Simple Sunday chicken

Tags

Chicken, Dinner, Recipe, Root vegetable, Sunday dinner

Some time back, after being inspired by this Scottish lady, I tried for the first time to cooka whole chicken. It’s one of those things that took me a very long time before I tried for the first time, and also one of those things I’ll be doing a lot of in the years to come. I never imagined it to be as easy as it was. And now I’ll show the easiest way to make chicken.

Before we often bought store-grilled chicken. Already spiced, marinated and cooked. I used to love them as a kid, but the quality of them aren’t all that, and so I wanted an alternative. This was one of those days where we all came home form work/kindergarten and were just worn out. We had a slice of bread when we came home, and decided on a late dinner. Still keeping it simple, this is what we did:

We had chicken thighs, but these were in the freezer and frozen solid when we started cooking. Not the perfect start, but we work with what we have. Whip together a marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary. The marinade is good when it’s a little too salty and a little too acidic. Put it all in a bag with the chicken while chopping the veggies. Now put the oven to about 200 degrees. Chop potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and red onions in small chunks, the larger the chicken, the larger the pieces. Add a good dose of oil to a casserole and spread the chopped veggies to form a thin layer. Get the chicken out of the bag and try to massage in as much of the marinade as you can. Place the chicken atop the veggies, pour over some of the marinade and sprinkle over some rosemary. Place in the oven and cook until the chicken is done, the chicken should then be a little brownish on top, and when stabbed with a knife the liquid coming out should be clear and free of blood. The time in the oven varies from 20-30 minutes for room temperatured chicken thighs, an hour (or more) for frozen chicken thighs, to about two hours for an whole chicken (depending on the size). Turn the veggies every now and then if left in the oven for a long time.

This dish is so easy and so good. The chicken is tender and succulent, while the veggies caramelize and bring out the best flavours.

Jamie Oliver and Yorkshire Puddings

Tags

Codfish, Food, Jamie Oliver, Pate, Recipe, Smoked trout, Yorkshire Pudding

Few inspire me more in the kitchen than Jamie Oliver. These days his show “Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain” is on and now I enjoy one show per week and try to take on some of the recipes as challenges. Last week I saw an episode where he made Yorkshire puddings. It looked easy enough but comments connected to the recipe online suggested it wasn’t as easy as it first seemed.

The dish was made as a starter with yorkshire pudding and a creamy pate with horseradish and smoked trout. I wanted to serve it as dinner and thus served it with crispy cod filets and asparagus.

The dish was divine! The combination of the soft pudding and the pate was incredible. The pate was a bit on the sour side, but I have a tendency to squeeze out more juice from a lemon than recipes seem to expect. Son used the pate to dip the cod, he wasn’t too fond of the asparagus, but the pate worked wonderful as a dip for that too. The yorkshire puddings were easier than expected and rose more than I expected them to.

The recipe for Jamie’s starter can be found here. The cod was simply dipped in eggs and breadcrumbs and fried in a non-stick pan with a wee bit of oil. The asparagus were treated to a few minutes in the pan as well, drizzled with a few drops of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Lamb casserole

Tags

Casserole, Drumnadrochit, Food, Lamb Casserole, Lamb Stew, Recipe, Scotland, Stew, The Fiddler's

At a pub in Drumnadrochit in early October 2011 I sat with two wonderful ladies discussing a menu. We went back and forth trying to decide what to have. We decided to order three different dishes, place them in the centre of the table and rotate around them. That way we all had a bit of everything. (and we shared a plate of haggis as starter)

We had oven-baked salmon, chicken, and a lamb casserole. The starter was haggis in a creamy, whiskey sauce. It was all delicious! (menu can be found here). Having quite a bit of leftover lamb after making fårikål (I wrote about that here) I decided to have a go at making something similar to the lamb casserole from Scotland. And you know what? It was like I was back in Drumnadrochit! Son too ate a lot (Husband was at work, which is when I can serve lamb – he dinnae like the smell). This is how I did it:

I started of with a bit of lamb from yesterday’s dinner and the stock from the same meal. I made brown sauce (give me a shout if you do not know how) using the stock, added the mutton, a small handful of whole spelt (I didn’t have barley, so I went with what I had –  would recommend barley though) and a few diced carrots. Turn the heat down and put a lid on the pot. Leave until the carrots are almost perfect (poke them to check), then add a broccoli broken into small ‘bouquets’. A few more minutes with the lid on the broccoli will be done and the carrots will be perfect. I served with mashed root vegetables (potato, celery root, and parsnip) and a dash of lingonberry jam.

