Off for my vacation...

Now im off to Aarhus, another city in Denmark, and then Sam and I are going to berlin. So, i wont be back for a while, and well im NOT bringing my computer. Its vacation and family time, so good bye big internet with all your information...for at least a little bit.

On another note, cookbook prep is going well and we home to have one out by March.

Cheerio and have a merry old time.

after work munchies...

so finishing a late night shift can kind of suck. but coming back and getting a few things and making some pretty simple but tasty things. I needed fruit, milky thing and popcorn.


I started by making popcorn adding the following too taste.

• salt
• pepper
• olive oil

The smoothie was made with

• 2/3 cup vanilla turkish yoghurt
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I then blended it with a blender. and just drank it straight from the container i made it in.

I then had some mangoes (which i got from my local grocery shop) and small cucumbers.

Jewish Jelly Doughnuts...

so for hannukah...ohh yea its hannukah right now...i have started to play around with some recipes. Now the first one i am trying is the Jewish Jelly Doughnut...or Sufganiyot.

i started by adding

• 50 g of yeast
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup of warm water

into a small bowl and let it sit for 10 min. While its sitting i got a big bowl and added

• 4 cups of flour (and made a little well at the bottom)
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 eggs
• 100 g of melted butter ( or room temp)
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 2 tsp of salt

Mixing it all with a wooden spoon and then adding the warm yeast mixture. Once in a clump I started to knead it out, and added a lot of flour during the kneading cause it was a little wet. I knead (or however you say/spell it) for 10 min getting a pretty big work out and then oiled it slightly and let it sit and rise for an hour and a half.

Once risen i rolled them out and than i added a little jam and tried to make sure there were no edges, it was a smooth ball stuffed with jelly. Now this is REALLY hard, so i have a couple other suggestions.

First of all just roll them up into small balls (size of a big but not huge thumb) and put them in a heated pan of oil. They will rise up, cook and then you can either

• slit the doughnuts and scoop jam into it
• inject jam with some sort of syringe (you may need to blend it first)

Now the cooking in oil is pretty simple, just turn some vegetable oil to med-high in a pan and add the balls. They should fry up, and make sure to turn them constantly so they dont over cook in one area. Now i dont use too much oil, BUT only use up to a max of 1/2 inch of oil in pan. Seriously, there is no point in overdoing it.

they should take 6 min to fry, maybe less.

Once they are fried, I drained them on some newspaper and sprinkled some confectioners sugar on top.

potato leek soup

So for those who are not in Copenhagen...its snowing in Copenhagen. but not the nice fluffy stuff in the real cold, the stuff that does n0t stick and just gets wet and makes people cold. Of course, i decided to make soup and geeze it was tasty. Now its not the final recipe for potato leek soup, but it works pretty well. Im gonna make another batch in a couple days, and we shall see which one i prefer.

I started by adding a tbs of butter to a pot at med heat so it melt. Turning up heat and adding

• adding 2 leeks (chopped up and rinsed so free from dirt)
• 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped up)
  

stirring that around and then adding

• 2 large potatoes (chopped up) and stir again for a couple min at med/high heat
  
• 1 L of cold water with a chicken stock boullion
  
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of pepper

now let it cook for another 30ish min. once boiling, lower temp and let simmer.

now blend it all together so it becomes smooth.

Enjoy!

sesame green beans

these green beans were actually frozen when i started...but i dont suggest using frozen ones. fresh ones would be so much better, but alas my fridge was empty therefore i needed to route around in the freezer.

I started by frying up slice of bacon that was diced up...(had it in my fridge) so the fat would be released.

I then added

• 1 clove of finely chopped garlic
• the green beans
  
• a couple drops of sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp of maple syrup

i stirred that all around and added a large handful of beans
(if frozen then defrost first in hot water, if fresh then add a tbs of water to mixture here)
finally i added

• 1 tsp white sesame seeds
• 1 tsp black sesame seeds
• 2 tsp of soy sauce
  

i then fried that all up for a couple min and added a little bit of sprouts.

beets

so at this conference i have been thinking about all the meat i usually eat. like i love meat, but if it is as bad to the environment as many people are saying, well maybe i should cut it down. So i have decided to not become vegetarian, but to cut down the amount of meat that i do eat, and if i do buy meat that i get good meat and use it properly.

