Totally
opposite of the title I am going to start with the healthy January food and
move back in time.
Many of us
think of January as the month to start living healthy and it is such an obvious
project for the cold and uninspiring winter months when the holidays and the
sugar rush is over.
But dieting
is just not for me anymore and I don’t want to live with a constant "NO" hanging
over my head. But to be able to say no to dieting, it does mean saying no to
temptations most days and getting active almost daily, but that is the way for
me.
Therefore
the following recipes are not all low calorie, but they are nutritious and
tastes good.
And I try
to use as much seasonal food as possible since the nutritional value and taste
is highest there.
So what is
at its best this time of year? Kale, cabbage and root vegs – so of course they
play the main role at the dinner table as the moment.
I haven’t
been able to get all that much variety with root vegs at my local super market
so if anyone, by pure chance, comes by this sites and lives in the Enfield area
of CT, give me a shout-out if you know the place to go for this.
Many of
this rounds recipes are from/inspired by old and new editions of the Danish
food magazine “Mad & Venner”.
So without
further delay here is what we have been eating the last few weeks.
Meatballs
in curry sauce with brown rice and cabbage and apple
This first
recipe is a stable in most Danish homes and the Danish name is “Boller i
Karry”.
First
prepare the rice according to the instructions on the package. I normally go
with one cup rice to two cups of water and a good amount of salt.
Once you
got that going – start with the meet balls.
Meatballs:
1 pound of
minced meat (I used veil)
1 small onion
– finely cut
salt and
pepper
1 egg
½ a cup of
milk
4 tbsp of
flour/oats/bread crumbs
Mix all the
ingredients together and keep beating/stirring for at least 10 minutes. I can
only recommend using a food mixer with a stand so you don’t have do it your
self.
Mixing for
so long helps the texture get perfect meatballs.
In the
meantime boil a bi pot of salted water.
Once the 10
minutes is up and the water I boiling, you use a spoon and you hand to form
small meatballs and drop a few at a time into the water – give them about 5
minutes.
If
sometimes makes the process easier if you dip the spoon into some water in
between each meatball shaping.
Reserve
some of the water once you are don.
Curry
sauce:
1-2 carrots
in small cubes
1 onion in
small cubes
1 stalk of
celery
Ginger to
taste
Oil
Salt and
pepper
2 or more
tbsp curry powder
1-2 garlic
cloves
A splash of
cream or coconut milk
Even though
you should try to reduce the amount of oil you cook in, this is not the time to
be too stingy. The oil will help release all the nuances of taste in the curry.
Heat up a good
glob of oil in a pan and fry the onion, garlic and the curry powder for a few
minutes and keep stirring to it won’t burn.
Then add
the rest of the ingredients and sauteu. Once you are happy with the color, add
some of the cooking water until you have the amont of sauce you find fitting
and let it cook for a little while.
After
adding cream/coconut milk you can either leave the sauce like this, thinkening
it with a solutions of corn flour and cold water or blitzing it in your
blender.
No matter
your choice, you fishish with heating it all up again – this time with the
meatballs in the sauce.
Serve with
the rice, thinly slices apples and cabbage, coriander/parsley and perhabs a
chutney.
Baked tarragon
leeks
This not an
extremely healthy dish but you get your veggies and it is comforting on a cold
winters day.
Recipe for
2 persons
2 leeks –
the white part only
8 slices of
really good quality ham
2 cups of
milk – maybe more.
1 tbsp
butter
2 tbsp
flour
Salt,
pepper, tarragon and nutmeg to taste
1 lemon –
peel and juice
bread
crumbs or old lump of bread
Oil
Set the
oven for 350F/175C.
Divide the
leeks in two lengthwise and clean them out thoroughly.
Wrap them
ham around the leeks and put them in an oven-proof dish.
Melt the
butter in a pot – without it taking color. Then add the flour, mix well and let
it fry for a minute to loose some of the floury taste.
The ad milk
a little at a time – making sure there are no lumps left between each time you
add more milk. You should end up with a slightly thick sauce.
Once it is
all absorbed and you feel confident that there is enough to cover the leeks,
add some lemon juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg and tarragon to taste and turn off
the heat.
Put the
lemon peel, a bit of oil and bread crumbs in a blender and blitz to make an
even mixture.
Pour the
milk sauce over the leeks and top with the bread crumbs.
Bake in the
oven for about 30 minutes and serve with bread and a green salad with a
vinaigrette dressing.
Vietnamese
spring rools
This is one
of my favorite easy dinners when I have some leftover meat.
