ABC

On some occasions we have come across the saying, “Anything but Chardonnay”. Abbreviated that is ABC. A close examination (well, maybe not really very close) of our sidebar index reveals that this is not an idea that we subscribe to. We love chardonnay. But more than that, we believe that different dishes calls for different wines. If you are tired of chardonnay, it is probably because you either had it too much (and therefore to some wrong dishes) or it is because you have had some bad chardonnay. Any grape can be be treated poorly, we guess, and produce poor wines. By the way, ABC could also be used for Anything but Cabernet, but we remain firm against such a point of view.
In T's home, ABC has taken on another meaning. After MK's birthday we have a surplus of parsnips and carrots and so we think that a Lemon chicken could be a good idea. M disagrees. Actually, M has become quite adverse to chicken and so when we ask him, what we should prepare for dinner, he answers, “Anything but chicken” – ABC!
Equipped with this requirement we go to Irma to find something to go with our vegetables. Luckily we are in luck as we find some cheeks of veal, which satisfy us.
Back in the kitchen we set out to prepare braised veal cheeks.

4-500 gr veal cheeks
3 whole fennels
0,5 kg small turnips
2 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
1 deseeded chili
150 gr pancetta
1 glass of white wine
1 big glass of stock
fresh thyme, oregano etc
salt and pepper

Trim fat and tough tendons from cheeks and cut in big bite-size chunks.
Heat a pan and brown the pancetta, remove and use the pancetta-fat to brown the meat and vegetables. Don’t do this in one go, as the meat may start to boil instead of caramelizing. When finished add salt and pepper and herbs and pour the wine over and steam off, then the stock, cover and let simmer for 1,5 to 2 hours.

On the side we had a green-bitter salad with garlic-anchovies dressing and mashed potatoes:

Boil peeled potatoes to a very tender state (20 minutes). No salt added.
Sieve and mash with a bit of butter and salt and pepper.

With the dish we had an old acquaintance, the 2005 Cote de Nuits Village, which was just right to accompany the dish and so we make it 9/10 for both the dish and the combination.

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)

Copenhagen - Ché Fè

We have discovered that one of the better restaurants in our neighborhood, Acquamarina has been closed and another one opened in its place. As usual we have researched a little and found out that it is the same team that are behind the new restaurant. The team is famous in Denmark, mainly for their gourmet restaurant Era Ora, which has a certain significance for us. The former restaurant, Acquamarina had a concept of "Fish from heaven and wine from Italy". That certainly appealed to us, but so does the new concept of Ché Fè: Organic Italian food and so it has been just a question of how long the wait would be, before we visited the place. Not very long.
The menu has 4-5 antipasti, 4-5 primi and 4-5 secondi. Whereas we often select the same on this occasion we select as much as possible. For antipasti we select 7 small antipasti, "O Sole Bio", which on this occasion is

• A small ball of crumbed black rice
• Tuna on black bread
• Umbrian ham on toast
• Roastbeef powdered with breaded crumbs and orange zest
• Focaccia with a mild gorgonzola
• Umbrian sausage with fennel
• A small souffle of broccoli and capers

Everything was very nice, well-balanced and tasty.

For primo we ordered Creole which was pumpkin gnocchi with tomato sauce, chilli and basil. The gnocchi were not heavy and the tomato sauce was very good. The other primo was Piemonte proibito. This was a risotto of red and black rice with artichoke and Monteveronese cheese (and some orange zest). This was also very good, but considering the sizes of the dishes it was actually much more than what we could eat. And maybe too big a serving in general for a dish of "just risotto", but we cannot really complain about this as it was very good. With the primi we had a glass (well, actually a glass and a half) of the Verdicchio superiore, which we cannot recall and cannot find on the wine menu, but it was commendable.

We tried to order Perlizie, but that was no longer available, which we suppose is OK, since we arrived very late on a Sunday night. Instead we had the Tagliata di Vitello (veal steak with rosemary potatoes and a salad) and Pesando a domani which was braised veal with porcini. Both courses were good, but the steak was a bit too rare for T and we would have liked the otherwise very polite waiter to have asked how it was to be cooked. The braised veal was both very tender and tasty.

We had a bottle of Umbrian Villa Fidelia Rosso 2005 from Sportoletti. This was a Bordeaux blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Very potent nose, but still unmistakably Italian. We were aiming for some Sangiovese, but since the Chardonnay based Villa Fidelia Bianco is one of our long time favorites we had to try the red and we didn't regret it.

