English/Danish

This dill lemon sauce really "spices" up your dish. Whether fish, meat, pasta, potatoes, the tangy lemon with dill sauce is delicious. It is so easy to prepare, so here is the recipe:

125 ml single cream

grated peel of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons of butter

juice of half a lemon

1 egg yolk

2 table spoons of finely chopped dill

salt and peper for seasoning to taste

Heat the cream with the grated lemon peel. (just heat, no boiling needed)

Ad the butter and the lemon juice, stirriing constantly with a wisk until smooth. Add the butter and the egg yolk. Stir again. Until the sauce thickens.

Just befor serving, add the finely chopped dill.

Serve immediately on your prefered dish/food.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My oat fruit slices are just delicious. Simple, no sugar added, they are just the snack to go for when you want something healthy and yummy. This week I added some sliced strawberries on top. This was so delicious with the warm weather. So let your imagination work and try out whatever you feel like.

For 8 slices you'll need:

2 (very) ripe bananas

100 grams of rolled oats

1,5 teaspoon of baking powder

a squeeze of lemon

a tablespoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, powdered cloves, gingerpowder combined.

some vanilla (sugar, arome, extract, pod) to your taste. I use about two teaspoons

1 apple, diced with or without peel

For the topping:

choose one or a combination of:

a tablespoon of nuts, finely chopped after taste

dessicated coconut, about a tablespoon

baking parchment

a rectangular baking mould similar to a brownie mould

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius

Grind the rolled oats together with the baking powder, spices and vanilla

Add the peeled bananas together with a squeeze of lemon juice

You'll now have a batter, put into the mould lined with baking parchment and even out the surface.

Put the diced apple on top and lightly press into the dough.

Now add the topping of your choice.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden and done.

Remove from the oven when ready, leave to cool on a cooling rack

Cut into 8 slices and enjoy.

Keep refrigerated when you have some leftovers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Creamy courgette risotto

For 3-4 persons:

50 gram butter, plus a bit more

1 small onion, finely chopped

250 gram courgettes, 140 grams coarsely grated, rest diced (you can use more courgettes, just keep using 140 grams for adding to the rice)

175 grams risoto rice

1.2 l stock, vegetable or chicken, kept hot on a low heat

25 grams of Parmesan cheese, grated

splash of olive oil

1 heaped tbsp of pine nuts, roasted

Method: Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the onion and gently fry until softened. 'stir in teh grated courgettes and rice, increase the heat and sizzle while stirring form 1-2 minutes

Add the lemon juice and a ladle of hot stock. When the liquid has just about been absorbed, add another ladleful of stock. Keep cooking like this for 20-25 minutes until the rice is just tender and reamy. Stir in the Parmesan, add some seasoning (salt, pepper) Cover with a lid and set aside. In the meantime fry the remaining courgette in the bit of butter and the splash of olive oil until golden and softened.

Divide the risotto over bowls and put the diced courgettes on top. Sprinkle with roasted pine nuts when desired.

OBS! OPSKRIFT FØLGER SNART.......

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A small cake with a yummy taste!

You'll need the following:

100 gr digestive biscuits, crushed

50 gr butter, melted

2x 250 gr tubs mascarpone

325 gr luxury lemon curd

Fresh fruit to decorate

Icing sugar, to dust

1 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin, greased and base lined with baking parchment

Method:

Mix the biscuits with the buter in a bowl, then press into the base of the tin, but not up the sides

Put the mascapone and lemon curd in a bowl en beat with a spatula untill smooth

Spoon on to the biscuit base and level the top. Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hrs and up to 24 hrs to firm up

To serve, remove the cheesecake from the tin, peel off the baking parchement, and arrange on a platter. Decorate with the fruit and dust with icing sugar.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Valentines Day, a day for sharing love. Food is also a way to express your love to the people you love. I love to cook and with that I always have the secret ingredient to add. Love. So no frilly pink muffins this day but a cake called Toscakage, Tosca cake. Typical from Sweden and Finland. Baked in a heartshaped spring form it adds a little more love to this day.

Serves: 6-8 (very big slices)

Ingredients:

4 eggs

170 grams of sugar

2 dl whipping cream, liquid

100 grams of unsalted butter, melted and cooled down

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of baking powder

260 grams of flour

For the filling:

75 grams of unsalted butter

75 grams of sugar

0,5 dl whipping cream, liquid

25 grams of flour

75 grams of flaked almonds

Spring form tin: 26-29 cm

Pre heat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius.

Method:

In a bowl mix the eggs and sugar to a light and very fluffy consistency. This may take up to 10 minutes with an electric whisk. Volume should be doubled.

Add the cream, melted butter and vanilla extract and carefully combine.

Use another bowl to sieve the flour and baking powder into. Fold this mixture into the egg mixture.

Add the batter to the tin lined with baking parchment and/or thouroughly greased. Put in the middle of the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes.

While the cake is baking start making the topping/filling. Add all the ingredients to a pan and on a medium heat slowly melt the butter while stirring. When melted bring to a boiling point and combine well. Leave to cool.

