VEGETABLE LASAGNE WITH GROUND BEEF

VEGETABLE LASAGNE WITH GROUND BEEF

This is a real "Healthbomb" of food!

Ingredients

400 gr ground beef
3 spring onions
one cube of chicken or meat broth
Oil for frying pan

3 carrots
1 head of coliflower
1 head of broccoli
1 paprika
1 head of red cabbage
1 cup yellow mung beans
1 cup red lentels
1 cup black mushrooms

Salt
Pepper
Water
Tapioka starch
2 cans Coconut milk

Directions:

Sauce with ground beef

Shred the spring onions and fry up in a little oil in the frying pan. Set aside.
Fry up the ground beef in a little cooking oil in a frying pan while mincing it with a sleeve or fork to small pieces for pasta sauce. Add salt and pepper or other spices after your choice.
Add the spring onions to the ground beef.
Add one can of coconut milk.
If you want more sauce add water.
Add one cube of chicken or meat broth
Let simmer on low heat while preparing the vegetable sauce

Sauce with vegetables

Shred the carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, paprika in a shredder.

Soak the yellow mung beans and the red lentil´s in water for at least 30 minutes.
Boil the beans and lentils until soft.
Soak the mushrooms in hot water.
Shred the mushrooms when soft.
Mix the beans, lentils, shredded vegetables, mushrooms and let it simmer.
Add salt, pepper, 1 can of coconut milk.
Add extra water if you want more sauce.
When both sauces have simmered for 30 minutes mix Tapioka starch in a little cold water until smooth. Add a little while stirring into each of the sauces to thicken the sauce. Do not let it boil. When the sauce is the thickness you want remove from stove.

Prepare the lasagna for the oven:

Grease a pan for the oven with a little oil. Take the red cabbage head and remove leaf by leaf to be used as lasagna platters.

Start with one layer of red cabbage in the bottom of the pan.

Add a layer of ground beef sauce.

Add a layer of vegetable sauce.

Add another layer of red cabbage leafs.

Add a layer of ground beef sauce and another layer of vegetable sauce and another layer of red cabbage.

Continue until the pan is full or you have used all the sauce and cabbage.

The last layer should be a topping of sauce.

Cover the pan with aluminium foil and place in oven on 180-200 Celsius degrees for about two hours.

The red cabbage takes long to soften and it is important to cover the pan to not burn the top of the lasagne.

Try and see if the cabbage is soft with a knife or a fork.

When the cabbage is soft remove the foil for a little while.

Serving:

Decorate the lasagna with tomatoes, cucumber and serve with some sallad of your choice.

When I made the lasagna I made a lot and divided into portions that I put in plastic boxes in the freezer. When I want a real energy and healthbomb I take it out and defrost and heat in the microwave, or in the oven. And you know it tastes as good as fresh, yes even better. 

Just make sure you cook the lasagne long enough in the oven so the red cabbage is really soft.

Peking Duck

Peking Duck

National Dish of China
Peking Duck is served with Chinese Pancakes called Mandarin Pancakes, Cucumber and Scallions sliced in sticks and Hoisin Sauce. The duck meat is cut into small pieces. 

When you cut the duck meat: Locate the sternum, make a cut near the sternum, then make a cut on the side of the duck. Next, cut sideways diagonally. 

When eating the Peking Duck you place a few sticks of cucumber and scallion on one pancake, put a couple pieces of the cut duck meat and add Hoisin sauce. Roll the pancake to a roll and eat. 




To make Peking Duck: 

You need 1 Peking Duck. Peking Ducks can be bought in Asien Markets. I got mine frozen in the Asien Market Store in Stockholm and defrosted it overnight in the refrigerator.

Directions for preparing the duck:

If you have a pump at hand at home pump air underneath the skin through the neck cavity to separate the skin from the fat and the flesh. If you cannot find something to pump with you just have to skip this. Anyways doing this is for the purpose of helping to make the skin very crispy. Cut off the wings and the feet, remove the innards. Keep the hearts and gizzard.  I used it to make the stuffing of dumplings as a side dish. But you can make other courses as well.

