Mojito

One of the big drinks in connection with New Year here in Denmark is apparently Mojito, as you buy limes fruits and mint leaves in all Danish supermarkets with respect for them shelf. So right after New Year you can buy all the leftovers of mint plants/bunches of mints and limes, as January is the month of dieting and fitness upon a calorie rich month of December full of food, alcohol and sweets.

Otherwise the Mojito is more of summer cocktail for me due to it´s coolness of fresh mint leaves and plenty of ice cubes and fresh flavour notes from the mashed lime.

So after I have been sweating seriously in rowing machine, I will go home and make myself a Mojito as a more funny way of getting my much needed C-vitamins !!!

Adding the sugar into the lime and mint leaves, before mashing everything together is giving a better dissolution of the sugar and better sweetness in my opinion compared to added the sugar after the mashing process.

Mojito: - 1 serving

• ½ lime - cut in 4 halves
• 12 mint leaves
• 4 teaspoon of sugar
• 5 cl rum
• ice cubes
• sparkling water / club soda

1. Place the lime halves, mint leaves and sugar in a high-ball glass.
2. Mash it well together mortar.
3. Add in the rum.
4. Fill the glass with ice cubes.
5. Top with sparkling water / club soda.
6. Place a straw in the mojito.

You can buy a ready-to-use Mojito mix, where you "only" need to add in the rum and ice cubes, before you have a ready-to-drink mojito such as the Funkin drink mixes. You should "only" use such a mix, if you like to drink a too sweet and too acid mojito without to much lime/mint flavour profile. If you like to drink a less sweet and more flavourful Mojito, I will strongly recommend to make your own mojito and stay very clear of the Funkin drink mix. One Funkin drink mix cost approx 1.32 €/pack.

Curry with vegetable, lemongrass and chicken

Sometimes I need to make a "clean up" in my weekly vegetable box and put "loony" vegetable into a curry dish. This time I used a recipe on curry with coconut and lemongrass from the weekly Årstiderne´s newsletter week 40/2013 without any major modification.

Curry with vegetable, lemongrass and chicken: - 4 servings

• 280 g chicken breast – chop in chunks
• 200 g onion - chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
• 1 lemongrass - the bottom finely chopped
• 400 g carrots - sliced thinly
• 1 squash - sliced thinly
• 1 red pepper fruit - chopped in strips
• 1 can of coconut cream
• 1 dl water
• 2 tablespoon of oil
• 2 tablespoons of curry paste
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• rice
• 1 lemongrass - only the top - used for boiling of the rice

1. Heat up the oil in a large cooking pot. Fry the chicken chunks.
2. Remove the chicken pieces after frying.
3. Add some more oil to the cooking pot.
4. Add in all the vegetable and let them fry under frequent stirring.
5. Add in the curry paste, water and coconut cream and let everything boil up.
6. Add the chicken chunks back into the curry dish, and let them cook for another 4 minutes.
7. Serve together with rice, which has been boiled together with the top of lemongrass.

Twelfth Night cake a la Country Living

Today it is the day of Twelfth Night and tomorrow it is Epiphany. Epiphany is still a religious day here in Denmark, which has not been stopped by the Reformation in 1536 like many of the Roman Holidays. Epiphany is not a public holiday, where you will have the day off. For many families it is also the day, where all the Christmas decoration will be removed for good and packed down for the next festive season.

My French colleagues have introduced my and Danish colleagues to the French cake called "Gallet des Rois", which they have been bringing back to Denmark after their return from their Christmas holiday. So then I found this recipe on a Twelfth Night cake in Country Living issue January 2014, I knew at once, that I needed to bake this cake as a final closer to the Christmas period, where I also have packed down the received Christmas cards and all the postcards of 2013.

Postcards of 2013

 I really like to receive postcards from my friends, when they are out travelling. There is nothing better to come from work and open your mail box and  find a postcard inside it :-) It is good reminder, that you have some good friends, which like and care about you.















Twelfth Night cake a la Country Living:

• 100 butter - soft
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• 100 g ground almonds
• 2 tablespoon vanilla rum
• 500 g puff pastry
• 1 egg - beaten for glazing
• icing sugar - for dusting

1. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
2. Whip the butter and sugar together using an electrical beater, until it is white and fluffy.
3. Gradually beat in the eggs using the electrical beater.
4. Fold in the ground almonds and rum, stirring by hand.
5. As the commercial puff pastry is already rolled out in a thin layer, I decided to the keep the square shape. I placed one sheet of puff pastry on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
6. Brush a border of 2.5 cm of the puff pastry with beaten egg.
7. Place the filling in the inner part.
8. Place the second sheet of puff pastry on top of the first puff pastry with filling.
9. Seal the borders using the back-side of a spoon of knife.
10. Glaze the upper layer of the puff pastry with beaten egg.
11. Bake the Twelfth Night cake at 200'C in the upper part of the oven for 30 minutes.
12. Cool down the cake and dust it with icing sugar.

Cherry-Bergamot Cocktail

I got the inspiration for this cocktail during a business trip to France in April 2013, where I in connection with a dinner enjoyed this type of a drink as an appetiser.

