Aspargus festival 2015 at Fru Møllers Restaurant

First starter

For the third time we went to the Asparagus Feast at Fru Møllers Restaurant, which is a fantastic event with focus on using the fresh Danish asparagus being in high season here and now in most of the actual meal.

We started (as usual) with a glass of bobble (sparkling) wine and some snacks, which was melted cheese snack and roasted rye bread with smoked fresh cheese dressing.

The first starter was an asparagus tartlet filled with sasparagus ffricassee, North Sea shrimps, lobster cream and chervil. Fantastic taste. In my opinion the tartlet part should have been more crispy.

Snack

Second starter

The second starter was grilled whites asparagus and hay smoked ham from a local slaughterhouse, asparagus mayonnaise, tomatoes from the little village of Beder and basil essence. The ham was great. However, someone took one of my white asparagus !!!!

Main course

Roast veal and crispy croquet mallet of fried green asparagus in size XL, wild garlic, potatoes from Samsø and mushroom sauce. Uuuuhmmm :-)

Dessert

Rhubarb baked with ginger and cardamom with baked custard, fennel herb and sorbet made from wine rhubarb. Fantastic finish to a great meal in excellent company.

For this meal I paid 548 DKK incl 1/5 of bottle of white wine and tea. I will give this experience 5 stars. I will for sure be back again at the next asparagus festival taking place in 2016.

Birthday coffee for rowers

For the first of this year´s birthday celebrations I invited a group of wonderful female rowers around for "fødselsdagskaffe" or birthday coffee being the English translation. One of the guest is suffering from lactose intolerance, this is not an issue anymore, as you easily can find lactose-free milk, yogurt, butter and whipping cream in most of the Danish supermarkets. And I did use plenty of dairy products in my cake creation part.

The three key element for a traditional Danish birthday coffee is butter, cream cake served together with hot chocolate. Hot chocolate or chocolate milk has NEVER on my list over favourite food stuff !!!! I really dislike the taste of hot chocolate/chocolate milk. And I still remember my dislike, when I was served this at other children´s birthday as a kid :-(

The first of the birthday coffee table was the bun, which I "only" served together with jam, as the bun on it´s own contains plenty of butter. And my tradition is to bake saffron buns, as a treat for myself, as I just "love" the use of saffron (big amount of saffron) in a sweet, butter rich bun.

For the second traditional thing (the cream cake) I this year decided to bake/make the Mette Blomsterberg hindbærlagkage (Raspberry cream cake). I think I did a good job making this cream cake for most part of it. I still need much more routine in making the marzipan cake ban around the cake, as it was full of cracks.

Who cares about these minor details, when the taste is great ?

As the end part for this coffee table was served three smaller cakes in form of

these fantastic tasting liquorice cookies with cranberries

yogurt chocolate cake with great taste and soft texture

mini pies with rhubarb - this recipe really needs to be reworked !!!!

I received a very nice birthday gift in form of a ceramic candlelight holder by Finnsdottir in pale green colour. Thank you very much to my rowing friends for a great gift and your excellent company :-)

Changing the colours of the library

Library today - closing in on the desired colour code

After I have converted the guest room into a library, I have decided to change the colour scheme from purple/red into mainly the green tones. So I have been on the look out for new cushions and bed blanket. 

Sofa cushion can actually be quiet expensive, so therefore I have been knitting two new sofa cushion. One cushion is finished, while a second cushion is under construction. A third cushion (green HAY cushion) I have brought second-hand to ½ price, and when I have found two cushion covers, while travelling (the Marimekko cover to the left side and leaf-motive cover to the right side).

Library . before making the colour change

The green plaid have I brought, when I went on vacation to Stockholm right after Easter, a 100% wool plaid to 600 SEK, which I found to a very good deal, as the Swedish currency is 80% of the Danish kroners.

Next item on my TO-DO-LIST is to have sewn new cushion cover in some green fabric, in which I store the spare duvets and sleeping cushion, when not in use. Today these two covers are still in purple fabric. Here I need to locate a person with a talent for sewing, as this is not one of my key competencies.

In-between picture - moving from purple to green colour code

GREEN CLEANER

This juice is both looking and tasting healthy with it´s green colour. The taste is to the bitter side, so at another time I would consider to juice the lime without the peel.

GREEN CLEANER: - 5-6 servings

• 1 lime with peel
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 squash
• 1 handfull of parsley
• 4 pears
• 4 kiwis

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. Juice the lime and parsley in between the pears.
3. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)
4. Store remaining juice in the refrigerator.

