Smashed Chickpea Salad

Smashed Chickpea Salad

I love chickpeas, they are very filling and full of protein (9g/100g*) and dietary fiber (8g/100g*). Like lentils, chickpeas is easily flavored while cooking and by what ever you dress it with. 

I really like the tanginess and the specks of salty olives and chili peppers. Overall this chickpea salad is a simple, quick weekday side. I served it with beer can chicken, an all-time favorite in my house.

This recipe is adapted from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook.

Serves 3.

Ingredients:

• 450 g cooked, cooled chickpeas

• 100 g green olives, pitted and thinly sliced

• 3 small pickled chilies, sliced

• 1 handful Italian parsley, chopped

• ½ teaspoon freeze dried buckthorn

• 35 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Directions:

Soak and cook the chickpeas according to instruction on the package, or like Chickpea and Carrot Salad a la Thomas Keller. If you are in a hurry use 2 cans of chickpeas, drain and rinse them. 

Mix all but the olive oil and smash the salad with a potato masher, until you have a coarse mixture, with chunky pieces. Dress the salad with the Olive oil, and season it with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Enjoy!

* In the boiled chickpeas.

Sødmælksfranskbrød - Whole Milk Bread

Sødmælksfranskbrød - Whole Milk Bread

The smell of this fresh baked whole milk bread, is bringing back childhood memories. My mom baked this bread, and served it with, butter, cheese and homemade jam. Somehow the smell made me think of summer days in my parents kolonihave. A kolonihave is a place with small lots, where the city folks could rent a little garden with a small house, to get out from the apartments, growing vegetables and flowers. I have so many fond memories from this place. My dad build the little house himself, and my parents loved working in the garden.  

Anton eating pålægschokolademad for the first time.

The main reason for baking this white bread, was a visit from this little guy, Anton. And as you can see, the whole milk bread with chocolate (pålægschokolade), is approved by Anton. 

This Recipe is from my moms recipe book. 

Makes 2 loafs.

Ingredients:

• 600 ml whole milk
• 50 g butter
• 50 g fresh compressed yeast or 4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 900 g all-purpose flour
• 14 g sea salt
• 10 g sugar
• sprinkles: poppy seeds, optional
• Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tablespoon whole milk
• Sprinkles: poppy seeds
• optional : two 9x5-inch loaf pans

Directions:

Warm the milk in a saucepan until finger-warm, remove pan from the heat. Melt the butter in the warm milk. Crumble the yeast into the warm milk and stir to dissolve. 

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the liquid, and knead the dough for 3 minutes, to form an elastic dough. 

Let the dough rise for 30-40 minutes until doubled in size. 

Gently ease the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in two, and roll both into tight balls. Let the dough rest covered for 5-10 minutes.

Spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray, and set aside. If baking in loaf pans.

Deflate the dough, and fold in the sides about ½-inch (2 cm), and roll the dough into a log. Roll the log to fit your loaf pan. Or form to 11-inch (30 cm) breads, and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover the breads with a kitchen towel, and let them rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 360℉ (180℃) or if using convection: 320℉ (160℃).

Brush egg wash on both breads, and sprinkle poppy seeds on top. Score the bread once lengthwise for the pan baked. And several times across for bread baked without pans. 

Bake the breads for 35-45 minutes until dark golden, and having a hollow sound, when tapped on the bottom.

Enjoy!

Avocado Hollandaise

Baked salmon with avocado hollandaise.

Avocado hollandaise is an easier and healthier version of the real hollandaise sauce. This is a no anxiety sauce. No fear of curdling the egg yolks, no fear of separation (elmulsion break), just blend, season and serve. It's that easy.

My favorite breakfast has been eggs Benedict. Before we moved to California, I didn't even know it existed. Sadly Eggs Benedict is not particular healthy, but by substituting the buttery hollandaise with this avocado hollandaise, you can cut down the calories, not sacrificing taste or creaminess.

Avocado hollandaise is great with fish, eggs Benedict and on asparagus. 

