Childfriendly tuna pasta

I really like this simple tomato based tuna sauce. It's basically my bolognese recipe but with tuna instead of veal or beef. The kids love it which is why it's called childfriendly. I do have another recipe which is the unchildfriendly one as its a mix of basically everything my kids don't like. Anchovies, capers, olives and chili to name a few. 

This week I have also made a jerusalem artichoke soup (for adult indulging), a filo pastry pie with lamb (not greatly appreciated by the kids but I loved it), chicken skewers on lemongrass (Mummy, I like the chicken lollipop). Monday was salmon teriyaki. Tomorrow the kids will probably need something familiar so perhaps meatballs or bolognese. I am spending the weekend husband-less so will stick to simplest of the simplest to survive! 

Ingredients

Pasta of your choice (this is a very girly household so we chose butterflies today)

1 tin of tuna (I use white tinned tuna)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 anchovy fillets

2 mini or 1 small zucchini

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

zest of 1 lemon and juice of half
1dl of water

1/2 tbsp of honey
1 bunch of parsley
Maybe 1 tbsp of vegetable liquid stock

salt and black pepper

Preparation

Cook the pasta according to instructions. 

Peel and chop the garlic and onion finely. Grate the zucchini (or just slice finely on a mandolin). Grate the lemon zest. Chop the parsley. 

Heat a pan and add some olive oil, then add the anchovies, garlic, onion and zucchini. Cook it until the onion is transparent and the anchovies have melted. Then add the chopped tomatoes, lemon zest, and lemon juice, water, honey and salt and pepper to taste. If you want you can add the liquid stock. 

Let it simmer for 10 mins, then add the tuna and separate it with a fork into small pieces, add the parsley and remove from heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with lots of parmesan cheese and a green salad (or green beans for the kids). 

Chinese pancakes

For some reason I have to plan family weekend dinners better than mid-week ones.We tend to spend most of the day out and about and by the time we get back dinner needs to be quick and easy.  But then again I do want them to be a bit more luxurious then normal. Not an easy task but last Sunday's was seriously good. Slices of pork shoulder marinated in soy sauce then roasted in the oven for an hour. Tender and juicy, placed on a chinese pancake with spring onions, cucumber, roasted plums, hoisin sauce and sesame seeds. Works for the family but I'd easily treat friends to it too. There is only so much messing about with, filling pancakes and trying to eat it by yourself when you are only 20 months, that I can take so I had cooked some rice for the kids too.  

I got another cookbook over the weekend so am going to try and sit down with a cup of tea and imagine making the recipes and tasting the dishes in a little bit. I am starting to compile recipes for the summer already. Things that we can eat after spending a whole day at the little beach by our summer house in Sweden or when friends come over to enjoy the long summer nights. Yep, definitely slightly obsessed with cooking since I am at the same time starting to think about what to treat my relatives to this Christmas when we will be hosting it for the first time! Endless searches on favourite foodblogs and flicking through cookbooks. 

Ingredients (for the 4 of us)
3 slices of sliced pork shoulder (the butcher will slice it for you), about 1,5cm
1/2 dl of Chinese or dark soy sauce
8 plums
1 bunch of spring onions
1/4 cucumber
2 tbsp sesame seeds
hoisin sauce
10 chinese pancakes

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Rub the soy sauce on both sides of the pork slices. Place on a baking sheet in a baking tray and cook for 1 hour, perhaps a bit longer depending on your oven.

Halve the plums and remove the stones. Sprinkle some salt on to the fruity side of the plums. Once the meat has cooked for 30 mins, place the plums, fruity side up, on top of the meat. 

Peel and slice the cucumber into 'juliennes", do the same with the spring onions. Dry roast the sesame seeds in a pan until they are golden brown. 

Remove the meat from the oven and slice it finely. Let everyone do their own pancakes with hoisin sauce, pork slices, plums, cucumber, spring onion and sesame seeds. 

Chicken with Pimenton de la Vera

Things are really busy around here. I am still cooking every day but for some reason when I intend to sit down and share the recipes I have kind of forgotten the quantities of all the ingredients I use. Well, I will just have to make them again then! Here's a really easy chicken casserole with a favourite spice, Pimenton de la Vera, smoked paprika powder. It's what makes Chorizo taste chorizo. My kids love chorizo so now I can make them eat chorizo without actually serving it. 

