Schweppes asked us to make some fresh summery drinks and lemonades that goes well with food. Five different recipes were developed in the Two Foodies Eating lab, and we teamed up with Jan Robin Ektvedt at the restaurant Hitchhiker to get some awesome street food dishes to match the drinks perfectly. Of course, that was no challenge for JR who recently launched a cookbook about street food from around the world together with Stian Floer.

Photographer Carl Christian Raabe shot all the photos and videos, and one recipe will be featured each week on Dagbladet.no and printed in the glossy weekend magazine Dagbladet Magasinet for the next five weeks! The second recipe is now out; a lemonade with Schweppes Grapefruit paired with a tropical ceviche. You can read the recipe in Norwegian and watch the video of how it was made here. Andrea styled and art directed the photos/videos and Anders starred in the mixing videos.

Ingredients (per glass)

• 2,5 dl Schweppes Grapefruit
• 1 stalk with leaves of lemon verbena
  
• 4 slices of fresh grapefruit
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  
• 2 tbsp honey syrup cooked with 6 leaves of lemon verbena
  
• 4 ice cubes

Summer lemonade in 1-2-3!

• Honey syrup is made by boiling one part acacia honey with one part water for 1 minute together with 6 leaves of lemon verbena, sift and cool
• Add 4 ice cubes to a glass
• Pour in 2,5 dl (or about 3/4 of the glass) with Schweppes Grapefruit
  
• Then add 2 tbsp of the honey syrup and 1 tbsp of lemon juice
  
• Stir with a spoon to mix
• Decorate with two slices of grapefruit and a stalk of lemon verbena
  

When I heard I was going to be with #Kultour in Provence making food with lavender, I got super excited. And my first idea was chicken with lavender syrup. Lavender is not the most known herb in the culinary world. Many people and some known chefs do not like using it because sometimes it can overpower the food and taste like soap.  But I have never had that problem when cooking with lavender. The main thing is not to use too much and not use it directly like a seasoning. Instead; make a syrup or make a tea of it. Lavender is from the family of rosemary and you can easily use lavender in stead of rosemary in every recipe. Just try it! 

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
5-7 congo potatoes
1 tsp of lavender
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper
Half a lemon

Peel and boil the potatoes. Add 2 tbsp of water, sugar and lavender in a pan. Let it boil until it becomes a syrup and pass though a strainer to separate the lavender from the syrup. Clean the pan and add half of the butter. Salt and pepper the chicken and fry on the skin side for 6 minutes. Turn it and fry for 6 more minutes, add the syrup and make sure the whole chicken is covered with it.  Mash the potatoes and add butter, salt and pepper. Serve with lemon, garnish with fresh lavender and enjoy!

I will post the Lavender Marmalade and Lavender Butter recipes later this week... so stay tuned!

When I first got asked about making a new version of fårikål, I had no idea what that dish was... Of course translated directly it is lamb and cabbage, but I never got the opportunity to try it in the last 4+ years I lived in Oslo. And that was the main idea, Norwegians almost never invite you home to try Norwegian food, and you cannot find many Norwegian restaurants in Oslo. 

I did my research, and invited a friend of mine to be the test rabbit for me. I made the recipe as it said in many online sites and it tasted like fårikål. But that wasn't the challenge I had. The challenge was to make this dish a bit gourmet, a bit different. Le's make Norwegians want to invite their friends and show them what Norwegian cuisine is all about!

So I decided to deconstruct it!

Ingredients

4 pieces of lamb from Anni's Pølsemakeri
1 cabbage
Potatoes
1 tbsp butter
Licorice powder from Johan Bülow
Ground and whole pepper
Salt
Fresh rosemary
1 tsp oil

In order to deconstruct, you need to make the traditional dish first.

Use a big pot, add a bit of oil and place a piece of lamb, salt, pepper corns and fresh rosemary. Cut the cabbage in big pieces, and cover the lamb. Add another lamb piece, salt, pepper with rosemary and add more cabbage. Continue until the last piece of lamb is covered with cabbage. Add water until all is covered and let it boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 2.5 hours. You will notice the cabbage will turn a bit transparent and then it is done. Peel and boil the potatoes until they are soft.

Now the deconstruction starts!

Carefully remove the big pieces of cabbage and set them aside. Set the lamb carefully on a plate. Remove the rosemary from the pot.  Use a ring to cut the cabbage in small round pieces. You can use a shot glass or cut them with a knife if you don't have any rings at home. Place them in a bowl with a bit of the broth from the pot so they stay warm and wet. Mash the potatoes and add butter and salt and set aside. Use some liquorice powder and rub the lamb with it. It will give the flavors of beer (a secret I got from my pal Espen) and put as well aside. Take the rest of the cabbage and blend it until it is a puree, Add some extra ground pepper or broth until it is creamy.

Plating this dish is easy. Add 2 tablespoons of mash potatoes and cover it with the cabbage circles we made. Fry the rubbed lamb with butter until golden. Add the cabbage puree next to the potatoes and serve the lamb over it. Add fresh rosemary or pomegranate over the lamb to garnish.