Wash the duck thoroughly. Wash the cavity a few times to remove any residue. Dry off the duck with papertowels. 

Shrink the skin: 

Boil 2 l water and pour over the duck to make the skin shrink. Pour with a sleeve around and all over. You can keep the duck in a strainer when doing this so the water will drain immediately. You will see the skin shrink and tighten when doing this.

Preparing the Glaze: 
Boil

2 cups of vinegar

2 cups of honey
2 cups of water
1 cup of Maltose

If you cannot find Maltose mix 4 tablespoons of Corn Starch mixed with ½ cup of water and pour into the glaze. This will thicken the glaze and help the glaze to stick to the duck. Pour the hot glaze over the duck (half of it at first). Make sure it covers all parts of the ducks skin. Repeat after 20 minutes and use all the Glaze.

Hang the duck with a wire, a hook or a string in a windy and cool place for 24 hours. If you can remove shelves and hang it in your refrigerator do this. Or like me I don´t have room for that so I hang it above the kitchen sink with a bowl underneath to gather juice or glaze that would spill. And I put a fan in front to blow on the duck for 24 hours. This is important to dry the duck and prepare it so it will get crispy skin.

Roasting:

After the duck has hang for 24 hours you are going to roast it. 

Put a pan with boiling water in the bottom of the oven. And lay the duck on a rack above. This way the juice and the fat from the duck will drip into the pan with water. And the moist from the water will also help to keep the ducks meat from drying out. The oven should have a temperature of 180 Celsius Degrees. Lay the duck on the side on the rack and roast for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes turn it over on the other side and roast for another 20 minutes. This makes sure the skin will get evenly brown. Turn it on the back and roast for another 20 minutes and turn it on the breast side and roast for 20 minutes. 

When you see it is all evenly roasted and the skin crisp and you can loosen the leg easily it is finished. Turn the oven off and keep the duck inside for additional 15 minutes. 

This will allow the juice to reabsorb into the meat making the meat very juicy and tender. 





Mandarin pancakes: 

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup boiling water

2 tablespoons sesame oil

Whisk flour and salt together in a large bowl. Gradually stir in boiling water until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Return dough to bowl and cover with a damp towel; let stand 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a snake. Cut in pieces and form balls a little smaller than tennis balls. This dough should make about 32 pancakes.  (16 double after rolling). Use a rolling pin to make the balls into small pancakes. Roll two pancakes at a time into flat round pancakes. With your fingertip brush the upper side of one pancake with sesame oil. Make sure it is all covered. Place the second pancake on top of the one with sesame oil and use the rolling pin to roll both together to make it a bigger and thinner pancake, about six inch circle (ca 15 cm). Do not press on the edges of the pancake. Cover with a damp towel and repeat process with remaining dough rounds.

Heat a frying pan to medium heat. Add one pancake and cook, turning once, until lightly golden and dry, about 30 seconds per side. Remove from pan and let cool slightly; than insert a knife or something thin and sharp in the edge of the pancake to separate into 2 pancakes. Repeat process with remaining pancakes.  

Pancakes can be made ahead and wrapped with plastic wrap. Before serving heat them. To heat, unwrap pancakes and steam in a steamer basket set in a saucepan with 1 inch simmering water until warm. 

Peking Duck is served with Chinese Pancake called Mandarin Pancakes, Cucumber and Scallions sliced in sticks and Hoisin Sauce. The duck meat is cut into small pieces. 

When you cut the duck meat: Locate the sternum, make a cut near the sternum, then make a cut on the side of the duck. Next, cut  sideway diagonally. 

Then when eating the Peking Duck you place a few sticks of cucumber and scallion on one pancake, put a couple pieces of the cut duck meat and add hoisin sauce. Roll the pancake to a roll and eat.

