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!

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.

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!

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. 

My first mission for the second trip with the awesome #KulTour guys, was to meet them at the airport in Toulouse, France. In my luggage I had cooking equipment and even our very own Figgjo porcelain!

Once JK and Finn-Erik arrived we drove south to Luchon, close to the border of Spain. Our hotel for the first night was located there. An arch typical French and quite spooky and old restaurant was awaiting us for my first meal of the journey. The staff didn't speak any English, but we somehow managed to make them understand that I could not eat gluten. Luckily they could make up a gluten free menu for me on the spot.

The next morning we crossed the border to Spain, and drove to the city of Les. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal what we were shooting here, but I will say it was slimy and crazy fun! Next up we had to scout for the second location of the day. Just by chance, after 30 minutes of driving around we suddenly ended up in the most amazing location you could ever imagine. Just watch for yourself in the Vlog!

Almost as quickly as we had entered, we also had to leave Spain again. The hotel for the second night was back in Foix, France. The second restaurant of the trip had a beautiful view to an old castle. The menu had no gluten at all, which was just perfect for me!

Today I am leaving to France again to record three episodes from the 9th of June until the 14th of June. Sadly one of those days is my birthday, which is not ideal, but we did just have a great birthday weekend in Helsinki. We will be posting about it here in the weeks to come.

Don't forget you can follow #KulTour and Two Foodies Eating in many channels:

#KULtour
Instagram: kultournorway
Snapchat: KULtour
Facebook: TV2KulTour

Two Foodies Eating
Instagram: TwoFoodiesEating
Snapchat: TwoFoodiesEat
Facebook: Two Foodies Eating

If Germans would be able to settle on one national dish, it could easily be argued to be currywurst. Unfortunately they can't agree due to regional differences in that vast country. However, we were not in doubt of what to make when we invited over the guys from #KulTour for a German evening. New readers might want to check this post and this about the summer adventure Andrea is having with the TV2 film production team along the Tour de France route.

Currywurst is a German fast food, which you will often find served from a food truck or another kind of food booth. The original is made with some sort of bratwurst, sliced in pieces, and served with a ketchup or tomato paste seasoned with curry. We got our sausages from Anni's Pølsemakeri, and made the curry sauces ourselves of course.

Finn-Erik and John Kaare from #KulTour came visiting and brought Finn-Erik's girlfriend Cisilie and his daughter Filipa. We knew that homemade currywurst would be quite new to them, so we made two types of sauces to go with the sausages. One very traditional ketchup based sauce and another gourmet version based on the recipe of famous German chef Frank Rosin. In addition we made Heston Blumenthal's triple cooked fries.

Classic Currywurst Sauce

2 tbsp sunflower oil
100 g tomato ketchup
250 g tomato puree
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 tblsp sugar
Salt
Curry powder

It couldn't be easier!

Mix all ingredients and boil the sauce in a pot while stirring. Taste with salt and curry powder until delicious.

Grill the sausages, slice them in pieces, pour the sauce over and dust with more curry powder. Serve with the best ever triple cooked french fries.

Done!

Gourmet Currywurst Sauce by Frank Rosin

4 red peppers
​​1 shallot, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste
500 ml chicken broth
1 half chili
100 g sugar
1 tbsp mild paprika powder
2 tbsp curry powder
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp sunflower oil

This one is a bit more work, but also pretty easy!

Fry the shallots and garlic in a pan on low heat with some oil and the sugar, until they caramelize. This could take a while, about 30 minutes, so start early.

Chop the peppers and chilis and place them in a tray in the oven with some oil to caramelize as well. 180 degrees for 25 minutes should do the trick. Once everything is soft and yummy, mix the peppers, chilis, onions and garlic together and add all the other ingredients.

Cook for 15 minutes. Taste with salt and curry powder until it makes you so happy that you dance the currywurst jiggle.

Use a stab mixer to make it into a fine sauce. Serving is similar to the classic sauce.

Andrea is leaving for France and Spain to film with the #KulTour guys again on Wednesday the 27th of May. If you want to know what they are up to, make sure to follow #KulTour and Two Foodies Eating in these channels:

#KULtour
Instagram: kultournorway
Snapchat: KULtour
Facebook: TV2KulTour

Two Foodies Eating
Instagram: TwoFoodiesEating
Snapchat: TwoFoodiesEat
Facebook: Two Foodies Eating

Use hashtags #KULtour and #twofoodieseating

It is official! I made the famous duo into a trio for this years #KulTour. I will be #KulTour's gastronomic alibi during their cultural trip along the Tour de France route in 2015. I feel so honored I was chosen to do this, although national television is always a bit scary.

The first episode I will appear in was shot in Liège, Belgium. I was super nervous about going because I had to be cooking on location with limited kitchen equipment. Luckily it turned out very well, except for a small knife injury! To be honest, it was almost like cooking with friends at home while talking and having some drinks.

John Kåre (aka JK) is an amazing host and co-host. I had a really good time and sometimes I even forgot the whole thing was being filmed. He made me laugh like crazy. Finn-Erik is great both behind the camera and in front. He made me feel very comfortable, even though I get very self-conscious when there is a camera around me.

Once I arrived at the tiny airport outside Liège, taxi was the only means of transportation to the city. Since I like to talk to strangers I asked the only other person in the airport if he would share a cab with me. After some minutes talking it turned out that he has actually been following me in social media for many years... What are the odds!?

I arrived at the hotel and to my surprise the name of the hotel was Husa... Yes, the name of my foodie boyfriend. Naturally, the name Husa was printed everywhere in the hotel, so I got to miss my partner in crime all the time.

My first task was to choose a restaurant. As I arrived on a Sunday that was quite difficult, seeing as almost every restaurant was closed. I ended up choosing L'Ecallier. It was suggested in the Michelin Guide, and the website photos told me it would be a very cozy French place. Indeed it was! Murals everywhere, cozy little booths and very French waiters. The food was really tasty too. JK chose all the wine pairings to perfection and we had a great evening of eating, drinking and planning the next day's shooting.

Two Foodies will be on TV this summer! More specifically one foodie. Andrea will be hosting and co-hosting some episodes on the #KULtour program, which is part of the "Tour de France" broadcast at TV 2. The show will do various features about food, wine and culture along the Tour de France route, with the first stop being Belgium.

Here is the trailer for the 2013 show with English subtitles to give you an idea of what is coming.

You can follow the #KULtour and Two Foodies Eating in many channels:

#KULtour
Instagram: kultournorway
Snapchat: KULtour
Facebook: TV2KulTour

Two Foodies Eating
Instagram: TwoFoodiesEating
Snapchat: TwoFoodiesEat
Facebook: Two Foodies Eating

Use hashtags #KULtour and #twofoodieseating