Sunset from a family restaurant in Platanias

I’m back from a week in Greece. I chose not to tell you beforehand because of insurance reasons. I had a great time, both relaxing and getting much inspiration for food and drinks. I’m experimenting my way to the perfect frozen strawberry daiquiri and much more.

Being away from technology for week was easier and more refreshing than I’d expected. Getting back to my web habits will likely take some days, but I’ll hopefully throw up some articles and recipes soon. I’m also looking forward to my new iPhone project together with Kristian Hjelle. In his words:

Kristian Hjelle and Thomas Sunde Nielsen (That’s me) = awesome little application. In the meantime, enjoy your tea!

1. Walk more.
   Walk to the store, to work or just take a walk. There are probably many nice places in your neighborhood you haven’t seen. Check them out. Try to get at least two kilometres (1,25 miles) each day, preferably more. When you feel comfortable walking often, you can try to take a jog. This is even better exercise.
2. Cut down on the unhealthy fat.
   Use more oil and less butter in your food. Olive oil has many health benefits. Sunflower oil is nice for frying.
3. Eat more pork, fish and chicken and vegetables, less sugary and fatty food.
   Eat less sugar, chips, deep fried stuff and fast food. Use unprocessed food in your cooking. Learn to cook healthy food. Cooking can be fun and relaxes you after a long day at work. Pork, fish and chicken are all really healthy. Together with vegetables they are a perfect dinner. Beef you can reserve for the weekends.
4. Eat 5 fruit/vegetables every day.
   A dinner should be 2/3 vegetables and 1/3 meat/fish. Eat an apple or a banana for snack instead of chocolate or chips.
5. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
   This together with less sugar and fat made me drop 5 kg/10 pounds in 6 weeks (My office is on the 7th floor and I often walk to other offices on lower floors during the day to help people).

The results

If you follow some of or all these tips you will gain a better health, more energy and a better mood.

Bonus tips:

1. If you smoke, stop. This will be the single most effective thing you can do.
2. Keep sweets and alcohol for the weekends only.
3. Try to eat varied food. Fish at least once, preferably twice, a week.

Good example of homemade fries. Not mine, they're always eaten before I can get the camera out.

Oh yes. Perfect homemade french fries. No, you don’t need fancy equipment or a lot of time. You just need some guidance. And I’m here to give it to you.

What you need:

• Saucepan
• Knife
• Potatoes
• Sunflower oil

Steps

1. Fill the saucepan 2/3 with water and heat to the boil while you:
   1. Peel the potatoes.
   2. Cut them into french fries size.
2. Boil the fries for 10 minutes. Should be almost eating ready in consistency. When done, let them dry on some paper.
3. Pour out all the water of the saucepan and make sure it is 100% dry.
4. Fill the saucepan with 1/2 with sunflower oil.
5. Put the saucepan back on the heat. Keep a lid close in case of fire. Don’t use full heat, but above medium.
   1. Put in one potato slice as your control.
   2. If you have a thermometer that can take the heat and oil, make sure you stay around 180 degrees centigrade.
6. When the control slice is golden, take it out and carefully put in the rest of your fries.
7. Use tongs to lift out fries when they’re done. Or use a slotted spoon if you have one. Let them dry on some paper.

Tips:

• If you’re making a lot, finished fries can be kept at 200 degrees centigrade in your owen while you make the rest.
• Season with french fries spice mix or salt before serving. Serve with ketchup. Perfect with all kinds of meat or fish.
• Don’t settle for the tiny size of McDonald’s fries. Double that is a good start.
• Experiment with different sizes and forms. Creative fries are well received at parties.
• You can reuse the sunflower oil. Just let it cool down and pour it into an empty bottle. Be sure to filter out any leftovers of the fries.

Enjoy!

Different peppers

Wondering what to get when buying spices? Here is a short list of spices and uses. I’ve got way more spices than this (over twice as much), but I consider these the essentials.