Dumplings with the innards as filling

Steamed Dumplings:

Dough for the dumplings:

3 cups tapioca starch

1 cup boiling water (add more if needed)

1 tbs cold water

Mix the tapioca flour with the hot water and add the cold water. Work the dough until it is smooth like play dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

Make the filling:

Finely cut or shred the Innards of the duck

Scallions finely chopped

1 Carrot shredded

Greens of your choice can be added and chopped finely

½ tsp Pepper

1 tsp Salt

1 tbs Oil

Pinch of Garlic

Mix the ingredients. Fry the filling in a frying pan before filling the dumplings.

To make the dumplings.

Divide the dough into small pieces like the size of a tennis ball. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough or work it into a flat round shape with your hands. Lay the filling in the middle and close the edges with your fingertips.

Place the dumplings in a steamer. Put parchment paper underneath in the steamer basket. Steam for 5 minutes.

Usually in Chinese or Vietnamese Dumplings you add fish sauce and sugar as an ingredient, even shrimps. However since I served this with the Peking Duck I chose to not add it this time, but just used salt and pepper as spices and only the duck innards and no shrimps. This is really just a choice of mine to not mix too many different flavors. The dough could also be made with other types of flour. Using the tapioca flour comes from a recipt for Rose Dumplings that is a dish in Vietnam.

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Bánh Khọt Rất Ngon

Bánh Khọt Rất Ngon

Vietnamese small pancakes

Banh Khot batter ingredients

500 grams of rice flour

100 grams of glutinous rice flour

1 can of coconut milk

1  1/2 cups of water

2 egg

2 tbs oil

2 teaspoons of ground turmeric

Topping

1/2 cup of yellow mung beans

10 shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 clove of minced fresh chopped garlic

3 spring onions, chopped (discard the white part)

Shredded carrots

Shredded chinese black mushroom

Chopped porkmeat

Serving

For wrapping I used fresh salad leaves and here you can use what you like and have. What is used in Vietnam is springs of coriander, chopped, for garnish fresh Vietnamese mint, chopped, for garnish mustard leaves, for wrapping 

romaine lettuce leaves, for wrapping

fresh perilla and basil herb, for wrapping

Preparation batter:

In a bowl mix the flours  and add the coconut milk until it is a smooth paste. Add smaller amounts of the water at a time until fully mixed, then the turmeric and salt. Beat the eggs together and add to the batter.

Preparation toppings:

Wash and chop shrimp into smaller pieces and sauté quickly in a small amount of vegetable oil with the chopped garlic and the rest of the spring onion and a dash of salt. Set aside.

Fry up the chopped up porkmeat in a little oil and add a pinch of salt and 1 tbs fishsauce. Set aside.

Sauté the rest of the toppings in a little vegetable oil. Set aside.

Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into each indentation of the banh khot pan and heat until beginning to sizzle. Since I did use my cupcake pan I greased the pan with oil with a brush before pouring the batter.

Add batter into each indentation until approximately 2/3 full, cover and cook for about 3- 5 minutes.

Remove the cover and add the toppings to each piece, then re-cover (or for me with using the cupcake pans I put them back inside the oven after adding the toppings.

Cooking complete when the sides of the pancakes are crispy and batter has fully set. (Usually an additional 3-5 minutes, depending on heat of the stove.)

Top each of the pancakes with some chopped coriander and mint if you have this.

Serve with wrapping a pancake in green leaves to make your own spring roll with each pancake and dip in the fish sauce.

Dipping sauce:

1/2 cup water

2-3 tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet you’d like your sauce)

1/2 lime, juiced.

3 tablespoons of fish sauce

Optional: 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped) and 2 red chilies (chopped) carrot (shredded)

Mix water, sugar and lime until sugar dissolves. Slowly add desired amount of fish sauce (more is better!) . If you’d like a bigger punch to the sauce, add in garlic cloves and chilies, though these can be served on the table and added to each person’s dipping dish depending on their preference.

