 These are the pink coated chocolate cake pops that I made for the birthday of Anders' cousin's daughter on Saturday. I came up with this recipe after being stuck with too many cupcakes, so it is somewhat untraditional from other recipes. You can use any leftovers from chocolate cake or cupcakes you've made. Ingredients Cake or cupcake leftovers Frosting: 3 cups confectioner's sugar 1 cup butter 1 tsp vanilla extract 1-2 tbsp heavy cream Ready steady bake In a kitchen machine whisk together confectioner's sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until it is well blended and then increase the speed to medium and beat for another three minutes. Add vanilla extract and heavy cream and continue to beat on medium speed for one more minute, adding more heavy cream if it is needed in order to obtain a good spreading consistency. Make sure the cake is at room temperature and then... mash it together with frosting! Separate the cake mash into 30 gram portions, roll each one of them into perfectly round balls and insert the popsicle sticks more than halfway in. Freeze or cool the cake pops for two hours.   Finally, melt candy melt or chocolate, remove the popsicle sticks, dip them in the melt, and reinsert the sticks. This works as a glue. Now, dip the cake pops in candy melt, stand them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with decoration. Allow to cool in the fridge again. Rest at least one hour in room temperature before serving. 
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 I am a sucker for advent calendars. In Germany it is a really big thing, but ever since I moved to Norway I haven't found the awesome calendars I remember. Anders knew that I missed this so much, and that I am addicted to Summerbird sweets. So he surprised me with this amazing box of excitement, surprise and waiting: Summerbird's Advent Calendar. It is a white box with 24 drawers and each one contains a numbered silver bag. I don't know what is in inside yet, but I can imagine it is similar to what dreams are made of! I will be adding a new picture each day on my Instagram of what is inside. I can't wait until December starts...! *getting the chocolate shakes* Anders bought the calendar at Gutta på Haugen, but apparently they are already sold out of every single one of the 200 calendars they ordered. However, they still have a different variety of the calendar. Summerbird is also a great addition to any homemade calendar.   Time to test some more of the awesome products we received from Matbazaren.no. This time we wanted to make something with the confit duck. Confit duck is duck legs cooked and then preserved in duck fat. What better match to this fat meat than some sweet chinese pancakes (jian bing) and hoisin sauce? This dish is of course inspired by Hitchhiker, who recently removed it from their menu. Ingredients (serves 2 people) 1 can of confit duck Hoisin sauce Spring onions 3 eggs + 2 eggs 3 tbsp sugar 1 tsp salt 1 dl all-purpose flour 2 dl whole milk Ready your chop sticks and start cooking! Chinese pancakes are dead easy to make. Whisk together 3 eggs, by hand or in a kitchen machine if you have. Add sugar and salt. Sift in the flour. 1 dl is an estimate, make sure it gets sticky. Then start adding whole milk to make the consistency more runny again. You want the batter to be more runny than traditional pancake batter, in order to make the pancakes thin enough. Set the batter aside for now. Whisk together the last 2 eggs in a bowl. Set your oven to 225 degrees C. Open the can of confit duck and strain the duck fat. Keep the fat in a sealed container and store it somewhere! This is amazing for frying potatoes another time. Place a deep baking tray in the middle of your oven, and fill it with 2-3 liters of water. Then place a roast rack above it. When the oven is warm, place the pieces of confit duck on the rack. The water makes sure the fat doesn't burn in your oven, and also helps keeps the meat juicy. Set the timer to 15 minutes. Chop the spring onions and ready the hoisin sauce for serving. Heat your pan to medium low temperature. Add some oil, but spread it out with kitchen paper. You just want a thin layer of oil. Add enough batter to completely cover your pan with a thin layer. Thin is a keyword here! A rotation movement of your wrist should be enough to evenly distribute the batter in the pan. If the first pancake gets too thick, or it's difficult to spread it out properly try to 1) dillute the batter with more milk 2) reduce the heat on your pan 3) use less batter. Leave the pancake for a few seconds until the upper side solidifies and then brush a layer of the eggs you whisked together. Give the pan a hard shake. If the pancake loosens it is time to flip it. Let it fry on the other side until it starts getting a golden color, but not longer. You don't want the pancakes to get too dry.      