Høns i Asparges - Chicken & Asparagus in tartlets

Høns i Asparges - Chicken & Asparagus in tartlets

Høns in asparges or Creamed chicken and asparagus in tartlets is an old Danish classic dish. Normally it will be served as a part of the traditional christmas and easter lunches. For sure this is old school Danish food, called mormor-mad (Grandmother food). And mormor-mad is peasant food, and not on the healthy side. But if you loose the tartlets and serve the dish with boiled potatoes, boiled carrots and some bread, you can have a regular meal. Creamed chicken and asparagus in tartlets is kinda the same thing as chicken potpie, if you serve it upside-down. 

Creamed chicken and asparagus was a big favorite in my house growing up, but wasn't served on a regular basis, so it was a rare but special treat.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Sauce:

• 25 g butter

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• ½ cup (1 dl) chicken stock

• ½ cup (1 dl) milk

• asparagus water,

• salt & white pepper to taste

Filling:

• 1 jar white asparagus in water, save the water for the sauce

• ½ chicken, the meat prepared (I used the left over meat from my chicken noodle soup)

Tartlets:

Use  Tarteletter, savory tartelettes or make your own with puff pastry homemade or store bought. 

Directions:

Sauce: 

Melt the butter over medium heat in a sauce pan. Add the flour and a sprinkle of salt, stirring constantly, until all the flour is incorporated with the butter. You don't want it to get a golden. First whisk in the hot chicken stock, making sure to not to have any lumps left, then whisk in the milk, asparagus water and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened and shiny, 2 to 3 minutes. Add more milk if the sauce is too thick.

Cut the asparagus and chicken into bitesize pieces. Gently fold in the filling in the sauce, and season with salt and white pepper.

Serve the creamed chicken & asparagus in tartelettes, with boiled potatoes or with a slice of a good bread.

Enjoy!

Satay Sauce

Satay sauce is so scrumptious, the peanut buttery sweet slightly curried sauce is perfect with chicken and spring rolls. Because I didn't grow on peanut butter, this sauce is the best thing you can make with peanut butter, for me it's properly the only thing.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of full-fat coconut milk
• 4 teaspoons red curry paste
• 150 g unsweetened peanut butter (I used an old fashioned style crunchy peanut butter only containing peanuts)
• ¼ tablespoon Thai fish sauce (or use salt to taste)
• ¼ cup (50 g) palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 
• ½ cup water

Directions:

Put everything into a medium heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a very gentle boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Let the mixture simmer for 3-5 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to let the sauce scorch. Take the pot off the heat, let the sauce cool down to room temperature, and serve the sauce with satay or spring rolls 

This peanut sauce will keep in a container in the refrigerator for weeks. The refrigerated sauce will thicken up considerably, but just add some water, reheat it and it is ready to serve.  

Enjoy!

Green Goddess Dressing

Green Goddess Dressing

The delicious green dressing is believed to originate back to 1923 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Where the executive chef Philip Roemer wanted to pay tribute to an actor and his play The Green Goddess.

This dressing is new to me, it must be my Danish hesitance that have made me miss out on this delicious dressing. But from now on I am going use it with my salads from time to time.  

I know this dressing is old school, but the tanginess from the buttermilk and the taste of herbs really pairs well with a green salad.

Ingredients:

• 180 ml (¾ cup) mayonnaise
• 180 ml (¾ cup) buttermilk
• 20 g (4 tablespoons) chopped fresh chives
• 15 g (¼ cup) fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• 3 tablespoons (about 5 g) fresh tarragon leaves, chopped
• 1 glove garlic
• 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 1 lemon, the juice from
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a blender, and blend the dressing until smooth. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Serve the dressing with a pasta salad or a green salad.

Enjoy!

Whiskey Cream Sauce

Whiskey Cream Sauce

Danes are a potato and gravy/sauce kinda people. I grew up on a lot of potatoes and my moms quick skillet sauce, which was made with milk or cream in the skillet, she had used for preparing the meat. Nowadays I only make this kind of sauce maybe once or twice a year. The amount of fat, is not agreeing with my way of living anymore.
In the 80's and 90's most Danes would serve you Knorr béarnaise when serving steak, some might make the homemade béarnaise for an extra treat. In the 00's whiskey cream sauce became a big hit, especially when Jensens Bøfhus (a chain of steakhouses) started selling their popular sauce in most grocery stores in Denmark.

This is my take on this classic whiskey cream sauce.  

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 50 g salted butter (maybe you can use less)

• 85 g (3 oz) tomato puree

• 200 ml beef stock

• 250 ml heavy whipping cream

• 2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• 2 tablespoons whiskey (DO NOT use a smokey one)

• ½ teaspoon sugar

• salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Melt the butter in a saucepan. When melted, the butter will foam up, swirl the butter in the pan. When the foam subside and the butter is turning a golden brown, whisk in the tomato paste and then the rest of the ingredients. Let the sauce cook at a simmer, while whisking, for a few minutes so the most of the alcohol evaporates. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. You can thicken the sauce with cornstarch in cold water, if you like a thicker sauce.

Serve the sauce with your favorite steak.

Enjoy!

Hot Hot Sauce

Hot hot sauce

We really like spicy food in my house. But I don't like hot and spicy just for the heat/pain, there is no fun in that. I need flavor, lots of flavor, and then the heat comes second. This sauce is flavor packed, with a good amount of heat. 

Mix the hot sauce with your ketchup, and you have a great "homemade" condiment for your next backyard BBQ.

Aiming for a very hot, hot sauce like the Google hot sauce by chef Charlie Ayers, the former executive chef for Google. This is what I came up with, using ingredients I had in the kitchen, giving the Google hot sauce a twist.

Makes little under 1 cup.

Ingredients:

• 3 habanero chillies

• 1 jalapeño

• ½ carrot, diced

• ¼ onion, chopped

• ¼ teaspoon ginger, minced

• ½ tablespoon raw sugar

• ½ teaspoon chipotle chili

• 1 teaspoon tomato pure

• 1 teaspoon agave nectar

• ½ teaspoon white wine vinegar

• 1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce

• ¾ teaspoon Thai fish sauce

• ½ lime, the juice

• water to almost cover

Directions:

Bring it all to a boil in a saucepan. Let it simmer, lid on, for 30-40 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.

Puree the sauce in a blender, and pass through a strainer. Store the sauce in a clean sealed jar in the refrigerator, it will keep 3-5 days like that.

Enjoy!

Warnings:

Use gloves, while chopping the chilies. 

Do not inhale the steam from the sauce, it works kinda like pepper spray.

Do not get sauce in your eyes. 

Be careful when working with hot liquids in a blender.  If you need a new blender, consider a Vitamix. They are expensive, but they are worth all the money. They can liquefy almost anything and makes soup and margaritas so smooth and creamy. But the best part, you can blend hot liquids without having to clean the soup off all your kitchen cabinets afterwards. Just saying. ;)