Hardware

Banh Khot pan (I don´t have this and they require a gas stove which I also don´t have, so I used my cupcake pans and put in the oven at 250 Celcius degrees for a few minutes until the pancakes fried. And this worked great as well. Still I didn´t get the crisp outside I would have with a real frying pan.  A Japanese Takoyaki pan could also be used or an Danish Aebleskiver pan.  

Celebrating the newborn Baby Cakes

My cake for a baby girl

My cake for a baby boy

Spongecake:

6 eggs

200 g sugar

180 g flour

1/2 teaspoon bakingpowder

160 Celsius degrees  about 30 minutes

Whisk egg and sugar until fluffy and shiny and stiff.

Sift the flour and bakingpowder and blend carefully and softly in.

Pour into a round baking tray greased or covered by baking paper.

Bake in oven about 30 minutes. Try to not open the oven since the sponge cake easily can "fall down" if getting cold air inside the oven. Try with a toothpick to see when ready. If nothing sticks to the toothpick it is baked enough.

Take out of oven and cool down on a grid.

Filling

Fill the spongecake with vanilla cream. The vanilla cream can be made by ready mix in packages that you just add cold milk to and mix together. Or you can make your own. I usually go with the ready mix. It is fast and easy. Add some whipped cream to the vanilla cream to make it really good. Divide the sponge cake into two or three depending how high you want the cake to be and spread the vanillacream evenly on the bottom part. Put the second part and the third on top and put vanilla cream between each layer and on top and all around the sponge cake. Make it smooth with a knife. For this size of cake you need to make vanilla filling with about 5 dl liter milk. Add at least 10 dl whipped cream.

For the cover you can buy marzipan cover and decorate with or you can make your own. In certain stores even colored marzipan can be bought to make roses and leaves. Or you can color your own with food color. I usually make my own marzipan and color it and make the roses and leaves. This can be bought ready in stores as well. However it is most impressive to make your own.

Homemade marzipan:

500 g almonds grinded in a almond grinder

500 g icing sugar

1 eggwhite

Heat the the almonds and egg whites in i thick bottomed pan on low heat and mix all the time until it becomes a sticky, shiny dough, than take it off and cool and mix the icing sugar in while kneading with your hands until all sugar is in and it is a white soft dough.

When you have made the dough roll out the marzipan cover and put on the cake. Leave some small parts to color for flowers and leaves.

To make flowers and leaves you roll the marzipan to a thin film and cut out the leaves. Flowers can be shaped by cutting half circles with an egg cup for instance and making the roses, adding the halves outside of each other.

"False marzipan"

or:

60 g flour

1 dl cream

3-400 g icing sugar

1 teaspoon tragacanth (can be bought in drugstores/pharmacies, makes the marzipan hold together so it is possible to roll it to a thin cover)

50 g almonds (you can eliminate this and use almond drops instead if afraid of allergies) or just leave it completely)

Heat the cream and the flour in a thick bottomed pan on low heat while all the time stirring. Stir until you have a shiny dough that forms like a ball. Take it off the heat and cool down. Add the icing sugar and tragacanth by kneading the dough by hands. Add icing sugar until the marzipan feels like it can be rolled to a cover and tastes like marzipan. Too little icing sugar it will taste too much flour and not sweet enough.

When you have the wished consistency take some small parts and color with food color for the decorations. The rest roll to make the cover.

When decorated the cake with marzipan. Decorate all around with whipped cream like I have done in the picture, to make it really festive.

 

 

 

NORWEGIAN KRANSEKAKE

NORWEGIAN KRANSEKAKE

Kransekake, with its tower of graduated almond paste rings, is the signature cake of Norway and a staple at wedding, anniversary, birthday, and holiday celebrations.

