Asian fusion; udon noodle soup with tofu and korean miso sautéed enoki mushroom

There are few things that taste as good as a nice hot and spicy noodle soup on a cold and rainy day. I've been making my version of this for years and it never turns out the same as the time before; sometimes frustrating, sometimes a source of new creative possibilities. I tried to make this one as basic as possible so that I would remember what I used. I'm calling it Asian Fusion since the noodles are Japanese, the Pak Soi and silk tofu originally Chinese and the miso paste I've used is Korean. If you have any, I think this soup would be great to top off with some kimchi; I'll come back to that in another post!

The What for the Soup

Udon noodles

Silk tofu

Mini Shanghai Pak Soi (or bok choi if you prefer)

chili

garlic

ginger

coriander roots (and leaves for garnish)

Korean Miso Paste

vegetable stoclk

lime juice

water

Coconut oil 

The What for the Miso Sautéed Enoki Mushroom Side

Enoki mushrooms

Sesame seeds

chili

garlic

ginger

Korean Miso Paste

tamari or soy sauce

Soup: The How

Finely chop garlic, ginger and chili and crush the coriander roots. Gently fry in coconut oil in a large pan. Add the Korean Miso Paste and stir. 

Pour in the water, bring to the boil and add the vegetable stock and the lime juice. Add more miso paste to bring up the taste if needed as well as some soy sauce if you want it more salty. 

Wash the pak soi and cut into quarters, add to the soup. 

Cut the silk tofu into cubes. 

Add the Udon noodles and let simmer for about 4-5 minutes until they start getting softer. 

Finally add the tofu, stir gently and let it get warm before serving. 

Serve in a deep bowl, top with coriander and freshly cut chili.

Enoki Mushroom Sauté: The How

Wash the mushrooms thoroughly.

Finely chop garlic, ginger and chili and gently fry in coconut oil in a frying pan along with the sesame seeds. Add the enoki mushrroms as well as the Korean Miso Paste and stir.

Season with tamari or soy sauce, be careful not to use too much as it is quite salty.

Serve the mushrooms warm or cold as a side or as a part of a buffet style meal.

You can vary this soup endlessly; make it your own and I promise it will be your go to meal on a cold and rainy night when you're longing for a beach and some sunshine!

Hungry? Here's a 10 minute meal that tastes amazing

I LOVE gnocchi. I love it so much that I even tried to make it myself (major fail, will tell you more about that another time). The good news for us that apparently aren't very gifted in the make-your-own gnocchi department, there are now hundreds of different types of fresh pasta available in almost all standard grocery stores. Hooray!!

I had a wonderful day off today, finally being able to spend some quality time on my blog and my glorious plans for the future. Glorious plans for the future made me hungry but it needed to be a quick meal so as not to disturb me too much when I finally got my creative juices flowing. 

This is what I had at home: 

1 packet of fresh gnocchi

1 can of crushed tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

fresh thyme

Chili flakes

Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

The How: 

Throw the gnocchi into boiling, lightly salted water. Cook until they start popping up to the surface of the water. Remove from water and put aside for now. 

Chop garlic, fry in olive oil in a pan together with chili flakes, until soft. Add the crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and let simmer. 

Add the gnocchi and stir. 

Serve with fresh thyme and grated Parmesan. 

This is turned into a beautiful (super quick and not at all classic) Gnocchi Neapolitan in just under 10 minutes!

Now to get back to creating my Declarations of a Foodie empire!

Beautiful Farmers Salad

As you might have already guessed, I love vegetables! I love them in every way; oven baked, seared in a pan, fresh in a salad, as a side dish, as the main... well, you get the point. You've already seen my Hot Salad, hopefully you've even tried it :)! This beautiful and rustic farmers salad is made in the same way; hot in the oven. What makes it different is the veggies used and the fact that they are mostly roasted whole.

The What:

A bundle of asparagus

1 butternut squash

about 5 or 6 carrots

1 bundle of large spring onions

fresh thyme

olive oil

salt and pepper

Crumbled feta cheese and arugula to serve.

The How:

Turn the oven to 200 degrees. 

Peel the butternut squash and cut into smaller pieces, not too small though since the rest of the veggies will be roasted whole.

Cut the spring onions into halves. 

Break the asparagus in two to get rid of the "stringy" part. 

Wash the carrots and cut off any rough bits you don't want to eat. Keep the skin on. 

Put all the vegetables together in an oven safe pan, drizzle over olive oil and season with salt and pepper. 

