Creamy Carrot Soup
I like soups because they’ll warm you on a cold day, they don’t take too long to cook and you don’t get a lot of dirty dishes making them. See, I have no dishwasher. I have never had a dishwasher in my life. And I hate doing the dishes, so living in a place big enough for me to squeeze in a dishwasher is on my top three Things To Do Before I Die (I like to make my goals big and hard to achieve).
Anyway, here’s another one I made up the other day when the wind and snow was blowing and I was really hungry.
You need:
3 – 4 carrots (depending on size)
1/2 onion, chopped
0,5 litre (about two cups) vegetable stock
the juice of 1 orange
1 tsp red curry paste
1/2 cup of whipped cream
a little oil
salt, pepper
- Peel the carrots and cut them into pieces, about 1 1/2 inch long.
- Heat the oil and let the onions slowly turn golden. Meanwhile, bring the stock to boil.
- Add the orange juice, the carrots and onion to the stock and let them boil until the carrots are soft (about 15 minutes).
- Add the curry paste.
- Remove from heat and blnd until smooth, using a stick-blender. Add the cream and blend it into the soup. Taste with salt and pepper. If needed heat it (but don’t let it boil; you want to keep the fluffy frothiness of the cream).
Serve!
Mango Coconut Sauce
I had all this deep-frozen mango and then I saw a bottle of “Coconut Sweet Chili Sauce” in the store and presto! This idea
was born, right there in front of the soy sauce shelf. Perhaps to call it a Mango Coconut Chutney would be more appropriate, I don’t know. Either way, it would go well as an accompaniment to most Asian dishes, especially curries.
You need:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
6 chillies, chopped
1 cup desiccated grated coconut
300 g of mango, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I used deep frozen)
3 inches of lemon grass, chopped
2 tsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup water
1/2 tbsp of chopped/grated kaffir lime leaves
oil for frying
- Sweat the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes in a little oil.
- Add the coconut and let it turn a little golden.
- Add all the ingredients except the kaffir lime.
- Let it simmer until it’s a thick, smooth stew, app 40 minutes. Stir every now and then so it doesn’t burn.
- Add the kaffir lime and let it simmer for another 5 – 10 minutes.
- Taste with salt and sugar.
Crèpes Suèdoises
OK, so I could have called this Swedish pancakes but crèpes Suèdoises sounds a lot more elegant, plus “pancakes” is sort of misleading. Swedish pancakes have very little to do with American pancakes. They don’t contain baking powder and thus they’re not “fluffy” like American pancakes. But they’re pretty similar to French crèpes, which is something I love. Whenever I go to Paris I make sure to get myself over to the area around Gare Monparnasse where you’ll find some of the best crèperies in France. But then, the best crèpes I’ve had was in Reims, I think…
Sorry, got sidetracked! Back to Swedish pancakes.
Traditionally, you eat them with jam and maybe a little whipped cream on Thursdays after having pea soup. When I grew up I would put butter on the hot pancakes and then just spread sugar on top of them, but these days I love them with savoury toppings of all kinds too.
The recipe for pancakes is my mother’s and she has this annoying habit of giving it per person and then, at the end, adding: “and an extra egg” when I’ve already written it down (I keep losing this recipe so I keep calling her to get her to repeat it to me), but I’m giving what she considers suitable for two people (including the extra egg). I would have to be two very hungry people because it makes about 15 pancakes, but who am I to say how much you should eat?
You need:
3 eggs
4 dl milk (1 2/3 cup)
2 dl all-purpose flour (3/4 cup)
pinch of salt
1 tbsp melted butter + butter to fry
- Just whisk the eggs together and add the milk and finally the flour and salt.
- Whisk away any lumps and let it rest. I normally only give it about 15 minutes.
- Add the melted butter and you’re ready to go.
When you fry them, take care not to make them too thick. And since cold pancakes are no good, I always put a plate over a pot of simmering water and then put the pancakes on top of it. That way, they’ll stay warm and nice until they’re all done and it’s time too eat.
