Stuffed chicken breast with fresh brussels sprout salad

November 3, 2014December 4, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 1 Comment

Hello there followers and other foodies out their 🙂

Before talking about this amazing chicken and salad I would like to say that I am sorry for my unstable blogging the last 8-9 month. As some of you may know my husband Chris and I relocated from Denmark to Atlanta, Georgia in early April to start a new life as entrepreneurs and it has taken a lot of our time and energy. Things rarely goes as planned and we have now turned to entrepreneurial adventure B which will leave me more time for cooking and blogging, which is what I really love spending my time on.
When plan B is ready to be know by the public, I will definitely drag all of you guys and girls into our adventure, so look forward to the next few month where a dream might come true.

Enough about me and my entrepreneurial dream, this blog is about food and today I will show you how to make the most amazing stuffed chicken breast with a fresh and crispy brussels sprout salad. If you think that either you, your better half, children or guests don’t like brussels sprouts, don’t worry… this salad tastes nothing like the steamed brussels sprouts that everybody remember from their childhood. I would even say, that if you serve it to people not telling them what it is, they will love it and ask for the recipe.
Today I serve the salad together with cheese stuffed chicken, but otherwise I like to add a little bit of feta cheese to the salad to give it an extra punch.
Besides this brussels sprouts recipe I can also recommend my honey glazed recipe as well as my other raw brussels sprout salad.

Hope that you will enjoy and please leave a comment if you have any questions or just want to learn more 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

Brussels sprout salad

16 oz. brussels sprouts, cleaned

1 bell pepper

1 red onion

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

1.5 tbsp grainy mustard

1 lime, juice

Stuffed chicken breast

4 chicken breasts, organic

6 oz. cream cheese

0.5 red onion

1 chili pepper

1-2 garlic cloves

1 pinch of black pepper

8 oz mushrooms

8 oz bacon, sliced

2 tbsp butter

Salt & pepper

Begin with the chicken breasts. Preheat the oven at 400F/200C and cover a baking tray baking paper followed by a wire rack. Make sure that there is space between the baking tray and the wire rack, this will help the bacon get crisp all the way around.

Chop onion, garlic and chili pepper (I used jalapeños, but if you like a more kick to your chicken choose something with more heat) finely and add it to a bowl with cream cheese and black pepper. Mix it all together and set aside while preparing the mushrooms and chicken breasts.

Clean and slice the mushrooms. Remember never to clean mushrooms by washing them as it will remove a lot of the flavor, use a brush or a little sharp knife instead.
Add the sliced mushrooms to a dry medium-hot pan and sauté until most, but not all of liquid has evaporated. If you add too many mushrooms to the pan at one time, you will risk that instead of the liquid evaporating it will just be released into the pan and boil the mushrooms instead of sautéing them, so if you plan on making a larger portion do you self a favor and divide this process in two.
Transfer the sautéed mushrooms to a chopping board and let cool before chopping them into small pieces.

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Without cleaning the pan add the butter and let melt at medium heat. Add the seasoned chicken breasts and roast on all sides until light brown, about 2-3 minutes on each side.
Remove the roasted chicken from the pan and make a deep slice into the side of the meat. Stuff the chicken with with your cheese filling and chopped mushrooms and wrap it in bacon. On the picture below I have used an overload of bacon, but this not necessary. The most important thing is that the stuffing stays inside the chicken and not wether you have used 4 or 8 slices of bacon and how your wrap looks like. Of cause a nice looking wrap will make a better finished impression, but if the bacon gets layered it will be difficult getting it crisp.
Place the wrapped chicken breasts on the prepared baking tray/wire and bake in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 165F/74C which for me takes approximately 35-40 minutes.

While the chicken is baking you have time to prepare the salad.
Cut the brussels sprouts in half and slice them. Clean and slice the pepper bell and red onion too. Add all three to a mixing bowl and use your fingers or two forks to combine it.
In another bowl, mix together olive oil, honey, mustard and lime juice. Mix well to make sure that the honey gets incorporated into the dressing and not left in the bottom of the bowl.
Pour the well mixed dressing over the salad and mix. Leave to rest until the chicken is finished.

