New Years Eve cocktail party

New Years Evening is strongly connected to luxury – champagne, extraordinary food and dressed up guests. A problem when hosting a big party is that you often need to lower one’s standards of quality because of the number of guests. One way of keeping the standard high is to serve cold dishes that can be prepared in advance. Dishes that go well with the champagne. Each recipe gives 20 portions.

White Ceviche

• 400 g filet of halibut
• 400 g of peeled shrimps
• 1 peeled and cored cucumber
• 4 spring onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 limes
• 1 dl olive oil
• 2 green apples peeled
• 1 green chili
• chives

Mix the oil, zest and juice from the lime. Add finely chopped chili and garlic. Cut the fish and the shrimps into 5×5 mm dices and add to the marinate. Chop all ingredients into small dices and add to the fish. Flavour with salt and pepper. Let it marinate for 30 min and then serve in small glasses.

Scallops with avocado cream

• 10 scallops
• 2 avocados
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• zest from one lemon
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 vanilla pod (only the seeds)

Mix avocados, lemon juice and zest, oil and the seeds from the vanilla pod in a blender to a purée. Flavour with salt and pepper.

Fry the scallops 30 sec on each side. Serve on a spoon.

Toast Skagen

• 500 g shrimps
• 1 dl creme fraiche
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cl cognac
• 50 g white fish roe (can be excluded)
• 1 baguette
• butter
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• dill
• 1 lemon

Peel the shrimps. Make a sauce out of the creme fraiche, tomato paste, cognac, mayonnaise and half of the roe. Flavour with salt and pepper. Roast slices of baguette. Let them cold and butter. The butter is only needed if you like to prepare the dish before the guests arrive (it prevents the bread from getting soaky).

Arrange the sauce onto the bread. Add two shrimps on each bread, the rest of the roe, some red onion, dill and squeeze some lemon juice over each bread.

Gravad lax with horse-radish cream

• 500 g fillet of salmon
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp pink pepper
• 1 dl cream cheese
• 1 dl creme fraiche
• 3 dl fresh grated horse-radish

Cut the salmon in dices 2×2 cm. Put in a freezer bag. Add salt, sugar and pink pepper thickly grinded. Put in the refrigerator for 8 hours. Make a sauce out of cream cheese, creme fraiche and fresh horse-radish. Flavour with salt and pepper. When serving, remove redundant salt/sugar from the lax, and serve with the sauce. You could add some grinded pink pepper as decoration.

Foie gras, port wine reduction, figue jelly

• 50-100 g terrin of foie gras
• 1 baguette
• 200 g dried figues
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 150 g sugar
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• water
• 3 dl port wine

Start with the jelly. Chop the figues into small pieces. Cover with hot water and rest for 3 hours. Then add sugar, lemon juice and the vanilla pod (split it). Cook till you reach the wanted consistency.

Simmer the port wine until app. 2 tbsp remains. The consistency should be like syrup.

Cut the bread into 5 mm thin slices, roast and serve with foie gras, jelly and port wine reduction.

Music:

Flygande Jakob

One of the most googled dishes in Sweden. We just had to make it and it is good. Above all, your kids will love it! Why the name Flying Jakob? The dish was “invented” by a man named Ove Jakobsson who worked within the air-freight business.

Flygande Jakob

• 4 Chicken fillets, cut in pieces
• 3 dl Cream, 25-30 %
• 1 dl Chili sauce
• 2 Bananas
• 1 dl Peanuts
• 3 tbsp Mango Chutney
• 1 tbsp Curry
• 250 g Bacon

Set the oven at 225 degrees Celsius. Put everything but the bacon and the peanuts in an oven proof dish.  Place it at the bottom at the oven for approximately 20 minutes. In the meantime fry the bacon, and let them drain on kitchen paper to become really crisp.

When the dish in the oven is done, take it out and decorate it with bacon and peanuts. Serve together with rice!

Music: Listening to Daniel Adams-Ray’s record Svart, vitt och allt däremellen

Sunday Brunch

This is a calorie-explosion and will be the perfect friend after a tough night. We thought we should start off with something smooth for the stomach before we go all in on fat and salt. After a nice smoothie, herring, toasts with salmon, hang-over mix with egg followed.

Then we rolled out the red carpet for the Club sandwich accompanied with a gorgeous Bloody Mary. Since it is christmas time we finished off with homemade sweets.

