Recipe - Quick carrot soup

This is a recipe I found online on a Swedish food site. I thought it looked quite appealing. I was totally beat tonight and couldn't really be bothered with any lengthy cooking session.

It tasted really nice but at least I think that it needs quite a bit of seasoning since carrot isn't the most flavourful vegetable out there.

Ingredients
0,5l peeled and grated carrot (about three - four carrots)
1 leek, thinly sliced
1l water
2 chicken stock cubes
200g (1 tub) Philadelphia with herbs and garlic
Pepper

Method
Put the water, crumbled stock cubes, carrots and leek in a pot and bring this to a boil. Let this boil for 5 minutes. Stir in the Philadelphia and keep boiling until the cheese has melted.

Season to taste and serve with some breaded rolls on the side.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Pan fried pork medallions with apple and ginger sauce and creamy pototo gratin

This was my first try with making an apple sauce and I must say that it was much easier than I thought it would be. I had a look at various recipes to get an idea as to how to make the sauce.

The only thing I really freestyled was the addition of the grated ginger. It made the kitchen smell really nice and it did enhance the flavour of the sauce - well worth a try next time you make apple sauce to go with your pork.

Ingredients
Pork medallions
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

For the potato gratin (serves 4 - 6)
30g butter
400ml milk
200ml double cream
3 - 4 cloves crushed garlic (less if you don't want that much garlic kick)
1.5kg potatoes, peeled and cut into 3mm slices
1 - 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
Salt
Pepper
Gruyère cheese, grated

For the apple sauce (serves 2 - 4)
1 Bramley cooking apple, cored, peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
1 - 2 cm piece of root ginger, peeled and finely grated
3 - 4 tbsp water
A good squeeze of lemon juice
1 - 2 tsp brown sugar (more if needed)

Method

Potato gratin
Preheat the oven to 190c.

Grease an ovenproof dish with butter.

Put the milk, cream, garlic and seasoning in a pan. Bring to a simmer on a medium heat, check for seasoning.

Lay the potatoes and onion slices in the buttered dish and pour the milk over.

Place the tray in the middle of the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the tray and scatter the grated cheese on top. Put the tray back in for another 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the cheese nicely melted.

Apple sauce
Put the apples in a saucepan with the ginger, lemon juice and water. Cover and cook over a low heat until they are soft and mushy.

Take off the heat and add sugar to taste.

Serve warm or cool depending on your own taste.

Pork medallions
Heat oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Season the pork, put it into the pan and fry until nicely coloured on both sides. To achieve this, don't forget to flip the medallions half way through the cooking process.

If you time all three items correctly you should be able to serve it together nice and hot.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Roast Beef with Puy Lentils

I found a nice Mikey-sized piece of topside beef in my local supermarket and thought that a roast was in order.

There's always recommended cooking times on the packaging but I never trust them. It depends so much on the size/shape of the roast that you can't really go on time. I use my meat thermometer to get it my way.

I like it rare so I normally go for a internal temperature of 49c- 52c, medium rare would be around 55c - 60c, medium 63c - 66c and cremated, sorry, well done would be 68c - 74c.

Ingredients
Topside beef
Mustard powder
Salt
Pepper
Yellow pepper, sliced and fried in some olive oil
Puy lentils, cooked as per the instruction on the packet
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Horseradish sauce (optional)

Method
Heat the oven to 160c.

Make sure that the beef is brought to room temperature. Rub the roast with mustard powder, salt and pepper.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and seal the roast on all sides. This will take a couple of minutes.

Insert the meat thermometer into the roast and put the roast in the oven. Roast until done to you liking (see above for recommnedations). Once that temperature is reached, remove from the oven and let the meat rest for 5 - 10 minutes.

In the meantime mix the fried pepper with the lentils and put on a plate. Drizzle with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Slice the meat and put on the plate. If you like it, put a dollop of horseradish sauce on the side.

Enjoy!

Pasta bake

I didn't really want to label this posting as a recipe, see it more as a gentle guideline and some inspiration ;)

The other day when I was making empanadas I realised that I had made far too much of the filling. Throwing it out was never a question so I froze it. However, I needed to regain that freezer space so I had to come up with something to do with it. Empanadas again? Naah, too soon since the last time.

What I came up with was to make a pasta bake. What I did was to defrost the mince, add some sliced mushrooms, finely chopped garlic and fry that off for a minute or two. Then in with a can of chopped tomatoes and some spices like oregano etc.

In the meantime I cooked some conchligiette pasta until al dente. Once the pasta was drained I mixed it with the 'sort of bolognese sauce' I just had created. That went into a oven safe casserole dish. On top of the mixture I put some grated cheese that was mixed with breadcrumbs. Since I like oregano I chucked some of that on top to finish it off.

The cassserole dish went into a 200c oven until the cheese had melted and started to turn brown. Until it looked right, if you know what I mean.

Easy, frugal and tasty. What more can you really ask for after a long Monday at work? Well, I could have asked for a glass of Ravenswood Vintners Blend, a nice Californian Zinfandel from 2005. Which I did. Since I can't say no to myself I poured myself a glass of this excellent wine to enjoy together with my pasta. Result!

Enjoy!

