Merguez and feta sandwich with tomato jam and pickled red onion

Not to brag, but this could possibly be one of the best sandwiches ever. Spicy sausage with salty feta, sweet tomato jam with middle eastern spices, tart pickled red onions and the zing of fresh mint. Yummy yummy yummy.

I've posted the recipe for pickled red onions before, see below for the recipe for the tomato jam. This tomato jam has a middle eastern touch, with cardamon and cinnamon. If preserved properly, it will last for a long time, otherwise use within one week. Tomato jam is great on sandwiches, or together with poached eggs or an omelette. Basically anything you can serve with ketchup, you can serve with tomato jam instead.

Merguez and feta sandwich with tomato jam and pickled red onion (serves 1)
1 ciabatta or small baguette, toasted
1 merguez sausage (I bought mine from the great butcher at Natural kitchen in Marylebone), fried and sliced
feta cheese, sliced
salad leaves of your choice, for example iceberg, ruccola, spinach or little gem
tomato jam
pickled red onion
fresh mint, chopped

Toast the bread in the oven or in a frying pan, drizzle the bread with a little olive oil

Add salad leaves and tomato jam, then merguez sausage and feta cheese

Top with pickled red onion and fresh mint leaves

Tomato jam
1 kg of tomatoes, chopped
1 dl brown sugar
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large lemon, zest and juice
3 bay leaves
2 star anise
5 cardamon pods
1 tbsp salt
5 cm fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp chili flakes
0.5 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp black pepper

For the tomato jam, combine all ingredients in a medium sized pot

Bring to the boil, and then turn down the heat to a simmer

Let simmer for 1-2 h, stirring occasionally, until it has a thick and jammy consistency

Taste and adjust the seasoning

Add to clean glass jars and store in the fridge for up to a week

Korean spare ribs

This weekend I have done nothing but cooking, walking in the sunshine (really felt like spring this weekend!), and streamed a lot of TV shows. Had a bit of catching up to do after holiday in Thailand (hot and sunny and white beaches and amazing food and quality time with my parents = great holiday). I'm quite addicted to shows like Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle. I know, I know, I am 36 years and watch teenage TV soaps about vampires and witches... What can I say, they're my guilty pleasures. I had brought my work laptop home, but, as usual, I haven't even taken it out of the bag yet. As it's now 8 pm, I'm guessing it will stay in the bag until tomorrow....

Anyhow, I love Korean food like bulgogi, bibimbap and kimchi, and luckily there are some nice, and cheap Korean restaurants in London, like the 3 or 4 restaurants on St Giles street and there is also a good one on Finchley road, Seoul. This weekend I decided to try to cook something Korean myself, and Korean spare ribs sounded like a good idea. I've actually never cooked spare ribs in my life, strange in a way because I love good sticky and tender ribs, and decided it was a good project for a weekend. I read a few recipes online, and from them made up my own.

First I had to go to Camden to get the spare ribs at Morrison's. Here in the UK I hardly ever see spare ribs at my usual Sainsbury's or Waitrose store, but Morrison's, another chain of grocery stores, often have good butcher and fish monger sections in their stores. I know, I should have gone to a proper butcher, but that felt like to much hassle. Easier to jump on the 274 to Camden... Coming back from Camden I went up to Finchley road, and went to an Asian supermarket, Natural natural, that's next to Waitrose. It's quite a small shop, and for anyone who wants a larger variety of Asian/Korean products, I would recommend going up to K-mart in Golders green instead. Anyhow, I got Asian pears, kimchi, and gochujang, a Korean hot red pepper paste, I needed and then went home to cook.

This recipe takes some time, but it is not labour intensive as most of the time is due to marinating or cooking the ribs. And believe me, it is so worth the time, because the ribs are amaaaaazing!!!! The ribs were so tender that the meat was almost falling of the bones, and covered with a sticky, hot and sweet glaze.

I served the ribs with kimchi and a coleslaw with lime and sweet chili, which was so good it really deserves a post of its own but is included here anyway. My mum makes a similar coleslaw, and it goes really well with any kind of barbecued meats.

