Veal casserole late summer style

Naturally weight issues are not far away when food and wine is a passion and something we even attempt to blog about. For us this means that certain things are, as a rule, avoided – but of course we can always decide that exceptions need to be made. If we intensify exercising a little we can normally lose weight. One of the main things we try to do is to substitute potatoes, rice and pasta with whole grain varietals/products.
To the kids, this is apparently close to torture.
Tonight we make a casserole of veal and we plan to have some whole grain bread from Il Fornaio on the side and a green salad. M is unhappy. In the end we have compassion for the poor boy and decide to boil some rice for him.


The veal casserole is made with tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms and chanterelles.
The Veal is cut into good size cubes 3-4 cm and browned in olive oil in a large pan along with 4 cloves of garlic, one red onion, salt and pepper.
600 gr of small, sweet tomatoes (san marsano or cocktail tomatoes). Squeezed free of seeds (which for a greater part end up on the wall and on K’s t-shirt – again).
A couple of handfuls of herbs.
1 generous glass of white wine is added and allowed to boil down.
1 glass of stock (or cube) and a heavy lid on top. Let simmer for 20-30 min.
In another pan the mushrooms and chanterelles are prepared in olive oil, with a bit of garlic and lemon zest.
The mushrooms/chanterelles is added to the meat for the last 5-10 min.

The bread is rubbed with garlic and a few drops of olive oil. The veal tastes deliciously on top.
In the end M decides that the bread is quite ok and not as bland as he had expected.
We have a bottle of Cascina Morassino 2005 Barbaresco. It was decanted as it has been very closed on earlier occasions. This time it is perfect and worked well with the dish – 8/10

A quick Monday feast

Golf season is on and T will more and more often arrive home late. But, it is also pollen season and so K is under the weather (or pollen, as it is). We have almost negotiated the terms for a late Thai take-away when T passes Irma and discovers that opening hours have changed and it is now open until 8 PM and so T stops and takes a look. He finds some nice looking veal, but alas there is no sage. Despite the fact that we are cutting down on calories at the moment T persuades K to make veal the Milanese way. And so it is, Scaloppine Milanese.
There is still a long ride into Copenhagen from Elsinore and so we are glad to have a dish that will not take long to prepare:

The veal is soaked in one beaten egg and afterwards turned in bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper. They are then fried in a heated pan with melted butter and olive oil app. 3-4 minutes on each side. And now, the key to this dish: grated horse radish, anchovy, lemon slices and some capers.
For contorni we have some white aspergus boiled for a few minutes after being peeled. Also, a green salad with tomatoes, radishes and red onions for more crunch and crispness.
For the sake of good order we also have to toast a few small slices of bread, rubbed with a slice of garlic and just a sprinkle of olive oil.
In the end, it comes off as a feast and we are very happy with the result, 8/10. T was all the way into Copenhagen thinking of Nebbiolo, so we have a 2007 Barbaresco from Marchesi di Barolo (8/10) and it worked out very well together (8,5/10)

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 Monday Celebration

Today calls for a small celebration despite it being Monday. We often find something to celebrate. Even though it's going to be late, T sets out to make Osso Buco Milanese and Risotto allo Zafferano. The soffreto is of the known kind:
2 chopped (red) onions
2 chopped celery stalks
2 chopped carrots
3 chopped cloves of garlic
and then some fresh herbs: thyme, rosemary and sage.

The meat is browned first and the soffreto is fried in the left over. Afterwards a small can of concentrated tomato paste is fried with the soffreto and then the meat is added along with a bottle of various wine left-overs. Add ½ liter of beef stock and then let it simmer for 3 hours. A trick that K has learned from Jamie Oliver (well, not personally) is to make a lid of baking paper and after draining it in water to put that over the dish while it simmers. The advantage of this approach is that it keeps the steam with the meat and you therefore don't need to turn and drip to keep it moist and juicy. T is a quick learner so he has adopted this as well. On top of this we add 3 de-seeded chopped tomatoes.

When K arrives she helps with the finishing touches, i.e. grating the parmesan for the risotto and skim off some of the fat and, of course, to arrange the dishes. Never send a man to do a woman's job.

In the meantime we make the risotto. Take a small sauce pan. Heat some butter and fry one finely chopped shallot. Add rice (on this occasion, Aborio) and let them fry until they become transparent (should be 2-3 minutes), but not burned. Pour a glass of dry white wine in and also some saffron (what can be held between thumb and index finger). Stir regularly and then add ½ liter of  chicken stock in small amounts. This should take about 25 minutes, but you should start tasting in the last 5 minutes to make sure that the rice is al dente. With regards to texture: We prefer it a little runny (and so should you). This means that a little extra stock may be required (or just some water). When ready add a handful of grated parmesan and remember that this will actually make the texture less runny so take that into account when you determine "the runniness" before you add the parmesan.

The finishing touch, which is of big importance, is the Gremolata. Chop parsley, a couple of cloves of garlic and some lemon zest together and sprinkle on top.

The result today is marvelous. It is a favorite dish of T in particular and this was an especially successful version and therefore it gets a 9/10. With it we selected a Barbaresco Albesani 2006 from Franco Rocca which was decanted and chilled on the porch to 16 degrees. It was wonderful, 8,3/10 and the combination was even better 9,3/10

Pasta with truffles and cream

Sunday M gets to choose the menu. And pasta with truffles and cream it is. In Super Marco T bought a glass of truffle butter made with summer truffles. Excellent if your pig cannot find truffles. Or you don't have a pig ... or truffles.

Anyway – for 4 – cut 1/2 kg of beef fillet in squares.
Soften 2 small shallots and 2 cloves of garlic in olive oil. Roast the meat. Mix. Pour in a small glass of white wine. cook down. Add 1/4 l of cream. S/P.
Mix with pasta (fusili Today) and truffle butter.
7,5/10
Serve with a mixed green salad.

With this we had a bottle of Barbaresco Currá 2006 from Roberto Sarotto 8/10 and together 8,3/10.

The wine we bought in Barbaresco on one of the most beautiful days of our trip in the fall of 2010. An old church on the centre square now holds an enoteca with bottles of many of the local producers.
We sat outside in the sun one late october afternoon with a glass of this splendid wine ... such a good memory.

Certainly worth a visit!

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.

K and Thomas Bjørn save the day

T is utterly depressed after Sunday's football results and has lost the will to live and almost the will to drink and eat. Luckily golf results help him recover slightly so that we are able to get dinner even if it is late. (It took T a long time to recover).

We have a primo of ravioli with white truffles (as we have had before) and to go with this a glass of Arneis from Piemonte.

The secondo is a Saltimbocca with zucchini and carrots.












When you make a saltimbocca it is important to have a strong hand nearby. It also helps if the strong hand is a bit aggressive from for instance sport results.
Pound the meat thin. Put a leave of fresh sage and a slice of prosciutto on each piece. Fold.
A mix of butter and good olive oil on the pan, fry the meat until light brown, add marsala. Let simmer down.

Steam carrots and zucchini with lemon zest. Add a bit of your best olive oil and a bit of basil.

Finally a salad of romaine and radicchio with oil and balsamico.

Eat.

To this we drink a bottle Nebbiolo d'Alba 2006 from Bruno Giacosa.

After this T is ready for bed and no longer suicidal.