Mushroom tomato sauce for pasta

For dinner last night I wanted a pasta dish, that should incorporate mushrooms, be meatless and go well with a glass of (cheap) red wine. The latter notion sent my thoughts towards a tomato-based sauce and reminded me of past experiments adding anchovies to achieve a greater depth of flavour.

Ingredients:
- 90 g jar of anchovies in sunflower oil
- 2 brown onions, finely chopped
- ¹/₂ bulb fennel, finely chopped
- approx. 2 dL white wine
- 300 g brown mushrooms, medium diced
- 3 tomaotes, diced
- 200 g small tomatoes, diced
- 70 g can of tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- fresh basil
- fresh oregano
- water
- salt
- pepper

First the vegetables were chopped.
The oil from the anchovies was poured into a large pot and heated on high. The anchovies were chopped and added to the pot. When the anchovies were starting to brown the onion and fennel was added and the heat reduced to medium-high. After a few minutes white wine was added in 3 portions, the liquid being reduced between each addition.
The mushrooms were added and when they collapsed a little after a few minutes, the heat was reduced to low before adding tomatoes, tomato paste, crushed garlic, basil and oregano. The pot was covered and allowed to simmer while boiling pasta. The sauce was stirred occasionally and added water in small portions to ensure it didn't go to dry.
Seasoned to tate with salt and black pepper just before serving with wholegrain spaghetti and freshly grated hard Italian cheese and lettuce.
.. and of course the planned glass of read wine. We were very pleased with the result.

Red Basil

Not unlike other varieties of basil, I was unfamiliar with red basil until I came across it at the store. As before when faced with such options, the new item went directly into the shopping basket - what to do with it could always to be found out later.

I found this plant to be surprisingly (and a bit disappointingly) mild and subtle in flavour - I haven't seen any more since, so I don't know if this is general. Because of this, using it for wok and curry dishes is almost kind of wasted as the flavour is easily trumped by other strong flavours - although I must say it does look beautiful.

I did use it with some success for baking fish: pieces of white fish (e.g. cod) were wrapped in foil together with leaves of red basil and baked in the oven.

Sweet chili glazed salmon

Mrs. Throat-Erator decided we should join in on the Bon Appetit Cover Challenge (BACC) hosted by White Fluffy Icing. Although we didn't start in January, this is not the first dish from that series that we made - but it is the first one to make it to this page (so far).

We scaled the dish down a bit and decided on sherry rather than rice wine - we didn't have either of the two so we had to get one or the other. As it turns out I expect to more readily find uses for the rest of a bottle of sherry and it was also easier to locate sherry in the specific Systembolaget store we ended up in that day. Finally we decided to add some grilled asparagus and serve the whole thing with wild rice.

Ingredients:
- 4 salmon fillets
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₄ cup) sweet chili sauce
- 2 + 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 + 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely diced
- 1 large garlic clove, finely diced
- bunch of asparagus
- sesame oil
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) sugar snap peas- 100 g (3.5 oz) pea sprouts
- 2 tbsp dry sherry
- boiled wild rice

The salmon fillets were placed on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with a glaze made by mixing the sweet chili sauce with 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp ginger. The salmon fillets were allowed to stand at room temperature for half an hour.

While waiting, wild rice were boiled.
The rinsed asparagus were placed on a separate piece of foil in the same baking sheet. The salmon and the asparagus were broiled for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile a little sesame oil was heated in a wok. To this was added the garlic and the rest of the ginger. After stirring for 30 seconds to a minute the sugar snap peas were added and stir fried for a couple of minutes. The sherry was added together with the pea sprouts and the rest of the soy sauce and stirred for about a minute.


I quite liked the end result. A reminder that marinating salmon isn't such a bad idea - most of the time I just have it 'plain'. I also liked the stir fried pea sprouts - in the past I've used them only in salads.

Banana-Chocolate Herring

When I first came across the Icelandic speciality banana herring I was at a loss for words at first.

The sheer outlandish oddness of the dish never fails to stun people who encounter it for the first time.

That being said, it wasn't actually that long before we started brainstorming how to top this freakishness.