Inexpensive and remarkably easy to prepare, it offers the added benefits of being gluten- , wheat-, and butter-free. The speciality KRANSEKAKE RINGS typically used to prepare this remarkable cake are worth the investment, for in addition to preparing special-occasion cakes, you can also use the cookie-like kransekake rings to form one-of-a-kind edible baskets and cornucopias as lovely centerpieces for your table throughout the year.

For a traditional kransekake batter, I use:

• 5 cups water
• 500 grams raw whole almonds
• 500 grams confectioner's sugar plus 3-4 cups for frosting
• ca 3-4 egg whites plus 2 egg whites for frosting
• 2 tsp. almond extract plus 1 tsp. for frosting
• 2 Tbsp. potato starch flour

Tools and Decorations:

• six graduated kransekake pans (optional)
• almond grinder
• edible or crystallized flowers, ribbons, candies, or flags
• top-decoration could be added (a wedding couple for a wedding etc) Here I just used flowers.

Pour the water in a pan and blanche 1/2 half of the raw almonds in boiling water until the nuts float to the top of the pot, about 5 minutes.

Rinse the newly blanched almonds in a colander under cool water. Remove and discard skins. 

Your unblanched almonds need to be completely dry before grinding. Place on a baking sheet and allow to air dry over night. 

Grind the unblanched almonds in a almond grinder or a coffee / spice grinder (don't use a food processor for this, for it will over-process the almond flour). Repeat the process with the blanched and dried almonds. Mix together the unblanched and blanched almond flours and the confectioner's sugar. Then, run this mixture through your grinder a second time. 








Combine the ground almond-sugar mixture with 3-4 egg whites and 2 tsp. almond extract.  

Knead the almond paste mixture over low heat until the sides of the paste pull away from the pot, about 5 minutes. The paste will have the consistency of homemade play dough. Wrap the paste in plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

Preheat your oven to 200 C º. Flour a pastry board or clean counter with potato starch flour; butter and dust six kransekake pans (if using) with potato starch flour. Roll the almond paste into 18 1,3 cm"-wide "snakes," descending in length - in 1,3 cm increments - from about 50 cm" long to 30" long. Fit the snakes into the forms, pinching the ends together tightly to form rings (Note: with this dough you can easily re roll a few snakes if you've miscalculated the lengths so that they are evenly divided to fit the graduated rings of the kransekake forms).Fit the lengths into the kransekake forms.

Alternatively, if not using kransekake forms, shape each of the 18 lengths into a ring and place on a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet

Bake in the center of oven about 10 minutes, until the rings turn a light gold. Watch carefully, as they will burn quickly if unattended.

Remove rings from oven and allow to cool in pans.

Rap the pans lightly on a counter to loosen, running a knife between the rings if necessary to separate. Then, carefully remove the largest ring, invert it, and place it on a serving or cake plate. Mix together the confectioner's sugar, 2 egg whites, almond extract, and lemon juice to make a thick frosting. Place into pastry bag (small tip) or in a plastic freezer bag with the end snipped off. Pipe the frosting in a wavy pattern around the circumference of the bottom ring (the frosting, while decorative, also serves as the glue that will hold the cake together).

Repeat this step for each of the remaining rings, working from the largest up to the smallest. The finished cake will look like a Fisher-Price ring toy (but will taste far better!).

Decorate with edible or crystallized flowers and ribbons if using as a wedding or special occasion cake. Or, do as the Norwegians do and decorate your tower with flags.  To make the Kransekake stick together you can also use melted sugar as glue. Melt sugar in a frying pan and use a wooden spatel or knife to put some on the rings to make them stick together. Be really careful since the melted sugar get extremely hot and you can burn yourself. Use melted sugar to even glue the flowers and leafs or decorations.

 














When serving the Kransekake you can use it as a table decoration and place extra rings in broken pieces around to be eaten first. As these end you take loose rings from the bottom and break into pieces and keep the remaining cake in tact for decoration. Left overs can be frozen and taken out to eat at any time and will taste as good as new, maybe even better!