Fredrik is now the official pancake maker in the family. I never knew of his pancake making skills because I’ve always made pancakes in the past but from now on, he’ll be in charge.
He made the batter for some pancakes tomorrow morning and just now he decided to give them a try. They were SO GOOD. Light and airy. Just crazy delicious. I could eat like 8 of these in 1 sitting.
Here’s a close up of the maple syrup covered goodness.
A while back I made a whole lot of dumplings. Something in the 3 digit area. A friend of mine asked me how I formed them by hand. I’ve been meaning to make a tutorial but Fredrik wasn’t home for the last few times I made dumplings and the cats aren’t so good at holding a camera.
First you have the skin. I buy my skins ’cause I don’t know how to roll them out by hand.
Wet the edge of the skin with a bit of water.
Put filling in the middle of the skin. Be careful not to overfill it.
Fold the skin together at the middle and press to seal. Just the middle!
Fold the skin in the back and press to seal it with the front. Think darts if you’re a sewer.
Keep folding till the dumpling is sealed. Repeat on the other side. I usually get about 2-3 “darts” or folds per side.
Now you have a dumpling. Ready to be pan fried, steamed or boiled.
I usually pan fry my dumplings. First put them into a hot and oiled pan. Add a bit of water, enough to coat the bottom of the pan.
Cover with a lid. The dumplings will steam for a bit. I guess 5 minutes or so. I’ve never timed it. Just kinda know they’re done by the way they look. You’ll see the “dumpling juice” bubbling inside the dumplings. That’s a sign that they’re cooked.
Let it cook for a bit without the lid. This will dry out the bottom and crisp the skin. Don’t leave it for too long though. Then you’ll have burnt bottoms.
Serve with sauce of your choice. I like mine with balsamic vinegar and my mom’s chilli oil.
I’ve never made risotto before. I had my first risotto this year at our wedding potluck. Our friends Cesar and Ylva made a shrimp and peas risotto that was just awesome.
Not to toot my own horn but my first risotto was AWESOME.
I used Jamie Oliver’s instructions on making the base risotto. Followed it from his Cook with Jamie book. I used fish stock instead of chicken or vegetable stock. I was low on chicken bouillon and figured that fish aught to work. There’s peas, corn, leek and spinach in it. I didn’t use any cheese ’cause we have none.
You can add just about anything and about half a litre of stock to this basic risotto recipe.
I was also surprised by how easy it was.
It’s interesting how in North America, risotto is often thought of as “fancy” Italian. At least that’s the impression that I got. While in Italy, it’s considered as “fast food”.
The shrimp was just pan fried with some butter and loads of chopped garlic. Sometimes the best way to make something already delicious is to just make it as simple as possible.
I’m hoping that the forested area behind our future house will have loads of mushrooms. Fresh chanterelles would make and awesome mushroom risotto. I’m already drooling thinking about that.
Fredrik is sick with the flu, so I made chicken noodle soup.
I used the whole chicken I had in the freezer. I defrosted it first in the fridge. Popped it in my cast aluminum pot with enough water to cover most of the chicken and some chopped celery, chopped onion and about 5 small carrots, chopped. Season with some black pepper corns, thyme and a couple bay leaves. Bring it down to a simmer when it comes to a boil.
I let it cook for at least 2 hours. The meat on the chicken should almost fall off the bone. Fish the chicken out and let it cool so you can pick and shred the meat without burning your fingers. I set mine out on the balcony in a covered bowl.
I reserved some of the shredded chicken ’cause I didn’t want to overload the soup with too much chicken. Chicken soup is about the soup. At least in my opinion.
I added a bit more than a cup of dried fusilli into the soup after it was brought back to a boil. I also added some more water since the pasta is dried.
I also decided to be a bit “adventurous” this time. I’ve read and heard that garlic is supposed to be good against colds and flu. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to add a few cloves of garlic. Well… a “few” ended up being about 6-7 cloves. Smashed them with the flat of the knife. It did turn out really good. It’s also REALLY garlicky.
The pasta continued to suck up the soup after it’s done cooking. The chicken soup ended up putting Chunky Soup’s chicken soup to shame.
This picture was taken before the pasta sucked up most of the soup.
We have enough soup to feed a small army. I’ve put away 2 large containers of soup into the freezer for later consumption. I’m thinking that I might turn 1 portion into a chicken chowder of sorts.
I came home to 2 pick up notices. My order from Amazon UK!
Sometime last week, I had a moment of weakness. I found out that Amazon UK was shipping not just books to Sweden and splurged a little. I probably shouldn’t have but I don’t regret it!
