Simple Veg: Grilled Japanese Eggplants

15 Jan

I found these beautiful, organic Japanese eggplants at the supermarket the other day.  Japanese eggplants have thinner skin than the more typical, large purple variety, which make them easier to grill skin-on.  The only problem was that I didn’t buy more of them, because I LOVE grilled Japanese eggplants and I should have been more honest about how many eggplants I could consume in one sitting.

Trim the top and bottom of the eggplants, and cut into about 1/2 inch slices, skin on.  Score the eggplant slices, making sure not to cut through to the other side.  Salt generously, and set aside for about 30 minutes.  The eggplants will “sweat” and soften.  When softened, rinse the eggplants under cold water and pat-dry with paper towels.  Toss in olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper.

In a heated skillet, grilled the eggplants until browned on both sides and the eggplants are extremely tender.

These grilled eggplants were AMAZING.  Melt-in-your-mouth tender, and we ate them in a flash.  Next time, I will make sure to buy more eggplants!

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Snapshots from Tech

15 Jan

David patiently working out the intricate choreography and stage traffic in the finale.

We have just completed week 2 of tech.  David has been working around the clock to put the show together.  We still have a lot to do before the first preview, and David is spending every available moment fine-tuning all the choreography in the show (of which there are plenty).

As we are in tech, my blogging has lagged a little bit.  I continue to cook a lot everyday, though, especially since we bring lunch to work each day.  There aren’t too many places to eat near the theater — there are restaurants, but they are pricy and we don’t have enough time to eat out during lunch.  The “fast” food places are either McDonald’s or Max (Sweden’s version of McDonald’s), which are no good for us.  So I’ve resorted to making double the amount of whatever we have for dinner, and we bring the leftovers for lunch.  This process has worked nicely so far.  I hope to catch up on blogging on some of the new recipes I’ve devised this week!

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Simple Veg: Orange-Thyme Roasted Carrots

15 Jan

Here’s a simple, delicious way of roasting carrots.  Preheat the oven to 200C (or about 400F).  Peel and chop carrots in about 1/2 inch thickness (I used 4 large carrots), and lay them out in a roasting pan.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and juice of one orange, season with salt and pepper, and mix well.  Throw in a a few garlic cloves (skin on), and a some thyme.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put in the oven.  Roast for about 30 minutes, or until a fork easily goes through the carrots.  Take off the foil and  broil for about 5 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned.  The fresh orange juice gives the carrots a nice brightness.

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Chacuterie & Smoked Salmon Platter

6 Jan


No cooking was required on my part here — but it was a good looking spread!  For hors d’oeuvres for our Christmas Eve dinner, we put out a spread of charcuterie and smoked salmon (2 types) alongside some nice gluten-free crackers and sliced cucumbers.   The spread was colorful, festive and appropriate for a laid-back but sophisticated snacking before the dinner.

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Cauliflower Soup w/Crispy Garlic Chips+White Truffle Oil

5 Jan

As the starter to our Christmas Eve dinner, I made a cauliflower soup garnished with crispy garlic chips and a drizzle of white truffle oil.  This soup is very simple, light, and flavorful — and contains no dairy!  It’s an elegant, delicious soup to serve at a dinner party.

For the dinner, I doubled the recipe, as I wanted to make sure we had plenty of soup for seconds.  Turned out it was more than enough, despite everyone having seconds.  But the soup also keeps pretty well and is great the next day — and who doesn’t love leftovers over the holidays?!

CAULIFLOWER SOUP (serves about 8 as a starter, 4 as a main course)

**Please note that I doubled the recipe for the Christmas Eve party, and so the photos show more amount of ingredients than listed.

  • One head of cauliflower
  • 2 large white onions, chopped
  • 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • Water (enough to cover the cauliflower)

For Crispy Garlic

  • 6 garlic cloves, sliced length-ways
  • Olive oil for pan-frying

The soup itself is very simple.  First, break down the cauliflower into small pieces.

Also, chop the onions and garlic.

Heat olive olive (about 1 tablespoon) in a large pot on medium-high heat.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic.  Turn down the heat to medium.  Salt generously, and saute the onions and garlic, make sure to keep stirring to make sure that they don’t burn at all (**important to make sure the soup retains a nice, creamy white cauliflower color).

When the onions are tender, add the chopped cauliflower.  Stir, then add water until cauliflower is just covered.

Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and cover.  Cook until the cauliflower is extremely tender (easily breaking if you stick a fork through it), about 25 minutes.

Take off the heat.  With an immersion blender, puree the cauliflower until smooth and silky.  Taste, and adjust the salt as needed.

For the garlic chips:

Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan.  When hot, turn down the heat to medium-high and fry the sliced garlic, turning frequently with a heat resistant spatula (or whatever with which you feel comfortable).

When golden, take the garlic chips out and lay them out on a paper towel over a plate.  Sprinkle with some sea salt.

To serve: drizzle some white truffle oil over the soup, and garnish with the crispy garlic chips.

