Green Vitamin Bomb

January 14, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

It seems to be juice week in our household this week! The past weekend I made apple/carrot juice and ginger/kale juice and yesterday I made a ginger/cranberry juice. Today I have made vitamin bomb with pineapple and kale that taste so wonderful that I’m sorry that I only made one portion (4 glasses) 🙂

When I tell people that I add kale to my juice, they look at me like I’m crazy! But take a moment a think about it… Kale a one of the healthiest vegetables to can spoil you body with. It contains, both protein, fibers, vitamins and minerals and studies have shown that kale contains substances that can help smother cancer cells!

If you want the juice to more clear in color and thin in consistency, you can just pour the juice into the towel and let it drip off – it takes from 2-6 hour and you will only get half the amount of juice + you will leave many of the healthy ingredients in the waste product. I therefore recommend that squeeze it as much as possible so that almost nothing is left for the trash can!

Hope the you will try one of my own favorite juices and you are welcome to leave a commend with your thoughts and/or suggestions for other juices 🙂

Ingredients (4 cups)

3 large apples, chopped

2 cup pineapples, chopped

2 tbsp. ginger, chopped

2 lemons, juice

2 large handfuls kale, rinsed

1 cup water

Place chopped apples, pineapple and ginger in a blender with lemon juice and water.

Blend for 1 minute or until the ingredients begin to form a smooth consistency. Add 1/2 of the rinsed kale (remember to rinse the kale very carefully as it often contains a lot of dirt) and blend again. Add the remaining kale and blend for a few minutes until the juice has a beautiful green color.

Cover a mixing bowl with a tea towel and pour half of the juice into the towel. Twist the towel and squeeze all the juice into the bowl. Do the same with the other half of the juice. Squeeze as much as you can – the waste product should be dry.

Serve the juice immediately with a few ice cubes in each glass or fridge for up to 24 hour.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (1 liter)

3 large apples, chopped

5 dl pineapples, chopped

2 tbsp. ginger, chopped

2 lemons, juice

2 large handfuls kale, rinsed

2.5 dl water

Demant’s Cranberry Energizer

January 13, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Processed juice or fresh home made juice?? Well, I definitely know what I prefer but until a few weeks ago I had never made a single juice myself! I insisted on buying a juice maker before make my own juices, but then suddenly I realized that that I didn’t need a juicer – all I needed was my fantasy, some extra tea towels and a washing machine 🙂

During that that week I have made several different juices using all sorts of fruits and vegetables and they have all been a success when served for breakfast or as today, after 2 hours in the gym.

Try this recipe which is filled with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants or make your own version with whatever fruits and vegetables you have in the kitchen (I can reveal that kale gives a beautiful green color and is one of the best vegetables you can serve, if you want to spoil your body).

Ingredients (2 cups)

4 apples

2 carrots

2 inches ginger

1/2 cup cranberries, fresh

1 lemon, juice

1 cup water, cold

Cut the apple into quarters and remove the core. Cut off the top of the carrot and peel the ginger. Cut apples, carrots and ginger into smaller pieces and place it all in a blender together with lemon juice, cranberries and water.

Blend until completely combined and you can begin to se all the juices from the fruits and vegetables being released.
Cover a mixing bowl with a clean tea towel (I a few that are only used for juices or other similar processes) and pour the blended mixture into the tea towel.
Assemble the tea towel so that you can twist it and squeeze all the juice into the bowl. Keep squeezing into to only have a handful of dry vegetable/fruit leftovers in the towel. Pour the juice into a decanter and serve immediately with a few ice cubes or fridge to cool. Fridge for up to two days and remember to stir a few times before serving.

Pour the juice into a decanter and serve immediately with a few ice cubes or fridge to cool. Fridge for up to two days and remember to stir a few times before serving.

Serve for breakfast with warm honey buns or together with a handful of almonds and raisins after a couple of high intensive training 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (0.5 liter)

4 apples

2 carrots

2 inches ginger

1.25 dl cranberries, fresh

1 lemon, juice

2.5 dl water, cold

White Chocolate, Chili and Liquorice Truffles

January 11, 2014January 11, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Truffles is one of my favorite christmas treats and I make them in several different variations each year.

This version is with home grown dried chilies from my parents garden and the chocolate is of cause Amedei Toscano White which is my favorite chocolate brand and never use anything else. It is bit more expensive than other chocolate brands but I promise that it all worth it!! Having guest over, they alway get an extra big smile on their lips when I bring a small bowl of these delicious and creamy chocolate chip to the table. If you ever get the change to taste it, I will highly recommend that you use the extra few $ and buy this brand instead of your usual choice.

Ingredients (40 truffles)

10 oz. white chocolate chips (I prefer Amedei)

4 oz. heavy cream

1 large orange, zest

1-2 tsp. dried chili flakes

2 tbsp. liquorice powder

Melt the chocolate in a heat prof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Remove form heat when chocolate is melted.

