The 8 year birthday

MK turned 8 earlier this month and Saturday it is time to celebrate with the big family. Having 18 for dinner in T's smallish flat is a test, but one that has been successfully passed on earlier occasions and is passed well yet again.
MK is a fickle girl when it comes to pasta. T assumes that what MK wants for her birthday dinner is pasta with homemade pesto for the primo. When T seeks to verify the menu for the evening he expects that it will be business as usual. But MK states that she wants pasta carbonara. Now, this is a problem for so many reasons. One of them being that K and T are not in agreement as to how carbonara should be made or even the very essence of the dish. As a consequence, T brushes aside the wishes of the birthday child and reinstates pesto as the primo of MKs birthday dinner. Incidentally, MK has done this before. For a whole year she would wish only for Spaghetti alle vongole, but on arriving in San Remo after a year away from Italy, she switched to pesto and that has been the preferred pasta dish for the last three years. That is until last Friday.

The pesto is made in the Ligurian style that we experienced this summer in Tellaro. The minor variation is that small cubes of potatoes are cooked with the pasta and served as part of the dish. They add a little sweetness to the dish.
The next dish is pork roast rubbed with fennel seeds served with baked parsnips, fennel, apple, potatoes and carrots. Since we posted this dish initially we have made a successful variation which we repeat today: Rather than adding wine (champagne) we substitute it with apple juice and water. This gives not only some acidity but also some sweetness. (again!)
Also we use another piece of the (organic) pork. Pork loin, wich requires about 2 hours in the oven. Thefore we also had to cook the meat and vegetables separately. The vegetables only need app. 1 hour. We added some of the good liquids from the roast about half way through.
The guests are pleasantly appreciative of the efforts and we are also rather content ourselves.
Serving wine for the big family cannot follow a strict plan, so wine is placed on the table in rapid succession. What we aim to do is to have something with a little acidity to handle the richness of the pork. So we try various chiantis. The Isola e Olena 2008 and 2009 are tasted. The 09 is preferred. It seems more balanced. Where the 08 is more fruity, the 09 is less so and has a note of lactic acid. We also try the Ser Lapo 09 from Mazzei. This is quite nice and rather different. The wine is more oaky from the maturing in oak casks.
In conclusion the chiantis do very well with the dish. Before that we have had some various whites:  Viognier from Pesquie and Chateau Ferran 2005 from Graves.

In the end it is time for the traditional birthday cake. In Denmark that is a layered cake (Lagkage). For this occasion we make to two types: The first has whipped cream mixed with raspberries and finely chopped dark chocolate. The other has cream mixed with banana and crushed macaroons.
The cakes are served accompanied by the singing of the traditional Danish birthday song and then comes the moment of truth: MK has to blow out the candles! Myth has it that the number of candles still burning signifies the number of boyfriends the birthday child has. Much to T's satisfaction, MK blows out all the candles.
The evening ends on the dance floor where children and adults are equally excited about the Wii dance contest. Even to the extent that commotion occurs due to the close quarters, but that cannot change the fact that this has been a successful birthday with big family.

Lemon Chicken

MK's eating habits are still evolving. Like many other kids we know, she will put all kinds of things on her plate and then end up eating next to nothing. Not because she doesn't like the food, but her appetite is just not that big. While she needs to learn not to take more than she can eat, T still envies the other side of it and that is to stop when you are no longer hungry. Since that is not the case, he has to be careful about his diet with Christmas and everything coming up. In the meantime, MK's favorite dinner is still a buffet.
Tonight, MK has dined at a friend's but she routinely asks if we have eaten and since we haven't, what's for dinner. When she hears that we are cooking K's famous lemon chicken she decides that she will have dinner once more.
The chicken is cut into eight pieces and placed in a dish on top of pieces of red beet and parsnip,  garlic and herbs - in this case parsley and thyme, s/p. MK did not want us to put wine in the dish, despite assurances that she would not be able to taste it. So, K tried something new and added some apple juice for sweetness and acidity. This was very successful with the root crops. Finally pieces of lemon cut into eights. This was the put into the oven at 180 degrees for an hour. Occasional dripping of the juice from the bottom of the dish to keep the chicken juicy - and it was.

Furthermore to add some vegetables we took half a butternut squash and cut it into cubes. This was fried in a little bit of olive oil on a hot pan and sprinkled with flakes of salt.
And then, of course, some green salad.
From the outset we were aiming at Sangiovese (naturally), but then opinions differed. T suggested an Il Grigio (Chianti Classico Riserva), but K felt it should be something without the barrel aging and so we went for a bottle of Riecine 2008 Chianti Classico. And we filed that under a success for K's position. So, coming to the ratings we make the dish 8/10, the wine 7,5/10 and together 8/10.