Remove the cake from the oven and evenly spread the almond mixture over the cake. Return to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Just to the point when the topping is caramelized and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Serve with (un) sweetened whipping cream whipped to soft peaks. Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naanbread, so easy to bake. I just had to share this one with you. Goes well with your curry's, soups and as a snack. Recipe is from Karoline's Køkken, part of Arla. www.arla.dk/opskrifter/indisk-naanbrod/

The recipe for 6 pieces is as follows:

I recently shared a recipe for wraps/faltbread with you, now I have another one. It's great that you can bake bread in such an easy way without too much effort. Karoline's køkken is really a wonderful source for me. The women who develop the recipes do this with enormous passion and with attention to reducing food waste. Fits perfectly in the way I like to cook. Preferably eating seasonal produce, prepared in a healthy way. This naan bread goes well with soup, curry's or with a nice dip. (e.g. mango chutney) The original recipe was without the addition of an extra flavour. With the pre-baked naan there are often nigella seeds on/in. Not only does that look good, but it also gives it that little bit extra. I once bought them in Denmark, where else, added some to the dough. You could use sesame seeds too. Thinking that next time some garlic could be added too. Just an experiment. I love cooking. You start with the basics and then you expand the variations. Here's the recipe:

For 6 pieces, use the following:

350 grams wheat flour

1 tablespoon (!) baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon coarse salt or "normal")

1 1/5 dl water

1 dl low fat quark (I only had Skyr, worked fine)

25 grams melted (vegetable) butter

Sådan gør du: (That's how you make it)

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. (save a little of the flour)

Add water, cottage cheese and melted butter and make it a dough, you can use your mixer with dough hooks for this. Add the rest of the flour if necessary.

Leave on the kitchen counter for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 pieces and shape them to round flat buns on the kitchen counter. Use some extra flour (not too much) to prevent sticking. Just press down with your hands and shape into a flatbread. Bake the flat dough in a frying pan over a medium heat in about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn regularly. They're ready when you see smaal brown baked spots on the bread.

Packin aluminum foil to keep warm. Serve with your meal.

Tip: You can also bake them in advance. Re-heat them in a frying pan or toaster. Serve immediately. Velbekomme!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, January 27th, is chocolate cake day. No other reason is needed to make this dangerously yummy chocolate cake.

The following is requiered: 1 loosebottomed or springform tin 16 cm diameter

Sheet of baking paper

Serves 8

Ingredients:

100 grams butter

2 tablespoons raw unsweetened cocoa powder

75 grams of dark chocolate with a cocoa percentage of 70/85%

170 grams of sugar

90 grams of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

2 eggs

Here's how to make it:

Melt the butter, cocoa powder and chocolate au bain marie*

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl

Mix the dry ingredients with the butter and chocolate

Mix the two eggs one by one through the batter.

Pour the batter into the spring tin, lined with a sheet of baking paper

Place the springform tin in the middle of the oven.

Bake the cake for about 15 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius

Allow to cool completely, cut into eight pieces and serve. Keep refrigerated. Best eaten cold.

Tastes delicious with coffee/tea but also for dessert with lots of (fresh) fruit and a spoonful of crème fraîche.

Tip: Sprinkle the top with cocoa powder for an even more intense cocoa flavour.

*Au bain-marie: is placing a pan or bowl of dishes in or above a water bath (hot or cold). The most commonly used application is heating food up to the boiling point. The water will keep the temperature below boiling point.

Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia on december 13th is celebrated with light chasing away the darkness. A Lucia bride, wearing a crown with candles is followed by others, mostly girls, wearing a white dress with a red sash and holding a candle in their hands. Songs are sung such as Santa Lucia. It is an enchanting sight to see a procession like this.

A typical bread that is eaten at this day is a saffron bun shaped as an S with raisins in the curl of the S. The recipe I would like to share is originally from Arla's Karoline's Kœkken. www.arla.dk/opskrifter/luciabrod/

Have fun with the baking and eating of these delicious buns.

Recipe:

75 grams butter

1 1/2 dl milk

25 grams fresh yeast (dried see package, about 10 grams)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon saffron threads

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon of coarse salt

400 grams of plain flour

decoration: raisins

egg wash

Method:

Melt the butter in a pan and add the milk until lukewarm. Pour the milk in a bowl and dissolve the yeast into the liquid. In a mortar grind the sugar and the saffron until you have a saffron sugar. Mix this sugar into the milk together with the other ingredients. (keep some of the flour and set aside for later). Mix and combine well with a spoon. Cover the bowl with eg a lid or some kitchen plastic foil and set aside in a warm place for half an hour.

pre heat the oven to 225 degrees celcius. (conventional oven)

After half an hour remove the dough from the bowl and knead it on a workplace dusted with some flour. If needed, add some more flour. Divide into 12 pieces. Roll out these pieces to 12 cm, finger thick sausages that are to be formed into S shaped buns. Leave to proof for another 15 minutes.

Before baking use a brush to cover the top of the bun with egg wash. Decorate the bun with a raisin in the curl of the S.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes.

Eat them as they are or cut in half and spread with (salted) butter.

Enjoy.

(if saffron threads are hard to find, you can use half a teaspoon of turmeric, use sparsely)

On the photo below you can see other shapes that are used with the making of the saffron buns.

