Cyberkocken sammanställning (roundup)

Rösta på mig?

vote for me? if you liked my chickenliver sauce!

Dead easy but awesome FRIED CHICKEN

The easiest but incredibly yummie fried chicken you've made...

Chicken
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper
flour
oil (not olive)

Heat the oil in a deep pan. You don't need to add alot, halv a cup is sufficent.
spice up your chicken and then cover it in flour, shake excess flour off.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
When the oil is hot enough add your chicken. I used legs. Don't add all if you're doing alot. When one side is golden, flip it over. You just want it to get colour and get a bit crispy but you don't have to let it cook through.
When all chicken pieces have fried, put them in a heatproof bowl and put them in the oven. While the chicken is cooking through, make a salad and fry some potatoes to go with the chicken.
The chicken usually takes around 15 minutes to cook through.
It's delicious and for me it's perfect for those days when pms cravings are getting to me. But best is to do this with chickenwings, and then add some hot sauce when they're done. Or tabasco. MMMMMMM!

CYBERKOCKEN #5

First in Swedish, as this is a swedish challange, scroll down on this post to get this recipe in english!

Cyberkocken #5 hade ingredienserna Mozzarella, Kycklinglever, Mandel och Svamp. Jag blev verkligen till mig, för jag har tänkt ganska länge på kycklinglever. Det låter lite konstigt jag vet men de få dagar min pappa brukade laga mat när jag var liten, hade han några speciella rätter han gjorde. Falukorv i ugn (kommer senare i veckan), makaronilåda och kycklinglever med ris var de enda han kunde. Och plättar. Så vi kunde nästan alltid gissa vad vi skulle äta när mamma var borta. På sistone har jag tänkt mycket på pappa, ettårsdagen efter hans död var nyligen och man saknar ju sina nära och kära.
Det kanske låter konstigt men jag brukade älska pappas kycklinglever. Det var nog inte alltid så och det är en smak man måste vänja sig vid men sist jag åt den älskade jag den. Därför blev det just pappas kycklinglever som jag lagade. Det enda jag ändrade var att jag la till champinjoner. Till min kycklinglever serverade jag ris och en sallad med mozzarellan och mandeln.
Det här är en av de enklaste recept som existerar!


Pappas Kycklinglever
300 g kycklinglever
1 lök
1 vitlök
8 champinjoner
2 dl matlagningsgrädde
1 msk sambal oelek
salt och peppar
olivolja

Börja med att skölja och rensa levern. Ta bort all fett och alla hinnor du ser. Torka den noga med lite papper.
Hacka lök och vitlök. Rensa och hacka champinjonerna smått.
I en stekpanna, värm oljan. Bryn levern. När alla bitar har fått färg (inte är genomstekta) lägg i champinjonerna, ha pannan het och rör om hela tiden, du vill bara mjukna champinjonerna.
När champinjonerna är mjuka, blanda i lök och vitlök och stek tills löken har blivit genomskinlig. Salta, peppra, ha i sambal och tillsätt matlagningsgrädden. Låt det hela puttra i en kvart.
Koka jasminris undertiden och servera till.


Till salladen använde jag blandade salladsorter och hackade mandel till, och mozzarella i tärningar. Otroligt gott alltihop!

ENGLISH RECIPE

Cyberkocken is a swedish event where you get decided ingredients and you cook something after that.
The ingredients were mushrooms, almond, mozzarella and chickenliver. Which made me decide to make a recipe my late dad always used to do. No need to write the whole history as above, all I can say is that I used to love this as a kid and I still think it's awesome!

Dads Chickenliver
300 g chickenliver
1 onion
1 garlic clove
8 mushrooms (I used white button mushrooms)
almost 1 cup half and half
salt
peppar
sambal oelek (which is a chilipaste)


Start with cleaning the liver. You want to remove fat and any membrane you can find. Quickly wash it under water and make sure to dry it off completely.
Chop the onion, garlic and mushroom.
Heat some oil in a pan and add the liver. Brown it, then add the mushroom to soften. When it's soft, add the garlic and onion and stir until the onions are soften.
Add salt, peppar and sambal and then add the half and half and let it simmer for fifteen minutes.
Serve with some jasmin rice.

