Lovely tapas at Opera Tavern

Padron peppers

A couple of months ago, I went with my sister and brother-in-law to the Opera tavern. Opera tavern, in a converted pub close to Covent Garden, and serves Italian and Spanish influenced tapas. After reading lots of great reviews about the Opera tavern from other food blogs like a A girl has to eat and the blog from a fellow London Swede, Matarkivet, I had to go there.

We went early on a Friday evening, and were seated upstairs in the relaxed and airy dining room. We started off with a very well deserved G&T, and then it was time for tapas heaven. In addition to traditional dishes like Padron peppers, a must for me anytime I can find them on a menu, some of the more memorable dishes we ordered were goat cheese filled courgette flowers and of course the mini Iberico pork and foie gras slider. The courgette flowers is one of my favourite dishes also found at Saltyard, not suprisingly as both restaurants are run by the same people.

Courgette flowers filled with goat cheese

The Iberico pork and foie gras mini burger must be one of the most written about dishes in London during the last year, and I had very high expectations. I must say every expectation was fulfilled, it was glorious, meaty, and delicious! Probably one of the best burgers you can have in London.

 

Iberico pork and foie gras sliders

Other dishes that really stood out was the desserts, like a divine creamy ice cream with rosemary and rhubarb, and great combination of beetroot and chocolate.

Ice cream with rosemary and rhubarb

Beetroot and chocolate combination

All in all it was very enjoyable meal and I'll be happy to go back there and try more of their dishes. And of course have one more of those sliders....

Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce

I've tried making gnocchi before, and it was a disaster. Instead of beautiful fluffy potato pillows, I got chewy and doughy clumps...., quite disgusting. I wanted to give gnocchi another go, and after reading loads of different recipes, I decided to use one of my food heroes, Jamie Oliver's, recipe. This recipe use baked potatoes instead of boiled potatoes, the idea is that this will result in drier and fluffier potatoes for the gnocchi, thus requiring less flour and lighter gnocchi. I was so right to trust Jamie, the result was great! I served the gnocchi with tomato sauce and Parmesan, but if you want to be really indulgent, serve with Gorgonzola cheese and fried sage....

If you aren't cooking all the gnocchi, they can be frozen on a tray. Once frozen, they can be stored in bags and then cooked by dropping directly into boiling water for 1-2 min, super easy when you need a quick meal.

Gnocchi with tomato sauce (serves 4)
Gnocchi
750 g potatoes
1-2 egg yolks (1 large or 2 small)
1 tsp salt
1-2 dl flour
0.5 tsp black pepper
1 pinch grated nutmeg

Tomato sauce
1 can of high quality tomatoes
1 garlic bulb, cloves sliced in thin sections
1 tbsp capers, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
0.5 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1 pinch of chili flakes
1 pinch of sugar
salt and black pepper

olive oil

Parmesan cheese, grated
black pepper

Bake the potatoes at 225C for about an hour until soft

While the potatoes are cooking, make the tomato sauce. First saute the garlic in olive oil in a pot on gentle heat for 2-3 min, then add the capers and chili flakes. Saute for another minute, then add tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, and herbs. Simmer for 30 min. Add water during the cooking if the sauce starts to get to thick or dry. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Let the potatoes cool slightly, and then, while they are still warm, scoop out the flesh. Put the potatoes through a ricer or sieve into a large bowl

Add the egg yolk(s), salt, pepper, and nutmeg, stir into the potatoes. Add enough flour to bind the mixture until you have a doughy consistency. The dough should keep together, but be soft and supple without being wet or sticky. Be careful not to add too much flour as the more flour added the firmer the gnocchi will be.

Divide the dough into three parts, and on a flour dusted surface, roll each part out into long roll around 2 cm wide

Cut the rolls into 1-2 cm long pieces, and using a fork lightly press down on each piece to make a ribbed pattern

Let the gnocchi rest for 10-15 min on a floured tray.

Cook the gnocchi in gently boiling salted water for 1-2 min, or until they float to the surface

Serve with the tomato sauce, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper

Smaklig måltid!

