Elder flower gin tonic

I noticed, that the elders have started to bloom outside my garden, so I decided to invite my mother up for a gin tonic with focus on elder flower. As usual she has to bring the ice cubes for the cocktails, as my freezer is full with no room for ice cubes !!!

An elder flower gin tonic is of cause made from Fewer Tree elder flower tonic, gin with elder flower by "Nordic by Nature" and a freshly picked elder flower bunch.


Elder flower gin tonic: - 1 cocktail

• 6 cl elder flower gin by "Nordic by Nature"
• 20-25 cl Fever Tree elder flower tonic
• 1 bunch of elder flower
• ice cubes

1. Pour the gin into a high ball glass.
2. Add in the ice cubes.
3. Place the bunch of elder flower
4. Fill the glass up with elder flower tonic.
5. Enjoy and enjoy the Summer :-)

Rhubarb aquavita a la COOP

I have located this recipe on rhubarb aquavita on COOP homepage (rabarbersnaps). In the recipe the infusion in minimum 1 day, however I let the aquavita infused for 1 week. The use of chili together with rhubarb gives a good taste depth to the rhubarb. Also the aquavita change colour from being clear to red.  

Rhubarb aquavita a la COOP:

• 3-4 stems of rhubarb - cleaned and cut into 1-2 cm
• ½ red chili - de-seeded and cut into smaller pieces
• 20 ml honey
• 70 dl clear neutral taste aquavita (Brøndum Klar)

1. Cut the rhubarb and chili into pieces.
2. Add the pieces into a medium size bowl.
3. Pour in the honey.
4. Fill up with the clear aquavita.
5. Place the aquavita cold in the refrigerator.'
6. Let the aquavita infuse for minimum 1 day or for longer time.
7. Let the aquavita infuse for 1 week.
8. Drain the content from the mixing bowl through a sieve.
9. Pour the aquavita into a glass bottle.
10. Enjoy cold together with lunch.

Triple asparagus soup

Asparagus season is here, so it is a question about enjoying as many fresh asparagus as possible (other suggestion is triple asparagus risotto). I used this recipe on asparagus soup as starting point. I done the the twisting about using canned white asparagus and their liquid in order to increase the taste of asparagus.

Asparagus soup: 3-4 servings

• 500 g white asparagus - to have the end broken off, to be peeled and chopped into 2 cm pieces do not peel the head of the white asparagus
• 400 g green asparagus -  to have the end broken off  and chopped into 2 cm pieces
• 270 canned white asparagus - 140 g liquid & 130 g asparagus
• 30 g butter
• 3 tablespoons wheat flour
• 1 l vegetable stock
• 2½-3 dl dairy whipping cream, 30-38% fat
• season with salt and pepper. 

1. Prepare the two types of asparagus individual.
2. Melt the butter in a medium cooking pot. 
3. When the butter is melted, stir in the wheat flour. Let the wheat flour dissolved into the melted butter.
4. Start by stirring in the pickled asparagus liquid.
5. Afterwards add in the vegetable stock little by little, so the butter-flour mixture is dissolved into the vegetable stock.
6. Add in the prepared white asparagus. Let the asparagus pieces simmer gentle in the soup for approx. 10-15 minutes.
7. Add the cream to the soup together with the prepared green asparagus pieces and canned white asparagus pieces
8. Bring the soup to the boil. Let the soup boil gentle for 2-3 minutes.
9. Season the soup with salt & pepper.
10. Serve.

Apricot ice tea

After having made a portion of this peach ice tea I thought it could be interesting to exchange the canned peach with canned apricot. The portion of apricot-tea mixture was more than enough to fill up my metallic tea filter, so you can actually make two portions of ice tea.

It is crucial, that you get the tea leaves and fruit mixed evenly together. It failed for me the first time, so the tea leaves were located more or less dry at the bottom of the metallic tea filer. So I removed the apricot mixture after 8 hours cold storage, and when I filled the tea filter with 1 tablespoon of black tea leaves, and let it infuse the mixture for another 8 hours in the refrigerator.

The flavour of apricot is very difficult to detected in this ice tea compared to the peach ice tea.

Peach ice tea:  - 2 liter

• 3 tablespoons of black tea leaves
• 425 g canned apricot - save 2 tablespoons of the sugar syrup
• 2 l cold water (0-max 25'C)
• ice cubes - optional
• twig of green herbs such as mints or lemon balm

1. Separate the canned apricot fruit from the sugar syrup using a sieve. Save 2 tablespoons of the sugar syrup.
2. Place the apricot in a smaller mixing bowl and mash the fruit like mashed potatoes using a potato masher.
3. Pour in the sugar syrup and black tea leaves, and stir.
4. Fill ½ the portion into the metallic tea filter.
5. Pour cold water into the tea pot. I noticed, that the draining of water filling through water into the the filter, was very bad. So therefore I filled water into the tea pot and when afterwards placed the tea filter into the tea pot.
6. Place the tea pot cold in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours, so let the apricot-tea mixture infuse the water.
7. Remove the tea filter from the tea pot.
8. Fill ice cubes and optional herbs twig into a high ball glass and fill up with the ice tea.
9. Enjoy :-)

Vegetable bolognese with extra tomatoes

After having made this vegetable bolognese a la Søndag I decided to twist this dish by adding in some more tomato concentrate to have more flavour of tomato. I also added in some red pepper fruit together with the carrots, as I was having some left over pepper fruit in my kitchen.

