Winter cod

As you probably have noticed we love cod. It is extremly hard not to buy cod when you see the fresh fillet or the thick cod loins, at our local store often placed next to the lovely but so grey coalfish, and then the cod looks even nicer with it’s white flesh. Anyway this is not to be a declaration of love to all you Cods out there 😉 But make this dish, I promise that you will enjoy it. And you can of course use regular cod.

• 800 g Winter cod with skin
• 1 Leek, cut in 3 centimeter pieces
• 20 Hazelnuts, cut
• Butter
• 1 Black salsify
• 1/2 Cauliflower
• 1 dl Youghurt
• 2 Lemons, fruit flesh
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 teespoon Salt

Start with the lemons; cut fillet and marinate them in their own juice together with sugar and salt.

Boil the cauliflower until it’s done, approximately 15-20 minutes. When done;  use a mixer, add yoghurt and mix until you have a smooth pure. Season with salt and pepper.

In the meantime peel the black salsify and cut it in half centimeter pieces. Wash the leek and cut it in 3 centimeter pieces.

Set the oven to 100 degrees Celsius. Heat up a pan and before adding butter fry both ends of the leek pieces until they are “sooty”, remove them from the pan and leave them in the oven until everything is done.

Add butter to the pan and fry the cod with its skin side down. When almost done turn it around just to get a nice colour on the flesh side, place the fish on to your plates. Add more butter to the pan to quickly fry the black salsify pieces.

At the same time use a small casserole; heat up butter and the cut hazelnuts until the butter becomes a nice golden brown colour.

Serve, and don’t forget to add the lemon fillet!

Music: Listening to Caligola – Back to earth

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

We both had a cold this last week and needed something to cheer us up so we started planning a menu with the very healthy apple as the connecting ingredient.

Oysters with apple

• 8 Oysters
• 2 tbsp Vinegar (apple cider)
• 2 tbsp dry apple Cider
• 2 teaspoon Sugar
• 2 teaspoon Olive oil
• zest from half a Lemon
• White pepper
• 1/2 frozen Apple

Open the oysters and marinate them in the vinegar, cider, sugar, olive oil, lemon zest and white pepper. Clean the oyster shells and put them in the freezer.

Grate the frozen apple. Take out the frozen shells, put some grated apple in the bottom, add an oyster and little of the marinade and garnish with some more frozen apple.

Smoked lamb, cucumber salad and chervil foam

• 150 g Lamb fillet or other tender pieces
• 1 Cucumber, peeled and cored
• 1 dl Yoghurt
• 1 tbsp Cumin
• 3 Shallots
• 4 dl Chicken broth
• 2 dl Apple juice
• 2 dl Milk
• 2 dl Cream
• zest and juice from 1-2 Lemons
• 50 g Chervil (or mint, Thai basil)
• Salt and black pepper

Start with the lamb. Mix a litre cold water with 1 dl salt to a transparent fluid. Add the lamb and salt for 5 min. Dry the lamb and smoke it for 5 min. You could also buy smoked lamb or duck.

Make long “noodles” of the cucumber. Salt and squeeze out the water. Chop 1 shallot in fine pieces and mix with cucumber, yoghurt and cumin.

Chop 2 shallots in fine pieces. Braise in butter, add chicken stock and apple juice. Boil untill half of the fluid remains. Add cream and milk and cook until it got a creamy consistency. At the end add chervil and lemon juice and mix with a hand blender to a foam.

Serve the foam with the lamb topped with the cucumber salad.

Thick fillet of cod with leek cream

• 600 g thick fillet of Cod
• 1 tbsp Bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp Apple, finely cut
• 1 tbsp Shallot, finely cut
• 1 tbsp Tomato, finely cut
• 1 tbsp Parsley, finely cut
• 1 tbsp Horse radish, grated

Put the cod raw in a bol with 1 l water and 1 dl Salt for about 20 minutes. Then rinse the fish in cold water, cut it in 4 pieces and put them on oven paper or on a buttered tin. The oven temperature is 80⁰ Celsius and the fish is done when it reaches 45-50⁰ Celsius.

Decorate the cod with the vegetable mix and the bread crumbs

Leek cream

• 300 g Cream, 40 %
• 200 g Leek, sliced
• 150 g Potatoes, peeled and sliced
• Salt
• White pepper

Boil cream, leek and potatoes together until the potatoes are soft. Mix, strain and spice.

Blend rape oil with lemon juice and decorate the leek cream with it.

Roasted quail, black salsify x 2, cider juice

• 4 Quails (boaned)
• fresh Thyme
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 300 g Black salsify
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 dl Cream
• 1,5 dl Chicken stock
• 1 dl Apple cider (dry)
• 1 teaspoon White wine vinegar
• 4 twigs Tarragon
• 1 dl stock from Veal

Cook vinegar, tarragon and cider until 3 tbsp remains. Add chicken- and veal stock and simmer to wanted consistency. If you want it to be like a glaze add some thickening. Before serving add a tbsp butter, salt and pepper if needed.

Peal the black salsify. Make four sticks (10 cm long). Fry the sticks in sugar and butter. Cook the left over pieces in 1/2 dl chicken stock and cream. Boil until the salsify is soft. Mix with salt and pepper to a purée.

Fry the quails in thyme, garlic and butter on the skin side. When colored bind together and roast in 100⁰ C in the oven until it reaches 57⁰ C.

Goat cheese with lemon and rosemary cooked apples

• 1 Ciabatta or baguette
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 2 dl Sugar
• 1 twig Rosemary
• 1 Lemon slice
• 1,5 Apple
• 150 g creamy Goat cheese

Slice the bread in wafer-thin slices. If you put the bread in the freezer for 30 min it is easily done. Heat a pan with oil and salt. Bake the slices until they have a nice color.

Slice the apple into 1 cm apple rings. Cook 2 dl water, 2 dl sugar, lemon slice and the rosemary for 2 min. Add the apple rings and simmer for 3 min. Take out the apples and let them rest until served. Cook the syrup until it has the consistency of a glaze.

Put apples, cheese and the thin bread in layers. Garnish with the glaze and some rosemary.

Apple compote with cardamom cream and Calvados jelly

Apple compote

• 2 Apples
• 0,5 dl Applejuice
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• half a Cinnamon stick

Peel and core the apples, cut them into pieces. Boil them with the applejuice, the sugar and the cinnamon stick until they are soft. Take out the cinnamon stick and mix the rest to a smooth pureé.

Cardamom cream

• 200 g Cream
• 100 g Milk
• 4 Egg yolks
• 50 g Sugar
• 20 g whole green Cardamom
• 1 Gelatine leaf, soaked

Boil milk and cream together with the cardamom, whisk the egg yolks and the sugar. Pour the milk cream over the egg yolks and the sugar. Heat to 85 degrees Celsius, add the gelatine leaf and strain.

Calvados jelly

• 0,5 dl Calvados
• 0,5 dl Water
• 1-2 Gelatine leaves, soaked

Heat up the Calvados and the water carefully, add the gelatine leaves and let them melt.

Use a dessert bowl or a soup plate. The applecompote at the bottom, add the cardamom cream and then the calvados jelly. Leave it in a cold place (the fridge) until serving. We served it with a home made yoghurt sorbet, apple crisps and candied hazelnuts.

Last but not least we made an espresso and enjoyed a glass of really nice Calvados.

Music: The White Stripes wonderful  Apple blossom, together with the classic Glenn Miller song – Don’t sit under the apple tree