appetizer

Donna’s pickled shrimps

~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 2 Comments

Happy New Year dear followers.

This has been the strangest New Years Eve in many years for us. Usually we spent new years eve with a couple of friends or 10 having a great party with good food, wine, drinks and champagne. We knew already early on that this new years eve would be different as we have moved from one continent to another, but what we hadn’t planned was a night on the couch with blanket all up the our ears and a visit from the good old flu…
Fortunately we hadn’t made any NYE plan when the flu struck Chris a few days after Christmas and then moved on to me a few days later. Another fortunate thing is, that none of us has been really really bad, but just under the weather and not feeling to well.

Flu, cold or what ever struck us wasn’t gonna keep us from having a good dinner and we therefore decided to bake some easy rustic baguettes and make these delicious and very easy pickled shrimps. It is easy to make and it tastes wonderful and can be served as a snack table or as an appetizer. The reason I call it Donna’s pickled shrimps is simply because I got the recipe from Donna who is very good family friend who have helped us a lot since we moved her. They usually make pickled shrimps around Christmas, but I can definitely tell you that this recipe will be used quite often in our house 🙂 So thank you Donna!

Ingredients (8 servings)
2 lb shrimps
1 onion
1 1/4 cup salad oil
3/4 cup vinegar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp celery seeds
2 1/2 tbsp capers
Dash of hot sauce

Cook and peel the shrimps. I usually peel the shrimps first and then cook them, but some people find it easier to the other way around. If you want it to be even easier, you can just the cooked and peeled ones in your local supermarket.
I always buy the raw shrimps and cook them for 3-4 minutes in simmering water. Let cool completely.
Add salad oil, vinegar, salt, celery seeds and hot sauce in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Slice the onion into whole or half rings and add to the oil mixture together with capers and cooled shrimps. Mix well, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 24 hours. Drain the pickled shrimps just before serving.

Serve with freshly baked baguette and a good cooled white wine.
FOOD ON DEMANT (2 of 12)

Bon Appétit friends!

Ingredients (8 servings)
900 g shrimps
1 onion
315 ml salad oil
175 ml vinegar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp celery seeds
2 1/2 tbsp capers
Dash of hot sauce

Advertisement

The Famous Fried Green Tomatoes

~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever watched Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café? If not, it is definitely a huge mistake! We believe that is an all time classic that must be seen 🙂

Back in 2010 we went on a 6 week road trip in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Before taking the trip we had watched the movie and decided to make a short stop in Juliette, GA where the movie was shot, on our way from Atlanta, GA to St. George Island, FL.

Driving into Juliette was like driving into the movie. The town looked almost like it did back in 1991 when the movie was made, and of cause they served fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe 🙂 Before watching the movie and visiting the town, we didn’t know much about fried green tomatoes, but we can assure you, that that has changed now 😀

As often as possible – the tomato season – we make these fabulous tomatoes as snacks. In the beginning of the tomato season we have to order the green tomatoes at the local farmers market, while there are no problem getting them in the late tomato season, as many people make pickled green tomatoes.

The picture below are taken in Juliette and represent the old mill, where there is a motorcycle museum today. Are you ever going near Juliette, you should definitely give it try 🙂

Image 56

Ingredients (4-5 servings)

10 green tomatoes, small

3 tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 pinch pepper

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup Japanese breadcrumbs (Panko)

1 cup canola oil

IMG_0788

Cut the green tomatoes in half if you use small tomatoes. If you use regular sized tomatoes, cut them into 1/2 – 1 inch slices.

Combine flour, salt and pepper. Turn the sliced tomatoes in the flour followed by the the buttermilk and then the breadcrumbs.IMG_0763

Place the breaded tomatoes in the fridge for about an hour before frying them.

Heat the oil in a pan and use a thermometer to control the temperature. It should be between 320 and 350F. If you have a fryer you can of cause use that 🙂

Fry the breaded tomatoes for a minute or two on each side or until they golden brown.

Serve warm as a snack with aïoli and cold beers 🙂IMG_0764 IMG_0766

Bon Appétit!

