Tag Archives: food illustration

Tahini

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kokblog_tahini

My favorite store has stopped selling tahini by the cup. Now I can only buy tahini in enormous and rather expensive containers. So I started to think it must be possible to make tahini yourself, as its just a sesame seed paste.

Sesame Paste – Tahini

50 ml  (¼ cup) sesame seeds
(a little water or mild olive oil)

Toast the sesame seeds until they start to pop in a skillet (the toasting gives the seeds a much richer taste). Pour them immediately into a mortar and start grinding (you can also use a food processor or even a coffee grinder). Add a dash of water or olive oil at the end to combine the mixture into a paste.  The paste can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Tahini Sauce

eq. part raw tahini paste (see above)
eq. part cold water
some lemon or lime
garlic (pressed)
some parsley or oregano (optional)
salt

Slowly stir a little water at a time into the tahini.  At first the mixture will thicken, but it gets looser as you slowly add more water.  If you want a thicker tahini sauce, just use less water as described. Season w/ garlic lemon/lime juice, parsley and salt.

I serve the tahini sauce on sautéed spinach (or other green vegetables). More traditionally you have it with falafel but it works on salads and BBQed meat and vegetables as well.

Knäckebröd (Swedish Crisp Bread)

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knackebrod
One of my food memories from school was when one guy threw a slice of ”knäckebröd” (Swedish crisp bread) up in the air. The sandwich got stuck with its buttered side up on the ceiling, and I mean really stuck. No one seemed to pay any attention or tried to get the bread down. In fact it would have been a project by itself as the dining room was like a ball room with very high ceiling. Hm, I wonder if it still up there!

This recipe is by Alice at Brax on Food (freely translated by me).

twelve crisp breads
25 gram yeast (I used  ½  package of ¼ oz Active Dry Yeast)
1 tablespoon honey
200 ml (almost 1 cup) yogurt
400 ml (1 2/3 cup) water
600 ml (2 ½ cup) rye wholegrain flour
600 ml (2 ½ cup) wholewheat flour
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoons salt
and
100-200 ml ( ½ – 1 cup) regular flour for rolling the breads

Prepare the yeast depending on which yeast you are using. When the yeast is ready, blend it with honey, yogurt, water, rye and the wholewheat flour. Cover the bowl and keep at room temperature in a non-drafty area for at least 6 hours.
Roast the caraway seeds in a dry pan and crush them finely in a mortar. Blend in the salt and wholewheat flour. When the dough is ready, work in the wholewheat flour/caraway mixture. Add some of the regular flour to make a smooth dough. Divide the dough in 12 equal parts and roll them into balls. Preheat the oven to 225°C (435°F). Use a rolling pin and some regular flour to roll out every ball of dough into a thin round cake, approximately 1/8” (3 mm) thick. Place as many as you can fit on a baking tin and nibble the breads with a fork (or you can use a special rolling pin with small knobs). If you want to, you can make a hole in the middle with a small ”snaps” glass. Bake the breads immediately for about 8-10 minutes in the middle of the oven.  When finished let the breads cool down on an oven rack. Keep uneaten ”knäckebröd” in a sealed container. (Hanging on a broom stick will make them dusty).

See also my recipe for Rosemary and Seasalt Crackers

Pierogi

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kokblog_pierogi

In Manhattan it’s hard to find great pierogi. I often find them too thick and heavy. Well M:s mother happens to be a great pierogi maker. She makes them so thin and light and fills them with sauerkraut and mushrooms, meat, or cheese and potatoes. I easily end up licking the plate. After all she is from Poland and as lovely as she is, she makes tons of them when we are around.
This summer I asked her for her dough secret. I was hoping to get the whole recipe written down, but her answer and recommendation was very short, “make them with warm water”!

dough (approximate 75 pierogi which serves about 6 people)
700 ml (3 cups) regular flour
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk (I used the egg white in the potatoes and cheese filling later)
1 tea spoon salt
175 ml (¾ cup) warm water (heated up, not directly from the tap)

Mix the flour and the salt together with the eggs. Heat up some water and mix small parts at a time into the flour mixture. I did it by hand but I think it works perfectly well to use a food processor. On a flat surface knead the dough until it’s firm and soft. Cover with a damp tablecloth and let it rest on the counter top while you are making the fillings.