Recipe - Crispy Duck Breast

To duck or not to duck is not really a question. Duck, cooked correctly, is a very nice dish. It could be simple duck breast like this or some out of this world French version that takes hours, if not days, to prepare and cook.

I still haven't cooked a whole duck, but that day is coming. In the meantime you'll have to do with my way of cooking duck breasts.

I served this with some pan fried potatoes and lardons, creamy leek and some balsamic glaze. Some days, when I can be bothered, I use the pan juices to make something like a cherry and red wine reduction to go with the breasts. You can freestyle your way of serving duck breasts quite a lot. Serve it with potato mash, noodles or why not in a soup?

Ingredients (serves 1)
1 duck breast, skin on
Chinese five spice
Salt
Pepper

Method
Heat the oven to 200c.

Score the skin of the duck breasts in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Season with the Chinese five spice, salt and pepper. Rub the spices into the skin and make sure to get some into the scores.

Heat up a ovenproof frying pan (or a roasting tray) on a low-medium heat. Pop in the duck breast, skin side down, and let it slowly fry for 10 - 12 minutes. Make sure to be patient and don't rush things at this stage, this is where you lay the ground for the crispy skin.

When the time is up, pour off the excess fat from the pan. Turn the breast skin side up and put the pan into the oven for about 6 - 8 minutes. Leave it longer for a more cooked result or if the breasts are of the thicker variety.

Take the pan out of the oven and let the breast rest for about 5 minutes. This is very important when you cook duck breasts since they leak quite a lot of fluid after coming out of the oven and most people don't like the look of that. Even worse, it destroys the look of your plating efforts! ;)

Serve with your choice of accompaniments.

Enjoy!

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

You've seen the banners for Foodbuzz on my blog for quite some time.

Today is the official launch so why don't you click on either the banners or this link and have a look at what it's all about?

Lazy Sunday Brunch - Grated potato cakes with fried eggs

Sometimes simple is best...

Grate a couple of potatoes, squeeze out as much of the fluids as possible. Put into a bowl, mix in an egg and salt and pepper. Make into small patties. Fry in a medium hot frying pan until nicely golden. Flip. Fry until golden on the other side too. Serve with fried eggs.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Fried Smoked Salmon Salad

Frying smoked salmon is quite an interesting way of using smoked salmon. A way of cooking it that I picked up from a blind, one-legged, Chinese fellow I met whilst I was serving a 10 year prison sentence in Ecuador for gun-running on the Amazon. Or it might have been off a recipe card from Sainsbury's a couple of years ago. I can't really remember, my memory is a bit hazy when it comes to the details on this... ;)

What you need is some thinly sliced smoked salmon and a good non-stick frying pan. Those two items are the only ones I'd say you really need for this, the rest you can just freestyle out of what you got at home. Add and subtract ingredients as you see fit and make it suit your cupboards and needs.

This can be served as a quite kinky starter or as a fully blown dish. The choice is yours, mon ami!

Ingredients
Smoked salmon, sliced into strips
Mixed lettuce
Radishes, thinly sliced
Cucumber, de-seeded and thinly sliced
Raspberry Vinegar

Method
Mix the lettuce, radishes and cucumber slices.

Heat a non-stick frying pan on a medium to high heat. Fry the salmon slices until they start changing colour, turn over and fry for a little bit longer.

Mix the fried salmon with the vegetables and plate it. Drizzle with raspberry vinegar.

Enjoy!

May the pisstake commence... ;)

What you see in this picture is what I refer to as my 'foodboard'. This is what I use to plan my cooking a week or more ahead. What's probably worse, I also use it to plan my blog posts.

I'm sure that I'll hear lots about my borderline OCD behaviour when it comes to my cooking and blogging but I don't really care. It sure helps me plan my purchases and makes me waste less vegetables etc. In the end it also helps me save money by not wasting too much.

Hopefully I'm not alone with some kind of forward planning when it comes to cooking.

By the way, this picture is a couple of days old - just so I didn't give away my blog schedule. So come on, hit me with your best comments ;)

Recipe - Grated Gratin

This is a bit off an odd one, but it's really nice. I had it as main dinner, the leftovers will be lunch, but it could work as a side dish too.

If you have friends who are weird, or as they might prefer it; vegetarians, you can leave out the ham and make sure to use veggie cheese and hey presto you got a vegetarian dish. ;)

For once I didn't go for the so-strong-that-it-blows-your-socks-off cheese, mainly because I didn't want it to overpower the ham. However, if you were to go for Black Forest Ham you could go for industrial strength cheese without a problem.

As always, freestyle it. Add and subtract ingredients according to what you have at home and what you like.

Ingredients (serves 2 - 4)
600g potatoes, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
1 courgette, washed
100g air dried or smoked ham, cut into strips
150g cheese, grated
100ml double cream
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
Salt
Pepper

Method
Heat the oven to 225c.

In the meantime grate the vegetables on the coarsest side of your box grater. Squeeze as much of the fluid as possible out of the vegetables. Squeeze a bit more, just to be on the safe side.

Mix the vegetables, ham, cheese, cream and thyme in a bowl and then transfer it into a Pyrex casserole dish or similar. Season very thoroughly.

Pop it into the oven for about 35 - 40 minutes.

Serve with a crisp salad.

Enjoy!