DAYDREAMER

Again a JuiceSelvKasse has found it´s way to my kitchen door, so I can indulgent myself with freshly pressed juices :-) The first juice is called DAYDREAMER, which has a good balance between freshness, fruity flavour profile and sweetness, so all in all a great juice to be enjoyed.

I decided to juice the orange without peel, as I do not like the bitterness coming from juicing too much like, as the lemons are juiced with it´s peel on.

DAYDREAMER: 4 servings

• 1 broccoli
  
• 2 oranges without peel
• 2 lemons with peel
• 4 apples
• ½ knoll of fresh ginger
• 2 squashes

1. Clean all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together.
3. Enjoy and store the rest of the juice cold in the refrigerator for 1-1½ day.

Hot-cross buns with tea and lemon - Easter Calendar 2016

Today is Easter Monday or second Easter day, which is the the final Easter vacation day here in Denmark. So tomorrow the normal working day starts again for many of us.

But lets enjoy this afternoon reading a book, drinking tea and eating hot-cross buns, which is a classic Easter bun. I have located this recipe in Country Living, issue April 2016. And I have made no modifications to the recipe.

Hot-cross buns with tea and lemon: - 9 buns

• 100 g currants
• 125 ml hot (strong) Earl Grey tea
• 200 ml milk
• 20 g yeast
• 50 g sugar
• 75 g butter - melted
• 500 g wheat flour
• 2 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon cardamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 25-40 g candied orange peel
• 1 organic lemon - only the zest.
• 30 g plain flour mixed into paste with 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 tablespoon mixed into 1 tablespoon boiling water

1. Soak the currants in the tea in a bowl the night over or minimum 4 hours.
2. Weigh all the ingredients into the mixing bowl of a stand alone mixer.
3. Knead the dough for 2 minutes on speed 1.
4. Knead the dough for 7 minutes on speed 3.
5. Let the dough raise for 1½ hours.
6. Knead the dough.
7. Divide the dough into 9 portions, which is sharped into ball shape.
8. Place the bun pieces on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
9. Cover the buns with a tea towel, and let the buns raise for 20-30 minutes.
10. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
11. Put the flour paste into a piping bag and pipe crosses onto each bun.
12. Bake the buns in the upper part of the oven at 200'C for 25-30 minutes.
13. Transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool down.
14. While the buns are still hot brush them with the sugar glazing.

Cherry ice cream - Easter Calendar 2016

Today it is Easter Sunday, which very often is celebrate with a big Easter lunch with friends and family. As dessert for such an Easter lunch you could serve cherry ice cream.

If you think why cherry ice cream, when is has a very simple explanation, as I still had some cherry sauce left from Christmas. And here in Denmark we say, the Christmas lasts until Easter, so this is an excellent occasion for using the remaining Christmas ingredients for Easter eating.

It is important that you do not add the cherry sauce to the ice cream base before, as this will give a drop in pH, which when the milk is heated will curdle the milk. Therefore my first attempt on making cherry ice cream ended up in the kitchen drain !!! The cherry sauce did not taste acdic, when I taste it prior to adding to the milk base, before heating, but apparantly the cherry sauce was more acidic than expected by me.

Cherry ice cream:

• 630 g whole milk, 3-3.5% fat
• 39 g skimmed milk powder
• 96 g sugar
• 32 g glucose syrup as powder
• 6 g ice cream stabiliser
• 1 vanilla pod - only the vanilla corn
• 200 g cherry sauce - blended.

1. Dry-mix all the powder ingredients. Pout them into the milk, as the milk is whipped.
2. Pour the milk base into the a cooking pot.
3. Heat the ice cream mix over medium heat until hot, but not boiling.
4. Pour the ice cream mix into a plastic container with a lid on.
5. Cool down the ice cream mix in the refrigerator, let the mix stand for minimum 4 hours or night over.
6. Add in the blended cherry sauce.
7. Whip the ice cream mix prior to freezing it.
8. Pour the mix into the ice cream machine and freeze it into ice cream, which takes around 30-40 minutes.
9. Store the ice cream in the freezer.
10. Serve and enjoy.

