Roasted Chicken with Blood Orange and Mint

Roasted Chicken with Blood Orange and Mint

I keep getting attacked by blood oranges at my grocery store. They keep hopping into my cart. 

So I have to figure out new ways to use them. I have been roasting whole chicken with lemons, so why not use blood oranges? 

I really like the sweet and sour taste this combination gives. The sauce is very thin and can be thickened, but the taste was fantastic.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 boneless chicken thighs

• few sprigs of mint, torn

• 2 blood oranges, thinly sliced

• 1-2 red onions, cut in chunks

Marinade:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

• 200 ml orange juice (preferably blood orange)

Directions:

Mix the marinade add the chicken to it, and let the chicken marinate for a few hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 425℉ (220℃).

Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish, add onion, mint, blood orange slices and pour the marinade over. 

Place dish in oven and roast until chicken is browned and cooked through, about 35-45 minutes.

Serve chicken with rice or couscous.

Enjoy!

Green Fish Cakes - Grønne Fiskefrikadeller

Green Fish Cakes - Grønne Fiskefrikadeller

Fish cakes is an easy way to make picky kids eat fish. Serve them as finger food with bite-sized vegetables and a dipping sauce. In Denmark you will get a sweet tartar sauce, remoulade, with the fish cakes. You can also serve the fish cakes cold on a sandwich. 

Makes 12-15.

Ingredients:

Fish Cakes:

• 900 g cod, no bones or skin
• 3 eggs
• 300 ml cream (half & half or whipping cream)
• 35 g (⅓ cup) all-purpose flour
• 2 leeks, rinsed and chopped, 
• 2½ teaspoons salt
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 handful fresh dill, chopped

Spicy creme fraiche sauce:

• 200 ml creme fraiche (you can use sour cream)
• 1 jalapeno, grated
• about 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• juice from ½ lime
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Put the cod and salt in a food processor and pulse until it gets sticky. The idea is to bind the moisture so that the fish cakes don’t fall apart. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined.

Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. (I tend to forget this part. 😇)

Mix the ingredients for the creme fraiche sauce in a bowl, and leave it to rest in the refrigerator until serving.

Using a spoon and your hand, make plum-size cakes and fry them in a mixture of half oil and half butter in a skillet, until golden brown on both sides.

Serve with boiled potatoes, a salad and a spicy creme fraiche sauce.

Enjoy!

Duck Rilette

Duck Rilette

I live in Silicon Valley, and right now the biggest thing is Super Bowl 50. Everyone is talking about all thing Super Bowl. The Venues, the concerts, the parties, the fan-experiences, the celebrities and off course the food. Most popular must be wings and guacamole, but I wanted something different. Still going for the salty and meaty, I choose a duck rilette, served on toasted baguette slices. A perfect finger-food paring well with a cold beer.

I hope you all will enjoy your Super Bowl parties, weather you are there for the game, the halftime show or the food.

Ingredients:

• 4 duck legs, I got the legs from Grimaud Farms
• duck fat, enough to cover the legs completely, I used little over 1 lb
• 1 bay leave
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1-1¼ teaspoon salt (you want to use 1 teaspoon salt pr 350 g meat)

Directions:

Place the duck legs, thyme and bay leave in a pot, pour in the duck fat to cover. Let the duck simmer for about 4 hours, until the meat pulls apart from the bones. Let the duck and fat cool, so you can handle the duck with your hands. 

Wash your hands thoroughly and/or use gloves. Pull the meat from the bones, discarding ALL bones and skin. Weigh the meat, to calculate how much salt you need for the seasoning.  You want to use about 1 teaspoon salt pr 350 g meat. 

Put the meat into the bowl of a stand mixer. Season the pulled meat with the salt. Using the paddle beat the meat for about a minute. Add some of the duck fat, you want to saturate the meat, so when squeezing the fat will slowly drip from the meat. You are looking for at paté consistency.  If not using immediately, spoon rilette into clean jars rinsed with a bit of vodka. Cover the rilette with reserved fat from the duck confit. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Serve the rilette on thin slices of toasted baguette, and top it of with a cornichon. 

Enjoy!

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Cauliflower was a weird vegetable for me growing up. My mom boiled the h.. out of it, and like many overcooked vegetables it went on my "I don't like that" list. Please DO NOT overcook and especially over-boil your vegetables. 
You can prepare cauliflower so many ways, or just eat it raw, but by roasting it whole like this you get a great nutty flavor, with a crispy surface with a tender and almost creamy center. It might be time consuming but its well worth the wait. 

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1 large cauliflower, the one I used was yellow to start with

• olive oil

• salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven with a cast-iron skillet inside to 375℉ (190℃).

Break off and discard the outer leaves from the cauliflower. Cut off the bottom of the stem, being careful not to cut off any of the florets. Using a small sharp knife to cut out the hard core of the cauliflower.  

Rinse the cauliflower, not drying it again. Place the cauliflower core-side up on the cutting board, and drizzle it with olive oil. Rub the oil all over the surface, and sprinkle with sea salt.

Place the cauliflower core-side down in the hot cast-iron skillet. Place an ovenproof pan filled with hot water, to create steam in the oven. Roast the cauliflower for 1½-2 hours, basting it 2-3 times with more olive oil. You want to end up with a nice brown color on the surface and a nice tender inside. You can roast the cauliflower under the boiler for a brief moment in the end to add some more color.

Serve the cauliflower to your favorite protein.

Enjoy!

Blood Orange Upside-Down Cake

Blood Orange Upside-Down Cake

I found blood oranges, when I went shopping today. I was on point in getting ingredients for a good and healthy dinner, and then I came across the blood oranges. And I'm sure they screamed "buy me" and "lets bake a cake" at me. So what is a girl to do?

For the longest time I have been wanting to make an almond blood orange cake, so today was the day.

Makes one 9-inch cake.

Ingredients:

Oranges:

• 3 small blood oranges, sliced thinly
• 100 g sugar
• 120 ml water

Cake:

• 200 g butter, room temperature, salted
• 200 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 200 g almond flour
• 50 g all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 100 g creme fraiche or sour cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325℉ (160℃). Line a 9-inch springform with parchment paper, and set aside.

Slice the oranges thinly with a sharp knife or on a mandolin. Heat water and sugar in a saucepan. When the sugar is dissolved place the orange slices in the syrup, and let them simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the peels get semi translucent. Remove the slices with a slotted spoon. Boil the syrup and reduce it to half. Let it cool.

Pour half the syrup in the prepared springform, and brush the parchment paper sides with the syrup. Place the orange slices in the springform, arranging them in a decorative manner. Set aside. Reserve the rest of the syrup to brush over the cake once baked.

Cake:

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in one egg at a time. Stir in vanilla, flour, baking powder and creme fraiche, mix until just combined. Gently spoon the cake batter into the springform, trying not to break up the placement of the orange slices. 

Bake the cake for about 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. 

Let the cake cool in the springform for 10 minutes. Carefully turn the cake out onto a cake stand. Gently remove the parchment paper. Brush the cake with the remainder of the syrup.

Serve the cake with a dollop of cream fraiche or whipped cream.

Enjoy!