Strawberry delight

We all know the problem of desserts... they are too delicious and make our clothes shrink! But who said a dessert can't be delicious and light? Here is one idea for a hot summer night, when we feel like having a cold refreshing dessert: strawberry delight with brazilian nuts praline and biscuit. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

200 ml of greek yogurt
10 strawberries
40g of sugar
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Biscuit:
1 large egg white
40g of vanilla sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
45g of flower
15g of unsalted butter

Praline:
1 cup of caster sugar
1/4 cup of water
100g of brazilian nuts

Start by freezing the yogurt for a couple of hours.

Chop the strawberries and transfer to a sauce pan containing the sugar, the water and the lemon juice. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer for about 20 minutes or until it is reduced. Cool down for 5 minutes and transfer 2 tablespoons of this sauce into a serving glass. Refrigerate.

For the biscuit, preheat the oven at 180 ºC. Stir together the egg white and the vanilla sugar. Add the salt and the butter, melted. Incorporate the flower adding it slowly. Stir until smooth. 

Line a baking tray with non-stick paper sheet. Using a baking spatula spread spoonfuls of the mixture on top (use moldes for well defined shapes). Bake for about 10 minutes or until the biscuits are golden. Cool down and set aside.

For the praline, line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, and spread the brazilian nuts, roughly chopped, on top. In a small sauce pan, add the sugar and water. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and let it boil for a few minutes without stirring. When the mixture is changing colour turn off the heat and set aside for 2 minutes, or until bubbles stop forming. 

Spread over the nuts, cool down and break in smaller pieces just using the hands.

Add the cold yogurt to the serving glass where the strawberry sauce has been set. Stir in some of the strawberry sauce as well. On top, sprinkle some pieces of the praline. Decorate with the biscuit and a fresh strawberry. Serve immediately.

Notes:
Replace the vanilla sugar by caster sugar and a vanilla bean.
Use other nuts of your taste in the praline.
If you prefer, reduce the praline to small bits using a food processor. The same for the strawberry sauce. Personally, we like to find big chunks...

Iced Tea with a Twist

The Swedish and the Chef love tea! On a cold day, a good herbal tea, flavoured or not, does wonders to our mind and body. However, living in a tropical country with four weeks of colder weather per year doesn't make it easy to enjoy a cup of tea. The solution for this problem is actually quite easy... prepare some tea and cool it down!

Ingredients:

Black tea herbs

500ml of water

1/2 lemon juice

1 tablespoon of honey

Sugar to taste

Make the black tea using the 500 ml of water. Let it cool down to lukewarm, and then add the lemon juice, the honey and the sugar to taste. 

Serve with lemon and ice cubes.

Notes: Keep in mind, it will taste a lot sweeter when it's warm than when its cold.

Drunken Mango Ice Cream

Fresh juicy mango is not only great on a plate but it also makes a wonderful creamy ice cream. Give yourself a little treat and serve it with a sweet liqueur of your choice. 

We chose cinnamon! What's your flavour?

Ingredients:

500 ml of thick cream
3 egg whites
50g of sugar
2 mangos
3 tablespoons of cinnamon liqueur

Peel off the mangos, roughly chop them and process the pieces until is creamy. Pass the cream through a sieve using a spatula, to remove mango fibers. Set aside.

Beat the cream with 25g of sugar in an electric mixer until it thickens.

Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until the mixture is firm.

Gently add the egg whites to the cream. Add the mango cream to the mixture, while stirring.

Pour everything into a bowl and transfer to the freezer. Wait for at least 12h, stirring every hour to give a creamy texture to the ice cream.

Serve in small bowls, with the cinnamon liqueur on top. Decorate with mint leaves or cinnamon sticks.

Notes: If the ice cream becomes to hard, take it out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

There are probably over a thousand ways to cook chicken. One of the most popular ways is definitely this beautiful cheese filled chicken schnitzel, known as Cordon Bleu. There are many versions of this dish, and the recipe with swiss cheese is one of the oldest.

In the interior of Brazil there is a state called Minas Gerais, also well known by its cheeses. The typical "Minas cheese" can be found in different ways, from white to cured, or even fresh. Local story tellers believe the recipe has been lost in the past, as no one ever registered this treasure. In that way, each cheese maker has developed his own recipe, creating many unique kinds. One of our favourites is the half-cured one, and that was the one selected to prepare our Chicken Cordon Bleu.

Ingredients:

Chicken

2 skinless chicken breasts

2 garlic cloves

2 thick slices of Minas cheese

2 slices of prosciutto 

1 cup of flower

2 eggs

3 tablespoons of milk

1 baguette with sesam seeds

A small bunch of coriander

Coriander powder

Black pepper

Salt

Vegetable oil

Make a cut on each chicken breast, not separating the two halves. Marinate each piece with the garlic cloves, a pinch of black pepper and a pinch of salt, for at least 30 minutes, in the refrigerator. 

