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.

Ungerslaw

For a couple of years I lived together with some friends in a house in California. On of them made - from time to time (and as I recall it often as a side to a nice grilled roast, tri-tip or something like that) - a coleslaw that was IMHO the best I've ever had. When I asked him about the recipe he said the 'secret' was the fresh, home-made mayonnaise - and then told me how to make it. As a tribute to him I name it "Ungerslaw".

Ingredients:
- 1 head of cabbage, finely sliced
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 red long sweet pepper, diced
- 1 can of corn
- bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
Mayonnaise:
- 1 egg yolk ^[1]
- zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
- 2 tsp mustard
- 3 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt
- pepper
- smoked paprika
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) rapeseed oil ^[2]
- 2 tsp lemon juice

The mayonnaise was prepared first: The egg yolk was beaten for 15 seconds before adding lemon zest, mustard, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. After beating for an additional 30 seconds, the oil was poured in slowly with constant beating - the mixture emulsified as planned. Finally the taste was adjusted with lemon juice, salt and pepper. As the picture shows the resulting mayonnaise was rather yellow - no doubt my choice of vinegar and the amount of paprika used played a part in this. The mayonnaise was covered and stored in the fridge while cutting the vegetables for the 'slaw. The 'slaw was mixed in a large bowl and served immediately.

For this occasion, I served it with a beef roast that was covered (I didn't prepare, so there wasn't time to marinate) with a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, chopped chipotle chillies^[3], and salt; roasted at 175 C (350 F) for 1 hour and sliced thinly. The chillies made the roast nicely spicy - but only on the outside.

^[1] Since all chickens in Sweden are supposedly free of salmonella I just used an egg yolk from a fresh egg - had I been elsewhere, I might have gone shopping for pasteurised egg yolks or tried to sterilise the egg shell before breaking it.
^[2] Rapeseed oil is a comparatively taste-neutral oil (I see from the label on the jar of store-bought mayonnaise in my fridge that it also based on rapeseed oil). In particular you should be careful basing it on extra virgin olive oil, as it can give an off taste.
^[3] Chipotle chillies are smoked, dried jalapeños. In one of the shops near my new home there's a really good selection of dried chillies - a subject which I am sure I shall return to on this page.

Easter 'Hen'

It's funny how sometimes nostalgia creeps up on you and you end up doing things that your parents used to do. Take Easter as an example: admittedly, I don't have a whole lot by way of Easter traditions, but recently I found myself wanting to bake this hen-shaped bread that I remembered my mother making for Easter. As I recalled it, it was mostly the shape that set it apart and I suspected that my mother had simply used her standard bun recipe for the dough. Upon asking I was informed that there was a special recipe, which I would receive via e-mail later.

After receiving said recipe and reading it, I concluded that it was in fact pretty close to the aforementioned bun recipe if only half portion, less sugar, more salt.
Ingredients:
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) margarine
- 3.2 dL (1 ¹/₃ cups) milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) fresh yeast
- 1 + 2 + 1 eggs
- 700 g (ca. 25 oz) flour
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 walnut piece
- white and black sesame seeds
The margarine and milk was heated on medium until the margarine had melted, then the mixture was transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool to about body temperature before adding the sugar and the fresh yeast. One egg was added and the first 500 g (ca. 1 lb) of flour was stirred into the dough. Then the salt was added and the rest of the flour was kneaded into the dough in portions. After kneading thoroughly the dough was left to rise for 40 minutes.


A baking sheet was lined with baking paper, and a hen was shaped - (NB: this was my first attempt and I'm sure there are other ways to do it) - a piece of dough was made into a flat, roundish piece to serve as the body of the hen, while two smaller pieces were cut to make them roughly resemble a tail and a head. For the nest, two rolled pieces of dough were braided. Still having more dough a piece was cut to roughly resemble a wing and with the odd bits of remaining dough some small 'stones' were added beneath the nest.

Two whole, raw eggs were washed and then placed so it looks like the hen is sitting on them in the nest. Finally the entire hen was brushed with a beaten egg, decorated with sesame seeds and a walnut piece (as the eye), and baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

Served while still warm. The baked eggs in the nest are very much like hard-boiled eggs and my mother would usually add one for each person taking part in the Easter brunch. As I made it just for two people, I only used two. If one wishes, one could easily get more creative with the decorations.

