How to do: Mjaddara.

So I've been getting a bit of critique lately that I'm not doing enough vegetarian meals. My answer to that is that many of my "dishes" could easily exclude the meat product and still be nice. Vegetarian meal tada!
Just kidding, I do quite a bit of non-meat dishes, but somehow they don't get posted on the blog. I try to skip meat/fish at least one meal a day. That can be a bit boring during winter though.

This dish is something I grew up with. So simple you really can't fail.

Rinse some green lentils in cold water and make sure there's no crap in it like stones and stuff.

Put them in water or broth of some sort and boil/simmer until done. You can flavour this however you want, but keeping it simple is many times the best way to go. The best scenario is that when the lentils are cooked you have them still a bit wet. Not like a soup and not dry. If they are like a soup you have to drain them a bit, but doing so you loose flavour.

Yes I forgot, but I'll tell you. The lentils take about 20 minutes to cook. When there is about 10 minutes left put a little bit of uncooked rice in there. Don't be troubled if the rice is not done when the lentils are, because you are cooking it a bit more in the oven. Also it's still a bit wet right? So no problem.

Slice one or two onions into rings and fry in a pan with oil. Fry and stir until they start to get a bit black, but not burned. 

Lay them on top of everything. This onion gets crispy and good when cooked properly. It's really the "thing" of mjaddara.

Drizzle a bit of oliveoil and put the baking pan in the oven for about 15-20 minutes in 175ºC/340ºF.

 Combine baking bread with cooking food to save the earth :)

Voíla! Really tasty and wonderfull. Put it in a buffé or eat it as it is with some pita-bread. Doesn't matter, you will enjoy.

Hopefully the vegeterians ran in to the kitchen to start cooking and miss this. I served my mjaddara with some fried roster thigh and a mint/sweet ginger-yoghurt.

Swedish Classic: Yellow Chicken Curry.

Yes so let's see how to do a Swedish classic dish that is called "Chicken in yellow curry". This is not classic like dated-200-years-old, but more like a modern classic. I would guess it came to life here in Sweden in the 60´s or 70´s.The main spice is yellow curry-powder also called madras curry.
Of course there is an easy way to do things, but as always I can't help evolving the recipe a bit.

To start with I had boiled a whole chicken the day before. Simply in water with a carrot, an onion, a leafe of bay, some thyme and white pepper. It had rested in its own broth over night in the fridge.

So i chopped some yellow onion, red pepper and cabbage.

 Fried of the onion in quite a lot of butter and some olive oil until softened.

Then added the cabbage and fried a bit more before adding the curry powder, some sambal oelek and tomato purée.

I gave the spices some life before adding a tablespoon or two of flour. The flour was mixed in good so there would be no lumps.

Then I added the broth that the chicken had produced. Magic to cook a chicken and get a "rest product" like chicken broth :) I can't say how much broth I took, but use less to begin with and add more if needed. The other way around is not that easy. Cook for 5-10 minutes to get rid of the powder taste of the flour.

I didn't have any cream to finish of the dish, so I used some coconut cream instead. As good as cream, although cream is the swedish way.

Then I added the chicken. Rinsed into small pieces without the skin. To balance the flavours I had some plum sauce and some japanese soy (sweetness and salt).

 Voíla! Some nice rice and pickled cucumber to go with.

You could also use pieces of chicken like the filet if you wanted but this is by far the best way.

How to do: Egg Mayo.

Denna röra är en underbart god grej att ha vid ett frukostbord, brunchbuffé eller lite här och var. Jag har aldrig varit en fantast av ägg, omeletter, äggstanning och sånt, men ibland funkar det bara. Det här är verkligen en sån grej. På en rostad skiva formbröd med lite skalade räkor? Royal.

Koka ägg tills de precis blir hårdkokta. Löskokta funkar inte, för hårdkokta smakar och luktar som bekant prutt. 

 Dela äggen i mindre bitar. Hacka med kniv eller passera genom något är rutformat.

Ha i majonnäs, gräslök (optional) och ett par stänk tabasco samt lite salt&peppar. Blanda, klart! Enklare än så blir det inte. Oftast är det ju så det blir godast också. Håller sisådär ett par dagar i kyl, men godast är den nygjord. Man kan blanda ner räkor, finhackad lök mm. Nedan följer vad jag gjorde med den den här gången. 

En fantastisk bit torsk fiskad utanför Norge.

Stektes i smör, olivolja, timjan och lite citron. Hårt på skinnsidan, för att sedan vända och låta vila/steka klart på köttsidan. 