These beets were baked in my mini oven (to save some electricity) for 45ish min. then i sliced it up and added a sauce that consisted of.

• tbs olive oil
• tsp balsamic vinegar
• tsp hot sauce
• pinch salt/pepper
• touch of Worcestershire sauce
• tsp mustard

it was exactly what i needed after day of working at huks fluks.

enjoy

sesame fried tofu

so i have been going to the climate conference in Copenhagen and have started to think about the environment a bit. Meat...well takes up a large amount of energy to produce, so basically i need to eat less of it. so i decided to make some sesame fried tofu.

Start off by getting two bowls

fill one with a beaten egg
fill the other with

• touch of salt
• bunch of flour
• bunch of sesame seeds (black and white)
  

start by

1. dicing (1/2 inch) and draining tofu
2. dip tofu into beaten egg
3. from egg cover in flour/sesame seed mixture (make sure all covered and dry)
   
4. putting on another plate before frying

add a tbs of veggie oil to a pan and turn to high.

once hot place tofu into pan and continue to cook/flip till slightly brown on all sides.

Once all the tofu was fried i put some

• chinese chives
• diced ginger

some bok choi..im pretty sure and then added a touch of water too cook it all up.

Now enjoy with some rice.

rice pudding

now this is one of the simplest dishes to make if you have some spare rice.

there are like 3 steps.

1. put it into a saucepan at med heat
2. add tsp cinnamon, tsp sugar, a little milk
3. stir around and serve a little heated up

now enjoy

Chili...

So i made cornbread...and chili. the cornbread recipe is already up. check this.

The chili took a while, and was actually better the next day...so make it before you want it cause well its tasty the longer it lasts.

i started by getting a big pot, turning to med-high heat and adding

• frying a handful of chopped bacon
• adding 2 small onions chopped finely
• stirring till onions become translucent and bacon is kinda cooked
• adding in 400 g of ground beef...(thats what i had in fridge from *unknown*)
• stirring again so beef gets broken up and starts to cook
• adding 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

now you can start to add spices. i actually added

• 2 tsp of jerk powder
• 2 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of pepper
• some 5 spice..just for the hell of it

i stirred that all up i added

• 2 chopped tomatoes
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbs of tomato paste
• 2 cans of beans (1 cannelloni. 1 red kidney)...with water it was in
  
• 1 yellow pepper sliced up
• 2 sprigs of celery chopped up small
• some water

now turn it up till it boils and then down to simmer and let it simmer for a LONG time. a couple hours should be fine.

Now enjoy with some cornbread.

cornbread...

so i made chili...which i will post later and of course i needed to make cornbread. It was the perfect side to some tasty chili or really anything.

it was pretty simple...except trying to find cornmeal in denmark is REALLY hard.

start by mixing

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of cornmeal
• 2.5 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of salt

then stir in.

• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of sugar/sugar syrup/maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of butter/veggie oil

now pour this mixture into a greased baking pan. around square 9 inch could work great.

put in oven at 400 F for 20-25 min.

Enjoy!

curried eggs and bacon

so i have been told that breakfast is the most vital meal of the day. Sadly, i dont treat it as such...but every once in a while a good breakfast, is well...great.

This breakfast was simple...bacon eggs and some mushrooms

• i started by frying bacon in a pan at med heat, putting bacon on when pan is cold.
• the fatty juices come out and made two pans worth of bacon.
• once bacon was out and draining i added a handful of chopped onion to pan
• i stirred that around and added some chopped mushrooms
• kept stirring and added: curry powder, salt and pepper
• finally i beat 2 eggs in a bowl and added that to the mix a couple min later
• i mixed it all around like scrambled eggs
  
• i enjoyed with a large cup of coffee and some flat bread

cheerio.

carrot ginger soup for the sick

Now i made this soup the other day and it was pretty great...so as i am still not feeling 100% i decided to remake it for myself.

start by

• add some olive oil at med heat into a pot
• add some diced onions and stir around for a couple min
  
• add 2 tbs of grated ginger
• add 5-6 thickly diced carrots and stir for another couple min
  
• add a sprig (is that what its called) of celery...1 stock chopped up
  
• add a small sweet potato diced up
  
• fill pot with water
• add some chicken bouillon
• add tsp or two of hot sauce
• turn on high to boil then turn down to simmer

now simmer till carrots are soft. Once they are soft use a blender to make smooth.

