rødgrød med fløde

if you've ever tried learning danish, which i'm assuming is a very small number of you living outside of tiny denmark, you've probably been laughed at or teased in some way. one of the phrases that danes love using to make fun of your poor language skills is "rødgrød med fløde." it literally means "red porridge with cream." though it sounds like a throat disease, this dish is actually very refreshing and simple to make. this summer has really been asking for it with muggy rains and those few blazing hot days with sun. it's great to be able to pull something light and refreshing out of the fridge and it's even relatively healthy! well, if you don't use that much cream... or sugar... ^^;



a friend of mine had gone berry-picking with two of his friends that were visiting from canada and they had a lot leftover. i let one of them borrow my extra bike for the trip up to the farm and in exchange i got a tin full of delicious little strawberries. after my husband and i ate all we could, there was still half the tin left and it was going bad from being knocked about on the bike trip. luckily the next day i received some freshly-picked redcurrants from another friend of mine, as mentioned in my previous post. in exchange for that, i gave him half a loaf of my homemade rugbrød. he and his girlfriend really liked it and we're planning to do another trade later. trading rules. i hope my friends and i can organize the big foodswap i'm been picturing in my head someday. fresh fruit, herbs, kimchi, pickles, fresh-baked breads, pies- woo, i can see it now! anyway, my husband suggested i make his mother's (extremely detailed) recipe for rødgrød med fløde to deal with the berry surplus.

min svigermor's rødgrød med fløde

1kg bær (jordbær, ribs, solbær og hindbær) + eventuelt ekstra 200g hindbær
2 dl vand
300g sukker
1-2 spsk kartoffelmel
fløde og evt. mælk

bærrene skylles, ordnes (hvis der også bruges ribs, skal stilken ikke med (brug f.eks. en gaffel til at få ribsene skilt fra stilken) (jeg ville nok foretrække jordbær og hindbær. hvis der bruges solbær, skal man klippe stilk og den brune blomst af hver eneste solbær).

bærrene kommes i en gryde med vand og sukker. lad bærrene trække (altså stå i gryden med vand og sukker ) i et par timer. gryden sættes derefter over svag varme. kog bærrene op og fjern eventuel skum med en spiseske. lad bærrene koge 4-5 minutter.

tag gryden af varmen og rør eventuelt de ekstra hindbær i grøden. hindbærrene skal forblive så hele som muligt. (hvis du har hindbær i gryden i forvejen, så behøver du ikke putte de ekstra 200 gr hindbær i., da hindbær er ret dyre)

grøden kan jævnes let med et par skefulde kartoffelmel rørt op i koldt vand (bliver sådan en mælkehvid jævning). hvis du jævner med kartoffelmel, skal det ske, når grøden er lige under kogepunktet. (altså tages gryden med bærrene af komfuret, når de har kogt 4-5 minutter, hvorefter jævningen lige røres rundt i en kop umiddelbart før brug (ellers falder kartoffelmelet til bunden i koppen) og derefter hældes jævningen på grøden i en tynd stråle samtidig med, at der røres kraftigt i grøden (ellers klumper grøden). samtidig holder man lige øje med, om grøden har den konsistens, man ønsker. for meget kartoffelmelsjævning gør grøden tyk, og for lidt jævning, så bliver den måske for tynd.

grøden drysses med et tyndt lag sukker for ikke at trække skind, når den køles.

server rødgrøden med kold fløde + evt. lidt sukker, hvis man vil ha’ den sødere + evt. lidt mælk i stedet for ene fløde.

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my mother-in-law's red berry porridge with cream

1kg berries (strawberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant and raspberry) + optionally 200g raspberries extra
2 dl water
300g sugar
1-2 tbsp potato flour
cream and optionally milk

rinse and stem the berries. if also using currants, they can be separated by running a fork through the stems. (mom: i would probably prefer strawberries and raspberries) if using blackcurrants, cut the stem and the brown flower off each berry.

put the berries in a pot with the water and sugar. let them soak there for a few hours. then put the pot over low heat. boil the berries and remove any foam with a spoon. let it boil for 4-5 minutes.

take the pot off the heat and stir in any extra raspberries. they should stay as whole as possible. (mom: if you already had raspberries in the pot, don't add the extra 200g when they are quite expensive.)