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Rosemary/Garlic/Lemon-Crusted Rack of Lamb

4 Jan

For the main course of our Christmas Eve dinner, I roasted rosemary/garlic/lemon-crusted racks of lamb.  I found very nice, trimmed, Frenched racks of lamb at our local supermarket — Swedish lamb — very fresh and lovely.  I bought the equivalent of 2 full racks (each rack I bought were split into two, made smaller than I’m used to in the US).  The marinade itself is very simple yet extremely flavorful.  Personally, I think the most important thing when roasting a rack of lamb is using a good thermometer, so that you could cook it to your desired temperature.  This dish was a smashing success, and felt very suitable for our main course for Christmas Eve (and would be great for dinner parties in general).

ROSEMARY/GARLIC/LEMON-CRUSTED RACK OF LAMB

  • 2 full racks of lamb, trimmed and Frenched

Marinade

  • 8 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 handfuls of parsley
  • 12 garlic cloves
  • zest and juice of 2 lemons
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Season the racks with salt and pepper.

In a food processor, make the marinade: blend the rosemary, parsley, garlic cloves, zest and juice of lemons, as well as olive oil.  I only have a small food processor in our Stockholm apartment, so I made the marinade in 2 batches.

Coat the racks with 1/2 of the marinade; set aside the other 1/2 marinade to use later.   Cover the racks and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Take out the lamb 1 hour before cooking to bring back to room temperature.  Scrape off the marinade from the chops as much as you can (but don’t throw the marinade away — you could use it to re-coat the lamb when you roast.)

Preheat the oven to 400F (about 200C).

In a medium skillet/pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until shimmering.  Add the lamb to the skillet, fat side down, and cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn the lamb fat side up and cook for 2 minutes longer.

Transfer the lamb racks onto a roasting pan.  Let cool a little bit, and coat the lamb racks with the remaining 1/2 of the marinade.  Place in the oven and roast the racks for about 20 minutes, until the thermometer inserted in the center of the meat registers 125° for medium-rare. Transfer the lamb to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes, then cut into chops.

I served the lamb with a mustard/mint/lemon aioli, which I blended together in our small but very useful mini-food processor.

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Happy New Year!!!

2 Jan

Wishing everyone a wonderful, happy and healthy 2012!

David and I had a great, festive time in Ireland.  Many posts to catch up on, still from Christmas.  I shall post soon!

Here’s to a fabulous New Year! xoxo

Flourless Choc Cinnamon Banana Cake

26 Dec

I came up with this recipe when we had over-ripe organic bananas at home that neither of us wanted to eat but seemed wasteful to throw away.  It occurred to me that I could use the bananas as the “sweetening” component for a flour-less chocolate cake, instead of using Stevia (which I don’t have anyway) or sugar.  The result was fabulous — the bananas give the cake a creamy, almost mousse like quality.  The cake is light and isn’t overly banana-y — just a hint of the fruit.  The cake pairs nicely with a mango sorbet.  I served this cake as a dessert for our Christmas Eve dinner party and everyone loved it!

FLOURLESS CHOC CINNAMON BANANA CAKE

  • 10 oz. bittersweet dark chocolate (I like to use 81% dark)
  • 1/2 cup organic butter, room temperature and softened
  • 3 very ripe organic bananas
  • 4 organic free-range eggs
  • 3 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F (or about 175C).  Grease a spring-form pan (or another kind of baking pan — I use a 9 in. round spring-form pan, which works well).

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate, set aside

Cream the butter.  Since we don’t have a hand mixer, I had David cream the butter with a wooden spoon — it requires some muscle-ing, but it works fine.

When the butter is creamed, add bananas, one at a time.  We used the back of a wooden spoon to smash the bananas into the butter; blend well.

Add eggs to the butter/banana mixture, one at a time.  Mix well.

Add the cinnamon.  Pour in the melted chocolate, mix until blended.

Pour the batter into the baking pan.  Bake for about 25 minutes, until the cake sets.  Let the cake cool before serving.  The cake keeps well refrigerated.

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Merry Christmas! xoxo

25 Dec

We had a terrific Christmas Eve feast in our Stockholm apartment with lovely Eleanor and Michael.  We had a wonderful, merry time, and the dishes were a great success — I shall post the recipes shortly.

In the mean time —

Merry Christmas!  Wishing you peace and happiness from Stockholm! xoxo

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Christmas Eve Dinner Menu

23 Dec

Planning for our Christmas Eve dinner  party menu… here’s what it looks like:

  • Hors d’oeuvres: Duo of smoked salmon + charcuterie, with sliced cucumbers and gluten-free crackers
  • Starter: Cauliflower soup with white truffle oil + crispy garlic
  • Main: Rosemary/garlic/lemon crusted rack of lamb with garlic asparagus
  • Side veg: Roasted beets with mint, mashed potatoes with garlic + olive oil
  • Dessert: Flour-less chocolate banana cinnamon cake

There will be Glögg to start, and wine to pair with the dishes.  Exciting!

Recipes to follow!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

x

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