Chasing the Aurora Borealis & chunky Norwegian soup

WOW, WHAT AN ADVENTURE THIS WAS!  It may not have been the furthest, the most exotic, or the most popular travel destination I’ve ever been to.  But it sure was like nothing else – simply pure magic! 

In March, we took a trip past the Arctic Circle to the Norwegian city of Tromsø (aka: Paris of the North), to chase the Aurora Borealis (aka: Northern Lights).  Yes, in March – the month when “normal people” start welcoming Spring, celebrate the melting of the grey-ish slush once known as snow, and enjoy birds chirping, flowers blooming and sun shining (after all: they’ve been waiting for this for so long!).  Yep, that’s exactly when we went North.  North, where there is no melting, chirping or blooming, but instead a freezing, in-your-face reminder that in March Queen Winter still rules over large parts of Europe.

And I mean it when I say in-your-face.  The moment we opened the door of the Tromsø airport, we were hit by a snowstorm so dense, that we were instantly converted into snowmen, struggling to move in the strong icy breeze.  I was freezing to death and thinking to myself: who the hell wants to come here when there are tons of other, perfectly habitable destinations?!

Still, we came here with a purpose (plus, let’s be honest, nobody likes a wuss), so we got our act together, and on the very same evening went for a night walk in the blizzard.  Yep, two people, in complete darkness, in the wilderness, in a snowstorm, wearing… ah I think I need a new sentence to describe all the things we were wearing.  Starting with woolen thermal underwear (long-sleeve T-shirt & leggings), through layers of fleece jumpers, warm pants, ski pants on top, two pairs of woolen socks, a wind & water-proof jacket, ski goggles, ski scarf, hat, hood, two pairs of gloves, and sturdy winter boots.  

On top, the tourist office gave us (compulsory) double-padded overalls (!), Nordic walking poles, snow shoes (you know, these things looking like mini rackets) and head torch lights.  Pffff - it was a lot of stuff!  But boy was I happy to be wearing all of this!  Because this actually made walking in the snow blizzard a lot of fun!  We felt like first explorers of rough polar territories, like real adventurers in contact with the raw and harsh outdoors.  It was like nothing else!  And, believe me, hot tea honestly never tasted as good, as when we came back from this trip, and were served tea and cake near a cosy fireplace in a Norwegian hut!

The main attraction of the trip was without a doubt the sighting of Aurora Borealis!  This is a spectacular natural phenomenon, in a nutshell caused by clashed of solar winds and Earth's atmosphere.  For years, however, people believed these are spirits of the dead gathering in the sky in a majestic dance of colors, waves and flows.  and when you actually see the phenomenon, this non-scientific explanation looks very believable.

It is not so easy to spot the Northern Lights.  First, they are only visible in Tromsø during a few months.  They also depend in the solar activity - the more active the explosions on the Sun, the more spectacular effects you get.  Finally, you need a clear sky to be able to see anything at all - which is not easy during Winter months.  Consequently, just sitting and waiting for the light show is not he best solution.  It's best to go on a so-called "Aurora hunt", where people with proper meteorological equipment can tell where there is a clear sky and also monitor solar activity.

Our Aurora hunt took us close to the Finish border, where we set out camp in the middle of nowhere.  And then we waited and waited for hours...  It was around -20°C and despite all the layers we were wearing, it started getting very cold after a few hours.  We saw the Northern Lights, but because of low solar activity the effects were at first not spectacular - it looked more like a green glow or Batman sign ;)  But then suddenly, when our hope started fading, the show started.  A fascinating performance of dynamic, quickly changing green waves and shapes.  As breathtaking as Nature can get:) 

Tromsø itself is a charming little town, which has everything you need at a winter resort.  It has many cute shops, a pretty harbor, and consists of tons of colorful small houses, playfully scattered among the white mountain hills and plains.  Our hotel was located in the center of the city, near the harbor, and served the most amazing breakfast buffet I've ever seen.  With plenty of healthy/bio versions of muesli and dried fruit, delicious dark bread and an impressive selection of smoked fish.  The cold smoked salmon (see below) is so different in taste from the "popular" hot smoked salmon is honestly the best tasting smoked fish in the world.  