Huevadillas

One Sunday morning I found myself with a few taco-sized flour tortillas that needed using and a couple of eggs. Thinking back to how I like melted cheese sandwiched between tortillas, I decided to have eggs in a similar fashion.

Ingredients:
- oil
- small flour tortillas
- eggs
A little oil was heated in a pan, and a flour tortilla was placed in the pan - on top of the tortilla, an egg was placed, the yolk was punctured and a second tortilla was placed on top. Cooking on medium-high heat the egg quickly solidified sufficiently to flip the thing over without getting bits of egg all over the place.


I call them 'huevadillas' - and ate the first batch with some ketchup, but I think I will revisit them later with some more elaborate fixings.

Garden cress

The new residence has east-bound windows and thus the herbs in the kitchen window sill can take full advantage of the 4 am sunrise we enjoy this time of year. Amongst other things we have been growing garden cress: A small tray was lined with cotton pads on top of which were placed seeds of garden cress. The cotton was watered daily and over the course of two weeks the seeds sprouted and grew to some 1-2 inches.


We generally use the cress for sandwiches, and a particularly classic combination is with boiled eggs on rye bread (and butter or a favourite substitute).

Chunky Potato Salad

As I have been alluding to in several posts over the past couple of months another move was impending. As you might have guessed the recent lack of posts coincided (more or less) with the actual time of the move: Now I'm in Sweden and things are very similar to what I grew up with in Denmark and yet oddly - sometimes surprisingly - different. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that.

When I lived in Denmark I never really gave much thought to the differences between yoghurt and what is known as tykmælk ('thick milk'), which I used to consume on a regular basis. Then I moved to the US and realised I had only the option of yoghurt - and still didn't give much thought to it. I have to say that there were times when I missed a milk product similar to tykmælk - the taste and the texture being different from yoghurt - but I got by with yoghurt.

Now that I'm in Sweden, I'm realising that tykmælk is common Scandinavian tradition. The taste and texture is due to the different bacterial cultures used for fermenting the milk. Here in Sweden it's called filmjölk or simply fil. To my delight I can also get A-fil, which appears highly similar to the Danish product A38 (an old favourite of mine) in that it's fermented with lactobacillus acidophilus - in the following recipe I used A-fil, which as these things goes might be difficult to get if you're not in the Scandinavian countries, but for substituting I would choose a plain yoghurt, preferably a less viscous variety.

Ingredients:
- 8 potatoes, large chunks, boiled
- 2 eggs, hard-boiled, quartered
- 1/2 cucumber, cut in large chunks
- 3 tomatoes, cut in boats
- a hand-full of caper berries
dressing:
- 3 dL (a little more than 1 cup) A-fil^[1]
- 1 tbsp mustard
- salt
- pepper
- fresh basil, chopped
- one onion, finely chopped

The potatoes were rinsed and cut into largish chunks and boiled till tender - the water was discarded and the potato chunks were allowed to cool.
The eggs were boiled hard, cooled, then peeled and quartered.
The cucumber and tomatoes were cut in similarly large chunks.

For the dressing, mustard was stirred into the A-fil, then added salt, pepper, freshly chopped basil and finely diced onion.

Everything was mixed in a large bowl.

Served with fried lamb sausage, mustard, and ketchup.

UPDATE: It's actually better after having stood overnight in the fridge..

^[1] Lactobacillus acidophilus-fermented milk.

Garlic and goat cheese tart

We tried this Lagasse recipe a while back, and agreed that the fundamental concept was nice, but - in our humble opinion - way too rich and lacking greens in the filling. Recently, we finally came back to it and tried out this modification, which we think gives a more balanced (and therefore better) result..

