Carrot Soup with Cashews & Feta

Soup, especially puréed, is one of few dishes I can pretty much rely on my toddler to eat. He loves it - almost regardless of what goes in it, as long as it's not too spicy. And as long as he can't see it, I guess. We, his parents, are however not huge soup fans. His dad often complains that it's not filling, and I often find it plain and boring. But since Titus loves soup, I keep an eye out for interesting recipes and this one caught my eye at Ann-Louise's Swedish blog: Lilla Matderivén. Carrots are always good, and with the textural addition of cooked cashews and the zippiness of feta cheese... yeah. Good. Very.

I added a handful of lentils to pack some extra protein in there, and omitted fresh thyme since I didn't have any. I also added some toasted cashews to serve on top, for more crunch. Next time, I'll add some fresh cilantro on top, too. (Titus won't touch any toppings, by the way.)

Carrot Soup with Cashews & Feta
serves 4

3 shalotts (or 1 small onion), diced
1 tbsp neutral oil
700 g carrots, sliced
75 ml cashew nuts, raw (a large handful)
75 ml red lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
150 g feta cheese, divided
Handful of cashew nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Fry the shalotts (or onion) in the oil, on medium heat. When it looks transclucent, add carrots, cashews and lentils. After a few minutes, add the vegetable stock.

Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Then, cover with a lid, lower the heat and let it simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. Check to make sure the carrots are soft. Crumble in half of the feta (reserve the other half for serving) and then use an immersion blender to purée the soup until very smooth.

Serve with the reserved feta, and some toasted cashews.

Garlic Breadsticks

When I was an exchange student in California, one treat I really remember is the garlic breadsticks at Olive Garden. Soft, puffy and completely irresistible! I haven't had one in years - many years. It's a good thing I'm pretty good at baking. These breadsticks might not look as picture perfect as Olive Garden's, but they're baked from scratch and very easy to make. They're perfect to go alongside a bowl of soup, or with a salad.

Roll THINLY unless you want your breadsticks to look like big, fat, slugs. Like mine.

Garlic Breadsticks
50 g fresh yeast
400 ml water
700 g bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil

topping:
50 g melted butter
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder


Crumble the yeast into a bowl and add the water. (Mine was about room temperature.) Add the flour, salt, sugar and oil, and work into a smooth and supple dough. It shouldn't feel sticky.

Leave the dough to double in size, or about two hours. Next, divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape each into a thin stick. Place on a baking sheet, and leave to rise for about an hour.

Heat the oven to 200°C. Melt your butter for the topping, and add salt and garlic. Bake your breadsticks for 6 minutes, then brush with half the topping. Bake for another 6 minutes (or so - they should be puffed and lightly golden) and then remove from oven. Brush with the rest of the seasoned butter. Let them cool a little bit before serving.

Freeze any leftovers, then re-heat in the oven for a few minutes.

Chocolate Balls, a fluffier version

Chocolate balls is a favorite in Sweden, and found in every café. They come in all shapes and sizes - no, that's not really true, they're all somewhat round... but the size definitely varies. And so does the quality.

My favorite right now, when eating out, is from Espresso House. Theirs are fluffy and soft in the middle, and have a pleasing chocolate shell underneath the coconut, encasing the filling. Similar, but far superior to the ubiquitous Delicato-ball that's found everywhere.

Today, I had a bad craving, but also a wicked cold, and with both kids home, I wasn't about to go out. Much better to figure out how to make them at home! As it turns out, this is a pretty good approximation, close enough for me. The major differences from my normal chocolate balls are three:

-you mix the oatmeal beforehand
-you add melted chocolate to the filling
-you dip them in chocolate



Fluffier Chocolate Balls
makes about 15

100 g butter, softened
90 g powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
2 tbsp brewed espresso coffee, cold
140 g oatmeal
25 g dark chocolate, melted

Dark chocolate for dipping
coconut flakes, unsweetened

First, run the oatmeal in a food processor until it's ground.

