Jambalaya!

So first off I know I take shit pictures and my lighting and angles are all off.. 

So I read this guide: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/03/beginners-guide-to-food-photography.html

Loosely mind you to take some inspiration so I will be trying to get better at it in the near future so bear with me! :)

So now I made Jambalaya! From the deep south!

So first the Cajun spice, I kinda winged it here because I hadn't made it before and the recipes I can find vary so much.. Basically use what you think is tasty, mine came out wonderful but will probably add more cayenne next time, even though I don't know the exact measurements...

But roughly:

3 teaspoons of salt

3 teaspoons of garlic powder

4 teaspoons of smoked paprika

2 teaspoons of fresh ground black pepper

2 teaspoons of onion powder

2 teaspoons of cayenne

2 teaspoons of oregano

2 teaspoons of thyme

1 teaspoon of chili flake

2 bay leaves.

Then you need:

2 Chicken fillets

2 Chorizos or andouille sausages (About 200 grams total)

White rice for 4 people

Water or chicken stock

Some veggies:

Onions, garlic, bell peppers, celery.. Any veggies you like really but these seem to be the "standard"

Also, when it comes to the protein andouille sausage and shrimp seem to be quite common as well or beef or pork... So many varieties!

But now, let's get cookin'!

First cook your chicken (preferably with your sausage to get that flavor going) I also dusted my chicken a little with the Cajun seasoning...

Chop up your veggies, I opted for green bell pepper and celery only..

Plopp, chicken and sausage into a pan, add uncooked rice, spices and water/stock to cover. Bring to a boil and then bring the heat down and let it simmer for about 15 minutes under a lid, stirring occasionally.

While it is simmering we can cook the veggies a bit... Throw in some water with the veggies to deglaze the pan from any goodness the sausages and chicken left behind. 

Mmmm the smell!

After about 15 minutes, it should look something like this.

Now taste the rice, if its feeling almost cooked and not running dry add the veggies otherwise add some more water and let simmer for some more time.

Veggies added!

Now stir and let sit for another few minutes just to get the flavors through and the rice fully cooked. You have to be the boss here when it is cooked for you! Taste is important!

When done cooking let rest for a few minutes and then serve!

If you do a spicy version off this I think some creme fraiche or sour cream would go wonderful with it!

Will be making this again and again I feel, even though it was a bit to spicy for Sara it tickled me in all the right places.

Only changes I will make next time is frying so yellow onion with the veggies and adding a bit more cayenne I think, really easy recipe and this made 4 portions :)

Will be going to India on Sunday and I don't know how my internet availability will be over there so I might not blog for two weeks.. Or I will blog more! Hopefully lots of good stuff to eat down there that I have never tried before, and hopefully I won't get sick and die from it. hö-hö-hö.. seriously though, bringing so much medicine for my tummy!

//Stay full my friends!

Passion För Mat

Mmm foood!

So this weekend (Friday-Sunday) Gothenburg hosted one of the biggest food events in Sweden called "Passion För Mat".

Basically it's a big convent about food where a lot of producers of beer, wine, cheese, mustard, sausages, ice cream, meat, tapenades, chinese herbs, chocolate, marzipan, licorice, spices, coffee, tea and so on and on...

So I had to go, I have missed the last two years because of trips colliding with the date but this year I was able to go with Sara. 

A real cozy nice Sunday was in store for us and we arrived shortly after opening at 10:30

While there was a lot of people it didn't feel crowded, which was nice but by the time we left at 14:00 the area was starting to fill up a bit more.

So I ate about 1kg of Chocolate, Cheese, Sausages, Ice Cream, Marzipan and different kinds of dried fruits and meat..

I did not take many pictures because of the crowds and I was also quite focused on tasting and listening to the sales people about their different brands and where I could find them after the event and so on.

But to name a few favorites.

Meat the world, had some excellent different kinds of meats you could taste, cooked to perfection.

There were two licorice sellers "Lakritsfabriken" and "Gamla Viborg.

"Bräutigams Marsipan" suuuch good Marzipan

"Lejonet and Björnen" really good tasty Ice Cream.

There were to many to count selling cheese and salami/sausages that I tasted to many of..

And also Chocolate truffles, really like that buttery chocolaty kind.

And all free to taste!

All exhibitioners were also selling most of their stuff at the convention at quite nice prices, and I took a few pictures of some of the ice cream you could buy.

First Mochi Ice Cream. Quite fun and I had never tried it and neither had Sara, apparently Japanese ice paste encasing ice cream...

