Spicy Ginger Cake

Spicy Ginger Cake

Growing up my mom always baked 2 kinds of cakes over and over again. The regular pound cake and a “Engelsk Søster kage", a spicy ginger cake. Whenever she had leftover eggs, that had just expired, she would bake this kind of pound cake. A lot of times she would freeze the cake, so she always had a slice of homemade cake, for unexpected guests. 

I really like the crispiness of the crust, but if you prefer a moister cake, feel free to brush a orange/sugar syrup* over the top of the cake. This will infuse the cake with a soft sweetness. 

I used my Nordic Ware Anniversary Bundt® Pan and I didn't even come close to filling the pan with this amount of batter. I should have doubled the batter and it might have filled the 15-cup pan. But the cake still turned out great in the somewhat shorter version.

Ingredients:

• 250 g butter, salted and room temperature 
• 250 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean 
• 3 eggs, L, room temperature 
• 300 g all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice 
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger 
• ½ tablespoon ground cloves 
• 2 tablespoon baking powder 
• 200 ml milk

Optional:

• ¼ cup candied lemon peels
• 1 handful raisins

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 355℉ (180℃), and butter the pan.

Sift flour, baking powder and all the spices together, in a bowl, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, mix in the vanilla paste. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix just until fully incorporated. Fold in alternately dry ingredients and milk. Be careful not to over mix the batter. Finally fold in the lemon peels and raisins. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake it in the oven for about 40-45 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan. Brush the cake with an orange/sugar syrup if desired.

*Orange/sugar syrup: ½ cup sugar + ¼ cup water. Melt the sugar in the water, remove from heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons orange juice and zest from 1 orange.

Baked Spinach Omelette Roulade with Goat Cheese

Baked Spinach Omelette Roulade with Goat Cheese

In my family we really like these baked omelettes, or “madpandekager" as we call them in danish. They are easy to make and you can fill them with whatever you like. I had been craving goat cheese for a few days, so I had to try a simple filling for the omelette, but I knew I needed to add some meat to the mix, to satisfy my husbands tastebuds. The crispy prosciutto did the trick, and it added some texture to the meal as well. 

Next time, I'll add some more vegetables to the roulade. 

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Omelette:

• 4 eggs
• 125 g all-purpose flour
• 400 g non-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 360 g fresh baby spinach

Filling:

• 100 g Philadelphia light plain or with onions and chives
• 1 handful kalamati olives, pitted
• 3 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes, julienned
• 1 red onion in balsamic
• 150 g goat cheese
• 8-10 thin slices prosciutto

Direction:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

In a very large pot heat a little olive oil sauté the spinach. Cook it for about 2 minutes, until all the spinach is wilted. Let the spinach cool for at few minutes.

Whisk together the rest of the omelet ingredients. Blend the batter with the spinach until smooth and green.

Line a large jelly roll pan with parchment paper, leaving an over hang of about 1 inch at each end. Grease the parchment paper. (I learned the hard way, that you can't use multiple sheets of parchment paper. You'll just end up with the parchment paper baked into the omelette.) 

Pour in egg mixture. Gently place it in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove, allow to cool for a few minutes. Flip the omelette onto another parchment paper, so it's upside down.

Using the same jelly roll pan and parchment paper, place the prosciutto on the pan and put them into the oven for 10-12 minutes to crisp up.

Dollop on the cream cheese and spread it evenly. Sprinkle on the filling, leaving about an inch with no filling. Place the prosciutto on top. Gently roll up length ways, pulling back the parchment paper as you go.

Slice in to 6-8 slices. Serve warm or room temperature, with a simple salad on the side. 

The omelette is great for lunch or dinner, just serve a simple salad on the side. It is very easy to change it up. It works great with fresh spinach, red pepper and smoked salmon. Or with taco-seasoned ground beef, jalapeño, tomato and corn. But why not serv it with yesterdays leftovers?

Enjoy!

Red Onions in Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

Red Onions in Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

These red onions cooked in balsamic can be used as a condiment with all kinds of meat, roasted vegetables or in sandwiches. But will also be perfect for at cheese platter.

Ingredients:

• 3 red onions, peeled
• 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
• 4 tablespoons red balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons flavored balsamic vinegar, I used Dark Espresso balsamic
• 1 sprinkle of salt

Directions:

Cut the peeled onions in 8, and add them to a heavy pan with the rest of the ingredients. Bring it all to a simmer, and let it cook for about 30-40 minutes, until the onions are soft and the balsamic has the consistency of a thick syrup.

Salmon Corn Chowder

Salmon Corn Chowder

Dansk udgave

I had my first chowder in San Francisco, it was one of the things you eat as a tourist, and it was so so. I know you can get good clam chowders, but the one I had on Fisherman's Warf, was not one of them. 

Salmon is my go-to fish, and making it to a chowder seemed to be a great idea, the first day the temperature was dropping below the 80's.  

This Chowder is pretty straight forward, a one pot soup, but is packed with great flavors. 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 3 medium leeks

• 2 stalks celery

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 6 medium potatoes (Yukon Gold)

• 3 ears corn kernels

• 1 pound (450 g) salmon filet, skin and bones removed, cut into 2-inch (5 cm) cubes

• 3 thin slices smoked salmon, chopped

• 1 cup (2½ dl) cream, optional, leave out to get a healthier soup

• ½ cup (1¼ dl) white wine

• 4 cups (1 liter) water

• 2 Knorr fish stock cubes

• 1 bay leave

• 1½ teaspoons white pepper, freshly ground

• 1 lemon, zest and juice

• fresh dill for garnish

Directions:

Thinly slice the leeks.  Peel potatoes and cut them into large dices. 

Melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan over medium heat. Sauté the leeks and celery for about 8-10 minutes, until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add the wine to prevent browning. 

Add potatoes, white pepper, bay leave, water, and/or stock. Bring the soup to a boil, and reduce the heat, and let the soup simmer for about 10-14 minutes until the potatoes is almost tender. Discard the bay leave.

Blend about ⅔ of the soup including (⅔) potatoes and leeks until smooth*. This makes the soup nice and creamy. Mix the blended soup with the unblended part, with the cream, lemon zest and the corn kernels. Bring the soup to a simmer and add  both types of salmon, and let it simmer for about 3-5 minutes until the fish is cooked. The big chunks will separate somewhat, but thats perfectly fine.

Season the soup with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Garnish with a few spring of fresh dill.

Enjoy!

*Be careful when blending hot liquids, it can make the lid pop off, and you may risk getting serious burns on you skin. You can remove the small cap on you blender lid and cover the lid with a clean kitchen towel. You need to hold on to the lid and towel. This will let the steam from the hot soup escape and avoid the lid from popping off. You can also get blenders like the Vitamix, where you can blend hot liquids, without any hassle.

The Danish version:

Lakse- og majschowder

4-6 portioner

Ingredienser:

• 3 medium porrer

• 2 stilke bladselleri

• 1 spsk smør

• 6 medium kartofler (ikke nogle der er melede)

• 3 majkolber, kun kernerne

• 450 g laks uden skin og ben, skåret i 5x5 cm tern

• 3 skiver røget laks

• 2½ dl fløde, kan udelades hvis du vil have en sundere suppe

• 1¼ dl hvidvin

• 1 liter vand

• 2 terninger knorr fiske boullion

• 1 laurbærblad

• 1½ tsk hvid peber, friskkværnet

• 1 citron, saft og skal

• frisk dild til pynt

Fremgangsmåde:

Skyl og skær porrerne tyndt. Skræl kartoflerne og skær dem i ca 2x2 cm tern.

Smelt smørret i en tykbundet gryde, og sauter porre og selleri i omkring 8-10 minutter, uden at brune dem. Tilsæt vinen efter de første par minutter, for at undgå bruningen.

Kom kartofler, hvid peber, laurbærblad, vand og boullionterningen i, og lad suppen komme til kogepunktet. Kog suppen i 10-14 minutter indtil kartoflerne er næsten møre. Fjern laurbærbladet.

Blend ca. ⅔ af suppen incl. kartofler og porre*. Det gør suppen bliver dejlig cremet. Bland den blendede suppe med resterne af suppen og kartoflerne. Tilsæt fløde, revet citronskal og majsen, og kog suppen op. Tilsæt begge typer laks  til suppen. Lad suppen simre 3-5 minutter, indtil fisken er færdig. Laksestykkerne vil gå lidt i stykker, men det er helt fint. 

Smag suppen til med salt, peber og citronsaft.

Kom lidt dild oven på suppen, når den serveres.

Velbekomme!

*Pas på med at blende den varme suppe, da det kan give skoldninger, hvis låget hopper af. Man kan evt. tage det lille låg af blenderen og dække hullet til med et viskestykke, men der blendes. 

Lasagna stuffed squash

Lasagna stuffed squash

This is another take on my vegetable spaghetti with meat sauce, this time using my favorite winter squash as serving bowls, and as the "spaghetti". I really liked the color of the gold nugget squash at the store, but thought that the spaghetti squash would be more appealing for my I'm-not-into-squash-husband. Oddly enough he liked the god nugget squash better, so I might have to end bashing him here, for not liking squash, I might. 

You can change up this dish, by using another meat, adding bacon or vegetables, or go all in and just make a veggie bolognese. You can even use these roasted squash to dress up a leftover curry, the possibilities are endless. 

Serves 2-3.

Ingredients:

Squash:

Spaghetti squash

• 1 small spaghetti squash
• 1 small gold nugget squash
• 1 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper

Meat Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound (450 g) ground beef (lean)
• 1 can tomato paste
• ½ teaspoon beef base (bouillon)
• 1 cup (2 dl) water 
• ½ cup (1 dl) red wine
• ½ teaspoon rosemary
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

• some mozzarella cheese
• chopped fresh basil

Direction:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Slice squashes length wise and scrape out the seeds. Rub each squash half with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place each squash half cut-side down on a parchment paper lines baking sheet, and bake for 40-60 min until the squash is tender.

Meat sauce: 

Heat a drizzle of oil in a pot over medium heat and brown the onions. Add the garlic after a few minutes.  Add the ground beef and brown it, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon. Add the tomato paste and cook it until tomato paste turns a deeper red, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the rosemary, thyme, a little salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the wine, beef base and water. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer it simmers, the better it gets. 

Let the Squash cool slightly, so you can handle them. Flip them cut-side up.

Scoop the meat sauce into each squash half, and top with mozzarella cheese. (You can add a cheese sauce or ricotta cheese to the squash, if you like)

Turn oven to broil, and cook the squash for another 2 minutes, until cheese is browned and bubbling. You have to keep an eye on this process, because this happens very quickly.

Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve immediately.

Enjoy!