Kielbasa style sausage

This time I had some trouble with figuring out which kind of sausage I should make. But I am happy that I tried this polish kielbasa. It might be one of the best that I have done.

Kielbasa, ready to eat.

Ingredients for my kielbasa:

• 1 kg pork meat with about 20% fat
• 1-2 grams of marjoram
• 1 gram of garlic powder
• 1 gram of black pepper
• 20 grams of salt
• 100 grams of breadcrumbs
• 100 grams of water

The recipe is easy and straight forward.

I read in another recipe that you could have 10% beef, but I was too lazy this time to get 100 grams of beef. Usually the stores in my neighborhood do not package beef in such small packages.

Ingredients before use.

 Start by grinding the meat.

Grind the pork meat.

Mix the meat with the spices, breadcrumbs and water.

Yummy sausage batter.

Before I place the sausage batter into the fridge, I will remove a little piece which I fry in a pan to try out the seasoning. Meanwhile, while the test piece will be cooked in the pan, I prepare the sausage casing and thread it on the sausage horn.

Something small for the chef.

 The picture below shows the already strung casing.

First piece of the first sausage.

With the casing strung up it is time to fill it with the sausage batter. Once that is done, then the only thong that remains is tying them nicely. I think the tying went pretty well this time.

Tied kielbasa sausages.

Raspberry macarons

I've been in a slump when it comes to baking macarons. Firstly I have not taken the time and secondly I have not managed to get them as I want them. Either they have risen too much for my taste or they have not risen at all and therefore have not gotten their cute little feet. The latter happend to those which I am abour to tell you about now. But I were to bring them to a dinner we were going on and I could not come empty handed. Luckily, I got a really nice filling and they tasted really good although one could wish more of their appearance. Maybe I should try a new recipe for macarons, since I obviously can't handle this any more.

 Raspberry macarons

200g icing sugar
110 g almond flour
3 egg whites
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar

 
 Sift the icing sugar and almond flour through a sieve. Beat egg whites and granulated sugar to a shiny meringue. Stir in the almonds and icing sugar mixture into the meringue. Pipe the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone macaron mold. Let the cookies stand at room temperature for 30-60 minutes. Bake meringues at 150 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Raspberry Filling

1/4 cup passed raspberries
25g butter
icing sugar until the cream becomes firm

  

Mix the raspberries and pass them through a sieve to remove their seeds. Beat the butter until it is fluffy. Add the raspberries and icing sugar and whisk until you have a solid cream.

  

Foccacia with garlic and rosemary

I think it was my aunt who lives in Italy who first introduced my family to foccacia, or if it was my mother who got the idea to bake bread one day, I do not really remember. But it sounds better that it was my aunt who lives in Italy who introduced it to us so we run with that. The bread is so simple but is so incredibly good. Soft and fluffy crumb and with a crust that become crusty thanks to the olive oil. 

 I have been to Italy once and visited my aunt and her husband. It's actually a shame that I have not been there and visited several times, free accommodation in Italy is probably a rare luxury, and it's an incredible country. Must. Book.  A. Ticket. Now!

Foccacia with garlic and rosemary

25 g yeast
420 g of wheat flour
300 g water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

fresh rosemary
1 clove of garlic
salt flakes
3 tbsp olive oil

Crumble the yeast into a bowl and dissolve with the lukewarm water. Stir until dissolved. Add salt, oil and flour and work the dough smooth. Prove under a cloth for 40 minutes. Press the dough out onto a roasting pan that is oiled and let the dough prove for another 35 minutes. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees C. Press holes in the dough with your fingertips and sprinkle with rosemary and chopped garlic. Add salt and pour over a little olive oil. Bake in center of oven for 15 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

 

Bacon and feta cheese salad

The dinner on my first day with calorie restriction was simple. A bacon and feta salad.

Crisp bacon and creamy feta cheese.

Ingredients:

• 215 grams of salad - 50 kcal
• 25 grams of feta cheese - 73 kcal
• 50 grams of crispy bacon - 140 kcal

The bacon is 140 kilo calorie when it is uncooked and I used no grease when I fried it, which should make it contain less energy when it is fried and there is some fat left in the pan.
However, it became a 285 gram meal with approximately 260 kilo calories.
In general the first day went by quite easily. Mostly probably because I had a lot to do and geared my few calories towards bulky and heavy things with low nutritional value.

50 kcal salad

I have seen a show from BBC Horizon and become inspired. The program was about fasting and how it can affect our bodies. Important to remember here is that the fasting that was shown in the program had positive effects on healthy people who live a little cozy, i.e. eat well and do not exercise at a extreme high level.
Now the idea is that I and Pauline will start a 5:2 diet where we reduce our calorie intake 2 days a week. The idea is that it will improve our blood fats, insulin, IGF-1 and do so that I can continue to eat the sausages I make.
To begin with, I will not try very hard to eat less than 600 calories a day. Is it less than 800 kcal per day, it is better than it was before.

Fresh, newly cut salad

Ingredients, energy content and weight:

• 100 grams of cucumber -> 14 kcal
• 50 grams of tomato -> 12 kcal
• 20 grams of spinach -> 4 kcal
• 45 grams of carrot -> 20 kcal

A total of about 50 calories and 215 grams of salad. It is possible that the energy content varies so that there are not exactly 50 kcal, but I am not that picky that it will matter.

