Bacon Hueva-/Quesadilla

Remember the 'huevadilla' ?

I must admit I forgot about it for a while myself, but now it's back.

And how! ..in the shape of a hearty breakfast: bacon, eggs, cheese, beans and all.

Ingredients:
- 50-60 g (2 oz) thinly sliced bacon
- 4 wheat tortillas, ~ 22 cm (8-9 inches) diameter
- 4 eggs
- cheddar, grated
- 1 avocado
- pico de gallo
- refried pinto beans



The pinto beans were refried and left over low heat while preparing the rest.

Thinly sliced bacon was fried crisp, then removed from the pan and cut in smaller pieces. The fat was poured off (and saved for other cooking purposes).

Over medium heat a tortilla was placed in the pan. Grated cheddar was put in wide ring along the rim leaving a spot for 2 eggs and half of the bacon bits in the middle. This was topped with another tortilla and left on medium heat for a few minutes - it was flipped over when the eggs were sufficiently set to do so without making a mess of it.


When suitably done on both sides, it was removed from the pan and cut in slices to be served with avocado wedges and crude salsa on top and refried pinto beans on the side.

This I'll do again for sure.

BBC: Bacon, Bean & Cabbage (Soup)

I'm behind here - this was something I cooked in the fall (which I'd say is a much more appropriate season for this dish). Once again with heavy inspiration from James Villas I went for a soup combining some of my favourite ingredients: bacon, beans and cabbage..

I'll trust him on his claim that this is a Serbian soup. The original recipe calls for green cabbage, but I went for red cabbage - more on this in a bit.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) bacon^[1]
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 medium large head of red cabbage, chopped
- 2 L (~ ¹/₂ gallon) beef broth
- 3 cans cannellini beans (drained)
- flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

The bacon was fried in a large pot until a good amount of fat had been rendered out of it, then removed from the pot. The onions and garlic were rendered soft in the bacon fat before adding the cabbage together with beef broth, beans, bacon and parsley. The pot was brought to a boil and allowed to simmer for 45 minutes before serving.

I found the soup delicious, but I have to admit the red cabbage gave the soup a special colour. A colour I personally have no problem with but which I can see why some people might not like. So I guess going for white cabbage or maybe even kale would be a good idea.<sup>[2]

[1]</sup> I used thinly sliced bacon, which I think was a mistake - I think this recipe would work better with diced bacon.
^[2] I'm not sure Villas means kale when he writes 'green cabbage' (which is what think of when I use that term). I think maybe he means what I'd call white cabbage - but there's no picture for this dish in his book, so I am not sure.

Bacon-Chanterelle-Blue Cheese Meatloaf

Fall is here, which means two things: (1) the shops have a wider selection of mushrooms than normally; (2) I tend the want heartier foods. This idea was built up in stages: first Bon Appétit planted the idea of a mushroom meatloaf in my mind. Then I thought of the bacon explosion, but didn't want to go all the way. Finally while shopping, trying to make up my mind about a few final ingredients, I remembered this stew and settled on blue cheese and fresh rosemary.

Ingredients:
- 125 g (4.4 oz) thinly sliced bacon
- 2-3 dL (~ 1 cup) chanterelles, chopped
- 100 g (3.5 oz) blue cheese
- 1 kg (2 lbs 3 oz) mixed beef-pork minced meat
- 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) milk
- 2 eggs
- fresh rosemary, chopped
- salt & pepper
side: leek quinoa pilaf
- 3 leeks, sliced
- 4 dL (1 ²/₃ cup) quinoa
- 8 dL (3 ¹/₃ cup) water
- salt
salad:
- mixed lettuce
- mushrooms
- grape tomatoes

The bacon was fried till crisp, then removed from the pan and chopped into smaller pieces. In a bowl the bacon pieces were mixed with chopped chanterelles and crumbled blue cheese.

In a second bowl, the minced meat was mixed with finely chopped onions, chopped fresh rosemary, milk, eggs, salt and pepper.

Half of the meat mixture was placed in an oven-proof tray. The bacon-mushroom-blue cheese mixture was spread out on the meat and the rest of the was put on top as a lid. More salt and pepper on top. Baked at 200 C (400 F) for 1 hour.