Add orange zest and cream to a frying pan and bring to a boil. Pour 1/3 of the hot cream into the melted chocolate and stir to combine. Add the remaining cream and chili flakes and stir until evenly combined.

Leave the truffle mixture to cool in the fridge for at least 4-5 hours or preferably over night.

Use a teaspoon to make 30 small pieces (1/2 oz. each) and use your hands to roll it into balls. Fridge again.

Place the liquorice powder in a small bowl and remove the truffles from the fridge just before serving. Toss gently in liquorice powder and serve 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (30 truffles)

280 g white chocolate chips (I prefer Amedei)

113 g heavy cream

1 large orange, zest

1-2 tsp. dried chili flakes

2 tbsp. liquorice powder

Meatball and Gorgonzola Lasagna Pie

January 7, 2014January 11, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 3 Comments

A few days ago we made this stunning meatball and gorgonzola lasagna pie. Chris has been dreaming about it for month and insisted to make it now! As everything is made from scratch it take a few hours to make, but we promise that it is all worth it.

Using meatballs instead of meat sauce in a lasagna makes each bite more flavor intensive and tasty as ingredients (meat, tomato sauce and gorgonzola sauce) are separated in each bite. Another great thing with this lasagna, and our meatballs in general, is that the use of home made croutons seem to make the meatball texture more light than without the croutons.

The third thing that makes this lasagna different from other lasagna is, that it is made as a pie with dough on the sites too.

We make several different kinds of lasagna, but this id definitely one of our favorites which we look forward to make again 😀

Ingredients (8-10 servings)

Pasta dough

11 oz. pasta flour (tipo 00)

3 large egg

2 tbsp. olive oil

Meatballs

26 oz. pork chops

26 oz. steak

2 large onions

4-5 garlic cloves

2 chilies (choose your favorite)

2 inches ginger (peeled)

1 lemon, zest

2 cups croutons, preferably home made

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

3 eggs

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Salt & pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

Tomato Sauce:

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

3 shallots, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 cup white wine

1 3/5 cup canned tomatoes

3 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tbsp. dried basil

Salt & pepper

Filling

18 oz. mushrooms, fried

Gorgonzola sauce

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

3 cups whole milk

1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

1/2 cup aged cheddar cheese, shredded

3-4 tbsp. gorgonzola cheese (choose your favorite)

2 tsp. redcurrant jelly

Salt & pepper

Garnish

1/2 cup aged cheddar, shredded

Basil

Pasta dough

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until combined. Pour the combined dough onto a slightly floured surface and knead for at least 5 minutes.

Cover the pasta dough in plastic wrap and fridge for 1 hour before rolling it through your pasta machine. When all other ingredients (meatballs, tomato sauce and gorgonzola sauce) are ready you can take the dough out of the fridge and roll it. Some people hang their pasta dough on a stick to dry, but when making lasagna I don’t think that that is necessary. If you choose not to let the pasta plates dry (like me), it is a good idea to roll the dough as you work on, so that it is put into the lasagna immediately after it is rolled.

Meatballs

Chop the meat into 1 inch cubes and run it through a meat mincer together with onions, garlic cloves, ginger and chilies. Add parmesan cheese, lemon zest, croutons, cilantro and eggs and season with salt and pepper and mix until just combined. If you keep mixing you will get a very dense meatball instead of a light and fluffy one.

Take a teaspoon of the of the meat mixture and fry it in a bit of vegetable oil. Taste and season meat mixture again if necessary.

Divide the into 10 pieces and form like balls (the size of a baseball). Place in an oven safe tray, pour the two tbsp. olive oil over the meatballs and bake at 400F for 40 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Tomato sauce

Heat butter and oil in a sauce pan and sauce onions and garlic clove for 4-5 minutes. Add dried herbs and white wine and let cook a medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes before adding canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir and season with salt and pepper and let cook for further 5-10 minutes.

Gorgonzola sauce

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the flour and thyme leaves. Whisk constantly to make a silky smooth roux. Slowly pour in 1/4 cup milk at a time. Make sure that the milk is incorporated into the sauce before adding more. Let cook at low heat until thickened (whisk constantly to avoid burning), it takes 4-6 minutes. Add redcurrant jelly, shredded aged cheddar and gorgonzola and stir until dissolved. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Grease an ovensafe baking tray with vegetable oil and sprinkle it with flour. Roll 2/5 of the pasta dough on a pasta machine and cover both bottom and sides of the tray. Slice half of the meatballs and place the slices on the tray. Pour half of the tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of gorgonzola sauce on top of the sliced meatballs.

Roll half of the remaining pasta dough on the pasta machine and make another lasagna layer. Place the fried mushrooms in in the bottom of the sec on layer. Slice the remaining meatballs and place slices on top of mushrooms followed by the remaining tomato sauce and 1/2 cup gorgonzola sauce.