 Lite skållade tomater och blanchad broccoli..

blev till en sallad.

Lite enkelt tournerad  potatis för kokning. Kokt potatis äts det för lite av här hemma. Så gott ibland.

Skinnet fastnade och fick torsken att se ut som om den var med i en skräckfilm, men förutom det var det hela grade A. Det var bara att mosa ihop allt och skyffla in i munnen. Mumsi.

How to do: Tonkatsu

 Vad man behöver är, förutom fläskkött, lite champinjoner och lök. Plus ljus soya.

Skiva lök (och purjo här) och champinjoner.

Stek med lite högre värme i ganska mycket olja. Avsluta med ett par stänk soya.

Done. Jätteenkelt och jättegott tillbehör till mycket.

Så till fläsket. Tunt skivad fläskkarré som dessutom bankas lite lätt. Fläskkarré är som sagt köttets Rolls Royce i min värld.

Den paneras i en "dubbelpanering". Alltså mjöl (kryddad med salt&peppar), uppvispat ägg och ströbröd (panko).

 Fin mice en place.

Man steker fläsket i rätt mycket neutral olja på ganska hög värme. Ser du? Ser du hur frasigt det ser ut? My god.

Allt serverades med lite gött ris och en bulldog-sås. Den är en köpt sås gjord för såna här grejjer. Frasigt royal. Kunde inte sluta äta.

How to do: Flying Jacob.

So, here is a recipe for anyone that is not Swedish. You can't really say that this is a classic Swedish dish, although a lot of people cook it. Let's say it's a modern classic.

So what you need is this:

Chicken (the original is bought rotiseur-chicken. You can find that in supermarkets in Sweden)
Bacon (this one pre-fried)
Bananas
Cream
Peanuts

Ok, maybe you are thinking "no, I'm not continuing reading this because my name isn't Elvis". BUT! The combination is really good!. At least that's what I think. Many agree and some few (strange people) disagree.
Anyhow, let's do this.

I made a quick rub with some dried herbs like thyme, paprika, rosemary, yellow curry, a pinch of sugar and of course salt&pepper. The idea was to imitate the taste of roasted chicken. A little.

I fried of the chicken all sliced up with some onion and the spices. 

In a big oven-tray and started layering. Chicken first.

Then banana.

Peanuts.

Bacon.

 I whipped the cream thicker. You are supposed to add a ketchupy-similar sauce called chilisauce, but I din't have that so I added srirasha, tabasco and plumsauce.

A nice layer over. 

Ah un grataín!

Seriously, I think it's a really nice dish. The cream becomes a nice sauce and it's crunchy, sweet, salty. It's got it all :)

Be brave and try it!
Bless.

How to do: Creamy Butternut Soup.

Let's do this in English, shall we?

So, we have the butternut squash. Peel it, rinse it and dice it in to smaller pieces and put them aside. The butternut is ideal for a lot of things like roasting,boling to mash, frying and so on. Quite similar to a sweet potatoe, but less soft and mushy when cooked. To this soup you could use an other type of pumpkin/squahs like muscat, wich has similar taste and texture.

When you have the butternut, you really can use a bit of whatever. You don't need to use a lot more, but doing that you add more flavour and texture. As long as you don't exceed the amount of "other stuff" with the amount of butternut. I had stuff like celeriac (in the picture peeled with a victorinox breadknife, one of two things in a kitchen I absolutely love to do, and yes, maybe I'm a bit insane), carrot, potato, parsnip and some cabbage (mostly the stem) all cut into smaller pieces.

 And, of course, some spices. You can start by sauteing onion, garlic and celery at first in some olive oil until soft and sweet before adding the rest.

The ginger and chili went in the bouquet garni, along with some bay leaves, cinnamon, thyme and parsleystems. All these flavours love to mingle with butternut. Chili and ginger and cinnamon are real enhancers of butternut. The reason why I don't want pieces of chili and ginger in the soup is that when mixed, there will be small pieses of them swiming around. I just want it smooth. That's why they get tied up.

Art.

So start of with the onion, garlic and celery in some olive oil and or butter. Add the rest of ingredients and saute a bit. Then add some white wine, some chicken stock or vegetarian and water. Boil until all is soft and take out the bouquet. Mix with a handblender well until smooth. Put the soup back on heat and add cream. Balance the taste with salt, tabasco and redwine vinegar.

Serve by it self or with some roasted bread or like here with a foccacia. Try also adding some nice things in the soup like fried veggies or fried fish. Enjoy and good luck!