It’s amazing how much the presentation of food can matter for the total meal experience. I’m not doing this often enough when I cook only for myself, but today I did, so I figured it would be a nice opportunity to show an example of how easy it is. It really takes only seconds to present food in a way that makes it so much more appealing. The first image is from today (sorry, low light image), the other one is old.
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
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.
Creamy Potato Gratin
Time for food again. This is one of my favorite ways to cook potatoes. It tastes delicious, and it is really easy. It takes a bit of time though, almost an hour from start to finish. But it is worth it.
Ingredients:
- At least two small/medium potatoes per person
- Milk
- Whipping cream
- Garlic and/or onion
- Spices (pepper, salt, whatever else you feel like)
- Grated cheese
Recipe:
Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices (about 1/2 cm). Ad a layer of potatoes into a casserole dish, then ad spices and finely chopped garlic and/or onion.
Pour milk and whipping cream (about 50/50 mix, more milk if you are afraid of fat) until you cover the potatoes. Continue adding layers of potatoes, spices and milk/cream until you are out of potatoes.
Let it cook in the oven at 200C for about half an hour. Take it out, ad a decent layer of grated cheese, and put it back for another 15 minutes. Serve with any kind of meat. Great together with beef or pork chops.
Warning: This may very well become the main dish of your meal, so remember to make enough!
Today I tried using my pizza sauce as a pasta sauce (Pasta bolognese). Tasted delicious. So if you like me have some left over pizza sauce, give it a go. Fry some ground meat and ad the sauce, serve on cooked pasta. Ad some cheese on top if you like. Parmesan cheese is recommended.
