amazing spaghetti

SOooo good, this turned out so much better then I had planned. I did a simple marinara sauce but also added some dried porcini mushrooms and let it simmer down, while a made the pasta. The bread has some great cheese on it. I picked it up from a cheese store that just opened up downtown, it is a tomato basil cheese. I believe it is a cows milk cheese but definitely is really good. It has a really thick rich tomato flavor. It was not simple dyed with coloring but actually dyed with the tomato juice. Turned out really well.

Corn Flake Fried Chicken with Carrot Rice and Roasted Dill Potatoes

I have done it before breading chicken with corn flakes but usually bake it. This time I fried it and because I used a quarter leg I think it would be better to bake and try just frying the breast of legs with a corn flake breading. The rice was really good with the carrots in it. There wasn't an over bearing carrot flavor to it at all. Dill always goes well with potatoes.

Chicken Roulade

I know they are small but I'm still only feeding just me for right now. The chicken is stuffed with Mozzarella di Buffala cheese and fresh basil leaves. One piece I also added tomato to and the other I used red bell pepper. The cheese was so good, it did not over power the meal in any way. I actually heard mention of using this kind of cheese with chicken and kind of went from there. It melts well and offers a really good taste, I can only imagine how much better the dish would get with even better mozzarella. I used a low quality cheese in this case and it still came out surprisingly well and had a good taste. The Basil, tomato and red bell pepper were all good choices as well. Of course I didn't really have much to put with the chicken so I made rice. Why? Because rice goes with everything! But I think that what would be a good pairing is the chicken then some potatoes that i have been cooked and simmered in a red wine reduction. For presentation I think that fingerling potatoes would work really well.

Shrimp Risotto

Finally I made my first seafood risotto. I have been wanting to for a while but just never really got around to it. This first picture is obviously while it is still cooking in the pan, I thought a shrimp head would be a nice touch to show that I was using fresh shrimp, not frozen. The following picture is the finale. The dish turned out so well. The flavor was really good. I couldn't not complain at all. There was a good shrimp taste, not over the top but noticeable. I guess the only thing I think would be that I should have more shrimps, but I ran out so oh well. The potatoes were a perfect side with the dish as well, I fried them a bit in the pan and tossed them with a sour cream pesto blend that I made. But definitely a success. I really cannot stop with this dish it was sooo good.

Lemon and Basil Garlic sauteed Shrimp Pasta

I stopped by the fish cart today that is at the market on Wednesdays and ended up walking away with shrimp. I have done this dish in the past but with the small little baby shrimp, these were whole bigger shrimp. Whenever I have cooked tiger prawns on the grill I leave there skin and heads on, so I tried the same thing here, realizing that I probably shouldn't have. So half way through cooking the shrimp errrrr actually when they were pretty much done I had to take them out and take the skins and heads off. However in the end once I tossed the pasta with the shrimp saute it turned out really well. There was a good lemon taste to the dish that was not over bearing. The small bits of white cheese are simply cut up Pecorino cheese that I added at the end. The bread is a simply covered with some Balsamic and Sliced tomato, which went with the meal really well.

The Actual Full Dinner

So it was a group of people that said to me, "rice goes with everything, if your not sure what else to have with it, just make rice." It is so true. Seeing as how I am not quite sure what to put with the chicken I ended up using rice. Then I took the leftover vegetable from the sauce and put them over the rice, sparing the sauce. Such a good meal. The flavors all seemed to meld together and nothing opposed the other at all.

