We got a veg share from the coop we just joined, and based our Christmas Day food around that. We ate:
Maple-roasted parsnips and celeriac (similar to this)
Roasted brussels sprouts with pomegranate molasses (a simplified version of this)
Red cabbage and sesame salad (similar to this, with coriander instead of chives and no carrot or radish)
Potato, mint and edamame salad
Tahini-lemon sauce
Zimtsterne (these take ages to make but keep very well)
S was in charge of Christmas Eve since that is the special day in Germany. We ate cheese fondue (which is apparently traditional) with broccoli, cauliflower, gnocchi, bread pieces.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Wood Ear
Crunchy rice carpet with lentils, onions and pomegranate
I went to Cambridge to see Dad, S and B a couple weeks ago. I hadn't realised when I planned it, but it was so close to Christmas that it made a lovely Christmas warm-up. I got to have my first (probably only) mince pie of the year, and we ate well, played games and exchanged presents (still wrapped though!). I also got to buy a Saturday Guardian for the first time in years. This has been frustrating - it is available in Europe but they don't put the supplements in, so irritating. So anyway, I am still reading it on and off. And I came across a recipe for stuck-pot rice and thought why not just spend the afternoon making that because I can? I didn't really follow the recipe, but I liked my version.
rice:
180 g brown basmati rice, soaked for 1 hour
60 g butter
A few pinches saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp boiling water
lentils:
1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils
1 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups water
onions:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
salt+pepper
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
to serve:
pomegranate seeds (optional but lovely)
yoghurt
chopped coriander (optional)
Bring a deep pan of salted water to a boil and cook the rice for about 15 min until al dente. Drain, then briefly rinse in water. Wipe out the pan, then melt the butter in it, and pour into a cup. Return the drained rice to the pan, stir in half the melted butter, then smooth the top of the rice. Pour over the remaining butter and saffron, cover with a clean tea towel, put on the lid and cook on the lowest heat for 30-40 min, until the rice is cooked, with a golden crust on the bottom.
While the rice is cooking, cook the lentils and onions. For the lentils, put them in a pan with allspice and bay, cover with water and bring to the boil, then simmer low until water is gone and they are done. For the onions, heat oil in a large frying pan, then add onions and cook medium-low for about 30 min, until they are brown and soft/crispy in places. Add pomegranate molasses and seasoning to taste.
To serve, put crunchy rice in a bowl and add lentils, onions, pomegranate seeds, yoghurt and coriander. Yum.
rice:
180 g brown basmati rice, soaked for 1 hour
60 g butter
A few pinches saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp boiling water
lentils:
1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils
1 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups water
onions:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
salt+pepper
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
to serve:
pomegranate seeds (optional but lovely)
yoghurt
chopped coriander (optional)
Bring a deep pan of salted water to a boil and cook the rice for about 15 min until al dente. Drain, then briefly rinse in water. Wipe out the pan, then melt the butter in it, and pour into a cup. Return the drained rice to the pan, stir in half the melted butter, then smooth the top of the rice. Pour over the remaining butter and saffron, cover with a clean tea towel, put on the lid and cook on the lowest heat for 30-40 min, until the rice is cooked, with a golden crust on the bottom.
While the rice is cooking, cook the lentils and onions. For the lentils, put them in a pan with allspice and bay, cover with water and bring to the boil, then simmer low until water is gone and they are done. For the onions, heat oil in a large frying pan, then add onions and cook medium-low for about 30 min, until they are brown and soft/crispy in places. Add pomegranate molasses and seasoning to taste.
To serve, put crunchy rice in a bowl and add lentils, onions, pomegranate seeds, yoghurt and coriander. Yum.
White bean, white wine and kale stew
We made an epic ladcykel trip to Istanbul Bazaar the other week. S found a huge bag of white beans and insisted on buying it, on the condition that he cook them himself. A month or so later it became clear this would never happen, so I got started. I cooked a load of them, then we ate white bean things pretty much every night for a work week. See also white bean spread and white bean pasta.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup cooked white beans
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup white wine
2-3 kale leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
salt+pepper
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and fry until softened. Add white beans, tomato and white wine and simmer until all is softened and the wine is mostly evaporated. Add kale and oregano, cook for a few minutes more and check for seasoning. Eat with crusty bread. Just as good if not better reheated.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup cooked white beans
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup white wine
2-3 kale leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
salt+pepper
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and fry until softened. Add white beans, tomato and white wine and simmer until all is softened and the wine is mostly evaporated. Add kale and oregano, cook for a few minutes more and check for seasoning. Eat with crusty bread. Just as good if not better reheated.
Pasta with white beans, celeriac and sundried tomatoes
The last and best thing I made with my mound of cooked white beans. I never usually cook pasta for S as he always cooks it for himself, so he was especially excited about this. And I thought it worked really well. I took a little inspiration from here and here.
1 tbsp oil from sundried tomatoes (or olive oil)
1 small onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 very small celeriac, peeled and diced into 1 cm dice
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 cups white beans
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup water or veg stock
5 sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
enough pasta for 2 people, cooked in boiling salted water until very al dente
4 kale leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp chopped oregano
salt+pepper
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute until starting to soften, 2-3 min. Add diced celeriac and chilli flakes, cover and cook without browning until softened (about 15 min). Meanwhile cook the pasta (v al dente), drain and set aside. Add white beans, white wine and stock/water to the celeriac pan, heat and cook for 10-15 min. Blend using a wand blender until it is about half smooth, half remaining unblended. Add the sundried tomatoes, pasta, kale and oregano and cook for another 5-10 min. Taste for seasoning and serve in bowls.
I thought this was a triumph. Quick, hearty and warming, with a lovely combination of tastes and textures. Blending up part of the bean and celeriac mixture is the key - it makes a delicious sauce that coats the pasta, while the unblended parts keep it toothsome and interesting.
1 tbsp oil from sundried tomatoes (or olive oil)
1 small onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 very small celeriac, peeled and diced into 1 cm dice
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 cups white beans
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup water or veg stock
5 sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
enough pasta for 2 people, cooked in boiling salted water until very al dente
4 kale leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp chopped oregano
salt+pepper
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute until starting to soften, 2-3 min. Add diced celeriac and chilli flakes, cover and cook without browning until softened (about 15 min). Meanwhile cook the pasta (v al dente), drain and set aside. Add white beans, white wine and stock/water to the celeriac pan, heat and cook for 10-15 min. Blend using a wand blender until it is about half smooth, half remaining unblended. Add the sundried tomatoes, pasta, kale and oregano and cook for another 5-10 min. Taste for seasoning and serve in bowls.
I thought this was a triumph. Quick, hearty and warming, with a lovely combination of tastes and textures. Blending up part of the bean and celeriac mixture is the key - it makes a delicious sauce that coats the pasta, while the unblended parts keep it toothsome and interesting.
White bean and sundried tomato spread
Another option with all those white beans. This time a dip/spread we took to work to eat with carrot sticks and flatbreads. It was lovely and smooth. Although I added some sundried tomatoes to the blended mixture that time and I wouldn't recommend that as it ends up looking like taramasalata.
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans
1 small clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil (use oil from sundried tomatoes)
juice of 1/4 lemon
salt and pepper
4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
Blend beans, garlic, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Check seasoning, acidity and consistency and add salt/pepper, lemon juice or water accordingly. Put into tubs and top with chopped sundried tomatoes and toasted pumpkin seeds.
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans
1 small clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil (use oil from sundried tomatoes)
juice of 1/4 lemon
salt and pepper
4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
Blend beans, garlic, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Check seasoning, acidity and consistency and add salt/pepper, lemon juice or water accordingly. Put into tubs and top with chopped sundried tomatoes and toasted pumpkin seeds.
Kombucha
I tried and tried to grow my own kombucha mother / SCOBY from bottles of bought kombucha. But nothing worked. They didn't go wrong or go gross, just nothing grew. I asked around and noone knew of anyone making it. At last it arrived, from an unexpected source - S's PhD student has a friend doing some food science study with kombucha. So she got some mother for herself from her friend, and once it was big and strong enough she gave me some. Huzzah!
I started it nearly 2 weeks ago, on sweet Earl Grey tea. My first harvest was yesterday, after 12 days. The new mother was about 3 mm thick, and the kombucha was a little sweeter and less fizzy than I would have liked, but not too vinegary and really very good. Very pleased indeed!
You will need:
Large jar with wide mouth (ideally wide enough to fit your hand in)
Clean cloth to cover top of jar (clean tea towel is a good weave)
Rubber band to secure cloth
Bottle with lid to store kombucha after it is made
Jug or funnel to help with pouring kombucha into jars etc
Enough freshly-brewed black or green tea to fill the jar (mine holds about 1.5 litres; I used Earl Grey)
Sugar (about 5 tbsp for 1.5 litres)
about half a cup of kombucha from the previous batch
SCOBY
Method:
Do your best to keep everything clean and sterile - wash glassware in the dishwasher if you have one; dry upside down in a 110C oven; use while hottish.
Make the tea and let it cool to anywhere between room and body temperature. Add the sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved. Mix in the kombucha from the previous batch, then transfer the liquid to the large jar. Add the SCOBY. Cover with the cloth and secure with a rubber band. Leave at room temperature for 1-2 weeks. Remove a little with a spoon to test after a week and again later if not yet ready, but do not open too often to avoid contamination.
When the kombucha smells and tastes good (ie slightly vinegary and sour but not off), you are ready to harvest it. Remove the SCOBY and transfer to a bowl along with about half a cup of kombucha. If you do not want to make another batch immediately you can cover this and keep in the fridge for weeks. Pour the rest of the kombucha into a bottle, cover and store in the fridge - it is ready to drink!
Start another batch as before. If you don't want to make more kombucha right away you can store the SCOBY in some kombucha in a sealed container in the fridge until you do.
You can use any kind of green or black tea (or mixtures), and flavours such as ginger juice can be added when bottling. I am yet to experiment with adding flavours, and also with tweaking the recipe to optimize fizziness and sweet/sour balance - watch this space!
I started it nearly 2 weeks ago, on sweet Earl Grey tea. My first harvest was yesterday, after 12 days. The new mother was about 3 mm thick, and the kombucha was a little sweeter and less fizzy than I would have liked, but not too vinegary and really very good. Very pleased indeed!
You will need:
Large jar with wide mouth (ideally wide enough to fit your hand in)
Clean cloth to cover top of jar (clean tea towel is a good weave)
Rubber band to secure cloth
Bottle with lid to store kombucha after it is made
Jug or funnel to help with pouring kombucha into jars etc
Enough freshly-brewed black or green tea to fill the jar (mine holds about 1.5 litres; I used Earl Grey)
Sugar (about 5 tbsp for 1.5 litres)
about half a cup of kombucha from the previous batch
SCOBY
Method:
Do your best to keep everything clean and sterile - wash glassware in the dishwasher if you have one; dry upside down in a 110C oven; use while hottish.
Make the tea and let it cool to anywhere between room and body temperature. Add the sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved. Mix in the kombucha from the previous batch, then transfer the liquid to the large jar. Add the SCOBY. Cover with the cloth and secure with a rubber band. Leave at room temperature for 1-2 weeks. Remove a little with a spoon to test after a week and again later if not yet ready, but do not open too often to avoid contamination.
When the kombucha smells and tastes good (ie slightly vinegary and sour but not off), you are ready to harvest it. Remove the SCOBY and transfer to a bowl along with about half a cup of kombucha. If you do not want to make another batch immediately you can cover this and keep in the fridge for weeks. Pour the rest of the kombucha into a bottle, cover and store in the fridge - it is ready to drink!
Start another batch as before. If you don't want to make more kombucha right away you can store the SCOBY in some kombucha in a sealed container in the fridge until you do.
You can use any kind of green or black tea (or mixtures), and flavours such as ginger juice can be added when bottling. I am yet to experiment with adding flavours, and also with tweaking the recipe to optimize fizziness and sweet/sour balance - watch this space!
Veg onion soup
It's been a busy few weeks. We got our new place, we moved, got furniture, all of that. Then three weeks after moving in, there was a big storm with lots of heavy wet snow. It snowed all night and when we went out in the morning we found several huge (approx 80 cm diameter) branches broken off a tree in our yard. One was blocking the small road beside our place. So then we have been busy clearing that up and sorting it out - finding a tree surgeon, then dealing with all the fallen wood - we've been chopping it for next year's firewood.
Yesterday we finished tidying up (stashing needly bits in the bushes), then started stacking the wood and chopping it. S with an axe, me with a saw. It got dark but we carried on chopping in the garage. At some point he suggested I go in and make french onion soup instead. We'd bought a whole lot of onions at the best and biggest Turkish supermarket in town (Istanbul in København NV), and that had given him an idea... I went in and got going, using the recipe from trusty Delia's veg collection. What we hadn't realized before was that it takes about 3 hours to cook. So it was about 21:00 by the time we got to eat. But it was good.
1 lb 8 oz / 700 g onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 oz / 50 g butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp sugar
2 pints / 1.2 l veg stock
10 fl oz / 275 ml dry white wine
salt and pepper
for the croutons:
6-8 1 inch / 2.5 cm diagonal slices of French bread (used bits of pumpkin seed bread as that's what we had)
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 oz / 225 g Gruyère, grated (used blue cheese instead as that's what we had)
Heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C. Prep the onions.
Place a large heavy-based saucepan on a high heat and melt the oil and butter together. When this is very hot, add the onions, garlic and sugar, and stir occasionally until the edges of the onions turn dark – about 6 min. Reduce the heat to low and leave the onions to cook slowly for about 30 min, until the base of the pan is covered with a rich, nut brown, caramelised film (bake croutons during this time - see below). After that, pour in the stock and white wine, season and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the base of the pan well. When it comes to a simmer, turn the heat to low and leave to cook gently without a lid for about 1 hour.