Busy baking day in the kitchen

It has been a busy day in the kitchen, where my KitchenAid has been a great and very helpful wing man assisting me the preparations for an upcoming birthday coffee. As one of my guests suffers from lactose intolerant, I have been shopping lactose-free butter, whipping cream, milk and yogurt. (Valio should really become a sponsor of my kitchen !!!!):

The "menu" will consist of:

• Liquorice cookies with cranberries
• Saffron buns
• Small rhubarb pies with lemon thyme and pine nuts
• Chocolate yogurt cake
• Raspberry cream cake a la Mette Blomsterberg

Perchs luxus chai for my tea pot 33

Right here and now I am seriously enjoying this luxus chai from Perchs. It has a wonderful spicy taste, which I am becoming addicted to.

The luxus chai is made from black Indian tea, rooibos, cinnamon pieces, ginger pieces, black pepper, all spice, cardamon, red pepper, vanilla, orange pieces, corn flower petals. Flavoured with orange.

Uuuuhmm. this tea taste great. I make the tea as normal tea. Perhaps I should try to boil some milk with this blend inside ? My only concern is, that I do not like the taste of boiled milk.

Walnut cream cake at Svinkløv Badehotel

The original walnut cream cake at Svinkløv Badehotel

As part of my birthday celebration my mother and I spend two days in the Norther part of Jutland, where we enjoy coffee and cake in form of the famous walnut cream cake from Svinkløv Badehotel.

We were served a great piece of cake together with a pot of both coffee and tea. It is a nice place to enjoy afternoon coffee/cake, if you are in the area of Svinkløv Badehotel. Cake and coffee cost 85 DKK (11.25€), which is a very fair level.

My version of walnut cream a la Svinkløv Badehotel

Brownie-style cake with yogurt

When I saw, that yogurt as a part of the ingredients in the chocolate cake I knew at once, that I need to bake it. Can you actually taste the yogurt ? None, perhaps because I added dark chocolate on top of the cocoa powder. I found the recipe in the small recipe booklet called "Den økologiske bagebog volume 2", which I got at the baking event "Rent Mel i Posen".

When I was reading thorough the recipe, I noticed, that the milk, yogurt and butter should be heated up together in a cooking pot. Yogurt is very sensitive to heat, as it is an acidic dairy product, so the milk protein will curdle, when exposed to heat. I decided to try it, as the amount of the butter is very high, so I thought, that the high fat content could help to protect the milk protein. Even though I heat the mass gently up, the milk mass will curdle, so I had to start all over again. In my second attempt I decided to add the yogurt in the sugar-egg mass, and only heat up the milk and butter.

Perhaps the person, who created this recipe like a curdle and sandy texture in their cake ? However, I really dislike such sandiness !!!!

The cake is not raising a lot during the baking process, as no baking powder is added into the recipe. If you like more normal cake structure instead of brownie-style I would recommend, that you add baking powder into the cake.

Anyway, I like the use of yogurt in this cake, as it is another way of using up yogurt getting old in your refrigerator. And I will bake another version of this cake without the chocolate and adding in some baking powder.

Brownie-style cake with yogurt:

• 6 eggs
• 500 g sugar
• 150 g milk
• 150 g yogurt
• 250 g butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 400 g wheat flour
• 75 g cocoa powder - without sugar
• 1 orange - without peel, diced into smaller pieces
• 100 g dark chocolate - roughly chopped

1. Heat up the fan oven to 180'C.
2. First whip eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar into a foamy mass. 
3. Meanwhile heat up the milk and butter in a cooking water, until the butter is melted.
4. Add in the yogurt into the sugar-egg mass, while whipping.
5. Afterwards slowly add in the melted butter-milk liquid, while whipping. Keep whipping for another 2 minutes on speed 3.
6. Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together. Add it into the cake mass, while whipping. 
7. Also add in the orange and chocolate pieces Stop the whipping, when the flour-cocoa is mixed in. 
8. Cover either one big baking tray ( 30 x 40 cm) or two smaller baking trays with baking paper.
9. Pour in the cake dough into the baking trays.
10. Bake the cake at 180'C for approx. 35 minutes.
11. Cool down the cake, before you cut and serve it.

ROAD RUNNER

I keep on juice my way through the various JuiceSelvKasse, which i received on regular basis from Årstiderne. This time I have enjoying a juice called ROAD RUNNER, which is made from redbeets, grape fruit and pineapple. The taste is very good, and you feel how you become more enerigized as you drink this juice

ROAD RUNNER: - 3-4 servings
ORANGE DREAM: - 3-4  servings

• 4 redbeets 
• 2 grape fruits - without peel
• ½-1 pineaplle - without peel

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. 
3. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)
4. Store remaining juice in the refrigerator.

Baking event "Rent Mel i Posen" at Miele

Recently I participated in a baking event at the local Miele Gallery showroom located here in Vejle called "Rent Mel i Posen". I find it useful and also very interesting from time to time to get a professional approach to baking, as bread baking is still an area, where I can learn much more. 

Before we started on the actually baking process, we got three introductions: one on the Miele ovens, one to the flour produced by Mejnerts (including the usual "female approach" on "how good we are behaving and becoming CO2 friendly" !!!) and finally from the baker on using sour doughs/yeast, raising time and the baking process.

