Boiled Meatballs - Kødboller

Boiled Meatballs - kødboller

Boiled meatballs are used in different dishes in Denmark, one of them is in bouillon type soups like beef soup. Traditionally meatballs are made from ground pork, but can easily be made from other types of ground meats.

The boiled meatballs are pretty much the same as normal danish fried meatballs, much like my Greek-style lamb meatballs. 

Makes 22 meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1  lb. (500 g) ground pork
• rolled oats
• 1 eggs
• 1 medium onions
• 1/4 cup milk
• ½ teaspoons salt 
• pepper

Directions:

Mix the meat with salt. Divide the meat in quarters, lift one quarter up unto the other quarters. Fill the missing quarter with rolled oats. Put in finely chopped or grated onions, the eggs, milk, salt and pepper and mix until you have a cohesive meat mixture. 

Put a large pot of water over to boil. When the water boils add 1 teaspoon salt. 

To form the meatballs, dip a tablespoon in hot water and scoop up a good spoonful meat. Use the hand and the spoon to form the meatball.  The meatball should be oval and the size of a small egg. Place the meatball in the water, repeat until you have one layer of meatballs. Boil the meatballs for about  7-10 minutes.

Use the meatballs in soups or in the classic meatballs in curry sauce (boller i karry). 

Meatball can be frozen.

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

Angry Tacos

Angry Tacos

One of my husbands favorite dishes at Calafia  (the restaurant owned by one of Googles former head chefs) was their "very angry Tacos." Sadly they took it off the menu, so we had to come up with our own take on it. The thing making the taco angry is the diced habanero, a very strong chili. Habanero chili is rated to 100,000 - 350,000 on the Scoville scale.

I love this taco dish, it's easy to make and so taste- and colorful. You are in charge of how angry or spicy you want the tacos. Normally I won't add any habanero - I have no dead wish.

Serves 4-5.

Ingredients:

• 12  corn tortillas, 6-Inch
• One 2-Pound Flank Steak (About 1 ½ Inches Thick), fat trimmed

Marinade:

• ½ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

Slaw:

• ½ head napa cabbage
• 1 large carrot
• 8 scallions 
• 1 handful fresh cilantro 

Topping:

• 1-2 habanero chilies minced

Directions:

Marinate the steak. In a bowl, whisk the cilantro, brown sugar, canola oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, jalapeños, black pepper, and coriander to blend well. Reserve ¼ cup of the marinade for dressing the slaw. Pour the rest of the marinade into a ziplock bag and place the steak in the  marinade and turn to coat. Marinate for at least 20 minutes at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day, turning occasionally. 

Prepare an outdoor grill for medium-high cooking over direct heat.

Remove the steak from the marinade (and discard the marinade) and grill, turning halfway through cooking, for a total of about 10 minutes, until the meat is medium-rare. Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Slice the steak across the grain to serve it.

Slaw:

Part the napa cabbage lengthwise and slice it crosswise

Peel the carrot and julienne it. Thinly slice the scallions, and chop the cilantro.

Dress the slaw with the saved marinade.

Taco: 

Heat the tortillas and fill the tortillas with slaw and the meat, top the taco with the minces habanero for spiciness.

You can add guacamole to the taco as well.

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.