Hot dogs

No, there is nothing wrong with colours of your monitor: these sausages really are bright red.

I don't know why there's a tradition for bright red sausages in Denmark, but kids do seem to love them (I know I did). When I recently went to Denmark for a short trip one of my new Swedish colleagues - who is from Scania in south-western Sweden and therefore has been to Denmark several times - asked me to bring back some red sausages because he missed them so.^[1]

Since I was at it, nostalgia got the better of me and I decided to get a pack for myself and make some good old-fashioned hot dogs. I'm not sure what the colouring agent used is, but is has some water-solubility as the water I boiled them in was nicely red by the time they were done.

For the hot dogs I used ketchup, remoulade, roasted onions and cornichons - had I been in the mood for spending a little more time on it, I would have added finely diced raw onion and substituted the cornichons with home-made cucumber salad. Many next time

^[1] Since that I have discovered that a supermarket close to where I live actually does sell these, so hauling them back from Denmark seems silly...

Danish Beer - Part IV (Nørrebro Bryghus)

Over the past years, I've heard a number of good things about Nørrebro Bryghus in Copenhagen, but as it has only come into existence since I stopped living in Denmark (as a consequence of the relatively recent surge in micro-breweries in Denmark), it wasn't till recently that I had a chance to visit it myself.


When you enter you have the choice of going upstairs (restaurant) or downstairs (bar) - as I came mainly for beer I chose downstairs. I was happy to see that they have a good number of beers that they make themselves (I think 8), but from the way the menu was written I suspect there's isn't quite the same rotation of beers as certain other places I like (although clearly there was some rotation).

I went for a 4-beer sampler and had Ravnsborg Red (ale), Golden Spike (IPA), Globe Ale, and La Granja Stout. While I quite liked both of the first two, I didn't find the taste of the Globe Ale as interesting as the concept (an environmental impact conscious beer) .. and the stout was clearly a mistake on my part. If I had read the description more carefully, I would have surely noticed that it contains coffee - which I don't like. If you want a coffee stout, by all means, check it out. For snacking I had some beer-roasted almonds - which turned out to be hotter than the name suggested as they also contained chilli.


The night ended with Stuykman Wit and Vårsaison ('spring season') both of which were in the Belgian style. Would I return to this place? Yes, indeed I would.

Chunky Potato Salad

As I have been alluding to in several posts over the past couple of months another move was impending. As you might have guessed the recent lack of posts coincided (more or less) with the actual time of the move: Now I'm in Sweden and things are very similar to what I grew up with in Denmark and yet oddly - sometimes surprisingly - different. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that.

When I lived in Denmark I never really gave much thought to the differences between yoghurt and what is known as tykmælk ('thick milk'), which I used to consume on a regular basis. Then I moved to the US and realised I had only the option of yoghurt - and still didn't give much thought to it. I have to say that there were times when I missed a milk product similar to tykmælk - the taste and the texture being different from yoghurt - but I got by with yoghurt.

Now that I'm in Sweden, I'm realising that tykmælk is common Scandinavian tradition. The taste and texture is due to the different bacterial cultures used for fermenting the milk. Here in Sweden it's called filmjölk or simply fil. To my delight I can also get A-fil, which appears highly similar to the Danish product A38 (an old favourite of mine) in that it's fermented with lactobacillus acidophilus - in the following recipe I used A-fil, which as these things goes might be difficult to get if you're not in the Scandinavian countries, but for substituting I would choose a plain yoghurt, preferably a less viscous variety.

Ingredients:
- 8 potatoes, large chunks, boiled
- 2 eggs, hard-boiled, quartered
- 1/2 cucumber, cut in large chunks
- 3 tomatoes, cut in boats
- a hand-full of caper berries
dressing:
- 3 dL (a little more than 1 cup) A-fil^[1]
- 1 tbsp mustard
- salt
- pepper
- fresh basil, chopped
- one onion, finely chopped

The potatoes were rinsed and cut into largish chunks and boiled till tender - the water was discarded and the potato chunks were allowed to cool.
The eggs were boiled hard, cooled, then peeled and quartered.
The cucumber and tomatoes were cut in similarly large chunks.

For the dressing, mustard was stirred into the A-fil, then added salt, pepper, freshly chopped basil and finely diced onion.

Everything was mixed in a large bowl.

