Beetroot Gravadlax

Cooked or not I love Salmon. Who doesn't?

Ever since I learnt how to cook Salmon all I have been doing is making small pockets of salmon and veggies in parchment paper something I learnt from yet another Jamie Oliver book.

The only place I've ever eaten Gravadlax at is Ikea. I've never considered making it before until i came across the recipe for a Beetroot Gravadlax in Jamie Does .... Sweden.

Gravadlax means buried Salmon, because Swedish fishermen used to dig a grave and bury the salted salmon in sand allowing it to ferment for a few days. This process removed the moisture from the salmon allowing it be cured. What people do today is 'bury' the salmon in rock salt and keep it in the refrigerator. Instead of the sand that would normally push down on the fermenting salmon, you could use any weight; tins, bottles, brick etc...

Now normally gravadlax does not use any beetroot but this Jamie Oliver recipe is a bit of a spin on the generic gravadlax, creating a beautiful end product where the otherwise orange salmon has a thin ribbon of pink/red from the beetroot.

I was a bit sceptical to serve 'raw' fish but I'm glad everyone warmed up to it, tried it and really enjoyed. As Jamie Oliver says if you are making this its worth inviting some friends over and having a little party because it is no doubt a special dish; one that it really tasty and also very beautiful.

You can get the recipe I used here . I served the gravadlax with the dill and sour cream sauce mentioned in the recipe along with some bread. The sour cream cuts a bit of the saltiness in the fish so it goes really well together.

I would definitely urge you to give this a try!

Fig and Goats Cheese Salad

The first time I ate goats cheese was in Amsterdam and sure enough it tasted...... goat-y

There is something very different about goats cheese. The one I tried was tangy, creamy and delicious. From what I've read the variety when it comes to goats cheese is endless. For those who know me, I don't have to tell you how much I love my cheese.

Salad for dinner was a Fig and Goats Cheese Salad with a balsamic reduction. Initially I wanted to make a fig and goats cheese tart. I searched hi and low for fresh figs but they weren't in stock anywhere which meant I had to settle for the dried ones. The colour difference between the dry and fresh is big and so I decided to make a salad instead. Simmering the dried figs in water for a bit made it moist so it was easy to eat. The result was an interesting tangy yet sweet salad. Simple yet tasty. I don't really think this dish even needs a recipe but here goes...

Fig and Goats Cheese Salad

• 6 dried figs
• 100g grated goats cheese
• 2 tbsp milk
• 500g fresh baby spinach leaves
• balsamic glaze/reduction for drizzling

Cover dried figs with water in saucepan and allow to simmer for about 15 mins. remember not to boil... just allow to simmer on very low fire

Remove figs and place on kitchen towel to remove excess water.

Milk cheese with the milk to soften. If the cheese you are using is soft you can skip this step. Alternatively you can use goats cream

Slice figs in half and stuff with softened gosts cheese.

Place washed spinach leave on a plate, top with figs and drizzle with balsamic glaze.

I normally reduce the balsamic vinegar to make a reduction but this time I sort of cheated and bought a balsamic graze in a squeez-y bottle which made things easier. You can find out how to make a balsamic reduction here

M'hanncha

M'hanncha is a Moroccan pastry filled with almond paste which basically looks like a big Cumberland sausage. M'hanncha means the 'snake' and look like this;

I used a recipe for M'hanncha from Jamie's book; Jamie Does.... Morocco, to try and make the pastry sometime back and unfortunately it turned out pretty bad. The filo dried out super fast and I couldn't fold and turn it into a snake. The work top was a mess once I was done; butter and broken bits of filo stuck every where and once I pulled out the baked product, the filling and oozed out of the sides. Sure it was disappointing but the filling tasted amazing.

So when I was wondering what to make to put into the boxes for the dinner, I thought I'd make M'hanncha only this time make then into mini cigars. I suppose you could say the whole point of M'hanncha; the snake was lost. But then again whose to say I can't do it :P

I think the first time was such a disaster because I used a thin filo which I'm told is used for Baklava. Second time around I bought a different pastry. So my suggestion would be not to use the normal black package ones that you get at the supermarkets. The cigars turned out well. I wrapped them in foil and then in craft paper and stuck on the labels. The brother and sister-in-law helped with the boxes and this is what they looked like;

Lady Lemonade

Lady Lemonade is the name I gave my drinks for the evening. I made pink lemonade with lemon and cranberry juice.

I think it all started with me finding these cute pink and purple straws while shopping a few weeks back which is what gave rise to this idea. For a week I was dreaming of glass bottles with custom made labels and purple-y straws.

Lady Lemonade it would be called for a girl-y lemonade :D

I bought bottles of sparkling juice, forced myself and my dad to drink some of the juice to empty them, removed the labels and pasted my new labels.

