Blackberry Jam

Blackberry Jam

Blackberry jam is my favorite. It reminds me of my mom. She made the best blackberry jam. My parents had a few blackberry plants in their yard. During summer we picked the berries as they ripened, and were frozen until there was enough to make a batch of jam. 

At least one jar was saved for christmas, to be served with the ebelskiver. I intend to do the same.

My blackberry jam is, like my moms jam, a thin jam. If you don't like your jam to be runny, you can add pectin to the jam according to the instructions on the package.

Ingredients:

• 500 g blackberries
• 325 g sugar
• ½ lemon, the juice of

Directions:

Rinse the berries and discard the bad or unripe berries.

Preheat the oven to about 390℉ (200℃), and heat the sugar in a ovenproof bowl. (This will prevent the jam from cooling too much, and will make the sugar dissolve more quickly).  

In a small saucepan heat the berries and lemon juice over medium low heat, until it comes to a simmer. Let the berries simmer for about 5 minutes, remove from heat.

Add the sugar, stir carefully so you don’t break the berries up too much.

Scald the jars and lids with boiling water. Be careful not to touch the inside. Use tongs to handle jars and lids. Fill jars while still hot. 

Pour the hot jam into hot, scalded jars and seal with scalded lids. See National Center for Home Food Preservation for additional information on safe food preservation.

Enjoy!

Coconut Shrimp with Island Rice

Coconut Shrimp with Island Rice

I love the taste of coconut with shrimp, but I'm not a fan of the battered and fried coconut shrimp. By marinating the shrimps like this you get the coconut taste without the greasiness. Now coconut shrimps is a healthy summer dish. 

I love the combination of the shrimps with Island rice. Island rice is rice mixed with sweet and tangy fruits, her I used pineapple, papaya, mango and lime.

Ingredients:

Shrimps:

• 1½ pound shrimps, peeled and deveined  
• ⅓ cup (¾ dl) coconut balsamic (I get it from The Olive Bar in Campbell)
• ⅓ cup (¾ dl) Meyer lemon olive oil
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 1-2 tablespoon butter 
• salt to taste

Island rice:

• 3 cup cooked brown rice 
• ½ papaya
• ¼ pineapple
• 1 bunch scallions
• 1 small mango
• 1 lime, zest and juice

Directions:

Shrimps:

Mix the oil, balsamic and shrimps in a ziplock bag and make sure to cover all shrimps in the marinade. Let marinate for 1-3 hours in the refrigerator.

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add drained shrimps and red chili flakes. Fry the shrimps for a few minutes pr side, until pink and opaque. Season with salt.

Island rice:

Boil the rice according to directions on the package, add salt.

Cut the fruit into bite-size pieces, and slice the scallions thinly. Add fruit, scallions and lime zest and juice to the hot cooked rice, and serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

Broccoli Salad

Broccoli Salad

Dansk Udgave

This is a classic both here in US and in Denmark. I think most people know this salad. But even though it's very old school, it shouldn't deter you from putting it on the table. The sweet, salty, crunchy salad will be a hit at the dinner table.

Ingredients:

• 2 broccoli crowns, in small florets

• 1 medium red onion, in small dices

• 100 g sunflower seeds

• 100 g raisins

• 250 g bacon

Dressing:

• 95 g Miracle Whip

• 45 g sour cream

• 3 tablespoons honey

• 2-3 teaspoons red wine vinegar

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl, set aside.

Place bacon in a deep skillet and cook over medium high heat until crisp and brown. Cool and cut into small pieces.

Cut the broccoli into bite-size pieces, and chop up the onion finely. Combine ¾ of the bacon, raisins, broccoli and sunflower seeds, and toss it with the dressing. 

Serve the salad chilled, and with sprinkles of bacon-bits and sunflower seeds on top.

Enjoy!

The Danish version: 

Broccolisalat

Ingredienser:

• 2 broccolitoppe, i små mundrette buketter

• 1 medium rød løg, i små tern

• 100 g solsikkefrø

• 100 g rosiner

• 250 g bacon

Dressing:

• 95 g Miracle Whip

• 45 g creme fraiche

• 3 spsk honning

• 2-3 tsk rødvinseddike

• salt and peber efter smag

Fremgangsmåde:

Rist baconen sprød, køl den af og skær den i mindre stykker.

Bland dressingen, og sæt den til side.

Bland ¾ af baconen med broccoli, løg, solsikkefrø og rosiner, og vend det i dressingen.

Server salaten kølig med et drys bacon og solsikkekerner på toppen.

Velbekomme!

Boysenberry Jam

Boysenberry Jam

Jam is one of the best ways to save the taste of summer for later. My mom always made a lot of fruit jams. It might not be the cheapest way, but by far the most flavorful. And by making your own you know what's in it.

Makes about 1 liter.

Ingredients:

• 1000 g boysenberries
• 725 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Set aside approximately ¼ of the berries in the refrigerator. Combine the remaining berries and  sugar in a large bowl, and set them aside to macerate overnight in the fridge.

Next morning the berries has released their juice and some of the sugar has dissolved. When you do this, you don't have to add any water. (By adding water, you just have to evaporate it again by boiling the jam for longer time and this will have a negative effect on the flavors in your jam. 

Put the berries, lemon juice and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat. Stir gently until all the sugar has dissolved.

Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring only to prevent sticking or burning.

After the mixture has thickened a bit, add the remaining berries. This will give the jam more texture and whole berries in the jam.

Boil the jam to your preferred consistency, skim the stiff foam off the top, while the jam cooks. Test the thickness by putting jam on a very cold spoon, and if the jam is not running or running very slowly, the jam has the right thickness.

Scald the jars and lids with boiling water. Be careful not to touch the inside. Use tongs to handle jars and lids. Fill jars while still hot. 

Pour the hot jam into hot, scalded jars and seal with scalded lids. See National Center for Home Food Preservation for additional information on safe food preservation.

Enjoy!

Homemade Strawberry Syrup

Homemade Strawberry Syrup

You can buy strawberry syrup in a lot of stores, but you really don't know what's in it. So why not make it yourself? It is super easy to make, and not labour intensive at all. Right now   strawberries are in season, which means you’ll find fairly cheap berries at the market. I find the best, freshest and cheapest strawberries at the farmers market, but some places you can go pick your own at strawberry fields. Beside the taste, the best thing about homemade syrup is you knowing what goes into your syrup, in this case just three ingredients, all natural, nothing artificial.  I keep my syrup in the refrigerator, and it will keep for weeks. Well, in my house it will be gone long before it would have expired.

This strawberry syrup is great for adding to a cocktails, mocktails, on waffles or ice cream. You can use it for almost everything that calls for a little sweet strawberry.

In Denmark you can buy so many different syrups in almost every store. Growing up we had my moms homemade syrups. We would get a tall glass of water with a sprinkle of syrup in, instead of getting soda or juices. I don't know if it was intended, but the syrups were a good way to control the amount of sugar we got during the day.  

makes about 1 liter

Ingredients:

• 1000 g strawberries
• 500 ml water
• 500 g sugar

Directions:

Rinse the berries clean and remove the stems. Slice large strawberries into smaller pieces. Place the strawberry, sugar and water in a  saucepan.Slowly bring it to a boil. Reduce to a  simmer and let the strawberries cook for about 20 minutes. Skim the stiff foam off the top, while the strawberries are simmering.

Now the strawberries will have lost their vibrant color and the syrup has a deep pink/red color.  Remove from heat, and strain the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer and discard the solids.

Scald the bottle with boiling water. While the syrup and bottle are still hot, pour syrup into the it, seal and refrigerate.for up to 2 weeks. 

Enjoy!