To use the mozzarella and almond, I made a salad and topped with both those ingredients. It was a very luxurious dinner and I made sure to make a lunchbox for tomorrow! YUM!

WDB

For Weekend Dog Blogging!
Another Weekend has arrived, and here's another round of pictures of my darling Love! The light of my life!!

There are some places that are acceptable places to sleep at. Daddys lap is one of them.


Another is right infront of the tv, that way we get noticed everytime we move.


But the best part is in our very own bed. Nothing screams comfort like this one...


Now for all you Stockholmers out there... if you haven't been already, you should really go to Tensta and check out TenstaMarknad! The food is awesome and the music is great! There are also different stand selling all kinds of stuff! I was working until 1 am there yesterday so I never got a chance to take pictures of the food stands, but I know the designated photographer of the event so when he's processed his film I'll beg for some to show the rest of you what you're missing. I did however get to stuff myself with pirog, winedolmes, tabulleh, sambusa and loads more just because I was working there! Yummie!!!
Unfortunetly for you who decide to go check it out today is that you missed Ayesha yesterday, who was completely awesome! That woman can move! I heard Dogge was good too but I never got a chance to go see him... Martin Bentancourt was nice, but I never had time to check his show out either. His dancers drove me insane though...
Yeah I worked int he "artist lounge"...

SHF #22 Can you Can?

Can I can? Well I was about to find out with this Sugar high Friday hosted by Delicious Days. I've honestly never made any jam or marmalade ever before. My closest thing to anything canned was the chutney I made just a couple of days ago. But I still couldn't resist to participate in my first ever SHF because on monay it's my mothers birthday, and I just have this weird feeling she'd love love LOVE a homemade jam or marmalade.
I did my best to find a recipe of any jam or marmalade that had as little sugar in it as possible, without using any sweetners, because
a) my mum thinks artificial sweetners are evil
b) my mum is on a low carb diet
and any fruit cooked is perfect because my mum is allergic to 90% of all raw fruits and vegetables, to different extents. She can for instance not eat raw apples, pears or carrots.
But what I chose was Plum. Why? I know she likes plums, I'd also seen some beautiful plums in my shop, so I just decided on plum.
Next step was to find a recipe. None of my cookbooks had anything at all appealing, which just shows that I need new cookbooks! So I surfed and found a swedish recipe of plummarmalade.


Plummarmalade
1½ kg plums
½ dl water
1½ kg sugar
1 lemon
3½ tsp fruitpektin powder (a natural thickner, I don't know the english word for it)
or a bottle liquid fruitpektin (1 dl) because I couldn't find the powdered kind
½ dl sugar (if using the powdered kind)



Clean the plums, desead but keep the skin. Cut them into pieces.
In a big saucepan add the plums and the water. Let the mess bring to a boil and boil under a lid for 10 minutes.
Add the sugar and juice of the lemon and boil at a high speed under constant stirring (no lid) for 5-10 minutes.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add the pektin, if you're using the powder first mix it with the sugar.
Boil for another couple of minutes while skimming it constantly.
Add the mixture to wellcleaned and hot glasjars. Let the jars cool upside down. Store dark and cool.


When it came to labeling my jar I had to do it all by hand and use glue to stick it on because I had nothing that could work as a label. But I still think it looks alright.

There are some things I still wonder. Why did I have to cool them upside down? This led to the marmalade being stuck at the top because the jars had a line as the top of how much I got to fill.
I didn't like this so I opened the cooled jars and let the air in, so have I now spoiled the marmalade? besides it doesn't look good anymore. Buhu!
And does anyone have any good recipes of marmalade without so much sugar? Or maybe any other way of perserving fruit without so much sugar?

