Ambition

Saturday is time for dinner party. If you think that we have been quiet as of late it was because we needed to rehearse a little for this event. Also we have to consider the limited space in the kitchen, which is challenging when planing to have more than two guests for dinner.
We start the day out thinking that we have plenty of time to rest and reflect on the dinner from last night's 75 year birthday party, which included traditional, honest Danish food in Toldbod Bodega. And so we stay in bed late and read the newspaper knowing full well that we are prepared and this will help us execute according to schedule. After a while we head towards torvehallerne to make our last purchases. On a Saturday afternoon this is a very busy place. Not like their southern models in the sense that many people come here just to sniff around as opposed to coming with a specific objective. When we are about finished we consider a cup of coffee only to realize that we have been away for two hours and so stress sets in.
We will skip telling about the afternoon, which included an event of rare occurrence, namely T not (or almost not) watching his beloved football team cruise to a comfortable win. (The rare thing was T not watching, even though the comfortable part is also becoming quite rare).

First course is a salad. We have purchased 4 different kinds of lettuce which we will refrain from translating (Rød syre, Rucola savoy, mustard, the last one evades us by now). The leaves were mixed in a vinaigrette made of raspberry vinegar, olive oil, s/p and a little water. On top of this some smoked duck's breast thinly sliced (well, as thin as T could manage), cubes of apple and walnuts. To this we drink Meursault 2008. We had decanted the bottle for several reasons. For one thing it was something T had wanted to do for some time and secondly our poor guests were to be left guessing as to what they were drinking.

Next it is time for our primo which is oxtail ravioli. For this we have prepared oxtails one day in advance.
(Put the tails in cold water, heat to boil, skim impurities, skim, skim. Discard water. Prepare the usual soffreto (with whatever you have): onion, garlic, carrot, celery, parsnip, s/p and herbs. When soft add the lightly boiled tails, a small squeeze of tomato paste and a glass of white wine. Let steam off for a couple of minutes. Add water to cover. Cover tight and let simmer for 3-4 hours. When very tender, separate meat, vegetables and soup. Discard vegetables and let meat and soup cool. When the soup is cool it is easy to remove the top layer of fat.)
During our hectic afternoon the meat was separated from the bones. Two shallots, a couple of finely chopped cloves of garlic and 250 gr porcini is fried, chopped finely and mixed with the meat. A splash of good truffle oil. And finally a little grated parmesan to glue it all together (a fact that we cannot hide from our non-cheese-eating guest, but that does not prevent him from eating, thanks msm wb). In the meantime we have made a dough of durum flour, 3 eggs and a little salt. Now it is time for the pasta machine to roll out very thin layers of pasta and then cut out small round pieces and fill them with the stuffing. It should not be a big surprise, but this takes quite some time. Maybe it's because we do not have the help of MK and M as we did when rehearsing. The ravioli are served with broth from the preparation of the oxtails, pepped up with a little sherry and a splash of lemon juice, and a gremolata of parsley, chopped garlic and lemon zest is sprinkled on top. For this we have a 1996 Barolo from Manzone.
We now go into the kitchen to prepare the secondo and predictably the wait means that we can serve some wine in between and this we have prepared for. Nobody is able to identify the bottle of 2005 Utopia from the Danish winemaker Kelleris, but it holds up quite nicely and we will soon experiment a little with dishes to have with this wine.

The secondo is fillet of lamb served on top of puree of eggplants and baked root crop, namely pale root beets and turnips baked with oliveoil, white wine and pieces of organic lemon and some baked fennel.
The puree is made by cutting the eggplants open and filled with a little rosemary and garlic before reassembling, rolled in foil and baked for app 40 minutes until very soft. Then the insides are scraped out (removing the garlic and rosemary) and mixed with a little olive oil, vinegar and s/p. A small splash of sauce from the meat and a little red wine. For this dish we serve a Grant Burge's Filsell 2000 Barossa Shiraz from old vines.

Before dessert we serve three small pieces of Danish cheeses, all of the dry kind. First a sheep/goat milk cheese from Knuthenborg, Fyn which is the mildest then a Høost and finally a Fyrmesterost which is, we were told, actually a Vesterhavsost that has matured longer. To go with the cheese we have made chips of very thin slices of rugbrød (pumpernickel) covered with a little butter before baking for 6 minutes at a 160° C. Furthermore a small splash of homemade rhubarb marmelade. The rugbrød is a little too fresh and moist which means that we cannot slice whole big slices but they smaller, uneven slices are just as tasty, nevertheless. For this a glass of Rio Viejo Olorosso sherry from Lüstau.

