Food & Thoughts

"Zarah's left for vacation with her Dad and Stepmom - I think she'll be back Friday, but don't worry, I'll take care of the television-watching and blog-reading meanwhile. I'm really good at that, I found plenty of new food blogs for her . Remember, the round-up for IMBB's TasteTea version will be up at Clement's shortly, and SHF, this time with coffee , is just around the corner! Tea and Coffee, people!? Carrots I tell you, carrots!" ;-)

Homemade semi-dried tomatoes, chopped up. Applied to toasted sourdough bread, topped with goats cheese. About 5 minutes under the grill (or 10 in a hot-hot oven), finishing touch with a blow torch to give it that nice scorchy look. Tastes remarkebly well with a bit of leftover pea purée. Mmmmm...

Revisiting another grand classic - Baking by Flavor. I'd bought blueberries for a bargain, and had a couple of bananas turning to that exact stage of ripeness where there's nothing you can do but use them for baking. Or make a smoothie , but the weather here definitely screams cake more than smoothie - SIGH! It is a gorgeous cake - loaf - whatever. The very best (berry best??) blueberry muffin I've ever had was from miss Yockelson too, and had you accent the delicate blueberry flavor with nutmeg, cardamom and cinnamon. Oh my. This time, there was only nutmeg and banana doing the accenting, and I have to say, it's a marriage made in heaven. The dark, somehow caramelly taste of the bananas together with the slight acidity and flavor-burst of the blueberries is an amazing combo. Do make. Easy to put together and with a moist and delicate crumb. It wont be the last time it has visited my kitchen. Blueberry-Banana Tea Loaf - from Baking by Flavor 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan, ...

So I think we all know that guy by now - his big, boyish smile, his brightly colored cookbooks. Yes, it's Bill Granger again. I've made these a dozen times, and I've loved them each and every time - and I'm not that big a fan of corn, I might add! I like fresh corn, maybe a grilled corn on the cob - but please, spare me of the frozen/canned variety. Do not like. Sorry! Last Sunday, I had two of my girlfriends coming for brunch, and I whipped a batch up - there was a couple left, so I thought I had plenty of photographing opportunities. Then Martin came home and swish-swish - all I managed to save was what you see in the picture! Sweetcorn Fritters - from Sydney Food by Bill Granger, p. 29 The veggies 2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob (the equivalent of 2 cobs in my world) ½ cup diced red pepper ½ cup sliced spring onions 1/4 cup mix of parsley and basil, both chopped Mix it all up! When you're ready, make up the batter (you could actually make the batte...

You know what? Apart from the new design, there's another thing I think my site needed. I've been keeping this blog for almost a year now, and still I've managed to tell you only a tiny bit about ME - I mean, apart from all of the food hooha, of course. At first I think I just didn't feel comfortable writing a lot about myself. Now I've gotten waaay past that point - I mean essentially, that is what I do every time I post something, isn't it? And while it may seem terribly self-absorbed, I've felt lately that I actually owe it to the "regulars" (and also to people popping by every now and again) to tell a bit more about myself, just like I've promised to do a formal introduction of Le Guinea Pig. The memes going around have helped me share some more, but I think there's some truth to a blog being more interesting if you fairly easily can tell who the person behind it is. When I find a new blog, I always check the "about" section o...

New lay-out! That's why I haven't been posting so much lately, I've spend hours and hours trying to make this one - do you realize just how much time one can spend doing this?!?! I know Ana must - and Jennifer - there's a lot of people jazzing up their blogs at the moment and I'm sooo tagging along! Maybe I have too much time, hmmm... Anyways, it's not quiet done yet, there are still some smaller tweaks, but I've gotten to the point where I need some feed-back - so hit me, hit me hard!;-) And oh yea, are there are any PhotoShop wizards out there that have ANY idea how I might get the banner picture to look like this: - all gauzy?. This I've done using some CSS-magic, but I can't seem to put it into my template without messing it up! I'll send you weird Danish candy for the answer! (Oh, and if you do know, holla at me at my e-mail - this is a food-blog afterall, not a CSS-nerdy blog?8-)) The original looks like this: just in case you was wonder...

Grandma salad, translated. It's plain, it's simple - it's one of those dishes that really show-cases the ingredients, which is why they have to be at their best. Or rather, the one star ingredient has to be at it's peak. Nothing more, nothing less than a head of lettuce, like this one . Not romaine, no no, the leaves has to be softer than that - anyways, they're not hard to find in summer, at least not around here. You basically wash the salad and rip it into bite-size pieces. Just before you want to eat it, dress with 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream, the juice of half a lemon (maybe a little less), 1-2 teaspoons sugar, salt and pepper. Taste - the directions given here are as I remember doing it, but I usually do it by feel and tastebuds and without measuring. Toss. Serve. I can eat this with everything - or, you know, if it's just me and a head of lettuce, I'll devour it all in one sitting, with maybe some crusty bread on the side for mopping up the dressin...

