Venison with Port/Blueberry Sauce

Venison with Port/Blueberry Sauce

Happy New Year.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and getting my new adventure off to a good start. I had a blast the last months and I'll do my very best to keep coming up with new things. Having this blog forces me to try new recipes and making my own twist on them.

I look forward to the 2014 and to face the challenges it may bring. 

From my family to yours, have a fantastic 2014, filled with light and laughter.

Cheers.

We rarely have game like venison, but when I see it on the menu, I have to get it. It's so lean and I love the taste and texture. 

Growing up we didn't get game very often. We might get rabbit or wild duck, but that was it. When we visited my dads family in Jutland, we could be lucky to have some venison, cause both my uncles were hunters.

I find the venison at the German butcher i Los Altos/mountain, I haven't found it anywhere else.

This is how I make venison:

Serves 4 

Ingredients: 

• 2 lb venison loin roast

• butter and oil for searing

• salt and pepper

Sauce:

• 350 ml Port wine

• 1 handful fresh blueberries

• 1 teaspoon butter

Directions:

Take the meat out of the refrigerator, and get it to room temperature before you start searing.

Preheat the oven to about 200℉ (just under 100℃).

Heat a large ovenproof skillet over high heat, and add an oil with a high smoking point, like sunflower oil or grape seed oil.

Season venison with salt and pepper. Sear venison on all sides, so it has a nice color.  Place the skillet with the venison in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. 

Thinly slice the venison and serve with the port/blueberry sauce.

The sauce:

Reduce the port to a syrup over low to medium heat. Remove from heat when the port can cover the back of a spoon. Stir in a teaspoon of salted butter, this will thicken the sauce a bit. Add the blueberries so they just get heated. 

The sauce is perfect with any kind of red meat.

Lamb chops sous vide

Lamb chops sous vide

I got a new gadget for the kitchen this christmas. I got an Anova sous vide Immersion circulator. It's the nerdiest gadget to date. I almost feel like I'm back at the lab growing cells or making analysis.

Sous vide is cooking in a water bath at exact controlled temperatures. You put the ingredients in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it at the temperature you want your ingredient to end up with, but you have to take food safety in to consideration. If you want a medium rare steak (131℉ or 55℃) you cook your steak at 131℉ or 55℃ for a certain amount of time. The time seems to be some kind of trial and error. But I’m not the first to have this type of equipment in my home, so there’s a lot of websites recommending time and temperature for different ingredients.

These lamb chops was tender and moist, and by far one of the best I have ever had. Next time, I would remove more of the fat, no other changes.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 rack of lamb, cut up to 4 chops

• 2 sprigs of rosemary,

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 tablespoon butter

• salt and pepper

Directions:

Wash you hands very thoroughly. 

Pour boiling water over the rosemary. Cut the rack of lamb into 4 chops. Season the chops with salt and pepper. Place some rosemary leaves on each chop and a few slices of garlic. Place two chops in each vacuum bag and place some butter, rosemary and garlic slices on the other side of the chop. Vacuum seal the bags and submerge them in the 130℉ (54.5℃) water bath to cook for 2 hours.

After the 2 hours take the vacuum bags out of the water and remove the lamb chops from the bags. Sear the chops on a scalding hot pan, about a minute on each side.

Enjoy.

Danish Pork Roast - Flæskesteg

Danish Pork Roast

December 14th. Do you know, what you are having for your christmas dinner?

If you look into the homes of the danes, at their christmas dinner, you won't see many variations in the menu. You will see goose, duck and pork roast with crackling skin (flæskesteg) for the most part. This is petty much the same a hundred years ago. Danes has stuck to their traditions even though some have started eating turkey instead. The pork roast is the youngest of the christmas proteins, not counting the turkey. It became more and more popular after people got wood-fired stoves in the kitchens. Making the pork roast tradition about 120  years old.

The thing that sets the Danish pork roast apart is the crackling skin, which is so yummy. You can't get the pork roast with skin on in most stores, but I found it at my favorite butcher shop Dittmers Goumet Meats and Wurst-haus in Los Altos, CA. But you might find it at german or mexican meat shops. 

I you haven't had Danish pork roast you should give it a chance, it's a yummy way to eat pork.

Ingredients:

Roast:

• 4-7 pound Pork roast with the skin on*

• 30-40 g butter

• a handful coarse salt

• 10-14 whole black peppers

• 6-8 bay leaves

Sauce base:

• 1 teaspoon beef base (I use the one from Better than Bouillon)

• 1 onion (cut into 8 pieces)

• 1 teaspoon rosemary

• 1 teaspoon thyme

• ½ pint Water

Sauce:

• ¼ pint heavy whipping cream

• 1 tablespoon blue cheese

• 1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly (Bonne Maman)

• salt & pepper

• gravy browning or the the danish kulør**

Directions:

Score the skin for every 5 - 7 mm. Be careful not to cut into the meat, this causes the skin to be soft. You want to have crackling skin when the roast is done.

Rub the skin with butter and salt. Make sure to get in all the cuts in the skin. This helps to get the skin crispy. Put the bay leaves and peppercorns in the cuts spread them evenly on the roast.