To make the croutons drizzle the olive oil on to a baking sheet, add the crushed garlic and spread the oil and garlic all over. Place the bread slices on top of the oil and turn over each one so that both sides are coated with oil. Bake for 20-25 min till crisp and crunchy.
Sprinkle the grated cheese thickly over the croutons and grill until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling. Put soup in bowls to serve, with a crouton or two on top of each.
Yesterday we finished tidying up (stashing needly bits in the bushes), then started stacking the wood and chopping it. S with an axe, me with a saw. It got dark but we carried on chopping in the garage. At some point he suggested I go in and make french onion soup instead. We'd bought a whole lot of onions at the best and biggest Turkish supermarket in town (Istanbul in København NV), and that had given him an idea... I went in and got going, using the recipe from trusty Delia's veg collection. What we hadn't realized before was that it takes about 3 hours to cook. So it was about 21:00 by the time we got to eat. But it was good.
1 lb 8 oz / 700 g onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 oz / 50 g butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp sugar
2 pints / 1.2 l veg stock
10 fl oz / 275 ml dry white wine
salt and pepper
for the croutons:
6-8 1 inch / 2.5 cm diagonal slices of French bread (used bits of pumpkin seed bread as that's what we had)
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 oz / 225 g Gruyère, grated (used blue cheese instead as that's what we had)
Heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C. Prep the onions.
Place a large heavy-based saucepan on a high heat and melt the oil and butter together. When this is very hot, add the onions, garlic and sugar, and stir occasionally until the edges of the onions turn dark – about 6 min. Reduce the heat to low and leave the onions to cook slowly for about 30 min, until the base of the pan is covered with a rich, nut brown, caramelised film (bake croutons during this time - see below). After that, pour in the stock and white wine, season and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the base of the pan well. When it comes to a simmer, turn the heat to low and leave to cook gently without a lid for about 1 hour.
To make the croutons drizzle the olive oil on to a baking sheet, add the crushed garlic and spread the oil and garlic all over. Place the bread slices on top of the oil and turn over each one so that both sides are coated with oil. Bake for 20-25 min till crisp and crunchy.
Sprinkle the grated cheese thickly over the croutons and grill until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling. Put soup in bowls to serve, with a crouton or two on top of each.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Yellow cauliflower and chickpeas
Yellow potatoes has been a favourite of ours for some time. It's a most speedy and excellent way to use pre-cooked potatoes - essentially dry-fried; spicy and delicious. For some reason it had never occurred to me to cook anything other than potatoes like that, but S steamed a lot of cauliflower the other day and a lightbulb came on. Wouldn't cauliflower be delicious this way too? While preparing the spice paste chickpeas also came to mind - I usually have a supply of pre-cooked chickpeas in the freezer, so it was easy to throw some in. It made for an excellent combination.
approx. 1 1/4 lb mixed steamed cauliflower and pre-cooked chickpeas
fresh ginger ~2 x 1 x 1in, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
5 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp whole fennel seed (optional)
Chop cauliflower into approx 1 in chunks. Put ginger, garlic, water, turmeric, salt, cayenne in blender and blend to a paste.
Heat oil. Add fennel seeds. Sizzle for a few seconds, then add the paste. Stir and fry for 2 min.
Add cauliflower and chickpeas (direct from freezer is OK). Stir and fry for 5-7 min over a medium-high flame til they have a golden-brown crust.
approx. 1 1/4 lb mixed steamed cauliflower and pre-cooked chickpeas
fresh ginger ~2 x 1 x 1in, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
5 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp whole fennel seed (optional)
Chop cauliflower into approx 1 in chunks. Put ginger, garlic, water, turmeric, salt, cayenne in blender and blend to a paste.
Heat oil. Add fennel seeds. Sizzle for a few seconds, then add the paste. Stir and fry for 2 min.
Add cauliflower and chickpeas (direct from freezer is OK). Stir and fry for 5-7 min over a medium-high flame til they have a golden-brown crust.
Blewits
I had almost given up on finding any more mushrooms this season. We had one lucky find of a handful of chanterelles and oysters when we visited S's friend in Lyngby months ago, then our lives got subsumed by trying to find a house and moving into it and so forth. So much though I daydreamed about going to the woods all Autumn, we made it once to the Dyrhaven (which was beautiful), and then I thought Fall was over and that was our lot...
But then. There were these purple mushrooms growing under deciduous trees on the route from my office to the main science building. I passed by them every day, and every day I looked at them and wondered if they were blewits. Because every time I see a purple mushroom I look at them and wonder if they are blewits. And they never are. But I looked at these ones so many times, I really started to wonder... They are growing late in the season when it starts to get cold: check. They are purple fading to brown: check. They do not get slimy when wet: check. There is no white veil or ring or rust marks on the stem: check. They have narrow-spaced gills: check. They are growing in leaf litter: check. The more I read the more I convinced myself.
To seal the deal, I put some on paper in my office to make a spore print. If it is beige, they are almost definitely blewits. If dark brown or rusty, they are poisonous. It was clear and strong, and most definitiely beige. I was convinced! S said he had never seen me so sure about a mushroom ID. I had been looking at them and thinking about them for weeks! The thing is, the books say they are not for beginners. I realized: we are no longer beginners. We have found, identified and eaten more than a dozen kinds of mushrooms without making ourselves sick. I am proud of us.
And so we ate the blewits. The books said they should be well cooked because they can be toxic raw, and since it was our first time it was a good idea to just eat a little. So I sauteed them and we ate them with scrambled eggs and avocado on toast for breakfast. They were tasty. A nice texture, although they shrank a lot in the pan. The books said they have a distinct bitter taste, and S agreed, although I did not think it was all that noticeable. Unfortunately they lose the purple colour when cooked!
Monday, October 19, 2015
Oatmeal raisin biscuits
S is away for a few days. I don't always deal well with him being away. In that sometimes I try and cram in so much stuff - things he thinks are dull, or just activities to stop me getting bored or missing him. I tend to get back to normal if he's away for more than a few days but the first few days can get a bit nutso. He left for a conference in Heidelberg yesterday morning, and then I... went for my longest-ever run (note to self: sunday around 10am is a bad time - everywhere was full of macho running gangs running three-abreast, elbowing people out of the way, and pissing), washed my hair, cleaned the entire apt including air vents, made marmalade, did some sewing and writing, went shopping... and made biscuits to take to Danish class.
We have something called a Kageordning, where every week someone signs up to bring cake or something sweet and we take a break in the middle of class to eat it. Apparently this is very Danish. I think it kind of is: both the cake-break and the randomly having breaks / holidays all the time. It was high time I took a turn - I hadn't done one at all last term. Since class is on a Monday it was easy enough to find time to bake yesterday, notwithstanding all the other stuff I was apparently busy with. I decided to take oatmeal-cinnamon-raisin biscuits. It was the first time in ages I had made non-vegan biscuits. Went with this recipe.
(makes approx. 30 small-medium biscuits)
1/2 cup / 115 g butter, softened
2/3 cup / 125 g light brown sugar, packed (used white)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup / 95 g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup / 120 g oats
3/4 cup / 120 g raisins
Heat oven to 350F / 175C / 155C fan. Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix flour, bicarb, cinnamon and salt. Stir this into the butter/sugar mix, then mix in the oats and raisins. Use a teaspoon to put blobs of mixture two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-20 min, taking them out when golden at the edges but still pale on top. Let them sit on the baking sheet for 5 min before transferring to a rack to cool.
We have something called a Kageordning, where every week someone signs up to bring cake or something sweet and we take a break in the middle of class to eat it. Apparently this is very Danish. I think it kind of is: both the cake-break and the randomly having breaks / holidays all the time. It was high time I took a turn - I hadn't done one at all last term. Since class is on a Monday it was easy enough to find time to bake yesterday, notwithstanding all the other stuff I was apparently busy with. I decided to take oatmeal-cinnamon-raisin biscuits. It was the first time in ages I had made non-vegan biscuits. Went with this recipe.
(makes approx. 30 small-medium biscuits)
1/2 cup / 115 g butter, softened
2/3 cup / 125 g light brown sugar, packed (used white)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup / 95 g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup / 120 g oats
3/4 cup / 120 g raisins
Heat oven to 350F / 175C / 155C fan. Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix flour, bicarb, cinnamon and salt. Stir this into the butter/sugar mix, then mix in the oats and raisins. Use a teaspoon to put blobs of mixture two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-20 min, taking them out when golden at the edges but still pale on top. Let them sit on the baking sheet for 5 min before transferring to a rack to cool.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Coconut and pumpkin dal
I went to Paris for five days for a meeting. It was sunny all the time, and I never wore a coat. I came back, and Copenhagen had decided it was Autumn. It was chilly, windy, rainy. Dal season had started. I'd hardly spent time cooking for weeks - I've been really busy with work and house stuff. I don't feel like myself when I don't cook: it takes my mind off things and helps me relax. But I hadn't time.
So in honour of dal season, and in an attempt to use up some stuff from the kitchen cupboards, I made this rich, delicious, warming dal. I cooked red lentils and kabocha squash in coconut milk with turmeric, ginger and other spices to maximise warmth in colour and taste. Finished off with a generous amount of fresh coriander, it is warming and decadent and autumnal. And I feel a bit more like myself.
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 in piece ginger, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
1-2 tsp cumin seeds
seeds from 2-3 whole cardamom pods
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 tin coconut milk
water
1 small kabocha squash
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
salt+black pepper
juice of 1/3 lime
Heat coconut oil in a large pan. Add ginger and garlic and cook until lightly coloured. Grind the cumin, coriander and cardamom then add to the pan along with the other dry spices. Cook until fragrant. Add the lentils and stir until slightly transparent. Add coconut milk and sufficient water to cook the lentils (you can add more later if it gets too thick). Simmer for about 20 min. Once you have started it simmering, deseed the pumpkin (squash) and chop it into smallish chunks. You can peel it if you like but wouldn't have to. Add it to the pan with about 15 min to go. Once the pumpkin and lentils are tender turn off the heat. Add coriander. Add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. Eat right away with rice or flatbreads, or reheat (it keeps well).
So in honour of dal season, and in an attempt to use up some stuff from the kitchen cupboards, I made this rich, delicious, warming dal. I cooked red lentils and kabocha squash in coconut milk with turmeric, ginger and other spices to maximise warmth in colour and taste. Finished off with a generous amount of fresh coriander, it is warming and decadent and autumnal. And I feel a bit more like myself.
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 in piece ginger, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
1-2 tsp cumin seeds
seeds from 2-3 whole cardamom pods
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 tin coconut milk
water
1 small kabocha squash
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
salt+black pepper
juice of 1/3 lime
Heat coconut oil in a large pan. Add ginger and garlic and cook until lightly coloured. Grind the cumin, coriander and cardamom then add to the pan along with the other dry spices. Cook until fragrant. Add the lentils and stir until slightly transparent. Add coconut milk and sufficient water to cook the lentils (you can add more later if it gets too thick). Simmer for about 20 min. Once you have started it simmering, deseed the pumpkin (squash) and chop it into smallish chunks. You can peel it if you like but wouldn't have to. Add it to the pan with about 15 min to go. Once the pumpkin and lentils are tender turn off the heat. Add coriander. Add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. Eat right away with rice or flatbreads, or reheat (it keeps well).
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Tyttebær / Preiselbeere / mountain cranberries or lingonberries
Another new fruit! I found these in our local Frugt og Grønt shop at the weekend, in addition to the epically wonderful selection of plums, pears and apples there is at the moment. I didn't recognize them, so I bought some.
Little round red berries. Labelled tyttebær. Without any green parts: just the berries. They look a bit like red blueberries. Or tiny round cranberries. S knew them when I got home: Preiselbeere. I recognized the name. He thought cranberry, but I knew that is tranebær, not tyttebær. And besides, these berries aren't the right shape / size to be cranberries. Then he got it: wild cranberries? Lingonberries! I knew the name in English also, but I never had them fresh before, only in jam (probably from IKEA). So, a Nordic thing perhaps.
They are tart. Very tart. I put some in a crumble with huge apples I'd also got from Frugt og Grønt. This was good, but they didn't explode like the bigger cranberries do, so the tartness remained concentrated in the little berries and wasn't diluted by apple. OK, but the blackberry one I made alongside was better - blackberry and apple is hard to beat!
The rest I mixed into a pan of freshly-cooked bulghur. This was better. The berries cooked quickly in the warm wheat, since they are tiny. And that softened their tartness. I mixed more in: some parsley and olive oil and so forth. I liked them better like this. Made me think of barberries in Iranian rice.
Little round red berries. Labelled tyttebær. Without any green parts: just the berries. They look a bit like red blueberries. Or tiny round cranberries. S knew them when I got home: Preiselbeere. I recognized the name. He thought cranberry, but I knew that is tranebær, not tyttebær. And besides, these berries aren't the right shape / size to be cranberries. Then he got it: wild cranberries? Lingonberries! I knew the name in English also, but I never had them fresh before, only in jam (probably from IKEA). So, a Nordic thing perhaps.
They are tart. Very tart. I put some in a crumble with huge apples I'd also got from Frugt og Grønt. This was good, but they didn't explode like the bigger cranberries do, so the tartness remained concentrated in the little berries and wasn't diluted by apple. OK, but the blackberry one I made alongside was better - blackberry and apple is hard to beat!