Take two plates, and mix the flower with a pinch of pepper in one of them, and combine the eggs and the milk in the other one. Process the baguette until you obtain fresh bread crumbs, and transfer to a third deep plate, and add the coriander powder and leaves.

Place each piece between 2 sheets of wax paper and pound gently to flatten (use a rolling pin or the wax paper roll). Place a slice of prosciutto and a slice of cheese in one side of the open chicken breast, and cover with the other side. Secure the ends using toothpicks, as if you were sewing (2 will do). Pass this chicken sandwich in the flower, shaking to remove the excess. Afterwards, dip it in the eggs mixture and finally in the crumbs mixture. Press the crumbs against the chicken, with the fingers, to get a homogeneous coverage. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oil in a frying pan, and the oven at 150 ºC. Start by frying the chicken breasts, until they get a golden colour and are cooked through, and then transfer to the oven to keep them warm while cooking the remaining pieces. Remove the toothpicks before serving and serve warm, so the cheese is melted when you first cut through the chicken sandwich.

Sauce

1 natural yogurt

5 coriander leaves

1 garlic clove

20g of fresh cheese

Salt

Combine the yogurt, the garlic clove, the fresh cheese and the salt and blend everything together. Add the coriander leaves finely chopped. Transfer into a skillet and heat up gently, without bringing it to a boil, just so the cheese melts down.

Potatoes and Vegetables
2 potatoes
1 carrot
100g of cabbage
Salt
Olive oil

Bring the potatoes to a boil, in salted water, and turn off the heat. Remove the water and rest for 5 minutes. Cut the potatoes in quarters, transfer to an oven tray and sprinkle olive oil on top. Bake for about 20 minutes or until they are golden.

Chop the carrot and the cabbage in a thin julienne. Sauté in a pre-heated skillet with olive oil for about 1 minute (the vegetables should still be crunchy afterwards).

Plate the chicken with the vegetables salad and the baked potatoes with the sauce on top.

Add a lemon slice if you like and enjoy!

Notes:

Replace the Minas cheese by parmesan, provolone or any other cheese of your taste.

The sesam seeds of the bread add an extra crunchiness to the dish, but don't use them if you don't like.

Apple tart with Apple Ginger Ice Cream

Spending winter in a tropical country brings you mixed feelings. People keep telling us that it is cold and winter, there are soup festivals everywhere and hot chocolate is a big sell. However, we still wear shorts all day and we can't wear more than a thin long sleeved shirt in the evening. This is what this recipe is all about, a mixture of hot and cold, bringing a tropical winter into your mouth.

 

Ice cream

Ingredients:

500 ml of thick cream

3 egg whites

4 apples

150 g of sugar

1 lime juice

A pinch of ginger powder

Beat the cream in an electric mixer, with 25g of sugar, until it's thick and creamy.

Beat the egg whites with another 25g of sugar until they are firm.

Gently, add the egg whites to the cream mixing slowly. 

Pour everything into a bowl and transfer to the freezer for about 6h, stirring well at least every 1h. 

In the meantime, peel off and cut the apples in small pieces. Place them in a pan with the remaining sugar, the ginger and a splash of water, cover with the lid and cook at low heat for about 20 minutes or until the mixture is soft and creamy. Refrigerate.

When the cream mixture has been in the freezer for at least 6h, stir in the apples sauce, and continue freezing for at least 4h more, stirring from now and them, to obtain a creamy ice cream. Alternatively, use an ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer's directions.

Apple tart

Ingredients:

8 apples

300g of marie biscuits

180g of butter

40 ml of Port wine

2 eggs

3 egg yolks

400 g of condensed milk

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Put the butter in a small sauce pan and heat it. When the butter is melted, stir in the Port wine and turn off the heat. Process the biscuits until you obtain a powder, and add them stirring until it's reached an homogeneous mixture. Cover a tart form with slightly greased parchment paper and place the biscuits mixture on it. Spread evenly pressing with a spoon. Refrigerate or freeze until it's hard.

Peel off 5 apples and process them until creamy. Transfer to a bowl and stir in 300g of condensed milk.   Add the eggs and the egg yolks one by one, stirring in between each addition. Add cinnamon and mix everything. Transfer the cream to the tart form with the biscuits dough. Decorate with apple pieces and spread the remaining condensed milk on top.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, at 180 ºC.

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cram, and caramel pieces.

Tomato Soup

The tomato is a fruit in many different ways. Raw in a salad, or mashed in sauces, and even in drinks and jams, tomato is a versatile ingredient. The recipe of today features a soup, in which the tomato is the big star.