Cilantro & Cheese stuffed Chicken with a Vegetable & Chanterelle Mushroom Cream Sauce

So this dish took inspiration from a number of people. Namely, Elaine, Marcy and David. I have never done a stuffed chicken roll before but have eaten it on two seperate occasions with Marcy & Elaine. Recently I had seen an episode on TV where someone made a cheese stuffed chicken that looked really good and suddenly a light bulb turned on in my head. From there I knew I wanted to try it and had the cheese in my fridge. I used a very common Swedish cheese that is similar to Jack but is alot sharper, has more of a bite. I wanted more but the only other thing I had in my fridge was Cilantro so I went ahead and added that. The only problem that I had left was the sauce. In my head the dish wasn't complete without a sauce and something else to eat with the chicken. So I decided to finally use a recipe for a sauce that I got from a friend, David. He used it before when the two of us collaborated on a dinner one night. His sauce was really good, but was primarily a mushroom based one. I unfortunately do not exactly have access to the same ingredients that he had so I had to alter the sauce a bit. I ended up adding carrots to the dish and used a chicken stock that i had made earlier in the day, that was also really good. As a pairing the two are phenomenal. Great combination. I really got inspired to try more things with chicken in terms of stuffing it, I think it is such a good concept for those times when all you have is chicken but you want to try something new.

Pecorino Cheese!!!

The wheel of Pecorino Cheese that I was able to bring back to Sweden from my visit in Italy. Soo incredibly happy, I picked it up in a small town outside of Siena, with a good price of merely 12 euros. It is a longer aged pecorino and has a really good strong taste.

Salmon Pesto Taglietelle

Last night there something in the air and I decided to make a three course dinner. It turned out really well. Starting off with two seperate kinds of brie cheeses and toasted breads for the appetizer. Then moved onto a cheese risotto similar to the one I made earlier. Followed by this dish, a Salmon Pesto pasta and finishing with more chocolate covered peanuts. This pasta was the high light though for my night. It is not used with a typical pesto sauce.

I went to the store and for the first time there was a truck vendor outside the store selling fish. He was a local fisherman and was trying out this new spot out in front of the store. His product was really good, and surprisingly cheap. Happened to be the best price I have seen for fish in Sweden so far. He said it is because he does it all himself and that he lives locally is how he can keep the prices down. Anyway, by pan frying the salmon with some Dill, salt & pepper and Lemon I then seperated the cooked salmon and tossed it in with the pesto sauce mix. The mix is actually a bag of dried Pesto sauce herbs that I picked up in Italy, it said to also mix the herbs with some sour cream however I didn't have any. But simply sauteeing the mixture with some olive oil then tossing it with the same and then the noodles turned out really well. It still had a really good taste to it, and turned out to be lighter then a typical pesto sauce.

Breakfast Open Faced

Taking a spin off my typical breakfast sandwich, I decided that I could very well just eat it with one piece of bread instead of two. So I just piled everything onto one slice of bread. I do like it this way especially if I use a fried egg then break the yolk over the bread. On top of the sandwich are some Chanterelle mushrooms as well.

Dark Chocolate covered banana & peanut bark

Why? Because I can! hahaha, I'm not really sure why it came up but I wanted some kind of a desert and had to use up the rest of the cream that I had in my fridge so I decided to melt down more of the dark chocolate that I had and this is what came out. SOOooooo good.

Balsamic Marinated Cilantro Meatball Sandwich

These are the meatballs that I just talked about in the previous entry. The sat overnight and through the morning. The first important part of this is having two good thick pieces of bread to soak up the sauce that you use yet not get to soggy. I pan fried the meatballs and also made a simple marinara sauce that simmered for about 45 minutes. The cheese is the same Swedish cheese that I have been using, that I STILL don't know what the name is, but it honestly is a really good melting cheese. The sandwich was better eaten, open face style. The meatballs were reallly good, the balsamic vinegar definitely made them a lot juicy and moist which was apparent when you ate them by themselves or in the sandwich. I think some of the things that would have made this sandwich even better would have been more sauce, unfortunately I didn't add enough tomato sauce at the beginning. Also simply adding an egg to the meatball mixture from the beginning would have been good. I didn't simply because I didn't have any eggs to use at the time. But in the past I have done it and really see the difference, the meat holds together a lot better. Another really good sandwich though int he end.

Second Batch of Meatballs round #2

I made these after dinner with the rest of the meat. However this one I took out the dried ingredients and simply had; Garlic, onion, salt & pepper, cilantro and then Balsamic Vinegar, then put them in the fridge, added more balsamic and will let them set and soak in the Balsamic over night. We will see how they turn out tommorow!