It was exactly what i needed with some wasa biscuits on the side. simply delicious.

spaghetti bolognese

I made this the other day. but tried to make it again...of course and well it worked out great.

i started by boiling a big pot of water and cooking the spaghettie. the sauce was made by

• putting a little olive oil in a medium sized saucepan at med heat
• adding an onion to pan, diced up
• adding 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and diced
• stirring it around for 4-5 min, or till onions are see through

I then added

• 1 large handful of chopped carrots
• 2 handfuls of ground lamb
  
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 tbs of tomato paste
  
• a touch (2 tsp) of lius syrup (maple syrup would work)
• 1 pepper diced up
• 1 tsp of hot sauce
• 1/2 c of red wine
• a large pinch of salt
• a decent pinch of pepper
• some water to make sure its not too thick.
  

I turned it to high till it started to boil, then back to simmering at med heat while it bubbles and thickens. Constantly stirring for 15-20ish min most likely, or till its thick enough for you to think its a sauce.

Now add some to the drained pasta and stir it all around. and eat with some grated parm.

I made a lot of the sauce so i put some in the freezer in bags to keep for later. Enjoy!

Nachos...

The other day we were feeling kind of home sick so we went out for nachos and pitchers of beer. To not fault of our guide the place we ended up was just not what I was looking for. There were no pitchers and well the nachos were soggy on the bottom. After talking to a new friend i realized that nachos are not things to buy out in copenhagen but are made in ones home...So i made some nachos to compliment a watching of inglorious basterds.

• Put oven to 350.
• Take out a baking sheet and make a base of nacho chips.
• sprinkle grated cheese on top (cheddar and mozzarella)
• put in oven for 10-15 min

Do not mix cheese to through the nachos, because it will end up sticking to the bottom and then you loose a lot of the tasty cheese.

Now for dip this one i learnt from an old floor mates mum i think. Basically instead of seperating your salsa and sour cream...well layer it.

• so i put a layer of salsa at the bottom of a bowl
• i added a little more hot sauce and some corn to give a little 'pshazss'...
• layer some sour cream on top
• add some freshly diced peppers on top

Now Enjoy with friends or by yourself. I know it was perfect with some beer and a tarintino flick about crazy jews killing nazis.

Caesar Salad...the basics

I finally found a romaine lettuce that is worth cutting up into a caesar salad. So what do i do? i bought it and made a caesar dressing.

The dressing was made with

• 1/2 juice of lemon
• 1 tsp of dijon mustard
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbs of olive oil
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 1-2 egg yolks...first batch i used 1...the second 2

add grated parm cheese till thick...Now serve it on your cut romaine and eat it up.

PS i know everyone worries about raw eggs, well there is a simple way to get around that. buy GOOD eggs. common you have heard the horrors for chickens, why not buy some good ones.

zucchini pasta 2.0

For this pasta just start by cooking some pasta. Adding olive oil and salt once drained and then add some type of meat or veggies.

The cooking of the zucchini was with

• olive oil
• a clove of garlic
• some pomegranate juice
• salt/pepper to season

just fry that all up for 5-10 min and mix into the pasta.

Serve with some grated parm and Enjoy!

CGS (carrot ginger soup: cure great sickness)

I feel like im starting to get sick, but sam was already sick. So i decided to make a carrot and ginger soup. It was exactly what we needed.

start by

• add some olive oil at med heat into a pot
• add some diced onions and stir around for a couple min
  
• add 2 tbs of grated ginger
• add 5-6 thickly diced carrots and stir for another couple min
• i added myself a small sweet potato
  
• fill pot with water
• add some chicken bouillon
• add tsp or two of hot sauce
• turn on high to boil then turn down to simmer

now simmer till carrots are soft. Once they are soft use a blender to make smooth.

Serve with a touch of sour cream or parsley.

Enjoy!

Danish shrimp crackers

Now this is one of the danish specialties. Well kind of...its the danish small shrimp with a sauce over some whole wheat cracker. I first had it at Sam's mums friends place, but have seen it around and well tried it out myself. They used 1000 island dressing, but i dont really have that so tried something a little different. It was pretty damn good, but gonna try it again soon.