The rest I mixed into a pan of freshly-cooked bulghur. This was better. The berries cooked quickly in the warm wheat, since they are tiny. And that softened their tartness. I mixed more in: some parsley and olive oil and so forth. I liked them better like this. Made me think of barberries in Iranian rice.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sanddorn / sea buckthorn / havtorn
Our bike foraging mission around Amagerfælled resulted in a good collection of blackberries, and also a flush of bright orange sea buckthorn berries.
I remembered trying to collect these with my Mum, and failing as they exploded / were too thorny to get at. These weren't such big problems this time - perhaps the berries were a little underripe? Slow going though, they are small and you have to move slowly to avoid the thorns.
Having collected a couple of pints, we got home and wondered what to do with them. I decided to keep it simple, and just heated the berries in a covered pan until they started to pop, then squashed them with the back of a wooden spoon. I strained the resulting mush, and ended up with a cup or two of thick, very bright orange juice that looks like mango juice but is quite sour. I liked it mixed with maple syrup to take the edge off, then either mixed through plain yoghurt or in these drinks.
Sanddorn and maple syrup fizz
Mix a couple of tbsp sanddorn juice with a couple of tsp maple syrup, then top up glass with fizzy water and mix. The colour is wonderful and the syrup takes out some of the sharpness from the sanddorn so you can taste it better.
Havtorn gin and tonic
Add a couple of tbsp havtorn juice to a gin and tonic with ice. Perhaps a little maple syrup to taste if you find it too sour.
Note: the sanddorn juice could be saved for future use by freezing - it won't keep more than a week or so in the fridge.
I remembered trying to collect these with my Mum, and failing as they exploded / were too thorny to get at. These weren't such big problems this time - perhaps the berries were a little underripe? Slow going though, they are small and you have to move slowly to avoid the thorns.
Having collected a couple of pints, we got home and wondered what to do with them. I decided to keep it simple, and just heated the berries in a covered pan until they started to pop, then squashed them with the back of a wooden spoon. I strained the resulting mush, and ended up with a cup or two of thick, very bright orange juice that looks like mango juice but is quite sour. I liked it mixed with maple syrup to take the edge off, then either mixed through plain yoghurt or in these drinks.
Sanddorn and maple syrup fizz
Mix a couple of tbsp sanddorn juice with a couple of tsp maple syrup, then top up glass with fizzy water and mix. The colour is wonderful and the syrup takes out some of the sharpness from the sanddorn so you can taste it better.
Havtorn gin and tonic
Add a couple of tbsp havtorn juice to a gin and tonic with ice. Perhaps a little maple syrup to taste if you find it too sour.
Note: the sanddorn juice could be saved for future use by freezing - it won't keep more than a week or so in the fridge.
Blackberry, oat and yoghurt muffins
S made grand plans to go on a foraging mission on Saturday. We biked through Nokken and around the Amagerfælled, with our eyes out for tempting stands of sanddorn (aka sea buckthorn aka havtorn ahhhh living in three languages is a little crazy sometimes, I just hope I get so I can really use the other two for stuff other than berries before too long!) or blackberries (aka brambles aka brombær aka brombeere)... We were also looking out for mushrooms but not so much luck this time - although we did find our first Danish edibles (oysters and chanterelles) a couple of weeks ago in the Danish Switzerland. We gathered some sanddorn near Nokken - more on that here. We hit up a couple of blackberry patches in the Amagerfælled (and they hit back...). We filled all our containers... then biked on to Amagerstrand for a swim and a Lidl picnic (really good gazpacho and S's fave pretzels).
Quite a few of the blackberries have gotten mixed into yoghurt, with or without muesli, and eaten just like that. I decided to freeze the remainder before they got too soggy, to keep them for future muesli (spread them on baking paper / baking tray in a single layer to freeze before putting in a bag or container so they don't stick together). But first, 5 oz got made into these muffins.
I used to make these muffins a lot. They were from a muffin recipe book my uni flatmate S had when we lived together, and I made them loads and wrote the recipes down when we moved out. This is a particular favourite - they work well with blueberries or raisins, but I reckon the blackberry-yoghurt-cinnamon-oat combination is a real winner.
(makes 12 medium sized muffins)
3 oz / 75 g oats
8 fl oz plain yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
7 oz / 175 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-5 oz / 100-125 g brown sugar
1 egg
3-4 fl oz milk
3 fl oz vegetable oil
5 oz / 125 g blackberries (or other berries, or 3 oz / 75 g raisins)
Heat oven to 200C / 170C fan / 400F. Grease and/or line a muffin tin. Mix oats, yoghurt and bicarb and let stand for a minute. Mix the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl with a fork. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the yoghurt mixture, whisk and then tip into the dry stuff. Mix until just combined, adding berries in the final few strokes. Then dollop into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 min, until well risen and golden. Let cool ten min before moving to a cooling rack.
Quite a few of the blackberries have gotten mixed into yoghurt, with or without muesli, and eaten just like that. I decided to freeze the remainder before they got too soggy, to keep them for future muesli (spread them on baking paper / baking tray in a single layer to freeze before putting in a bag or container so they don't stick together). But first, 5 oz got made into these muffins.
I used to make these muffins a lot. They were from a muffin recipe book my uni flatmate S had when we lived together, and I made them loads and wrote the recipes down when we moved out. This is a particular favourite - they work well with blueberries or raisins, but I reckon the blackberry-yoghurt-cinnamon-oat combination is a real winner.
(makes 12 medium sized muffins)
3 oz / 75 g oats
8 fl oz plain yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
7 oz / 175 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-5 oz / 100-125 g brown sugar
1 egg
3-4 fl oz milk
3 fl oz vegetable oil
5 oz / 125 g blackberries (or other berries, or 3 oz / 75 g raisins)
Heat oven to 200C / 170C fan / 400F. Grease and/or line a muffin tin. Mix oats, yoghurt and bicarb and let stand for a minute. Mix the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl with a fork. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the yoghurt mixture, whisk and then tip into the dry stuff. Mix until just combined, adding berries in the final few strokes. Then dollop into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 min, until well risen and golden. Let cool ten min before moving to a cooling rack.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Peach and fennel cake
Stone fruit in Europe is so, so much better than any we ate in the USA. Everything: peaches (especially the UFO ones), nectarines, apricots, greengages, all kinds of plums - Victoria through damson. Plums are Danish but peaches and nectarines aren't even coming from round here - mostly from Spain. Even via Lidl, I haven't eaten a bad one yet.
Having filled my face with all of the above, I decided that the last few white peaches I had could get baked... This recipe caught my eye (via the most beautiful Instagram ever). We are going to lunch tomorrow at a fairytale farmhouse in Lyngby, so I decided to make this to bring. Hope it goes down well (and travels OK - we are planning to bike there, around 40 km)!
(made 1 cake in standard circular tin)
1 tsp fennel seeds
125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
seeds of ½ vanilla pod (used ½ tsp vanilla powder)
zest of 1 lemon (used 1 ½, thoroughly zested)
zest of 1 orange (skipped - did not have)
225 g sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
pinch of salt
3 eggs
120 g mascarpone (used skyr)
160 g flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 peaches (used 3 small white UFO peaches)
Heat the oven to 190C / 170C fan. Grease and line tin (s - original recipe was for 8 small loaf tins). Dry toast fennel seeds until fragrant, then let cool before crushing.
Beat butter, vanilla, zest(s), fennel seeds, sugar and salt together until just combined. Don’t cream. Add eggs one at a time, mixing each egg in well. Add mascarpone / skyr, flour and baking powder mix fast for a few seconds until well combined.
Slice two 'cheeks’ off each peach (one either side of the stone). Chop remaining fruit into small dice and mix into the cake batter. Cut the peach 'cheeks’ into thin, long slices (leave one end uncut). Put the batter in the lined tin(s). Top the cake(s) with peach slices spread out like a small fan and sprinkle with the additional sugar.
Bake for 20-25 min or until risen, golden brown and bouncy. Good warm, or else eat within 24 hours.
Update: we did not eat while warm as recommended, but it was within 24 hours. It was nice. Went well with the raspberries and mascarpone P+V had prepared.
Having filled my face with all of the above, I decided that the last few white peaches I had could get baked... This recipe caught my eye (via the most beautiful Instagram ever). We are going to lunch tomorrow at a fairytale farmhouse in Lyngby, so I decided to make this to bring. Hope it goes down well (and travels OK - we are planning to bike there, around 40 km)!
(made 1 cake in standard circular tin)
1 tsp fennel seeds
125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
seeds of ½ vanilla pod (used ½ tsp vanilla powder)
zest of 1 lemon (used 1 ½, thoroughly zested)
zest of 1 orange (skipped - did not have)
225 g sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
pinch of salt
3 eggs
120 g mascarpone (used skyr)
160 g flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 peaches (used 3 small white UFO peaches)
Heat the oven to 190C / 170C fan. Grease and line tin (s - original recipe was for 8 small loaf tins). Dry toast fennel seeds until fragrant, then let cool before crushing.
Beat butter, vanilla, zest(s), fennel seeds, sugar and salt together until just combined. Don’t cream. Add eggs one at a time, mixing each egg in well. Add mascarpone / skyr, flour and baking powder mix fast for a few seconds until well combined.
Slice two 'cheeks’ off each peach (one either side of the stone). Chop remaining fruit into small dice and mix into the cake batter. Cut the peach 'cheeks’ into thin, long slices (leave one end uncut). Put the batter in the lined tin(s). Top the cake(s) with peach slices spread out like a small fan and sprinkle with the additional sugar.
Bake for 20-25 min or until risen, golden brown and bouncy. Good warm, or else eat within 24 hours.
Update: we did not eat while warm as recommended, but it was within 24 hours. It was nice. Went well with the raspberries and mascarpone P+V had prepared.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Fresh hazelnuts / cherry bowl
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Lip balm
I used up a pot of lip balm for possibly the first time ever. It was some I'd got from my friend A - she makes it with wax from her beehives. I kept meaning to buy more and forgetting / not finding anything that looked nice. Then I came across some of those rolled beeswax candles D+S had brought back from India and given to me and a lightbulb went on. This is beeswax! And I will likely never use them as candles, so why not conduct a lip balm experiment? So eventually I got round to it, and it was ridiculously easy, and I am definitely never buying lip balm again, at least so long as I still have candles left to unroll...
1 part coconut oil
1 part beeswax
drop of essential oil, Vitamin E or a little honey (all optional, and be careful not to add more that a teeny bit of liquid)
Put the coconut oil and beeswax into a microwave proof container. Put in the microwave for a minute at a time, swirling in between, until the beeswax is all melted. Pour into empty lip balm container(s), and leave flat to cool - should be solid and ready to use in less than half an hour.
Notes:
* I just made one little lip balm pot because it takes me a while to get through it, but it would be very easy to scale up for gifts etc, so long as you have enough containers.
* Modify ratios of wax to oil if you'd like a harder or softer lip balm.
* Use virgin coconut oil (the tasty stuff) if you would like a coconutty smell/taste - I had only the tasteless one, which is good if you want a pretty much unscented lip balm.
* I didn't test adding other scents / flavours but any kind of oil should work (might need to increase beeswax proportion to compensate for more liquid).
* Remember to save and clean lip balm containers.
* I think the mixture should come off pretty well with hot water, but to avoid having to wash the container used for preparation afterwards you can always melt it in a used glass jar destined for recycling.
1 part coconut oil
1 part beeswax
drop of essential oil, Vitamin E or a little honey (all optional, and be careful not to add more that a teeny bit of liquid)
Put the coconut oil and beeswax into a microwave proof container. Put in the microwave for a minute at a time, swirling in between, until the beeswax is all melted. Pour into empty lip balm container(s), and leave flat to cool - should be solid and ready to use in less than half an hour.
Notes:
* I just made one little lip balm pot because it takes me a while to get through it, but it would be very easy to scale up for gifts etc, so long as you have enough containers.
* Modify ratios of wax to oil if you'd like a harder or softer lip balm.
* Use virgin coconut oil (the tasty stuff) if you would like a coconutty smell/taste - I had only the tasteless one, which is good if you want a pretty much unscented lip balm.
* I didn't test adding other scents / flavours but any kind of oil should work (might need to increase beeswax proportion to compensate for more liquid).
* Remember to save and clean lip balm containers.
* I think the mixture should come off pretty well with hot water, but to avoid having to wash the container used for preparation afterwards you can always melt it in a used glass jar destined for recycling.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Black pizza: balsamic reduction, date, walnut, fennel and goat cheese
I had forgotten how good this combination is. It is inspired by a pizza we ate by the waterfront in San Francisco once upon a time. We loved the combination of sweet and strong flavours. Then S suggested it when we were making pizza on a Sauna Wednesday in Norwich, and M helped us make the balsamic reduction that first time. S got really excited about pizza recently, because we are back on the dairy since moving to DK, and because our high-speed pizza dough has been especially good since we got here - perhaps the fresh yeast?
(makes 2 medium-small thin-crust pizzas)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp sugar
1/2-2/3 batch of high speed bread dough (must be made in advance)
flour for rolling
cornmeal, semolina or grahamsmel for the baking sheet
6 dates, stoned and roughly chopped
10 walnut halves, broken into pieces
1 smallish bulb of fennel, thinly sliced (or onion)
about 50 g of goat cheese (or mild creamy blue cheese eg gorgonzola), roughly chopped
Heat the oven to 220C. Put the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan and heat at a high heat until it is just starting to thicken. Take off the heat. Separate the dough into two balls, and roll each out to about 3 mm thick. Sprinkle two baking sheets with cornmeal and transfer the pizza bases to them. Spread the balsamic reduction over the pizza bases. Sprinkle the dates, walnuts, fennel and goat cheese generously over the top. Put in the oven and bake for about 20 min, until starting to brown. Take out and let cool for five minutes or so before chopping into pieces (I favour scissors) and eating.
