It's barbecue time!

Finally summer arrived in Oslo. And what is a better way to celebrate that, than having a nice barbecue? A couple of days ago, we made some tasty skewers with various vegetables and veal filet. They turned out really good and colourful!

The meat was slightly seasoned with rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Vegetable were cut to small bite-size pieces. All ingredients were applied to the skewers and barbecued until crispy or soft.

About barbecuing vegetables

A lot of people seem to forget that barbecuing is not only about meat, meat and more meat. Barbecued vegetables taste really delicious, and are great for adding colour and making your dish more healthy. I will now present some vegetables and how suitable I think they are for barbecuing.

Broccoli: Today was the first time I barbecued broccoli - but I will definitely do it again! It turned out really crispy and it was nice to have some green colour on my skewers. Keep in mind that they might turn a little dry, though.

Tomato: Delicious and pretty, but keep in mind that they get extremely hot inside. Also, if you leave them to long they might become a bit dissolved.

Bell pepper: Perfect on the barbecue! Leave them quite long - when they get a slightly black colour on the edges they are delicious.

Aubergine: Also perfect for barbecuing, but leave them until they are soft - otherwise they'll feel like a sponge.

Squash: One of my favourites. Crispy and delicious, and easy to apply to your skewers.

Champignon: Barbecued champignons are delicious, but keep in mind that they'll shrink.

Carrot: Good taste, but since they're so hard they're quite difficult to apply to your skewers. However, these are great to apply at the beginning and end of each skewer - this way the other ingredients don't fall off!

Corn: Barbecued corn tastes wonderful - and is one of the classics. You can either cut it into small pieces and add them to you skewers, or barbecue them whole.

Onion: Some onion pieces between the vegetables add a good taste.

Do you have any other tips about vegetables suitable for barbecuing? Leave a comment!

Healthy 10 Minute-Cookies

These easy-made cookies are much healthier than store bought ones, and they taste great.

And they only take 10 to 15 minutes to make!

This makes approximately five to ten cookies, depending on the size you wish them to be. You can easily make more by simply adding a double amount of each ingredient, which I think I will do next time as they seem to disappear very fast.

~I apologize for not posting pictures, but the cookies were long gone before I got the chance to take the pictures.

Ingredients

This recipe does not use normal cooking measurements, as I made the cookies without a recipe. 

1 coffee cup of oats

1/2 a coffee cup of whole wheat flour

1 large tablespoon of chunky peanut butter 

some water

apprx. 50 g dark chocolate, chopped 

1.  Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Combine oats and flour in a medium size bowl.

3. Add peanut butter and mix; this is most easily done with your hands.

    The dough will now look messy and dry, but don't worry.

4. Now, add water until the dough is smooth and easily shapes the way you want it.

5. Add chopped chocolate, mix well with the mixing device you have in handy (it should be a sort of spoon as the dough is sticky and thick)

6. Shape the dough into cookies of the size and shape you desire, and bake them for 5-15 minutes. Check them regularly to make sure they don't over bake, but they should have a golden color on the side facing down when finished.

Enjoy your cookies warm with a steaming cup of tea ~

Rhubarb Pie

I made one of my favourite pies, rhubarb pie, last weekend. I used a recipe from "Gyldendals Nye Store Kokebok" (a huge norwegian recipe collection), but adjusted it a little bit. I didn't have quite as much rhubarb as the recipe requested, so I ended up with a quite mild rhubarb taste. If you prefer a stronger, more dominant rhubarb taste, then go for some more rhubarb than I used. 

Keep in mind that I've used the measurements that I'm used to (deciliters, grams, ect.) If you have any questions regarding this, please leave a comment. I'll be happy to help you out. 

Ingredients:

Dough 

3 dl flour

1/2 dl sugar

1/2-1 tea spoon vanilla sugar

a pinch of salt

100 g butter

1 egg

Filling

300 g rhubarb, diced

1/2 dl sugar 

1 tea spoon potato flour

vanilla custard

Meringue

2 egg whites

1 dl sugar

 Start off with making the dough. Keep in mind that this dough has to rest for approximately one hour in the refrigerator for best results.

This dough can easily be made directly on your kitchen counter. Make a pile of the flour, and mix it with sugar, vanilla sugar and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix it with the flour. Make a hole in the middle of the flour pile, then whisk the egg and pour it into the hole. Mix the dough quickly with you hands until it is smooth. The wrap it in plastic and leave it in the refrigerator.  

Now preheat the oven to 225 degrees celcius. While the dough is resting, you can prepare the filling. Put the cut rhubarb pieces in an ovenproof dish. Mix potato flour and sugar, and add it to the rhubarb. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and leave in the lowest part of the oven for about15 minutes. The rhubarb should be tender and sweet when it is done.

When the dough is ready, you can start making the crust. Use a 24-26 cm diameter greased pie plate. Place the dough in the middle of it and press it flat with you hands. Spread the dough until the whole pie plate is covered. Then bake the crust approximately 15 minutes (same position and temperature as the filling).

When the crust is done and cooled, fill it with vanilla custard and rhubarb. Beat the 2 egg whites until foamy. Add sugar small portions while you continue beating the eggs. When the mixture is white, smooth and airy, it's perfect. Decorate the cake as you want with the meringue. Increase the oven  temperature t 250 degrees celcius. Leave the pie in the oven until the meringue is golden. Keep an eye on it! You don't want to have burned meringue on your cake, do you? 

Now enjoy you tasty rhubarb pie!

Recipe translated and adjusted from "Gyldendals nye store kokebok" , 1995

Decorating cakes - a few tricks

I love decorating cakes, and I think their appearance may be just as important as their taste. In this entry, I am going to present a few tricks I use to make my cakes look more "professional" and tempting. 

Make chocolate stripes. This is a very easy way to make you desserts look beautiful. Melt white or dark chocolate (white for dark surfaces and dark for light ones). Then move a fork dipped in chocolate rapidly over your cake. I like to vary the amount of chocolate on the fork, and how fast I move it, to make the stripes differ in thickness and shape.

Add some green. Regardless of which dish I am decorating, I always add a little green. It makes your dish look more fresh and appealing. For desserts, I usually  add some lemon balm leaves. 

Use fresh fruit and berries. Decorating with fresh fruit and berries is a good way to add some colour and freshness to your cake. I used some red currants on my cake, which make a good contrast to the green lemon balm leaves. The strange-looking berry is a physalis fruit. I love to use these berries as decoration for cakes and desserts - their dry leaves make them stand out. 

Learn from the professionals. The best way to get better at decorating cakes, is to watch how the professionals do it. When I'm at a bakery or restaurant, I love to study how the cakes and desserts are decorated, and then later try something similar at home. 

I hope this was any help to you! If you'd like to share your ideas, or have some questions, feel free to leave a comment!