Put the dish in the middle of the oven, keep an eye on the onion so that it doesn't burn!

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are nice and roasted. 

Serve with a piece of meat, chicken or, as I did, all on it's own! 

It really doesn't need anything else!

The Best Chili Ever

The best chili ever, yeah, it's pretty cocky. But to be perfectly honest, it really WAS the best chili I've ever made and to be frank, it really WAS the best chili I've ever tasted. You want to challenge me? I always want to improve my cooking skills so if you have any tips, please, let me know! 

A warning for those under the age of 18; there is a lot of food porn going on in this post!! Keep reading at your own risk...

850 g of chuck beef

This chili takes about 20 minutes to prepare and about 2,5 hours to cook so make sure you don't start cooking at 10 pm on a Monday or you won't be eating until Tuesday!

The side dishes:

You need some guacamole, make it how you like it best, but there are a few key ingredients that you need to make it good; avocado, lemon, chili, garlic, salt and pepper. I also had coriander and a bit of sour cream in mine to give it a bit more flavor. 

You also need some salsa, sour cream and lime wedges on the side.

The What:

about 850 g of chuck beef (högrev for you Swedes)

5 garlic cloves

2 piri piri chili (or Spanish pepper if you're sensitive to spicy food)

2 pinches of salt

2 tbsp of ground cumin

2 tbsp of ground coriander

2 tbsp chili flakes (again, use less if you don't want it very spicy)

2 tbsp of oregano

1 tbsp honey

1 bottle (ca 33 cl) of lager or pale ale

2 tbsp of concentrated beef stock

butter to sear the meat in

The How:

Cut the meat into smaller pieces. 

Peel and chop the garlic as well as the chili. Take out the seeds if you want it less spicy.

Sear the meat in butter in a large pan until it has a nice color without being burnt. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. 

Let simmer with the lid to the pan on, for about 2,5 hours. Make sure you stir it during this time and add extra liquid (more beer or just water) if needed. You can also use a fork to pull the meat every now and then, just like you did when you tried my Pulled Chicken!

Serve the chili in a blanched savoy cabbage leaf (or in a tortilla bread if you wish), don't be stingy with the sauces!

It tasted so amazing, I may have to make it a reoccuring dish at My Place!

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!

Carrot and poppy seed cupcakes with lime and pomegranate frosting

I've never been a baker, a cook, yes, but a baker with exact precision... Hell no. I find it difficult to know how much I should knead a dough without it getting too compact and gross, I have a tendency to use too much flour because the dough sticks to my hands and I almost always use too little of some super important spice, like salt. 

But I am also extremely stubborn and am therefore determined to become great! ...or at least okay, at baking. Cupcakes in all kinds, shapes and sizes are super trendy so I thought I would give them a go. 

One of my best mates makes an amazing carrot cake, so I thought I'd steal parts of her recipe and mix in some of my own flavors. 

The What:

3 eggs

3 dl white sugar

3 dl flour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ground ginger

4 tsp poppy seeds

1 ½ dl sunflower oil

5 dl grated carrots

and for the frosting you need

60 g of soft butter

5 dl icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

100 g Philadelphia cheese

the peel from one lime + 1 more for garnish

lime juice from ½ a lime

pomegranate seeds, also for the garnish

The How (for the cupcakes)

Put the oven to 175 degrees.

Beat eggs and sugar until white and airy in consistency. If you have an electric whisk or mixer, use this because beating it by hand is haaaard. I used my boyfriend. 

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and carefully turn them into the egg mixture. 

Add the sunflower oil and the carrots.

Place the paper cupcake forms in an oven safe dish and fill the forms up to about 2/3 with batter. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. 

Let the cupcakes cool before you add the frosting.

and The How to make the frosting:

Beat the butter, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, the grated lime peel, lime juice and the Philadelphia cheese until nice and creamy.

Spread the frosting over the cupcakes and garnish with poppy seeds, lime peel and pomegranate seeds. 

They actually turned out pretty good, although I may have overdone the frosting on a few of them. If you have a muffin dish to put the paper forms in, I highly recommend that you use it; with out that stability, the cupcakes float out a bit too much. They still taste great but they don't look as pretty!

We enjoyed these babies outside in the grass with a cup of lungo coffee. 

Mmmm finger lickin' good!!! (sorry for stealing your line Colonal Sanders!)

Thank you Nathalie Eklund for the inspiration <3

(and thank you Leila Lindholm for inspiring her)