Ingredients:
pie filling:
- 1 head of garlic, roasted (see below)
- 2 leeks, sliced
- fresh rosemary
- fresh oregano
- fresh thyme
- 160 g (5.5 oz) chèvre (goat cheese)
- 250 g (9 oz) ricotta
- 3 egg yolks ^[1]
- 1 dL (~1/2 cup) milk
- 5 tbsp flour
- salt and pepper
pie crust:
- 180 g (0.4 lb) flour
- 125 g (4.4 oz) margarine
- 1 tsp salt
- a little water
salad:
- lettuce
- cucumber
dressing:
- 1/4 dL (~ 1 oz) red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp onion, chopped
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tsp mustard
- 4 black olives, chopped
- 1/4 dL (~ 1 oz) olive oil
- 1/2 dL (~ 2 oz) sunflower oil


The outer papery layers were peeled of the head of garlic, and the tips were cut of each clove. The head was placed in a small oven-proof bowl together with olive oil, covered with foil, and baked at 225 C (450 F) for 50 minutes.

While the garlic was roasting, the pie crust was prepared: The margarine was worked into the flour and salt using the fingers. Water was added by the tsp until the dough came suitably together - a little extra flour can be added if to much water is added. The dough was rolled into a ball, wrapped in film and placed in the fridge for 45 minutes.

While the dough was resting, the salad and the dressing was prepared: the lettuce and cucumber were simply rinsed and cut. For the dressing, the red wine vinegar, the onion, the salt, and the pepper were mixed. After standing for 5 minutes, the mustard and the olives was added and the mixture was liquefied using a stick-blender - while continuing blending the oil was poured in slowly to give a smooth emulsion. The dressing was stored in the fridge while preparing the rest.


While waiting further, the leeks and the herbs for the pie filling were prepared.

When the garlic was roasted, the oven was reduced to 175 C (350 F). The pie dough was rolled on a floured surfaced and transferred to a 22 cm (9 inch) tart shell with a removable bottom - admittedly this part was a little tedious (the dough being difficult to transfer). The pie crust was baked for 15-20 minutes before filling it. The oven was then set for 200 C (400 F).

The pie filling was prepared by removing the cloves of roasted garlic from the remaining peel and beating them in a bowl together with the cheeses and the herbs. Then the egg yolks were beaten into the mixture one at the time, before adding milk, flour, salt, and pepper. The leeks were stirred in lastly, and the filling was transferred to the pre-baked crust and baked at 200 C (400 F) for 40 minutes.


It is advisable to let the finished tart cool a little before trying to cut it - if you can make yourself wait...

^[1] Needing three egg yolks tends to leave behind three egg whites, which can conveniently be made into fluffy sweetness..

Spanish Omelette

At some point during my childhood my brother introduced this dish into our family, and was probably the one who kept making it over and over until it became a classic for us. For some, to me anyway, unfathomable reason our parents actually had such a silly unitasker as a french fry cutter - unfathomable not least because I can't remember them ever making french fries. I admit that for cutting potatoes into little square-cross section beams of equal thickness there is no faster way than to use the french fry cutter ... but doing it with a good knife doesn't take that much longer as long as we're talking about reasonable amounts. Of course, making this dish later in the dormitory - using a knife - was what got me forever the reputation of being that-guy-who-makes-his-own-fries..


Ingredients:
- oil
- 8 medium potatoes, peeled, cut like french fries
- 2 medium onions, chopped coarsely
- 4 eggs
- 1 dL (1/2 cup) milk
- salt, pepper, and paprika

The onion were sautéed in a little oil in a large (preferably non-stick) pan till translucent, then the potatoes were added and sautéed with occasionally stirring^[1] until they looked nicely browned.
The eggs were beaten together with milk, salt, pepper and paprika in a bowl, then poured over the potatoes. The heat was reduced and the omelette was allowed to stand until the eggs had solidified - which of course goes much faster if the pan is covered.

Was served with a salad and some ketchup - although not the case this time we sometimes also have it with some fried bacon on the side..

^[1] Without a non-stick pan this should be almost constant stirring.

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.

Herring with Copenhagen titbits

This way of serving herring was introduced to me by a family I'm no longer in touch with - which isn't really a story I want to go into here, other than to say that I never found out why they called this Copenhagen titbits ('københavnerkræs') and if I tried calling them up now to ask it could be ... well, awkward.

