Garlic, lemon, butter prawns or shrimp

I had been craving prawns for about a week before I found a bag of deveined shrimp. The recipe would be the same for either.

In the summer in Norway, many Norwegians enjoy soaking up sun on a dock into the sea eating a special kind of of white called 'loff' with butter and prawns, and bottle of white wine. An ice cream or two might be on the agenda as well, my boyfriend's summer tradition is an ice cream a day. Summer in Norway seems to be amazing, and surprisingly hits a peak of 30 C. The joy that everyone shows when summer tip toes in is amazing. Norwegians show their appreciation about 7 C before I would, when the temperature hits 15 C and the sun is out, some will strip off their outer layer in the parks and start tanning. It's safe to say that most Norwegians are quite obsessed with sun, but who would blame them? After a beautiful winter in Norway I most certainly did enjoy the heat and the emergence of frozen yogurt!

Down to the shrimp! I used whiteleg shrimp, simply because that's the first one that I found deveined. I'm sure the recipe would go well with most types of shrimp or prawns.

What you need is:

Raw shrimp or prawns (fresh or frozen)
Butter
Fresh lemon
Garlic
Rice

I'm not sure how much shrimp I used, but the key to the recipe is to make sure that you have a good amount of sauce to pour over the rice. If your prawns are frozen, defrost them in the fridge over night.

• Boil the water for the rice with a pinch of salt. Add the rice and stir well, then keep an eye on it, stirring every few minutes. When the rice is ready (try not to overcook, the texture of mouchy rice doesn't go well with shrimp), and rinse a few times until the water is clear. Set aside. If you are rinsing the rice with hot water you can use some hot water from the kettle to do the last rinse to heat it up, or just heat it in the microwave.
• While the rice is cooking, chop your garlic and squeeze your lemon. This evening I used about 3 cloves of garlic and abit less than 1 lemon. It could have used a bit more garlic, so I'd say 4 cloves to 1 lemon might be good.
• When your rice is ready (I say to get this done first because if you're in a tizz about the rice and shrimp something might get overcooked which is best to avoid), throw a lump of butter and the garlic into your pan. When the butter is melted well, add the shrimp and lemon juice. The shrimp should take about 5 minutes to cook, but you will be able to tell by the colour. They should be transparent when they go in, and turn a pinky white. Toss them around once or twice and turn the more transparent ones over so that the less cooked side gets the heat.
• Serve the rice, the shrimp on top, and pour the left over sauce over the rice.

Pretty quick and not so hard. It's the first time I've ever attempted to cook prawns, to be honest I was scared to cook seafood for a while, especially shellfish, but they turned out great!!!!

Enjoy!

Fudge

Mmm fudge, does it get more decadent? I have two fudge recipes to share with you today, and to be honest, I have only ever made two batches of fudge, one of each of these recipes.

The fudge recipe that I tried out last night, I am not totally satisfied with, it'll need a bit of tweeking, and when it gets their, I'll share ;o) It is quite nice though, so worth trying out if you feel like treating yourself. I found this recipe within the The Pink Whisk's Christmas pudding fudge recipe, and used chocolate instead of Christmas pudding. If you would like to try out the Christmas pudding fudge, give it a quick google search, or I will post the link later on, The Pink Whisk website seems to be down at the moment.

Ingredients

175g Chocolate

400ml Condensed milk

150 ml Milk

450g Sugar (brown or white)

• Put everything in a pot and heat, stir constantly.
• Increase the heat when everything is melted and stir constantly. Do this for about 10 to 15 minutes, the mixture will bubble a lot.
• If you have a sugar themometer (which I don't), when the mixture reaches 116 C remove from heat. I stirred constantly and when the mixture looked thicker with smaller bubbles looking fudgey as I stirred, I removed it from the heat. (Sorry about the ambiguity, I will better document next time, unless it turns out badly) I'll add some photos soon.
• Beat the mixture well until thick, for a good ten minutes. (I didn't do this, my fudge turned out moist, a bit soft but a very enjoyable texture, it had the grainy texture i was looking for, in contrast to the very smooth texture of the first fudge recipe.)

The following recipe has a smooth caramel kind of texture.

Ingredients

500g Rollo chocolate, or Caramello (milk chocolate with gooey caramel centre)
75g Butter
400ml Condensed milk
1 tsp Vanilla essence

• Melt chocolate, butter and condensed milk on a very low heat. Don't let it boil.
• Add vanilla essence and mix everything well.
• Line a tray with baking paper and pour the mix in. Refrigerate until cool.
• Slice it up and eat it cold.
• To make it fun you can add nuts, M&Ms or what ever else at the same time as the vanilla essence.

If you don't have a tray to let the fudge set in, I actually used a normal plate for the first recipe, and two of my square bowls for the second recipe. Fudge should keep for about three weeks in an airtight container. I hope that you'll enjoy snacking and sharing!

Chocolate mousse

A friend of mine sent me the link to 'Chocolate mousse in minutes', and oh how it is delicious!!! I later tried to make a 3 layer mousse; dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate, I served it on one layer of thinly sliced banana. The trick is in the folding, if you fold in a circular motion following the shape of your spoon, and not pushing through the mousse with the curved edge, you should have beautiful, thick mousse even before it gets to the fridge.
If you're curious, this is the original recipe. The main difference between mine and their's is that I suggest 30 more seconds of beating, and sometimes like to add chocolate shaving to the mixture.

