Bear Roast

Do you remember when I graduated? Although I took the time to celebrate this back then, there was something that bothered me - something that nagged. More specifically, what nagged was that although I did graduate the one big project that I'd worked on during my entire Ph.D. - the project which I'd estimate I spent some 60-80% of my time on, the project that took up the first 250 pages of my thesis - wasn't finished. It wasn't finished and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had to move on. I had to leave it to persons unknown to me, to a future unknown to me. Would it ever be finished? Would I ever see that work published in any other form than the highly limited edition that was my thesis?

Several months ago now, I heard rumours that it had in fact been finished, but it wasn't till recently that it was submitted to one of the more prestigious journals in my field - and a few weeks later it had been accepted for publication after peer-review. This past Friday it appeared on the web site of the journal in question. In a week or so it'll be two and a half years since I graduated, so this all comes with a sense of justification: if it took this long to finish the project, I couldn't have finished it by just staying 3 months more.

But enough about that. This calls for a celebration! And what better way to celebrate than to take some time to cook a very special meal.


Other recent events include the beginning of bear hunting season in Sweden. I've been eager (to put it mildly) to taste bear for quite a while, so when a few weeks ago I saw a piece of frozen bear at one of the butchers in Östermalmshallen (one of the big in-door markets in Stockholm) I decided to splurge and bought it.

In a moment of karmic balance I decided to thaw the piece of bear on the very day the paper appeared online - that is: before I knew that it was going to be released on that day.

Ingredients:
roast:
- lard
- 4 small cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1.3 kg (~ 3 lbs) bear roast
- salt & pepper
- ~500 g (~ 1 lb) red boiling onions
- 1 L (~ 1 quart) water
sides:
- boiled potatoes
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 170 g (6 oz) crayfish tails
- 200 g (7 oz) black chanterelles
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) cream
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) pan juices
- salt & pepper
- pickled green tomatoes
salad:
- green leaf lettuce
- pea sprouts
- sun-dried tomatoes
drink:
- Bollinger Special Cuvée


First I took the piece of bear and slit several deep narrow holes in it with small sharp knife. In each hole I stuffed several thin slices of garlic. Secondly, the roast was rubbed on both sides with generous amounts of salt & pepper. In a large pan on high heat, the roast was seared in lard on both sides until darkened appreciably. The roast was then placed in an oven-proof tray together with the boiling onions and 1 L of water. The roast went in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 2 ¹/₂ hours (opening the oven occasionally to pour some of the pan juices over the roast) before being removed to a cutting board, covered with foil and left for 20 minutes before slicing.

The boiling onions were transferred to bowl (to be served as a side with the roast). ¹/₂ dL of the pan juices were set aside for the sauce and the rest (about 5 dL) was frozen as 'bear stock'.

While the roast was still in the oven, the salad was prepared, and the potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

While the roast was resting before slicing, the bacon was fried till crisp, then removed from the pan, chopped and set aside. The crayfish tails were fried in the bacon fat for a minute before adding the black chanterelles. After a few more minutes, the cream and pan juice were added. Once heated through, the sauce was ready.

Slices of bear roast were served with mushroom-crayfish sauce and bacon bits on top - salad, potatoes, onions and pickled tomatoes on the side.


So how was it?

The bear was excellent. Very tender and very tasty. This is most 'game' meal I have ever cooked - the meat was clearly recognisable as red meat, but it did have notes of something 'different' and these notes were stronger than when I've cooked venison or moose.

The black chanterelles were as delicious as I expected - this is the first time I've had them fresh (previously I only had dried ones), but I have to admit the crayfish didn't really do so much for the dish as I had hoped. I was going for some sort of Swedish surf^turf, but in the end the crayfish were too anonymous against the rest of the ingredients - so if I ever do this again, I'll leave those out (or maybe try to find something more bold).