Though how I ever thought that sticky ribs would be good as lunch box food I don't really know. Better bring some wet wipes with me to work tomorrow....

Korean spare ribs (serves 4)
2 racks of pork spare ribs (approx 2 kg)

Marinade
1 Asian pear, finely chopped (in all honesty, I think any large ripe juicy pear would do)
0.5 dl sesame seeds, toasted and ground
10 garlic cloves, minced
1 dl light soy sauce
0.5 dl brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp mirin (rise wine)
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
7 cm ginger, grated
1 tbsp sesame oil

Cooking liquid
5-7 dl water
5 star anise

2 cm ginger, grated

Serving
0.5 dl sesame seeds, toasted
3 spring onions, finely chopped

Coleslaw
250 g white cabbage, shredded
250 g red cabbage, shredded
5 spring onions, finely chopped
4 apples, grated (I used medium-sized Cox apples)
250 g Greek yoghurt (half a large pot, approx 2.5 dl)
2 lime, zest and juice
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 bunch coriander, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Toast the sesame seeds for the marinade and for serving in a dry pan. Ground half of the seeds to a coarse powder using a pestle and mortar

Score the ribs so that they can absorb more of the marinade

Mix all ingredients for the marinade together

Cover the ribs with the marinade, and leave in the fridge overnight. I think it's easiest to marinate the ribs in a large sealable plastic bag. Turn the ribs over a couple of times to make sure that all sides gets marinated properly.

Transfer the ribs with the marinade to a deep oven tray. Add the water and star anise and cover the tray with aluminium foil.

Cook for 1.5-2 h at 150C, until the ribs are tender

Combine all the ingredients for the coleslaw in a large bowl and let marinate in the fridge while the ribs cook.

Transfer the ribs to a plate, and pour the cooking liquid through a sieve and into a clean pot.

Heat up the oven to 250C or turn on the grill to its highest setting

Reduce down the cooking liquid to a sticky consistency, then add 2 cm grated ginger

Put the ribs on the grid of an oven tray. Brush on a thick layer of the glaze.

Cook the ribs in the oven/grill for 5-10 min. Watch the ribs carefully to make sure they don't burn!

Sprinkle the ribs with toasted sesame seeds and spring onions, and serve with the coleslaw and kimchi.

Enjoy!

Here's something for you to listen to while cooking, Fujiyama Mama by Wanda Jackson, queen of rockabilly.

Steak with horseradish butter

I don't eat a lot of meat, but recently I've really been craving a good steak. I bought a couple of high quality steaks, and decided to make a seasoned butter. As I had quite a lot of horseradish left since my visit to the Borough market a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to use that. I added some mustard, capers and garlic, and wow! Seriously, this butter is SO good!

I served the steak with sauteed mushrooms and greens, and it was delicious. Sex on a plate, finger licking good, you have to try this! You won't regret it. Well, your waistline might, but hey, it's almost a year to beach 2012, right?

Steak with horseradish butter (serves 4)
4 steaks, I usually go for sirloin or rump steak, around 150 g each
100 g butter
3 tbsp grated fresh horseradish
2 tsp grainy mustard
2 tbsp capers, chopped
1 large garlic clove, grated
250 g mushrooms, quartered
1 large head of broccoli, divided into florets
400 g haricot vertes
1-2 cloves of garlic, grated
butter
olive oil
salt and black pepper

Start by making the seasoned butter by stirring together the butter with the grated horseradish, garlic, mustard and capers. Refrigerate until served.

Take out the steaks, they should be room-tempered by the time of frying.

In a medium-sized frying pan, melt a small knob of butter, and add the mushrooms. Fry the mushrooms until golden, season with salt and pepper.

While the mushrooms are cooking, cook the green beans and broccoli florets for a couple of minutes in salted water. Drain well.

Remove the mushrooms to a side dish, cover with aluminium foil or a lid to keep warm. In the frying pan add a little olive oil and a grated garlic clove. Fry the greens with the garlic for a few minutes, and then set to the side until served.

