Pancakes for dinner

This is a classic in this household. Devistatingly simple, and always a succes.

Eldeflower-Time-Again

Followed last year's recipe :-)

Kiksekage

a Biscuit cake
I don't know if this exsists in other countries? It's a very traditional Danish dessert, you know, the kind of cake one remembers from Granny's.
My grandmother's was made with palm fat and cocoa powder, but this is made with a hard ganasche from 70% chocolate, cream and a bit of butter.

150 g good quality chocolate
1 dl double cream
1/2 dl sugar
1 tablespoon cold butter

vanilla biscuits

Heat up cream and sugar, and cook until the sugar has melted.
Chop up the chocolate and put in a bowl. Pour the cream over (slowly) and stir until smooth. Stir in the butter. (The ganasche can part -- if it does, fix it by blending it fast with a hand held mixer).
I a form with baking paper, spread a 1 cm (1/2 inch) layer of ganasche, then a layer of vanilla biscuits, a layer of ganasche, and so on, ending with a layer of ganasche.
Decorate (if you like), fold excess paper over the cake, and refridgerate until the ganasche has set (preferably over night). Keep refridgerated.

Falafel

with salad and horseraddish-yoghurt.

175 g dried chick peas
2 large tbsp tahina
lemon juice from 1 lemon
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
a handful parsley
1-2 tsp corriander and cumin -grinded to powder
salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Put chick peas in bowl with water, and leave overnight. Next day, drain and mince with all other ingredients except baking powder in a food processor. Taste, and add tahin and/or lemon juice. It should bind so you can make little "cakes". Let sit in the fridge for a couple of hours, stir in the baking powder, shape (easiest using your hands) and fry in olive oil on medium heat, 6-7 minutes on each side.

Cold sauce with horse raddish:
1 tbsp mayo
3 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp grated, fresh horse raddish
salt

Kransekage

This is a New Year tradition in my corner of the World. Made from marzipan, egg white and sugar, and baked shortly, these, very sweet, "kransekager" are savoured with the champagne at midnight. Do you have these? (and what do you call them?). Or do you have other New-Year-midnight-traditions in your corners? Please share :·)
Other "kransekager". And here :-))

8-10 p
1/2 kg (1,1 lb) marcipan
1 egg white
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar

Mix well, roll, cut and shape (see picture). You can dust powdered sugar on your hands, to prevent the marcipan from sticking.
Place on baking tray and bake for 10 minutes at 200° (400 ° F). (Keep an eye on them - they should only be golden brown - not dark). Let cool completely and decorate with melted chocolate or sugar icing.

Halloween treats

Very Easy Caramel-Nut Treats
Melt caster sugar on non-stick pan (don't stir - utensils will just get stuck in the caramel). Be careful the sugar doesn't fry - it can turn bitter very quickly. Pour in nuts (almond, hazalnut, paranut, cashew or mix). Remove from the heat. Now stir until the nuts are covered in caramel, and pour onto bakingsheet. Spread out as much as you can (fast) and let cool. Cut in chuncks with large knife.


Candied Apple
Rinse and wipe apples thoroughly, and remove stems. Press a popsicle-stick into the apple in the opposite end. Have a plate or bowl with flaked coconut ready. Melt sugar as described above. Remove from the heat. Quickly dip the top of the apple in the caramel - and dip in coconut. The caramel will set very fast on the cold apple, so one must work fast.

Gooey Ghosts
Made with marshmellows, liquorice laces, thinly sliced soft candy stick and black food colouring. The "eyes" have been fastened to the "heads" with food deco-gel.

Pickles

Sweet, spicy smell of curry, mustard and vinegar. Memories in a jar. I am proud to say, this is my Grandmothers pickles. With every bite, I think of her, in love and with memories that make me fuzzy and warm. I still see her, in her kitchen, her worn apron a bit askew -- the woman was working :)
Okay...
Cutting, washing ...
making a wonderful mess
... and feeling love.

Why don't we ...

bring out the heavy, cast-iron pot, and make something simmer?