The salad can also be made in advance if you are entertaining guests or your kids while cooking. Just have in mind that if you want the salad to be fresh and crispy, you will have wait and not add the dressing until last minute. If you on the other hand would like the dressing to get well mixed into the salad you can add it early and let in rest until dinner time. I like it either way so for me it depends on the time.

Remove the chicken from the oven when it has reached the wanted temperature and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing it. Arrange on a plate together with the salad and a piece of warm home baked foccacia bread.

Serve with a light beer or a cold glass of white- or rosé wine.

Bon Appétit friends!

Ingredients (4 servings)

Brussels sprout salad

450 g brussels sprounts, cleaned

1 bell pepper

1 red onion

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

1.5 tbsp grainy mustard

1 lime, juice

Stuffed chicken breast

4 chicken breasts, organic

125 g cream cheese

0.5 red onion

1 chili pepper

1-2 garlic cloves

1 pinch of black pepper

225 g mushrooms

225 g bacon, sliced

2 tbsp butter

Salt & pepper

Juicy Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Peppers

June 3, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 5 Comments

Once again we forgot al about time and suddenly it was dinnertime. We are not that good at eating at the same time every night, and most often we use several hours in the kitchen, experimenting and having fun cooking.

Today has been nothing like that. Chris has been working late followed by an hour or two on his other hobby (designing and producing furnitures in metal and old wood), while I (Ann) has been in bed due to neck pains from an old whiplash.

As we had forgotten al about time, we decided to make something easy and quick but still delicious. It took less than 25 minutes (including prepping) and tasted fabulous 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

Pork chops

4 pork chops

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 handful thyme stems

1 tbsp. butter

Salt

Pepper

Sweet & Sour Peppers

1 tbsp. olive olie

2 red peppers

2 yellow peppers

2 red onions

1 jalapeños

1 cup edamamme beans

1 lime, juice and zest

2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Begin with prepping the vegetables. Remove the seeds from the peppers and cut them lengthwise. Then cut the onions and the jalapeño into thin slices. We are both chili lovers so we rarely remove the seeds and stems from the chilies, but if you like it more mild, you can remove it (or leave out the jalapeño).

Add olive olie to a frying pan and heat. Then add the peppers, onions, jalapeños and edamamme beans and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add sugar and sir to combine. When the peppers get a glazed surface add the red wine vinegar and juice and zest from the lemon. Season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until all the fluid had thickened.

While the sweet and sour peppers are simmering you can make the pork chops. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan and add butter, garlic and thyme. When the butter begins get brown and smell like nuts, add the pork chops and fry for about 4 minutes before turning it. Fry 4 minutes on the other side too, while pouring some of butter over the top. This will give the meat a love nutty taste on the surface and prevent it from drying out in the frying process.

Arrange the sweet and sour pepper mix on a plate and top with a delicious and juicy pork chop and serve with bread or rice.

Bon Appétit Friends!

Ingredients (4 servings)

Pork chops

4 pork chops

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 handful thyme stems

1 tbsp. butter

Salt

Pepper

Sweet & Sour Peppers

1 tbsp. olive olie

2 red peppers

2 yellow peppers

2 red onions

1 jalapeños

1 cup edamamme beans

1 lime, juice and zest

2 tbsp. sugar

1.25 dl red wine vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Creamy Shrimp and Spinach Spaghetti

Image ~ June 3, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 2 Comments

This is one of my absolute favorite spaghetti dishes that I make as often as Chris will allow it 😉 It is both quick and easy and then it tastes delicious – what more can one demand after a long day?