Bacon & Egg (Spelt) Pizza

Here's a concept that might be somewhat controversial: eggs on pizza. I know Some people don't approve - even I wouldn't want it all the time, but when I do want I think it's absolutely divine.
I made it this time on a spelt dough, but obviously that is optional.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen spelt pizza dough
- durum flour (for rolling)
- ~ 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) chunky tomato sauce with garlic
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 2 eggs
- dried oregano
served with a salad:
- mixed lettuce
- chickpeas


The rolled dough was topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella slices, onion rings and bacon pieces. It was baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F). This time I baked it for 15 minutes, before taking it out of the oven and cracking the two eggs on top of it and putting it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. This was perfect for cooking the egg-whites but leaving the yolks runny.^[1] After removing from the oven the second time, the pizza was sprinkled with dried oregano and served with a simple salad.


And how was it?? In the words of my muse: "Honey, this is the best pizza you've ever made!"

^[1] If you want firmer yolks, I'd try baking 10 minutes before the eggs, 10 minutes with the egg. If you leave the eggs on for the entire baking time they get too much.

Bear Roast

Do you remember when I graduated? Although I took the time to celebrate this back then, there was something that bothered me - something that nagged. More specifically, what nagged was that although I did graduate the one big project that I'd worked on during my entire Ph.D. - the project which I'd estimate I spent some 60-80% of my time on, the project that took up the first 250 pages of my thesis - wasn't finished. It wasn't finished and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had to move on. I had to leave it to persons unknown to me, to a future unknown to me. Would it ever be finished? Would I ever see that work published in any other form than the highly limited edition that was my thesis?

Several months ago now, I heard rumours that it had in fact been finished, but it wasn't till recently that it was submitted to one of the more prestigious journals in my field - and a few weeks later it had been accepted for publication after peer-review. This past Friday it appeared on the web site of the journal in question. In a week or so it'll be two and a half years since I graduated, so this all comes with a sense of justification: if it took this long to finish the project, I couldn't have finished it by just staying 3 months more.

But enough about that. This calls for a celebration! And what better way to celebrate than to take some time to cook a very special meal.


Other recent events include the beginning of bear hunting season in Sweden. I've been eager (to put it mildly) to taste bear for quite a while, so when a few weeks ago I saw a piece of frozen bear at one of the butchers in Östermalmshallen (one of the big in-door markets in Stockholm) I decided to splurge and bought it.

In a moment of karmic balance I decided to thaw the piece of bear on the very day the paper appeared online - that is: before I knew that it was going to be released on that day.

Ingredients:
roast:
- lard
- 4 small cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1.3 kg (~ 3 lbs) bear roast
- salt & pepper
- ~500 g (~ 1 lb) red boiling onions
- 1 L (~ 1 quart) water
sides:
- boiled potatoes
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 170 g (6 oz) crayfish tails
- 200 g (7 oz) black chanterelles
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) cream
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) pan juices
- salt & pepper
- pickled green tomatoes
salad:
- green leaf lettuce
- pea sprouts
- sun-dried tomatoes
drink:
- Bollinger Special Cuvée


First I took the piece of bear and slit several deep narrow holes in it with small sharp knife. In each hole I stuffed several thin slices of garlic. Secondly, the roast was rubbed on both sides with generous amounts of salt & pepper. In a large pan on high heat, the roast was seared in lard on both sides until darkened appreciably. The roast was then placed in an oven-proof tray together with the boiling onions and 1 L of water. The roast went in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 2 ¹/₂ hours (opening the oven occasionally to pour some of the pan juices over the roast) before being removed to a cutting board, covered with foil and left for 20 minutes before slicing.

The boiling onions were transferred to bowl (to be served as a side with the roast). ¹/₂ dL of the pan juices were set aside for the sauce and the rest (about 5 dL) was frozen as 'bear stock'.

While the roast was still in the oven, the salad was prepared, and the potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

While the roast was resting before slicing, the bacon was fried till crisp, then removed from the pan, chopped and set aside. The crayfish tails were fried in the bacon fat for a minute before adding the black chanterelles. After a few more minutes, the cream and pan juice were added. Once heated through, the sauce was ready.

Slices of bear roast were served with mushroom-crayfish sauce and bacon bits on top - salad, potatoes, onions and pickled tomatoes on the side.


So how was it?

The bear was excellent. Very tender and very tasty. This is most 'game' meal I have ever cooked - the meat was clearly recognisable as red meat, but it did have notes of something 'different' and these notes were stronger than when I've cooked venison or moose.

