A Way to a Woman's Heart

Scallops with vegetable purées and infused foam

2014-04-17T11:40:00.001+02:00

A long and descriptive title for a really easy recipe. Scallops are always a success and this recipe is an idea on how to present them with delicious details.

Beautiful picture by Alex

First, you need to make the infusion for the foam. In a saucepan, add 200ml of cream with around 60g of raw peeled ginger and 4 pieces of lemon skin. Let it infuse at low heat during the preparation of the dish.

Then prepare the purées. You can make only one but I chose to have 2 different one underneath the scallops: Parsnip & Turnip. These two vegetables have a very nice lemon-like taste that combines perfectly with the scallops. Just peel the vegetables, cut them in small parts and toss them all together in salted boiling water until they are fork-tender. Then, mix them separately with 5ml of the water they cooked in and 5 ml of cream. Leave it to rest in bowls while you cook the scallops.

For the scallops, first season them salt & pepper, then heat up butter in a pan at high heat and place each scallops clockwise so you know which one were the firsts to be placed. Leave it for 30 seconds (more if you want a thicker crust) and turn them.

Take the infusion out and filter it so you just end up with the infused cream in another saucepan (big enough to let the foam expand). Take a hand-mixer and mix the cream: as you move the mixer around allowing air to mix with the cream, it will start creating a beautiful foam that keeps the entire taste of the infused cream. Make three small lots of purée in the plates, I made two parsnips and one turnip. Place the scallops on top of the lots and add the foam around.

For a detailed presentation: add a thin slice of radish on the side of the scallops, onion grows on top and few grows of cabbage on the foam.

Enjoy! :)

Chicken Roulade

2014-04-01T20:12:00.001+02:00

Another nice, easy but elegant recipe.

Roulade basically means "roll" in french. The purpose of this dish is to have very juicy pieces of chicken with a nice crispy skin around them without roasting anything. The first step is simple: buy one chicken. No, not alive. Well at least mine was a classic supermarket chicken...

The first thing to do is to skin the chicken. The skin is very important for this dish and you have to take it off the chicken as intact as possible. If you don't know how to do it, I recommend watching youtube videos on it or if you want me to make a video of "how to skin a chicken", let me know in the comments!

When you have your skin, just let it rest on the side. Now, remove the 2 breasts and clean them. I recommend taking off the wish bone first to make it easier. Once again, if you want a video I'll show that too.

Lay down the skin on plastic film and place the filet on the skin on top of each other. Roll the skin around the filets and then roll the plastic film around the Roulade as tight as possible. Seal the two sides with string and now it is sous-vide. You should have something like that:

As the 2 breasts will stay apart, you can just dust Activa on the skin and breast if you find some. This powder creates a fusion between the proteins: the 2 breasts will become one as they cook.

Put the roulade sous-vide in water at 65°c for one hour. After that, remove the roulade from the water and take it off the plastic film. If you have a fryer, just drop it in a very hot oil for few minutes until the skin is crispy. If you're like me and don't have a fryer, just heat up olive oil in a pan and place the roulade. Turn it often until the entire skin is crispy with a nice golden color.

Then let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing it.

I served mine with leek, but I should have also done a purée (sweet potatoe I think). I roasted the rest of the chicken while cooking the roulade so I used the juice from the roasted chicken as a sauce in this dish.

Enjoy! :)

Simple Scramble Eggs

2014-03-08T16:19:00.000+01:00

This is Saturday and let's not lie here, there is a big chance that you are going to drink heavily tonight. And like everyone, you are going to have the usual Sunday hangover crave! I have the prefect 10 minutes recipe for you.

For two persons, mix in a bowl:

4 to 6 eggs
A big spoon of crème fraîche
Pinch of salt & pepper

Put olive oil in a hot pan and add the mix. The secret of perfect scramble eggs now is to leave 10 seconds the eggs over the heat and to take it off the heat everytime you give it a mix then put it back again for 10 seconds. And you repeat these 2 steps until you reach the texture you want. Just add chive when serving.