This casserole has chicken, parsnips and carrots. I served it with rice and green vegetables. Quick and easy. Original recipe here which I have changed. Chorizogryta utan chorizo

Ingredients

400 g chicken thigh fillets, cut in chunks

100 g pancetta, in cubes

1 clove of garlic, peeled and sliced

6 small onions, peeled

2 small carrots, peeled and cut in small pieces

1 parsnip, peeled and cut in small pieces

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tsp pimenton de la vera, dulce

1 dl of white wine

1 tbsp of liquid chicken stock

olive oil

salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan (one with a lid) and add the pancetta. Cook until crips, remove from pan. Add the garlic, onions, carrots and parsnip. Cook until the they have a nice golden colour, then remove. Add the chicken and cook until golden, then add a little bit of olive oil in a corner of the pan and add the pimenton in the oil. Stir a bit and then add back the pancetta, vegetables, chopped tomatoes, wine and stock. Stir and add salt and pepper. Put the lid on and cook for about 20 mins on a low heat. Then serve with rice or other grains and green vegetables of your choice. 

Lemony lasagna

Oh dear! What happened? It's practically been a month since my last post. Well, the life of this blog is very much at the mercy of my family life. It lives on the margin. Any unexpected events and my plans for a creative moment in the kitchen, with the camera or in front of the computer quickly has to jump to the end of the queue and patiently wait its turn. The past month has been full of such events, pleasant, like our trip to the sun but also tiring such as children, poorly with mean colds, needing heaps of tender and loving care. Then, when the colds are getting better and appetites return they need to fill their tummies with healthy but comforting food. Here is one of those. 

If you search for a recipe of a lasagna on the internet you will be overwhelmed. It will win any popularity contest single handily. It's hard, though, to make that perfect one and I find that it often gets a bit dry. The secret is adding fresh mozzarella and loads of bechamel. This recipe adds  lemon zest and nutmeg. You've probably noticed by now that I really LOVE using lemons in my food especially anything that has tomatoes in it. Sorry, but it makes such a difference.  

Lemony lasagna

I have not been very precise with the amounts in this recipe, it doesn't really matter much just make sure you add bechamel on top of every lasagna sheet. I had made a double recipe of bolognese and used what was left from dinner to make the lasagne. I think that is the way to do it otherwise it just takes too long. If you do make it from scratch probably about 400 g of beef (or veal or lamb) mince will be enough.

Ingredients
1 recipe of your favourite bolognese sauce (or this one, Bolognese)
fresh lasagna sheets
1 packet of mozzarella
tomatoes

Bechamel
2,5 tbsp flour
2,5 tbsp butter
6 dl milk

200 g of grated cheese (any mature one will do, gruyere or cheddar for example, I used this cheddar from the Park Farm which I bought at my local farmers market on Sunday).

the zest of one lemon

grated nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour and stir for a bit until it is mixed, then quickly add the milk and stir so that the flour and butter mixture is dissolved, then let it simmer for three minutes, stirring occasionally, so that the flour taste disappears. Then remove from heat and add the grated cheese, but save some to sprinkle on top of the lasagne, let it melt and then add the lemon zest, and nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the mozzarella and tomatoes in slices. In an oven proof dish add a layer of a third of the bechamel sauce, then lasagna sheets, then half the bolognese, tomatoes and mozzarella, lasagna sheets, a third of the bechamel, the rest of the bolognese, tomatoes and mozzarella, lasagna sheets, the rest of the bechamel. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until it looks golden brown.

Weekly menu and shopping list

Dear readers, 

I have taken the leap into committing to offering up the service of a suggested weekly menu including a shopping list. I will put together a menu of already existing recipes from this blog, add a shopping list and post it every Thursday (or so I'll try) so you have time to do the relevant shopping for the following week. In the meantime I am trying out new recipes on my little family and if they are received with standing ovations, empty plates and full tummies I'll post them here for you to try out too.  

This week I've done a lamb shank recipe from my favourite food blogger and another recipe of adobe from the Swedish food blogger of the year 2011. They were only just ok on my palate but I've had a bad cold which might have played up with my taste buds. The rest of the family seemed to like them both. Recipes now up for re-trial. 

Lamb shanks with couscous, peaches and pistachios

Weekly menu Feb 6, 2012

Monday: Kalops

Tuesday: Salmon Teriyaki (I have doubled the recipe in the shopping list to be enough for 4 people)

Wednesday: Lamb with sweet spices

Thursday: Coq au vin

Friday: Italian meatballs (for a good batch and some to put in the freezer)

Shopping list

400 g chuck steak 

4 salmon fillets 

400g lamb mince

4 chicken thigh fillets

800 g minced beef

100 g cubed pancetta

1 egg

3 dl of milk
1 dl grated parmesan

a dollop of greek yogurt 

4 carrots

2 parsnips

4 onions

6-8 small brown or red onions

12 cloves of garlic

1 tumbsize piece of fresh ginger

2 portabella mushrooms
2 handfuls of babyplum or cherry tomatoes

a couple of sprigs of lemon thyme
1 dl frozen soya beans

zest of 1 lemon

25 g of chopped parsley

2 cans of chopped tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes)

1 dl of white wine

1 dl red wine
1 tin of chickpeas

1 dl creamed coconut (or open a tin of coconut milk and use only the thick cream that usually gathers at the top of the tin)

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 dl breadcrumbs

6 apricots, chopped
1 pomegranate (for two dinners)
1 small bunch of fresh mint leaves

2 tbsp corn flower

3 tbsp chicken stock 

2 tbsp veal stock

3 bay leaves

10 allspice berries

1 tsp white peppercorns

2 tbsp japanese soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp sesame oil 

sesame seeds

1 tsp cardamom seeds
2 cinnamon sticks

butter

olive oil

Good night! 