note from me: i cooked the redcurrants separately and then strained them before adding to the other berries because the seeds are a bit too big for my liking. but if you don't care or you're lazy, feel free to cook them all together. :P

the porridge can be thickened slightly with a couple tablespoons of potato flour mixed with cold water (will become a milky-white slurry). you should add the slurry when the porridge is just below boiling (for instance, take the pot off the stove after cooking the berry mixture for 4-5 minutes, then pour the slurry in a thin stream while stirring vigorously (or else it'll clump up). at the same time, keep an eye on the porridge to get the consistency you want. too much potato flour will make it too thick and not enough will make it too thin.

sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the porridge so it doesn't form a skin as it cools.

serve the porridge with cold cream and optionally a little more sugar if you like it sweeter and maybe a little milk instead of some of the cream.

catch-up with korean cooking

despite the lack of posts on the subject, i am still cooking korean food. or at least some things that could be considered that. this kimchi fried rice turned out really well, despite some strange ingredients. red bell pepper, kidney beans, and pineapple. PINEAPPLE. well, haven't you ever had pineapple fried rice before? i'm not a big fan of this fruit on pizza, but i can't deny how well it goes together with kimchi to make a sweet-spicy-salty-sour combination. try it at home, kids.


i'm proud to say that a few weeks ago i finally made galbi! for me it was something of a little feat, as i am far from well-versed in cooking meat. and without a grill, flesh almost always turns to something inedible in my hands. i remember once my mother asked for help with a thanksgiving turkey. having never dealt with meat before (and being 9 years old) i wasn't sure how to go about prepping the frozen bird. i tried soaking it in hot water to speed up the defrost before she got home. but upon hearing her shouts and cries, i figured it probably wasn't the right thing to do. yet the people i fed this galbi to kept eating more and more.

galbi: korean-style marinated meat
my mom's recipe!

800-1000g pork or beef (just about any cut will do)
100 ml soy sauce
4 tbsp brown sugar or honey
6 cloves of garlic
1 medium-sized onion
4 tbsp sake, beer, wine, or 7-up
pinch of black pepper
about a thumb's worth of fresh ginger
one small pear (asian pear preferred, but any will work)
2 tsbp sesame oil

slice the meat thinly. if you're having a hard time doing this, try freezing the meat for an hour or two before slicing. throw everything else into a food processor or blender. if the cut of meat you're using is not one of the tender bits, add half a kiwi to the sauce. pour the marinade over the meat and keep it in the fridge. after 24 hours, i highly recommend that you grill it but pan-frying works too. suggestions: eat with rice wrapped in lettuce, chopped up in bibimbap, or in a burrito! rice completes it. be thankful for your mother and enjoy.

this soybean soup was made with a hand-blender a few months ago, before i was united with my beautiful blender. it seems like winter has skipped over fall here in denmark and i'm so happy i have the blender to help me make all the soups i'm craving nowadays. but i prefer to eat soybean soup slightly chilled, so i'll just wait until spring rolls around before i make this again. right now i feel like having some dwenjang chigae. (:

new toys pt. 2

along with the two stone pots, my parents also brought me something else that evokes memories of california. shaved ice with sweet red bean, fresh fruit, and sometimes even ice cream hiding in the middle! a popular treat in korea, hawaii, china, and probably every other country heavily populated with asians. unfortunately by the time i received it summer was already on the downhill. we've had lots of warm, rainy days that made me feel more like a soup and a shower than anything else. however, weather has never stopped me from frozen treats in the past...


it's made by setting an ice form (in this case, short cylinder) inside and hand-cranking it over a thick razor. it's not much effort and makes a nice, lowfat sweet treat for all you ladies on a diet out there. unless of course you drown it in those funny flavourings. my parents brought me watermelon, guava, and the ever-puzzling 'blue vanilla,' all of which contain a strange list of ingredients after water and sugar. i'm more into the simple topping of red bean, fruit, and maybe a bit of condensed milk.


but if you don't like what hawaiian sweet offers, it's too easy to make your own shaved ice syrups. the other night i had a really refreshing granita during a dinner with several courses. sadly it was the most memorable part of the meal and yet served in the smallest portion. the ginger and star anise cleaned my palate and the apple was even more refreshing. i think my version comes pretty close.