Trim the steaks if necessary of excess fat and sinew, season with salt and pepper on both sides. In a large frying pan, add a knob of butter and a little olive oil. Once the butter is browned, add the steaks. Make sure the pan is really hot, you want the steaks to fry, not boil.

Cook the steaks to your liking. I prefer medium-rare, so I usually fry 1-2 min on each side depending on thickness of the steaks, and then cover the steaks with aluminum foil or a lid for another couple of minutes to rest before serving.

Finally, serve the steaks on heated plates (I usually microwave the plates for a couple of minutes, or leave them in the oven for around 5 min at 100C) with the greens and mushrooms. Top the steaks with the frying juices and a knob of the seasoned butter.

Enjoy!

Spicy sausage and kale bulgur salad

I've never tried curly kale. For some reason I've been a bit intimidated by the thought of cooking with it, as I don't really know how to use it. Anyway, curly kale is supposed to be very nice and also very nutrious, so when I was aimlessly wandering around in Waitrose trying to find something to cook for dinner, I thought that I should try something new and use kale. But what to eat and cook it with? I knew that you can steam and stir-fry kale, and that I had a lot of bulgur at home, so I decided on a warm salad with kale and spicy sausages. Spring has finally come to London, but it's still been freezing in the mornings so if I'm having a salad it has to be a warm one.

I'm very happy with my first attempt of using kale, turns out it's easy to use, with a nice taste, cheap, and apparently good for me, so I will defentely try it again.

Spicy sausage and kale bulgur salad (4 portions)
200 g curly kale
1 large leek, chopped
1-2 red chillies, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cm fresh ginger, finely chopped
200 g plum tomatoes, halved
1 lemon, zest and juice
400 g spicy sausages, I used Waitroses sweet chili pork sausages, but merguez or chorizo would be really good as well
2 dl bulgur, you can substitute the bulgur for quinoa or couscous
5 dl chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper

Add bulgur and stock to a pot and cook on low heat for around 10 min until soft. If there is any water left, drain it and fluff the bulgur with a fork to separate the grains

Fry the sausages in a frying pan. For pork sausages like the ones I used, fry them whole and then slice them. If you use chorizo, you might want to slice them first and then fry to them to get them a bit crispier and release some of the fat.

Steam the kale lightly for 1-2 min. I think it's easiest to steam using the microwave. Just add kale, and a couple of tablespoons of hot water

Fry the leeks, chillies, garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes in a large frying pan. Add the kale and tomatoes and stir-fry for another couple of minutes until the kale is soft and starts to wilt.

Stir together the vegetables and bulgur with the lemon juice and zest.

Serve the kale and bulgur topped with the fried sausages.

Osso bucco brisket with celeriac mash

What to do on a rainy November Sunday? Cook of course! I love slow-cooked food, it requires a minimum of work for maximum of taste. This is a version of a classic Italian dish, Osso bucco. Osso bucco should be made with veal shanks, or possibly lamb shanks instead, but if you do like me and go food shopping on a Sunday afternoon, the meat counter can be quite empty. Today I instead used brisket, which is one of my favourite meats for slow-cooking.

I think osso bucco is traditionally served with saffron rice or risotto, but it's great served also with polenta or potato gnocchi. My original plan today was actually to make gnocchi, but I felt a bit lazy and ended up making celeriac mash instead. I used half potatoes and half celeriac, I think the mash becomes to watery with just celeriac. I think mash is the ultimate comfort food, smooth, silky, buttery, mmmm.....

Osso bucco brisket with celeriac mash (4 portions)
800 g brisket, sliced into 2 x 3 cm cubes, or 4- 6 thick slices of veal shank (2-3 inches), or 3-4 small lamb shanks
2 carrots, sliced
2 yellow onions, chopped
300 g celeriac, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
1 can of whole tomatoes
1 bottle of white wine
8 bay leaves
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
2 cubes of beef, veal or chicken stock
flour
salt and pepper

For the mash
500 g celeriac, chopped
500 g potatoes, chopped
milk
2 cubes of chicken stock
butter

Gremolata
1 small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
grated lemon zest from 1-2 lemons
1 garlic clove, grated

Start by dusting the meat with flour, and then browning it at high heat and lightly season with salt and pepper

Saute onions, carrot, celeriac and garlic for 5 min in large pot.

