Asparagus with Sauce Mousseline

Asparagus with Sauce Mousseline and shrimps.

Fresh white asparagus is a spring favorite. Here I mixed the expensive white asparagus with some cheaper green ones, making it obvious that the white asparagus are a tad sweeter.

Sauce Mousseline is basically a Hollandaise sauce, where you fold in some soft whipped cream. making as lighter, more airy sauce.

You can serve this as an appetizer or as a main dish by adding some green lettuce and a slice of good bread.

Serves 2-4.

Ingredients:

• 8 white asparagus

• 8 green asparagus

• 1 tablespoon butter (for cooking the asparagus)

• 1 teaspoon salt (for cooking the asparagus)

• green lettuce, I used field salad/cornsalad/mache lettuce

• hollandaise sauce

• heavy whipping cream, you need about 2-3 tablespoons soft whipped cream

• 150 g cold water schrimp

Directions:

Make the Hollandaise sauce, and make it come to room temperature. Whisk the cream to a soft peak, so it’s ready to fold into the hollandaise just before serving.

Wash all the asparagus.

The green ones: Hold each spear about half way down its length and at the thick end. Now bend it until it snaps. Discard the  little stub, or use it for flavor in a soup or casserole. 

The white ones: Cut just under 1 inch (2 cm) off the bottom. Using a vegetable peeler, and starting just under the tip of each spear, peel away the tough outer layer.
Bring about 2 inches (5 cm) water to a boil in a a large shallow pot, add salt and butter. Add the white asparagus and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the green asparagus and cook for another 2 minutes, until the spears are tender when pierced with a knife. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and place on a dry kitchen towel to briefly dry. Serve the asparagus immediately placing it on top of some green lettuce.

Fold in the soft whipped cream in the room temperature hollandaise, so it ends up light and airy. Spoon the now sauce mousseline over the asparagus and sprinkle the shrimps on top before serving.

Enjoy!

Hollandaise in a blender

Homemade hollandaise on my favorite Eggs Benedict.

Hollandaise have always been a thing used with fish. But after moving to the USA, I realized hollandaise can be used for so much more. And I became a huge fan. But there is hollandaise and then there is real hollandaise. The store bought, even the ones made from a powder like Knorr, can be used as a shortcut, but tastewise it needs an adjustment with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. But when you get the real deal, you know why this sauce is so extremely popular.

If you are making eggs Benedicts for 2-4 people, you only need half a portion.

Makes a big portion.

Ingredients:

• 250 g salted butter, clarified

• 4 egg yolks

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

• ½ lemon, the juice from

Directions:

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 egg yolks, lemon juice 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.

Use the hollandaise for your favorite fish or on a eggs Benedict.

Enjoy!

Preserved Cherries - Syltede Kirsebær

Preserved Cherries, here on some Risalamande.

2020 has been a strange year, we all had to adapt and have to live without a lot of things we take for granted. A lot of parties and gatherings were canceled, friends and loved ones we couldn’t hug. Personally I was going to have a big party for my fiftieth birthday, with friends and families from Denmark coming here to celebrate. I don’t think I have to tell, that didn’t happen. I hope to postpone the party, and I’ll stay 49 until that happens.

I think 2020 also became the year, a lot of people learned to bake sourdough bread, that is one of the good things to come out of the pandemic.

Now we are getting close to my favorite time of the year - Christmas. I love all the lights and decorations, all the treats and cookies. I hope this holiday season will bring you a lot of joy too, even though we have to do some thing’s differently, let’s make this December extra special.

On this first Sunday in Advent I want to share these preserved cherries with you.

Growing up I was accustomed to my moms homemade everything. But even she slacked and started buying things, to make her life easier. But some tings remain in your memory as the best and real taste of something. Preserved cherries comes to mind. We had a cherry tree in our allotment (kolonihave), filled with dark tart cherries. Cherries you wouldn’t steal of the tree as a kid, or you would only do it once. But my mom made the best preserved cherries, perfect for the traditional Danish Christmas dessert Risalamande. She even cracked the pits from the cherries and put the kernels in the preserving syrup, giving it a strong almond taste. This was the real taste of Christmas. And this was the taste I rediscovered after making these preserved cherries for the very first time.

Makes 4 jars.

Ingredients:

• 680 g pitted tart cherries, I used frozen

• 525 g sugar

• 50 ml water

• 50 ml amaretto liquor

• 40 ml vinegar

• 1 vanilla bean

Directions:

Split open the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Spread the seeds in some of the sugar, this helps with distribution of the seeds.

In a large pot add water, sugar, vinegar, amaretto, vanilla bean (seeds and pod), cherries, and warm it up slowly until it starts to boil lightly. Remove pot from the heat, and set it aside to cool and marinate for a few hours.