Wafers with lemon and liquorice

Today it is Easter Saturday, which is the third day in the Danish Easter vacation. Today we should enjoy some more wafers either for dessert.

Again today I have been testing as well as enjoying my new kitchen equipment (Tefal Snack Collection). The selected ingredient today is lemon together with liquorice (classic Danish flavour  combination), as I have to make wafers using one or more of  the assigned ingredients in form of lemon, cinnamon, apple, cumin and Greek yogurt.
As provider of the liquorice I used a combination of dark muscovado sugar, which has liquorice notes as well as liquid liquorice flavour. Liquorice powder could have been used as well.

The taste of lemon and liquorice is not very dominate, it is more to the delicate side, so for more taste dominance the level of lemon peel and liquorice flavour should be increased.

Wafers with lemon and liquorice: - 5 wafers

• 250 g milk
• 1 eggs
• 5 g baking powder
• 50 g butter - melted
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 150 g (cake) wheat flour
• ½ organic lemon - only the zest
• 3 drops of liquorice flavour

1. Add all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
2. Add egg, melted butter and milk into the mixing bowl, while whipping.
3. Add in extra liquorice flavour, if needed, and whip again.
4. Let the wafer dough rest cold for 1 hour.
5. Heat up the wafer equipment.
6. Pour 2-3 spoonful of the wafer dough in the wafer equipment. Distribute the dough evenly.
7. Bake the wafer for approx 4 minutes.
8. Place the baked wafer on a oven grid, so the steam can disappeared, which ensures, that the wafer will become crisp.
9. Serve with ice cream and/or jam.

Vafler med citron og lakrids

I dag er det påske lørdag, hvilket er tredie dag i den danske påskeferie. Og i dag skal vi ligeledes nyde nogle vafler til dessert.

Så i dag har jeg atter testet mit nye køkken legetøj i form af Tefal Snack Collection. Og som udvalgt ingedient har jeg valgt citron sammen med lakrids (klassisk dansk smagskombination) ud fra listen over bestemt ingredienser i form af citron, kanel, æbel, spidskommen og græsk yoghurt.

Til at give lakridssmag har jeg valgt at arbejde med en blanding af mørk muscovado sukker, idet denne sukkarart har lakridser noter, sammen med flydende lakrids aroma. Du skal ligeedes anvende lakridspulver i stedet for.

Smagen af citron og lakrids er ikke specielt dominerede, men mere til den delikate side. Så hvis du ønsker mere smag af henholdsvis citron og lakrids, så skal du øge doseringerne heraf.

Vafler med citron og lakrids: - 5 vafler

• 250 g mælk
• 1 æg
• 5 g bagepulver
• 50 g smør - smeltet
• 100 g mørk muscovado sukker
• 150 g (kage) hvedemel
• ½ økologisk citron - kun skallen
• 3 dråber lakrids aroma

1. Tilsæt alle de tørre ingredienser til en røreskål.
2. Tilsæt æg, smeltet smør og mælk til røreskålen, mens du pisker.
3. Tilsæt lakrids aroma og pisk igen.
4. Lad veffeldejen hvilke koldt i køleskabet i 1 time.
5. Opvarm vaffeludstyret.
6. Hæld 2-3 skefulde vaffeldej på vaffeljernet, fordel ligeligt.
7. Bag vaflen i ca. 4 minutter.
8. Placere den bagte vaffel på en ovnrist, så dampen kan forlade vaflen, hvorved vaflen forbliver sprød.
9. Servere med is og/eller marmelade.

Belgian Wafers - Easter Calender 2016

Today it is Good Friday (Langfredag) being the second day of the Danish Easter vacation. And it is also the Wafer Day being the 25 March. Here I have decided to bake Belgian wafers a la Maden i mit liv using my latest addition to my kitchen in form of Tefal Snack Collection. I have made no modification to the recipe, I will leave this for another time.