It tastes like the fårikål we started with. I hope you guys like it and try to make it for your friends any day soon!

Here is the complete episode!

Last month, I travelled to Finland. It was my birthday and I've wanted to go to Helsinki since I was 5 years old. So I took a plane and spent 3 days is amazing Helsinki... I visited 3 great restaurants and found 3 great coffee shops. Surprisingly enough, Finland has great coffee spots and roasteries. I visited them all and were very impressed with all of them. 

Johan & Nyström

I have visited before Johan & Nyström and it is one of my favorites in Stockholm, but as well in Helsinki! The coffee shop is at Hamringevägen next to the waterline in a beautiful brick building. The red bricks and interior design on this place makes you feel like you teleported yourself to Brooklyn. They have the biggest glutenfree selection I have ever seen in a coffee place in Europe, and that includes things that aren't sweet.

Kahvila Sävy

I don't quite remember how I landed here. I think the guys from Good Life Coffee sent me in this direction. But I ended up at Kahvila Sävy. They had a gluten free selection and a big of pastry selection. I tried some Kenyan brewed on V60 and it was great.

On my third trip with #Kultour I went to Roquefort to see how Roquefort cheese is made. As some of you saw in the "behind the scenes" in the latest Vlog, I was really in the town of Roquefort. It was incredible to see the natural caves where the bacteria comes from and how this famous cheese is made.

The boys asked me to make a recipe that includes Roquefort cheese, and since the weather is getting warmer I thought why not make a fresh tartar? With a twist, though! I didn't want to make it in the regular traditional way, but in stead used ingredients like quail eggs and figs.

Ingredients

200 g beef sirloin or tenderloin
1 dl of the fresh cheese Nyr, or use heavy cream or crème fraîche
50 g Roquefort cheese
2 fresh figs
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp butter
6 quail eggs
1 tsp olive oil
Salt & pepper

The most important thing when you are making a tartar is the meat. Always use sirloin/tenderloin and get it from your trusted butcher. Cover the meat and place it in the freezer until it is a bit hard outside. This will help when cutting it. Cut the beef in roughly 0.5 cm dices. Cover and place on the fridge so it doesn't get warm again. I like to add a little bit of olive oil to it. 

Warm a pan with some butter. Cut the figs in boats and place them on the pan. Add sugar and let it caramelize on low heat. Remember to stir once in a while. In a bowl mix the cheese and cream until it is blended.

Plate the meat in a nice circle. Open the quail eggs. Do not crack them as they are very fragile. Pinch a whole on the top of the egg with a fork and start peeling the egg slowly. Use your hands to separate the yolks from the egg whites. Add the figs over the tartare and decorate with the roquefort cream, egg yolks and some green herbs. I used ramsons.

Schweppes asked us to make some fresh summery drinks and lemonades that goes well with food. Five different recipes were developed in the Two Foodies Eating lab, and we teamed up with Jan Robin Ektvedt at the restaurant Hitchhiker to get some awesome street food dishes to match the drinks perfectly. Of course, that was no challenge for JR who recently launched a cookbook about street food from around the world together with Stian Floer.

Photographer Carl Christian Raabe shot all the photos and videos, and one recipe will be featured each week on Dagbladet.no and printed in the glossy weekend magazine Dagbladet Magasinet for the next five weeks! The first recipe out is a strawberry and basil granita made with Schweppes Russchian and paired with a dish of shrimp tacos served in little gem salad leaves. You can read the recipe in Norwegian and watch the video of how it was made here. Andrea styled and art directed the photos/videos and Anders starred in the mixing videos.

Ingredients (per glass)

• 1 dl Schweppes Russchian 
  
• 6 fresh Norwegian strawberries 
  
• 4 leaves fresh basil 
  
• 2 tbsp honey syrup
  
• 6 ice cubes
  

Equipment: Blender

This is how easy it is!

• Honey syrup is made by boiling one part acacia honey with one part water for 1 minute and cool
• Crush 6 ice cubes in a blender
• Add 6 fresh strawberries and 3 leaves fresh basil to the blender
• Then add 2 tbsp of the honey syrup and continue to blend to a slush
• Pour into an appropriate glass and top it off with roughly 1 dl Schweppes Russchian
  
• Stir to mix
• Decorate with a basil leaf and a strawberry

Ingredients (4 people)

• 12 leaves of little gem salad
• 300 g peeled shrimps
• 20 g "løyrom"
• 4 tbsp mayo
• 2 celery stalks finely diced
• 1 shallot finely diced
• 1/2 fennel finely diced
• Salt and lemon juice
• Sliced basil leaves and fennel "grass" for topping

Smack it together like the pros at Hitchhiker!

• Wash the little gem salad leaves in cold water
• Mix all ingredients except the salad, "løyrom" and toppings
• Taste to perfection with salt and lemon juice
• Scoop some of the mix into each of the salad leaves
• Top with the basil and fennel "grass

Eat and enjoy!