Korean cucumber salad

I spend way too much time daydreaming about traveling. I love to make plans and to have something to look forward to. This year I've been to Thailand, Italy, China, Sweden, and Denmark. I wish I could go somewhere new next year, maybe South Korea, Argentina or Peru? But I will be skint for the next 2 years because I'm starting on a part-time MBA program in September and ALL my money will go to paying the tuition fees (please everyone, fingers crossed that I get a scholarship!).

In the meantime, I'm lucky to live in a metropolitan city like London where you can eat yourself around the world. As I've written about before, I go out quite frequently for Korean food. To me, one of the best things eating at Korean restaurants is the banchan - side dishes served with the meal, often different types of kimchi, fermented cabbage and vegetables, and namul, seasoned vegetable/salad dishes. One common namul is a lightly pickled cucumber salad seasoned with sesame.

Similar dishes are served also in Sichuan (often with an addition of Sichuan pepper and red chili), Japan and Thailand (with fish sauce instead of soy, and an addition of birdseye chili and coriander). In Sweden we also do a cucumber dish with lightly pickled cucumber, pressgurka, with cucumber slices marinated in salt, sugar, and white or pickling vinegar (ättika), this is traditionally served with meat stews, meatballs or roast meat.

Below is my take on a Korean cucumber salad. This is a tweaked version of recipe I found at a gret Swedish food blog, Lilla matderiven. This is of course great with Korean dishes like bulgogi, but also with any bbq meat or fish. I've had it as a side dish with tuna sashimi and miso soup.

Korean cucumber salad
1 cucumber, thinly sliced

Marinade
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 garlic clove, minced
0.5 tbsp sugar
0.25 tsp salt
0.5 tsp chili flakes or korean red pepper

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan at high heat.

Combine all of the ingredients to the marinade.

Add the cucumber to the marinade and toss, make sure all the cucumber slices gets coated with the vinegar

Let marinate for at least 10 min before serving

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days

Green beans with garlic, lemon and chili

The Olympic Games are on now in London, but so far I've hardly noticed it (except for in the newspapers, where everything is about the Games). I live next to Lord's cricket ground, one of the venues, but there is no more people here than usual. Well, I guess archery isn't really a big public sport... Actually feels like less people overall in central London, and less people for sure at Marylebone station in the mornings.

If the weather is good I might go and try to see some of the triathlon in Hyde park on Saturday, but don't think I'll see anything else. I'm already quite bored with the Games to be honest. The chance of this blog turning into a sports blog is close to zero....Though I thought the opening ceremony was much better than I expected, I really liked that they paid tribute to NHS. Universal healthcare rules! I will never ever understand why people in the US are against healthcare for all.

Anyhow, I was starving when I got home today and wanted something warm and comforting as summer apparently is over after just one week. I rummaged through the freezer and found a bag of green beans. I love green beans (haricot vertes if you want to be fancy) as a side dish or in a salad for example, and I usually have a bag in the freezer. This dish takes no more than 10 min to do, it's buttery, spicy and delicious, and is enough for four as a side dish or two as a main. This will go well with almost any type of fish, meat or bird. I went for the supereasy option to have it with just a simple omelette. Quick, easy, cheap, and tasty. Go and cook it now!


Green beans with garlic, lemon, and chili (serves 2-4)
400 g green beans, fresh or frozen
0.5 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lemon, zest
1 red chili, finely chopped
1 tbsp light soy sauce

If you use fresh green beans, start by steaming the beans lightly. If you use frozen, cover with boiling water for 2 min and then drain

Heat up a large frying pan with the olive oil

Add the green beans, fry for 3-5 min until the beans and pan is really hot

Add butter, garlic, lemon zest, red chili to the pan and stir until the butter has melted

Remove pan from the heat to prevent the garlic from burning

Stir in the soy sauce

Taste and add more soy sauce or salt if necessary

Smaklig måltid!

Pickled red onion

Here is another condiment that is great on a sandwich, in a salad or together with a grilled spicy sausage. I made a baguette with merguez sandwich, spinach, feta, tomato jam (recipe to come) and pickled red onion, and that was definetly one of the best sandwiches I ever had. Another more simple but still yummy sandwich is crisp bread with mature cheddar cheese and pickled onion.