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apple and ginger syrup
about 500ml

500ml water
250g sugar
2 apples
8cm knob of ginger
3 star anise

cut the apples and ginger into small pieces (i used a mandoline to create more surface area). throw everything into a pot and bring to a boil. add more sugar if you have a ferocious sweet tooth, but remember that it's a syrup! simmer for 5 minutes and take it off the heat. wait until cooled before straining the syrup, squeezing out every last drop.

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serve over granita/shaved ice or just add sparkling water for a soda a little more on the natural side.

chili smoothie

yes, i have been eating. but whatever i've made this week is either not really interesting or i didn't have enough time to take a photo. i invited some friends from my danish class over for dinner on friday and i made korean dumpling soup and the vegetable pancake. however it was a big rush to finish everything so... yeah. and then we had cheese with my home-baked bread. and then i had cheese and my bread again on saturday night. i live a charmed life (sometimes), what can i say.



but one morning last weekend i wasn't feeling all that great so i thought back on this great smoothie i had at this cafe called det vide hus. the carrot cake wasn't all that great there, but that's a story for another post. the smoothie was made of blueberries and some other berries but also... chili?! it was cool and refreshing but then the aftertaste was a sweet, mild burn. of course, me being a spice freak, i loved it. the one i made at home wasn't quite the same but still pretty good. more experiments will follow, and i do want my chili plant to feel loved.

less cooking, more cooling

i was elated to see two decent mangoes for 10kr at mix marked. however, i was disappointed when i cut them open and saw they were veiny and not very flavourful. arg. i used up the last of the bok choy to make a bed for the sad mango slices and drizzled it with the sweet soy sauce from the kong jang that's sitting in the fridge, too blasted with flavour for me to snack on without rice. the sweet sauce made the lame frugt og gront pretty bearable.



the dane has been experimenting with a delicious hummus recipe that only improves with each fresh batch. he normally doesn't like to prepare anything beyond toasting bread and scrambling eggs, so of course it's a delight whenever he volunteers to cook. last night, he made a seemingly unsummery dinner; a deep chili con carne in a hot kitchen. but it made me sweat a little bit, effectively cooling me off. plus it was topped with creme fraiche. i'm late in discovering this taste but instantly enamoured. i'm not skilled enough with a camera to make chili look nice so here's the wine i got for the meal. i thought a rioja would go well with the spice but maybe this one just didn't fit. it was not anywhere as heavy as i thought it would be. perhaps it would have been nice on its own but at 52kr it wasn't so bad to try. nice wines and cheeses are the only thing i can get cheaper in copenhagen than orange county year-round.

it's a time for white wine and sangria anyway. better yet, beers at roskilde. (:

can you kanten?

i don't think there's anything particularly wrong with our fridge except that it's dirty and the door squeaks. all that needs to be done is a quick greasing of the door hinges or maybe replacing the door, but we're getting an entirely new refrigerator delivered today. so everything needed to be taken out! luckily i already experimented with that odd agar agar powder yesterday and i don't think it melts at room temperature.



the weather was quite warm yesterday and this recipe for chilled orange jelly really hit the spot. strangely i didn't have any oranges so i used some grapefruit slices instead. better colour! also known as kanten, this agar agar powder startled me in two ways; first of all it hardens so fast and so much! by the time i had poured the boiling mixture into a mold and rinsed the pot, i looked back at the jelly and it was already starting to set. the second thing that surprised me was how filling this sweet treat was. the square you see was all i ate and i couldn't bring myself to eat dinner later on. crazy stuff. i look forward to experimenting with it more this summer. (:

kammerjunkere

this is how we deal with an 'excess' of strawberries in denmark. we put them in koldskål, which normally only needs kammerjunkere and buttermilk with lemon, vanilla, and perhaps some eggs to thicken the soup. the addition of berries makes this nice summer dish even more refreshing. now, kammerjunkere are cheap cookies... but it's such a simple recipe, why even waste that much money on it?

kammerjunkere
ca. 75 stk

ingredienser:
250 g hvedemel
2 tsk bagepulver
1 tsk vanilje eller revet skal fra en økologisk citron
35 g sukker
75 g smør eller margarine
1 æg
1/2 dl mælk - vælg variant alt efter, hvor meget fedt, du ønsker i kammerjunkerne

Sådan gør du:
Mel og bagepulver blandes. Tilsæt sukker og vanille/citronskal. Smør eller margarine smuldres i, mens det er koldt. Æg og mælk tilsættes. Ælt dejen til den er ensartet og rul den ud på bordet i en pølse og skær den i 75 små stykker, som du ruller til små kugler.