(makes 2 medium-small thin-crust pizzas)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp sugar
1/2-2/3 batch of high speed bread dough (must be made in advance)
flour for rolling
cornmeal, semolina or grahamsmel for the baking sheet
6 dates, stoned and roughly chopped
10 walnut halves, broken into pieces
1 smallish bulb of fennel, thinly sliced (or onion)
about 50 g of goat cheese (or mild creamy blue cheese eg gorgonzola), roughly chopped
Heat the oven to 220C. Put the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan and heat at a high heat until it is just starting to thicken. Take off the heat. Separate the dough into two balls, and roll each out to about 3 mm thick. Sprinkle two baking sheets with cornmeal and transfer the pizza bases to them. Spread the balsamic reduction over the pizza bases. Sprinkle the dates, walnuts, fennel and goat cheese generously over the top. Put in the oven and bake for about 20 min, until starting to brown. Take out and let cool for five minutes or so before chopping into pieces (I favour scissors) and eating.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Stikkelsbær og hyldeblomst / gooseberry and elderflower muffins (Danish summertime)
This time, I was thinking of making muffins in the morning before N awoke, and S suggested doing gooseberry ones. I checked my Delia veg collection book and she didn't have anything with gooseberries, but the first recipe that came up online was a Delia one that I had all the ingredients for (including elderflower cordial I made a few weeks ago) so the gooseberries' fate seemed a foregone conclusion.
These were part of our 'balcony brunch', which also featured avocado on Manfreds sourdough toast with a softboiled egg on top, and tomato-mozzarella salad. I started with four eggs: one for the muffins and one each for the toast. Perfect.
(makes about 8)
150 g plain flour
1 level dessertsp (11 ml) baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 large egg
40 g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
75 ml elderflower cordial
50 g butter, melted and cooled slightly
225 g gooseberries, topped and tailed
For the topping:
18 extra (approx 100 g) gooseberries, topped and tailed
1 heaped tbsp demerara sugar
Heat oven to 200C / 180C fan. Line a muffin tin. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl whisk together egg, sugar, milk,elderflower cordial and melted butter. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and fold together until just combined. In the final few strokes add the 225 g gooseberries. Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin cups. Lightly press 2-3 of the extra gooseberries into the top of each muffin, and sprinkle with a little demerara sugar. Bake for 30 min until well risen and golden brown. Remove the muffins from the oven, and transfer them straight away to a wire rack to cool.
These are really good! The elderflower doesn't come out very strong but that's OK. Perhaps my homemade one isn't as strong as the shop bought one? My gooseberries were pink but green ones would be good too, These are really well balanced - the sugar sprinkled on top (I didn't have demerara so just used golden caster) is the final touch to offset the tartness from the berries.
Packed lunches
Since we moved to DK, S has been bringing his own lunch to work as well as me. He always bought food for lunch before, but the cafeteria in our building was closed when we first got here in Winter, so he started bringing packed lunches and so far hasn't stopped.
It's a new challenge keeping on top of interesting food for both of us. He eats a little more than me, so more than twice as much food is needed. And therefore tumbled-together leftovers from the previous night's cooking are less likely to cut it. To be honest, I have been pretty worn out from work in the evenings so haven't been generating much in the way of inspired leftovers. Plus, we have been eating a lot of stuff-with-bread for all meals, since we can't get enough of all kinds of Danish bread.
I do seem to have been bookmarking a few really useful packed lunch recipes - likely leftovers or quick to throw together the night before or morning of, and often good with bread! Some of these are also good for potlucks.
Bread with hummus (embellished with raw carrots/radishes/peas/peppers for dipping) / Greve cheese / cornichons
Bread with caponata (it keeps very well for a few days in the fridge if you have time to make it beforehand)
Red lentil dal or chickpea curry with rice or bread and yoghurt
Various lentil salads
Overnight couscous
Pasta salad (zazzed up leftover pasta)
Noodle salad (similarly treated leftover noodles)
Pesto rice salad
Summer rolls with peanut sauce
Sushi
Potato salad (if we have potatoes - not all that often)
Oat and seed bread
It's a new challenge keeping on top of interesting food for both of us. He eats a little more than me, so more than twice as much food is needed. And therefore tumbled-together leftovers from the previous night's cooking are less likely to cut it. To be honest, I have been pretty worn out from work in the evenings so haven't been generating much in the way of inspired leftovers. Plus, we have been eating a lot of stuff-with-bread for all meals, since we can't get enough of all kinds of Danish bread.
I do seem to have been bookmarking a few really useful packed lunch recipes - likely leftovers or quick to throw together the night before or morning of, and often good with bread! Some of these are also good for potlucks.
Bread with hummus (embellished with raw carrots/radishes/peas/peppers for dipping) / Greve cheese / cornichons
Bread with caponata (it keeps very well for a few days in the fridge if you have time to make it beforehand)
Red lentil dal or chickpea curry with rice or bread and yoghurt
Various lentil salads
Overnight couscous
Pasta salad (zazzed up leftover pasta)
Noodle salad (similarly treated leftover noodles)
Pesto rice salad
Summer rolls with peanut sauce
Sushi
Potato salad (if we have potatoes - not all that often)
Oat and seed bread
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Date balls
We bought a couple of boxes of juicy dates (dadler) lately. They are so sweet, they are like candy. Halfway through the second box I thought of doing something other than just eating them as they are, and decided to try some kind of raw date balls. They perhaps don't sound that delicious, but they are really good - just enough chocolatey-ness from the cocoa, nice crunch from the almonds, sticky sweetness from dates. Not to mention, they (obviously) don't require any cooking and came together in about ten minutes.
(makes 10-12 depending on size)
1 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup whole almonds
2 tbsp cocoa powder
desiccated coconut for rolling (optional)
Put pitted dates, almonds and cocoa in a blender and whizz until reasonably pasty but still with nice chunks of almond. Switch off and unplug, and then scoop out teaspoon sized pieces with a teaspoon and roll into balls in your hands. Scatter some desiccated coconut (if using) on a plate and roll the sticky ball in it. Transfer to a storage box. Repeat for the rest of the mixture. Store in the fridge (if they get that far).
(makes 10-12 depending on size)
1 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup whole almonds
2 tbsp cocoa powder
desiccated coconut for rolling (optional)
Put pitted dates, almonds and cocoa in a blender and whizz until reasonably pasty but still with nice chunks of almond. Switch off and unplug, and then scoop out teaspoon sized pieces with a teaspoon and roll into balls in your hands. Scatter some desiccated coconut (if using) on a plate and roll the sticky ball in it. Transfer to a storage box. Repeat for the rest of the mixture. Store in the fridge (if they get that far).
Monday, July 13, 2015
New potatoes, peas, radishes and skyr
D+Sh visited last weekend. For the first time in ever. It was fun. It felt very different from any time we ever spent together before. They were on holiday, and if anyone was in charge it was S+me. Perhaps I am grown up at last.
We made quite a lot of adventures: the zoo, Louisiana (both really good), Relae. But spent a fair bit of the inbetween time chilling on our balcony (it was very hot out, like over 30C), listening to jazz drifting up from the bar across the canal, and more of it from boats floating past with bands on. We ended up having some nice salad+bread type meals on the balcony too - it was salad weather, and Danish bread is sooo good. This was one of the salads. It makes very pleasing use of in-season fresh peas, new potatoes, radishes and chives. Plus skyr, which forms a creamy dressing while remaining fresh and light and not overpowering.
20 or so new potatoes (adjust according to size / taste)
500 g bag of fresh peas, shelled
1 bunch of radishes, trimmed and sliced
1 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp skyr mixed with 2 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp olive oil
salt+pepper
Cook the new potatoes until just tender and set aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Blanch the shelled peas by pouring boiling water over them then draining pretty much straight away. Put all ingredients in a serving dish and mix together. Serve warm or cold.
We made quite a lot of adventures: the zoo, Louisiana (both really good), Relae. But spent a fair bit of the inbetween time chilling on our balcony (it was very hot out, like over 30C), listening to jazz drifting up from the bar across the canal, and more of it from boats floating past with bands on. We ended up having some nice salad+bread type meals on the balcony too - it was salad weather, and Danish bread is sooo good. This was one of the salads. It makes very pleasing use of in-season fresh peas, new potatoes, radishes and chives. Plus skyr, which forms a creamy dressing while remaining fresh and light and not overpowering.
20 or so new potatoes (adjust according to size / taste)
500 g bag of fresh peas, shelled
1 bunch of radishes, trimmed and sliced
1 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp skyr mixed with 2 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp olive oil
salt+pepper
Cook the new potatoes until just tender and set aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Blanch the shelled peas by pouring boiling water over them then draining pretty much straight away. Put all ingredients in a serving dish and mix together. Serve warm or cold.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Cottage cheese dip with lovage and chives
We visited Tower Hill Botanical Garden near Berlin while we were staying in Boston this last week or so. It was raining and perhaps closed, but we walked around anyway. They had a cool 'Systematic Garden', with plantings according to phylogeny, inspired by Arthur Cronquist. Among them was lovage, which at first glance looked a lot like angelica... or even celery. Sniffing a bit made it clear how similar to celery it is - it has a celery-like smell and taste, mixed with something deeper and spicier. Considering our recent obsessions with both celery and celeriac, it seemed like a nobrainer as something we should eat more of. But I've never really seen it anywhere to buy, so have only eaten it a few times, mostly in soup...
We are back in Copenhagen now, and I went to get supplies from the Frugt og Grønt store near Christianshavn metro, and found they had lovage (løvstikke) among their impressive selection of herbs. So of course I couldn't resist. We've had some in salads, S has added it to pasta sauce, and I put it in this dip as well, having also succumbed to a craving for cottage cheese.
(enough for two as a side)
4 tbsp cottage cheese
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped chives
3 tbsp chopped lovage
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
salt+pepper
Mix all ingredients together. Adjust for acid, seasoning and consistency. We ate with toasted brown pita breads cut into strips.
We are back in Copenhagen now, and I went to get supplies from the Frugt og Grønt store near Christianshavn metro, and found they had lovage (løvstikke) among their impressive selection of herbs. So of course I couldn't resist. We've had some in salads, S has added it to pasta sauce, and I put it in this dip as well, having also succumbed to a craving for cottage cheese.
(enough for two as a side)
4 tbsp cottage cheese
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped chives
3 tbsp chopped lovage
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
salt+pepper
Mix all ingredients together. Adjust for acid, seasoning and consistency. We ate with toasted brown pita breads cut into strips.
Simple fried rice
A very quick and easy, very tasty way to use up leftover rice. Taking advantage of yellow curry paste from our favourite Thai supermarket on Istedgade.
oil
spice paste (used yellow curry paste)
spring onions
cold rice
edamame
Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add the spice paste and spring onions and stir-fry until onions are slightly softened. Then add the rice and edamame and stir-fry some more, until the rice is slightly crispy in places and everything is piping hot. Eat straight away.
oil
spice paste (used yellow curry paste)
spring onions
cold rice
edamame
Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add the spice paste and spring onions and stir-fry until onions are slightly softened. Then add the rice and edamame and stir-fry some more, until the rice is slightly crispy in places and everything is piping hot. Eat straight away.
Koldskål (kærnemælkskoldskål) med kammerjunker
Another Danish food we tried: koldskål is a chilled buttermilk soup, often flavoured with citrus. Cartons of it appeared everywhere on the first warmish day (we haven't had too many of those yet...). It is usually eaten with crispy biscuits (kammerjunker).
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Stuffed vine leaves
S+I used to make these a lot. We disagree over the origin - I remembered adapting them from a Delia recipe (where she made them similar to below, but then cooked them in tomato sauce which didn't work for us at all); he claims he's been making them since he was a kid from his German vegetarian cookbook. But then a couple of half-used packages of vine leaves languished in the fridge so long we didn't buy any more for ages. It's quite easy to find vine leaves in brine in Turkish shops. We also tried with fresh ones, and the process is similar - soaking in hot water to cook and soften a bit, rather than to rinse off salt.
We thought of these after feeling a bit like we didn't put in enough effort when we took cauliflower and breadcrumbs to the last work veggie lunch. Once a month we have a potluck lunch with other veggies in our Department. It's kind of a challenge thinking of something that is fun and tasty, travels well in a backpack on a bike, can sit in a box from the night before until lunchtime, and can easily be shared. Today's lunch was supposed to be a picnic, adding the extra challenge of eating outside, possibly without cutlery. These really rise to all those challenges! Sadly the weather didn't though - it looks like lunch will be indoors.
(makes about 30)
2 cups rice (any kind is OK), cooked in 4 cups water
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 mushrooms, roughly chopped
handful hazelnuts, roughly chopped
handful sunflower seeds
handful raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp dried oregano
handful fresh parsley, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
salt+pepper
About half a jar of vine leaves in brine
Cook the rice and let it cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until starting to soften. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are browned. Add the hazelnuts and sunflower seeds and cook to toast a little. Add the cooked cooled rice, along with the raisins, cinnamon, oregano, parsley, tomatoes and tomato puree. Mix well and cook over a medium heat to try and get a little colour and crispy patches on the rice. Season with salt and pepper to taste (remember the brine leaves are well salty if they are in brine so don't go nuts with the salt). When done, remove from the heat and let cool about half an hour or longer.