Belgian Wafers a la Maden i mit liv: -12 wafers

• 150 g milk
• 25 g yeast
• 3 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt
• 350 g (cake) wheat flour
• 125 butter - melted
• 100 g brown sugar
• 100 g sugar

1. Mix the milk and yeast together in the mixing bowl on the stand alone mixer.
2. Add in the eggs, vanilla sugar, salt and wheat flout. Mix everything together on speed 2 for 2 minutes.
3. Cover the mixing bowl with clean tea towel, and let the wafer dough raise 30-45 minutes.
4. Add in the melted butter, brown and plain sugar, while mixing on speed 2 for approx. 2-3 minutes.
5. Cover the mixing bowl again with the clean tea towel, and let wafer dough raise for another 15 minutes.
6. Heat up the wafer equipment.
7. Pour 2-3 spoonful of the wafer dough in the wafer equipment. Distribute the dough evenly.
8. Bake the wafer for approx 4 minutes.
9. Place the baked wafer on a oven grid, so the steam can disappeared, which ensures, that the wafer will become crisp.
10. Serve the maple syrup, icing sugar and/or ice cream. 

Easter bun - Easter Calendar 2016

Today it is Maundy Thursday (Skærtorsdag), which is a public holiday here in Denmark and starting off the Danish Easter vacation with 5 days off from work. And at the same time it is the start for my little  Easter Calendar 2016, where I every Easter day will be sharing a new recipe having a relation to Easter of some kind.

As alternative to making home-made Easter eggs from marzipand and choclate, I decided to use these Easter eggs ingredients (chocolate and marzipan) for making bun.

Easter buns: - 12 buns

• 200 g milk
• 25 g yeast - in small lumps
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 100 g dairy whipping cream - 35-40% fat
• 100 g butter - melted and cooled down
• 500 g wheat flour
• 50 g sugar
• 80 g milk chocolate - medium chopped
• 80 g marzipan - roughly grated

1. Melt the butter in a cooking pot. Pour in the milk to cold down the butter, so the yeast can be mixed in. 
2. Add this liquid into a mixing bowl, agitate slowly, while a dry-mix of sugar, salt and vanilla sugar is added in as well for 1 minute on speed 1.
3. Pour in the dairy cream together into the liquid phase.
4. Afterwards add in the wheat flour, knead for 8 minutes on speed 2.
5. Add the milk chocolate and marzipan, knead for 2 minutes on speed 2.
6. Place the bun dough in air-tight container, while it raise in warm surroundings for 2 hours.
7. Weigh the bun dough in a size of 90 g, which is placed in heart sharped siliconeform.
8. Raise the buns for another 30 minutes. I do it by place the buns inside the oven, where I place the buns over a tray filled with 1-1½ l boiling water.
9. Heat the (conventional) oven to 210'C
10. Glaze the buns with milk
11. Bake at 210'C for 15-20 minutes in the upper part of the oven
12. Cool down.
13. Enjoy :-)

Broccoli and chicken in curry sauce

I noticed this recipe on broccoli and chicken in curry sauce in the weekly magazine (issue 08/2016), and when I had broccoli in my weekly vegetable box looking into my kitchen asking to be used, it was an easy decision to cook this dish. I have made no modification to this dish.

Another time I would replace the pasta with rice instead of, as I find paste and curry sauce to be a strange taste match. Another would also be to boil the chicken in some vegetable stock instead of plain water.


Broccoli and chicken in curry sauce: - 4 servings

• 1 broccoli
• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 onion - medium-fine chopped
• 1 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
• 15 g butter
• 2 dl water
• 350 g pasta
• 2½ dl dairy whipping cream - 35-40% fat
• 1-2 tablespoons carry
• salt & pepper for seasoning

1. Divide the broccoli into small buckets (the stock can be use in home-made juice). Place the broccoli buckets in a strainer.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes.
3. Place the chicken breasts in the frying pan, brown the skin on each side.
4. Add water (vegetable stock) to the frying pan. Boil the chicken breasts on each side for 5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile boil the pasta.
6. Remove the chicken from water part.
7. Add the whipping cream and curry to the frying pan. Cook up and reduce slightly the volume.
8. Drain the cooked paste into the strainer containing the broccoli.
9. Serve and enjoy.