Caviar. I normally used to enjoy it with a glass of Champagne on a special day. Or steal it from my grandma's fridge and eat it under the kitchen table when I was a kid. However, there are many ways of enjoy caviar besides eating it alone.

One of my favorite ways to eat caviar is as a condiment. It adds a fishiness and saltiness. So when the guys from #Kultour asked me to create a recipe that includes caviar, I decided to make a swiss Rösti with crème fraîche, scallops and caviar. I wanted to show that caviar can be used to enhance flavors in a recipe.

We went to Caviar Nacarii in the Pyrenees and I got to fish sturgeons with my "bear" hands. We ended up cooking in the mountains. You should check #Kultour Facebook to see the video, they will add the episodes there that have been aired on TV2.

Ingredients

5 potatoes
1 dl crème fraîche
2 scallops
Caviar
Butter and oil
Salt and pepper

This is how I made it outside in the Pyrenees!

Grind the potatoes with or without skin. Press them a lot until all water is gone and the potatoes are a bit dry.  Warm a pan with 1 teaspoon of butter and a little oil. Add salt and pepper to the potatoes and make two balls with them and flatten them with your hands. Fry them on one side until the edges start to get transparent. Turn them and wait until they are golden.

Put the rösti on the plate and turn the heat to max in your pan. Add another teaspoon of butter or goose fat if you are feeling crazy. Salt and pepper the scallops and fry the scallops for 30 seconds on each side. Add a spoonful of creme fraiche over the rösti and top with the scallop and caviar.

Enjoy before it gets cold!

The moment I got chosen to be in #Kultour, I knew I had to do some new things and learn new stuff.
And I was so right. My first task was to learn about sausages and make them on my own.
I am so glad Daniel the butcher, from Anni's Pølsemakeri was so kind to help us with this.

As a half German girl I always thought Germany was the country in the world that consumed the most sausages, or maybe the United States with their love for hot dogs and fast food. Turns out, however, that it is Norway! Norwegians eat 100 kg of pølse per capita each year! Can you believe it!?

First things first, let's get to the basic sausage recipe. To this we will add extra flavor and seasoning.

Ingredients:
650 g meat of your choice
250 g fat
20 g salt
Lamb casing

You will need a meat grinder. We had the Kitchen Aid Meat Grinder, which works quite nicely for making the sausage "dough". Pass the meat through the grinder and the fat as well. And when the last part of meat is passing the grinder, a good a trick from Daniel is to put a piece of bread to grind. That way you will get all the meat out of it and it will clean a bit too.

Once the meat was done we separated it in four batches. Now comes the part where you can be creative and go crazy with the flavors. We did the following variations:

Sausage 1: Beef & Brie
Sausage 2: Pork, smoked paprika powder and Parmesan cheese
Sausage 3: Pork, beef & Anders' homemade Hitchhiker inspired chicken rub with coffee
The #Kultour sausage: Pork, finely diced shallots, chilli powder and fine herbs

We got so excited about making sausages that we actually didn't make pictures of the process...
This is how it works, though!  First, you start the machine and push the meat until you see it come out the other end. Then make a knot. Keep pushing the meat and twist the sausage on the desired length and continue until you have no more meat. Add another knot and you, Sir, have made yourself a home made sausage! Now, if you feel lucky, you can make brioche hot dog buns using this burger bread recipe.

Roquefort! I always thought about the cheese and never thought about the city this cheese is named after. My first mission for this trip was to meet the guys in the town of Millau. I flew to Marseille and then my odyssey started. First was the weather changes. I was flying from wintery Oslo to the burning hot south of France. I am so glad I kept a mini skirt in my bag.

When I arrived at the train station, there were no toilets or any other places to change, so I had to suck it up and strip in the middle of the station. But good God it was worth it. So much better than be burning in black skinny jeans and a big sweater! I had a long way to Millau, with many trains stops including Montpellier and a two hour bus drive. Finally, after 14 hours I made it and the boys were waiting for me at the cabin with chilled wine bottles.

The next day we drove early morning to Roquefort. After researching as much as I could about the cheese it was so great to see the process and learn even more! Do you know that Cassanova used to give away Roquefort cheese instead of diamonds to impress the ladies?


Afterwards we drove to the top of a cliff, and I got to cook again in yet another amazing place with a stunning view. It was very windy as you can see in the video, but it was fun. One thing went wrong, thought. I had forgot to pack forks and spoons, so I ended up driving through the mountains looking for a house! In the end I found the shepard Bertrand, and he was so kind to lend me some silverware. So it all got sorted and we were able to eat and cook, and as always I brought our very own Figgjo porcelain so at least there was some "Two Foodies Eating" over the presentation.

After shooting we went to a beautiful B&B that used to be a house, and you could feel the "Great Gatsby" in the air. It was my birthday and I had a blast and to finish such a great day, we had a great dinner.