Sometime during your pancake frying the duck should be ready. Take it out to le the meat rest, while you switch on your oven's grill or hot air progam and increase to 250-275 degrees C. When the oven is warm enough you return the duck for a final speed grilling to make the skin crispy. Pay attention! The duck goes from perfectly crispy to burnt very fast. Use two forks to pull the meat from the bones. This is like pulled pork in consistency, even smoother. Fill your pancakes with meat, spring onions and hoisin sauce. Roll. Cut in four small or two big pieces. Sprinkle with more spring onion or thai basil. Serve.   This dish is part of Andrea's family tradition, and the recipe has been passed on for generations. Only one person of each generation is granted the privelige to learn the process. The idea is that the family has to be together to be able to enjoy this meal. This is just half of the recipe - the second part involves a different stuffing. We will make that once we get closer to Christmas, when @donmahr is coming for dinner at our place. What seperates this from traditional turkey or chicken recipes is that you remove most of the bones inside the poultry before you stuff it. This reduces cooking time, allows you to fill more stuffing inside and makes it much easier to cut when serving. Ingredients 2 whole organic chickens 2 yellow onions 400 g medisterpølse, julepølse or similar white sausages 100 g walnuts chopped 250 g Røros butter 3 dl Røros milk 7 slices of white bread without crust 2 eggs muscat nut powder (freshly grated) parsley salt and pepper Special tools: Aluminium foil Thread and needle  Make sure the chicken is completely defrosted before you start. A chicken comes with two openings - the neck cut and the stomach cut. We removed the bones through both holes with a small knife. Be careful with your fingers as it can get slippery. Sew the stomach opening with a thread and needle and leave the chicken to rest on the counter.  We use bread as it makes the consistency right for the stuffing. Be sure you cut the crust and soak it in milk. Fry the onions until transparent, add the sausage, chopped walnuts, muscat nut powder, parsley and soaked bread to the pan. Let it fry for five minutes and remove from the heat. When the mix is cold add two whisked eggs to it. This will make it firm when it bakes.   Set your oven to 180 degrees C and cover a deep baking tray with aluminium foil. "Sit" your chicken on the cutting board and stuff it through the neck opening, until it is completely filled. Sew the last opening and make sure all the holes in the chickens are completely closed.   Butter the chickens and be especially careful to cover the the stitches of the poultry with a lot of butter to help prevent them to open. We also cut some squares of aluminium foil to further cover these areas. At least for half of the cooking time, to protect from the heat. Cook in the oven for approximately 25-30 min until the chicken is golden. Let it cool under aluminium foil and wet kitchen towels for 10-15 minutes, or until you are ready with potatoes or other condiments you are making. Finally you set the oven to max temperature and change to grill or hot air program. Return the chicken to the oven to give it crispy skin again.  Did you try our recipe? Got any questions? Feel free to leave a comment below, or share our site.
This creamy butternut squash soup with shredded chicken is perfect for cold winter evenings and rainy Sundays. As always, good ingredients are key. We bought Røros milk, butternut squash and the other vegetables at Gutta på Haugen. Our favorite gourmet shop in Oslo.   Ingredients 3 chicken breast fillets 1 butternut squash 1 yellow onion 4 small potatoes whole milk parsley salt & pepper turmeric powder chili powder  Let's soup it together You start by boiling the chicken in water for about 12 minutes, until it's done. This depends on the size of the fillets you bought, and how long since you defrosted them. It is advisable to completely defrost meat before you cook or fry it. Peel and cut the butternut squash in smaller pieces. In a pot, fry the onion until it becomes transparent. Add the pumpkin and let it fry along with the onions for a bit. Remove the chicken from the water, and put aside to cool. Keep the broth water! Once the chicken meat is cooled, shred it to pieces as fine as shown below.  Pour the broth over the butternut squash and onion and add parsley. Cook until the butternut squash is soft. Strain the broth and put aside. Stab mix the vegetables.  Carefully add the broth along with whole milk until you get the desired consistency. This is supposed to be more of a cream than a soup. Toss the shredded chicken in there. A pinch of turmeric powder if you want the color to be more yellow, and some chili powder to add a little sting to it. Taste to perfection with salt and pepper. Decorate with parsley before serving.  Did you try our recipe? Got any questions? Feel free to leave a comment below, or share our site.
Andrea's dad, Pepe, came to Oslo to spend his birthday with us. So we decided to make it a culinary weekend. And as they say a picture is worth more than a thousand words, we will tell you the story in pictures (and captions of course).