Ready to eat or be mixed.

The idea of ​​this salad is to give me something to work from. Because I like vegetables I will be able to eat it as it is a couple of times, but it will not last for long. It will become tedious, so I must add and vary the composition during the low calorie days.

Mixed salad.

Naan bread

I must have a curse upon me. I thought, in my innocence, that it was spring when I looked at the thermometer this morning. I could have been right because it showed 5 degrees and therefore I took my spring jacket. Maybe it's 5 degrees outside still but it is raining and blowing so my nice spring jacket, unfortunately, won't help much on the way home from work.

Naan bread is something I have wanted to try a long time but I've been waiting for an Indian friend of Johan to send his wife's recipe, I have not got it so it had to do with a recipe I found on google. They were certainly good, but I missed this toughness that I think they usually have when eating at an Indian restaurant. Might be because I do not have access to such a type of oven they usually use. 

Naan bread

200 g milk

420 g of wheat flour

1 egg

2 tablespoons cooking oil

100 g tyoghurt

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

½ tsp baking powder

2 tsp dry yeast

Heat the milk until it is lukewarm. Mix the spices, yeast, eggs and flour. Then add the yogurt and the hot milk. Let the dough prove under a cloth for at least 2 hours. Shape into flat cakes and let prove another 20 minutes on a greased baking sheet. Fry in skillet about 2 minutes on each side (or turn the oven on the highest heat and cook for about 3 minutes)

Oatmeal crumpets

I have apparently not been able to release the factory made yeast just yet, I have made two breads with it in a row now.. I want to do without using this type of yeast but I feel that I have not quite mastered baking with sourdough fully yet. And it doesn't help that I go back to using factory made yeast. I ought instead to bake more with sourdough.

Oatmeal crumpets

50 g yeast

50 g butter

5 tbs honey

1 tsp salt

70 g oatmeal

 360 g wheat flour

300 g sifted rye flour 

200 g milk

Melt the butter and add the milk and heat until lukewarm. measure the oats in a bowl, pour the melted butter and milk mix over it and let the oats swell in a few minutes. Add the crumbled yeast, honey, salt and flour. Work together to form a smooth dough. Prove the dough under a cloth for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees C. When the dough has proved, turn it out on a floured surface. Divide the dough into bite-sized pieces and roll them into balls. Roll out to 1 cm thick circles. Prick the loaves and let rise for another 30 minutes. Bake for about 8 minutes and let cool on a rack.

Lemony bread

And so Easter was over as well ... Luckily there are a few holidays left this year and soon it's vacation season, it was very nice to be vacant one more day then usually. Though it is a good thing as well that Easter is over, I've eaten so much during this weekend so I'm good enough for a good while without eating so much again. In retrospect, I wonder a bit about why we eat so much during the holidays like Christmas, Easter and Midsummer. It's always nice to see family and friends and share meals with them, but that's not my thought. We always make too much food! At least in my family and circle of friends. There is always food left over so that it is enough for leftovers the rest of the week. Leftovers are a good thing, don't get me wrong ( I have almost always leftovers for lunch at work) but to cook that amount of food, so much that some go bad and you have to throw some away does not feel very sustainable. I made two loafs of this lemony bread because we were invited to two different happenings. There was some bread over but I took them home, and they will be eaten here.

Lemony bread

500 g water

20 g yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

2 lemons, zest

540 g wheat flour

180 g durum flour

20 g salt

Decoration:

2 lemons, thinly sliced

sea salt

Crumble the yeast into a bowl and stir it with water, let it be for a few minutes so that the yeast dissolves properly. Grate the lemon. Mix in the remaining ingredients and knead the dough by hand (or in machine) until the dough becomes elastic. Let rise for 1 hour. Shape the dough into two round loaves and let rise for 1 hour in oiled bowls. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Tip the loaves on a warm plate and garnish with lemon slices and salt. Set the bread in the oven and reduce the heat to 175 degrees. Bake for about 35 minutes.

Asian Flavored Sausage

Easter related food is great, but sometimes it can become too much. This is why I have chosen to do an Asian flavored sausage to eat among my Easter food.

Ingredients to 1500 g of meat:

• 1300 grams of pork loin
• 200 grams of bacon
• 1 lime, juice and pulp
• 5 grams of fresh coriander
• 1 red chili
• 12 grams of garlic, half chopped and half pressed
• 2 cm fresh ginger
• 30 grams of salt
• 100 grams of breadcrumbs
• 100 grams of water

Cut the meat into strips and grind it if you do not have ground beef from the start.
As we can see in the picture below, I have also included the coriander in this ingredient picture.
It is nice to always forget an ingredient in the first ingredient picture.

Chop the coriander, chili and half the garlic. Grate the ginger and squeeze the rest of the garlic.
Mix everything together into a smooth batter with no pockets of only a few ingredients.

Ingredients ready for mixing.

Put the sausage batter into the fridge while you make arrangements with the sausage casing. While I work with the skin I always cook a small sample for the chef, to ensure that the flavors are not totally wrong.

For the chef, to keep the hunger away.

If it tastes good then the only thing left to do is to put the sausage batter in to the sausage casing.
The end result is shown below.

Nice sausage ready for the oven.