For dessert it is time for Chocolate fondant with a sorbet made from elderflower and on top some fresh raspberries.
The fondant is made from (4 servings): 100 gr dark chocolate (70%), 100 gr unsalted butter, 1 dl sugar, 3/4 dl flour, 2 whole eggs, 2 yolks. Melt the butter, chocolate and sugar in a bain marie (as cool as possible). Add the eggs and flour. Stir. Pour in suitable tins. Preferably single ones. Not like the ones we used in this photo! Put in refrigerator. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200°C.
The sorbet is made from 6 dl. frozen dark elderflower syrup/concentrate mixed with water to a suitable sweetness. The mix should still be half frozen. Zest and juice from a lime is added. 3 egg whites are whipped and mixed. Put in freezer. If you don't have an ice cream machine, stir every now and then to get the best texture. (One kitchen appliance, we don't have – yet).
This is our most difficult serving as getting the chocolate fondant out of their baking tins take some time and so when we get the last one out and come into sit with our guests, some have already eaten theirs and asks for seconds, but alas, we have no more! Makes us wonder if we made too little food....
This is served with a glass of 2005 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau, 1er Gand Cru Sauternes.

Our big-city-kitchen is very small and does not posses a dishwasher, so we are grateful for all our guests who might not have been prepared for this kind of dinner party where everyone was made to work for their food, either as kitchen help, serving or dish washers. Which they very willingly did. THANKS!

A.O.C. Copenhagen

It is fully deserved that AOC got a Michelin star in 2010. AOC is one of the best restaurants in CPH and Christian Aarø's ability to select wine to go with the food made by Ronnie Emborg is exquisite. This makes it an choice to order the Wine menu of which there are two varieties. They are much alike and contain many wines that are in, both, but the wine menu 2 is just a bit more exclusive and thus more expensive. On this occasion we visited the restaurant in the company of 3 generations with each their preferences and taste buds and it seemed that all were impressed and satisfied.
We started with a glass of champagne and ...

Starter one: charcoaled bread with roe of lumpfish and a cheesed cream.
The bread was served on top of actual charcoal and in the dim light we were happy to choose right.

Starter two: foam with cauliflower and danish oyster served in egg shell. Light as clouds with the taste of the sea

The bread: fried brioche with butter

And on to the menu:
Grey mullet, salted and rolled mushroom powder. Raw mushrooms, mussel cream and double cream with oak oil.
Looked like pieces of wood but was soft and moist. Seved with stems of watercress and the leaves of indian cress. Juicy and crisp.

2009 Pouilly-Fumé, Les Duchesses, Domaine Laporte

Next came Summer celery and celery roots, with pure of hazelnuts, green hazelnuts and apple. The soft, bitter celery root with the sour-sweet apple, the richness of the pure and the crispness of pieces of green hazelnuts all went beautiful together.

2009 Meursault, 1. Cru Gouittes d`Or, Domaine Pierre Yves Colin-Morey

The Meursault was so good that we forgot to take a picture!

3rd dish was Cod, poached in butter. Served with summer cabbage and "irritated" egg whites flavoured with tarragon.
Perfectly treated cod. A salty marshmellow and a rich tarragon sauce.

This went down particularly well with the 3rd generation - M - asking T why he could not make dishes like this and of course T could only respond that if he could he wouldn't be working in the IT industry. But nevertheless, a challenge has been issued!

2008 Grüner Veltliner, Berg, Reserve DAC

Weingut Markus Huber, Traisental, Austria

Confit of veal sweetbreads and corn fed chicken
In sauce with lemon verbena, lingonberries and chiffon of fried jerusalem artichokes.
Yet again M voiced his pleasure and with good reason. The combination was delicious and also the sequence in the menu was perfect, i.e. the lighter fish-based dishes and then a more salty and rich dish before the beef.

2006 Pinot Noir Rho, Ampelos Vineyards, Santa Barbara, USA

Piece of beef covered in beetroot, served with parsley and smoked marrow sauce.
We asked for bread to soak up the rest of the sauce, which was delightfully concentrated. 1st generation was sure that it was wine based, but it wasn't...

2007 Fratelli Ravello, Barolo Vigna Giachini. Yet again served perfectly. Decanted and served at the right at (we think) 16 degrees ensured that this relatively young Barolo was superb.

Cheese, Danish cheese 'gnalling' shredded, served with syrup and fried pumpernickel (rugbrød). We came here last year also and had a cheese dish of the Danish Vesterhavsost with truffle oil and toasted pumpernickel and amontilado Sherry and it was so good that we had to order a second helping! This was also good, but not quite up there.

