Cookbook Tip

  

Interested in Turkish cooking? Check out the bok Turkey by Leanne Kitchen. A lovely cookbook and insight to Tukish food and traditions. In the book you can find everything from simple dips to more advanced seafood and lamb recipes. It's a good book if you are looking to get more familiar with middle eastern cooking in general. 

Leeks with Lemon, Currants and Goat Cheese

Oriental food is often simple to make but with interesting flavors and colors. Here is a Turkish recipe with baby leek and currant. The currant is giving this dish a beautiful color and a sour, yet sweet taste. Leek is a very straight forward ingedient that is often forgotten. For this recipe we used current from the garden and self-grown leek. Life in Sweden can be fun (when it's not raining). 

Leeks with Lemon, Currants and Goat cheese

750 g baby leek or 4 large leeks (if large, sliced them)

125 ml olive oil

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 1/2 tsp caster sugar

finely grated zest from 1 lemon

35 g currants

50 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

375 ml chicken stock

2 thyme sprigs

125 g tulum cheese (goat cheese)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C degrees. 

2. Trim the leek 3-4 cm from the tops and clean them proper. Make sure that the root ends keep together or they will fall apart during cooking.

3. Place a single laying in a large rosting tin. 

4. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for about two minutes or until fragrant. Pour the oil mixture over the leeks in the tin. 

5. Scatter over the sugar, lemon and currants then pur over the lemon juice and stock; season with freshly ground black pepper. 

6. Cover the tin tighly with foil and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes (50 minutes if big leeks). 

7. Remove from the oven, drain the leek and set a side, reserve the cooking liquid. 

8. Transfer the cooking liquid to a saucepan and bring to boil. Cook for about 10 minutes or untilt he liquid has reduced and thinkened, the pour it over the leeks. 

9. Season with salt and cool completely. 

10. Before serving, scatter the crumbled tulum cheese and serve. 

Enjoy!

Pesto chicken with Feta Cheese Potatoes

When the weather in Sweden is good (two weeks a year) there is a lot to do. One of my favorit late summer activities is picking mushrooms in the woods around our house. The chanterelles in the picture is in fact handpicked by ME. Any edible mushroom is good to use for the recipe. Of course, there is nothing like the gold of our Scandinavian woods. Here is an easy to make summer BBQ recipe. I'll wish for nice weather. 

Recipe (6 people)

800 g of chicken, thight filés

Marinade

1 red chili, chopped

A handful of chives

A handful of basil

A handful of thyme

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup of parmesan

1/4 cup of walnuts

1 dl of olive oil

Juice from 1 lemon

Juice from 1 lime

Salt

1. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a blender. Put the chicken in a plastic bag together with the marinade for approx. 1 hour before bbq:ing.

Baked Potato with Feta Cheese
approx. 1 kg potatoes (new potatoes are recommended)
200 grams of feta cheese
Rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Slice the potatoes thinly. 
2. Grease a tin with olive oil and then make layers with potatoes and cheese. On the top put extra cheese and finish off with rosemary.
3. Sprinkle over olive oil, salt and pepper.
4. Bake in the oven at 175 C degrees until it gets a nice golden color, approx. 30 min. 

Mushrooms
500 grams of chanterelles (or other mushrooms, what ever you get your hands on)
30 grams of butter
Salt 
A pinch of white pepper

1. Fry the mushrooms and add the butter as soon as the liquid is completely reduced. Season with salt and white pepper and fry until golden brown. 

Enjoy!

Tip: You can basically use any kind of green herbs, I used what I had at home. You should

do the same.

Wheat Ring with Vanilla Cream and Blueberries

 
In Sweden we eat rolled buns with a huge variation of fillings. I usally prefer the regualar cinnamon roll with cinnamon, sugar and butter. This is a more luxurious version of the cake with homemade vanilla cream and handpicked blueberries.  

Wheat Ring

150 grams of butter

1 tbs of cardamom

2 cups of milk

1/2 tsp of salt

1 dl of sugar

1 egg

12 grams of dried yeast
1 tbs baking powder

850-900 grams of flour

Filling:

2 1/2 cup of milk

1 vanilla bean

6 tbs of sugar

3 tbs of cornstarch 

8 egg yolks

50 grams of almond paste
200g of blueberries

Topping:
Sugar pearls (if you can't find sugar pearls, thinly sliced almonds also works well)
Egg (for brushing)

1. Melt the butter in a pot and add the milk, salt, sugar, cardamom and the egg. Let it become 42 C degrees (or 37 if using fresh yeast).

2. Add all the flour to a bowl and mix in the yeast. I prefer doing this stage in a mixer. Add the milk mixture while mixing on slow speed. 

3. Let the machine do the kneading for you on slow spead for approx. 8-10 min. Let the dough rise to dubble size in a warm place. It takes approx. 1 hour. 

4. In the meantime make the filling. Spit the vanilla bean and scrape out all it's seeds and add to the milk togther with the seperated bean. Bring the milk to boil. 

5. Let cool and take out the vanilla bean (you can strain it, just make sure to bring the seeds back). 

6. Mix in the sugar, cornstarch and the yolks and bring back to the heat and let simmer under constant stiring until it becomes really thick. Take it of the heat and let it cool. 

7. Take out the dough when ready and divide it to two parts (makes two).

8. With a rolling pin make a thin rectangle and add the almond paste and vanilla cream on top, then sprinkle over blueberries and if you like it sweet some extra sugar. Roll it and place in a baking tin.

9. Cut the dough with a scissor almost all the way through, with two centimeters in between to make a nice pattern.

10. If there is leftover vanilla cream squeeze it out in the gap between were you made the cut with the scissor to give that little extra touch. Mix an egg and brush it on the cake and sprinkle over the sugar pearls.

11. Heat up the oven to 200 C, in the meantime let the cakes rise a bit.

12. Place in the oven for 25 minutes, then cover it with something so it won't burn and let it be in the oven for another five minutes. Take it out and let cool completely.

Enjoy! 

Oriental Love (Manehe Yehuda)

 

 

Azura (Jerusalem)

I'm not a big fan of Jerusalem. I tend to keep to Tel Aviv BUT there is a place worth visiting in the city, the shuk Manehe Yehuda. In the shuk there is an Iraqui restaurant named Azura that serves well cooked food for a good price. 

While wating for a table walk around the shuk and get inspired. 

Location: Eshkol Street 4 (the Iraqui market) 

Beetroot á la Dagmara

My beautiful friend Dagmara also knows what to do in the kitchen. Just the other day she invited me for lunch and made this tasty starter. Since then I have been eating this dish at home  - for lunch and dinner. Yummy! I've added lemon zest and pumpkin oil to the recipe (forgive me). A perfect starter to kick start a dinner party.

Beetroot  (four ppl)

4 pre-cooked beetroots

300 grams goat yogurt

2-3 tbs raw tahini

A handful of parsley

zest from 1 lemon

Juice from half a lemon

salt

To serve:

60 grams rosted pine nuts

Pumpkin oil

1. Chop the parsley finely. Add goat yogurt, tahini, zest and the lemon juice. Mix well and season with salt.

2. Slice the beetroot. Put on a serving dish in a circle and add the mix on top. Sprinkle over rosted pine nuts and carefully drop pumpkin oil around.

Enjoy!