Lady Lemonade

• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup cranberry juice, unsweetened
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 cups water

In a small saucepan combine the sugar with half a cup of water to form a syrup. Remove from heat.

Stir together all the ingredients. Pour into bottles and refrigerate till required.

Initially I wanted to use sparkling water for the lemonade. I ended up using normal water because I was reusing the bottle caps and didn't have any thing to reseal the bottles with. I was afraid by the time everyone sat down, the lemonade would be flat. I think it would be possible to use sparkling water though. Give it a try and let me know.

Dinner Party

I think this week has made me realise something; I think my daily happiness depends a lot on how much I read about food or cook. I visited my friend Simone on Saturday and while I was there I couldn't not think about baking cake! When we finally started baking the cake, I had the urge to bake two. So a disappointing brown velvet cake brown velvet because the red food colouring we bought produced a disgusting orange dye that became brown after baking and a carrot cake after I think I was pretty satisfied. I mentioned to my dad that I might be getting a bit obsessed with cooking and he said I should stop and work on my portfolio... :( Its probably the last thing I want to be doing right now. Why architecture.. whyyyyy

It's been a while since I've wanted to have a fully fledged dinner party going all out with the ambience, table settings, cutlery and most of all the food. However with my lack of friends it has been a bit difficult to do so. We had Kevin's and Davyn's family over last night for dinner. I had been planning for this dinner for almost a week. I like planning, that way I have time to get things in order and also be less stressed out. This time however I might have taken on more than I could handle. To be honest I woke up at 8 30 am and started preparing. You'd think that that would be more than enough time but there was so much to do and before long I was exhausted.

The gravadlax was done and in the refrigerator but the thing that took the most amount of time was the m'hanncha that I wanted to make, wrap in foil and paper and put into small silver board boxes for the guests to take home. After that was done I had to make the labels for the m'hanncha and the drinks. Seriously wayyyy too many things to do!

Generally I do not pay attention to the table settings but I thought I should do it this time. There aren't any more roses in the garden so Khayali brought the flowers and I cut a few branches off a a thorny green bush in the garden for the centre and lit two candles. I suppose that was enough.

The Menu

Spinach Salad with Fig and Goat's Cheese

Beetroot Gravadlax

Lamb Shank with steamed veggies

Lemon Mousse

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

Everyone in Sri Lanka makes Bread Pudding. I know its different to a bread and butter pudding but I don't really know the difference. Do tell me if you know! For years I've been making a simple strawberry bread and butter pudding. It has always been the usual at home just before the bread goes stale.

I thought I'll change things up a bit this time and make a Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding. I've always loved marmalade especially with crepes but that is a different story ....... and bread well... it should say something that I have bread everyday for lunch.

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding with Red Berries (as usual I had a bag of them in the freezer)... yummers

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

• 10 slices of bread (Keep the crusts on. The crusty and soft bits together taste better)
• Butter for spreading
• Marmalade for spreading
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup single cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cups red berries; currants, raspberries, strawberries etc

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Butter the bread slices with butter. Spread marmalade on 5 of the slides and make sandwiches with remaining slices.

Arrange in an oven-proof dish.

In a large bowl whisk together milk, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Slowly stir in the berries.

Pour over the bread and let it soak for a few minutes.

Place oven-proof dish in a deep baking dish.

Add boiling water to the baking dish, enough to come up to half way of the sides of the oven-proof dish. I used a large roasting tray for this

Bake for one hour and serve when warm with runny custard.

Black Forest Cake

I feel very dishearten when I plan to make something and am unable to find exactly what I want at the supermarket. Unfortunately it has been happening a lot more often lately. For this reason I've decided to buy things when I see them and just stock up the pantry :) Problem is that I sometimes buy things that I don't really use. Last week I bought a box of cherries and a packet of dried cherries. (I HAVE to buy berries and cherries when I see them. Its become a problem) I tried to find recipes that I could make to use them but I kept on ending up at black forest cake recipes.

I don’t suppose I have ever eaten a really good black forest cake. The ones I’ve eaten have always been almost ‘soaking wet’ with layers and layers of super sweet whipped cream. Overall it has given me a very bad impression of black forest cake. I don't know why I decided to do it maybe I was afraid of the cherries going bad but I ended up giving it a go.

I didn't use the alcohol, but I did make a soaking liquid out of cherry juice and sugar and probably didn't use as much of the whipped cream as the recipe called for. I really loved making this cake. I suppose it was because I was playing around and having a bit of fun with it; less stress. I made the cake layers the night before and took my time with everything the nest morning.

I was so happy with the success of the cake that we ended up inviting friends over. Keeping with the German theme I made Beef Goulash for dinner. Check out the recipe I used at Diana's Dessert here