Swedish Pepparkakor

Swedisch gingerbiscuits. The best I know. this recipe is easy, it just takes some planning since the dough is made one day before the actual baking. I always thought it would be too much work. But couldn't have been more wrong. Follow the recipe step by step and you end up with crispy, spicy delicious ginger cookies. This is really hyggelig (danish for cosy), some beautiful candles, a cup of tea, a good book and those delicious cookies!

For about 100 pcs you'll need:

1 1/2 dl dark sirup

250 grams of sugar

200 grams of butter/margarine

1 1/2 dl whipping cream (liquid)

1 tablespoon of powdered ginger

1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder

1/2 a tablespoon of powdered cloves

1/2 a tabelspoon of cardamom powder

1 tablespoon of baking soda

625 grams of plain flour

pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees celsius. (conventional oven, hot air minus 10%)

The first day:

Put the sirup, sugar and butter in a pan. Heat it up until melted. Add the cream and stir thouroughly until combined. Mix the baking soda with two tablespoons of flour and add that to the melted part of this dough. Combine well. Add the rest of the flour and stir until well combined. Leave to rest overnight.

Second day:

Sprinke some flour on your working surface. Roll out a part of the dough thinly. Use cookie cutters in a shape of your liking to cut out the cookies. Put them on a baking tray that has been lined with baking parchment. Bake in the middle of the oven at 200 degrees celsius for 5 minutes. When done, wait about 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. Leave to cool thoroughly.

Please note to bake same sized cookies. This to make sure they will bake evenly.

The cookies can be decorated with icing.

Collab with Ester & Erik candles: www.ester-erik.dk/

Recipe by www.arla.dk/sog/?query=svenske+pepparkakor&sn=dsi&dsinh=12&dsifv=5

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So great to be connected to so many lovely people through Social Media. There's a whole world, and lots of people, out there to be discovered. One of my discoveries is Mat Paa bordet. A culinary website run by Ina Janine Johnsen matpaabordet.no/ She makes the best recipes and I am so happy that she said yes when I asked her if I was allowed to share some of them.

Another most cherished contact is with the people of Ester & Erik candles in Denmark. www.ester-erik.dk/da-DK/forside.aspx Their handmade candles are the best. The range of colours, the shapes and fragrances are very special. When they asked if I would like to work with there beautiful products I didn't need to think long. YES!

So for this post/article I combined many of my passions, interior, cooking, styling and photography. This makes me so happy. I also made use of the wonderful background of Photostyling Background photostylingbackground.com/?aff=6 They add so much character to a picture.

You might just be interested in the recipe. So here it is. Ina Janine's delicious Sjokolade Kake.

200 grams of butter or margerine

40 grams of raw cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

250 ml water

250 grams of flour

250 grams of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

2 eggs

125 cream

For the icing:

25 liquid margerine

25 ml milk

1 1/2 tablespoon of raw cocoa powder

about 75 grams of icing sugar

How to:

1. grease a baking mold of your choice of about 2 liter. I used a bundt pan.

2. when not using baking parchment, use raw cocoa powder to dust the pan/mold.

3. In a large pan heat the butter, cocoa powder, salt and water to the boiling point. Stir every now and then until the butter has melted. Take of the heat.

3. Stir in flour, sugar and baking soda. When combined put in the eggs and in the end the cream.

4. Pour the batter into the mold/tray of your choice. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Use a pin to see if the cake is ready. When it comes out clean your cake is ready.

5. When ready, remove from the oven and let cool in the mold for a while. When a bit cooled down, put on a cooling rack to cool down completely.

6. For the icing, stir all the ingredients until well combined and pour/spread over the cake. The amount of icing sugar you use will determine how thick the icing sugar is.

Enjoy!

Ginger biscuit rocky road.

Sometimes you think up something that could turn out right. So as long as you don't try it there still is that question running around in the mind. I took this as a small challenge and combined two earlier recipes and combined some of the ingredients and formed a new "cake" that just turned out as I wanted it to be. It's sweet and it's yummy, what more can we ask for.

The ingredients are:

1 can of condensed milk (397 gramms)

2 heaped teaspoons of gingercake spices

200 grams of chocolate. Preferably dark chocolate. This time I used 50% dark chocolate and 50% extra dark (70%) chocolate

225 ginger nut biscuits

For decorating I used chocalate coverd ginger nut biscuits, you can use anything you like.

How to:

Heat the condensed milk and add the chocolate that has been broken into pieces. Stir until melted and add the gingercake spices. Stir again. Make sure you don't bring the mixture to the boiling point.

When all the chocolate has melted add the gingernut biscuits and stir until all is well combined.

Line a baking tray with baking parchment and add the mixture. Spread evenly. Leave to cool. When the surface has cooled down a bit add the chocolate covered ginger nut biscuits. Please note that the wider the baking tray the flatter the "cake", when smaller you will get a higher "cake" .

Leave to cool on your kitchen counter or another cool place. Cut into pieces and serve. Keep refrigerated. Please cut into pieces before refrigerated. It is quite hard to cut when taken from the refrigerator.

There's a cake for most days of the year. Did you know that there was a Swiss roll day? I didn't. But now that I do there was no excuse for not making one. Always thought it was difficult, Couldn't have been more wrong. This recipe is easy and versatile. I filled my Swiss roll with vanilla ice cream and raspberry jam. That was the biggest challenge. It was rather hot in my kitchen and the ice cream started to melt. But it worked out just fine. Just give it a try once, I had the stress so you can have all the fun!

