Tomato and chicken paella

This was my first time making paella and I don't think I really succeeded. Mine looks more like risotto than paella but at least it tastes good. I found this recipe on www.taste.com.au a very good website with lots of differet recipes.

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
600g chicken thigh fillets, excess fat trimmed, cut into big chunks
1 large red onion, halved, cut into thin wedges
1 red capsicum, deseeded, cut into 2cm pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
330g arborio rice
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes
1 tsp ground smoked paprika
Large pinch of saffron threads
1L chicken stock
125ml water
1 x 300g pkt frozen broad beans, thawed, peeled
150g frozen baby peas
1 tbs fresh thyme leaves

Heat the oil in a 30cm non-stick paella pan or frying pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning, for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to a plate.
Add the onion, capsicum and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the rice, tomato, paprika and saffron and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until combined. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, without stirring, for 15 minutes.
Add the chicken to the rice mixture and cook for 10 minutes or until almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Add water and sprinkle over the broad beans, peas and thyme. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes or until the rice is tender and all liquid has been absorbed.
Season the paella with salt and pepper.

Hanna's vegetarian tikka masala

I used to make much more vegetarian food before. Can't really remember why I stopped but today I really felt like making something without meat.

Ingredients
1 onion
1 capsicum
1 dl red lentils
1 jar (400 ml) Patak's Tikka Masals sauce
1 cup kale
1 can (400 g) chick-peas
½ head of cauliflower

Chop the onion and capsicum. Rinse the lentils. Fry the onion and capsicum in some vegetable oil and add the lentils. Also add the tikka masala sauce and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. While simmering; grate the cauliflower and place it in a bowl with a lid. Place in the microwave on high heat for about three minutes. Add the chick-peas and the kale to the tikka masala sauce. Let it all get warm and serve together with the cauliflower.

Salmon pytt i panna

This is a modified version of a Swedish recipe which is based on just putting together simple left overs and making a dish out of it. It's so easy and perfect for a Sunday lunch.

Ingredients
Potatoes
Carrots
Leek
Salmon
Salt and pepper

Chop the potatoes and carrots into pieces; the smaller the pieces the faster they will cook. Fry them on low heat in some butter until soft. Add the leek and the salmon and fry until ready. Serve.

Chili con carne

My all-time favourite! It's so easy and almost everyone likes it. It's one of those perfect dishes to just throw together after a hard and late day at work. I usually just throw in whatever vegetables I have at home and serve it with a salad but today I didn't have any ingredients for salad at home. It's also good to have some bread and sour cream with it.

Ingredients
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 capsicum
1 carrot
500 g mince meat
400 g crushed tomatoes
lima beans
chili powder
salt
pepper

Cut the vegetables in pieces and crush the garlic. Fry all vegetables for about 5 minutes. Add the mince meat and fry until it's gotten some colour. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and chili powder. Let it all simmer for a few minutes. Et voilà! Done in no time.

Chicken in tomato and curry sauce

I was actually quite looking forward to making this dish. When I mixed together the ingredients for the sauce I thought it looked really good already.

Ingredients
1 kg chicken legs
2½ dl cream
1 tsp chicken stock
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp curry powder
chili powder
quinoa (or rice, couscous etc.)
peas
capsicum
leek
kale

Turn on the oven to 180 degrees. Put the chicken legs in a ovenproof dish, add som salt and pepper. Mix together the cream, chicken stock, tomato paste, curry powder and chili. Pour this over the chicken legs and put in the oven for about 45-50 minutes.
To cook the quinoa follow the instructions on the package. Fry off the peas, capsicum, leek and kale for a little while and mix then in with the quinoa. Serve and enjoy!

Salmon with coconut

I'm quite bad with cooking fish. One reason is that I'm not a huge fan of fish and the second reason is that I don't know what to cook. Today I decided to try the below recipe. It turned out very well.