When I asked about the composition, I was told, that the drink contain creme de bergamot (= bergamot liqueur), cherry liqueur and sparkling wine. It took me and my French work colleagues approx 6 months, before I had a bottle of creme de bergamot in my procession !!!!

First I went looking in various supermarkets in Paris on my own without any luck at all. When a good French colleague of mine went looking for creme de bergamot in other supermarkets, still without any luck.
However, my colleague was when able to locate creme de bergamot through a web-based shop, so she "down-loaded" 2 bottles of creme de bergamot on my behave, as it was cheaper to buy 2 bottles instead of 1 bottle due to shipment cost.

Next step was when to get the bottles of creme de bergamot transported from Paris to Denmark. This transportation step meant involvement of a second French colleague, who in connection with meeting activity in Denmark was entrusted with the transport of the creme de bergamot. The bottles arrived safely at my work desk without being a big surprise to any of my work colleagues, as they are used to similar involvement of my colleagues, when I have my heart set on something much need, which can not be found in Denmark.

My wonderful girl friends from the Christmas lunch are all sending MERCI BEAUCOUP to my French work colleagues to all their involvement in getting this creme de bergamot all the way from France to Denmark.

One thing is to know, what type of ingredients is used in a drink, the next important issue is to define the ratio between these ingredients. So I started off small amounts of both creme de bergamot and cherry liqueur, which was topped off with sparkling wine. When all the participant in Christmas lunch got a individual colour straw, so we all at once to taste the cocktail and discuss modification to it. We got the final composition in the third attempt.

I did not need to get cherry liqueur in from France, as Denmark is having their own excellent production of cherry wine such as Frederiksdal kirsebærvin.

I used a dry sparkling wine for this cocktail, I would suggest to use a semi-sweet sparkling wine instead off to get some more sweetness and fruitiness in this cocktail.

I will really the flavour combination of creme de bergamot and cherry liqueur :-) A great cocktail to start off an excellent meal.

Cherry-Bergamot Cocktail:

• 1½ teaspoon Creme de Bergamot
• 1½ tablespoon cherry liqueur
• sparkling wine

1. Start by pouring the creme de bergamot and cherry liqueur in a champagne glass.
2. Fill up the glass with cold sparkling wine.
3. Cheers

Welcome to January - the second month of Winter

Traditional Danish Winter weather

 Welcome to January 

After a December month full of Christmas activities, living candlelight, gift, get to getter with family and friends, the reality of real life is hitting us again hard on with the arrival of January, where some people are struggling with body increase from heavy calorie intake and/or low money supply due to massive spending of money during the Christmas season (the fifth season here in Denmark) !!!

The great thing about January is, that the day length here in Denmark is increasing day by day with something between 1 minutes in the beginning of the month and up to 5 minutes very single day in the end of January :-) And you can really feel it day by day at the end of the month, as the day light is increasing with ½ hour during one week !!!

Well I will NOT be sharing any recipes on low calorie food/cakes with you during this month of calorie control. My focus be on sharing some recipes of stews and casseroles, as we all could be getting something warming during a cold Winter month.

And I will start by sharing these two recipes on some warming meals with you:

Swedish sausage dish

Chili con carne

The last meal !!! of 2013

Ready - steady - eat

The transition from 2013 to 2014 was celebrated together with my good friends living in Horsens enjoying a 3 course "take - away" New Year´s menu from Mad hos Mads´ (nytårsmenu).

The food was very, very easy to prepare, only the appetizer and the main course required to heating up in the oven for something between 5-12 minutes. And the dessert was ready to serve without any further need for decoration !!!

The New Year´s menu was started with the appetizer, which was a 3 course fish tapas dish.
Ballotine of lobster and brill with herbal rind (the green lawn with a happy smiley t top of plate) together with easy smoked cod with crispy fennel salad and almonds to the left and to the right edible crab in crispy ball with aiole. We received so mush aiole, that the entire plate became decorated with it. 

The lobster ballotine had a great taste and texture, so it became my favourite part of these three fish tapas.

The main meat part of the main course was roasted bouef of beef tenderloin with lemon flavour twist (uuhhmm), a kind of a potato cake made from thin slices of potatoes being pressed with winter truffle and 
fungal cream served with a sauce from red wine and shallots. Watercress and chips of blue potatoes was the decorative element.

The final touch of the excellent menu was the sweet part (dessert) in form of Chocolate Cocktail, which was made from 3 times Valrhona chocolate. So layers of three different chocolate was served in a glass decorated with freeze-dried raspberries, so very intense blueberries pure reduction and crunchy chocolate crips bread style.

In total I ended to with paying approx 39 € for the entire great tasting menu incl the almond cake for the actual transition from 2013 to 2014 excl. wine. I will give this New Year menu 6 stars.

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year

to all of you from Hannibal the Cat and I. We hope you will get an exciting, promising and healthy New Year here in 2014 with plenty of sunshine, some white snow to bring some light into a dark Winter season and less wind during the rowing season !!!

