Hurray for the orange season!

Oranges can of course not grow in Sweden or in Germany, besides from in a greenhouse, but nevertheless the orange season is now. I, for one, have been very sceptical to cooking with oranges. But I believe you must try everything at least once so we gave it a try and it blow my taste buds away. It was marvellous!

First course – orange season

• 2 small Fennels
• 1 Red onion
• 2 Oranges
• Black olives
• Walnuts, chopped
• Parma ham or bresaola

Dressing

• 3 tbsp Olive oil
• 2 tbsp Orange juice, fresh
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice, fresh
• Salt and black pepper

Slice the fennels and the red onion really thin. Fillet the oranges and try to save the juice for the dressing. Blend fennel, red onion, orange fillets and walnuts on plates. Add the olives and the meat. Mix the dressing together and pour it carefully on the salad. Decorate with the fennel dill if it’s good. Serve immediately!

Dessert – orange season

• 0,5 l fresh Orange juice from juicy oranges
• 1 dl Syrup of sugar
• 0,5 leaf Gelatine
• 3 Oranges
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

Start by making the sorbet; warm some of the orange juice up and melt the gelatine leaf.  Blend with the rest of the juice, taste it with the syrup, strain and pour it into the ice cream maker.

Make a “mirror” of your best olive oil at the bottom of a plate or a dessert bowl. Fillet two oranges and place the fillets in the olive oil.  Put the sorbet on top, add a bit of sea salt and fresh grinded black pepper.

Music: Playing the fabulous record Wounded rhymes by Lykke Li

SOLD OUT – World premiere for Berlin BetaDinners!

First of all I have to pinch myself, because over the course of the last weeks a big dream actually came true and the only missing part is you: the guests. What is it all about? Paul, Paul and I will organize our first BetaDinner and you are invited. It’s all about great food, awesome people, substantial drinks and a hell of a time.

You should join us on March 5^th, 2011 to the first BetaDinner in Berlin Kreuzberg – doors open from 19:30h.

What will happen? We will invite 20 of you for a dinner and there are only two things you need to know: Make sure you want to have a great time with awesome people and bring a friend. Not just a friend, but a friend with another passport, than yours. If you are German, bring your Italian neighbor, if you are from Norway, bring someone from Brazil… etc.

By doing that, we will be 40 people from X countries on a huge table and we will all have a great night out. We will prepare three courses that you will like – we promise! Of course there will be wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks to accompany the food.

What do you have to do to be part of the night? Sorry it is SOLD OUT but if you send us a mail we will put you on the waiting list.

1. Write us an email to betadinner@googlemail.com. The first 20 people + international friends are in.

2. Wait for the confirmation-Email and send 20 EUR per person to our bank-account. (…it’s all in the Mail)

3. You will receive an Email on Friday, March 4^th, with the Menu and the address to the location.

Since we don’t want to earn a single cent, but simply have a great time, we are able to cook three courses for just 20 Euro, but also need that money in advance. You will choose and pay for your drinks at the BetaDinner. The restaurant and we will make sure, prices are fair and you get a great deal.

By the way: The dinner is for people who love everything, there is no vegetarian meal. Nothing can go wrong if you love to eat and love to be around great people. Then, and that’s a promise, you will have a night to remember – we can’t wait for your emails.

You will find this post on Paul’s Blog in German as well – just in case you want to forward this to some of your German friends.

P.S. If you would like to come, but your friends from abroad can’t make it, just post that in a comment and check out the comments on Paul’s Blog – maybe someone is there without a partner as well and you guys can go together!

Lovely fennel soup with scallops

This is one of my favourite soups. I am a big fan of fennel and together with the scallops this is the hammer.  You must try this!

Fennel soup

• 750 g fresh Fennel
• 1 Shallot, finely chopped
• 2 dl white Wine
• 1 l veal- or chicken Broth
• 1 dl Cream
• 1/2-1 tbsp Pernod
• Butter

Halve the fennel and cut out the stem in the middle, rinse it and cut off the sprigs. If the fennel dill is fresh, save it until later. Shred the fennel and fry it together with the shallot in butter until they are soft. Add the wine and the broth, let simmer for 30 minutes.

Use an electric mixer and blend the soup. If you don’t have one, use a strainer.

Let the soup come to a boil together with the cream, taste it with salt, pepper and the pernod. The soup shall have a thin consistency.

Fennel salad

• 250 g fresh Fennel
• 2 teaspoons of your best Olive oil, grassy taste
• 1-2 teaspoons fresh Lemon juice
• Salt and white pepper

Shred the fennel wafer-thin. Marinate in olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Add pepper just before serving together with fennel dill.

Scallops

• 8 Scallops
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

Directly before serving season the scallops with salt and pepper. Heat up a frying pan, add olive oil and let the scallops just touch the pan. Let them get a litlle colour but that’s it!

Music: Listening to The Honey Brothers

The beauty and the beast a.k.a scallops and monkfish

This dish contains a lot of different ingredients but you can prepare most of the things in advance which makes it fairly easy to cook. You can also serve the pea-puree and the scallops as a starter.

Scallops, monkfish, artichoke, pea-puree and noilly prat sauce

Ingredients

• 500 g monkfish, fillets
• 4 scallops
• 250 g small green peas
• 4 small artichokes (cooked) or canned artichoke
• 1 dl noilly prat (dry vermouth)
• 3 shalots, finely chopped
• 50 g mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 dl cream
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• parsley
• chicken stock
• a pinch coriander seeds
• grape seed oil
• chives finely chopped

Start with the sauce: heat the oil and add mushrooms, coriander, garlic, parsley stems, and 2/3 of shalots and sweat for 4 min.  Pour the Noilly Prat into the pan and reduce it till half remains. Add 1 dl chicken stock and the cream and boil it for 3 min. Set a side for 10 min and then strain through a fine sieve. Before serving heat the sauce.

Heat 5 dl chicken stock with the rest of the shalots. When it boils, add the peas. Let it cook for 2 min, then remove the liquid and mix the peas with the cooked shalots, some butter, salt and pepper. Keep warm

Cut the monkfish into 4 pieces. Bake in the oven of 100 degrees until the inside temp is 50 degrees (takes about 20 min). Flavor with salt and pepper and garnish with chives.

Fry the artichoke in a pan with olive oil and a garlic clove. Takes 5 min.

Fry the scallops 1 min on each side.

We served the dish with a dill-parsley oil (2 dl olive oil mixed with a lot of dill and parsley).

Music: Listening to Säkert! Facit

We made the final!

A while ago we entered a German food competition with our dish. Unfortunately we didn’t win but we made the top 5 and the jury cooked our dish. Yeahh!!

Read about the winner and the finalists here

Congratulations to the winner

Lunchforone

we look forward to try out your winning dish!