Ingredients
4 salmon fillets
2 tbsp oil
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 chili, finely chopped
1 small capsicum
10 snow peas
1 dl sieved tomatoes
2 dl coconut milk
shredded coconut
salt and pepper

Turn the oven on 200 degrees. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the garlic, onion, chili, ginger, capsicum and beans. Fry off for a few minutes. Mix in the tomatoes, coconut milk and shredded coconut. Let it simmer for a little while. Put the salmon fillets on a big sheet of aluminium foil, pour over the coconut sauce and add some salt and pepper. Close the parcels well and put the in an ovenproof dish. Cook in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve with some rice if you want.

White chip chocolate cookies with nuts

Because the peanut butter cookies turned out so well last week, I decided to make another batch of cookies this weekend as well. These did not turn out as good but they are still really tasty.


Ingredients
225 g butter, softened
440 g white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
250 g plain flour
90 g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 g coarsly chopped white chocolate
100 g coarsly chopped unsalted mixed nuts


Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on to ungreased baking trays and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies are set. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Coconut and banana pancakes

I felt like making a nice breakfast for my beloved this morning so I decided to make some nice pancakes.

Ingredients

4 eggs, separate yolks from whites
250 ml coconut milk
150 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 ripe banana


Place egg yolks, coconut milk and a pinch of salt in a bowl and whisk until combined. Gently fold in the sifted flour and baking powder. Mash the banana and fold in to combine. In another bowl, whisk eggwhites to stiff peaks, then fold into the batter.
Heat a non-stick frypan over medium-low heat and brush with melted butter. Using a heaped tablespoon of batter for each pancake, add 3-4 spoonfuls to pan and cook for 2-3 minutes each side until golden and cooked. Keep warm while you continue with the remaining batter.

Served with bananas, caramel sauce and shredded coconut

Super simple tomato soup

I learnt this recipe for tomato soup from my mum. It is really simple and perfect if you don't have that much time.

Ingredients
2 carrots
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 can (400 g) crushed tomatoes
1 beef stock cube
pepper and herbs

Cut the onion and carrots into slightly larger pieces. Fry off the onion and the crushed garlic in some olive oil in a pot. Add the carrots and the crushed tomatoes. Fill up the can with cold water and add this to the pot as well. Put in the stock cube, the pepper and some herbs. Bring to the boil and let it boil for about 10 minutes.

Broccoli and bacon gratin

OK, I know I'm making a lot of gratins at the moment. To be honest; cooking in the oven is the best. You just leave it in the oven and while it's cooking you can clean up the things that you've used so that you don't have to do that after dinner when you're really tired and full. I will try to get better though and upload some other kinds of recipes.

Ingredients

2 big heads of broccoli
½ capsicum
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
5 cm leek
200 grams of bacon
2 dl of boiled whole wheat pasta (if you want)
herbs
1½ dl cream
1 tbsp vegetable stock
2 dl grated cheese

Turn on the oven to 225 degrees.
Cut the broccoli in big florets and boil/steam until almost soft. When done put the broccoli and the pasta in an ovenproof dish. Fry the onion, capsicum and garlic off for a few minutes. Add the bacon and fry for another few minutes. Add this to the dish and add the leek as well. Put on the herbs and some salt and pepper. Mix the cream and the stock together and pour this over the other ingredients. Sprinkle with grated cheese and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Here served with some fresh vegetables

Gratin with ham and curry

This dish had been on my list for weeks but I never got around to actually cooking it. Now it's done and it was actually quite nice. I'm a huge fan of creamy sauces which makes this 'non dairy' diet extra hard but I know that it's probably better for me to cook with it as little as possible. I didn't have any carbs with this meal but I think it would be really good to have some rice with it in order to soak up sauce.