When ready to assemble, fill a large bowl or pan with nearly-boiling water (just cool enough to put your hand in). Take vine leaves from the package, check they are reasonably intact, and soak in the hot water for five minutes or so to rinse off some of the salt. Then remove, lay flat on a plate or board, with the stem end nearest you. Dollop 1-2 tbsp (depending on the size of the leaf) just next to the stem, then fold the leaves around it at the base and roll up towards the leaf tip. You should end up with a neat cylindrical package. Repeat until you run out of rice mixture or of leaves. They will keep in a box in the fridge for up to a week, and can be eaten cold or at room temperature.
We thought of these after feeling a bit like we didn't put in enough effort when we took cauliflower and breadcrumbs to the last work veggie lunch. Once a month we have a potluck lunch with other veggies in our Department. It's kind of a challenge thinking of something that is fun and tasty, travels well in a backpack on a bike, can sit in a box from the night before until lunchtime, and can easily be shared. Today's lunch was supposed to be a picnic, adding the extra challenge of eating outside, possibly without cutlery. These really rise to all those challenges! Sadly the weather didn't though - it looks like lunch will be indoors.
(makes about 30)
2 cups rice (any kind is OK), cooked in 4 cups water
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 mushrooms, roughly chopped
handful hazelnuts, roughly chopped
handful sunflower seeds
handful raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp dried oregano
handful fresh parsley, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
salt+pepper
About half a jar of vine leaves in brine
Cook the rice and let it cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until starting to soften. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are browned. Add the hazelnuts and sunflower seeds and cook to toast a little. Add the cooked cooled rice, along with the raisins, cinnamon, oregano, parsley, tomatoes and tomato puree. Mix well and cook over a medium heat to try and get a little colour and crispy patches on the rice. Season with salt and pepper to taste (remember the brine leaves are well salty if they are in brine so don't go nuts with the salt). When done, remove from the heat and let cool about half an hour or longer.
When ready to assemble, fill a large bowl or pan with nearly-boiling water (just cool enough to put your hand in). Take vine leaves from the package, check they are reasonably intact, and soak in the hot water for five minutes or so to rinse off some of the salt. Then remove, lay flat on a plate or board, with the stem end nearest you. Dollop 1-2 tbsp (depending on the size of the leaf) just next to the stem, then fold the leaves around it at the base and roll up towards the leaf tip. You should end up with a neat cylindrical package. Repeat until you run out of rice mixture or of leaves. They will keep in a box in the fridge for up to a week, and can be eaten cold or at room temperature.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Diced cucumber, tomato and feta salad with chickpeas
Cucumbers are so deliciously crunchy and crisp and delicately tasty and juicy. Perfect antidote to accidentally drinking too much coffee... again. Why not cut them into chickpea-sized pieces along with some cucumbers and a little bit of feta... add parsley and tasty bits and pieces, and crunch on it along with a bit of bread... whenever I cook chickpeas they disappear so fast!
1/2 cucumber, diced
6 ish small-medium tomatoes, diced
1 in piece of feta, diced
cupful of cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped capers
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
Mix everything together, dress with olive oil, balsamic, salt+pepper. Done.
Nothing but simple food, and especially salads at the moment. S has been bringing lunch to work as well since we moved here, so it's kind of a fun challenge thinking of what will feed my appetite plus his.
1/2 cucumber, diced
6 ish small-medium tomatoes, diced
1 in piece of feta, diced
cupful of cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped capers
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
Mix everything together, dress with olive oil, balsamic, salt+pepper. Done.
Nothing but simple food, and especially salads at the moment. S has been bringing lunch to work as well since we moved here, so it's kind of a fun challenge thinking of what will feed my appetite plus his.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Pear and gorgonzola salad with balsamic reduction
We've been working quite a lot lately, or travelling / with visitors (e.g. sauna tour), so not much time in the kitchen. Keeping up (food) exploring though - went to a cute veggie cafe (Cafe N) on Tuesday; found a nice coffee shop near our house yesterday (Sweet Treats). We're on the hunt for a place walking distance from our house, not too expensive but with tables and somewhere comfortable to sit, with good veggie options and non-veg stuff too - feel like we need to have somewhere like this in mind for when we have visitors. So far we've failed to find anywhere that fits the bill - nice-looking places have no veg stuff, cafe-type places that close early and don't have much seating have veg options but no real dinner options, our few fave place so far are further away or are a bit fancy...
Anyway, dinners have mostly been quite simple, taking advantage of all the readily-available awesome breads, and my sojourn into eating eggs and dairy again, and since it warmed up we've been making quite a lot of salads.
This was yesterday's. There was one nice ripe pear in the bowl, and I thought I'd make it go as far as I could. I guess this is a pretty typical veg option type of a salad, but tasty nonetheless, especially when you can control the levels of all those strong flavours to your liking. It comes together really fast - try and make sure it does, and gets eaten fast, as it would be a shame to let a good pear go brown...
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2-3 handfuls rocket
1 ripe conference pear, cored and chopped into medium slices
2 in piece of gorgonzola, chopped into cubes
handful walnuts, crumbled
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
Get the balsamic reduction on while you prep the rest of the salad: put balsamic and sugar in a small pan and simmer pretty high for 5-10 min until it reduced and syrupy. Take off the heat.
Meanwhile, wash the rocket and put it in a serving dish. Prep and add the pear, gorgonzola and walnuts. Drizzle balsamic reduction over the top, along with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Eat right away, with some good bread.
Anyway, dinners have mostly been quite simple, taking advantage of all the readily-available awesome breads, and my sojourn into eating eggs and dairy again, and since it warmed up we've been making quite a lot of salads.
This was yesterday's. There was one nice ripe pear in the bowl, and I thought I'd make it go as far as I could. I guess this is a pretty typical veg option type of a salad, but tasty nonetheless, especially when you can control the levels of all those strong flavours to your liking. It comes together really fast - try and make sure it does, and gets eaten fast, as it would be a shame to let a good pear go brown...
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2-3 handfuls rocket
1 ripe conference pear, cored and chopped into medium slices
2 in piece of gorgonzola, chopped into cubes
handful walnuts, crumbled
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
Get the balsamic reduction on while you prep the rest of the salad: put balsamic and sugar in a small pan and simmer pretty high for 5-10 min until it reduced and syrupy. Take off the heat.
Meanwhile, wash the rocket and put it in a serving dish. Prep and add the pear, gorgonzola and walnuts. Drizzle balsamic reduction over the top, along with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Eat right away, with some good bread.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Celery, apple and walnut salad with lemon-tahini dressing
Very simple celery salad, surprised I never wrote it up before. It is good. Tahini and lemon juice make a creamy dressing that coats everything and brings zing.
juice of 1/3 lemon
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tahini
salt+pepper
about 5 sticks of celery
1 apple
handful of crumbled walnuts
handful of raisins
Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, tahini and seasoning to make a creamy, thick but pourable dressing. Chop the celery and apple and put them in a serving bowl. Toss with the dressing, then add the walnuts and raisins and mix a bit more.
juice of 1/3 lemon
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tahini
salt+pepper
about 5 sticks of celery
1 apple
handful of crumbled walnuts
handful of raisins
Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, tahini and seasoning to make a creamy, thick but pourable dressing. Chop the celery and apple and put them in a serving bowl. Toss with the dressing, then add the walnuts and raisins and mix a bit more.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Berbere lentils
I've made berbere lentils before, but at the weekend was browsing my precious weeks-old Guardian Weekend (that Y shepherded carefully over from Beccles for me), and found someone professing this berbere lentils recipe (that I had noticed then forgotten about previously) to be the best thing. And I had exactly the 250 g of red lentils it called for, so off we went.
2 medium onions, chopped
sesame oil (untoasted) or peanut oil, for frying
2–3 garlic cloves, chopped
250g red lentils
2 tbsp berbere spice mix (recipe below)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400ml water
salt and black pepper
For berbere spice mix:
2 cloves
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp each of ground allspice, black pepper, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg
To make the berbere, toast the cloves with the fenugreek, cumin and coriander. Grind and then mix with the cayenne, paprika, salt, black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric and allspice.
Fry the onions. When softened, add the garlic, lentils and berbere. Mix, then add the tomatoes and water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary.
Pretty good. Was a bit salty - I've reduced the salt a little above (as well as tweaking spice levels to my taste).Very similar to the recipe I tried before (except a bit saltier).
2 medium onions, chopped
sesame oil (untoasted) or peanut oil, for frying
2–3 garlic cloves, chopped
250g red lentils
2 tbsp berbere spice mix (recipe below)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400ml water
salt and black pepper
For berbere spice mix:
2 cloves
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp each of ground allspice, black pepper, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg
To make the berbere, toast the cloves with the fenugreek, cumin and coriander. Grind and then mix with the cayenne, paprika, salt, black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric and allspice.
Fry the onions. When softened, add the garlic, lentils and berbere. Mix, then add the tomatoes and water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary.
Pretty good. Was a bit salty - I've reduced the salt a little above (as well as tweaking spice levels to my taste).Very similar to the recipe I tried before (except a bit saltier).
Roasted carrots, chickpeas and cauliflower with yoghurt-tahini sauce
More cauliflower. I fancied roasting some chickpeas, and roasting carrots with coriander and spices. They all got roasted together and it was very very good.
Roast:
5 large carrots, scrubbed and top-and-tailed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1-2 tsp nigella seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt+pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cauliflower, broken into florets
about 1 cup cooked chickpeas
Sauce:
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp lemon juice
Heat the oven to 230C. Put the carrots in a large baking tin along with all of the spices and seeds, salt and pepper and the olive oil (be generous with these - remember the cauliflower and chickpeas will be added partway through and they want to be coated with goodness too). Mix well and put in the oven for 10-15 min. Take out and mix in the cauliflower and the chickpeas. Put back in the oven and roast for another 20-30 min, until everything is tender and starting to crisp. While it's roasting make the sauce just by mixing together the yoghurt, tahini and lemon. Serve together.
Both roast and sauce are definite make-agains. S particularly loved the roasted chickpeas.
Roast:
5 large carrots, scrubbed and top-and-tailed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1-2 tsp nigella seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt+pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cauliflower, broken into florets
about 1 cup cooked chickpeas
Sauce:
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp lemon juice
Heat the oven to 230C. Put the carrots in a large baking tin along with all of the spices and seeds, salt and pepper and the olive oil (be generous with these - remember the cauliflower and chickpeas will be added partway through and they want to be coated with goodness too). Mix well and put in the oven for 10-15 min. Take out and mix in the cauliflower and the chickpeas. Put back in the oven and roast for another 20-30 min, until everything is tender and starting to crisp. While it's roasting make the sauce just by mixing together the yoghurt, tahini and lemon. Serve together.
Both roast and sauce are definite make-agains. S particularly loved the roasted chickpeas.
Cauliflower couscous
S and I joined a vegetarian lunch club at work. We meet once a month, and everyone brings some food to share. So far it's happened twice, and it's been a fun way to meet interesting people and eat good food. This time, someone brought cauliflower 'couscous'. I'd heard of that stuff but never tried it. But we are on a cauliflower (blomkål) kick at the moment - we took cauliflower and breadcrumbs to lunch club. And the cauliflower couscous was fun and tasty, so I decided to try and recreate it with half of a big cauliflower (the other half got roasted).
1/2 a cauliflower, broken into florets
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup shelled edamame, defrosted
2 tbsp chopped almonds, toasted
lemon juice
salt and pepper
Put the cauliflower florets in a food processor and pulse briefly - it breaks down into couscous sized pieces really fast. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the garlic until softened. Add the cauliflower and saute for a few minutes, just to soften slightly. Transfer to a serving bowl along with the edamame and almonds, and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
1/2 a cauliflower, broken into florets
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup shelled edamame, defrosted
2 tbsp chopped almonds, toasted
lemon juice
salt and pepper
Put the cauliflower florets in a food processor and pulse briefly - it breaks down into couscous sized pieces really fast. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the garlic until softened. Add the cauliflower and saute for a few minutes, just to soften slightly. Transfer to a serving bowl along with the edamame and almonds, and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Oat buns
We have eaten so much good Danish bread. There is endless variety: traditional rye made with sourdough; versions with chia, carrot, potato for moistness. Various focaccia and baguette type things. And everything in between (lots of nuts and seeds!). Last weekend we went to Relæ with Y+M, and fell in love hard with the sourdough bread they serve there - it's from Manfred's, their other place over the road (also had the best beer I have ever had). S especially became a little obsessed. So yesterday we returned to Jægersborggade to try and track down that bread (after a very successful mission to a secret secondhand store). It turned out to be pretty easy: they were selling the bread as wholes and halves for quite a reasonable price, right from the restaurant. So we went home happy, with a bag full of tasty, stretchy, crunchy, wonderful sourdough (not to mention the radio, DVD/CD player, three jackets, one shirt and waterproof trousers we'd picked up earlier...).
So anyway, yesterday for some reason I was looking at the side of a packet of oats and became intrigued by the recipe there. Thought it was about time I tried to follow a recipe written in Danish. With the help of Google translate I figured it out. And realised we had pretty much all the ingredients. Including grahamsmel, which I hadn't been able to identify previously. So I made these oat buns, using up some slightly out of date fresh yeast, testing the grahamsmel, and with freshly made yoghurt. I think I could understand the recipe! One thing I noticed, that I remembered from some Swedish hagebutten soup stuff Anna had given me once upon a time, is that Scandinavians seem to measure volume in decilitres (1 dl = 100 ml) rather than millilitres.
(makes 10 rolls)
25 g yeast (gær)
200 ml (2 dl) lukewarm water (vand)
250 g plain flour (hvedemel) (used white spelt instead)
75 g graham flour (grahamsmel)
250 g oats (havregryn)
100 ml yoghurt
1 tbsp (spsk) sugar (sukker)
2 tbsp oil (olie)
1 tsp (tsk) salt
more yoghurt and some sesame seeds to finish
Dissolve (opløs) the yeast in lukewarm (lunkent) water, and add (tilsæt) the flours, oats, yogurt, sugar, oil and salt.