This was the first time I tried my own pickled green tomatoes. They were a little firmer than I thought they would be, but the taste was pretty close to what I had in mind - sour, sweet and vanilla flavoured all at the same time. Perhaps a little too much vanilla. My muse didn't really like them, but I thought they went very well with the meat.

Roast Chicken with Spinach-Mushroom Stew

This came about with quite some inspiration from the 'Sunday supper' of the September issue of Bon Appétit. Some ingredients were changed but the main idea is quite similar.

Ingredients:
tubers:
- 8 medium-sized potatoes, diced
- sunchokes (about half as much as potatoes), diced
- fresh thyme
- a little olive oil
- salt & pepper
chicken:
- a 1.3 kg (shy of 3 lbs) chicken
- salt & pepper
- fresh oregano
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) dry sherry
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) water
spinach-mushroom stew:
- oil
- 2 yellow onions, chopped coarsely
- 3 portabello mushrooms, sliced
- salt
- 1.2 kg (2 ²/₃ lb) frozen spinach
- 1 jalapeño chilli, finely chopped
- pan juices from roast chicken

The potatoes and the sunchokes were rinsed, diced and put in a an oven-proof tray together with leaves of fresh thyme, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. The tubers were roasted at 200 C (400 F) for 1.5 hours.

The chicken was rubbed with salt and pepper - and leaves of fresh oregano was put wherever I could find a spot (inside, under the wing, under the leg, in every crease of the skin .. etc.). The chicken was placed in an oven-proof tray and added the sherry and the water. The chicken was roasted in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 1 h and 10 minutes.

The coarsely chopped onions were sautéed in a little oil, then added sliced portabello mushrooms and salt. After some additional minutes, frozen spinach was added together with a finely chopped jalapeño (not de-seeded). The pot was covered, but stirred occasionally until the spinach was thawed and heated through. Finally, the pan juices from the chicken roast were added and the stew was seasoned to taste with salt.

The tubers could quite possibly do with shorter roasting time, but the chicken - meat falling off of the bones goodness. The spinach-mushroom stew was a nice touch, and one that I think I'll be making variations on in the future.

Ungerslaw

For a couple of years I lived together with some friends in a house in California. On of them made - from time to time (and as I recall it often as a side to a nice grilled roast, tri-tip or something like that) - a coleslaw that was IMHO the best I've ever had. When I asked him about the recipe he said the 'secret' was the fresh, home-made mayonnaise - and then told me how to make it. As a tribute to him I name it "Ungerslaw".

Ingredients:
- 1 head of cabbage, finely sliced
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 red long sweet pepper, diced
- 1 can of corn
- bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
Mayonnaise:
- 1 egg yolk ^[1]
- zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
- 2 tsp mustard
- 3 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt
- pepper
- smoked paprika
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) rapeseed oil ^[2]
- 2 tsp lemon juice

The mayonnaise was prepared first: The egg yolk was beaten for 15 seconds before adding lemon zest, mustard, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. After beating for an additional 30 seconds, the oil was poured in slowly with constant beating - the mixture emulsified as planned. Finally the taste was adjusted with lemon juice, salt and pepper. As the picture shows the resulting mayonnaise was rather yellow - no doubt my choice of vinegar and the amount of paprika used played a part in this. The mayonnaise was covered and stored in the fridge while cutting the vegetables for the 'slaw. The 'slaw was mixed in a large bowl and served immediately.

For this occasion, I served it with a beef roast that was covered (I didn't prepare, so there wasn't time to marinate) with a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, chopped chipotle chillies^[3], and salt; roasted at 175 C (350 F) for 1 hour and sliced thinly. The chillies made the roast nicely spicy - but only on the outside.

