Meatballs and Stewed cabbage – renewal of an old Danish classic

September 18, 2013September 18, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 2 Comments

Meatballs and stewed cabbage is an old classic in the Danish kitchen, but many young people finds it boring, tasteless and totally overcooked!

We believe that everything can taste good, as long as it has been cooked be love and sometimes a good portion of patience 😉 So a few days ago we invited my parents over for dinner and decided to renew the old classic which was a regular dish during my childhood winters. I was quite excited to hear my parents opinions as it matters a lot, so I must admit that I was a bit nervous. However, the nervousness was completely pointless as they LOVED it and almost licked the plates – Chris loved it too, and he is normally NOT a fan of traditionally Danish food 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

Meatballs:

1/2 lb. minced pork

1/2 lb. minced veal

1 large onion, minced

1 egg

3 tbsp. oatmeal

1/4 cup milk

Salt & pepper

2 tbsp. butter

Stewed Cabbage:

1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced

2-3 shallots, sliced

1 cup corn

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

3 cups milk

3 tbsp. chives, chopped

Salt & pepper

Instructions

Meatballs:

Combine all ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl and use your fingers to mix it together. Cover with plastic foil when combined and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, preferably 1-2 hours.

Divide the meat into 16 equally sized pieces and form as small balls. Melt half of the butter at medium heat and place half of the meatballs in the pan. Press slightly on top of the meatballs so they get a bit flat instead of round. Fry for 6-7 minutes on each side.

Place in a 200F warm oven while frying the other half of the meatballs. Keep warm until serving.

Stewed Cabbage:

Cook the sliced cabbage in salted water 12 minutes. Transfer to a colander and let the water drip of.

Melt butter and sauté sliced onions until soft. Add the flour and whisk well until the butter has absorbed the flour and the roux is thick and shiny.

Slowly pour the milk into the roux while whisking. Be careful not to add to much milk at a time – the roux needs to keep cooking ALL the time and adding too much milk will slow down the process.

Add the corn, season with salt and pepper and let cook at low heat for 5-10 minutes.

Add the cooked cabbage and chopped chives a few minutes before serving and make sure that all cabbage gets turned in the sauce.

Serve the stewed cabbage together with the meatballs and cook potatoes 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Metric measures

Meatballs:

225 g minced pork

225 g minced veal

1 large onion, minced

1 egg

3 tbsp. oatmeal

0.6 dl milk

Salt & Pepper

2 tbsp. butter

Stewed Cabbage:

1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced

2-3 shallots, sliced

2.5 dl corn

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

7.5 dl milk

3 tbsp. chives, chopped

Salt & pepper

Yellow Tomato Sauce

September 15, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

The number of tomato varieties are HUGE and comes in several different colors and shapes. My (Ann) parents has been growing tomatoes as long as I can remember and my dad always wants to try new varieties. This year he decided to to the yellow pear tomato and he sowed several seeds hoping to get a plant or two – but unexpectedly they all grew and he ended up with 7 or 8 plant of this specific sort (and then came the 3 others sorts he sowed the year).

Some of the pants were given to family and friend (we got a plant to – the picture below) and then he kept the 3 plants himself. Having kept three plant himself means that one needs to be creative when cooking, if not having tomato salad every day 🙂

Last week there were an over float of tomatoes and my parents agreed that we should make try and make some yellow tomato sauce. Normally when we make tomato sauce we add red wine, but this would ruin both the taste and color of this sauce, so we decided to use chicken stock instead, which turned out to be the perfect match 🙂

Ingredients (4 cups)

2 large onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsp. thyme leaves

1 tbsp. ground pepper

1 tbsp. butter

1-2 jalapeños, sliced

2 lb. yellow pear tomatoes, chopped

2 cups chicken stock

1 tbsp. salt

Melt butter in a saucepan, add chopped onions, garlic, thyme and ground pepper. Sauté for a few minutes until the onions begins to soften – then add the chopped tomatoes and jalapeños.

Stir and let cook for about 5-8 minutes until the tomatoes gets soft.