Knead (ælt) to a smooth (glat) and supple (smidig) dough (dej). The dough should be soft (blød). Form (form) the dough into a ball (kugle).
Let (lad) the dough rise (hæve), covered (tildækket), for about 45 min. Knock (slå) dough down (ned) and shape 10 buns (boller).
Set (sæt) buns (bollerne) on a baking sheet (bageplade) with baking paper (bagepapir) and let them prove (efterhæve) for about 30 min.
Brush with yogurt or water, then sprinkle (drys) with sesame seeds.
Bake at 200C / fan (varmluft) 180C for 12-15 min.
Came out tasty enough but not very well risen - perhaps the yeast was past it? Perhaps spelt flour was a bad substitution?
So anyway, yesterday for some reason I was looking at the side of a packet of oats and became intrigued by the recipe there. Thought it was about time I tried to follow a recipe written in Danish. With the help of Google translate I figured it out. And realised we had pretty much all the ingredients. Including grahamsmel, which I hadn't been able to identify previously. So I made these oat buns, using up some slightly out of date fresh yeast, testing the grahamsmel, and with freshly made yoghurt. I think I could understand the recipe! One thing I noticed, that I remembered from some Swedish hagebutten soup stuff Anna had given me once upon a time, is that Scandinavians seem to measure volume in decilitres (1 dl = 100 ml) rather than millilitres.
(makes 10 rolls)
25 g yeast (gær)
200 ml (2 dl) lukewarm water (vand)
250 g plain flour (hvedemel) (used white spelt instead)
75 g graham flour (grahamsmel)
250 g oats (havregryn)
100 ml yoghurt
1 tbsp (spsk) sugar (sukker)
2 tbsp oil (olie)
1 tsp (tsk) salt
more yoghurt and some sesame seeds to finish
Dissolve (opløs) the yeast in lukewarm (lunkent) water, and add (tilsæt) the flours, oats, yogurt, sugar, oil and salt.
Knead (ælt) to a smooth (glat) and supple (smidig) dough (dej). The dough should be soft (blød). Form (form) the dough into a ball (kugle).
Let (lad) the dough rise (hæve), covered (tildækket), for about 45 min. Knock (slå) dough down (ned) and shape 10 buns (boller).
Set (sæt) buns (bollerne) on a baking sheet (bageplade) with baking paper (bagepapir) and let them prove (efterhæve) for about 30 min.
Brush with yogurt or water, then sprinkle (drys) with sesame seeds.
Bake at 200C / fan (varmluft) 180C for 12-15 min.
Came out tasty enough but not very well risen - perhaps the yeast was past it? Perhaps spelt flour was a bad substitution?
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Ultimate gingery red lentil dal
They've had a red lentil dal on the menu at Grød all the time we've been here, and I keep ordering it even though I know it's really something I can make at home. Because it is pretty much the ultimate comfort food on a chilly day (it's starting to feel like Spring and sunny but it's still a bit chilly if we're honest).
I have been making versions of the Grød dal ever since we first went there. This time I think I nailed it. And I made crispy garlic butter flatbreads to go with it, which really took it over the edge.
(takes about half an hour from beginning to end)
Dal:
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups red lentils
4 cups hot water
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped into half moons
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice of 1/3 lime
1 tsp honey
1-2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
To serve:
yoghurt (or skyr, or ricotta)
more chopped fresh coriander
salty almonds (about 5 per bowl)
Cheat's garlic flatbreads:
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 cm slice of butter
flatbread (7 chapati size pieces)
Heat the oil in a large lidded frying pan. Add the fresh ginger and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the dried spices and saute until fragrant. Add red lentils and mix around, then pour in hot water, add tomato puree, stir, cover and simmer for about 20 min. Peel and chop the carrots and add to the pan (they should need 10-15 min to become tender). Add about 1 tbsp of chopped coriander. Simmer until the lentils and carrots are tender.
Meanwhile, make the flatbreads. We had some thin Turkish flatbread that needed eating; I chopped it into 7 chapati size squares. Put the chopped garlic and cold butter into a small bowl and heat in the microwave for 15-20 sec, or however long it takes for the butter to become soft and scoopable but not liquid. Mix garlic and butter together. Heat a large heavy frying pan to a high heat, then put the first flatbread piece in it. Warm for a few min, until hot, then turn over. Put about a teaspoon of garlic-butter mixture on it and spread out. Transfer to a plate to keep warm. Repeat for the remaining flatbreads.
To finish off the dal, add the remaining 1 tbsp of coriander (remember to keep some for serving), lime juice, honey, salt and pepper. Taste and add more if necessary.
To serve, fill a bowl with dal, put some yoghurt on top and scatter with chopped fresh coriander and salty almonds. If necessary reheat the flatbreads in the microwave. Scoop dal up with flatbread or eat with a spoon.
Notes: the flatbreads were quite crispy - to make softer, perhaps it would be good to sprinkle them with water while warming the first side; I microwaved the garlic with the butter in the hope it would take the edge off the raw garlic taste and I don't know if it was that that did it but something worked and they were just garlicky enough.
I have been making versions of the Grød dal ever since we first went there. This time I think I nailed it. And I made crispy garlic butter flatbreads to go with it, which really took it over the edge.
(takes about half an hour from beginning to end)
Dal:
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups red lentils
4 cups hot water
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped into half moons
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice of 1/3 lime
1 tsp honey
1-2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
To serve:
yoghurt (or skyr, or ricotta)
more chopped fresh coriander
salty almonds (about 5 per bowl)
Cheat's garlic flatbreads:
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 cm slice of butter
flatbread (7 chapati size pieces)
Heat the oil in a large lidded frying pan. Add the fresh ginger and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the dried spices and saute until fragrant. Add red lentils and mix around, then pour in hot water, add tomato puree, stir, cover and simmer for about 20 min. Peel and chop the carrots and add to the pan (they should need 10-15 min to become tender). Add about 1 tbsp of chopped coriander. Simmer until the lentils and carrots are tender.
Meanwhile, make the flatbreads. We had some thin Turkish flatbread that needed eating; I chopped it into 7 chapati size squares. Put the chopped garlic and cold butter into a small bowl and heat in the microwave for 15-20 sec, or however long it takes for the butter to become soft and scoopable but not liquid. Mix garlic and butter together. Heat a large heavy frying pan to a high heat, then put the first flatbread piece in it. Warm for a few min, until hot, then turn over. Put about a teaspoon of garlic-butter mixture on it and spread out. Transfer to a plate to keep warm. Repeat for the remaining flatbreads.
To finish off the dal, add the remaining 1 tbsp of coriander (remember to keep some for serving), lime juice, honey, salt and pepper. Taste and add more if necessary.
To serve, fill a bowl with dal, put some yoghurt on top and scatter with chopped fresh coriander and salty almonds. If necessary reheat the flatbreads in the microwave. Scoop dal up with flatbread or eat with a spoon.
Notes: the flatbreads were quite crispy - to make softer, perhaps it would be good to sprinkle them with water while warming the first side; I microwaved the garlic with the butter in the hope it would take the edge off the raw garlic taste and I don't know if it was that that did it but something worked and they were just garlicky enough.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Warm beluga lentil salad with tomato, parsley and feta
A bag of beluga lentils was an impulse buy at my current favourite shop in Copenhagen, a Turkish grocer's in the southerly part of Norrebro. They were the same price as the other lentils, that's why: I think I'd always thought of them as the fancy expensive kind of lentils so the level pricing clinched the deal...
When I cooked them I saw why they have a reputation. They hold their shape well, and like forbidden/black/purple rice they develop a wonderfully deep dark purplish black colour (hence beluga). Good solid earthy taste too.
My go-to for lentils of the brown-green-black varieties is to turn them into a quick salad, with some elements of spices (coriander, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, chilli, sumac are favourites), olive oil, acid (balsamic vinegar or lemon juice), herbs (coriander, chives, parsley, mint), powerful flavour pockets (sundried tomatoes, capers, caramelized onions+garlic, olives), crunch (toasted seeds or chopped nuts), and probably something a bit creamy (thick yoghurt, tahini, feta) and something fresh (chopped tomatoes, leaves, maybe cucumber). I thought I must have written out a million of these salads on here, but on checking found not that many. Endless variants possible!
The beluga lentils were so pretty and tasty I wanted to keep it relatively simple, so cut back on spices etc and made a salad with just some basic components.
1 cup beluga lentils cooked with a bay leaf and a couple of peeled cloves of garlic in 1 3/4 cups water
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley
6 medium-small tomatoes, chopped (or sundried tomatoes)
2 cm lump of feta, crumbled
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts (optional)
Cook the beluga lentils with bay leaf and garlic. They should take about 15-20 min. When done (slight bite remaining, no liquid left), mix the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in the bottom of a serving bowl, tip the lentils in and mix together. Taste to check seasoning. Once they have cooled a little, add parsley, tomatoes and feta and toss. Add hazelnuts if using, check seasoning, and serve.
Very pretty: purple lentils, white feta, red tomatoes, green parsley. And just as tasty as its more complicated relatives.
When I cooked them I saw why they have a reputation. They hold their shape well, and like forbidden/black/purple rice they develop a wonderfully deep dark purplish black colour (hence beluga). Good solid earthy taste too.
My go-to for lentils of the brown-green-black varieties is to turn them into a quick salad, with some elements of spices (coriander, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, chilli, sumac are favourites), olive oil, acid (balsamic vinegar or lemon juice), herbs (coriander, chives, parsley, mint), powerful flavour pockets (sundried tomatoes, capers, caramelized onions+garlic, olives), crunch (toasted seeds or chopped nuts), and probably something a bit creamy (thick yoghurt, tahini, feta) and something fresh (chopped tomatoes, leaves, maybe cucumber). I thought I must have written out a million of these salads on here, but on checking found not that many. Endless variants possible!
The beluga lentils were so pretty and tasty I wanted to keep it relatively simple, so cut back on spices etc and made a salad with just some basic components.
1 cup beluga lentils cooked with a bay leaf and a couple of peeled cloves of garlic in 1 3/4 cups water
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley
6 medium-small tomatoes, chopped (or sundried tomatoes)
2 cm lump of feta, crumbled
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts (optional)
Cook the beluga lentils with bay leaf and garlic. They should take about 15-20 min. When done (slight bite remaining, no liquid left), mix the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in the bottom of a serving bowl, tip the lentils in and mix together. Taste to check seasoning. Once they have cooled a little, add parsley, tomatoes and feta and toss. Add hazelnuts if using, check seasoning, and serve.
Very pretty: purple lentils, white feta, red tomatoes, green parsley. And just as tasty as its more complicated relatives.
Carrot and coriander salad
We have a food processor in our current place, which makes grated root vegetables a breeze. So, I made this Delia recipe in a few minutes' work, with no grated knuckles.
1 lb carrot, peeled
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp coriander seed
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
pinch cayenne pepper
Grate the carrots finely. Put in a bowl and mix with vinegar and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight). If necessary pour off excess juice (drink it!).
Dry-roast the coriander seeds in a small frying pan over a medium heat. Tip into a mortar and crush the roasted seeds.
Heat the oil in the same frying pan, add the onion and fry until golden; allow to cool slightly then drain the oil through a sieve on to the carrots. The onion has now served its purpose and can be used in another dish (I put it in a lentil salad).
Add the coriander seeds, garlic and cayenne to the carrots, mix and serve.
I like this salad, but remembered two things I wasn't sure about: first, is it really necessary to leave it so long and pour off the juice? Second, the onion oil part results in very little oil and seems like an unnecessary faff as you have to do something with the cooked onion and surely you don't get much flavour from that tiny bit of oil, especially beside loads of tasty coriander seed.
1 lb carrot, peeled
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp coriander seed
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
pinch cayenne pepper
Grate the carrots finely. Put in a bowl and mix with vinegar and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight). If necessary pour off excess juice (drink it!).
Dry-roast the coriander seeds in a small frying pan over a medium heat. Tip into a mortar and crush the roasted seeds.
Heat the oil in the same frying pan, add the onion and fry until golden; allow to cool slightly then drain the oil through a sieve on to the carrots. The onion has now served its purpose and can be used in another dish (I put it in a lentil salad).
Add the coriander seeds, garlic and cayenne to the carrots, mix and serve.
I like this salad, but remembered two things I wasn't sure about: first, is it really necessary to leave it so long and pour off the juice? Second, the onion oil part results in very little oil and seems like an unnecessary faff as you have to do something with the cooked onion and surely you don't get much flavour from that tiny bit of oil, especially beside loads of tasty coriander seed.
Garlicky mushrooms and spinach on toast with a soft-boiled egg
Woke up with this on my mind on Sunday morning. I'd found some really good dark Nordic bread on an exploratory excursion to Amager on Saturday, and with my current splurge on anything with eggs or dairy, well fancied a good eggs-on-toast breakfast. I guess over the years I've refined and identified my favourite parts of an English breakfast. I like toast. Garlicky fried or baked mushrooms. Intense, irony spinach. Eggs, scrambled in butter or poached so you get saucy runny yolk. I had a good eggs florentine in Putney the other week (I kind of feel like the Hollandaise is unnecessary when you have runny yolk though... although I guess nice enough if someone else is making it).
Was debating whether to poach or soft boil; went with soft boiling; and I think it was a successful experiment. I liked that you could cook more than one at once and they were ready at the same time. And it's less faff. There is peeling to contend with, but it didn't take long just for two, and they were super cute sitting in their nests of spinach atop slices of toast.