 

Ingredients (4-5 servings)

10 green tomatoes, small

3 tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 pinch pepper

2.5 dl buttermilk

2.5 dl Japanese breadcrumbs (Panko)

2.5 dl canola oil

Corn Tortillas

~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 3 Comments

How often do you eat burritos/tortillas. Well, we eat them quite often as we find them perfect when ever we have leftovers. We have always just bought wheat tortillas from our local supermarket, but one day decided that we would try to make them ourselves.

To make original corn tortillas one need to get a flour type called masa harina (flour made from corn), which in Denmark, is easier said than done! It can only be bought in Chilihouse.dk, approximately 2 hours travel from where we live. Of cause we can buy it on their online shop, but postage costs more the the flour itself, so we decided to wait for a while. But to our luck a friend of ours visited the shop and bought a pound of flour, so that we could begin our tortilla experiment 🙂

As you can see in the recipe below, we chose to use chicken stock, but you can also just use hot water or if you want to spice it up a bit, you can use beer.

As with all other baking it takes time (approximately one hour), but we promise that it is all worth it 🙂

 

Ingredients (16 small tortillas)

2 cups masa harina (corn flour)

1 1/3 cup chicken stock, hot

IMG_0040

Combine flour with hot chicken stock to form a dough. Leave covered for 15 minutes. The texture should be soft clay but not sticky. Knead in more water if necessary.

Divide dough into 12 equally sized balls. Roll out dough balls between two sheets of baking paper until thin. If you would like your tortillas to be perfectly round, you can use a cake cutter (the one used here is 5.5 inches).

Heat a dry pan until hot. Place one tortilla in the pan and cook for 20-30 seconds on each side. Remove from the pan when the tortilla puffs up. Keep covered while baking the rest.

Fill with your favorite burrito stuffing and serve with a cold Mexican beer 😀

IMG_0044

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (16 small tortillas)

500 g masa harina (corn flour)

3.5 dl chicken stock, hot

 

 

Chili Cheese Snacks

~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

There is absolutely nothing better than homemade chili cheese snacks! We make them so often that Chris has made some tools especially for chili cheese (you can see the on the pictures below).

The chili cheese idea came after a sunday trip to McDonalds a few years ago, where we bought chili cheese tops. They tasted great but there were a few problems linked to the concept: 1) we don’t really know what they are made from, 2) they were cold before we were home and ready to eat, 3) they are quite greasy, and last but not least 4) they are way too expensive!

For those four reasons, we decided to make our own version with different kinds of cheese filling. They are one the most popular snacks (together with beef jerky and fried green tomatoes) when we invite friends and family over for a great BBQ Party.

We have tried several different cheese variation and most of them are fabulous (try and use blue cheese instead of cheddar cheese – especially if you are serving spicy chicken wings :-)). Feta cheese, gruyere or cream cheese with herbs are great alternatives too, so just choose your favorite cheese.

We hope that you will enjoy them as much as we do 🙂

 

Ingredients (20 snacks)

20 jalapeños

1/2 pound cream cheese

1/2 cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 cup aged cheddar cheese, shredded

10 bacon slices

Pepper

 

Begin your chili cheese adventure by removing the seeds and stems from all the jalapeños. We use a homemade tool like shown on the picture below, but you can just use a small knife. Make sure that all the seeds are gone, so they don’t get to hot 🙂

 IMG_6422

IMG_6423

Place cream cheese and whisk until it gets a bit more fluffy and then add the shredded cheddar cheese. stir until evenly combined. Taste and season with grounded pepper if necessary. Place the cheese mix in a piping back and fill it into all the cleaned chilies.

IMG_6526

Cut the bacon slices into halves and wrap them around the cheese filled chilies. Make a rack out of tin foil, so the chilies don’t fall over and all the cheese disappears down into the smoker/grill – that would really be a shame! One again, the tool you can see on the picture is homemade, and says a lot about us – we make MANY chili cheese snacks 😀

Place the rack with the stuffed and wrapped chilies in your smoker/grill and put the lid on. Smoke/grill at about 230F for about an hour or until the bacon gets crisp.

