Salmon with lemon and Crème Fraîche

Salmon with lemon and Crème Fraîche

I don't know where I have got this recipe but I have had it for nearly 15 years now. Recipe is really simple and this is for 2 people.

400 g salmon
2-3 dl Crème Fraîche
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dill

Juice of ½ of lemon

Grated lemon zest

Salt

Pepper

Set the oven to 200 ˚C. Oil the oven casserole dish and place the fish skin side down. Season the salmon with salt and pepper.

Place the salmon skin side down and season with salt and
pepper.

Mix the Crème Fraîche, mustard, dill, lemon juice and lemon zest together. Pour the mix on the salmon and let the salmon to cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Cook for 30 minutes in 200 ˚.C

Serve with mashed potates, cooked potatoes or rice. I served the dish with mashed potates and gently panfried Bok Choy.

Serve with mashed potatoes and panfried Bok Choy.

Pho Bo (Vietnamese noodle soup)

Sprinkle lime juice on top and then hoisin sauce and
chilli sauce to finish.

Back to slow cooking and Asia. I don't know why Vietnamese kitchen is not that known as Thai kitchen but in my opinion Vietnamese food is at least exciting as Thai food. Today I made Pho Bo or Vietnamese noodle soup with beef. If you make the broth by yourself this recipe takes about 5-6 hours to make. I understood that some supermarkets sells ready Pho broth but I wanted to make everything from the scratch.

Broth:
1 kg (4-7 pieces) ox tails
4 Chinese star anise
1 tsp cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 black cardamom pod
1 tbsp of coriander seeds
(1 tbsp of fennel seeds, I did not use these since I did not find them in any of Asian stores)
Fresh ginger (2 thumb sizes)
2 onions
Hard brown sugar (2 thumb sizes)
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp salt

Topping:
Spring onions
Coriander
Thai basil
Bean sprouts
2 large red chillies
1-2 limes
Hoisin sauce
Chilli sauce (Sriracha)
400 g beef tenderloin

1 package rice noodles

Warm-up the spices on medium fire.

Cook the ox tails on high temperature so that they become
golden brown.

Roast the onions and ginger under a grill in the oven.

Warm the spices on medium fire for 3 minutes (you cannot use the spices if you burn them so be careful). Meanwhile cut the onions into large pieces and together with peeled ginger roast them under a grill in the oven for 15 minutes or until they start to get black. Cook the ox tails on hot frying pan. Place the ox tails in a large casserole, add the grilled onions and ginger and then the heated spices. Pour 2-3 liters of water and let it come to a boil. Add the fish sauce, sugar and salt. Let the broth to boil for some 5-6 hours. If any foam  or fat occurs on the surface remove it with a spoon.

Cook the ox tails, spices and onions and ginger for 5-6 hours.

Cut the spring onions, coriander, Thai basil and chillies. Place all the vegetable including bean sprouts in their own plates or then in one big serving bowl like I did. Cut the lime into small boats.

Cut the vegetables, meat and lime.

Cut the beef tenderloin into thin slices. I went to my local butcher and they were kind enough to cut the meat for me.

Soak the noodles in cold water for 5 minutes. Then boil the noodles in hot water according to the insturctions of the package.

Pick up the ox tails from the broth and place them into another  casserole. Strain the broth to the casserole where you have the ox tails. Throw the spices and onions to the garbage. Add some more water to the broth and if needed some more salt. Let the broth to boil again.

Put first the noodles in to the bowl
adding the thinly sliced tenderloin
on top.

Pour the broth on top so the meat gently poaches in it.

How to eat? Put the noodles in the bottom of the bowl. Put few slices of tenderloin on noodles. Pour boiling broth on the meat. It is important that the broth is boiling because this will gently poach the meat. After this pick the vegatables you like and add on the top of the noodles. Sprinkle some lime juice and hoisin sauce and chili sauce on top.

Add the vegetables according to your taste and sprinkle with
lime juice and add hoisin sauce and chilli sauce on top.

Tom Yam Kung (sour and spicy king prawn soup)

Tom Yam Kung

I think most of us are familiar with red and green curry dishes from Thai kitchen. This recipe is something else I have not tried. I just need to remember the name of the soup next time I am visiting Thailand, the soup was so good.

This recipe is enough for 3-4 people:

11 dl chicken broth
10-12 king prawns
8-10 mushrooms
1 lemongrass
1 large red chili
8 lime leaves
3 tbsp soy sauce or fish sauce
4 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp red curry paste (actually it should be 2 tbsp of roasted chili paste but I did not find it in the store)
Bunch of coriander

Simple ingredients.

Let the chicken broth come to a boil and add the sliced lemongrass and lime leave (remove the central stems from lime leaves). Let it boil for 5 minutes.

