Kind of Italian brunch

Finally we got good weather so I got the chance to make brunch and eat outside on the balcony.

I saw this recipe the other day and was excited to try it, and you know what, I loved it.

I used what I had in the kitchen and here it goes:

Eggs in a tomato sauce

• Passata,organic tomatoes
• Red pepper
• Fresh basil
• Garlic
• Parmigiano Reggiano
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Eggs (as many as you want to eat)
• Olive oil,extra virgin

Fry the red pepper and garlic for a little while, do not burn the garlic.  Add the Passata  tomato sauce and spices.  Simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Break in the eggs, the eggs do float on the sauce, they do not need to touch the pan.  Cover the pan and simmer until the eggs are cooked as you like them to be.

Sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh basil.  Serve with Grissini bread sticks and oven baked bacon.  I served a Beronia Reserva with this one.

Vegetarian red lentils lasagna with zucchini instead of pasta sheets

I am not a vegetarian, but I easily could be.  Sometimes I wonder why I eat meat, then I guess it´s because first of all I am used to it, also it can taste good and third I believe since us humans are meat eaters it is nutritious….  Usually when I cook I make vegetarian dishes, Indian,  Mexican,  Italian ..  If I have ground beef I use it, that is because I get it from the beef farmers next door where I live from grass fed animals that are treated well.

Anyways, I don´t eat much meat at all and when I make vegetarian dishes I surely don´t miss it flavor vise or other vise.  I do love LOVE  green pepper salami for my pizza though… and the Icelandic lamb is very tasty, the smoked goose is really something…:)

This dish here was going to be something like lasagna, with zucchini instead of lasagna sheets and red lentils instead of ground beef…that was just because I had an awesome zucchini and lots of cooked red lentils and I really love red lentils in lasagna.

Red lentils vegetarian dish

• Red lentils, cooked
• Red pepper
• Onion
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Fresh Basil
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Chop chop, fry, add lentils and sauce bamm bamm boom…you know the drift

Basil Dressing

• Basil, fresh
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

brrmmm brrmmm with the blender.

Oven roasted zucchini

• Zucchini
• Tomatoes
• Salt
• Pepper
• Extra virgin olive Oil

In the oven, 220°C , half an hour or so

Also:

• Cheese, mozzarella or any good cheese that melts well (Cottage cheese would also be good)
• Parmigiano Reggiano

Layers:

First some red lentils sauce, then zucchini, then cheese, then I put a little bit of basil sauce…as many layers as you like. I only had two this time.

 

 

Have a terrific weekend!

Here is one of my favorite quotes to inspire you this weekend….

 

Christmas count down 10… Cucumber salad

Today I went out to buy all the Christmas presents.  I had already figured out what to buy,  and I don´t buy that many because in my family it is a tradition only to give gifts to kids under 14 years old.  I like that tradition, the presents are for the kids, the food and wine and getting a little bit of holiday vacation with family is for us grown ups.

Now I am celebrating Christmas with 2 kids for the first time.  For me, the excitement of opening presents are through my kids, or kid, because the younger one is only few months old 🙂

I am totally doing Christmas differently after having kids.  Before it was about travelling the world with my boyfriend when we had our Christmas vacation.  Now it´s about baking cookies, making Christmas decorations and staying with my family and relax in the country, making traditions. (But I am sure we will do new things every year…and probably go to a warm country one Christmas…)

In Iceland, over Christmas, people eat a lot of fat food and VERY SALTY food.  In between it is important to eat healthy food.  I, in general eat healthy over Christmas, I do a little bit of the salty and fat with the pork on Christmas Eve.

With all the fat and salt, a cucumber is a really nice treat.  Cucumber goes so well with all kinds of food.  It´s refreshing.  With Mexican, Sushi, Indian, Icelandic, you name it.  I find it essential in my taco (but not in burrito, only taco shells…) with all kinds of sushi, in Raita with Indian food and I love it sliced on rye bread with Icelandic lamb paté.

I made this cucumber salad for a sushi party the other day.  It´s simple and again, REFRESHING!

Cucumber salad

• Cucumber
• Spring Onion
• Mirin

Mix it all together.  Serve with….what ever 😀

Opening number 14

Christmas Count Down …17 – Kidney bean tortilla – full of flavors but only one spice – cinnamon

Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon, if we ever have cinnamon it´s most likely in December.  The month of ginger bread cookies.

I got this recipe from a Spa and Medical Clinic, owned by the Nature and Health Association of Iceland.  I went there for a visit and they have a nice kitchen, open to public as well.  I was so surprised when I heard what what in this recipe, it was so flavorful and I couldn´t pinpoint the spice blend, so I asked.  The only spice used was cinnamon.

I am usually not a big fan of cinnamon, but I like it in apple pies.  In this dish it´s perfect, I had to try this recipe for myself to see if this was true so I followed the recipe from a-z (in Iceland we say a-ö ) and I got the same flavor.

Try this recipe, just like like it is, exactly… It is worth the try.

