Donna’s pickled shrimps

January 3, 2015January 3, 2015 ~ 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.

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

Liquorice Marzipan – my Christmas addiction

December 5, 2014December 7, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Licorice or lakrids as we say in Danish is a favorite of mine when it comes to sweets as well as alternative food spices. I use it regularly when i make my own sweets and as regular candy, my mom sends me a package once in a while, so I can build a stock.
Since I moved to Atlanta in April I haven’t really had any time to play in kitchen, but now that Christmas is around the corner, I have taken a few days out of the calendar to prepare the usual christmas cookies and candy.

I use liquorice products from Johan Bülow, a Danish entrepreneur how with an amazing drive and high quality products, and if you spent $90 or more you get free shipment world wide. However, if you don’t feel like spending that much money for a product you don’t know you can buy some cheaper liquorice powder (can be found in some middle eastern stores or online) and make the liquorice syrup your self (melt some salty liquorice in a little bit of water and wupti, you have made your own syrup).

The marzipan for this recipe is totally similar to a regular marzipan, but with half of the syrup replaced with liquorice in stead of simple syrup. So give it a try, it’s different but so delicious perfect for several Christmas treats 🙂

Ingredients (7 oz.)
3.5 oz. almonds, blanched
1 tbsp. simple syrup (find recipe below)
1 tbsp. salty liquorice syrup from Johan Bülow
1 drop almond extract
2 tsp. raw liquorice powder from Johan Bülow

Simple syrup:
9/10 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
4/10 cup water

Place all the ingredients for the simple syrup in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Let boil for a few minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup thickens a bit. It is important not to let the syrup reduce to much as it will give you trouble when you are about to make the marzipan. Transfer the hot syrup to a heat- and air tight jar. You will only need 1 tbsp. for this recipe, but you can store the syrup for next time or for other purposes.

Place the blanched almonds in a blender and blend until it turns into flour. For me it takes 45-60 seconds, but my blender is pretty tired these days. I recommend that you take a look at it after 30 seconds. You can always give it more, not less.
Transfer your almond flour to medium mixing bowl and use a finger to make a hole in the middle.
Pour simple syrup, liquorice syrup, almond extract and raw liquorice powder into the hole and use your finders to mix it all together. Keep mixing until it stops being sticky and turns into smooth and uniform mass. Before you know it, you have a perfect and really tasty liquorice marzipan. If you feel that the mixing process takes too long you can transfer the mixture to a blender/food processor and run it high speed for approximately 30 seconds. This solution is only recommended if you have a blender/food processor with a strong motor. Other wise you might end up ruining the machine.

Wrap the marzipan in cling wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours before using it. This will allow the liquorice taste to be absorbed into the almond flour and create a beautiful sweet and salty flavor.

Suggested use:
(1) Divide into 18 equally small pieces and roll them into ball. Cover with tempered white chocolate and drizzle with raw licorice powder and lemon zest,
(2) or these alternative liquorice wreaths from Sweet, Sour, Savory.

Bon Appétit friends!

Ingredients (200 g)
100 g almonds, blanched
1 tbsp. simple syrup (find recipe below)
1 tbsp. salty liquorice syrup from Johan Bülow
1 drop almond extract
2 tsp. raw liquorice powder from Johan Bülow

Simple Syrup:
225 g sugar
75 g corn syrup
100 ml water

Mayonnaise – simple, easy, delicious and without additives!

November 23, 2014December 4, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 1 Comment

Mayonnaise – who doesn’t use mayonnaise at least once in a while?
Well, we use many almost every day as a sandwich spread, in cold dressings or as a condiment for tapas dishes.

For years I bought my mayo, mostly because I didn’t realize how easy it was to make myself. Then one evening we were having friends over for dinner and to my horror I realized that I didn’t have any mayo for the salad dressing I had planned to make, and I didn’t have time to go the grocery store to buy some. So what to do?? Well, I looked in the fridge and all my cabinets for an alternative and what I found was egg yolks, mustard, vinegar and vegetable oil and there the case was set – I needed to make my first mayo and I was in a hurry! Of cause our guests turned up in the middle of my mayo-miracle and everyone stood there in the kitchen looking at me while I slowly but confidently poured oil into the egg mixture and created my first and very successful mayonnaise.