Served with fried lamb sausage, mustard, and ketchup.

UPDATE: It's actually better after having stood overnight in the fridge..

^[1] Lactobacillus acidophilus-fermented milk.

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..

Bier für Freunde

The German title translates as Beer for friends ^[1] and I guess it is the slogan for Wartmann's in Frauenfeld (Switzerland).

I can't say that I had very strong reasons for choosing Wartmann's for my beer shopping cart, but I was certainly not disappointed with this wine-size No.4: the Blanche Grand Cru. The little folder of information coming that came with the bottle compares the style to German Weissbiers, but it has a lot more in common with the Belgian beers mentioned on the homepage. Either way: A very flavourful and well-crafted beer.

Now, I would like to taste No.1, 2, and 3...

^[1] Appropriately I gave two of the three bottles I bought to a friend.

Sesame crusted köfte & cabbage salad

Many years ago, when I was still a child and my parents were encouraging (strongly) me to help with the cooking at home, I read somewhere about sesame crusted meat balls and was allowed to try to make them - although I seem to remember my parents being very sceptical about the concept. The final result didn't make a lasting impression on me (and the fact that we never made them again also speaks for their having not been received so well), but the concept was still somewhere in my head when recently faced with the challenge of using yet more sesame seeds before the impending (and dreaded) move.. In the end, an advertisement in a food magazine lead me to try out this version.

Ingredients:
yoghurt sauce:
- 3 dL (~ 1 1/4 cup) plain yoghurt
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp sambal oelek
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
köfte:
- 640 g (~ 1.4 lb) ground lamb
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 20 g (2/3 oz) fresh mint, chopped
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 3/4 dL (1/3 cup) bread crumbs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 egg
- 50 g (1.75 oz) white sesame seeds
- 50 g (1.75 oz) black sesame seeds
cabbage salad:
- 1 head red cabbage, finely sliced
- 1 small onion
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 20 g (2/3 oz) fresh coriander, chopped
- 285 g (10 oz) corn kernels
- 2 raw pepperoncini, finely diced

First yoghurt sauce was made by stirring all the ingredients together. Then it was covered and stored in the fridge while making the rest.

For the köfte all the ingredients except for the sesame seeds were mixed and rolled into balls approximately 2-3 cm (1 inch) in diameter, then coated by dipping them into a mixture of black and white sesame seeds. The coated meat balls were lined up on a baking sheet and baked in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 18 minutes.

The cabbage salad was made simply by stirring the ingredients together.

Served while the köfte were still hot from the oven.

I liked the result, and I seriously doubt that the meatballs I made in parents kitchen many moons ago were anything near as good.

Altes Tramdepot

On a recent trip to Bern, we decided to lunch at Altes Tramdepot, which turned out to be a large open room with long benches and hearty country-style food (which was quite welcome in our case as we were there on a cold day). The Old Tram Depot is also a small brewery - with four house beers on tap the selection isn't particularly wide, but the quality was good. We started with the 'helles' and 'märzen' (pictured below) and later had a round of the seasonal Canadian red ale. All in all we were quite pleased with everything, so if you find yourself thirsty in the capital of Switzerland, I suggest that you head down to the bear pits to visit Altes Tramdepot - on a warmer day, it would be perfect to sit on their terrace and enjoy the view over the river Aare and the historial town centre.

Lentil Salad

Looking for new ideas to use the last bit of lentils, I turned again to google for inspiration.. and landed (again) on food network. As a bonus, the recipe also requires red wine vinegar and bay leaves - two things I have way more of than I can reasonably use before moving. I won't claim that I've really added anything to Alton's recipe here, but it's brilliant, so it bears repeating..

Ingredients:
- 225 g (1/2 lb) brown lentils
- 2 small onions, quartered
- 1 glove garlic, whole
- 2 bay leaves
- salt
- pepper
- 4 slices thinly sliced bacon, fried and chopped
- 1/2 dL (1/4 cup) red wine vinegar
- 1/4 dL (1/8 cup) olive oil
- 1 tsp grainy mustard
- 10 g (1/3 oz) fresh thyme

The rinsed lentils were placed in a pot with water, onion, garlic, salt, and bay leaves. It was brought to a boil, covered, and let simmer for half an hour. The bay leaves were picked out (but I left in the onion and the garlic as I saw little point in removing them), and drained off excess liquid. The boiled lentils were allowed to cool off a little while preparing the rest.

