Winter salad with mustard and vinegar #189

It's time for a winter salad, it's simple tasty and let's you use some of the delicious vegetables that you might not use for salads that often. It's very simple, peel and wash root vegetables. Slice them thin and make a vinaigrette with mustard and red wine vinegar, combine with the vegetables and serve. 

Here it is served as a tapas but this is almost better as a side for that fatty Christmas food or Sunday roast with the relatives, since it's quite acidic the salad could also replace pickled vegetables, maybe put on a burger?

Winter salad with mustard and vinegar

root vegetables, use your favorites, I used yellow beets, purple carrots, carrots and celeriac

mustard

brown and yellow mustard seeds

parsley

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt, pepper

Peel and wash the vegetables and then slice thin using a potato peeler, combine in a bowl. Combine olive oil, mustard, vinegar and mustard seeds, chop the parsley and add to the vinaigrette. Season and adjust the flavors to your own liking, I make it a bit more acidic than a normal vinaigrette and quite a bit of mustard so the salad gets a little sting, add salt and pepper and combine the vinaigrette with the vegetables, serve.

Calamari salad with sesame seeds, fennel, cucumber & chili #182

Hello, it´s time for some calamari, this time I am serving it in a salad with Asian flavors. It is fairly simple to make, the base is chopped cucumber, fennel and seared calamari and then I added toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, sesame oil, chili and some seaweed. 

The salad keeps for a few hours in the fridge so it is a good dish to have prepared beforehand, also if you´re serving guests who are not big fans of calamari it is a great way to learn to like it since it´s not the dominant flavor of the dish. Some people don´t like the texture of calamari either and since it´s chopped and seared it is not so noticeable.

Calamari salad with sesame seeds, fennel, cucumber & chili

calamari, fresh or frozen

sesame seeds

fresh red chili

cucumber

fennel

sesame oil

dried wakame seaweed (can be found in most Asian food stores)

olive oil

salt, pepper

fresh cilantro

fresh lime

Chop the calamari into cubes and sear in a frying pan with some vegetable oil, season with salt and pepper. Once cooked add the calamari to a bowl and dice the cucumber and slice the fennel and add to the bowl. Dice the chili and cilantro and add together with some olive oil, sesame oil and lime juice.

Bring water to the boil in a pot and add some dried wakame seaweed, let it simmer for one minute, discard the water and rinse the wakame in cold water, then chop the seaweed and add to the salad.

In a dry pan roast the sesame seeds until they are golden, once done add to the bowl and combine all ingredients, adjust flavors using oil, salt, pepper and lime if necessary. Be a bit careful with the chili since it takes a while for the flavors to come forward.

Spinach salad with capers, Parmesan cheese and radishes #169

This is one of my absolute favorite salads, mostly because the first time I made it was using vegetables that I grew myself. After living in an apartment for years and not having the luxury of being blessed with a garden me and my family decided to move to a house in a smaller town. This blessed us with a garden and it was one of the first things I started working on (even though there were load of other more important things to do) and about a month or two later i pulled my first radishes and baby spinach out of the land and went for a treasure hunt in my fridge. 

I came across some left over capers and I always try to have some Parmesan at hand so I combined it all and dressed it with only olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. One of the greatest salads I´ve ever come up with. And it´s not only memories that make it great, I´ve done many times after using both home grown and bought ingredients and it great every time, so go make some!

Spinach salad with capers, Parmesan cheese and radishes

baby leaf spinach

radishes

Parmesan cheese

capers

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt

pepper

Rinse the spinach and radishes, slice the radishes as thin as you can. Dress the spinach with olive oil and vinegar. Plate the spinach and put the sliced radishes on top. Shave some Parmesan on top and add the capers. Season with salt and pepper and add a few extra drops of olive oil.

10 Easter appetizers!

Easter is up and what better way to spend it but eating loads of delicious food. I´ve put together some of my spring and easter favorites into this great collection, after each photo there is a link where you will find the recipe, now go cook and have a great easter!