Next, beat the butter with the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the coffee, and again, mix well. Stir in the oatmeal, and finally the chocolate.

This will be a little too soft to roll, so place the bowl in the fridge for half an hour to firm up. Then, shape into balls, about the size of a walnut. Place on a plastic-lined plate and freeze for at least half an hour.

Then, melt some dark chocolate, and dip the frozen balls into it, Quickly, before the chocolate sets, roll them into coconut flakes.

Chill before serving. And serve them with coffee.

Banana mini-muffins

'

Another way to attempt and use up those inevitably browning bananas that always seem to exist in my fruit basket...

Banana mini-muffins
Makes about 30

2 very ripe bananas
1 egg
80 g Demerara sugar (or just regular brown sugar)
80 ml neutral oil
125 ml milk
250 ml all-purpose flour
180 ml whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Line a mini-muffin tin with paper cups.

Mash the bananas and mix with the egg, sugar, oil and milk. Mix in the dry ingredients (and as usual, I don't bother pre-mixing the dry ones, I'm too lazy) until they're just combined. Dollop into the mini-muffin tin, and bake at 175°C for about 7-9 minutes.

First time with the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker - barbecued chicken

We’ve just received our weber bullet and it was time to take it out for a test run. We decided to do Virtual Weber Bullet's basic barbecued chicken recipe for beginners. Ideally you'd use half or quartered chickens, but we wanted to do something a little smaller since we're hoping to land on the perfect way to cook drumsticks eventually. (Great way to feed many - and we've volunteered to do food for our pre-school's next workday.) Our store was all out of good drumsticks, so we used chicken thighs, bone-in.

So, a few hours before you want to eat: 

Let the smoke chips, if you’re using small chips instead of chunks as we were, soak in water for a minimum of 30 minutes. Chunks don't need to soak at all.

We used VWB:s all-purpose dry rub as suggested but in the future we will reduce the amount of salt a little. Our chicken was frozen, and in Sweden, almost all frozen chicken has been infused with saline and is already a little salty. 

All-Purpose Dry Rub
enough for 2 kilos chicken thighs

4 tbsp paprika
4 tsp salt (will probably reduce to 2)
4 tsp ground black pepper
4 tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried oregano

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Rub all over your chicken, and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour.



Lighting the smoker was more difficult then expected. Using paper in the chimney starter was tried twice and failed. Good thing we also had paraffin cubes, and with those the coal got started nicely in the chimney starter. We followed VWB:s suggestion and used 1 full chimney starter with lit briquettes (approx. 3 kg) and one half chimney starter with unlit briquettes (approx. 1,5 kg). When all of the briquettes were covered in grey ash, the pre-soaked wood was applied. We used two parts apple and one part hickory.



This recipe doesn’t call for temperature control so during the entire cooking process the water bowl was empty and all vents were fully open.

Cooking Log - this is how we cooked it. All temperatures in F, as that's what's shown on the smoker itself and what most recipes available use. 

0 minutes:  250° F, chicken placed in the smoker, skin up
+10 mins:   330° F
+20 mins:   320 F
+30 mins:   285° F
+40 mins:   275° F
+45 mins:   270° F More briquettes were added and stirred around, chicken was mopped with bbq sauce (we used a store-bought sauce this time)
+55 mins:  300° F
+65 mins:  300° F  Chicken was turned skin side down and placed directly over the briquettes for a couple of minutes to crisp up the skin.

The result was perfectly cooked chicken thighs with a great smoky tasty. We served them with corn bread, goat's cheese and pear quesadillas and onion rings.

(As you might notice, this recipe is not my usual style of simple, direct writing. That's because it's actually written by my darling husband, who in his profession writes long-winded technical stuff. Hence the cooking log. Which apparently is de rigeur with most bbq-users. Expect more - we bought the Bullet on the premise that he would get geeky with it.)