Tromsø also has plenty of restaurants, some traditional, some international.  One of the most traditional dishes we had was randier (see below), which is served medium rare with a cranberry sauce.

There are so many fun things to do up North!  One of the most characteristic activities of the Polar Circle region, are sleigh dog rides!  It's SO MUCH FUN!  The huskies are just adorable and very well trained.  You can lead your own sleigh without much effort, and the dogs follow the instructions flawlessly.  That is unless they are up for some frolicking in the snow with the other dogs, in which case you must remind them to get back into the line.  But that's just their happy, friendly nature that surfaces - so you really can't blame them (but feel like playing with them yourself ;-) ).  What is also so great about dog sleigh rides is also the close contact with nature.  You don't hear any motors, smell any polluted fumes, but just gracefully glide through the white snow dessert - magical.

Having said that, it's also a lot of fun to do the snow jet ski.  For the speed, snow fun, and possibility to cover longer distances and see so many breathtaking sights.  We went jet skiing in the Lyngen Alps - and the views were just spectacular.  A vast mountain range covered with a blanket of soft, fluffy snow - virgin white and untouched.  All in glorious sunshine, so strongly reflected in the snow, you really needed sunglasses to be able to see.

This fish soup is really delicious and super healthy!  I never would have guessed fish soup can be that good!  We had it during our Aurora hunting night, while standing around a big fireplace in the middle of nowhere.  It tasted phenomenal - especially in the biting cold of the outdoors.  We also had it a few more times, and it seems a popular dish up North. Nonetheless, I couldn't find a recipe online that would mirror what we had in Norway.  So I just improvised, and the result is exactly as I wanted!

Unlike in many fish soups, there is no cream added here.  Nonetheless, the soup is very thick, and actually more of a stew with big delicious chunks of vegetables and fish.  The tomato base gives it a certain sweetness and acidity, which goes particularly well with the meaty fish and big chunks of potato.  I added quite a few chili peppers to the soup (with pips included), which also made it very spicy.  If you prefer milder flavors, you can skip the chili, or add less and remove the pips (almost all of the heat comes from the pips, so if you get rid of them the soup will be much milder).

You can play around with the ingredients a little bit - adding you favorite veggies or removing others.  I think this combination is really great though, with a great diversity of flavors and textures.  I hope the soup will give you a taste of Norway, and inspire to explore its wild glorious beauty!

INGREDIENTS:

• 400 g white fish fillet (cod, halibut or any meaty white fish), cut in large chunks
• 4 medium/small potatoes, cut in quarters
• 3 carrots, cut in large chunky slices
• 1 fennel bulb, diced
• 1 red pepper, cut in chunky pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 baby cauliflowers (or approx. 1/3 of a full size cauliflower), cut in large chunks
• 1 can of peeled tomatoes
• 500 g of tomato puree
• 2 chili peppers, finely chopped (optional) (I added around 6-7 and the soup was SUPER HOT!)
• 200 ml of good quality, liquid fish stock
• olive oil
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 allspice berries
• salt / pepper
• boiling water
• lots of fresh parsley, chopped

METHOD:

[The overall cooking time depends on the size of your veg & fish.  You want the ingredients to be cooked but not overcooked - the veg needs to stay firm, and the fish can't get rubbery.  Check the veg during cooking, and adjust cooking time accordingly].

• Sauté the onions, garlic and chili peppers with some olive oil in a big non-stick soup pan, for about 4-5 minutes.
• Add all the chopped vegetables except for the cauliflower.  Stir well, then add the tomatoes, tomato puree, fish stock and boiling water, enough to coat the vegetables with 2-3 cm liquid.  Add the bay leaves and all spice, and season to taste.  Cover with a lid and let simmer (small/medium heat) for approx. 20 minutes.
• Add the cauliflower and let simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
• Finally add the fish, and cook for 5-7 more minutes until cooked through, but not overcooked.
• Serve with plenty of fresh parsley, and buttered bread.

Bon appetit!

Oh-so-yummy stuffed peppers

Lately the idiom "I could eat a horse" has evolved from a fun expression to a very literal -- yet unfortunate -- prophecy for the European consumer.  Reports of horse meat found pretty much everywhere and in everything have made me think twice even when buying horseradish in a jar.  Seems like greedy food producers are going out of their way to make consumers reach the bitter conclusion that nothing will ever surprise them again.