Serve as appetizers at your next garden party or just as a good weekend snack with an ice-cold beer – but be fast, they’ll be gone before you know it – which is why we don’t have picture of the finished ones (yet) 😀

IMG_6531

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (20 snacks)

20 jalapeños

450 g cream cheese

1.25 dl mild cheddar cheese, shredded

1.25 dl aged cheddar cheese, shredded

10 bacon slices

Pepper

 

30 Minute Duck Salad

~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Last night we were both feeling tired and decided that dinner was going to be something fast and and easy but still delicious. We look in the fridge and found ingredients for out favorite duck salad and decided to make it.

One of the great things about this sale is, that it takes less than 30 minutes to make and it tastes fabulous 🙂 The combination of the juicy duck meat together with all the crispy vegetables and the sweet mango and perfumed cilantro gives it a bit of an Asian twist without it being to much.

The recipe below is for a 2-persons main course, but you can use it as an appetizer to, which will cover 4-6 servings instead.

 

Ingredients (2 servings)

1 duck breast

Salt

Pepper

2 handfuls rucola salad

1/2 leek

6 cherry tomatoes

10 asparagus

1/2 cucumber

1/2 mango

1 onion

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup cilantro

 

Clean the duck breast and remove tendons and blood vessels if any. Heat up a frying pan and make small cuts in the duck skin; season with salt and pepper. Place the duck breast with the skin side down, when the pan is smoking hot. Turn down the heat and fry on the skin side for 8-10 minutes. Turn the duck breast and turn off the heat. Let fry for additionally 2-3 minutes before removing the it from the pan. Let rest (on the meat side) on a plate for 10 minutes before cutting it into 1/2 inch slices.

While the duck is frying and resting, you have time to prep the vegetables. Clean the rucola salad and leek in cold water and let it drip off in a colander.

Slice the onion in paper thin slices and place them in a bowl and cover with soy sauce. Set aside until the rest of the vegetables are prepared.

Clean the asparagus and cut them into bit size pieces and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds. Rinse the asparagus in cold water to avoid that they get soft.

Slice the tomatoes, mango, cucumber and the cleaned leek into thin slices.

Arrange the salad on a nice plate beginning with the rucola salad, followed by the cucumber-, tomato-, and leek slices. Then add the blanched asparagus and the soy-marinated onion slices and finish off with the mango slices.

When the duck breast has been resting for approximately 10 minutes, you can slice it. Place the slices on top of the salad and sprinkle with cilantro.

Serve with a good cold beer 🙂

IMG_6642

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (2 servings)

1 duck breast

Salt

Pepper

2 handfuls rucola salad

1/2 leek

6 cherry tomatoes

10 asparagus

1/2 cucumber

1/2 mango

1 onion

1.25 dl soy sauce

0.8 dl cup cilantro

 

Spicy Drumsticks

~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Who don’t love drumsticks? Most people like drumstick in one way or the other. As we are chili ‘freaks’ we both love these spicy drumstick and the delicious marinade which we use as a dipping sauce.

If you are not used to eating chili every day, you might add less chili sauce and more honey. You can alway add more chili if you find it to mild, but it is more difficult to go the other way.

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

12 drumsticks

3 tbsp. hot chili sauce (today we’ve used Sriracha)

3 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. good olive oil

4-6 garlic cloves, chopped

Juice from 1 lime

Salt

Pepper

 

Mix together chili sauce, honey, olive oil, chopped garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Add the drumsticks and mix well. Make sure that all drumsticks has been marinaded before covering the bowl with plastic wrap. Let rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

Cover a roasting pan with baking paper and put in the marinated drumsticks. Pour the remaining marinade over the drumsticks and bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit. Turn the legs halfway to avoid the marinade from getting burned.

Pour the remaining marinade in a bowl and serve with the drumsticks as a dipping sauce.

Serve with your favorite side dishes like black bean salad, smoked beans or with celery and blue cheese dressing.

IMG_5753

Bon Appétit!