Another Kind of Chili

This chili or whatever you like to call it is a take whatever veggies you have and use them meal. Boil what you have for a long time.  For example you can use chopped up bellpeppers, any root vegetable or onion... whatever you have.  It doesn't have to be harder than that sometimes.  This time I took a piece of chuck beef (högrev) seasoned it with some smoked paprika powder seared it in a hot pan on both sides (2 minutes maybe on each side) then put it in a pot.  Then I seared some carrots, onions, garlic, jalapenos and celery.  I put everything in the pot, poured over one jar of whole tomatoes and some chicken stock and let it simmer on medium heat for approximately one and a half hour or until the meat is tender. After the first hour add lentils.  Pick up the meat and just shred it with a fork then put it back in the pot, pour in some pre-cooked beans and a bunch of cilantro and cook it for a bit more. Done. 

 To this I served a salad of chopped up cocktail tomatoes and avocados, tossed it around with some baby spinach and a squeeze of lemon and some olive oil.  To give it a little Mexican touch I served it with some tortillas.

Look here for my other chili (with detailed instructions)

ELK

During Easter break we traveled down south, to my fathers house on Öland.  I enjoy spending time down south because the food we eat comes straight from the source.  I will write more on this another time but bascially all the meat and fish we eat is either hunted or caught by my father and during the warmer months the fruits and vegetables are from his land.  Eggs can be bought from a neighbor and until recently all milk came from my aunts dairy farm.  

During this visit my father had elk.  I was luckly to also get some freshly picked asparagus and spring onions.  This meal is pretty simple but when you have really good quality food to work with then you do not need to over complicate things.  I braised the loin in red wine and some onions and carrots.  The filet I quickly seared and then placed it in the oven for a few minutes, seasoning with just salt and pepper.  I served it with a ruttabaga (kålrot) puré and grilled asparagus and spring onions.          

The sauce was made from straining the red wine that I braised the loin in and then I added some black currant jelly and then cooked/reduced it some more.  The rutabaga puré, I boiled 60% rutabaga to 40% potatos and some yellow onions in heavy cream and then mixed it with a hand mixer.  I added chopped spring onions to the puré to add a nice flavor and some salt and pepper.

I have been busy lately but I have some dishes that I will be posting in the coming days... sorry that I haven't been so good about posting lately.

Pork and Apple Sausasge

This is not a step by step recipe... you can pretty much figure it out by looking at the pictures. Today I went by a local sausage store and bought some pork and apple sausages.  Buying sausages at a specialty store is not in my mind the same thing as buying hot dogs or other mass produced sausages.  These sausage are made on site, they are fresh and made with pure product.  I would love to make my own but don't have the equipment to do so yet (anyone want to sponsor me?). Anyhow I bought some good sausages, boiled some potatos, seared the sausages in a pan and then put them in the oven.  Then in the pan which I seared the sausage in, I seared some red onions, beans,  cocktail tomatos and the cooked potatos  with some olive oil and when it was almost done I added some baby spinach as well I sprinkled some manchego cheese over it but you can use parmesean or whatever you have.  I served a little dijon creme fraiche with this meal.  It was fast and very tastey!

Gulasch

Gulasch is a nice stew to eat during winter when its cold outside which is the case right now in Sweden.  Gulasch is a national dish of Hungary, originally made by the cattlemen.  This time I used a beef shank but its also very good with lamb, I think that bell peppers and paprika powder are considered a must in a gulasch but besides that you can toss in whatever root veggies you like, parsnips, carrots, potatos, root celery etc. We drank a riesling from Alsace which I thought went very well with the spices of the stew.  I also used a smoked paprika powder which gave the stew a nice smokey touch.

I made a white baguette to go with the stew.  You can find a bread recipe here.