Actually I think that we had an extremely long day when I made this sunday evening… We spent last week driving from Atlanta to Austin Texas and back again – 15 hours each way! Well, we didn’t take it all on day but drove from Atlanta to New Orleans to celebrate Chris birthday and our 2nd wedding day, then drove to San Antonio to visit a friend followed by Austin. 45 minutes north east of Austin is a charming little town named Taylor. Taylor is one of those small towns that lost the Wallmart battle and many shops are closed and buildings abandoned. We drove all the way there from Atlanta to eat brisket at Louie Mueller BBQ and oh man, we were not led down. The place was as authentic as one can imagine when thinking of Texas BBQ and meat was prepared by a handful of artists. Actually they have all attended culinary school, but the beauty about this place is, that everything is made from the intuition of the cooks – there is not a single thermometer in the restaurant and the electric oven is only turned on to bake peach cobblers!
So if are ever in or around Austin, I can highly recommend this place for an authentic Texas BBQ experience 🙂 However, I must warn you a little bit… Don’t go there if you have hygiene issues. When I say it is authentic, I mean really authentic – there are no air conditioning and don’t be surprised if you find a cockroach or two in the dining room. But again, it is the best BBQ I have ever had, and I am definitely going there again some time.

Well to get back to this delicious spaghetti dish, we had a long drive home and non of really wanted to cook so we decided on something easy and quick. If you buy pre-washed spinach this dish does not take more than 15-20 minutes to make and it tastes wonderful. If you want it to be even quicker, you can buy shrimps that is already cleaned and ready to cook.

Hope that you like it and feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts and or suggestions 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

1 tbsp. butter

3 large banana shallots

1 red chili

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp. fresh thyme

14 oz. spinach

1 lemon, zest

1/3 cup cream

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded + more for serving

17 oz. spaghetti

20 wild caught tiger shrimps

Salt & pepper

First step is to prepare the spaghetti as recommended on the package label. I will, however, recommend that you cooked it a little less than described, as it will cook a little bit more when it gets into the spinach mixture. Pour into a colander when cooked.

Next step is to clean the shrimps from sand and intestines. The easiest way to do that, is to cut it open in the back with a scissor, removing the shell and rinsing it in ice cold water. Place the clean shrimps on some paper towel on a plate in the fridge.

Begin by washing the spinach very carefully and let it dry on paper towel or something similar while preparing the other ingredients. If possible, I will highly recommend that you buy pre-washed spinach as it is much easier and faster to work with and I honestly think that it is worth the extra dollar.
Then slice the shallots and chili and grate the garlic cloves. Remove the stem and seeds from the chili if you prefer a very mild chili taste or leave it in, if you are like me – a true chili fan 🙂

Next step is to melt the butter a medium-high heat (I made this portion on our Big Green Egg, but you can of cause make it on a regular stove as well) in a relatively large sauté pan – remember that all your ingredients including the cooked spaghetti will go in to the pan. Add shallots, chili, garlic, lemon zest and thyme to the melted butter and stir once in a while during the sauté process. Turn down the heat to medium and add the spinach when all the butter has been absorbed into the onions and stir to combine. Place a lid on the pan and leave it like that for 3-4 minutes – this gives the spinach time to release all the water without you interrupting it by stirring all the time (this was a mistake I made for many years cooking spinach – the more you stir, the more you ruin the texture of the spinach).

Take the lid of the pan and let some of all the spinach water evaporate for a minutes or two before adding cream, parmesan and fresh black pepper. Stir carefully to combine and then leave it for a few minutes while you make the shrimps.
Fry the shrimps in a little bit of vegetable oil or butter or place them on the grill like I have done here. They only need a few minutes on each side, so make sure that you don’t forget while preparing the rest of the dish.

Add the cooked and spaghetti to the spinach mixture when almost all the cream has evaporated. Stir carefully and season with salt and even more fresh black pepper.

Divide the spaghetti and spinach dish on four plates and place 4 shrimps on top of each. Then garnish with a little bit of grated parmesan cheese and serve with a warm French baguette and a cold glass of Chardonnay 🙂 Shrimp and Spinach Pasta 11

Bon Appétit Friends!

