Smoked Salmon Cream with Grisini in glasses

This dish was also part of our New Years Eve menu. You can find it in the same cook book as yesterdays Granité, "Gourmet" for nybegynnere. The dish doesn't necessarily need to be served in glasses, you can put the cream on crostini's or on a toast or put it in a bowl with crackers on the side as a spread.

Ingredients;

8 oz Philadelphia cheese
1/2 cup milk (I use reduced fat you can use whatever you want)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
6 tbsp good olive oil
1/2 pound of smoked salmon cut in small pieces
3 tbsp chopped chives
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1/2 tsp salt
5 rounds with the pepper mill

Put the cheese, milk, lemon and olive oil in the bowl attachment to the hand blender and blend for ca. 15 sec. Add the smoked salmon, herbs and spices and blend an additional 10 sec.
Put the smoked salmon cream in high glasses, top with some olive oil and grisini.

Eat and be merry!!

Granité

On New Years Eve we had a 6 course menu which called for a Granité before the main course to help the appetite. This one is from a cook book called "Gourmet" for nybegynnere by Øivind Hjelle which means "Gourmet for starters". It's in Norwegian so only my Norwegian followers will benefit from that book. That's a pity because it's really good.

Ingredients;

2 inch european cucumber, peeled
1/2 pound of melon (green or yellow), peeled
1 tbs of chopped fresh rosemary
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tbs honey (not in the original recipe but added by me)


Cut the cucumber and melon in large chunks. Have them in the bowl attachment to a hand blender together with the rosemary, lemon juice and honey and puree.

I had all the ingredients in my Ice-cream maker and had it run for approx. 20 minutes. If you don't have an Ice-cream maker pour the mix into a bowl and put it in the freezer until deep frozen then using a fork scrape the ice into flakes and put into could glasses. (This is actually the right way to do it for the granité but I prefer the other way because its easier. You don't get the flakes but it tastes equally good in my opinion.)

Enjoy!!

Spicy Clam and Tomato Broth

Christmas is over and the need for a change of hearts when it comes to the menu is in order. I have had a more than busy last two weeks with family coming in from Norway and no time for blogging but that doesn't mean that I have not been cooking. For my birthday on the 18th of december I got a new cook-book (actually I got far more than one...) from Donna Hay, Donna Hay Seasons and thats where I found this recipe. The original recipe also calls for couscous which I didn't use, not because I don't like it, I just wanted to taste it without first. If you want to use couscous just sprinkle 1/2 cup of couscous over the dish when its done, cover and let stand for 5 minutes or until the couscous i s ready.

Ingredients;


2 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp chili flakes (dry)
6 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups fish stock
4 cups water
1kg or ca. 2 pounds clams
Chopped cilantro to serve

Heat a large saucepan over high heat and add oil, garlic, chili and tomatoes. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the tomatoes are tender. Pour over the wine, fish stock and water and bring to a boil. Add the clams (you should rinse them well to make sure all the sand is gone..), cover with a tight fitting lid and cook until all the clams are open. If some do not open at all discard them. Top with chopped coriander and serve with bread in bowls. Use the bread to get all the broth, it's really yummy.

Bon Apetit!

Creme Brulee

I'm not really a dessert person and (believe it or not!!) I don't like chocolate. What I do like though is the taste of vanilla and a small portion of Creme Brulee is one of my favorites.

Ingredients;


1vanilla bean
2 dl cream
2 dl milk
75 gr sugar
4 egg yolks

Brown sugar for the topping.

First cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Bring cream, milk, sugar, the vanilla bean and its seeds to a boil. Let it stay until cool.

Whip the egg yolks and add the milk mixture while beating.

Pour the batter through a sieve into oven safe dishes. Put them in a deep pan and add water so it covers 1/3 of the dishes.

Bake at 300F for 30-40 minutes or until set. Lets cool. Sprinkle with brown sugar and use a torch to caramelize the sugar. (If you don't have a torch you can use the broil element in your oven).

Ginger-Cake

This is another Christmas cake from my favorite blog Mat på Bordet. It's a very traditional Norwegian Christmas cake and I remember my grandma used to bake one as well. (I just didn't get the recipe, luckily Ina got one).

Ingredients;


450 gr sugar
500 ml milk
900 gr flour
500 gr dark sirup (I used dark corn syrup)
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cloves
4 tsp baking powder

Mix all the dry ingredients. Heat the milk and the syrup while stirring until blended. Pour into the mixer bowl and add the egg (slightly beaten first). Add the dry ingredients and mix on medium to high until you have a dough.

Pour into greased bread-tins and bake on 355F for 20-30 minutes. It's done when the the tester comes out clean. Make sure you don't bake to long it will get dry.

 Let cool.
Can be stored for several weeks in a refrigerator.

Happy holidays!

Pepperkaker (Gingerbread-cookies)

Every Christmas since I was a kid I have been making these cookies or "Pepperkaker" as we call them in Norway. The recipe is a mix of a recipe I got from my grandma and one from my favorite blog Mat på bordet. The reason for mixing these two recipes is the one from "Mat på bordet" works best with the american flour (it's easier to roll out) but the one from my "Grandma" has the spice mix I'm used too and therefore means Christmas for me.

Ingredients;


500 gr brown sugar
150 ml light syrup (I used Lyle's golden syrup)
150 ml water
300 gr butter
15 dl flour
2 tsp orange peel (Spice, I buy it at whole foods)
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground pepper
3 tsp baking soda

First you heat sugar, water and syrup in a pot until boiling. Remove from heat. Add butter. Let the mixture cool without touching.
When cool pour into the mixer bowl, add the spices and blend. Add the baking soda and half of the flour, mix well.

Add the rest of the flour little by little making sure you don't add to much. (It shouldn't be a problem, at least it never was for me but just to be on the safe side...) The dough is supposed to be firm but still a little bit sticky.

Cover the bowl with cling wrap and put in the refrigerator until the next day. 

When making the "pepperkaker" add flour to the baking surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough as thin as possible. Use cookie cutters to make the cookies. Put them on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper and bake for approximately 7 minutes on 350 F.
Pay attention they turn brow fast.

When cooled down you can eat them as is or decorate them with royal icing, choc chips, m&m's or whatever.

These I baked on a stick (just put the stick on the baking sheet and press the dough firmly on top of it, it will stick when baked)

Happy Holidays!!

Royal icing

Since we're getting close to the holidays I thought I add this recipe for royal icing. It is great for decorating gingerbread houses, "Pepper-kaker", Sugar cookies, Cup-cakes.


Ingredients;


1 egg white
1/4 tsp lemon juice
3,5 dl powdered sugar


Beat the egg white until white and fluffy then add the lemon juice. Add the powdered sugar gradually while beating (on low speed, you don't want the powder all over your kitchen). The icing is done when firm and don't fall in when you stop the mixer.