foodie pics

 Heart attack special

Toast, aged cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, fried eggs

 Chicken wok with rice

 A really nice Merlot in my new carafe

 Bacon, mushroom, fresh spinach pasta with some Parmigiano Reggiano. 

Spaghetti with a basil, tomato sauce, fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano and chili flakes

Chicken and Bean Burritos

For those who know me they will tell you that I love my Texmex. Today I made Chicken and refried bean burritos.

Chopped chicken Fillet
texmex spice
Refried beans recipe
Salsa
sour cream
burrito wraps
grated cheddar cheese

Put some texmex spice on your chicken and fry using a little olive oil. When the chicken is almost done you can warm your beans in the frying pan or warm them in the microwave. Heat your wraps to make them more flexible. lay some chicken and beans in the middle of the wrap in a straight line. Add some grated cheddar, sour cream and salsa. I like some hot sauce as well. Fold up the bottom of the wrap and than roll it together. Dinner is done.

 

Blueberry Pancakes

This original recipe comes out of an old cook book that a friend of mine once found at a garage sale. It has a lot of great recipes and I use it quite often. It's hard to find newer cook books that dont include mixes that I can't get here in Sweden. This is old school and everything is from scratch.

Recipe

ingredients:

1.5 cups of flour
1 tbs sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks, beaten
1.5 cups milk
2 tbs melted butter(not margarine)
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/5 cup blueberries

1. Combine Flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the vanilla and mixture of beaten egg yolks and milk: beat until well done.
2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, not dry, lay over the batter, then add the blue berries. Fold the mix together
3. Heat your frying pan until quite hot, add a little butter and pour your batter into pancakes. Turn the pancakes when they fluff up and get lots of bubbles. Turn only once.
4. Serve the pancakes immediately on a plate and top with a little butter and real maple syrup. They can try to say the fake stuff tastes as good, but that just aint so. 

Nice sunset this evening

Black Cherry Ice Cream Recipe

Black Cherry Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients

For sauce

• 800grams black cherries, pitted, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sugar

For ice cream

•  10-15 cherries pitted and chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 5dl whole cream (40%)
• 3dl milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Make sauce:
Combine cherries and sugar in heavy large saucepan; toss to coat. Let stand until juices form, about 2 hours. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until liquid thickens slightly, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Strain cherry mixture to small bowl; reserve for use in ice cream.

Make ice cream:

Pour 3dl of cream and 1dl milk into heavy medium saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat; steep 30 minutes. Whisk sugar and yolks in medium bowl to blend well. Bring half and half to simmer. Gradually whisk hot cream into yolk mixture. Return mixture to same saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 4 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat. Mix in remaining cream, milk, chopped cherries and cherry mixture. Refrigerate until cold, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.

Using ice cream maker, process custard until almost firm, following manufacturer's instructions; add reserved 1 cup cherry mixture. Process until ice cream firms, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer to container; cover and freeze.

Pizza dough

Homemade pizza dough

There are a few things that you have to get right if you want to make your own pizza and today I will talk about the foundation of the entire project, the dough. Making your own dough is actually fairly simple. The most important thing is to make it at least 1 day ahead of when you want to make your pizza. To get a really good pizza dough you want it to have a chance to ferment so that the flavor really comes through. 

Ingredients

1 package dry yeast

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons oregano 

Mix the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast in your mixing bowl. Let the yeast activate for 5-7 minutes. You will know it's ready to go when it gets a thin layer of foam on top. DO NOT USE TOO HOT OF WATER AND BURN YOUR YEAST.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and turn the mixer on low. once the dough has started to come together turn it to medium and mix until you have a stick ball that separates from the sides of the bowl. If your dough is too sticky add extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency.

Grease a large bowl with butter or non stick spray (I use Pam, only thing I use Pam for) Cover the bowl with plastic and then with a tea towel and put in a warm place to rise. Let the dough rise for about 90 minutes or until double in size. 

 After 90 minutes my dough has risen and is ready to be refrigerated

Remove the towel and plastic and punch your dough down. Depending on what kind of pizza you like (ie: thin crust or chicago style) separate into pizza size portions and put into plastic bags, then refrigerate or freeze. The dough will keep for 4 days int he fridge and a month in the freezer. I make four packages because I like Italian style thin crust pizza. I'll talk more about making the pizza tomorrow.

  
 

make sure the bags are bigger than the dough or else they will rupture

Today I had grilled pork tenderloin and some vegetables. Very tasty. 

Refried beans

Love my Texmex

When I first traveled to LA in 1986 I had no idea what Texmex was and that's a shame. In LA I was introduced to a whole new world of flavors and Fell in love with it. I'm a real fan of hot and spicy so it was love at first taste. There was a great Burrito place that I spent a lot of time at on Sepulveda Boulevard. It was a cheap lunch and a very tasty one. They had a great beef and bean burrito. They also had a nice orange whip drink, but that's a whole different story. 

When I moved to Sweden in 1989 they were just starting to market Texmex, but it was impossible to get good refried beans. They sell a small can of something they call refried beans but there is nothing  in them that you should be putting in your body. It's like buying guacamole dip that contains no avocado, how is that even possible? A couple years ago a decided I needed to figure out how to make my own beans. I watched a couple youtube videos and read some recipes and started the testing process. Now I have a pressure cooker and it's down to a science. You can make them without a pressure cooker, but it takes A LOT LONGER. 

ingredients

800g Pinto beans

1 medium onion

2-3 cloves garlic(chopped)

1 tsp cumin (ground)

4 chicken bullion cubes

1-2 jalapenos (depends on your personal hot scale. I like two)

I use an 800g bag of beans and it makes about 2kgs of refried beans. The import thing is they are incredible easy to reheat after being frozen. I put them in plastic bags and they keep for a couple months in the freezer. 

Always start by hand sorting through your beans to make sure there are no small stones. The plants are kept in soil with a lot of small gravel to make them easy to irrigate and it's not uncommon to find a small stone mixed in with the beans. Nothing you want to be biting into so start with the sort. 

Once sorted put the beans in a bowl and cover with water a couple inches over the beans because they will absorb a lot of water. Let them soak over night with a cover.

Chop a medium size onion and fry it with a little butter. Put the kettle on to cook up water while you are letting the onion get slightly yellow and soft. Chop up 2 or 3 garlic cloves and add them and 4 chicken bullion cubes with a little of the water. Mix until the cubes have melted. Chop up a jalapeno and throw it into the pot. Grind up a teaspoon of cumin and add that. Then strain your beans and put them into your pot. Add enough boiling water to cover your beans plus a couple centimeters extra. Once again the beans will soak up water and you will be able to remove excess water later.

Bring the Beans to a boil on medium high and put the lid on. Once the pressure cooker seal closes, turn the heat down to low and let it cook for an hour. Take the pot off the heat and let it cool down and release the steam on it's own. This will help the beans cook the last little bit without risk of burning them. The beans should be soft and you should be able to mash them with your finger. This is a great time to taste test.

Strain the beans into a bowl saving the liquid. Put the beans back into the pot and mash the beans. The consistency is up to your own personal preference. Use the liquid you save to give the beans moisture. You don't want dry beans and there is so much flavor in the liquid. I like to use the liquid instead of water when cooking up my texmex beef to get full use of the amazing flavors. 

 

Tips

• portion your beans into small plastic bags for freezing
• you can reheat in microwave or in a pot. 
• You may need to add a little water when you reheat
• for a really good bean dip you can just add a little sour cream
• bean burrito is a great thing to serve to your vegetarian friends