Credit should go to one of my dormitory friends for suggesting adding chocolate to the dish.

Once it was said I naturally had to try it. At least once. I don't make this often, but it still happens from time to time..

Ingredients:
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 4 tsp honey mustard
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 banana, diced
- 40 g (1.4 oz) 72% dark chocolate, diced
- 250 g (¹/₂ lb) plain pickled herring

The sour cream, mayonnaise and honey mustard was stirred together, then the paprika, banana and chocolate pieced were stirred in. Finally the pickled herring was added and stirred in so the herring pieces were coated in mixture. Covered and left in fridge overnight (or longer) before being served on wholegrain dark rye bread.

But how does it taste? Interestingly, the chocolate functions as a rather subtle addition to the flavour, but when served chilled the chocolate pieces add a welcome "crunch" to the texture. I should add that banana herring - with or without added chocolate - is quite rich and as such goes better as part of a larger selection of herring as well as other choices, such as a Danish Christmas lunch or similar..

(Asian) Fish soup

For my birthday this year, Mrs. Throat-Erator gave me dried curry and kaffir lime leaves - and then things got a little hectic, so I didn't have a lot of time to think about ways to use them for a couple of months...

But I thought they might add a nice touch to a fish soup - more specifically, I was thinking of some of the nice Asian fish soups I've tried, which I would like to emulate, so I tried it out.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 hot chillies, finely cut
- 2 fillets of pangasius, cut in chunks
- 2 fillets of tilapia, cut in chunks
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 leeks, cut in rings, white and green parts separated.
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) fish stock
- 0.5 g^[1] dried curry leaves
- 0.5 g^[2] dried kaffir lime leaves
- 250 g (¹/₂ lb) sunchokes, diced
- 3 tomatoes, diced coarsely
- 24 prawns

A little oil was heated in a large pot, and crushed garlic and finely cut chillies were sautéed for half a minute before adding chunks of fish.

After a couple of minutes, the diced onion and the white leek rings (white rings only) were added and after an additional couple of minutes, the fish stock and the dried leaves were added.

After adding diced sunchokes and large chunks of tomato, the pot was brought to a boil. The heat was reduced, the pot was covered and allowed to simmer for 10 minutes. The prawns and the green leek rings were added, and the pot was brought back to a boil and simmered for a final 5 minutes.

I was very happy with the result - the combination of of chillies, curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves resulted in exactly the fresh kind of taste I was going for, and although perhaps not traditional in Asian cuisine (although I admit I don't know) I thought the sunchokes added a really nice nuance to the flavour.

^[1] As much as you see in the picture..
^[2] ..more than you see in the picture!

Coalfish

This meal came about for two main reasons - the good looking filets of coalfish on sale at the supermarket and the desire to (re)create a dish similar to one I recently had at a restaurant...

Ingredients:
- 2 filets of coalfish
- bacon
- 150 g (1/3 lb) mixed mushrooms
- sambal oelek
- 1 dL (~ 1/2 cup) cream
couscous:
- 1 dL (~ 1/2 cup) couscous
- 2 dL (~1 cup) water
- salt
- ground coriander
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
salad:
- lettuce
- sun dried tomatoes
- cucumber
- roasted pistachios

The salad was prepared first, then the couscous by pouring boiling water on couscous mixed with salt and ground coriander, then letting stand covered till the water was absorbed after which the onion and cherry tomatoes were stirred in.

In a pan, bacon in smaller pieces was fried, then added filets of coalfish. When the coalfish were done they were removed from the pan. To the pan was added the mushrooms together with the cream and as much sambal oelek as was on the tip of a butter knife. After a few minutes this was deemed a sauce.

Delicious - and quite similar to the restaurant dish I was aiming for!

Trout and Noodles with Poppy Seed and Lemon

Finding ways to use yet more poppy seeds, we tried out this idea, which we found on the internet - only adding quite a bit more poppy seeds than the original recipe called for.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (1/2 lb) wide egg noodles
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- zest of 1 lemon, freshly grated
- 1 bunch chives, cut
- trout filets
- lettuce
- tomatoes

The noodles were boiled in lightly salted water till tender.
While the noodles were boiling, the poppy seeds were toasted lightly, the chives were rinsed, and the lemon zest was grated. When ready, the drained noodles were stirred with poppy seeds, lemon zest, chives, and butter.