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 avocado, peeled and deseeded

• 1½ lemon, the juice from + more to taste

• water, to get the right consistency

• salt, to taste

• cayenne pepper, sprinkle on top

Directions:

Puree the avocado, lemon juice and salt in a blender until smooth adding just enough water to make the sauce creamy and thick like a  real hollandaise. Season the sauce with salt and lemon juice. 

Enjoy!

Lime Ice Cream - Farven Metallic

Lime flødeis i metallic klæder.

Jeg meldte mig under fanerne på madbloggerudfordringen#8, denne gang skulle der laves mad og/eller drikkevarer i en af følgende farver: Grøn, brun, rød, hvid og metallic. 😳 Og ja jeg fik selfølgelig metallic, hvilket er blevet deffineret som glitter, glimmer og funklende. Men hvor meget glitter og glimmer er der i min mad til hverdag og fest? Not much.

Jeg brainstormede og kom frem til at der rent faktisk er funklende fødevarer, der omgiver os til dagligt. 

Marineret sild, der er ofte en skinnende sølv hinde på toppen af filleterne - nem løsning.

Mange fisk har metallisk skind, her tænker jeg især på en røget sild og markrel - en fiske dip/hjemmerøget markrel.

Skaldyr, muslinger har perlemor i skallen - det kunne være sjov at lave noget med abalone, den er lokal og i sæson.

Kager - vandbakkelser dyppet i karamel, ligesom da jeg lavede sportskagen.  Måske lave noget med en spejlblank glace.

Ideerne var mange og temmelig blandede, men så ramte hverdagen og rygsmerter mig. Jeg måtte finde på noget, der ikke krævede timer i køkkenet. Så jeg måtte ty til tilført metallic farve, intet naturligt her. 

Jeg fandt ud af, den farve jeg havde købt så fantastisk ud på en lime. Limen blev nærmest electric.  Så limen blev mit omdrejningspunkt, og da sommeren jo har indfundet sig her i Caliornien, så faldt valget på en is.

Super skøn lime flødeis serveres i metallic klæder.

Giver lidt over ½ liter is

Ingredienser:

• 240 ml piskefløde
• 240 ml sødmælk
• 4 æggeblommer
• 125 g sukker
• 1 knivspids salt (sydesalt fra Læsø, selvfølgelig)
• 3 limes, skal og saft

Ekstra:

• is-kræmmerhuse
• Wilton Pearl Dust™  

Fremgangsmåde:

Hæld fløden i en skål, og sæt skålen oven i en større skål fyldt med is, så fløden holdes iskold. 

Riv den grønne del af de 3 limes ned i en skål, og pres saften ud af dem, ned i en anden skål.

Mix 25 g sukker med den revne limeskal, så limesmagen blander sig med sukkeret. Pisk æggeblommerne med limesukker til massen er let og luftig.

Varm mælk, 100 g sukker og salt i en tykbundet gryde indtil sukkeret er smeltet. Hæld den varme mælk i æggemassen lidt af gangen, mens der piskes, indtil al mælken er iblandet. Hæld det hele tilbage i gryden, og lun det indtil cremen er tyknet lidt. Pas på at ikke varme det for meget, da æggeblommen vil koagulere, dette sker ved 68℃. Kom cremen over i den kolde fløde, og afkøl den. Enten i køleskabet i 3-4 timer eller over isbadet.

Kør cremen i ismasinen ifølge instruktionerne til maskinen, indtil isen er begyndt at dannes. Kom limesaften i og forsæt med at køre iscremen indtil den er tyk og cremet. Frys isen i en fryseberegnet beholder i et par timer inden serveringen.

Servering:

Pensel kræmmerhusene med Wilton Pearl Dust™ så de får et metallic skær.

Kom en kugle is i hvert kræmmerhus og server.

Velbekomme!

The English version:

Lime Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 125 g sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 limes, zest and juice

Extra:

• Ice cream cones
• Wilton Pearl Dust™  

Directions:

Making the custard:

Pour the cream into a metal bowl placed in a larger bowl of ice, set aside. 