Ingredients (4 servings)

1 tbsp. butter

3 large banana shallots

1 red chili

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp. fresh thyme

400 g spinach

1 lemon, zest

80 ml cream

0.6 dl parmesan cheese, shredded + more for serving

500 g spaghetti

20 wild caught tiger shrimps

Salt & Pepper

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

Potted Pheasant Paté

December 28, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 2 Comments

It is the second time we make this delicious pheasant paté and it is just so damn good that we are going to make yet another portion tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so that we can serve it for appetizers on New Years Eve before heading to the restaurant where we are going to eat this year.

We made it for the first time last winter and ate it in days, but never got time to make another portion as Christmas was coming. This year we have bought three pheasants and until now we have only used one, so there is plenty of pheasant meat to make another two portions so that we can spoil friend and family when they come over for a glass of red wine and a pheasant crostini 🙂

Ingredients (2 pots)

Pheasant Stock

1 pheasant, bones only

1 cup celeriac, diced

1/2 cup carrots, diced

1 cup onions, diced

10-15 peppercorns

Herbs (thyme, rosemary and bay leaves)

Water

Paté

1 pheasant, meat

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp. duck fat

Salt and pepper

1 cup red wine

2 cups pheasant stock

2/3 cup bacon, diced

1/2 tsp. nutmeg, ground

1/2 tsp. black peppercorns

1/2 tsp. star anise

4 bay leaves

Stock

Skin and debone the pheasant – only the breast and leg meat is required for this recipe. Make sure that you have cleaned it thoroughly for feathers. Put away the pheasant meat while you make the stock.

Place the carcass and drumsticks in a sauce pan and cover it with water. Bring it to a boil while keeping an eye on it. Just before it begins to boil, all the impurities will come to surface – remove the impurities with a spoon so that your stock gets clear and pretty.

Add all the vegetables, peppercorns and herbs and let cook for one hour.
Strain the stock from the vegetables after an hour and continue to cook until the stock has reduced to the needed 2 cups (approximately 2 hours at medium-low heat).

Paté

Roughly chop onion and garlic cloves. Melt half of the duck fat and soften onion and garlic until the onions get a clear and shiny surface. Add the red wine and reduce until almost all the wine has evaporated. Add the stock and reduce again. You should end up with a approximately 1 cup of onion/stock.

While you reduce the stock you can prepare the meat. Mince the pheasant meat, diced bacon and the remaining duck fat on a coarse mince setting. Grind the peppercorns together with nutmeg and anise using a pestle and mortar. Add to the minced meat together with the stock reduction and pass it through the mincer again.
Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine all ingredients evenly.

Take a small amount of the mixture, fry if and taste. Season more if required.

Divide the mixture into two sterilized pots – be careful not to over fill the pots, otherwise the mixture will bubble over. Place two bay leaves in the top of each pot before putting the pots a bain-marie (water bath). Place the jar lids in a position where they can be closed quickly as soon as the come out of the oven.

Cook in the oven at 320F for 60 minutes. Remove from the oven, seal the jar immediately and leave to cool. Unopened the paté can be stored at room temperature for up to 4 weeks – this, of cause. depends on weather you have used sterilized pots or not. Fridge when opened.

Serve on a piece of toast as an appetizer for new years eve, birthday dinner or just for you and loved once on a cozy winter night with a glass of good red wine 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (2 pots)

Pheasant Stock

1 pheasant, bones only

2.5 dl celeriac, diced

1.25 dl carrots, diced

2.5 dl onions, diced

10-15 peppercorns

Herbs (thyme, rosemary and bay leaves)

Water

Paté

1 pheasant, meat

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp. duck fat

Salt and pepper

2.5 dl red wine

5 dl pheasant stock

1.6 dl cup bacon, diced

0.5 tsp. nutmeg, ground

0.5 tsp. black peppercorns

0.5 tsp. star anise

4 bay leaves

Creamy Beet Soup

December 28, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Soup, soup, soup and more soup… I have experimented with soups this December and I must admit that I have made some pretty awesome variation with the vegetables in season.
Years ago we never thought about using what was in season – we just bought whatever ingredients was necessary to make what we wanted for dinner. Today we most often pick our vegetables at the local farmers market where we can get fresh seasonal vegetables, which makes it a lot more fun than buying them in the local super market where it have been lying for days. What would be even better is to grow the vegetables our selves, but as we live in an apartment it is quite difficult for us to grow anything else than herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers and chilies. To our luck, my parents have a garden where we can grow potatoes, beets, celeriac, zucchinis, onions, brussels sprouts, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, black currant and apples 🙂 Or to be honest, my parents grow it and we eat it!