 We celebrated Pepe's Birthday in Alex Sushi Tjuvholmen eating OMAKASE  Miso Soup for starting the Omakase  Our great chef for the night  The Favorite of the evening: Sea bass Sashimi with white truffle sauce  Happy Pepe and Anders  Nigiri: Blue fin tuna, Yellow tail, Salmon, Scallops and Shrimp  Minke Whale Sashimi with pickled onion and ginger sauce sprinkled with onions  Maki: Yellow tail with spring onions, Fried Soft shell crab with wasabi cream and asparagus & Scallop and salmon roe and avocado  Canadian Lobster gratin with Chili and Lime. Pickled Mushrooms and Seaweed  Elderflower and strawberries Homemade Cocktail  Cheese Pupusas: Chicken Mole, Pork Belly and Ceviche at Hitchhiker  Hitchhiker Cuban Sandwich  Peruvian Canchita while waiting for the table at Aymara  Our favorite: Chicharrón at Aymara  Pepe cooking at Smalhans  Andrea & Anders Cooking at Smalhans  French toasts are famous all over the world. In Norway and Germany it's called "arme riddere/arme ritter". After making Aji de Gallina we had a lot of white bread left. Since Tostadas Francesas are Pepe's favorite we decided to make it his last meal in Oslo this visit.  Good ingredients are always key. The bread can be cheap and even dry, but use good quality milk from Røros and fresh organic eggs. Ingredients 3 eggs 1dl whole milk White bread Salt and pepper  Crack the eggs and whisk together, then add the milk and salt and pepper. Whisk carefully as you don't want it to get foamy. Heat the pan and add some butter.  Pass the egg mix into a flat container, or big plate with tall edges. Soak the bread on each side until you see that there are no dry parts. Don't leave it to soak too much, because it will get impossible to move without breaking. My trick is to lift a corner... If the bread is getting too heavy to lift, then remove it.  Put them right away in the pan and just flip them once it is golden. Don't over cook. It is supposed to be a bit "raw" in the middle.  Add your favorite honey over it and Enjoy!  Anticuchos Last November it was the Mexican kitchen which opened two new restaurants in Oslo - Taco Republica and Tijuana. The first being quite hyped, and the latter almost anonymous in comparison. However, Tijuana became my favorite because of the food, concept and prices, although I can still enjoy Taco Republica as well. This November, it is the Peruvian cusine - First out was Aymara two weeks ago and yesterday Piscoteket had their opening Pisco Disco.  Pisco Sour and an aquavit cocktail Both places have received equal distribution of media attention. The Peruvian kitchen is the hype more than the specific restaurants. Piscoteket has Jaime Pesaque, though – chef and owner of Peruvian restaurants all over the world. That does create some expectations. We were here on opening night, just like Aymara. The menu was a set menu (NOK 450), with options of wine or cocktail pairing.  Canchita (Peruvian popcorn) What we liked about it: - The huge bar in the middle of the room, pumping out cocktails. - The presentation of the dishes. It looked good on the plate. - The interior design of the place, the logo, authetic bus tickets and peruvian posters. Pretty colors! - The authentic Peruvian music playing in the background. - The traditional Pisco Sour.  Classical ceviche What we hope they will improve: - The ingredients… Those shrimps we got were super tiny, and couldn’t possibly be fresh. The octopus was tough and hard to chew, I had to spit it out. Some of the entrecote pieces as well. The scallops did not have the same fresh taste or mouthfeel as the ones we got at Aymara. I could even swear some of the vegetables had a taste of being canned… We really hope this was due to opening night and improves in the weeks to come. - The flavors of the different leche de tigre is a big part of the meal here, and they did not appeal to us as much. Overall it was not so exciting. Soon they will have Ají de Gallina, Lomo Saltado and Causa on the menu as well, and we will probably go back to test them.  Scallops tiradito  Warm ceviche  Quinoa con pato  Arroz con leche  Dessert cocktail Have you been to Piscoteket? What do you think? Has it improved?  Ají de Gallina - "The chili of the hen". Traditionally this Peruvian dish is made with hen, which gives a different taste, but our recipe is with chicken. We used chicken because it is more available, and you are actually just supposed to use the breast fillets. Good quality hen can be hard to find.