1975 Colheita Port, Burmester, Douro, Portugal

Chamomile tea pudding covered in whole milk gel and granité of sorrel juice


2006 Ürziger Würzgarten, Riesling Auslese
Weingut Jos. Christoffel jr. Mosel, Germany

Black currant in a frozen dome with elderflower and lemon juice.

1997 Château Y’quem, 1. Cru Superieur, 

Sauternes, Bordeaux, France

Coffee with petit four
Marshmallows and chocolate in a rubberlike state














Overall this was an excellent night and our choice to come back here for this years board meeting was proven successful. There are many good restaurants in Copenhagen and this is one of the best in our view. 9,5/10

Pesto

MK's all-time favourite dish is so definitely pasta with Pesto. Today it is reunion with the kids and so they each get to choose what to have for dinner once. Predictably MK chooses Pesto, but before this she beats T in a game of Middle-earth as she manages to sneak Frodo into Mordor where he drops the master ring into Mount Doom – just in the nick of time.

The pesto is routine for T to make due to the umpteenth time MK has selected it. Take a large handful of fresh basil leaves and rinse. Roast 30gr of  pine nuts until light brown. Mix both with salt, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil and two cloves of fresh garlic. Today we use the blender, as T's mortar is just a little bit too small for a larger portion of pesto.



With the pasta pesto we drink some Sancerre La Chantellenie 2009 from Joseph Mellot (7,3/10)

For the secondo we have lamb chops with fennel and a green salad with tomatoes. The lamb chops and fennel are fried on a pan with oil and fresh rosemary and garlic. Simple but absolutely splendid. We open a bottle of René Ratti's Barolo Marcenasco 2000 (9/10) and it is also excellent.















The kids have left the table after pesto but return when they hear our exclamations and in the end we have to give them much of our otherwise excellent secondo (9/10) that together with the wine (9,3/10) was a perfect start to the weekend.

girls night out – Enomania

Pips – a very good friend of K who also shares a deep passion for food and wine – and K had one of their rare evenings. Too much time had gone and now we would make up for it. And we chose to go to K's favorite restaurant in CPH. Enomania. (Admittedly it is also T's favorite, but he had his gender against him on this occasion...).

Damiano is a chef and sommelier with a long history in Denmark. Originally he is from the far nothern Italy but during his years in DK he has worked his way through some very good places and left his mark. Damiano has now opened a great little place with his wife Charlotte who is also a chef. They serve very good Italian food; one set menu + cheese – if you like – and we did. Everything is made with great love for the tradition. The wine cellar is exquisite, not only Italian wines but burgundies, German, American, Spanish and others have found way to the cellar.

We started with a glass of champagne made from pinot noir (blanc de noir). Should have taken a note of the name – it was excellent – but now gone from memory in the haze from the vapors that has been left.

To that a plate of speck, sausage and cured ham. Olive oil and bread.

Risotto alla Mantova con astice
The first of two primi's was risotto with pumpkin and lobster.
The risotto you get at Enomania is always absolutely wonderful. The texture, the taste – just perfect!
Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva 2007 Panizzi. Full, buttery and gooooood

Ravioli di vitello con tartufo estivo
Second primo: Ravioli with veal and slices of summer truffle.
Little cubes of zucchini and butter on top

At this point Damiano came with the first glass to taste blind. And we were way off. The wine was very rich and fruity with nice tanins... for some reason K thought Toscana... and a cabernet/sangiovese mix....
And it was a La Gallina, Barbera d'Alba, La Spinetta 2007. K had even had it before...
No mouse hole was small enough... felt like hiding and never coming out but the expectations for the rest of the evening kept K on her chair....

Controfiletto di manzo con peperonata al balsamico
The secondo was sirloin with a ratatouille of peperonata and balsamico and roasted new potatoes.

In came two glasses. This time we were closer.
No doubt it was Barolo.
The first one seemed aged. Yellowish in the edges and with lots of finesse, strawberry, tannins, even a hint of dairy.
The other was more aggressive. A powerful, fruity and rich.
K preferred the first, P the second.

Pio Cesare, Barolo 2006. The traditional.











Fratelli Revello, Barolo 2005. The modernista



















Formaggio
Then came the cheese.
And the last blind taste. Again we were so off.
Guessed Merlot... it was:

Monastrell-Syrah. Perelada 2008.

.... mouse hole ....













Zuppa di albicocche e pesche con gelato all’amaretto
Dessert. Peaches and abricots with amaretto icecream. Delicious and not too sweet.


















and to drink a Gewurtztraminer Spätlese, Joseph from Hofstätter
.... Again a perfect match; not too sweet but straight and added nicely to the apricots.

