Ingredients:

300g good quality chocolate roughly chopped (dark or milk)

3 eggs

1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar

1 tbs cocoa powder

300ml cream

Some serve with some whipped cream on top

Grated chocolate to serve (and a bit more if you want to mix it in as well)

• Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted. Add the cocoa powder and remove the bowl from heat. Set aside to cool slightly. If you beat the eggs and sugar straight after removing the chocolate, the timing should be perfect.

• Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric beater for 5 mins and 30 secs, or until mixture is pale, thick and doubled in volume. Fold in cooled chocolate and cocoa powder until combined. The more air kept in the mixture, the better.

• In a separate bowl, whip cream until thickened (be careful not to over-beat, you will have to stop beating before it is whipped). Use a large metal spoon to carefully fold the cream into the chocolate mixture (and grated chocolate if you've kept some to stir in), trying to keep the mixture as light as possible. Spoon into 6 serving glasses and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour. Remove from the fridge 5-10 mins before serving, then top with extra whipped cream and grated chocolate to serve. I prefer to only top with grated chocolate, I once gave it a bit of a twist by topping it with grated mint crisp chocolate.

I haven't tried this, but they also suggest adding a tablespoon of your favourite spirit to the melting chocolate, or two tablespoons of coffee. I have had chocolate mousse at restaurants, and honestly, this recipe tops a few!

Norwegian salmon

This is a really easy meal to put together and really is delicious for those of you who enjoy salmon. It should take about 30-40 minutes in total to prepare.

                     List of ingredients:

Salmon fillets

Sliced lemon

Screw pasta

Fresh tomato

Italian herbs mix

Salt and pepper

Spinach leaves

Rocket

Sour cream

Spring onion

• First, preheat your oven at 175 C (350 F), and put water to boil for the pasta. I like to add a sprinkle of salt to the water.
• Then prepare your salmon. You can use fresh salmon fillets or defrosted ones. I usually prepare one fillet per person. Place the salmon fillets in an oven proof dish and slice about five parallel, slightly diagonal lines through them, stopping about 5mm before the bottom in order to keep the fillet intact. Season with salt and pepper.
• Slice a lemon, either in round slices as shown above, or in half slices, depending on what you choose to do next. Leave a lemon wedge to squeeze over the salmon as well. You can then either place the lemon slices on top of the salmon, or place half slices into the salmon (I will post a picture soon). Squeeze the juice from the lemon wedge onto the salmon, and pop it in the oven. The salmon should take about 15-20 minutes to cook.

• When the pasta water is boiling, put in the amount of pasta that you would like. You can replace the pasta with potatoes, which will also go well with the sour cream and spring onion in this recipe.
• While the salmon and pasta are cooking, chop some spring onion, wash some rocket and spinach leaves, and cut the tomato. The tomato is best prepared by slicing it into quarters/sixths and then slicing very thinly.
• Place the fresh spinach leaves on top of each other in a corner of each plate, and swirl the rocket on top of the spinach as shown to the left, to make a side salad.

• When the pasta is ready, mix in a bit of salt, italian herbs, and the fresh tomato and serve to each plate.
• Place a salmon fillet on each plate, and top one side with sour cream and spring onion.

I was lucky enough to cook this in Norway, with fresh Norwegian salmon, it was absolutely delicious! Be careful not to overcook the salmon, as it becomes dry and really is better soft and moist, coming apart easily.

Bonne appétit!

Breakfast for two

This delicious concoction came about one morning in Oslo, Grünnerløkka. One of the most beautiful, cultured areas in Oslo. Sunday markets in the parks, a French cheese boutique on one corner and an American diner on the next, this is a place to explore, especially if you like cosy, funky, original cafés. Only an 8 minute tram ride from the city centre.
I'll post some pics and travel tips another time, and will definitely take more pictures to share the next time I'm in Oslo, but for now, back to breakfast.
This is a really easy, no hassle way of making yourself feel utterly satisfied for breakfast or brunch. The top middle plate is simply strips of frozen puff pastry from the counter top, to the oven, to the plate (Tip: puff pastry rises best when it enters the oven at fridge temperature). The lower middle plate has a few slices of ham rolled up, sliced tomato, Norvegia (a subtle tasting, soft yet firm norwegian cheese that, if you're around Perth, can be found at the Freemantle market. For a more mature tasting cheese, and probably easier to find, replace with Jarslberg, which is an internationally known Norwegian cheese), a few slices of red chili, and a centre of rocket. These complimenting ingredients are placed on the puff pastry (slice horizontally through the puff pastry to make two thinner slices, to use as two open sandwiches) in whatever combinations tickle your fancy ;o)
The two triangular puffs on the right are an easy take on pain au chocolat, I cut the frozen puff pastry into squares, put a blob of Nutella in the centre (happily replaced by chocolate shavings), folded the pastry into a triangle and very lightly pressed the sides. If you squish the sides, they will probably not rise like they did in the pictures, so be careful not to put too much pressure on the pastry.
Et voila! Here you have a breakfast somewhere in-between Norwegian and French. The French loving their pastries and the Norwegians their cheese and open sandwiches. Did you know that the Norwegians invented the cheese-cutter? And Norvegia really is the perfect cheese for it to be used on.
Enjoy this breakfast for one, two, or however many with your favourite breakfast drinks, we chose chocolate milk, coffee, water and orange juice. Hope this brightens your day!

Message in a bottle

Hellow to everyone out there that happens to come across this soon to be delight-full blog. I can't wait to get started, share some awesome flavourful experiences, and read what you have to say about them :o)
Here's to indulging in the best things in life without going overboard, cause let's face it, we never want to get over them!