Kidney bean tortilla

• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 carrot
• 1 parsnip
• 1/2 onion
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1-2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• Tortillas

Dice the vegetable and fry it in a little bit of oil with salt and cinnamon.  Add beans and tomatoes.  Simmer for a bit.  Fill the tortillas  with the  veggie mix and the cheese and heat in the oven for 5 minutes at 200°c .

I served it with homemade salsa and Jalapeno dip.

Jalapeno dip

• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• Finely chopped canned jalapeno (or fresh) *
• 1-2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1t easpoon syrup
• Salt

Mix everything together.

*The amount of jalapeno is by taste.  Put in a little, taste and then add more if you like it with more heat.

The clinic is in Hveragerdi, a half an hour drive and the landscape on the way is very beautiful

Day 7…

What should I have for dinner tomorrow?

Are you a food blogger?  Do you have a favorite dinner recipe to share?

If you do and you have blogged about it (If you are not a food blogger but know of one and a good recipe)  please post a link to it in the comments.  I´ve spent all morning trying to think what I want for dinner today and I am so uninspired and I would love to try something new.  So tomorrow I hope I can cook something good from what you suggest.

Until then I will spend the rest of the afternoon to decide  on what to cook tonight….just one of those days, I want something good, something I haven´t done 1000 times before but don´t know what..

Ever felt this way? 🙂

You can do so many different things with almonds.  Roast them, marzipan, almond milk, almond flour and so on and on…

I tried to roast them the other day.  That was nice.

Roasted Almonds

• 2.5 dl sugar
• 7 dl almonds
• 1/2 dl water
• 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon, if you like

Put sugar, water and cinnamon in a frying pan.

Add the almonds and stir well together on medium heat until the sugar crystallizes.

Move the almonds to a parchment paper and cool down.

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Pop art…pop corn…micro greens

I sometimes forget that pop corn  is alive.  yes…IT´S ALIVE 😀

It´s not only good for making pop corn.  Many people make micro greens with this crazy little thing.  Put the corn in a bottle with water in it for 8 hours, then poor out the water and clean the maiz twice a day.  Try and google “micro greens”.  So many cool things you can do with seeds.

The perfect “naan” FINALLY! and gorgeous Northern Lights

The good thing about waking up every now and then to feed your baby is when you look out the window of your bedroom in the middle of the night to feed and you see the sky lit up with beautiful green Northern Lights.

My bedroom view last night

I had to go out and see the sky dance.  It was hard to get out of the warm bed after the baby was a sleep with the rest of the family members.  But it was worth it.

As some of you might know I live in the country.  Than means no traffic, no street lights and very few neighbors.  So, at 2 in the morning I was up and out to enjoy the beauty of the Northern Lights, all by myself.  The sky was filled with stars as well.  The weather was completely still, little bit cold but nice.

At one point I saw an amazing shooting star, burning up.  It was so clear and unreal.  At a point like this, where you are all by yourself, it´s totally still, not a sound around, the sky covered with a green dancing light and bright stars, some of them falling…It makes you wonder 🙂

My back yard last night 

How to make a good naan has also made me wonder…how do they do it, at those good Indian restaurants, they have tandoori oven I know, but I was sure I should be able to do something better than what I´ve done in the past.  I always find my naan more like a pizza crust.  Too hard.

I saw a recipe for a naan, similar to all of the ones I´ve tried.  Then browsing around that site I found a recipe for something called Onion Kulchas.  It did sound good and something worth trying…and O MY COD, yes..COD! ( I´m from a fishing nation 😉 ) They were so good that the Indian dinner I did with it wasn´t eaten.  My husband and I, we stood by the kitchen Island the whole time and ate the naan as soon as they came off the pan, with raw onion mix… I have a recipe for that as well.

They were so soft that I could roll them up, that is how I like my Naan.  So this isn´t Naan but Kulchas I guess, and Kulchas is what I will be making from now on…

You can put a little pit of the onion mix into the dough while you are rolling it out, i prefer the onion mix raw…

Kulchas

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 1/8th tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup Yogurt

Mix all ingredients well together, add little bit of water if you need the dough more wet.  Set a side for 1-2 hours, room temperature.

Divide the dough into small golf ball size balls.  Flat out very thin with a rolling pin.  Bake on a very hot pan on your stove, about 1 minute each side.

Raw onion mix

• 1 onion, chopped very finely
• 1-2 chillies, slices thinly
• 1/2 tsp ginger,grated
• Fresh Koriander (Cilantro)
• Salt to taste

I made a vegetarian dish as well, even though we didn´t end up sitting down to eat it, it was really good.

Believe it or not, I used the leftovers on a pizza couple of days later!  It was a reeeeaally good pizza, I will make it again.  I had the rest of the fresh onion mix spread on top of the pizza when it came out of the oven.

The paste was onion, garlic, chili, ginger, fried in oil added canned tomatoes and a bag of cashew nuts.  I spiced this up with an Indian spice blend I have, durban curry.  I put it in a blender.  Then I fried up veggies and mixed it with the paste as well as some yogurt.  VERY TASTY!