Wafers with cinnamon and apple syrup

I have been baking the first wafers on my new kitchen equipment (Tefal Snack Collection). I started out with an easy recipe modification using a recipe from the equipment. The modification is, that replaced the vanilla pod with cinnamon, so I could get started on the assignment of using one of more of the following ingredients in form of lemon, cinnamon, apple, cumin and Greek yogurt.

The amount of added cinnamon fills the kithcen with a lovely flavour during the baking process. In order to tick of another ingredients from the list, I served these wafers with apple syrup.

I still have to get acquainted with the baking time, when making wafers, so I was targeting  approx 2-3 minutes in baking time per wafers, which could be adjusted to 3-4 minutes. However, it is not funny eating wafers with black colour.


Wafers with cinnamon and apple syrup:  - 2 servings

• 60 g (cake) wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 egg yolks
• 125 ml milk
• 50 g butter - melted
• 2 egg whites - whipped

1. Whip the egg white stiff.
2. Melt the butter and mix in the cold milk.
3. Add flour, sugar, cinnamon and egg yolks into a mixing bowl.
4. Pour the milk-butter liquid into the mixing bowl, while whipping. whip the mass homogeneously.
5. Gentle stir the whipped egg white in the wafer dough.
6. Heat up the wafer equipment.
7. Bake each wafer approx 3-4 minutes.
8. Served at once together with apple syrup.

Vafler med kanel og æbelsirup

Så har jeg været i gang med anvende den senste tilføjelse til køkkenudstyr i form af Tefal Snack Collection. For at få kendskab til mulighederne med dette Tefal udstyr startede jeg ud med at afprøve en medfølgende recept. Jeg lavede dog et enkelt ændring, idet jeg udskiftet vanille med kanel. Årsagen til at kanel blev valgt, at jeg som "betaling" for dette Tefal udstyr er, at jeg skal lave minimum 3 vaffelopskrifter, som alle inkluderer en eller flere af følgende ingredienser: citron, kanel, æble, spidskommen og græsk yoghurt.

Med den pågældende mængde kanel bredte der sig en dejlig duft af kanel i køkkenet i forbindelse med bagning af vaflerne. Jeg valgte at servere vaflerne med æbelsirup, så jeg kunne få anvendte endnu en ingredients fra ingredienslisten.

Jeg skal arbejde yderligere med at finde den rette bagetid for vaflerne. Jeg startede med at bage i 2-3 minutter, men jeg øgede efterhånden bagetiden til 3-4 minutter. Det er bedre at starte med en lavere bagetid end at få bagt vafler med sort kulør.

Vafler med kanel og æbelsirup:  - 2 personer

• 60 g hvedemel
• 1 teske sukker
• 1/4 teske kanel
• 2 æggeblommer
• 125 ml mælk
• 50 g smør - smeltet
• 2 æggehvider - pisket til fast skum

1. Pisk æggehviderne stive.
2. Smelt smørret and bland det sammen med den kolde mælk.
3. Tilsæt mel, sukker, kanel og æggeblommer til en skål.
4. Tilsæt smør-mælkeblandingen til skålen med de øvrige ingredienser, mens der piskes. Pisk blandingen til en ensartet masse.
5. Rørt de piskede æggehvide forsigt i vaffeldejen.
6. Varm vaffeljernet up.
7. Bag hver enkelt vaffel i 3-4 minutter.
8. Serve med det samme sammen med æbelsirup.

Tefal Snack Collection - kitchen equipment 27

In February I was contacted, if I would like to receive a Tefal Snack Collection with three different insets. The insets stakes for the Club Sandwich and Belgian waffles were standard, while I could choose between the insets for bricelets, heart sharped waffles or thin waffles. I chose the inset for thin wafers, as I imagine that these thin wafers can both roll and stacked on top of each other for make a dessert / cake in several layers.

As "payment" for this equipment do I need to make a minimum of 3 waffle recipes, all of which include one or more of the following ingredients: lemon, cinnamon, apple, cumin and Greek yogurt.

Waffle Day the 25 March 25 comes original from Sweden, where this name is named Vårfrudagen (Our Lady´s Day), which somehow resemble waffle day ! Vårfrudagen is celebrated the 25 March, which is nine months before Christmas. There is no connection between waffles and vårfruedag besides from confusion.