Ingredients
Rice paper
sheets
Leftover
meat in fine slices– shrimp, chicken, pork what ever
Lettuce –
spring mix
3 handfuls
of speed peel vegetables (cucumber, carrots, spring onions and so on)
Cooked rice
noodles
Herbs –
mint, holy basil, coriander
A big plate
with lukewarm water
Perhabs 8
big lettuce leafes.
Dipping
sauce
1 part fish
sauce
1 part
sugar
1 part lime
juice
2 parts
water
Finly
minced chili, carrot and garlic
Mix all the
ingredients up – easily don in an old jam jar, lid on and shake.
I also use
a ready to use sweet chili sauce as a dipping for this dish.
When you
are ready to serve simply to everything on the table (see picture) and let
people make their own spring rolls.
Take a rice
paper sheet and dunk it in the hot water for about 5 seconds and put it on your
plate.
Fill it
with all the goodies like you would a tortilla and fold I together.
The rice
paper gets pretty sticky and some might prefer to roll a lettuce leaf around it
before you dip in the sauce and eat it with your finger.
Red cabbage
salad with marinated red onions
Big portions for 2 people
Marinated
onions:
2 red
onions
2 tbsp
olive oil
2 tbsp
balsamic vinegar
Salt and
pepper
Peel the
onions and cut them in 6-8 but try to keep them “whole” so they will stay in
shape.
Blanch them
in boiling water for 3-4 minutes and let them drip dry.
Mix the
rest of the ingredients and let the onions cool in the dressing.
Salad
8 oz of
finely sliced red cabbage
2 oz of
pickled beets in small cubes
1 ripe pear
in small cubes
1 oz dried
cranberries/cherries/blueberries
The
marinated red onions
Dressing
The
remaining marinade from the onions
1 tbsp
olive oil
1 tbsp
apple cider vinegar
2 tsp
mustard
1 tsp honey
Salt and
pepper
Mix the
salad and just before serving add the dressing. Top with some (homemade)
croutons, nuts and blue cheese.
I served
this salad with a big juicy steak.
Spanish
salad with tuna
Really easy
and lovely salad for a light dinner or lunch.
10 oz ready
to eat butterbeans
10 oz
cabbage
(pointed
cabbage would work really well, but haven’t found any so used regular cabbage)
A handful
of chopped parsley
1 red onion
4-5 oz
cherry tomatoes
Vinaigrette
dressing
Limejuice
Salt and
pepper
2 cans good
quality canned tuna
Mix the
vegetables and beans together.
When you a
ready to serve add the remaining ingredients and serve with some nice bread.
Baked fish
with leek vinaigrette
Ingredients
2 pieces of
white fish of your choice
4 leeks –
all the white and a bit of the green
2 tsp mustard
2 tsp
vinegar/lemon juice
1 tbsp
capers
2 boiled
eggs in cubes
2 tsp cubed
onions
1 handful
of parsley
Salt and
pepper
Cut the
leeks in two and clean them thoroughly. Boil a pot of salted water and
steam/boil the leeks for about 10 minutes and let them drip dry and cool slightly.
Bake the
fish with a little olive oil and salt and pepper in a 350F/175C oven for about
8 minutes.
Mix the
rest of the ingredients together and serve it all together with some fresh
bread or potatoes.
If you want
to do something special but still really healthy the following to recipes goes
really well together as a starter and a main.
Fennel
salad with boozy flambéed prawns
Ingredients
4 tbsp
lemon juice
1 tbsp
honey
3 tbsp
olive oil
Salt and
pepper
1 small
bunch of radishes
1 small
fennel
ice cubes
4-5 prawns
per person
1-2 oz Pernod/tequila
1 garlic
clove in fine slices
Mix the
lemon juice, oli and honey to a dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste
Finely
slice the vegetables on a mandolin or with a speed peeler and put them straight
into a bowl of ice water for at least 15 minutes.
This will
make them crunchy and glass like.
Heat a bit
of oil in a pan and fry the garlic until golden. Then add the prawns and fry
them shortly.
Add the
booze (original recipe called for Pernod but I only had tequila and it worked
well, but Pernod would be best) and set fire to the pan. Cook until the fire
goes out by it self.
Drain the
vegetables well and mix them with the dressing.
Arrange on
a platter with the prawns on top and perhaps a few drizzles of the
garlic/booze/oil mix from the pan.