If you are really hangover, I suggest adding bacon on your toast too. Cook first the bacon and then follow the recipe using the same pan. It will add the saltiness of the bacon in the scramble eggs, making them even better.

You will feel a lot better after that! ;-)

Stilton soufflé

2014-02-06T19:45:00.001+01:00

The first time a made a cheese soufflé, it was to impress some friends with my cooking skills. I have to say it was a COMPLETE failure... indeed they rose, but the second I took it out of the oven, they fell and became cheese pancakes. The taste was absolutely there, but heck, it wasn´t that impressive to say the least.
But today! you can impress your own friends with an easy peasy stilton cheesy soufflé! Follow the steps, and you´ll be one step closer to someones heart.
But to get there, you have to let some steam out and be aggressive with the whisk! calmness and pride is your prize ;)

serves 2 in medium ramekins
0) put you ramekins in the fridge
1) melt 30g of butter
2) add 30g of flour and mix well
3) add 55g of milk
4) take it off the heat and add 2 egg yolks and a teaspoon of mustard
5) add 55g of stilton cheese, mix until incorporated and leave to rest
6) whip the egg-whites until you can hold the bowl up side down without it moving or falling
7) incorporate 1/3 of the foam and mix aggressively
8) gently fold in the rest, preserve the airiness
9) take the ramekins out, and brush it with soft butter upwards. The butter should stick and freeze.
10) fill the ramekins by 1/3, tap it against the counter to eliminate "large" bubbles
11) fill the ramekins to the edge
12) set it into a preheated oven 220-225 for 10-12 min

To eat with simple or adventurous salads. I found it ridiculously good with a orange dressing for the salad, the acidity broke the fat and cleansed the palate. Healthy and comforting, Enjoy!

Bread and sourdough!

2014-01-27T22:46:00.000+01:00

To be honest, I have never been the baker. I´ve worked at a bakery, and seen how bakers work long nights, fuck up their breads by forgetting ingredients, but still manage to redo everything and finish up after a 12 hour shift. Unfortunately, good, cheap and tasteful bread is really hard to come by. And being the man that I am, I wanted to challenge that by making my own.
6 months ago, I wanted to create a sourdough starter. Searching on the web, you find all kinds of recipes for starters telling you to mix several ingredients and making it a 100% hydrated. I tried once with the regular bread flour, it didn´t work out that great. Then I tried mixing several flours and added salt, the salt killed the sourdough bacterias (not a good idea). At that time, the adventure ended and I actually quit for while.

During christmas, I had a lot of good bread! the upside of family dinners and restaurants amongst other things of course... therefor I set out on a new sourdough journey after new years. This time using 75g ecological wheat flour (bought at sunkost) and 25g "ecological sammalt hvete" mixing it with 68g of tempered water in a plastic container with plastic film on top to keep moisture. Getting rid of half and feeding it with the same initial amount every day for the first week was easy! Stored in my heated bathroom to accelerate the process, bubbles started to show! I took the water test, and the sourdough floated! Boom, I was finally ready to bake bread. It was DELISH. From now on, I only need to keep the sourdough alive with 1/4 of the feeding amount respecting the ratios every 48 hours or so... If you want to use the starter, double the "initial feeding amount", leave it for 12 hours and its going to be quite bubbly I tell you. A bread now cost me 16 Nok instead of 50, the amount it costs for a good sourdough bread in town.
Dear I say that it tastes better? yes, because I baked it, and it looks awesome! But I guess that´s a normal reaction...
PS: storing sourdough in the bathroom, a way to a womans heart? try to find another warm place to store it, not the most popular thing I´ve done ;)

Mayonnaise heaven

2014-01-25T12:23:00.002+01:00

It´s been a while since last post! but with a new year comes new possibilities and new posts. During christmas and new years, I have come to experience several family traditions! and with those traditions, peoples thoughts around food. I find it incredible that people think its a hassle to make good healthy food. Some even don´t think about what it does with life! As a student and foodie, I like finding new, cheaper and healthier ways of making my own daily necessities. Therefor, my first posts will be about simple things that people can make instead of buying.
Mayonnaise, you may think that its extremely unhealthy, and you´re right! supermarket mayonnaise is unhealthy, but the reason is: bad oils, chemicals and no fresh produces. What if I told you that you could make you own mayo, flavour it as you like and pack it in just about 4 minutes.

