Seared Beef Carpaccio

This was my starter for this year's 13-course menu. Delicious! And very easy to prepare in advance, which is always key with these dinners.

The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver. It was actually one of the first things I saw Jamie make on tv, and it's stuck with me for years. I just never had an occasion to try it. Glad I finally got around to it, because it's really great.

Seared Beef Carpaccio 
serves 8 as a light starter

400 g of beef tenderloin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
salt
black pepper

toppings:
fresh coriander
fresh ginger
red chili

dressing:
the juice of 2 limes
1 tbsp japanese soy sauce
1-2 tsp sesame oil

On the day before you want to eat, mix the spices and rub into the beef. Sear in a very hot pan, ideally ridged, on all sides. You want a really good sear, to make a tasty crust. Let it cool, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Now freeze it.

The next day, or at least after a few hours, slice the beef very thinly. This is much easier while somewhat frozen. Place on a large platter.

Prepare the toppings. Chop the coriander finely. Slice the ginger into very thin slices, then gather them and cut across to make tiny matchsticks. Slice the red chili as thin as you can.

Mix lime juice, japanese soy sauce and sesame oil.

Just before serving, drizzle the meat with the dressing, and sprinkle with the toppings. Serve.

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Bacon Parmesan Shortbread

These cookies are so awesome. Little savory snacks, perfect to serve with a drink or glass of wine.  You can prepare them well in advance - the dough needs at least an hour in the fridge, but over night is fine. I bet you can even freeze it. The cookies themselves keep well too - either in the fridge or frozen.

And they're a snap to make - you just throw everything in a food processor. So simple!

Bacon Parmesan Shortbread
about 40

140 g bacon
150 g all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
100 g butter
100 g parmesan cheese (in small chunks, or grated)

Start with the bacon - it needs to be fried. I prefer the oven, so I roast mine at 200°C for ten minutes. Use whatever method you like.

Next, place the flour, sugar, salt, butter and cheese in a food processor. Mix until everything is fine crumbs. Add the bacon, and then mix until it starts coming together in one coherent dough. Shape into a long sausage-shape, and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least one hour.

Slice, mine were about 5 mm, and place on a baking sheet. They'll spread a little, but not a lot.

Bake at 200°C for about 8 minutes. They should become very lightly golden.

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13 courses for twelfth night, 2014

My drink & pre-dinner snack - "A Passion for Bacon" with a sparkling Passionfruit drink, and Bacon Parmesan Shortbread.

Any long term readers of this blog, you already know that every year, a group of my friends get together to make a fabulous dinner. We started back in 2006, and it happened to be on trettondagsafton, or Twelfth night, as January 5 is also called. (In Swedish, it's "13-day-eve".) It's definitely one of my favorite traditions - it marks the end of the holidays, and also the start of a new, fabulous food year.  (We cheated a little and held it on January 4 this year, out of convenience.)

We are four couples, and each couple make a starter, a main course and a dessert, all tiny, to make up a large tasting menu with many surprises, as no one knows what the other people are making.  I make an extra dish each year, a drink and a small snack, in order to bring it to 13.

We've done a bunch of themes, as well as completely theme-less. This year, we decided to randomly divide flavors between us, to make sure we'd get a good variation. Very fun theme, and we really did get a wide variety of dishes.


Erika & Micke's starter  - Beef Salad with Raspberries & Mint (Flavor: Raspberry, Mint) 


Dagmar's starter - a Blood Orange Salad with Almond Honey Caramel and Feta Cheese (Flavor: Orange, Honey)


Lena's starter, a Duo of Ceviche. (Flavor: Lemon, Chili)


My starter - Seared Beef Carpaccio (Flavor: Coriander, Sesame, Ginger) 


Lena's main dish - Saffron Gnocchi with Bresaola and parmesan (Flavor: Saffron, Parmesan)


My main dish - Licorice-Glazed duck with Figs in Port and Sunchoke Purée (Flavor: Licorice) 


