Pointed Cabbage Entré

This recipe is from Nikolaj Kirk's Hverdagsmad, which is a pretty good basic cookbook, nothing special in my opinion ("hverdagsmad" means everyday food, which explains it!), but I came upon this recipe and was really surprised to see pointed cabbage used any other way that as a finely shredded coleslaw ingredient or in a thick sauce as an accompaniment to potatoes. I quite like it, you can prepare the cabbage so that it's softer or crunchier, as you like, and the dressing is a nice protein rich and tangy affair. This can as easily be your dinner entré as it can be the side dish to chicken or anything else for that matter.

It was perfect as the main dish yesterday, with sides of corn and pan-fried halloumi cheese with tomatoes and avocado. A real summer meal.

You'll need:

2 eggs, boiled and chopped
2 tbsp capers, finely chopped
1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped (I used cilantro from my herb patch)
juice and zest of half a lemon (make it organic!), zest needs to be finely grated
1 dl olive oil (I used a mix of olive and flaxseed)
2 pointed cabbages
50 g. butter (I omitted this to save calories)
200 g. firm chèvre (I used a mix of feta and Danish rygeost - it's what I had!)
salt and pepper

Remove the darkest leaves from the cabbage and slice them lengthwise. Cover the bottom of a pot with about 2 inches of water and add salt, butter and cabbage. Cover and steam until the cabbage are still a bit crunchy.

Mix the eggs, capers, parsley and lemon zest with the lemon juice, oil and pepper.

Arrange the cabbage on a serving dish, and crumble the cheese on top of it with your fingers. Drizzle the vinaigrette over it until thoroughly coated, and you're all set!

A Quick Strawberry Fix

Getting older, I am starting to be every bit the sour cream fiend that my dear old Dad was. He put sour cream on everything. His cornflakes, his t-bone steak, his fruit. You name it, he sour creamed it. Sometimes he just ate it straight from the container. I, in turn, have done all those things myself. Tentatively at first, but now unabashedly. Sour cream is tha BOMB!

So, if you have some strawberries, and want to dress them up a bit for a quick dessert, just halve them, put a nice big dollop of the stuff on top, and sprinkle with brown sugar (baby). Yum. Really! And when the strawberry season is over and done with, do it with green grapes instead. Just don't cheat yourself with the low percent sour cream. 18%, at the very least :)

Elderflower Cordial

*This is copy/pasted* from my regular blog, so apologies if you've seen it before. This is a big part of my summer activities though, so it had to be reposted!*

As I wrote before, finding time to make huge batches of Elderflower Cordial is alpha omega to a good summer for me. I make a fairly strong brew that needs to be heavily diluted with water to make a refreshing drink, so 50 liters of the stuff may seem like a lot. It is. But Mikael drinks it like there's no tomorrow, I obsessively give bottles of it away as gifts, and then I still want some left over to drink as a hot toddy when winter comes. With any luck, there's a bottle or two left in February.



I don't have an exact recipe for this, but the inspiration is an old recipe from the tried and true Den Grønne Syltebog. Their recipe is for approximately 2 liters. I have tweaked the recipe numerous times through the years to find what I like best, and I do it mostly by Gefühl, so the following is really just an estimate of the measurements.

40-50 Elderflower bunches
2 tbsp citric acid powder
juice of 2 organic lemons
1 kilo organic cane sugar
1 liter boiling hot water (or more as needed)
1 tsp Atamon

Put the flowers in a big pot. Add the sugar, citric acid and lemon juice. Add the water and stir to dissolve all the sugar. Add more water if needed to cover the flowers. Add the Atamon, cover the pot and store in a cool place for 4-5 days, stirring daily. Strain through mesh bag, and store in bottles that have been thoroughly rinsed with boiling water and Atamon.



It's really that easy. It can be a bit time consuming, sticky, and not to mention one's kitchen looks like the lab of a mad scientist while bottling, but it's worth it, and once you've got the routine down pat you won't even give it a second thought.

A few notes:

-If possible, go flower picking in the morning, or no later than noon. You want dewy flowers since they have more taste than tired flowers do after a day in the sun.
- The bugs. There will be bugs. I let the flowers sit in the tub for about half an hour, after having shouted "run for your lives" to any critters down there. The ones who stay have a death wish!
-The recipe is pretty sweet, so you can easily cut a quarter of the sugar out and have a lovely end product.
-I use organic lemons, because I have a habit of leaving their squeezed corpses in the mixture for a few days. Not too long though, otherwise the taste becomes too zesty. So, if you don't have organic lemons it's ok, just don't put them in the pot.
-Atamon is an old Danish conserving product. It's liquid, the active ingredient is natrium benzoate, and it inhibits bacterial and fungal growth. So find something close to that description. If you cut it out of the recipe, the whole mixture may go yeasty on you.
-Don't go after my pictures to see if it looks right. I make at least 10 liters at a time, which means I pluck about 300 flowers at a go and use obscene amounts of the other ingredients as well.

