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.
Monday, October 19, 2015
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)