Ingredients
1 brown onion
1 red onion
1 leek
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp curry powder
600 grams of shredded ham
5 mushrooms
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
1 green capsicum
2,5 dl cream
2 dl creme fraiche
chili powder
salt and pepper
grated cheese (as much as you want)

Put the oven on 225 degrees.
Chop the onions finely and fry them in a frying pan together with some butter and the curry powder. Put them in a oven proof dish. Add the ham to the frying pan and let it soak up the curry flavours. Put the ham on top of the onions in the dish. Cut the mushrooms and capsicums in slices and fry them in the frying pan as well for about 5-10 minutes. Add these vegetables to the oven proof dish.
Mix together the cream, creme fraiche, chili powder, salt and pepper. Be careful with the salt since the ham is probably already quite salty. Pour this on top of the rest of the ingredients.
Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes. Take it out and add the grated cheese and cook for another 15 minutes.

Peanut butter choc chip cookies

Ingredients

2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 grams chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix together sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Add baking powder to the flour and sift it to lightly combine it with the rest of the ingredients. Chop the chocolate into chunks and mix it in. Usa a small ice-cream scoop to form cookies and flatten with a floured fork. Bake on a papered tray for 10-12 minutes. When taking them out of the oven let them sit for a few minutes.

Prawn stir-fry

Ingredients
Prawns
Broccoli
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Carrots
Capsicum

Warm salad with low GI

Ingredients
150 g bacon
6 mushrooms
2 red onions
butter
100 g green beans

Dressing:
1 tsp honey
1 tsp lemon squeeze
1 tbsp french mustard

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fresh thyme

1 garlic clove

salt and pepper

Cut the bacon into pieces and fry until crispy, then let them drain on some paper towel. Cut the mushrooms and the onions into wedges and fry them in butter. Add salt and pepper. Boil the green beans in lightly salted water for about two minutes. Pour out the water when done. Put the beans, mushrooms and onion in a bowl. Mix together mustard, thyme, honey, lemon, oil, garlic, salt and pepper and pour this over the salad. Mix in the bacon. Serve as a side dish to for example chicken.

I served my salad with some smoked chicken filet.

Beef in black bean sauce

Ingredients
Beef fillet, cut into thin strips
light soy sauce
rice wine
sesame oil
black bean sauce
onion, sliced
garlic cloves, sliced
capsicum, sliced
broccoli
oyster sauce

Mix the beef, soy sauce, black bean sauce and rice wine together in a bowl. Heat the oil in a wok, add the onion, garlic and broccoli and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add the beef and fry for another 5 minutes. Add the capsicum and after a couple of minutes also the oyster sauce and some more black bean sauce. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Serve with normal rice or cauliflower rice (= grated cauliflower, put in a bowl with a lid and microwaved on 700 watt for approx 3 minutes).

Pasta with hot dogs

Today I had quite a small lunch so I felt that I needed something 'real' for dinner. Therefore I ditched my diet (less/no dairy and carbs) and made a very simple pasta dish. I used vegetarian hot dogs since I haven't really found any good hot dogs in this country. But vegetarian ones work just as well.

Pasta sauce with hot dogs
Pasta (preferably wholemeal)
5 small hot dogs
1 red onion
1 red capsicum
1 garlic clove
10 cm leek
2 dl tomato and basil flavoured creme fraiche
pepper to taste

Boil the pasta. Cut the veggies in bite size pieces. Fry the onion, capsicum and garlic. Add the hot dogs and leek. Let it all fry for a few minutes. Add the creme fraiche and let it simmer for only a couple of minutes. Serve together with the boiled pasta.

Delicious avocado salad with low GI

Today I made a version of the below recipe. I just have to post this recipe here since this is one of the best salads that I've ever tasted. I added chicken and kidney beans. The most important thing is the dressing. For the rest you can put whatever you want in it.

Avocado salad
3-4 ripe avocados
3-4 hard boiled eggs
120 g bacon
1 piece of leek
2 tomatoes

Dressing
5 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 crushed garlic clove
2 tsp dijon mustard
1-2 tsp italian salad herbs
1 tsp aromat seasoning

Mix it all together and enjoy.

Two course dinner 30-10-2011

Toast Skagen à la Hanna

served with a glass of white wine and a snaps

Roasted chicken with brussel sprouts and potato wedges