Get 1 packet of cooked small shrimp in salted water. drain shrimp. and put in bowl.

add

• a touch of sour cream
• a bit of vinegar (i used balsamic but wine vinegar may be better)
• a bit of chili sauce (for some spice)
• a bit of lius sugar syrup
• a touch of paprika

now mix it all up and serve on some rye bread, or teh really dense stuff that danes always eat...Or just eat it with some crackers.

top with some cucumber to add a little bit of freshness. and Enjoy

Portobello Pasta

I made this portobello mushroom pasta the other day because sam had never had portobello mushrooms. They werent the super basic way of making portobello, but they were pretty simple.

I started by boiling some pasta and....

• slicing portobello mushrooms into 1/2 inch strips
• adding a touch of to a largish saucepan a med-high heat
  
• adding the sliced portobello mushrooms to saucepan
• adding 1/4 cup of pomegranate juice to portobello juice
• adding a clove of garlic finely diced up
• adding 1/2 cup of red wine

now constantly stir and let cook for 10ish min.

when the pasta is boiled add some (1/4 cup) grated parm cheese and the mushrooms. and Enjoy!

Orange Chocolate cookies

These cookies were made completely by scratch...with no recipe. suprinsingly they were delicious. I dont really know the amounts of things but in a couple days im going to try them again and actually write down the recipe. So...for now, just enjoy looking at them.

5 spice lamb ribs

These ribs were made almost exactly like the other ones but with a couple difference. Use the other recipe for reference.

the sauce was made from

• 1 tb of asian 5 spice powder
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
• 2 tsp of fresh grated ginger
  
• some hot sauce
• touch of red wine (to give some more liquid)

I let them sit in plastic bag like other recipe over night. I also cooked them the same way, though when i drained the fat i put it into saucepan and

• put 1 large tb of fat/sauce in saucepan at med heat
  
• boil down a little (couple min)
  
• constantly stir
• add 1/2 zucchini diced up
• mix around in sauce and cook for 15 min

Now you should have the ribs and zucchini, which i had with some leftover rice from the other night.

Enjoy

lamb ribs

I have decided that going to the butcher is well a good thing. We know who is cutting the meat, we can see the dead animals and well brings us back into contact with the food we are eating. The only problem in denmark, is well they dont speak english so its mostly a lot of pointing and hoping they understand.

the other day i got some lamb ribs which are not the ribs attached to the lamb chop, or the crown lamb But these were really tasty.

They were pretty fatty so i thought that letting them sit in a marinade would do them good, then cooking em in the oven for an hour or 2.

I made the marinade super simple with

• touch of olive oil
• touch of lius syrup
• a spring of fresh rosemary
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a pinch of salt
  
• a pinch of pepper
• and a good squeeze of hot sauce

I put the ribs and the marinade/sauce in a plastic bag and let it sit over night.

To cook i used an oven roasting pan putting the ribs on it, adding 1/2 cup of red wine and covering it with tinfoil so that kind had some pressure build up. at 350 F

I checked them after 30 min, flipped them over, covered again and let sit for 30 min while it worked the other side.

After that 30 min i took off the tinfoil and drained a little of the fat that had collected. I then cooked the rest of the ribs for another 30 min at 400 F.

Finally put on wire rack to drain fat and ate them up.

they were delicious

Tasty Pasta Sauce

this big bowl of pasta was one of the best dishes i have actually made in Denmark. The ingredients are all very basic and the sauce is just delectable.

i started by boiling a big pot of water and cooking pasta. the sauce was made by

• putting a little olive oil in a medium sized saucepan at med heat
• adding an onion to pan, diced up
• adding 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and diced
• stirring it around for 4-5 min, or till onions are see through

I then added

• 2 handfuls of ground lamb
  
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 tbs of tomato paste
  
• a touch (2 tsp) of lius syrup (maple syrup would work)
• 1 pepper diced up
• 1 tsp of hot sauce
• 1/2 c of red wine
• a large pinch of salt
• a decent pinch of pepper
  

I turned it to high till it started to boil, then back to simmering at med heat while it bubbles and thickens. Constantly stirring for 15-20ish min most likely, or till its thick enough for you to think its a sauce.

Once the pot of pasta is done, add a touch of olive oil, add then pasta to the sauce, or sauce to the pasta and mix all around and add a touch of grated parm cheese.

Finish with some freshly grated parm and enjoy with a glass or bottle of red wine (depending on how many people you are eating it with)

Enjoy!

Tuna Mac

I made this delicious 'caserole' the other night. I never really had caserole as a child so i dont really know what they are but i assume this is pretty similar.

