Yaki Soba

Continuing on our journey to learn more about asian cuisine we tried one of the most known Japanese dish: yaki soba. I got the recipe from a cookbook with recipes from one of my favourite asian restaurants, Wagamama. We love Wagamama tasty and healthy dishes, especially when sided by their super delicious juices. I'm not sure our yaki soba was as good, but it was close enough.

Ingredients (serves 2):

Yaki soba sauce
100 ml light soy sauce
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soy sauce

Yaki soba
110g of egg noodles
2 tbsp yaki soba sauce 
1 small onion, cut into half moon slices
4 spring onions, cut into 2.5 cm length
Large handful of beansprouts
15 small cooked peeled prawns
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into stripes
1/2 red pepper, cut into cubes
1/2 green pepper, cut into cubes
2 eggs, beaten

To serve
Pickled ginger
Dried onion flakes
Sesame seeds

1. Put all the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

2. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 1 minute less than indicated in the package (2-3 minutes), until just tender. Drain and refresh with cold running water.

3. Put the onion, spring onion, beansprouts, prawns and yaki soba sauce in a large bowl. Mix in the cooked noodles.

4. Heat a wok over medium heat until completely hot and almost smoking (a really hot wok is essential!). Add vegetable oil. Add chicken and peppers, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add noodles and vegetables mixture to the wok and stir fry for 3 minutes, until warmed through. Add the eggs and continue to stir fry for another minute or until the eggs are cooked through.

5. Serve with pickled ginger, dried onion flakes and sesame seeds.

Notes: The yaki soba sauce can be kept in the fridge for a few weeks. The original recipe calls for soba noodles. My sauce did not have dark soy sauce and it was also good.

*Adapted from Wagamama cookbook.

Tandoori Chicken Kebab's

We like Indian food and all its variety of spices and flavours. In our first attempt to cook an Indian dish at home we tried this Tandoori Chicken Kebab's. The dish is originally from the Punjab region, where it is traditionally cooked in clay ovens known as tandoors. Great choice for a first time because it was really tasty and simple!

Ingredients (4 people):

4 skinless chicken breast fillets
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp tandoori paste
3 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped and some more to garnish
1 onion, cut into wedges and separated into layers
Olive oil, for brushing
Salt
Black pepper
Pilau rice, to serve

1. Chop the chicken breast fillets into 2.5 cm cubes and place them in a bowl. Add lemon juice, tandoori paste, yoghurt, garlic and coriander. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in the fridge to marinate for 2 or 3h, stirring occasionally. 

2. Thread alternate pieces of marinated chicken and the onion wedges brushed with olive oil on to four large skewers. Preheat the grill. Lay the kebabs on the grill and cook under high heat, for 10-12 minutes, turning once. 

3. Transfer to warmed plates, garnish the kebabs with fresh coriander and serve with pilau rice. 

Notes: It was suggested to be served with a yogurt dip as well (yoghurt, chopped cucumber and mint). Since the dish was not spicy we didn't think it was needed.

Honey Garlic Salmon

Australian cuisine is full of asian influences and it owes some of the more interesting fusion dishes we have came across. Unfortunately, we have only visited the country shortly but, fortunately, that was enough to entice us to try more recipes from down under. This recipe was a recent find and it immediately climbed up to the top of our favourite dishes! It combines salmon with a punchy sauce and it's so easy to make that you won't even believe it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did (and do)!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 salmon fillets

Sauce

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

½ teaspoon ginger, minced

4 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Combine the sauce ingredients and marinate the salmon in the sauce for 15-30 minutes.

2. Arrange salmon on an oven tray lined with a baking paper sheet and bake at 180 ºC about 12 minutes or until it's just cooked through (see note), basting the salmon with the leftover marinade halfway through.

3. Over medium high heat, bring the leftover marinade sauce to a boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes until reduced.

4. Dish and serve the salmon hot drizzled with reduced sauce.

Note: We served the salmon with peas and pak choi. The cooking time of salmon depends a lot on the thickness of the fillets. You can estimate the time as 10 minutes per inch of thickness.

Chicken legs in Curry Sauce

Simone Ortega is the author of probably the most famous Spanish cookbook "1080 recipes". In the book one can find a little bit of everything, as Spanish people like travelling and that is reflected on what they eat on a daily basis. This recipe of chicken in curry sauce was based on a recipe I found in this book, given to me by a Spanish friend. It was easy to make and the result was very tasty. Go ahead and try it!

