Potatoes Hasselback & Coquelet

This dinner arose mainly due to our limited knowledge of the French language and birds in general. When we saw 'coquelet' on sale at the supermarket, we thought it might be some bird we hadn't tasted before. As it turns out, a 'coquelet' is just a young chicken. Oh, well... not catastrophic by any means: Time for some roast chicken.

Since we were going to turn on the oven anyway, we decided we'd want some baked potatoes with the chicken .. not just ordinary baked potatoes, but potatoes hasselback.

potatoes hasselback
- 6 potatoes, peeled, sliced nearly through
- oil
- salt, pepper, paprika
coquelet roast
- 1 'coquelet'
- 1 parsnip, in chunks
- 1 large sunchoke, in chunks
- 0.5 dL white wine
- salt & pepper
- 3 medium onions, quartered
- fresh sage


The peeled, nearly-but-completely-sliced-through potatoes (see pictures for details) were placed in a baking pan, brushed with a little oil and sprinkled with salt, black pepper, and paprika. They were in the oven at 225 C (450 F) for an hour.

The coquelet was stuffed with some of the onion, sunchoke, parsnip, and sage. The skin was rubbed with salt and pepper, and the coquelet was placed in a baking pan on top of a bed of the rest of the vegetables and the wine. It was in the oven at 225 C (450 F) for 45 minutes.

The result was delicious: Crisp skin, cooked through, but nowhere near dried out (I guess this is easier with a smaller bird like this). As an added bonus, there was more meat on it than we expected - I guess it didn't have big bones or anything. Served with a quick salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and roasted peanuts.

Karbonader (Danish Meatballs 3)

These breaded meatballs are another classic of Danish cooking .. although I don't seem to make them all that often. In fact I have no idea when I last made them (other than that it over 2 years ago).

Ingredients:
- 300 g (2/3 lb) minced pork
- 1 egg
- bread crumbs
- salt & pepper
- oil

The minced pork was pressed into firm balls using the hands, then flattened somewhat by applying light pressure with a knife (this part of the process identical to these other Danish meatballs). In a small bowl the egg was beaten lightly with a fork, and in a second bowl bread crumbs were mixed with salt and pepper (no, I did not have enough bread crumbs in the bowl in the picture - I needed about twice as much). The flattened meat balls were turned out first in egg, then in bread crumbs and fried in the pan until golden and cooked through.

Served with boiled potatoes and a simple salad.

Wädenswiler Single Malt Beer

Now, this is a very interesting Swiss beer. As you may guess, not from the end of the country where I'm living these days.

Anyway. Since whiskey is - in a very fundamental sense - distilled beer, it makes sense for a brewery to try their hands at both. So, in Wädenswil they did just that: brewed a beer with whiskey malt, bottled some of it for sale as is and distilled the rest to make whiskey.

For now, I've only tasted the beer, so I can't comment on the successfulness of their whiskey production.

The beer was very ale like to me - in taste as well as in colour. I think I expected a darker beer based on the appearance of the bottle, and I certainly expected a much smokier taste - although that might mainly betray which kinds of whiskey I personally prefer.

Roasted Sunchoke Salad

I first had (and tried) the idea of adding roasted sunchokes to a salad while on vacation this past summer, but I never really got back to it till recently. I'm sure this isn't exactly like the first time I made it, but the essentials are there.

Ingredients:
- bacon, thinly sliced
- onion, diced
- sunchoke, diced
- butterhead lettuce
- corn salad
- cucumber, half slices
- cherry tomatoes, halved
- pickled caper berries
mint raita
- yoghurt
- fresh mint, chopped
- garlic, mashed
- salt & pepper

The bacon was fried in a pan till nicely crisp, then added the onion and a few minutes later the sunchokes, and the heat was reduced to medium high - occasional stirring was continued while mixing the other parts of the salad. In the end the lovely taste of the roasted sunchokes was brought out while retaining most of the crunch of the fresh sunchokes. Mixed with the rest of the salad and served with a little mint raita.