The recipe is based on this one by Jonas Cramby, where he made a fabulous looking sandwich with pulled pork and pickled onion.

Pickled red onion
2 large red onions, finely sliced
1 red chili, finely chopped
2 dl apple cider vinegar
0.5 dl sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of mint

Heat up the vinegar with the sugar, salt and bay leaf

Stir in the onions and cook for 30 sec

Remove from the heat and add the red chili and sprig of mint

Let marinate for at least 2 h

Remove the mint, and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week 

Baconnaise

Sorry for the absence, but I've been busy travelling and working and generally feeling stressed and anxious over everything. I've actually cooked loads to try to relax, maybe some of these recipes will make it all the way to the blog.

Anyhow, I went to a friend's house for BBQ yesterday, first one for me this year after an abysmal summer here in the UK. I decided to make baconnaise, what could be a better condiment to grilled burgers? I've wanted to baconnaise for ages as I love anything with bacon in it. Bacon is one of the main reasons I can't be a vegetarian, that salty smokey flavour, mmmmm.

So I did a bit of research and read a couple of recipes on various sites, and this is the recipe I came up with. It includes actual bacon, not just bacon fat, as I really wanted a strong bacon flavour. It was yummy, but yes, you can kind of feel your arteries clog up while you eat it. I fried 12 rashers of bacon, and used 6 of the rashers in the baconnaise. Though if you're like me, you will have no problem finding use of the remaining 6 crispy rashers...

I used to hate making mayonnaise, that it was so difficult and took ages to get really thick. Then I learned how to make mayonnaise using a hand blender, and suddenly it took 2 min to make perfect mayonnaise, amazing! I describe the method below. If you don't have a stick blender, you can slowly add the bacon fat to your egg mix like you would for a normal mayonnaise.

Baconnaise
12 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

neutral oil

3 egg yolks

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp smoked paprika

0.5 tsp chili flakes

black pepper

Fry the bacon rashers in a pan until crispy, remove rashers to plate to cool

Pour the bacon fat into a bowl to cool

Finely chop 6 of the bacon rashers to a grainy powder

In a tall beaker, add egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, garlic and spices

Pour the bacon fat through a sieve into the beaker. Add more neutral oil if necessary to make up a total volume of fat/oil to 1.5 dl

Take a stick blender and push it to the bottom of the beaker. Turn the blender on, it will now create a vortex where the oil is pulled into the eggs. After 1-2 min, slowly pull the blender up. Voila, you should now have perfect mayonnaise! 

Add the bacon powder to the beaker and give it all a quick mix

Taste and add more vinegar, spice, black pepper and salt to taste

Enjoy this piece of bacon heaven as a condiment for BBQs or on sandwiches

Quick lunch at Natural kitchen

Teriyaki salmon with butternut squash, Greek salad and mange tout

I had a great weekend in a mostly sunny London. Saturday was one of those days when you have no idea what to wear, I had both sun glasses and umbrella with me, and a cardigan, and ended needing all of them at some point. Though I did lose my cardigan somewhere when bar hopping in Angel later. Can live with losing the cardigan, but quite sad that I also lost my favourite scarf :( I really need to get better on keeping track of my possessions!

Earlier on Saturday I managed to go to the gym and then went for a quick lunch on Marylebone high street. I went to Natural kitchen, which is a combination of deli and cafe, and ordered from their counter on the ground floor. At Natural kitchen, they have a long counter with loads of different salads, quiches, chicken and salmon to choose from. You can also order from a selection of cakes and drinks at the counter, and then take a seat at one of their tables. Upstairs they have a more formal cafe with table service.

I got teriyaki salmon with three different salads, butternut squash with pine nuts and sage, Greek salad with tomatoes and feta, and mange tout and green beans with Parmesan cheese. The salmon was tasty, and the salads were yummy as well, in particular the one with butternut squash. To drink, I ordered a refreshing kiwi, apple and mint smoothie, and cafe latte. All together for £14, which I though was pretty reasonable.