Now, like I said, savoury toppings are very nice – like, for example, poached spinach, Roquefort cheese and a little crème fraiche, bit this… This is beyond nice. Orange, chocolate and cream. It’s the perfect combination.
juice of 1 orange
2 tsp cointreau
whipped cream
chocolate sauce (recipe here)
- Mix the orange juice and the cointreau.
- Sprinkle it over the pancake (not all of it, just a tsp max).
- Put some whipped cream on it and coil a little chocolate sauce over it.
Enjoy it as dessert or with a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or other hot beverage of your choice.
Chocolate Sauce
To make your own fab chocolate sauce:
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
- Mix the sugar and cocoa, making sure to sift though any lumps.
- Add milk and butter and put it in a pot.
- Bring to boil and then allow to simmer for 5 -10 minutes. The longer it simmers the thicker it gets and personally I’m more of a 10 minute person, because I like it thick and creamy, but it’s a matter of taste.
Enjoy with anything that needs chocolate!
My Timer Clock (a love story)
I’m sometimes a little… eh… distraught. I put something down and then I can’t find it for all the gold in Ali Baba’s treasure. When cooking this is sometimes a bit bothersome. I put down, say, a knife and suddenly: Presto! It’s gone!
Yup, I’m a regular Houdini that way.
That is one of the reasons why I love the timer clock my sister gave me last Christmas. It’s stuck to the wall so I can’t lose it (which I’ve been known to do with ordinary timers). And I like that I can keep an eye on the clock as well so I don’t get lost and keep baking until 3 am (not that there’s anything wrong with it; at least not if you don’t have to go up at 6 am).
Also, I love my clock because it’s pretty in a vintage sort of way and matches all my cookie jars, not to mention that it looks good against my light blue wall.
May it never break down!
Baked Potato Halves w Cheese and Chives
When I was making this dish I as reminded of a book I haven’t read in years and years – and I realized just how much that particular book is to blame for my food obsession. You see, when I was a child my mother would read the entire Little House on the Prairie-series to me and my older sister at least once a year. She claims I was just three the first time and I don’t know how much I actually understood of them that first time, but be as that may – over the year’s they’ve seeped in to my subconscious until they almost seem like memories, not of books read, but of events taking place.
Anyway, Farmer Boy was always one of my favorites. Leafing through it just now I realized that it’s one of the most sensual books I’ve read. There’s constant eating going on and it’s described in great detail – spicy, soft apple pie, crunchy pork and thick, rich cream. I still remember trying to feel all those flavors in my mouth as my mother read to me. Laura Ingalls Wilder is definitely partly to blame for this blog!
What brought the book to mind today was the incident when little Almanzo is baking potatoes in the open fire out in the cold and one of them explodes and almost blinds him. That story has served to make me a bit wary of hot, baked potatoes and you should be too. Otherwise I suggest you pick up Farmer Boy right now!
This dish doesn’t necessarily have to be made with a hot potato though. In fact, it’s perfect for when you have left over baked potatoes. If you’re lucky enough to have that, skip to step 2.
You need (per person):
1 Russet potato
3 tbsp crème fraiche (you might use sour cream instead but crème fraiche is thicker and fatter)
3 tbsp grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 tbsp chopped chives
salt and pepper to taste
Step 1:
- Wash the potato and make some holes in it using a fork (so as not to explode as poor Almanzo’s did).
- Bake it in the oven at 200 °C (400 °F) for about 40 – 60 minutes depending on size and shape. The important thing is that it’s soft all the way through on the inside.
- Let it cool somewhat. Don’t turn off the oven!
Step 2:
- Mix all the ingredients for the filling.
- Cut the potato in halves.
- Hollow the halves using a spoon so that you only leave a little (1/3 inch or so) potato lining the skin.
- Mash the potato you’ve removed with the filling and put it back into the potato halves. Since you’ve added some stuff, there’ll be more stuffing than fits into the potato, but that’s as it should be. Just spread it evenly over the potato.
- Put it back into a pre-heated oven at 200 °C (400 °F) and let hem bake for about 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