Endive with
Parma ham and honey
(1 person)
1 endive
2-4 pieces
of Parma ham
Butter for
the pan
Time
Lemon peel
and juice
A drizzle
of honey
Salt and
pepper
Cut the
endive in 2 lengthwise and wrap them ham around it.
Fry the
endive in the butter until golden. Add some lemon juice and peel, time, honey
and perhaps a bit of water. Make sure that it is glazed all over.
Add salt
and pepper to taste and serve it with some bread and perhaps some fried fish.
I am sure
mackerel would be perfect but trout was the best pick a the fishmonger that
day.
Italian
lintel salad with chicken
For all of
you people out there that are trying to get more protein in you diet – did you
know that lentils have as much protein oz per as chicken? And it is healthy,
full of fiber and there is no soaking involved.
5 oz of
green lintils
5 oz of
Brussels sprouts in very fine slices
1 red onion
in fine slices
Sliced oven
baked/sundried tomatoes in olive oil
Spinach
1-2 oz nuts
or seeds, toasted on a pan
1 chicken
breast per person
Oregano,
salt and pepper
Oil for the
pan
2-3 tbsp
capers
Balsamic
vinaigrette
Boil the
lentils after the instructions on the pack. Once they are done, drained and
slightly cooled, mix them with the other ingredients.
Pan-fry the
chicken breast in a bit of oil with the spices. Once cooked, slice them into
bite size pieces.
Fry the
capers on the after heat of the pan for a couple of minutes.
Now mix the
salad with the chicken, capers and the dressing and serve it with some fresh
bread.
Fried
chicken and coleslaw in a lighter version
Coleslaw
I never
liked coleslaw before I came to the states and now I absolutely love it.
Especially the versions with the buttermilk dressings that makes them less
heavy.
½ a
cabbage, finely sliced
2 oranges,
peeled and cubed
1 big
apple, cubed or finely sliced
2-3 big
carrots, finely sliced
4 spring
onions, finely sliced
2 handfuls
of chopped parsley
Dressing
Olive
oil/mayonnaise
Buttermilk
1 minced
garlic clove
Apple cider
vinegar
Salt,
pepper and sugar
Mix
everything together and let the slaw sit on the counter for 30 minutes.
Oven fried
chicken
Bread
crumbs
A lille
olive oil
Lemon peel
Salt and
pepper
Cayenne
pepper
Time
Buttermilk
A fitting
number of chicken pieces – with or with out skin
Put the
chicken in a plastic bag with enough buttermilk to just cover them up.
Mix the
spices, lemon peel, oil and bread crumbs together in another plastic bag and ad
1-2 pieces of chicken at a time and shake until covered.
Arrange on
baking paper and bake in the oven 350F/175C until golden and cooked through.
I went for
the version with the skin on and it tasted great. I know that there is quite a
bit of fat in the skin but it just tastes better that way.
New years
eve in the big apple
The husband
and I have lunch and dinner plans at his great auntie's place for new Years eve
and she lives on Manhatten.
She had
arranged a table for us at Aamanns Copenhagen NY who had a special set lunch
menu and because it is a Danish restaurant, they had arranged so all us Danish
guests could watch the Danish queens new years speech while they served
champagne and “Kransekage” – a traditional mazipan cake that is used at
weddings and every new years eve.
They had a
bit of teniqual problem so we ended up seeing the speech after the lunch but
that was really a minor detail.
The food
was really great.
We started
out with raw oysters with vinaigrette – always a favorite of mine.
Then came
in a huge plate of all the wonders of the sea for the 3 of us to share.
Smoke king
prawns, mussels and scallops with the most amassing celeriac-brown butter pure.
There were
also bread and champagne ad libitum so we left there full and in high spirits.
All 3 of us
had just returned from Christmas in Europe and after a long walk around china
town and back up to Greenwich Village, we all need a nap.
We had big
planes about seeing the night seen on new years eve on Manhattan but we quickly
realized that, that wasn’t going to happen.
So I fixed
us a nice dinner instead.
The menu
was new interpretations on Danish favorites from the 80’es and 90’es.
Prawn
cocktail
Prawn Oil
12 oz
prawns (shells on)
3-4 oz oil
1 onion,
sliced
A pinch of
chili
1 tsp
tomato pure
Fresh herbs
(celery tops, dill or parsley)
Separate
the prawns from it shells. Set the prawns aside and put the shells in a small
pot.
Add the
rest of the ingredients and sauté it over low heat for 5 minutes.
Strain and
cool it.
2
pastorized egg yokes
Salt
Lemon juice
Mix the
yokes, juice and salt and slowly whisk in the prawn’s oil until you have a
mayonnaise.