Zest and juice the limes, into separate bowls. Mix 25 g of the sugar with the lime zest, making lime sugar.

Warm milk, 100 g sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Make sure the sugar and salt is dissolved completely.

In another bowl, whisk egg yolks with the lime sugar. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, while whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan, and heat the mixture over medium heat, until it thickens. Stir constantly in this process and make sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan. 

Pour the egg/milk mixture into the cold cream. 

Cool the custard in refrigerator. 

Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and freeze it according to manufacturers instructions. When the custard starts to form ice crystals, pour in the lime juice, and keep freezing the ice cream. 

Freeze the ice cream in the freezer a couple of hours before serving.

Serving:

Dust the cones with Wilton Pearl Dust™  to get a metallic glare. Put a scoop of ice cream in the cones and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Marzipan Brioche

Marzipan Brioche

Making a classic brioche is time consuming, but well worth the effort. The best thing, it's not hands-on all the time, so you can get a lot of thing done, while making this. Brioche is made from an enriched dough with eggs and butter.  By all means it's not a health food, more likely a comfort food for special occasions.

I wanted to add some more flavor to the rolls, and added some pistachio marzipan. This gave a slightly flaky brioche with a hint of sweetness from the marzipan. 

Makes 10-12 rolls

Ingredients:

Dough Starter (Sponge):

• 30 g (2 tablespoons) water, room temperature

• 12.5 g (1 tablespoon) sugar

• 70 g all-purpose flour

• 1 g (¼ teaspoon) dry active yeast

• 1 large egg, room temperature

Dough:

• 155 g all-purpose flour

• 30 g sugar

• 4 g dry active yeast

• ¼ teaspoon  salt

• 2 large eggs, cold

• 115 g butter, salted and soft

Remonce:

• 100 g pistachio marzipan (ODENSE Dessertmasse med pistaciesmag)

or

• 50 g butter room temperature

• 50 g sugar

• 50 g marzipan

Directions:

Dough Starter (Sponge):

Whisk the ingredients together  in a bowl and keep whisking for about 2 minutes to incorporate air.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Sift together flour, sugars and yeast, then stir in the salt. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the dough starter, do not mix it in. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap again and let it sit to ferment for 2 hours at room temperature.

By now the dough starter will have bubbled through the layer of flour. Add the 2 eggs and knead the dough for about 5-6 minutes, scraping down the sides, until the dough is soft, elastic and shiny. Add the butter a little at a time, making sure to get the butter fully incorporated. The dough will end up very soft and it is meant to be like that. Lightly coat another bowl with some vegetable oil. Using a oiled spatula to scrape the dough into the prepared bowl. Lightly coat the dough with a small amount of oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Put the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour, to prevent the butter from separating. 

Deflate the dough with a spatular, and return it to the refrigerator for another hour.

Letter fold

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and roll it into a rectangle, and make a letter fold, like the one used in laminating a puff pastry dough. 

Carefully brush off any excess flour, to avoid hardening the dough.

Make the letter fold three times, before placing the dough in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. 

Let the dough mature in the refrigerator for 6 hours or up to 2 days. I left mine overnight. 

Remove dough from the refrigerator and let it warm for about 1 hour. Make the Remonce, if using, I used a flavored marzipan instead.

Remonce:

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated.  Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Forming the rolls:

On a lightly floured surface roll the dough into a good sized rectangle, gently spread the remonce on two thirds of the rectangle. Fold the part without remounce over half the part without, then fold the last part over this. Like the letter fold earlier. Make another letter fold. 

Roll the dough into a rectangle, and roll it up, so you end up with a long log. Cut the log in slices, and place the slices in muffin pans looking like cinnamon rolls.

Let the rolls rise for 60-90 minutes, until doubled in size.  (You can brush off any excess flour)

Preheat the oven to 325℉ (160℃).

Bake the rolls for 15-25 minutes until dark golden.

Serve the brioche warmed and with a nice cup of tea.

Enjoy!