Looking into the progress of 2013 on my wish about baking my way through "Hjemmebagt", I can see, that I have baked 13 recipes in 2013 compared to 6 recipes baked in 2012 !!!! mainly during the first 6 month of 2013. If I can keep up with a speed of 13 recipes per year, I will have baked my way through this excellent bread book after another 3½ year bringing the finishing time up to sometime during 2017 with the last recipe of "Hjemmebagt". So here I have made some great progress on this specific topic, so let´s see, if I can maintain similar progress here in 2014 !!!

My New Year´s Resolution of 2013 concerning more usage of the seasonal herbs, flowers and fruits, which you can collect for free in nature maintain to be something of a challenge for me. I have a very good grip of using the wonderful white and fragrant elder flowers, but ramson, slow and elderberry is still unknown territory for me, but 2014 will bring me new options for getting acquainted with these Danish seasonal vegetation.

Again I felt more comfortable here in 2013 about using my baking capabilities for various fund raising activities involving both work colleagues and friends turning the month of October into PINK month (PINK fund raising afternoon tea 2013 & sale of-muffin as PINK fund raising at work) collecting an amazing 1300 DKK to support the fight against breast cancer. I will be back again in 2014 with some more PINK fund raising activities.


Still I am eagerly participating in the monthly virtual tea table called Tea Time Treats hosted by two food bloggers in the UK. It is great fun for me to work the various theme selected for these monthly tea tables. And I will continue to enjoy these monthly virtual tea tables in 2014, as it bringing me a lot of inspiration to both my and little kitchen.

During Autumn I expanded my kitchen equipment assortment with two major pieces: ice cream machine with own compressor for freezing and KitchenAid in the classic red colour.

Relating to the ice cream machine I am having a very ambitious plan about making a monthly ice cream, where you as my blog reader could be a part of this process through ice cream votes on my blog. So fare I have been  conducting one ice cream election, where you selected vanilla ice cream as your first choice, and I created two versions of this vanilla ice cream: home-made vanilla ice cream a la "A Country Cook´s Kitchen" and ultra indulgent vanilla ice cream artisan style. And here in December I created the Christmas ice cream, which was very fitting into my annual Christmas Calender.
I am planning to continue this ice cream election and creation process in the coming year of 2014 :-)

As usual the two month of November and December was a very, very busy months for me in my little kitchen, as I am working on selecting interesting Christmas recipes as well as actually making the Christmas stuff, so I can share an daily blog post with a Christmas recipe with you in the count down for Christmas !!! For me this process is a little bit like mood therapy, a way of keeping up my mood during a long, dark, gray and rainy Winter season, as it keep me busy inside of hiding under my duvet like a little sleepy brown bear !!! So therefore I will already now promise, that you will get Christmas Calender again in 2014 :-)


Finally I "cracked the code" after two years of hard work, both baking and eating making the ultimate strawberry cake. It took it´s time, but it was a very rewarding work on a personal level to get to the finishing point on this strawberry cake journey :-)





As regular theme blog posts during every single month I have shared the following type of blog posts with you:

• blog introduction to each month with focus on a specific theme (starter in September 2013)
• recipe on cocktail and drinks (started in 2011)
• contribution to Tea Time Treat (started in December 2012)
• recipe on ice cream (started in October 2013) 

Coming to the end of this very long blog text I would like to share a "TO DO" list with you of the things, which I would like work with in my kitchen during 2014:

      TO DO LIST 2014:

• making rye bread from a real sour dough
• collection of sloe during Autumn 2014, so I can make my own sloe gin
• collection of ramson during Spring 2014
• collection of elderberry during Autumn 2014
• making macaroons
• making caramels, which is NOT floating together during storage
• making a ginger bread decoration for Christmas 2014
• making my own marzipan from almonds for Christmas 2014
• making mince meat for Christmas 2014
• baking mohn back (poppey seed) cake

So let´s how many of these "TO DO" points, which I managed to cross during the brand new year of 2014, at least I have 365 days in front of me to do something about it :-)

Kitchen status on 2013:

Review day: 1 January 2014
Recipes baked during 2013 from "Hjemmebagt": 13 accomplished
Amount of new cooking books in my kitchen: 3 new cooking book (58 books at end of 2012)
Page views in 2013: 59.684 (total page views of 109.517 at 31st December 2012)
Publish posts in 2013: 209 posts (total posts of 746 at 31st December 2012)

Top 10 of the most popular blog posts published during 2013:

1. Dinner at Belle Epoque Nykøbing Mors - published 8 October 2013
2. The ultimate strawberry cake - published 12 June 2013 (Tea Time Treat)
3. Paleo (Stone age diet) chocolate cake - published 16 June 2013
4. Stone age bread - published 22 January 2013
5. Bergamot-orange jam - published 8 January 2013 (Tea Time Treat)
6. Classic rhubarb cordial - published 21 August 2013
7. Eating yogurt in New York - published 27 April 2013
8. Rugkiks - rye biscuits with cumin - published 31 January 2013
9. Apple Mac with modification - published 3 August 2013
10. Tartes aux pommes - published 17 March 2013 (Tea Time Treat)