Oh and I know it's thursday, but I'll be working until midnight on friday, so I wont be able to post this then....

Bullet Omelette

This weekend my boyfriend and I decided to break in the bullet. We've used it alot since, and it can do most it's promised, but was completely useless when it came to make carrot juice. A huge disapointment.


This omelette was however perfect. We mixed cheese, bell pepper, onion and a jalapeno with 4 eggs. D took a hold of the cooking while I made some delightful smoothies for us. I got a berrybanana smoothie and he had a pineapple smoothie, and couldn't stop laughing at an old memory of a teacher who forgot it was called pineapple and kept saying ananas with an english accent (ananas is swedish for pineapple).


Yes we did use the so called partymugs. I don't see us using them at any "coctail" part we might have int he future though. At the best at a girls night, when we just stay at my place cooking great food and laughing at the stupid childish mugs. They would be perfect for a kids party though...

EVENT: Summer Salad Recipes

I deicided to join My life as a reluctant housewife's event Summer Salad. It just took me this long to post my salad (and today is the last day to enter).
My salad is really not a typical salad at all. It's not a salad I've seen anywhere acctually but ti's damn tasty.
Black pudding or blood sausage is made out of pigsblood. It's strangely sweet and extremely tasty. Don't be afraid to try it.


Black Pudding Salad
3 slices of black pudding
a small piece of danableu
your favorite crisp salad (mine were arugola, mache, lollo rosso)
a tomato
a piece of cucumber
one green onion

chop all but the black pudding up and spread on a plate.
fry the blackpudding in a pan and then chop it up and spread on your greens.
I ate this without dressing because it's the tastiest, but any dressing made from lingonberry would suite this perfectly. It's a cheap and utterly devine salad!

Hot Tomato Mango chutney

I've been meaning to try to make my own chutney for forever, but at the smae time I've been reluctant to try it. I'm not much for raisins and there are so many recipes with raisins out there in them. I just wanted something with tomatoes and sugar. It was pure luck that I found this amazing recipe at tasteline.com

Hot tomato Chutney
1 kg tomatoes
2 mangoes
9 small shallots
1 large chili
a small piece ginger
5 dl sugar
5 dl white wine vinegar
and some freshly ground peppar


Start with peeling the tomatoes by putting them in hot water to loosen the skin off. Don't boil them! Cut the tomtoes into chunky bits.
Peel the mangoes, and strip off the meat, cut it into chunky bits.
Clean the shallots and chop them up. With the chili, remove the seeds and cut it into pieces. A chutney cooks a long while so it'll be alot more spicy than you expect.
Cut the ginger into small pieces.
Put the tomtoes, mango, chili, ginger and onion in a big saucepan and bring it to a boil. Stir in the sugar, vinegar and peppar, and let it all boil on top heat, without a lid for atleast 50 minutes. Make sure to stir alot so it wont burn in the bottom. It should all reduce to a third and be thick.
Pour the Chutney into a clean and hot jar, fill to the top and put the lid on. Store it dark and cool.

Love for my Love

I've been thinking about joining Weekend Dog Blogging a while, but now that it's weekend and I'm sitting here with a ready picture I just don't know where to turn. So if you do, comment the link of where I go to sign up, otherwise I guess I'll just blog about my dog alone each weekend!
I have a dog. He is 10½ years old. his name is acctually Love but it's not pronounced luv it's pronounced Loveh. Some people think he got his name from a famous swedish poet called Love Almqvist, but he didn't. Others think he got his name from Love, but he didn't get it from that either.
When I got him I was 15 and according to my parents a troubled youth. He became my rock. But his name back then was Blacky. I couldn't go around screaming Blacky I just refused so we opened a name book, I read hte name and the rest of the family said yes or no. But the interesting thing is, when I came to Love, my sweet dog thought I called for him and came to me. So HE chose his name and it suits him perfectly. He is my love.