6-8 persons

Ingredients:

3 eggs

100 grams of sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

30 grams of cornstarch (also known as Maïzena)

15 grams of raw chocolate powder (no sugar added)

50 grams of icing sugar

Filling:

1 liter of vanilla ice cream

1/2 a jar of raspberry jam

2 baking parchment sheets

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Break the eggs into a large bowl, add the sugar and mix until nearly white, fluffy and when you lift the mixer it should make nice waves falling back into the mixture.

In another bowl. sift the baking powder, corn starch and cocoa. fold it into the egg mixture. (no stirring, just folding to keep in the air)

Measure a square of 30x30 cm on a sheet of baking parchment. Evenly spread out the batter over this square using a palet knife. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.

Put the vanilla ice cream (or ice cream of your choice) into a cold bowl and start stirring making it soft.

Spread out the icing sugar on the second sheet of baking paper. Take the cake out of the oven and put it face down on the icing sugar. Gently remove the baking parchment, leave to cool for a few minutes. Spread the jam evenly over the cake, use more if needed/wanted. Spread out the vanilla ice cream. You might need to use your hands. Work quickly as the ice cream melts easily. Use the baking parchment to roll up the layers into a loaf. Fold the baking parchment around the cake/ice roll. Take a large sheet of cling film to firmly roll around the whole package. Put into the freezer for at least one hour. More if neccessary.

Serving: remove from the freezer and remove the cling film and baking parchment. Cut of both ends to make it a nice looking roll. Dust with more icing sugar, grated chocolate or sprinkles of your choice.

Can be eaten with fresh fruits, chocolate, fruit or vanilla sauce, whipped cream etc etc. Enjoy!

Remoulade

Keep on stirring

A very long time ago, we were just the two of us, we became aquainted with the phenomenon remoulade in Denmark. A yellow ‘blob’ of something with our fries instead of mayonaise. That took a bit of getting used to. But not long after we really were disappointed when we were served something different. In Denmark remoulade is like a staple food. You can buy it in one liter bottles and it is used with fish, fries, hotdogs, on smoerrebroed and with anything you can come up with. Every now and then I can find a bottle of the remoulade at the discount supermarket. Since I had nothing of the sort at the moment I went for a recipe to make it myself. And, as usual, it was more easy to make than I thought it would be. So with this recipe and a bit of freestyle from yours truly we had a lovely remoulade to go with our rye bread and potato salad.

Here we go:

Ingredients:

2 deciliter good mayonnaise, preferably without extra additives

2 tablespoons capers

1 carrot (didn’t have them when I made this recipe, used a few extra gherkins)

5 small gherkins (cornichons/Cocktail gherkins)

1/2 small Onion

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon curry powder

Some salt and pepper to your taste

Hand blender or small food processor

Cut the carrot into thick slices and boil for five minutes in water in a pan or a few minutes in a cup with some water in the microwave.

Put capers, carrots, cornichons and onion in a blender, and blend very finely.

Stir in the vegetables from the blender together with mayonnaise, mustard, curry powder and salt and/or pepper to your own taste

Tip: I still had some fresh dill in the fridge. Have added it generously at the moment that all vegetables are finely blended. This tastes so like summer!

A bit of finely chopped parsley can also be added

Velbekomme

There was a moment that I saw something pinkish on my plate and was totally in awe of the colour and the taste. It was pickled red onion. Soft bite and a spicy sweet/sour taste. Oh, how I looked at the recipes and dreaded making it. Now I am wondering why I ever thought that. The ingredients are so easy to come by and once you've mastered the first batch there's a world of possibilities to make it to your own taste. So let's get started.

First you need a heat resistant glass jar. If you have an empty one standing for example from gherkins or other food that has been sterilised in a factory you can use that one. The contant should at least be 500ml. I bought one at Ikea at nearly no cost at all. Make sure before you sterilise the jar that it is pre-heated with warm water from the faucet to prevent breaking.

Ingredients:

4 red onions, very thinly sliced

4 dl applecider vinegar or ordinary vinager

1 dl sugar

1 teaspoon of peppercorns

Method:

Put the very thinly sliced red onions in the jar that has been sterilised with boiling water first.

Bring the vinegar, sugar and peppercorns to a boil. At this stage you can add some spices too. (bayleaf, clove, cinnamon etc) Stir until the sugar has dissolved into the vinegar. Pour this mixture over the onions.

Close the lid and let cool to luke warm, store in de refrigerator for further cooling.

The taste and colour developes over days. So if you can resist opening the jar please do. If not. It is ready to eat after it has completely cooled dow.

These onions taste great with your burger, hotdog, salad or sandwich.

Hope you enjoy making it and even more adding it to your dish!