When the tomatoes has softened, you can the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

When boiling add salt and turn down the heat. Let simmer for approximately 2 hours or until it looks like the picture below. Stir occasionally.

Transfer the cooked tomatoes to blender and blend until smooth. Pour into sterilized jar, close immediately and fridge until use. Can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredienser (1 liter)

2 large onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsp. thyme leaves

1 tbsp. ground pepper

1 tbsp. butter

1-2 jalapeños, sliced

900 g yellow pear tomatoes, chopped

1/2 liter chicken stock

1 tbsp. salt

Banana and Blackberry Muffins with Browned Butter Glaze

September 13, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Bananas is one of those wired fruits which you either love or hate. I out household we hate them, but due to their high level of carbohydrates I alway eat one after my training pass. Sunday evening I realized that I had bought new bananas without eating the old ones first, so I decided to use the old ones for some kind of cake. I never bake anything containing bananas so I did not have any recipes and I therefore had to ask my Facebook friends and search the web, and in the end it ended up the with a combination of several recipes 🙂

If you are more into chocolate than blackberries, you can of cause change that part of the recipe, but if you do that, I would recommend that you chop the chocolate and fold it into the batter instead of placing it in the middle, like the blackberries.

Ingredients (12 muffins)

1/3 cup butter, melted

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. soda

1 pinch of salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. honey

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 large bananas, ripe

45 blackberries, fresh or frozen

Glaze:

1 stick butter

1/4 cup sugar

Place bananas in a bowl ans mash well. Set aside while preparing the rest.

Shift flour, baking powder, soda, salt cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Add sugar and mix well. In a second bowl, with a folk, beat together eggs, vanilla extract, honey, butter and milk.

Add the bananas to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour the flour mixture into the egg mixture in three steps, folding gently between each.

Line standard muffins tins with paper liners. Fill each paper line with 1 tsp. of the banana batter. Then place 4 blackberries in the middle of the batter. Then add another tsp. of the batter. Make sure that the blackberries are fully covered with banana batter.

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes or until at toothpick comes out clean. Let rest in muffin tins for 5 minutes and then 5 minutes in a wire rack.

While cooling, melt the butter in a saucepan and let brown lightly (be careful not to burn). Transfer to a small bowl – same diameter as the muffins. Dip the top of the cupcakes in the browned butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Serve immediately with a cup of good quality coffee or hot chocolate 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredienser (12 cupcakes)

75 g smør, smeltet

250 gram hvedemel

1 tsk. bagepulver

1/2 tsk. natron

1 knivspids salt

1/2 tsk. stødt kanel

1/2 tsk. stødt muskatnød

115 gram sukker

1 tsk. vanilje ekstrakt

1 tsk. honning

2 store banner, modne

2 æg

1.25 dl mælk

Italian Casserole Bread

September 9, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

I spent last friday night home alone with a good movie and a glass of red wine. I am not that good at making dinner for one, so instead I decided to buy some cheese, a sausage and bake a bread with a good crust and with lots of flavor. I only searched the web for few minutes before finding this great recipe. It is without doubt one of the best bread recipes that I have ever tried, but have in mind that the bread should be eaten same day as baked, and preferably while still warm 🙂

Ingredients (1 bread)

Active yeast, size of a finger nail

8/10 cup water

1/2 cup beer

1 tbsp. vinegar

3 1/5 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

Day 1:

Add yeast, water, beer and vinegar to mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the remaining ingredients and use our fingers to combine. Knead until just combined and the dough is still wet and lumpy.

Cover with plastic foil and leave on the kitchen table to raise for 12-18 hours (the longer, the better).

Day 2:

Cover your kitchen table with flour and pour the wet and raised dough out. Fold it together one from each side (= 4 times) and place it in a greased dish and cover with plastic foil and let raise in a warm place for two hours.

Put you casserole into a water bath one hour within the raising time if it is made of clay. Leave it covered in water for 10 minutes before placing it in a cold oven. Turn the oven on to convection at 430F or regular oven at 460F.