Oxtail Ragout
serves 4-6
App 1,3 kg (3 lb) ox tail
3 tbsp flour
salt and pepper
50 g (3,5 tbsp) butter

1 onion
150 g (0,3 lb) small onions (charlottes)
1 carrot
1 large teasp paprika
ca 7 dl (3 cups) water and red wine (half'n'half)
1 bay leaf
1 stem of thyme
Maizena corn starch

Mix flour, salt and pepper, and cover the tails lightly. Peel the onions, cut the large one in boats, cut the carrot in 1 cm (1/2 inch) pieces. In a large pot, heat the butter, and cook the tails until just brown on all sides. Set aside. Cook the smaller onions until light brown. Set aside. Cook the large onion and the carrots - do not brown. Put the tails back in the pot, season with paprika, salt and pepper, bay leaf and thyme. Pour water/wine-mix over, the tails should be almost covered.

Heat, and let simmer on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, adding the small onions the last 10 minutes. Gently pick up the meat, put in a serving bowl, add corn flour starch to the sauce to thicken. Season with salt if necessary, and pour the sauce over the meat.
Serve with fluffy mashed potatoes.

This delicious dish has so much flavour and strenght. As the chuck, the tail is an inexpensive cut, and cooked slowly and for a long time, it unfolds wonders of flavour.

Slooooow Saturday Cooking

Filled up the Römertopf with onion, leek, parsnip, carrot, thyme and veal. (I buy meat off the chuck cut for slow foods. This, less expensive cut, tenderizes beautifully when braised for a long time). Season with salt, pepper and bay leaves, and pour 2 small bottles of beer over. Place in cold oven, turning it on to 120°C (250° F) and cook for 5 hours. Half an hour before yelling Dinner is served, boil a medium sellery root (rinsed, pared and cut in cubes) for about 20 minutes until tender. Mash (or blend) and mix with butter. Season with salt and pepper.

Bread Tip-More-Than-A-Recipe

I have a juicer. And when there's time, I like to use the pulp for baking. I like when nothing goes to waste, and apple-, carrot-, or beetpulp add wonderful flavours and moist to bread.

More often than not, bread is made with what the cupboards hold rather than from a recipe. This one went something like this:

app. 20 g (1 table spoon) yeast
3-4 dl (1,5 cup) water
a handfull pulp from apples, carrot and sweet potato
a handful whole barley
a handful rolled oats
flour; rye, siftet rye, durum, spelt (a sort of wheat), and plain wheat (white flour). Kneat until it looks right:). Cover, and set aside for a couple of hours (minimum 2, not more than 5), kneat again (add more flour if necessary). Bake for app half an hour at 200° C (400° F).

Elderberry and Generousity

Garden People are so generous. I have no garden, but the garden people I know give me flowers, herbs, berries and fruits from theirs. And they are always so happy about it; "oh pleeease take it, take as much as you like, we will never be able to eat through it all". "Thank you", says I. Thank you indeed. I love my appartment in the city. But really, I believe I was made to garden. And made to wear the apron. All the time. I feel so happy, wearing the apron.

Tonight, I wore my apron. My dark blue, solid apron, with the waist band that goes back and around, to be tied in front. My sweet colleague, Lars, had, once again, been generous. This time with elderberries from his back yard. Thank you so much.

Elderberry Syrup
Makes 1 liter (34 fl oz)

1 kg (2,2 lb) elderberries, coarsest stems removed
3/4 l (3,2 cups) water
3 garden apples (sour apples), peeled and cut
100 g (0,5 cup) sugar
a clean bottle

Rinse the berries with water and put into a pot with apples and water. Bring to boil, and let simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Sift through a linen cloth (I use an old tea towel I can spare - the berries colour the cloth for good:). Let the juice drip dry - don't squish the berries. Pour back into the pot, add sugar and bring to boil (pour a little sugar in at a time - perhaps you prefer it less sweet. Add more sugar, if you prefer it sweeter).
When the sugar has disolved, pour into a clean, scalded bottle. Keep refriderated.

