Penne all'Amatriciana

Penne all'Amatriciana

A friend of mine told me about this dish. I had never heard about it, or seen it on a menu before. But she raved about it, so I decided to give it a try. And Ohhh My - This dish is going on the menu again soon in my house!

I love the tomato sauce with the spiciness and the well rounded flavors from the wine and pancetta. This dish is perfect for at weekday dinner. The sauce can easily be made a day or two in advance.  

This recipe is adapted from a recipe on "Bonappetit.com, here is my version.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1 28-oz can (794 g) whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 (280 g) red onion

• 165 g pancetta

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 60 ml water

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 120 ml white wine

• balsamic to taste (use balsamic instead of sugar to balance the acidity)

• salt & pepper to taste

• 225 g uncooked penne (pasta) - cooked al dente

Sprinkles:

• parmesan cheese

Directions:

Purée the tomatoes with juices  until smooth in a blender, set aside. 

Cook onion, pancetta, oil, red pepper flakes, and water in a large pot over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until water is evaporated and fat begins to render, about 8–10 minutes. 

Add tomato paste and cook until beginning to brown, while stirring, about 2 minutes. Add wine and cook, until reduced by half, it only take a few minutes. 

Add the puréed tomato and bring it to a boil. Cover pan with a lid, reduce heat, and let it simmer for about 40–45 minutes. Season with balsamic, salt and pepper.

When sauce is almost done, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente, drain pasta. 

Add pasta to sauce and toss to coat. Serve topped with parmesan cheese. 

Tuna Steak with Avocado-Wasabi Purée

Tuna Steak with Avocado-Wasabi Purée

The first time I ever had tuna steak was on a vacation to the western Jutland in Denmark. We bought the fish at Hvide Sande Røgeri, not knowing how to cook it. We pan-fried it to well done. As you may already know, that is NOT the way to cook tuna, and of course it turned out to be a dry boring piece of fish. We didn't understand what the hype was all about.

Fast forward to now, we love tuna steak. This recipe was adapted from the Danish magazine "Alt for Damerne" - I had to try the wasabi-avocado purée with tuna. Here is my version:

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

• 2 tuna steaks
• salt & pepper

Marinade:

• soya sauce
• ½ jalapeño 

Purée:

• 2 avocados
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste
• ½ red onion  
• 1 lime, the juice of
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions: 

Mix up the marinade and pour it into a ziplock bag, add the fish, and let tit marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.  

Purée: 

Mix the purée by mashing the avocados with a fork. I like the puree kinda chunky. Mix in wasabi paste, onion, lime juice and season with salt and pepper.

Heat the grill or grill-pan on high. Take the steaks out of the marinade and brush them with oil. Sear the steaks for about 1 minute on each side, and season them with salt and pepper.

Serve the tuna steak over rice with the avocado-wasabi purée.

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!