Served with pan fried filets of trout and a very quick salad of lettuce and tomato slices.

Sesame Rice & Coconut Prawns

The decision to make this dish was largely motivated by our stockpile of sesame seeds (keeping in mind that we will have to move again in a couple of months) and the prawns we had had lying in the freezer since New Year when our dinner plans were changed...

Mrs. Erator took over the kitchen for this one.

Ingredients:
sesame rice:
- 3 dL (1.25 cups) jasmine rice
- 6 dL (2.5 cups) water
- salt
- 4 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted
- 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
- 1 bunch chives, chopped
coconut prawns:
- oil
- 12 tiger prawns, peeled
- 1 zucchini, cut in half slices
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1-2 tsp sambal oelek
- 200g (1/2 lb) green cabbage

While boiling the rice in lightly salted water the white sesame seeds were toasted on a pan. When the rice were done, the sesame seeds (white toasted, black raw) and chopped chives were stirred into the rice.

A little oil was heated in a wok, then added the pealed prawns. When the prawns had turned pink all over the sambal oelek was added, then onions. When the onions were translucent the zucchini were added, and after another few minutes the coconut milk. When the coconut milk was warmed up the cabbage was added and after a few minutes it was ready to serve.

Delicious. To the extend that extra spice was wanted we used Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Danish Christmas Lunch 2008

On Christmas day we had a couple of guests over for a Danish style Christmas lunch. The concept of a such a lunch is to sit at a table for several hours, eating a selection of cold and warm dishes served in succession while talking and drinking strong and/or dark beer (such as these) and aquavit ('snaps').


For this particular lunch we served...

To drink: Erdmandli Zuger Amber and Hopfemandli Lager Dunkel from Brauerei Baar in Baar, Switzerland. Both of these are nicely dark beers that go well with the food here.

To eat: First fish
1a. pickled herring with rings of red onion, curry sauce,^[1] and hard boiled eggs (on whole-grain dark rye bread).
1b. leek herring (on whole-grain dark rye bread).
1c. smoked salmon with mayonnaise and lemon wedges (on white bread).
1d. marinated salmon ('gravad laks') with honey-mustard sauce (on white bread).

Bonus drink (particularly to go with herrings): In small glasses, shots of our own import of Danish aquavit, Myrica flavoured aquavit ('porsesnaps') from Aalborg/Danish Distillers - a personal favourite of mine (and one of the few drink issues where I seem to agree with my mother).

After the fish followed a warm dish:
2. oven-warmed liver pâté with freshly sautéed bacon and mushrooms, and optional pickled beetroots (on dark or white bread as preferred).

Followed by a selection of sliced meats:
3a. horse salami.
3b. cold pork roast (on whole-grain dark rye bread with red-cabbage sauerkraut).
3c. cold duck roast (on whole-grain dark rye bread with red-cabbage sauerkraut).

At this point we were ready to entertain with with cheeses and fruits, but our guests looked about ready to burst already, so we decided to skip directly to the sweets:
4a. flourless chocolate-brazil nut cake
4b. cookie selection: Finnish breads, Swedish chocolate breads, Palestinian cookies, and pistachio shortbreads.

And so went the entire afternoon. One doesn't really need much of a dinner after such a lunch...

^[1] To get a more strongly yellow curry sauce I added pure ground turmeric.

Guacamole Herring

In my quest for new ways to serve pickled herring I came up with this combination of Danish and Mexican foods. Two pickled herring filets were cut in smaller pieces and mixed with guacamole (half portion of recipe given here - with fresh green chillies added) and the mixture was covered and left in the fridge overnight.


As always, herring was eaten on dark whole grain rye bread. To drink: dark beer, and - since I don't have any Danish snaps in the house right now - a shot of tequila. The guacamole goes quite nicely with the pickled herring: it has an appropriate freshness. If anything, I would maybe use more herring for the same amount of guacamole some other time as the guacamole was almost too dominating in the overall taste.