I find the best way to enjoy the syrup is steaming hot, on a cold day. You can also drink it cold, with water or apple juice, and lemon slices.

As Only Mother Nature Can Do It

We picked these this weekend (please see blog), and I find the best way to eat these, is also the simplest: cooked in butter (don't be cheap) on a hot pan, seasoned with salt and pepper. We had them with some leftover chicken and Basmati rice. Yum.

Spicy Cinnamon Muffins

Makes 12

2 eggs
250 g (1,2 cup) sugar
250 g (1,2 cup) flour
1 teasp baking powder
1 teasp vanilla sugar
1 teasp cinnamon
1 teasp cardamom
1 teasp ginger
a pinch of cloves
a pinch of allspice (Jamaica pepper)
100 g (3,5 oz) butter
1 dl (0,4 cup) milk

Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix flour and spices, and add melted, cooled butter, flour-spice mix and milk in turns. Pour into 12-hole muffin form. Bake app. 25 min. at 180° C (350°F).

Granola

I'm having yogurt with fruit, almonds, linseed oil and home made cruchy granoli. Very easy to make, and so much better, crunchier and tastier than its store-bought cousins. You can mix your favorite ingredients, make it gluten-free, etc.
I usually make each batch a little different than the previous, try to keep the ingredients few and never make more than I know I will eat in a week or so. That way, the taste stays fresh.
This batch was made with
2,5 dl (1 cup) rolled outs
ca 1,5 dl (1/2 cup) millet flakes
a handfull sunflower seeds
2-3 tbsp sesame seeds
1 large, topped tbsp coconut oil
1 teasp honey
All of it goes on a non-stick pan, and roasts until light golden - stir or "flip" it constantly. When golden, pour onto a sheet of baking paper, spread out and let cool. When completely cooled, put in an airtight container. (I had some roasted pine nuts I mixed in the batch too).

I usually have an egg to go with it. That way I'm covered where both protein, carbohydrates and fats are concerned :)

Silky Cauliflower Soup

I'm in the easy-to-make-corner these days:) This soup is quick 'n easy, but so delicious and nutricious:
4-5 p
1 cauliflower, broken into pieces
1/2 sweet potato (optional, but good;-), diced
3 charlotte onions, finely chopped
app 5-6 dl chicken stock

milk or cream (soy or regular)
salt and pepper

sprinkles
a good, mild-tast virgin oil; olive, macadamia or rape
a mix of your favorite kernals and seeds, e.g. coarsly chopped almonds, sunflower- and pumpkin seeds, mildly roasted on a dry, non-stick pan.

Rinse the cauliflower. Cook onions in a little olive oil, until they are clear. Add cauliflower and sweet potato and cook for a minute. Add stock and let cook until the veggies are tender (10-15 minutes). Be careful not to over-cook; the cauliflower can turn bitter, if cooked to long.
Pour into a blender (or use a handprocessor) and blend until smooth and silky. Pour the soup back into the pot, add milk or cream (or more water), and heat it up until it is good and "soupy". Taste and season. Pour into bowls or plates, pour a little oil in the middle, and sprinkle nuts/seeds on top.

Pesto, Please

Years ago, when I made pesto from scratch for the first time, I felt ashamed I hadn't done so sooner. It was so easy. And the taste was - no exaggeration here - a billion times better. It was like it was a whole different product. I have never bought store-made pesto since.
Like many things, pesto has no real recipe - you can mold it to your taste; add more parmesan if you like it saltier, more garlic if you like it spicier, grind it longer if you like it creamy, etc. I like my pesto coarsly chopped so I can taste each ingredient, and those I combine (roughly) go like this:

a large handful leaves of basil
a good chunk of parmesan cheese (app. 100 g), cut in smaller pieces
a small bag of pine kernels, gently roasted on a dry pan
a good splash of olive oil
1 clove of garlic (preferably the fresh kind when in season), minced
freshly grounded black pepper
- put in a small food processer (or use a handprocesser), and mix. Taste and refine if needed.

