Super Bowl recipes! 10 great classics!

Almost time for Super Bowl and it´s time to make some great tasting stuff that goes great with football, this time I will focus on some in my opinion classics like burgers, chicken wings and ribs!

I´ve put together a list of my favourites and below each photo below there is a link to the recipe in case you´ll need it. Most dishes are simple classics so if you´re just looking for some inspiration then you´ll found the right place.

If you´re only looking for some great tasting snacks to enjoy during the game then check out my previous post: 10 great Super Bowl snacks!

OK here we go....

Sliders, who doesn´t love sliders? Serving sliders is a great idea since your guests won´t be too full not to be able to enjoy all the other great stuff you will be serving. I prefer the with classic toppings like lettuce, cheese and tomato.

Sliders!

Crab claws are great to serve since you won´t need to worry about serving them hot, this recipe with a classic aioli and some salt is all that you´ll need.

Crab claws with aioli and salt.

Grilled corn on the cob (how else would you grill them?) with a generous amount of butter, herbs and chili is a barbecue classic and fits great for the Super Bowl.

Grilled corn on the cob with chili and parsley.

A meatball sandwich with loads of Parmesan cheese can be wrong, either serve them like this or just serve bread on the side with the meatballs still in the sauce, this will keep the meatballs warm for longer and your guests can make their own sandwiches.

Meatball sandwich with Parmesan and herbs.

Well it´s salad time, don´t worry since these iceberg wedges are getting a good splash of dressing and some blue cheese on the side you will still like it.

Iceberg lettuce with blue cheese.

You didn´t think I would leave out the chicken wings did you?

Fried chicken wings with Sriracha sauce.

Or the ribs?

Ribs with lettuce and tomatillo and chipotle sauce.

Tortilla bread packed with ham and cheese are a great snack that is easy to prepare.

Tortilla bread with cheese and serrano ham.

I love fries, especially home made and if you try this recipe I´m sure you will to, besides what else are you serving up with those sliders?

French fries with truffle mayonnaise.

Last one, home made onion rings deep fried with Japanese Panko. Crunchy and great tasting.

Onion rings.

Blood orange, beet and fennel salad #155

Blood oranges are in season so it´s time to put some of these delicious fruits into good use. What I like about blood oranges is the extra acidity that make them great for using in more savory dishes. The salad is very simple, raw yellow beets, shaved fennel and a vinaigrette made from the juice from the blood orange, olive oil and a little bit of salt and pepper.

Blood orange, beet and fennel salad

blood oranges
fennel
yellow beets
cress
chives
olive oil
salt, pepper

Cut away the skin of the orange and cut out each wedge leaving only the meat of the orange. Squeeze the leftovers of the orange and set the juice aside. Wash the fennel and the shave thin slices of it using an potato peeler. If you are preparing this dish ahead of time you can put the fennel in some cold water with a little bit of lemon juice to keep it crunchy. It will loose a bit of it´s flavor so the best thing is to do it just before serving. Peel the beets and wash them then slice thin slices with the potato peeler.

Combine the orange wedges, fennel and beets and add a little bit of cress and sliced chives. Season with salt and pepper. Add olive oil, salt and pepper to the orange juice and add a little bit of vinaigrette to the salad.
Serve.

10 great Super Bowl snacks!

Super Bowl is just around the corner and what greater opportunity to put a little bit of extra effort into some great snacks! Below you will find my personal top ten favorites that will be great snacks when enjoying the game. For each picture there´s a link that you can follow if any of the snacks look to complicated, have a great Super Bowl and may the best team win!

First let´s start with something very simple, some roasted pumpkin seeds with sea salt.

Roasted pumpkin seeds with salt.

And follow it with a little bit of vegetables (don´t worry there´s chips and other great stuff coming right up).

Radishes with cream cheese and herbs.

And you just can´t get tired of edamame beans can you?

Edamame beans with salt.

Now for a classic with a twist, home made potato chips with a spicy Sriracha dip!

Potato chips with herb salt and Sriracha dip.

And who doesn´t love popcorn with lime and chili butter!

Popcorn with chili butter and lime.

 

No snack table is complete without some of this delicious middle eastern classic.

Hummus on toast.

Nachos, gotta love it!

Nachos with peppers and avocado mayonnaise.

Broccoli is probably not what you´re thinking of when planning you Super Bowl snack selection, but then make some room, this is great stuff.

Broccoli with Sriracha mayonnaise.

Home made grissini wrapped in delicious Parma ham.

Grissini with Parma ham and cream cheese.

And why not some more crostinis, this time with a garlic packed white bean dip!

Crostini with white bean dip.

Braised calamari with tomatoes, chili and garlic #154

Calamari is not something I eat very often, I do love the flavor but it somehow seems like I forget how great it can be. Serving it like this just slow cooked with tomatoes, chili, garlic and some herbs is a great way to enjoy calamari. 

