Blueberry dessert

I wanted to make a very easy Scandinavian type of a dessert from blueberries. It was the last course served this sunday at our dinner evening. I think it turned out really well, it isnt very sweet for a dessert. It does have alot of different kinds of flavours tho. This recipe serves 8 people.

Ingredients:

• 1l Frozen Blueberries
• 3dl Vanilla Cream
• Digestive cookies

Whip up a nice solid foam out of the vanilla cream. Blend the blueberries. Get a 2dl glass and crumble a cookie at the bottom. Add 3 tablespoonfuls of blended blueberries and top up the glass with the vanilla cream foam. Mix the contents of the glass very carefully few turns with a tablespoon is enough. Decorate with cookies.

Black Salsify Soup

I made this soup for our dinner this sunday. It is a very simple soup to make and serves as a nice starter or part of bigger dinner. This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients:

• 500g Black Salsify
• 2 Onions
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2dl Milk
• Vanilla
• Sugar

I peeled the black salsify before boiling them, they need to be placed into cold water immediatelly to prevent discolouring. You can also peel the root after you have boiled them for about 20-25 minutes. After the black salsify is completely soft I blended them into puree and added some water to get a proper soupy consistency. Season with some salt and pepper. Heat up the milk and add some sugar and vanilla, the milk should be quite sweet and have a clear vanilla taste to it. When the milk starts boiling use an electric mixer to get a nice foam out of it. Serve the soup in bowls and place some milk foam on top.

Lindström's steak

This is a traditional Finnish or Swedish dish. It is fairly easy to make and a delicious when served with some mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 500g Minced Beef
• 50g Anchovis
• 30g Capers
• 1 Large Potato
• 3 Beetroot
• 4 Egg yolks
• Salt
• Black Pepper

Peel the potato and beetroots and boil them. Grate them both after cooked. Mix the grated beetroot, potato and minced beef. Chop the anchovis and capers and mix them in. Season the mix and pour in the egg yolks, mix well. Dont use too much salt as the capers and the anchovis add quite abit of saltiness to the food already. Make about tennis ball sized pieces out of the mix and flatten them a bit. Melt some butter on a pan and fry the steaks on low heat till completely cooked.

Pork filets filled with apple and honey

Made this today with my mum! Easy to cook, but takes abit of time to prepare. This recipe servers 4 people.

Ingredients

• 600g Pork sirloin
• 2 Apples
• Fresh Sage
• Honey
• Salt
• Pepper

Slice the apple without peeling it, but remove the core. Cut about 150g filets from the sirloin and hammer them really thin. Season each filet with salt and pepper. Place few apple slices, fresh sage and honey on each and make rolls from them. Close the roll with a cocktail pick. Heat up a pan and melt some butter, fry the pork filets on a pan till nicely brown from both sides. Place the filets on a tray. Mix a bit of water and honey and sprinkle it on top of the filets. Bake in oven for about 15mins at 200C.
I made a sauce from some onion and grated apple and the liquid left in the tray after it has been in the oven. Just sautee the onions and apple in oil and add the liquid. Season with salt and pepper and use maize flour to thicken it. The sauce should be quite sweet for this food.
Serve with cream potatoes.

Mexicanish or Texmex Dinner

This was our sunday dinner, a 3 course meal. We had some margaritas as aperatives with salted rim and everything. The starter is a simple and light Mexican vegetarian dish. The main course is more of a texmex-style dish. The dessert was a simple Mexican style dish with bit of vanilla cream.

The Starter: Vegetarian Tortillas

Tortilla ingredients

• 4 Garlic Cloves
• 3 Tomatoes
• 2 Onions
• 3 Medium Chilies
• 1 Bell Pepper
• 6 Vegetarian Tortillas

Sour cream sauce

• 1dl Sour Cream
• 1 Garlic Clove
• 0,2dl Lime Juice

This recipe serves 6 people. Chop the garlic clove for the sauce and mix the lime juice, chopped garlic and sour cream. Place the sauce into the fridge till serving it. Slice the tomatoes, onions, chilies, garlic and bell pepper. Heat up a pan really hot and melt some butter on it. Fry all the ingredients on the pan. Warm the tortillas in a pan or in a microwave. Spread the vegetables on the tortilla and place the sauce on top.

