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.

Second day stew February 16, 2010

This recipe hinges on having left-overs from a roasted leg of lamb. This is all about using whatever you have lying around the fridge and pantry…
 
What you will need is:

• Left-over leg of lamb
• Onion
• Red wine
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Garlic
• Olive oil

 
This is the base, but you’ll want to add some vegetables, for example:

• Mushroom
• Tomato
• Bell pepper
• Carrot
• Shallot onions

 
The list goes on and on, but you get the general idea. Start by removing the meat from the bone, and dicing it roughly. Then chop a few shallots, red onions or normal onions and a few cloves of garlic. Toss them in a casserole with some salt, pepper and olive oil, and heat it. Once the onions are shiny, add a little red wine, and bring the mix to boiling point. Add the meat and other vegetables, and more wine.
 
A note on using wine in this dish: Frankly, the more wine the better, but a couple of glasses shoould be the minimum. If you need more moisture and don’t want to use wine, use thin vegetable or meat stock.
 
Boil until the dish is still moist, but not swimming. Turn the plate down low, and leave to simmer for as long as you can comfortably wait. If you want it to be a bit more sauce-ish, dissolve some flour in hot water, and add to the mix. Serve with roasted potatoes, salad and some of the red wine that you didn’t put into the dish.

Scrambled eggs “James Bond” February 16, 2010

This recipe is found in the short story 007 in New York, and is a great way to make scrambled eggs.
 
To serve four, you’ll need:

• 12 fresh eggs
• Salt and pepper
• 5-6 oz. of fresh butter

 
Break the eggs into a bowl. Beat thoroughly with a fork and season well. In a small copper (or heavy bottomed saucepan) melt four oz. of the butter. When melted, pour in the eggs and cook over a very low heat, whisking continuously with a small egg whisk.
 
While the eggs are slightly more moist than you would wish for eating, remove the pan from heat, add rest of butter and continue whisking for half a minute, adding the while finely chopped chives or fines herbes.
 
Note: When I originally read this recipe, I translated the english “chives” into the norwegian “kjørvel”. “Kjørvel”, is not chives, but chervil. While not all that in keeping with the original recipe, it was VERY nice, and can be heartily recommended.

Roasted leg of lamb February 16, 2010

Making a roasted leg of lamb seems to be one of the major feats of cooking, which strikes me as odd, especially when considering that this is something that has been done for ages and ages upon ages. Even so, it’s held as a sort of pinnacle of cookery. Truth be told, it’s not very difficult, but for some reason people confuse time-consuming cooking with complicated cooking. Here’s my recipe, inspired by many different people.
 
Let’s start with the ingredients:

• Leg of lamb (sort of, kind of, essential to the entire exercise) (estimate roughly 450 grams per person)
• Sage (dried or fresh)
• Rosemary (see Sage)
• Thyme (see Sage)
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice

 
At this point, you’re probably thinking that it can’t all be done that simply, now can it? Well, frankly it both is, and isn’t. The secret is mashing up the herbs with salt and pepper (roughly equal parts) with a pestle and mortar, and then mix in olive oil until you have a sort of paste. But I am getting ahead of myself here, let’s back up…
 
Firstly, you’ll want a leg of lamb, with bone. Once the leg is thawed, washed, rinced and dried, you’ll want to peel the garlic, and cut the cloves in two or more pieces, depending on size. Then you’ll want to cut small pockets into the leg, into which you add a piece of garlic. Once this is done, go to work with the other herbs.
 
Mash the dried herbs up for a while with your pestle and mortar. Add the fresh ones, as well as a clove or four of garlic. Mash this up for a while longer, and add a good portion of olive oil, and mash some more. This should produce a thickish paste. Take your leg of lamb, now plied with garlic, and put onto some aluminum foil (enough to cover the leg entirely).
 
Pour your paste over the leg of lamb, and rub it in, as if giving your leg of lamb a massage. Come to think of it, give your leg of lamb a massage. Once the paste has been rubbed in, pour over a little lemon juice, and rub that in as well. Make sure the entire leg is covered, both in the herb and oil paste, and in the lemon juice.
 
Skewer the leg with a cooking thermometer, and wrap it up in the aluminum foil. Put the leg of lamb in a roasting pan, and put it into the oven at 175-200° centigrade/347-392° fahrenheit, and leave until the internal temperature hits 65° centigrade/149° fahrenheit. Take it out of the oven, and leave it to rest for roughly 20 minutes before carving it.
 
A note on inserting the thermometer: It is very important that the thermometer does not hit bone, as this will give false readings. If you feel bone, pull it out, and reinsert.
 
Serve the leg of lamb with roasted potatoes, salad, sauce and red wine. Enjoy!

Rice and salmon salad February 16, 2010

This started as an idea I had for a meal for my girlfriend, and I wanted something quick and simple. For this recipe you’ll need the following:

• Rice
• Salmon
• Various lettuce (I usually use a ready-cut mix, which includes romano, radichio rosso and frisèe)

 
Boil the rice, and cut the salmon in largeish dices. Fry the salmon in a pan, in fat of your choice. I prefer butter. Add salt and pepper to the pan. Mix it all together in a bowl, and serve.
 
Serve as-is, and place bottles of sweet and salty soy-sauce, and sweet chili sauce on the table. Sour cream might also be nice with this.