The black chanterelles were as delicious as I expected - this is the first time I've had them fresh (previously I only had dried ones), but I have to admit the crayfish didn't really do so much for the dish as I had hoped. I was going for some sort of Swedish surf^turf, but in the end the crayfish were too anonymous against the rest of the ingredients - so if I ever do this again, I'll leave those out (or maybe try to find something more bold).

This was the first time I tried my own pickled green tomatoes. They were a little firmer than I thought they would be, but the taste was pretty close to what I had in mind - sour, sweet and vanilla flavoured all at the same time. Perhaps a little too much vanilla. My muse didn't really like them, but I thought they went very well with the meat.

Lentil Potato Stew

With heavy inspiration from this recipe, I first tried this dish back in January when the land was covered in fluffy white blanket and it was possible to walk on the ice from island to island. It's not nearly that cold yet, although the weather is changing more and more for fall these days. In my hands this soup became so think I'd call it a stew - or at least borderline so.




Ingredients:
- 125 g (4-5 oz) bacon, cut in smaller pieces
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 jalapeño chillies, finely chopped
- fresh ginger, finely diced
- yellow curry powder
- turmeric
- 1.8 kg (4 lbs) potatoes, diced
- scoop of flour
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) chicken stock
- 500 g (~ 1 lb) green lentils
- salt
- cilantro, for serving




In a large pot, the bacon was fried on medium-high. When crisp the bacon was removed, but the fat that had been rendered out was left in the pot. To this was added onion, garlic, chilli, ginger, curry powder and turmeric.^[1] When the onion had softened, the potato dices where added. A scoop of flour was added and the contents of the pot were stirred - just so the flour coated the potatoes. Then the chicken stock and the lentils were added. The pot was brought to a boil before covering and reducing the heat. After simmering for about an hour the stew was seasoned to taste with salt and served with bacon bits and freshly chopped cilantro on top.

^[1] Yellow curry powder of course contains turmeric, but I wanted a blend that was richer in turmeric.

Asparagus & Pancetta Linguine

For the May BACC various circumstances forced a number of modifications on the dish - although I believe it still carries the spirit of the original recipe - to wit:

• Fettuccine did not appear to be available where we went shopping, so instead we went for wholegrain linguine.
• Peas are not yet in season here in Sweden and as we did not feel like using frozen peas we left the peas out.
• Turns out we did not in fact have any garlic (and we did not want to fetch some by the time we started cooking...)
• Although we could easily have gotten some Parmigiano cheese, I decided to use the rest of our Pecorino cheese instead.
• Since we are getting ready to move all our graters had been packed down, so for the cheese and the lemon zest we had to go for 'finely chopped' rather than grated - lending the dish a slightly more rustic feel.
• I did not add any olive oil as that seemed a bit superfluous.
• The dark green parts of the scallions were not stirred in but instead sprinkled on top together with last of the basil and parsley.
  

Ingredients:
- ~ 250 g (~ 9 oz) wholegrain linguine
- 80 g (2.8 oz) very finely sliced pancetta, cut in strips
- 250 g (8.8 oz) asparagus, cut in inch-long pieces
- 125 g (4.4 oz) scallions, sliced - parted by colour
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
- ~ ¹/₂ dL (~ ¹/₅ cup) pecorino romano, finely chopped - parted
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- zest of ¹/₂ lemon, finely chopped
- fresh parsley, chopped - parted
- fresh basil, chopped - parted
- salt & pepper

The pasta was boiled in lightly salted water - when cooked the water was poured off, but about 2.5 dL (1 cup) of it was retained for later use.

While cooking the pasta, the pancetta was fried crisp.^[1] The pancetta was removed from the pan and the asparagus pieces were sautéed in the pancetta drippings for 3-4 minutes before adding the paler ²/₃ of the scallion slices. After an additional 2 minutes this mixtures stirred into the cooked pasta and added cream together with lemon juice, lemon zest, about 1 dL (²/₅ cup) of the pasta ccoking liquid, most of the cheese, half of the parsley, and half of the basil. The mixture was tossed and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

It was served immediately, sprinkled with pancetta pieces, the dark green slices of the scallions and the rest of the cheese, the parsley and the basil.

Delicious - despite all the short cuts performed. I've had pasta dishes with lemon before, but I cannot think of one where the lemon blended as nicely with the other flavours as in this one.