Add the sliced mushrooms and king prawns (remember to peel prawns and remove the black strings from them). Let it boil for 2-3 minutes and turn off the heat.

Season with soy sauce, lime juice, red curry paste and chopped chili. Finally add the coriander and mix well.

Enough for 3-4 people.

Passion fruit cheese cake

I have never made a cheese cake in my life but I love this dessert a lot. I got an idea for the passion fruit cheese cake when I was watching a reality show called "Hele Norge Baker" based on the British version called "The Great British Bake Off". I was then surfing in the Internet in order to find a nice recipe for the passion fruit cheese cake. The recipe is modified a bit from the original since I did not find all the ingredients at the grocery store.

Base:
225 g Digestive biscuits or oat biscuits
100 g butter

Filling:
25 g lemon gele powder
2,5 dl boiling water
3 dl sour cream
200 g Philadelphia cream cheese (natural)
1,5 dl powder sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
3 dl cream
2 passion fruits

Topping:
0,5 dl boiling water
1 dl apple juice
1dl water
4 gelatine sheets
2 passion fruits

Crush the biscuits and mix with melted butter. Place the biscuit base on a cake pan with removable bottom. Put the cake pan in a fridge.

Cook 2,5 dl water and mix the lemon gele powder. Mix well and let it cool down.
Mix sour cream, cream cheese, powder sugar, vanilla sugar and passion fruit (only the inside of the fruit) well together. Whip the cream until it is firm. Mix the cheese mix together with whipped cream. Pour carefully the cooled lemon gele while mixing the filling all the time.

Pour the filling on top of the base and let it be in the fridge around 5 hours.

Put the gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes. Rinse the sheets well and put them in boiling water, mix well. Add the passion fruit, apple juice and water to the gelatine and mix well. Pour the mix on the top of the cake. The gelatine will congeal in couple of hours.

Remove the cheese cake from the cake pan. You may need to use a knife to the sides when removing the cake from the cake pan. Decorate with passion fruits and clementines.

Use a cake pan with removable bottom.
Use also a knife when removing the cake pan.

Decorate with passion fruits and clementines.

Use oat or Digestive biscuits as base for the cake.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon rolls

For cinnamon rolls you can use the recipe of vanilla rolls -just replace the vanilla butter with cinnamon butter.

Enjoy with cold milk or with nice latte.

11 dl flour

4 dl milk

50 g yeast

2 eggs

200 g butter or margarine

1 dl sugar

2 tea spoons of cardamom

Filling

100 g butter or margarin

4 tsb cinnamon powder

2 dl powdered sugar

Warm up the milk as the same temperature as your body temperature and mix the yeast with the milk. If the milk is too warm the yeast will die. Mix the eggs, sugar, cardamom and half of the flour with the milk.





Add the rest of the flour to the dough and finally mix the soft butter in it. Let the dough to double its size in a warm place. Let the oven to warm up to 200 ˚C.

Mix the ingredients.

Roll out the dough into a sheet with a rolling pin. Spread the filling on the sheet and roll the dough. Cut the roll into small pieces and place each of the pieces in their own paper flows. Put some sugar on top. If you want you may smear the buns with eggs just to give it a nice shine when they are baked in the oven.

Bake the cinnamon rolls in the oven for about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Müsli

This is the very first time I tried to make müsli. Of course I did not have all the incredients home when I wanted to make this but the result became surprisingly good.

1 l oat flakes
1 dl almonds
6 dl mixed seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, linseeds)

1 dl water
1 dl oil
0,5 dl sugar (or less if using more honey instead)
1 tsp of honey (or more if using less sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp Chinese star anise powder (if you are using 1 table spoon of cinnamon you can leave star anise out, I just run out of cinnamon so I replaced some of the cinnamon with this)

Finely chop the almond and mix together with oat flakes and the seeds. Place the mix on an oven pan.

Mix the water, oil, sugar, honey, cinnamon and Chinese star anise together and pour the mix on top of the oat flake mix. Mix well.

Let the müsli to be in the oven for about 20 minutes in 200 ˚C. Mix once in a while so that the müsli roasts all over.

Serve müsli with yoghurt or cold milk and add some dried fruits or fresh berries.

Semolina pudding

For me semolina pudding or semolina porridge is a normal lunch dish but most of the people think it as dessert. The way I eat semolina pudding is usually with vanilla ice cream and raspberry jam. I know - a wierd sweet lunch :)

1 l milk
1 1/4 dl of semolina
sugar

Carefully cook the milk into boiling but do not let it burn to the casserole. Add the semolina and now cook on very low fire around 20 minutes. Remember to stir also the bottom of the casserole so that the porridge does not burn.

Taste with sugar. As I earlier told I serve this dish to myself with vanilla ice cream and raspberry jam.