Today I threw together a Brazilian fish stew, or at least somewhat inspired by Brazil. Very colourful and tasty, took some time to prep and cook though.

Here’s what we need:

• 28 oz can of tomatoes
• 1 lbs of salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 1 big yellow squash
• 1 big zucchini
• ½ cup fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup dried cilantro
• 1 tbs peperoncino
• 2 plantains
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup water
• 1/4-1/2 cup lime juice

Roughly chop up the onion. Pour the olive oil into a big pot and fry the onions on low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and garlic, let boil under lid while cutting up the yellow squash into strips (like fries) and the zucchini into small cubes. Add to the mix and also add the cilantro, peperoncino. Cut up the parsley rough and add as well.

Put the salmon on top and squeeze a good amount of lime juice over them. Put on the lid and cut up the plantains. About 1 inch thick pieces (around 8 pieces per plantain) add to the mix and stir. Add water and let simmer on medium heat until the fish and plantain is cooked through. About 20 minutes. Stir forcefully to break up the salmon into small pieces.

Salt and pepper to taste and then it’s ready to serve!

Kicking off this theme weekend with plantains :)

For this simple recipe you’ll need:

• 1 plantain
• 1½ cup water
• 1 tbs salt
• 3 cloves of garlic
• vegetable oil

Peel and cut up the plantain into about half inch thick pieces. Fill up a frying pan with vegetable oil, it should cover up about half the slice of plantain, so this will vary depending on the size of your frying pan. I used a small 8 inch skillet and used about half a cup or so. Fry the plantains for about 2 minutes on each side on medium heat.

In a separate bowl: mix water, garlic and salt.

Take out the plantains from the frying pan and let them soak in the salty garlic water for about a minute or so. Heat up the oil again and refry them for  2-4 minutes (until tender).

WARNING: Use a splash screen when refrying the water soaked plantains in the oil. If you don’t have one, pour out the oil and refry them as if you were frying eggs. Good luck :)

Here’s what you need:

• 1 lbs octopus (cleaned and rinsed)
• 1 lbs shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• 14 oz. can of coconut milk
• 3 tbs red curry paste
• ½ cup of water
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• ½ lbs asparagus

Start out with the octopus. I cut off the legs and chopped them up in about 1-1½ inch pieces. Same with the head, cut it up into 1-1½ inch strips. When it’s all cut up heat up a big frying pan and pour in the coconut milk and then mix in one tablespoon of red curry paste, let it all mix and then add another tablespoon. Taste inbetween each time you add the red curry paste until you’ve reached desired degree of spicy. For me three tablespoons was just enough. While mixing the coconut milk and curry paste heat up a pot with water and when it’s boiling blanch the octopus for about 30 seconds then add to the coconut milk/curry mix.

Let simmer for about five minutes and then add fish sauce. Again taste the mix between additions of fish sauce. 1-2 tablespoons makes it really delicious. Also add two tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix it all together and let simmer for another five minutes.

Add about a cup (½ lbs) of any vegetables you’d like, I used asparagus and also some fresh Thai basil. Pour half a cup of water over the mix. Put a tight fitting lid on and let simmer for 10-20 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add the shrimp about five minutes before turning off the heat. Simmer with the lid on.

Serve with the coconut rice I made and garnish with Thai basil, delicious! :)

Note: I read about cooking the octopus for a long time, and it seems as if unless you slow cook it for a very long time it will have that chewy, fibrous texture. Good luck!

What we need:

• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can of water
• 1 can of jasmine rice
• 2,5 tbs unsweetened shredded coconut
• a pinch of salt

As you see I use the measurement “can” in this recipe. As simple as it sounds you just use the same can that the coconut milk came in. As a rule rice is cooked two parts liquid and one part rice. So it works out great.

In a pot pour in about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and grease up the bottom and sides. It just has to be a very thin layer. This will help the rice not stick. Pour in the coconut milk, water, rice, shredded coconut and salt and let boil up. Stir every now and then. When the mixture has come to a boil lower the heat to the almost lowest possible and let steam covered with a tight fitting lid for about 20 minutes. Check in on the rice around 15 minutes into steaming and see how much liquid is left, if already has been all absorbed then you can turn it off and let steam for another few minutes without heat.

The rice is ready to serve! It is rather sweet and my suggestion is to serve it with something spicy and slightly fruity. Mangoes and shrimp in Thai chilli sauce maybe?

Served with home made tomato based curry
chilli sauce. Shrimp and broccoli.

Very fast, simple, maybe not all that filling, but very tasty!

• 2 cups of water
• 1 packet of ramen soup base
• 3-4 green onions chopped up

Alternative recipe:

• 2 cups of broth of your choice
• 3-4 green onions chopped up

Just put the non liquids in the bottom of a big cup or a small bowl and pour over the hot water. It was delicious last night, we had 15F or colder outside. Very enjoyable!