I will use my batch for a pasta-dish later this week, but you can use it for allmost anything; on bread (+ baked on slices of bread as bruscettas), on cold meat, mixed with cooled, cooked potatoes for a delicios potato salad. In a club sandwich, in your omelet, on roasted salmon (I could go on and on). Keep refridgerated.

Beetroot and sweet potato crisps

Easy to make and delicious to taste. Left the kitchen a bit smelly, but I have a Lampe Berger, so that was quickly done with. (Do you know them? They are fantastic).
Anyhoo -- back to the beets. Peel and ultra-finely slice beetroot and sweet potato, and fry in oil, a few slices a time. Cook until golden - how long depends on how hot the oil is. I found the best result came from keeping the oil medium-hot. Too hot made the slices go dark brown in a sec.
Place them on kitchen towel, sprinkle with salt, and enjoy.

Cod Dolmades

400 g (o,9 lb) fresh fillet of cod
2 charlotte onions (or small regular)
1 egg
1 teasp flour
salt and pepper

Summer cabbage
kitchen string
Mince the fish in a food processor. Add onion, egg, flour, salt and pepper, and grind until smooth and light. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, rinse the cabbage head, and remove coarse outer leaves. Stick a fork firmly in the stalk and dip the cabbage head in the boiling water for a few seconds. This will make the outer leaves soft and easy to peel off. Repeat until you have four large leaves (or more if you prefer smaller dolmades). Put the leaves back in the pot, letting them cook about one minute. They should be cooked "al dente" (with a bite) - just enough to be able to fold, but if cooked to long, they will smash apart.
Place the leaves on your kitchen board, cut out the coarse bit of stalk in a triangle shape, and place 1/4 of the minced cod mix on the leaf. Fold the leaf around the fish, not leaving any open corners, and bind together with a piece of kitchen string.
In a large pot, heat up 1 teasp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil, and cook the dolmades on both sides until they are golden brown. Add stock (chicken or veg) 1-2 cm (1/2 inch) up around the dolmades. Let simmer, with the lid on, at low-medium heat for about 20 minutes. Set them onto a plate, and reduce the soup. Sift and serve over the dolmades.
Our fish was served with fresh 4-formaggio-tortellini (store-bought ;-) - not going over-board here).

Sunday cooking without measuring cups

More often than not, dinner comes to without recipe or measuring cup. Today was no exception. It was also the day for my Tupperware slicer/julienne-maker. I does thin and super-thin slices.

Fillet of Pengasius and Butter Bean Salad
Serves 4

Any white, firm-flesh fish will do - I had two large fillets of Pengasius in my freezer.

1 large onion - thinly sliced
1/2 apple - thinly sliced
1 large clove of garlic - super-thinly sliced
2 leaves of summer cabbage - cut into chunky pieces
Mix veggies with 1 dash of olive oil, and pour into ovenfriendly pan. Place the fish on top.
Mix 1 part Vermouth (Nolly Prat), 1 part water and 1 part greek youghurt 10% - about 1 dl (little less than 1/2 cup) of each - and pour over fish and vegetables. Season with a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Cook for 20-25 minutes at 175° C (335° F)
(before fish and wine)

Butter Bean Salad
1 large carrot - super-thinly sliced
1/2 apple - super-thinly sliced
(drip the juice of 1/2 lemon over, to prevent the apples of turning brown)
2 large handfull cooked and cooled butter beans
1 leaf summer cabbage - thinly cut (using a knife)
Fresh parsley - uncut;)

Dressing
Sweet, thick balsamico vinegar - minced garlic - olive oil - macadamia oil - a dash apple juice - apple vinegar - a little teasp mayonaise - salt and pepper. (Or whatever dressing you do:)

We ended our meal with a nice Saint Albray, a garlic cream cheese and a glass of red wine. Gotta love Sunday nights:)
I wish you the best week to come.

Elderflower Blossom Syrup

Wonderful as a soft drink, with water - still or sparkly. Adds flavour and sweetness to dressings. A delicate touch of summer in a glass of white wine as a aperitif. And soothing, in hot water with a cinnamon stick on a cold winter day.