Herring with Copenhagen titbits

This way of serving herring was introduced to me by a family I'm no longer in touch with - which isn't really a story I want to go into here, other than to say that I never found out why they called this Copenhagen titbits ('københavnerkræs') and if I tried calling them up now to ask it could be ... well, awkward.

Ingredients:
- hard-boiled eggs
- pickled beetroot
- pickled herring

The eggs were diced (as finely as one cares to), and placed in a small bowl. The pickled beets were diced (again, as finely as one cares to do it) and placed in a separate bowl.

Pieces of pickled herring were arranged on buttered bread (preferably dark whole grain rye) and even amounts of diced egg and diced beet was sprinkled on top. Voila! as the locals would say.

Kippers and scramled eggs

Already December again. Not sure how this happened.

Anyway.

As the Yuletide approaches we will be finding occasion to enjoy lots of traditional foods.

Mrs. Throat-Erator recently reminded me of the classic combination of kippers with scrambled eggs and chives on whole grain dark rye bread.

Breaded Fish Cakes

We recently had some delicious fish cakes at an Asian restaurant, so I was interested in trying my hand at the art - in the end these were quite different from the ones we had at the restaurant (but still delicious) so I'll probably return with further variations on this theme.

Ingredients
- 500 g (just over 1 lb) potatoes, peeled, cut in chunks
- 400 g (just under 1 lb) pollock fillet
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) milk
- 1 green chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
- 16 g (0.5 oz) fresh ginger, finely diced
- 3 scallions, green part only, sliced
- 20 g (0.7 oz) fresh basil, coarsely chopped
- salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- bread crumbs (to cover)
- oil for frying

The potato chunks were boiled tender in lightly salted water. After draining them thoroughly, they were put back in the dry pot and mashed on low heat to give a relatively dry mash. Care was taken not to let them burn (constant stirring/mashing while on the heat).

Simultaneously the fish was put in a frying pan with the milk and 1 dL (almost 1/2 cup) of water, covered, and brought to a boil. The heat was then reduced to allow it to simmer for 5 minutes before removing the pan from the heat. Still covered the fish was let stand 10 minutes in the warm milk to gently finish. Afterwards the fish was lifted out of the milk on to a plate to cool.

The cooled fish was drained, then flaked into the potato mash. The salt, basil, scallions, ginger, and chilli was added, and the the entire mixture was worked together by hand. [1]

The fish cakes were formed and flattened by hand, turned over in egg and bread crumbs and fried till golden brown on both sides in oil on a large pan.

Served with wild rice, cucumber salad and peanut dipping.

[1] I think if I try this again, I would spend an extra egg on the dish to see if the fish cake mass could have a little less tendency to fall apart.

Update: Using more fish relative to potato gives a better result - but you have to use more eggs.

Anchovy Pizza

Pizza with tomato sauce, red onion, canned anchovies, capers and mozzarella - no extra salt needed. The irony (considering how close to Italy we are) is that the pizza dough we bought in the store here isn't as good as the ones we used to buy in Trader Joe's...

Fish, New Potatoes & Parsley Gravy

New potatoes are a special treat - especially for boiled potatoes are just more delicious this way (the boiling process is usually also shorter). Traditional dishes in Denmark in the early summer include new potatoes with white gravy and either bacon or fillets of fish.

Ingredients:
- new potatoes
- water
- salt
- fillets of white fish
- margarine
- flour
- fresh parsley

The potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water, and when done the water was separated, but not discarded.

The fillets of fish were seasoned with salt and pepper and fried in a pan.

In a small pot, margarine was melted (not browned). Then enough flour was stirred in to make a thick paste. On medium heat with constant stirring the water from the potatoes was added in small portions (waiting for the gravy to thicken after each addition) until there was a suitable amount of gravy - once the correct thickness was obtained, the pot was removed form the heat. Then seasoned with salt and pepper and added fresh finely cut parsley.

Fish Dinner

In no particular style (so far as I can tell) I made this dinner because it was Saturday night, and I felt like it - everything turned out quite nicely, I do think.