Take the hot casserole out of the oven when the two hour raising time is finished. Sprinkle the bottom of the casserole with flour, pour in the dough and sprinkle with flour again. Put on the lid and place the casserole in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid, and turn down the heat to 400F/430F and bake for additional 15 minutes.

Remove the baked bread from the casserole and let rest on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before serving.

As you can see on the picture below, the bread is not as light as expected. This because I folded the dough twice from each side instead of only one as advised in the recipe. So be careful not to knead the dough or fold to to much, as it will remove the air bubbles and leave the finished bread more dense.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredienser (1 brød)

En lille klump gær, på størrelse med en lillefingernegl

2 dl vand

1 dl øl

1 spsk. eddike

400 g mel

1 tsk. salt

1 tsk. sukker

Chocolate Birthday Cake with Berries

September 5, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday a friend of mine turned 30 and she asked if I could make her a cake. She did not have any preferences other than CHOCOLATE, so I went for a day wondering what to make. First I wanted to make a chocolate cake with strawberry mousse, but the strawberry season is long gone, meaning that the taste of the berries are gone. So instead I decided to make this chocolate cake covered in whipped cream with crushed chocolate meringue cookies. Making the cake made me totally peckish, but unfortunately we was unable to take part in her birthday – DAMN! But but but that only gives me a reason to make the cake once more 🙂

Ingredients (12 servings)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/8 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 sticks butter

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup dark quality chocolate (70%)

2 cups cream

2 cups chocolate meringue cookies, crushed

20 strawberries

20 raspberries

1/4 cup dark quality chocolate (70%), chopped

Melt butter and sugar in a sauce pan. Stir to combine. When melted and combined, transfer to a mixing bowl and whisk at medium speed until cooled (takes 5-10 minutes).

In another bowl mix together cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

When the butter and sugar mixture is cooled, add one egg at a time and whisk between each. Then add vanilla extract.

Shift in flour mixture in four batches, alternating with the sour cream, and whisk until just combined. Add the melted chocolate and gently fold it into the batter with a rubber spatula.

Add the batter to a springform pan and bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle of the cake. Let cool for 20 minutes before loosening the edges of the cake with a butter knife (but do not remove in from the springform). Let cool completely before removing the cake from the springform pan.

Slice the cake into 3 equally thick pieces. I do not have a tool to do it with, so I just use a piece of wire, which works very well.

Whisk the cream until it gets soft peaks. Then whisk a little bit more, but be careful not to over whisk and turn it into butter! It just needs to be thick enough to cover the cake without running off. Add the crushed chocolate meringue cookies when the whipped cream has reached the wanted consistency. Fold until combined.

Place the bottom of the three cake slices on a cake stand. Spread 1/2 cup of whipped cream onto the cake in an equally thick layer all the way around. Slice 10 strawberries and place them on top of the whipped cream. Sprinkle with half of the chopped chocolate.

Place the middle-slice of the cake on top and repeat the procedure, but replace the strawberries with half of the raspberries. Then top of the cake with the last slice.

Cover with the remaining whipped cream and decorate with berries. Serve with a good cup of coffee 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredienser (12 stykker)

0.6 dl usødet kakaopulver

2.8 dl sukker

3.5 dl mel

1 tsk. bagepulver

1 tsk. natron

1 tsk. salt

172 g smør

2 store æg, stue temperatur

1 spsk vanille ekstrakt

2.5 dl creme fraiche

75 g mørk kvalitets chokolade (70%), smeltet

0.5 liter piskefløde

5 dl rutebiler, knuste

20 jordbær

20 hindbær

0.6 dl mørk kvalitets chokolade (70%), hakket

God fornøjelse venner 🙂

Gnocchi and Meatball with Gorgonzola Tomato Sauce

September 5, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Last week we made this fabulous dinner and we are definitely going to make it again – soon 🙂

The meatballs are greek inspired with the feta cheese and olives and it fits very well with the gorgonzola sauce and the gnocchi. It was our first time serving gnocchi’s and as with everything else we needed to taste and feel how they are supposed to taste and feel before making them ourselves. So next time, we will try making them ourselves and hopefully be able to make a post on it from our first attempt 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

1 lb. grounded pork

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 egg

1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

10 olives, pitted and chopped

3 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1/8 cup basil leaves, chopped

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp. butter

3 cup tomato sauce

2-4 tbsp. gorgonzola

Salt

2 lb. gnocchi

2 tbsp. pesto

Basil leaves

Parmesan cheese, grated

Place pork, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, egg, feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes and basil in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, cover with plastic foil and fridge for 30 minutes.

