Köttbular

serves 3 - 4

Ingredients:

* 500g half minced pork and half minced beef

* 250g milk
* 100g breadcrumbs

* 1 egg

* 1 onion

* Salt
* Pepper
* Piment

For the sauce:

* 250ml cream
* 250ml water

* 1 beef stock cube

* A dash of soy sauce

* 1 spoon of flour
* Salt
* Pepper

Preparation:

Mix the breadcrumbs with the milk. Finely chop the onion and stir fry it in a saute pan until glassy. Take it out and put it in a large bowl along with the rest of the ingredients.
Make your hands wet so the meat won't stick, and make balls the size of a ping pong ball. Roast the balls on medium heat in the saute pan. You can use butter or oil. Carefully turn them around or they will fall apart. 

Now in a separate pot we will make the sauce. 

Start by preparing the beef stock with the water and the stock cube. Once the cube dissolved, add the cream and blend well. Now add the soy sauce. Carefully add a spoon of flour, and mix well. Best to use a whisk, or else the sauce will have lumps in it. Bring to taste with salt and pepper and pour over the meatballs.

This dish tastes great with baked/fried potatoes and boiled veggies.

I hope you like this recipe and hopefully until soon again.

Yours truly,

Mike

Tiramisu

serves 8

Ingredients:

* Cacao

* 2 packs of sponge fingers 

* 1 cup of extra strong coffee

* 1 bottle of amaretto

* 6 eggs

* 6 spoons of castor sugar

* 500g mascarpone

Preparation:

Seperate the egg's protein and yolk and beat the protein with a whisk until stiff. Mix the yolk with the sugar until it looks foamy.
Now add the mascarpone to the yolk/sugar mix and blend well. Now add the protein and stir well with a spoon. Don't beat it, you want the mixture to be light.

Now mix the coffee with as much amaretto as you like. My advice is to put it in Tupperware so you can dip the sponge fingers better.

Take a tray and cover the bottom with the mascarpone mix. Now shortly dip the sponge fingers in the coffee and add them on top of the mascarpone mix. Now use a sieve to sprinkle cacao on top of this.
Keep repeating. The top layer should be the mascarpone mix with cacao on top.

Put in the fridge for 4 hours, even better if you do this a day in advance.

If you would like to take out the tiramisu without breaking it, you could use a baking sheet or aluminium foil to cover the bottom of the tray first.

I guarantee you that this dessert is a success!
I hope you enjoy it and see you again soon.

Yours truly,

Mike

Sambal

serves a party

Ingredients:

* 250g peppers. ( I used a mix of spanish pepper, madame jeanette and rahwit)

* 1 small red onion

* 4 garlic cloves

* 1 spoon of castor sugar
* 1 spoon of vinegar
* 3 spoons of lemon juice (or half a lemon, squeezed)
* A dash of sunflower oil
* A dash of sweet soy sauce

Preparation:

Cut everything is small pieces and put in the blender. Mix until small. Now add the sugar, lemonjuice, and vinegar. Mix again, and put in the oil. Blend once more until you have a smooth mixture.

Now heat up a skillet and pour the mix in. Put it on high heat and bring to the boil. Stir thoroughly. Lower the heat and let it simmer until most liquid is gone. Add a dash of soy sauce and stir well again. Once you are satisfied, turn off the heat and put it in a jar.

Sambal is lovely to add to stir fried rice, or noodles, if you want to spice it up.

I hope you like the recipe.
Yours truly,

Mike

Millionaire's shortbread

serves a party

Ingredients:

For the biscuit:

* 180g flour

* 70g sugar

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 100g cream butter

* 1 pinch of salt

For the caramel:

* 50g cream butter

* 400g sweet condensed milk

* 4 spoons of brown castor sugar


For the top layer:

* 100g milk chocolate

* 100g pure chocolate

* 25g white chocolate

Preparation:

Preheat the oven on 180C.

We will start with the biscuit. Cut the butter in small cubes, and knead it together with the rest of the ingredients until you have a equally distributed dough. 

Take a rectangle shaped oven dish, cover it with a baking sheet and push the dough on the bottom, distributing equally over the bottom. Put in the oven and leave alone for 15 - 20 minutes, until the dough turns gold brown.

Take out of the oven and let it cool down completely.

Now we will prepare the caramel. This part is a bit tricky.