The beets and onions for this soup is bought while the celeriac and jalapeños is home grown and the vegetables stock home made from vegetables residues.

Hope that you will enjoy the soup 🙂

Ingredients (4 serving)

26 oz. celeriac, peeled

26 oz. beet roots, peeled

8 oz. onions

1 jalapeño

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)

2 tsp. dried coriander

1 lemon, juice

5 cups vegetable stock

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup bacon, fried

1/4 cup cashew nuts, roasted

Salt & pepper

Chop celeriac, beets and onions in 1/2-inch pieces and the jalapeños in slices.
Warm the oil in a sauce pan and add all the vegetables. Sauté for 4-5 minutes until all vegetables has adapted the beautiful color from the beets.

Add cayenne pepper, dried coriander and lemon juice and stir to combine.

Add vegetable stock and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Transfer to a stand blender and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add more vegetables stock or water for a thinner consistency.

Pour the soup in small soup bowls and garnish with sour cream, fried bacon and roasted chopped cashew nuts.
Serve on a busy and cold week night or as a starter when having friend or family over for a three course dinner 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4 serving)

750 celeriac, peeled

750 beet roots, peeled

225 g onions

1 jalapeño

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)

2 tsp. dried coriander

1 lemon, juice

1.25 liter vegetable stock

0.8 dl sour cream

0.6 dl bacon, fried

0.6 dl cashew nuts, roasted

Salt & pepper

Stewed Kale – a modern interpretation

December 28, 2013January 4, 2015 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 3 Comments

Stewed kale is yet another nordic traditional dish which is served around christmas. It can be prepared in many variations but the most common is a regular white roux with minced kale and seasoned with salt and pepper and is served with a variation of pork. In my childhood (the 1980s) it was a popular, easy and cheap dish, but I (Ann) don’t remember that we had it that often, but I definitely remember that I hated it 🙂 Chris on the other hand, grew up in Atlanta GA so when I talked about renewing an old enemy into something delicious and fresh, he did not know who the enemy was 😉

This modern interpretation of an old and boring enemy from my childhood have ended up being one of my own winter favorites and both Chris, the remaining family and our friend has giving it thumbs up, and several people have asked for the recipe – so friend, here it is 🙂

Hope that you will try it and leave a comment with your thoughts about it 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

3 pounds fresh kale

2 large red onions

1 lemon, zest and juice

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1 cup vegetable stock

2 cups whole milk

1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Salt & pepper

1/3 cup cashew nuts, roasted

Rinse the kale carefully in cold water and remove the stem. Bring a large sauce pan to a broil, turn the heat down to the lowest point and add 1/3 of the rinsed kale. Let steam for 4-5 minutes in the hot water before transferring to a bowl with cold water. This step will ensures that the kale keeps the beautiful green color. Repeat process with the remaining 2/3 of the kale.
Twist all the water out of the kale when cooled and place on a chopping board and chop it roughly (bite-sized – not to large, not to small)

Divide the onions in two and chop them in thin slices.
Melt the butter in a large sauce pan and sauté the onions and lemon zest for 3-4 minutes or until the onion slices begin to get transparent. Add flour and stir to combine. Add 1/5 cup vegetable stock, stir until combined and thickened and repeat with the remaining stock and all the milk. Make sure that the liquid is incorporated into the roux before adding more – otherwise you will end up with a thin and indifferent sauce.

Add parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper – taste and season more if necessary. Add the steamed and chopped kale, stir and let cook at low heat for 10-15 minutes.

Arrange on a plate or in a dish and garnish with roasted chopped cashew nuts. On the picture for this post it was served with pulled pork in whisky bbq sauce, but we also served it for this years family christmas dinner together with turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce 🙂

Bon Appétit friends!

