Tea shopping in Paris during Springtime

This week I was on a short business trip to Paris, where I was so lucky, that I had time for both some shopping as well as seeing two art museums.

As usual I went tea shopping actually at two various shops. I went to my "usual" tea shop Kusmi at Avenue Niel, I brought a brand new tea version, which was launched last week,  in form of AquaRosa (hibiscus, apple, red berries, blackberries, mulberry leaves, elderberry, flavour). The person in the tea shop told, that this tea would be great for ice tea, and he really made a great effort to explain me how to make ice tea compared to plain tea, despite his less fluent English, many thanks to him doing this :-)

Also the tea BB Detox (green tea, maté, rooibos, guarana, dandelion and scent of grapefruit), Tsarevna (limited edition black tea, spices, orange) and finally short bread made with Anastasia found it´s way into my shopping bag.

Ladurée is also selling tea besides from all their many cakes and macarons. Instead of buying the tea in at their shop in Paris, it is actually easier and cheaper to do the shopping at a small Ladurée shop inside the airport. Here I Marie Antoinette (black tea, pieces of orange and pineapple, rose petals, aromas (orange, honey, lemon, lime, mandarin, grapefruit)) and Joséphine ( black tea, lemon and orange peels, aromas (mandarin, grapefruit, lemon, jasmine)).

So I think you can say, that I been shopping royal teas :-)

SPRING CLEAN

From time to time I make a clean up of the various vegetables and fruits, which I have in my refrigerator and kitchen and turn all these left overs in a juicer. This is a very way of getting something useful out of something, which perhaps otherwise would have landed in the waste bin.

I added into some apples to get some more sweetness and fruitiness in the juice. If you prefer a less sweet juice you could make this juice without the apples. I did it like this, that I first took a sip of the juice, and when I decided to add in some apples into the juicer.

SPRING CLEAN: - 2 servings

• 150 g spinach
• 1 cucumber
• 7 kiwis without the ends
• one large handful of parsley
• 2 apples

1. Clean all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. Juice the spinach and parsley in between the kiwis
3. Enjoy 
4. Can be store in the refrigerator for 1-1½ day.

Hveder med purpur hvede og surdel - Wheat buns with purple wheat and sour dough for Great Prayer Day

This evening is the evening before Store Bededag (Great Payer Day) (a Danish religious holiday celebrated on the 4th Friday after Easter). And it is the peak evening for enjoying roasted "hveder" - wheat buns with cardamon.

Having discovered the great taste of home-made "hveder", where is no turning back for commercial baked "hveder". The combination of freshly grounded cardamon covering your kitchen in wonderful flavour and eating freshly baked/roasted buns is a combination made in heaven !!!

I have been using this recipe on hveder for Store Bededag from last as starting point with a few modification. As today has been a busy day for me at work I decided to cold raise the dough making the dough this morning before going to work, therefore I reduce the amount of yeast. I also decided to add in some sour dough, as I have sour dough standing ready for use in my refrigerator. And finally I decided to replace the whole grain wheat flour with purple wheat flour.

These wheat buns are also being forwarded for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats having the theme of  local regional recipes. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

"Hveder" with purple wheat and sour dough": - 25 buns

• 100 g butter - melted
• 250 g water
• 250 milk
• 8-10 g yeast
• 50 g sour dough - optional
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cardamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 300 g purple wheat flour
• 700 g wheat flour

1. Add melted butter, milk, water, sour dough and yeast in the bowl on the mixer. Mix slowly (speed 1) for ½ minute.
2. Afterwards add in eggs, salt, sugar, vanilla sugar and cardamon. mix slowly (speed 1) for ½ minute.
3. Pour in the flour, continue to knead the dough on speed 1 for 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough in bowl with a closing lid, let the dough raise for 8-10 hours.
5. Divide the dough in equal sizes of 80-90 g. Place the bun pieces in a baking tray covered with baking paper.
6. Place the baking tray with dough in the oven without heat together with another tray filled with boiling water. Let the buns raise and "grow" together in the steam for 30 minutes.
7. Take water and bun dough out of the oven.
8. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
9. Bake the buns in the baking tray at 200'C for 30 minutes placed in the middle part of the oven.
10. Cold down the buns
11. Cut the wheat bun into 2 pieces - lets those roast at 200'C for 6-8 minutes
12. Served hot or cold together with butter - plenty of butter, cheese and some fantastic home-made jam.

