Apple & Raspberry Crumble

There's a saying where I come from: a good crumble is better than two...in...th...uh...actually, I don't know of any sayings that involve crumbles, but they're really awesome so I decided to make one and post the recipe here. You can obviously try various fruit combinations, but this one is pretty fantastic.

Apple & Raspberry Crumble

1 stick + 1 tbsp unsalted, chilled butter (9 tbsp)
1.25 cups all purpose flour
0.75 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 medium apples (I like Gala, but pretty much any apple will be fine)
12 oz raspberries (about 1.5 cups)
ground cinnamon
salt

Turn your oven to 425 degrees F. Next, peel and core the apples. Cut them into small chunks, about half an inch. Wash the raspberries. Place the fruit in a 9 inch tart pan (preferably made of glass, but metal will work as well). Sprinkle about 1/4 cup sugar over the fruit.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, a small pinch of salt and about half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Next, cut the butter into the flour in chunks. Now, it's time to get dirty: mix the flour mixture with the butter with your fingertips. You're looking to divide the butter enough that there are no large chunks left, but you're not looking to form a uniform dough, like you would when making a pie or quiche.

Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit, making sure to cover as evenly as possible. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the crust is golden. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

This will keep, covered, for about 4 days if left in room temperature and about a week in the fridge. If you keep it in the fridge, I suggest reheating it in the microwave for half a minute on high before eating.

Mountain of Cookies

I just had to share my mountain of cookies. Now I want one, and I'm all out :(

Swedish Meatballs

Being Swedish, I can't believe it took me over 40 posts to finally post a recipe for Swedish meatballs! These are a modified recipe of my mom's meatballs (who else?) and are perfect for children as well as adults. In Sweden, meatballs are generally served as a kid's dish and they're usually a huge hit on the smorgasbord for Christmas. These have a slightly more "adult" taste.

When I was working in the kitchen of a bar outside of Paris (The Bitter End in St Germain-en-Laye), I made them and they became an instant hit. After that first try, I basically had to make them as the daily special every Wednesday! The main reason I'm posting right now is because someone I used to work with at that bar was checking out this blog for the first time and was wondering where the meatballs were at!

Meatballs can be made as almost "thin" food (by using water and low fat meats) or, even more delicious, as a decadent meal that you probably shouldn't be eating on a daily basis (by using cream for both the meatballs themselves and the pan sauce.) The below recipe is the more decadent kind, but I have commented what to substitute if you want a leaner dish. I served this with my creamy mashed potatoes, but the original dish is generally served with boiled potatoes or some form of pasta.

Swedish Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes and Cream Sauce

Meatballs:

1 lb ground beef (I use 7% fat which seems to work well)
5 oz ground pork
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1 large yellow onion
3 tbsp butter
white pepper
kosher salt

"Stock" and Sauce:

beef or veal stock (preferably homemade, or a reduced broth - dried will work)
1 carrot
1/2 yellow onion
2 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves
~10 oz heavy cream
corn starch
soy sauce

Mashed Potatoes:

6 large potatoes
1/3 cup sour cream
white pepper
kosher salt

Lingonberry jam for serving (available at IKEA all over the world)

Begin by bringing 1/2 gallon of water to a rolling boil. Add the carrot, half onion (cut up in chunks), bay leaves, garlic cloves (smashed and peeled) and the stock. If you're using homemade, well-reduced stock, about 1/4 - 1/3 cup will be enough. If using dried bullion, about 1.5 - 2 tablespoons should be enough. Let this boil (without a lid) while making the meatballs.

Peel the potatoes and cut them up into chunks (for faster cooking). Pour water into a large pot, add the potatoes and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. I generally keep them covered while boiling; just keep an eye on the pot if you do the same.

For the meatballs, start by mixing the cream (this can be replaced by water for a leaner meal) and the breadcrumbs in a large bowl. Let stand for ten minutes. In the meantime, very finely cut the onion. I used a very fine grater for this - it basically turned the onion into a mush, which is fine. You don't want large chunks of onion in the meatballs. Once the breadcrumbs and cream have stood for ten minutes, add the ground beef, ground pork, 1 teaspoon white pepper, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, the onion and the egg. I wear latex gloves for the next step - if you do not have any available, make sure you have some cold water in a bowl to dip your fingers in.