Form the meat into small balls – the size of a golf ball, and fry in melted butter on a medium/hot pan – one minute on each side. Transfer the meatballs to a heat proof dish, cover with one cup of tomato sauce and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 350F.

Approximately 10 minutes before the meatballs are finished, you can begin to heat the tomato sauce (if it is pre-made) and cook the gnocchi.

Place the remaining 2 cups tomato sauce in a saucepan and warm at medium/low heat for 5 minutes. Add the gorgonzola, let it melt, stir to combine and keep warm until serving (low heat). Season with salt.

Cook the gnocchi as described on the back of the package (most descriptions says 3 minutes in salted water). Transfer to colander and let all water drip off. Place the cooked and drained gnocchi into the heated tomato sauce.

Take the meatballs out of the oven and stir a few times to combine the sauce around the meatballs.

Place gnocchi with tomato sauce in a soup plate. Place 3-4 meatballs on top of the gnocchi and decorate with basil leaves, grated parmesan cheese and pesto.

Serve with a glass of your favorite red wine 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4 servings)

450 g hakket svinekød

1 stort løg, hakket

2 fed hvidløg, presset

1,2 dl brødkrummer/rasp

1 æg

0,8 dl feta ost, smuldret

10 oliven, udstenet og hakket

3 soltørrede tomater, hakket

3 spsk. basilikum blade, hakkede

Salt og peber

1 spsk. smør

7 dl tomat sauce

2-4 spsk. gorgonzola

Salt

900 g gnocchi

2 spsk. pesto

Basilikum blade

Parmesan ost, revet

God fornøjelse venner 🙂

Creamy and Tasty Tomato Sauce

September 2, 2013September 2, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Most people buy a pre-fabricated tomato sauce in the super market, because it is easy, comfortable and cheap. But have any you considered how many additives it contains, as it can be stores at room temperature for several years?? It sounds a bit holy, but we are not – we often buy ingredients with 2-3 years expiration.

As we both love to cook and often but organic products, grow our own herbs and a small variation of vegetable (we live downtown and do not have the space to grow an awful lot, so we look forward to moving to place with a huge (vegetable)garden), we have decided to try and cook as much as possible ourselves and only buy things that we are too unexperienced to make ourselves or food from delicacy stores 🙂

The recipe for this tomato sauce is made with the ‘add-and-taste’ method, meaning that different ingredients were added until it reached the perfect taste and consistency. This also means, that we have made many different recipes before ending up with this one and we a portion of 5 cups only lasts for day or two in our household, as everyone loves it and it can be used for many different purposes 🙂

Hope that you will love it too!

Ingredients (5 cups)

2 large onions

4 garlic cloves

15 sun ripened tomatoes

1/2 cup red wine

1 handful fresh basil leaves

1 tsp. freshly grounded pepper

1 tsp. chili flakes

1 tbsp. butter

Chop onions, garlic cloves and tomatoes. Melt butter in a medium sized saucepan and sauté the chopped onions and garlic cloves for a few minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, stir and let cook at medium heat until the tomatoes has softened – it takes 5- 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the alcohol in the red wine has evaporated (when the smell of red wine has disappeared). Reduce heat and cook for an additional hour.

