Rainbow trout filled with fresh herbs

A lot of people are intimidated by the thought of cooking a meal form a whole fish, with the head and everything still on. I know I was! But my mum taught me that if you have a good fish, it really doesn't have to be very complicated. So we went to the fish market this Easter holiday and got some beautiful fresh rainbow trout. It's a pretty cheap fish with white meat, and very tasty in itself which means you don't really have to do a whole lot to it to make it taste like heaven. 

All you need to make my herb filled rainbow trout is:

4 rainbow trouts

1 lemon

1 hand full of fresh thyme

1 handful of fresh rosemary

1 handful of fresh basil

butter

salt and pepper

The how is just as simple:

Put the oven to 200 degrees.

Put the fish in tin foil in an oven safe dish.

Season with salt and pepper and fill the fish with butter, herbs and a wedge of lemon.

Close the tin foil around the fish to make it a little package, and put in to the oven for about 20  minutes. 

Serve directly with a nice salad and (Swedish) new potatoes!

Prawns and champagne - simple luxury

My absolute favorite thing to do on a Friday night; drink champagne and eat seafood <3 

It's so simple, the pictures say more than enough - no fancy recipe needed!

What can be better than this?

Fresh asparagus with chili oil and Parmesan cheese

Fresh prawns and langoustines

Simple luxury

What's your favorite Friday night meal?

Seafood and bubbles, indulgence on a budget - It's possible!

I work as a Key Account Manager in my "real" life and some days are great; the clients are happy, the boss is happy and I'm happy, cause everyone else is happy and maybe I've closed a big deal. Happy happy happy! Those are the days I remember why I love working in sales. Other days are not so great and I remember why I love alcohol and food! One particularly awful day when  had just started at the new job, I got yelled at for things that happened  all the way back in 2009 when I was no where near the company or the job or even the city. Back then I still dreamed of taking over Kofi Annans job with the UN, I was still at University and still stubbornly defying my natural talent within sales and  never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd end up selling, specially not within the heavy industry and construction business. Needless to say, I felt the urge to indulge. I called my ever pleasing boyfriend and gave strict instructions to buy seafood; I envisioned king crab legs, prawns, crab and langoustine (or Norway Lobster or just plain old havskräfta in Swedish). So the boy went over to Söderhallarna by Medborgarplatsen and headed over to Melanders Fiskbutik, who had everything I wanted: 

Unfortunately this time, the wallet wasn't as thick as my appetite, end of the month and all. I couldn't afford one king crab leg for 170 SEK a pop or 690 SEK/kg, so we went all out on the prawns and a few langoustines instead, added some gorgeous sour dough bread from Borgs Brödbod and great cheese from Söder Cheesen, both at Söderhallarna.

We served this lovely meal with roe sauce and hovmästarsås, a mustard and dill sauce that goes great with prawns as well as smoked salmon, (a swedish favourite!) and easily finished a bottle of Dopff Brut Cuvée Julien (nr 7410 at Systembolaget, only 68 SEK for you Swedes). All in all it was a relatively cheap meal with all the luxury of indulgence on a budget.

And we had the pleasure of meeting and eating Poseidon, God of the Sea! Sorry dude. 

Oven Baked Salmon with Spinach and Parmesan Mash

I was in the mood for something that felt a bit fancy but that was still kind of cheap and didn't take too long to make - it was Thursday after all and I'd had a long day at work. We had some salmon in the freezer, and since we are (sort of anyway) Swedes, we of course also had potatoes, butter, cream,  lemon and stock. So all I needed was some spinach, Parmesan cheese and sugar snaps and I was all set for my fancy, easy and cheap Oven Baked Salmon with Spinach and Parmesan Mash.

The What

4 salmon fillets, frozen or fresh

200 g fresh baby spinach

12 medium sized potatoes

Parmesan cheese (to taste)

2 dl cream

1 dl water

1 cube of fish stock

½ freshly squeezed lemon juice

butter

salt, white pepper

The How

Put the oven on 200 degrees.

Boil the potatoes.

Grate the Parmesan cheese. 

Pour the cream, water, lemon and the fish stock cube into a pan. Bring to the boil and add salt and white pepper to taste. Save some cream if you want to make your mash extra tasty!

Butter an oven safe dish and cover the bottom with baby spinach. Add the salmon fillets and pour over the sauce. Top with some grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Put in the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the salmon is cooked. 

Mash the potatoes (I like mine with the skin still on), add butter and cream to taste along with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the grated Parmesan, no shame in putting it all in there!

Boil the sugar snaps in lightly salted water for about 30 seconds, you still want them to be nice and crispy.

Serve all together with a nice chilled white wine, or just have water like I did. Water from the tap in Sweden is the best it really gets!