All you need is:
- A mixer
- egg yolks
- mustard
- groundnut oil (or any other oil you´d like the mayo to taste like)
- fresh lemon
- white wine vinegar
- salt, pepper and any spice you´d like to flavour it with! smoked paprika, basil, white pepper, moroccan spice, an endless list of things. Experiment and share!

Start up with 2-3 egg yolks and mustard in a mixer. When its properly liquified, add oil little by little until you get a pale yellow and firm mayonnaise. Add a tablespoon of sifted lemon juice, a teaspoon of vinegar and fresh spice, dried spice or no spice!
In Norway we have something called "riskli olje", a tasteless and relatively healthy oil (in contrary of sunflower or palm oil) that lets you choose flavouring for later. Peanut oil creates a peanut taste and quality olive oil, well you get the picture...
The mustard will still get it to taste absolutely fabulous! and the price? cheap I tell you. If, of course, you don´t make a fresh black truffle mayonnaise. In that case, very expensive!

Up next, mission sourdough!

Avocado fries & Brussel Sprouts

2014-01-20T17:50:00.000+01:00

I usually use avocado in simple salads but I have never actually cooked it. In this recipe, I am making avocado fries, a recipe I got from this website. My girlfriend actually showed me the recipe from another blog, but the website linked is the one I used and the article is very funny and very well written.

I made long slices with the avocados and prepared 3 bowls as explained in the recipe. One with flour, one with egg yolk, and one with panko (mixed with salt and pepper). Then, you just need to deep the slices in the bowls following this order and in the oven at 200°c for about 15min until the panko is golden brown. I served the fries with a chili sauce. Delicious! Great recipe.

To continue the dinner in a good note, I cooked Brussel Sprouts with bacon. Cut the bacon in small pieces and toss it in a hot pan. When the bacon is cooked, take it off the pan, add butter to deglaze it and put the brussel sprouts (cut in half) in it. Cook them at medium heat until they are soft with a nice colour. When finished, just add the bacon and few pine nuts. Healthy and so good.

Enjoy! :-)

Healthy Scampi Taco

2014-01-08T22:07:00.000+01:00

Good evening!

I guess just like me you had a lot to eat during the Christmas and New Year holidays. And these meals have the reputation to be the heaviest of all year, so for a lot of people the new year resolutions tend to be "more sport" and "healthier food".

If you want to stay fit in 2014, or your girlfriend does, here is a veeery simple dish but very tasteful. It can also be served as an appetizer for a full menu of course.

The Scampi and Mango Taco

First, drizzle olive oil in a hot pan and toss the scampis (just the meat, no shell/head/tail) and cook it until you obtain firm scampi with a nice color. While cooking the scampis, you can slice the mango into thin layers. You don't want more mango than scampi or it ill be too sweet.

To add a crunch to your "taco", toss pine nuts in a hot pan and move them until you obtain a golden skin. Be very careful as it just takes few seconds and it can be burned very easily.

Then, dispose everything in a lettuce leaf, drizzle with soy sauce and lime juice.

Enjoy your healthy taco! If you want more healthy recipes, just tell me in the comments. ;-)

Back to Blogging with a Roast Lamb

2014-01-05T13:42:00.002+01:00

It has been way too long since my last post on this blog. I'm not quite sure why as my passion for cooking actually became stronger through 2013. I learned many new recipes, tasted a lot of new meals and had the time to cook everyday. But time and motivation for blogging was hard to find unfortunately.

It's a new year now, and in 2014 I want to take this blog back to life!

Here is a new recipe which can look a lot more complicated than it actually is : a roast lamb. I chose to accompany the lamb with a sweet potatoes purée and asparagus.

First, place the lamb in a hot pan and just cook it on each side for 40 seconds to give it a nice colour. Then place it in a plate with olive oil and dispose thin layers of garlic under the strings.