We went for the flavor: Raspberry with White Chocolate.

Quite interesting taste and texture on the outside, no real hit but well worth trying.

And then another one was selling Gelato, which I am a sucker for...

So had to try theirs, They had a few flavors and we went for 1 scoop.

50% "Semla"

and 

50% Dark Chocolate

It was ok, but not of great quality.. Not as creamy and nice as i expect my Gelato to be..

And then a picture of our "haul"

From the left:

Chips, Salsa, Licorice, Pickled Pumpkin, Cheese, Chocolate Truffles, Cheese, Elderflower marmelade, Patatas Bravas spice and a lot of sausages..

Really wanted to buy more Salamis and meat and tapenades and pesto and cheese but I have so much at home that I am struggling to finish (just aren't enough days to cover my cooking needs!) also we were going to IKEA afterwards so I could not have meat in the car i felt like and I still have not opened half of the sausages I brought from Italy and Slovenija... damnit!

But at least I tasted EVERYTHING (Maybe 3-4 times when they where really good, think Sara was a bit annoyed with me at the end when I kept going back and forth...).

Sooo recommend this convention for all food lovers! 

There is really something for everyone!

//Stay full my friends!

Saturday cozy time!

Hello friends!

First off: Got news that I am going to Jaipur, India for 2 weeks for work. 

So happy about this! Will be able to see, visit and eat a lot of new things! And buy a lot of fun stuff to take with me home!

And also a small fast update from this past weekend:

Made pumpkin Oreo ice cream!

Ingredients for about 2 people:

2 egg yokes

2 egg whites

1 dl Powdered sugar

1,5 dl whipping cream.

1: Whip the egg yokes with the powdered sugar until stiff

2: Whip egg whites and cream separately until stiff

3: Mix egg whites into yokes

4: Add whipped cream

5: Add flavor or bits of anything you find tasty..

6: Put into freezer and mix every now and then until ice cream starts stiffening, then leave it to settle completely... (Maybe 5-6 hours? maybe...)

Ice cream batch with crushed Pumpkin Oreos in it!

Very very tasty!

Served with:

Hot chocolate with Kahlua and marshmallows

Pumpkin Oreos

Reeses peanut butter sauce

Pumpkin spice M&Ms

and Red wine..

The ice cream was a great hit and the pumpkin oreos are probably on of the tastiest candies I have ever eaten...

Will def reuse this ice cream recipe and add other flavors and things in it...

A tip is though to take it out and whisk around a bit every 20-30 minutes while it is setting so all the "bits" don't sink to the bottom like mine did :(

//Stay full my friends!

Red Velvet valentines day pancakes!

Hello lovebirds!

So as some might know or care about valentines day was on Saturday. Some hate this holiday, some love it. I kinda love it, you get to make something special and spoil your girl/guy!

I know it's a made up holiday designed by companies to make money, yadda yadda yadda!

I have my dad visiting and staying in our rather small apartment, does not make for a romantic setting and on Saturday we went to Gothenburg to watch hockey and eat some food, which Sara obviously did not participate in (Good for everyone involved!).

But on to the recipe!

Ingredients:

Red food coloring

1 cup flour with fiber

½ regular all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup salt

1 egg

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix all ingredients so you get a smooth paste.

Then carefully drop in the food coloring a few drops at a time while mixing in between to get the color you desire!

(Red velvet isn't a taste, it's just the color. Like red velvet cup cakes or cake or anything. But it looks nice and the girls go crazy for it)

Then drop in about ½ a cup at a time and fry until bubbles start forming on the top, then flip!

Also do this on pretty low heat so you don't get a burnt surface on the pancakes. Ruins the color I learnt after a few of em!

 Pretty nice and impressive no?

I went for the more pink side of things because of valentines day and I know Sara loves pink :)

//Stay full my friends!

Superbowl Saturday!

Hello my friends!

So we have a tradition me and my friends where we watch the Superbowl, but the week after on Saturday since it's broadcast on Sunday evening, it would mean that we would be going to bed at 6 o'clock in the morning on Monday.

So we try and go the entire week without spoiling the result, and I actually managed this year! I thought I had it spoiled for me, but was wrong! :D

So I volunteered to host it, and a good Superbowl demands a good Superbowl spread!

So I went all out to make my friends drunk and super full of food and snacks!

I will try and keep this in a chronological order.

First get your beer! A Superbowl Saturday party needs American Macro brewed beer!

And 4 guys drink a lot of beer!

Chili time!

Then we need to get our chili on!