Læg kuglerne på en smurt plade og sæt den ind i en forvarmet ovn. Bag dem i ca. 6 minutter på 200 grader. Efterfølgende skal de afkøles, halveres. Herefter skal de igen i ovnen og tørres i ca. 20 minutter i eftervarmen. Inden de færdige kammerjunkere pakkes i pose eller kagedåse, skal de være helt afkølede.

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kammerjunkere
yields approximately 75 pieces

250g all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla or zest from an organic lemon
35g sugar
75g butter or margarine
1 egg
½ dl milk - choose variation depending on how much fat you want in your cookies

mix flour and baking powder. add sugar and vanilla/lemon zest. cut the butter or margarine in, while it is cold. add egg and milk. knead the dough until it's uniform and then roll it into a sausage on the table and cut it into 75 small pieces, which you roll into small balls.

put the doughballs on a greased plate and then place in a heated oven. bake them for about 6 minutes at 200°C. after they cool, half them. afterward return them to the oven and dry for about 20 minutes in the after heat(?). before the finished kammerjunkere are packed in a bag or caketin, they must cool completely.

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didn't quite understand "after heat." i turned off the still-hot oven after i returned the cookies, but even after 30 minutes they were still a bit soft inside. so i turned it back up to 150°C and set the hot air. this seems like a better deal. the other problem i found with this recipe is that it states you must cut 75 pieces but then half them, yet the recipe is supposed to make 75 cookies! either the article's author is bad at math or i didn't translate the danish correctly... and the latter is much more likely. in any case they turned out well, though not as sweet as store-bought. the ingredients are inexpensive enough for me to experiment. (:

i know these cookies don't look as clean-cut as the ones you see in supermarkets... but come on. they're gonna get crumbled up in your koldskål anyway.

sugarbombs

after months of reading other food blogs claiming "oh what will i do with all these xberries? there's jam, pie, tart, bread, clafoutis, etc..." grrr. there is absolutely no question of what i would do if i had an abundance of any berry. i would just eat them until i got sick of them. obviously denmark does not have easy year-round access to all the exotic fruits and vegetables available in places such as, say, california.


danish strawberries have to endure a long winter and when they finally come around, it's totally worth the wait. when i first saw the small berries that the dane brought home, i was slightly disappointed. he paid 35kr for a small basket and the size didn't seem worth it. no white shoulders, deep red through and through. with the first one i popped into my mouth, there was a flavour rush as if this small strawberry had been injected with sugary syrup. these are certainly not the giant fruits with white innards that i've grown up eating in orange county. the prices are dropping and i'm spitting out more seeds when i brush my teeth at night. (:

can't wait until raspberry season...

birthday sweets

at least the pie was perfect! and it was my first try baking one from scratch, crust and all. i used this recipe with a lot less sugar and no zest. it was so delicious and i got to have a slice for breakfast the next day! mmm...

the cake, however.

i wanted to make a round cake but couldn't locate the bottom of the second springform round. so i tried to make the best of a rectangular pan. upon removal, the cake decided that 57% of it wanted to stay put and it broke. ughhh. in a panic i tried to cut and stack without any sort of planning and ended up with a lopsided, 3-layer cube which i tried to mask in chocolate ganache.

welp. it looked pretty ridiculous. my first attempt at a frosted cake from scratch was foiled. but the dane saved the day and showed up with raspberries, danish flags, and candles. the packaged contained 24 candles, coincidentally my current age!