^[1] Pancetta is sometimes referred to as 'Italian bacon' - like other types of bacon it has been salt cured, but in contrast to most other types of bacon it has been spiced. This was actually my first time ever using it, and I found the spicy bacon smell from frying quite interesting. The variety of pancetta I bought was very thinly sliced (I would say that ordinary thinly sliced bacon is about 5 times as thick as this pancetta) - but since it was my first time buying it I don't know if that is the norm for pancetta.

Liver with Bacon and Capers

Not so long ago I went out for lunch. My eyes scanned the short menu and upon seeing the 'Veal liver with bacon and capers in red wine sauce' there was no turning back. I had to try that. And after trying it, I had to make it myself as well.

Ingredients:
- potatoes
- green beans
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 50 g (2 oz) thinly sliced bacon
- 650 g (1.4 lbs) beef liver, sliced
- salt & pepper
- 1 dL (¹/₂ cup) red wine
- 1 dL (¹/₂ cup) cream
- capers
salad:
- lettuce
- baby plum tomatoes
- pea sprouts

I started by preparing the salad, then rinsed the potatoes and boiled them in lightly salted water. The green beans were boiled in lightly salted water in a separate pot (on account of needing less time).

The bacon was fried till nicely crisp, then removed from the pan and chopped - in the same pan, the liver slices were fried with salt and pepper. When the liver slices were done, they were removed from the pan, and the onion rings were caramelized - then removed. Lastly, the red wine was added to the pan, allowed to concentrate a little before adding the cream to obtain a sauce.

The fried liver slices were served with bacon bits and capers on top. The potatoes with onion rings, and red wine-cream sauce, green beans and salad on the side. And a glass of the red wine..

Next time, I think I'll try a different approach with the red wine sauce - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite like the one I had at the restaurant either..

Bacon, Beef & Blue Cheese Stew

I see I haven't been particularly diligent about my promise to follow up here with dishes from the bacon book I got a while back. Well, time to do at least something about that.

Browsing aforementioned book, a beef, bacon & blue cheese stew caught my attention, and decided to have a go at it - with some minor modifications.

Ingredients:
- 125 g (4.4 oz) bacon
- 3 large onions, coarsely chopped
- sunflower oil
- 1.13 kg (2.5 lbs) beef cubes
- 8 tbsp flour
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) Bedarö Bitter^[1]
- 5 dL (2 cups) beef broth
- fresh thyme
- dried rosemary
- 3 leaves bay laurel
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- salt & pepper
- blue cheese^[2]
- bread for serving

In a large pot, the bacon was fried over medium/high heat till crisp, then removed from the pot. The heat was reduced to medium/low and the coarsely chopped onions were added. The onions were cooked with occasional stirring for over an hour till caramelised - actually I think this part need some optimisation: the recipe said to caramelise the onions at low heat for 20 minutes, but this appeared to be far too little for proper caramelisation - then onions were removed and the heat upped to medium/high and oil was added.

The beef cubes were coated in the flour, and browned in the pot after removing the lightly caramelised onions. Then the beer and beef broth were added. After stirring well (to ensure that no lumps of flour were still stuck to the bottom and sides of the pot) the thyme, rosemary, bay laurels, vinegar, salt and pepper were added and the were onions returned to the pot. Contrary to the recipe I was following I did not return the bacon to the pot at this point. The pot was brought to a boil, covered and let simmer for two hours.

The stew was then served with crumbled bacon and crumbled blue cheese on top - and a piece of bread on the side. The reason I didn't add the bacon before simmering for two hours, but instead afterwards was that I wanted to retain some crispness in the bacon.

It was truly delicious - very intense flavours and quite a heavy dish too. I'm strongly considering trying this again with some mashed potatoes and a green salad on the side.

^[1] Obviously not essential which ale - I'd go for any good, strong IPA.
^[2] The original recipe recommended Maytag (from the US) blue cheese, and I used Swedish Kvibille Ädel (30%), but any good blue cheese sufficiently hard to crumble should work.

Chickpea Soup 2

As the title implies, I always intended to post variations on this recipe - but somehow I forgot. Well, I recently thought about it again, and wanted to try (again) a variation in which lemon juice and soy sauce are added to taste. As things turned out, it also became a somewhat thicker soup, and the onion/parsley topping was done with an interesting twist.

