Jamie’s Zucchini Carbonara

This dish is on my top ten favourite food list, no doubt about it. It’s easy, delicious and it has both bite and kick to it. Make sure you follow the instructions exactly so you don’t end up with Pasta and scrambled eggs.

Bacon & Cheese Scones

Ingredients

100 grams of Bacon (cubed)
50 grams of grated cheese
450 grams of plain flour
3 tea-spoons of baking powder
120 grams of margarine
1 pinch of salt
5 table spoons of milk
2 eggs

Making Bacon & Cheese Scones

Set your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Fry the Bacon in a frying pan and pull to the side. Add flour, margarine (this goes easiest if its room temperature) and baking powder to a bowl. Mix together until it becomes a crumbly mass. Make an indentation in the mix. Whisk eggs and milk lightly together in a bowl or a cup. Use a fork or ladle with holes to strain the bacon from the fat and i to the milk mix with the grated cheese. Pour the mix into the dent that you made in the crumbled dough. Mix well until it all makes a dough.

Add the dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll it with a rolling-pin until it is about 2 centimetres thick. Stick out rounds ca 7 cm across, use a jar a cup or a christmas cookie form. Make as many rounds as you can, and fold the rest of the dough together, don’t knead it, and roll it out again and stick out new rounds. Do this until you’ve used up all the dough. The last one I just made with my hands. Add the scones to a baking tray covered in baking paper, brush milk on top and put the tray in the pre-heated oven. Let them sit for 12-15 minutes. When they are golden brown on top they are perfect. Take them out and let them rest on a baking grid. When they are lukewarm and ready to be eaten, cut them in half, mine halved themselves easily for some reason, and add a your favourite jam and a touch of sour cream.

Tip: I’m gonna freeze some of mine, because well we are two people and can’t eat them all. I read up on it online and it seems you can freeze them well. I would recommend popping them in the oven on a 150 degrees Celsius and give them a few minutes. Have a look at them and figure out how long you should give them. Every oven is different.

These make breakfast so awesome!

Inspired by Jamie Oliver

Asian take on Bacon and Cabbage

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of powdered cumin
3 cloves of garlic
2 small red chillis
2 centimetres of fresh ginger
3 red onions
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 small tablespoon of butter
1/4 of a cabbage
5 small potatoes
2-4 carrots
100 grams of chopped bacon
350 grams of minced beef
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 can of coconut milk
1 liter of chicken stock (2 stock cubes)

Making Asian Bacon and Cabbage

Add the coriander seeds to a frying pan and turn up the heat. Let the coriander seeds heat up, not burn, when they give of a scent and change slightly in colour, they are done. Add the seeds to a mortar and bash them until they become a powder, add cumin and mix well. Put a big casserole on the hot plate, and add oil and butter. Wait to put the heat on until you have chopped all your vegetables.

Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes, the carrots in the smaller pieces. Finely slice the onion and chop the cabbage into bigger slices.  Finely chop chillis and garlic cloves, before you peel the ginger and finely chop it as well. Put the heat on the casserole, low-medium and add ginger, onion, garlic and chillis to the sizzling butter and oil mix. Let simmer until the onion becomes golden in colour, keep an eye on it so that the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the powdered spices and mix well. Add the minced beef, bacon, carrots and potatoes + salt and mix well, let simmer a bit more before you add the cabbage. Pour over the can of coconut milk and the chicken stock (2 stock cubes + 1 liter of water). Stir well and put the lid on. Let simmer for 30 minutes and serve.

Bacon Pancakes

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 liter of milk
1 deciliter of sugar
3 tea-spoons of salt
7 decilitres of plain flour
140- 280 grams of bacon

Now before you start making this you should consider halving the recipe, depending on how many takers there are at the breakfast/dinner table. This recipe serves 4-5 people, 2-3 pancakes each. If you can eat more than that I salute you.

Making Bacon Pancakes

Add milk and eggs to a bowl and whisk together. Sift in plain flour, salt and sugar. Mix well until the batter is smooth. Leave to set for 30 minutes. Cut bacon strips into smaller pieces and fry in a pan. Add the bacon onto a plate, but leave the bacon grease in the pan. When the 30 minutes are up, add to ladles of batter into the frying pan and drizzle fried bacon on top. Remember to cook the pancakes on medium to low heat, so as not to blacken the sides before you can turn them. I fried the bacon on high and then turned down the heat until medium to low. Turn the pancake when the batter has set on top. You can of course flip the pancakes, but the bacon strips makes this a bit harder, so I suggest that you loosen the sides of the pancake with a spatula, before you free the pancake from the bottom. Put it under the middle and flip over slowly. Remember that the pancake needs less time on the other side, maybe 30 seconds to a minute.

Tip: Remember to grease the pan with either the saved bacon fat or some additional butter, not much is needed, just enough to not have the pancake stick to the pan.

Enjoy as they are or serve it, as crazy Norwegians do, with sugar, syrup or jam. The crazy Germans also add cheese on top theirs.

Oven Baked Chicken with Party Potatoes and Sauce Bretagne

Oven baked chicken and sauce Bretagne

450 grams of chicken filets
2-3 garlic cloves
3/4 of a red pepper
1 deciliter of water
40 grams of butter
1 small onion
1 finely chopped garlic clove
1 deciliter of  cream
1 deciliter of creme fraiche
1 small tablespoon of tomatpuré
1/2 a dice of chicken stock
Salt and pepper
One small handful of finely chopped parsley

Party Potatoes

6 medium sized potatoes
5-6 tomatoes
1 small bunch of spring onion
100 grams of bacon
75 grams of  cheddar
Sour cream
Milk
Butter
Salt and Pepper

Making Oven Baked Chicken with Party Potatoes

Wash the potatoes and put them in a preheated oven, 200 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes. While the potatoes bake you cut tomatoes and  spring onions, and  fry cut bacon strips crispy. You should now have time to start on the chicken.

When the potatoes are done, slice off 1/3 of the top and scoop out the pulp, making it into a boat-shaped shell. Prepare the pulp like you would mashed potatoes, using  sour cream (3 spoons), milk (3 splashes), and butter (2 spoons) to your taste. Season with salt and pepper. Paprika powder might also give it a nice flavour. Now add a little bit of shredded cheddar to the mix, then gradually the veggies & bacon (*but don’t use it all). Spoon the mashed mixture back into the boats til they are full. Decorate the top  with cheddar, then with veggies and bacon. Pop the potatoes back in the oven for 10-15 minutes so they can heat up again and the cheese becomes melted. When they are done you can have your potato NOMathon!!!

Rinse the chicken breasts and slice of any bits you don’t like. Make holes in the skin with a knife and stuff it with finely cut slices/pieces of garlic cloves, about 6 per chicken breast. Add the chicken breast to an oven proof dish. Now you start on the sauce. Add red pepper and water to a food processor and spin until it is nicely mixed. Add butter to a sauce pan and toss in finely chopped garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients except for parsley, salt and pepper and let boil up. Let boil for five minutes and add parsley, salt and pepper by taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken and kick it in the oven. Takes about 13-15 minutes, it differs from oven to oven. Try to time it so that you put the chicken in at the same time as the oven potatoes.

Inspired by Christina