Ingredients (4 servings)

1400 g fresh kale

2 large red onions

1 lemon, zest and juice

25 g butter

2 tbsp. flour

2.5 dl vegetable stock

5 dl whole milk

0.8 dl parmesan cheese, grated

Salt & pepper

0.8 dl cashew nuts, roasted

Butternut Squash Soup

December 14, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Flavorful food doesn’t have to contain a lot of spices or ingredients and this delicious butternut squash soup is a perfect example! It only contains a few ingredients and is only seasoned with salt and pepper and it tastes so fabulous and simple. The sweetness form both the sautéed shallots and the roasted butternut squash combined with stock, sour cream and fried kale is just perfect – and then it is healthy 😉
In the recipe we have written “chicken/vegetable” stock but we alway use home made chicken stock ourselves, but are you a vegetarian or are you serving the soup for vegetarians, you can replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock.

We have made many soup this spring and the first two weeks of the winter and we will try to upload as many soup recipes as possible during the remaining winter season.

Hope that you will enjoy the soup as much as we have done and please leave a comment with your honest opinion 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

Soup

1 butternut squash

4 banana shallots

1/2 tbsp. butter

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup water

1 cup sour cream

Salt & pepper

Garnish

2 cups kale, chopped

1 cup canola oil

Slice the butternut squash in two and remove the seeds. Place on a piece of baking paper and bake at 400F for approximately 1 hour or until tender.

Peel the baked butternut squash and chop the squash meat into 1 inch cubes. Slice the shallots. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and sauté the sliced shallots for a few minutes. Add the chopped baked squash pieces and sauté for a further 5 minutes. Then add stock and water, season with salt and pepper and stir to combine and bring to a boil. Put the lid on and let cook at medium/low heat for 45-50 minutes.

Transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and season again if necessary. Pour the blended soup through a strainer and back into the sauce pan. Add sour cream and stir to combine. Remove the soup from the heat and let rest while making the garnish.

Rinse the chopped kale in cold water and squeeze it in a tea towel to remove as much water as possible.

Heat up the canola oil to 320F and fry the kale 1/2 a cup at a time. Transfer the fried kale to a plate with paper towel.

Pour the soup into four soup bowls and garnish with the fried kale. Enjoy the soup with family and friend – promise that everyone will love it 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4 servings)

Soup

1 butternut squash

4 banana shallots

5 g butter

5 dl chicken or vegetable stock

2.5 dl water

2.5 sour cream

Salt & pepper

Garnish

5 dl kale, chopped

2.5 dl canola oil

Stormy Red Lentil Soup

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

Today we have one of the biggest and longest storms we have had for many many years here in Denmark. All the TV channels report from the storm, the police advice everyone to stay indoor and one person has already been reported dead 😦 We had a hurricane back in October where three people lost their lives but it only lasted a few hours, whereas the storm today will last up to 24 hours. At the moment all bridges has been closed, national trains has stopped all traffic and some of the airports has cancelled all traffic for the rest of the day….

So what to do on a #do#not#leave#the#house#not#even#to#go#buy#groceries?? Well, I have been doing many things, some more interesting than others. First I have been preparing for tomorrow where we are going to make lots of beef jerky and one of my favorite christmas dishes: pheasant paté :-). Then I have played with some 100% chocolate and condensed milk, trying to make truffles – that did not go well (but it tasted fabulous). After that I decided to make soup for dinner, opened the kitchen cabinets and found a bag of red lentil – so it was an easy choice today as red lentil soup tastes delicious 🙂

While soup was cooking a made a few gloss paper christmas hearts (pictures will follow) and now I am enjoying a glass of Glenburgie-Glenlivet whisky and a piece of Amedei chocolate 🙂 And hopefully Chris will come home from work in a few hours, so that I won’t have to sleep alone!

Bag to the soup…. I have tasted lentil soup many times before but never made it myself. It was easier than expected and it tasted so delicious that I called Chris all excited to let him know that I had just made a perfect soup 🙂 Hope that you will try the recipe and leave a comment wether you like it , love it or hate it!

