Sweet • Sour • Savory

Food blog on scandinavian style food done right.

Drinks

Grapefruit Margarita

DrinksTove Balle-PedersenComment
Grapefruit Margarita

Grapefruit Margarita

I love a good margarita, but I have mostly been making frozen margaritas, and mostly made from frozen Minute Maid Limeade. I think It was time to try to make a more simple margarita from fresh ingredients. This is what I came up with. The grapefruit juice gives the margarita the bitterness I normally get from Triple sec. I like that these margaritas are on the weaker side, but feel free to add more tequila if you like a stronger drink. This pink margarita was perfect on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Makes 2 drinks.

Ingredients:

  • 1 fl. oz. (30 ml) lime juice

  • 4 fl. oz.  (120 ml) grapefruit juice

  • 2 fl. oz. (60 ml) clear tequila, (I used Patrón Silver)

  • 1 teaspoon light agave nectar

  • ice for shaking and in the glass

  • a little lime juice and baker's sugar for the rim

Directions:

Add tequila, lime juice, grapefruit juice, syrup and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into a sugar rimmed glass.

Please drink responsibly. 

Enjoy!

Grapefruit Margarita

Grapefruit Margarita

The Ultimate Iced Coffee

Brunch, Desserts, DrinksTove Balle-PedersenComment
The Ultimate Iced Coffee

The Ultimate Iced Coffee

This iced coffee is a special treat. I look at it the same way as a ice cream cone or a slice of cake. It's not an every day occurrence. But It is really good on a hot day for a special day pick me up.

Ingredients:

Milky syrup:

  • 1 can (14 oz/396 g) sweetened condensed milk
  • 21 oz (1.5 times the can) of milk (i used non-fat milk) 

Directions:

Brew the coffee (it takes 12-14 hours)

Milky syrup:

Mix the two milks together and it's ready. I would try to freeze the mixture in ice cubes, because it do make quite a lot, and it is very rich.

 Stir in syrup in the coffee to taste, for me about half and half, and top with ice.

Enjoy!

Cold Brewed Coffee

Breakfast, Brunch, DrinksTove Balle-PedersenComment
Cold Brewed Coffee.

Cold Brewed Coffee.

Why do you want to brew you coffee cold? Well, if you like an iced coffee, and don't want a diluted cup of coffee, this is the way to go. The coffee actually tastes sweeter than the same coffee brewed with hot water. Why is that? Some of the more bitter oils in the roasted coffee will only be extracted using hot water, while the cold water only extracts the sweeter flavor components. The real downside to brewing the coffee cold is the time aspect. You can't make yourself a quick cup of coffee, if you didn't think ahead to brew the coffee in advance. In a way you are substituting heat for time. Heat is a catalyst in many processes, and here we have to put in a long steep time, to get all the flavors extracted from the beans.

I steep my cold brewed coffee for 12-14 hours, before filtering it. The filtered coffee will last about 3-4 days in the refrigerator, but somehow it never last as long in my home.

I have become picky with my coffee. I only buy whole coffee beans, and grind them myself. But coffee beans are very different. I don't like the shiny beans you gets from the regular coffee at Starbucks and similar places. The more dry-looking or matte beans are not as bitter, and my grinder don't get an oily build-up from these. So I started to buy my coffee beans fresh roasted from smaller companies. My local Whole Foods carries a small selection.

 For the last year we have had a subscription on fresh roasted coffee bean from Blue Bottle Coffee. Every other week we get a new bag of coffee delivered by mail. We get a new kind of coffee every time, and so far, we have liked them all. 

Ingredients:

  • 150 g (1½ cup) medium roasted coffee beans (I like fresh roasted beans)
  • 1000 ml  (1 liter or about 4 cups)

Directions:

Grind the coffee, and pour it in a suitable container, I use my 12 cups French press. Pour the cold water over the coffee, and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and let it steep for 12-14 hours on the kitchen table. I stir the mixture a couple of times if steeping during daytime, but it's not mandatory.

When Steeping is done, you need to filter the coffee. Using my French press, I just put the press-part in the pitcher, and press down slowly. I decant the coffee into a new pitcher or bottle, to keep in my refrigerator.

When serving, dilute the coffee with cream, milk, water or syrup to your taste and top with ice. Or try my Ultimate Iced Coffee.

Enjoy!

The Danish Version:

Koldbrygget Kaffe

Ingredienser:

  • 150 g medium-ristede kaffe bønner
  • 1 liter kold vand

Fremgangsmåde:

Der er intet svært her. Kværn kaffebønnerne og kom dem i en passende beholder. Hæld vandet over, og lad kaffen trække tildækket i 12-14 timer på køkkenbordet. 

Si kaffen igennem et almindeligt kaffefilter. Jeg bruger en stor Bodum stempelkande, og trykker bare stemplet langsomt ned. Hæld kaffen på en kande og afkøl den helt i køleskabet. Kaffen kan holde sig i køleskabet i 3-4 dage.

Ved serveringen, fortyndes kaffen med fløde, mælk eller vand efter smag. Sød kaffen med en sirup.

Velbekomme!

Banana Milkshake - no ice cream

Desserts, DrinksTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments
Banana Milkshake - no ice cream

Banana Milkshake - no ice cream

This is a very tasty shake, with just 4 ingredients. Normally milkshakes are made with ice cream, and they tend to be very sweet. This one is creamy and not overly sweet, and it reminds me of the banana milkshake you get from Falafel's Drive in, in San Jose.

Makes 1 shake.

Ingredients:

  • 1 banana, frozen
  • 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
  • 3 ice cubes 
  • sugar, to taste

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth.

Christmas Snaps

Christmas, Drinks, Holiday, LunchTove Balle-PedersenComment

December 12th. 

In Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia we have snaps for holiday lunches, mostly when having herring or another kind of fish. Snaps is also called akvavit, and gets its distinctive flavor from spices and herbs, and the traditional spices are caraway. Typically snaps contain 40% alcohol by volume.

My dad and aunt made “homemade infused snaps" from neutral-tasting snaps, adding herbs found in nature or grown in the garden. I remember the flavors: Woodruff (skovmærke),  St. John’s Wort (perikon) and Blackthorn (slåen). I actually still have some of the blackthorn snaps my dad made. The infused snaps gets like an extract, the flavor gets stronger the longer it sits. To get it ready to drink, you should dilute it with more neutral-tasting snaps about 14 days before you want to use it.

This infused snaps is my attempt to capture the flavors of christmas in a snaps you can drink with open faced sandwiches.

Ingredients:

  • ½ bottle vodka 
  • ¼ orange, the zest of
  • 10 juneberries  
  • 3 cloves
  • 3 cardamom 
  • 1 star anise

Direction:

Add all the ingredients to an airtight container, and pour over the vodka.  Keep the snaps in a kitchen cabinet, so it gets as little light as possible, for 1-2 weeks. Taste the snaps every other day, the clove can be to overpowering, so if you feel like this is happening, remove the cloves. Strain the snaps into a small bottle, and serve it at room temperature with open faced sandwiches.

You can dilute the snaps with more vodka if you like.

Enjoy!

Please drink responsibly.