Gravad Lax - Gravlax with Mustard Sauce (Rævesauce)

Gravad Lax - Gravlax with Mustard Sauce (Rævesauce)

Gravad lax, gravad laks or gravlax is a dill-cured salmon, normally served with a mustard sauce. Gravad lax means buried salmon, referring to back in  the old days, where the fishermen cured the fish and buried it in the ground for a few days. Now you would never put the fish in the ground when you have the refrigerator. 

Gravad lax is one big favorite in my house, if you ask my husband IT IS the favorite, when it comes to fish cold cuts, way better than smoked salmon. Gravad lax is perfect for appetizer, for small Hors d'oeuvre or on an open-faced sandwich on rye bread. The sweet salty salmon almost melt in your mouth, and with the mustard sauce, it's a little slice of heaven.

Eating Raw Seafood - What You Need To Know:

It's always best to cook seafood thoroughly to minimize the risk of food-borne illness. However, if you choose to eat raw fish anyway, one rule of thumb is to eat fish that has been previously frozen for 24 hours. FDA

Ingredients:

• 750 g (26 oz) fresh salmon filet with skin on

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons salt

• 2 teaspoons crushed white pepper

• 2 bunches dill, chopped

Directions:

To minimise the risk connected with eating raw fish, you should freeze the salmon before preparing it. When defrosted, scale the salmon and remove all small bones, but leave the skin on.

Mix salt, sugar and pepper and sprinkle it all over the salmon, cut the salmon in half. In the dish you are going to marinate the salmon in, sprinkle a good layer of dill, place the one piece of salmon, skin side down. Sprinkle a thick layer of dill on that, and place the second half on top sin side up. Sprinkle the rest of the dill on top. Put some plastic wrap over the salmon and use a weighted cutting board to press on the salmon. Refrigerate for 24−48 hours, turning the salmon filet a few times. Rinse the salmon in cold water, and pad it dry. 

Use a sharp knife to cut the gravad lax. (Filet knives, boning knives, and Japanese sashimi knives work well for this role.) The gravad lax should be sliced paper-thinly at an angle (15-20 degree angle), making sure not to get any skin on the slices. 

Serve the gravad lax on a slice good bread, with a mustard sauce.

Mustard sauce - Rævesauce

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 8 tablespoons oil (use a neutral oil - not olive oil)

• dill, finely chopped

• salt & pepper to taste

Direction:

Whisk sugar, mustard and vinegar together and add the oil in a thin stream to make the emulsion. Stir in the dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Shrimp cocktail - the 80's are calling

Shrimp cocktail - the 80's are calling

Shrimp cocktail might be the only seafood appetizer of the 80’s. We had it in a martini glass or in an avocado. It was everywhere, at every party and special occasion. The only excitement was whether you got the avocado in your lap or not. 😀

But to be honest I liked the shrimp cocktail of the 80's, greens, shrimps and a thousand island dressing. If it could be a little lighter, the shrimp cocktail would be perfect, as the flavors are so good.

Last week I was going through some of my cookbooks, and I read Claus Meyers updated version of the shrimp cocktail. (From the book Salatværkstedet). I used this recipe as my inspiration. I used my own version of thousand island dressing, another kind of salad and bread, otherwise I leaned against Meyer's recipe.

I use cold water shrimps because they have more flavor than warm water shrimps.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

Shrimp cocktail

• 275 g cold water shrimps (I used shrimps from IKEA)
• 12 green asparagus
• 3 slices sourdough bread, cut into logs
• 2 small lemons, zest and fillets
• 10 leaves of romaine lettuces
• dill
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper

Thousand island

• 1 cup (240 ml) sour cream
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 6 small sun-dried tomatoes
• ¼ cup (½ dl) tomato ketchup
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• ½ tablespoon lemon juice
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Thousand Island dressing

Blend tomato and ketchup together. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and season to taste. Set aside.

Shrimp cocktail

Heat olive oil in a skillet, and toast the bread logs in the oil. When they get a nice color, place them on a piece of kitchen towel, to remove any excess oil. Sprinkle with salt.

Wash the asparagus and snap the dry stem ends off of each asparagus. Use the same skillet to roast the asparagus for about 2 minutes. The asparagus should be cooked, but still have a bite. Cut the asparagus into bite size pieces, save some bigger pieces and the heads for garnish. Set aside.

Using a lemon zester, make strips of lemon zest, bring these to a boil in some salted water. Leave the zest in the water until you need to use them.

Fillet the lemons with a sharp knife. Cut the top and bottom off the lemon. Set your knife where the white meets the flesh and start cutting downward in a curved motion following the shape of the lemon. Keep doing this until you have peeled the lemon. Carefully cut the filets out.

Chop the romaine lettuce finely, leave out the core part. Mix the romaine, dild, asparagus, lemon-zest and -fillets. Dress the salad with a splash of olive oil.

Assembly

Serve the shrimp cocktail in a maison jar or another rustic glass, to set it aside from the shrimp cocktails of the 80's.

Layer the cocktail: salad, shrimps and dressing. Layer until you have a nice serving size. Garnish with bread logs, asparagus and dild.

Enjoy.

Stir-fried Beef in Oyster Sauce

Stir-fried Beef in Oyster Sauce

Some nights I just want to get cooking dinner over with in a hurry, but I still want to eat healthy. Well, this dish is for those kind of nights. If you have time to cook some rice, you will have time to make this stir-fry. A perfect dish for a weeknight.

The dish is inspired by one of my favorite take-out dishes from a Thai restaurant in Denmark, But I added more vegetables and dropped the cashews, for a more filling and healthier meal. I love the sweet but slightly spicy taste, it's a Thai comfort food. 

