Sam’s grrrrrilled peppers with mango salsa

Don’t you get tired of French fries and heavy carbs sometimes? Sam’s grilled peppers is an excellent side dish to meat, sausages or chicken and it’s so easy to prepare that even Hanna and Alex can do it (OK, maybe not Sam). The spicy mango salsa lightens up, with a splash of colors and flavors, an otherwise boring lunch or dinner. Basically something very tasty and healthy to replace that everyday mom-not-again-fare.

 

Ingredients

2 peppers cut in half
1 mango (chopped)
1/2 chili pepper
1-2 cloves of garlic (grated)
1 tbsp fresh mint (finely chopped)
1 tbsp Mango pulp vinegar
A dash of lime juice
Olive oil
100 grams feta cheese
Salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste

 

Start preparing the salsa: mix mango, chili pepper, fresh mint, garlic, lime juice and mango vinegar. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Moisten the peppers with some olive oil before you add the salsa mix. Top off with feta cheese. Bake in the oven at 200C for approx. 25 minutes. Let cool down, serve and be prepared – your guests will be coming for more!

 

Sam Collins, the Monday blues fixer

If you are down and out and have a serious attack of the Monday blues syndrome, here is something to prop you up, make the world look a bit rosy and put some cheer into your life. We bring to you our new creation, the original Sam Collins. It will make you tell silly jokes and stagger a bit when on your way to the refrigerator for a refill. It’s a tasty treat for the true connoisseur on a hot summer day (in the desert, every day is a hot summer day). By popular demand, here is the recipe (secret ingredient for the first time made public):

"When in a jam, ask for a Sam"

 

Ingredients

1 part Vodka
2 parts Cool Desert Lemonade
1 part Soda
Lots of ice
Fresh mint and lemon peel to garnish

Warning: don’t drink and bark!

Cool Desert Lemonade

Ingredients

3 lemons  (zest and juice)
2 dl sugar
10 dl water
ice

Boil the water and wash the lemons. Add zest and sugar into the boiling water. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let the liquid cool down and add the lemon juice. Strain the lemonade and store it in a carafe in the fridge.

 

 Serve it cold with plenty of ice!

 

Sam’s muesli deluxe

Ingredients

2 dl rolled oats
1 dl almonds
1 dl cashew nuts (not salted)
1 dl dried dates
1 dl dried mango
1 dl pineapple juice
1 tbsp Argan oil
1 tbsp honey
1-2 tsp sugar

Chop almonds and cashew nuts and mix everything together with rolled oats, pineapple juice, Argan oil, honey and sugar. Put the mix in a roasting pan in the oven (15 min, 200 degrees). Stir from time to time so it doesn’t burn. Once the mix has cooled down, add slivered dates and pieces of dried mango. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy your homemade muesli together with milk or yogurt.

Top-Shop Tomato Sauce

Ras-el-hanout

On our last trip to Marrakech we came across this lovely Moroccan spice, Ras-el-hanout, which literally means “top of the shop” i.e. the best spice the shop has to offer. It is prepared differently everywhere you go but the one we bought in the Medina consisted of a 35 spice powder that is used in various chicken or lamb Tangines. Today we decided to be a bit adventurous and try it with something else. The aromatic flavor of cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, cloves and cardamom works perfectly with tomatoes so we came up with this homemade tomato sauce recipe:

Bring out the spaghetti!

3 tomatoes (chopped into small pieces)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 dl water
1 vegetable bouillon cube
2 cloves of garlic (grated)
Fresh parsley
2 tsp Ras-el-hanout
Pinch of sugar
1 tbsp oregano
Salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste

Heat all ingredients in a small saucepan and let simmer until you get the perfect consistency. The tomato sauce works very well together with pasta put we have also tried it on pizza topped with onions, peppers and feta cheese. 

Happy National Popcorn Day!

This is very pop art

What better way to celebrate this special day treating yourself and your friends with some (yes, right guess) popcorn!

Put a little bit of cooking oil in a saucepan. Cover the bottom with popcorn kernels and cover the pan. Put it on high heat. Once it starts popping, shake the pan once in a while (with the lid on obviously) to make sure the popcorn doesn’t burn. When you hear the popping slowing down put them in a big bowl and sprinkle with salt. Melt thereafter one tbsp butter in the pre-heated pan. Add one tsp curry and one tsp chili, less if you can’t take the heat 😉 and stir until smooth. Pour over the popcorn and mix all together. Enjoy with a cold beer!

Red desert coleslaw

Red desert coleslaw

2 servings

½ head red cabbage
1 ½ tbsp mayonnaise
2 carrots (minced)
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
1 garlic
Tabasco and black pepper to taste

Thinly slice the cabbage and mix with the salt. Put it to the side for about 30-60 minutes and remove any eventual water. Grate carrots and garlic and mix with the cabbage. Roast cumin seeds in a pan before putting them into the salad together with mayonnaise, a pinch of pepper and Tabasco to taste.

Perfect with fish or BBQ!

Autumn desert salad

Photo: samandthedunes

2 servings

Ingredients
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 carrot
½ cup mini-onions in vinegar
½ red onion
1 pepper
1 lime

Dressing
3 tbsp. tangerine flavored olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 clove of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper

Separate romaine leaves and chop the carrots, onion and pepper. Combine everything in a big serving bowl. Add mini-onions. Pour dressing over salad before serving. Top of with freshly pressed lime juice.

Frozen Cheesecake

This is our best frozen cheesecake recipe. It doesn’t take long and is well worth the effort. It will definately chill you down in the desert!

Ingredients
8 Digestive biscuits
120g Philadelphia cheese
2 dl sugar (a bit less if the whipping cream is sweet)
1.5 teaspoon vanilla sugar
3 eggs (the yolk)
3 dl whipping cream
Lemon zest from 1 small lemon

Mix the cheese, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest
Add the yolks (one by one)
Whip the cream until thick
Add the cream to the mixture

Crush five Digestive biscuits into crumbs and put them on the bottom of a baking tin with a removable base (about 22 cm in diameter).
Pour the mixture into the baking tin.
Crush three Digestive biscuits into crumbs and spread them evenly over the top of the cake.

Freeze the cake for at least five hours before serving.