Kokoskuler – chocolate balls

Tags

Candy, Chocolate balls, Christmas candy, Christmas traditions, Coconut balls, Food, Kokoskuler, Recipe, Sjokoladekuler

Growing up I had a friend from whom I was inseparable. We spent (almost) every day of many years together until we eventually grew apart. During our first years as teens, and also as tweens, we had a regular shop we used to go to whenever we had a few kroners. The shop didn’t really have a good selection of candy, but they had these coco and chocolate balls (how I prefer the Norwegian word ‘kuler’ instead of balls for these as ‘kuler’ does not invoke associations to male genitalia).

I found the recipe in a christmas magazine at my mother-in-law’s a few years ago, and have made it my mission to make these every christmas thereafter. This year though, I have a confession to make: Son made these almost all by himself (yes, they’re that easy!) I helped measure and to crack the egg, but the mixing was all his work! Here is the recipe:

• 1 dl of sugar
• 2 dl of rolled oats
• 1,5 dl of grated coconut
• 2 tablespoons of cacao powder
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter
• 1 egg (my mixture was a little dry, so I added a second egg)

Mix everything together until you’re left with a dough-like texture. Leave it in the fridge for a while (mine was only left for a few hours). Then roll out small ‘kuler’ and cover them in grated coconut. Delicious!

Saturday night pizza

Tags

Dough, Food, Pizza, Pizza crust, Pizza dough, Recipe

It was a dark and stormy evening. We were visiting some friends on a Saturday and it was getting late. We thanked our hosts for having us over and explained we had to get going in order to get the Saturday pizza on the table, eat it, and have Son in bed at a reasonable time. My friend looked at me, the suspicion gleaming from her eyes. Make and eat a pizza and have Son in bed in the course of 90 minutes? (which would also include a 20-minute drive from their house to hours). I nodded, she looked at me in disbelief. And that’s when I pulled the ace from my sleeve:

I make a big batch of pizza dough which results in about 8 individual pizzas. After leaving the crusts in the oven for thee minutes I freeze them, and on Saturdays I thus only have to visit the freezer and half the pizza is already made. I do the same with tomato sauce. Leftovers from the past week that go well on a pizza, are also kept and used the following saturday. Saturday night pizza is a piece of cake!

I promised my friend the recipe and instructions for these crusts. That was ages ago! Sorry AM that it has taken so long! Here it is:

The recipe is from this book, which is a very good book for everyone who goes through a period of experimenting with baking. This book has taught me loads!

• 1 kg of all purpose flour (regular white wheat) (about two pounds)
• 6,5 dl of water (about there cups)
• 10 g of fresh yeast (a lump the size of your smallest join on your little finger)
• 15 g of salt (I never measure, so about a teaspoon?)

Now, you want to do this on a day where you have other things to do. As what takes the longest is sitting watching the dough rise (do NOT sit and watch the dough rise, you’ll be bored and clearly you must have better things to do on a Saturday!) Let the machine knead the dough properly for 15 minutes or so. Keep it on low speed and turn up the music! Then let the dough rise for 1-2 hours. Divide the dough into equal parts of about 250 grams (about half a pound) and cover them with plastic and let them rise for another 45 minutes. It is important to let the dough rise in order to get an easy dough to work with afterwards.

Roll each part out into pizza crusts, prick them with a fork, and cook them at 225 degrees (celcius) for 3 mins.

I was making these on a Saturday while Husband was away at work. I had just put Son to bed, came back downstairs, put the last of the crusts into the oven, and sat down to breathe. I of course forgot all about the crust, which resulted in this:

Moral of the story? Don’t prick the crust with a fork and cook them for about 10 mins, and you’ll have some lovely pita breads instead 😉 Hope you enjoy!

Norwegian cuisine – Chinese apples and rice

Tags

Cream, Dessert, Norwegian Cuisine, Norwegian Food, Orange, Recipe, Rice

Now, I don’t really now if this should be classified as Norwegian cuisine, but as I’ve never had it anywhere else, I’ll be so bold as to at least add it to the recipes from my kitchen, making it at least slightly Norwegian…

This is a simple dessert made from rice, oranges, and whipped cream. The unjust title is due to the Norwegian name for orange (appelsin /a:pelsi:n/ that is with a back vowel /a/) which is borrowed from Dutch, which has again just translated from French ‘Pomme de Sine’, which means ‘Apple from China’. The Norwegian name for this dish is ‘appelsinris’ (orange rice), and thus: Chinese apples and rice.

This is what you make for dessert when you have leftover rice from dinner (or make extra rice when you want this for dessert). And it’s dead simple. Peel and dice the orange, whip cream (add a bit of sugar to weigh up for the healthy dinner) and mix it together with rice. I would say even portions of rice and cream, but that depends on how you like it. Sugar also depends on your sweet-tooth. I add about one teaspoon pr decilitre (about two teaspoons pr cup). Serve cold. Enjoy 🙂

Norwegian Cuisine – Lapper

Tags

Food, Lapper, Norwegian Food, Pancakes, Recipe

“Lapper” are small pieces of paper or cloth. Write someone a “lapp” means to write someone a note, and passing “lapper” is frowned upon at school (passing notes between students without the teacher knowing). “Lapper” is also a Norwegian pancake-like food which has become Son’s favourite these past weeks.