Place the plate in a preheated oven at 150°c for one hour / kilo (mine was 1,300kg so I left it for about 1 hour and 20 minutes). Once the lamb is cooked place it in foil for 20 minutes before slicing it. If you have a meat thermometer, the center should be at 70°c (or 65°c if you like it pink).

While the meat is cooking, you can prepare the purée. Just peal and slice the sweet potatoes and place them in boiling water with a pinch of salt. Cook it until you can easily cut through the potatoes. Add them into a mixer with few spoons of the water you cooked them in (which is now a stock) and about 15cl of liquid cream. Mix it all until you have a nice homogenous purée. You can add more stock and more cream if you want it a bit more liquid and soft.

For the asparagus, just toss them in a hot pan with olive oil. Move them a lot in the pan so they don't burn and at the end, add soy sauce in the hot pan. It works perfectly with the asparagus.

For the sauce, I used the juice from the meat which I put in a pan to reduce with butter and few centiliters of red wine.

I hope you enjoy this first post of 2014! It feels good to be back here ;-)

Improved Chocolate soufflé!

2013-01-07T10:32:00.001+01:00

My rustic soufflé from last year tasted good, but didn´t look as beautifully as it should. Today ladies and gentlemen, the soufflé ticks both characteristics. You only have to do the following:

In the oven

1) take your soufflé ramekins, butter them and brush the butter upwards in the direction of the soufflé. Put it in the fridge while preparing the soufflé itself.

Always mix until smooth

2) In a bain marie, melt 25g of quality chocolate (never under 70%) and 1 tbsp of cocoa powder. Melt and whisk until smooth.

3) 150 ml milk, 100 ml cream. Stop it from cooking when it boils. Then add the chocolate. whisk until smooth.

4) In another bowl, 3 egg yolks (Do not throw away the egg whites) and 3 tbsp of caster sugar. Whisk it, and then add a tbsp of flour and 1/2 tbsp of cornflour. Just put a splash of the milk mixture into the batter, and whisk until smooth. Then add the rest and mix.

5) Put it back onto the heat, and whisk until a fine custard is created. take it of the heat at just the right moment, and whisk too cool it down a bit. If you do not, it begins to get a bit lumpy on top, and it´s impossible to save it!

6) egg whites, and a splash of lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk it on full power and add 50g of caster sugar little by little. You know when it´s ready when you can form peaks without them fallings down. Or if you dear, swing the bowl up side down on top of your head and see if it falls. If it does, it´s not ready ;-)

7) mix 1/4 of the egg whites into the custard with force. Do not be afraid, this will only make it better!! Then add the rest and gently just fold it in. You should now have something resembling a great mousse au chocolate!

8) take the ramekins out, brush them with some more butter and add either ground chocolate or sugar so that it sticks to the ramekin. Back in the freezer for 5 min and then your ready to fill them.

9) for the filling: fill it half way, them tap it on the counter to make all air disappear, then fill to top. Use something straight to level the mixture. Put your thumb on the edge of the ramekin and turn the ramekin clockwise so that you create a little curve into the mix. This will make it rise properly and is crucial for the perfect soufflé!

10) Put it in the oven at 190 degrees, and bake it for 15-17 min depending on the ramekin size.

You should end up with a perfect Soufflé!!!!!!

A couple of min after taking it out of the oven. Still going strong!! Very, very good sign!

Blue Cheese Burger

2013-01-06T21:30:00.001+01:00

Now this blue cheese burger people, is heavenly on a cold winter evening. Very easy to make, and the flavours work beautifully together.

Simply add the following spices in a bowl:
Paprika
Pepper
salt
fresh oregano.

Make some beautiful minced meat burgers, and just roll them in the spice mix. While cooking, the flavour will melt in the burger and create a beautiful crust that explodes in your mouth.
Cook it on medium heat with a bit of salted butter. Remember to add enough butter so that when you turn your burgers you gently pour some melted butter on top. Always cook your burgers medium rare please! Add the cheddar cheese before you´ve cooked it perfectly.

For the rest: cook some spinach, then put them in a ice bath to prevent them from overcooking. Take it out shortly after and season. Put your mushrooms in the pan and cook until soft and creamy. Mix it with your spinach and there you have your perfect topping.

