Hazelnut and chocolate cake

Ingredients
300 g hazelnuts
300 g dark chocolate 70%
1 tbsp cocoa
200 soft butter
1 dl caster sugar
6 eggs

Icing:
½ dl peanutbutter
2½ dl icing sugar
4 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla sugar
100 cream cheese
1 tbsp warm coffee

Put the oven on 175 degrees.
Put the hazelnuts in a food processor and grind them to a fine powder.
Chop the chocolate roughly and add this to the food processor. Mix together with the nuts.
Add cocoa, butter and sugar and mix until you get a creamy texture.
Separate the eggs, add the yolks to the buttermixture and mix.
Whip the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks.
Fold in the egg whites to the chocolatemixture a little bit at a time.
Put the mixture in a greased dish (approximately 24 cm in diameter) with removable sides. Break up the rest of the chocolate and stick this into the mixture.
Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for about 30-35 minutes.

For the icing:
Mix the peanut butter, icing sugar, cocoa, vanilla sugar and cream cheese to a creamy mixture. Add the coffee. Once the cake has cooled down after taking it out of the oven, spread the icing on top and sprinkle over some mixed nuts.

Steaks with Mediterranean vegetables

This post is a little bit late since it was last night we made this for dinner. Very easy.

Ingredients
1 aubergine
1 zucchini
1 capsicum
1 big red onion
6 garlic cloves
10 cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Thyme
Basil
Steaks
Salt and pepper

Chop the aubergine, zucchini, capsicum and onion into slightly smaller pieces. Cut the tomatoes and the garlic cloves in half. Put it all in a ovenproof dish and add some olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme and basil. Mix it all around and put in the oven on 225 degrees for about 25 minutes. Fry the steaks and serve with the veggies.

Gratin with ham and root vegetables

And here we go again...another gratin. As I mentioned before though; it's so easy and so tasty. This original recipe was with pasta but I decided to go easy on the carbs and do it without pasta. Turns out it works without pasta as well. If you want pasta though, you can lower the amount of celeriac and add some pasta.

Ingredients
250 g carrots
500 celeriac
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
200 g ham
2 dl parsley
1½ dl cream
1 dl grated cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
Grate the carrots and the celeriac coarsely. Chop the onoin and the garlic. Fry off the carrots, celeriac, onion and garlic in some olive oil. Add the ham, cream, parsley, salt and pepper and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Place the mix in a ovenproof dish and add the cheese on top. Place in the oven and bake in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes.

TIP!
While the gratin was in the oven I managed to do the below short but intense workout. Only takes 5 minutes.

20 Two-legged Glute activation raises

15 Flying Dog on each side

50 Kettlebell swing (use heavy weights)

Steak with pepper sauce

Ingredients
2 steaks
½ chopped onion
1 pinch thyme
1 dl red wine
1 ½ tsp mixed peppercorns
2 dl beef stock
½ dl cooking cream
1 tbsp corn flour

Simmer the onion, thyme and red wine together until it's reduced to half. Grind the peppercorns and add these and the beef stock. Let it simmer until reduced to half. Strain the onion and herbs and add the cream. Heat to boil and add the corn flour to thicken it. Add some salt and sugar to taste.
Cook the steaks to your liking and serve with mashed potato and green beans.

Fish patties with mango salad

So once again I tried a dinner recipe with fruit in it. It tastes really nice and I just love the colours of the mango, tomato and spring onions together. I'm enjoying my dinner with a glass of white wine.

Ingredients
300 g white fish filets
½ tsp salt
1 pinch pepper
1 tbsp potato flour
1 dl cooking cream
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp butter

1 ripe mango
1 big tomato
2 spring onions
½ red chili
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp lime juice
salt and pepper

Blend the fish to mince together with salt, pepper, potato flour and cream. Mix in the parsley. Shape 4 patties and fry them in the butter. Peel and dice the mango. Cut, seed and dice the tomato. Finely chop the spring onions. Seed and chop the chili. Mix the chili, ginger, olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix the tomato, mango and spring onions with the dressing.

Chicken salad with orange

I had a pretty big lunch today so I decided to only make something quick and easy for dinner. I found this recipe in one of my mum's magazines. Turned out quite well to be honest and I'm not actually a big fan of fruit in food normally.

Ingredients
Lettuce
Kidney beans
Cooked chicken
Orange
Red onion

Rinse the kidney beans and cut the orange into small cubes. Mix together lettuce, kidney beans, chicken, orange and red onion. Use some of the juice from the orange for the dressing and mix it with 1 tbsp oil, ½ white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Chicken in the oven

I usually try to cook things that are simple and quick when I get home from work. Most of the times I'm really hungry and don't even feel like cooking but I force myself to do it anyway. Today I found a recipe which sounded really nice and easy. It needs to cook in the oven for quite some time though but I always try to do something useful during this time. Today I did a 20 minute workout while waiting.

Ingredients
Serves 4 people
600 g chicken fillets
200 g tomatoes
200 g onions
200 g zucchini
200 g fennel
1 tsp rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chinese soy sauce
1 garlic clove
05, tsp salt
pepper

Cut the chicken fillets into smaller pieces. Cut the tomatoes in big wedges, chop the onion into chunks, cut the zucchini in slices and cut the fennel to wedges. Put everything in a greased oven proof dish. Mix the olive oil, soy sauce, rosemary, salt and pepper together. Add the marinade to the dish and mix around. Cook in the oven for about 40 minutes. Serve with rice if you want.