Take a saucepan and melt the butter. Now add the condensed milk and the sugar, and stir with a whisk on low heat until the sugar melted. Turn the heat higher and beat with the whisk while the mix starts to cook. Make sure you don't put the heat too high, or you will get crispy bits in your caramel, or it might burn. The caramel is done when you stir and you can see the bottom of the pan.

Take of the heat and pour the mixture over the cooled down biscuit. Let it cool for at least one hour before going to the next step. If you don't wait, the chocolate will mix with the caramel and we don't want that to happen.

Melt the pure and milk chocolate together in a pan by using the au bain marie method.

Pour the molten chocolate over the cooled down caramel. Now make sure the pan is clean so you can melt the white chocolate the same way.
Take a spoon and pour the white chocolate on the milk/pure mix in strips. Now take a cocktail pick and make wave movements on the white chocolate so you will get a nice looking marble effect.

Now put the oven dish in the fridge and let it cool down until the chocolate has harden a bit.

You can easily take it out by lifting the baking sheet.

Cut in pieces and serve.

I hope you like this recipe

Yours truly,

Mike

Couscous with merguez sausage

serves 3 - 6

Ingredients:

* 500g merguez sausages

* 275g couscous
* 1 red paprika

* 1 yellow paprika

* 1 green paprika

* 400g carrots

* 1 jar of black olives 

* 1 courgette

* Olive oil
* Lemon juice

* 2 garlic cloves

* 1 red pepper
* Provencal herbs

* Feta cheese
* Salt to taste

Preparations:

Finely cut the pepper and the garlic, or use a garlic press. Prepare a dressing from equal amounts of olive oil and lemon juice. Add the garlic and pepper and the Provencal herbs, mix well and leave alone for a few hours so that the garlic and pepper spread their taste.

Heat up a frying pan without oil and add the merguez sausages. Don't worry about the oil, the sausages produce enough fat for them to fry. Turn around every now and then. Repeat until done.

Meanwhile cut the vegetables in thick slices. and heat up a saute pan. Stir fry the carrot first until soft, then add the rest. Saute the vegetables, stirring every now and then. Meanwhile cut some Feta cheese in cubes. Not too much, it's for the taste only.

Prepare the couscous like on the package.
What I did was boil 500ml water, put it in a pot, and add the couscous, stir, close the lid and leave it for 5 minutes. After that stir again and it's ready for use.

The vegetables should be soft by now. Add the olives and stir fry for about 1 - 2 minutes more. Now add the couscous and blend well. After that take the pan from the heat and mix the Feta cheese in the couscous.

Serve while still warm, with a sausage, and pour some of the dressing on the couscous mix.

I hope you like the recipe and hopefully until soon.

Yours truly,

Mike

Smoked salmon lasagna

serves 2 - 3

Ingredients:

* 250g ricotta

* 600g spinach

* 6 big tomatoes

* 300g smoked salmon
* 100g grated cheese

* Lasagna sheets (preferable fresh)

* 2 garlic cloves

* Nutmeg
* Salt
* Pepper

Preparation:

Use some oil or butter to cover the oven dish.
Preheat the oven on 180 C.

Meanwhile finely cut the garlic. Heat up a large pan and softly simmer the garlic. Now add the spinach bit by bit and wait until it shrinks. Keep adding and stirring until everything is shrunken. Now remove from the heat and let the water leak from the spinach. Blend the ricotta with the spinach-garlic mix, and use the pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste.

Meanwhile cut the tomatoes in slices, and cover the bottom of the oven dish with the lasagna sheets. On top of the sheets, add the tomatoes, the spinach mix, and the smoked salmon slices. Repeat the same pattern until you run out. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and put in the oven for 30 minutes.

I hope you liked this dish and hopefully until soon.

Yours truly,

Mike

Pasta a la creme

serves 3 - 4

Ingredients:

* Pasta
* 125ml Creme fraiche

* Red pesto
* 400g mushrooms

* 1 leek
* 300g turkey breast

Preparation:

Cut the turkey in strips and the mushroom and the leek in slices.
Heat up a saute pan and stir fry the turkey until it stars to colour. Add the vegetables and stir fry until soft. Now add as many spoons of pesto as you like, and add the creme fraiche. Mix well and serve with the pasta once done.

I hope you like the recipe and hopefully until soon!
Yours truly,

Mike