The recipe is actually my great-grandmother’s, it’s been in the family for at least a few generations, and it’s as good as it is simple.

First a note on the dairy product: kefir. Kefir is apparently called kefir in English as well. I’ve never come across it outside the Norwegian borders myself, but how common it is is beyond me. It can be substituted with any type of sour dairy product, but buttermilk is probably the best substitute.

• 5 dl kefir
• 5 dl flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• vanilla or vanilla sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons of sugar

Any pan is good for making these, though I must recommend something with a slip-let surface. If you don’t have one you should consider adding a bit of fat to the pan while cooking.

Make sure the pan is warm, on medium heat, before you pour a small ladle worth of batter in the pan. When the surface of the “lapp” bubbles and dries out, the “lapp” is ready to be turned. Looking for bubbles has become one of Son’s favourite past-times.

Anything can go into a lappe-batter. Leftover rice from dinner? throw it in! Earlier this week I made “lapps” with grated apples and cinnamon – delicious! And, if I make these as a meal, instead of as a desert/snack, I use mostly whole-grain flour, works perfectly fine, but I would recommend the finely ground type. 

Mashed swede

Tags

Autumn, Food, Kålrotstape, Mashed rutabaga, Mashed Swede, Norway, Norwegian Cuisine, Recipe, Rutabaga, Swede

Please join me further down the path of Norwegian delicacies. Today we have a very simple dinner planned: sausages and mashed swede (or rutabaga if you like).

The big, round root is first sliced, then peeled (using a small knife, don’t bother with no potato peeler) and diced. Put in a pot, add water to just about cover the root, put a lid on and leave on medium heat to simmer for a while. To check if it’s done pierce a piece with a sharp knife, if the knife won’t hold the piece of swede then consider it done. Drain, add a pinch or two of sugar, add a wee bit of milk or cream and a spoonful of cream cheese (if you like). Mash it all up using either a masher or a hand blender. A swede can without problems be mashed using a hand blender (potatoes should not). I often add a carrot or two to the mash. The carrots are then sliced and boiled with the swede.

I served this with lamb sausages (which you really should try if you’re in the area!)

Swedes are people too and should not be confused with the root-vegetable which is the subject of this post. No Swedes were hurt making this dish.

Norwegian cuisine – lapskaus

Tags

Food, Lapskaus, Norwegian Cuisine, Recipe, Stew

I can’t think of a stew more common in Norway than stew is. The are of course a multitude of varieties, and no two recipes are the same. The ingredients are still often the same, and very “Norwegian” if you like, in that they are easy to get hold of and produced or grown locally. Wikipedia claims the name has its roots in German and English and was introduced in the 18th century. The dish itself, however, I do believe has been around a little longer.

We had my in-laws visiting and the ingredients I then used for five adults and a wee man (two-year-old) was as follows:

• 500-1000 grams of meet (pork or beef is preferred – but anything goes)
• 8 potatoes
• 1 medium sized swede (or rutabaga if you like, I find it hysterical that a vegetable has the same name as our neighbours in the east)
• 1 celery root
• 5 carrots
• 1 leek
• salt and black pepper

Dice everything (or, well, slice the leek and carrots) into approximately equal-sized pieces. Layer in a big pot starting with the meet, continue with swede, potatoes, celery root, carrots and finish off with leek. Add water up to about a third of the contents in the pot. My rule of thumb here is that when I can see the water in between the veggies, it’s enough.

Heat it up then leave to simmer for as long as you’d like. This is a dish we often make before going on a Sunday hike. We leave the house for several hours and come back for a ready made dinner. Perfect! 

Peanut butter truffles

Tags

Chocolate, Food, Homemade chocolate, Reese's Panut Butter Cups

I love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Problem is, they’re hard to find in this part of the country. And when I do stumble upon someone importing them, they cost about an arm and a leg. Yes, it’s worth it, but still…

Over at Pinterest I came across this post and I just had to try. Husband and I were playing about with a chocolate recipe earlier this week and had a few hundred grams of chocolate left. Just enough in which to dip these small peanut butter truffles. 

I will definitely make these again. Though next time I will add a wee bit more salt, swap some of the icing sugar with regular sugar or fructose and also make a bigger batch. They were that good! And, by making them myself I control everything going into these pieces of deliciousness, which means there are no dubious ingredients and they can also be made with so little added sugar and fat that they consist of little more than peanuts and chocolate.

And, after watching a little too much of South Park during my teenage years, I can’t help but have Chef’s “Chocolate Salty Balls” on repeat in my head when thinking about these…