Ingredients (4 people):

4 Chicken legs (whole)
Olive oil
Liquid butter
Salt
Pepper
Rice and frozen peas, to serve

Sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp liquid butter
125 ml cold milk
250 ml chicken stock
1/2 tsp curry powder

1. For the sauce, heat up the butter and olive oil in a sauce pan. Add the flour and mix well until incorporated. Slowly, add the milk and afterwards the stock, always stirring. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes. Add curry powder. Add salt to taste. 

2. Season the chicken legs with salt. Heat up a drizzle of olive oil and a drizzle of liquid butter in a thick bottomed frying pan or a casserole. Put the chicken legs inside and cook until is golden on all sides. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the frying pan and cook for about 10 minutes or until the legs are cooked through. 

3. Steam some white rice. Add frozen peas when it's almost cooked and mix. Remove from the heat.

4. Serve the chicken with the rice and pour the sauce on top. Serve immediately.

Note: Instead of ready chicken stock you can boil some chicken bones in salted water for 1h or until it reduces to about 1 cup, as described in the original recipe.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

When it comes to asian food we are great admirers but not experienced cooks. We want to change that. Nowadays, one can find a whole range of asian products in the supermarkets around the world and cooking asian food becomes achievable and easy. One of our favourite Chinese dishes is Sweet & Sour chicken. The recipe is probably not that very much Chinese, but more of a westernised version of the dish, commonly found in Chinese restaurants in Europe. Either way we enjoyed it a lot and we will make it again.

Ingredients (4 people):

1 tablespoon cornflour

1/4 cup soy sauce

380g can of pineapple in natural juice, drained and reserving juice

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

500g chicken breast, cut into cubes

1 small green capsicum, cut into pieces

1 small red capsicum, cut into pieces

3 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Steamed jasmine rice, to serve

1. Combine cornflour and soy sauce in a jug. Stir until mixture is smooth. Add reserved pineapple juice, vinegar and sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolved.

2. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until each side is light golden (about 5 minutes).

3. Add capsicum, ginger and garlic to the pan. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until tender. Add soy sauce mixture to pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add pineapple pieces. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened and chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Simple. Easy. Delicious.

Ingredients (4 people):

5 egg yolks

60 g Parmesan cheese, plus some more to serve, grated

200 g piece of ham, diced

300 g spaghetti

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed with hand

Olive oil

Black pepper

Salt

1. Put the egg yolks into a bowl, add the Parmesan and season with pepper. Mix well using a fork and set aside.

2. Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente. Meanwhile, heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium frying pan. Place the frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the garlic cloves and leave it to flavour the fat for a minute. Stir in the ham and cook for 4 minutes, or until it starts to crisp up.

3. Pick out and discard the garlic from the pan, then, reserving some of the cooking water, drain and add the spaghetti. Toss well over the heat so it really soaks up all the flavours. Remove the pan from the heat. Add a splash of the cooking water and toss well and season with pepper. Pour in the egg mixture – the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it. Toss well, adding more cooking water until it’s lovely and glossy. Serve with grated Parmesan and an extra twist of pepper.

Note: It’s traditional to use spaghetti in this recipe, but other kinds of pasta may as well be used. Jamie Oliver suggests bucatini or rigatoni. We suggest tagliatelle as well. The original recipe used pancetta instead of ham.

Homemade Chicken Burgers

I'm always looking for new recipes, or interesting things to try and I tend to stay away from ingredients that feel unnatural to me. I have learned how to make my own burger patties a few years ago, but I always used beef or pork because I could not find any other type of minced meat. A few days go I was reading a Brazilian blog about healthy life, pensandomagro.net (thinking skinny in English) and I found a recipe that caught my eye: homemade chicken burgers! The recipe is super easy, fast and best of all, versatile. You can add whatever spices or ingredients you feel like and make a super delicious and healthy meal. The original recipe was made by the owner of another Brazilian blog, Receitas de Minuto. Both blogs are in Portuguese, but you can always have a look at the videos if you want. As for my version of this recipe just see below. Enjoy!

Ingredients (4 burgers):

600g chicken breast, cut in big chunks
100g spinach
2 tbsp rolled oats
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Process all ingredients in a food processor, until you obtain a paste. Add another drizzle of olive oil if needed. 

2. Take 1/4 of the mixture and form a ball with your hand. Throw the ball from one hand to the other a few times, to remove air bubbles. Put the ball on a plate and form a patty pressing with your fingers. Repeat with the remaining mixture.