Add the meat, wine, bay leaves, tomatoes, herbs and stock cubes to the pot.

Cook on medium heat until the wine has reduced to 1/2 the volume.

Cover the pot with a lid and continue cooking the osso bucco at low heat for a couple of hours until the meat is tender. Alternatively cook in the oven at low temperature. Add more water if necessary if the stew is going a bit to dry and concentrated.

While the osso bucco is cooking, make the mash.

Add the chopped potatoes and celeriac to a pot, cover with milk and add the chicken stock.Cook until the vegetables are soft.

Drain and reserve the remainder of the milk. Puree the vegetables, add 50 g of butter and enough of the reserved milk to give a smooth consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the osso bucco with the mash and sprinkle over gremolata. Enjoy!

Braised sausages with lentils and apples

Like I wrote in my last post, I'm really into comfort food at the moment. This casserole with sausages, lentils and apples might not be very pretty dish, but it tastes heavenly and is easy to make. My sister and her husband were here over the weekend, and as they also are major foodies, we both ate and talked about food a lot. We had this discussion if it's healthier to eat a lot of lentils and beans compared to for example dishes with meat. I don't know, I think I'll side with my sister here and say it comes down more to portion size if you want to eat healthy and losing weight (Sorry L!). That said, I do think everyone would benefit from eating more lentils, because they are nutritious, cheap and most importantly of all, delicious. Though this is an incredibly tasty dish, making portion size control difficult....

If you don't like sausages, and those strange people exist - my sister is one of them, you could braise beef or chicken instead, but maybe then also add some smoked bacon for flavour. Or make the lentils without any meat and serve it with for example pan-fried cod.

Braised sausages with lentils and apples (4 portions)
4 dl puy or green lentils
4 bay leaves
1 cube of beef stock
450 g of sausages (I used Tesco's chili pork sausages)
1 large red onion, in thin wedges
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 apples, in wedges
1 tbsp flour
1 dl red wine
1 tsp dried thyme
1 large tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 cube of chicken stock
water
salt and pepper

Start by boiling the lentils in beef stock together with the bay leaves. Cook for 15-20 minutes until they start to soften but still are a bit crunchy.

Cut the sausages in thirds, and fry in a large saucepan on medium heat until golden.

Add the onion and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, then add the apples and fry for another couple of minutes.

Sprinkle over the flour and stir it in.

Add the red wine and about 3 dl of chicken stock, also add the thyme and mustard.

Drain the lentils and remove the bay leaves. Add the lentils to the saucepan and cook on low heat for another 15 min. Add more stock if necessary.

Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

Today's song is Veronica Maggio's Stopp

Beef chili

It was my birthday earlier this week, and to celebrate I had invited my friends over to our flat. I love having people around and cook for them. I wanted to make something autumnal and that I could leave on the stove with a minimum of attention so I decided to make a massive pot of chili. The picture was taken quite late in the evening, but the 10L pot was completely full at the start of it, and the following morning completely empty. Lucky that, because I thought when I was making it that I might end up eating chili for the next 6 months.... I have a tendency to cook way too much food, it's like I have a perpetual fear of anyone leaving my house hungry. I think this trait is directly passed down from my mum and gran, my family cooks a lot and really do show their love through food.

This recipe is for 15-20 people, but you can easily just divide it and make a smaller batch. The addition of coffee, cocoa powder and cinnamon gives the chili a complex and deep flavour. I made it the night before the party, it needs a good 4-5 hours on the stove or in the oven on low heat. The day after you slowly heat it up again and add the beans and maybe some additional red wine or spices. It's hot and full of flavours, I served it with sour cream and bread but you can of course also serve it with rice.