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- 4 leeks, cleaned, sliced
- 4 cans chickpeas^[1], drained, rinsed
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) vegetable broth^[2]
- 4 tsp salt
- 4 tsp ground cumin
- 4 tsp brown sugar
- 0.25 L (1 cup) cream
- juice of 1 lemon
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- bacon fat
- 6 brown onions
- bunch flat leaf parsley
- salt & pepper
- bread for serving

In a large pot, a the leek slices were sautéed in a little olive oil (until they 'collapsed' a little), then the drained, rinsed chickpeas were added together with the vegetable broth. While the soup was brought to a boil, salt, ground cumin, brown sugar, and cream was added. Once boiling the heat was reduced, the pot was covered and allowed to boil gently for 40 minutes.

While the soup was boiling, the onions were peeled, rinsed and cut in boats. The onion boats were caramelised in bacon fat, seasoned with salt and pepper and then mixed with coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley.

After boiling the soup, it was partially liquefied using an immersion blender. Finally lemon juice and soy sauce was added to taste (I ended up using all the juice of one lemon and 4 tbsp soy sauce).

The soup was served in bowls with some caramelised onions on top and bread on the side.

Apart from the added taste of the lemon juice and soy sauce the soup was quite a bit thicker than last time - not all that bad, but I might aim for somewhere between these two extremes next time.

The most interesting part was how much flavour the bacon fat imparted on the caramelised onions - I had kind of expected the bacon notes to drown out in all the other flavours, but that wasn't the case at all. I'll use that trick again, for sure.

^[1] That was 4 cans of 410 g (14.4 oz) each, giving a total of 1 kg (2 lbs 3 oz) chickpeas when drained.
^[2] I would likely have used more if I had had a larger pot.

Lentil Salad

Looking for new ideas to use the last bit of lentils, I turned again to google for inspiration.. and landed (again) on food network. As a bonus, the recipe also requires red wine vinegar and bay leaves - two things I have way more of than I can reasonably use before moving. I won't claim that I've really added anything to Alton's recipe here, but it's brilliant, so it bears repeating..

Ingredients:
- 225 g (1/2 lb) brown lentils
- 2 small onions, quartered
- 1 glove garlic, whole
- 2 bay leaves
- salt
- pepper
- 4 slices thinly sliced bacon, fried and chopped
- 1/2 dL (1/4 cup) red wine vinegar
- 1/4 dL (1/8 cup) olive oil
- 1 tsp grainy mustard
- 10 g (1/3 oz) fresh thyme

The rinsed lentils were placed in a pot with water, onion, garlic, salt, and bay leaves. It was brought to a boil, covered, and let simmer for half an hour. The bay leaves were picked out (but I left in the onion and the garlic as I saw little point in removing them), and drained off excess liquid. The boiled lentils were allowed to cool off a little while preparing the rest.

The vinegar, oil, mustard, pepper, and thyme was whisked together in a large bowl.
The bacon was fried, and then chopped.

At last everything was stirred together - served immediately with a big of dark bread (although it was also delicious cold after hours in the fridge).

Coalfish

This meal came about for two main reasons - the good looking filets of coalfish on sale at the supermarket and the desire to (re)create a dish similar to one I recently had at a restaurant...

Ingredients:
- 2 filets of coalfish
- bacon
- 150 g (1/3 lb) mixed mushrooms
- sambal oelek
- 1 dL (~ 1/2 cup) cream
couscous:
- 1 dL (~ 1/2 cup) couscous
- 2 dL (~1 cup) water
- salt
- ground coriander
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
salad:
- lettuce
- sun dried tomatoes
- cucumber
- roasted pistachios

The salad was prepared first, then the couscous by pouring boiling water on couscous mixed with salt and ground coriander, then letting stand covered till the water was absorbed after which the onion and cherry tomatoes were stirred in.

In a pan, bacon in smaller pieces was fried, then added filets of coalfish. When the coalfish were done they were removed from the pan. To the pan was added the mushrooms together with the cream and as much sambal oelek as was on the tip of a butter knife. After a few minutes this was deemed a sauce.

Delicious - and quite similar to the restaurant dish I was aiming for!

Finally: with black lentils

Living now in a different part of the world, it's suddenly possible for me to purchase black lentils again .. and make this dish right:

Beans - Revisited

I guess I was aware that canned beans are already cooked - but it certainly wasn't very much on my mind back when I wrote this post. In fact, it's fair to say this fact wasn't on mind at all until I moved from California to Switzerland and was suddenly faced with a sharp decline in the available options of canned beans in the supermarket.