The finished cordial should be diluted by 1:5 with cold water or seltzer, but that's really up to your individual taste. A few drops in cool white wine ain't half bad either, and fresh strawberries soaked in it taste divine too. I am, of course, planning on an Elderflower ice cream soon, as well.

THE Burger

There are two things about today's post. One is, it might just take your taste buds to a whole new culinary arena. The other is, learn how to be a sneaky bastard and get your kids to eat healthier without them knowing it. Welcome!

First off, I usually make burgers using soy patties, but after a week of doing a cleanse by Blessed Herbs I was feeling the need for meat. So be it. But I don't use solid meat patties, partially for health reasons, partially for climate reasons, partially economic reasons (meat is expensive here!) and mostly because I have an alternative that tastes better!

Patties: For 500 grams (1 lb) of ground beef, I add:
1/2 coarsely grated zucchini (squeeze the excess juice out)
1 medium/large carrot finely grated
Small handful of sprouted green lentils.

Mix all these things together with your hands. Perhaps an egg is necessary to help keep things together, but normally I just form smaller patties, do the light chopping with a knife on both sides, make a slight indentation in the middle, and on to the griddle it goes! The resulting patty is healthier, juicier, tastier, and I kid you not, just this week I made burger THREE times with just one package of meat. WIthout all these additions, one package would normally not do the trick!

The Fixin's: This is the exciting part. Throw out your notions of ketchup, pickles and tomatoes this once. You'll need:
1 large onion, sliced finely, and caramelised (Sauté in butter, add sugar, is the basic idea, a smidge of balsamico glaze ain't bad either)
1 package of bacon, fried until crisp, and crumbled. (Alternatively turkey bacon, or soy bacon)
Gruyère or Stilton cheese (or both), melted on top of the patty
Baby spinach
Fresh raspberries
Hellman's mayonnaise
Chipotle sauce

I suggest spinach and bacon on the bottom, then the patty, with the melted cheese, then the caramelised onions, and the ripe, red raspberries as the finishing touch. Don't balk at the raspberries! I know where you're coming from, I usually hate fruit in dinner (pineapple on pizza is a sin) but the raspberry addition is much like the traditional tomato. Fruity, tart and tangy, it goes very well with everything else. The mayo and chipotle is optional, but Hellman's is great on anything, and the chipotle adds a little smokiness to the mix.

This is one great burger. Try it for yourself. Even a vegetarian version can't go wrong with the additions of these slightly different fixin's!

The Berries are Coming!

*Pardon the missing picture, Blogger ate it!*

This is about as summery a dessert as you can get. It is pink, fluffy, fruity - if Barbie had a flavor, this would be it. (Mattel, please keep your patent off my dessert)

Meringues:
4 egg whites
200 grams sugar
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. rose water (optional)
few drops of red food coloring (optional)

Topping:
Assorted berries, red currants, raspberries, blueberries, blakberries, mulberries, boysenberries, cloudberries etc.
Lemon curd (optional)
Whipped cream
Passion fruit

Whisk the whites until peaky. Add the sugar one spooon at a time until stiff. Fold in the other ingredients. Drop tennis ball size meringue on baking sheet, making a little dip in the middle for the topping. Bake for 20 minutes at 160 Celsius.

When completely cool, spread on lemon curd and whipped cream. Top with berries of choice. I added a spoonful of passion fruit for an exotic twist. It's a tad unsightly, so you might want to put it under the fruit instead. The rose water is optional, but it gives the meringue the yummy delicate taste of Turkish Delight.

For some reason, I haven't made these for a couple of summers, this post being one from the archives. Why, I do not know. The weather just went a bit dreary here, but at the first ray of light, I'm hauling berries home, and enjoying these in the yard!

Rhubarb Snaps

One jar is good.



Two is better.



These mason jars are on the largish side, the more, the better. This is a recipe that luckily really can't go wrong. It goes like this:

1 bottle of decent vodka OR Bombay Sapphire gin
app. 200 grams sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
Place the above ingredients in a large jar. Fill the remaining space up with diced rhubarb.
Shake daily for 4-6 weeks, keep in a cool, dark spot.
Strain.
Enjoy straight up.