Lobster Benedict- Sous Vide

Lobster Benedict- Sous Vide

Lobsters are a creature with a delicate taste and texture. So by poaching it in butter, you get the purest and cleanest lobster taste ever. Making it Sous Vide you are getting the perfect texture to your liking. The temperature is controlling the texture. Well time is too, but by poaching the lobster for 45-60 minutes, temperature is the controlling factor. 

Different cooks choose different poaching temperature. Thomas Keller calls for 139℉ (59℃) and Modernist Cuisine calls for 115℉ (46℃).

Serious Eats tested different temperature, and this were their finings:

Temperature - texture

120℉ (49℃) - Soft and translucent

130℉ (54℃) - Tender and succulent

140℉ (69℃) - Firm

I decided to go with 135℉ (57℃) and the result was fantastic, I got a tender and somewhat firm juicy lobster. This one is a winner.

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

Butter poached lobster tail:

• 4 lobster tails, shells removed and deveined

• 113 g salted butter (1 stick butter)

• sprinkle of salt

Benedict:

• hollandaise sauce*

• arugula

• 4 poached eggs

• 4 half slices toasted bread

Hollandaise in blender:

• 250 g salted butter, clarified

• 4 egg yolks

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

• ½ lemon, the juice from

• 1 pinch cayenne

Directions:

Butter poached lobster tail:

Set you sous vide to 135℉ (57℃).
Place the lobster tails and butter in a vacuum sealer bag, sealing with the moist setting. Place the bag in the water bath, making sure that the lobster is fully submerged. Set timer for 50 minutes.
Remove lobster tails from the bag, discarding the liquid, when it is time to serve your benedict.

Hollandaise:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over very low heat.  Let simmer gently until the foam rises to the top of the melted butter. Once the butter stops spluttering, and no more foam seems to be rising to the surface, remove from heat and skim off the foam with a spoon. The foam is the milk solids from the butter. Ladle the butterfat into another saucepan leaving the water and residue behind. You can also pour the butterfat through some cheesecloth. Keep the butterfat warm.
The clarified butter should be about 172℉ (77℃).

Add the rest of the ingredients, except cayenne, in a blender. Blend until foaming. With the blender running add ⅓ of the butter in a slow steady stream, yes it will splatter. Once it emulsifies, turn the blender speed up to high and add the remaining butter. Season with salt and pepper and blend for another second. Sprinkle the cayenne on top when serving.

* Instead of regular hollandaise sauce, you can use the more healthier avocado hollandaise 

Benedict:

Toast the bread, place a handfull arugula on it, placing a lobster tail and a poached egg on top. Ladle a spoonful warm hollandaise over, sprinkling with some cayenne.

Serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

Danish Breaded Pork Patties - Karbonader

Danish Breaded Pork Patties - Karbonader

This dish is a walk down memory lane, an old school danish dish. In Denmark you would call this type of food Mormor mad (grandmother food). And for sure this is the type of food from yesteryear, but sometimes this kind of comfort food is soothing. A lot of traditional Danish dishes are only seasoned with salt and pepper, making the ingredients take center stage. Some might call it bland, and for sure it can be bland. This I would call filled with subtle flavors. A juicy pork patty with a nice crispy crust, here served with fingerling potatoes, cauliflower and another classic: peas and carrots in a white sauce.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

Patties:

• 1 pound (450 g) ground pork
• ¼ pound (120 g) ground veal
• 1 egg
• bread crumbs
• salt & pepper

White sauce with peas and carrots:

• 25 g butter
• 2½ tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 300 ml milk
• 100-200 ml water from the peas and carrots
• ⅛ teaspoon sugar
• salt
• 600 g peas and diced carrots (I used frozen peas and carrots)

Directions:

Patties:

Start by dividing the meat into 4, shaping them into circular thick patties.
Beat an egg in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl pour in the breadcrumbs, seasoning it with salt and pepper.
Dip the pork patties in the egg mixture, making sure to cover the entire patty in egg. Then roll the patty in the breadcrumbs, again making sure to cover the whole patty. Repeat with the last 3.

Heat a mixture of oil and butter on a frying pan. Fry the patties for about 5-8 minutes over medium heat until they are well done, flipping them carefully from time to time.. 

White sauce with peas and carrots:

Cook the peas and carrots for about 10 minutes, in light salted water. Reserve some of the water for the sauce. 

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour, mix with a whisk and warm through, making sure not to get any color on the mixture.

Add some vegetable water while whisking vigorously making a thick paste without any lumps. Add more water and milk until you have the desired consistency, you want it to be a bit on the thick side. Let the sauce boil a few minutes to get rid of the flour taste. Season the sauce with sugar and salt. Stir in the cooked peas and carrots.