3. Heat up a non-sticky skillet on high heat. Cook the patties for about 4 minutes on the first side or until half of the side of the patty is cooked. Turn the patties, reduce the heat to medium and cover. Allow to cook for another 5 minutes or until the burgers are cooked through (no one wants raw chicken!).

Serve with rucula, cherry tomatoes and millet salad seasoned with balsamic vinegar (see photo) or in a bun with your favourite ingredients.

Raw Healthy Brownies with Applesauce

We are always up to try new things and we have never attempted a truly raw recipe. This weekend, I am home alone and wanted to eat something sweater and chocolaty but without indulging in a whole lot of sugar or fat. I found the perfect recipe at popsugar.com/fitness, adapted it to what I had at home and combined the brownies with homemade apple sauce. This brownies do not taste like traditional chocolate brownies. They are fruity, nutty, healthy and delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Applesauce

300g apples (peeled, chopped in 1 inch cubes)

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 pinch nutmeg

1/2 cup water

1 thin lemon slice

Small pinch salt

Brownies

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup Brazil nuts

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

8 dates, pitted

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 ripe banana

1/3 cup homemade applesauce

Mixture of seeds (linseed, sunflower, sesame and chia seeds) to spread on top

1. Start by doing the applesauce. Add all ingredients to a pot, and turn heat on high. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the apples are soft. Stir frequently, making sure the apples don't stick to the pot. Add more water if needed. Remove lemon slice and mask with a fork. Allow to cool.

2. Place oats, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, dates, cocoa powder and salt in a food processor and blend until a floury consistency. Add the banana and the applesauce and blend until it forms a sticky dough.

3. Brush a baking dish with a drop of olive oil. Push the mixture into the dish pressing firmly with a spatula or big spoon. Top with the mixture of seeds, pushing a bit with the spatula. Place in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up. Cut into squares and serve with more applesauce.

Blueberry & Yoghurt Cake

It's berry season and we love going to the market and buy loads of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc. We particularly like a small type of blueberries that we can find here in Prague. They are really juice and delicious. Added to yoghurt, mixed in a smoothie, as the base of a crumble or stirred into a cake, blueberries are always delicious and add that punch of colour to the final product. The recipe below is simple and easy to make. Perfect for a summer evening after work. 

Ingredients:
250g of fresh blueberries
250g of plain yoghurt
4 eggs
200g of soft butter + some to grease cake tin
220g of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

230g of flour + some to sprinkle

2 tsp baking powder

1- Whisk the eggs with the sugar and the butter until fluffy. Add the yogurt, the blueberries and the vanilla and whisk again (the mix should become purple). Gently, fold in the flour and the baking powder until well combined.

2- Transfer the mixture into a cake tin, greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for about 40 minutes or until just cooked through. 

3- Cool down and remove the cake from the tin. Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Note:

The baking time can vary quite a lot depending on the cake tin and on the oven. After baking it for 30 minutes poke the center of the cake with a toothpick now and then, to find out when it's baked.

Grilled Pork & Peaches

Summer is here and the grilling season is now officially open in The Swedish and the Chef home. There are so many meals you can prepare on the grill that our problem was to choose the first we would eat. The problem was solved when we picked one of our favourite recipe books and opened it at a random page. The winner recipe was the inspiration for this dish of grilled pork cutlets and peaches with a homemade peach chutney. It was so yummy that the winners ended up being us and our happy bellies!

Ingredients (2 people):

3 pork cutlets
4 small peaches, cut in half and pitted
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 teaspoon of paprika
Salt
Pepper
Fresh thyme

For the chutney:
2 small peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped into small cubes
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoons of raisins
1 tablespoon of honey
12cl of malt vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 lemon, juiced and zested

1. About 1h before grilling, prepare the marinade by adding the garlic, wine, paprika, salt and pepper into a container. Mix well and place the meat inside. Set aside.

2. Prepare the chutney by adding all the ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat, half cover the pot with a lid and simmer until the juices are reduced (about 30-40 minutes). Set aside.

3. Prepare the grill and grill the cutlets until they are just cooked through. Rest them for a few minutes and simultaneously grill the peach halves, cut side down, for 2-3 minutes. Add fresh thyme just before serving.

4. Serve the meat with the grilled peaches and the chutney.

Note:
If you want extra garnish it works deliciously with a green salad or fries.