The vinegar, oil, mustard, pepper, and thyme was whisked together in a large bowl.
The bacon was fried, and then chopped.

At last everything was stirred together - served immediately with a big of dark bread (although it was also delicious cold after hours in the fridge).

Krušovice Dark

Some months ago a new store opened up close to here - this store carries a curious blend of goods, including quite a number of specialities from eastern Europe.

I was quite happy to see that this includes a good number of Czech beers - something I've had far too little of since my trip to Prague many moons ago.

For reasons I can't quite divine I chose to pick a couple of Krušovice Dark. A deliciously smooth and balanced dark beer - of which I have to say 1 litre went down surprisingly fast...

Garlic and goat cheese tart

We tried this Lagasse recipe a while back, and agreed that the fundamental concept was nice, but - in our humble opinion - way too rich and lacking greens in the filling. Recently, we finally came back to it and tried out this modification, which we think gives a more balanced (and therefore better) result..

Ingredients:
pie filling:
- 1 head of garlic, roasted (see below)
- 2 leeks, sliced
- fresh rosemary
- fresh oregano
- fresh thyme
- 160 g (5.5 oz) chèvre (goat cheese)
- 250 g (9 oz) ricotta
- 3 egg yolks ^[1]
- 1 dL (~1/2 cup) milk
- 5 tbsp flour
- salt and pepper
pie crust:
- 180 g (0.4 lb) flour
- 125 g (4.4 oz) margarine
- 1 tsp salt
- a little water
salad:
- lettuce
- cucumber
dressing:
- 1/4 dL (~ 1 oz) red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp onion, chopped
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tsp mustard
- 4 black olives, chopped
- 1/4 dL (~ 1 oz) olive oil
- 1/2 dL (~ 2 oz) sunflower oil


The outer papery layers were peeled of the head of garlic, and the tips were cut of each clove. The head was placed in a small oven-proof bowl together with olive oil, covered with foil, and baked at 225 C (450 F) for 50 minutes.

While the garlic was roasting, the pie crust was prepared: The margarine was worked into the flour and salt using the fingers. Water was added by the tsp until the dough came suitably together - a little extra flour can be added if to much water is added. The dough was rolled into a ball, wrapped in film and placed in the fridge for 45 minutes.

While the dough was resting, the salad and the dressing was prepared: the lettuce and cucumber were simply rinsed and cut. For the dressing, the red wine vinegar, the onion, the salt, and the pepper were mixed. After standing for 5 minutes, the mustard and the olives was added and the mixture was liquefied using a stick-blender - while continuing blending the oil was poured in slowly to give a smooth emulsion. The dressing was stored in the fridge while preparing the rest.


While waiting further, the leeks and the herbs for the pie filling were prepared.

When the garlic was roasted, the oven was reduced to 175 C (350 F). The pie dough was rolled on a floured surfaced and transferred to a 22 cm (9 inch) tart shell with a removable bottom - admittedly this part was a little tedious (the dough being difficult to transfer). The pie crust was baked for 15-20 minutes before filling it. The oven was then set for 200 C (400 F).

The pie filling was prepared by removing the cloves of roasted garlic from the remaining peel and beating them in a bowl together with the cheeses and the herbs. Then the egg yolks were beaten into the mixture one at the time, before adding milk, flour, salt, and pepper. The leeks were stirred in lastly, and the filling was transferred to the pre-baked crust and baked at 200 C (400 F) for 40 minutes.


It is advisable to let the finished tart cool a little before trying to cut it - if you can make yourself wait...

^[1] Needing three egg yolks tends to leave behind three egg whites, which can conveniently be made into fluffy sweetness..

Bière du Leman

On a recent trip to the Haute-Savoie region I saw these at a Sunday market and was quite intrigued. So I decided to bring home a couple and see how I liked them.

Unfortunately they are not very interesting. IMHO the blanche was better than the blonde, but I wouldn't go through a lot of trouble to get either of them again.

In the end, I guess there's a reason Évian-les-Bains isn't famous for it's beer so much as for other liquids...

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!

Ardbeg

I got a bottle of this relatively pale whiskey for Christmas and have been trying to make up my mind about it ever since.

