The Susanne

This tomato sauce is so deli­cious you’ll be cheat­ing your­self if you don’t try it! It’s inspired by both Gordon Ramsay’s roas­ted tomato soup and my mum’s deli­cious roas­ted tomato sauce. Basic­ally all you do is roast toma­toes, onion, garlic and fresh herbs at 220 degrees celsius for about 45 minutes, stir­ring occa­sion­ally and mash­ing up the toma­toes a bit. Abso­lutely scrump­tious! I’ve taken it a step fur­ther here and used a blender to get that lovely smooth tex­ture that is per­fect for pasta dishes, and also used some red wine for that extra little some­thing. Here’s my recipe for the per­fect roas­ted tomato sauce:

• a splash of olive oil
• 1 kg fresh, ripe toma­toes (halve the large ones, leave small ones like cherry or plum toma­toes whole)
• 5 sun-​dried toma­toes, chopped
• 2 large cloves of garlic, halved
• 1 onion, sliced
• a medium-​sized bunch of fresh thyme sprigs (or any herbs you like, I guess)
• a splash of red wine (I use about 1-2 dl)
• a little tomato paste, to taste
• 1 tbsp sugar
  

Heat your oven to 220 degrees celsius.

Start the sauce by pour­ing some olive oil in a roast­ing tin, and pla­cing it in the oven until almost smoking. Take the tin out and add the toma­toes, onion, garlic and thyme. Sprinkle a little olive oil on top, and season well with salt and pepper.

Roast for about 45 minutes, stir­ring occasionally.

After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to 180 degrees, and mash up the toma­toes to get a sauce-​like con­sist­ency. Add some red wine, to taste. I use about 1-2 dl as I really enjoy the taste. Add some tomato paste if you want, and the sugar. Return it to the oven for the last 15 minutes.

At this point you have a deli­cious tomato sauce which is great as it is — unless you want it smooth.

If you want a smooth tex­ture, pour the sauce into your blender and blend on high for about one minute or until you get the tex­ture you want. Serve — or put back in the roast­ing tin if you want to add meatballs!

Here’s an incred­ibly simple recipe for some­thing that tastes incred­ibly good and will lift almost any food to incred­ible height, taste wise. Yep.

Take

• a big bunch of pars­ley about 1,5 dl I should say), chopped.
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 dl olive oil to start but maybe as much as 1 dl depend­ing on how runny you like it.
• a large squeeze of lemon juice

Mix it all together in a small bowl. Eat it:

• on a sand­wich (I’ve tried it with fenalår and beef pas­trami so far, both delish),
• with your schnitzel (tried it, yum!)
• as salad dress­ing (oh my goodness!)
• on samlon (just ima­gin­ing but ohh…just the thought of it)
• or chicken (mmmmm!)
• well the list could go on forever.

To make the per­fect Rote­mos, all you need is some swede, car­rots, butter, salt, pepper and water!

this feeds four:

• 1 kg swede, peeled and chopped in 2 cm pieces
• 2 car­rots, peeled and chopped in 2 cm pieces
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp butter or margarine

Boil the veget­ables until tender, then drain over a bowl to keep the water.

Mash the veget­ables with the butter and a little of the water from the cook­ing. Only use about 1 dl water or just enough to give the mash a lovely con­sist­ency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If you’re also making Pinnekjøtt, an altern­at­ive could be using cook­ing juices from the meat in the mash instead of the water from the veget­ables, but be care­ful so it doesn’t become too salty.

Here’s my quick’n’easy, no fuss, wham-bam-thankyoumam aioli that will leave your guests want­ing more more more!

You’ll need:

• 2 dl light may­on­naise (the Nor­we­gian kind is best but I’m sure other types will work also. Maybe whisk in an egg yolk if you find it lacks the mmmmmm factor)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed (I’m a garlic fiend and can easily be caught using more – it all depends on what you like!)
• 1 tbsp Dijon mus­tard (or any kind you have around)
• 1 medium-​sized boiled potato (left over from last night’s dinner?)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Here’s what to do:
in a small mixing bowl, throw in the may­on­naise (and the egg yolk if you’re adding that. It’s easier to mix in without the other stuff already in there). Stir in the mus­tard, the lemon juice and the crushed garlic. Mix it all together. Then peel and mash the boiled potato and mix it in with the rest.

Place in the refri­ger­ator to cool and for the fla­vours to blend prop­erly, for about 30 minutes or until people arrive!

Yum yum.

Tzatziki is such a yummy Greek treat, and it goes well with so many things that are espe­cially tempt­ing on a hot summer’s day. Off the top of my head I can men­tion bread, potato wedges, a lovely Greek salad, salmon (or trout) in any shape or form, cured ham, fenalår, dyrekjøtt(cured horse meat, it’s excel­lent!) steak, chops, roast beef… the list goes on and on!

Here’s a recipe for a refresh­ing, low-​fat tzatziki:

• 1 cucumber
• 3 dl 0,1% Kesam
• a sprinkle of salt
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 sprigs fresh mint
• a few drops of hot sauce

Slice the cucum­ber in half length­wise and use a tea­spoon to scrape out the seeds. Coarsely grate the cucum­ber and place in a sieve. Sprinkle with salt and leave to drain for 30 minutes, then cover with coffee fil­ters and press down to squeeze out the rest of the liquid.

Mix the grated cucum­ber with the kesam, the crushed garlic and the lemon juice. Finely chop the mint, and mix it in. Add the hot sauce last, to taste.

Place the tzatziki in the refri­ger­ator and let it chill for about 1 hour before serving.