Seriously ugly looking food

Ok, now don't be put off by the look of this beef casserole. It's lack of beauty is made up for in taste, honestly!  It's a traditional Swedish dish but actually has an English name. Kalops comes from collops which is the plural word for collop or slice of meat.

My paternal Grandmother would invite our family of seven and my Aunts family of six for dinner in her beautiful flat in Gothenburg. It was a very stately affair and all five of us kids would be dressed up and well behaved, at least during dinner. I remember the smell when entering her flat and this is exactly what our house smelled like yesterday when I cooked Kalops. Ritz crackers with various cheese for starters, then kalops with perfectly cooked potatoes as main. I had to think a bit about dessert, by that time the kids had probably been excused.  We  would find our way into my father's old room to look at his toys. I remember thinking of him as a little boy lying in his bed or doing his homework at his desk. This dish is a small homage to my Grandmother, the woman who raised my beloved and deeply missed Dad. 

Kalops

Ingredients
400 g chuck steak in 2 cm pieces
1 tbsp butter

2 carrots

2 parsnips

1 onion
1 tsp salt

1 bay leaf

10 allspice berries

1 tsp white peppercorns
water to cover
extra salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Peel and cut the carrots, parsnips and onions into large pieces. Heat the butter in a pan and brown the meat on all sides. Then remove the meat and add the carrots, parsnips and onion for a few minutes. Place the meat, carrots, parsnips and onion in a casserole, add the salt, bay leaf, allspice berries, white pepper. Add enough water to cover everything. Cover with a lid and cook for 1,5-2 hours. The meat should be very tender and almost fall to pieces when you cut it.

Remove the meat, some of vegetables and bay leaf. Whiz the remaining vegetables into a sauce and thin with water if desired. Add back the meat and vegetables, heat if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The kids and husband ate with good appetite and it is a dead easy dish to prepare but as I said, not a looker!

You can't eat soup every day!

The cold I caught just before my birthday managed to get the best of me last week too. Only really did the most essential stuff so that I'd have some energy left for the girly lunch I had planned at my place on Friday. Which of course meant I didn't manage to take photos or post here. During the weekend the rest of the family followed my lead and so we have spent it convalescing. Around lunchtime on Saturday I put the little one to sleep and left the other two in each others' company watching a movie in bed, grabbed a quick lunch and my new cookbooks for an hour of exhilarating inspiration. See, I am so easy to please! 

The soup was left-over from Friday's lunch and I've had it for lunch both Saturday and Sunday to the point where my oldest said "Mummy, you can't have soup every day!" She probably thought it was some sort of treat, like the Saturday sweets she is used to, as I made these aaahs and ooohs every time I tasted a spoonful. Parsnip and coconut soup with ginger and lime. Today I had it with a toasty of my homemade sourdough fruit and nut bread full of delicious gruyere cheese, then a latte and my healthy muesli biscuits baked from one of my newly acquired cookbooks. 

I've just put all the food shopping away for next week's dinners. We are starting off with a Swedish dish called Kalops, a beef stew with succulent meat and allspice served with beetroots. 

Tuesday: favourite salmon teriyaki

Wednesday: Lamb shanks with couscous and peaches

Thursday: Pasta with tuna and tomato sauce

Friday: Adobo on chicken

By end of this week, you'll have these recipes and then I'll put together a shopping list for you so if you want, you can just copy paste the dinner recipes from this week to the next including the shopping list. 

Hope you've had a good weekend! 

Parsnip and coconut soup 

Original recipe Parsnip and coconut soup

Ingredients for 4 

3 parsnips

1 large leek

2 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp vegetable stock (I use liquid)

400 ml tinned coconut milk

2 lime

1/2 thumb of fresh ginger

green chili 

fish sauce to taste

Preparation

Peel the parsnips and chop into 2 cm pieces, slice the leek and garlic. Place in a large pan, cover with water, add 2 tbsp of vegetable stock. (I added half a small medium hot green chili too since the kids were not eating this). Cook until the parsnips are soft. 

When cooked, whiz into a smooth texture with a hand mixer. Add the coconut milk, add water to thin if necessary. 

Grate the zest of the lime. Peel and grate the ginger then squeeze out the juice and discard the fibrous left-overs. Add the ginger juice and lime zest, add a bit of lime juice and season to taste with fish sauce, salt and pepper.

Girly lunch!