Roasted Chicken with Blood Orange and Mint

Roasted Chicken with Blood Orange and Mint

I keep getting attacked by blood oranges at my grocery store. They keep hopping into my cart. 

So I have to figure out new ways to use them. I have been roasting whole chicken with lemons, so why not use blood oranges? 

I really like the sweet and sour taste this combination gives. The sauce is very thin and can be thickened, but the taste was fantastic.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 boneless chicken thighs

• few sprigs of mint, torn

• 2 blood oranges, thinly sliced

• 1-2 red onions, cut in chunks

Marinade:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

• 200 ml orange juice (preferably blood orange)

Directions:

Mix the marinade add the chicken to it, and let the chicken marinate for a few hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 425℉ (220℃).

Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish, add onion, mint, blood orange slices and pour the marinade over. 

Place dish in oven and roast until chicken is browned and cooked through, about 35-45 minutes.

Serve chicken with rice or couscous.

Enjoy!

Green Fish Cakes - Grønne Fiskefrikadeller

Green Fish Cakes - Grønne Fiskefrikadeller

Fish cakes is an easy way to make picky kids eat fish. Serve them as finger food with bite-sized vegetables and a dipping sauce. In Denmark you will get a sweet tartar sauce, remoulade, with the fish cakes. You can also serve the fish cakes cold on a sandwich. 

Makes 12-15.

Ingredients:

Fish Cakes:

• 900 g cod, no bones or skin
• 3 eggs
• 300 ml cream (half & half or whipping cream)
• 35 g (⅓ cup) all-purpose flour
• 2 leeks, rinsed and chopped, 
• 2½ teaspoons salt
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 handful fresh dill, chopped

Spicy creme fraiche sauce:

• 200 ml creme fraiche (you can use sour cream)
• 1 jalapeno, grated
• about 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• juice from ½ lime
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Put the cod and salt in a food processor and pulse until it gets sticky. The idea is to bind the moisture so that the fish cakes don’t fall apart. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined.

Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. (I tend to forget this part. 😇)

Mix the ingredients for the creme fraiche sauce in a bowl, and leave it to rest in the refrigerator until serving.

Using a spoon and your hand, make plum-size cakes and fry them in a mixture of half oil and half butter in a skillet, until golden brown on both sides.

Serve with boiled potatoes, a salad and a spicy creme fraiche sauce.

Enjoy!

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Cauliflower was a weird vegetable for me growing up. My mom boiled the h.. out of it, and like many overcooked vegetables it went on my "I don't like that" list. Please DO NOT overcook and especially over-boil your vegetables. 
You can prepare cauliflower so many ways, or just eat it raw, but by roasting it whole like this you get a great nutty flavor, with a crispy surface with a tender and almost creamy center. It might be time consuming but its well worth the wait. 

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1 large cauliflower, the one I used was yellow to start with

• olive oil

• salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven with a cast-iron skillet inside to 375℉ (190℃).

Break off and discard the outer leaves from the cauliflower. Cut off the bottom of the stem, being careful not to cut off any of the florets. Using a small sharp knife to cut out the hard core of the cauliflower.  

Rinse the cauliflower, not drying it again. Place the cauliflower core-side up on the cutting board, and drizzle it with olive oil. Rub the oil all over the surface, and sprinkle with sea salt.

Place the cauliflower core-side down in the hot cast-iron skillet. Place an ovenproof pan filled with hot water, to create steam in the oven. Roast the cauliflower for 1½-2 hours, basting it 2-3 times with more olive oil. You want to end up with a nice brown color on the surface and a nice tender inside. You can roast the cauliflower under the boiler for a brief moment in the end to add some more color.

Serve the cauliflower to your favorite protein.

Enjoy!

Mushroom Soup

Mushroom soup.

With a bit of a chill in the weather, there is nothing like a bowl of hot soup. This is my take on a tasty cream of mushroom soup. And its way better than any canned soup you can buy in grocery stores. I got a bunch of mixed mushrooms to build a more complexed flavor. One of the best things about a blended soup is that you can sneak in different kinds of root vegetables for some added fiber, just keep in mind not to use vegetables with overpowering flavors and colors.

The addition of cream is optional, because most blended soups seems creamy without it.

Serves 4 as an entrée or 6 as an appetizer. 

Ingredients:

Soup:

• 1 red large onion, or 2 small, diced

• 1 large carrot, diced

• 500 g mixed mushrooms, chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 small sprig rosemary, leaves only

• 3 sprigs thyme, leaves only

• 100 ml white wine

• 800 ml chicken stock

• 150 ml heavy whipping cream

• lemon juice, to taste

• salt & pepper, to taste

Topping:

• 150 g bacon, diced and crispy

• parsley oil (Italian parsley + olive oil blended and drained)

Directions:

Fry the diced bacon crispy in a large pot. Put the crispy bacon bits on some kitchen towel to drain any excess fat. 

Cook the onion and carrot in the leftover bacon fat. When the onions are translucent, add all the mushrooms, and let them cook and caramelize. Add thyme and rosemary. When the mushrooms has got some color and lost its liquid, deglaze the pot with the white wine.  Pour in the chicken stock, and let the soup simmer for about 25 minutes. Let the whipping cream simmer in the soup for the last 5-10 minutes. 

Blend the soup, with an immersion blender or in a regular blender.* 

Season the soup with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve the soup with the topping. 

Enjoy!

* Be careful when working with hot soup in a blender.  If you need a new blender, consider a Vitamix. They are expensive, but they are worth all the money. They can liquefy almost anything and makes soup and margaritas so smooth and creamy. But the best part, you can blend hot soups without having to clean the soup of all your kitchen cabinets afterwards. Just saying. ;)

Salmon with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

I know the picture isn't perfect, but the taste is so so good. My brother was the one that told me about this mustard glazed salmon. In my mind this glaze is used to glaze a ham. And the caramelized pearl onions is a traditional side for roast beef. But as it turned out, the glaze worked perfect with the salmon. It added a mild smokey flavor to the juicy salmon. This dish will be on our meal plan in the near future again. Especially because I plan to add more fish to the table this year, and salmon being my husbands favorite fish. 

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces salmon, or 1 larger piece
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon grainy mustard (I used Maille Old style whole grain dijon mustard)
• 5 tablespoons brown sugar
• 200 g (about half a bag) frozen pearl onions

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Brush an ovenproof dish with oil, and set aside.

Remove skin and bones from the salmon. Place it in the ovenproof dish, skin-side down. 

Mix mustards and sugar till you have a paste, this will be the glaze. Brush the salmon with the glaze. Place the pearl onions all around the salmon and pour the rest of the glaze over the onions. Bake the salmon for 20-30 minutes until its done, and the glaze is somewhat caramelized. Serve the salmon with boiled potatoes and creamed spinach.

Enjoy!