Cooking pot bread with purple wheat

Recently I found some wheat flour called purple flour in my local supermarket. Reading on the flour bag I got the impression, that this flour would give a purple colour to a baked bread, even used in combination with plain wheat flour. Well either I have different opinion about how purple looks as a colour or I am colour blind. I did not get a bread with any purple hint to it´s colour !!!

I will give it another try using only this purple whole grain wheat flour.

If you try to get the hot bread out of the cooking pot you will end up with a broken bread !! so be patient.

Cooking pot bread with purple wheat: - 1 bread

• 3-4 g fresh yeast
• 50 g sour dough - optional
• 380 g water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 200 g purple whole grain wheat flour
• 300 g wheat flour

1. Stir yeast, sour dough and water together in a big mixing bowl together with salt and sugar. 
2. Afterwards add the two flours and stir very well with a cooking spoon. 
3. Rise the dough to rise at room temperature overnight - minimum 12 hours.
4. Take the dough out off the mixing bowl, move 1/3 of the dough in over the rest of the dough, keep repeating this process until you have a small size of the dough.
5. Clean the mixing bowl for any dough leftovers.
6. Glaze the dough bowl with oil.
7. Place the dough again in a clean dough, let is rise again for 2 hours.
8. Heat up the cast iron cooking pot (2 l) incl. lid on a rack in the lower part of the oven at 250°C (fan oven) for ½ hour.
9. Remove the hot cast iron cooking from the oven, remove the lid. Cover the bottom of the cooking pot with oat flakes, as this will prevent the dough from sticking to firm to the surface.
10. Place the dough in the hot cast iron cooking pot.
11. Put the lid back on. Place the cooking pot in the lower part of the oven, let it bake at 250°C for 25 minutes.
12. Remove the lid from the cast iron cooking pot, and let the bread bake at 225°C for another 15 minutes. 
13. Let the bread cool down in the cooking pot, before you try to remove the bread.

HOT ´N´ SPICY

I think it is the first time, that I have been juicing with chili in my juicer. I did not find this specific juice more spicy than usual, as I think I have gotten used to the presence of ginger in freshly pressed juice. However, a good friend of mine had something of a wake-up call, when she took her first sip of this juice :-)

If you want an extra hot juice, when you can increase the amount of chili !

HOT ´N´ SPICY: - 4 servings

• ½ red chili
• 1000 g carrots
• 4 apples
• 2 oranges without peel
• ½-1 knoll of ginger
• 2 pepper fruits without top and seeds

1. Clean all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. Juice the chili an ginger in between the apples.
3. Enjoy
4. Can be stored cold in the refrigerator for 1-1½ day.

Stay at Strandhotel Glüecksburg

As a Christmas present for my mother I gave her stay at Strandhotel Glüecksburg, which is located at Flensburg Fjord quiet close to the city of Flensburg. Such a gift is a great goft in many ways, as my mother has something to look forward too after getting the gift, something to talk about both before hand and afterwards.

The Standhotel is located next to the Fjord of Flensburg with a great view over the fjord to Denmark. It is a very stylish hotel in some great surroundings, where you are served excellent food both for dinner as well as for breakfast.

We combined the trip to Glüeckburg with a trip to ourlet center in Neumünster, lunch at Historischer Krug in Oversee and a shopping tour inside the lovely town of Flensburg.

Lunch at Historischer Krug in Oversee

When my mother and I from time to time are in Germany on one of our shopping expeditions we have started to eat lunch at Historischer Krug in Oversee close to Flensburg. 