Mix the ingredients well with your hands. Once there are no chunks of the breadcrumb mix left, you're ready to start rolling. Make meatballs around an inch to an inch and a half in diameter and place them on a plate.

Turn the oven to 250 degrees F. Place about 5-6 meatballs in the pot of boiling "stock" and leave for about 3 minutes. Most of the meatballs should start floating (but if they do not, don't let them stay in the pot for more than 3 minutes). Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate covered with a paper towel. Once you've cooked all the meatballs, let the water continue cooking. In a large pan (I prefer cast iron, but nonstick or stainless steal will work fine), melt the butter over medium heat. Add about ten meatballs and cook until they have some surface color. Be careful not to burn them. Once a batch is done, place in an oven-safe dish and place the dish in the oven. Repeat until all the meatballs are done.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and put back into the pot you boiled them in (or a bowl). Mash them with a fork or potato masher. Add about a teaspoon of white pepper and the sour cream, then stir to combine. Keep warm by placing a lid on top (mashed potatoes will also reheat well in the microwave if need be).

The final step is the sauce. If there's very little to no fat left in the pan you cooked the meatballs in, add a tablespoon or two of butter. Add about a tablespoon of corn starch and stir with a whisk or wooden spoon, removing brown bits from the pan. Next, bring out a mesh strainer and pour the "stock" into the pan. You'll need about a cup of the stock. Whisk together and add the cream (if you wish for a leaner meal, you can replace the cream with more stock, water or red wine) and about two tablespoons of soy sauce - make sure you taste it, soy sauce is salty! Whisk and let cook for a minute or two. Salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the meatballs from the oven, place on a plate and smother with the sauce. If you're using boiled potatoes instead of mashed, make sure they get a dose of the sauce as well! Serve with the lingonberry jam and eat immediately.

Hmm, I wonder if I should go have seconds now...

KitchenAid Pasta Attachment (plus a recipe!)

I finally got around to buying the pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer relatively recently - it's been a while since I actually bought it, but I've been too lazy to write about it.

The attachment is great - and the fact that I make the actual pasta dough in the mixer and then flatten it and make tagliatelle with the attachment is awesome!

In honor of my wonderful new piece of equipment, here's a recipe I came up with at some point in the recent past.


Tagliatelle with a Creamy Smoked Salmon & Mushroom Sauce

1.5 cup heavy cream
0.5 cup dry white wine
6 oz mushrooms
5 oz smoked salmon
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
Tagliatelle for two, preferably homemade

Start by boiling water for the pasta in a large pot with a tablespoon of salt and a little bit of olive oil (especially if using fresh pasta.) Slice the mushrooms thinly. Melt the butter over medium high heat in a saute pan. In the meantime, bring the cream and wine to a simmer in a pot. Slice the smoked salmon thinly. When the mushrooms have sweated out most of their moisture content, add the salmon and cook for another couple of minutes. Boil the pasta for 2-3 minutes, if using fresh pasta. If using dried pasta, follow the instruction on the package (and start cooking it earlier.) Add the mushrooms and salmon to the cream mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with crusty bread and maybe a side salad for the rabbit food lovers.

Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

I'm back! Woo!

I do apologize for the delay in making this post. I will do my best to get back to the twice weekly updates now. Hopefully, at least!

I love a good risotto, and one of my favorite things with making one is how it tastes and looks like it was hard to make and cost a lot. This does not have to be true at all (unless you like to throw copious amounts of extremely difficult-to-cook ingredients in there, and top it all off with real diamonds, of course.) This specific risotto is pretty awesome, and very quick to prepare. Enjoy!

Note: apparently, there's one of these on Olive Garden's menu. This, however, is good as opposed to what I can only assume is a travesty of food that they would serve you there.

Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto (Risotto di gamberetti e asparagi)

Serves 2

10 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
10-15 asparagus stems
1/2 medium sweet or yellow onion
1 cup arborio rice (risotto rice)
1/2 cup dry white wine
3-4 cups chicken stock, possibly more
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Start by bringing a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and add about two teaspoons of salt. While you're waiting for the water to boil, clean the asparagus and cut off the very bottom ends. If there are some very large stems, cut them in two pieces. Once the water is boiling, add the asparagus and boil for four minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to an ice bath to avoid further cooking.

Next, prepare the shrimp - peel and get rid of the veins. Add the shrimp to the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes, or until pink. Set aside. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer, but don't let it boil so it starts reducing too much. Covering the pot should keep the liquid from evaporating.

Next, chop the onion into small pieces and place in a pan, together with the oil, over medium heat. Cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Next, add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, for about one minute. Do not let the rice get any color. Add the wine and lemon juice, and continue to stir constantly, until the wine has been absorbed. At this point, start adding the simmering chicken stock, 1/2 cup at the time, while you continue to stir. Once it's evaporated, add the next half cup and continue this process until the rice is al dente - cooked through, but still slightly hard.

Once the rice is finished, add the butter and Parmesan cheese, then stir. Salt and pepper to taste, then add the asparagus and shrimp. Stir until everything has heated up, then serve immediately with fresh bread and the white wine you used in the risotto, if you have any left!

I Am Lazy...

Yes, I am aware that I haven't updated for a while now. It sucks. I'm sorry. I've been busy at work and haven't had the energy to update in the evenings. It'll get better soon - just got some new toys for the kitchen and will post about them in the coming days. That's a promise.

In the meantime, here's Alton Brown's segment on the Food Network All-Star Grillfest.

Pasta salad

Yes, yes, I know that was more than a couple of weeks. I didn't forget about the blog, I was just crazy busy. Now I'm not...actually, that's not true, but at least I've decided to take the time to start updating the blog again! It's right around 100 degrees F out there (that's ~38 degrees C), so I thought a nice, cool salad would be a good idea. I've always had a special place in my heart (stomach) for pasta salads, and here's a pretty simple one that always leaves me hungry for more. For more substance, add some cold, cooked chicken and crumbled bacon - but this sucker is actually vegetarian in the original recipe, that follows (crazy, right?)

Pasta Salad

1 package (16 oz) penne pasta
15 cocktail tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 can corn (or 2 fresh corn cobs, cooked with the corn removed from the cob)
1/2 head romaine lettuce
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
pesto sauce

Boil the pasta until al dente. Drain and let cool. Wash and shred the romaine lettuce. Wash and quarter the cocktail tomatoes. Wash, then dice the cucumber. Drain the corn (if using a can), or wash the cobs, remove the kernels and cook them (most recipes call for a non-stick pan with a little bit of oil over medium heat until the corn is cooked). Put the cooked and now cooled pasta in a large bowl. Add about five tablespoons of pesto sauce (recipe follows below, or you can buy a jar at the grocery store) and stir until all the pasta is covered. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined. If you wish, add cooked, sliced chicken or turkey and crispy, crumbled bacon to the mix at this point.

Serve with freshly baked bread and a cold beer on a sunny patio (unless it's friggin' 100 degrees out, you want the shade then) for optimum results.

Pesto Sauce

2 cups fresh basil leaves (packed)
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmigianio Reggiano
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (use the good stuff if you have it)
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, finely minced

You'll need a food processor for this. Start by placing about a third of the basil leaves in the processor and blend until finely chopped. Add a third of the garlic and a third of the nuts and blend again. Add a third of the cheese and a third of the oil, and blend again. Once it turns into a paste (you may have to scrape the sides of the bowl). Empty the bowl, then repeat the process until you've used all the ingredients. Combine the batches. This will last about a week in the fridge, a few months in the freezer. If you're not making pasta salad, it works really well if you just add it to freshly boiled pasta. I used to heat it with a little bit of creme fraiche and serve over spaghetti, but it's crazy expensive and hard to get creme fraiche in the US and I wouldn't want to try it with sour cream. Heavy cream is probably a better bet.