^[1] Since all chickens in Sweden are supposedly free of salmonella I just used an egg yolk from a fresh egg - had I been elsewhere, I might have gone shopping for pasteurised egg yolks or tried to sterilise the egg shell before breaking it.
^[2] Rapeseed oil is a comparatively taste-neutral oil (I see from the label on the jar of store-bought mayonnaise in my fridge that it also based on rapeseed oil). In particular you should be careful basing it on extra virgin olive oil, as it can give an off taste.
^[3] Chipotle chillies are smoked, dried jalapeños. In one of the shops near my new home there's a really good selection of dried chillies - a subject which I am sure I shall return to on this page.

Moose roast

The meat section of the Swedish supermarkets are dominated by beef, pork and chicken - which in itself is neither particularly unusual nor surprising, but it is a bit more extreme than I expected. Add to that the selection of cuts available is also narrower than I have been used to, and it becomes quite intriguing that apparently there are practically no butcher shops here.

Nevertheless, a few exotic specialities native to the region are available - particularly frozen: moose and reindeer roasts, f.ex. Having heard much praise thereof (and having already tried a variety of preparations of reindeer) I decided that to try a moose roast and since they are in season now I went for using some chanterelles as well.

Ingredients:
- 900 g (2 lbs) moose roast
- oil
- salt & pepper
- potatoes
- 2 brown onions, cut in rings
- 300 g (²/₃ lb) yellow chanterelles
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
salad:
- fresh spinach
- red lettuce
- caper berries

The roast came in a net. It was rubbed with salt and pepper and seared on all sides in a pan using a little oil. When nicely browned on all sides, the roast was transferred to an oven-proof tray with a little water (ca. ¹/₂ cm (¹/₄ inch)) and roasted in the oven at 150 C (300 F) for 2 hours.

While the roast was in the oven potatoes were rinsed and boiled in lightly salted water.

A salad was prepared from fresh spinach, red lettuce, and caper berries.

After removing the roast from the oven and transferring to a board, the onion rings were sautéed for a few minutes in a large pan, then added the rinsed and coarsely chopped chanterelles. After an additional couple of minutes the cream was added together with the liquid from the roast.

After resting while preparing the sauce, the roast was sliced and served immediately.


So, how was it? Weee-eeell, it was definitely good. It just wasn't as much better than beef as I expected. Perhaps not enough to justify the price difference.

Roast with redcurrant jelly

My parents' garden always had (and still has) a number of different trees and bushes. Amongst the latter there is one or two redcurrant bush(es). Going through the garden as a child, picking fruits and berries and eating them taught me that redcurrants are notably more sour than the majority of other things found in my parents garden. Oddly enough, I remember it as if I didn't like them all that much - which is mainly odd because I loved a host other strongly sour things I could lay my hands on in that garden, such unripe apples and unripe gooseberries.

My mother would prepare redcurrants in a couple of different ways, but all of them were used as sides to meat dishes - something I found particularly odd as a child and which I have only grown to appreciate much later in life.

When my parents visited me last summer, they brought me a small jar of redcurrant jelly - the making of which would justify a post all of it's own if I ever get around it - which has been sitting in my kitchen pantry waiting for me to cook a proper roast to serve it with..

Ingredients:
- oil
- 1 small roast (beef)
- salt and pepper
- several small onions
- raw peanuts
- potatoes
- lettuce
- grape tomatoes
- mushrooms
dressing:
- grainy mustard
- oil
- red wine vinegar

The roast was seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared on all sides in a little oil on a hot pan.

An oven proof tray was filled with a layer of halved small onions, added enough water to almost cover the onions, and the pan-seared roast was placed on top before roasting in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for an hour.

While roasting the beef, raw peanuts were roasted in a large pan and then set aside in a small bowl (and I guess at least half of them disappeared as snacks while the rest of the meal finished).

The potatoes were boiled till tender in lightly salted water.

A simple salad was made from lettuce and grape tomatoes - a dressing was stirred from grainy mustard, red wine vinegar and oil.

A few minutes before it was time to take the roast out of the oven, rinsed and sliced mushrooms were roasted in a pan - when the roast came out of the oven, it was placed on a cutting board to rest for some minutes before slicing it and the water and onions were mixed with the roasted mushrooms.