I start off by cooking some pasta, this time i made it with some longer macaroni noodles...or something similar.

• open up a can of tuna...tuna that is kept in oil...
• drain all oil from it
  
• put in bowl and break up till more 'fluffy'
• add a tsp of hot sauce
• add of a tsp of sugar syrup (maple syrup or lius syrup)
• add a tbs or more of olive oil

• Now mix that all up.
• grate 1/2 cup of some cheese on the side (mozzarella and parm)
  
• Now put oven to 350 F
• mix pasta, tuna mix and cheese in a glass baking dish
  
• add 1/2 c of milk to baking dish
  
• sprinkle a little paprika and cayenne pepper on top

Put in oven for 15-25 min, or till top is slightly brown and looks done...like this


Now enjoy with friends, or all by yourself...its that good.

Crepes: Dans Favourite

Now crepes may be my favourite 'breakfast' food. I guess they dont really need to be breakfast food, and my favourite time to have them is for dessert. There are some problems with them, well mostly the fact that they take some time to cook and they get eaten up extremely quickly. Now most people may say use a pancake mixture and add water, but trust me this does NOT produce very nice crepes and hell the recipe is so simple that you should make it yourself. Its very impressive and well, like pizza can be topped with so many different things.

To make basic crepe recipe start with a large bowl and mix together

• 1 cup flour
• 2 eggs

Once mixed, slowly mix in

• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 tsp of vanilla (my addition)

once that is all mixed up then add

• pinch of salt
  
• 2 tb melted butter

Now you have your batter. And i use a whisk to make sure it is nice and thin, which is better for making crepes.

Now for crepe pans it varies. Some people use real crepe pans, but honestly i prefer using a wide nonstick pan with low walls. This gives me a lot of surface to cover with the crepe mixture, and as its nonstick i dont have to worry that the crepes are going to stick and give me grief.

• Use a touch of oil on the griddle/pan
• keep at med heat
  
• add around 1/4 cup of crepe mixture,
• making sure to swirl around so that the mixture spreads out nice and thinly and evenly.

now the people on the street who sell crepes use a thing on top of the crepe to make it spread out evenly, but i dont know where to get one or whether i would like to use one so i just use physics to get it spread out...

they should take a couple min to cook, or till the sides have slightly curled up so that you can flip it. Dont flip if undercooked because it will just fall apart.

I think ill come up with a video of how to make the perfect crepe, but first off i need to make the perfect crepe.

Now enjoy with a lot of different things.

My favourite is

• lemon juice
• sugar

ohh yes its just that simple, but seriously there are so many toppings so play around.

Birthday breakfast

so for sam's breakfast i decided to make the first thing i learnt how to cook when i was a kid. I used to make it with Hallah (jewish egg bread) but can be done with almost any loaf of bread. Its really tasty, simple and just great.

First of all need to beat together in a shallow bowl (so that the bread can get completely coated)

• an egg PLUS 1 egg per person (i used 2 big ones)
• a touch of milk (too much milk could make it taste less nice)
  
• a tsp of vanilla
  

Now dip the sliced bread in the mixture, flip and dip again. Then start stacking on a plate.

Now heat up a pan/griddle (best if non stick) and add a little bit of oil to heat up.

Once hot put the egged bread in pan and cook. Flip after a couple min.

Once they are all cooked, you can keep warm in oven or just eat them up right away.

best with

• berries
• maple syrup
• cinnamon sugar
• youghurt
• berry sauce...
• peaches...

i had them with a side of pork from the birthday dinner.

Enjoy!!!

Sam's Birthday Dinner

For Sam's birthday i wanted to make something delicious, and she wanted something roasted. So we decided that making roasted pork belly was the best option. It was really nicely done and we ate it with roasted potatoes, carrots, celery, beets and some goats cheese stuffed mushroom caps.

the pork was done the way i usually do it. with a dressing of

• mustard
  
• honey
• chili sauce for spice

i also cut off the top layer of skin so it wasnt soo tough and more fat could melt off.

i roasted the veggies (carrots, celery) with the pork and added the fat of pork to potatoes but cooked in another sheet at the top of oven so it would be hotter.



the mushrooms were really simple too. I just took the stems out, and where the little bowl in the cap i just added a little bit of goats cheese. I put those in the oven for 15 min while everything was cooking.

the beets were done by putting beets in oven at 375 wrapped in tin foil for 40 min to an hour. i just put them in oven with meat.

