Tabouleh

Simple dish, suggested by a friend.. ;)
And gave a reason to use the rest of the mint.

Details:
Bulgur simmered for about 10 minutes until tender, and mixed with chopped spring onion, chopped tomatoes, and chopped precooked porkchops. Dressing was EVOO, lemon juice, and garlic.
Topped with chopped mint.


Result:
Refreshing, but best at the bottom, with all the dressing :P

Tatosalad!

Just the classic.. More or less..
It also learned me that crumbly potatoes are uncooked, not overcooked.

Details:
Fresh cucumbers, with seeds removed, and sliced thickly, half a red onion, some boiled chopped potatoes, and precooked pork chopped in cubes.
The dressing was 18% creme fraiche, with lemon, mustard, salt, and garlic.


Result:
This wasn't too damn good before I added the lemon juice.. Also have to learn that potatoes should be boiled for 15 minutes... Yea... :( 

Fattoush

Cucumbers and mint! Fresh from momma! :D
A different salad, arab this time.

Details:
Made from this recipe: http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Annemad/Opskrifter/opskrifter_2009/uds_3/20090819095149.htm
Served with homemade carrotbuns and tahina dip.


Result:
As most meals made from recipe, this was great. Nice, light, and summer-like. Not much protein, but it was a Sunday meal..

Oh-no-not-another-omelet-but-at-least-it's-summery

Yea like I said... But it was nice along with sunshine.

Details:
Simple omelet, with a bit of milk, so it would get fluffy. Topped with rucola, fried chorizo, manchego, and pearl onions. On the side a slice of wheat bread, with rucola, and a simple salsa of tomatoes, onion, olive oil and red wine vinegar.


Result:
It was tricky to eat the omelet with the filling on top, next time there should be room to roll it up :)
The bruschetta-kind of loaf would have been better if it had been toasted.

Simple Food

Now this is simple food. Had no energy left so it was whatever I had...

Details:
Precooked pork, thawed and fried with soy sauce and honey.
Steamed broccoli, carrots, and baby corn.
Just added some soy sauce, and that was it...


Result:
Soy sauce made the difference. Colors faded on the veggies after steaming, but then again, this isn't a fancy meal in any way. 

Nice and Fresh

Here is a good way to use up vegetables!

Details:
Pearl spelt with chopped red onion, carrots, cucumber, celery, and snack peppers, on top of beer-and-spice-braised beef. Topped with some green olives stuffed with almonds, and sprinkled with high quality tuscan olive oil.


Result:
The tuscan olive oil has a distinct grassy aroma, which was completely lost in the dish. Unfortunately.
It was pretty good anyway though. Very fresh, but the onions were a bit too much. Cucumber could have been excluded.

Expensive Dressing

A simple one, actually. At least for me. This was a salad with balsamico. 4-leaf balsamico condimento. Which means it is a mix of balsamico tradizionale and red wine vinegar. Balsamico tradizionale is NOT a vinegar, but grape must that has been aged for up to 25 years! It is usually poured on new casks of new types of wood every year (I think) to give it aroma. The one used here was 14€/100ml, and I have another one to 30€/100ml... Pure tradizionale, 12 years old, is 70-80€.. for 100ml...

Details:
Strawberry and peeled cubed apple on top. Sliced red onions and cucumber, chicken boiled in a heat-proof plastic bag (to contain juices, works well..), and then a mixed salad on the bottom. Sprinkled with plenty of balsamico, and a little roasted seeds on top.


Result:
Well it was a salad, and it was good. The chicken worked well, very neutral, but good taste. Balsamico goes well with everything, and especially strawberry.

Boooouuur... Gig... Non???

Bourguignonne sounds weird, and tastes AWESOME.. Beef, tomato, and red wine. What can go wrong?!

Details:
Yes, for this one I just stole a recipe, for once.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fillet-of-beef-bourguignonne-recipe/index.html

A little less bacon, 100g of mushrooms, canned pearl onions, and just some random dry wine that I had in the fridge for... Eh... Weeks :S


Result:
I'm not the one to say someone else's recipe is anything but perfect, but this one actually was ;)
A little too salty, which was me just being too generous with the salt here and there.
It was made on veal shoulder, so could have used 2-4 hours of simmering. The meat could have been SO much more tender. Maybe something to try with the slow cooker!