Served with redcurrant jelly, now that I'm old enough to appreciate this combination..

Elk Steaks

When I first saw a product called 'Wapiti' at the supermarket I really didn't know what it was. I thought it might be some kind of exotic bird (mainly because it was right next to the ostrich steaks), but after consulting my dictionary I learned that 'wapiti' is simply French for 'elk'. Remembering how much I've enjoyed venison in the past, it wasn't long before I bought a couple of elk steaks.

Ingredients:
- potatoes, peeled
- elk steaks
- salt
- pepper
- handful of raw pearl onions, peeled
- ~ 1-2 dL (1/2 - 1 cup) milk
and:
- roasted green bean salad
- a little grana padano cheese, as thin flakes

While the beans were roasting in the oven, the potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

The elk steaks were seasoned with salt and pepper and seared in a pan. When the steaks were cooked as preferred, they were removed, the pearl onions and and the milk was added to the pan and the volume was reduced to about half.

Smoke-Beer Marinated Horse Steaks

Not that long ago I noticed this article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (which I read sort of randomly from time to time) and I decided I should start experimenting some more with beer marinating.

For this first time I around, I decided on horse steaks and a dark, smoky beer.

Ingredients:
- 4 horse steaks
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 10 pearl onions, quartered
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp allspice
- 5 dL (1 pint) Märzen Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier
to serve:
- potatoes, cubed
- sunchokes, cubed
- red cabbage salad

The marinade was made by simply stirring all the ingredients together. The horse steaks were placed in the marinade, covered and left in the fridge for 4 hours. The steaks were removed from the marinade and allowed to drip off before searing in the pan. When the steaks were done, they were removed from the pan, kept warm under a lid of foil while reducing the marinade to approximately half volume in the pan to use as sauce.


Served with pan-fried cubes of potato and sunchokes, and red cabbage salad. I was quite happy with the result. The meat was quite tender, and the marinade left a distinct touch on the taste of the meat.

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.

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.

My First Duck Roast

Traditionally the big Christmas dinner in Denmark is on Christmas Eve - and I guess most Danes would have duck roast.^[1] This year I decided to try my hand at a whole duck for the first time. Well, let me be frank: a few mistakes were made, so there's room for improvement ...

Since I was going to be cooking only for two I took the smallest duck I could find at the store, at 1.5 kg (~ 3 lbs). Traditionally the duck is stuffed with apples and prunes, but I decided to go for a different flavour: I stuffed it instead with onion, leek, and fresh sage. I closed it using a couple of wooden toothpicks. The skin was rubbed with generous amounts of salt.


One of the tricky parts is getting a crisp skin, while not drying out the meat. I read beforehand that a nice result should be obtained by roasting it first for 20-30 minutes at 225 C (450 F) with the breast up and then turning it over on the grid, filling a little water in the bottom of the pan and roasting at 160 C (320 F) for about 30 minutes per lb. This is exactly where I made my mistakes: for one thing, I don't think the early roasting at the higher temperature was sufficient. Worse, when I turned it over and poured water in the pan, the water reached the skin (because the grid was too low over the bottom of the pan). Consequently, the skin wasn't anywhere near crisp when the duck was roasted. I tried turning on the broiler for a some minutes, but I never got the skin quite right.

The meat, however, was delicious - I really liked the hint of sage. It was served with peeled, boiled potatoes, broiled green beans, red cabbage sauerkraut, gravy made from the drippings, salad (made from corn salad, cucumber, tomato, caper berries, and roasted pine nuts), and a pinot noir Burgundy wine with a very Christmas like label (click picture to enlarge).

For dessert this heavy flourless chocolate-brazil nut cake.

^[1] It's not uncommon in larger families to find both duck roast and pork roast.