The main dish: Chicken filets filled with cheddar cheese and jalapenos served with lime and coriander sauce.

Chicken ingredients:

• 6 Chicken filets
• Jalapenos
• 100g Cheddar cheese

Hammer the chicken filets thin. Fold in jalapenos and about 15g of cheese to each file and close them with cocktail picks. Fry the chicken filets on each side with some butter. After browning place them into oven at 200C for about 10-15mins.

Sauce ingredients:

• 1,5l Lime Juice
• Lime zest
• 2 tsp Sour Cream
• Sugar
• Bunch of fresh coriander
• Bunch of fresh parsley
• Cumin seeds
• Maize flour

Fry the cumin seeds slightly in oil, pour in the lime juice and the lime zest. Add a bit of water to the sauce and mix in enough maize flour to thicken it. Mix in the sour cream and add enough sugar to cover the bitterness of lime. Let the sauce simmer for about 10mins and add the fresh herbs just before serving.
This dish is best served with some rice. Fry a bit of cumin seeds and turmeric in oil. Add chicken stock or water and stock cubes. Boil the rice in this mix.

The dessert: Fried bananas and vanilla sauce

Dessert ingredients

• 3 Bananas
• 1 Orange
• Brown Sugar
• 4cl Tequila
• Vanilla cream

Press the juice from the orange and grade the zest. Slice the bananas to 12 pieces. Melt some butter on a pan and mix in the brown sugar. Let it heat up for a while. Fry the bananas slightly from both sides and pour in the orange juice and add in the zest. Let the juice simmer till there is almost no liquid. Pour in the tequila and let it heat it up. Flambee the bananas. Serve with whipped vanilla cream.

Beer and Beef Stew

This one will take you some time to cook, but the end result is worth it.(If you like the taste of beer) I made this on sunday and it was really good.

Ingredients

• 0,5kg Beef, joint or something but not sirloin or tenderloin
• 200g Onions
• 0,5dl Beer
• 150g Carrots
• 100g Bell Pepper
• Butter
• Bay Leaves
• Black Pepper
• Tarragon
• Beef Stock Cube
• Flour

Cut the meat to medium sized cubes. Heat a frying pan very hot and put some butter on it. Fry the meat small portion at a time to make sure the pan stays really hot all the time. After you are done frying the meat, slightly sautee the onions. When the onions have lost the bitter smell put the meat back on the pan. Pour in the beer and add the carrots and the spices. Let the stew simmer for an hour and add in the bell pepper. Let it simmer for about 30mins more. Boil some potatoes with the food at this point. Mix some flour with water and start pouring it slowly to the stew till the sauce turns thick.

Serve with some potatoes or rice!

Potato Hash

As promised earlier I will write abit about the food I use my meat balls on. You can already find couple of recipes from this blog for them.

Potato Hash is very traditional Finnish or Swedish food depends how you want to see it. It is simple to make and when done right it is a really delicious dinner.
This recipe serves 1 very hungry Finn.

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Potatoes
• 1 Onion
• 4-5 Meat balls
• 50g Bacon
• Butter
• 1 Egg
• Salt

Chop the potatoes to small cubes and do the same to the onion. Heat up 2 frying pans and melt some butter on both. Fry the potato cubes on one pan and start frying the onion on the other. Once the onion takes a bit of color throw in sliced bacon and the meat balls. Fry both of them till nicely brown. Season the potatoes with bit of salt. Mix them together and serve on a plate.

The egg in this dish can be served in several ways. The traditional way is to separate the egg yolk and pour the yolk on top of the dish. The other way is to fry the egg till the egg white is tough, but the yolk should mostly stay liquid. Serve this fried egg on top of the dish.

Enjoy with cold lager.