obviously it looked even more comical than before but my guests and i got a good laugh out of it and i didn't hear anyone complaining about the taste. i will definitely be using the recipe again. it was some rich chocolate-on-chocolate action, with solbær marmelade between the layers. unfortunately there was none leftover so i couldn't add more calories to my pie breakfast the next day. (;

banana CAKE

i finally got a cake stand on monday! 25kr at one of those kirkens genbrug shops. so of course i had to make a cake to put on it and i couldn't wait til my birthday. but i feel a bit awkward baking sweets for no reason, though it's never a problem to get rid of leftovers with the 7 of us living in the flat. (:


the dane didn't have such a great day yesterday and wasn't feeling so hot in the morning. so i did what any obedient asian girlfriend would do and i snuck off to bake. the funny thing is that he caught me in the kitchen just as bananas were being smooshed and of course inquired what was up. i recalled how he gushed over the banana muffins that they used to serve up at estate coffee (which have long been discontinued) and also raved about a similar loaf that someone baked for a friend's birthday party. "but that was a banana cake." hm, that brings up a good point. why do we call it a bread? because it's a loaf? this is certainly too sweet to be excluded from cakedom.


luckily i've learned little more about baking since i moved here. two years ago in california i was making cookies for my coworkers and my mom practically demanded that i use up some old bananas that were going bad on the counter. i used the recipe off the side of a bag of flour and ended up making every mistake possible. too dry, overmixed, and someone still ended up with a bite of baking soda. needless to say, my mom's coworkers were wary of trying my baked goods for a long time. x:


this time i just barely mixed the batter and the result was a very moist and light cake. ironically, i left out one of the star ingredients in this recipe for banana bread with chocolate and crystallized ginger. it is very possible to be asian and not be crazy about ginger, okay? the only other changes i made were using brown sugar in place of white and added a handful of chopped walnuts because i know the dane can't resist them. so delicious! this banana loaf has been crowned a cake (it sure as hell ain't sitting on a bread stand) and will surely be made again. P:

cookin' around christiania

now that the weather is lovely in copenhagen my swedish roommate and i were eager to go barbecue in nature again. and i even got my fiance to tag along! the last time we did was this past fall, which was a bit too chilly. but of course as soon as i started gathering groceries, the sun shied away behind rain clouds.


luckily the most moisture we got was a few sprinkles. so we hopped on our bikes and our sweet vegetarian dinner was on! plus any time is a good time to burn up old newspapers. :D


of course we were going to be hungry while waiting for the goods to cook so i brought some hummus i made at home and chopped some cucumbers. i added a bit of korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru) which adds nice colour and zing. and of course we were going to be thirsty... so we shared a bottle of savanha sauvingnon blanc. really refreshing with the greens and the (slightly) warmer weather.

of course a salad was present as well. pretty plain with just greens, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and spring onion. i was too lazy to dress it beyond a drizzle of oil, a squeeze of lemon, and a healthy salt&peppering. the mandoline i bought in california sure came in handy for those thin slices of cucumbers. so cheap and yet so efficient!

christiania is a fun place! hard to believe it is so close to a bustling city. all i could hear was birds and the occasional footsteps of a person strolling by and enjoying nature.


for the hot food i prepared tofu and mushrooms in a marinade of soya, miso, garlic, and gochugaru. the other mushrooms were just tossed in salt, pepper, oil, lemon, and parmesan. my cooking is pretty boring these days. i don't know if it's due to lack of funds of just plain laziness.


my swedish roommate made beetroots with rosemary and potatoes with feta. i think she made those same potatoes last time and they are so addictive! i couldn't stop picking at them even after i was stuffed. luckily dessert was a honeydew that i carved as we sat by the dwindling fire and...

...chocolate-stuffed bananas. the swede wrapped them in foil and set them in the dying embers and they were pretty decadent. the chocolate was chili-flavoured, which was a pleasant kick! nearly stole the show. brings back memories of camping with my family, though we never did the banana bit. we definitely have to do this more often.

so... anyone wanna go barbecuing with me next week? :D

too much orange county

after a light breakfast i set about 'taking care' of a pile of oranges we've accumulated. two of our neighbors have orange trees whose branches are hanging low into our yard so naturally my family has been picking at them. why would you buy oranges in orange county? there's un-pesticided citrus growing all over the place! if you have free oranges, this is a pretty cheap dessert.

iced oranges: straight out of mediterranean food of the sun
(serves 8)

