Pesto Recipe

Pesto

One of my few memories of eating pesto is in a sandwich that I used to buy. Pesto, together with prosciutto, mozzarella cheese and sunflower seed bread was absolutely divine. I didn’t have prosciutto at home so it’s a plain mozzarella pesto sandwich in the photo above. Delicious but it needed the prosciutto. And sandwich with oil running down the sides is not ideal for eating.

And here’s pesto with pasta, a really quick and easy meal. Bit of interesting and totally useless information: if you replace ‘e’ and ‘o’ in pesto, you get pasta. And Wikipedia tells me pesto is Italian so it seems Italians were not so creative with using alphabets to create names. What they lacked in creativity they made up for it with good food.

Pesto

Source: Food Network

Ingredients

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

¼ cup pine nuts

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

Directions

1.      Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

2.      If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

3.      If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

Pesto

Swedish Pea Soup (Ärtsoppa) Recipe

Swedish Pea Soup (Ärtsoppa)

I’ve read somewhere that Swedish pea soup started being served even before the Vikings came into existence. It became the traditional Thursday meal when Sweden converted to Catholicism. Around 1530 Sweden converted to Lutheranism but the soup remained a Thursday meal. Even today restaurants serve this on Thursdays, along with pancake.

Small confession. I didn’t completely follow the recipe below. I added some harissa, which is very un-Swedish, and I left out pork, which is very un-Swedish. It still turned out nice.

Source: delishhh

Ingredients

500g of dried yellow or green peas

300g of boneless cured ham or pork cut into ½ inch cubes

6 -7 cups water

2 yellow onions finely chopped

1 leek finely chopped

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon marjoram

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

Salt to taste (depending on your cured meat)

Directions

1.      Soak peas in water over night. Next day rinse them and add to a pot with about 6 cups of water. Bring to boil and boil for 2 minutes and then remove from heat and let stand covered for 1 hour. If there is foam on top remove that.

2.      Dice meat, onion and leek and simmer in a pot for 15 minutes. Add the peas and the rest of the ingredients to the meat and onion mixture, cover and simmer for about 2 hours. After 2 hours add salt to taste.

3.      Serve with mustard.

Swedish Pea Soup (Ärtsoppa)

Dried Fig Red Wine Jam Recipe

Dried Fig Red Wine Jam

This recipe uses dried figs instead of fresh figs. Dried figs are cheaper and easier to find. The fact that it is cheaper does not make the jam any less delicious, on the contrary the flavor could be more intense. This is my guess, I haven't compared jam made from fresh and dried figs.

This jam will go well with certain cheese, on toast, in baking, as a sauce to accompany certain meats or on its own. Anyway you have it, it will be delicious. It is sweet but not overly sweet, and the crunch from the seeds is a real bonus. 

The original recipe suggests port wine but I substituted with red wine since thats what I had. You don't have to use red wine, you can substitute with water.

Dried Fig Red Wine Jam

Adopted from Emeril Lagasse’s recipe.

Ingredients

1½ cups red wine

½ cup water

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional) 

170 grams/6 ounces (or about 1 cup packed) dried figs, stems removed and cut into ½ inch pieces 

Directions

1. Add wine, water, lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat
2. Cook until reduced slightly, about 8 minutes
3. Add figs and return to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until figs are tender and liquid has reduced to a syrupy consistency
4. Remove from the heat, puree the mixture (optional) and allow the jam to cool 
5. The jam will keep for up to 2 months, refrigerated in a nonreactive container. Time will tell whether it lasts that long.

Swedish Red cabbage (Rödkål) Recipe

Swedish Red Cabbage (Rödkål)

This braised red cabbage dish is usually part of the Swedish Christmas table. Its popular in other Scandinavian countries. I also heard that Germans prepare something similar, and I presume other European countries make some version of it. There are many different versions made in Sweden. The recipe below comes from Per Morberg, a Swedish actor, chef and news presenter.

Braised red cabbage might sound dull and boring. Not this version, the sweet and acidic flavours are quite addictive. I couldn’t stop eating them. The salad is quite refreshing, and of course cabbage is good for you as well.

I wasn’t sure whether I found the cabbage a bit too sweet for my liking, I am undecided. That’s just my personal preference, I might prefer slightly more acidity and less sweetness. Next time I will half the about of syrup.