Ingredients (serves 4):

1,5 Kg of mature tomatoes
2 medium onions
3 garlic cloves
200ml of chicken broth
1 bunch of basil
1 spring of thyme
A pinch of salt
A pinch of black pepper
Olive oil

Prepare the chicken broth by simmering chicken pieces, at low heat, for about 2h.
Chop all the ingredients in small pieces. Heat the olive oil and add the onions. Cook for about 3 minutes or until the onions are fragrant. Add the garlic, the tomato, the basil, the thyme and the chicken broth still warm. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat. Cook the mixture for about 15 minutes at low heat, stirring once or twice. Transfer half of the mixture into a food processor and process until you get a homogenous cream. Add the cream back on the pan and stir. Serve hot with toasted bread.

Notes:
In the end you can also add 100ml of cream.
If you prefer a more creamy soup, process the whole mixture.

Classic Lasagne

The UEFA Euro cup has started and the Swedish and the Chef is a fan, because international competitions are always an inspiration for its mixture of cultures. This time, the inspiration was Italy, where the food is known world-wide. Italy is so rich in gastronomy that it was hard to choose where to start. The decision was made, and it was a good one (there were no bad options anyway...), the classic Bolognese Lasagne.

Enjoy your food(tball)!!!

Ingredients (serves 4):

Tomato sauce:
6 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons of paprika
A small bunch of basil
A pinch of sugar
A pinch of salt
A pinch black pepper
Olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan and add the garlic. Stir for 1 minute and add the tomatoes chopped in pieces. Add the chopped basil, the paprika, the sugar, the salt and the black pepper. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring now and then. Afterwards, process everything until you reach a creamy texture.

White sauce:
2 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
3 cups of milk
1 teaspoon of salt

In a sauce pan, heat the butter at medium-low heat, until it's melted. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Let it cook for about 5 minutes. Heat the milk separately, and slowly add it to the sauce pan, whisking continuously until you reach a smooth creamy texture. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt.

Lasagne:
800g of minced beef
150g of pasta for lasagne
2 carrots
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 red pepper
200g of mozzarella
A pinch of salt
Olive oil  

In a large non-sticky frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the minced meat. Let it cook for about 10 minutes, stirring now and then. Add the red sauce and the grated carrots. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the peppers, cook for another 2 minutes, and remove from the heat. Correct the seasoning if needed.

In a large oven recipient, lay a thin layer of the meat mixture. Add a layer of white sauce. Add a layer of the pasta. Repeat until you reach the top of the recipient, making sure the last layer is the meat mixture. On top, add the grated mozzarella, and afterwards, add all the white sauce that is left.

Transfer to a pre-heated oven, and bake for about 40 minutes or until the top layer gets a golden color. Remove from the oven and wait 5 minutes before serving.

Notes:

Add other ingredients to the meat mixture (corn, peas, etc.).

Fruit Skewers with Chocolate

What? Your friends made you a surprise visit and you have nothing to serve them but a bunch of fruits and a cooking bar of chocolate? It's alright... Simple food can look great and taste even better. Surprise them with these fruit skewers.

Ingredients:
100g of dark chocolate
100g of cream
Mango
Papaya
Banana
Strawberries

Chop the fruits in big pieces and make the skewers. Transfer to a serving plate.

In a pan, heat the chocolate with the cream, until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture  is homogeneous. Pour the chocolate over the skewers and serve immediately. 

Notes:

This works for all the fruits.

Use milk or white chocolate if you prefer.

Pumpkin cream

When the temperatures drop, the salads can be replaced by a comforting plate of hot soup. Simple or composed, soups are well known to provide many of the nutrients required on a main meal. The recipe presented here is of a creamy soup made of different vegetables. Light on the stomach is perfect for a winter evening, after a long day.
Enjoy your rest!

Ingredients:
500g of pumpkin
4 carrots
1 onion
1 leek (only the white part)
1 bunch of coriander
A pinch of salt

Chop the pumpkin, carrots, onion, and leek. Transfer the pumpkin and the carrots to a pan with about 2L of water. Bring to a boil and add the onion and the leek. Simmer until the carrots and pumpkin are cooked through. Add the coriander, season with salt and turn off the heat. Process everything until you get a creamy texture (use a hand blender or a food processor). Serve hot.

Peanut Hot Chocolate

Winter is slowly arriving in the southern hemisphere, and hot drinks are back to our lives. 

Hot chocolate is popular all over the world, and there are plenty of recipes to choose from. 

Here, the Swedish and the Chef presents his own version of this sweet winter friend.

Ingredients:
80g of natural cocoa
300ml of milk
100 ml of cream
50ml of condensed milk
100g of grounded peanuts
1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

Melt the chocolate together with the milk, add the condensed milk, the vanilla, half of the cream and the peanuts. Let it boil gently for 2 minutes. Add the remaining cream to bring it to drinking temperature and spread some more peanuts on top.

Notes:
Decorate with whipped cream.
If you prefer your hot chocolate more creamy and thick, reduce the amount of milk.