For the sauce I simply mix delicious blue cheese with some crème fraiche and season it.

You can have potato boats if you want to or anything else (I like cherry tomatoes)... But the burger is enough on its own... It´s so creamy, delicious and packed with flavour! But you got to be careful with the meat! do not overcook it like they often do at restaurants! After a few tries and tastes you´ll notice the difference.

Enjoy :)

Stringy cheese chicken

2012-09-24T21:30:00.000+02:00

Hello food loving people!

A little while ago I saw a Heston Blumenthal episode, and he made me crave for stringy cheese! I absolutely adore cheese! If you one day you get to ask me which my favorite cheese are, I´ll only be answering: there´s too many to choose from! But my favorites are in the blue cheese and well preserved section.

Now for this simple dish I used:
Mozzarella
Compté
Norwegian yellow cheese
Parmesan

All these have a purpose. Mozzarella for the stringiness, compté for the intense flavor, norwegian yellow cheese for the volume and the aged parmesan for the little crisp and creamy flavor.
Mix them all in a Bain Marie and let it melt naturally. Swirl a couple of times and do not worry about the sauce.

Cut the chicken breast in the middle so that it folds out. Put some stringy cheese in it, and close it up with some thread. Cut some carrots in fine lengths and mix it with some greens (asparagus, green beans, herbs...) in the pan. The carrots will bring some sweet flavor to the dish.
Fry the chicken first and them the vegetables. Use some of the cheese sauce that was created and there you have a stringy cheese dish!
Remember one thing though, always season your food! and then taste before re-seasoning.

Have a great one!

Surf ' n ' Turf Mania

2012-09-11T13:09:00.003+02:00

Now it´s my turn re-posting recipes for you guys!

I assure you, I have been cooking a lot for the past months, but the time for some blogging has been very limited. To recap my life for the past months, I began the year with the national barista championships, then I prepared for my 5 exams at the university! The fact that I was ill for a couple of months before my exams, meant that I had to read a LOT!
Food being one of the center pieces in my relationship, I have to say that my girlfriend has made a lot of improvements being my personal little chef :)
Following my exams, I get offered the job that many passionate baristas dream of getting! I get to be a assistant manager during the opening of the new Stockfleths i Oslo (soon to be the best coffee bar in Oslo!). Not only that, but I get to have the Norwegian Barista Champion as my boss! That, I have to say, is pretty AWSOME!
Now school has started again. Even if I haven´t had a lot of vacation, I´m ready for a new semester and new experiences!

As my first blogpost in a long time, I would like to share one of my favorite Italian recipes I made this summer. This is really a sunny day recipe, but can be appreciated a cold day with a great spanish or italian red wine.

I would like to call it:

Surf ´n ´ turf MANIA!

I honestly love this recipe, and can never get enough of it!

Now to the basics of this recipe:
- 3 tins of quality tunafish in olive oil
- homemade mayonaise (retail is great too)
- Ruccola salad
- Pre panned sirloin (you can use a lot of different types, but red meat is recommended)
- quality parmesan
- quality olive oil (extra virgin)
- pine nuts
- lime
- salt and pepper
- creme fraiche
- cayenne pepper
- LOVE

Now this sounds pretty easy, and the great thing is that it is easy!

If you have a little fatty sirloin, beat it to break the strings! then cook it in a pan with butter, or put it in the oven for a slower cook (160 degrees should do it (remember to moisture the meat while its cooking)).
Let it rest for a couple of minutes, and cut it into longer pieces.

For the tuna mix, empty the tuna tins into a bowl, then add a couple of spoons of mayonnaise. Then add some creme fraiche to mix the different creamy textures! Balance it after you own palate and add the salt, pepper, cayenne and lime!

Mix the ingredients, and add the meat. Let it cool during the night! Before serving, add the roasted pine nuts and ruccola and there you go!!!! it´s time for surf ´n´ turf MANIA!

I hope you enjoy my first long blog post! My god I now remember how much I love writing about this!