Smoothie, Hangover-mix, Club sandwich and Rocky road

Raspberry smoothie

• 3 dl Yoghurt
• 1 dl frozen Raspberries
• 1 Banana
• 0,5 dl Pear juice
• 1-2 cm fresh Ginger
• 6-7 fresh Mint leaves

Throw everything in a blender. Done!

Hangover-mix

This dish is salty and fat and comes with spicy ketchup. All you need!

• 4 Potatoes chopped
• 1 red Onion chopped
• 100 g smoked Bacon
• 10 pickled Onions
• 4 light fried Eggs
• Ketchup
• Worcester sauce
• Tabasco
• fried Onion

Fry bacon in a pan. When it got colour, add potatoes and onions. Fry until it is cooked. Fry the egg sunny side up in another pan (the yolk should not coagulate). Cut the egg in smaller pieces and mix with potatoes, onion and bacon. Serve in a glass with fried onion and pickled onions. Mix 1 dl ketchup with 1/2 tbsp Worcester and some tabasco and use as flavouring.

Salmon mush

• 50 g smoked salmon cut into thin slices
• 5 cm peeled cucumber sliced into small pieces
• 4 tsp sour creme
• 1 tbsp cream cheese
• 1 tbsp horse-radish
• 1/2 tbsp mustard
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Mix all ingredients with a spoon. Add pepper and salt if needed. Serve on toasts with some dill on top.

Rocky road

• 300 g dark Chocolate (70 % cacao)
• 1 dl Peanuts
• 0,5 dl Pecans
• 1 fist mini Marshmallows
• 1 bag (200 g) Cream toffee

Melt the chocolate over water-bath in a bowl. Remove the bowl with the melted chocolate and blend with the other ingredients. Spread the mix onto a piece of oven paper and let it cool in the fridge. Cut the Rocky road in pieces and serve.

Want more brunch inspiration? Check this out!

Music: Listening to Kind of blue with Miles Davis

Lack of passion in your life?

Then you should try this smooth, fresh and tasty passion fruit Panna cotta.

Passion fruit Panna cotta

• 1 1/2 – 2 leaves of Gelatine
• 1 1/2 dl Cream
• 5 tbsp Sugar
• 3 dl Youghurt
• 1 Vanilla pod

Let the cream, the sugar and the vanilla pod come to a boil. Pull it away from the stove. Add the soaked leaves (soak them in cold water and squeeze out the water before blending them) of Gelatine and let them melt in the cream mixture.  Let it cool of a bit, remove the vanilla pod and add the youghurt.

Pour the mixture in soup  plates or in small bowls, leave them in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Passion fruit jelly

• 1 1/2 leaves of Gelatine
• 2 dl Passion fruit juice

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water, squeeze them and melt them carefully in a pot together with the passion fruit juice. Let it cool of a bit and poor the jelly carefully on top of your Panna cottas.

Before serving, scoop out half a passion fruit on each portion. You can also decorate with fresh mint leaves.

Minced lamb soup

We could eat this soup everyday. It is easy to make and taste really, really good. The original recipe comes from the Swedish chef Marcus Aujaulay, we have made some minor changes.

It works just as well with minced beef.

Minced lamb soup

• 500 g minced lamb (minced beef or pork, soy meat)
• 3-4 Potatoes
• 1-2 Carrots
• Red or white cabbage
• 1 Onion
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp Tomato paste
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin
• 1-2 Bay leaves
• 1 l Beef stock
• Salt and pepper
• Parsley
• Horse radish
• Youghurt

Cut the onion and the garlic, fry them in oil and butter. Add the minced meat, the potatoes and carrots cut in pieces.

Add tomato paste, cumin, bay leaves and the beef stock. Let it all boil until the potatoes and carrots are almost done. The last minutes of boiling add the finely sliced cabbage.

Season with salt and black pepper and serve together with yoghurt, chopped parsley and grated horse radish.

Movie: Eaten while watching The Messenger

Food for working girls?

I don’t really remember what they actually eat in the Working girl from 1998, but I think it might have been the first time I heard about dumplings or dim sum. It took me another 10 or 15 years before I tried my first one. But now I’m hooked. And the best of all is that they are quite easy to make at home.