Take your beef and trim it and cut into smaller pieces and brown it off in the pan with finely chopped garlic. 1.5 kgs of beef and 1 whole garlic.

Deseed and remove the stem of 1-2 dried ancho chilies and 1 dried chipotle.

Then boil them in water for 15 minutes and then put em through the blender!

Add some water, the beef, blended chili, beer, kumin, koriander, ox broth, 1 chopped and deseeded fresh chili, chili-flakes, some flour and 1 can of lager.

I don't have any exact measurements for this recipe and no exact time, I make it a bit different each time and go a lot on feel.

Anyway, let it simmer for 3-6 hours depending on what texture you want. I also add water continuously through the cook and this time I also added 1 bottle of porter while it was simmering.

After 5 hours my chili looked like this and was ready to be served. All the meat melted and "stringy" damn! So good!

Chili Cheese Dip!

All Superbowl parties needs a hot melty, gooey cheese dip!

So take about 2 tablespoons of butter, melt it and add 1 tablespoon of flour and mix around, then add some milk about 3-4 table spoons and then mix in about 6-7 cheese singles (Only thing available here, I used some hamburger cheese with the text "Ched-up" on em, worked fine).

Mix until melted and then add as many pickled Jalapeños as you want. I took about 2 tablespoons and the heat and taste was just right!

Add more cheese/flour if you want the mixture thicker or more milk if you want it more runny!

Look att that cheesy ooey gooey loveliness!

I made this about 3-4 hours before the party and then just heated it up on the stove when it was time to eat! Worked perfectly!

 Pretzels!

For pretzels I used Alton browns recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe.html

I made about 50% more though.

Made my lovely pretzels with Saras help, quite fun to make!

Boil them with baking soda, about 10 seconds per side.

Egg wash and sprinkled with salt, should have used more salt though...

After being in the oven, came out crispy on the outside and perfectly moist and soft on the inside!

Ready to serve with my horseradish and dijon mustard dip!

2 tablespoon grated horseradish

1 tablespoon dijon

1 dl creme fraish

1 dl sour cream

1 dash of white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste.

(Also took some Colemans mustard to get some kick in there)

Cornbread!

Used this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/skillet-corn-bread-3/

But I added some grated cheese in the batter as well.. because fuck it!

Was really fun and easy finally making and tasting cornbread!

I really liked the flavor and texture and with the chili it was perfect!

Moonshine!

Every Superbowl Saturday party needs a before dinner drink in the form of Moonshine.

Tasted the peach one for the first time, really refreshing and not that strong tasting... Dangerous!

 The spread!

First we ate chili and cornbread and then I brought out the snacks!

So we have:

Homemade pretzels,

Store bought Nachos,

Homemade horseradish dip

Homemade chili cheese dip

Homemade cherry jello shots!

And puff pastry filled with nutella and marshmallows...

mmmm we where so stuffed, but everything was gone except the pretzels!

Also saving pretzels make them less hard on the outside and quite stale. They lose their "pretzeliness" but still tasty just not as tasty as fresh!

Breakfast!

One friend stayed over... Nutella, peanut butter pancakes anyone?

Making all this took most of my Saturday, maybe 3 hours active time and a total of 6 hours just waiting... But well worth it!

//Stay full my friends!

Brie Fondue!

Hello friends!

So this time will be a short post with basically no cooking involved, but a easy cheesy tip that is so tasty I can't help myself!

A whole brie cheese, into the oven at 100 degrees celsius for about 15 minutes, until when you "bump" the cheese you see that it wobbles and is melted all the way through.

Then you take it out carefully!

And cut off the top really gently.

And serve! Perfect as a "dipping bowl"

Serve with fresh cut veggies, pickles, sourdough bread, salami, dates, granny smith apples (goes so well with the cheese).

//Stay full my friends!

Dutch oven babies

Hello!

So I stumbled on a picture of this and the name "Dutch oven babies" that seem quite common in the US, while I've never seen or heard of em here. They looked delicious though even if not that unlike pancakes in their ingredients and ways of cooking.

I used this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dutch-babies-ii/

Just added more nutmeg and half of the seeds from a vanilla cane.

This recipe made me 2 dutch oven babies.

Served dusted with sugar and some raspberries.

Also served with maple syrup on the side.

Quite crispy and fluffy and delicious.

I will be making normal pancakes in the future though since these were a bit more of a hassle to make and took longer time, and when you are 2 people and you might want 3-4 of these babies, it becomes a time consuming process... :)

//Stay full my friends!