Vegetarian nachos and salsa salad - recipe

Now in times of football and the world cup, we love to eat snack food in front of a nice footfall game in the living room, although I prefer us to eat at the dinner table. But there are exceptions, like a world cup :). We often make nachos and serve it with a nice salsa salad to make it more filling. This recipe, is not really a recipe, just putting few ingredients together to create a lovely meal. 

Ingredients:

A bag of nachos chips

1 jar of salsa

mature cheddar, shredded

creme fraiche

salsa salad:

2 tomatoes

half cucumber

1 avocado

lettuce

lime juice, 1 whole

1/2 tbsp dried parsley

Method:

1. Line a flat oven tray with aluminium foil and spread the nachos chips on. Add the salsa sauce on top and shred mature cheddar cheese to taste. Bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes on 200 degrees, or until cheese has melted and it is golden.

2. While the nachos are being baked in the oven, make your salsa salad. Wash and chop all the vegetables and put it in a bowl. Sprinkle over 1/2 tbsp dried parsley and juice from a whole lime.

3. Once the nachos are done as well as the salad, serve it on a flat plate with a tbsp of creme fraiche. Nice and delicious to be served in front of a great game of football.

Enjoy!

Potato salad served with oven-fried fish - recipe

We have been blessed with a great weather here in the UK, almost to the point that you cant handle the heat. Days like these, it is often hard to find motivation to stand by the cooker and make a hot meal. On the contrary, you want something light, quick and preferably cold, or at least not piping hot. What comes to mind is generally a nice salad. But, salad is not always enough if you are very hungry and want something more hearty and filling. Then what can be better than a cold potato salad? It is a great option to serve with meat, seafood, fish or just keeping it vegetarian. It is a must on every BBQ I would say. So how did I do it? 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayo

2 full tbs of creme fraiche

2 tbs of cucumber relish (I am using Bostongurka from Sweden)

1 tsp paprika, dried dill, granulated onion powder, chive, salt and pepper to taste

1tsp of Jacobsbaii spice mix by u-kuva i-africa (not necessary if you don't have it, but gives a zesty and tangy flavour)

2 stalks of celery

few stalks of spring onion to taste

2 hard boiled eggs

3-6 potatoes depending on how much potatoey you want it to be

Method:

1. Begin with putting the eggs in cold water and bring it to a boil for ca 10-15 minutes until hard boiled.

At the same time boil the potatoes in salted water. I did not boil the potato this time as I needed them to be done quickly. I simply peeled them and chopped them into bite size and put them in the microwave on the potato setting for 10 minutes.

2. While potatoes and eggs are being boiled you can start doing the dressing for the potato salad. In a bowl, mix the mayo and all the seasoning together. Wash and chop the celery and spring onions as well as the eggs once they are done. 

3. Once the potatoes are done as well, mix it with the dressing, celery, spring onions and eggs until everything is coated well.

 4. I served the potato salad with oven-fried breaded cod fish and it was delicious. But of course you can serve it as is, or with grilled meat. Another great idea is to mix it with a few cooked shrimps, which makes it a great salad with seafood, yum yum.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian pasta with tomato sauce and cream - recipe

Pasta is very versatile and can be made in different shapes and forms and be complemented with hundreds of different sauces. For that reason we make it quite often in our household, especially when the outcome is completely dependent on ingredients available at home. 

Husband made a quick pasta sauce yesterday and it was delicious and tomatoey. He made a lot so we had leftovers of sauce. Clever me who loves using leftovers, decided to use the sauce but alter it so it becomes a complete different one for today's taste buds. What ingredients did i use? Creme fraiche and double cream, they were also leftovers!

Ingredients:

Half aubergine, chopped

Half zucchini, chopped

Red paprika, chopped

Big onion, chopped

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp herbe de provance

1 jar of Dolmio tomato sauce

Olive oil

1 table spoon creme fraiche

2 table spoons of double cream

Boiled pasta twists

Method:

1. Wash all vegetables and chop them in preferable size. Brown them in a sauce pan with few table spoons of olive oil on medium heat.