Erika & Micke's main dish - Feta-topped salmon with garlic & pink peppercorns (Flavor: Pink pepper, Garlic) 


Dagmar's main dish - Moose stew with dark chocolate & Hasselback Potatoes (Flavor: Chocolate) 


My dessert, Hazelnut Mousse with salted hazelnuts. (Flavor: Hazelnut) 


Erika & Micke's dessert, a Caramel cake with Almonds (Flavor: Caramel, Almond) 


Dagmar's dessert, Violet ice cream with candied violets (Flavor: Violet) 


Lena's dessert, Coffee Chocolate Mousse with chili-marinated melon cubes (Flavor: Coffee)


Wanna read about our previous dinners?


2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011 - Around the world theme
2012 - Movie and TV theme
2013 - Different main ingredients

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Ned Ludd His Oven

I was truly warming up to modern kitchen technology, about to embrace the newfangled. And then my oven stopped working a few weeks ago. I have had a love-hate relationship with it since day one. I bought the oven because it fit the space in the counter and because there is no hood, it had to be a downdraft, which means Jennair. The stove top is actually quite good, serious flames, broad burners with decent control. As long as you don't turn the downdraft vent on, it works. The oven beneath, which I will readily admit I rode very hard, even abused, is less respectable. But it too did well, fitted with baking stones, even putting up with my chucking ice inside to make steam. Though the oven light did crack as a result. Still, it did an OK job baking. It even got hotter than the 550 degree limit.

It's the stupid little control panel, basically a clock radio, that is total crap. After maybe a year it would beep erratically, telling me to remove the meat probe. Trust me, I have never inserted my meat probe anywhere near it. I never did learn to program it, mostly because I don't want timers or bells and whistles. Actually the best oven I've ever owned, "flameboy" was discarded on the sidewalk by a friend and I took it home. It had nothing more than dials. Who needs to program an oven?? I should have kept flameboy when we moved about 15 years ago.

Anyway, this oven actually replaced the one that was already in the house, so it's only 5 or 6 years old. Then, out of nowhere, the computer panel stops working. The Sears repair man arrived, and he looked like something out of Mad Max with cyber attachments on his body. He diagnosed it and tells me that to replace the clock radio will cost 600 bucks. Might as well buy a whole new oven, for the same price. Even though everything else on it works fine. All I need it a knob! I hate this disposable culture of ours.

Then suddenly it starts working again. Wonder of Wonders! I used it all day on New Year's Eve. Baking pizzas, various hors d'oeuvres. I thought, ok, just another little touchy spell but everything's back in order.

No such luck. Yesterday the beast started not just beeping erratically, but wildly, maniacally. Trying to start itself on its own volition. BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP. Danger Will Robinson! Open the pod door Hal. The thing was truly possessed. I tried pulling it out and unplugging it. Impossible. Tried cajoling it. Tried necromancy. The beeping was driving me mad! Only one thing remained to be done. And let me tell you it was among the most satisfying of two seconds, taking the blunt end of a huge axe right to the little goddamned clock radio face and bashing it in with one swing. Beeping stopped instantly. The oven is dead. Long Live Ned Ludd!

So for the moment I shall be either using the toaster oven or will have to fire up the wood oven outside. Does anyone have any recommendations for a replacement? I'm seriously thinking of getting a vintage stove with nothing more than knobs. 

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The best of 2013

In January, we had our customary 13-course dinner, and among those courses was this gem: cauliflower feta fritters. And Titus was obsessed with making muffins. (Not so obsessed with eating them, though.)



In February, we got our Weber Smokey Mountain and immediately started playing with it. And plenty of chocolate balls for dessert.



March was the month when we found a new favorite meat sauce for pasta (that upset one reader!), and a great cheesy corn soup. And I started massaging broccoli with citrus, for salads. Yum!

In April, I ate a lot of avocado sandwiches (still doing that!) and baked slutty brownies. 