Fish dinner in Autumn

2012-09-10T22:08:00.000+02:00

Good evening!
Everything is going great in my new job, very nice colleagues, a beautiful office in Oslo and I can cook great meals now that my bank account isn't always in negative.

It's been a long time since I cooked fish, I'm not even sure if I posted any recipe with fish on this blog but anyway, here's tonight's dinner: "Tzatziki Salmon" for the entrée, and "Stir fried Plaice" for the main course.

For this "Tzatziki Salmon", I used really basic ingredients to make a fine, fresh and well balanced entrée. I made a bed of avocado at the bottom, put slices of cucumber (marinated quickly with olive oil), and finished it with pomegranate on the top.

Around the cucumber, I put a tzatziki emulsion made from tzatziki with added liquid cream. I placed cubes of fresh salmon and small bits of cucumber pulp. Store it in the fridge for 5 minutes before serving.

The main course is simpler in taste and color, but still as delicious. I stir fried the Plaice filets in olive oil for 5 minutes on the skin and placed it in the oven for 3 minutes at 200°c. The green vegetables were also stir fried in olive oil for 5 minutes, but I added also balsamic vinegar.
I added lime juice just before serving, salt and pepper. You really don't need any sauce for Plaice, the fish speaks for itself.

Hope you enjoy these two recipes! Ask me if you want other fish recipes ;)

Reindeer Steak with Brunost Sauce

2012-08-26T16:13:00.001+02:00

Hey everyone!

It has been a long since the last spot. Well, life has been very busy since last time. I graduated from my school in France after weeks working on my thesis, but I wasn't accepted in the Master program I wanted to do in Norway. Huge disappointment, but I got back on my feet directly and started looking for a job. I finally found the dream job, after few interviews I finally got it, and I'm based in Oslo which is just perfect!

After that, I had to come back to cooking and writing on the blog.

Here I am, with a new Camille's Norwegian meal: Reindeer Steak with Brunost Sauce. Every once in a while, there is a farmer market in Oslo where you can buy very typical Norwegian food, and this was the best place to find a meal to do my blog come back. I chose a beautiful piece of reindeer hunted just recently, and a brunost. For those who don't kno, brunost is a delicious brown goat cheese. It is made from whey that is cooked until caramelized. I love it and if you come to Norway, you need to try it.

For the meat, I cooked it in the oven at 60°c during 3 hours and finished it at 100°c for 30 minutes glazing it with a salty butter at the end. I recommend it bloody or at least pink to really enjoy the taste of the meat, but if you want it cooked more you can live it at 60°c for another hour.
For the sauce, I used 50g of butter, added 25g of Brunost and finished it with 10ml of liquid cream. It works perfectly with a meat, really delicious!

On the side, I cooked cantrell mushrooms quickly in a pan with olive oil, just remember to wash them very well before. Plus a rutabaga and parsnip purée: cut them in cubes, cook the cubes in boiling water until they are soft and mix them with liquid cream until you can a nice texture. Pour the cream carefully and just a little bit several time in order to avoid a very liquid purée.

I hope you like this come-back recipe! Feels good to cook and blog again:)

A nice dinner for two!

2012-04-09T17:19:00.000+02:00

I know. It has been so long without posting... I really feel guilty. I've been so busy between France and Norway, trying to write my bachelor thesis. Anyway, here is a new post. I cooked a nice dinner for my girlfriend and I while I was in Oslo and I present you my new favorite vegetable:

They are indeed quite tasty.

For the starter, I used slices of eggplant and parsnip with a scampi on it. These vegetables work very well with seafood. I cooked the parsnip in boiling water for 10 minutes and the eggplant with butter, 3 minutes on each side.

For the scampi, I cooked them in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and soy sauce. Everything together really works perfectly and you can use it with fishes too.

For the next meal, I made an oven-baked salmon with spinach. Put the salmon with olive oil, salt and pepper in the oven at 180°c for 10 minutes. Don't overcook it or it will be dry, wasting this delicious fish.
With the spinach, put them in a saucepan with 10cl of water, a spoon of olive oil, salt and pepper and cook it at medium temperature until they are very soft without any water left. The sauce is a crème fraîche with lime, perfect for the salmon!

