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Monday, September 24, 2012

Stringy cheese chicken

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!


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Surf ' n ' Turf Mania

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!




Monday, September 10, 2012

Fish dinner in Autumn

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 ;)