Oven-roasted potatoes

Oven-roasted Potatoes.

Potatoes has been a big part of danish dinners for hundreds of years. Potatoes was a cheap and very filing food. But during the last couple of decades the starchy component of the danes dinner been switched to more and more rise and pasta. But the potato is a healthier choice. Both pasta and rice contains twice as much starch as potatoes, and having whole wheat pasta and brown rice doesn't help.

We had potatoes on the menu 5-6 times a week at home. The potatoes were peeled, boiled and served with a brown gravy and some kind of meat.  It was pretty boring. So the first 6 month of moving out, I didn't have potatoes - well I didn't make them my self. 

These oven-roasted potatoes is easy to make, they are tasty and colorful. You can use any vegetables you like, the method works for any root vegetables.  

Serves 3-4. 

Ingredients: 

• 8-10 Potatoes, small firm like fingerlings
• 2 onions
• 6-8 garlic cloves
• 8-10 sweet peppers
• 2-4 tablespoons pitted olives
• 1 handful cherry tomatoes
• canola oil
• salt
• piment d'Espelette 
• 3 sprigs rosemary

Direction: 

Vegetables ready for the BBQ.

Preheat the oven (or BBQ) to 400°F.
Wash potatoes, peppers tomatoes and rosemary. Peel the onion and chop it into bits-size pieces. Peel garlic cloves. Add all the ingredients to a baking dish (or make a bowl out of aluminum foil) drizzle with oil and season with salt and piment d'Espelette.  

Roast for 25-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Serve with fish or meats.

If you are roasting the potatoes on your BBQ, use indirect heat. 

Baked Salmon - the best ever!

Baked Salmon.

I love baked Salmon, the soft moist mild fish. It's so easy to make and is perfect to serve when you're having guests. Serve it with a cream sauce and pasta, sour cream dip and fingerling potatoes, the options are never-ending.

You can cook salmon in many different ways, but baking it like this is by far my favorite one, and properly one of the most healthy. 

Serves 3. 

Ingredients: 

• 3 pieces salmon, portion sized

• 1 lemon

• salt

• 1/2 cup wine or water

• 1/2 teaspoon canola oil (for greasing the baking dish)

Direction: 

Salmon ready for the oven.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the skin and bones from the salmon.

Place the salmon fillet in an oven-safe baking dish greased with oil. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon on top of the salmon and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Slice the other half of the lemon in slices and lay them on top of the fish. Add wine or water to the baking dish. Bake in the oven for roughly 12-18 minutes or until cooked to desired doneness. 

Enjoy. 

Mango/habanero salsa

Mango/habanero salsa.

Mango/habanero salsa is sweet spicy and very addictive. Normally I wouldn't use habanero in any of my dishes, but trying this salsa taught me something else. As long as you have the sweet mango and only tiny cubes of habanero it's to die for.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Habanero, depending on the spicyness 
• 2 Mangos
• ¼ Red Onion (medium sized)
• 1 ½ - 2 inches english cucumber
• 2 tomatoes, medium
• 1 lime, large
• Cilantro
• Salt

Directions: 

The mangos should be very ripe and soft, so you can peel of the skin without using a knife. Peel mango, onion and tomatoes. Dice them all finely along with the cucumber. Mix it with chopped cilantro and the juice of the lime. Chop the habanero extremely fine (use gloves handling the habanero), and mix it with the rest. Season with salt.

Serve with chips or with tacos. 

Brussels sprouts purée

Brussels Sprouts Puree.

Brussels sprouts and me had always had a hate hate relationship. I hate hate hate them. Why?? Well They looked cute, and are actually really pretty on the stalk.

But the taste was bitter, and the way my mom served them in a white sauce was not very interesting.

One night I had them roasted with garlic and bacon, OMG it was a good, really good. What is not better with bacon? Months later one of my danish friends served this dish for me, and it was love at first bite. I didn't need any steak, just pass me some more brussels sprouts purée.

This dish was created by Claus Meyer.

Ingredients:

Purée

• 700 g brussels sprouts
• 50 g butter
• sea salt
• black pepper (freshly ground)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Dressing

• 1/2 lemon (lemon juice and zest)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• sea salt
• black pepper (freshly ground)

Salad

• 2 shallots (or some thin sliced red onions)
• 1/4 cup Italien parsley
• leaves from the brussels sprouts.

Directions

Purée

Rinse the brussels sprouts, Cut off the brown ends of the brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Save some of the green outer leaves for the salad. Set them aside in cold water.

Boil a pot of salted water. Cut out the brussels sprouts into quarters and blanch for about 2 minutes until they are tender, but not overcooked.

Put the still hot brussels sprouts directly in a blender and puree them with cold butter, salt, pepper, honey and lemon juice.

Salad

Mix up the dressing.

Chop the shallots finely and chop the parsley roughly. Drain the water from the brussels sprout leaves, and wipe them dry. Mix the shallots, brussels sprout leaves, parsley with the dressing.

Serve the salad on top of the puree.

The purée can be served hot or cold with a nice steak or roast. This could be a great side for Thanksgiving.

Indian Lamb and Spinach Curry

Indian Lamb and Spinach Curry.

This Indian Lamb and Spinach Curry was one of the first dishes I tried in my slow cooker. A slow cooker was all new to me. If you wanted simmer food you had to stay home to make sure it didn't burn. But with a slow cooker it was possible to start the dinner in the morning, run errands or go to work, and have the simmer food ready by the time for dinner. Why have I never seen a device like this in Denmark - I don't get it. 

This curry is nice and spicy. If you don't care for spicy food use less cayenne pepper. The recipe is from Oprah.  

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup canola oil

• 3 yellow onions , chopped

• 4 cloves garlic , peeled and minced

• 1 (2-inch) piece of ginger, peeled and grated

• 2 tsp. ground cumin

• 1 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

• 1 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric

• 2 cups beef broth, preferably high quality

• 3 pounds boneless leg of lamb , cut into 1-inch cubes

• Salt

• 6 cups baby spinach

• 2 cups plain full-fat yogurt

Direction:

The ingredients.

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm oil. Add onions and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in ginger, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in broth, raise heat to high, and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom. When broth comes to a boil, remove pan from heat.

Put lamb in a slow cooker, and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Add contents of frying pan. Cover and cook on high-heat setting for 4 hours or low-heat setting for 8 hours.

Add baby spinach to pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes. Just before serving, stir in 1 1/3 cups yogurt. Season to taste with salt. Spoon into shallow bowls and serve, passing remaining yogurt to add as a garnish.

Serve with rice or quinoa and a chutney.