The place looks like a classic Danish inn. The entire building oozes from the good old days. The inn parlour is full of old stuff on the shelves, build-inn wine shelves, old beer mugs etc. And the inn still claims to have royal privileges, actual Danish royal privileges, despite the part of South Schleswig was taken by Germany in 1864 and Germany is not a kingdom !!!

A main course for lunch from the weekly menu costs 12 €, and this is good deal. Last time my mother and I enjoy white fish served with creamy spinach, boiled potatoes and mustard sauce.

Manitoba bread with marple syrup

When I recent was out shopping I found some Manitoba flour, which is very strong wheat flour. This Manitoba flour had grown in Canada, so I decided to bake a cooking pot bread only using this flour and adding in some marple syrup to give it an extra Canadian twist.

As any home-baked this bread taste great and the use of marple syrup gives some extra richness to the overall bread flavour. The bread is not sweet in the taste.

UPDATE 7 July 2016:
This bread recipe is being forward for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats having the theme of  best recipe ever. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

When I served this bread people keep asking for this recipe. And I must admit the taste is just perfect, so it is a bread, that I keep baking again and again for myself.

Manitoba bread with marble syrup: - 1 bread

• 3-4 g fresh yeast
• 50 g sour doug - optional
• 380 g water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 50 g marple syrup
• 500 g Manitoba flour

1. Stir yeast, sour dough and water together in a big mixing bowl together with salt and marple syrup. 
2. Afterwards add the Manitoba flour and stir very well with a cooking spoon. 
3. Rise the dough to rise at room temperature overnight - minimum 12 hours.
4. Take the dough out off the mixing bowl, move 1/3 of the dough in over the rest of the dough, keep repeating this process until you have a small size of the dough.
5. Clean the mixing bowl for any dough leftovers.
6. Glaze the dough bowl with oil.
7. Place the dough again in a clean dough, let is rise again for 2 hours.
8. Heat up the cast iron cooking pot (2 l) incl. lid on a rack in the lower part of the oven at 250°C (fan oven) for ½ hour.
9. Remove the hot cast iron cooking from the oven, remove the lid. Cover the bottom of the cooking pot with oat flakes, as this will prevent the dough from sticking to firm to the surface.
10. Place the dough in the hot cast iron cooking pot.
11. Put the lid back on. Place the cooking pot in the lower part of the oven, let it bake at 250°C for 25 minutes.
12. Remove the lid from the cast iron cooking pot, and let the bread bake at 225°C for another 15 minutes. 

Pasta with bacon, capers and olives

This recipe on pasta with bacon, capers and olive I felt upon in the weekly magazine Søndag (issue 09/2016). I only made on tiny modification, as I used green olives instead of black olives, as I had a glass with green olives available in my kitchen.

Yes, it take a little more time to make your pasta sauce, but the taste is just so much great and it is actually cheaper to make your own pasta sauce compared to buy it in the super market.

Another great sauce for pasta is this tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes.

Pasta sauce with bacon, capers and olives: - 2 servings

• 12 green olives - medium chopped without the stones
• 150 g smoked bacon in squares
• 400 g canned tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon of sugar
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• 2 tablespoon of capers
• parsley
• 1-2 teaspoons of lemon zest
• freshly boiled pasta

1. Fry the bacon on a dry pan. Fry the bacon golden and crispy. After frying let the bacon drip on kitchen towel.
2. Add the canned tomatoes, garlic and olives into a cooking pot together with sugar and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Let the tomatoes sauce cook gently for 10-15 minutes.
4. Mix the freshly boiled pasta together with tomato sauce, crispy bacon, capers, parsley and lemon zest.
5. Enjoy :-)

Potato bread - Kartoffel brød

As the rowing season has started again, I again have the need for having buns/bread regular in my kitchen, so I bring some lunch packs with me every Monday evening. Every Monday I go directly from work to the rowing club, where we will row a distance of 20 km, and here I have the need to eat some lunch packs, when I am sitting in the coxing seat.