Pizza, who doesn´t like that, not many people say no to a slice! Most of the time I make the dough for the pizza myself. Sometimes I just want to have it easy, especially during hot and busy summer days. This time I used the same dough again as with the flammkuchen from a while ago. This time I topped it with my pizza favourites. For this size of pizza used the following:

1 package of ready to use pizzadough

1 can of chopped tomatoes

some green asparagus, sliced lenghtwise

1 courgette/zucchini, sliced lengthwise

2 red onions, in rings

1 red bellpepper, in rings

grated gouda cheese

herbs, garlic, salt and pepper to your liking

For the baking temperature and times please look at the packaging of your pizzadough.

For extra flavour to your pizza you can grill the vegetables first. Lightly oil a grill pan and grill the asparagus (cut lengthwise in half) until grill stripes have been made. Cut the courgette lengthwise also and use a cheeseslicer to slice ribbons of the courgette. Grill them until brown grill stripes have been formed. Set aside until you need them.

Put the content of the tin of tomatoes in a bow. Add garlic, freshly pressed, powdered or flakes, and stir. Add dried italian style herbs to this mixture or use fresh basil and thyme, all to your own taste. If you like to use some pepper and salt add to your own liking.

Spread this mixture over the unrolled dough. (you might use just 2/3 of the content of the can.

Evenly spread the vegetables over the tomatosauce. At this stage I bake the pizza for 10 minutes to let any extra moisture evaporate. Take the pizza out of the oven an sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Bake for another 10 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Extra topping suggestions: sliced mushroom, sliced tomato, for meat lovers ham in cubes, slices of salami or small strips of bacon.

Note: each oven is different. Adjust the cooking times according to your oven. I prefer to be on the safe side and always set the kitchen timer minutes less and add minutes to it if desired. This pizza was enough for the three of us. You might want to have a salad on the side. For two adults with a huge appetite this one might do too! Any leftovers are great for the lunchbox the next day.

When the weather is hot the dinner can be easy and cold. Although the temptation sometimes can be to skip dinner at all and go for a sandwich, we all need our energy to get through the day. And why not make that energy a yummy one! I found this recipe at mariavestergaard.dk/salat-med-kartofler-asparges-og-pinjekerner/ , Didn't have to think twice to make it. Her recipes are always full of flavour and fresh ingredients. First the translation in Dutch was up and now in English. Sometimes time is short on my part, I would recommend Google translate for when I'm late with a correct translation. So here we go:

ingredients:

350 grams of small baby potatoes, cooked in their skin and cooled

a handful of rucola

1 tablespoon of oliveoil

juice of a quarter lemon

clove of garlic

5 green asparagus

1 tablespoon of dill

half a teaspoon of salt

half a red onion

1 ripe avocado

a large chunck of feta cheese

a small hand of pine nuts

This is how:

Cook the potatoes in their skin and let them cool down completely. To speeden up the process, rinse with cold water and put in the fridge until you use them.

Cut the potatoes in half en mix them, in a large salad bowl, with the rucola, dill, lemonjuice, olive oil and salt.

Cut the asparagus lengthwise and after in smaller bitesize pieces. (Maria uses them raw, I prefer to have them cooked a bit. I put them in a bowl and cover with boiling water and leave for about 5-6 minutes then rinse with cold water, proceed as in recipe after this)

Cut the onion and garlic into small pieces and mix with the potatoes and rucola together with the asparagus.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and cut up the avocado in larger pieces.

Roast the pine nuts in a dry skillet until golden brown, leave to cool a bit and sprinkle over the salad.

Crumble the feta ost and put on top the salad.

Add some some dill to your liking.

Summer is here!

A good reason to make something very simple and delicious for dinner. I made this yummy flammkuchen. That is a pizza but then different. Maybe you can compare it to a pizza bianca. The original flammkuchen comes from the Alsace area in Germany/France. In France it is known under the name tarte flambée. I found a roll of fresh pizza dough in the fridge, it really needed to be used and this is the result. It is very easy, hardly any skills required, just put it all together, bake and enjoy. We had it with a nice salad on the side. So good when the weather is warm and all are in need of a good plate of food at dinner.

Serves 3 for dinner or 4-5 for lunch.

This is what you need:

1 roll of fresh pizza dough (enough to cover one baking sheet)

1 tub of crème fraiche

Freshly grated nutmeg

Red onion (about 5-7 depending on the size)

Bacon in small strips

(Chestnut mushrooms, 400-500 grams, for the vegetarian version)

½ a teaspoon of smoked paprika powder

Pepper and salt to taste

Some oil/butter to fry the mushrooms in

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 230 with the baking sheet already in the oven.

Unroll the pizza dough (most of the times it is rolled up with baking parchment, if not use a sheet of baking parchment) and put it on the kitchen top or table.

Spread out evenly 2-3 tablespoons of crème fraiche

Cut the onions into rings and loosen. Cover the crème fraiche with the onion rings.

Grate the nutmeg over the onions, sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.

When vegetarian, clean the mushrooms, and cut them into quarters. Heat up a frying pan and add some oil or butter. When the butter/oil is heated add the mushrooms and fry until golden. I added half a teaspoon of smoked paprika powder. That gives some spiciness and a smoked flavor to the mushrooms that is somewhat like when using just bacon. When done, leave to cool and when cool spread out over the kuchen. Or do as I did, put in on one half of the kuchen and on the other half add the bacon strips.

Transport over to the heated baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven for about 17-20 minutes or until golden and crisps.