Chopsticks

Today is a day I've been waiting a long time for. Today me and my boyfriend are going to his parents place for a traditional Swedish Crawfish Party.
It's a typical swedish event and I'll try to take pictures (though half of the family hate photography at the table or at all...) and then I'll post a full event logg.


Earlier today I ate lunch at a resturant I love here in Stockholm with my sister. She took a typical teriyaki lunch but I decided to broaden my view and took Bay Scallops. I'm glad I strayed from my usual choices and ventured into the unknown. I usually don't like Scallops, but their way of cooking them was a taste evolution of its own.
They should've been enjoyed with a good glass of wine but my nephew was with us and I just had a diet coke with them, something I'll never have again, it just destroyed all my tastebuds.
Everyone in Stockholm, go enjoy ChopSticks! They have a new feature (for me who was there for the second time in a year) DimSum menu that starts at 2 pm. I'll be taking that one down next!!

Chopsticks Restaurang
Mäster Samuelsg. 42

Some kind of Magic...

Sometimes I think I'm the typical person tv-ads center themselves to. I always get interested in things I see on TVShop, acctually everything that isn't gym equipment. I atleast know better than that...
So the latest thing my eyes fell on was... the Magic Bullet. I swear the first time the ad ran on tv I hated it. The second and third time too, but then everytime I used my own kitchenappliance I swore to myself because I didn't have the bullet. that and I want a juice maker.
But the price, oh the price, it was painful! 999 SEK ($140). Way too much! But maybe if I could convince my sister that she'd want one... We'd get two for 1500 (209)... hmmmm. But then I started searching info about it online, and I was surprised how many people had something positive to say about it, and I also found a site where the Bullet would cost 799 for one. Intruiging. What if I could find it cheaper... and I did! I found it for £59.95 ($77) and with shipping it came to £69, which was cheaper than the rest. Yeah I did it... I went and bought it... and it arrived yesterday. All I've looked at so far is the recipe book that comes with it, just because I couldn't help myself. Now I'm dumbfounded. What should I do first? Make some carrot juice? Or maybe some sort of energydrink? Oh can't someone come with advice?
Once I've used it a fair bit of times I'll evaluate it for everyone so you'll know if it's worth buying or not...

Stuvad Vitkål

Stuvad Vitkål is Cabbage cooked in White Sauce that's the closest anything would let me translate it to, although Stuvad Spenat is Creamed Spinach. I wonder why I can't translate Stuvad Vitkål to Creamed Cabbage?
Anyway. It's just as the name says. Cabbage cooked in whitesauce. Sure there's a little bit more to it, but I thought I'd tell you a bit more about it. Creamed cabbage and also creamed macaroni are very typical swedish to have with sausage, but usually not just any sausage but our very own Falukorv which will translate to sausage from falun. What's special about it is that it has to have atleast 40% meat. But that doesn't mean I can make a sausage with 40% meat and call it falukorv, since the name is protected by law. There are so many cheaper brands that try to replicate falukorv, they usually call themselves things like guldkorv (goldsausage) or something corny like that and have a sausage very similar to the falukorv, but the taste differs immensely. The falukorv's look is special. It's usually almost round and covered in a red skin. The skin is not eatable. It's one of the most common things to eat in Sweden.
Back tot he main issue. Stuvad vitkål. to make this healthy and delicious side dish here's what you need...

400g green cabbage
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
5 dl milk
1 tsp dijon
salt
whitepepper
nutmeg (optional)
parsley (optional)

Clean the cabbage by removing the most outer layers. Cut the cleaned cabbage into 2 cm cubes.
Melt the butter, add the cabbage and let it become a bit shiny by covering as much as possible in the butter. Sprinkle the flour on it and stir to make it spread all over.
Add a little bit of the milk at a time. I used lowfat milk, which wont cream aswell but the taste will be the same. Bring to boil at a lowheat while stirring constantly, when it's boiling add the salt, peppar and dijonmustard.
Let it all simmer at a lowheat for about 15 minutes (the cabbage should be soft). Add the nutmeg and taste it to see if you need to add more mustard, salt or peppar. Spread chopped parsley over. (I had chopped parsley but being really hungry made me completely forget it).