So keep an eye on my blog in the near future, I will be testing and sharing various recipes using having waffers as theme in both savoury and and sweet version.

Tefal Snack Collection - køkken udstyr 27

Jeg blev i februar kontaktet, hvorvidt jeg kunne tænke mig at modtage Tefal Snack Collection med tre forskellige indsatser. Indsatserne til Club Sandwich og belgiske vafler var standard, mens jeg kunne vælge imellem indsaster til henholdvis bricelets, hjertevafler og tynde vafler. Jeg valgte indsatsen til tynde vafler, idet jeg forestiller mig, at disse tynde vafler både kan rulle og bygges op til en dessert/kage i flere lag.

Som "betaling" for dette udstyr skal jeg lave minimum 3 vaffelopskrifter, som alle inkluderer en eller flere af følgende ingredienser: citron, kanel, æble, spidskommen og græsk yoghurt.

Vaffeldagen d. 25. marts kommer oprindeligt fra Sverige, hvor dagens navn (Vårfrudagen) kunne minde lidt om vaffeldagen (måske ved hurtig eller uklar udtale). Vårfrudagen fejres d. 25. marts, som er 9 måneder før jul. Der er ingen forbindelse imellem vafler og vårfruedag. 

Så hold øje med min blog i den kommende tid, hvor jeg vil afprøve og dele diverse opskrifter med vafler med jer både i salt og sød version.

Barleyotto in spring style

Another great tasting recipe on barleyotto, which I have located in the weekly magazine "Søndag" (issue 09/2016). I think of barleyotto as the Nordic version of risotto, as most of the ingredients are identical (expected that the rice is exchanged with barley grains) and the cooking process in the exactly the same.

I could no find any tails from Norway lobster in my local supermarket I decided to use crayfish instead. Instead of asparagus broccoli you could instead of use "plain" green asparagus.

Barleyotto in spring style: - 2-3 servings

• 1 onion - medium chopped
• 25 g butter
• 150 g barley grains
• 125 ml white wine
• 6 dl vegetable stock
• 20 g butter
• 170 g drained crayfish
• 200 g asparagus broccoli - medium chopped
• 6 stems of spring onions - medium chopped
• 50 g Parmesan cheese - finely grated

1. Heat up the butter in a medium-large cooking pot.
2. Fry the onion and barley grains, while stirring.
3. Let the barley grains soak up the liquid remaining in the cooking pot.
4. Add in the white wine. Stir regular.
5. When the white wine is disappeared from the cooking pot start to add in the vegetable stock little by little, 1 dl each time. Keep stirring.
6. When almost all the vegetable stock is added to the barleyotto, it is time to fry the rest of the ingredients in a frying pan.
7. Heat up the butter.
8. Add in the crayfish and roast them in the butter.
9. Add in the asparagus broccoli and spring onions.
10. Fry everything for 3-5 minutes.
11. Stir the crayfish and vegetable together with the barleyotto part.
12. Afterwards stir in the grated Parmesan cheese
13. pea together with the last part of the vegetable stock.
14. Enjoy.

High tea at Gasfabrikken, Horsens

Sunday afternoon my good friends in Horsens and I enjoyed high tea at a new restaurant in Horsens by the name of Gasfabrikken. They are are serving their version of high tea with a Danish modern twist ! The high tea menu follows the English style of sandwich, scones and sweet treats served with either tea of coffee (!!!! yes, you are reading correctly coffee, but this is Denmark with almost world record in coffee consumption). And together with the tea/coffee plain water is also served !

Part of the high tea menu is, that you are served all the tea and coffee, which you would like to have, this is great :-) And with in the tea you can change tea from time to time, which is fantastic as you do not have to "stick" to one tea through the entire high tea.