Not to be discouraged (well, in truth I have come to crave beans on a fairly regular basis) I started shopping for dried beans and read up on the subject of how to cook dried beans, primarily in my copy of Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. What I learned was that cooking times would be dependent on the type of bean, their state of drying, and whether or not they were pre-soaked. Pre-soaking, apropos, was considered decidedly un-Mexican. hmm...


As illustrated I armed myself with black beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans, and white beans .. and patience. Then I started cooking, varying the method a bit every time. And by now, after I don't know how many times of cooking dried beans from scratch I present my guide on it.

As in my original post on the subject, there are two fundamentally different versions: with or without bacon. With bacon starts by frying some bacon in a large pot, then adding onions - without simply cooks the onions in a little oil. Either way, when the onions are translucent, beans, water, and chillies (whatever I happen to have) are added, and the pot is brought to a boil. While boiling, keep an eye on them - you don't want them to foam too much, nor to dry out (especially some of the longer cooking times might require additional water).

As mentioned the cooking times vary quite a bit, so I've tried setting it up in a little table:


Cooking times are approximate - once the beans are fully cooked they will be pleasantly soft. At this point, I reduce the volume by cooking uncovered at medium-high heat with occasional stirring.


Et voila... lovely beans, to be eaten with all the lovely Mexican fare that makes my exile from California more tolerable. As a side note, I've found that it's nice to sometimes cook a large batch, freeze the rest, which can then be quickly warmed up later.

UPDATE: The text above does state that cooking time is dependent on state of drying - the black beans I've bought in Sweden so far need only a little over an hour of cooking after overnight soaking.

Roasted Sunchoke Salad

I first had (and tried) the idea of adding roasted sunchokes to a salad while on vacation this past summer, but I never really got back to it till recently. I'm sure this isn't exactly like the first time I made it, but the essentials are there.

Ingredients:
- bacon, thinly sliced
- onion, diced
- sunchoke, diced
- butterhead lettuce
- corn salad
- cucumber, half slices
- cherry tomatoes, halved
- pickled caper berries
mint raita
- yoghurt
- fresh mint, chopped
- garlic, mashed
- salt & pepper

The bacon was fried in a pan till nicely crisp, then added the onion and a few minutes later the sunchokes, and the heat was reduced to medium high - occasional stirring was continued while mixing the other parts of the salad. In the end the lovely taste of the roasted sunchokes was brought out while retaining most of the crunch of the fresh sunchokes. Mixed with the rest of the salad and served with a little mint raita.

Bacon wrapped green beans

Due to bad weather I was stuck in an airport most of New Year's Eve and by the time I made it home it was rather too late for preparing dinner - so we had our New Year's dinner on New Year's Day instead.

I know I have been served bacon wrapped green beans somewhere before, but I can't remember where or when. It is of course similar to bacon wrapped asparagus, although perhaps more winter-like.

Ingredients:
- 6 thin slices of bacon
- 24 green beans

After rinsing the beans, they were collected in bunches of four each, wrapped in bacon, and baked at 225 C (450 F) for about 15 minutes.

I guess they could be used as a starter, but here they went on the dish for the main course: steak, mashed potatoes de luxe, and a leek-mushroom-cream-Gorgonzola sauce..

Happy New Year! Cheers!

Danish Christmas Lunch 2008

On Christmas day we had a couple of guests over for a Danish style Christmas lunch. The concept of a such a lunch is to sit at a table for several hours, eating a selection of cold and warm dishes served in succession while talking and drinking strong and/or dark beer (such as these) and aquavit ('snaps').


For this particular lunch we served...

To drink: Erdmandli Zuger Amber and Hopfemandli Lager Dunkel from Brauerei Baar in Baar, Switzerland. Both of these are nicely dark beers that go well with the food here.

To eat: First fish
1a. pickled herring with rings of red onion, curry sauce,^[1] and hard boiled eggs (on whole-grain dark rye bread).
1b. leek herring (on whole-grain dark rye bread).
1c. smoked salmon with mayonnaise and lemon wedges (on white bread).
1d. marinated salmon ('gravad laks') with honey-mustard sauce (on white bread).

