Kabaret (aspic)

This Easter my other half and I decided that we wanted to take some Norwegian traditions and start our own tradition with the family here in England. I brought a suitcase full of card board eggs and Norwegian candy back with me after a visit to Norway, and back here we filled them up with loads of candy and a little toy of some sort in each egg. It is rather evident that that was a success. But we didn't stop there. We wanted to make an Easter dinner out of it. A proper 3 course dinner. The main was easy to decide on, as lamb is THE Easter dinner all over the place. For pudding, I decided on a chocolate orange angel food cake, just to get the orange in there, which is very "Eastery" in Norway (my apologies for not sharing the recipe for that. I will do next time I make one). But starter was more difficult. Googling gave me page up and page down with lamb, but nothing interesting for starter. Until I found one page saying that kabaret apparently was an Easter dish. "Brilliant!" I thought. I wanted to share this with my extended family as well, as it's such a popular dish for my family in Norway. Most of all this is my grandmother's favourite. She could live off it. Whenever she comes visiting from Sweden we make sure to have at least one (usually 2) ready in the fridge, and loads of mayonnaise and remoulade sauce to go with it.

Ingredients (makes 12 individual muffin shapes and one bigger cake tin):
2 sachets of ready made aspic (or after a recipe like this)
400-500 g peeled shrimps
2 packs seafood sticks (25-30 sticks)
1 tin baby carrots
1 "big" tin sweet corn
1 tin mini peas, or equivalent in frozen peas (prettier colours)
12 eggs (preferably free range for the extra yellow yolk)

1. Prepare aspic after chosen method and let cool to room temperature.
2. Hard boil the eggs and cool them down.
3. Slice the eggs as neatly as possible. You want (mainly) the bits with visible yolk. This is a lot for decoration. (Egg slicers are available from your local IKEA)
4. When the aspic is cooled down, pour a thin layer in the bottom of your chosen mould and put in the fridge to set. It has to be level! Thin metal moulds (like most cake/bread tins) are to be preferred, as the kabaret will release easier from these than from a glass one. Just make sure that the tin won't leak! It will not be a pleasant job to clean the fridge afterwards..
5. Cut the sea food sticks into small chunks, drain off your vegetables (let the peas stay frozen/cold, it will help the aspic setting), and mix everything together in a bowl, including shrimps.
5. When the thin layer of aspic has set, take the tin out and place the egg slices in. This will be the top of your kabaret, so make sure it looks pretty. If you're using a cake or bread tin, you may also want to "decorate" the edges with eggs or something else, but it won't be necessary for muffin trays.
6. Pour your vegetable/sea food mixture into your tin over the eggs and fill it to the rim. Don't push it too much together, as it will make it fall apart more easily when you slice it.
7. Pour aspic over the mixture until it reaches the rim. Then (with making as little mess to your kitchen floor, and fridge, as possible) put the tin in the fridge and leave to set, preferably over night.

A great thing about this is that you can alter it to fit your own likings. I love sea food, and I have grown up with a sea food version, but you can change the shrimps and sea food sticks with anything you like. I'm sure small cubes of ham would be really nice, but I have never tried this myself.

Serve with mayonnaise, or preferably remoulade sauce,

and a piece of bread for a lovely breakfast, lunch or starter.

Frozen yogurt

It's been a long time since my last post, but I've had a spring break from Uni, and I've been thinking about loads of other things. I have thought about my nice little blog, though, so I do have a recipe or two up my sleeve.

During my spring break from uni we've had some really nice weather. It's been so hot, you could easily mistake it for being July certain days. Last summer, a friend and me were experimenting with some home made ice cream, and it was so nice I just had to make some this year as well. But, as summer is coming up, I want to be good, and ice cream made with loads of cream and sugar isn't the best for you, so I decided I wanted to try the healthier option - frozen yogurt. I have to admit that I loved it. The only thing I'd want is an ice cream maker, so that it doesn't go as rock solid! But even then it was worth the wait it took to leave it out on the counter to soften up a bit (or put it in the microwave for a bit for the impatient moments).

Ingredients:
500 ml fat free/low fat natural yogurt
350 g berries or fruit of choice. I used a frozen summer berry mix.
Sugar

1. Crush the fruit or berries. A food processor is recommended over a hand mixer for frozen berries if you want to avoid frozen berry-goo all over your kitchen walls. Trust me.
2. Add the yogurt and mix until you have a smooth mixture.
3. Start adding sugar little by little and mix between each adding and taste. The amount of sugar you want depends on what kind of fruit you have chosen and how sweet you want it.
4. Put in a bowl or a box and put in your freezer. Take it out every 30-60 minutes and give it a stir. This is to prevent ice crystals to form. If you forget it or go away like I did, it still tastes nice, it's just very very hard to serve. Ice cream maker is now on my wish list!

Other sweeteners, like honey, may be used if you want it even healthier, but I'm not a huge fan of the flavour honey gives, and opted for sugar.

Serve as you would serve ice cream.

So nice and refreshing on a warm summer day!