Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise comes in jars or tubes, well it did in my house. I knew how to make it, but I never saw the point. Until my sweet sister-in-law told me that she made the perfect mayonnaise a day she was out, and didn't wanted to run to the store.

My sister-in-law was right, it's really easy to make mayonnaise yourself. I used a jar and an immersion blender, which minimized my dishes too. It also made it easier, so I didn't have to whisk vigorously. The mayonnaise had a more sour taste, than the store bought ones, and I really like that. I don't want sweet mayo with my shrimps or fish.

Disclaimer: This dessert is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. That minimizes the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood. In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA,  Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on egg

Ingredients:

• 1 egg yolk (pasteurized) 
• 1 teaspoon mustard (Dijon)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• lemon juice from ½ lemon
• 1,5 - 3 dl Oil (Rapeseed or another neutral oil)
• white pepper

Directions:

Whip the egg yolks with the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper with a whisk (I used an immersion blender). Slowly add the oil in a thin stream to avoid separating the mayonnaise. Adjust the taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

If you want to add taste to the mayonnaise you can add spices to the oil. I like adding chili, garlic or rosemary.

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.

Pestos - Classic and Walnut Pesto

Pesto - Classic and Walnut Pesto

I love pesto, the smell of basil makes my mouth water, but most of all the sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum, which I only find as plants here in California. The basil you find in bunches at the grocery stores does not taste the same.

My love affair with pesto, started when my fellow student invited me home for dinner, when we were writing on our project for the Bachelor's degree. She had made Pasta with pesto with a insalata caprese. I was hooked, I could live on that, it was the best thing ever. Maybe not the most healthy dish in large quantities, but ohhhhh soooooo yummy!

I use pesto for more than pasta. It’s really tasty on roast beef, a turkey breast topped with prosciutto, on vegetables and potatoes, the options are, almost, endless.

Classic Pesto:

Ingredients:

• 2 large handful basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons roasted pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano
• extra virgin olive oil, just enough to get a paste-like consistency 
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add more oil a little at a time and process until fully incorporated and you have smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper. 

Enjoy

Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

• 100 g walnuts
• 75 g Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 lemon, zest of
• 2 cloves garlic
• extra virgin olive oil, just enough to get a thick paste-like consistency 
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add more oil a little at a time and process until fully incorporated, and you have thick paste. Season with salt and pepper. 

Enjoy.

Chocolate Mousse - just two ingredients!

Chocolate Mousse

Get a perfect creamy chocolate mousse using just water and chocolate. It sounds crazy. I've always been told that you never mix chocolate and water, because the chocolate gets grainy and ruined. But this recipe from the french chemist Hervé This make you rethink your chocolate truths. You can watch Heston Blumenthal explain and prepare the mousse here.

My husband is a chocolateholic, so chocolate mousse is one of his favorite desserts, but I rarely make it. Maybe, maybe I’ll make more often, when it's as easy as this. I definitely have to try making it again, with different chocolates and different flavor profiles. The mousse has a very intense chocolate taste, you might tone it down with some sugar or adding cream with the water.

I didn’t have a 70% chocolate, so I used the 61% Valrhona, I just got, instead, and it worked perfectly.

Serves 2-3

 Ingredients

• 265 g (9⅓ oz) chocolate (70 %)

• 240 g (1 cup) water

Directions:

Place a mixing bowl on top of another slightly larger bowl filled with ice and cold water, (you can add a teaspoon of salt to get a cooler ice water). The bottom of the top bowl should touch the ice water, but the ice water shouldn't be able to get into the top bowl. Set aside.

Chop the chocolate finely, adding it to a small sauce pan with the water. Slowly melt the chocolate while whisking. When melted, pour the chocolate into the bowl sitting in the ice water, begin whisking.  Whisk vigorously until mousse begins to thicken. In the beginning it looks like nothing will ever happen, but after 2-4 minutes it starts to thicken up.  Be careful not to over whisk as the chocolate can become grainy.  I used a hand mixer in the beginning and a hand whisk in the end. If you over whisk the mousse, you just have to remelt the chocolate mousse and start whisking all over again. You don't have to throw it all away. 

When you have the desired texture, pour the mousse in to the serving dishes. You have to do it pretty fast, because the mousse thickens. 

Serve the mousse immediately or let the mousse thicken up some more in the refrigerator. 

The chocolate mousse will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. (But not in my house).

Brændende Kærlighed - Burning Love

Brændende Kærlighed - Burning Love

Brændende kærlighed, or Burning love, is an old danish dish with mashed potatoes, crisp bacon bits and soft fried onions. Brændende kærlighed is a danish comfort food, and a really cheap one. 

Growing up we had brændende kærlighed as a typical dish for a week night, and I think we had it every or every other month. The traditional way to have this dish is not low in calories, but with some small twists I can be OK. I drained most of the bacon fat from the frying pan before sautéing the onions. Unlike at my parents house, we have ketchup and steak sauces as sauce instead of the drippings from the onions and bacon. The last little twist is my mashed potatoes with steamed cauliflower, that make it lighter. Broccoli or other root vegetables can also be used.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

Mash potatoes:

• 1 cauliflower 
• 6-8 medium potatoes
• warm milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt & pepper 

• 1 pack thick cut bacon, diced
• 2 onions

Directions:

Peel the potatoes, and the cut them into half inch cubes. Rinse and cut the cauliflower into florets.

Bring the potatoes to a boil with just enough water to cover. Add salt when water is boiling. Add the cauliflower on top, so they will steam. Let potaoes/cauliflower cook for about 20 minutes.

In a skillet brown the bacon, until light crispy. Remove bacon from skillet, and drain most of the bacon fat. Sauté the onions in the remaining bacon fat, until translucent, and put bacon bits back in the skillet. Set a side until you are ready to serve.

Drain the potatoes and mash them. Add the butter and warm milk while whipping the mash, this will make the mash light and airy. Season the mash with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve a spoonful mash, making a small hole in the middle and fill it with the bacon/onion mix. I serve brændende kærlighed with pan fried tomatoes, ketchup and steak sauces.

Enjoy.