I really don't have to say it, do I? I mean you KNOW, that Sugar High Friday is here again! And this time, Nic of Baking Sheet has us all going " Oh Honey! " creating the dessert of our dreams centering around the theme of - well, honey of course! I don't know if I've told you, but summer's also here ;-) We've got a bounty of fresh berries at the market at the moment, so when I saw the dark red beauties that is cherries, I went straight for them, thinking yes, oh honey yes! I actually usually just eat them as is (unless I turn them into muffins ) but - you know I've been trifli'ing around lately, so when I spotted a recipe for a cherry trifle in one of my cookbooks, there was no turning back. I therefore present to you: Honey-glazed cherries with homemade macaroons and sweet vanilla cream. This portion should make enough for 4-6 individual servings. For the honey-glazed cherries: 200 g. cherries, pitted and halved 2 tbsp. honey of your choice - n...

The fancy version when using the rhubarb compote I've told you about before . This one is much more dark pink than the first of the season - I made this around the end of May. The one I made just yesterday was verging on purple... You gotta love the change of the seasons and the colors of the produce! The other thing I tried with rhubarb is the Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake - hitting the blogs this season! A Nigella "classic" I suppose you can call it, and the recipe has been put up by Angela, so I'm going to be lazy enough and just point you there . I loved it, it's easy to do and it keeps well. Only thing I'll add about it is DO PAY ATTENTION to her saying line your cake tin with paper! Look what happened to mine because I was too lazy... That'll teach me! But at least I got 5 more minutes out in the sun, heh!

Hot dog, Danish style: ketchup, sweet mustard, roasted and raw onions, pickled cucumbers - and sausage and bread of course! As it would be served at any of the pølsevogne here - or as you could make it yourself at home. Most of the ingredients are plain bought, but we do make our own agurkesalat . Agurkesalat 2 large cucumbers, sliced ever so thinly, maybe with amandoline, should you be lucky enough to own one of these... 0,4 liter apple vinegar 100 g sugar 10 black peppercorns, whole 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon salt Bring vinegar, sugar, peppercorn, bay leaf and salt to the boil. Leave simmering until the sugar has dissolved. Place the sliced cucumber directly in a 3/4 liter pickling jar. Pour the boiling vinegar mixture over the cucumbers. Leave to cool for half an hour, then eat. Any leftovers can be kept in the jar in the fridge (observe normal pickling rules: no dirty forks go in the jar, rim of jar kept clean etc. etc.) Agurkesalat is also great with fishcakes and roast chicken. It ...

I inagurated the roasting tin : what better to make than CINNAMON BUNS! And cinnamon buns for the extra lesson our fantastic teacher in immunology had offered to give us just before our exam, just to make sure we had things down right. When we'd finished the "real" lessons", he brought cake (almost like Julie does !), so me and one of the other students decided we had to do something for this last lesson. People sorta hated did not like me for having the time to make cinnamon buns (courtesy of Nigella, again - they really are the best in my opinion) In reality, I used it as an excuse to not ponder my books too much at the last minute. It only confuses me more - you know, you get to the point where there's just no more room in your brain, eh? And it surely didn't stop anyone from eating them either! Oh yes - and I just KNOW the sugar from these was what made sure I PASSED this exam too! YAY ME!! Nigella's Cinnamon Buns from How to be a Domestic Goddess,...

Salad of Watermelon, Feta and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds If you haven't tried this one yet, you really should - I know, the combination sounds a little odd, but it really, truly works - I promise! My - well, recipe would be a very fancy word for what is really just a set of instructions! - comes from Peter Gordon , of the Sugar Club (and sweet chili sauce !) fame. He says it's roots are Israelic - whether or not, it's a nice summery salad. And then it's easy to do, too! Get the best watermelon you can lay your hands on, preferably seedless. Cut it into chunks and peel. Arrange on a large plate. Crumble a good, salty feta on top (Mr. Gordon says sheep's, but if you prefer cow, I wouldn't judge you by it). Toast a handful of pumpkin seeds, sprinkle those on top, and drizzle with a extra virgin olive oil and a grind or 7 of black pepper. Eat. Preferably out on the porch - in the sun somewhere, at least! Nigella has a version in which she puts feta, olives, lime juice ...

Sam's asked us all to participate in this Utensibility Meme , which will ultimately turn out in a round-up compiling all of the things you could just NEVER EVER be without in your kitchen. Whether your favorite thing is a money-is-no-object object or an itty-bitty cheap-as-dirt thing, it has to be on the list! Here's what I for one, wouldn't want to be without: The no bars, spend spend spend object: My SMEG gas stove with matching electric oven. I love it, and well, obviously, use it on an almost everyday basis. A lot of the buildings in Copenhagen have gas laid in, but alas, not ours. So we have a great big portable gas "tank", you know, the ones people use for camping stoves, standing in one corner of the kitchen. Pretty stubborn, eih? I thought my boyfriend was a bit wacko when he insisted we got a gas stove, but boy am I glad he did! There's just nothing like cooking on gas - the heat is so much easier to control, it's fast and efficient. Okay, so yo...