For some texture and color I added some rucola on top of the kuchen. This is not only delicious but also pleasing to the eye.

Serve with a salad of assorted salad leaves, tomato, cucumber, feta cheese, toasted nuts and a nice dressing and enjoy!

Velbekomme!

This picture is taken with the use of the photostyling background Blue Table. (bought at Photo Styling Background. Want to know more? Please read the blogpost below.

Often wondered how those beautiful food pictures are made? Look no further. Use the wonderful backgrounds by Susy Grundahl. They are so versatile. Can be used for flat lay or as backgrounds for any subject you want, even for portrait photography. You can use this link to acces the website: photostylingbackground.com/?aff=6 and use the code 30% to get your 30% discount runs until 31st of May 2019. (proud affiliate partner of Photostyling background) The link I shared is also working after the special offer period. That is after the 31st of May. The 30% however is not applicable.

Here you see a salad on my 4 photostyling backgrounds

Quinoa deller

Strange name for a really good addition to your dinner. In Denmark a frikadelle is a meatball that is kind of like a staple food. You can even buy them frozen at the supermarket. Luckily, for us vegetarians, habits change and vegetarian food becomes more and more popular. All due to more awareness of the impact of meat consumption and for more variation in the diet.

These quinoa balls, can be eaten with a nice salad for dinner or, the next day, as an extra in the lunch box.

The recipe is as follows:

For 4 persons

Makes 16 small or 8 bigger portions

150 gram light colored quinoa

100 gram cauliflower

100 grams of salad cheese cubes (in brine Arla) in crumbs

1 egg

1 dl oats

1 dl parsley, coarsely cut

1 clove of garlic, pressed

½ teaspoon salt (try if it is to your taste)

Freshly milled pepper

Butter or oil for baking

Method:

Cook the quinoa following the instructions on the packet. Drain any excess water. Leave to cool.

Grate the cauliflower or use a food processor to grind them to rice like kernels.

Stir the cooled down quinoa, the cauliflower rice, the salad cheese crumbs and the rest of the ingredients until combined. Cover and leave to cool in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Form 16 or 8 quinoadeller. Start with making balls and flatten them. Heat a skillet, add the butter or the oil on medium heat and bake the quinoadeller in appr. 8 minutes until golden brown. Serve with a salad consisting of an assortment of colored salad leaves, orange slices, salad cheese cubes, toasted walnut and a dressing of your choice.

VELBEKOMME!

Sometimes you have that craving of something that can go with your coffee or tea. It doesn’t need to be much, just a light snack to satisfy your tastebuds. I really “needed” something like that. It took a bit of research and some fantasy to come up with this yummy small tartelette. Can be made in minutes and it’s gone in seconds. It isn’t exactly a recipe, just a way of putting things together that create something yummy.

Per person:

1 square of frozen puff pastry (ca 20x20 cm)

A heaped tablespoon of cottage cheese

A handful of blueberries or other small soft fruit

Icing sugar

Pre heat the oven at 200 degrees centigrade

Defrost the puff pastry and cut out a circle nearly as big as the square of pastry

Put it on a baking sheet that is covered with baking parchment.

Spread out the cottage cheese evenly, leaving the edges free.

Put the berries in the middle of the cottage cheese and give it a generous dusting with the icing sugar

Bake for about 15 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Serve lukewarm, or cold. Preferably the same day as it will lose its crispness otherwise.

Tip: Dust with more icing sugar just before serving.

Some grated lemon peel is also a nice fresh addition to the tartelette.

Chocolate Mousse with a secret ingredient:

That's just what it is. A secret ingredient. I didn't tell the family what they were getting as a dessert. Just let them savour the wonderful silky texture and the chocolate taste of it. No questions asked, just saying that they really really enjoyed this dessert. So what's not to like. It is made with Aquafaba. The liquid that you usually drain of the chickpeas when you use them for a dish. This time you keep it and whisk it into soft peaks that look just like peaks of eggwhites. You can both use milkchocolate for a somewhat sweeter version, mind the amound of sugar you add to it all of dark chocolate of at least 70% cocoa solids. Then it is a vegan dessert.

So here we go!

150 grams of 70% cocoa dark chocolate

120 grams of aquafaba (the liquid from 1 can 400 gram chickpeas)

few drops of lemon juice (juice from a bottle is ok)

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon sugar

What are you going to do?

1. Melt the chocolate over a water bath of use the microwave.

2. Whisk the aquafaba with a few drops of lemon juice with a hand or stand mixer. This can take up to 10 minutes. Mix the sugar and vanilla sugar. Add the sugar and vanilla sugar little by little, while you continue to whisk the aquafaba into soft peaks.

3. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix with a spatula of spoon. Divide over 4-6 cups/bowls. Put in the fridge and let it cool for at least 2 hours

4. Serve with fresh fruit.

tips: please make sure your whisk and bowl are free from any grease. Exactly as you would do when whisking eggwhites into soft peaks.

Blood orange upside down cake

Nonstick Vegetable Oil Spray
67 g cane sugar
2 blood oranges, sliced thin with seeds removed
313 g all-purpose flour
150 g granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
0.75 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
355ml buttermilk
170 gram unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 (heaping) tsp blood orange zest (approx. 1 blood orange)
2 tbsp fresh blood orange juice

Instructions

Preheat oven 175 degrees Celsius and coat a 23 cm cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Or use baking parchment to line the pan.