Once you have the cooked beets mix

• some grated orange rind
  
• the juice of an orange
  
• touch of vinegar
  
• a little bit of olive oil
  
• salt/pepper
• cayenne powder

Than slice beets and drizzle sauce over all of this.

brownies :)

I used my recipe from the Van munchies, my most recent cookbook. Its pretty darn simple and super tasty.

Okay start off by beating

• 250 g of butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 c brown sugar

till light and fluffy than add

• 4 eggs, 1 at a time and beating in between

fold in

• 4/3 cup of flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp of salt
• 3/4 cocoa powder

now mixing it all up and i added

• 1/4 cup of cinnamon
  

just to give another taste

Put it in oven at 350 F for 25ish min.

This one pops up nice and is usually cooked when the sides can be stuck with a fork and it comes out clean.

Enjoy!

tandoori Chicken!

we had tandoori chicken in malmo and i decided that i wanted to try and make it again. Its surprisingly easy and really tasty. I found tandoori spice so bought some and have used it for a couple things.

i started by adding making a tandoori 'rub' for the chicken with

• 2 tbs tandoori powder
• 2 tsp of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of cayenne powder

wrap it up and let sit in fridge for an hour or so.

To start cooking progress i started by adding

• olive oil and diced onions to a saucepan at med-high eat

once the onions had started cooking i added diced

• green and red peppers

i cooked them for 5 ish min once cooked took them out of the pan.

Finally add the chicken with the rub, cover and cook for 5 min. Flip and cook for another 10-15 min till chicken is fully cooked. Cooking chicken can be difficult, so with this cooking for 15-20 min is better than less. it should stay juicy.

Now take chicken off, and put veggies back in heat up for a sec and then add chicken on top so veggies get warm.



serve up with some rice and enjoy!

simple spicy beef

making curried chicken the other day i wanted to keep up the trend and decided to make some spicy beef curry with a bunch of different veggies on a bed of rice.

the beef had a rub of

• some brown sugar
• some curry powder
• salt/pepper

I started cooking the veggies by

• adding olive oil and some diced onion to a saucepan at med heat
  
• once translucent (such a nice word) adding some diced peppers and mushrooms
• for some spice adding half a chili pepper diced up
• stiring that around till all nice and cooked. (5ish min)

Once cook i took veggies out and let the pan get hot again.

I added the steak and cooked it for 5 min on each side so the rub got glazed on the steak. I took it off quickly, and sliced it up before putting it back in the pan with

• a touch of curry paste
• touch of Worcestershire sauce

and let that cook for 2 min. Then i added the veggies to the mix and stirred it all up.

Finally i put that over a bed of rice and, VOILA! tastyness

Naan!!

Instead of making the same old pizza dough that i always seem to make i decided to make some tasty Naan bread. It is always one of those things that i just love to eat and well can never seem to really get enough of it.

So i looked around and found this recipe. I followed it pretty much to a T but used normal flour.

Start off by adding to a bowl.

• .25 ounce package of active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water

In another bowl add

• 4.5 cups of flour
• .25 cup of sugar
• 3 tbs of milk
• 1 beaten egg
• 2 tsp salt

and knead it all up for 7ish min. Then let it rise in a warm area for an hour, or doubled in size, with a damp cloth on top of the bowl.

Once it has risen, punch down dough and knead in 2 tsp of minced garlic, if you want a little flavour to the dough.

Knead for another couple min, then pinch off golfball sized rounds of dough and put them on a tray to have a second rising. (sounds like something from a movie)

Preheat a grill while the second rising has started with a little oil. Now we want it hot, but DO NOT BURN IT.

Now once it has risen again, you want to roll balls of dough out thinly and place on the hot grill.

Now let cook for 2-3 min and then flip, paint some butter on the cooked side and flip after another couple min. paint some butter on that side and then take off and let cool before you eat.

Now i kept a lot of dough so i could make them fresh whenever i wanted some food, but you can make them all at once and keep them for later, with a little refry before you want to eat them. Just store in a plastic bag.

I ate my naam with some left over curry from last night. and a little bit of bacon to make even tastier.

Enjoy!

Coconut Curry

I feel like i have been having a lot of meat so i decided to buy some fish and make a tasty curry with it. I decided that id have it with some jasmin rice, which is and pretty nice rice to use, and well, was on sale at the market.

start off by makng rice, Jasmin is really easy check out here.