If you have guests that don´t like it I highly recommend to try to serve this recipe with some pasta, do like in the recipe but instead of leaving the calamari whole then chop them up in small pieces. This will give you a rich great tasting pasta sauce that most people who claim they don´t like calamari will love. Usually people don´t like it due to the texture and once chopped up you have eliminated the problem.

However if you are serving the way I have in this recipe then leave them whole or in bigger pieces if you can´t find small calamari. The ideal size is one bite for each calamari.

Braised calamari with tomatoes, chili and garlic

calamari, as small as you can find or bigger cut in bite size pieces

high quality canned tomatoes, crushed

olive oil

garlic

fresh red chili

parsley

thyme

salt, pepper

Slice garlic cloves, part and remove the seeds from the chili and the slice it. Add olive oil, garlic, chili and the calamari to a frying pan and let it cook for about ten minutes on low to medium heat. Add a few leafs of parsley, thyme some salt and pepper. 

Then add the canned tomatoes and turn down the heat to low and slowly simmer the calamari for about one hour. Remove from the heat and let cool of for a little while, add some julienne of parsley and serve warm.

Portobello mushroom toast with gruyere cheese #153

This is a very simple toast with only one Portobello mushroom and some Gruyere cheese on top that has been gratinated and served on a toast. Portobello mushrooms are a good choice since they are bigger than most other kinds of mushroom so you can serve mushroom for each toast.

The Gruyere cheese is simply amazing and one of my favorite cheeses, however if you can´t find it you can replace with some other mature hard cheese like Parmesan, Comté or English Cheddar.

Portobello mushroom toast with Gruyere cheese

white bread for toast
Gruyere cheese
butter
portobello mushroom
salt, pepper

Remove the stem from the mushroom and fry it in a pan on both sides in butter, season with salt and pepper. Slice the toast and fry it in a pan with a little bit of butter and place the portobello mushroom on top. Grate a generous amount of Gruyere on top of the toast and then gratinate it in the oven. Once the cheese starts to get brown, remove from the oven and serve.

Popcorn with chili butter and lime #152

Popcorn may not be your average tapas dish but I think it´s really fun way to change things up when serving some tapas before dinner or during drinks. I usually do my popcorn the traditional way but this recipe can also be made using microwave popcorn but then get some without butter flavor since you will be adding actual butter there´s no need to sabotage it with the artificial (yet sometimes tasty) flavor of fake butter.

I use cayenne pepper and some chili flakes for seasoning my butter but you can of course change it to any kind you´ll like. For the lime flavor I only use some lime zest because it gives the butter a great taste and if you were to add lime juice it´s always a risk that it will make some of the popcorn get soggy.

Popcorn with chili butter and lime

popcorn corn
vegetable oil
butter
cayenne pepper
chili flakes
lime zest
salt

Start with making the butter, melt butter in a pan and add the cayenne and chili flakes and turn up the heat until it´s starting to brown. Remove the butter from the heat and add the lemon zest. Season the butter with salt and taste.

Pop the popcorn in vegetable oil the normal way, as soon as they´re popped then add the butter and give the popcorn a good shake to make sure they all get a little bit of butter on them. Serve immediately.

Green pea soup with cream & Champagne #151

Green peas is one of the few great stuff that you can buy frozen. It´s a great vegetable to use for loads of stuff and making a habit of having some sitting in the freezer is always a good idea. I usually use peas to make sure I always eat some extra vegetables and you can add it to lots of dishes. One of my favorite recipes that I do at least a few times every year is a pasta with bacon, green peas and feta cheese. You don´t even need a recipe to do it, just fry bacon, add cooked pasta, peas and some feta cheese and serve.

You can also do other stuff like smashed peas on toast that I´ve posted before here on Delicious Tapas, check that recipe by following the link. Smashed peas on toast recipe.

OK, on with the soup which is very easy to make, only thing you need to worry about is not to keep it warm for too long since this will make the green color go dark. If you are preparing it ahead of serving then chill it before and then quickly heat it before serving.

Green pea soup with cream & Champagne

frozen green peas
Champagne (or any dry sparkling white wine)
onion
butter
light chicken stock or vegetable stock
cream
milk
lemon juice
salt, pepper

Dice the onion and saute it on low heat in butter until it´s soft, add the peas and cover with chicken stock a little bit of milk and cream and quickly bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and mix the soup and then strain the soup through a sieve to get rid of any bigger pieces. Season the soup with salt, pepper and a little bit of lemon juice.

Whip the cream until it thickens, you don´t want to whip it too hard, just the get it semi-thick, the cream is suppose to almost melt when you add it to the soup. Add about two spoonfuls of Champagne to a glass and then pour over the soup. Top the soup with the whipped cream. Serve.

Potato cream with truffle and brussel sprouts #150

This is more or less a full main course served without the meat. It´s a potato cream seasoned with truffles which actually really is a slightly thinner potato mash with loads of fat that I seasoned with truffles. On top is a red wine sauce and on top I´ve put some leafs of brussle sprouts that is quickly sauteed in butter with a little bit of salt and pepper.

