Interview

It actually pays off to be nice to your colleagues!
My co-worker Bram (and new BFF) has very kindly asked me to join him during his interview with (wait for it...) Nigella Lawson!
(He’s writing and I’ll be doing the layout, so it sort of makes sense for me to be there. Almost)

So now I'm to meet The Domestic Goddess! Like, in person!
Which is crazy. But crazy cool, definitely.

Cottage pie with gnocchi

It's baking (outside as well as in)

Okay, so it’s thirty degrees out and I’m inside baking. There’s something wrong with that picture. Granted the ‘gently folding in’ of the egg whites is just the kind of languorous activity for a day like this, however the washing up nearly killed me.
Anyway the cake is in the oven now and I feel very satisfied. I also feel gross and kind of sticky, but that’s another matter.
Yesterday I caught a rerun of Sophie Dahl’s programme on the 'celebratory mood' in which she made a flourless chocolate cake, which apart from looking very appetising, looked extremely simple to make. So you know how I said I probably wouldn't be making any of her recipes? So much for that theory.
Where, upon the first viewing I pretty much just ogled Miss Dahl, this time around I actually paid attention and I was struck by the extremely clever use of a cup of boiling water. The batter is made in a food processor and the chocolate, instead of being given the au-bain-marie treatment (much fuss), is just broken in. Blitz the chocolate with the sugar, add egg yokes, butter, vanilla, some ground coffee and the aforementioned cup of boiling water and blitz again. Done. Extremely clever in it’s simplicity (and therefore instantly gratifying). Just tip this mixture in a bowl and gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites, which is manageable, like I said, even on a day like this. After that, if you have a dishwasher it’s the proverbial ‘blue skies’. No, I don’t have one.

I want...

A fantastically beautiful book on pasta & the new Nigella, to be released september 2nd.

Apple & Oats

I would love to be the kind of person who enjoys making breakfast. I'm not. The thing is, when I’m reading cookbooks I get a real craving for those healthy “Up And At ‘Em, Adam Ant!” kind of dishes. I just hate cooking in the morning. I do make American pancakes, but with a terrible irregularity. I love that golden stack, dripping with maple syrup, light and fluffy and sickly sweet. But that’s the problem: I love to eat it, I just don’t want to make it when I’ve just woken up.
However I have recently tried my hand at an apple granola dish, which I found extremely pleasing. Best of all, you make the separate parts the night before and just layer them in a dish in the morning.

Apple & Oats Crisp

4 or 5 apples of your choice (I like tart apples)
2 cups oats
0,5 cup grated coconut
0,5 cup almond flakes
4 tablespoons suger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons golden syrup
75 grams butter

Peel and core the apples and cut them into smallish chunks, squeeze over some lemon juice and cover with the sugar and cinnamon. Put into a container and place in the fridge.
Mix the oats, almonds and coconut in a container.

In the morning: Melt the butter with the honey and golden syrup and stir in the oats mixture. Place the apples in an oven dish and layer the buttery oats on top. Place in a preheated oven, 200C, for about thirty minutes, until golden (if it colours too fast, cover with foil and remove it again for the last five minutes).

Serve a big, warm, sludgy yet crispy spoonful in a bowl.

Monday Night's Alright

Some like it hot. When it comes to food, I like it very hot. In fact I like it so hot the paint comes off the kitchen door.
This is another one of those Monday night suppers that has to be done in a flash, consumed with relish, and leave a comforting numbness in it's wake. It's my simplest curry in a hurry yet (with, as always, a little help from Nigella).
Now I know a lot of chefs will turn up their noses at this kind of curry, saying it's cheating to make a curry like this. Now I have one thing to say to those chefs... Who am I kidding, I have several things to say to them. First: I'm not a chef, I'm a cook, so there. Second: where some say this is cheating I argue there is no cheating when it comes to cooking. However, there are shortcuts. And shortcuts are to be enjoyed and used to great effect. Third: I am in no way advocating it's okay to say this is all yours, made from scratch. It isn't. Don't get me wrong, I love making curry from scratch, but anyone who claims to make curry from scratch during the week, after coming home from work, and to enjoy the process... Well either they're lying or they're much better people than I am.
Either way, this isn't curry from scratch. This is curry from a jar, a can, a packet and several bags of something or other. And when you taste it, you'd never be able to tell. I find that truly comforting.


Curry in a Monday Night Hurry

2 chickenbreasts, cut into small pieces
1 can of coconut milk
4 tablespoons of yellow curry paste
1 chicken stock cube
1 yellow pepper, cut into small pieces
Broccoli, cut into florets
A handful of frozen peas and frozen green beans, or whatever veg you have in your frozen kitchen garden.

