Perfect chanterelle dinner September 5, 2010

In the fall, you get fresh mushrooms growing in the forest. One of my favorites is chanterelle. A little work goes in to making this, but it is oh so worth the effort. 

You’ll need:

• A LOT of chanterelle
• Olive oil
• Onion
• Good butter
• Parsley – curly or flat leaf

 
You’ll want to start by rinsing off the mushrooms, and cutting a little onion which you’ll want to heat in olive oil with a little salt until they are soft. Put the chanterelle in the pan, and keep on a medium high heat.

While the mushroom are heating, finely chop the parsley, and simply wait until the water that will leak from the mushroom has been boiled away. Add a few handfuls of parsley into it and a knob of butter.

When the butter has melted, put the mushroom in a bowl, and serve with toast, salt and butter.

Chicken dinner like my mother never made April 16, 2010

When I was a kid, my mother used to make a chicken dinner dish involving a barbecued chicken and a third of a liter of cream. This is not it. It is, however, inspired by it. It is simple enough to make, and doesn’t take a lot of time either.
 
You’ll need:

• One grilled chicken
• One tin of coconut milk
• The juice of a half lime
• One chinese garlic
• A thumb-sized piece of ginger
• Olive oil
• Soy sauce

 
Start by dividing up the chicken, if it’s not already divided up. Slice the garlic finely, then grate the ginger. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a casserole, and add the garlic and ginger to it. Once the garlic is soft, add the pieces of chicken to the pot. After a little while on the heat, add the coconut milk and lime juice.
 
Allow the chicken and sauce to simmer for about five minutes, then add soy sauce to taste. If you want more moisture, add some beer to the mix as well. Leave the sauce to simmer for about twenty minutes, and serve with rice and salad.

Creamy mushroom sauce March 25, 2010

I’d been wanting to make a rich, creamy mushroom sauce from scratch for some time, and I finally got down to doing so. I’m sure you’ll find similar recipes a lot of places; this one came from ideas I had in my head, as well as a couple of pieces of inspiration that came to me while I was making it. I made it with fairly coarse bits of mushroom (I used large champignons, but I think chanterelles, shiitake and other mushrooms should be nice as well), as I like sauces like this rustic.
 
You’ll need:

• A kilo of mushroom
• Half a liter of low fat milk
• A third of a liter of single fat cream
• One half of a red onion
• Butter
• White wine
• Olive oil
• Soy sauce
• Fine flour or maizenna flour
• Salt and pepper

 
Cut the onion in slices and put in a casserole with some olive oil, butter and salt. Let the onions sweat until they’re soft and shiny. Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms roughly and add them to the casserole along with a healthy knob of butter. Stir it all around a bit, the put the lid on the casserole and let the mushrooms sweat out all their lovely juices. Ideally speaking, you’ll want the mushroom pieces two thirds to a half of the size they were going in. It all depends on how patient you are prepared to be.
 
Once the mushrooms have released their juice, add a glass or so of white wine, and increase the heat. Once the sauce stops smelling alcohol, add the milk, the cream and some pepper, then let it come to the boil. As soon as that happens, lower the heat, and let it simmer for a while. I let it simmer for about half an hour, and about ten minutes before it was ready, I added a few splashes of soy sauce. Five minutes later I added a table spoon of flour, bringing the sauce back up to the boil for a little while.
 
This sauce works beautifully for pastas and pizza, and I’m sure it’d god nicely with a steak as well. I served it with tricolori pasta screws, a salad and a nice Argentinian Malbec called Terrazas de los Andes Reserva Malbec 2007.

Butter peas March 13, 2010

The other night we had fish and chips for dinner. To go with them, we had butter peas. It was all very nice, and while the fish and chips were prefab-things we stuck in the oven for a while, I made the butter peas. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Petit pois peas
• Red onion
• Butter

Melt generous amounts of butter in a casserole, and add the red onion, thinly sliced. When the onion is soft, add the peas and season with salt and pepper. While heating the peas, mash some of them. Serve with fish, chips and all the usual trimmings.