The bakers had brought two different dough with them, which they would baked in different Miele ovens (I did not get a clear picture with me from this part of event). Meanwhile, we were divided into group of two persons, which would make the same doughs, which we later would take home with us.

Also the event managers were very good in interacting with us during the dough preparation, where we could plenty of questions and get some more finger touch feeling on, when the dough was kneading enough in the kitchen stand-alone mixers. 

While we were making the various dough we were also served wine and water, which we could enjoy during the dough preparation.

We had approx 2 hours, where we could make various doughs. Afterwards we would take the doughs home with us.

After the baking of the breads and snacks, we would sit down to enjoy the baked goods together with sausages and cheese, which we would have the finished talk around bread baking.

We finished of with taking home all the prepared doughs, any open leftovers of the various flours used. We also got a "goodie-bag" with different flours, dry yeast and a small recipe booklet.

I also managed to get some of the used sour dough from the baker, as my own attempt on making sour dough has not been very successful. The sour dough from the baker has a very fine apple-like flavour, so now I am doing my best to keep this new room mate happy feeding it with flour and water every second day.

I had a great evening :-) so I will for sure come bake for another event in the Miele kitchen.

Garden in Spring dress

The garden is bursting of Spring here in May. My two apple trees are in full blossom, I really like this sight of apple trees in fully covered by light red floweres :-)

Both the raspberry and rhubarbs have turned their spot in my garden into a green jungle. So I can again start using my own rhubarbs for new creations in my kitchen.

While I was busy yesterday in my garden using the sunny weather to full extent (before the rain of today arrived), Hannibal the Cat as usually has making himself useful in a warm sunny spot.

The potatoes have also made their presence noticeable by putting the first small green tops above ground.

Ramson salt

One of my good rowing friends talked, that she had made ramson salt and as she was able to supply me with fresh ramson from a nearby forest, I went searching some ramson salt on google. After having looked into several recipes, I decided to use this recipe on ramson salt by Joanna´s kreative madhjørne as inspiration.

When you are drying the salt in the oven, the entire house was smelling of garlic !!!


Ramson salt:

• 100 g ramson leaves
• 500 g rough salt

1. Start by cleaning the ramson leaves in water. Remove excess water using a salad spinner.
2. Blend ramson leaves and salt together in a blender. Place the ramson leaves next to blender knifes, as the salt will cover the knifes and making it impossible to blend it into a homogeneous mass.
3. Place the homogeneous mass on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
4. Dry the salt in the oven 50'C (fan) for 2-3 hours.
5. After drying and cooling down, I used a mortar for breaking up the salt, before storing it in airtight glass containers.

Outcome of ramson day

"Ramson family picture"

What is the outcome of my ramson creation day yesterday ?

I have made:

• ramson salt
• ramson oil
• ramson pesto with walnuts
• ramson pesto with pine nuts.

A little tip on how to keep the coffee filter fixed during the second/final clearing of the ramson oil. Use a rubber band for keeping the coffee filter in place.

I taste some butter with ramson flavour yesterday, when I was dining out. Do you have an idea how to make ramson butter ? The taste was amazing.

Ramson day in the kitchen

A good rowing friend of mine has a found a spot in the forest, where she picks ramson for herself. She has been so kind to "take on orders" for my kitchen as well on her ramson picking tours. So I am now the lucky "owner" of two big bags of ramson over (100 g ramson in each bag).

Today it is a very rainful day here in Vejle, so instead of being depressed about not being able to be outside in my spring green garden, I enjoy some quality time inside in the kitchen turning all this ramson into various tasteful goodies :-)

 I have already made ramson salt ramsson salt, and now I am busy making ramson oil as well as ramson pesto with walnuts & ramson pesto with pine nuts.

Wish you a nice week-end in your own kitchen :-)

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi is another great breakfast start for the weekend. You can easily adjust the texture and taste to your very own preference by adding in more/less agave syrup and/or more/less yogurt.

Mango Lassi: 1-2 servings

• 1 mango - peeled and stone removed
• 1½-2 dl yogurt
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup - optional

1. Blend mango, yogurt and agave syrup together.
2. Cool down the lassi either by storage for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator or add ice cubes.
3. Serve the lassi in a glass.
4. Enjoy a good start to the day :-)

Welcome to May - Welcome to Spring

Welcome to May - Welcome to Spring

Here in May everything is turning greener and grenner day by day. Most of the tulips are just on the step of getting into full bloom, so I have to keep an open on Hannibal the Cat and his bad habit of bitting of the tulip heads.

Here in May ramson and elderflowers will be taking over my kitchen, when I turn these ingredients found in nature into wonderful tasting products. In this connection I would like to share some of my classic recipes with these ingredients as key ingredients

Elder flower cordial



Elder flower tea



Ramson oli



Ramson pesto