Remove the cooked sauce from the heat and let cool for 15-20 minutes. Transfer to blender and blend until completely smooth. Store in a sterilized jar in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

Serve as a healthy tomato soup, as a regular tomato sauce for pasta, lasagna or as shown on the picture below with gnocchi and meat balls 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Triple Chocolate Cheese Cake

September 1, 2013November 25, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 1 Comment

Friday was my last day as research assistant at University of Southern Denmark. I was employed at the university during my Master studies in public health and stayed as research assistant after I graduated in April 2012. It was three great years where I developed many skills – both professionally and personally, but now it is time to move on and try something new 🙂

During the three year I have put my colleagues through at least 50-75 different cake recipes (especially in the months before our wedding) so of cause it was expected of me to bring a cake on my last day. A favorite of my own is a traditional cheese cake, but I have always (since I learned to eat cheese cake) wanted to bake a chocolate cheese cake and now I wonder why I did not do that earlier in my baking career. It was nothing less than WONDERFUL!

I found the recipe in an old Taste of Home Magazine, and made a few changes to fit what I had in the pantry that day. In the recipe I have written ‘quality chocolate’, and definitely believe that you should go and buy the best chocolate that you can find when making this cake, as the taste of chocolate is as intense as it is. Personally I always use chocolate from Amedei due to the fabulous taste and the fact the it is both gluten free and without any additives. It might seem expensive, but I promise you that you will get what you pay for – the best chocolate in the world (several of the products has won the Golden Bean Award, so I am not kidding when I promise you the best chocolate in the world).

As a new service to our European/Danish readers, I have converted all measures to the metric system. This can be found in the bottom of the post.

Ingredients (16 servings)

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 tbsp. baking cocoa

2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

Filling

32 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

10 oz. dark quality chocolate (70%), melted and cooled

1/4 cup baking cocoa

4 eggs (lightly beaten), room temperature

Ganache

3.5 oz. dark quality chocolate (63%)

1/3 cup cream

1 tbsp. butter

Berries for decoration

Cover the outside of an 9-inch springform pan in a double layer tin foil.

In a small mixing bowl, combine graham crumbs, cocoa powder and 2 tbsp. sugar. Stir in the melted butter. Press onto bottom of prepared springform pan and bake for at 350F for 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

In a bowl, beat cream cheese and the remaining sugar until smooth. Beat in cooled chocolate and cocoa. Add eggs and beat until combined. Pour over the cooled crust.

Place springform pan in a large baking pan and add 1 inch of boiling water to larger pan.

Bake at 350F for 60 minutes or until center is just set and the top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath and remove the tin foil. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes before you loosen the edges from pan with a knife. Let cool on the wire rack for one more hour. Refrigerate overnight.

Take the cake out of the fridge 2-3 hours before serving to make sure that it reaches room temperature (if the cake is served cooled it feels heavier and the taste of chocolate is not as intense as you want it to be).

For ganache, place chocolate in a small bowl together with cream and butter. Place over a saucepan with simmering water and let melt slowly. Stir occasionally until smooth. Cool to reach a spreading consistency.

Remove the cake from the springform pan and place on an appropriate cake stand. Spread ganache over cake just before serving.

Decorate with berries and serve with a good quality vanilla ice cream and a good glass of bubbles 🙂

On the picture below I have replaced the ganache with whipped cream which works just as well as the ganache 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (16 servings):

5 dl graham cracker crumbs

1 tbsp. baking cocoa

2 tbsp. sugar

1 1/4 dl butter, melted

Filling

900 g cream cheese, room temperature

3.2 dl sugar

300 g dark quality chocolate (70%), melted and cooled

0.6 dl baking cocoa

4 eggs (lightly beaten), room temperature

Ganache

100 g dark quality chocolate (63%)

75 g cream

1 tbsp. butter

Berries for decoration

Food on Demant

by Ann & Chris Demant

Month: September 2013

Meatballs and Stewed cabbage – renewal of an old Danish classic

Yellow Tomato Sauce

Banana and Blackberry Muffins with Browned Butter Glaze

Italian Casserole Bread

Chocolate Birthday Cake with Berries

Gnocchi and Meatball with Gorgonzola Tomato Sauce

Creamy and Tasty Tomato Sauce

Triple Chocolate Cheese Cake