The raw roast ready for the grill or oven.

Curl up some tinfoil, an put it under the roast, so the roast won't tilt to one side. You want to have the top to be horizontally. Put the roast on a rack over a pan. Put herbs, onions, water and bouillon in the pan under the roast.

Roast the pork at 400℉ (200℃) for 1,5 - 2 hours. The temperature in the center has to be 167℉ before the roast is ready. Make sure that there always  water in the pan. You have to use it for the gravy/sauce. 

Just before the center temperature is 167℉, pour the dripping from the pan into a saucepan through a strainer, and boil the drippings for about 5 minutes. If the crackling are soft, let the roast stay in the oven. Set the oven at 527℉, or start the boiler. Keep an eye on the roast. the skin should bubble up and become crispy, be careful not to burn it.

Separate the fat from the drippings, don't use the fat (the fat is good on rye bread instead of butter, when eating herring). Add cream, blue cheese, jam and kulør (coloring). Add salt if needed. Thicken the sauce with corn starch. (cold water and corn starch)

Cut pork in thin slices and serve with cooked white potatoes, caramelized small potatoes, pickled red cabbage, pickled cucumber and the gravy.

* You can get the Danish pork roast at Dittmer’s Gourmet Meats & Wurst-haus in Los Altos, Ca. But you might get at a German or Mexican butcher near you.

** You can get Kulør here.

Danish Meatloaf - Forloren Hare

Danish Meatloaf

Every nation has their version of meatloaf. The danish one is called "Forloren Hare" or mock hare. The meatloaf most likely was called that, because it's cooked like you would cook game (with bacon and the sweetness of the jelly).

I always loved the danish meatloaf.  The sauce is to die for, if nobody is watching you - you can eat it with a spoon. My mom would always make a big loaf, so we had dinner for two days and a few slices for our open faced sandwich at lunch. 

This is more or less my moms recipe. My mom didn't make the bacon weave, this is my spin on her classic.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground pork
• 1 pound lean ground beef or veal
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons plain breadcrumbs 
• salt & pepper
• 1 pack of bacon

Sauce:

• Drippings from the pan
• 1 cup milk or whipping cream
• 2-3 teaspoons redcurrant jelly
• a few drops of kulør* or gravy browning
• salt
• milk & all-purpose flour mixed to thicken the sauce

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Weave the bacon. Lay slices of bacon side by side on a piece of parchment paper. Lift every other slice, and lay a new slice across. Lay the lifted slices back on top of the one across. Alternate lifting the slices, until you have weaved the whole thing.

Mix the meats with salt, pepper, breadcrumbs and the eggs. Form a loaf in an ovenproof pan. Flip the bacon weave on the meatloaf, and tuck the bacon under the meatloaf.

Cook the meatloaf in the oven fore about 30 minutes. Add about a cup of water to the pan, this will later be used for the sauce. Cook for 20-30 minutes more until the it reach a center temperature about 167℉ (75℃).

Pour the pan drippings into a sauce pan and heat it. Add milk and redcurrant jelly. and thicken the sauce with milk and flour.

Season with redcurrant jelly and salt.

Enjoy. 

* You can get Kulør here.

Vegetable Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Vegetable Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

I love pasta, and I love spaghetti. But to tell the truth, I always eat to much when we have pasta for dinner. It's so easy to eat, and I love the texture. I tried to have spaghetti squash, instead, but this combination works well in my family,

The most common dinner in Denmark nowadays is pasta with meat sauce, but it's a trend that started in the 80's. Before that it was most likely meatballs with potatoes and brown gravy, or at least meat and potatoes.

When I moved out of my parents house, I didn't have boiled potatoes for moths. I was sick and tired of them. I had pasta and rice with my dinners. 

I know vegetable spaghetti is done before, but this is my take on it. I don't put measurements on my meat sauce, Season after taste.

Ingredients:

Vegetable Spaghetti:

• 2 small squash, julienned

• 3 leeks, julienned

• 3-4 carrots, julienned (or a bag shredded carrots)

Meat Sauce:

• extra virgin olive oil

• bacon, in bite size pieces

• onions

• garlic

• ground beef (lean)

• canned crushed tomatoes

• beef base (bouillon)

• water

• red wine

• rosemary

• thyme

• salt to taste

Directions:

Meatsauce:

Heat a drizzle of oil in a pot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is turned brown. The bacon doesn't have to crisp up. Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with kitchen towel, to drain of the excess fat. Discard the bacon fat. Add oil to the pot again and brown the ground beef, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic, onions, rosemary thyme, a little salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the wine, beef base, water, the crushed tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer it simmers, the better it gets. 

Vegetable spaghetti:

Cut off the dark leaves of the leeks and discard. Cut of the root and the bottom 1/2 inch of each leek. Cut the leeks lengthwise in half and wash well under cold running water. Wash zucchini and peel the carrots. 

Cut all the vegetables julienne.

Heat a skillet, add oil and sear the vegetables until tender, but still having some bite. Season with salt and pepper..