Homemade Ravioli:)

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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 :)