Rest assured -- this recipe has nothing to do with horse meat.  Nonetheless, the horse idiom is definitely appropriate here, as the dish is great for very hungry people.  After trying this, you will want to change the expression to "I'm so hungry I could eat a stuffed pepper."  Sounds much nicer in view of the recent events.

There is no doubt about this: the peppers are very filling. I was totally stuffed after eating two -- one would have been enough, but they are just soooooo delicious I couldn't resist having the second one.  They are great on their own, but you could also serve them as a side dish -- with some meat, potatoes or salad.  

This dish is very healthy and low in fat or calories.  The peppers are stuffed with red lentils, buckwheat, mushrooms and herbs.  Lentils and buckwheat are an excellent source of fibre, proteins, vitamins and minerals -- they are among the healthiest foods out there.  You won't even notice when you become healthier and happier after eating the peppers (ok, ok: this is not a miracle worker -- just very good for you).

The dish requires almost no preparation and is extremely easy to make.  Vegetarians/vegans will love it.  Meat-eaters won't even notice there is no meat there (or they can have it as a side dish with a steak, if they really must have some meat).  

There is also a lot of room for experimenting: you can add any ingredients you like to the stuffing (tomatoes, minced meat, capers, topped with cheese etc.).  But this combination is a perfect balance of flavors, and goes very well with the sweet, soft, delicately cooked pepper.  

Mmm, I can't wait to make this again!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 4 red or yellow peppers (firm, fresh, and with thick flesh)
• 100 g of dry buckwheat roasted groats
• 100 g of dry red lentils
• 300 g of mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 large onion or 2 small ones, finely chopped 
• 400 ml of light vegetable stock (I used bio)
• 3 tsps of herbes de Provence (I used bio)
• olive oil (around 1 tbsp)
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Sauté the onions with the olive oil until golden.  Add the chopped mushrooms, herbes de Provences, and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Sauté until light brown.
• Chop off the top of the peppers.  Be careful not to make any holes in the lid while doing that.    Cut off the stems if they are too long.  Clean the peppers inside, getting rid of the pips. 
• Mix the dry buckwheat, lentils and mushrooms in a bowl.  Fill the bottom part of the peppers, leaving around 1 cm of space from the edge.
• Pour a bit of hot water in a pan, filling it with a layer of around 3 cm.  Put the peppers in a pan, very tightly next to each other.  They will become very soft and slippery, so they must be arranged really tightly or otherwise they might fall over.  
• Pour the vegetable stock filling each pepper up to the edge.  Cover with the pepper lid.  
• Cover the pan with the lid.  Let simmer over a small heat for around 40 minutes (yellow peppers are softer than the red ones, so monitor them closely to see if they don't fall apart).

Bon appetit!

Veggie goat's cheese quiche

I think progress and innovation stems from very clever lazy people, who are just pretending to be hardworking.  Who else would spend their life trying to figure out how to make things easier, less strenuous and more simple?  The huge revolution in the way of living of the -- so-called -- "Western society" is proof of how much easier life is now for the average person.  All thanks to clever inventions -- simple solutions saving time and hard work.

My mind often takes the same approach to cooking, trying to figure out the simplest way to prepare something -- at the same time not giving up on taste, quality and the home-made-factor.

What I cook very often is a result of what I happen to have in the fridge.  There is no elaborate planning, no trips to specialty stores to get exotic ingredients, no thorough research in the Internet or cookbooks to find the perfect recipe or at least some inspiration.  Leading a busy life with limited free time and strength to engage in hours and hours of shopping, preparing and cooking forces you to be creative.  

And all the better -- after all few of us have the luxury of both time and resources.  And it's not that I don't like being in the kitchen.  It's just that in the little time I have left after work, I like doing other things too.  That's why I often try to figure out ways to spend as little time cooking as possible.

The key to success is having the right basic ingredients at home.  Vegetables, grains, eggs, flower, spices, oil or butter will often get you a long way.  Sometimes you are allowed to cheat by buying ready made pastry -- who would have the time to every single time make the pastry from scratch after returning from work?

