skin. Put the empty skins on a baking tray.

Put the potato through a ricer, or use a masher, and add creme fraiche and butter to your own taste to make a mash to your liking. Add in most of the bacon and cheese as well as all of the spring onions. Mix well and season to taste.

Spoon the mash back into the potato skins, top with the remaining bacon and cheese. Put the baking tray with the skins back into the oven until the cheese is nicely melted and cooked to your liking, about 15 - 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Review - From Pasta To Pancakes - The Ultimate Student Cookbook by Tiffany Goddall

This is not a cookbook that I normally would buy.

Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it and I actually quite like it. Keep reading and you'll find out more about it and also why I normally wouldn't buy a cookbook like this.

From Pasta To Pancakes - The Ultimate Student Cookbook is written by Tiffany Goodall, you can find her on Twitter. She's fresh out of university and decided to write a cookbook for students.

The cookbook itself takes a quite fresh approach to the layout of a cookbook, each recipe consists of photos made out into a cartoon-strip design. This design makes it easy to follow the recipe steps as well as get a view of what the end result should look like.

It starts out with some great tips for the fresh/inexperienced cook when it comes to what equipment and store cupboard essentials that you need as well as very good advice on how to avoid giving you and your friends food poisoning.

There are over 90 recipes with over 750 photos. The recipes range from cheese on toast to the perfect roast chicken. All recipes have been divided into different chapters, for example Breakfast with Tiffany, Food on the move and Wasted weekends.

Why wouldn't I go and buy this cookbook? Well, it's mainly down to me being a bit of a snob when it comes to cookbooks and I would probably not be looking in the beginner/student cookbook section to start with. Would I go and buy it now, after having a chance to review it? Read on and you'll find out.

I think this is actually quite a gem of a cookbook, especially for beginners. The recipes are clear and easy to follow and you'll end up with some great food that you have cooked yourself. Anyone using this cookbook will end up eating better and cheaper food than if they went for takeaways and frozen meals.

Mikey says: Buy this book if you are a beginner to cookery or why not as a gift if you are sending someone off to university and you want to try and give them a good chance of managing to cook for themselves. I for one will recommend this cookbook to all the people who ask me where to start when it comes to cooking.

A big thank you to the kind people at Quadrille Publishing who sent me a copy to review.

Recipe - Courgette and Tomato Bake

The adventures of a man and his organic veg box continues...

After stopping the carrot revolution the other day I turned my attention to the courgettes, that would be zucchinis for my North American and Australian friends, and the remaining onion.

Yet again I managed to end up cooking something that is fairly vegetarian. I guess that just how vegetarian depends on how militant you are about the cheese.

This turned out to taste very nice and could easily be used as a side dish to some tasty meat too. I cooked it in two separate Pyrex dishes but you could use one large dish just as well.

As a reference, the Pyrex dishes I used takes about 600 ml each.

Let's head over to the recipe part.

Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
Olive oil
500g passata
Salt
Pepper
4 small-ish tomatoes, sliced
2 courgettes, sliced
100g grated cheese, I used gruyere

Method
Preheat the oven to 200c.

Start by sweating the garlic and onion in some olive oil in a pan. Once they are starting to soften add the passata and bring to a boil. Let this simmer for 10 - 15 minutes or until it starts to thicken up. Season to taste.

Divide the tomato mixture into the two dishes. Then make alternate layers of courgette and tomato with cheese between each layer. Finish off with a final layer of cheese.

Cover the dishes with tin foil and put them on a baking sheet (they do tend to splatter a wee bit) and into the oven for 20 minutes.

Take them out of the oven, remove the tin foil and then return them to the oven for another 15 - 20 minutes or until they looked nicely browned.

Enjoy!