Nutella Latte

Nutella Latte

This is a dangerous coffee, the sweet, salty, chocolaty coffee is a dessert in itself. It is a dessert coffee you don't have to go to the coffeehouse to get. If you can heat and froth your milk, and if you can make an espresso, you are good to go. No need to run out of your house to get your afternoon mocha fix.

Makes 1.

Ingredients:

• 2 shots of espresso
• ¾ cup (180 ml) milk (fat-free, whole milk or soy)
• 1-2 teaspoon Vanilla syrup (homemade* or store bought)
• 3 teaspoon Nutella (hazelnut spread)
• sprinkle of sea salt flakes

* Vanilla syrup:

• 1 cup (240 ml) water
• 1 cup (200 g) sugar
• ½ vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Directions:

* Vanilla syrup:

Heat the water with sugar and vanilla until the sugar is dissolved. Let the syrup cool down. This syrup will keep for 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator, stored in a clean container, rinsed with boiling water. 

Latte:

Make the espresso and stir in the syrup and Nutella. Heat and froth the milk and pour it in the cup on top of the espresso. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Enjoy.

Stjerneskud - Shooting Star

Stjerneskud - Shooting Star

Stjerneskud, or shooting star, is a classic Danish open-faced sandwich. The kind you would see at most lunch restaurants or cafés in Denmark. A stjerneskud is white bread, with a piece of fried and poached fish and cold-water shrimps.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 fried petrale sole filets 
• 2 poached petrale sole filets*
• a handful cold-water shrimps
• 6 aspagus (I used Reese asparagus spears)
• thousand Island dressing (homemade or store bought) 
• caviar (I used salmon roe)
• 1 lemon
• dill
• butter lettuce (I forgot to buy that)

* Poaching:

• white wine
• lemon juice
• salt
• white pepper

Directions:

* Poaching:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Season the fillets with salt and white pepper. Roll up the filets and place them in an ovenproof dish with white wine and lemon juice. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Poach the fish for 7-8 minutes. (If you poach the fish on the stove and start with barely simmering liquid, poach the fish for 5-6 minutes.)

Fry the fish and make the dressing.

Toast the bread. 

Arrange lettuce, fish fillets, dressing, shrimps, caviar, dill and place the slice of lemon on top.

Enjoy with a cold beer, cold white wine or a cold lemonade.

Rhubarb Lemonade

Rhubarb Lemonade

Rhubarb is the taste of late spring and summer in my world. I always buy rhubarb at the grocery store when they are in season. If I don’t have to use them right away, I wash and cut them up and freezes them, or I'll make rhubarb lemonade. 

Rhubarb lemonade is a refreshing drink on a hot summer day. The color is bright, pink and very girly. To make a grownup drink add an splash of vodka, tequila or sparkling wine.

Ingredients:

• 300 g rhubarb
• 225 g sugar
• ½ vanilla pod (or ½ teaspoon vanilla paste)
• 5 dl (1 pint) water 
• ½-1 lemon, the juice of

Directions:

Wash and cut the rhubarb into ¾ inch pieces.

Put the rhubarb, water, sugar lemon juice and vanilla pod in a large saucepan. Bring it to a boil, and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes. Remove pan from the heat, and let the liquid cool. Sift the liquid through a strainer into a clean bottle.  The rhubarb lemonade will keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.

Serve the rhubarb lemonade ice cold.

Enjoy.

Fried Sole Filets

Fried Sole Filets

One of the best fish dishes in Denmark is a breaded plaice (or just dusted in rye flour), preferably fried up as a whole fish in butter. But it's not a dish you come by every day, we'll only if you are a Fisherman. I still remember my father coming home with the fish so fresh that they were still alive. He put the fish in the bathtub with water, and the fish were swimming.

Most Danes have had breaded filets of plaice on rye bread, served with remoulade (a sweet tartar sauce). Often the fish was frozen and already breaded. This is nothing like the fresh fish, but it's will do in a busy lifestyle. If we wanted a fancier dish, we had a "stjerneskud" (shooting star). A stjerneskud is a breaded fried and a poached plaice filet. Topped with mayonnaise, cold water shrimps and caviar of lumpfish-roe, either served on rye bread or some good white bread. 

I found that sole is a good substitute for plaice, so I was happy to have my childhood favorite fried fish with remoulade.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4-6 sole filets
• all-purpose flour
• 1 egg beaten
• breadcrumbs, I used panko
• salt & pepper
• butter and oil for frying. 

Directions:

Add the salt and pepper to the flour. 

Dip the fish filets in:

1: all-purpose flour, shake off excess flour

2: egg, make sure the whole fish i covered, and let the excess drip of

3: breadcrumbs, again make sure the whole fish is covered, and shake the excess breadcrumbs of. 

This way the breading will stay on the fish. Otherwise it has a tendency to break apart when flipping the fish. 

Heat the skillet and add oil and butter. When the butter stops foaming, gently add the fish. Cook the fish for about 2-3 minutes on each side. 

Serve immediately on rye bread with remoulade and a lemon wedge. The fish can also be served with boiled potatoes and a white parsley sauce.

Sunchoke Soup with seared Scallops

Sunchoke Soup with seared Scallops

Last weekend I went to the local farmers marked, the perfect place to find farm-fresh produce in season. It was here I found sunchokes, aka Jerusalem Artichokes, sunroots or earth apples. 

You can eat the sunchokes raw in salads or cooked in soups and gratins. The raw sunchokes has a nutty taste, while the cooked are sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Sunchokes has a high content of vitamin C and K.

I decided to make sunchoke soup, a  creamy soup perfect for an appetizer, but filling enough to use as a main course. 

Serves 4 as an appetizer or serves 2 for a main course.

Ingredients:

• 400 g sunchokes, peeled and chopped
• 300 g potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 3 dl (1¼ cup) whole milk
• 1 dl (little over ⅓ cup) cream
• 2 teaspoons chicken base
• 6 dl (2½ cup) water
• salt and white pepper, to taste

Topping:

• 6-8 scallops
• 2 tablespoons dry chorizo or paprika sausage, chopped and fried
• 3 teaspoon chives, finely chopped
• a few drops truffle oil
• sunchoke chips (1-2 sunchokes)

Directions:

Soup:

Cook the sunchokes and potatoes in milk, cream, chicken paste and water until tender. Blend the soup mixture in batches. If using a traditional blender remove the middle-nob so the steam can escape and cover with a kitchen towel so you will not burn yourself on soup splatters. Puree until smooth. Season the soup with salt and white pepper. Keep the soup hot while you sear the scallops.

Sunchoke chips:

While the sunchokes and potatoes are cooking. Brush 1-2 sunchokes clean. Slice the sunchokes very thinly into a bowl of ice water. Heat grape seed oil in a saucepan. Pad dry 3-5 slices  and fry them in the hot oil until they turn golden. Let the excess oil drip off on some paper towel. Sprinkle with salt.

Scallops:

Heat some grape seed oil in a skillet and fry the scallops on high heat until golden on both sides. Just before removing scallops from the skillet, season them with salt and white pepper.

Pour the soup into a serving size bowl. Top the soup with 1-2 scallops  and the rest of the topping. 

Enjoy.