Essentials:

• Black pepper: use for almost anything, especially meat. Use as much as you feel like
• Salt: use for almost anything, use just enough to get the flavor you want (as little as possible)
• Red pepper powder: Perfect for rice, home made spice mixes, chicken and more
• Thyme: Great for pork, chicken and lamb. I use this many times every week.
• Oregano: The pizza spice! Perfect for italian food. Smell it and you should recognize it’s uses.
• Basil: Use in pizza and pasta sauces, pesto and more. Strong flavor, use with caution.
• Cardamom: Used in all sorts of baked goods, like wafles, muffins, buns and cinnamon rolls.
• Cinnamon: Many uses, but I use mainly for baking and rice porridge topping. See cinnamon rolls.
• Curry: The rice and chicken spice. Indian food.

Less used but great to have:

• Ginger powder: Used in much eastern food
• Cumin: The secret behind kebab meat. Together with ginger powder, red pepper powder and garlic this will rock you.
• Rosemary: Lamb, chicken and pork. I often use this one together with thyme

You should also have these spices in fresh or processed form:

Garlic

• Chili (use mild chili if you aren’t too fond of spicy stuff): gives your dish that extra “oomph”. Mexican food essential.
• Garlic: Really really healthy and tasty. Makes any meat stand out, use with rice and in stews and more. Essential in italian food.
• Onion: Used in almost all italian dishes, many more. Don’t be afraid to use a lot.
• Lemon: Gives you that fresh, bitter taste. Use with fish and pork on the grill. Perfect for drinks too.

Inspirational spice examples:

Beef

Spice richly with salt and pepper, rub a garlic clove over (it doesn’t seem to do much, but it really makes a difference). Rub the spices in together with olive oil before frying on high heat.

Lamb dish

Salmon

Mix 1/3 lemon juice and 2/3 olive oil. Add salt and pepper, coat with the mix. Let it sit for as long as possible up to 24 hours in your fridge before grilling or frying. A touch of soy sauce and chili doesn’t hurt, either.

Chicken

Salt, pepper, curry and red pepper powder. The same spices can also be used in a sauce based on chicken stock and cream.

Lamb meat

Salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme.

Check out thomassnielsen.com/food for more inspiration.

• Lamb meat, cut in dices
• Onion
• Garlic
• Tomatoes diced/sliced seasoned with basil and oregano (with juice)
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Spice (rosmarin, thyme, black pepper, salt)

This dish is simple, but takes some time. Preheat the oven to 175C. Slice the potatoes and carrots. Boil them until almost done. Brown the lamb meat in a pan.

Cut onion slices to fill the bottom of the oven dish you use. Pour some olive oil over the onion slices. Mix the meat and vegetables and fill the oven dish. Cut some garlic cloves and spread it over. Add generously of the spice.

Pour the tomatoes and it’s juice over. Add a little bit of cream over if you want. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes. Take it out and add grated cheese. Put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

This dish scales from 2 to infinite number of people if you have the right size oven dish. Serve with garlic bread as a starter.

Ingredients

My favorite fruits to use are kiwifruit, pineapple, apple, orange/clementine, banana, pear and grapes. Almost anything goes, sweet fruits are best.

Recipe

Cut fruit into pieces, serve in dessert bowl covered with ice cream. Remember to let the ice cream melt just a little before covering it. Letting the ice cream sit in room temperature for 10-20 minutes while you cut the fruits is a good idea.

Enjoy!

Bonus tip: Yogurt works great too!

Salad lunch pack

I should’ve written this one earlier, but I just didn’t have the time. Last year I started to make some more comprehensive lunch packs, compared to the Norwegian traditional lunch pack with a couple of slices of bread.

I was just tired of eating dry, tasteless bread, and wanted to try something else. I have two variants I use now, one of which is pictured above.

The salad lunch pack is easy, and takes from 5-20 minutes to make, depending on what you put in it. My favorite is the one on the picture, with chicken and pasta.