Fry the chicken in some sesame oil and add the pepper. When it's starting to colour, add the curry paste (this makes the dish, so add as much as you want, as I said, I like mine to burn, blister and scald). Stir in the coconut milk, add the broccoli and the stock cube and simmer for a few minutes. Add the frozen veg, peas and whatnot, and simmer for another minute or two. Serve with basmati rice.

Nigella's different Christmas

Okay so this is just a bit of fun, really. But take a look at the cultural difference between Europe and America. For the European market the photograph on the cover of Nigella's Christmas (a wonderful book, by the way) is of Nigella holding a plate of delicious looking roast potatoes. She exudes all kinds of goodness (as she always does) and the potatoes are there to hark back to family dinners, togetherness, domestic warmth, etc.


















Now the American market appears to be far less interested in domestic warmth. They seem to be interested in things that are sweet and fattening (no surprise there, then). Or, to be fair, that's what the publisher seems to think.


Seeing how I'm a graphic designer and spend more than a little time photoshopping, I can barely stand to look at this. I mean I sort of get why they did it, but why did they do it so badly? Those cookies are crazy big! Totally out of proportion, also the focus doesn't match the rest of the picture and don't even look at the area around her fingers. Photoshop is a program that's all about finesse. They didn't use any of that here... In fact it looks like they used scissors. Dull ones.
Funny though.

Rødgrød med Fløde

Certain ingredients need a lot of help to become something special. This can be really amazing, to take things that aren’t very interesting or don’t stand well on their own, and turn them into something that is truly more than the sum of it’s parts. These are the times when you realise that there is a certain x-factor involved in cooking and baking. Like how an egg, some butter, sugar and flour can become a moist, golden, dense or indeed light and airy, cake. Looking at a packet of flour it’s hard to imagine the two are related. Seeing the way food works, changes, indeed, undergoes a metamorphoses is an extremely big part of the joy of cooking.
Then again there are ingredients that you really don’t have to help at all. Certain things are pretty much perfect as they are. Like chocolate. You need a really special recipe if you’re going to improve upon good quality dark chocolate. Another example would be fruit. Berries, in this instance. Red currants, raspberries, strawberries… They are complete and perfect as they are so if you’re going to cook with them my advice would be to do as little to them as possible. Simply accentuate what makes them great and make sure not to lose any of their charm, colour and above all flavour.

This, I think, is the best dessert ever. It’s sweet but also tart, silky smooth but with a crunch, it’s not too heavy, it’s fresh and vibrant, it looks beautiful, easy to make… It’s just berries.

Rødgrød med Fløde is a traditional Danish recipe. In the cold Scandinavian clime, where red fruit used to be scarce, you really need to make the most of it when you’ve got it. Rødgrød is pure concentrated fruitiness. All that’s added is a little starch to make it set, some sugar and some toasted almond flakes to give crunch. Serve with cold cream (Fløde) or milk, to cut through the dense flavour.

1 kg mixed (frozen) berries (like red and/or black currants, raspberries, cherries, strawberries)
150-175 g sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
2 tablespoons of cornstarch with a little bit of water
A handful of toasted almond flakes
Cold cream or milk

Rinse the berries and cook in a large pan, with maybe a little bit of water to get them started, and the vanilla pod. Simmer for about ten minutes, maybe more depending on the fruit you’ve used. You want to really boil it down. Add the sugar and take of the heat. Remove the vanilla and add the cornstarch and bring it back to the boil (to activate the starch), then remove and spoon it into a serving bowl. Allow to cool and place in the fridge. When ready to serve sprinkle on some caster sugar and the almonds, serve the cream in a separate jug.

Scandinavian Chocolate Cake

This is a flourless chocolate cake, which means the rise comes from beaten eggwhites. It also means that it will fall when you take it out of the oven, creating huge faultlines along the surface. The cracks and crevices make it look rugged and handsome. Like it's had a hard brutal life and has certainly seen better days. I love that because frankly, haven't we all?



340 gr chocolate (mix milk and dark chocolate)
70 gr butter
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup crushed almonds
180 gr caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp cinnamon

Break the chocolate into chunks and melt it with the butter and the milk. Cream the eggyolks with half the sugar and stir in the molten chocolate mixture. Add the baking powder, cinnamon and almonds.
Beat the eggwhites with the remaining sugar till 'stiff peaks' form. Stir this into the chocolate. Beat in the first spoonful of the eggwhites, then fold in the rest. Take care not to knock out the air, but don't be afraid of it. Just fold in a relaxed manner. Bake for 40 minutes, 180C. When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Quick Supper To Fight Ennui

There are days when I walk into my kitchen, happily twirling my knives and merrily shouting things like "let's dice the carrots!". This isn't one of those days.