Swedish Red Cabbage (Rödkål)

Adopted from recept.nu

Ingredients

1 red cabbage, about 0.5 kg

1 onion

2 apples

4 tablespoons syrup or honey (you can use syrups such as maple, dark or golden)

4 tablespoons red currant jelly (or any other jelly such as strawberry or raspberry)

2 tablespoons cider vinegar (or substitute with red wine or balsamic vinegar)

5 pcs cloves, ground

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Shred the cabbage. 
2. Peel and slice the onions and apples
3. Heat butter over medium high heat in a large saucepan
4. Sauté cabbage, onions and apples until onions turn soft
5. Cover and cook until cabbage turns tender
6. Add jelly, syrup or honey, vinegar, water, and cloves and cook uncovered for a further 5 minutes
7. Add salt and pepper to taste

Roasted Beetroot Garlic Soup (Not Quite Borscht) Recipe

Roasted Beetroot Garlic Soup

I am not claiming this to be an authentic borscht, it is probably quite far from it.

Borscht originated in Ukraine, according to Wikipedia. Some people may dispute this since many other countries have their own versions. I suppose it will be a never ending discussion trying to identify where it originated and what goes in an authentic borscht. 

None of the authentic recipes I came across use roasted beets. I preferred roasted beets since it adds more flavour. Some versions use cabbage. I excluded it since I ate cabbage yesterday. And I excluded potatoes because I wanted a stronger beet flavor rather than have the flavour diluted with potato. With these variations the soup was not quite authentic. It tastes quite different from the versions I tried in different restaurants. 

The recipe is quite simple to make. You can vary it quite easily to suit your taste.

And here’s some more of my amateurish half decent attempts at borscht art. Most of them probably qualify to be considered 'abstract'. Looks like a child did it, actually it was a child!

 

Recipe adopted from whole living

Recipe adopted from whole living

Ingredients

3 medium beets, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling

6 unpeeled garlic cloves

1 small onion, diced

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

3 cups water (or use stock or milk)

Sour cream (optional)

Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 220°C/425°F.
2. Coat the beets and garlic in oil. I find it easier to add some oil to a pot, add the beets and garlic and swirl and toss. Use the same pot for cooking the onions and soup later
3. Spread the beets and garlic in a single layer in a roasting pan. Bake until the beets are tender, about 25 -30 minutes.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook until tender. Add beets, garlic, herbs and 3 cups water. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Puree the mixture and serve with sour cream (optional)

French Warm Lentil Salad Recipe

Warm Lentil Salad

This is a really simple and delicious salad. It’s a French creation going by the name of salade tiède aux lentilles.

The recipe suggests cooking lentils in stock. I didn’t have stock and instead used salted water with allspice. You can use pretty much any flavourings to suit your taste, even plain salted water will be fine since the vinaigrette will add flavour 

Homemade Soy Milk Recipe

Homemade Soy Milk

You can quite easily and cheaply make soy milk at home. There is no rocket science involved in making or producing any kind of milk, even cows milk. However making soy milk in your kitchen is a little easier than cows milk so today we will only talk about soy milk.

Southern German Warm Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat) Recipe

Southern German potato salad

This Southern German potato salad, also known as kartoffelsalat, is an alternative to the more popular mayo laden salad. Instead of mayo the dressing is made from stock, mustard and few other ingredients.

The original recipe that I 'borrowed' has bacon. I didn't use bacon. Nothing against bacon, but there was no bacon at home so I managed without it. I have included bacon in the recipe below.

Coconut peanut butter recipe

Coconut peanut butter

My family always buys peanut butter, and we always buy peanuts to eat on its own. We have always had a food processor at home but we never made our own peanut butter. I guess we thought that making peanut butter is a complex process. And I suppose we think its complex after looking at the list of ingredients on the jar, some of which are unknown. If we don’t know it must be complicated? Wrong, making peanut butter is so simple, process peanuts and you have peanut butter. The only complex parts are decisions that need to be made and there are a few of them:

1. Do you want smooth or crunchy peanut butter? If you want crunchy add chopped nuts
2. How much salt? This requires thinking and tasting, and most of us are good at that
3. How smooth and creamy? If the peanut butter is not creamy enough, how much oil should you add
4. What kind of sweeteners and how much? Personally I don’t like sweet peanut butter. You can add sugar or honey, the amount depending on your taste.

I used to only like my peanut butter plain and simple, without chocolate, honey or other distractors. I changed my mind when I experimented with coconut peanut butter. Peanut butter with a toasted coconut flavor, I like it, a lot.

Herring Beetroot Potato Salad with Caviar Recipe

Herring Beetroot Potato Salad with Caviar

This is an excellent recipe that I took from With a Glass who got the recipe from a cousin who in turn got it from someone else. I don’t know where this recipe originally comes from but it is most likely from Eastern/Central Europe or Russia.

History can sometimes be boring and irrelevant, what is important is that the salad is simple to make and delicious. It is quite a heavy salad, I had it as a meal rather than as a salad.

This recipe seems versatile and you can substitute ingredients according to your taste. Variations of this recipe exist, in many forms. Sometime ago I posted the recipe for Swedish beetroot herring salad which has some similarities and differences.