I might be without posting for some time again as my bachelor thesis is due very soon bu I'll do my best. See you soon!

Homemade Ravioli:)

2012-03-14T20:45:00.003+01:00

I´ve made ravioli from scratch!!

Use my pasta recipe for the dough. For the filling I mixed chicken with asparagus, chives and goat cheese. But the thing with ravioli is that you can do all kinds of sorts!! cheese, ham, all vegetables and so on... The fantastic thing with fresh ravioli is that it only needs a couple of minutes in the pan.

Us a fork to press the dough edges and put it on a floured plate. Tips for cooking! use a regular pan and not saucepan. It´s much easier to get them out without breaking the dough!

I really made so much ravioli that we had to spare some for lunch the next day... It was perfect! Now my girlfriend want me to make them all the time!! Even today she asked me when I was thinking about making it again... Loving my new pasta machine :-)

Tomato risotto

2012-03-13T08:28:00.002+01:00

I love my risotto! And here is another for you:

Risotto

basil

cherry tomato

white wine

crème fraiche

seasoning

butter

and of course parmesan :)

Not the hardest to make, but a beautiful dish it is!

Barista Barista!

2012-03-13T08:20:00.002+01:00

Hello!

I´m sorry for not having posted a lot of recipes this last week, but I really haven´t had the time to write anything else but my presentation. Last saturday I qualified for the Norwegian barista championships! I´m really proud and I really want to win! I´m going to work very hard this month to fulfill my goal! More recipes will come! I promise...

Norwegian food market

2012-03-05T16:06:00.009+01:00

Saturday, my girlfriend and I went to the first opening of a farmers market.

This is the first permanent farmers market in Oslo and it has a great variation of Norwegian specialties and exclusive merchandise. You can buy rabbit, fresh salmon, great cheese, all kinds of home made jam and so on...

Klippfisk

Fenalår

For the first time in my life I ate nettle cheese! And it was surprisingly tasteful!! furthermore I tasted dandelion sirup, cave cheese, Norwegian honey mustard and so on. I really enjoyed my time in this market.

When we escaped the temptations after tasting for over 2 hours, we came out with a farmers white mug cheese and a perfect home made plum jam! Rarely I´ve tasted a jam that good... With this I made a crunchy salad with tomatoes and my own balsamic, honey, orange and pepper dressing.

The market opens every Saturday this month until closing for the grand opening in October!!! Really looking forward having a permanent farmers market in town!! But for now, new week, new opportunities :)

The "Cake" Challenge

2012-03-04T16:46:00.000+01:00

My last attempt during the Dinner with friends wasn't really a success. So even if I was already very late on this Challenge n°5, I turned to the best baker I know: my mum. She gave me advice, recipes and some confidence to try this challenge again.

Thanks to her, I might be reconciled with baking:)

For the cake:

80g flour
10g baking powder
125g butter
125g dark chocolate
125g sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt

Mix the 3 egg yolk with the sugar until you get a nice white texture. Add the flour mixed with the baking power and a pinch of salt. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a "bain-marie" and add it to the mixture. Beat the egg whites and mix it gently with the rest. Butter your mold, add the mixture and put it in the oven at 180°c for 35 minutes. Let it rest few hours before cutting it.

For the middle:

100g mascarpone
20cl bitter orange syrup
10g bitter orange marmalade

Mix it all together. My mother just made bitter orange marmalade herself so I decided to use it but you can use any perfume you want. Just remember the orange flavour works perfectly with chocolate.

For the topping:

100g dark chocolate
50g butter
50g crème fraîche

Melt it all together in a "bain-marie", pour it on the cake and spread evenly with a spatula. Let it rest in the fridge for an hour. I chose to finish the topping with white chocolate bits.
Enjoy it with a nice cup of coffee!

So, is this challenge a success?

Homemade pasta!

2012-03-03T18:58:00.006+01:00

Today I bought myself a pasta machine! I just had to make some for this evening... And what a perfect pasta dish!