That's how this quiche happened.  My family came to visit and I wanted them to have a proper meal, but at the same time not spend hours preparing it.  This semi-fancy, semi-home made dinner was the work of a few moments.  I simply chopped some veggies, whisked together the batter, and voila - dinner was served.  

Go ahead and experiment yourself!  It's amazing how much time you can save with some lazy-mindset-thinking -- and at the same time come up with great dinner ideas.  

Ingredients:

• 1 package of shortcrust pastry (not sweetened)
• 2 red peppers, sliced
• 250 g of champignon mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 package of creamy goat's cheese (150 g)
• 3 eggs
• 50 ml of milk
• 2 tbsp of flower
• a handfull of grated gruyère cheese (optional)
• handfull of sunflower seeds
• handfull of pumpkin seeds
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C.  Put the shortcrust pastry in a tart tin, make sure the edges stick nicely to the tin.  Puncture wholes with a fork on the bottom of the pastry.  Bake for 6-8 minutes until slightly golden (it might rise a bit, but don't worry about that).  Take out of the oven and set aside.
• Saute the onion with a tablespoon of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms, saute until golden brown.  Put on the pre-baked pastry.
• Whisk together the milk and flower until smooth.  Add goat cheese, eggs, salt and pepper and gruyere cheese if you're using it.  Pour over the mushrooms.
• Decorate quiche with peppers and sprinkle with seeds.  Bake around 30 more minutes.
• Serve with fig preserve, sprinkled with additional seeds.

Bon appetit!

Pasta sauce: reinvented

Rain and strikes -- today was a typical Brussels day.  It started raining about a week ago, and I hasn't stopped since for more than a couple of hours. Of course the rain is accompanied by strong wind, which makes carrying an umbrella more or less as useful as swinging a stick.  
Strikes are also a significant and imperative part of everyday life here.  All sorts of people come to the capital of the EU to voice their opinion... or just take a "day off" and combine the protesting with some sight-seeing.  

Funnily enough, weather and strikes immediately become the key conversation item.  Suddenly this is all people can talk about.  But who would blame them -- after being soaked to the skin, and arriving late at work/home because of the traffic jams caused by street blockades.  

Before & after (#1)

But once you get to know Brussels and its hidden charms a little bit better, you will no longer notice its flaws.  What is more -- you'll learn to like them.  

When I was on my way to get lunch, I got caught up in an avalanche of hundreds of trade union protestors -- all of them dressed in bright green and moving towards the destination of their protest.  Since it was pouring, I gently unfolded my bright red umbrella (which was not easy in this crowd, especially since my umbrella is half-broken by wind).  And I thought to myself: how cool is this?!  Here I am with my vividly red umbrella, in this big crowd of bright green people (talking about their protest and drinking beers -- after all, it's a day off).  What a funny sight this must have been from a birds-eye-view :-)  Thank God for the rain and strikes!

Before & after (#2)

Just like today was a typical day -- today's dish could not be more everyday & simple.  What else could you say about spaghetti sauce?  Still, I decided to give the dish a little bit of a twist.  Instead of using the store-bought-jarred-slush-loaded-with-preservatives, I went for a home-made version.

The sauce is made of grilled vegetables -- and has their rich, smoked flavor.  The taste is so much more complex than that of a basic tomato sauce -- yet the various barbecued vegetable flavors complement each other perfectly.  It goes well with every king of pasta, but I prefer good quality fettucine al uovo to spaghetti.  Great idea for a simple everyday meal!

You have to be very quick if you want to take pictures  -- the food disappears in a blink of an eye!

Serves four

Ingredients:

• 1 small eggplant (or 1/2 of a big one)
• 1 small zucchini (or 1/2 of a big one)
• 2 peppers (e.g. red and yellow)
• 2 small red onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 small can (100g) of (bio) tomato paste 
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• your favorite pasta (amount for 4 people)
• a large handful of fresh herbs (preferably basil or parsley) (chopped) 
• parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Roughly dice all the veggies, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake until completely tender (around 45-60 minutes).
• Take vegetables out of the baking tray and blend.  You can make a completely smooth sauce -- I prefer when it still has some texture to it.  Add the tomato paste and stir.  Season to taste.
• Cook pasta, reheat sauce.  Serve sprinkled with fresh herbs and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Buon appetito!