Home made meatballs

So I was going to eat the same typical thing I usually do, with the rice and then vegetables on top, but remembered that I had ground beef. So after thawing it out I decided to make meatballs, and the rest just fell into place. I wish I had a food processor, BUT I don't soooo typically I would have just put this all in the processor but instead just mixed it by hand. Ground Beef, Paprika, Salt & Pepper, Cilantro, Garlic, Onion and a season blend that I picked up in Italy that containing, all dried, tomato, garlic, salt, basil, chillies, chive and celery. Then I just fried the meat balls in a pan. They turned out really good, definitely would have been better if put in a processor though. The chillies in the blend really stuck out and added a good heat to the dish amongst the other things that I had as well. There were also sauteed carrots, onions, yellow bell pepper and potato, with some melted cheese.

Blue Cheese Breakfast

I have been waiting to do this for a few days now. I guess I could call this a blue cheese scramble served open face with Paprika potatoes, banana and a side of sweet mustard. It actually turned out really well. The blue cheese and egg was a good idea. When being served on the bread though it was a bit dry, so by adding the mustard it gave it a good balance, if anything I could have added more blue cheese to the eggs.

Yellow bell pepper and chanterelle mushroom tagliatelle pasta

This turned out so good. The pasta cooks really quick and blended with the vegetables well. The bell peppers and mushrooms were simply sauteed with some salt & pepper to bring out their own juices to add to the mix, along with a bit of cream to help give the pasta some creaminess. Turned out so good, awesome plate for lunch.

First time hand made tagliatelle

Since I bought my machine and came back from Italy this is the first time I have made fresh tagliatelle pasta. It is so easy and fun, and the best part is that it really doesn't take that long. Obviously I had to get creative therefore I'm using s piece of string from a sweater to hang it on. But yeah, totally cool.

3 Country Risotto

My first Risotto I have both ever made and eaten. Honestly, I have never had risotto in my life, though have been wanting to try it for a long time. The problem has always been that when I have the chance to order it I always go for something else. Anyway, This Risotto was amazing for my first time making it and not even knowing what it is supposed to taste like. Realizing that I can make this at this quality from nothing really was a big confidence booster, for some reason I was always a bit intimidated by making it. Know after making I realize where I can do better and make an even better risotto. This one was a simple cheese risotto with porcini mushrooms, however the mushrooms were dried, but turned out good in the end. The reason I named this dish 3 country Risotto is because I used 3 different cheeses from 3 different european countries. I used aged Pecorino Cheese from Florence, Italy, Gouda Cheese from Holland and Vaslerbotten cheese from Malmo, Sweden. The Pecorino being a stronger, bit harder cheese mixed very well with the creamier lighter tasting Gouda and Vaslerbotten. To be honest I was just kind of working with what I had. I still have about 6 different cheeses in my fridge however I knew I could not mix certain ones and came to the decision of these three cheeses which turned out to blend very well. Definitely a rich, creamy dish and is one of those things that I think would be a great starter dish in a restaurant served definitely served in a smaller portion then what I have depicted above.

Spaghetti a la Bolognese

After my return from Italy what is the first thing I do? MAKE THE SAUCE THAT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT FOREVER! hahaha

I finally got it, and man did it turn out sooo good. I used so pecorino cheese slices since I don't have a grater. The best pasta... by far.

Something else that I was reminded of while I was in Italy was the simplicity in cooking. Italian cooking is known as one of those styles of cooking that everyone loves and all have there own version of. The funny thing is that as much as others try to duplicate it they keep getting farther and farther away from the simplicity behind it. I had a couple really good conversation of food, while eating food, with several people from around the world and several other italians. We were talking about the differences in cooking and how each of us usually make our food. I realized when eating the food that was made by the italian lady that everything was so simple. She told me that for most sauces the most important thing is the amount of time it's cooking. As obvious as it is and as many times as i have heard that it finally clicked in my head.

This will definitely be one of my main starters for my restaurant; simple, good and recognizable.