800g beef shank (högrev)
2 yellow onions
2 bellpeppers
3 garlic gloves
1/4 red chili
3 cellery sticks
1 can stewed tomatos
1/2 btl red wine
5dl beef stock
4 potatos
2 tblsp smoked paprika powder
10 sugar snaps

Cut up the meat into cubes.  Chop up the onions and the bellpeppers, finely dice the chili and the garlic.  Put the meat in a hot pan let it sear for a while then add the onions bellpepper and the celery and the chili and garlic and sear that too then put in the paprika powder and let it all sear together. Put everythinhg in a big pot and add the wine, the stock and the tomatos.  Let it simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes  then put in the potatos and the carrots let it simmer until the meat is tender and practically falling apart then for the last 5 minutes put in the sugar snaps so they are still green and crispy when serve. Serve it with sour cream or cream fraiche.

Roasted Lamb

roasted lamb with fried sunchokes, pea puree and a dried tomato salad

Today was Valentines Day and so I made one of my wife's favorite dishes... lamb.  This evening I roasted a lamb roast beef and served it with a room temp dried tomato salad, pea puree and fried sunchokes.  The lamb was prepared in a classic way... rosemary and garlic rubbed, it was then left to slow cook for approximately 50 minutes at 125C.  The pea puree was made with peas and yogurt and lemon, a good tip for cooking green veggies is to add baking soda when boiling because it will then keep it's vibrant green color.  For the tomato salad I roasted the tomatos with olive oil, garlic and sage, salt and sugar.  I did the roasting while we slept last night, so they would dried out properly at 90C for about 8 hours.  When they were finished this morning I placed them in a jar with olive oil and a tiny bit of corn oil.  The ones which were not used for this particular dinner will hold for about 1 month in the fridge and the oil is great for cooking... it has lot's of flavor, it can be used for salads or as cooking oil.

The starch today was sunchokes which are currently in season.  For those of you who are not familiar with sunchokes they are a great addition to almost any meal.  They are very rich in flavor.  Think potato mixed with artichoke mixed with pear or something like that.  Today I roasted them but I often puree them.  Once you peel a sunchoke you should put them in water with lemon otherwise they turn black fairly quick.  The lemon water is just so they don't oxidize while you are doing other things, as soon as you can use them... do.

Today I am not giving a step by step recipe, this is a meal which sort of speaks for itself BUT if you want advice or further instructions please let me know and I will happily do what I can.  HAPPY VALENTINES.

Plum Stuffed Roast Pork Loin

This is a Swedish classic. Roasted pork loin stuffed with plums and served with pickeled cuccumbers, apple sauce and gravy. I serve mine with a root veggie hash, you can serve it with mashed potatos or whatever you like... I  like my roast pork a bit pink so I roast it until it is 60C in the middle. The health administration (Livsmedelsverket) suggests that you cook pork until it is at least 70C so it's your call. If you get a good pork then I don't think there is much reason to worry. Again, the lower the temperature the longer it roasts and the better it tastes. Today I put the roast in the oven at 100C and then went ice skating with the kids and let it just do it's thing.

I recommend that you start by preparing the cuccumber. Pickled items need to sit for hours to get the right flavor and they should also be served cold so get this out of the way first thing. The meranade is called 123 this can be applied to anything you pickle... beets, herring, etc. 123: one part destilled vinager (ättiksprit), 2 parts sugar and three parts water. Bring to a boil, let it cool then pour in the cuccumbers and some chopped parsley. Place in fridge.

When it comes to the meat, start by cutting in small pockets into the meat so that it can be stuffed with plums.  I'd say anywhere from 6-8 plums is good.  Then you tie up the meat.  Hard to explain how this is done but I found a good video here!  Chop up two carrots, two yellow onions, three garlic gloves, one apple.  Sear the meat in a hot pan on all sides.  Let the vegetables sear with the meat.  Add 3 bayleafs and 4 dl water or even better chicken stock if you have it..  Then place evything in the oven.  I roasted mine at 100C for 3.5 hours.  When it is done take it out and wrap it in tin foil so it can rest for about 15 minutes (this gives the meat a chance to self absorb so that it doesn't loose all the juices when slicing).

The gravy is made from the vegetables and the juice that the meat was roasted with so put all of those items in a pan, add 3dl heavy cream, 1 tbsp blackcurrant gele, salt and pepper.  Cook on stovetop and let it reduce a bit.    You can find the recipe for the apple sauce here!