I am all about not buying jarred stuff, get yourself a good Indian spice blend and make your own sauces.

It´s fresh and you know what you are eating.

Strawberry fruit roll ended up being Strawberry Nori sheet…

I tried making fruit rolls since I am always looking for healthy snacks for kids.  I failed big time this time.  I guess I made it too thin so I ended up with strawberry-paper.

I will try again…

My strawberry-paper looks like pink Nori sheets so maybe I can use it for sushi…hmmmm, strawberry dessert sushi??  Any suggestions for the filling?

Here is a  recipe the way it is supposed to be.  I was going for strawberry fruit roll and used only strawberries.  Everything looked good, the puree was nice and all, I just spread it too thin.

I did not warm the berries first. In the recipe from the link above they do, but I´ve seen other recipes where they don´t.  I don´t know if it is better to warm them up or not.

Doesn´t look good 😛  hahah!

Strawberry fruit roll 

• 2 boxes fresh strawberries

Puree the berries in a mixer.  Spread the puree ona parchment paper.  Oh oo…Don´t spread it too thin…

Bake for 5 – 8 hours at the lowest heat, my oven was at 50°c.  Keep the oven door slightly open.

If you want to do the strawberry “Nori” sheets, spread the puree very thin  🙂

It´s that time again, it´s getting darker around midnight, so dark I need to turn on the light when I´m reading before going to bed.  This summer has gone by so fast. Time sure flies, and like someone said:

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you´re the pilot.

 

Inspired by Aloo Palak

I have a garden full of spinach and it´s growing so fast that I need to find more spinach recipes.  Soon my potatoes in the garden will be ready as well.    I found a recipe for Aloo Palak and used it as an inspiration for this dish.  If you have a garden full of spinach and potatoes you need to use, then this recipe is perfect.

 

Spinach potato dish

• 1-2 handfuls spinach
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 teaspoon good Indian spice blend
• 5-6 boiled potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Little bit of milk, 1/2 dl or so
• Salt and pepper
• Bit of butter

Wash the spinach and heat it on a pan with little bit of water.  Mix it in a blender.  Set a side.

Brown onion on a pan with little butter and garlic.  Add the spices, then finely chopped  tomatoes and sugar.  Add the spinach, splash of milk and stir.  Add potatoes, salt and pepper if you like.

I added extra pinch of butter in the end because they say everything tastes better with butter 😉

 

Ready to eat, I served mine with cod.

This is one of my favorite photo, called Sierra.  It wasn´t planned or posed, It was more of a snapshot.  The light outside was beautiful and a great contrast in shadows because of the trees in the yard.

Pregnant or not? …Tomato soup with broiled peppers and homemade croutons

It´s funny to see how my cooking changes depending on if I am pregnant or not.  If not I am into gourmet food paring it with some good wine.  If… It´s all about baking and desserts.  So now you can figure it out by browsing through my Icelandic blog  for the last 9 months or so (if you don´t speak Icelandic the pictures will tell you…)

Of course I  eat food as well when I am pregnant, but it´s  often “dull” healthy food like simple boiled salted cod with potatoes and butter, recipes I don´t think many would be interest in. And I love making homemade pizzas.  In between I do some good stuff like a Tomato soup with broiled peppers, and of course the homemade rye bread and the crisp bread.

But once not pregnant I have no urge for the sugar in desserts and cakes and bake very little for the sweet tooth I don´t have.

I have been eating lots of good veggie soups, this is one of my favorite.  It´s tasty and easy to make.  The essential part is the broild peppers.  I did tell you how to broil peppers here.  That is a total must for this recipe.

Tomato soup

• 1-2  cans tomatoes, some good organic, I like the ones from Eden.
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 red pepper
• 1-2 dl heavy cream
• Good olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Cut the red pepper in half, put it in an oven prove dish, with the cut down, season with olive oil salt and pepper if you like. broil it.  See here how it´s done.

Heat olive oil in a pot, on medium heat cook some onion and garlic.  Add tomatoes and the red pepper (after you remove the skin). Simmer for 15 minutes.

Place everything or half of the soup in a blender. Or not at all if you like it chunky.

Put it back in the pot, add the cream, season with salt and pepper.

What also makes this soup really good are the croutons, because I have the soup mild in spices the croutons totally spice it up.

Croutons

• A day old bread, like baguette or something good
• Italian spices, like Basil, Oregano or Rosemary
• Salt
• Fresh black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil, as much as you need.

Cut the bread into bite sized squares.  I used bread, baguette,  I made from a home made pizza dough

Fry the bread  squares on a pan with oil, we are not deep frying, just add 3-4 table spoons at a time to the pan, if you find the croutons dry, just add some more oil, little at a time.  You can also use butter.

Serve with the soup

And for the last extra touch, a fresh Parmigiano Reggiano…NOT the fake powder in a box…it has to be fresh and real 😀

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