Ingredients (serves 6-8 people) 4 chicken breast fillets 6 slices of white bread, crust removed (you can use old bread) 3 dl whole milk (we recommend Røros milk in Norway) 2 yellow onions 4 garlic cloves 6 tbsp of Aji amarillo paste (yellow Peruvian chili paste)* 100g walnuts 100g parmesan cheese (grated) Olive oil White pepper Salt * If you can't find aji amarillo, don't add the same amount of other types of chilis. Instead make a paste of yellow pepper and add some chili to it. 1 liter chicken/hen stock: Chicken carcass 1 carrot 1 celery stalk 1 leek 2 garlic cloves Water Salt Sides: 8 hard-boiled eggs, halved 8-12 potatoes Black olives Fresh parsley Basmati rice 2 garlic colves Sunflower oil Salt Start cooking! Start by separating the chicken breast fillets from the carcass. The chicken legs can be frozen and saved for another dish. The carcass goes in the stock! Chop the onions it into smaller pieces and fry them in oil. Let them caramelize in the pan. Rough chop all the vegetables for the stock. No need to peel carrot and garlic, just don't forget to clean them. Let the vegetables fry in the oil for a while too. Then add water. Fill water in the pot to completely cover everything and then some more. Get to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. During the first few hours of simmering, you’ll need to remove the impurities that float to the surface. A frothy/foamy layer will form and it can be easily scooped off with a big spoon. Throw this part away. Then put a lid on and let it cook on low heat for as many hours as you have available or preferably over night. Once it is done you strain the broth from the meat and vegetables and pour it back in the pot. Remove the surface fat once it cools. Now you can cook the chicken breast fillets in the broth until they are done. Remove them and allow to cool down, then shred the meat very finely. Meanwhile you place the white bread in the milk to soak. Dice the onion, finely mince the garlic for the stew and pureé the garlic for the rice along with some sunflower oil. Chop the walnuts to small pieces. Grate the parmesan. Once you have everything in place you are ready to start cooking. Boil the eggs for 8-12 minutes until they are done (hard boiled). Place in cold water, then remove the shell. Cut in half. Cook the rice in water with salt and the garlic/oil pureé. Chop parsley and boil potatoes. Ready the olives. Fry onions and garlic in olive oil on low heat until they get blank. Add the soaked bread and milk and stir well to prevent it from burning. Add the aji amarillo paste and the broth and let it cook for 10 minutes to thicken. Add chicken and walnuts in the end. Finally the grated parmesan cheese. Adjust taste with salt and white pepper, and more aji amarillo paste if needed. Serve the Aji de Gallina on the lovely garlic rice, with potatoes, eggs, olives and fresh parsley on the side. Blue Congo potatoes chips for garnish is optional!  Suspiro a la Limeña translates to "the sigh of the Lima woman". Sometimes you will see it as Suspiro Limeño (“sigh of Lima”) as well. In either case it's a dessert that will leave you breathless. The bottom part consists of a sweet "dulce de leche"-like cream with vanilla seeds. Topped with a port wine infused Italian meringue. Traditionally, sprinkled with cinnamon. Our recipe serves eight people, and also suggests two different ways to finish off the dessert. Ingredients For the Dulce de Leche cream 2 cans of Viking milk (or other brand of unsweetened condensed milk, e.g. Rainbow) 1 can of sweetened condensed milk 3 egg yolks 1 vanilla pod 1 tsp cinnamon For the port wine infused Italian meringue 200g + 40g sugar 4 egg whites (160g) 1dl port wine Equipment: Candy thermometer (we bought ours at Traktøren for NOK 129) This is how you crack it down Split the egg yolks and whites making sure absolutely no yolk gets into the white. Leave it out to get to room temperature. Start with the Dulce de Leche cream for the bottom part of the dessert. Warm the Viking milk and sweetened condensed milk in a pot. Add the cinnamon, vanilla seeds and the scraped vanilla pods. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and gets darker brown in color (could take 20 minutes or more). Take out and throw away the vanilla pods. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. Whisk the egg yolks together, and add them to the mixture while whisking heavily. Return the pot to the heat for 4 minutes while you stir constantly. The mixture should now thicken significantly. Take it easy on low heat, but increase heat if it doesn't thicken on medium-low. Pour the thickened mixture into eight serving glasses of your choice. Let it cool down to room temperature, then set in the fridge for at least another 30 minutes or until serving. Now make the Italian meringue while the cream is cooling. Italian meringue can be tricky, and requires exact measurements and precise execution. Thanks to Hobbykokken for great tips about this (Norwegian link). Warm the 200g of sugar and port wine in a pot. You will need a candy thermometer which can tell you when the mixture reaches 120 degrees C (248 degrees F). While this mixture is boiling, in a kitchen machine with a clean metal bowl, whisk together the egg whites with the 40g of sugar. Whisk until you have soft peaks on your meringue. When the port wine sugar syrup is 120 degrees you pour it into the outer edge of your soft meringue in a thin stream, making sure it doesn't hit your whip. Continue whisking for 15 minutes until the meringue has cooled and got it's soft ice consistency. Fill a pastry bag with meringue and make nice swirls or other cool shapes on top of the cooled cream. Dust with cinnamon for a traditional Suspiro. When serving this at Smalhans we also sprinkled purple Peruvian corn powder over for some extra crunch and nice colors. You can burn the meringue slightly if you prefer.  |
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June 2021
AuthorsI am Andrea, or as my friends call me, Jinx. I am a foodie living in Berlin, eating my way through life. Here are my recipes, cooking events, dining experiences and more... |
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