Lemon Soda

The second drink in our food project and I dare say, that this was an even greater success than the first drink. Both my husband and I were totally crazy about this slightly acidic but very soda pop like drink. It is not the last time I'll be making this drink and I better make plenty because it's very irresistible. See how Carina liked this drink on her blog - HERE

For a portion of 4-6 glasses  you'll need:

2 dl water

200gram cane sugar

juice of 4 lemons or 12 limes (I decided to use half lemon and half lime so 2 lemon and 6 limes)

1 litre of sparkling water

ice cubes

1 lime in slices

Make the syrup first: Boil water in a pot and melt the sugar in it.

Let the syrup cool down for about 4 hours before mixing it with lemon juice. Add the desired amount of sparkling water when serving and serve the drink in cold glasses or in a big glass jug with ice cubes, lime or lemon slices and extra sugar.

Bon appetit...

Pork chops with garlic and herbs

This is the the fifth dish in the food project and I think it just keeps getting better. I really enjoyed this dish and so did my husband even though he wasn't that hungry. I thought he didn't like it because he had left a whole pile of food on his plate but he said he really liked it and wanted me to cook it again some time... That's how I measure success - when my husband tells me to cook a new dish again it for sure a home run! I didn't make the citrus-ginger dressing - I forgot to buy ginger, so I served it with melon cubes instead.

I really loved the fresh herbs in the mash and fennel just gives everything a delicious liquorice-like flavour - it blended well together and my taste buds were dancing!

For four people you'll need:

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

zest and juice of 1 lemon

4 large pork chops

4-6 cloves garlic

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon grape seed oil or olive oil

Mash:

800 grams potatoes for mash

2 dl milk

50 grams butter

2 dl finely chopped fresh chives, dill and parsley

Accompaniment:

Green salad and citrus-ginger dressing*

Stir together fennel seeds, lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper. Rub it all over the pork chops, cover it up and let it marinade for about 10 minutes.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into smaller pieces. Boil them in salted water for about 15.-20 minutes until they are cooked all the way through and falling apart.

Pour the water from the potatoes and put the pot back on the stove to let the remaining water on the potatoes evaporate. Add the butter and milk in the pot and mash it all together with a whisk leaving it to be a lumpy mash. Season with salt and pepper and mix in the chooped herbs right before serving the dish or else the herbs will loose their fabulous green colour.

Fry the pork chops in a hot skillet with oil for about 3-5 minutes on each side along with the garlic slices. Be careful not to fry the garlic for too long as they will become bitter if they are browned too much.

Serve the pork chops with the mash filled with herbs and along side that a green salad with citrus-ginger dressing.

*Citrus-ginger dressing

60 grams fresh ginger

zest and juice of 1 lemon

4 dl extra virgin olive oil

Peel the ginger and slice it into smaller pieces. Put it in a blender together with the lemon juice and zest and add olive oil. Mix it all together and keep the dressing in a bottle or plastic container with a lid on in the fridge. It will keep fresh for about 2 weeks.  

Bon appetit...

  
Read about Carina's experience with this recipe - HERE

BBQ Chicken with salt baked sweet potatoes and grilled corncobs

Week two of the food project has begun and we kicked it into gear with a classic BBQ recipe. This kind of recipe makes me sorry that we live in a flat with no balcony or back yard to sit in and enjoy an evening of grilled delights. We'll have to do with a grill pan and imagine the smell of smokey charcoal. 

This dish was really good and what more is my husband LOVED it - he was very thrilled about it and he can't wait to have leftovers another day. It was a bit different from the grill recipes I've tried before, where the chicken had to me marinaded in the BBQ sauce for a while and then cooked on the grill because this had the BBQ sauce on the side. It was good and I think this is a recipe I will return to and make a few changes here and there just to tweak it and make it more me.

Now for the sharing part - for four people you'll need:

600g of sweet potatoes

1 kilo of coarse sea salt

4 corn cobs

4 chicken breasts

1 tablespoon corn oil

50 grams of rocket

1 tablespoon sesame sprinkle (Look here)

50 grams of cold butter

salt

freshly ground pepper

BBQ sauce:

5 dl of ketchup (preferably Heinz) - I used Beauvais as I don't care for Heinz and it came out really good!

300 grams of brown sugar 

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 dl finely chopped onion

Preheat the oven to 185C (about 365F). Give the sweet potatoes a good wash and put them in an oven proof dish. Roll them around in the salt until they are covered in salt and bake them in the oven for about 45-60 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes until they are well done.

Boil the corn for a few minutes in a pot with salted water. Take them out of the pot and dry them off and put them on the grill for about 5-10 minutes till they are done.

Cover the chicken breast in the oil, salt and pepper and put them on the grill - cooking them on each side for about 8 minutes till they are done.

Stir together the BBQ sauce and give it a quick parboil for about 5 minutes and serve it along side the chicken. Serve it on a plate on a spred of rocket and with the cold butter for the potatoes and the corn.

Bon appetit....

The first steps

Now that my friend Carina has arrived safe and sound in Eskilstuna and has made herself familiar with the new surroundings and kitchen and possibly the lack of kitchen utensils (as she is cooking in a kitchen equipped by a guy) we have now decided on which recipes we are starting off with from the two cookbooks. I had the time to browse through them  for real today and we have many exciting recipes to get to and I just got more thrilled the more I read on. I'm soooo looking forward to this little cooking project.

However as Carina supplements her blog about her trip to Sweden I thought I would supplement mine with some of my everyday cooking as well. This way I will challenge myself (and my husband's tastebuds) to keep cooking from all of the different cookbooks I have in my bookcase and try out new blog recipes as well - just look at this collection - I'm only one cookbook away from having the entire Danish collection of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks!

I admit it could be even bigger and I'm working on it! The next collection I will be starting will probably be a Rachael Ray cookbook collection - well actually I have already started it, but as all the recipes are in English, I just have to convert measurements before I can start cooking from it... That box on the second shelf is my Porkert meat mincer - I love it and it saves me a lot of money and hidden fat which we all know is in the pre-minced meat we buy in supermarkets. Thumbs up for Porkert.

Carina and I begin our little project on Wednesday the 26th of May and we hope to have lots of curious readers of our experiences with the first dish...    

The very beginning

Well I have been cooking for as long as I can remember helping my mother out in the kitchen making all sorts of delicious home cooked meals, preserves, desserts, cakes and what not, so it's not that strange that I do a blog about food.

This is really the beginning of an experiment - my friend Carina is about take a 3 months trip to Sweden to look for a job and inspired by the movie Julie & Julia I came up with the idea that we could cook the same thing from the same recipe and blog about our results, post pictures and recipes. We have purchased the same two cook books: Funky Hverdagsmad ( Funky everyday food ) written by Charlotte Guéniau and Carsten Kyster and Klimakogebogen (The climate cookbook) written by Susanne Engelstoft and our little project is ready to be launched as soon as Carina is settled in Sweden.