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

Cod with kohlrabi and smoked potato purée

If you read the blog you might have noticed that cod is our favorite fish. In this recipe we use an ancient Swedish vegetable, kohlrabi, when cooked in butter gets a really mild and sweet taste. To make it a bit more exciting we added a smoked flavour to the potato purée.

Kohlrabi

• 2-3 Kohlrabi (depending on size)
• 1 Shallot
• 500 g Butter

Peel and cut the kohlrabi into 2 cm thick slices. Punch out as large circles as possible. Melt the butter, add the kohlrabi circles and the shallot and let them simmer until done. The kohlrabi should feel like a boiled potato.

Potato purée

• 3 Potatoes
• 1 dl Cream
• 1/2 dl Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Pour smoke shavings at the bottom of a large pot. Pour the cream into a stainless bowl and place it on top of the shavings. Put the lid on the pot and heat up the hob as warm as possible. When you have a heavy build-up of smoke, pull the pot off the hob a leave it for 10 minutes.

If you don’t want smoke in your entire kitchen you can also use a few drops of Liquid smoke or boil the cream with smoked ham.

Peel the potatoes and boil them in water and salt until they are soft. Throw the water out. Use an electric mixer and whisk the potatoes to a purée. Add the smoked cream, the olive oil and finally taste it with salt and pepper.

Cod

• 600 g Cod
• 4 teaspoons Salt
• 3 dl Water

Cut the fish in 4 pieces. Pour the water into a form, add the salt and make sure it dissolves. Add the fish and leave it for one hour. Make sure that the fish is covered in fluid, if not add another 3 dl water and 4 teaspoons salt.

Set the oven to 100 degrees Celsius. After an hour, wipe the fish dry with kitchen paper. Put the pieces onto something fireproof, for example a baking plate. Use a burner and “weld” your cod until it gets a nice colour on the surface. Leave your “welded” fish in the oven until it reaches 40 degrees Celsius.

Sauce

• 3 dl Fish stock
• 1 dl White wine
• 1 Shallot
• 1 tbsp cold Butter
• 1 dl Cream
• Garden cress

Fry the chopped shallot in butter. Pour over wine and fish stock and let boil until 2 dl fluid remains. Add the cream and let boil for another couple of minutes. Remove the sauce from the stove. Use an electric mixer and mix the sauce with the cress and 1 tbsp cold butter. Taste the sauce with salt and pepper.

Now you’re ready to serve!

Music: Listening to Veronica Maggio

Fabulous cod, fennel salad and puy lentils

Between January and March the Norwegian coast is the scene of a magnificent event. From the nutrient-rich areas in the Barents Sea in the north, the arctic cod arrive by the millions, migrating into the spawning fields along the wintery coast of Norway to carry on their family name.

For the majority of this cod, which when spawning is called skrei, the goal is the area by the island of Lofoten, about 400 km north of the Polar Circle. In the Barents Sea, the skrei has spent at least five years maturing to adulthood. It is then strong enough to make the long journey from the ocean far in the north to the coast of Norway. The skrei is cod in its prime. Try it!

Ingredients

• 600 g thick fillet of Skrei (cod)
• fish stock
• 2 dl puy or beluga lentils
• 3 shalots
• 1 fennel
• juice and zest from a lemon
• dill
• chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• olive oil

Start with the lentils. Heat the chicken stock, add a shallots, bay leaf and cook for 3 min. Add the lentils and boil until they are ready (app. 15 min).

Cut the two remaining shalots in fine pieces. Marinate in 2 tbsp lemon juice.

Cook the fish stock for 2 min. Reduce the heat and add the cod. The fish should simmer for app. 5 min. The stock should not cook because then the fish will fall into pieces.

Slice the fennel in fine slices. Warm carefully in some olive oil and a pinch lemon juice.

Serving: Remove the lentils from the stock. Mix with the marinated shalots and some lemon zest. Flavour the fish with salt and pepper. Add some chopped dill to the fennel salad and put the salad on top of the fish.

Music: Prepared while listening to James Blake

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

Fishing for compliments?

Many friends of mine do not understand the greatness of cod. The reason is that we Swedes have grown up with over cooked cod served for lunch in school. If you can get hold of a thick cod loin I promise you, you’ll change your mind about this culinary treasure.

This is an easy recipe that will get you many compliments – Cod fillets with lemon flavoured vegetables and foam from heads of dill.

• 600 g thick fillet of Cod
• 5 decilitre water
• 30 g Salt
• 6 Carrots
• 6 Parsnips
• 2 Spring onions
• 1 Lemon, the juice
• 4 tbsp double Cream
• 3 heads of Dill
• 4 decilitre Milk
• 2 Tomatoes
• Chives

Cod

Make four pieces out of the cod and put it in salted water for 15 min. Wipe the cod dry with a piece of kitchen paper, put the pieces on oven paper and bake it in the oven at 100⁰C until the fish temperature reaches 45⁰C. It takes about 10-15 min depending on the thickness of the fish.

Vegetables

Slice the parsnips and carrots in to roundels (3 mm thick). Braise the vegetables in lemon juice, a pinch of salt and sugar, water (just enough to cover the veggies) and the cream. When the veggies are al dente, add chopped spring onions and pour out the fluid. Use a strain, that is the easiest way.

Foam

Pour the milk, heads of dill, salt and pepper in a saucepan, heat it until it simmer. Take the saucepan off the stove and mix the fluid to a foam with a hand blender.

Garnish

Peel the tomatoes, remove the core and cut the tomato flesh into small pieces. Mix it with chopped chives and a pinch of salt.

Music: the cooking was accompanied by the great last album from Robyn – Body talk pt. 1