May came, and brought many dinners and parties since both I and Titus had our birthdays. Favorites include a great little salad with broad beans & gruyere, a lemon basil roast chicken, a great potato salad, and an absolutely wonderful raspberry-rhubarb crisp with pistachios.



June was pretty much all about salads - a tabbouleh, a green-green salad, a summery melon salad and a dill-cucumber slaw. And then a Strawberrry Punsch semifreddo.



In July, I made chicken croquettes, a lovely little tomato olive salad and another version of overnight bread.



August meant back to work, and I made a super-mean maple honey granola that I keep in my office. Amazing stuff! I also made a very fast breakfast bread for those days when you don't have any bread, and cheesecake brownies.



In September, there was cardamom lamb chops, blueberry panna cotta and a lovely quick dinner: caramelized onions and blue cheese on toast.



October and FINALLY I got down to re-designing this site. Google search doesn't seem to work - still - but other than that, I'm really happy with it. I hope you are, too. I also cooked a little - chicken noodle soup and lamb meatballs in coconut sauce, in particular.



In November, I went to New York and I *still* haven't told you about that. I will, I promise! I posted about cognac-creamed funnel chanterelles (yum), chocolate fudge shortbread cakelets, and a fab salad with grapefruit, feta and candied parma ham.



And then December. Lovely cookies with molasses & white chocolate, a pasta with brussel sprouts, bacon and pecorino, and an awesome gooey saffron cake. Good, good stuff.

It's been a good year, people. I hope you'll stick with me in 2014, and that we'll have another great year!

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Aged Eggnog

One of the most common questions I am asked about extreme food preservation is "aren't you afraid of being poisoned?" I shrug it off. You know if something has gone bad, and sometimes it does. Throw it out.

But I will admit, sometimes I do scare myself. Case in point: this eggnog I put up around Thanksgiving over a year ago. It's basically just rum, raw eggs, cream, nutmeg, sugar. Left on the shelf. Many others have tried doing this but they always put it in the fridge. Why? Doesn't that defeat the point of a historic recipe experiment?

Then again, maybe people in the past understood something I haven't noticed. Agh. My usual tactic for overcoming that fear? Get really soused at a party and have daring people who will eat anything. That happened at a New Year's Party. Maybe 5 or 6 people willingly tried a spoonful. The verdict. Very boozy, but quite tasty. More like a pudding. I think a bit of milk would make it a drinkable nog, and less potent. But I like it just as is. And chalk one up for trusting old preservation techniques. Now to figure out exactly what I added!

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Lemon Chicken & Rice in one pot

Here's a perfect dinner dish! Everything is cooked together in the oven, so just one pot to clean. It does take a little longer than some might manage for a weeknight - count on about an hour in the oven, and some prep time before that. I haven't tried it in the crock-pot but I'm sure that would work too. The recipe, with few alterations, is from Fay Ripley's book called Fay's Family Food and it's the first thing I'm trying from it.

Lemon Chicken & Rice in one pot
Serves 4

4 chicken legs (or thighs, or breasts - whatever you want)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp chopped garlic
140 g bacon, chopped
280 g brown rice
700 ml water
1 chicken stock cube
zest and juice from 1 lemon
250 g broad breans, frozen
a few sprigs of fresh thyme

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Start by heating the oil in a large oven-proof pot (that you have a lid for). Brown the chicken slighly, on both sides. Remove from the pot. Fry the bacon and onion for a few minutes on medium heat. Add the garlic and keep frying it's it's fragrant, but definitely don't let it burn. Add the rice and stir well to cover with the oil.

Add the water, stock cube, lemon zest, lemon juice, broad beans and thyme. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken back to the pot, cover with the lid, and cook in the pre-heated oven for about 50-60 minutes. The chicken should be very tender at this point, and the rice should be soft.

Serve. We didn't eat anything else with it, but I imagine a little crème fraîche would have been nice, perhaps with some mashed-in feta cheese to zing it up a notch.

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