The biggest challenge with the dish is to get your hands on a good beef stock. I usually save all my beef trimmings in the freezer and once in a while defrost it all and make a huge batch of beef stock that I then freeze in smaller plastic jars so if I get the urge for some red wine sauce I have some stock ready. If you´re not into making your own stocks buy the best one you can find and make sure it´s not to salty since you will reduce it when you make the sauce. If you´re friendly with a good restaurant you could ask to buy a little bit straight from the kitchen.

The way I serve it in a glass jar is also a great way to serve this as a side to meat, it looks very elegant and you can prepare a bit before serving.

Potato cream with truffle and brussel sprouts

potatoes
cream
butter
black truffles (or truffle oil)
beef stock
carrots
onion
garlic
red wine
brussel sprouts
salt
pepper

Peel and boil the potatoes in salted water, when done discard the water and let the water dry out for a few seconds. Whisk or press the potatoes into a cream with cream, butter, salt and pepper. Finally season the cream with the truffles.

Dice carrots, onion and garlic and saute on medium heat for a few minutes until golden, add red wine and reduce on medium heat until only a fourth of the wine is left. Add the beef stock and reduce on low heat until it´s heavily reduced and starts to thicken. You will only need a spoonful for each serving so don´t be afraid to reduce it too much, as long as you don´t burn the sauce you can always add a little bit of water. Run the sauce through a strainer to get rid of the vegetables.

Remove the leafs from the brussel sprouts and saute them quickly in some butter with a little bit of salt and pepper. Serve.

Carpaccio of beef with arugula and balsamic vinegar #149

Carpaccio is one of my favorite classics that I always tend to go back to in one way or the other. I´ve made a lot of different toppings but I always seems to be going back to the classics which in my case is plenty of good olive oil, arugula, Parmigginano-Reggiano and a little bit of balsamic vinegar. Carpaccio is said to have been invented in the fifties at Harrys Bar in Venice, Italy and according to Wikipedia it was usually served with lemon, olive oil, Parmesan and can be topped with arugula so I guess this is not to far from the original. Also if you´re not that into balsamic vinegar replace it with lemon as stated by Wikipedia since this is really good as well.

As for the meat I always use beef tenderloin, you can use other cuts as well but I prefer the tenderloin. If you like you can also sear the meat before slicing and serving to give it a bit of grilled flavor. There are two ways of slicing the meat, one you can do as I did and simply just slice it as thin as you can and lightly press it using the blade of the knife to get it a bit thinner.

In restaurants you usually prepare the meat and then freeze it and slice it frozen or semi-frozen on an electric slicer. This will give you the opportunity to serve it thinner sliced but since most people don´t have an good electric slicer at home you´ll have to settle for the hand cut version. Another technique is to cut a bit thicker piece and then place it between to sheets of plastic film and pound it with a flat meat tenderizer. This is quite time consuming and you have to have a very stable surface to pound on to get a good result.

Although my recipe is quite classic the term Carpaccio has during the last ten to twenty years transformed into meaning more the technique of serving something very thinly sliced than the actual dish of sliced meat. So when you read Carpaccio on a menu next time it´s not a wild guess that it might be followed by something other than beef tenderloin. If you have been following my blog you might have seen that I do like this technique for other stuff just as everybody else, if not check out my other Carpaccios using the links below.

Cod carpaccio with capers and red onion
Tuna carpaccio with capers and cress
Beet carpaccio with deep fried capers and arugula

Alright, lots of talk on carpaccio, on with the recipe!

Carpaccio of beef with arugula and balsamic vinegar

fresh beef tenderloin
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Parmesan cheese (Parmiggiano-Reggiano)
arugula
salt
pepper

Trim off any excess meat of the tenderloin and slice it as thin as you can using a sharp knife, you can make the slices a bit thinner if you use the blade of the knife and press each slice a little bit extra. Put the slices directly on the plate you´re serving on and add olive oil and the vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and then add the arugula and grate an generous amount of Parmesan on top. Good luck!

Pork belly with red cabbage #148

Pork belly is as always a great way to serve pork, as always with cuts like this try to do a little bit extra so you can serve leftovers a day or two later. Why? Well the taste is amazing and since the belly needs to be cooked for about a day there is no extra effort in to doing a bit extra once you do it. Also it´s better to do the meat one day ahead of serving to give it time to set and get cold. This will make it easier to cut in serving size pieces and the won´t fall apart as easy.

Pork belly with red cabbage

fresh pork belly
red cabbage
butter
salt, pepper
vegetable oil
sugar

Season the pork belly with salt and pepper and roast whole in the oven on low to medium heat until it´s tender. This will take somewhere between six and ten hours. Leave it to chill in the fridge over night. Cut the belly in serving size pieces and remove and excessive fat. Sear the belly in butter and vegetable oil in a pan until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut the cabbage in big chunks but remove any thick stems. Fry the cabbage with salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar in butter until almost cooked through. You want to keep a little bit of crunch but still have it soft and without the raw cabbage taste. Serve.