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Hanna

I am a huge fan of chicken livers since then. It is really tasty, and has less of a liver flavour than say pig’s livers or calf’s livers. On top of that it is very versatile to add different flavours to, and it is cheap.

Last week we had Chris and Jess over for dinner, and we had an Italian theme for the evening, with both food and wine. The most typical Italian starter to me is chicken liver crostini, so that’s what I made. This one is flavoured with white wine, sage and anchovies, very Italian flavours to me.

Since liver might not be for everyone I also made a bean spread (that I will post tomorrow) and classic bruschetta with tomato and garlic. We served the mousse and the bean paste in mini copper pans (my boyfriend’s idea) on a rustic cutting board and piles of crostini on the side. A nice and laid back start to the evening.

Italiensk kycklinglevermousse

400 g fresh chicken liver

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, pressed

2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped

100 ml dry white wine

4 anchovies

100 ml homemade chicken stock

50-100 ml mild olive oil

Remove all tendons and chop the liver coarsely. Fry the onion until soft in butter and oil on medium heat. Add the garlic and sage, make sure the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the wine and watch some of it disappear. Add the anchovies and let it melt together with the other ingredients. Turn up the heat and add the liver, cook until cooked through. Add the stock and let it bubble away a bit.

Mix it all in a food processor. Add mild olive oil bit by bit until it has the moussy texture you’re after. I used almost 100 ml, but start off with a lot less. Leave to cool, then refridgerate.

I browned the meat the night before and seasoned it. The following morning I added the meat, red wine, water , garlic and a bay leaf, put it on the lowest setting and left it for 10 hours.

When I opened the door to the flat in the evening, it smelt wonderful. I just reduced the sauce, added cream, thyme and fried mushrooms and served it with a swede and potato mash.

It was absolutely wonderful and the meat just fell apart it was so tender. I highly recommending a slowcooker, as it takes less energy than having the oven on, and it feels safer leaving it on during the day. But you can make this stew in a regular oven too, I would probably put the temperature to 80C maximum and leave it in there for at least 5-6 hours.

Because of the low cooking temperature, the meat releases a lot of liquid, so I highly recommend to take out the mat and reduce the sauce on the hob until it has thickened up. This also concentrates the flavour and I would recommend this with all kinds of dishes, including i.e. pulled pork, where you shred the meat and mix it with the juices. It works better when it is less watery.

Lamb stew with red wine, cream, mushrooms and thyme, serves 3-4

500 g stewing lamb (on the bone, in pieces)

butter for frying

salt, black pepper

400 ml red wine (for cooking you can use old opened bottles, so don’t throw any leftover wine away, save it for a stew instead)

1 garlic clove

1 bayleaf

100 ml water

200 g button mushrooms, cut in four

200 ml single cream

50 ml red wine

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/2 tbsp mild chilli sauce

1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce

colouring agent

salt, pepper

Brown the meat in the morning or the night before, in butter. Season. Before leaving the house in the morning, add the meat, wine and water to the Crockpot . Also add garlic and a bay leaf. Stir and turn the slowcooker on at the lowest heat. Put the lid on and leave it until you come home 9-10 hours later.

Then fry the mushrooms ans season. Remove the meat from the sauce and put the whole casserole on the hob (if you have a gas hob at least) or use a small sauce pan to redue the sauce on high heat. Stir occasionally and once it has thickened add the spices and seasonings. Colour until light brown. Add the meat and mushrooms. Heat ut up again if necessary and serve. A root mash, potato mash or boiled potatoes work well. 

Unfortunately I can’t take credit for this amazing recipe, that fame belongs to Yotam Ottolenghi, but I am very happy to spread the word.

OK, they’re probably worse to eat from a health perspective than regular chips, but they are so so SO very good. They melt in your mouth and the smokiness is just perfect with the mellow texture. In grams, they contain just as much cheese as polenta, plus they are dipped in flour and then deep-fried, so not exactly healthy. But who cares?!

Smoky polenta chips, serves 3

375 ml vegetable stock

60 g quick polenta

20 g butter

60 g smoked cheese (the recipe calls for scamorza affumicata, but I used ‘Bavarian smoked cheese’)

salt, pepper

1 dl plain flour

500 ml vegetable (or other neutral) oil

Bring the stock to the boil and add the polenta bit by bit while stirring. Let it simmer for 5 minutes while continue to stir. Remove from the heat and add butter and cheese. Stir to incorporate evenly.