Makes ca 2 liters (ca 68 fl oz)
30-40 elderflower heads
15 g (3 teasp) citric acid (for cooking)
1 lemon (organic, un-sprayed)
1 kg (2,2 lb) sugar
app. 1,5 l (51 fl oz) boiling hot water

Trim the flower heads and put them in a large bowl or pot. Add the sliced lemon, sugar and citric acid, and pour over the hot water. Stir well, and put a lid on. When the syrup has cooled, set in the refrigerator for 5 days, stirring a couple of times each day.
Sift the syrup through a tea towel, saving the pickled flowers and lemon slices for Elderflower Jam (se previous post). Pour into cleaned and boiled bottles.
You can add preservative if you like, or freeze the syrup; then preservatives aren't needed.

Elderflower Blossom Jam

This must be the easiest jam, I have ever made. Once the syrup is made, you simply scrape the flowers off the pickled elderflower heads, throwing the most coarse stems away, and chop the flowers and the lemon slices finely. Cook with some of the syrup, 5-10 minutes, and add gelatine powder, following the instructions on the bag.
Pour into cleaned and boiled jam jars.

More a tip than a recipe

Fruit salad is such a delicate, fresh and easy dessert to make, and every household is likely to have its own personal variety. One tip, though; try cutting the fruits as small as your patience possibly lets you - the smaller, the better - so that each mouthful contains all the fruity flavours at once.
The salad pictured above was made with pineapple, green apple, pear, kiwi, red plum, orange, banana and leaves of lemon balm.

Italian Biscotti with varieties

Biscotti means baked twice. These little hard cookies are easy to make, and can be flavoured to match any occation.

Makes app. 40-50
Basic recipe
2 large eggs
150 g (0.8 cup) sugar
200 g (1 cup) whole almonds
300 g (3 cups) wheat flour
1 teasp baking powder
1/2 teasp salt
(see flavouring varieties below)

Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy. Add almonds and flavour (see below), then mix flour, baking powder and salt, and stir into the dough. Knead until the dough is coherent and even. Make sticks as long as your baking tray, and app. 3 cm (1 inch) thick.
Place on tray with baking paper (a couple of inches apart) and bake for app 20 minutes at 180 C (350 F).
Let cool for a minute (don't turn the oven off), cut the sticks slant, about 1-2 cm (1/2 inch), and place on the tray (reusing the paper from the first bake).
Bake again for 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool on a rack.

Flavour with
100 g (1/2 cup) chocolate, broken into chunks
a handful pine nuts (slightly roasted) (pictured above)
or
1 cm (1/2 inch) pealed and finely grated fresh ginger
or
4-5 chopped, pickled ginger chunks
or
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
black poppy seeds (roll the sticks in the poppy seeds before 1st bake) (pictured above)
or
1 tbsp slightly roasted, coffee beans (break them a bit with a meat tenderiser or rolling pin)
or
3 tbsp Amaretto or Vielle Prune (Plum brandy)

... or?
Please share your experiences flavouring these crunchy little fellas:)

Store in an airtight container.
A few links to more Biscotti; La Biscotteria, Cafe Fernando

Strawberry pie

This is one yummy deal.
Serves 4-6, and regretably never leaves leftovers

Pie dough
150 g plain flour
100 g butter
50 gr sugar
1/2 egg

Almond paste
75 g butter
75 g sugar
150 g marzipan
1/2 egg

Mix the pie dough, roll out and place in a pie pan. Trim the sides. Mix the almond paste and spread evenly on top of the dough, and up the sides. Place the pan in a 200 C warm oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Chocolate
Melt 100 g dark chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
*TIP*: mix in 1-2 tbsp nougat or 1 tbsp butter. It softens the chocolate, and therefore prevents it from cracking when the pie is cut.
Spread the chocolate mix onto the cooled pie crust, and up the sides. Let the chocolate cool completely.