I started off by adding

• a diced small onion and tb of olive oil to saucepan at med heat
  

frying up the onions till translucent then adding spice

• 1.5 Tbs of curry powder
• 1 tsp of brown sugar
• touch of cayenne pepper
  
• some hot sauce
• touch of paprika
• 1 clove of garlic crushed and finely chopped up
  

i stirred that all up and then added

• a small can of coconut milk

i kept stirring and letting it boil down

In another pan i fried up some zucchini and semi boiled some broccoli so that i could just add it to the curry. I added some lime juice to veggies to give a little more taste.

Once those were cooked i added them to the curry. I also added a can of baby corn.

Finally the fish was cooked in the pan the zucchini was cooked in with very little seasoning. I only wanted to add a touch of flavour, keeping it simple. i fried fish with

• tsp of olive oil
• juice of a lemon
• some salt and pepper

cooked it very briefly, a couple min on each side and then created my dish with the curry ontop of the fish which was on top of rice.

Enjoy!

miracle fruit night

so after we had the lamb it was time for some miracle fruit.

now these, well are a little complicated to explain, but check out wiki.

in simple terms: they make sour fruit taste sweet

they are crazy, seriously mess with your head on your first time because well...just because you can start eating lemons, limes, oranges or any sour things, they just taste insanely sweet.

I am going to start posting things to try with it, so this time. well i would try

• limes
• lemons
• grapefruits
• unripe passion fruits
• oranges (even a little too sweet)

oh and if your feeling very adventurous, try some balsamic vinegar with yoghurt.

ohh if you want to buy them just search online or check out. this place.

lamb dinner with friends

I decided to have a dinner party at my place and well wanted to pair some wine with the meal, but well ill get to that later...once i refind the bottle. For the meal we had roasted potatoes and some pan fried zucchini/mushrooms which well, have become kind of like my bread and butter.

the potatoes were coated with

• diced garlic
• some olive oil
• salt/pepper
• touch of rosemary

i put into oven at 350ish with the lamb, for 40ish min. keeping them on the top shelf so they get nice and crispy.



for the zucchini and mushrooms, it was very simple just like the potatoes and the lamb.

i coated them with

• a little juice from the roasted lamb
• olive oil
• salt/pepper
• lemon juice
• cayenne pepper

i cooked them up in a saucepan very simply for 10ish min.

Enjoy!

easy bacon broccoli pasta

now everyone knows that bacon has that tasty salty flavour that so irresistible. I found this other type of bacon that is super thin, and well its pretty fun to work with. I had broccoli and bacon in the fridge and quickly made a pasta.

I started cooking up some pasta in a pot. I also added some broccoli to the water so that it cooks slightly in the boiling water. NO more than 4 min for broccoli.

While this was going on i was cooking the thin bacon stuff in a pan. Once it was cooked i added the semi cooked broccoli and some sliced up zucchini. It will get some of the salt from the bacon residue. cook that for 8ish min on med-high. you can add

• tsp cajun spice
• touch of olive oil
• a clove of chopped up garlic
• touch of cayenne powder

finally cook that all up together and add the bacon back to the saucepan.

Now once the pasta is cooked, drain and add the stuff from the saucepan.

Mix it all up with a little bit of parm cheese grated in there.

and enjoy!

hot chocolate for a cold autumn day

Its been pretty windy, chilly and wet so to make it better hot chocolate has well, taken a new spot in the things i drink. The recipes are all pretty much the same but having them with a side of dutch waffles, caramel covered waffle sandwiches.

This hot chocolate i made by adding the following to a pot at med temp.

• large amount of milk
• half a bar of dark chocolate chopped up
• over a tbs of cocoa powder
• around a tbs of sugar

I kept it smooth by stirring constantly and also using a blender to whisk it up a bit and give a little foam.

Enjoy with board games, dutch waffles and some good music.

a fishy soup

Now im sure i have already talked about soup for those rainy days when you feel sick. Well this soup was not because we felt sick, but because it was cold rainy and we had just come from a big long walk. In Sam's new residence we made this, and the proceeded to watch a pretty decent movie that was basically rat race with cars. Oh and it had, burt reynolds, roger moore and JACKIE chan in it.

