Thursday, February 18, 2010

Along with leisurely breakfasts ...

I felt a real pang when I saw a salad being served at a restaurant. Just the thought of all those greens and fresh crunch made me feel almost woeful in the middle of a wintry February.

There is a cure though:



We all do our part, hopefully, to live sustainably. Part of my pact with myself is to try to eat vegetarian for almost all of my meals except dinner. And even with dinner, I still try to limit the meat intake. Though I'm not a regular eater of beef which apparently is one of the highest on the carbon footprint list (just sayin').

This recipe is not difficult, but can feel quite time-consuming if you're very hungry.

Oven Baked Eggs with Harissa, Goat Cheese and Roasted Vegetables
serves 1-3

1 sliced yellow bell pepper
1 sliced red bell pepper
1 sliced zucchini (medium thin slices)
2-3 large shallots halved
1 log of goat cheese (chevre) (my favorite is the peppery Spanish kind if you can find it)
2-6 best quality eggs
As much harissa as you can stand
1 green chile
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon salted butter

Small ceramic baking dishes

Preheat oven to 400 F/200 C

Prepare all the vegetables. Sear the green chile over a gas flame until blackened all over. Let cool and then peel. Remove the stem and chop coarsely. Set aside.

On a wide baking sheet, lay out the vegetables in one row. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for around 10-15 minutes.

In the ceramic dish/es, add a bit of butter, then a smear of harissa (this is usually how much I can take spice wise). Lay several thick coins of goat cheese on the bottom. When the vegetables are roasted, lay the vedge over the goat cheese and then crack one to two eggs on top.

In the already warm oven place the filled dishes and wait around 10-15 minutes until the whites are set.

This dish might improve by baking the eggs more slowly, but I'm usually too hungry to try!

I get Harissa in a tube these days. You can also search for my homemade Harissa recipe which is a spicy taste of heaven, as well on the search bar above.

Friday, February 12, 2010

It's him!



I always take my guests to Lux Choklad och Efterätt on Lilla Essingen on Stockholm. It can be quite a haul. Imagine my previous disappointment when semla season came around and Lux -- my favorite place for buns, had not done a semla last year. A semla, by the way, is a Fat Tuesday bun. It's a cardamom bun filled with marzipan and whipped cream and then dusted lightly with powdered sugar. I talked with the bun man about my disappointment that they made no Fat Tuesday buns, and lo and behold. Not only did he make a semla this year it won the best in Fat Tuesday buns in Stockholm.

In any event, the moment I had eaten the first bun from Lux, I declared I would one day marry the bun man in gratitude. But now he's been revealed to all of Sweden alas!