Ingredients (4 servings)

Soup

1 tbsp. butter

2 large onions

2 garlic cloves

1-2 red chili

1 tbsp. tomato paste

1 large tomato

1 1/2 cup red lentils

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup water

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cream

1/3 cup red wine

Salt & pepper

Garnish

1 cup macadamia nuts

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 bundle pea shoots

Chop onions, garlic cloves, chili and tomato finely (today I used my Nicer Dicer – the smallest step). Melt the butter in a sauce pan and sauté onions, garlic and chili for 4-5 minutes. Add tomato paste and chopped tomatoes and sauté for yet a few minutes.

Add lentils, chicken stock and water, put the lid on the sauce pan and let cook on medium-low heat for 50-60 minutes. Stir occasionally to aviod burning.

Transfer the cook lentil soup to a stand blender and blend until smooth. Add milk, cream and red wine, blend again, taste and season with salt and pepper.

While the soup is cooking you can prepare the macadamia nuts. Chop the nuts roughly and roast them on a dry pan until the begin to take on color and release a nutty note.

Pour the soup into your prettiest soup plates and and garnish with pea shoots and roasted nuts or grated parmesan cheese and nuts – both testes wonderful 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4 servings)

Soup

1 tbsp. butter

2 large onions

2 garlic cloves

1-2 red chili

1 tbsp. tomato paste

1 large tomato

3.75 dl red lentils

1 liter chicken stock

2.5 dl water

2.5 dl milk

1.25 dl cream

0.8 dl red wine

Salt & pepper

Garnish

2.5 dl macadamia nuts

2.5 dl parmesan cheese, grated

1 bundle pea shoots

Dad’s Fish Cakes

November 21, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Chris is working the night shift these weeks so we don’t see each other that much and we don’t cook and eat together 😦 I don’t know why, but I rarely make a proper meal when I’m alone, so yesterday my parents decided to feed (properly a good ideas as I have been living of popcorn, meringue kisses and macarons the few days).

For a looooong time my dad has claimed that he makes the best fish cakes in the world, so last night wanted to prove it… and he was right!! It is without doubt the best fish cakes I have ever tasted (and I have tasted many many many variations of fish cake)! And I am not alone with that opinion… On my way home from my parents, I stopped at Chris’ work with dinner and he loved them too 🙂

Three things that make these fish cakes better than other fish cakes is: 1) the fish is chopped and not minced which gives a more fluffy and light texture, 2) bacon – everything with bacon tastes fabulous! and, 3) it contains spring onions instead of regular white onions, giving it a bit more fresh taste!

I hope that you’ll try this recipe so that my dad’s fish cake recipe can go all around the world 🙂

Ingredients (18 fish cakes)

2 pounds cod filet

6 tbsp. bread crumbs

2 eggs

4 large spring onions

15 slices bacon

5 tbsp. milk

Salt & pepper

Cut the fish into small cubes and chop it finely. Do the same with bacon and spring onions – but for God’s sake don’t blend it!! If you blend the fish toy will end up with heavy and sticky fish cakes instead of light and textured.

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Let rest in the fridge before dividing it into 18 equally sized pieces. Form each piece into a ball and press it flat – approximately 1/2-inch thick.

Fry in butter for about 4 minutes on each side. Let rest for a few minutes before served. These were served with cooked potatoes and white parsley sauce 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (18 fish cakes)

900 g cod filet

6 tbsp. bread crumbs

2 eggs

4 large spring onions

15 slices bacon

5 tbsp. milk

Salt & pepper

Food on Demant

by Ann & Chris Demant

dinner

Stuffed chicken breast with fresh brussels sprout salad

Juicy Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Peppers

Creamy Shrimp and Spinach Spaghetti

Meatball and Gorgonzola Lasagna Pie

Potted Pheasant Paté

Creamy Beet Soup

Stewed Kale – a modern interpretation

Butternut Squash Soup

Stormy Red Lentil Soup

Dad’s Fish Cakes