Fancy Chili Meatballs

I dragged a lot of different pepperoncino spices with me home from Italy, which I thought I better get started with. Still having half a package of minced beef, and still wanting to test something I discovered in Israel (Celery in meatballs) I decided to go for meatballs in spicy sauce.

Details:
Meatballs were made with 2 small slices of dark wheat bread soaked in ½dl milk, celery, small onion, 1 tsp pepperoncino/garlic mixture, 1 tsp thyme, 250g minced beef, 1 egg, and salt.

Sauce of minced sweet peppers, celery, some low fat cream replacement called Milda, some tomato puré, pepperoncino and thyme.


Result:
The sauce was a bit too spicy and a bit dull. The Milda was completely useless. Maybe a bit of creme fraiche 18% could have a done it better, but I don't think the milk product was necessary since it is not in normal tomato sauce..  It DID, however, work well in a meatball sandwich, as the meatballs were great!

For a quick meal...

Coming home from a week in Italy, after 30 hours by train, I only had the energy to go buy groceries for the next few days, and come up with some kind of stew.. So.. This is a meal as I make it when I'm really tired.

Details:
Minced beef fried with mire poix (carrots, celery, and onion) and curry. Added onion "stock" and simmered with red lentils untill they were tender.


Result:
Kind of like minced beef and kale! But with more body. Next time though, I should use soaked lentils :S

Pig in Coke

Roasted pork with coca cola sauce on purple rice, fennel and mango... What?

Details:
Porkchops refried with chili, onions, rosemary, and salt. Then coca cola reduction was added. All of it mixed with the purple sticky rice, then mango, fennel, and topped with basil leaves and a little chili.


Result:
It was sweet, but actually pretty ok. Mango goes well with fennel.. And cola reduction is great on mango :D The chili works well with sweet stuff.

Nice, Fat Dinner

Time to retry the fried rice idea!
This time it was ALOT better, and a whole lot more greasy...

Details:
Jasmin rice fried in a skillet, with eggs mixed in and "scrambled" along with the rice untill slightly browned here and there. Then added chicken stock and a dash of salt and soy sauce.
Topped with ghee-fried asparagus, and crispy bacon.


Result:
Oh this rice is so effin' good! And asparagus goes well with eggs, and bacon goes well with egg, and bacon goes well with asparagus, and rice is just good! But damn it's a heavy dish :S 5 pieces of bacon, 3 eggs, 6 asparaguses, half a cup of rice!

Green leaves and Bacon Grease

I wanted to try bacon and olives together, and this was the result.

Details:
Green salad leaves for bottom, chopped orange for a fruity touch, and a dressing of lemon juice, honey, and lemon oil.
I made the lemon oil by grating the peel off a lemon and adding this to a small bottle of oil.
Chicken, fried with herbs, bacon fried alone, and halved black olives and half cherry tomatoes.
Topped with cilantro and roasted sunflower seeds.


Result:
The olive/bacon combination would be SO much better in an omelet or something. Also, the dressing didn't work as it should (again) needed more aroma, and less sourness. Also, honey was a mistake.
It was a pretty good combination though, with bacon, chicken, tomatoes, and olives.

Hummus, at last

Finally came around to a Sunday to try off hummus again.
I found out that you should first mix the hard ingredients and the spices.
Then add half the lemon, and liquid, until it has the viscosity you want the final product to have.
Then you whisk olive oil in a drizzle, and the tahin in the same manner. It will change texture and mouthfeel, but not viscosity, because of the aquaphobic properties of the oil.

Details:
1 can of chickpeas (250g) rinsed thoroughly to get rid of the "dogfood-aroma". Blended with 2 large cloves of garlic, ½tsp cumin, some salt, and a pinch of chili powder, until a mush. Water added, and blended in with the juice of half a small lemon. 1 tbsp olive oil, and a little more than 1tbsp tahina were mixed in, a little at a time. Adjusted with salt and lemon. Served in bowl with halved cherry tomatoes, cilantro, roasted pine nuts, paprika, and olive oil. For dipping, a red bell pepper cut into fans, 2 washed but unpeeled carrots, and a slice of momma' awesome ryebread.


Result:
What a meal! But this is definitely the go-to method for hummus, and all the topping works so well.