Steamed dumplings with white fish and shrimps

• 12 Wonton wrappers
• 150 g Shrimps
• 200 g white Fish
• 1/2 Lemon grass
• 2 cm fresh Ginger
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 1 Egg white
• 1 Egg yolk

Decoration

• 1 Spring onion
• 1 Red chili or Sambal Olek
• Chopped peanuts

Dip sauce

• 1 Lime, the juice
• 1 dl Soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Sesame oil
• 1 grated Garlic clove

Use an electric mixer and mix fish, shrimps, lemon grass, ginger, garlic cloves and the egg white together. Place a teaspoon, or perhaps a little bit more, on to each Wonton wrapper, paint the edges with the egg yolk – press the four corners together and make a little twist to close the wrapper.

Use a bamboo steamer and place it in a pot with boiling water. Steam the wrappers for 5-6 minutes.

Pour the sauce on to a large plate and place the wrappers on top. Decorate with slices spring onion, chopped chili and chopped peanuts.

We ate these wrappers as a starter if you want them as a main course you have to double the recipe.

Music: Listening to Belle and Sebastians “Write about love”

Cheek to cheek

Heaven, I’m in heaven and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak..

This dish is fab! Make it, please you have to, you will not regret it. I promise!

Wild boar cheeks with truffled potatoe purée and onions confits

• 800 g Wild boar cheeks ( or cheeks from ox)
• 1 bottle of Red wine
• 1 l Veal broth
• 8 Shallots
• 1 dl Olive oil
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 8 Potatoes
• 2 dl Milk/cream
• 1 teaspoon Truffle oil
• 1 Spring onion
• twigs of Lemon thyme
• Butter
• Salt and Pepper

Clean the cheeks thoroughly, fry them in a pan with butter. Put them in a casserole and simmer them together with the wine and the broth for approximately two hours. Remove the cheeks and reduce the fluid to half. Before serving add finely chopped garlic.

Boil the peeled potatoes, mash them roughly before using an electric mixer. Pour the milk/cream and add it carefully so that you get a good consistency. Then add the truffle oil, salt and pepper.

Peel the shallots, fry them in a pan with the olive oil. Put the entire pot in the oven and let cook for 15 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius.

Serve with chopped spring onions and twigs of thyme.

Music: Listening to the amazing

10 most googled recipes in Sweden

Here follows the 10 most goggled recipes in Sweden. Surprisingly, not much has happened since the 80’s…

1. Tzatziki, greek yoghurt dish
2. Ugnspannkaka, a thick pancake made in the oven often with bacon
3. Flygande Jacob, a dish/ stew with chicken, bananas, peanuts, cream, bacon and chili sauce.
4. Kladdkakemuffins, mud cake cup cakes
5. Kycklingfilé i ugn, chicken fillet made in the oven
6. Kalopps, a Swedish beef stew served with beetroot
7. Korv Stroganoff, as beef Stroganoff but made with sausage instead
8. Morotskaka, carrot cake
9. Pizzadeg, pizza dough
10. Kladdig kladdkaka, sticky/ pasty mud cake

Despite all of our star chefs in Sweden this is apparently what we Swedes prefer on a daily basis.

Feast for all you sweet tooths out there

Ice cream three-in-one

• 12 cl Amaretto
• 4 cups Espresso
• 8 scoops Vanilla ice
• 12 Amaretto cookies (or other almond cookies)

Use caramel sauce as the finishing touch!

Raspberry meringue

• 2 dl fresh or frozen Raspberries
• 1 dl White wine
• 0,5 dl Sugar
• Cookie crumbles
• 0,5 Lemon, the zest
• Meringue mixture (3 egg whites, 2 dl sugar – whip to a firm mixture)

Boil the raspberries with wine and sugar. Pour the mixture in a glass, let it cool off. Whip the meringue mixture. Add a layer of cookie crumbles to the cool raspberries. The next layer is the meringue mixture. Burn the meringue preferably with a Creme brulé burner, if you don’t have one use the grill in your oven. Remember it shall not be warm just get a bit of a colour. Decorate with cookie crumbles and raspberries.

Grilled sponge cake with apple

• 4 slices Sponge cake, fried or grilled
• 2 pealed Apples, cut in pieces
• Sugar and butter to fry the apples
• a twig of fresh Rosemary
• 2 dl Yoghurt
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 0,5 Lemon, the zest
• Rosemary, finely chopped

Peal the apples and cut them in pieces, fry them in sugar and butter with a twig of rosemary. Blend the yoghurt with the honey and the finely chopped rosemary. Grill or fry the sponge cake so it gets a bit of colour.

Place the sponge cake on a plate, add the apple cubes on top and pour the yoghurt mix over.

Decorate with rosemary and lemon zest.

Music: Listening to The Searchers – Sweets for my sweet