Spinach and cream cheese cannellonis

These cannellonis have no meat at all.

I have eaten cannellonis before and I absolutely love them. But I have never made them myself. After I realised they really are easy to make I headed to the grocery store and decided to go for this vegetarian version with spinach and cream cheese.

This recipe is for 4 persons.

For cannellonis you need:

12-15 lasagna sheets (3-4 sheets per person)
200 g cream cheese
100 g mozzarella cheese
200 g fresh spinach
100 g broccoli
1 white mushroom
1 garlic clove
1 egg
salt
pepper

For the sauce you ned:

500 g tomatosauce
2,5 dl cream
Basil
Salt
Pepper

Cook the spinach for 1 minute and wash under cold water three times. Cut the spinach to small pieces. Mix it then with cream cheese, grated mozzarella, finely grated broccoli, finely chopped mushroom, minced garlic and egg. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the lasagna sheets for 3 minutes in water with some salt. Wash the sheets under cold water. Place the cream cheese filling with a spoon on the other end of the lasagna sheet. Then simply roll the sheets and place them on a casserole. Pour the sauce over the rolls and finish with grated cheese.

Place the pasta rolls on a casserole.

Pour the sauce over the pasta rolls and
finish with grated mozzarella.

Bake on a lover level of the oven for 35 minutes at 175 °C. Then 10 more minutes on the highest level of the oven also at 175 °C.

Serve with a kale salad.

So good!

Runeberg's cakes

You may also soften the cakes with some apple juice or milk,
or then not to do this at all.

 Finland celebrates its national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg today and what would be better way to do that than with the delicious winter treats Runeberg's cakes (Runebergintorttu in Finnish).

Recipe:

200 g butter
2,5 dl sugar
2 eggs
1 dl butter milk
1 dl cream
3 dl flour
3 dl breadcrumbs (finely ground)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp almond extract (the amount of extract you need can vary a lot depending on the extract you have used. In this recipe I have used a Norwegian almond extract from Idun)

Garnish:
2 dl powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp water

Mix well the butter that is at room temperature with the sugar. Add the eggs and mix again. Add the buttermilk and cream to the mix. Then add the almond extract. Mix the flour, breadcrumps and baking soda together and add to the dough.

Spoon the dough i.e. to cupcake cases or similar. Make a hole in each cake and put raspberry jam in them. Bake for about 20 minutes at 200 ℃.

Let the cakes to cool down and add again some raspberry jam to the holes. Make the frosting by adding some water to powdered sugar and garnish the top of the cake with it.

The picture is a bit dark but this shows better
how the frosting should be around the jam.

Sausage sauce

Serve the sauce with mashed potatoes.

This sauce recipe is brings up memories from my childhood. I just loved this especially with mashed potatoes.

400 g mild sausages
half an onion
3 tbsp flour
5 dl water
half a beef stock cube
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp soy sauce

Cook the sausages on a pan until golden brown and set them a side.

Dice the onion and cook them in oil until translucent. Add the flour and cook until it is light brown. Add the water and bring it to a boil mixing the sauce all the time. Add the sausages, stock cube, mustard, tomato purée. Cook on a low fire for about 15 minutes.

Let the sauce to simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes and salad.

American pancakes

Enjoy with jam or syrup. Soo good!

I have been growing up with thin Scandinavian pancakes and when I got American thick pancakes in a diner in USA, I just thought they were horrible. I had them twice at a real American diner but they were always dry and tasteless. But then earlier this year I got the best pancakes ever at a Radisson hotel close to Nashville airport. They were so good that I realise that my earlier experience was just bad luck.

I have now learned how to make American style pancakes at home.

For 4 people you need:

4,5 dl flour
3 dl milk
2 eggs
2,5 tsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp of melted butter or oil
Salt
Sugar

Beat the eggs and add the milk and melted butter. Mix the flour with baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix it all together.

Heat the pan and pour the desired amount of batter on it. Flip the pancake once bubbles appear to the surface. Continue cooking maximum one more minute.

Enjoy with jam or syrup.

Cook the second side maximum of 1 minute.

Rolled beef topside with goat cheese

Roll the meat and close with toothpicks.

This recipe is one of my favorite because it is so simple. I found it in one of my old cook books.

For 2 persons you need

2-4 slices of topside of beef
Basil
Goat cheese
Bacon
Salt
Pepper

Place the bacon on the beef and then on the other end have a piece of goat cheese on the bacon. Then have some basil on the goat cheese and roll the meat. Pierce the rolls i.e. with toothpicks.

Cook the meat golden brown on a frying pan and then 10-15 more minutes in an oven at 225 °C.

Here I have added some apple sauce after
I took the meat rolls out from the oven.

Chili mayo

You can keep the mayonnaise in a fridge about a week.

I just love spicy food and chili in general. Many restaurants serve various chili mayonnaise and I was wondering if it would be easy to make home. And it was!

Mayonnaise base:

2 egg yolks

1 tsp dijon mustard

About 4-5 dl oil

Dash of vinegar

Dash of lemon juice

2 cayanne long slim chilis (or other chilis depending on your own taste and tolerance for the heat level)

1 tbsp (or more) of sriracha sauce

1 minced garlic clove

1 tbsp ketchup (rounds up the taste)

Smoked pepper powder

Salt

Pepper

Whisk the egg yolks and add the dijon. Then start adding the oil really carefully and whisking the egg yolks at the same time. In the start it is important that you add only few drops of the oil and then continue pouring slowly the oil to the egg yolks while whisking the mix at the same time. If you add the oil too quickly and too much, the oil will separate from the yolks. When the mayonnaise starts to thicken, add some vinegar, lemon juice and salt.

Mince the fresh chilis and garlic and add to the mayonnaise. Add sriracha, ketchup and smoked pepper powder. Finally taste with salt and pepper.

This mayoannaise lasts in the fridge about a week. So good!

Some of the ingredients for the mayo.

Baked potato with smoked salmon

I have not been a huge fan for baked potatoes but while I lived in England I started to enjoy and appreciate more this food. When baking the potato it is important to choose a potato that is starchy. Before putting the potato to the oven, remember to have some holes on it. And for crispy outcome, do not cover the potato in a tin foil since this will only make the skin soft and not crispy.

The potato should be baked in 200 °C for about 80 minutes depending of the size of the potato.

The filling:

350 g smoked salmon
200 g sour cream
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp diced pickles (or pickled pumpkin)
half a diced small onion
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp dill
lemon pepper

Shredd the salmon and mix all the ingredients. After the potato is baked make a cross cut on the potato and fill it with the salmon mix.

The tin foil is only for a decoration,
do not cover the potato with it while
baking.