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
10 mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
salt+pepper
knob of butter
2 eggs
4 slices of good dark toast
400g spinach, washed
nutmeg, freshly grated
Heat some olive oil in a lidded frying pan (meanwhile boil water for eggs in a small saucepan) and add half the garlic. Fry until starting to colour, then add the mushrooms, season, and cook until they have released their juice and reabsorbed it. Finish with a knob of butter, then transfer to a plate.
Probably about time to put the eggs and toast on - cook eggs in boiling salted water for 4 min. Add a little more oil and the rest of the garlic to the frying pan and fry a little before adding the spinach and cooking until wilted and any excessive liquid has evaporated. Season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
Put toast on plates, put mushrooms on top, then mound of spinach, make a depression in the middle of spinach mound. Peel eggs and place one in the middle of each nest. Sprinkle a little salt+pepper on top. Eat straight away. Yolk will spill out and make sauce when you cut into the egg - yum.
Yesssss. Would be good for Easter breakfast.
Was debating whether to poach or soft boil; went with soft boiling; and I think it was a successful experiment. I liked that you could cook more than one at once and they were ready at the same time. And it's less faff. There is peeling to contend with, but it didn't take long just for two, and they were super cute sitting in their nests of spinach atop slices of toast.
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
10 mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
salt+pepper
knob of butter
2 eggs
4 slices of good dark toast
400g spinach, washed
nutmeg, freshly grated
Heat some olive oil in a lidded frying pan (meanwhile boil water for eggs in a small saucepan) and add half the garlic. Fry until starting to colour, then add the mushrooms, season, and cook until they have released their juice and reabsorbed it. Finish with a knob of butter, then transfer to a plate.
Probably about time to put the eggs and toast on - cook eggs in boiling salted water for 4 min. Add a little more oil and the rest of the garlic to the frying pan and fry a little before adding the spinach and cooking until wilted and any excessive liquid has evaporated. Season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
Put toast on plates, put mushrooms on top, then mound of spinach, make a depression in the middle of spinach mound. Peel eggs and place one in the middle of each nest. Sprinkle a little salt+pepper on top. Eat straight away. Yolk will spill out and make sauce when you cut into the egg - yum.
Yesssss. Would be good for Easter breakfast.
Chocolate raspberry hazelnut muffins
All weekend I was resisting a craving to cook, all the time... We had pretty epic evening plans: Friday was dissection party followed by cabaret in the Dome of Visions. Saturday was Sonar Copenhagen (Zebra Katz!). So daytimes needed to be a bit chilled. It wasn't quite as sunny as some days recently, so cooking and chilling didn't seem like a bad use of time.
Biggest part of the craving was baking-related. I am very much hooked on anything with chocolate, hazelnut and/or raspberry at the moment. So made these muffins, with all three. Hazelnuts just on top, as I find they are wasted mixed inside a cake. Had been a while since I baked anything with egg, and these are appropriately light and fluffy. Slightly adapted this recipe.
(makes 12)
200 g / 7 oz plain flour (used about 70:30 plain and white spelt)
25 g cocoa powder
15 g / 1 tbsp baking powder
115 g / 4 oz sugar
100 g dark chocolate, chopped (used 50 g)
2 medium eggs, beaten
150 ml / ¼ pt milk (used yoghurt mixed with water 50:50)
115 g / 4 oz butter (used coconut oil), melted
200 g / 7 oz raspberries (skimped a bit)
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts
Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/GM 4. Prepare a muffin tin. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate nd make a well in the centre. Mix the eggs, milk, and melted coconut oil/butter together and pour into the well, then stir until just combined. Fold in the raspberries. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases. Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top of each one. Bake for about 25 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Best still warm from the oven, but still good when cooled.
Hit the spot, predictably. Very light and tender.
Biggest part of the craving was baking-related. I am very much hooked on anything with chocolate, hazelnut and/or raspberry at the moment. So made these muffins, with all three. Hazelnuts just on top, as I find they are wasted mixed inside a cake. Had been a while since I baked anything with egg, and these are appropriately light and fluffy. Slightly adapted this recipe.
(makes 12)
200 g / 7 oz plain flour (used about 70:30 plain and white spelt)
25 g cocoa powder
15 g / 1 tbsp baking powder
115 g / 4 oz sugar
100 g dark chocolate, chopped (used 50 g)
2 medium eggs, beaten
150 ml / ¼ pt milk (used yoghurt mixed with water 50:50)
115 g / 4 oz butter (used coconut oil), melted
200 g / 7 oz raspberries (skimped a bit)
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts
Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/GM 4. Prepare a muffin tin. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate nd make a well in the centre. Mix the eggs, milk, and melted coconut oil/butter together and pour into the well, then stir until just combined. Fold in the raspberries. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases. Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top of each one. Bake for about 25 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Best still warm from the oven, but still good when cooled.
Hit the spot, predictably. Very light and tender.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Dukkah
One of our best food finds in Copenhagen so far has been Sticks n Sushi. The name didn't sound that promising but there was one near work and I'd read that they had some good veggie stuff, so S and I decided to check it out one lunchtime, and call it research for the interviews he was hosting soon for people in his new lab (!).
It was empty that first time, but really really good once we got going. We ate a veggie selection (I think called the Greens Keeper), and it had a bit of creative veggie sushi, some unusual summer rolls, grilled corn on the cob and edamame in pods, and something really simple but delicious: sticks of sweet raw veg, with a miso dip and a sort of a dukkah of poppyseeds and something red - so you dunk the veggie stick in the miso stuff then the dukkah so the seeds etc stick. Really fresh and tasty...
(nb they had exactly my kind of puddings too: little tasty things. I tried a caramel covered in dark chocolate with sesame seeds on the outside and it was gooood)
So anyway, we went there again the other evening and ate that dip/dukkah thing again, and I started thinking about dukkah, and how M gave me some she'd made a while back and it was yummy and fennel seed-y and I put it on everythingggg. And then I made broccoli with miso sauce and seeds, and realised the world was telling me to make dukkah. So then I did. I thought Ottolenghi would probably have a good way of doing it, and I had hazelnuts left over from S's birthday cake, so I followed this recipe (subbing black pepper for green because I didn't have green and I think I like black better anyway).
70 g hazelnuts
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp dry green peppercorns (or white... used black)
3 tbsp coriander seeds
1½ tbsp sesame seeds
½ tsp nigella seeds
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika
Heat the oven to 140C/285F/gas mark 1. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking tray and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Add the sunflower seeds to the tray halfway through, keeping them separate from the nuts. Remove from the oven and leave to cool while you toast the seeds.
Heat a small frying pan, then dry-roast the fennel seeds for 30 seconds. Add the cumin seeds and cook for another 30 seconds, or until they start to pop, then tip both into a little bowl. Put the pan back on the heat, toast the coriander seeds, and tip into the same bowl.
Toast the sesame and nigella seeds together until the sesame turns light brown, then tip into another small bowl.
Rub the hazelnuts to discard some of the skin. Crush coarsely with a pestle and mortar, then transfer to a medium bowl. Lightly crush the cumin and fennel seeds, and add to the hazelnuts. Repeat with the coriander seeds, then the sunflower seeds. Add these to the nut bowl, along with the ground black pepper, sesame and nigella seeds, add salt and paprika, and mix well.
I ate it with celeriac puree made like this, and it was truly delicious, either on bread, with pasta, or just the dukkah and the puree. After making this I remembered making dukkah once before, that time slightly different (I really wanted the fennel seeds this time), and eaten with baked squash.
It was empty that first time, but really really good once we got going. We ate a veggie selection (I think called the Greens Keeper), and it had a bit of creative veggie sushi, some unusual summer rolls, grilled corn on the cob and edamame in pods, and something really simple but delicious: sticks of sweet raw veg, with a miso dip and a sort of a dukkah of poppyseeds and something red - so you dunk the veggie stick in the miso stuff then the dukkah so the seeds etc stick. Really fresh and tasty...
(nb they had exactly my kind of puddings too: little tasty things. I tried a caramel covered in dark chocolate with sesame seeds on the outside and it was gooood)
So anyway, we went there again the other evening and ate that dip/dukkah thing again, and I started thinking about dukkah, and how M gave me some she'd made a while back and it was yummy and fennel seed-y and I put it on everythingggg. And then I made broccoli with miso sauce and seeds, and realised the world was telling me to make dukkah. So then I did. I thought Ottolenghi would probably have a good way of doing it, and I had hazelnuts left over from S's birthday cake, so I followed this recipe (subbing black pepper for green because I didn't have green and I think I like black better anyway).
70 g hazelnuts
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp dry green peppercorns (or white... used black)
3 tbsp coriander seeds
1½ tbsp sesame seeds
½ tsp nigella seeds
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika
Heat the oven to 140C/285F/gas mark 1. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking tray and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Add the sunflower seeds to the tray halfway through, keeping them separate from the nuts. Remove from the oven and leave to cool while you toast the seeds.
Heat a small frying pan, then dry-roast the fennel seeds for 30 seconds. Add the cumin seeds and cook for another 30 seconds, or until they start to pop, then tip both into a little bowl. Put the pan back on the heat, toast the coriander seeds, and tip into the same bowl.
Toast the sesame and nigella seeds together until the sesame turns light brown, then tip into another small bowl.
Rub the hazelnuts to discard some of the skin. Crush coarsely with a pestle and mortar, then transfer to a medium bowl. Lightly crush the cumin and fennel seeds, and add to the hazelnuts. Repeat with the coriander seeds, then the sunflower seeds. Add these to the nut bowl, along with the ground black pepper, sesame and nigella seeds, add salt and paprika, and mix well.
I ate it with celeriac puree made like this, and it was truly delicious, either on bread, with pasta, or just the dukkah and the puree. After making this I remembered making dukkah once before, that time slightly different (I really wanted the fennel seeds this time), and eaten with baked squash.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
S's birthday: chocolate hazelnut (nutella) cake
I followed that same recipe for the cake part - we had milk and eggs left over from making pancakes so it seemed like an excellent use of them (especially wanted to use up the milk, we never get through milk, even when it is in European size cartons).
Then I spotted nutella in the supermarket (another thing I've always had a soft spot for but couldn't have when being vegan^, and decided to go rogue and nutella-based for the icing. Goodness knows I've had sooo many icing disasters, but still always seem to think I can just chuck stuff in a bowl and make it up as I go along...
DR
Our current apartment has all these mod cons, like microwave and food processor - so I could grind nuts in processor, melt choc in microwave etc. Got to admit it felt quite labour saving!
(makes a rather massive 2 layer, ~8 in round cake)
For the cake:
3/4 cup hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
good pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 heaping tsp coffee granules dissolves in 3/4 cup boiling water
For the icing / decoration:
1/4 cup hazelnuts, plus 3
~25 g butter, softened
~1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 jar nutella
75 g 70% chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp coffee granules
~2 tbsp plain yoghurt
Heat the oven to 175C / 350F. Grease and line a high-sided 8 in cake tin with removable base*. Grind 3/4 cup hazelnuts in a food processor until quite fine, then transfer into a large mixing bowl. Put the 1/4 cup hazelnuts for the decoration on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 min in the oven as it warms up, then set aside to cool. Add sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt to the ground hazelnuts and whisk together. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and oil. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Add the hot coffee and mix again. It is a pretty runny cake mixture. Pour into the prepared tin and transfer to the oven. Bake for about 60 min (start checking at 45 min)*. It is done when a skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let sit for 10-15 min before turning out onto a cooling rack and leaving until completely cool.
While the cake is baking prepare the icing and decoration. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth, then add the nutella. Add the melted chocolate and coffee, beat some more, add the yoghurt and beat until well combined. At room temperature it is quite soft but it goes hard in the fridge, so you can try and optimise the consistency for when you assemble the cake. Keep it in the fridge while the cake cools. Rub most of the skins off the toasted hazelnuts, then transfer them to the food processor and process just a little, until roughly chopped. Transfer to a bowl and keep until ready to assemble.
To assemble the cake, first trim and even out the top (mine was pretty craggy and high)*. Then cut through the middle parallel to the base to make two layers. Put the bottom layer on a plate, then spread half of the icing onto it (if the icing is too solid you can heat it a little in the microwave but be careful not to overheat). Put the other half of the cake on top and spread the rest of the icing over that. This is enough icing for the middle and top but not to go down the sides - I don't like too much icing and quite like to see the layers. Place the squirrel cutter gently in the middle of the cake and carefully sprinkle the chopped toasted hazelnuts all around it, so that the top of the cake is covered in chopped nuts except for the silhouette of the squirrel. Pack the nuts down around the edges of the cutter then carefully remove the cutter. You should be left with a neat squirrel silhouette. I put an appropriately sized and shaped piece of nut to be his eye, and then arranged three whole hazelnuts as if he might be holding / chasing them.
^Actually, I just noticed the Fotex brand nutella (which tastes just like the real thing to me) is actually vegan. Go Denmark! So it would be dead easy to make this icing vegan. In fact, I think it would be just fine to use straight nutella as the icing...
*Original recipe called for two tins, but I had one so that's what I used. Using two would be preferable as it would significantly reduce baking time (to more like 30 min) and give more even rising.
Actually, the icing worked really well. I wanted the yoghurt and coffee to lighten the nutella and add some sour / bitter. And the chocolate to deepen and richen, and also add some bitterness and thickness. Think it worked. And mmm nutella. It was kind of a conscious decision to cover the top with nuts as I always think chocolate icing can look a bit like poo. But also I just ended up with quite a lot of chopped nuts and felt the need to use them all. I'd kind of intended to just use them to fill in the squirrel shape originally. Or without a squirrel cutter could have made a paper template or just covered the whole top with chopped nuts. S said it's like Ferrero Rocher. This is true, although it hadn't occurred to me until he said it. Perhaps unwrapped Ferrero Rochers would make good decorations if you didn't want to go the squirrel route.