Roll the remaining pasta dough and use it as a lid for the lasagna. Pour 1/4 cup gorgonzola sauce on top and use a brush to spread it onto the entire lasagna lid. Cover with tim foil and bake at 400F for 45 minutes. Remove the tin foil after 30 minutes and sprinkle the shredded cheddar on top for the remaining baking time.

Let the lasagna rest for 20-30 minutes before serving. Decorate with teaspoons of the remaining of the warm gorgonzola sauce and basil leaves and serve with a good strong red wine 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (8-10 servings)

Pasta dough

300 g pasta flour (tipo 00)

3 large egg

2 tbsp. olive oil

Meatballs

750 g pork chops

750 steak

2 large onions

4-5 garlic cloves

2 chilies (choose your favorite)

5 cm ginger (peeled)

1 lemon, zest

5 dl croutons, preferably home made

2.5 dl parmesan cheese, grated

3 eggs

1.25 dl cilantro, chopped

Salt & pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

Filling

18 oz. mushrooms, fried

Tomato Sauce

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

3 shallots, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2.5 white wine

4 dl canned tomatoes

3 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tbsp. dried basil

Salt & pepper

Gorgonzola sauce

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

7.5 dl whole milk

1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

1.25 dl aged cheddar cheese, shredded

3-4 tbsp. gorgonzola cheese (choose your favorite)

2 tsp. redcurrant jelly

Salt & pepper

Garnish

1.25 dl cup aged cheddar, shredded

Basil

Happy New Year – passion and craftsmanship

January 5, 2014January 5, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 1 Comment

HAPPY NEW YEAR followers 🙂 Hope that everyone came into the new year with smiles, happy thoughts and a lot of love!

We spent New Years Eve with some of our best friends (the picture below) at a nearby restaurant. Normally we spent New Years Eve at our apartment as we live in Midtown and have room for a great party 😀 But this New Years Eve was special as our beloved friend Ditte (on the picture) turned 25 at midnight…. Therefore we chose to let her decided what to do this year, and kind as alway she decided that Chris and I should have the day off to party instead of cooking and cleaning for 10-15 guests. Not that we don’t enjoy cooking for parties, but sometimes it is nice to be waited on instead of waiting on others.

After dinner we went back to our place to drink champagne and eat marzipan ring cake (a new years eve tradition in Denmark) and celebrate Ditte’s 25th birthday 🙂

A lot have happened the last year and one of my new year traditions is to look back at the previous year and list dos and don’ts for the upcoming year.

Looking back at 2013 there is especially one thing that comes to mind, which is why this post isn’t about food but about passion and good craftsmanship.
When we first meet back in 2009 I got very inspired by Chris’ creativity and passion for developing trash into gold. During the year his skills has developed enormously and today he makes most of our furnitures himself. He was never good in school, he couldn’t (and can still not) sit still and listen for more than 5 minutes and so on…. But what he can do is use his imagination and hands to build whatever pops up in his head. The pictures below is a sample of the furnitures he build.

Dining Chairs
These dining chairs are handcrafted from 1 mm black iron. All the curves are made by hand and tools were handmade especially for this purpose.

Dining Table
This beautiful dining table was a hand made wedding gift for me (what a lucky girl I am 🙂 ). The top is made of African Azobe wood (also called iron wood) that was used to build the old harbor here in town. When the harbor was updated and renovated the old wood was set to be discarded – luckily Chris found it and transformed it into the most perfect wedding gift anyone could ever give me 🙂

The bottom of the table is cast iron parts from an antique clothing roll. The table bolted together with handcrafted bolt in black iron. All iron has been browned (heated and dipped in oil) so that it gets a beautiful old finish.

Coffee Table
The most recent project was this coffee table made from old timbered oak which we have been collecting from different parts of the country. Some of the iron part is cast iron from the clothing roll which was bought to make the bottom part of the dining table while some of the wooden parts (the handles) are from two old workbenches.

The top is assembled with old-fashioned handcraft methods, meaning that it doesn’t contain any screws or nail. The wheels are iron cast wheels found at a local hoarders junkyard where we sometimes go to look for special items. As with all the other furniture bolts and everything else is handcrafted and browed to make it look a bit old.

The hight of the table can be adjusted using the two handles on top.

Creativity & Passion
I could keep on writing about all the fabulous furnitures and how proud I am of my husband, but I will spare you for that instead I will just say:

Be creative, be passionate and dreams might become reality!

(if you haven’t already guest it, we are big fans of cigars and whisky 🙂 )

All pictures of furnitures are taken by Martin from Applepark Photography.

Food on Demant

by Ann & Chris Demant

Month: January 2014

Green Vitamin Bomb

Demant’s Cranberry Energizer

White Chocolate, Chili and Liquorice Truffles

Meatball and Gorgonzola Lasagna Pie

Happy New Year – passion and craftsmanship