Real Pork Roast (Flæskesteg)

You know, the irony isn't lost on me: For over 5 years I lived in the US, where I believe myself to speak the language more or less fluently. Not once did I try to enter a butcher's shop to ask for one of the right cuts of pork to make Danish pork roast - I just got by using the pork bellies that I did find at stores. Despite this, after having been in Switzerland for less than a year, I decided to actually go and ask for a more appropriate cut of pork .. in my broken beginners French, no less.


So here it is - Danish pork roast, the way it's supposed to be. The actual recipe is like that for the pork belly, so this is mainly just for the pictures.

The cooking time is approximately 1 hour per kg (30 minutes per pound). The procedure of having the skin down in the water for the first half hour or so not only softens the skin so it is easier to score, but it also cooks out some of the fat which makes it easier to crisp the skin the right way at the end of the procedure.

I have a different oven now, one that has the broiler in the actual oven room, so for the final crisping of the skin I could use that - in less than 4 minutes the skin bubbled up very nicely and became perfect... and only a little burned. OK, so I should have kept a better eye on it, but I didn't realize trouble arose that quickly. And yes, the gravy isn't brown - I don't have gravy colouring here and didn't have the time to experiment with alternatives for this.
 

Lamb chops, black rice and white gravy

I've gone on about Danish gravy traditions here before, and one of the dishes I'm used to having white gravy with is lamb. Then, recently I woke up one early morning from a dream in which I was preparing lamb, white gravy and black rice. The image of the white gravy on the black rice was stuck in mind and when I went shopping later that day, it turned out lamb chops were on sale. It was like it was meant to happen...

Ingredients:
- black rice
- water
- salt & pepper
- lamb chops
- flour
- milk

I served it with a slight modification of this roasted bean salad (I substituted sunflower seeds for the pine nuts), which was the first thing to be prepared (so it could stand in the oven while preparing the rest).

The black rice were boiled in lightly salted water.

The lamp chops were seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in a pan. After removing the lamb chops from the pan, the drippings were added enough flour to make thick paste. On low heat milk added in small portions was stirred in to make the gravy. Added salt and pepper to taste.

Venison & black chanterelle whiskey cream sauce

Some years ago Mrs. Throat-Erator wanted to give me a special experience and took me out to dinner in Copenhagen at a nice place. It was quite the success, as I had the chance to try venison for the first time in my life. More specifically it was a steak of red deer, and it blew me away. So there was no hesitating when I recently found venison at a local supermarket. It was even a relatively good price... it must be hunting season or something around here. I figured it would probably go well with a black chanterelle whiskey cream sauce...

Ingredients:
- water
- 20 g (ca. 1 oz) dried black chanterelles
- potatoes
- oil
- salt & pepper
- venison
- 1 medium red onion, chopped finely
- 0.5 dL (1/4 cup) whiskey
- 1 dL (2/5 cup) cream
- the leaves of 2 twigs of fresh rosemary

Since I could only find dried black chanterelles the first thing to do was to put these in a bowl and pour ca. 1 L (1 qt) of hot water over them and let them stand for at least 20 minutes. When they were drained, the water was saved for later.

The potatoes were washed and boiled in lightly salted water.

The venison was cut like small steaks, which were seasoned with salt and pepper. In a pan with a little oil they were cooked to the desired degree (medium for us). After removing the venison from the pan the onion was added, and after a few minutes the drained black chanterelles. A few minutes later the whiskey and cream was added, and brought to a boil. After a few minutes 2 dL (4/5 cup) of the black chanterelle water was added followed by the rosemary leaves. After simmering briefly it was served.

The result was fantastic. I still really like venison.

With dinner we had a bottle of pinot noir from the canton of Vaud. I'm pretty sure this is wine made closest to here I've had so far. The colour was surprisingly pale, but it went well with the meat.

Lapin au Vin

This week rabbit was on sale at the supermarket so we decided to have our hand at cooking it. Having no experience with this particular meat I sought inspiration in Tyler Florence's Eat This Book, although my approach was somewhat cruder.