The restaurant is a welcome option when the fridge is empty and the shops are closed (or we just need to spoil ourselves a little on Sunday) and we will be back soon.

Beaucastel

A couple of days ago we were invited to the opening of the new wine center of Vinoble/Østjysk Vinforsyning in Krystalgade Copenhagen. It is an impressive center now with much more space for the shop and offices. Furthermore important additions have been made in the form of tasting room and of course just more room for the exhibition area.
There is much to tempt us, but as happens more and more often, we go into the "treasury". This area in a wine shop is where private owners have placed their wines for the shop to sell on with commission. On this occasion we simply have to buy a bottle of Chateau Beaucastel 2009. We know it will be child murder as we say in Denmark, but nevertheless...

We start the dinner with a little foie gras. This we have with some toasted dark bread and pickled plums and pickled green tomatoes. We try the Puligny Montrachet 2007 from Joseph Drouhin. It is very good 8,8/10 even if often prefer something more sweet with foie gras, e.g. Gewürtztraminer or even sauternes.

For the main course we have prepared a veal 'culotte' and on the side a small serving of potatoes thinky sliced and packed with shallots, chicken fond and some gruyere cheese. We also make some ratatouille of red onions, garlic, eggplant, red peppers and salted capers.
But of course, tonight it is the wine that plays the leading role and it does so very nicely. Despite its young age, it is still a complex and readily drinkable wine. That is not to say that we wouldn't like to have it again in 10-15 years, but that will have to wait. 9,4/10

TGIF

It's Friday evening and T picks up MK and is planning for Lasagne. MK and T enter Irma and take stock of the situation when T changes his mind. It is, after all, only Friday once a week and so he shops for something a little more special.
K who is severely tested by the train schedule and the winter arrives somewhat late at the station but she is rewarded with a specialty that both she and T love – foie gras. It is served with some toasted dark bread (Irma's Lantz) and some green tomato relish and pickled plumes. With this we have a bottle of Gewürtztraminer 2010 from Hugel & Fils. Always nice.
After this we prepare the main course: Sirloin roast of veal with morel sauce and potatoes that T has tried somewhere, but the name eludes us.
The potatoes are cut into very thin slices and arranged in layers in a small baking cup with shallots and chopped garlic. A little butter and a few spoonful of chicken stock is added and on top some gruyere cheese. Then baked in a an oven at 170 degrees for approx. 30 minutes.
We also prepare a salad made of thinly sliced fennel. This you may have seen before around here, but it is a favourite of ours, so it will not be the last time. The fennel salad is tossed with oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper and thin shavings of parmesan cheese right before serving.
In the meantime the sirloin roast is fried in a deep pan. When brown on all sides some leftover red wine is added (well quite a bit, actually as it is drastically reduced for the sauce). In the end the roast is taken out and set aside to rest a little while and we then add the morels and in the end also a handsome portion of butter.

The result if very satisfying. MK states that it is just like eating at a fancy restaurant. That makes us very proud at least until she explains that it is because of the way that the potatoes are served and not necessarily because how it tastes. But it tastes very well and in particlar with the wine that we select for this evening – a 1997 St Esthephe – Moulin de Pez. We rate the wine as 9/10, the wine the same and together 9,1/10 :-)

A hard day's wok

November is a long month, wednesday is a long way from the weekend. And it's been a long day. T needs to take care of appearances which takes him to Helsingør and back and so it is a late dinner. And the bearnaise-tryouts, fondants, cream sauces and the approaching holidays all add up to at least one more 'lighter' meal. Hot and Light is what we go for. Wok'ed veal and chinese cabbage with noodles.

1 red onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 and a half chili
1 red bell pepper
4 small yellow and orange carrots
half a head of chinese cabbage
1 half leek
3 cm ginger
zest of half a lime
All cut in julienne

300 gr sliced veal

All cooked in a very hot wok for about 5 minutes

Add a dressing made of
Soy
fishsauce
whitewine
lime
a bit of sirup

and finally cooked
egg noodles

To drink we had a Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio 2007 which stood up very well to the spicy food
8/10

Garlic galore

Tonight is an occasion for one of the quick dishes. After driving all the way from Copenhagen to Helsingør (Elsinore) and going to the gym we arrive home a little late and this calls for something quick, which oftentimes mean pasta. As it is Friday we do not have any customer meetings or similar the after and we can go all in on the garlic. Thus it is Penne con aglio e prezzemolo. That is with garlic and parsley. This is quick and simple.

