Tea and caffeine

Want to drink more tea but want to avoid the extra caffeine?

Caffeine is more readily soluble in water than the phytonutrients in the tea are. So steep the tea leaves for 30 seconds, discard that water then steep the tea again as you normally would. This shouldn't affect the flavor or the antioxidant quality the tea.

(Read in Dr. Andrew Weil's Healthy Aging)

Nutritional Information

I just found this great tool to find out the nutritional information of any recipe you make. It's called the Recipe Calculator from the SparkPeople.

After you type in each ingredient, its amount, and how many servings your recipe makes, you get a rundown of the amount of calories in the dish, the fat types and contents, the cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrate and protein contents, as well as the percentage of daily values of several vitamins based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Thank you SparkPeople!

Zucchini egg cakes

My Mom usually makes a version of these with the pulp after she has hollowed out zucchini to make dolma.  This version uses a raw grated squash.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized green squash
6 eggs
1 medium to large onion, chopped
2-3 spring onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, shredded or mashed
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablspoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Add a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
Turn when golden on the one side and fry on the other.

These also taste good cold.

Bon apetit!

Salmon steaks, potatoes, asparagus and salad

I was looking for a recipe with Salmon steaks, but got distracted and ended up having to improvise. It turned out quite well, so I'm sharing the recipes with you (whoever is reading, thank you :-) )

Start with the potatoes, as they take longest. But all in all it will be a quickly prepared dinner.

Peel and cut up some baking potatoes.
Boil until half done. Drain. Place in an oven dish.
Add olive oil, salt (Maldon salt is quite good here), black pepper and paprika and mix well.
Scratch the potatoes with a fork.
Place in the oven (220 degrees C or high) and let them get golden.

Make a green salad to your taste. Hold the dressing until ready to eat.

Prepare some asparagus by breaking off the tough edges, rinsing the tops and placing them in a pan, barely covered with water, until they are ready to be boiled.

For the salmon steaks, make a marinade with:
1 tsp mayonnaise
½ to 3/4 tsp Dijon mustard
Juice of half (or a whole) lemon
A good splash of Soy sauce (about 2-3 Tbs)
A heaped tablespoon of sesame seeds

Whisk it all together.
Pour over 4 salmon steaks (with skin) and let them sit for a little while. I only had 10 minutes to spare, and that worked out fine.

When the potatoes are kind of done (you can eventually just turn off the oven and leave them in there. This is not an exact science :-)), boil the asparagus for a very few minutes (about 3-4).

Heat a frying pan, coat it with a tiny bit of olive oil, take up the salmon from the marinade and fry, skin side first. Check for doneness by checking the colour inside the flesh side. Do no overcook. When the steaks are done, pour the rest of the marinade in the pan, it will rapidly come to the boil. Remove to a serving dish.

Dress the salad with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper (or anyhow you like). Serve everything.

Bon Apétit!

Bar-b-q time

The weather is finally warmer and sunnier again here in Denmark, so a very pleasant time to grill.

Remember that in addition to meat, all kinds of vegetables or bread brushed with interesting toppings can be also grilled.

Here I used one little batch of this mixture on wedges of pita bread, and another batch of the same mixture to marinate some pork chops in. I also used some organic ground beef, mixed with finely chopped onions and parsley, plus salt and pepper (called kafta in the middle east).

Make a salad of herbs, for example parsley, cilantro, mint, and red onion. Add tomatoes and cucumbers and avocado if you like. Toss with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice and some salt and pepper.

Bon appetit!

Klourig Soup

Klourig, in my grandmother's language, means "little rounds" or "little balls". This is a very satisfying and quite quick soup (if like me, you get you husband to form the meatballs :-) ). They should be the size of marbles.
Here's how it's done:

Ingredients for the meatballs:
500 g ground beef
1 cup fine bulgur
Spices, about ½ to 3/4 teaspoon  each: sweet pepper, 7 spices, cumin, coriander, allspice
A pinch each of cinnammon, nutmeg and cardamon
Salt and pepper
(Note that you can mix and match the spices as you like).

Soak the bulgur in water for 5 to 10 minutes.
Press the water out of the bulgur with your hands, and add it to the meat. Add the spices.
Mix the whole thing really well.
Form into small balls the size of marbles.

Ingredients for the soup part:
1½ liters bouillon
1 large onion
1 small can tomato paste (approx 2 tablespoons)
1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed in a mortar with some salt.
The juice of 1 lemon.
A small handful dried crushed mint.

For the soup part, finely slice one big onion (or 2 small) and let them become translucent in some olive oil in a pot. Pour 1 ½ liters of bouillon on the onions, dilute one can small tomato paste in it and bring to a boil.

Add the meat balls. They will cook quite quickly (a few minutes).

Add the crushed garlic and lemon juice.
Sprinkle with dried crushed mint.

Serve and enjoy!

Fish filets with potatoes and spinach

This came to me as last minute inspiration. I had frozen red snapper filets, frozen spinach and soy cream and we had to eat :-)

- 3 to 4 big potatoes
- 5 to 6 cups frozen spinach (or even better, equivalent in fresh)
- 1 big onion
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic
- Enough broth to cover potatoes while cooking
- Breadcrumbs
- Fish filets (enough for 4)
- 0,25 liters soy cream (this can probably be left out. Then just use more broth and a little bit more flour for thickening).
- ½ tablespoon flour dilutes in ½ cup water for thickening
- Salt
- Pepper
- Nutmeg

Peel and slice potatoes thinly.
Cook them in the broth until tender.
You can add pepper and nutmeg in the broth already here.
Take them up with a slotted spoon and spread in an oven dish.
Cover with a thin layer of breadcrumbs.
Peel the onion, cut it in half and slice.
Peel the garlic and slice them
Add the onion and garlic to the broth the potato has cooked in.
Take them up after one minute and spread on the potatoes
Defrost the spinach, press the water out of it and spread on top of the potatoes and onions.
Place the fish filets on top of the vegetables in the oven dish.
Add some cream to the broth if desired,thicken with the flour solution salt to taste if needed and pour on top of the fish.
Cover with another thin layer of breadcrums and cook in the over on high - medium high until the fish is done.

Serve with brown rice.