Line a square or rectangular dish (mine was 20 cm and square) with clingfilm and spread the polenta into it, evenly. Leave to cool and place in fridge for at least an hour to set. Remove from the fridge, place the polenta square onto a chopping board and cut it into chip-size pieces. Coat these with flour. Heat up 1-2 cm high with oil in a frying or sauteuse pan until very hot. Deep fry the chips until golden. Drain on kitchen towel. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

Burgers, makes 5

500 g lean beef mince

1 egg

50 ml breadcrumbs or one slice of white bread, edges removed and crumbled

1 tsp onion granules

salt, white pepper

2 tbsp  Reggae Reggae sauce or similar

Add egg and breadcrumbs to a bowl. Add the onions, seasoning and sauce. Stir and leave it to swell for a few minutes. Add the mince and mix well with a wooden fork. Divide the meat into 5 even pieces and shape liek burgers. Fry in butter and oil until either medium or well done, according to taste. 

Westminster, April 2011

This week has past quickly, I guess being out and about a few days make it go even quicker than usual.

It has been a good week though, with visits to two of my favourite restaurants in London. On Tuesday I met up with Swedish Kristin (who I know from Uni) at Terroirs and we talked about both the past, present and the future over oysters, pig’s trotters and some Muscadet. A lovely evening.

On Thursday I met up with two former colleagues at Opera Tavern for some tapas, and we had a great time, as always.

Tonight will be a quiet one with some nice pasta and probably plenty of wine. Tomorrow I am off to a course, and in the evening we have David and Gaby as dinner guests.

And this is what we will be eating next week:

Friday: Chrosizo meatball carbonara a’la Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Saturday: Scallops in saffron sauce; roast beef, potatoes au gratin and red wine jus; tarte tatin and icecream

Sunday: Pork belly

• Potato and leek soup
• Nice sausages and beans (not the baked kind)
• Macaroni and cheese with sausages

Have a nice weekend!

Apologies for the bad photo, only had my mobile at hand when plating the cake at work.

The last cake for work last month was another Nigella number. You can always trust her not to make something half-hearted or too healthy (and I mean that in a good way).

This chessecake is more of an all-in kind of cake with lots of everything. It was good, but I think I would like to improve a few things for next time. First of all I would like to bake the base so it keeps drier for longer. Also adding a bit more sugar to both the filling and the topping would be beneficial as the mixture goes a lot more sour when chilled, and this cake should be served chilled.

Peanut butter chocolate cheesecake, serves 10-12

Base:

200 g digestives

50 g softened butter

Filling:

500 g Philadelphia

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

200 g caster sugar

125 ml sourcream

250 g smooth peanut butter

Topping:

25 ml sourcream

100 g milk chocolate, chopped

30 g soft brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 170C. Crumble the biscuits for the base in a food processor or in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin. Mix with the butter and press it into a springform (lined with pachment paper in the bottom and around the sides. I would suggest prebaking it for 10 minutes.

Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a food processor or with an electric whisk. Pour the mixture into the springform and spread it out evenly. Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour. Remove from the oven.

Heat up sourcream, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan until it has all melted and is incorporated. Spread onto the cheesecake and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on its tin. Place in a fridge for at least a few hours before serving. Leave it in its tin until it is time to serve. Powder with icing sugar before serving. 

The countryside is wonderful around Malmö, where I’m from, and I went for a slow walk in the woods, trying to find some mushrooms and snapping away on my camera.

When we got back to my parent’s house I continued to take photos in my mother’s beautiful garden. Ok, it belongs to my dad as well, but mother is the one designing it and looking after it. It is so pretty that it has featured in one gardening magazine in Sweden and an agricultural magazine. Well done, mother!

We spent some time in the kitchen as well. On Saturday we had mushrooms (chanterelles and black trumpets) on toast followed by a meat fondue in oil, with potato wedges and bearnaise sauce. After a little break we finished the meal off with a tarte tatin from local apples and icecream.

On Sunday we had a traditional (Swedish) roast with venison, boiled potatoes, creamy gravy, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and jelly. A perfect end to a perfect country weekend.

As I might have told you several times already, I am a huge fan of Ottolenghi’s cooking. Mostly I adore his cookbook Plenty but I also like the Ottolenghi cookbook that was published before Plenty.