Jerky

Once upon a time (two weeks ago to be more exact) I had a terrible pms. In my pms attacks I crave salty, meaty things and it's not that easy to throw a huge steak on the grill and chew on it the entire day. It's not really healthy or convenient. I was on the verge to go out and buy myself some beef jerky but thinking about how little was in a jerky bag and the cost I decided on something else (acctually more expensive, but not in the long run). I made my own.
When it comes to making jerky there are a few things to think about...
Buy a piece of meat with as little fat in it as possible (this means that entrecote is the wrong choice to go) the fat will go rancid after time, ruining your jerky. A good choice is top round steak. But you don't have to use beef, try anything firm as turkey or venison.
Decide on the taste of your jerky. Since this was my first time I went with an easy choice but later decided that next time I'll make it more peppery and spicy as my jerky became a bit sweet.
Make sure to cut your meat with the grains, that's the nice lines you see in the meat and usually when you cut a piece of steak you cut against the grain, but doing that now will make the meat fall apart a bit.


Cut the meat as thin as you can (I got my butcher to do it). I used 2 kg of meat, and that's alot of jerky. But when doing this, since the meat has to dry for about 12 hours, why not make alot?
Mix
1,5 dl soysauce
1,5 dl worcestersauce
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
in a big bowl or ziplockbag for the marinade and put the meat in it. Make sure it's all covered.


Let the meat rest in the fridge over night, turning it in the marinade a couple of times.
The next day, after having my meat in the fridge all night, I got up really early. Excited. I had even thought up a rack system to dry my meat in the oven on. I was going to use my ovenbars, and wooden bbq sticks, thread the meat on two sticks at a time and then let it hang between the bars on the ovenbar. It was easiest to set it up by removing the bar from the oven and create the racks...


And guess what? It worked perfectly!
The oven should be on the lowest temperature, and slightly open. My oven has no "slightly" open feature, so I put a metallic spoon in between. Too much open and my dog would've finished of all meat before I could have a taste.
Here's when I got unpatient. The hours it take for this lushious meat to dry, it's unbearable. The entire appartment smelt of salty delicious jerky and i just wanted a taste, so I was attneding to my meat alot, just checking if any piece was drier than the other so I could nibble a bit.


Lucky for me I'd gotten an end cut from the butcher so some piece were smaller and ofcourse dried up so much quicker. MMMM. It all just reminded me o living at home and mum drying liver in the oven for my dog. Just like back then he'd changed his permanent sleeping place to right in front of the oven even though he dislikes heat. He just couldn't bear the thought on someone getting treats without him.


After 7 hours in the oven I removed the racks and cut the meat up in smaller more desired pieces. I let them dry for a couple of hours more and then I suddenly had a heap of yummy jerky. I still have alot left, but is it weird that I want to finish it quickly so I can do the whole process once again, with a different flavour? Maybe try that liquid smoke I've heard so much about?
Considering the amount of money jerky cost (here atleast) this was all I thought it would be and more. It was easy and I'll be doing it again real soon!

Chicken Wings

I just have to say that my favorite snack these days are chicken wings. I had problems finding just chicken wings to buy except these prespiced frozen bags, which were ok but I don't like eating things with things added without my knowledge. I really don't like allspice with monosodium glutamate so I try my best to avoid it. Well the other day I was by a butcher and he had chicken wings for 45 SEK/kg but I never bought any right then. Then I found frozen chicken wings (without anything added) at a supermarket and I bought some so now I'll be making my own buffalo wings or hot wings or whatever I fancy... I love crispy things mmmmm!

