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

Sailor’s beef – beer week #4

Sailor’s beef was first documented in Sweden at the beginning of the 19th century. It is an easy course to make and that is the reason why it was possible to make it at sea.

Sailor’s beef

• 8-10 Potatoes, peeled and sliced into 0,5 cm slices
• 600 g Beef Roulade, cut in 10 cm pieces
• 2 large Onions, sliced
• 1-2 dl Water
• 3 dl Beer
• 1 beef Stock cube
• Butter
• 1-2 Bay leaves
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parsley, chopped
• Pickled gherkin, sliced lengthwise

Peel and slice the potatoes, fry the onion rings in butter in a pan – not to hard only so that they get soft. Fry the meat in the pan until it has colour, add salt and pepper to the meat.

Use a cast iron pot and make 2-3 layers of potatoes, onion and meat. Pour the water in to the recently used pan and whisk out the flavours from frying onion and meat. Pour the fluid in the pot together with the beer. Add bay leaves.

Let come to a boil and let simmer until the meat is tender, approximately 1 hour.

Serve with chopped parsley and sliced pickled gherkin. Enjoy!

Finally the R-months are here!

It is said that you should only eat sea mussels when the month’s spelling contains the letter r. And now we have September!

Moules marinés

• 2 kg Sea mussels
• 2 Shallot
• fresh Thyme
• 3-4 dl White wine
• 1 dl Cream
• 1 Carrot, sliced
• 2 Celery stems, sliced
• Olive oil
• 1-2 Bay leaves
• Salt
• Pepper

Start by scrubbing the mussels and make sure to throw away the open ones. Heat up the olive oil in a pan and add the mussels, stir. Add the rest of the ingredients; veggies, spices, wine and cream.

Let the mussels boil/ steam until they are open. Serve the mussels in a large bowl and decorate with chopped parsley, lemon zest and grated garlic.

Home made deep-fried potatoes

• 4-5 Potatoes
• Deep-fry oil
• Salt

Cut the potatoes in pieces/ batons. Use a pot or a saucepan with a thick bottom, heat up the oil. To test if the oil is hot enough throw in a piece oaf white bread. The bread should be ready after approximately 1 minute in the oil.

Fry the potatoes twice. The first time for 2-3 minutes, let them cool off in between, and the second time until they are golden.Let them drain on a kitchen paper and add salt.

When deep-frying always keep a lid nearby in case the oil gets to warm and if you have one, a fire blanket. In case of an accident do not use water!

Chili Mayonnaise

• 3 Egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon Mustard
• 1 teaspoon Vinegar
• 2-3 dl Rape oil
• 1 teaspoon Sambal Olek
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Lemon juice

Make sure that all the ingredients have the same temperature before you start. Blend egg yolks with mustard and vinegar. Use an electric mixer and very carefully add the rape oil in a fine jet.  When you feel you have a good consistency add Sambal olek, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Blend and taste it.

Music: The swedish band Movits with their song Äppelknyckarjazz

Tafelspitz with seasonal veggies

Tafelspitz

• 1 kg Tafelspitz (beef from ox) or roast beef
• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 1 clove Celeriac
• 1 Leek
• 8-10 Parsley stalks
• fresh Thyme
• 2 Bay leaves
• 8-10 White peppercorns
• Salt

Cover the meat with water in a saucepan. Bring it to boil for a few minutes. Take the meat out and rinse it with water. Put the meat back in the saucepan with new water, make it boil again.

In the meantime prepare the vegetables and spices. Cut the onion, the leek, the celeriac and the carrot in smaller pieces. Add it all into the water and simmer together with the meat for 1,5 – 2 hours.

After 2 hours take out the meat and let it cool, strain the stock and save it for another time. Put the meat back in the saucepan and put a weight on it, for example a mortar. Leave it for a couple of hours.

Sauce

• 2 hardboiled Eggs
• 1 Red onion
• 2 tbsp Capers
• 1 dl Parsley
• 1 small Pickled gherkin
• 2 tbsp Horse radish

We served our Tafelspitz with potatoes, carrots, leek and radishes that we boiled in the stock.

Music: Salem al Fakir’s singel – Keep on Walking

We’re making meatballs

Meatballs with mashed potatoes, cream sauce, pressed and pickled cucumber and lingonberry jam was served to us by our grandmothers and mothers. And I guess it will always be a favorite. Forget the ones from IKEA. This is the real thing!

Meatballs

• 500 g minced Beef
• 2 Egg
• 1 tbsp Mustard
• 1 bread Roll, only the content (or other fresh white bread)
• 0,5-1 decilitre Milk or Cream
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
• 5-6 Cloves
• 5-6 Pimentos
• Salt
• Black pepper

Blend everything together, crush the pimento and the clove in a mortar, let the mixture draw for a few minutes. Form the meatballs with wet hands and fry them in a pan with butter.

Mashed potatoes

• 8-10 Potatoes
• 1 decilitre Yoghurt
• 1-2 decilitre Milk
• a knob of Butter
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• Black pepper

Boil the potatoes, when they’re done pull out the water and mash the potatoes. Use an electric mixer, add a knob of butter, nutmeg and yoghurt and mix. Gradually add the milk until you get preferred consistency. Spice it with salt and black pepper.

Pressed and pickled cucumber

• 1 Cucumber
• 1-2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 decilitre Water
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 2 tbsp Vinegar essence
• Parsley

Slice the cucumber thinly, put it in a bowl with the salt. Put a lid (or a plate) on top of the cucumbers and add a weight to press it down. Leave it for 30 minutes. Blend water, sugar and vinegar essence.

Pour out the water from the pressed cucumber and put the cucumber in a glass jar, add chopped parsley and pour the fluid into the jar. Leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours before you eat it.

Brown sauce

• Cream
• Beef broth
• Soy sauce
• Sauce thickener
• Salt
• Black pepper

Make the sauce in the pan where you fried the meatballs without washing it in between. Add the ingredients depending of your own taste, you can of course exchange the cream for milk. Stir everything until you have a nice consistency and a tasty sauce.

The lingonberry jam is bought in Sweden and not homemade.

Music: CEO – the swede Eric Berglund – and his latest record White Magic.