Salmon with cucumber, dill and wasabi



Crayfish salad with dill on toast



Grilled asparagus with Parmesan cheese



Smashed peas with mint on toast



Soused herring with egg, chives and potatoes



Fennel, shrimp, carrot and orange salad with dill



Soft boiled egg with broad beans and shrimp



Gazpacho salad



Lamb with goat cheese and herbs



Caesar salad

Caesar salad #157

It´s time for a classic, few salads can beat a classic Caesar salad and it´s it works really good served as a starter or tapas dish. Usually I do it as a side dish to grilled meats during the summer but now it was time to let this classic get all the attention. Instead of croutons I used a fresh white bread and sliced it a thin as I could using a normal kitchen knife, then roasting it in a pan with a little bit of butter. This make the croutons a little less hard to chew on and I prefer them that way for this dish. Besides that just make the bacon crispy, get great cheese and romaine lettuce. I got my hands on some really small ones that was perfect for this serving size, if you can´t find small ones then get normal size and just cut them up in smaller pieces.

Caesar salad

romaine lettuce

Parmesan cheese

bacon

white bread

butter

Dressing

2 anchovy fillets

1 egg yolk

1 clove of garlic

1/2 cup neutral oil, I use rapeseed oil

lemon juice, salt, pepper

water

2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese 

Using a blender mix egg yolk, anchovy and garlic, then slowly add the oil until the dressing thickens. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice, then add the Parmesan cheese. If the dressing gets to thick then thin it with a few drops of water.

Wash and cut the lettuce if necessary, slice the bread thin and roast until golden in a frying pan. Fry the bacon until it´s crisp. Combine the lettuce with the dressing and then arrange lettuce, crouton slices, bacon and some extra Parmesan cheese on a plate, serve. Good luck.

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.

Pickled pear with blue cheese and rye bread #112

Pears are in season and if you´re lucky enough to have your own tree then you will probably have to much, so why not pickle a few. I only served this kind of sweet pickled pears as an dessert before, usually with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

But since I got my hands on some high quality blue cheese I decided to try it with the pears. With some fresh slightly bitter endive and some roasted rye bread it turned out great.

The recipe is for ten pears but if and they will keep for a while in the fridge so make some extra. They will come handy. I also added some measurements for this recipe because when it comes to pickling it´s hard to adjust flavors once it´s done.

Pickled pear with blue cheese and rye bread

10 fresh firm pears
1 lemon
250 grams of sugar
a pinch of saffron (used mainly for colour, can be excluded)
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla pod
200 ml white wine
1000 ml water

endive salad
rye bread
blue cheese

Cut away the bottom of the pears and peel them, put them in cold water together with some lemon juice to keep them from browning. Combine sugar, cinnamon stick, vanilla pod, water, white wine, saffron and bring it to a boil. Add the peeled pears and simmer until cooked through, it usually takes about half an hour.
Remove the pears from the heat and let cool in the liquid.

Rinse the salad and remove a leaf, trim if necessary. Cut a big piece of blue cheese and put on top of the salad. Dice some rye bread and toast in a dry pan until crunchy, put the bread on top of the cheese and serve.

Salad with shrimps, fennel, carrots & orange #109

A newly discovered salad for me, I tried similar salads before especially with oranges and carrots but the addition of fennel and shrimps took it to another level. Serve it on it´s own or as an side or on a buffé table.

Salad with shrimps, fennel, carrots & orange

carrots
fennel
fennel dill
oranges
olive oil
salt, black pepper
fresh shrimps

Peel the shrimps, peel and shave the carrots. Pick the dill from the fennel and then slice it thin. Cut away the peel from the orange and cut fillets. Squeeze what´s left of the orange and combine the orange juice with some olive oil, a little bit of salt and black pepper. Combine all ingredients and season to taste. Serve.

Grilled romaine lettuce with Sriracha and feta cheese #83

This is a great way to serve salad, especially to people who claim they don´t like it. The recipe works just as well as an appetizer or side for grilled meats or fish. 

Grilled romaine lettuce with Sriracha and feta cheese

romaine lettuce

Sriracha sauce, or your favorite hot sauce

feta cheese

vegetable oil

salt, pepper

Take away the outer leafs of the salad and cut the salad into wedges, make sure each wedge get to keep a bit of the root, this will make the wedges hold together when you grill them. Brush each wedge with some vegetable oil, salt and pepper and grill on both sides on high heat for about ten seconds. The salad should be warm but not cooked through.

Put each wedge on a plate and crumble feta cheese on top and add the Sriracha, good luck.