Healthy Seabass

I was over at my sisters house watching BBCFOOD and I kind of jumped right into them making a whole ovenbaked seabass. Since I love fish and also because it looked amazing when it was done I decided to try it. However I couldn't remember much of the recipe so I had to improvise, and it was delicious.
I think fish is perfect for summer because it's light and you don't feel overworked after eating it like you sometimes do with both meat and pasta dishes.
I was also surprised that seabass wasn't as expensive as I had anticipated.
I cleaned my fish myself but I bet you can ask your fishmonger to clean it for you.

Ovenbaked Seabass serves atleast 4

1 whole seabss (mine weighed 1kg)
a bunch of asparagus
2 lemons
1 kg new potatoes
a hand full of parsley
oil, salt and peppar

Boil the potatoes.
Clean the fish. Stuff the insides of the fish with the asparagus, salt it and end it with lemon wedges. Keep it all closed in by tying it up with a plastic rope. Put it into the oven at 190 degrees celsius at around 20 minutes.
I putmy fish on a ovenplate but covered the plate with tinfoil before so I wouldn't have to do so much dishwashing.
Cut the potatoes into halves and fry them in oil with the parsley.
The asparagus will become perfect because they wont get dried up inside the fish.
I wish I hadn't been so hungry because we devored half the fish before I thought about taking a photo of it...

Blogging By Mail!!

I just recieved my parcel from EBBP last week, and now it's time for hte international one! YAY! Blogging By Mail. JOIN!!!

Also Sorry jeanne that I misunderstood the eomeote, I should've written an article shouldn't I? I thought I should've but I surfed around at the other links and some had only made pictures so I thought I could get away with it ;) Damnit. But next time I'll do it right!

EoMEoTE#17

This is my first time entering EoMEoTE, but here's what I came up with...
*Interesting fact, there's a swedish magasin called Hänt Extra (Happened Extra). I just used their template of a magazine and my own stories ;)

Salmon in Mustardglaze

I love Salmon. And I could probobly eat it everyday of the week. Raw. Grilled. Cooked. Ovenbaked. And this was a successful recipe.
To think about is that the fish will keep cooking after you remove it from heat, so take it of the pan just a little earlier than you'd like it to be. That way you don't end up with a dry piece of fish.



Salmon in Mustard Glaze serves 4, approx 400 cals each

1 tbsp olive oil (and just a few drops for the pan)
½ cup dijon mustard (dijon will give it a good kick)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp white wine vinegar
4 salmon steaks or filées

Mix the sauce/glaze ingredients together. Salt and pepper the fish and then lightly coat it with the mustard glaze. Save atleast half as a sauce.
Fry the fish in a hot pan for about 2-3 minutes per side. Remember to let the fish rest after to let it cook through.
I served this with asparagus and a chickpea salad that was inspired by Erins Chickpea salad although I made a vinegrette rather than a mayodressing.

MY PARCEL HAS ARRIVED!!!

It has arrived and I was lucky because I got to go pick it up earlier than anticipated. WOO! And I was right it was from Steve!


He cleverly packed everything into a plastic box that reminds me alot of an icecreambox, or candy box. And loads of bubblewrap! Hmmmmm.


It didn't take me long to break everything out of the box.


First thing I checked out was the Italian tomato sauce made from tomatoes grown near Steves holiday home in France. COOL!


And with the sauce I might try Steves homemade pasta made with herbs and some basil oil. They smell devine!


Most interesting is probobly the Lancashire Cheese (that I've already tasted!) because I loooove cheese!!! It's made locally near where Steve lives!


MMMM smoked garlic. I'm a garlic freak. I am! Unfortunetly I didn't get this one yesterday as I made an awesome seabass, which will be blogged about sometime during the weekend...


And ofcourse some candy. which will be loved by the man in the house since I'm staying off sweets. He'll be happy about that!

Thank you Steve!!!! Can't wait to try everything out!

IT'S HERE!!!!