Evenly scatter the cane sugar over the bottom of the cake pan and place the orange slices on top.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, orange zest and orange juice.

Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until nearly combined. Some dry spots OK as you do not want to overmix the batter.

Pour the batter over the oranges and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until the sides start pulling away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Transfer make to a wire rack to cook for 5 minutes before inverting over a large plate and gently releasing from the pan.

Kladdkaka
original recipe by Froeken Kraesen, Linn Grubstrom

100 gr butter
knife tip with salt
knife tip with vanillasugar
4 table spoons with cocoa powder, no sugar or additives
2 eggs
2,5 dl flour
3 dl sugar

Pre heat the oven at 200 degrees celsius

Melt the butter

Whisk eggs and sugar until light yellow and fluffy

Mix in the melted butter
Mix the dry ingredients, flour, sugar and vanilla sugar together add to butter egg mixture
Line a baking mould (21-25 cm diameter) with baking parchment or butter the mould
Add the batter
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 200 degrees celsius

Extra: peanut butter swirl
125 grams of peanutbutter
2 table spoons of melted butter
40 grams of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

Melt the butter, stir in all the ingredients. Drop spoonfuls fo the mixture on top of the batter then swirl with a knife or the back of a wooden spoon.
N.B. This is rather a large amount of mixture. Any left can be easily stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a considerable amount of time.
Tip: Add part of the batter to the mould, add spoonfuls of the mixture and top of with rest of the batter, then bake.

Kiksekage (biscuit cake)

Ingredients:

300 grams of dark chocolate

3 dl of whipping cream (unwhipped)

100 grams of icing sugar

50 grams of butter

225 grams of biscuits

How it's done:

Line a cake loaf tin with baking parchment.

Break the chocolate in small pieces and add to a bowl. Bring the whipping cream and icing sugar to the boil in a pan on the stove wile stirring.

Gently add the hot cream mixture to the chocolate and stir until shiny and elastic. Let cool for a while. Add the butter in small cubes to the mixture and stir very well until each cube has been absorbed. Let cool in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Take the lined loaf tin and add a layer of chocolate mixture. Top with a layer of biscuits, add chocolate mixture, biscuits etc. End with a layer of chocolate mixture. Cover with clingfilm and put in the refrigerator for a night. For serving carefully cut in slices.

Kladdkaka with white chocolate and fruit

Sometimes you need just something easy and delicious. This cake ticks all the boxes. Simple ingredients, fruit can be both frozen or fresh and I only use one pan to prepare the batter.

Kladdkaka is a cake that needs to be a bit soft inside. Kladd meaning mud in Swedish where this type of cake originates. So, ready for some baking? Here we go!

Ingredients:

200 gr butter

180 gr white chocolate

180 gr sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

3 eggs

250 gr flour

300 gr of fruit of choice

Pre heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Hot air oven minus 20%.

Melt the butter and sugar in a pan over medium heat. Take care in not overheating the butter. Let cool slightly.

Mix in the sugar until nearly dissolved. Add the eggs, add the next one after the first one has been incorporated. Add the vanilla sugar and mix. Add the flour and mix again.

Use a springform of appr. 23 cm diameter. Line with baking parchment and grease if you want to. Add the batter and put the fruit on the top of the batter.

Bake for 25 minutes or longer. Use a skewer to test, there still needs to be a bit of batter on the skewer. I usually add 5 mins extra and test again. Experience has learned that 35 minutes leads to a more satisfactory result.

Let cool, and dust with a bit of confectioners sugar. Serve with whipped cream or crème fraiche.

Hooray!
It's my website's first birthday this month

And a party without a cake is no party right?! So I made this deliciously sweet cake with elderflower and lemon curd. I used two 17 cm baking tins but you can easily use one 24/26cm tin and slice the cake so you have two layers. It is rather sweet but so delicious with the tangy lemon coming through. I only used the elderflower for decoration and took it off when slicing it before serving. It serves 8-10people, depending on how "hungry" you are. So here it is:

Ingredients

For the cake

175g (6 oz) butter

175g (6 oz) caster sugar

175g (6 oz) self-raising flour

½ level teaspoon baking powder

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon elderflower cordial

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

For the syrup

Juice of 1 lemon, strained

1 tablespoon elderflower cordial

55g (2 oz) caster sugar

For the filling

115g (4 oz) icing sugar

40g (1 ½ oz) butter

1-2 teaspoons elderflower cordial

3-4 tablespoons lemon curd

55g (2 oz) icing sugar for glace icing OR just some for dusting

Method

1. Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth – either in a mixer or by hand. Mix the eggs and the cordial together and then add a little bit at a time until combined. Stir through the lemon zest and then add the flour and baking powder, mixing until combined.

2. Spoon the mixture into 2 greased and base lined 20cm cake tins. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C, 160°C fan oven, Gas 4 for around 30 minutes or until cooked, and then turn out on to a wire tray.

3. Then put the lemon juice, elderflower, and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Whilst cake is still warm, make a few deep holes with a skewer and pour the syrup mixture over the cake so that it soaks into the cake.