Ingredients:
- ca. 650 g (1.5 lb) rabbit (4 pieces)
- 1/2 bottle of red wine
- flour
- salt
- pepper
- oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp honey
- Italian herb blend
- 0.5 L (2 cups) chicken broth

Side:
- 6 potatoes
- 1/2 celery root
- 2 beet roots
- 2 small onions

Salad:
- romaine lettuce
- capers
- sun dried tomatoes

The rabbit pieces were wetted in the red wine, then coated with a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper. The rabbit pieces were then browned in batches in oil in a large pot (turning them over with tongs). While browning the rabbit, crushed garlic, honey and Italian herb blend was added to the wine. After browning all the rabbit pieces (and all removed from the pot) the wine was added to the pot, brought to a boil while making sure to stir up any flour left in the pot from the browning of the rabbit. To this was added the chicken broth, and the rabbit pieces were put back. The pot was covered and allowed to simmer for about one and half hours.

While the rabbit was simmered, a mixture of crudely cut potatoes, beet roots, celery root, and onions (drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper) was baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F) - beet and celery roots require longer time than potatoes to become tender.

This left plenty of time for a quick salad: romaine lettuce, capers, and sun dried tomatoes were mixed in a bowl.

The rabbit was very tender; the meat was practically falling off of the bones. The texture and taste was somewhat reminiscent of chicken, although more 'game'. Overall it became a fall/winter style dish which fitted well with the pouring rain outside. With dinner we drank the other half of the bottle of wine.

Roasted Bean Salad

We had some left-over meat[1] and needed a side dish to go with it.

Ingredients:
- 500 g (1 lb) green beans
- 1 onion
- oregano
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
- lemon juice
- 1 handful pine nuts

The beans were rinsed and placed in a large baking pan together with onion wedges. This was sprinkled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano. The baking pan went in the oven at 225 C (450 F) for about 20-25 minutes (beans tender and starting to blacken in spots). After roasting the beans were sprinkled with lemon juice and pan-roasted pine nuts.

Served with fresh radishes as well.

[1] And yes, the previously sliced meat, but quite rare was roasted some more.

Tri-tip roast with boiling onions & pomegranate

Well, it just so happened that we had a pomegranate lying around when we saw this recipe for balsamic-braised boiling onions with pomegranate - and were intrigued. Not least because we were not familiar with boiling onions, but as they turned out be easily obtained, there was no stopping. We figured this would go nicely with a piece of roast meat and aimed for a marinated tri-tip.

Ingredients:
Tri-tip:
- 1 tri-tip roast
- 6 dried puya chilies
- 1.5 dL (2/3 cup) red wine vinegar
- 3 gloves garlic
- olive oil
- salt
braised boiling onions:
- 1 pomegranate
- 500 g (1 lb) boiling onions
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) chicken broth
- 1 dL (~ 1/2 cup) red wine
- 0.5 dL (~1/4 cup) balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp golden brown sugar
- salt & pepper
- 3 tbsp sour cream

The marinade was made in the morning: The dried chilies were cleaned (seeds removed) and soaked by bringing to a boil in water, turning of the heat and letting stand for at least 20 minutes. The soaked chilies were cut finely and mixed with mashed garlic, salt, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. The marinade was poured over the tri-tip and it was allowed to stand in the fridge for 8 hours.

After marinating the tri-tip was roasted in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 45 minutes ... the result was a lot rarer than I normally aim for, although I'm not sure how much the red wine vinegar marinade could have contributed to the redness of the meat. At any rate, it was quite delicious, actually, perhaps the marinade did its part to tenderize the meat. Though, still I might aim for just a little bit more done next time around...Back to the the side dish of boiling onions and pomegranate (which was made while the roast was in the oven): First the pomegranate was cut open and seeds were collected and rinsed.