mushroom filling
Here I made M:s Spicy Portobello Mushrooms. I used less water, as I didn’t want the filling to be too loose. Instead I used some cream to make it thicker.

cheese and potatoe filling
4 – 5 boiled potatoes
4 table spoons butter or olive oil
50 ml (0.2 cup) milk
1 egg white
about 120 ml (½ cup) farmers’ cheese
salt and pepper
cilantro

topping
melted butter
fine chopped and fried bacon
fine chopped and fried onions

Mash the potatoes with the egg white, some melted butter and milk. Add the farmers cheese as noted or to your own taste. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Lastly add chopped cilantro. Note that cilantro is not really a traditional ingredient for a pierogi filling but I don’t think there are any strong rules on how to make fillings. You take what you have at home. I used a very mild type of cilantro. However many recipes seem to use fine chopped onions or chives. I will try garlic next time.

filling the pierogi
Uncover the dough and if necessary knead it some more. Divide into 4 pieces. Use lots and lots of flour while rolling one piece at the time to a 1/16” (1 mm) thickness. Make 3” circles and divide the fillings on top. Cover the filling and pinch the edges firmly to seal. Pat some more flower on every pirogi so they don’t stick together. If necessary add some more warm water to the dough as the flour makes it dryer in the process. Repeat until you have about 75 lovely pierogi.

Heat up salted water. When the water is boiling drop some of the pierogi in the water. When they are floating up to the surface let them boil approximate 1 minute more. Fish them out with a strainer. Top with melted butter and fried bacon and onions (chopped finely). Serve with a salad and some sour cream.

Well it is a long process… but luckily it was worth every minute. The pierogi ended up super thin and didn’t last very long.

There are many different versions on how to make pierogi. Some use sour cream and some use the egg yolk in their dough. My dough was inspired by several recipes but are quite similar to Kate Hopkins version.

Carrot Muffins

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kokblog_carot

When my sister and I were young and innocent, we used to be out in the vegetable garden ‘helping’ our father. Both of us loved picking and eating carrots directly from the earth. But if one carrot was too small or not fully ready to eat, we kindly placed it back into the earth, so the carrot could continue growing. Our father wasn’t as happy as we were. He wondered why some carrots seemed to stop growing and withered and others didn’t!

2 eggs 200 ml (0.8 cup) sucanat
75 gram (2.6 ounces) butter
100 ml (0.4 cup) milk
250 ml (1 cup) flour
1 ½ tablespoon bicarbonate
4-5 carrots
200 ml (0.8 cup) walnuts
2-3 tea spoons cinnamon
some grated nutmeg
some juice from a fresh lime

Whisk eggs and sucanat until fluffy. Heat up milk and margarine and pour mixture over the egg mix while mixing intensely. Blend flour and bicarbonate before you stir it into the cake mixture. Peel the carrots and grate them nicely. Add the carrots and chopped walnuts. Squeeze some limejuice over the mixture and season with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake in the oven at 200°C (392F) for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how big muffins you chose to make.

Pear and Almond Tart

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pears

I didn’t have much candy or chocolate this Easter. Besides eating plenty of herring, eggs and lamb I had some lovely cakes… this one was crunchy and juicy at the same time.

crust
300 ml (1 ¼ cup) flour
100 g (3.5 oz) butter
2 tablespoon sucanat
3 table spoon cold water

filling
2 pears
4-5 tablespoons rum or juice from one lemon
100 g (3.5 oz) butter
4-6 table spoon sucanat
120 ml (½ cup) almonds

Mix the crust ingredients together and let them rest in the fridge for one hour. Place the crust in a greased 9” baking tin and trim to fit. Stick this shell a few times with a fork and pre-bake for 10 minutes at 200º (400F).

Peal and slice the pears thinly. Soak the pear pieces with rum or juice from a lemon. Roast the almonds at 200º (400 F) for about 8-10 minutes. When they have cooled down chop them into smaller pieces. Melt the butter and then add sucanat and the roasted almonds. Divide the soaked pears in the pre-baked shell and pour the filling on top. Bake in the oven at 200º (400F) for about 15-20 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.