Ingredients:
- hard-boiled eggs
- pickled beetroot
- pickled herring

The eggs were diced (as finely as one cares to), and placed in a small bowl. The pickled beets were diced (again, as finely as one cares to do it) and placed in a separate bowl.

Pieces of pickled herring were arranged on buttered bread (preferably dark whole grain rye) and even amounts of diced egg and diced beet was sprinkled on top. Voila! as the locals would say.

Kippers and scramled eggs

Already December again. Not sure how this happened.

Anyway.

As the Yuletide approaches we will be finding occasion to enjoy lots of traditional foods.

Mrs. Throat-Erator recently reminded me of the classic combination of kippers with scrambled eggs and chives on whole grain dark rye bread.

Birthday Omelette

When it was recently Mrs. Throat-Erator's birthday I made an omelette with fresh golden chanterelles I had picked up at the farmers' market.

Ingredients:
- bacon, diced
- spring onions (lower part only), sliced
- golden chanterelles
- eggs
- white cheddar, grated
- salt & pepper

In a large pan, the bacon was fried, then added onions and golden chanterelles. After a few minutes, a mixture of beaten eggs, grated cheese, salt & pepper was added. The heat was reduced and the pan was left to let the eggs set.

Chorizo Omelette

After 5 weeks of not being able to cook Sunday morning eggs, it was truly wonderful to have the option again. Loosely inspired by reading from the period in question I wanted to this type of omelette. It turned out to be quite the hearty breakfast.

Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- milk
- 1 mild chorizo
- 2 raw pepperoncini ("poivrons cecei")*

served with home fries:
- 5 potatoes
- 1 onion

The potatoes were cut in small dices (say 6 mm (1/4 inch) to the side) and fried in a large pan with a coarsely chopped onion.

The chorizo was peeled, and halved along the axis and sliced - then fried in a second pan together with the coarsely chopped peppers. After a few minutes a mixture of eggs and milk (beaten together with a fork) was poured over the chorizo and peppers, the heat was reduced and the while thing left till the eggs had solidified.

* I think these are unpickled pepperoncinis - the colour and shape certainly looks right. The French name is what they're called in the store I where I buy them.

Meringue

I never really thought about making my own meringue - I just settled for the stuff you can buy in stores (well, it's not something I've been eating a lot either). But when my muse mentioned this would be an obvious way to use the three left over egg whites we had I learned that the result was quite interesting.

Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 150 g (1/3 lb) sugar

The egg whites were whipped stiff (i.e. not going anywhere when turning the bowl upside down), then the sugar was added and the mixture was whipped for an additional 3 minutes. The mixture was placed as small circles on a baking sheet and put in the oven at 150 C (300 F). The recipe we read recommended baking them till dry and golden, approximately 20 minutes, but we thought they started looking golden somewhat faster (maybe just 10-12 minutes) and pulled them from the oven for fear of burning them. The result was very interesting - they were probably not baked as thoroughly as is normally intended, but I actually liked them better this way: crisp on the edge, but somewhat gooey-soft too.

Biksemad with sunchoke salad (Sunchokes ][)

Biksemad is Danish and translates roughly as "fiddled food" - I guess in America the term 'home fries' would cover the concept most accurately - and it's a typical left-overs dish. In my family we would traditionally get it when there were too many left over potatoes that needed to be used [1]. Other ingredients include any of the following: onions, carrots, green beans, bacon, meat balls, roast and so on.

In my cooking I rely somewhat less on boiled potatoes, and also often don't boil so many that I find myself with that excuse for making biksemad. Fortunately I've found that if you're willing to give it some extra cooking time the potatoes don't actually need to have been boiled and cooled first: fresh potatoes can be diced and fried just as well (particularly with a non-stick pan).

Biksemad tends to be a rather heavy dish, so adding a some salad on the side makes for a nice combination - and since recently I promised to use sunchokes, it will be a sunchoke salad.