Recipe #1 – Chicken salad lunch pack

• Pasta (I use Macaroni or Fusilli, but any pasta will do)
• Lettuce (I use iceberg or crispi)
• Red pepper
• Grilled or cooked chicken meat (you can often buy salad-specific chicken meat. If not, a whole grilled chicken works too)
• Onion
• Maize
• Spices and/or dressing (I use salt and ground pepper, sometimes a little bit of garlic powder)

Cook the pasta. Cut the chicken, red pepper and onion into pieces. Rip the lettuce into pieces (this way it stays fresh longer, compared to cutting it). Mix all ingredients in a airtight lunch box, and add spices. If you use dressing, you can put that in a separate box to preserve the salad better. Remember to bring a fork.

Tip: If you make the salad the night before, make sure to put the driest ingredients on top, and don’t blend them until you are ready to eat. Store the lunch box in the fridge. That way you will have the freshest possible salad.

Recipe #2 – Home-made baguette with ham and cheese

This one requires a bit more preparation, but it tastes great and is really cheap. You can bake baguettes twice a week and have one for lunch every day.

Baguette:

• 3/4 white wheat flour
• 1/4 coarse wheat flour
• yeast (50g per liter of flour)
• milk
• salt
• whole grain and seeds (optional)

If you use fresh yeast, mix it with lukewarm milk. If you use dried yeast, mix it with the flour. Mix together the ingredients until the dough lets go of the bowl. Let the dough raise for about an hour. Roll into sausage-shapes in the size you want. Remember that it will raise. Let it raise for another hour. Put on some whole grain and seeds if you like. Wet them slightly with water before you put them in the owen at 220C. They are ready when they are crispy and brown. Let them cool down before eating. Put them in a plastic bag if you want to use them later.

• Lettuce
• Red pepper
• Ham
• Cheese
• mayonnaise (optional)

Cut a baguette in half. Add ripped lettuce, slices of red pepper, ham and cheese. Add mayonnaise if you like. Wrap in plastic and bring as a lunch pack.

Both of these are great options to paying for expensive lunch in the cafeteria or bringing plain old dry bread.

Easy food presentation #1

Easy food presentation #2

Now go and make some tasty and good looking meals!

Fårikål (image from wikipedia, I was too hungry to take a picture)

Today I bring you a traditional Norwegian dish. In fact, it is the Norwegian national dish. And it is so tasty and simple to make!

Fårikål literally means mutton in cabbage, and that is exactly what it is. The secret is the way you cook it.

Ingredients (per person)

250g mutton meat with bone
250g cabbage
Spices: Whole black pepper and salt
1-3 potatoes

Recipe

Cut a cabbage in roughly 1/8 parts. Add mutton meat and cut cabbage in layers, the thickest meat at the bottom, with the fat down.

spice with lots of whole black pepper and salt for each layer. End with a cabbage layer. Cover with water. Heat until it boils, and let it cook at low heat for at least two hours. Serve with boiled potatoes.

Stage 1

Did you love my potato gratin, or maybe you haven’t tried it yet? Here is another gratin, which is a full dinner in itself. I made this dish myself, so I would love you to try it and give feedback. It tasted great in my opinion.

Ingredients (for two)

• 2 dinner sausages
• 2 potatoes
• 4-6 dl milk
• 1 egg
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove
• spice (salt, pepper and oregano)
• Sliced cheese to cover
• part of a broccoli
• part of a cauliflower

Finished sausage gratin

Recipe

Slice the potatoes in 1cm slices. Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with a single layer of potato slices. Slice the dinner sausages in half and put them on top of the potatoes. Add the rest of the potatoes around the sausages.

Mix egg, milk, chopped shallot, chopped garlic and spices in a bowl. Pour the mix into the casserole dish until it nearly covers the potatoes and sausages (see first picture). Put it in a preheated oven at 200C for 15-20 minutes.

Take the casserole dish out of the oven and add slices of cauliflower and broccoli. Add a layer of sliced cheese on top. Put back in the oven for 20 more minutes.

Enjoy.