If you are ever in doubt about where to go eat in CPH, go to Enomania.
And ... It is not even expensive!
(Unless you can't control yourself in the wine cellar)

Damiano, Thank you!!!

Bezzerwizzer

Tonight we have some good friends for a game of Bezzerwizzer. Boys 2 Girls 1

Before that we also get around to having a little to eat and drink. Here goes:

We start out with a glass of Champagne, Thienot's Cuvée Stanislas from 2004 (9/10) which our friends have brought (great friends) and with that some canapés with Foie Gras de Canard (and a little Modena Balsamico).

We then go to the table and our first course is grilled Maine lobsters served on leaves of Romaine and Radiccio and some homemade Aioli. 9/10. With this we have a bottle of Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2001 from Chapuis. 9/10. We also tasted a long time favourite of us all, the Catena Alta Chardonnay (this time 2008) for comparison 8/10. Wine/food matching 9/10.

(And we are back to the discussion about chardonnay the Burgundy or the overseas way.

K – the ungrateful brat – still leans toward the french stuff in spite of the generous offerings of rich, oaky wines, but is gradually becoming less rigid in her stance.)

We must admit to being fond of garlic, but even we have conceded that our Aioli has been too strong at times. This time we only use one clove and we are content. The same may not go for our friends who, despite also liking garlic, will quarantine one another after eating the Aioli.

Our aioli:
2 yolks (pasteurized)
1 (big) clove of garlic. (preferably the pink-skinned ones)
2 fillets of anchovies
grape seed oil
olive oil (extra virgin)
splash of lemon and worcestershire sauce.
s/p

Paste the garlic and anchovies in the mortar. Add yolks.
Sloooowly add oil – first drop by drop, later in a thin beam.
half and half on the oil – or less olive oil that can be a bit bitter.

Have tried using a blender instead of the mortar. But the mortar makes a better result and a more 'home made' texture.

The lobsters were lightly covered in olive oil seasoned with lemon zest, garlic, basil and a touch of salt.
Grilled for app 8 minutes with pieces of lemon until the lobster meat just turns white.
The lemon turns sweeter and juicier by the heat.






On to the main course which is Culotte (beef) with slow-baked tomatoes, baked red onions, Romansco and a little polenta. 8/10.

To this, we drink Barolo from Cascina Ballarin - Bussia 2003 (9/10) and Bricco Rocca 2003 (8,5/10). We have the feeling that the Bricco Rocca could be kept some more years and still develop well. The same is probably true for the Bussia, but it is a little bit more ready now.

Wine/food matching 9/10

Next an intermezzo with a small serving of Epoisse (French cheese made from cow's milk) with a thin slice of toasted pumpernickel  (Rugbrød).

White wines back on the table and start up a bottle of Chateau Guiteronde de Hayot 2005 Sauternes (8/10) in preparation of the dessert.

The Sauternes is nice but perhaps will be better with age.

The chardonnays is actually very good with the potent cheese

Finally we have baked plums with Italian macaroons and whipped cream (8/10) and of course the Sauternes. Wine/food matching 7,5/10









The plums are from Fejø (a Danish island). Fejø has wonderful apples, pears, plums and all kind of tree-fruit. The plums were quite nice though a bit on the sour side. Baked for 10 min in a hot oven with some muscovado-sugar they turned out quite sweet and juicy.

A bit hung over

After the excesses at Kiin Kiin the night called for something to redress the damage. Still, only being mildly hung over meant that burgers could under no circumstances enter the frame, so we settled for a spicy pasta dish. Maybe a bit overkill, but it also felt like some Barolo.

The sugo was made by first making the Battuto (or Soffreto) from garlic, onion, carrot, chilli and celery. After that two Italian sausages were set free, i.e. the meat was taken out of the skin and fried with the Battuto. Add to that some white wine and the last of the chicken stock from the other day, cook down and finally chop the contents of a can of sweet san marzano tomatoes and let it simmer until it is nicely concentrated.

Toss the penne pasta in the pan and stir and sprinkle with parmesan and some fresh herbs of choice. This time it was basil, marjoram, thyme and a touch of lovage.

Mildly-hung-over-pasta 9/10

The Manzone Barolo from 1996 7,8/10

Wine food/matching 7/10

Casa d'Antino

Mauro Veglio
Barolo

Vigneto Roche 1997

9/10

+ a very nice verdicchio of unknown producer (or rather – forgotten)

Always good food and exquisite wines at Casa d'Antino, Paolos place. An impressive and extensive wine list with top wines from all over Italy and especially Piemonte.