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches scallions

• 450 g mushroom, sliced

• oil for frying

• 6 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1½ pound (700 g) beef, I used stir-fry or fajitas meat, but any steak sliced would work

• 1 broccoli crown

• 1 red bell pepper

• ½ cup (1 dl) oyster sauce

• 2-3 teaspoons sugar

• 2 splashes Sriracha, Hot Chili Sauce

• 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce (to taste)

Directions:

Clean the mushrooms and slice them, I buy the mushrooms already cleaned and sliced.

Heat a wok over high heat. Once the pan is hot, add just enough oil to coat it. Add the mushrooms to the hot pan and cook, keeping heat high, stirring frequently to help any liquid the mushrooms give off  to evaporate as quickly as possible. Keep cooking until the mushrooms are tender and browned, about 5 minutes. Put the fried mushrooms in a bowl, and set aside.

While frying the mushrooms clean and cut up the scallions, bel pepper and broccoli.

Heat oil in wok, and brown the meat in small batches over high heat, so the beef get fried and not boiled. Set beef aside.

Start frying the broccoli, and add bel pepper, when the broccoli has got a bright green color. Add beef, crushed garlic, mushrooms, oyster sauce, sugar, chili- and fish sauce. Season with additional sugar, pepper or fish sauce if needed. Add the scallions, save some for garnish. Serve immediately with  jasmine rice or cauliflower rice.

Beef Soup - Oksekødssuppe

Beef Soup - Oksekødssuppe

Having homemade beef soup reminds my of my childhood. My mom made the best beef or chicken soup. Making the soup takes time. It is a whole day project. 

There's a story in my family from before I was born, and my brother was about 3 years old.  My parents and my brother met my aunt when they went for a walk, and invited her to join them for the second day of having soup. My mom had to put more water in the soup, to make sure that there would be enough for the four of them.  Almost by the end of the meal, there's no more soup, and my brother declares: "if aunt hadn't come, there would have been enough food."  My poor mom laughed, but was embarrassed at the same time.

Serves 8.

Ingredients:

• 6 pounds beef soup bones 
• 2 pounds beef brisket 
• 3 large carrots 
• 2 leeks 
• 1 celery root + the top of
• water to cover
• salt

Directions:

Put bones and brisket in a large pot with cold water and heat it to a boil. Skim off the foam.  Add 1 teaspoon salt and the green top from the celery root.

Clean the leeks, carrots and celery root, and cut into chunks, add them to the soup. Let the soup simmer for about 2-3 hours. Discard the soup bones and the celery top. Take out the brisket, and let it cool. You will serve this on the side with a good mustard later.

Clean and peel more celery root, carrots and leeks, and cut them into bite size bites and boil them in the soup for about 15-20 minutes before serving.

You can skim of the fat and clarify the soup if you want to. I only skim of the fat, if there is a thick layer, but I hadn't done this here.

Serve the soup with Danish soup dumplings/melboller, boiled meatballs/kødboller, supperis and the brisket with mustard.

The sides

Spicy Peach Soup with Shrimps

Spicy Peach Soup with Shrimps

This sweet and spicy soup is one of my go-to soups in the fall.  You can make as spicy as you like, and use chicken as filling, if you don't care for shrimps.

Serves 3

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon coconut oil

• 2 teaspoons curry

• 1 small onion, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 420 g canned peaches, drained (save the juice)

• 1 can chopped tomatoes

• 2 teaspoons chicken base

• 3 cups water (750 ml)

• salt & pepper

• 5-10 drops Habanero Tabasco

• 12 large shrimps.

Topping:

• Peach, finely chopped

• 1 red chili, thinly sliced

Direction:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in the curry and cook until fragrant about 30 seconds. Add onion and garlic, and cook until the onions are translucent. Add peaches (save some for topping), tomatoes, chicken base, water, salt, and pepper. Simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes. Blend the soup smooth with a immersion blender or a regular blender. *

Return the soup to the saucepan to heat. Season with habanero tabasco, salt lemon pepper and the juice from the peaches.

Add the shrimps and serve as soon as the shrimps are done. Serve with a slice of good whole wheat bread.

* Be careful when working with hot soup in a blender. You have to work in batches, even though all the soup fits in the container. Because the liquid builds up steam, and can blow the lid off the blender. 

The Danish version:

Rejesuppe med Tigerrejer

Ingredienser:

• 1 tsk kokosolie

• 2 tsk karry

• 1 lille løg, hakket

• 2 fed hvidløg, finthakket

• 420 g ferskner fra dåse, drænet vægt (gem lidt af saften)

• 1 dåse hakkede tomater

• 1 terning hønse bouillon

• 7,5 dl vand

• salt & peber

• 5-10 dråber Habanero Tabasco

• 12 tigerrejer

Topping:

• Fersken fra dåse, tyndtskåret

• 1 rød chili, i tynde skiver

Sautér løgene, hvisløg og karryen i kokosolien indtil løgene er blevet bløde. Tilsæt ferskner (gem lidt til toppings), tomater og bouillon og vandet. Lad suppen koge i ca 45 minutter. Blend suppen med en stavblender eller en almindelig blender. *

Kom den blendede suppe tilbage i gryden, og smag til med saften fra fersknerne, habanero tabasco, citrnpeber og salt.

Tilsæt rejerne og server suppen lige så snart rejerne er nok. Server suppen med en skive god brød.

* Vær forsigtig, når du blender varm suppe. Blendt lidt af gangen, gerne lettere afkølet. Da dampen fra suppen kan få låget til at hoppe af.