Well it's in the city. My EBBP parcel. I just can't go pick it up for another 3 hours. Oh the suspence!!!!
It says it's from Steve Tustin so I'm guessing it's from this Steve... am I right am I???
My grief is that the packages arrived so far has all been sent on the 31st and mine was embarassingly sent on the first and she told me 4-5 days it'd take, so today? Or tomorrow, if that country gets post delivered on saturdays, otherwise not until monday which sucks!!! It's as much fun to see how people react to your packages as you anticipate your own!

Vindaloo Pork

I was going through a faze where I acctually missed being in India, even though when I was there I hated it. I felt so out of place and watched. It was hard to blend in when you're extremely pale and blonde, especially when me and my friend travelled in land to see all the amazing things India has to offer.
I still missed it, because I grew and I experienced. I was amazed by India and DID vowed to come back but with a man by my side, as it seemed to put some men off from staring too hard...
In India, the food tasted so much better and so much more different than any indian resturant I had tried here in Sweden, well of course it did considering they have the fresh ingredients. Well I surfed the net to try to find some recipes of indian cuisine and found World-recipes which is awesome because now I can try other countries foods aswell!
Vindaloo sounded awesome so I decided to give it a try.

Vindaloo
(I only made a third of this recipe which was enough for four people)

2" piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
11/2 tsp hot chilli powder
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs cardamom seeds
6 whole cloves
6 peppercorns
2" cinnamon stick
2 Tbs coriander seeds
2 Tbs cumin seeds
2 Tbs wine vinegar
2 lb pork fillet
4 curry leaves (optional)
3 Tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 fl oz water

Put the ginger, garlic, chilli powder, turmeric, salt, cardamom,
cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, coriander and cumin seeds with the vinegar into a blender and blend to a puree. Scrape down the sides of the blender and blend for a further 30 seconds. (I only had a food processor and it did NOT work as well, things just wouldn't be crushed) Add more vinegar if necessary to form a smooth liquid paste.

Put the pork in a large bowl and pour over the spice paste. Cover and set aside to marinate for 1 hour. Lay the curry leaves, if you are using them, on top. Re-cover and put the bowl into the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning the meat two or three times during the period. (My refrigerator smelled wonderful, acctually the marinade smelled so intoxicatingly good that I decided to keep some of it and make a sauce on it)

Two hours before cooking time remove the bowl from the fridge and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and cover the pan. Fry the seeds until they pop then add the pork, marinade and water and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer for a further 30 minutes or until the pork is cooked through and tender.

Transfer the vindaloo to a warmed serving dish and serve at once.

I served this with rice and some fried carrots. Since my blender didn't really mash all the ingredients in the marinade together it was impossible to let it stay on the pork and eat, but after removing it with a knife it didn't matter because it had all soaked into the pork and it was absolutely delicious.
I made a sauce from the marinade by using the same pan I'd used for the pork and added the marinade and some half and half. I then sifted it to get a smooth sauce. Everyone should try this, it's worth the time and effort.

Food food food

Just because I haven't blogged doesn't mean I haven't eaten... Here are some things that I've found on food blogs and tried...


ChubbyHubby's Chicken Rice which was perfect for this girl, because she loved the rice. The chilisauce became too hot but was ever soooo tasty, but the broth and chickenitself was only mediocre. Might have something to do with me stripping it off its skin...
I do understand the irony of a dish named chicken RICE and I only have photos of the chicken. Anyway, I've made the rice many times after, because it was so good.


Another hit was Debbies Cucucmber Salad. It got so well liked that it became a party treat and my sister stole the recipe. Light and yummy! Perfect for summer!!!

Vietnamese Rolls are something I've always wanted to try to make and when a perfectly simple recipe popped up I just couldn't help myself, and I'm glad I didn't. Perfect Perfect Perfect! Thanks Suyin!


The last thing that I've photographed my effort on is a ceasar salad. It sounded perfect, all I did was add some bacon to it, but for me the dressing tasted too much of dijon mustard, which with its overpowering flavour burries all other flavours. But if you read the post Aria wrote you'll understand why I had to try it...