Cauliflower stew with indian flavours

Ingredients
½ head of cauliflower (400 g)
1 onion
1 garlic glove
1½ tbsp garam masala
400 g cherry tomatoes
400 g crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp grated ginger
400 g big white beans
salt and pepper
shredded coconut

Cut the cauliflower head into smaller pieces and finely chop the onion and garlic. Fry the onion and garlic in some butter. Add cauliflower and garam masala. Fry for a couple of minutes while stirring. Add the tomatoes and ginger. Let it all simmer for about 8 minutes until the cauliflower has softened. Rinse the beans and mix them in. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with rice and some shredded coconut on top.

Gratin with brussel sprouts and ham

I know some people might think I'm a bit crazy for this but I love brussel sprouts. It used to be a bit of a Christmas food for me but nowadays I can eat it at any time of the year. I goes especially well together with pork; so bacon or ham is a perfect thing to have with brussel sprouts. It was the first time I tried this recipe and I think it was a good choice. Exactly what I wanted for tonight. It might not look that appealing in the photos but it tastes good.

Ingredients
Serves 4 people
600 g brussel sprouts
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp butter
1½ box of cherry tomatoes
3 dl ham, cut into pieces
2½ dl cream
oregano
salt and pepper
1½ dl grated cheese

Turn the oven on to 225 degrees.
Clean the brussel sprouts and boil them in a pot until they are almost soft.
Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in the butter until they are soft. Add the ham, tomatoes, cream and brussel sprouts and season with salt, pepper and oregano.
Make it boil for a little bit and then add it to a oven safe dish. Add the grated cheese on top and cook in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Soup with root vegetables

I decided to make this soup tonight. It looks good, sounds healthy and is perfect for these cold days of winter. The recipe does not have that many spices in it but if you want to enhance the flavour a bit maybe try to put some paprika powder or chili powder in it. Herbs such as basil, thyme or parsley could also work.

Ingredients
Serves 4 people
1 onion
1 garlic clove
4 carrots
2 potatoes
1 swede
3 parsnips
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
14 dl water
salt and pepper

Chop the onion into cubes. Fry this until it's soft in some oil together with the crushed garlic.
Peel and dice all the vegetables into slightly smaller pieces. Add these to the pot together with crushed tomatoes, water, stock cubes, salt and pepper. Let it boil for 15-20 minutes. Once boiled, blend it to a smooth soup and add some more water if you think it's too thick.

I now have soup for the next coming three days I think. Perfect to bring to work.

Creamy pasta salad with crayfish tails

This is a little bit of a summer dish I think but I thought it sounded really nice so I decided to make it even though it's January. I ended up making a bit of a mistake though so I now have lots of leek in my salad. I do like the taste of onion but it can sometimes be a bit too much.

Ingredients 
Serves 4 people
350 g pasta
1 tbsp butter
2 dl garlic mayonnaise (I just mixed some garlic with regular mayonnaise)
1 dl creme fraiche
salt and black pepper
150 g cooked prawns
150 g cooked crayfish tails
1 box of cherry tomatoes
1 dl cucumber
½ dl leek
½ dl red onion
1 big handful of ruccola

Boil the pasta according to the packet. Drain and mix in the butter. Let it cool.
Mix mayo, creme fraiche, salt and pepper for the dressing.
Mix together the pasta, shellfish, tomatoes, cucumber, ruccola and onions. Pour over the dressing and mix it all together. Serve.

Tip! The original recipe also had ½ dl pesto in the dressing. Since I didn't have any pesto and I'm not a big fan of it I took this out of the recipe. However, if you do like pesto I think it can make the flavour of the salad really good.

New Years Eve dinner

We decided to not do anything special this New years eve. We just made a three course dinner together and enjoyed each others company. I was a little bit too enthusiastic trying to make bearnaise sauce which took quite some time and turned out to be a complete fail, but at least I tried.

The place settings

Starter - Spicy Scallop Salad
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Frying of the scallops

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp sea salt
200 g scallops
1½ tbsp lemon juice
½ tbsp mayonnaise
pinch of cayenne pepper
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 big handful of lettuce
½ red capsicum
½ avocado
salt and pepper

Chop the capsicum into strips and the avocado in cubes. Combine the lettuce, capsicum and avocado in a bowl. Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together lemon juice, garlic, mayonnaise, mustard, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Once combined, mix in the olive oil.
Mix the cayenne, salt and pepper in a bowl. Rinse the scallop and pat dry with kitchen towel. Add the scallops to the mixture of spices and ensure they are evenly coated. Fry the scallops in 1½ tbsp olive oil over medium heat for about two minutes on each side. Add the scallops to the bowl with the veggies and add the dressing. Serve the salad while the scallops are still warm.

Main course - Entrecote with with garlic and parsley butter
No recipe.

Dessert - Pavlova
4 egg whites
250 g sugar
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp corn flour
300 ml whipped cream
Seasonal fresh fruit of your choice

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Beat the egg whites and sugar in a bowl with an electric whisk until stiff peaks form.
Mix together vinegar, vanilla and corn flour in a separate bowl until smooth. Pour the cornflour mixture into the egg whites and beat until thick and glossy, this takes about 4 minutes.
Line a tray with baking  paper and draw a 20 cm circle in the centre. Spoon the mixture inside the circle, to within a little less than 2,5 cm from the edge.
Place in the preheated oven, reduce the temperature to 110 degrees and bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova to cool inside the oven.
To serve, decorate cooled pavlova with the whipped cream and the fresh fruit.