2. Add the tomato sauce and add a jar of water to get extra liquid and the remaining sauce stuck in the jar. Let it come to a boil and let it simmer for 30 mins until sauce has reduced and thickened. Served with pasta twists for yesterday.

3. For today's alternation: put the leftover sauce in a pan and the leftover cream fraiche and double cream and mix well until the sauce is fully creamy. Let it simmer on low to medium heat for 15 minutes and serve with boiled pasta twist or any other pasta shape of choice.

It became very creamy and tasty this way and i will definitely try it again.

Enjoy!

Shell tacos - recipe

Today has been a long day. Midwife appointment in the morning, which went well and work in afternoon. 

I was shattered by the time I came home. We had only two bags of beef minced meat at home in the freezer and loads of vegetables. I quickly asked hubby to buy avocado, taco shells and sour cream. It was time for taco evening. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:

200-300 g beef minced meat

2-3 tbsp tomato pure

1/3 cup frozen sweetcorn

1 can red kidney beans

Taco seasoning

2 small onions

Taco shells

Cheddar cheese and sour cream

Salsa: tomato, lettuce, onion, avocado, lime juice, fresh coriander, dried parsley.

Method:

1. Fry the minced meat on high heat until browned. Add onions and beans and let brown as well. Add the taco seasoning and tomato pure as well as 1 cup water. Once it boils, turn down heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes until the water reduces.

2. Make the salsa while the sauce is simmering. Chop tomatoes, onions, lettuce and avocado as much as you like. Season with lime juice, fresh coriander and dried parsley to your taste. 

3. Once the taco sauce is done, serve everything together in small plates. Fill a taco shell with the sauce, sour cream, salsa and Cheddar cheese. That is my favourite combo😄

  

Enjoy!

Conimex balinese chicken - recipe

Among the spices I bought some time ago, I picked up a Balinese chicken sauce as I was interested in exploring Balinese cuisine. I have never been to Bali or tasted Balinese food, but I have always been intrigued by the idea. Not to mention my desire to travel to that beautiful and exotic place.

I love Asian food, especially Thai cuisine. I wanted to experience the differences in texture and taste when it comes to Balinese food. Of course, a store-bought sauce will not taste the same as authentic dishes, but it could certainly give me a hint, right!?

The meal i prepared with this sauce was simple and very good, as I thought it would be. 

I used very few ingredients in the sauce:

Ingredients:

Conimex Balinese chicken sauce

1 large chicken breast, diced

2 medium potatoes, diced

1 paprika, diced

1 carrot, sliced

oil

Sticky rise

Parsley for garnishing

Method:

1. Start by frying the chicken and vegetables in a deep frying pan over high heat for 10-15 minutes

2. Once the chicken and vegetables are cooked through and browned, add the Balinese chicken sauce and mix well. 

3. Add  1 cup of water and let it simmer for 20 minutes over low heat until the sauce has reduced and thickened.

4. Serve the Balinese chicken with sticky rise and sprinkle some parsley on top. It's a truly delicious, tangy yet sweet dish that i would love to cook more often. I would recommend this Conimex sauce and look forward to trying other Balinese flavours. Time to find some good hearty recipes online !

Enjoy!

TK maxx - spices

If there is one thing I love shopping, it's gotta be new exotic spices and seasoning mixes. There are some that have special blend and mixes that give inspiration to whole new recipes or a great way to pimp up a meal that needs a new kick. 

I do try to look for new spices when I go to stores that sell it quite often. TK maxx is one of my go to stores when I want to find great spices that are hard to find in other stores or supermarkets. The best thing with it is that TK maxx never disappoints me, I find something new every time I go to the kitchen section.

Few months ago I managed to find these spices and a sauce. I have tried them and boy are they good. They definitely transformed the dishes. I have mentioned these spices in previous posts but will most more meals where I used them and how I used them. 

So far the bread dipping blend is a strong candidate in my kitchen. I use it as dip with some good quality olive oil for bread, as seasoning over a baked potato with butter, or to season a nice, crunchy green salad.