2/3 cup granulated sugar
juice of 1 lemon
14 medium oranges
8 fresh bay leaves, to decorate

put the sugar in a heavy-based pan. add half the lemon juice and 1/2 cup water. cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes, until the syrup is clear. leave to cool. slice the tops off eight of the oranges to make "hats." scoop out the flesh of the oranges and reserve. put the empty orange shells and hats on a tray and place in the freezer until needed. grate the rind of the remaining oranges and add to the syrup. squeeze the juice from the oranges and the reserved flesh. there should be 3 cups. stir the orange juice and remaining lemon juice, with 6 tbsp water into the syrup. pour the mixture into a shallow container and freeze for 3 hours. turn the mixture into a bowl and whisk to break down the ice crystals. freeze 4 hours more, until firm but not solid. pack the mixture into the orange shells, mounding it up, and set the hats on top. freeze until ready to serve. just before serving, push a skewer into the tops of the hats and push in a bay leaf.

as i was bringing the syrup to a boil, my brother reminded me that we were going to have some authentic chinese food for lunch. i'd almost forgotten about it last night when my mom asked me to stop by the hospital she works at (and also my former place of employment) because they were having a potluck. so i stuck everything in the freezer and we had some really delicious food; noodles with black bean sauce, bok choy and shiitakes, and scallion pancakes. however, it was a bit oily and i hopped on my bike in a rush to get to my mom's workplace. this resulted in a big stomachache. then i had a slice of lemon cake, chocolate cake, and some pasta salad at the potluck. and here i'm trying to shape up a bit before the dane arrives. so much for that. x:

as i walked into our kitchen to get back on those oranges, my stomach was raging. always digest before jumping on your bike, folks! but when the oranges were proper frozen by the evening, i was glad i struggled through my food-induced haze to make them. they soothed my abused belly and refreshed me overall. i'll try to blame my mistake on the interruption of lunch; i forgot to add the zest! the oranges were almost too sweet. next time i may just include the zest or also cut back on the sugar. as you can see, i was too lazy to garnish it with a leaf. but i'm sure it didn't affect the taste any. (;

last of the soba

last night we dipped into the package of soba noodles again to have a warm, semi-fancy stir fry on a cold night. oh, those shiitakes are after my own heart. but only one nicely-portioned bundle of noodles is left now. so far the box has been endlessly giving for cold soba noodles and bibim guksu, but all good things must come to an end. i don't remember seeing any at chinatown market so maybe it will have to wait until i get back from the states. or we could just buy regular, non-asian noodles for once.

i keep having dreams of weaving my bike through packed traffic in orange county. winter is actually getting to me now. it was nearing 80°F when i visited california in the middle of december. tangerines and sweet grapefruits were begging to be picked off the neighbors' branches that dipped into our yard. now here i am paying for oranges like every other chump. they're from spain.

california winter

i defrosted and reheated some soup on the stove that i made a couple months ago. i'm pretty sure it was carrot and sweet potato, maybe with some chili powder and garam masala tossed in haphazardly in the end. defrosting soup makes me feel kind of mom-ish. D:

tomorrow stuff happens!

orange blues

i can't help but be wary of something labeled AGROFRUIT

for some strange reason 2kg of clementines were sitting outside of superbrugsen on sale for 15kr. how they can afford to sell cheaper than fakta, i have no idea. the organic lemons they had on display inside were cheap as well but also very sickly with green spots. welp, guess those madeleines will have to wait til next week. so today might be one of those days where i don't cook anything and just live off citrus essence. as a child i would often eat so many tangerines that i'd end up with a stomachache. where is my citrus horn of plenty now?!

speaking of the colour orange, carrots and i are not on speaking terms for a while. although i have to admit, it was mostly my fault. last night's dinner was a vegetable tart which had the potential to be delicious; however, i made a bad choice of vegetables because i wanted to use up leftovers. carrots and green beans maybe do not belong in a tart together. the remaining half went into the trash. it looked so ugly that i almost forgot my camera was broken. but the dane was polite and ate 3 slices, saying it was good. bless his widdle heart. i doused mine in sesame seeds and kabayaki sauce. no shame!

should have thawed some frozen spinach and broccoli instead. that totally would have kicked those carrots' collective ass.



at least the eggs are still rocking my world. thoroughly.