Pear Goat's Cheese Quesadillas

So, we tried the smoker for the first time tonight! Per took notes, and I know he's planning to blog about it (or let me do it) eventually. We plan to use this pretty much every week to really learn how it works, but the first try - chicken thighs - was a huge success!

With it, we served these quesadillas with pear and goat's cheese. Perhaps not a traditional bbq side dish,  by any means, but we though it was really good together. And the kids loved them. Dante om-nom-nomed his way through, I really have to film him some time because he makes the cutest eating noises!

These'd be good as a snack or a small side dish whenever, really.



Pear & Goat's Cheese Quesadillas

8 small flour tortillas
150 g goats cheese (chèvre)
100 g cream cheese
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 firm pear, cored and thinly sliced

Mix the goat's cheese with the cream cheese. Spread this on all the tortillas. Arrange pear and onion slices on half of the tortillas, and top with the remaining ones. At this point, I like to give my quesadillas a quick run in the microwave, about 20-30 seconds, to help soften them and start the cheese melting.

Cook, in a dry pan on medium-high heat, until the cheese has melted and the surface is starting to brown and crisp up. Cut into wedges and serve.

White Chocolate Yogurt Panna Cotta

I usually make my panna cotta with all cream, or possibly with a little bit of milk. However, that can be pretty rich, and sometimes it's nice to have a fresher sort of dessert. This one works well!

White Chocolate Yogurt Panna Cotta
5 generous servings

1,5 gelatine sheet
100 ml milk
125 ml cream
60 g sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
100 g white chocolate
200 ml yogurt

Start by soaking the gelatine sheets in cold water. Meanwhile, heat the milk, cream and sugar in a small saucepan. Scrape out the innards of the vanilla bean and add those to the pot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the white chocolate. When it's all melted, add in the now softened gelatine and stir well. Finally stir in the yogurt.

Pour into five glasses or cups, and place in the fridge to set for at least four hours.

Top with whatever you fancy - since it's fall, I did a quick apple compote topping by heating some diced apples with a little sugar, lemon and cinnamon.

Barbecue!

We're planning on taking barbecue to another level this summer! Pretty much all Swedes love to barbecue in the summer, but its usually the quick kind, with high heat. I've ordered a Weber Smokey Mountain, and a bunch of books, to make "real", slow-cooked barbecue.

Any advice for us? :-)

Semla-Tuesday

Time to go get a semla! The rest of the world might eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday - today - but in Sweden, you stock up a little bit more before lent and have a semla. It's a yeasted cardamon bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream, and I assure you it''s much better than it sounds. Well, in truth, there's a big range from horribly bad to heavenly good, since ever store offer up semlor this time of year . You can find them in 7-11, gas stations and grocery stores, but my advice is to seek out the very best bakeries instead. If you read Swedish, Semmelmannen has very thorough reviews of all sorts of semlor!

Whipped Feta Dip

Wow, since I stopped updating my Swedish blog - annesmat.blogspot.com - apparently I also forgot that I had a bunch of half-written blog posts there. Time to get working on that back log!

This is a super simple little sauce or dip. I can strongly recommend it with lamb burgers, it's goes so well together.

Whipped Feta Dip

200 g feta  cheese
pickled jalapeño - the amount really varies here, depending on how hot your jalapeño is. I used  a very mild variety and used three halves which didn't add a whole lot of heat. If you want more spice, add more!
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
black pepper

Mix everything in a small food processor, and mix until it's really fluffy - it'll take a few minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Vispad fetaostdipp

Gingerbread White Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are very similar to those found at Espresso House shops all through Sweden in December. A chewy cookie, slightly spicy, with chunks of white chocolate and almonds.