Only a few
drops at a time if you never done it before!
Crisp
vegetables
1 fennel
1 carrot
1 celery
stalk
Ice cubes
Speed peel
or use a mandolin to make paper thing slices of vegetables.
Add them to
ice water and let them sit for 15 minutes until crisp and glass like.
Drain and
dry just before serving.
Soft
vegetables
Boiled
broccoli pured with butter, salt and pepper.
Prawns
Pan fry the
prawns in a bit of oil and season them.
Arrange all
the parts on a plate and serve immediately.
Boeuf
Béarnaise in a new form
This is not
really a Béarnaise, but I haven’t found a good new name for the sauce.
Maybe
vegetable tarragon sauce? Anyhow, it has much less butter and is much much
easier to make than the real deal.
I still
like a really buttery Béarnaise but save that sauce for when you have company
and make this one on those Friday nights when you feel like a good steak.
Vegetable
tarragon sauce
4 oz of
mixed vegetables (squash, onion, garlic, carrot, parsnip)
Tarragon
2 oz of
butter
Lemon
juice/good white wine vinegar
Salt and
pepper
Boil all
the vegetables with the tarragon until tender.
Add them
and the rest of the ingredients to a blender and pure. I also added 1
pastorized egg yoke, but that’s just me.
Pan fry a
good steak – porterhouse would be nice – in butter with some garlic and time in
the pan to add flavor.
Serve it up
with you favorite sides.
I served it
with fresh potatoes and steamed vegetables.
It all
tasted really good and after a cup of coffee and some ice cream, we all went to
bed around 10 PM and slept into the new year.
So much for
our big night out planes! Ohh well – maybe next year.
Christmas
Christmas
is one of my absolute favorite times of the year! We were so lucky that we
could spend Christmas with the whole family at the in-laws house back home in
Denmark. Only one missing was my sister who was home sick but luckily I spend
my birthday with her a few days later.
I didn’t
take any pictures of the Christmas food because I didn’t make it but I will
give you a fast list of what Danes normally eat on Christmas Eve.
In the
olden days families would normally start out with porridge to make people full
before the expensive meat came on the table and even though the crisis is
taking its tole in Danish homes as well, I don’t think we are anywhere near
starting this tradition again.
There are
slight varieties on what people eat for Christmas in Denmark when it comes to
meat, but the sides are normally all the same.
For meat
you would either have duck or pork back with the skin and fat still attached,
but cut into thin strips. This way they will become what we know as pork cracklings,
but still attached to every slice of juicy pork.
Many people
have both meats and some even add “Medisterpølse” which is a thick long Danish
sausage and “Frikadeller” which are Danish meatballs.
So as you
can tell – total meat fest!
The sides are:
white boiled potatoes, a perfect sauce made from the juices of the pork and the
duck (very important part of the Christmas meal), braised red cabbage with
cinnamon, berry jam and vinegar and caramelized peeled potatoes.
For dessert
we have “Ris a la Mande” which is rice pudding made lighter in texture by
adding whipped cream and chopped almonds and served with a hot cherry sauce. It
is served in a big bowl and somewhere in the dessert, there is one whole
blanched almond.
The one
that gets the whole almond, gets a present – The almond present!
As you can
imagine, many families play games when it comes to the dessert. Everybody takes
a big portion so that his or her chance of getting the almond is higher.
Sometimes
someone gets the almond in the first portion and if they are very cheeky they
will hide it, so everyone else take seconds and thirds until they are about to
explode!
I don’t
really like this kind of force eating so I never take part – but everyone else
seem to enjoy it – especially the men.
After
dinner, everyone goes to the family room and all the live candled are ligh on
the Christmas three. Then traditionally you all take hands to make a big circle
and walk/dance around the three and sing carols. Some even dance around the
whole house singing.
 |
| This years christmas three |
It is
actually great fun, but in our family we don’t really do it any more because it
is more fun when there are small kinds in the family and the youngest
generation (being me, amongst many other) haven’t gotten there own kids yet.
Then
coffee, cookies and homemade Christmas candy are served in the living room and
we all open presents. On present at a time so everyone can see who got what
from whom. In a big family like mine there are around 150 presents so it takes
about 2-3 hours!
And then
everyone tumbles into bed – full and happy.
What does
Americans do? I talked to a few people and everyone seam to have different
traditions?
Only
unanimous thing I found is that you all open your presents on Christmas morning
– like the Brites do.