Ingredients (6 cups)

16 oz egg yolk or egg stir

4 tbsp Dijon mustard

4 tbsp red wine vinegar

48 fl oz vegetable oil

2-4 tsp salt

Mix together egg yolk/egg stir, mustard and vinegar in a medium-large bowl, using a stand mixer, hand mixer or a whisker if you feel like getting some overarm/shoulder exercise. Using my KitchenAid I have on speed 6 during the entire process. If you use a regular whisker, try to keep the same whisking speed all the time. If you get tired (which you will, making large portion like this) you can have a break or two, just remember not to leave any excess oil on top of the mayonnaise while you arm is recovering. Incorporate the oil and then take a break.

Keep on mixing while you slowly pour in the vegetable oil.
If you get too much oil into the mixture at one time the eggs cannot absorb the oil and you will ruin the mayonnaise. So it is better to take a few more minutes and get the exact right consistency instead of ruining the entire mayonnaise. As you pour in the oil and mix you see the mixture thicken and turn in to a lovely an light mayonnaise. Towards the end of the process you might find it difficult to incorporate the remaining oil. If you feel that the mayonnaise has the right consistency, stop pouring in anymore oil. If you want it a little bit thicker you can take finish off the process with a regular whisker, making sure that you get all the way around the edges of the bowl.
Add 1 tsp. of sat at a time until you have the wanted taste.

Transfer the mayonnaise to air tight jars (I use Mason jars) and store in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.
Use as a sandwich spread, as dipping for warm freshly baked bread, as a condiment for oven roasted salty potatoes or something fourth and totally different – mayonnaise is perfect for almost everything 🙂

Bon Appétit friends!

Ingredients (6 cups)

450 g egg yolk or egg stir

4 tbsp Dijon mustard

4 tbsp red wine vinegar

1420 ml vegetable oil

2-4 tsp salt

Ginger and chili kick starter – without a juicer

November 8, 2014December 4, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Are you among those people that believe that you need a nice and expensive juicer to make your own juice? Well, I was once one of those people and as I knew I was moving from one end of the world to another I didn’t wanna go and spend the necessary amount of money on a juicer and was therefore not making any juices.
After a winter with a few colds, a sore throat and a bad craving for home made juice I decided to come up with an alternative. I went to my kitchen, looked in all my cabinets and quickly decided to try the blender, bowl, colander and kitchen towel method and you know what? It worked perfectly… and in that moment I realized that I had probably just saved about $200 (the average price for a good juicer in Denmark) – $200 that I could use on something else and still get a perfect juice whenever I wanted 🙂
Know that I have moved I still use this method as I find it a little stupid to spent money on something that I can do myself and get the same result. Of cause it takes a little longer (15 minutes) but I think it is worth it in the end and you will definitely fell more passionately about your juice when it is made this way 🙂

If you get hooked on the juice-without-a-juicer idea, you can check out my other my other juice recipes which includes carrot and clementine, clementine and orange, cranberry enegizer and the green vitamin bomb.

Ingredients (4 servings)

2 large or 4 medium apples

1 orange

0.5 lemon

1 chili

1 tbsp ginger root

0.5 cup water, cold

Rinse the apples in cold water, remove the core and chop into smaller pieces. Place in a regular blender together with the cold water. Blend for a few seconds to give space to remaining ingredients (this is not necessary if your blender is big enough to contain it all).
Peel the orange, lemon and ginger, cut it into smaller pieces and add it to the blended apples together with the chili. I have used a Tabasco chili, which gives it a little kick – not too much, not too little, but you can use any chili.
Blend it all well together. I use the ‘liquify’ button on my KitchenAid blender for about 30 seconds.

Find a bowl, a colander and a kitchen towel. It is important that it is a brand new kitchen towel that you only use for juicing and nothing else.
Place the colander in the bowl, cover it with the towel and pour approximately half of your juice batter into the towel.