Its a fairly simple recipe :)

(This recipe easily serve 4-6 people)

Ingredients:
3 cups of bread flour
1 package of dry active yeast (the recipe I did said 1/4 oz but I used 5/16 oz no noticeable difference)
2 tablespoons of oil (I prefer using olive oil)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup warm water (for the yeast)

How I did it:
First I mixed the flour, sugar and salt together in a big bowl. Separately I mixed together the warm water and yeast. When the yeast had fully dissolved I put it into the flour mix and added the two tablespoons of olive oil and mixed it around until it was a smooth ball of dough (I also added some extra olive oil when the ball was done, in my experience pizza dough has always been shiny with grease and that’s how I will continue to have it) Cover up the bowl with a towel or even plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Dump the ball of dough on a smooth surface, like a big table (or in my case a bar) and work the dough around a little bit. Add tidy bits of flour if still sticky. Start flattening it out to a pizza shape or if you’re doing it in a pan just put it in a pan and flatten it out to the corners. Here I tried to be Luigi and toss my pizza but I will not do that again, I failed miserably – its a lot harder than it looks!

When pizza was flattened out and in place I added my toppings. I chose not to make a “traditional” pizza but more of a “Me” pizza, so I added tomato sauce on bottom. Onions, shrimp and jalapeños on top of that. A LOT of mozzarella cheese and lastly some mushrooms and salami.

Place in the middle of oven for about 20-25 minutes (until cheese turns golden brown is a good indicator for you who forget time)

I must say this was my most delicious creation yet, although it might just have to do with my pizza craving growing bigger over the past few months.

Its pretty simple actually, takes about 30-40 minutes total maybe.

What you need is a big pan, two chicken fillets, one bell pepper (any colour you’d like. I prefer yellow, but green and red works well too!), one mango, mango chutney (Indian mango preserve), sambal oelek, soy, water, and crème fraiche.

Cut up the fillets into half inch thick slices and put them in the pan. Fry them so they are completely white, and not on high heat either. You don’t want them to burn and get dry. When all white, add half a cup of water and about one tablespoon of soy sauce. Put on a lid, turn down the heat. And let boil for about 10-15 minutes.

While the chicken is boiling cut up the vegetables and the mango. Put them all together in a bowl.

Now is a good time to start the rice :)

Take off the lid off the pan, add one cup of crème fraiche, one or two tablespoons of mango chutney (I like it so I use two table spoons for flavour ^^) and one teaspoon of sambal oelek. Stir around until crème fraiche is liquid and tan coloured from the sambal and chutney. When brought to a boil add the mango and the bell peppers. Let boil for a few minutes on low heat.

I served this with rice, mango chutney and some small red tomatoes. It was really good and I actually overate – so its literally dangerously good.

Enjoy!

I took all the fresh berries I could find in the fridge, about one pound/two cups or so. Poured them into a big pot together with a cup of water. Boiled it up and mashed the berries as good as I could with a fork for about ten-fifteen minutes.
Then I actually ripped up a t-shirt because I don’t have any real cooking cloths really, big and good enough for draining juice. Anyway.
I drained the berry mass until it was pretty much non dripping any more. Twisted up the fabric to a ball and squeezed out as much juice as possible. Be careful though, berry fibers can be squeezed through the fabric. It’s all good though :)

When drained as much as I could I poured it all back into the pot, that I had cleaned, and brought it to a boil. Mixed in about a cup of sugar and stirred it until all mixed in. Took it off the burner and whipped it until starting to foam. I had a preheated bottle ready for pouring (just fill a glass bottle up with hot water and pour out all the water before pouring in the juice) in the juice and so I did.

It took a really long time to cool though, but what kind of chef would I be if I didn’t taste my creations before they were officially done? n_n

Fruity, long lasting, delicious!

Starting out: This dough was crazy to make. I made things a bit out of order and it messed me up a little bit. Start with boiling about 2 cups of milk, as soon as brought to a boil take it off the burner and set aside until luke warm (you don’t want the milk to be so hot it kills the yeast) while the milk is cooling down, mix the yeast in finger hot (its a Swedish saying, around 37-45 degrees Celsius) water, about half a cup of water. Crack four eggs into a big bowl (the primary mixing bowl) and add one cup of sugar. Also melt half a cup of butter.

The mix: Mix the eggs and sugar until smooth and yellow. Add the milk. The yeast and about 2 cups of bread flour. Mix until batter is smooth. Add another 3 cups of flour and beat really well. The dough should be really smooth and almost glossy. Add the melted butter, mix it in well and add the rest of the flour. Mix around until once again smooth, glossy and not sticky.

The 1st rise: Put the dough on a floured surface and put the bowl on top of it for about 15 minutes for a small rise. While doing so, slightly grease another bowl.

Kneading: After letting it rise for 15 minutes take off the bowl and start kneading it. Knead it until you feel its done yourself. I kneaded my dough for about 5-10 minutes.

The 2nd rise: Drop down the dough into the lightly greased bowl and put a towel over the bowl and let rise for about one hour. The dough will rise to the double or more ^^

Beat it: After one hour of rising, beat it down again really well and cover up for a third rise.

The making: After risen to almost double again take dough out on floured surface and split into 3. Split each slice into another 3. You should have 9 little balls of dough now. Roll them out to foot long little rolls and braid them. Or you could roll 1/3 out and spread butter, vanilla and cinnamon on it. Slice longways and roll up to little buns. When done with the braids and/or buns put them on (what I prefer) wax paper on a long pan.

The last rise: Let rise for 20 minutes under the towels. When risen, crack an egg and brush the top and sprinkle with some sugar.

Baking it: Put in the middle of the oven on 375-400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes. Make sure you didn’t get any sugar on the wax paper, it will melt and burn the bottom of your bread -_-

Overall this took me about 4 hours and made everyone smile. I wont say that this is as easy as it sounds but its definitely not hard. Takes alot of time and patience though, and cleaning :P