So i started by

• add tb of olive oil to pot at med high temp
• add some sliced onion and cook till see through (couple min)
• then add water (we are making soup)
• once water is boiling add some chopped up carrots
• some chopped up celery if you have it
• a cube of chicken boullion
• tb of curry powder
• tsp of chili powder

now this is what i started with the soup. I let it boil lightly for 45 min.

i also made some fish by,

• putting olive oil in small saucepan
• turning to med heat
• once hot adding fish
• adding some salt/pepper for taste
• lime juice for some flavour
• touch of curry powder
  
• touch of chili powder

i cooked that up quickly and put it into the soup and also added some cooked pasta that was in the fridge.

Now enjoy!

vanilla orange juice

the other day i had way too many oranges. and instead of eating them all raw i decided to make a 'juice'/drink out of them. I decided the nicest compliment would be vanilla, and well it was quite pleasant.

To make the juice was pretty simple i:

• filled a pot with water and turned to med-high heat
  
• added 2 tb of sugar
• added 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• added 2 cut up oranges. Rind off...
• let it all get to boil
• turned down to simmer for 10+?? min
• finally i strained it and let it cool in the fridge

it was pretty tasty and i had it this time with some stuffed pitas and some pita chips with cinnamon and sugar.

Enjoy

A tribute to alton brown

So my favourite food tv guy is alton brown. His shows are silly, funny and have props. The recipes are pretty simple but his baby back ribs are FANTASTIC.

the real recipe is here but i did a pretty similar one by.

There are two parts: The rub and the braising

The rub:

in a bowl combine

• a lot of brown sugar
• some cayenne powder
• some paprika
• some ground black pepper
• some salt

now rub this mixture onto ribs and wrap in tinfoil and put in fridge for 2-12 hours.

The braise:

In a bowl combine:

• 2 tb Worcestershire sauce
• cup of red wine
• 1 tb of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp of tobasco sauce
• some honey
• 2 cloves garlic chopped

Alan says microwave for a second, but its not needed.

Now turn oven to 250 F. Put the wrapped ribs on a tray and pour the braising liquid into the tinfoil pockets of ribs.

Keep cooking them for 2.5 hours, yes a long time but so worth it.

You can drain liquid an drain liquid and paint it on them again, or play around and put under hotter heat near end to get dryer ribs.

I ate them with some home baked fries, which cooks at a higher temp, but adjust temp higher and shorter cooking time, 2 hours with only 30-40 min at the higher temp.

Enjoy

stuffed chicken pitas

What do you do when all you have in your fridge is this? well i make something tasty and stuff it inside of some pitas. its really quick to make, and well as you can see is stuff you might have in your fridge, which you can always substitute for.




First steps first.

• boil a few potatoes for mashing (should take a couple minutes)
• remember to start from cold water

to make the chicken and the real tasty part of it

• put tbs of olive oil in pan at med heat
• throw in diced onions
• cook till translucent (see-through)
• add ground chicken and stir around
• add tbs of Worcestershire sauce
• tsp of hot sauce
• add juice from a lime
  
• a chopped up garlic

now stir it all around with a wooden spoon so it gets all cooked up. Can take 15 min, so that it all boils off.

Once cooked, put into a big bowl.
Then add potatoes to the saucepan and mash it up with some olive oil added.
Throw in some grated parm cheese into big bowl

mix it all up and then stuff inside of a sliced open pita.

Now put in toaster oven and Enjoy!

chocolate rolls

super simple. made with dough from the other night. the chocolate sauce was made from yesterday.

• Roll out dough
• cover in chocolate sauce
• slice long ways
• roll them up
• put in oven at 350 F
• watch but take out around 10-14 min.
  

Enjoy

bowl of deliciousness

I made these the other day because well i wanted some caramel almonds the other day. I overcooked them a little, but they were still tasty. I used raw almonds for this, but if you have roasted ones than you can just coat them in caramel and chocolate and eat em up.

Roasting times:
350 F for 10 min on un-greased sheet for almonds

To make caramel mix up in saucepan at med-high heat till bubbling

• 1/3 c butter
  
• 1/3 c sugar
• tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 c milk

I then coated roasted almonds with the caramel.

The chocolate suace was made with a mixture of

• 1/4 c butter
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 c of dark chocolate
• a touch of cocoa powder
• a touch of sugar

Now melt that all together at low-med heat until light boil.

Enjoy