This recipe is another one of his creations, an all-in-one-pan-kind-of-meal with quite basic ingredients (potatoes, onions, chilli, garlic, yoghurt, eggs) and some unusual seasoning (sumac and tahini) but it made a perfect weekday supper, would be perfect for breakfast or to cure any bad hangover.

Unfortunately I was all out of tahini without realising it, when I made this dish, so I substituted for the next best thing; za’atar and that worked really well.

Ottolenghi’s one pot wonder, serves 2

olive oil

3 onions, thinly sliced (I only used one red onion)

200 g baby potatoes, sliced into 5 mm thick slices

1/2 red chilli, finely chopped

1/2 tbsp sumac

salt & black pepper

1/2 tsp caster sugar

1 clove of garlic, pressed

100 g Greek yoghurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

300 g cherry tomatoes on the vine

4 eggs

1,5 tbsp tahini paste (I used 1 tbsp of za’atar instead)

1 tbsp chopped coriander (which I forgot)

Heat up olive oil in a sauteuse pan. Add the onions, potatoes, chilli, sumac, salt and pepper and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Then add sugar and garlic, and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Mix yoghurt, lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl and set aside. In a seperate pan, add the tomatoes, vine facing up, when the pan is hot and cook the tomatoes for 3-4 minutes until well charred. Remove from the pan.

Spread the potatoes and onions evenly in its pan and break four eggs on top. Try to keep the yolks whole. Fry for three minutes, until the whites start to set. Then cover and cook for another minute or two for the whites to set completely. Add dollops of the yoghurt, avoiding the yolks, then sprinkle with tahini or za’atar (again, avoiding the yolks). Place the tomatoes, still on the vine, on top and sprinkle with coriander. Serve straight from the pan. 

The recipe is courtesy of fabulous Anne of Anne’s food, another Swedish food blog in English, and the cake is just fantastic.

It disappeared in a heartbeat at work and the combination of lemon zest in the cake with the lemon syrup and icing, this is just fab.

Triple lemon yoghurt cake, 8 portioner

3 eggs
125 ml vegetable oil
250 ml natural yoghurt 
220 g caster sugar
zest form 2 lemons
0,5 tsp vanilla extract 
375 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
0,5 tsp salt

Lemon syrup:

80 g caster sugar
100 ml fresh lemon juice

Icing:

250 ml icing sugar
2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Turn the oven on 175C. Beat eggs, oil, yoghurt, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla together. Mix flour with baking powder and salt in a seperate bowl and add it to the mixture. Pour the batter into a buttered and lined dish. Bake for 50 minutes.

Meanwhile make the syrup. Let the cake cool a little before removing it from its tin. Once removed, prick lots of holes all over the cake with a toothpick or similar. Then pour the syrup onto the cake trying to get most of it into the little wholes. Leave to cool completely before making the icing and pouring it over the cake.

It sponges were quite dry. Admittedly, mine was baked slightly too long because I followed the recipe, but it would have been dry anyway I think. The meringue frosting is lovely, but would have worked better with a more buttery sponge. And the addition of maple syrup to both cakes and frosting sounded wonderful, but didn’t actually taste much in reality.

I won’t make this cake again, but I could definitely use the frosting for something else. And doesn’t the cake look rather good, despite the very simple decorations.

Autumnal birthday cake, serves 8-10

For two sponges:

175 g softened butter

100 g caster sugar

3 eggs

350 ml maple syrup

500 g self-raising flour

175 ml hot water

Frosting:

2 egg whites

125 ml maple syrup

125 ml caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping: 125 g pecans (I used only 40 g walnuts instead) chopped

Heat the oven to 180C. Beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at the time. Add the syrup gradually while stirring. Alternate the flour and water, adding while stirring. Divide the batter between two 20 cm springforms, buttered and lined with baking parchment. Bake for 40 mins (I think 20 will be enough). Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before assembling the cake.

Mix all the ingredients for the frosting apart from the vanilla in a bowl that fits a sauce pan. Fill the pan with water so it comes up just below the bowl. Bring to the boil and place the bowl om top. Beat with a handheld whisk for 5-7 minutes until stiff peaks. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. Assemble the cake and coat it all around with the frosting. Sprinkle the nuts on top.

This cake is best the same day it is made.