My girlfriend turned 21 yesterday, so we had some red wine and champagne left in the fridge. I made a double-cream, parmesan, crème fraiche, chives and champagne sauce for the pasta. With this I made some chicken that I seasoned with salt and pepper. The pasta I made from 200g fine Italian flour and 2 eggs. Put it in the mixer and add some flour until you get a dough that resembles bred crumbs. Roll it together and slide it in the pasta machine while turning. Make thiner and thiner pasta until the finest level is reached. Cook in seasoned water for 3 min and enjoy!! The better the eggs, the better the color and taste of the pasta!

After this I won´t make any super marked pasta for anyone! People have to understand that fresh food is the ultimate one! Spices, herbs, fresh pasta, free range eggs, high quality flour and so on...

Even if this is a typical and simple Italian dish, my god homemade pasta is a dream to eat! A romantic movie, glass of red wine and a beautiful girlfriend.. what more can you ask for?

Dinner with friends

2012-03-01T20:10:00.002+01:00

I recently invited friends over for dinner before we went out. You remember that Alex challenged me to make a Chocolate cake? Well, I didn't really succeed... I'll let you see the dessert to judge that!

The starters were Ginger Scallops in a lime and butter sauce. Except for cooking the scallops, this is a very simple recipe but so delicious. First, dispose on the plate a spoon of Gari (marinated ginger you eat with sushi) and the juice of one lime. Cook your scallops: in a hot pan, 1 minute on each side. You have to be very quick. Melt 100g of butter, and add it on your scallops in the plates. Finish with basil finely chopped.

The second dish was a roasted pork Tenderloin with mozzarella and pesto eggplant. First, colour the tenderloin by cooking each side very quickly in a hot pan, and in the oven with thyme at 200°c for 20 minutes. After this time, take the Tenderloin out and cover it with aluminum foil until you're ready to cut slices and serve.
For the eggplant, cut 1 cm slices and cook them in a pan with olive oil until they are soft. Prepare an oven plate with olive oil at the bottom, take each slice and add mozzarella in the middle with a teaspoon of pesto and fold the edges to the middle. Cook it in the oven at 150°c until the mozzarella melts.
Prepare a sauce by reducing the juice of the tenderloin with cream. It's just what you need to complete the moist texture of the meat.

And the dessert:

I tried very hard to make a perfect chocolate cake for dessert but I failed! and even if it tasted good, it had the shape of a cap... Yes. A cap. So the girls (Heidi and Helle) became very creative and I thank them so much. We cut the cakes in circles (and little hearts), put it

in a opened strawberry meanwhile I prepared a chocolate sauce. I added vanilla ice-cream on the side with 2 physalis.

The challenge wasn't really a success so I'm going to try very soon a new chocolate cake and hope for the best! :)

Cherry sirloin

2012-03-01T17:25:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I made this great sirloin with cherry and "vino santo" wine. With that I made a potato and celery root purée and steamed cabbage.

Cook the sirloin in butter at low heat, then take it off the heat when it begins to get a nice color. Get a new pan, put some sweet tined cherries or fresh ones with the juice. Let it cook for 2 min at medium heat. Add the "vino santo" and burn off the alcohol.

Add the sirloin into the sauce and let it cook for 2 more minutes.

For the purée, chop the potatoes (4 approximately) and half a celery root. Add some water and let it cook at high heat for 8 minutes. Drain and Make your purée with some rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Cut the cabbage in small pieces and steam or cook in boiling water. Season with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Now even my girlfriend, who isn´t a great red meat lover, liked the dish!! All the flavors just worked perfectly together! I hope you enjoy this meal and get back to me if you liked it :)

What a beautiful day today!

2012-02-29T22:02:00.004+01:00

As you can see I´m training for my norwegian barista championship competition. This is at home, so my own coffee machine isn´t as professional as the one I´m competing with obviously, but the temperature can be as good ;)

I use a lot of my free time training for this competition so I really hope I´ll do good.

Coffee has been a passion of mine since I began working in a coffee shop 3 years ago! I got to learn a lot about the process, the hard work that is put into picking the berries and the roasting. Every coffee has its own taste and body. When bitten by the coffee bug, you never go back to pre-grownd cheap coffee.