Spanish Omelette

At some point during my childhood my brother introduced this dish into our family, and was probably the one who kept making it over and over until it became a classic for us. For some, to me anyway, unfathomable reason our parents actually had such a silly unitasker as a french fry cutter - unfathomable not least because I can't remember them ever making french fries. I admit that for cutting potatoes into little square-cross section beams of equal thickness there is no faster way than to use the french fry cutter ... but doing it with a good knife doesn't take that much longer as long as we're talking about reasonable amounts. Of course, making this dish later in the dormitory - using a knife - was what got me forever the reputation of being that-guy-who-makes-his-own-fries..


Ingredients:
- oil
- 8 medium potatoes, peeled, cut like french fries
- 2 medium onions, chopped coarsely
- 4 eggs
- 1 dL (1/2 cup) milk
- salt, pepper, and paprika

The onion were sautéed in a little oil in a large (preferably non-stick) pan till translucent, then the potatoes were added and sautéed with occasionally stirring^[1] until they looked nicely browned.
The eggs were beaten together with milk, salt, pepper and paprika in a bowl, then poured over the potatoes. The heat was reduced and the omelette was allowed to stand until the eggs had solidified - which of course goes much faster if the pan is covered.

Was served with a salad and some ketchup - although not the case this time we sometimes also have it with some fried bacon on the side..

^[1] Without a non-stick pan this should be almost constant stirring.

Tomato Soup

I don't know about you, but for me a tomato soup must contain noodles in order to be fully satisfying - I realise this may simply be a force of habit, an opinion based on the way I remember tomato soups from my childhood more than anything else. However, knowing that doesn't change my attitude about it one bit...

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- paprika
- cayenne pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
- 2.5 L (ca. 2.5 quarts) vegetable broth
- 3 leeks, cut in rings
- 800 g (28 oz) canned crushed tomatoes
- 140 g (5 oz) canned tomato paste
- salt
- 150 g (ca. 5 oz) noodles^[1]
- fresh basil, chopped - for serving
- sour cream - for serving

Olive oil was heated in a large pot, then added paprika and generous amounts of cayenne pepper. The onion and garlic was sautéed in this until the onions were translucent. After adding the vegetable broth, leeks, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste the pot was covered and brought to a boil. The heat was reduced and the soup was allowed to simmer for 10 minutes. After seasoning to taste with salt, the noodles were added and the soup was allowed to simmer until the noodles were cooked.

Served immediately with a tsp of sour cream and some fresh basil on top.

^[1] Preferably small noodles like little elbows or small shells.

Grolsch Herfst Bok

When it comes to beer the Netherlands doesn't quite have the reputation of its two giant (beer-wise) neighbours: Germany and Belgium.

That doesn't mean to say Dutch beer is unknown around the world: although I haven't checked, I'd guess Heineken is available pretty much worldwide - and neither Amstel nor Grolsch can be that far behind. I remember all three as drinkable, if not quite memorable, lagers.

On a recent trip to Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to try Grolsch's Herfst Bok ('autumn bock'). Alone by virtue of being a bock beer it was already much more to my liking .. it's not like I'm getting a lot of bock beer here in Geneva, so it was all the more welcome for that reason too. In fact I was sad it wasn't served at more of the places I went to on that trip.

Bacon wrapped green beans

Due to bad weather I was stuck in an airport most of New Year's Eve and by the time I made it home it was rather too late for preparing dinner - so we had our New Year's dinner on New Year's Day instead.

I know I have been served bacon wrapped green beans somewhere before, but I can't remember where or when. It is of course similar to bacon wrapped asparagus, although perhaps more winter-like.

Ingredients:
- 6 thin slices of bacon
- 24 green beans

After rinsing the beans, they were collected in bunches of four each, wrapped in bacon, and baked at 225 C (450 F) for about 15 minutes.

I guess they could be used as a starter, but here they went on the dish for the main course: steak, mashed potatoes de luxe, and a leek-mushroom-cream-Gorgonzola sauce..

Happy New Year! Cheers!