Nectarine Salsa

Here's a great little salsa that's perfect with grilled pork of some sort, or with chicken. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Nectarine Salsa

2 large nectarines, diced
200 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 red onion, finely diced
1 lime, juiced
2 tbsp mango chutney
1 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper


Mix everything together and let it sit for a little while before serving.

Instagram baking challenge 2

For our second week of Instagram Baking Challenge, we made these overnight rye buns. I wasn't crazy about the result - they look pretty but tasted a bit boring. So no recipe this time! But do follow us on Instagram and join in the fun!

Fish Tikka Masala

Here's a dish we first got in one of those pre-planned grocery bags that are so popular in Sweden at the moment. We've tried several providers, and this particular recipe comes from City Gross. We actually like their service quite a bit, they're very reasonable and the food was good. This fish dish was our absolute favorite! So easy and so tasty, it's something we're definitely making again. We modified the recipe to work for us.

Fish Tikka Masala

serves 4

500 g white fish (we had cod) 

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp turmeric

pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tbsp cooking oil

400 g crushed tomatoes (one can) 

400 g coconut milk (one can) 

1 tbsp concentrated vegetable stock

1-2 tsp honey

salt, pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot in low heat. Fry the onions, garic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne pepper for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, coconut and the concentrated stock and cook for ten minutes.  Taste, and season with honey, salt and pepper. Mix the sauce with a handheld blender until smooth. 

Dice the fish and add to the sauce. Let it simmer on low heat until it's cooked through.

We served it with cooked rice and a simple salad - the dressing is just plain yogurt with salt, dried mint, a tiny bit of sugar, and then thinned with a little water. 

Instagram Baking Challenge number 1

Those of you who follow me on Instagram might have noticed that I've started up something called Instagram Baking Challenge together with my friend Dagmar. Each Sunday, we choose a recipe to make the following week and then we post about it with the tag #instabakingchallenge

Anyone can join in! The idea is just to get us inspired to bake again, no pressure! For our first week, we made this delicious and easy bread, originally posted by Matgeek. It's really simple and my kids loved it - I made two batches that were completely devoured. 

Rye bread with crushed rye and molasses 
Yield: 2 loaves

300 g water
60 g rye flour
60 g crushed rye
300 g water (again)
25 g fresh yeast 
20 g salt 
50 g butter at room temperature
600 g all-purpose flour 
40 g dark syrup/molasses

Bring the first 300 g of water to a boil. Measure rye flour and crushed rye into a bow and add the hot water. Stir well until smooth. Cover and let it cool. 

Heat the second 300 g of water until just tepid. Crumble in the yeast and let it dissolve. Add salt and butter. 

Add all the rye batter from the first step. Add flour and syrup as well. Stir until smooth, cover and leave for ten minutes. 

Knead for 5-6 minutes. The dough will be very loose, that's ok. 
Cover and let it rise for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, divide in half and shape two loaves. Place in two buttered bread tins and leave to rise for 30 minutes. (Honestly, you can skip this step - just scrape the dough straight into the bread tins. It worked out fine.) 

Heat the oven to 250 degrees centigrade. Score the loaves and put them in the oven. Add some water or ice on a baking tray at the bottom or the oven or use a spray bottle - this is to create steam. 

Lower the temperature to 200 degrees. If the loaves start to look too dark, cover with aluminum foil. 

Bake until the core temperature is about 97 degrees. Leave to cool completely before removing to a rack.

Dill sauce for fish

Seriously, I don't know why I've posted so many sauces lately! I guess it's mainly what I've been making though - it's such an easy way to vary a meal. Here's yet another super sauce to serve with fish, especially fried and battered fish. (Although these in particular are bought frozen and baked - a simple shortcut which works well for us)

Dill sauce for fish

4 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp mayonnaise

100 ml fresh dill, finely cut

1 tbsp chives, finely cut

salt

1/2 tsp honey

Stir everything together and season to taste. Let it sit in the fridge for at least half an hour. 

Roasted tomato sauce

This is one of the simplest but also tastiest sauces you can make. It's perfect when you have tomatoes that are starting to get a little old, soft and wrinkly. Just take those, cut them in half and place cut side up in a roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil, some chopped garlic and shallots, and a little salt and pepper. Add some fresh herbs if you have them. 

Roast at 200�C for about half an hour. The tomatoes should have softened quite a bit and released some liquid. Tip all the contents of the pan into a mixer. Add a little pinch of sugar and a little apple cider vinegar, and blitz until smooth. (Be careful, it's hot!) 

Pour into a pot and cook until it's as thick as you like it. At this point, you could certainly add some browned beef mince if you'd like. Season to taste with more salt, sugar and vinegar. 

Big Mac Sauce

I've always loved McDonalds Big Mac burger. It's the sauce - that combo of sharpness and the crunch.. yeah. It's definitely my favorite hamburger dressing. Apparently they've kept the exact recipe a secret for many years but now decided to release it - I was asked by their PR agency to try it out and I was eager to do so!

Is my version exactly the same? Well, I'm not sure. I think it's more yellow, even though I actually toned down the mustard. But it tastes pretty darn close! Give it a try - it's really perfect for those summer barbecues.

Big Mac-Sauce

100 ml mayonnaise
2 tbsp finely chopped pickled cucumber (bostongurka in Sweden)
2 tbsp yellow mustard (I used a little bit less)
1,5 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika

Stir everything together. Keep cool!