Bridge with the Brothers

Every second month or so, T plays bridge with his two brothers and their childhood friend. Tonight is such a night and this normally calls for something that can simmer while they are playing. This time we opt for braised veal tail with polenta and a green salad.
The kids and two of their cousins make up a party of 9 people and the portions are made accordingly.

3,5 kilos of tails are browned first whereafter a soffreto of three red onions, 5 cloves of garlic, 3 stalks of celery and 4 carrots are fried with thyme, sage and bay leaves.

When fried a small tin of tomato paste is added and fried a little.
After 5 minutes all the browned pieces of veal tail are put back in the pot and 1 liter of beef stock as well as 1,5 bottle of (left-over) red wine is added and the pot is almost ready to be left simmering for 3 hours.

Before that the, by now customary, lid of baking paper is placed on top.
The tails contain much fat from both the marrow and the meat and a lot of starch from the bones which means that fat and starch can and should be skimmed off after the 3 hours of simmering.
Skim, remove the meat, skim again, cook down and skim and finally blend so that the vegetables are used for thickening the sauce. Add s/p and perhaps a bit of acid like balsamico. When finished return the meat and let it heat up while making the polenta.
The polenta is not a favorite with everyone in the company. Some would have preferred mashed potatoes, but the fact is that polenta is selected for how easy it is to make and as such making it is well suited for a night where we hope to focus on playing bridge. Actually that is a lame excuse as K is exiled in the kitchen while the men pursue the noble game. But, at least, that was what was planned..

For the polenta use 600 grams of coarse-grained corn flour and 0,75 liter of boiling water and mix over the stove. When cooked (after app. 5 minutes) add some grated parmesan and butter. The veal tails are very successful and we think it is a 8,5/10, but our guests might differ due to the polenta. But there is no arguing that the tails are a huge success.

A lot of wine is tried tonight and some goes better with the than others:
Poggio Valente 2007 Morellino di Scansano
Casanuova 2004 Chianti Classico Riserva
Waterbrook Shiraz 2006
Killikanoon The Covenant 2005
K thinks that the fruity shiraz'es are totally wrong with the intense taste of the braised sauce and T would normally concede but by this time his tasting buds have lost some of their edge. K's argument is that this extremely rich dish needs the acidity and bitterness from for instance the Sangiovese and insists on staying with the Chianti.

For dessert K prepares an apple-blueberry crumble.
6 large apples, 150 gr blueberries. These apples were kindly given to us by K's sister from her garden. Nice spicy cooking apples – a bit on the sour side but great for this dish.
For the crumble: 2 dl of flour, a good handful of almond 'flour' (almonds crushed to flour in the blender), 2 dl of sugar, 200 gr butter, a good handful of oatmeal. All mixed to a crumble.

The fruit is put in an ovenproof dish. Muscovado-sugar and cinnamon is sprinkled on top and finally the crumble is spread all over.
30 min. in the oven at 200°C. Served on this occasion with sour cream, but it may have been even better with whipped cream. 8,2/10

Take-away, part 1 – Pizza

Yet another golf day for T and a late return home. Even the plans to go north were discarded due to the late hour and T picked up pizzas on the way home.
Danish pizza is oftentimes an abomination. They are overloaded with all kinds of toppings that are often foreign to the concept of pizza and they seem to adhere to the notion that you cannot have "too much of a good thing". Well, you can.
Some pizzerias are actually owned by Italians and while their menus also contain some Danish pizzas you can also find some that resemble the real thing, i.e. a thin, crisp crust, easy on the tomato sauce and cheese and one (or maybe two) toppings.
Tonight we visited La Fiorita in Nanesensgade and bought the Diavola. The topping was italian salame picante. And then some fresh chilli. Quite hot. Another pizza was almost the same, though T cannot recall the name, but in stead of fresh chillies a couple of anchovies were spread on the pizza. (8/10) and to this a bottle of Casanuova Chianti Classico Riserva from 2004 (8/10).
Wine/food matching 8.5/10

Just another Monday

T having just arrived after his latest summer vacation (Golf et Gourmet) at the French Chateau Vaugouard, so we decided to make our long awaited trip to SuperMarco – an Italian Supermarket in Copenhagen's Sydhavn in order for T not to suffer from draw-back symptoms. We came home with a lot of stuff (which will probably become evident in the days to come), but it is not exactly cheep.

Primo 8,5/10
Fresh artichokes ravioli from SuperMarco, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, olive oil and sicilian chardonnay.

Tasca d'Almarita 2007. 8.9/10

Wine/food matching 9/10

Secondo 8,5/10
Breast of pheasant with chickpeas, garlic, fennel and carrots, crisp fresh oregano and Balsamico
Bruschetta con aglio e olio
San Giusto, Chianti Classico Le Baroncole 2000 8,9/10

Wine/food matching 8,9/10