Durra (Sorghum)

Posted in Misc on October 29th 2009
Tags: , ,
Comments Off on Durra (Sorghum)

Yesterday when I was grocery shopping I came across a new seed, Durra (Sorghum bicolor), which is sold as an alternative to rice.

The particular package I found contained a mix between Durra and red rice. Since I enjoy trying new food ingredients I bought a package to try.

I cooked it according to instructions, which said 25 minutes. I tasted it and it felt like it was still undercooked, so I left it on for a bit longer. To my surprise it didn’t seem to take up any water or get any softer as time passed, so I figured it probably is meant to be a bit harder then rice. The taste was OK, nothing overwhelming though.

On the package it said to be a replacement option to rice, and to some extent I do agree, but I didn’t really find it as good as rice (or bulgur which I often use instead of rice) when served with stew, in this case chicken stew. Durra just seem to dry, and it doesn’t really suck up any of the sauce.

The package also suggested it to be suitable for use in salads. This I can believe, although I have not tried. What I’m thinking here is to add a little into the salad bowl, kind of like you’d add beans or chickpeas. Or instead of rice in a chicken salad. I think it would work in this scenario because you’d probably add less to a salad then you’d put on your plate together with the stew, or other hot dish.

I will give it another go though, but next time I’ll treat it a little more as I would with dried beans or chickpeas, meaning I’ll let them soak in cold water a while before actually cooking them to see if they get any more moist and soft. If I remember to I’ll post about how that goes later on when I’ve tried.

Tjälknul

Posted in Meat on October 9th 2009
Tags: , , , ,
Comments Off on Tjälknul

Tjälknul.

Tjälknul.

First of all I think I need to try and explain what tjälknul is.

It’s a dish traditional to  northern Sweden. Tjälknul is normally made with meat from elk (roast), but a roast from beef cattle can be used, which is what I had this time, you’d use the same part as you’d use to cook a roast beef. Tjälknul is actually rather similar to roast beef. It’s to be eaten cold, cut in thin slices.

This dish takes it’s time to get done, so it is highly recommended to do it as an overnight cooking. But I promise you all, it’s worth it, and it is really easy to do as it requires virtually no work effort at all. Tjälknul get it’s flavoring from a spiced brine in which it is placed when cooked. Read the rest of this entry »

I have not forgotten this blog

Posted in Meat, Misc, Off-Topic on July 10th 2009
Comments Off on I have not forgotten this blog

I know I have lacked in posting here, but I’ve sort of been out of inspiration in the kitchen. Feels as I do the same dishes over and over again. Nothing wrong with that, they are well tested and tasteful, just can’t blog about doing what I’ve already done…

Though I wanna share one small tip about making minced meat sauce. I suppose that most of you do as I were taught to do when I started cooking. That is start with browning the minced meat and then creating the sauce with that as base.

Recently I learnt that there’s an option, that works very well, even better in some ways. The result is a fuller body of the sauce, without adding thickeners. Well suited for large quantities as well.

Start with making the sauce, based on tomatoes or whatever you prefer. When that has been boiled together a few minutes, start adding the minced meat little by little. Remember to stir well while the minced meat gets cooked into the sauce.

When all is stirred in, let it cook for a little while and taste, adding more spices if needed.

The huge advantage of this comes forward when you try and make sauce on a couple kilograms of minced meat and does not have a huge frying pan, or doesn’t want to start frying in one pan and then adding it to a big casserole 🙂

I first tried it when I helped my sister cook for her birthday, we made three kinds of pies, one of them a minced meat pie.

Todays dinner

Posted in Off-Topic on June 10th 2009
Comments Off on Todays dinner

Preparing todays dinner

Preparing todays dinner

Not really gonna give you a recipe on this, as it is just a matter of frying up the vegetables of choice and then adding a can of cherry tomatoes. Let it all simmer until it thickens by it self 🙂

I used oregano, fresh chili, one clove of garlic, couple tablespoons red wine, and roughly one tablespoon of  honey, salt and pepper to flavour it.

My vegetables were: squash, red onion (half), mushrooms, celeriac and the above mentioned canned cherry tomatoes.

Todays dinner.

Todays dinner.

I served it together with fried chicken breast (just seasoned with salt and pepper) and couscous. I also added a small amount of crème fraîche to add some freshness.

Delicious yet simple.

Baking bread the “simple” way

Posted in Baking on May 7th 2009
Tags: ,
Comments Off on Baking bread the “simple” way

The dough ready to make buns

The dough ready to make buns

For all of you that think baking your own bread is hard, this is the crash course on how to make it easy. It will still require some time though, mainly for the dough to rise.

I’m gonna tell you about the base recipe for bread. The dough I use for pictures is purely a wheat dough, that was left to rise slowly for about 3 hours. I then made three variations, just by splitting the ready dough up and adding seeds to one part (buns). One part were made into flat bread cakes, that came out very nice with a great “tough” bite to it. The last portion of dough were made into buns with sesame seeds as decoration, apart from that they are natural. The dough in the picture was made with 1.5 liter of water and 50 grams of yeast. Read the rest of this entry »

Older Entries
Newer Entries