Prepare the jars and lids, scolding them and swirl some 100 proof vodka in them, set aside.

Bring the cherries to a boil, remove from heat, and bring them to a boil again, do that one more time, and scoop the cherries into the 4 prepared jars. Bring the liquid to a boil again, and let it boil and reduce for 5-7 minutes, before pouring over the cherries. Close jars and let then cool. Clean the outside of the jars and place them in a cool and dark place for about 20-30 days fore serving.

The preserved cherries will keep 3-5 months in a cool dark place and about 20 days opened.

Serve the prepared cherries on Risalamande, ice cream or other desserts or cakes. The syrup taste fantastic diluted with water or in drinks.

Enjoy!

No-Cook Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti with no-cook tomato sauce.

Some of my neighbors gifted me some beautiful tomatoes from their yard. Right away I knew that I had to try making the no-cook tomato sauce, I had found on the Bon Appetite website a while ago. Next to eating a warm tomato straight from the plant, this sauce might be one of the best ways to eat tomatoes. And boy were I right. This sauce is honoring the flavors of the tomato, by complementing them without overpowering therm.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 750 g ripe tomatoes

• 1 garlic clove, grated

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 4 teaspoons champagne vinegar

• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 60 ml olive oil

• 113 g Parmesan cheese

• salt to taste

• 1 handful basil, chopped

Directions:

Remove the seeds from the tomatoes, this is easily done by cutting the tomatoes in half through the equator, instead of through the core. Then gently squeeze the tomatoes like you would squeeze a lemon to discard the seeds.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and transfer them to a large wide bowl. Mash the tomatoes with a fork or a potato masher, to release the juices. Add half the cheese, butter, vinegar, pepper, garlic, oil, combine and season with salt. Let the sauce sit covered on the kitchen counter for at least 30 minutes (not more than 3 hours) allowing the favors to blend.

Boil pasta according to instructions on packaging. Save some of the pasta water to stretch the sauce.

Add basil to the sauce and season it again. Mix in the hot pasta, and serve immediately with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Green Pepper Sauce

Green Pepper Sauce

This green pepper sauce is a tasty but spicy sauce that pairs well with beef. You often get this type of sauce at steakhouses, and this is one of my favorites. In Denmark I’d never made it from scratch, I would just buy the Knorr powder version. But of course the real deal is so much better, so much worth the time and effort. I like that you can make the sauce-base well in advance, you can even freeze it.

This year we had green pepper sauce for our New Year’s dinner, and as a sauce loving creature it was front and center on my plate.😂

Serves 6-10.

Ingredients:

• 1 shallot, chopped

• ⅛ root celery, diced

• 1 garlic clove

• 2 teaspoons green peppercorn in brine (Madagaskar peppercorns), chopped

• 1 teaspoon butter

• 1 teaspoon grape seed oil (or another flavorless oil)

• 50 ml Cognac

• 250 ml beef stock

• 200 ml red wine

• 1 sprig rosemary (leaves only)

• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme

• 1 splash of Gastrique ( you can replace this with some sugar and a splash of vinegar)

• 100 ml heavy whipping cream

•  salt to taste

• 2 teaspoons green peppercorn in brine (Madagaskar peppercorns)

• Cornstarch - optional, mixed in cold for thickening

Gastrique (Adapted from Bobby Flay)

• 1/4 cup (80g) honey

• 1/2 cup (125ml) apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Gastrique (Adapted from Bobby Flay)

Heat the honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, until it becomes deep golden brown. Add the vinegar and continue to cook, swirling the pan a few times - do not use a spoon. Cook it for about 15 minutes, until the honey/caramel is incorporated in the vinegar, and the gastrique has thickened to the consistency of thin maple syrup. Remove from heat. Keep the gastrique in a sealed sterilized bottle in the refrigerator, it will keep for months.

Sauce:

Sauté onions, celery root, garlic and the chopped peppercorns until the onions are translucent. Remove saucepan from the heat, move the pan away from fan, actually do not have lamps or any other things above it. Pour in the cognac into the pan swirl it round, and standing at a safe distance from the pan, ignite it with a long match or lighter. Gently swirl/stir your now-flaming pan to evenly distribute the alcohol. Let cook until the flames disappear, and the alcohol vapor burns off by itself in a few seconds. Add the beef stock, red wine, rosemary, and thyme. Let the sauce simmer for at least 30 minutes. Strain the now sauce-base through a sieve set over saucepan, pressing firmly on solids, getting all the good flavors out. Reduce the sauce-base to about half, you are aiming for a concentrated base. (All this can be made in advance).

Add cream, whole peppercorns and season the sauce with salt and gastrique. If you like a slightly thicker sauce, you can thicken it with some cornstarch dispensed in cold water. Serve the sauce with a nice steak or roast.

Enjoy!