This time I have baked the Kartoffel brød (Potato bread) from the bread book on cooking pot bread called "Det æltefri grydebrød".

Potato bread (Kartoffel brød): - 1 bread

• 150 g potatoes - boiled and mashed
• 5 g yeast
• 50 g sour dough - optional
• 350 g cold water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 25 g Nigella seeds
• 200 g wholemeal flour
• 300 g wheat flour

1. Stir yeast, sour dough and water together in a big mixing bowl.
2. Add in the mashed potatoes and Nigella seeds, stir well.
3. Afterwards add the flours, salt and sugar and stir very well with a cooking spoon. 
4. Rise the dough to rise at room temperature overnight - minimum 12 hours.
5. Take the dough out off the mixing bowl, move 1/3 of the dough in over the rest of the dough, keep repeating this process until you have a small size of the dough.
6. Clean the mixing bowl for any dough leftovers.
7. Glaze the dough bowl with oil.
8. Place the dough again in a clean dough, let is rise again for 2 hours.
9. Heat up the cast iron cooking pot (3 l) incl. lid on a rack in the lower part of the oven at 250°C (fan oven) for ½ hour.
10. Remove the hot cast iron cooking from the oven, remove the lid. Cover the bottom of the cooking pot with oat flakes, as this will prevent the dough from sticking to firm to the surface.
11. Place the dough in the hot cast iron cooking pot.
12. Put the lid back on. Place the cooking pot in the lower part of the oven, let it bake at 250°C for 20 minutes.
13. Remove the lid from the cast iron cooking pot, and let the bread bake at 225°C for another 15 minutes. 
14. Let the bread cool down, before you slice it.

April equals blooming Spring

April equals blooming Spring

The daylight has taken control again here in Denmark, where we now have more than 13 hours of daylight here in beginning of April. In the garden you can see, how the spring bulbs as well as plant are growing from day to day on the sunny days. And when we are out rowing on the Fjord of Vejle we can from rowing session to rowing session see, how the trees have changed from the plain grey colours every where to having more and more of a green touch. I am looking forward to, when we will be able to see the big white and green carpets of wood anemones in forests along the fjord.

In end of April we will be celebrating Store Bededay (Prayer Day) here in Denmark by filling our stomachs with buttered "hveder" (cardamon wheat buns with butter).

Last month focus on Easter and wafers resulted in 6 blog posts fitting with this specific theme (wafers with cinnamon and apple syrup, Easter bun, Belgian wafers, wafers with lemon and liquorice, cherry ice cream and Hot-cross buns with tea and lemon).

Tenderloin pot with plenty of vegetables

I typical serve a weekly dinner for my mother mostly on Sunday, but tomorrow evening is busy with something else, I served the weekly dinner this evening. The main course of today was a tenderloin pot with plenty of vegetable served together with mashed potatoes and parsley roots.

Most times my mother can walk home with some left overs for easy senior dinners in the upcoming days.

The recipe on the tenderloin pot with plenty of vegetable I found in the weekly magazine Søndag (issue 11/2016). The only modification is, that the amount of pork tenderloin was reduced from 2 tenderloins to 1 tenderloin, as I could not buy 2 tenderloins, when I was doing my grocery shopping.

Tenderloin pot with plenty of vegetables: - 4 servings

• 1 pork tenderloin - trimmed and sliced
• 1 onion - medium chopped
• 2 carrots - medium chopped
• 250 g mushrooms - sliced
• 3 leeks - sliced
• 25 g butter
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• 400 g canned tomatoes
• salt & pepper for seasoning
• served together with either mashed potatoes or rice

1. Heat up the butter in a cooking pot.
2. Fry the tenderloin pieces and chopped onion.
3. Add in carrots, leeks and mushrooms and fry it together with the meat for 5 minutes.
4. Add the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes and let the dish simmer for 15-20 minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Meanwhile make the mashed potatoes or cook the rice.
7. Serve the tenderloin cot with mashed potatoes or rice.