Note: I wanted to make a proper cakey cake this time, but for a flourless style nutella cake this Nigella one looks delicious.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Fastelavn / Pancake Day
I like discovering new national events I never knew about before. The weirder the better. The more I can collect to celebrate, the funner a year becomes. I just discovered Fastelavn. It is a Danish holiday (also celebrated in Norway, but not so much in Sweden, oddly), timing-wise similar to Pancake Day. Also similar to Pancake Day in that there is a special, rich food associated with it. In this case it is buns: the Danish ones are cream-filled puff buns, all different fillings and toppings, called Fastelavnboller. The Swedish equivalent is called Semla, more bready, with cardamom. But there the similarity to Pancake Day ends. Children get dressed up in all sorts of costumes, and go out asking for buns or money, similar to Halloween. There is also a thing with barrel breaking. Apparently this originally involved putting a black cat in a barrel and smashing it up (perhaps for luck, since black cats are supposed to be unlucky?). But now it is more like a pinata, with kids bashing at a barrel strung up and full of sweets until it breaks.
So anyway, we ate one bun, with some sort of mildly almondy filling and a blob of chocolate icing on top. Mixing it up, we also had pancakes for breakfast yesterday. Since I am being vegetarian at the moment they were fully rounded dairy and egg -full pancakes - I used Delia's foolproof recipe, which I have used many times before. And our current place has a dreamy induction hob and nice non-stick pans, so there was none of the disastrousness of last year's attempts...
(makes about a dozen)
110g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200 ml milk mixed with 75 ml water
butter, about 50 g
Sieve flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the middle and whisk in the eggs, adding milk gradually when it starts to thicken. It should whisk up nicely without lumps if you keep it gradual - just keep whisking if it seems lumpy and it should sort itself out. This batter will keep in the fridge overnight if desired, or can be used straight away.
When ready to make pancakes, melt butter in a small nonstick frying pan. Pour a couple tbsp melted butter into the batter and whisk. Put about 3/4 ladleful into hot pan at a time, tip to distribute, and then cook for a few minutes on each side until done.
We ate some with lemon and sugar, and some breakfasty ones with banana, yoghurt, honey, dried fruit and seeds.
If you have too much batter, you can either keep the batter til later, or you can make more pancakes and keep them in the fridge or freezer - they reheat very easily in a frying pan.
So anyway, we ate one bun, with some sort of mildly almondy filling and a blob of chocolate icing on top. Mixing it up, we also had pancakes for breakfast yesterday. Since I am being vegetarian at the moment they were fully rounded dairy and egg -full pancakes - I used Delia's foolproof recipe, which I have used many times before. And our current place has a dreamy induction hob and nice non-stick pans, so there was none of the disastrousness of last year's attempts...
(makes about a dozen)
110g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200 ml milk mixed with 75 ml water
butter, about 50 g
Sieve flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the middle and whisk in the eggs, adding milk gradually when it starts to thicken. It should whisk up nicely without lumps if you keep it gradual - just keep whisking if it seems lumpy and it should sort itself out. This batter will keep in the fridge overnight if desired, or can be used straight away.
When ready to make pancakes, melt butter in a small nonstick frying pan. Pour a couple tbsp melted butter into the batter and whisk. Put about 3/4 ladleful into hot pan at a time, tip to distribute, and then cook for a few minutes on each side until done.
We ate some with lemon and sugar, and some breakfasty ones with banana, yoghurt, honey, dried fruit and seeds.
If you have too much batter, you can either keep the batter til later, or you can make more pancakes and keep them in the fridge or freezer - they reheat very easily in a frying pan.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Carrot and coriander soup
Since we got here we are eating a lot of simple, warming food: rye bread, butter, yoghurt, honey, tahini, muesli, sunflower seeds, carrots,
chickpeas/lentils, celeriac (cheap and easy to find), parsley root
sometimes; salad, curry, soup.
I made a chunky soup the other day. This time I wanted to make a blended soup. I'd just bought a big bag of carrots so that was part of the motivation. Aside from that, it's a chilly February day so what do you expect?
It's not quite a classic carrot and coriander. It has both fresh coriander leaves and toasty coriander seed. Ginger, garlic, and a little bit of celeriac add some more depth and warmth. A spot of honey magnifies the carrots' sweetness. And I experimented with using tahini to thicken the soup, and was pleased with the results - I just used a little, but it gives a smooth, subtle nuttiness that I like.
(makes approx 5 servings)
~1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
~6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
~3 in piece of celeriac, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 stock cube made up with ~3 cups of water
1/2 tsp honey
lemon juice
salt+pepper
1 tbsp tahini
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Heat the oil in a large, lidded saucepan. Add the onion and cook for ~10 min, until softened and starting to brown. Add the garlic and ginger about halfway through that. Next add the ground spices and cook until fragrant (~1 min). Add the carrots and celeriac and saute for a few minutes before adding the stock, covering and simmering gently for ~15 min, until the carrots and celeriac are tender. Add honey (be restrained), lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Remove a few tbsp of the liquid into a bowl and mix in the tahini. Return this liquid to the pan along with the fresh coriander. Let cool for 10-20 min, then blend until smooth. Taste again to check acidity and seasoning. I've been eating it with a swirl of natural yoghurt on top and a grinding of salt and pepper.
This is so simple I almost wasn't going to bother writing it out. But it was good, and is improving every time I eat it (over a couple of days of keeping it in the fridge). So here we are.
I made a chunky soup the other day. This time I wanted to make a blended soup. I'd just bought a big bag of carrots so that was part of the motivation. Aside from that, it's a chilly February day so what do you expect?
It's not quite a classic carrot and coriander. It has both fresh coriander leaves and toasty coriander seed. Ginger, garlic, and a little bit of celeriac add some more depth and warmth. A spot of honey magnifies the carrots' sweetness. And I experimented with using tahini to thicken the soup, and was pleased with the results - I just used a little, but it gives a smooth, subtle nuttiness that I like.
(makes approx 5 servings)
~1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
~6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
~3 in piece of celeriac, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 stock cube made up with ~3 cups of water
1/2 tsp honey
lemon juice
salt+pepper
1 tbsp tahini
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Heat the oil in a large, lidded saucepan. Add the onion and cook for ~10 min, until softened and starting to brown. Add the garlic and ginger about halfway through that. Next add the ground spices and cook until fragrant (~1 min). Add the carrots and celeriac and saute for a few minutes before adding the stock, covering and simmering gently for ~15 min, until the carrots and celeriac are tender. Add honey (be restrained), lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Remove a few tbsp of the liquid into a bowl and mix in the tahini. Return this liquid to the pan along with the fresh coriander. Let cool for 10-20 min, then blend until smooth. Taste again to check acidity and seasoning. I've been eating it with a swirl of natural yoghurt on top and a grinding of salt and pepper.
This is so simple I almost wasn't going to bother writing it out. But it was good, and is improving every time I eat it (over a couple of days of keeping it in the fridge). So here we are.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Real Seelen
But I could never track down white spelt flour in the USA, not even in the fanciest grocery shops (or Eastern European ones). Not long after coming here, we went to Lidl (another German thing S loves), and found white spelt flour there! And pretty cheap too. So we decided that real Seelen were in order.
They don't take too many ingredients or special equipment, so it seemed do-able, even without my own kitchen. Finding the other ingredients was actually kind of a challenge. We had salt, that was fine and easy. I thought caraway might be easy too as it seems quite popular - there is a caraway seed cheese I see everywhere and want to try, but it only comes in gigantic blocks so haven't yet. But we didn't find caraway in any of the grocery shops we checked. The Turkish market had a bewildering selection of spices though, leading to a fairly lengthy debate between S+I over whether cumin (spidskommen) and caraway (kommen) seeds were the same or not (they're not! but he wouldn't believe it!). Anyway, we got the caraway there, and the next challenge was yeast, Again, I checked near the flour on the shelves of various grocery shops, until S found some in the fridge in a wholefoods shop - of course! Fresh yeast is the way here, dried yeast seems to be hard to find.
So, real seelen - not only with white spelt flour, but also with fresh yeast!
(makes 12 - I doubled the recipe as I had 1000g flour, 42g yeast, and no scales... and S loves seelen)
1000g white spelt flour
42g fresh yeast
600 ml warm water
4 tsp salt
For sprinkling: caraway seeds and coarse sea salt
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and knead all ingredients for about 10 minutes to get soft and fairly sticky dough. Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, kneading briefly after 20 min and after 40 min.
When the dough has risen turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and split in two. With wet hands shape one piece into a square of about 20 cm. Use a wet knife to cut the dough into six strips. Transfer the strips onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Repeat with the other half of the dough (you'll need two baking sheets). Irregular shapes are fine, even good. Cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes. Heat the oven to about 240C / 460F and place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf.
When the Seelen are ready to go into the oven wet them again with your hands and sprinkle with caraway seeds and coarse sea salt. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
They definitely look different -lighter, more golden, with a very slight sheen. Perhaps a little more dense. But the taste is dominated by the caraway and salt so I find it hard to make out a difference in taste from the spelt. No complaints though, and it took us only two days to demolish the whole lot!
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Lazy vegetable and red lentil curry
Since we're subletting I haven't really felt like I settled in, foodwise, yet. The kitchen has most everything we need but not all, and I'm conscious of trying not to mess things up. And since we move again soon (to a different sublet) it feels like it would be silly to buy up lots of foodstuff. Not to mention that there is a whole lot of exciting food out there to buy / eat - baked goods especially are making us happy. And there's just a lot of adventuring / work etc to be done, so spending time doing anything very involved in the kitchen doesn't feel quite right. But then again, just eating pasta or salad all the time doesn't feel right either.
This has been my solution: simple curried vegetables, with red lentils to thicken and deepen. No weighing or measuring and minimal effort; but feels hearty and hygge (and yes not much different from that soup - just a few more spices, less varied vegetables and less liquidy).
(Note: partly inspired by our favourite food place discovery since getting here: Grød - all kinds of sweet and savoury porridge (including dal, barley-otto); perfect for a Danish winter and quite near work.)
~1 tbsp veg oil (or olive oil)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 in piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
few grinds black pepper
1 tsp curry powder
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
chunk of celeriac, peeled and diced
~1 cup red lentils
1 veg stock cube made up with 2 cups boiling water
smallish piece of broccoli, washed and separated into florets
~1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
~1 tsp salt
~2 tbsp chopped coriander
brown rice and skyr / yoghurt* to serve
Heat the oil in a medium lidded saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and onion. Cover and cook until softened and slightly browned. Add the spices and mix / toast for a minute. Add the carrots and celeriac and mix. Add the lentils and stock and stir. Cover and simmer for ~15 min until the veg and lentils are nearly tender. Add the broccoli and simmer for ~5 more minutes. Check everything is done and add vinegar and salt to taste. To serve, mix through some of the coriander and scatter some more on top. We ate with brown rice and some skyr*.
This keeps well to become work lunches etc as well - perhaps even improves with a day in the fridge. Usually I would have added tinned tomatoes to something like this, but (a) I didn't have any, and (b) I found that red lentils+stock work well in their place to create a sauce as well as adding texture and earthy flavour.
*I have been having a bit of a break from veganism since getting here - it's tricky to figure out what is / isn't vegan when there's a language barrier. So I am making the best of it and eating lots of all my favourite non-vegan foods (mostly yoghurt; occasionally cheese / eggs / non-vegan baked goods) - no meat! Hence the skyr - I always loved how natural yoghurt goes with spicy curry and brown rice. But this is just fine without it too.
This has been my solution: simple curried vegetables, with red lentils to thicken and deepen. No weighing or measuring and minimal effort; but feels hearty and hygge (and yes not much different from that soup - just a few more spices, less varied vegetables and less liquidy).
(Note: partly inspired by our favourite food place discovery since getting here: Grød - all kinds of sweet and savoury porridge (including dal, barley-otto); perfect for a Danish winter and quite near work.)
~1 tbsp veg oil (or olive oil)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 in piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
few grinds black pepper
1 tsp curry powder
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
chunk of celeriac, peeled and diced
~1 cup red lentils
1 veg stock cube made up with 2 cups boiling water
smallish piece of broccoli, washed and separated into florets
~1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
~1 tsp salt
~2 tbsp chopped coriander
brown rice and skyr / yoghurt* to serve
Heat the oil in a medium lidded saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and onion. Cover and cook until softened and slightly browned. Add the spices and mix / toast for a minute. Add the carrots and celeriac and mix. Add the lentils and stock and stir. Cover and simmer for ~15 min until the veg and lentils are nearly tender. Add the broccoli and simmer for ~5 more minutes. Check everything is done and add vinegar and salt to taste. To serve, mix through some of the coriander and scatter some more on top. We ate with brown rice and some skyr*.
This keeps well to become work lunches etc as well - perhaps even improves with a day in the fridge. Usually I would have added tinned tomatoes to something like this, but (a) I didn't have any, and (b) I found that red lentils+stock work well in their place to create a sauce as well as adding texture and earthy flavour.
*I have been having a bit of a break from veganism since getting here - it's tricky to figure out what is / isn't vegan when there's a language barrier. So I am making the best of it and eating lots of all my favourite non-vegan foods (mostly yoghurt; occasionally cheese / eggs / non-vegan baked goods) - no meat! Hence the skyr - I always loved how natural yoghurt goes with spicy curry and brown rice. But this is just fine without it too.
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