New love

A bag of small green peppers catched my eye in supermarket last week. I had no idea what to do with them but bought them anyway. I rummaged through my recipe collection and found a promising dish in the Swedish Elle mat ooh vin magazine. I changed it a bit and the result is a delicious side dish for chicken or fish or on its own as an appetizer.

A bag of small green peppers, washed (don't trim them)
2 big fresh jalopeno chillies sliced
3 tbs sesame oil
finger salt
soft goat cheese (e.g chavroux)

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the peppers and chilies and let fry with the highest heat for a few minutes without stirring. Turn over and again let fry without stirring. Repeat until the peppers get a nice colour. Crush some finger salt over the peppers and serve with the goat cheese. P.S. don't eat the stems, each eater trims them while eating.

I served these with sweet potatoes and fried chicken.

This is a very simple but truly great dish, just try it!

Butternut squash lasagna

Hint: Click the picture and text gets bigger!

The text in the picture is in Finnish, here is the English version:

700 g butternut squash, peeled and cubed
4 tbs oil
1 chili minced
1 garlic glove minced
1 red onion sliced
5 dl mascarpone
2 dl milk
pinch of muscot
100 g baby spinach
60 g walnuts lightly crushed
60 g parmesan grated
Lasagna plates (precook in boiling water for 2 minutes)

Put the squash and 2 tbs oil to a oven pan and bake for 20 minutes in 200 celcius (or until done).
Saute chili, garlic and onion in the rest of the oil til they are slightly coloured. Add walnuts and fry a couple of minutes. Add spinach and stri until spinach is soft. Mix mascarpone with milk. 

Assemble the lasagna:  put some squash into the oven pan, add some onion mix and some cheese mix and cover with lasagna sheets. Repeat. Pour the rest of the cheese mix on top of the lasagna sheets and sprinkle parmesan on the top. Bake 30 minutes in 200 celcius or until the top is nicely coloured.

Cauliflower fever

I dare you to try this recipe even if you aren't a great friend of cauliflower. After this, you will be!

1 big cauliflower cut into pieces that are just the right size to eat
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cm of ginger, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon jeera (juustokumina in Finnish)
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 chili minced and with the seeds ( I used habanero but if you are not used to chili, choose a milder one and disregard the seeds)
1 tablespoon white vinegar (balsamico)

Mix everything in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 10 hours. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Put the califlowers with the marinade to a large oven dish and bakefor 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and turn the cauliflowers a bit and continue baking for 15  - 25 minutes or till the cauliflowers are done and a bit coloured.

We ate the cauliflowers with coldcured salmon and dark bread (I fried the salmon and bread together in butter and mixed the bread-salmon to the cauliflowers) but this would be delicious with chicken and rice, too.

This recipe is from last week, today we ate cauliflower with spinach.

Cheesy grapes

This might sound a bit strange but this is a really good recipe!

500 g dark grapes
1tbsp honey
1tsp thyme
1tbsp olive oil
1tbsp red wine vinegar
100 g creme fraiche
50g sharp cheddar
100 g camebert
1tsp sage
1/2 dl walnuts, crushed

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Put the grapes in a roasting tin, sprinkle with honey, thyme, vinegar and oil. Roast for ten minutes or until the grapes start to burst open. Take the tin out of the oven and add other ingredients, roast for 15 more minutes or until the cheeses start to bubble. Serve with good white bread.

Autumn delights

I haven't always been into seasonal food but as I started to read food magazines I tend to try at least one new recipe right away and many of them are of course seasonal. Pears are in season now, not in my garden but at least in Sweden they are, this is adapted from a Swedish magazine - or the topping is, the base is from an American cook book.

This pizza base is my all time favourite: it is good. quick and you don’t have to remember to buy fresh yeast. Use the base for more traditional pizzas, it is good with anything!

4,5 dl flour
2 tsp dried yeast
1,5 dl warm water
salt
4 small pears, unpeeled, sliced
½ red onion peeled and sliced
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
2-3 dried chillies crushed
1 dl blue cheese crumbled
2 dl cheese grated (use whatever cheese you happen to have)
1 dl walnuts crushed
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp honey
2 tsp good olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Mix flour and yeast. Add warm water and knead until smooth. Cover with a cloth and leave for 10 minutes. Roll the dough into a large circle and place on a baking sheet. Arrange the pears, onion, garlic, chillies and walnuts on top. Cover with the grated cheese. Sprinkle thyme, honey and olive oil on top and bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and beautifully coloured.

Pumpkin soup for dinner

As it is autumn and the pumpkins are at their best, I decided to try this recipe for supper today.

Salsa :
2 tomatoes in cubes
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 dl chopped cilantro
1 tbsp sambal oelek
1 tbsp citron juice

Mix all ingredients and refrigirate for an hour or more.



Soup
1 buttercup pumpkin, peeled, cubed and cooked
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 chilli chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flour
6 dl boiling water
1tin small white beans, rinsed
1 tbsp ground paprika
1 small tin corn, rinsed
salt, pepper
2 tsp honey
1 dl basilika chopped

Saute onion, garlic and chilli in oil. Add flour and mix well. Add all other ingredients except for basilika. Let simmer for an half an hour. Serve with salsa and dark bread. Enjoy!