The use of red lentils in this dish is really a large advantages, as it gives texture, which looks a bite like beef.

I served this dish together with freshly baked foccacia bread with olives a la Tupperware

Vegetable bolognese a la Søndag: - 4 servings

• 1 large onion - finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• 4 tablespoon tomato concentrate
• 1 tin (400 g) of canned tomato
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 carrots - peeled and medium grated
• 1-2 red pepper fruits - medium chopped
• 6 dl water
• 70 g red lentils
• salt & pepper for seasoning
• 400 g spaghetti
• grated parmesan cheese
• rucola

1. Fry the onion and garlic in hot olive oil, so the onion becomes clear in colour.
2. Add in the tomato concentrate and let it fry for ½ minute.
3. Add in the canned tomatoes with the dried herbs.
4. Add in the water, grated carrot, chopped pepper fruit, lentil. Season with salt & pepper.
5. Bring the mixture to the boil.
6. Let the bolognese simmer under lid for 1 hour.
7. Serve the bolognese with boiled spaghetti, grated parmesan, rucola and foccacia.

Crisp bread with 5 grain mixture

I have used this recipe on crisp bread a la Skovdal as starting point for making a new portion of crisp bread. Instead of using the various seeds I decided to use some left over 5 grain mixture after baking these "The miller daughters bun". The 5 grain mixture is a composition of 38% wheat flakes, 26% rye kernels, 13% linseed, 11.5% sesame seeds & 11.5% sunflower seeds.

Another recipe on crisp bread could be this classic crisp bread a la Svansø or DL crisp bread.


Crisp bread with 5 grain mixture: - 30 pieces

• 5 dl 5 grain mixture 
• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1 dl whole grain wheat flour
• 1 dl oat flakes
• 2½ dl water
• 1 dl olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Heat up the fan oven to 180'C.
2. Add all the ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl.
3. Stir it together, and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
4. Divide the crisp bread dough into two portion to get the crisp thin enough.
5. Place the crisp bread on a piece of baking parchment, place another piece of baking parchment on top of the crisp bread dough.
6. Use a rolling pin to flatten the crisp bread dough into a thinner size.
7. Remove the top piece of baking parchment, sprinkle the poppy seed on top of the crisp bread dough.
8. Put back the baking parchment, and roll again with rolling pin.
9. Remove the top baking parchment.
10. Cut the crisp bread into piece size, so it is easier to break into pieces after baking.
11. Place the crisp bread on a baking tray.
12. Bake the crisp bread at 180'C for approx 20-25 minutes, until it let golden in colour. After 10-12 minutes baking twist on the baking trays to get an even baking.
13. Cool down.
14. Store in an airtight container.

Triple asparagus risotto

Time again to enjoy asparagus during this Spring time. I have used this recipe on asparagus risotto as starting point. On top of the fresh green and white asparagus I also decided to add some pickled white asparagus from glass, as I wanted to use the pickling stock in order to boost the asparagus flavour. This is also the reason, why I call this risotto Triple asparagus risotto.

For this specific risotto I have used a combination of both green and white asparagus. The types of asparagus is added at different time, as the white asparagus needs more cooking time compared to the green asparagus.

As other Spring dishes with asparagus you could also have a look into Spring green risotto and asparagus soup.

Triple asparagus risotto: - 2-3 servings

• 25-30 g butter 
• 1 onion - chopped
• 250 g white asparagus - peeled and chopped into pieces of 2-3 cm
• 200 g green asparagus - chopped into pieces of 2-3 cm
• 75 cl asparagus pickling stock
• 100 g pickled asparagus
• 200 g risotto rice
• 1 dl white wine
• 4,25 dl vegetable stock - warm
• 20-25 g butter - i smaller pieces
• Parmesan cheese - grated
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• dill as topping

1. Chopped all the vegetable in the desired size.
2. Heat up the butter in a bigger cooking pot. Add the chopped onion and white asparagus and fry them for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the risotto rice and stir them around for 1 minute to absorb the butter.
4. Pour in the white wine on top of the vegetable and rice and let the wine cook at lower heat, until the majority of the wine has boiled away. 
5. Pour in the asparagus pickling stock, let the rice absorb the liquid.
6. Afterwards add the warm vegetable stock little by little, let the rice absorb most of the liquid, before adding more vegetable stock. This part of the cooking process takes approx. 20 minutes.Keep stirring regular.
7. When there is 1 dl vegetable stock left, add this vegetable stock and chopped green asparagus and pickled asparagus. Doing it like this means, that these vegetable will not do be over-cooked.
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Add the smaller butter pieces and let them melt into the risotto.
10. Serve the risotto with grated Parmesan and chopped dill on the serving plates/bowls. 
11. Serve together with the white wine.