Use one hand to assemble the towel and the other hand to twist it around. Keep twisting to get all the juices out. Remove the all the dry fruit from the towel and repeat the process with the other half of the juice batter.
This portion makes about 3.5 cups (a lille less than 1 liter) and is enough for 4 servings.

Let the juice rest in the fridge for an hour or two if you want a strong ginger taste. Otherwise you can serve immediately in a glass with a few ice cubes.
If you have kids and plan on serving this juice for breakfast, you should consider leaving out the chili and only use half of the ginger.

Serve for breakfast, after a trip to the gym or use it as a natural remedy against a sore throat. This juice can be serves for anything at any time, so there is no excuse for not trying it 🙂

Bon Appétit Friends!

Ingredients (4 servings)

2 large or 4 medium apples

1 orange

0.5 lemon

1 chili

1 tbsp ginger root

1.25 dl water, cold

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

Oven Dried Tomatoes – perfect for cheese

July 1, 2014December 4, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 1 Comment

Time is running and we have already been in lovely perfect Roswell, GA for 3 month today. Compared to the first month we cook a lot now – actually I think that we cook al lot more than anyone else in our neighborhood. I really don’t understand how some people can eat out everyday, and sometimes more than one time each day. That is so different from our culture where people eat at home every day and only go out on special occasions.

Well, as i said we cook a lot more now than we did in the beginning of our new US life, but we still need a lot kitchen supplied to be up to date with our old kitchen back in Denmark. Until we are back at track everything is a little slow – even the blogging. However, I do have some easy recipes that I will try and put up during the next couple of weeks.

This recipe for oven dried tomatoes is one of them and it is one of my absolutely favorites to serve with a good piece of Italian bread and some strong aged cheese 🙂

Ingredients (1 cup)

80 small tomatoes (grapes or cherry), sliced in half

1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, slightly chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (+ extra to pour in the jar)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and pour onto a baking tray covered with baking paper. Make sure that the cutting surface of the tomatoes is turning up – otherwise they will bake differently.

Place in a pre-heated 250F degree oven and let bake. Check after 2 hours to see if they have dried enough. If not, check again every 8-10 minutes until they have the wanted texture (I like mine to be a little soft , but every one is different 🙂 ).
Pull out of the oven an leave to cool. Transfer to an air tight jar, e.g. Mason and pour Extra Virgin Olive Oil until all the dried tomatoes are covered. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Bon Appétit Friends!

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

Chocolate Praline Berry Tart

March 23, 2014March 23, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 5 Comments

Time is running and we are leaving Denmark in less than two weeks! It has been a huge decision to leave family and friends and travel to the land of opportunities. Chris and I are quite different when it comes to leaving loved once behind to fulfill our own dreams and hopes for the future, but not once have we disagreed on this decision!

With only 10 days left, we have sold almost all of our kitchen tools so cooking can be quite challenging (and some days quite boring)!! We are used to cooking whatever we want on that particular day, but with a freezer that needs to be emptied and only few tool it takes a lot more kitchen creativity to get interesting and delicious food (I’m not saying that few ingredients and no tools = bad food, I’m just saying that my imagination is somewhere else these weeks, trying to figure where to live, how to buy a car (+ insurance), buying a phone etc.)

Even though the freezer and pantry is almost empty, there is still one ingredient that I have dozens of: CHOCOLATE. I always have lots of chocolate in the house, so that I can create delicious chocolate dreams all day and night if desired 😀 And today has been one of those days where I just wanted to celebrate the existence of world class chocolate, and bake something delicious and pretty for tonights marriage date! Thankfully I haven’t sold my pie dish yet, and I therefore decided to make this fabulous (and pretty) chocolate praline tart with strawberries. If you have trouble finding good strawberries, you can use other berries like raspberries or blueberries. Tonight I’ll serve the tart with a scoop of creamy home made vanilla ice cream, but but you can also serve it with sour cream or just as it is 🙂

Ingredients (8 servings)

1 cup flour

2/5 cup icing sugar 1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 stick butter, cold and cubed

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp. water

Pinch of salt

Praline Filling:

4/5 cup double cream

3 1/2 oz. dark chocolate chips (70%)

5 oz. hazelnuts, skinned and finely grounded

Topping:

10 oz. strawberries (or other berries)

10 scoops vanilla ice cream (optional)

Begin by making the pastry. Shift flour, icing sugar, cocoa powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the cold cubed butter. Use your fingers and rub all ingredients together until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then add egg yolk and water and mix well with your fingers until you can form a ball of dough. Cover the dough with plastic foil and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven at 360F and lightly grease a 9-inch pie dish. Place the dough between two pieces of baking paper and roll it out until it can cover the pie dish. Remove the baking paper and place the dough in the dish and trim the edges. Place one of the used pieces of making paper on top of dough and fill it with baking beans (you can also use rice or some other heavy thing, that prevents the dough from raising). Bake for 20 minutes before removing baking beans and baking paper. Bake for 15 more minutes. Place the baked pastry on a wire rack to cool.

Bring cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate chips. Let rest for 30 seconds before stirring. Add the hazelnut flour when all the chocolate is melted and stir to combine. Let thicken a bit before pouring it into the baked pastry and smooth with a spatula. Leave to cool completely.

Slice the berries (only you use strawberries – all other berries should be added whole, or at least I think so) and place them on top of the cooled chocolate tart.

Serve immediately as it is or with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream :-

Bon Appetit!

Ingredients (8 servings)

125 g flour

50 g icing sugar 1 tbsp. cocoa powder

110 g butter, cold and cubed

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp. water

Pinch of salt

Praline Filling:

200 ml double cream

100 g dark chocolate chips (70%)

150 g hazelnuts, skinned and finely grounded

Topping:

300 g strawberries (or other berries)

10 scoops vanilla ice cream (optional)

Two Hour Cardamom Buns

March 9, 2014 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ 2 Comments

I woke up at 6 am this morning feeling fresh and ready to bake all sorts of cakes and other delicious treats for my lovely husband. Entering the kitchen I realized that almost none of my baking plans could be realized, as I have sold almost all my kitchen- and baking tools as we are about to move from one continent to another.

I knew that Chris and one of his good colleagues was going to work on one of Chris’ many furniture projects today, so instead of baking small and petit cakes, i decided to bake some quick and easy cardamom buns that I could deliver at the workshop if they got hungry during the day (it didn’t take them long to eat half of the portion, before getting back to work) 🙂 nice to know when your food is appreciated :-).

Picture: Chris’ working hard on a bedside table and two dining chairs.

The recipe for these buns is originally without cardamom, but I love to add different spices to this simple recipe to give a little twist once in a while. If you like your buns more buttery and plain, you can just leave out the cardamom and brush the buns with melted butter instead of milk.

Ingredients (12 buns)

2 tbsp. active yeast

1 stick butter

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2/3 tsp. ground cardamom

1 small egg

3 cups + 3 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. milk for brushing

Melt butter at medium heat in a sauce pan. Remove the sauce pan from the heat when the butter is melted and add the milk. Let cool for a few minutes.

Add yeast and cooled butter/milk mixture to a mixing bowl and stir to dissolve the yeast. Then add sugar, salt, cardamom, egg and 1/2 of the flour. Stir until combined and add the remaining flour and stir again. When the dough is just about to be combines, you can pour it onto a slightly floured surface and knead using your hands. This way you will get a better feeling with the dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to your hands.

Place the dough in greased bowl and cover it with plastic foil. Leave in a warm place to raise for approximately 45 minutes (the dough should double).

Preheat the oven at 400F.

Pour the dough onto slightly floured surface and divide it into 12 equally sized pieces (2.86 oz./81g). Gently roll the 12 dough pieces into balls and place them on a baking plate covered with baking paper. Cover the buns with a tea towel and let raise while your oven gets warm.

Brush the raised buns with milk and bake for 20 minutes. Transfer the baked buns to a wire rack to cool before serving. Serve slightly warm for breakfast or afternoon tea with great friends and family.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (12 buns)

30 g active yeast

110 g butter

2.5 dl whole milk

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2/3 tsp. ground cardamom

1 small egg

7.5 dl + 3 tbsp. flour

Food on Demant

by Ann & Chris Demant

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Two Hour Cardamom Buns