Gingerbread White Chocolate Cookies

170 g butter, melted
100 g sugar
200 g brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
300 g flour
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp gingerbread spice (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves)
125 g white chocolate chips
125 g almonds, blanched and slivered

Mix the butter with the two sugars until combined. Add the egg and egg yolk and mix again. Stir in flour, salt, spices and baking soda, and mix until it's just combined. Finally add the chocolate and almonds, and mix again.

Place large scoops on a baking sheet and bake at 160°C for 12-14 minutes. (I use a convection oven, if yours is not, you might want a slightly higher temperature.) Let the cookies set before attempting to move them. (For smaller cookies, you don't need more than 10 minutes.)

And as always, I heartily recommend freezing the scooped-out cookie dough, and then baking from frozen. You might need an extra minute or two in the oven.

Blood orange and raspberries

I got myself a Magimix LeMini Plus - a bright aqua, you can see it in the background here. I'm just getting started with it, and here's the first thing I made - blood orange juice, blended with frozen raspberries. Yummy! And I'm hoping this means I can get rid of my old somewhat broken food processor, as well as put away my blender AND my citrus press. High hopes!

Leftovers for lunch

Sometimes, leftovers are great. We had braised pork, so we put that on toast, topped with an egg, and served with a chunky salad with cucumbers, avocado and tomatoes, dressed with lime juice.

Slow-cooked Pork Shoulder with Tomato Marmalade

This dish comes from Top Chef season 2, and I found it in one of the Top Chef cookbooks - books I like to read, but rarely cook from. However, this was an excellent dish, and I'm glad I tried it. I pretty much followed the recipe but decided to use my crock-pot to make things even easier. It was one of the dishes I served as part of our 13-course menu, so having it all cooked in advance sure helped. I used less liquid than the original recipe, since very little evaporates from the crock pot.

We just served small servings of this, both pork and tomato marmalade, on toast. I have a lot of leftovers in the freezer, and I'm thinking we'll probably serve those with nacho chips and lots of toppings. (Lots of meat, that is - we ate every last bit of the tomato marmalade.)

The tomato marmalade is very zingy and I used a bit more capers than the original recipe called for. It really cuts through the richness of the meat.

Slow-cooked Pork Shoulder
1,5 kilos (or so) pork shoulder (I use fläskkarré)
salt, and pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 carrot, finely diced
2 celery sticks, finely sliced
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
125 ml freshly-squeezed orange juice
250 ml red wine vinegar
125 ml beef stock

Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Season the pork with salt and pepper, and brown it well on all sides.

Lift out the pork and move it to the crock-pot. In the other pot, add the vegetables and the five-spice. Cook on low-medium heat for about 5-10 minutes. The vegetables should have softened. Put the veggies in the crock-pot.

Stir together vinegar, orange juice and beef stock and pour on top of the meat. Cook on low until the meat is really tender - I let mine go for about 8 hours.

Lift out the meat and shred it, using two forks. Place in a heavy pot. Sieve the remains in the crock-pot and discard the solids. Add the juices to the meat. Before serving, re-heat on the stove, and season with salt and pepper.

Tomato Marmalade
300 g cherry tomatoes
125 ml sugar
125 ml sherry vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 scallion, thinly sliced (this is salladslök in Swedish, feel free to use leeks instead)
1 tbsp capers, drained
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Cook the sugar and tomatoes on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved - this needs to be watched and stirred. Add everything else, and cook on fairly high heat for about 20 minutes. The marmalade should be syrupy and thick, but it will thicken even more if you let it sit before serving, so try to remember that.  Season with salt and pepper if you wish, and serve it with the meat.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Such a simple little snack, and the salty smokiness of the bacon goes so well with the super sweet dates. A match made in heaven, for sure! If you want to take it to another level, try stuffing the date with a little bit of cheese before you wrap it - blue cheese, goat's cheese, cheddar, parmesan... it's up to you!

I usually use 1/3 (or 1/2) slice of bacon per date, wrap it tightly and secure with a tooth stick. Bake at 200° until the bacon is crispy - about 10-15 minutes.