Serve the Karbonader with boiled potato, boiled cauliflower and a whiter sauve with peas and carrots.

Enjoy!

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

I love almost all thing mushroom, and grilled portobello mushrooms is right up my alley. It's a quick side for a backyard BBQ. Adding the parmesan make a perfect flavor combination.

The sesame seeds on the photo, is an accidental 'cross contamination' from the chicken on the grill.

Ingredients:

• 2 portobello mushrooms
• ½ cup (1 dl) freshly grated parmesan
• about ¼ stick (ca 30 g) butter, salted and soft
• a splash of olive oil, for brushing the top of the mushrooms 
• A sprinkle of chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat the grill.

Clean the portobello mushrooms with a damp paper towel and remove the stems. Brush the caps with olive oil and set aside gills side up.

Mix butter and parmesan, and divide it evenly over the mushroom caps. Grill over hot grill for about 10 minutes. You want the mushrooms to be soft, but not mushy.  Let the mushrooms rest for a few minutes, to soak up the butter.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

American cookies are soft and chewy...... but I like them more on the crispy side. So I bake my cookies on lower heat, and maybe a little longer than normally. Resulting in a thinner and crispier cookie, just the way I like them.

I hope you will like these cookies too. 

Makes 12-15 cookies 

Ingredients:

• 113 g (1 stick) butter, salted and room temperature 
• 175 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, I use vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (fine)
• 125 g all-purpose flour
• 50-100 g semisweet chocolate chips (I tend to like less chips in my cookies, than most people)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 370℉ 8190℃). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 3-inches apart. I use a ice cream scooper. Bake the cookies until brown around the edges, about 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wirerack to cool. Repeat with the rest of the dough. 

ice cream sandwich

If you do not need all the cookies at once. You can scoop the dough on to a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them. Place the frozen cookie dough in a freezer bag. Bake the cookies directly from the freezer, when you need them. Just add a couple of minuts to the baking time. 

You can use your fresh baked and cooled cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with your favorite ice cream. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate & Walnut Babka

Chocolate & Walnut Babka

Babka is an Eastern European brioche sweet yeast bread. Kinda similar to the Cinnamon Bread I knew from growing up in Denmark. Same but different.
Every slice reveals pockets of molten chocolate with crunchy walnut bites in the soft and sweet brioche bread. The intense chocolate filling makes this loaf a really great cake. As a not that chocolaty girl, all I can say is YUM, YUM, YUM.
 

Makes 2 loafs

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1½ cup (3 dl) whole milk

• 113 g butter, salted

• 100 g live yeast, or 8 teaspoons dry yeast

• ¼ teaspoon vanilla paste

• ¼ teaspoon cardamom

• 100 g sugar

• 1 large pinch salt

• 750 g all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 185 g dark chocolate

• 125 g butter, salted

• 100 g confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• ¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• ½ teaspoon strong coffee

• 125-150 g walnuts
  
  Glaze:

• Honey

• lemon juice

• hot water

Directions:

Dough:

Heat the milk until warm and melt the butter in it. Pour the mixture into a bowl. Make sure the milk is only finger warm before adding the yeast.

Add yeast, sugar, salt and vanilla paste and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add all the flour, and finally the eggs. The dough is very wet, but keep stirring, it will form a dough.

 Let the dough rise until it's doubled in size, for about 1 hour. 

Melt butter and chocolate, and mix in sugar, cocoa, coffee and vanilla. Let the mixture cool down, set aside.

Pour the dough out onto a flour dusted workspace, and fold the dough 4 times, to deflate it. Divide the dough in 3. Roll out each part so they are twice as long as your loaf pans and about four times as wide.

Spread the filling evenly on the dough, leaving a strip along the short side free of filling. Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts. Roll up the dough, like you would cinnamon rolls, ending with the part that is free of filling.

My rolls were a bit soft, so I chilled them in the freezer for no longer than 20 minutes, just to firm them up.

Cut all 3 the rolls in half lengthwise, so you end up with 6 half circles, and braid 3 of the halves, with the filling "lines" facing upwards. Fold the end in under the braid, and place it in a parchment paper lined loaf pan. Repeat with the other 3 of the halves for the second loaf. 

Let the loafs rise for about 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven for 375℉ (190℃).

Bake the loafs for 45-60 minutes, covering the loafs with aluminum foil the second half of the bake time, to prevent burning the crust.

Brush a little glaze on the loafs after letting them cool for a while.

Enjoy!