The recipe suggests using herring in oil. I used pickled herring instead and soaked it in water for many hours. If you don’t like herring you can substitute any other fish, it should work fine. 


Using caviar is optional. I placed caviar on one side only since I was unsure whether caviar would go well. It did, thankfully.

It is best to chill the salad for few hours, or even overnight. Like good wine the taste gets better with age. And then the taste deteriorates quite rapidly so don’t let it age for too long. I don’t know how long it can be kept for, I am guessing a few days only.

The amounts below come from With a Glass. I did not follow the amounts exactly as the recipe says, instead I rebelled and used my own estimates.

Herring Beetroot Potato Salad with Caviar

Ingredients

250 grams herring in oil, drained 

2 medium onions (I used less)

4 large potatoes

2 large beetroot

4 – 5 eggs

150 - 200 ml mayonnaise

Caviar (optional)

Directions

1.      Cook the potatoes, beetroot and eggs and let it cool

2.      Coarsely dice the herring, and finely dice the onions, potatoes, beetroot and eggs 

3.      In a serving bowl or dish place the herring, making sure to spread it evenly 

4.      Place onions on top of the herring, followed by potatoes. Season with salt and pepper

5.      Place the beetroot, followed by eggs and mayonnaise.

6.      If you are using caviar, now is the time to place it right at the top

7.      Cover and chill the salad in a refrigerator for many hours, or overnight.

Herring Beetroot Potato Salad with Caviar

Ajvar (pepper eggplant spread) recipe

Ajvar

Ajvar is a relish/spread from the Balkans. Authentic ajvar is made from fire roasted red bell peppers (capsicum, paprika), eggplant and a few other ingredients. Ajvar is sort of like tomato sauce/ketchup, but much more. You can use it in place of tomato sauce/ketchup such as with burgers and sausages. You can also use it in ways that you may not normally use tomato sauce/ketchup like as a spread on bread or crackers. Once you taste ajvar there is a risk that you will not go back to tomato sauce/ketchup again. However I am definitely not trying to discourage use of tomato sauce/ketchup.

The world can work in mysterious ways sometimes. I’ve always bought ajvar from the supermarket, it is widely available in Sweden due to a relatively large Balkans community. My friends from Balkans never inspired me to make avjar, instead pings pickings from Malaysia inspired me. And ping got inspiration from me, from my jarred ajvar. Bit of a circular reference here, it probably proves that the world is round!

Ajvar is really simple to make. In a nutshell you roast the vegetables and mix with other ingredients. I’ve checked a number of recipes as well as the list of ingredients on an ajvar jar. Most of the recipes do not use tomatoes but tomato puree is included in the jarred ajvar. It has about 3% puree. Also very few recipes use onions. I’ve decided to use tomato puree and not onions. I will try onions next time.

Ajvar is mildly hot. You can add chillis to suit your taste. 

Ajvar

Ingredients

2 large eggplants

6 large red bell peppers

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

½ cup oil

Juice of 1 lemon or 3 tablespoon of vinegar

Salt and black pepper

2-3 tablespoons tomato puree (optional, I used cooked puree)

Chili - finely chopped or minced (optional)

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400F/200C

2. Wash and dry eggplants and peppers. Half the eggplant and bell peppers lengthwise. Discard seeds from the peppers

3. Place eggplant and peppers on a baking tray cut side down and roast until the skins blister and turn black, about 30-45 minutes. 

4. Place eggplant and peppers in a heatproof bowl, cover and set aside for about 10 minutes.

5. Remove and discard the skins and mash or chop eggplant and peppers

6. Add all the rest of the ingredients. Ajvar is ready to rock and roll

7. It will keep in a refrigerator for up to 1 week. The taste will develop. I usually freeze in ice cube trays

Beetroot Jam Recipe

Beetroot jam

I made carrot jam and following its success I thought there is no reason why beetroot should not produce a jam just as good. After all they are both sweet root vegetables.

The result was nice. The flavor was fantastic, so was the color. I didn't puree the beetroot since I preferred chunky bits for texture. It went great with crackers.

Ingredients

2 medium beetroots

¼ cup sugar – or more depending on your preference

Water

Directions

1. Boil the beetroot until cooked, then peel and either chop finely or puree

2. Add the beetroot and sugar to a saucepan and cook over medium low heat until the jam is set, about 30-40 minutes. Stir frequently. Add a small amount of water if the mixture gets too dry in the beginning. I added about 1-2 tablespoons of water during the process

3. Unfortunately I don’t know how long these will keep for. I guess it can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week. If could be kept longer is properly processed for preserving I suppose.

Beetroot jam