The high menu is made up from:

• sandwiches - we were served ham with vegetable mixture
• scones in square sharp (unusual form, but very inspiring) served together raspberry jam and lemon cream
• lemon pie
• brownie
• cookie with dark chocolate

For high tea you have to pay 150 DKK (approx 20 €) including all the coffee and tea, which you can drink. We were served 4 pots of three different teas and 1 pot of coffee. The tea were served hot each time :-)

SPICY CABBAGE

In my latest JuiceSelvKassen I got the ingredients for the juice called SPICY CABBAGE. I was pleasant surprised by the taste of this juice, which was quiet fruity in taste. And the taste did not turn bitter after storage in the refrigerator. So all in all a good juice to enjoy :-)

SPICY CABBAGE: 4 servings

• 1 white cabbage
• 2 oranges without peel
• 4 apples
• 2 pears
• ½ knoll of fresh ginger

1. Clean all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together.
3. Enjoy and store the rest of the juice cold in the refrigerator for 1-1½ day.

Puff pastry with apple, marzipan and white chocolate

An easy sweet treat, which takes no time to make, if you have some ready-to-use puff pastry. I have locate the recipe in the weekly magazine "Søndag", issue 09/2016.

The combination of apple, marzipan and white chocolate works perfect with each other with freshness from the apple, structure from the marzipan and sweetness from the white chocolate.
The inner part can be made from various combinations.

Puff pastry with apple, marzipan and white chocolate: - 8 pieces

• 1 pack of ready-to-use puff pastry
• 50 g marzipan - roughly grated
• 1 apple - finely chopped
• 50 g white chocolate - roughly grated
• 1 egg - whipped together for glazing purpose
• icing sugar for decoration

1. Heat up the oven to 190'C.
2. Punch 16 circles with a diameter for 8 cm from the puff pastry dough.
3. Mix the apple pieces, grated marzipan's and white chocolate into a homogeneously looking mass.
4. Glaze 8 of the dough circles with whipped egg.
5. Place the filling of apple, marzipan and white chocolate in a pile on top of the egg glazed dough circles.
6. Cover the filling with another dough circle, pressing the edges together using a fork.
7. Glaze the top dough circle with whipped egg.
8. Bake the puff pastry in the upper of the oven at 190'C for 10-15 minutes.
9. Prior to serving sprinkle the puff pastry with icing sugar.

Afternoon tea at Salotorget

During a recent business trip to Finland I noticed, that afternoon tea was served at Salutorget. So after a working day full of customer meetings I decided it was time to enjoy some tea and refill my head with new energy.

The afternoon tea menu is served between 14-18 o'clock and it has a very classic English profile with it´s:

• Finger Sandwiches in form of toast Skagen (scrimps), cucumber with cream cheese and smoked turkey and horseradish
• “Gudbrandsdalen” cheese quiche
• Scones with home-made raspberry Jam, lemon curd and vanilla cream
• Yorkshire fruit cake
• Biscuits & Sweets

The serving, the entire menu and the location is very good looking. However, I found that the temperature of the served tea temperature was dropping to fast, so the black tea was too cold eating the menu.

The taste and texture of the food was to the plain side, so nothing exceptional.

For this afternoon tea I paid 30 € incl one glass of sparkling wine. I will give this experience 2½ stars.

This upcoming Sunday I will be enjoying high tea at Gasfabrikken, Horsens together with my good friends from Horsens. I hope I will be served hot tea at this high tea !

March equals Spring and Easter

March equals Spring and Easter

Even though the outdoor temperatures still are to the low side here in beginning of March, the amount of daylight easily brings Spring into your mind. Inside as well as outside various spring bulbs are pushing their heads higher and higher into the air.

Along Spring this month of March is bringing both Easter (24-28 March) and Waffle Day (25 March), so I think I am able to promise you plenty of sweet treats, waffles and something with eggs and chocolate :-)

Last month focus on Shrovetide and love resulted in 7 blog posts fitting with theme (Shrovetide bun with raspberry and marzipan, Shrovetide bun with liquorice touch, Shrovetide bun with cherry and marzipan, Valentine buns with raspberry and white chocolate, Valentine scones with Sweet Love, Valentine fudge & Valentine Sparkle)

So lets start this first Spring month of March with a little inspiration for you and your kitchen in form of waffle. If you should have any ideas, which I could use for the upcoming Waffle Day and/or Easter, please feel free to leave a comment :-)

Classic Easter egg

Vanilla waffles