Beef chili (15-20 portions)
3 kg of casserole/stewing beef, cut in 2 x 2 cm chunks
6 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 bottle of red wine
6 yellow onions, chopped
6 peppers, chopped
250 g chorizo, thinly sliced
600 g smoked bacon, chopped
15 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 cans of butter or cannellini beans
10 bay leaves
2 tbsp mild chili powder
1 tbsp chili flakes
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp oregano
0.5 dl sugar
0.5 dl apple cider vinegar, or use red vinegar or balsamic vinegar
2 cubes with beef stock
1 dl strong coffee

Start by browning the meat in batches, lightly season it with salt and pepper, and add to the pot.

Saute onions, peppers, and garlic and add to the pot.

Fry the bacon and add to the pot.

Add the chorizo, tomatoes, red wine, the beef stock, sugar, vinegar, coffee. Add water if necessary.

Cook at low temperature on the stove or in the oven, it takes up to 4-5 h for the meat to become tender and the flavours to develop.

It the chili is too hot, try adding more sugar and adding some more wine or vinegar. Usually it will become more mellow by day two as the flavours develop.

The next day, heat it up on low temperature and add the beans. If you like, add 2 dl red wine too. Let cook for another hour on low heat, taste it and add some more salt/pepper/sugar if necessary.

What could be better than some cool electro to go with that hot chili? Here's Robert Svensson's The beat

Asian steak salad with strawberries

I've been thinking about starting a food blog for ages. Once I took the descision to do it, I started to obsess about what should be the first recipe. I wanted something with a wow factor, something that would stand out. I cooked a lot during the last weeks, but either something went wrong, or I forgot to take a picture of a delicious dinner.

In the end I just decided to go with one of my lunch boxes. I usually bring in my own lunch to work, that way I get something I like, and that is reasonable healthy. Now during the summer I tend to do a lot of salads. I love fruit and berries, but normally I prefer them on their own and I don't really like it in food. If you want to hear me rant, you just need to get me started on the subject of warm bananas in food, or raisins in general.

Anyhow, I digress. This is an Asian-influenced salad where the hot spiciness from red chillies and sour lime meet the sweetness of melon and strawberries. This would work equally well with mango. I've used steak, but this salad would be very nice also with chicken or seafood. Instead of chopped peanuts on top, roasted sesame seeds or cashew nuts would be lovely as well. The measures are not exact, I'm quite an impulsive cook and never follow recipes to the letter. Taste everything until it tastes nice for you!

Oh, and sorry about the poor picture quality. My camera is not working at the moment so I have to use my iPhone.

Asian steak salad with strawberries (2-3 portions)
2 rump steaks a' 150g
Marinade:
1 tsp sambal oelek
1 dl light soy sauce
1 tsp honey
2 garlic cloves
2 cm fresh ginger
1 stalk of lemon grass
1 lime
Salad:
1 head of romaine salad
baby spinach
100 g mange tout
3 spring onions
fresh herbs: finely chopped basil, coriander and mint
1/2 galia or cantaloupe melon
150-200 g strawberries
Dressing:
juice from 1-2 limes
1 garlic clove, grated, finely chopped or pressed
1 finely chopped red chili
1/2 tsp fish sauce or light soy
a couple of drops of sesame oil
1/2 tsp honey
(salt and pepper to taste)
2 tbs chopped salted peanuts

Grate garlic, ginger and the lime peel. Mix with soy sauce, juice from the limes, honey, finely chopped lemon grass and sambal oelek (can be substituted with freshly chopped chili or chili paste). Marinate the steaks in the mixture for at least 30 min in room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

While the steaks are marinating, quarter the strawberries, chop the melon into cubes (1-2 cm in size), chops the mange touts, and finely chop the spring onions and herbs. Tear the salad and spinach, and mix with the other vegetables, herbs and fruit. Make the dressing and dress the salad, and chop the peanuts.

Heat up a griddle or frying pan, and fry the steaks a couple of minutes on each side, and then let them rest before slicing in thin sections.

Plate up the salad, add a couple of slices of beef, drizzle over some of the meat juices, and sprinkle with the chopped peanuts.