Ingredients:
creamy potatoes:
- 4 large potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 1 dL (1/2 cup) heavy cream
- 2 dL (1 cup) water
- salt, pepper
salad:
- 1/2 head fine frisée lettuce
- 75 g (3 oz) feta cheese
- 4 sun dried tomatoes
- 1 handful pistachio nuts
dressing:
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp mustard
- 1 tsp honey
fish:
- olive oil
- salt, pepper, paprika
- Dorado fillets
- 1 leek
- 1 green chilli [1]
- 20 fresh leaves oregano
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 tsp honey

The potatoes were sliced, and put in an oven-proof tray together with a sliced onion, salt, and pepper. The cream and the water was poured over and the tray was put in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for at least an hour.

I found fine frisée salad at the store, but less fine frisée (i.e. ordinary) would probably work well too) - it was rinsed, cut roughly, and mixed with crumbled feta cheese, strips of sun dried tomatoes, and a handful of pistachio nuts.

The salad dressing was made simply by stirring all the ingredients together (needs some stirring as not everything mixes naturally).

In large pan a little olive oil was heated, then salt, pepper, and paprika was stirred into it before adding the fillets of dorado (aka mahi-mahi), which were fried for a few minutes on both sides. Pushing the fish towards the side of the pan, the leek and the chilli both cut in long strips was added, then poured over with a mix of honey and lime juice, and finally added coarsely chopped fresh oregano.

[1] The green chillies I buy here are called "Piments Verts" in the store, which tells me no more than what I can see by looking at them: They are green chillies. Trying to correlate them with the chilli types I know, I'd say they are about as thick as jalapeño peppers, about as long as Anaheim peppers - the overall looks of them are most like Anaheim peppers, but in hotness they are much closer to the jalapeño.

Conger

To be honest, I didn't know what conger was when I bought it. Yes, I figured it was a large fish or something along those lines, but it was just 4 slices in the pack and therefore hard to judge. When I came home I could consult my dictionary and learn that conger is salt water eel. This would be a first for me: cooking eel.

Ingredients:
- 4 slices conger
- about 1 cup white wine
- potatoes (for 2)
- 1 onion
- 3 tsp capers
- 250 g (1/2 lb) green beans
- fresh flat-leaf parsley

The conger came in slices about 2 cm (3/4") thick, gutted and cleaned, but with bones and skin. The fillets were seasoned with salt and pepper and seared in a large pan on both sides for a few minutes. Then added a little less than half of the wine, covered and left on medium high heat until the wine was reduced, then added an equally big portion of wine and repeated. The whole process took some 30-40 minutes and the conger fillets were turned from side to side occasionally.

While the conger was cooking, small potatoes were rinsed and boiled in lightly salted water. In a separate pot, fresh green beans likewise.

At the end of the second wine reduction the conger was moved to the side of the pan, the whole in the middle filled up with onion rings, capers, and a final bit of white wine.

Served with freshly cut flat leaf parsley.

Kippers

No, I didn't actually split, gut, salt and smoke these herrings myself. I just bought a can of it, served is on whole grain rye bread and garnished it with chives from the newly installed balcony herb garden.


This is being one of the kinds of foods possible in my currently unfinished kitchen...

Tuna Taco Tower

This idea is blatantly stolen from the restaurant The Bell Tower on Polk St in San Francisco - I dined there about 3 years ago and shared something similar as an appetizer.

Ingredients:
- 1 bowl guacamole
- 2 tuna steaks
- 6 tostadas

First I made the guacamole, then I pan seared the tuna steaks (in the original only the outer rim of the tuna was seared, but I wasn't sure I had sashimi grade tuna so I went for a more 'done' version). The tostadas were heated in the oven, and the towers were built after slicing the tuna steaks.

Tuna Salad 2

This is another of my favorite tuna salads - it's less runny than #1, which goes nicely with how I like to use it for lunch sandwiches.

Ingredients:
- 2 cans tuna
- salt & pepper
- 6 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp plain yogurt
- 140 g (5 oz) green peas
- 2 hard-boiled eggs

The eggs were cut coarsely, the cans of tuna were drained and everything was mixed - served on toasted bread with leaves of lettuce (or sandwiched between such).