Tomato-spinach pitza March 4, 2010

Pitza, also known as pita-pizza, are a great way to make cheese sandwiches. Instead of using regular bread, you use pita bread, and simply add whatever you want to them. Here’s one version I made for Trampe not long ago. You’ll need:

• Garlic pita bread
• Tomato sauce with basil
• Spinach
• Mozzarella
• Cheddar

Cut the pitas in two, leaving one half to place on top of the pitzas. Rinse the spinach, then place it in a hot pan to wilt. Spread the tomato sauce on the pitas, then add the wilted spinach and the cheese.

Put them in a cold oven, setting it to 150 degrees centigrade for about ten minutes.

If, for some reason, you keep some Tajin Clásico, sprinkle a little on the pitzas when you’ve baked them for a yummy twist.

Nice spinach March 4, 2010

Remember when you were a kid, and you mom served you spinach with something? Remember how it was gooey and didn’t look inviting at all? Yeah, me too. I thought that was the only way to serve spinach. I have since learned better. I picked the original recipe up from Jamie Oliver I think, and here’s how I do it. You’ll need:

• Spinach
• Butter
• Lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

Rinse the spinach, and melt the butter in a pan. Put the spinach in the pan, and let it wilt for a little while, moving it around all the time, so that everything gets a little butter on it. Take the pan off the heat, and add salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve with eggs and toast.

Bread with seeds February 18, 2010

• 1 kg fine flour
• 1/2 kg coarse flour
• 160g mixed seeds (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sun flower seeds)
• 1 liter water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 bag dry yeast

 
Mix the dry stuff while heating the water to roughly 40º C (or 37ºC if you use fresh yeast). Add the water to the dry goods a little at a time, working it in as you go. (If you use fresh yeast, mix it into the water before adding the water to the dry goods.) If you want to, you could toast the seeds in a dry pan before adding it to the rest.
 
Leave the worked dough to rise for roughly 45 minutes, or until doubled in size. When the dough has risen, work it for a while, before dividing it into three equally large parts. Shape these into rounds and place on grease-proof paper.
 
Leave the loaves to rise for 45 minutes, while heating the oven to 200ºC. Make a few cuts in the pieces and/or sprinkle a little flour before you put the baking tray into the bottom of the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Tomato salsa February 16, 2010

One night I got a craving for crisps and dip, but I had no dipmix in the house. So, I looked in my cupboard to find out what I had, and made something from that. This salsa can be eaten alone, as a salsa for tacos, or as a dip for crisps, and works great for all three. I am sure there are more uses for it, but those are the ones I have tried.
 
You’ll need:

• Tinned, chopped tomatoes
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tabasco sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Lemon and/or lime juice

 
Empty a can of tomatoes into a bowl, add salt, pepper, tabasco, worcestershire sauce and lemon and/or lime juice to taste. Leave in the fridge for half an hour before serving.
 
I have played around with adding other tastes as well, most notably basil.

Tomato chicken February 16, 2010

I absolutely love chicken (although my girlfriend assures me she loves chicken more than I do. So be it). I came up with this twist one day, planning what to make my girfriend and I for dinner. Here’s the recipe:

• Raw chicken breast
• Tinned tomatoes (with basil and oregano if available)
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Onion
• Beer
• Worcestershire sauce
• Tabasco sauce

 
Start by rinsing and roughly dicing the chicken. Fry it off in a pan, with some salt and olive oil. Put the chicken in a casserole, and add the tomatoes (roughly one tin per breast). Slice the mushroom, and fry it in the pan, with some salt and olive oil. Add this to the tomatoes and chicken. Slice the garlic and fry in a pan, with some salt and olive oil. Add this to the mix, deglace the frying pan with beer, and pour into the mix. Put the casserole on the stove in place of the frying pan.
 
Bring the mix to the boil, adding some Worcestershire and tabasco sauce and quite a bit of beer. Bring to a simmer, and season with salt and pepper.
 
Serve with rice, salad and nacho chips.
 
Enjoy!

Simple salad dressing February 16, 2010

I wanted a dressing for a salad I served, and looked around. The first ingredients I saw became the recipe. I usually use a funnel, and pour the ingredients onto a Grolsch bottle with a snap cap (see the picture), close up, and shake well.

• Salt soy sauce
• Lemon and/or lime juice
• Olive oil (extra virgin for choice)

 
Pour (roughly) equal parts soy sauce, lemon and/or lime juice and olive oil onto the bottle. Shake well.