The boiling onions were blanched in boiling water for about 1 minute, then the outer layer was peeled off and the ends trimmed. The whole onions were sautéed in oil with salt and pepper till nicely brown (some 12 minutes). Then the chicken broth, red wine, balsamic vinegar, and golden brown sugar was added. After bringing to a boil, the heat was reduced and the pan was covered to let the onions simmer for 15 minutes. Then the cover was removed, heat was increased again and the liquid was concentrated to the thickness of a sauce. Finally the sour cream was mixed in and the sauce was coated on the onions before sprinkling pomegranate seeds on top.

This went VERY nicely with the meat.

The whole dish was served with quinoa on the side.

Stuffed pork tenderloin 2 & bok choy salad

For New Year's Eve I wanted to make something special, and since I had time on my hands I decided to revisit the stuffed pork tenderloin with an idea that had been brewing in the back of my head for some time.

Ingredients:
Stuffed pork tenderloin
- 1 pork tenderloin
- 2 poblano peppers
- 20 brazil nuts
- 8 sun dried tomatoes
- 1 egg
- salt

Bok Choy Salad
- 6 baby bok choy
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- oil

First the poblano peppers were cleaned, quartered and the stems & seeds were removed. The quartered pieces were grilled under the broiler in my gas oven for some 10 minutes or so.

The pork tenderloin was made into a flat, square piece of meat (about 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick) by a combination of cutting slits in it and flattening it with a rolling pin - then it was rolled up, wrapped in film and stored in the fridge while preparing the stuffing. Any odd ends cut off in this process were saved for the stuffing.

For the stuffing, the grilled poblano peppers were cut in strips, mixed with coarsely chopped brazil nuts, sun dried tomatoes cut in strips, small pieces of pork tenderloin cut off during the process above, 1 egg, and salt.
NB: This was almost too much stuffing for my one pork tenderloin.

The stuffing was put in the pork tenderloin, and it was closed using wooden toothpicks. The stuffed roast was seared in the pan for a few minutes on all sides, then put in the oven at 190 C (375 F) for 30 minutes. The tooth picks could be removed and the roast was sliced.

The salad was made while the roast was in the oven:
The baby bok choy were quartered along the axis, the onion was cut coarsely and together they were put in a hot pan with oil. The pan was covered for a few minutes till the onion and bok choy were tender. Then sesame seeds and mashed garlic was added.

Served with potato wedges.

Pork Belly Roast

Pork roast is probably the quintessential Danish cuisine: Pork, seasoned with nothing more fancy than salt (and possibly black pepper), served with potatoes and brown gravy. It's also winter food - few people find it ideal to eat such heavy (fatty) meals when it's too warm in the weather.

Traditionally it's made with a piece of meat with the skin still on it cut from the back of the pig. I haven't been able to find such a cut of pork here in California, but some years ago I found a small store that carries pork bellies with the skin still on it. Basically it's giant slab of uncured bacon - it's not perfect in the sense that the meat to fat ratio is a little lower than the cuts traditionally used, but at least it has the skin on it. And the skin is quite important - the true test of one's cooking skills in Denmark is to turn out a pork roast on which the skin has been cooked to crispy perfection...

Ingredients:
- 1 pork belly (see picture)
- salt & pepper
- water
- potatoes
- flour
- gravy color [1]
- red cabbage sauerkraut

The pork belly wasn't of equal thickness over the entire piece, so I cut it in two pieces each having even thickness because the thickness is quite important in the crisping of the skin towards the end of the procedure. The two pieces of meat were put in an oven-proof tray with the skin down, and enough water to fully submerge the skin was added. This was then placed in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 30 minutes.

After this the skin was softened appreciably and could easily be scored as shown in the picture (taking care not to cut the actual meat). The skin was salted generously and the roast was put back in the oven, now with the skin up, still at 175 C (350 F) for 1.5 hours. At this point the larger of the 2 pieces already had the skin turned nice and crisp, while the smaller one wasn't quite right. The bigger piece was removed from the oven and sliced, the drippings were collected and the smaller piece went back in the oven at 275 C (525 F) to try to get the skin crisp on this piece as well. I wasn't very successful about this part of it - I was a little afraid to overdo it as it can quickly burn at this temperature.
While the roast was in the oven peeled potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water and when properly tender, the water was collected.

