Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Garlic & satay sauce

It’s still nice weather and during one of the parties we decided to throw in a barbecue. I think my parents had this planned, but I only learned last moment we were having one. I love the way we always take hours to prepare for these things and everyone’s in the kitchen being busy. I made the sauces this time satay sauce and garlic sauce. I never liked satay sauce much, but I can give you a recipe for something that always works. The garlic sauce is the best ever. It owns/pawns/is better than any other garlic sauce I have ever tasted. It makes everything you buy in shops taste awfully chemical to a point of which, I personally, will never even try them again. True story.

Satay sauce (or peanut sauce)

Ingredients:
Satay or peanut sauce mix
Coconut milk (enough to replace the liquid mentioned on the package)
2-4 spoons peanut butter


1. Put everything in a small pan and keep stirring it over medium to high heat till it’s ready! Might be handy to add the peanut butter last, when the rest is thoroughly mixed.

And now to the garlic sauce! I wasn’t really one to like satay sauce anyway, although I do enjoy making it. It’s relaxing to just stand and stir while everyone is getting all stressed around you – because the salads need to be made, everything in the fridge that’s usable for a barbecue needs to be taken out, don’t forget to cut the bread in slices and please get all the cats and dogs away from the food this instant!!!
It’s wonderful!

Garlic sauce

Ingredients:
(Greek) yoghurt
Mayonnaise
Garlic cloves
Parsley


1. Mix the yoghurt and mayonnaise into a big bowl until you feel it tastes just the way you like it.
2. Add the garlic and the parsley (little bit more or less to your taste) and stir it in.

This recipe really depends on how much you want and what you like best. I use a handful of parsley, with about 4-6 cloves of garlic and 8 spoons mayonnaise on 500 grams of Greek yoghurt.

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What do you think? Don’t mind the picture so much. I can’t make any “professional” pictures right before a barbecue! But at least you have an idea of what it looks like now.
Next I should try making a whiskey sauce. It’s my favourite after the garlic sauce but due to previous fails from my mom's part (though I think those were something completely different with accidental whiskey in it) I haven’t actually looked for a good recipe yet. It’s a mission again! Perhaps I should make a list of all the missions I still have of things I want to bake – or posts I promised to put up but haven’t yet! Oh, sometimes I’m so lazy!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Smoothie madness!

From one madness into another! I’ve been making noodle soup loads last week and I’ve also made my fair share of smoothies again – cuz it’s so lovely with this weather! Then again, it’s very windy and rainy today and I still enjoy my freshly made smoothie!

Creamy lychee smoothie

Ingredients:
6 lychees (half a can)
4 spoons lychee juice
2 spoons grenadine
2 spoons rose lemonade
2-4 spoons mascarpone
a bit of yoghurt and vanilla sugar if wanted


1. Put it in a mixer and mix!

If you’re not so into the creamy stuff or if you don't have any cream cheese in the house (I made the same with créme fraîche and it works fine too!) then you can go for a normal lychee smoothie. Just leave the mascarpone, yoghurt and sugar out – or add the last two anyway if you want. For a different smoothie try the next one. It’s fresh and creamy as well, but perhaps a bit less sweet than the last one. For both recipes it’s about 2-4 glasses.

Pineapple & coconut smoothie

Ingredients:
500 gram can of pineapple chunks
300 ml coconut cream
Vanilla sugar


1. Mix it again! (electric mixer, plug it in, let it do the work – you know!?)

Well, as for the pictures. They come out looking pretty much the same - white thicky liquid, which, now I think of it, sounds pretty WRONG! And since my friend keeps pestering me to write this (no, I didn't quote you) this will be quite a short blog again! I hope you enjoy the smoothies and maybe come up with your own combinations! Oh, and grapefruit with cucumber isn't such a success so far.

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Noodle soup madness

Noodle soup! Who hasn’t had it and who doesn’t love it? It’s lovely to just add boiling water to a package and enjoy the soup without having to go through the effort of cooking. And it’s quick too!

Ingredients:
Noodles
Broth
Baby corn
Mushrooms
Leek
Runner beans


1. Put the broth in a pan on low fire together with the noodles.
2. Cut the vegetables in small pieces and add to the soup. Wait until everything is cooked and that’s it!

If you want to add chicken I’d advice you fry the chicken first on a low fire – make sure it doesn't burn!- and add it after. Of course there’s loads of other stuff you can add and leave out. Used this recipe loads in the week my parents were off and the rest of the family felt like eating simple things – and when they didn’t they just wanted my soup! It’s always nice when people appreciate your cooking isn’t it?

Might seem like a bit of a simple thing to add to my little database of recipes, but it’s something that needs to be remembered – I have a whole arena of people backing me up on this! The nice thing is that we grow quite a lot of vegetables and herbs in our garden, so half of the vegetables came from there. I should write a recipe with some of the lettuce we have in our garden. I was thinking of strawberry and other fruit with lettuce salad and then the strawberry vinegar I have (but have not yet tasted) over it. Anyone ever had strawberry vinegar and knows what goes well with this? I’ve never actually heard of this until I got it.
- Oh, and do we actually need pictures of soup?

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Coconut rice with peach

I’ve been getting way too far behind on posting. But I did manage to post at least once a month so I suppose that’s something to be proud of!
One recipe I’ve made a couple of times since my last post, and I suppose some before as well, is coconut rice, preferably with some peach. There’s no rice that can top the creamy-fresh taste of coconut rice with some fresh-fruity peach. Risotto (rice boiled in broth) might be next in line.
Anyway, the recipe for coconut rice is quite easy and if you can make rice. You can make this!
Unfortunately I can't see much about the amounts needed. I never pay attention to the amounts needed. I always take as much rice as I think is enough and make sure the water reaches about double as high as the rice. Then my ricecooker does the rest! And well, we can never have enough peach can we?
Note: I’ve substituted coconut milk from a can with powdered coconut cream before and it works just as fine. Anything coconut you find I suppose will work, dessicated coconut however, will not really have the same effect. - Oh, and I hope you’re smart enough not to put in whole coconuts?

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Ingredients:
Rice
Coconut milk
Peach (preferably canned)


1. Wash the amount of rice you need before using. Add the coconut milk until you have reached the amount of liquid needed to boil the rice. Add water if you do not have enough coconut milk or you feel it is too thick. Then cook it!
2. Cut the peach into little chunks and mix these through the rice. If you want, you can cool the rice slightly beforehand.

And there you go! A lovely recipe in just two steps! I hope you enjoy!

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P.S. I've hit the 50 posts! hurray! Maybe when I reach 100 I should post something grand eh? Ah, that reminds me, blogger has some nice new templates, I might actually change the way my blog looks and make a new title-picture. What do you think?