Custard-cream
Make a batch of custard. I cheat, and make it from mix, following the instruction on the box. Smarten up the custard with greek yoghurt, whipped cream (made from app. 1 1/2 dl double cream) and vanilla sugar. Mix and taste, until you find it irresistible.
Spread the mix in a thick layer (you might not need all of the custard mix) on the pie.

Strawberries
Wash and trim fresh sweet strawberries - at least 500 g - and place them beautifully on the pie.

*TIP*
This pie actually taste its best, when made a day in advance. That is to say, everything up to the strawberries. Store the pie (short of the berries) in the refrigerator, add the berries just before serving, for freshness.

Fried zucchini-parsnips

1/2 large zucchini
1/2 parsnip
1 clove of garlic, minced
a handfull black sesame seeds (or regular)
1 large egg
salt and freshly grinded pepper

Using the large holes on a box grater, grate zucchini and parsnip. Mix in the other ingredients, heat a pan with 3 tbsp olive oil, and drop a large tbsp of the mix on the pan. Cook on both sides until golden - 2-3 minutes on each side.

Thé à la Menthe

With three different kinds of peppermint.
Trim and wash fresh peppermint, using young and light green leaves only, put in cup or heat-tolerant glass and pour freshly boiled water over. Add sugar if you prefer your tea sweet.

Cauliflower "potato"-salad

with no potatoes.
Cauliflower boiled or steamed "al dente". Let cool.
White dressing made with 1 teasp dijon mustard, 1 part mayonaise, 2 parts yoghurt (soy, greek or sour cream), salt, pepper and lots of freshly chopped dill. Mix.

Garden generousity part II

Among the bouquet of herbs was sage.

Egg Pie and mozzarella-prosciutto roll-ups with sage
4p
6 eggs
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cold pressed rape seed kernel oil
6 slices Prosciutto di Parma
1 ball of mozzarella soft cheese
6-7 cooked, peeled small potatoes (leftover from the day before)
salt, pepper and 1/2 tbsp finely chopped sage
butter to cook pie

Whip eggs, milk and oil. Season with salt, pepper and sage. Melt butter in pan and pour the eggs into this. Let cook for a few minutes and put potatoes, 4 slices mozzarella and part of the proscuitto on the pie. Let cook on low heat until the top of the egg mass is set. You can use a lid to speed up the process.

While egg pie is cooking, cut the rest of the mozzarella cheese into thick "sticks", sprinkle with finely chopped sage and roll up in proscuitto (1 slice makes 3-4 pieces).
Serve with a green salad and perhaps some rye bread.

Garden generousity

I don't have a garden. I would like to have one. I would grow vegetables and herbs and fruits, and I would be in my garden all the time.
Alas. I don't have a garden.
Thursday, I visited a good friend. She generously gave me loads of chervil and lovage from her garden. (Thank you, E.) Today, I visited another good friend - also the fortunate owner of a garden - and she filled my arms with herbs and rubarb. (Thank you, V.)
Sunday kitchen -- here I come.

Rhubarb Crumble Cake
4-6 p
In a foodprocessor, mix
1 1/2 dl (0,6 cup) rolled oats
a handful almonds
1 dl (0,4 cup) muscovado sugar (or regular)
125 g (4,5 ounces) butter
1 teasp vanilla

Push half of the crumble dough into pie plate with your fingers. Mix in 2 tbsp white flour with the other half, and set aside.

Wash and trim the rhubarb, and cut into pieces. Whipe them dry with a paper towel, sprinkle with cane sugar and pour into the pie plate with crust. Crumble the mix over and bake for 20 minutes at 200 C (400 F).


Serve with sour cream or yoghurt - soy or regular - mixed with vanilla sugar. Or with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Banana Popsicles

These cold treats are a bliss in the summer heat. And you can enjoy them with the best of conscience - they are sugar and dairy free :)
Makes 6

1 big, very ripe banana
1/2 teasp vanilla
Rice Dream vanilla (enough to make the mix soft and tasty)

Pour into popsicle form and set in the freezer for at least 6 hours.