4. Place the icing sugar, butter and elderflower in a bowl and beat well until smooth. Spread the base cake half with 1/3 of the icing and 1/3 lemon curd, and then top with the second cake. You can decorate with a thin glace icing made with the icing sugar and a little lemon juice and drizzle over the top of the cake, or you could just dust it with icing sugar instead.

Hygge

Danish comfort, a great export product

What is this hygge, and what attracts us to this phenomenon. We know the word cosy (in English, and gezellig and gezelligheid in Dutch). Or is it the simplicity, of being attracted to all things Scandinavian.

The word hygge is a hype at the moment and one that hopefully is there to stay. What better then to spend some time with the ones near to us in comfortable surroundings. Put on your hygge socks and enjoy!

Hygge is in fact being studied, and lots of books are written on the subject. I've got two of them at home. One in English by Signe Johansen called How to hygge (the secrets of Nordic Living) and one by Meik Wiking available in many languages including English and Dutch: Hygge, the art of living. On a grey November day like today there is nothing better then to relax and read some chapters of these books. Just trying to understand some of the essences of this special export product of the Nordic countries.

Winters in Scandinavia are much longer then the ones in Holland. It gets light late and dark early during winter time. Every reason to make the time spend indoors as comfortable as possible. So candles are being lighted, something delicious being baked and a cosy atmosphere created. It sure isn't that it are all grand gestures. It's all in the detail, and those details matter a lot. The book by Meik Wiking has a whole chapter on this subject.

The five aspects of hygge: 1. the taste of hygge, could be described as the taste of comfortfood, known flavours to be enjoyed time and time again. 2. the sound of hygge, the sound of an open fire. As we don't have one, the absence of harsh noises count too. Natural sounds that are evocing a feeling of security inside the home. 3. the smell of hygge, the smells that take you back to into history, very personal, the smells that make you feel at home. 4. the feel of hygge, small things you can touch. Organic, natural, small details are giving a comfortable feeling. 5. to see hygge, looking at slow moving objects/items. Snowflakes that are falling, the flames of an open fire. No harsh colours and little and pleasant lightning.

For me this results in lighting the candles, a comfortable indoors climate, a cosy spot on the sofa, a cup of tea and maybe even some homebaked goodies to go with my tea. Just not needing to do too much. Well, you can't just have enough of the above to enjoy and not think too much. That is just it for me!

Make your day a hyggelig one!

Source: Meik Wiking, Hygge, the art of Danish living. The Happiness Research Institute, Copenhagen. Available in bookstores and online. This is a book I highly recommend.

It’s yellow and brown

During the holiday period I often find that bananas tend to ripe fast. The change of routine, not taken to school and the higher temperatures are the cause of that. Luckily I’ve got a teenage daughter that wanted to do something. Well those bananas really were inviting to make this delicious slices. I’ve got lots of recipes. In books, saved from magazines, from the internet, some are never used some once and some have become a family favorite. These slices really are one of the favorites. Original recipe by Delia Smith, altered through the years by us. With the weather conditions not being on the sunny side a lot, this is a nice recipe to make and, not less important, very nice to eat! That is what I would call hygge, rain outside, inside drinking tea and eating these delicous slices!

Banana chocolate chip slices, makes 12

Ingredients:

2 large, very ripe bananas, peeled and roughly chopped into 1 cm pieces

75 gr dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate chopped small

250 gr self-raising flour

150 gr cold butter, cut into small cubes

150 gr golden caster sugar

Cake tin 15x25 cm (just about) lined with baking parchment.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Method:

First of all, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Then add the butter and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (can be done in a food processor, if you like). Next, stir in the sugar, chopped bananas and the chocolate. This will look like crumble mix.

Now press the mixture evenly into the lined baking tin and bake it on the middle shelf of the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes or until it is firm to touch in the centre and lightly golden.

Leave to cool in the tin. Keep the slices refrigerated.

July 24th, 2017

The smell of vacation

Washing up liquid

One of the things that you notice when you are on a holiday is the different smells. Wherever you are travelling to, even in your own country, the smell is different everywhere. I love it. My holiday smell isn’t the one of fries and suntan lotion. Glad it isn’t! My holiday smell is the one of the sea, sand, forest, and washing up liquid! Yes, no mistake, washing up liquid.

I found this out by accident when we left house too fast and forgot a lot of things. Some of it were washing up liquid, shampoo, shower gel and body lotion. Everyday items that are easily bought. So we bought the local products and they sure smelled good! No fancy products, just what was directly available. We took home with us what was left over. At a certain point we came to use those products at home. We were transported back to our previous holiday in one smell! It was so connected to our holiday home and surroundings. The feeling came back instantly. So we don’t need funny souvenirs, just washing up liquid.

Ever since that holiday we make it a challenge to find those products we really like or search for new ones. The smell of holiday so easily exported to your own home!

I can think of more items: cleaning liquid, toothpaste, hair gel/pomade, laundry powder, fabric softener etc. etc.

So regard the supermarket on your vacation as the ideal souvenir shop, you´ll be surprised!

Vi ses!

July 19th 2017

Wæbletærte.docx Wæbletærte.docx Wæbletærte.docx

please use social media buttons for contact