Week 1: Pepperoni Roll

I tend to print out far too many recipes from the internet. Surely these printouts count as being among my cookbooks as well, right? After all, I need to get those thinned out as well!

The Recipe
Roll out pizza dough, brush it with a mixed-up egg and cover it with spices, pepperoni and a LOT of cheese. Add any other pizza toppings that strike your fancy, but remember you can't build it up too high, as you have to be able to roll it afterwards. Hold the tomato sauce, we'll get back to that later.

Once you've decorated the pizza to your heart's content, roll it up lengthwise, pinching the ends closed. Brush a bit more egg over the seam, and place it seam-down on a baking tray. Brush some more of the egg all over the top of the roll. This will make it turn a lovely golden. Bake it in the oven at 175C/350F for half an hour.

While it's baking, get out your favourite pasta sauce and heat it up. If you're feeling ambitious, add bell pepper, onion and chilli, otherwise just leave it as it is.

Serve the roll in inch-thick slices, spooning the pasta sauce on top.

The Verdict
Basically this just tasted like pizza, so nothing adventurous there. Both my husband and I like pizza though, and this took no longer to make and was a lot easier to serve, so it's being added to my regular repertoire. It's a lot handier for school box lunches as well.

I don't want any more loose paper, so I'm copying it into the one cookbook I hope to limit these printouts to.

Week 0: Spanish Brunch

Week 1 doesn't actually start until tomorrow (January 4th), but I figured I might as well get off to a head start and try out some brunch recipes as they would be very hard to fit in once work starts again. Both of these are taken from "Spanish Cuisine".

Flaming Eggs
The name sounds fascinating, doesn't it? At least I thought so. Basically, you cook up a tomato sauce using canned tomatoes, paste, bell pepper, onion and chilli, pour the sauce into an oven proof dish, make small indentions in the sauce for the eggs, cover each egg with 2 slices of chorizo (or some other salami) and cook it in the oven for 20 minutes. Serve with toast. Quick and easy dish.

Unfortunately also boring. The yolk of the egg was supposed to still be soft, which wasn't the case at all, so obviously 20 minutes was far too much. It's probably yummier if the yolk is still runny.

Also the recipe only calculated with one egg per person which is definitely far too little if nothing else is served. I had to fill up with more toast. I may try it again with certain modifications.

Scrambled Eggs with Squash
No surprises here - it is exactly what the name suggests. Only the name left out the onion, bacon, tomatoes, bell pepper and chilli also added to the scrambled eggs (2 eggs per person). Serve with toast.

Tasted exactly as scrambled eggs with squash, bell pepper, chilli etc. I'd hoped the tastes would 'mesh' somewhat, but that wasn't the case at all. Tasted decent enough, and I was plenty full from the portion allotted me, but not something I need a recipe to make again.


Ah well, at least neither were total disasters, and I got off to a good start with two recipes in one week.

52 Weeks - 52 Recipes

I have far too many cookbooks with recipes I never use. It's time to work my way through them, try the recipes I think sound interesting, and chuck the rest... maybe that way I'll actually have room in my kitchen cupboard again!

So for my New Year's Resolution I've decided to try one new recipe a week. I know one a week doesn't sound like much, but with a busy life that often takes me out of the house for dinner and a somewhat picky husband who prefers the "tried and tested" one a week is all I dare commit myself to... For now anyway ;-) I'll be posting the recipes and results here, with pictures if I remember to take them.

Chicken Curry

The Recipe
300gr chicken cut into bite-size pieces (~2/3lb)
2 small potatoes cut into bite-size pieces
1 bell pepper cut into bite-size pieces
1 small can of coconut milk or coconut cream (in Denmark that corresponds to 160gr or about 5-6oz)
1 small can of tomatoes (ditto)
1 dl tomato sauce or ketchup (~ 3oz)
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 small onion, in thin slices
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Cashew nuts (optional, but I LOVE cashew nuts, so I had to add them to the recipe :-) )

Use a pot with a tight fitting lid. Heat the oil, curry powder and cayenne pepper over low heat for 1 minute. It'll turn into a nice fragrant paste. Don't let it burn though! Raise heat to medium and stir in onion and garlic. Cook for 7-10 minutes. Add chicken, salt and pepper, cook for another 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Add potatoes, bell pepper, coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar. Stir and leave to simmer under lid for 30 minutes. Add a handful of cashew nuts and leave to simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve with rice, or by itself in bowls.

The Verdict
ABSOLUTELY delicious! I think this may be my new favourite food. I literally sighed "Yuuuummm" out loud as I took the first bite.

Will absolutely make again.

Chocolate Horns

250g margarine
500g flour
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
1 cup of milk
50g fresh yeast

100g dark cooking chocolate.

Crumble the flour and margarine together until the margarine is finely separated and covered in flour.

Mix yeast and salt until the yeast turns liquid.

Mix everything together.

Let it rise for approx. 30 minutes

Separate the dough into 6 parts and roll them into circles (quite thinly). Cut the circles into 8 triangles. Put a piece of chocolate on the thickest end, and roll the dough around it to make horns.

Rise again for 15 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of milk on top for a nicer finish.
Bake for 15 minutes at 200C.

Spaghetti Puttanesca

The original recipe called for anchovies - I do NOT like anchovies, so I left it out. Came out fine without it.

Serves 3

Pasta
250-300gr spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil
150gr bacon
2 ripe tomatoes
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
12 large leaves of fresh spinach or 30 small ones
2 tbsp fresh basil (I just guestimated this - I love basil and probably took more than needed ;) )
250gr ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese if you can't find ricotta)
Salt and pepper

Tomato Sauce
1 can (14oz) chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée (can be omitted)
1 tsp sugar (can be omitted)
Chili according to taste

Boil the pasta according to the package but take it off one minute before time. Drain and set aside.

Cut crosses over the stem of the tomatoes and pour boiling water over them. Let them sit in boiling water for a couple of minutes. This will allow the skin to loosen, and you should be able to peel them without problems.

Finely chop bacon, onion and garlic. Cook in olive oil until the onions are done. This will take 3-5 minutes depending on how much bite you like in your onions.
Chop peeled tomatoes and spinach. Add to the pan and cook until done. That will take another 2-3 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and add ricotta cheese, basil and salt and pepper according to taste.

Mix spaghetti into the pan and transfer it to an ovenproof dish. Bake at 180*C for 10 minutes or until it's heated through.

While the pasta is in the oven, make the tomato sauce. This is really easy :) Just dump everything together in a small casserole, bring it to a boil and leave it to simmer until the pasta is done.

Enjoy! :-)

Burning Love

One of my favourite comfort meals :)

The Recipe
3/4-1kg potatoes, peeled
1-2 onions - red or white, sliced
150g bacon
1 cup milk or reserved potato water
30g butter (~2 tbsp)
Salt, pepper

Boil the potatoes in a large pot - cutting them into slices first will make this part go faster :)

Meanwhile, cook the bacon and onion in a skillet until the onion is tender. Put aside until the mashed potatoes are done.

Drain the potatoes, reserving some of the water if you use that instead of milk. Add the butter and leave to melt. Mash the potatoes, adding milk/water until the consistency is right.

Add bacon and onions to the mashed potatoes.

Serve with shredded cheese and ketchup on top.