Ingredients:
(biksemad)
- 4 medium-large potatoes
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 small onion
- 300 g (2/3 lb) frozen corn
- 2 eggs
(sunchoke salad)
- 6 leaves lettuce
- 6 sunchokes

Cut the bacon in small pieces and fry till crisp in a large non-stick pan, then add medium-finely chopped onion and stir till the onion is translucent. Then add diced (cubes 6 mm (1/4") to the side) potatoes and cook till the potatoes are cooked through. This takes a while and requires stirring relatively oftenly [2]. Then add the frozen corn and cook for a few minutes more. Make eggs however you like them. Serve with ketchup.[3]

The salad is really simple - coarsely cut the lettuce, add thinly sliced sunchokes and serve with a vinaigrette.

[1] Since boiled potatoes were the staple food of my upbringing this would not happen all too seldomly.
[2] If not using a non-stick pan this should be almost constant stirring.
[3] Of course this dish goes extremely well with beer.

Breakfast Bagel-Burger

Last sunday morning I wanted to create an eggy breakfast that could possibly be eaten without the use of knife nor fork.

Ingredients
- 2 bagels
- 2 eggs
- a dash of milk
- a handfull of mushrooms
- a few slices cheese (e.g. Dubliner)
- salt, pepper and tarragon

Rinse and slice the mushrooms, then heat them up in a pan with a little oil, salt and pepper.
Beat the eggs together with the milk, and add salt, pepper and tarragon - pour in a hot pan (diameter approximately twice that of the bagel) and let it solidify. Toast the bagels, and assemble: bagel bottom, egg, mushrooms, cheese, fold the rest of the egg over and top it off with the bagel top. Voila.

Goulash of February 9th 2002

I've only made this once before and as you can see it was well over 5 years ago, but for some reason I had taken a few notes that allowed me to recreate the experience. I guess the reason I took notes is that I really liked it - at least that's what I found this time around, shaming my lack of faith in my own notes.

Ingredients:
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion
- jalapeño
- 0.5 L (2 cups) coconut threads
- 100-120 g (4 oz) egg noodles
- turmeric, ground ginger, dill weed
- 1 broccoli head
- 2 eggs
Cut the bacon in smaller pieces and fry till crisp, then add crushed garlic and coarsely chopped onion and stir for a few minutes. Add the jalapeño and the coconut threads and season with turmeric, ground ginger and dill weed - turn to low heat.
In separate pots boil the broccoli and the egg noodles. When the egg noodles are done, drain and mix well with the coconut mixture, then add the eggs and stir to cover the rest with the eggs as they solidify. Serve with broccoli on top.

Dry poaching?

This morning as I was cracking 2 eggs into the pan I realized I wanted to leave them there for a few minutes and decided to cover the pan. When I returned a few moments later I discovered that my eggs were looking rather curious (see photo), more specifically the yolk had been covered by thin film of egg white, leaving me with eggs somewhat curiously between fried and poached...

Nopales con Huevo

When I first arrived in California some 5 years ago and started examining the goods on offer at the local supermarkets I was quite intrigued to find jars of nopales - i.e. cactus. I quickly bought some and set about trying to incorporate them in my cooking.. unfortunately this all long time before I started this blog and I guess I didn't take notes (well, I didn't find any such around my belongings, anyway).
Having recently purchased Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico (in order to assist my growing interest in the mexican cuisine) and semi-recently discovered the fresh nopales in a local supermarket I've decided - after years of absence - to revisit the cactus with a more authentic touch.
This then happened within the frame of our Sunday tradition of having eggs for breakfast in the shape of Nopales con huevo..

Ingredients:
- oil
- 1 lb (450 g) raw nopales, cleaned and diced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 1 serrano chili, finely diced
- salt
- 4 eggs
- 6 tortillas

Heat the oil in a skillet, add everything except the eggs and cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes - should be kind of dry at this point.[1] Break the eggs into the mixture and stir till set. Serve on heated tortillas.

While I was quite happy with the result my muse was of the opinion that there was a little too much cactus relative to the other ingredients.

[1] The dryness is kind of important - otherwise the eggs don't set so nicely. Actually here I don't really understand Diana Kennedy's recipe: It says to cover while cooking on medium heat till the mix is dry. Covering tends to keep in the juices a little too well. I ended up covering for the first 15 minutes, then removing the cover and turning up the heat for the last 10 minutes to get them proper dry.