I got myself a copy of Martha Stewart’s Cookies, Cook with Jamie and Nigella Bites.
My favourite thing about Martha Stewart’s Cookies is the picture table of contents. There’s a picture of the cookie and the cookies are categorized by their characteristics. There’s not many cookie recipes missing from this book.
Cook with Jamie is super informative. I took a look at the book at Noel & Ryan’s. Thought it was great that he included things like tips on how to buy the best cut of meat. Sometimes grocery shopping can be a bit of a mystery. How do I know if the carrot I’m holding in my hand is the one I should be buying? I’m always worried that I picked the crappiest of the lot. Don’t ask.
Nigella Lawson is… well… I think she’s fabulous. I’ll admit that there have been more than 1 occasion where I watched her show to see her. She’s gorgeous in my eyes. The fact that she loves food and makes delicious foods just makes her even hotter. Her recipes are also pretty good. She makes food that I’m willing to eat. So far I’ve got 4 out of the 7 books she’s written. Hoping to get the rest of them at some point in time.
But the books are not all!
I got the Joseph Joseph nested bowl set!
It’s every bit as wonderful as I expected. I just LOVE it. It’s a wonderful addition to my kitchen. Think I’ll give it a test run sometime this week. Just need to decide on what I should make using it.
I couldn’t decide on what to eat this morning. Frankly I spend most mornings not being able to decide on what to eat. I’m just not a big breakfast person. Fredrik, on the other hand, loves his breakfast. Especially his Swedish breakfast, consisting of egg, bread and caviar.
I started out with some soba noodles and then decided to make it a bit more filling than just noodles and a bit of soy. Chopped up a stalk of spring onion, some nappa cabbage and a few crabsticks. Stir fried it with some okonomiyaki sauce. It turned out pretty good. Think I’ll have this again in the future.
Ahhh… Sweet gooey milk. What it’s original use was, I have no idea. I recall my dad telling me that when he was young (he was poor growing up) he would thin down sweet condensed milk with water and drink it like milk. I grew up spreading it on well buttered toast. My dad would have it with peanut butter on bread. There are a lot of foods I like that came from my dad.
Now if you want to make dulce de leche, you start with sweet condensed milk. People boil it in the can (REMEMBER to punch holes in the top so you don’t have a sticky milky explosion). I boiled mine in a glass jar. It take a really long time but it’s worth it. Stir it every so often because the bottom will start to brown before the top does.
I made dulce de leche because I came across David Lebovitz’s recipe for dulce de leche brownies. (I used only 1/2 cup of sugar. I figured that the brownie was already sweet enough with the chocolate and dulce de leche.) Now the flat smells like brownies. It’s quite wonderful.
I wish Fredrik was home so he can sample this with me.
Focaccia is also a delicious bread. My mom used to buy them from this Italian supermarket when I was a kid.
I was at the supermarket today and on my list was bread. Looking at all the generic sliced breads and then through the “fancy” breads, I decided that I should bake my own bread.
Bread is really just flour, water, yeast and a bit of sugar for the yeast to munch on.
In case you didn’t pick it up earlier, I am baking a focaccia. To be more precise, a focaccia with caramelized onions and sun dried tomatoes.
I’m waiting for the second rise and it’s KILLING me. I want it now!
I’m also boiling sweet condensed milk to make dulce de leche. I found a dulce de leche brownie on David Lebovitz’ blog. It’s gonna be so good. That’s if I don’t fuck up the dulce de leche.
I just learned that Japanese rice is the same kind of rice as risotto. That means I don’t have to go buy special rice to make risotto and just use the rice I have at home. AWESOME.
I bought a head of cauliflower about 3 weeks ago. I kept meaning to eat it but didn’t get around to it until today. It was a bit soft but still good.
I had heard about the roasted cauliflower before but never tried it. I like cauliflower in almost anyway. Love it in curry and just stir fried. It was one of the few vegetables I would eat growing up. (I’ve always been a picky eater.)
After looking at a few recipes, it was apparent that the key to good roasted cauliflower was to have the florets as small as possible. More surface area to brown.
Toss the florets with some oil, salt and pepper. Don’t over salt them. I over salted mine. Lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes (until brown).
I ate my cauliflower as dinner. I would’ve made something else to eat with it but I was too lazy. Fredrik is back on tour and I’ve gone back to being lazy and sucky at taking care of myself.
Milko Messmör ("Milko Soft Whey Butter"), a kind of butter made out of mese, a biproduct produced when making cheese. Messmör is known not only for it's unusual taste but also for it's high content of minerals such as iron.
