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

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

Raw Brussels Sprout Salad

November 3, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Many people have the idea that brussels sprouts taste bad and we could not disagree more with that statement!! We just love the little green ball vitamin bomb and we serve it in many different variations for all kinds of meat and seafood 🙂 Actually we believe that any vegetable tastes great if you make it the right way – so don’t reject it if you have had one or two bad experiences with a vegetable. Keep trying and find your own favorite 🙂

Among our favorite recipes containing brussels sprouts is our honey glazed version together with this raw salad with honey/mustard dressing and roasted cashew nut. This salad does not in any way taste like brussels sprouts as most remember them from their childhood (cooked to death), so there is no excuse for not trying it….

If you have a great recipe containing brussels sprouts you are welcome to leave a comment or mail it to us (foodondemant@gmail.com).

Ingredients (4 servings)

1 pound brussels sprouts

1 red onion

3.5 oz. feta cheese

1/2 cup cashew nuts, roasted

Honey/mustard Dressing

1 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. mustard

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 lemon, juice

Clean the brussels sprout by removing the outer layer of leaves. Cut the brussels sprouts in thin slices, chop the onions, feta cheese and roasted nuts and combine it all in a mixing bowl.

Combine honey, mustard, olive oil and lemon juice in another mixing and season with pepper. Stir until evenly combined. Pour the dressing over the salad, stir to mix and let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Serve as a side dish for all sorts of meat, seafood, pies or whatever you have for dinner – and we promise you, that your kids will love it 😉

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4 servings)

450 g brussels sprouts

1 red onion

100 g feta cheese

1.25 dl cashew nuts, roasted

Honey/mustard Dressing

1 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. mustard

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 lemon, juice

Salad with Pearl Barley, Apples and Bacon

November 3, 2013 ~ Ann & Chris Demant ~ Leave a comment

Looking through our recipe index you will find a large number of high fat recipes, but we are not alway eating unhealthy 😉 We often make salads and monday through thursday we try to avoid wheat – notice the ‘try’ 😀

Salad inspiration is often found on other blogs or through television cooking shows, but we are not that good at following recipes and often we just don’t have the required ingredients, meaning that we just use what we have in the fridge/pantry.
The inspiration for this salad comes from Salattosen – a Danish salad creator with huge success due to her innovative ideas and good looking pictures. There is no doubt that she has made us eat vegetables that we didn’t even know before visiting her site. So thank you Mette!

Ingredients (2-3 servings)

1 cup pearl barley

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 lemon, juice

1 red onion

1 apple

1 cup cilantro (or other fresh herbs)

8 slices bacon

Pepper for seasoning

Rinse the barley in cold water and cook as described on the packages (approximately 45 minutes). Let cool if you want a cold salad, otherwise you can make the salad immediately.

While cooking the barley you can fry the bacon slices. Let drip off on paper towel when fried to remove the dripping fat.

Add the olive oil and lemon juice to the barley and stir. Chop the onion, apple and cilantro, add it to the barley and stir. Taste and season with if necessary.

Crumble the fried bacon and add it to the salad just before serving. The salad can be made hours before serving, but the we would recommend that you add the bacon just before serving as it otherwise looses its crispiness. Id you are a vegetarian you can leave out the bacon and season with a bit of salt instead.
The salad is suitable for all sorts of meat, but this times we served it with home made fish fingers 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (2-3 servings)

2.5 dl pearl barley

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 red onion

1 apple

2.5 dl cilantro (or other fresh herbs)

8 slices bacon

Pepper for seasoning

Creamy and Tasty Tomato Sauce

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

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

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

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

Hope that you will love it too!

Ingredients (5 cups)

2 large onions

4 garlic cloves

15 sun ripened tomatoes

1/2 cup red wine

1 handful fresh basil leaves

1 tsp. freshly grounded pepper

1 tsp. chili flakes

1 tbsp. butter

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

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

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

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

Bon Appétit!

Food on Demant

by Ann & Chris Demant

healthy

Stewed Kale – a modern interpretation

Butternut Squash Soup

Dad’s Fish Cakes

Raw Brussels Sprout Salad

Salad with Pearl Barley, Apples and Bacon

Creamy and Tasty Tomato Sauce