Bonus drink (particularly to go with herrings): In small glasses, shots of our own import of Danish aquavit, Myrica flavoured aquavit ('porsesnaps') from Aalborg/Danish Distillers - a personal favourite of mine (and one of the few drink issues where I seem to agree with my mother).

After the fish followed a warm dish:
2. oven-warmed liver pâté with freshly sautéed bacon and mushrooms, and optional pickled beetroots (on dark or white bread as preferred).

Followed by a selection of sliced meats:
3a. horse salami.
3b. cold pork roast (on whole-grain dark rye bread with red-cabbage sauerkraut).
3c. cold duck roast (on whole-grain dark rye bread with red-cabbage sauerkraut).

At this point we were ready to entertain with with cheeses and fruits, but our guests looked about ready to burst already, so we decided to skip directly to the sweets:
4a. flourless chocolate-brazil nut cake
4b. cookie selection: Finnish breads, Swedish chocolate breads, Palestinian cookies, and pistachio shortbreads.

And so went the entire afternoon. One doesn't really need much of a dinner after such a lunch...

^[1] To get a more strongly yellow curry sauce I added pure ground turmeric.

Real Pork Roast (Flæskesteg)

You know, the irony isn't lost on me: For over 5 years I lived in the US, where I believe myself to speak the language more or less fluently. Not once did I try to enter a butcher's shop to ask for one of the right cuts of pork to make Danish pork roast - I just got by using the pork bellies that I did find at stores. Despite this, after having been in Switzerland for less than a year, I decided to actually go and ask for a more appropriate cut of pork .. in my broken beginners French, no less.


So here it is - Danish pork roast, the way it's supposed to be. The actual recipe is like that for the pork belly, so this is mainly just for the pictures.

The cooking time is approximately 1 hour per kg (30 minutes per pound). The procedure of having the skin down in the water for the first half hour or so not only softens the skin so it is easier to score, but it also cooks out some of the fat which makes it easier to crisp the skin the right way at the end of the procedure.

I have a different oven now, one that has the broiler in the actual oven room, so for the final crisping of the skin I could use that - in less than 4 minutes the skin bubbled up very nicely and became perfect... and only a little burned. OK, so I should have kept a better eye on it, but I didn't realize trouble arose that quickly. And yes, the gravy isn't brown - I don't have gravy colouring here and didn't have the time to experiment with alternatives for this.
 

Apple Bacon

Since this is a dish in clear violation of Mrs. Throat-Erator's don't-mix-fruit-with-food rule I only make it when she's not around.

Ingredients:
- smoked bacon, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, chopped coarsely
- 2 apples, cored and cut in boats
- water
- salt, pepper
- brown sugar

The bacon was fried in a large pan, then added the onion and a few minutes later added apples, a little water, salt, pepper and brown sugar - the pan was covered and the mix was allowed to simmer for about half an hour with occasional stirring. The simmering has to continue until the apples are turning mushy (and thus the time required is somewhat dependent on what kind of apples you use). Towards the end, the simmering was uncovered to reduce the amount of liquid a little.

Served still warm, either on whole grain rye or white bread - some people also like it on top of liver pâté...

Mashed Potatoes de Luxe

When I recently made 'burning love' I was reminded that I hadn't made the luxury version of mashed potatoes for a while (a recipe I picked up from a previous house mate) .. clearly a mistake. But easily fixed. It goes particularly nicely with a steak and some salad.

Ingredients
- 450 g (1 lb) potatoes, peeled, cut in chunks
- 50 g (~ 2 oz) bacon, diced
- 4 scallions, green parts, sliced
- 100 g (3.5 oz) sour cream
- 0.5 dl (~ 2 oz) milk

The potato chunks were boiled in unsalted water.

While the potatoes were boiling, the bacon was fried in a pan.

When tender, the water was drained from the potatoes, which were mashed with ladle. Sour cream, milk, bacon, and scallion was stirred in. Seasoned to tasted with salt and pepper.

Served on this occasion with ostrich steaks (fried together with the rest of the scallions), and a salad made from corn salad, cucumber and sun dried tomatoes - I've had ostrich a number of times by now, but I'm still a little amazed (although nothing that compares to the first time I tasted it) how much like beef this bird tastes. The corn salad ('rampon' around here) was a first for me. We'd been noticing it at the stores for a while and on a day it looked particularly fresh and delicious we decided to try it... it won't be the last time.