Jalapeño poppers my way

Jalapeño poppers my way

Jalapeño poppers are so yummy, they are spicy, creamy and salty, all in one. It's the perfect snack for Super Bowl or just for a spicy side for your weekday dinner. If you don't like spicy food, you can make poppers with small sweet peppers like the ones I use in my oven-roasted potatoes.

My version calls for bacon, natures best spice.

Makes 8 poppers

Ingredients:

• 4 jalapeños 
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 4 small mozzarella balls
• 2 scallions 
• 4-8 slices of bacon (you only need one slice on each - but I went a little overboard) 

Directions:

preheat the oven to 375℉.

Mix the cream cheese with the chopped scallions.

Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise. Remove the seeds with a spoon. If you like spicy foods, leave some of the white membrane which is where the spiciness comes from.

Fill each jalapeno half with cream cheese, top of with some mozzarella and wrap jalapeno with bacon (½ slice). Secure the bacon by sticking a wooden toothpick through the jalapeño.

Bake poppers on a rack with a pan underneath for 25-30 minutes. If, after the 25 minutes, the bacon doesn’t look brown enough, just turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to finish it off. Serve immediately.

Kale Salad

Kale Salad

Kale has never been one of my favorites until I tried this salad. Kale is filled with vitamins A, C and K and calcium, so it's one of the healthiest things you can eat. Curly kale is fibrous and grassy tasting and it goes well with a creamy and lemony dressing, like the one I use here. The kales call for more dressing than a regular salad like iceberg or butter salad.

The dressing I use is a old-fasioned creamy dressing called mormordressing (grandmothers dressing) made with whipping cream, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. My mom made another version of this dressing substituting the whipping cream with a fermented milk product called ymer, kinda like the Icelandic skyr, you can get in most supermarkets.

I love this Kale salad with different curries or with a nice pork chop. 

Ingredients:

Salad:

• 1 pound kale curly red or green

• 75 grapes

• 1-2 mango

• ½ cup (50 g) almonds, chopped

Dressing:

• ½ cup (1 dl) whipping cream

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Dressing:

Mix the ingredients and add lemon or sugar to taste.

Salad:

Rinse and cut the ribs out of the kale leaves, and finely chop the leaves. Discard the ribs.

Rinse the grapes and cut them in halves. 

The mangos should be ripe and soft, so you can peel of the skin without using a knife. Peel mango and dice it. 

Mix it all in a large bowl with the dressing, so all the kale is covered in a thin layer of dressing.

Chop the almonds and sprinkle them on top of the salad. 

Enjoy.

Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes

Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes

My husband send me a link to a recipe for hasselback potato gratin. It looked to be the best of both worlds, a combination of the creamy potato gratin and the crisp hasselback potatoes. 

I thought it would be perfect with a ribeye steak. I changed it up a bit, to what was in my refrigerator.

This is my version.

Serves 4-6 people.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds russet potatoes

• 6 fl oz (5 dl) heavy whipping cream

• parmesan cheese

• smoked gouda

• 2 garlic cloves

• 2 sprigs thyme leaves, leaves only

• salt

Direction:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Grate the cheeses, and set about ¼ of it a side, and mix the rest with the cream, garlic, thyme.

Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly on a mandolin. Toss the potato slices in the cream/cheese mixture, making sure to cover each slice. 

Stack the potato slices and lay them in ovenproof dish with their edges aligned vertically. Continue to fill the dish with the potatoes until the dish is filled. Pour excess cream/cheese mixture evenly over potatoes.

Cover dish with tin foil, and bake the potatoes for about 30 minutes. Take off the foil and spread the rest of the cheese on top, and continue to bake for 30 minutes.

When the potatoes is done, take the dish out of the oven and let the potatoes rest for a few minutes.

Coconut Cauliflower Rice

Coconut Cauliflower Rice.

December 15th - not feeling very christmasy, maybe because we just got back from a Julefrokost (Danish christmas party). Here's a healthier side for a dinner in december.

After making my Cilantro and Lime Cauliflower Rice, I started thinking on other flavors, I could add to the cauliflower rice. I came up with coconut rice. This could be yummy with a curry dish. 

Regular coconut ice is boiled in the coconut milk, but I don't want to boil the cauliflower, so it becomes soaky. I still want the cauliflower to be crisp.

 Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 shallot, chopped finely
• 1 sprig lemongrass, smashed
• ½ cup coconut milk, the thick part
• ¼ cup toasted shredded coconut
• Salt to taste
• a little lemon zest

Directions:

Break the cauliflower into florets. Grate the cauliflower using a box grater or add florets to food processor and pulse until cauliflower looks like rice. About 10-15 seconds of pulsing.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the coconut oil, melt, then add the onion. Saute until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the lemongrass, the cauliflower and coconut milk, stirring to combine. Saute the cauliflower for about 8-10 minutes until the coconut milk is adsorbed. Remove the lemongrass.  Season with salt and lemon zest. 

Sprinkle the toasted coconut on top when serving.

The Danish version:

Kokos blomkålsris

Ingredienser:

• 1 blomkålshovede
• 1 tsk kokosolie
• 1 skalotteløg, finthakket
• 1 stilk citrongræs, banket i stykker
• 1½ dl kokoskmælk, den tykke del
• ¾ dl ristet kokosmel 
• salt 
• lidt revet citronskal

Del blomkålen op i buketter og riv den på et rivejerne, eller brug en foodprocessor indtil blomkålen er på størrelse med riskorn.

Opvarm en slipl-et pande og tilsæt kokosolien. Når den er smeltet tilsæt løget og steg det indtil det er bløde, ca. 3 minutter. Tilsæt citrongræs, blomkål og kokosmælk. Sautér i ca 8-10 minutter, indtil kokosmælken er absorberet. Fjern citrongræssen og smag blomkålen til med salt og citronskal.

Drys den ristede kokos på blomkålen, når den serveres.

Rødkål - Pickled Red Cabbage

Rødkål - Pickled Red Cabbage

December 12th. It's time to get ready for christmas dinner, and making red cabbage a few days early eases the stress of making the traditional Danish christmas dinner.

My mom always made her own red cabbage, but she had the recipe in her head, and it's lost forever. I like the simplicity of the dish. You only need 4 ingredients, not counting salt and pepper. The sweetness from the sugar combined with the acidity from the balsamic really works well with the red cabbage.

Rødkål is a traditional danish side for the christmas dinner, but it's also very good with medisterpølse and meatballs/frikadeller or in sandwiches.

This is my take on pickled red cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium red cabbage

• 25 g butter, salted

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar (I mixed half balsamic and half blackberry-ginger balsamic for a sweeter taste)

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Remove outher leaves of cabbage, and cut cabbage into quarters and remove the white core. Thinly slice the cabbage across the quarters width-wise. To get uniform slices I use a mandolin.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the the cabbage and sear it for a couple minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar.  Simmer the cabbage for 10 - 15 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Season with salt, pepper, vinegar and sugar. Serve heated to pork roasts or roasted duck. 

The cabbage can be served cold on (open faced) sandwiches.