To make the gravy I took a tbsp of fat from the drippings, stirred in flour to make a paste, then with constant stirring added the potato water in small portions until a gravy of wanted texture was obtained - this was then seasoned with salt and pepper, colored with a few drops of gravy color.

Slices of pork belly roast was served with boiled potatoes, brown gravy and red cabbage. Pickles would also have gone well with this dish.

[1] Gravy color is a viscous liquid, highly concentrated in the same coloring agent as used to make Cola.

Roast with tubers (Sunchokes ]I[)

Roast is something I have relatively little experience with. My parents would make it sometimes, but cooking most oftenly just for myself I have tended to make it only seldomly. Well, trying to get by on a tight budget probably played a part too. Then I lived for a couple of years with a guy who would grill a tri-tip every so often and after moving out of that house I find myself being more interested in cooking roast (although I don't plan on getting a grill any time soon). As mentioned recently cooking sunchokes brings out the flavour nicely so for this roast there'll be tubers on the side.

Ingredients:
- 1 tri-tip roast
- salt & pepper
(tubers)
- 8 potatoes
- 8 sunchokes
- salt & pepper
- rosemary
- oil
(mushroom relish)
- 3 shallots
- 100 g (4 oz) mushrooms
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 1 dL (1/2 cup) red wine [1]
- salt & pepper
- tarragon
(salad)
- red leave lettuce
- 1 roma tomato
- kalamata olives

Season the tri-tip roast with salt and pepper, then seared it on all sides for a few minutes before putting it in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for about 50-55 minutes. After it comes out of the oven, let it rest for a few minutes, then slice it thinly.

Cut the potatoes in 3-4 pieces each, and put them in a oven proof tray together with the sunchokes. Drizzle a little oil over them and season with salt, pepper, and rosemary. This tray also goes in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for about 50-55 minutes.

Sautee the finely diced shallots, then add sliced mushrooms, salt, pepper, tarragon, and red wine. Reduce the volume for a few minutes, then add the sour cream and stir well.

Cut the lettuce, dice the tomato and add some kalamata olives.

Serve everything together.

[1] While I'm somewhat of a beer and whiskey snob, I am quite the opposite when it comes to wine. Usually a $5 bottle of cabernet sauvignon will do just fine for me.

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Encouraged by my luck with the stuffed pork tenderloin recently I decided to try my hand at these stuffed chicken breasts - somewhat modified from the way I saw them made previously, not least due to my memory failing me. It's not entirely implausible that my version is less authentically Italian than the one I based it off.

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breast fillets
- 100 g (3.5 oz) roasted bell pepper
- 75 g (2.5 oz) walnut pieces
- 25 g (1 oz) grated pecorino cheese
- 2 cloves garlic
- fresh basil
- salt & pepper

Additionals:
- 1/2 cup rice
- 1 cup water
- salt

- 1/2 onion
- 1 large tomato
- dash of cream

Make a stuffing of cut roasted bell pepper, walnut pieces, mashed garlic, grated pecorino cheese, salt, pepper, and freshly cut basil. Cut pockets in the chicken breast fillets leaving about 1 cm (1/2 inch) of meat to all sides if possible, and fill the pockets with the stuffing. Close the fillets again - I used a few tooth picks, but if you have something more fancy go ahead and use that instead.
Sear in a pan for a couple of minutes on each side, then cover and leave on medium-low heat while cooking the rice. When the rice are done the chicken is done, and some juices have collected in the pan - take out the fillets, turn up the heat and add coarsely chopped onion, fry these till soft. Then add diced tomato, salt, pepper and a dash of cream. Let simmer for a few minutes.