2 handfuls of parsley – coarsely chopped

5 cloves of garlic (adjust according to your preference – 5 will be quite strong)

2 spoonfuls of grated parmesan

1 spoonful of butter

salt

olive oil

Mix it all in a bowl. 

For three persons we take 500 grams of penne. When cooked pour in to the bowl, mix and serve.

We also make small saltimbocca just to have a little meat (post-training proteine). At the supermarket we have found a package of 6 small pieces of veal. They look nice and pink before T pounds them with the root of his hand. He may not be quite as angry as last time we made it, but he still manages to flatten them. This time we make it without the parma ham.

T has mistimed the pasta, so the meat is ready long before the pasta and that means that it is a bit too cold when we sit down and eat. The pasta, however, is just what we need and we generously award it 8,5/10

Since T's fridge is chronically too cold the green salad that we had planned to have with our meal has to be substituted by a small tomato salad with red onion and basil. The green salad is frozen and ends up in the bin. For the dish we drink a bottle of Volpolo 2007. This is the second wine of the Super Tuscan producer, Podere Sapaio. It is by now more well balanced than it was half a year ago when we first tasted it. At that time, the tannins were too harsh, but now, decanted and served at 15-16 degrees it is very nice. 8/10 and together with the food also 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

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

The ferry

Today we start our vacation that will take us to various wine capitals of Europe. But first we have to drive a long way to get there. The first day we take the ferry between Denmark and Germany and even though this provides us with time for dinner we are apprehensive to the extent that T suggests that we stop for a drive-in burger instead.
K talks him to (a little more) reason and we get to the ferry. To our pleasant surprise there are only two other guests in the Steaks and Seafood restaurant and that leaves time for the good humored waiter to chat a bit with us and he recommends the veal medaillon. We accept his recommendation and have a glass of Brown Brothers Shiraz with it. Not because this strikes as the best wine to accompany the veal, but because of the wine lists 3 wines this seems the lesser evil.

The result is very positive. the veal is good and well prepared. Cooked to near perfection and nice and tender. The salad bar is reasonably fresh. The potatoes come in two varieties (french fries or the Danish specialty – potatoes baked in cream) and neither of them made within the last couple of hours. Three sauces are offered: a bernaise look-a-like, a brown thick gravy and one more .... probably whiskey sauce. we try the bearnaise, but quickly abandon this sauce as well. But never the less: The dinner at Prins Richard, sailing Rødby-Puttgarden, was actually satisfying ... and good. We had expected to give this meal a harsh review, but as it is we will just give the waiter and the veal a fully deserved 9/10

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.

Champions League

Having been apart for more than a day we obviously need to celebrate our reunion. Not only that, but also the fact that the soccer season was starting to take off and T will start becoming jittery if dinner is not finished at 20:45.

To celebrate we had:
Primo
Ravioli al Tartufo bianco (bought in the local store) served with at little melted butter and parmesan.
To drink a Friulano 2007 from Livio Felluga
Very floral, citrus but also with a hint of exotic wood. 8/10







Having Primo and Secondo is not a Danish thing (but then again we haven't presented something truly Danish here yet), and particularly not on a regular weekday. That will not deter us and we often start off with a small serving of pasta. Fresh pasta is a to be preferred, but not all fresh pasta is good. If we have the time we will make it ourselves, but on this evening we opt for one of our favorites from Irma.

Secondo
Veal cutlet with sage and marsala
Zucchini, tomatoes, and a tossed salad.
Le Difese 2007, Tenuta San Guido.

The Difese is the 3rd wine from the legendary Sassicaia-winery San Guido. It is made from
Sangiovese and Cabernet 30/70%.
We have tasted the Difese through several vintages. The 2007 has been a bit disappointing the last couple of times we opened a bottle (also surprisingly many bottles were corked), but tonight it was excellent (7,5/10). It had opened up with nice fruit from both the Sangiovese and Cabernet, one not overwhelming the other but supplementing and it went very well with the food. 8,5/10.
Next time we will decant the Difese.

The dinner was not quite finished before the game started, but never-the-less T showed enormous restraint and stayed at the table. And the game ended well.