It's not as to whether or not it's good I'm confused - I like it a lot, that's for sure.

But...

...it seems to me this is some sort of chameleon whiskey, changing it's character from time to time. Sounds odd? Well, it is.

I have this memory - surprisingly clear as it is - of one night a few years back that I was out with friends, tasting different whiskeys during the night. One of the later ones we had was Ardbeg, and I distinctly remember being surprised at how pungently smoky the taste was after having smelled it and found the nose.. well, fairly dull.

But when I first smelled this bottle (i.e. on a day I hadn't had any whiskey yet) it did smell smoky. But the smoky notes in the nose are so faint that even after the first sip (of this or other whiskeys), I can't detect them any longer. This is in sharp contrast to certain other strongly smoky whiskeys that I like.

The result is the funny effect as just mentioned. Or maybe it's just my nose that's too flaky.

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.

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.

Finally: with black lentils

Living now in a different part of the world, it's suddenly possible for me to purchase black lentils again .. and make this dish right:

Viru

I have to admit that Viru is the first Estonian beer I've tasted.

And I'm not particularly surprised to learn that it's a pilsner.

However, I am a bit surprised to learn that the curious longish octagonal pyramidal bottle is in fact NOT a gimmick introduced to market the beer when it was recently introduced to the international market (according to wikipedia it's scheduled for release in the US this year).

Enough about the bottle. What about the beer? Well, it's OK, but nothing special to my taste, so I'm guessing I would be more interested if I went to Estonia and found it at a price that didn't reflect export/import costs. (Honestly, if I went to Estonia, I would probably be looking around for what other beers they have...)

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

We have a large bag of poppy seeds .. and we're moving relatively soon. We've been talking about making lemon poppy seed muffins, but without muffin forms that's a little less fun. Mrs. Erator opted instead for this lemon poppy seed cake..

Ingredients:
- 320 g (11 1/4 oz) flour
- 225 g (8 oz) + 100 g (3.5 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 lemons (juice AND zest)
- 40 g (1.4 oz) poppy seeds
- 300 g (10.5 oz) margarine
- 5 eggs


The larger portion of the sugar was mixed with the flour, salt, lemon zest, poppy seeds and margarine. The eggs were whipped into the dough one at the time. The dough was poured into a previously buttered-and-floured bread pan and baked for 1 hour at 175 C (350 F).

Once out of the oven, holes were pricked in the top of the cake, and a solution of the smaller portion of sugar dissolved in the lemon juice was poured over the cake. After standing for 10-15 minutes to absorb this lemon syrup, the cake was taken out of the bread pan, allowed to cool to room temperature and wrapped in film.

After resting overnight, it was sort of OK - very lemony and the taste wasn't quite like the lemon poppy seed muffins I had in mind. However, on the third day (after resting wrapped in film in the fridge) it was much better: The lemon note was less overpowering and the taste was much more like I remember lemon poppy seed muffins.

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.

Red Cabbage Salad

Based on a recipe we read in a newspaper we tried this over a year ago - the newspaper said it would be rich, and they weren't kidding. In fact, we thought it was way too rich, so in trying to adapt it better to our taste we used more cabbage and only half the dressing of the original recipe.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (1/2 lb) red cabbage, finely cut
- 100 g (3.5 oz) corn salad
- 9 cherry tomatoes (168 g / 6 oz), quartered
- 1 onion (85 g / 3 oz), cut in thin strips
- 142 g (5 oz) brown mushrooms, finely sliced
- 25 g (~1 oz) pecan nuts, coarsely chopped
- 25 g (~1 oz) brazil nuts, coarsely chopped
- 1 tbsp honey
dressing:
- 75 g (2.6 oz) blue cheese^[1]
- 3 tbsp milk

The cabbage, corn salad, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms were simply mixed in a large bowl.

The nuts were candied by first toasting them on a hot, dry pan for a few minutes (taking care not to burn them), then adding the honey, which melts and bubbles. After quickly coating the nut pieces in the honey, the candied nuts were transferred to a sheet of baking paper.

While the nuts were cooling off, the milk and blue cheese was whipped together using a fork. When the dressing was ready it was poured over the salad and mixed well. At last, the candied nuts were spread on top.


^[1] I used Blue Castello - for other cheeses it might take a different amount of milk to get the right texture ... just add one tbsp at the time.