Another Foodie Weekend with Sushi & Home Made Pizza

My last full week of this study program just passed and it feels kind of bitter sweet to get back to reality on Thursday. I know that the whole purpose of my studies has been to get a license and then put my new knowledge to practice, but I like studying and learning new things. And also I had the freedom to study from home, take breaks whenever I needed to or take a run in the middle of the day to clear my brain. So it’s been kind of relaxing. Some people don’t have the self disciplin to actually focus on what they’re supposed to do if they work from home, but I have honestly never had that issue. I’ve always thought that school was pretty easy and I don’t know how old I was when I started to see good grades as some kind of competition. Of course I have older brothers that did great in school, so I guess I didn’t want to be that last little slacker, but nobody told me that I had to accomplish a certain grade or score on an exam to be considered a good student or a good person. Still I have always felt like I have to do great and be that ”good girl” or ”good student” that somehow people expect of me. Or maybe it was just always in my head. I probably put the highest expectations on myself. But so far in this training it has paid off, two out of three exams done and I have my final one on Tuesday. I just have to surpress those anxiety issues in the process and focus on what I am doing instead of what would happen if I actually failed 😀 And to cheer me up most people say but heeey you would never fail!!! Making it even worse 😉 End of therapy session – let’s focus on what you all visit this blog for. Food!

This weekend has been very relaxing and we’ve had so much good food! I just didn’t feel like cooking on Friday night and I’ve been wanting to go to a Sushi place here in Brandon that has 5/5 stars on Yelp. So we decided to go and ignore the fact that sushi is very expensive. I used to think that sushi is expensive in Sweden, but hey – if you want to get actual sushi and not just rolls in the US, you pay at least $4 for two small pieces of salmon sushi. It is ridiculous! The only sane way to eat a couple of sushi bites is to buy some kind of combo. And those combos are usually around $18-20. So with our money-spending-boots on we drove to Sushi Ushi. A small little place, doesn’t look too fancy and the service wasn’t great. But holy moly how much fresh fish we got on our plates!! We all did a sushi and sashimi combo – $23. For that you get 6 pieces of sushi, 9 pieces of sashimi and a california roll. And those slices of fish were thick! I don’t know how many pounds (grams!!!) of fish we ate. We also had  BBQ squid for appetizer and the chef came out with a free sample of tuna poke – which was equally amazing. I had a giant sushi baby growing in my belly for hours, because nothing on that plate could go to waste! I even ate the orchid – dipped in wasabi soy.

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Now some of you might think that after that experience, you guys weren’t hungry for two days. But no, we had Swedish Pancakes for brunch Saturday morning! And then we started planning for our Saturday night dinner. We decided for grilled pizza. Our supermarket has a really good pizza dough that is made fresh in the bakery – which makes home made pizza really easy. We have struggled before with making our own dough, but it’s just not as good. We might take up the challenge again now that we share house with an Italian (born in the USA with a heavy Alabama accent), but to be honest the best part is to figure out great pizza toppings! If you add garlic butter on the crust almost any dough will due 😉 So we spent fifteen minutes in the deli trying different smoked meats for our pizzas. I bought prosciutto for mine, Niklas had pepperoni and pancetta and George mixed pancetta and salami. Of course we all had mozzarella cheese, and then as we walked by the fresh seafood section I just had to buy some giant shrimp too – that I marinated in garlic, lime and chili. Mmmh it was all so good! We skipped marinara sauce – it’s way too heavy, garlic butter is the best base. And to top it all off you add some fresh arugula salad on top when the pizza is done (fresh arugula with some olive oil, lime, salt & pepper). Delish!

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Homemade Pizza

Även om hemmagjord pizza aldrig blir lika bra som köpt ”Svensk (alltså som min favorit på Toscana smakar) pizza”, så fick vi till riktigt goda toppings på våra hemmagjorda pizzor i helgen. Degen var rätt bra smakmässigt och den var helt perfekt att arbeta med. Så är ni sugna på hemmagjord pizza till helgen har ni recepten här!

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Pizzadeg: (2 st ca 35 cm i diameter pizzor)
4 cups mjöl + till utbakning (9,6 dl)
1 tsk socker
1 pkt torrjäst
2 tsk salt
1,5 cups 42.c varmt vatten
2 msk olivolja

Gör såhär:
Häll de torra ingredienserna i en matberedare och kör igång. Tillsätt vattnet och olivoljan medan matberedaren arbetar. Kör tills degen blir till en boll runt kniven. Ta upp degen och knåda lite för att se till att det är tillräckligt med mjöl – är degen för torr kan du tillsätta 1 msk vatten i taget och arbeta den smidig, i omvända fallet tillsätt mjöl. Lägg sedan degen i en bunke och täck med plast. Låt jäsa till dubbel storlek i ungefär 1,5 h.

Tomatsås:
2 st finhackade schalottenlökar
1 liten gul lök
5 pressade vitlöksklyftor
1,5 dl kycklingfond
2 burkar krossade tomater
salt & peppar
en nypa socker
2 tsk torkad oregano
1-2 msk färsk eller fryst basilika

Gör såhär:
Fräs lök & vitlök i olivolja tills löken är genomskinlig. Tillsätt kycklingbuljongen och koka ner till ungefär halva mängden vätska. Blanda ner resten av ingredienserna, smaka av med salt & peppar. Låt såsen koka ihop i ungefär trettio minuter. Låt såsen svalna lite och mixa den slät. Smaka av en sista gång och låt sedan såsen kallna innan du använder den på pizzan.

Har du kommit såhär långt återstår det allra roligaste: de olika pizza toppingarna. Vi gjorde tre olika kombinationer till förra helgens tillställning och alla hade sin egen favorit.

Niklas favorit: Rökt skinka, skivad rödlök, skivade champinjoner, bacon, ost & pepperoni. Vi stekte baconet i förväg och toppade pizzan med en blandning av cheddar, mozzarellaost och en mexikansk blandning. Se till att lägga på peperonin ovanpå osten innan pizzan gräddas!

Min favorit: Lite rökt skinka, lufttorkad skinka, mozzarella & pizzaost. När pizzan är färdiggräddad toppas den med skivad avokado och ruccola som blandats med olivolja, basilika, lime, salt, peppar & färskriven parmesan.

Armandos favorit: Vitlök & chilimarinerade scampi, färskpressad vitlök, körsbärstomater, skivad salladslök & blandad pizzaost. Den toppades också med skivad mozzarella.

Alla pizzor gräddades i 10-15 minuter på en pizzasten i 220.C.

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