Hummus

Main ingredience is the chickpeas for hummus.

Quick lunch? No time to cook anything? Then hummus is something for you. All you need is:

520 g chickpeas
1 tbsp of tahini (you can also make your own tahini from sesame seeds and sesame oil)
Juice from ½ a lemon
4 cloves of garlic
1 - 1,5 dl oil
Salt
Pepper
Parsley

Take the chickpeas from the can and wash them thoroughly. Put them in the mixer together with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, oil and salt. Mix them until it is a smooth paste.

Mix until the chickpeas become
a smooth paste.

Spread the hummus on a plate and leave the sides to be a bit higher than the middle part. Pour some olive oil in the middle and sprinkle some chopped parsley and black pepper on top.

Serve with bread, feta cheese. olives and tomatoes topped with green pesto.

Serve with simple Mediterranean tapas.

Leave the sides higher so you can pour some olive oil in
the middle. Sprinkle some parsley and black pepper on
top.

Potato salad

Serve the salad with hot dogs.

It is still early but we started the barbeque season this weekend already. We got some sausages from our local butcher for some hot dogs. On the side I made a nice potato salad.

700-800 g potatoes
3 dl sour cream or crème fraîche
10 slices of pickled cucumbers (should make about 1 dl)
1 red onion
1 bunt of chive
3 spring onions
½ tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Juice from ½ a lemon

½ tbsp sugar

Salt

Pepper

The ingredients.

Some recipes say that when you cook the potatoes you should not peel them but I peeled them in this recipe and cut them in ready pieces for the salad. In this way the potatoes cooked faster. However, you need to see that you do not over cook them. After the potates are cooked pour some cold water to cool them and stop the cooking.

Place the potates on the side and cut the cucumbers, red onion, chive and spring onions in small pieces. Mix them together with sour cream, lemon juice, dash of white wine vinegar, dijon, sugar, salt and pepper. You may try adding more mustard or vinegar if you like, but remember to check the taste before doing this.

Mix the cut vegetables together with sour cream and
lemon juice, vinegar and mustard.

Add the cooked potatos to the salad and mix carefully.

Add the potatoes in the end to the salad.

Put the salad in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving for the flavors to spread evenly in it. Potatosalad is perfect for lunch or as a side dish for hot dogs or steaks.

Let the salad to be in the fridge about 30 minutes before
serving.

Garlic and rosemary brie

Put some garlic, rosemary and olive oil in the small whole
in the brie.

Something simple for the weekend? Garlic and rosemary brie baked in the oven.

Brie cheese
Garlic cloves
Rosemary whisks
Olive oil

Cut the brie in smaller pieces and place the pieces for instance in créme brûlée pot. Make a small hole in the brie and put one garlic clove that is cut in half in each pot. Put some rosemary in the cheese as well and a dash of olive oil on top.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes in 175 °C.

Enjoy as such or with white bread.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes in 175 degrees.

Sweet potato soup with curry

Decorate with spring onions and enjoy!

Did you know that sweet potato is richer in carbohydrates than a normal potato? In this recipe we add even more calories with coconut milk and cream :)

For this soup you will need:

2 medium sized sweet potates
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
1 tbsp curry powder (or less)
1 tsp chili powder (or less)
1 can coconut milk (about 4 dl)
2 dl vegetable bouillon
1,5 dl cream
Salt
Pepper

Cut the garlic, onion and sweet potates in pieces. Gently cook the onion and garlic in oil and when the onion is transparent add the sweet potate and cook couple of more minutes. Add the chili and curry powder, mix well. Pour the coconut milk, cream and vegetable bouillon in the casserole. Cook until the sweet potatoes are soft.

Cook until the sweet potatoes are soft.

Mix the cooked sweet potatoes with a hand mixer into a smooth soup. Season with salt and pepper according to your taste. Add some fresh spring onions and enjoy :) The soup is rather heavy so you can try to have less curry and no cream at all adding more water instead.

Mix the soup smooth with a hand mixer.

Eggs Benedict with cold smoked salmon

Eggs Benedict with salmon

Lazy Sunday. What is the best way to keep it simple and tasty than Eggs Benedict with cold smoked salmon. In the real version of Eggs Benedict you should have ham, parma ham or serrano ham but I prefer to eat it with salmon.

Recipe:

Thinly sliced cold smoked salmon
Bread (white bread, rye bread, toast muffins or what ever you like)
3 tbs white wine vinegar
Eggs
Hollandaise sauce
Spring onion

As this is just a Sunday fast food I have not smoked the salmon nor made the hollandaise sauce by myself. Many stores sell ready hollandaise sauce that you just need to warm up.

Boil the water and add the vinegar. Break an egg in to a small dish. Whirl the boiling water with a spoon and carefully drop the egg into the whirling water. Poach the egg about 3 minutes. Put the bread loafs in a toaster.

Place the toasted bread on a plate. Put some salmon on top of it and on the salmon the poached egg. Pour some hollandaise sauce on the egg and garnish with spring onions.

Bread under, salmon on the bread, poached egg on the
salmon topped with hollandaise and garnished
with spring onions.

After the first toast is ready you can start poaching the second egg :)

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.