You know I really don’t want to come across as a negative person, but when it comes to Mondays I tend to side with Garfield. I find them fairly craptastic, seeing how they tend to start early and go on for ages. This was certainly one of those, where’ you’re home late and the urge to cook has completely evaporated. The urge to eat however is very much present so a compromise has to be made. Now there was a time, not too long ago, when I was one of those people who ate ready made dinners, that go from freezer to stomach in under fifteen minutes and are forgotten immediately. I’m not proud of that particular period, I have to say. I won’t go into the details of why I’d degraded to that level of culinary poverty, I’ll only say it was one of those times. You know the kind, where everything seems bad, so the food may just as well be bad too. Luckily I quickly realised how wrong this mindset is. Food shouldn’t be a mindless extension of your day; it should be an opportunity to turn it around. And after a Monday so extremely Mondayish as this one, that’s just what I need. Because of the ennui I’ve built up during the train ride home I need comfort food, and because I’m tired and short on time I need it fast with a minimum of effort. To a lot of people comfort food means something easy and mellow: a bland, unassuming meal. To me it means the exact opposite. When I’m taken by ennui I want food that has bags of flavour, lots of textures and fire. Most of all I want fire. I want a shock to the senses, and that’s just what this is: my quick chilli, the ultimate comfort food. It’s a doddle to make, it’s quick, healthy and it packs a wallop like a donkey kick.

Quick Chilli

About 300 gr lean beef mince
1 jar of spicy pasta sauce
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 red chilli
1 small can of crispy corn
1 small can of red kidney beans in chilli sauce
1 dash of sweet chilli sauce

Fry the mince in a bit of butter and oil, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add the peppers, chopped into rough chunks. Finely chop the chilli, not bothering to deseed it (the real heat is in the seeds!). Add that and stir in a good dash of the sweet chilli sauce. Season well and fry for a minute or two. Add the corn and the beans and lastly the pasta sauce. Cook for a minute, cover the pan and turn off the heat. With any kind of tomato sauce it's always best to let it relax for a moment, without cooking. The flavour intensifies.

You can eat this with basmati rice, you can stuff it in big red peppers and pop it in the oven, you can cover it with cornbread... Be as creative as you want.
But on this particular Monday I'm just having it with nachos, using them to scoop up the chilli, no utensils required. A small salad of tomato, cucumber and carrot on the side for some cool crunch and it's a great meal, ready in under fifteen minutes.

Fresh Pasta

One of the basics.
It always baffles me that people seem to think making fresh pasta is a hugely challenging exercise. In fact it's probably the easiest dough to make... Ever.
Nigella says it best when she notes that "people fail to make the distinction between difficult and time-consuming... This [making fresh pasta] isn't difficult at all, it just takes a while".
The only rule with making pasta is: 100 grams of flour per egg, and 1 egg equals pasta for 2 people. That's it.
Now you can make the dough using a food processor and it works perfectly fine but I always prefer to make it by hand. Just dump the flour on your work surface, creating a mound. Make a well in the centre, in which you place the egg or eggs. Add a pinch of salt and use your fingers to break up the egg(s) and work them through the flour. It's going to look a horrible shaggy mess for a while, don't despair. Keep kneading and just when you're about to give up it'll start coming together. When you've got a soft ball of dough, cover it with Clingfilm or a tea towel and place in the fridge to rest.
You can use this to make whatever pasta you want, make it as creative and fiddly as you've got patience for. Just remember that it cooks much quicker than dried. If you roll it out and cut it out into tagliatelle or spaghetti it'll take just one or two minutes in boiling salted water.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

A big thank you to the hairy bikers for this awesome recipe from their 'Mum's know best' book. It's incredibly easy and the sugary crust on the top makes it really special.



2 lemons
275 gr caster sugar
175 gr butter
200 gr selfraising flour
0,5 tsp baking powder
3 eggs

It's easiest to just use the foodprocessor. Put in 175 gr of the sugar, the butter, eggs, flour, baking powder and zest of both lemons. Blitz till thick and smooth.
Scoop into a greased caketin and bake for about 35 minutes, 180C.
Leave to cool slightly in the tin. Remove and place on a rack.
Squeeze one of the lemons to get about 3 tablespoons of juice and mix this together with the 100 remaining grams of sugar. Spoon half over the cake, let it crystalize, then spoon over the rest.

Miss Dahl

I've recently discovered her. I know that makes it sound like she owes me some kind of debt of gratitude for discovering her, but that's certainly not the case. In fact it's the other way around. I'm hugely thankful that I've discovered her, because frankly, I find her delicious. Yes I'm talking about Miss Sophie Dahl. The first plus size model, granddaughter to you-know-who. Now I don't care so much about that part. I care more about the book she wrote (Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights) and her recent BBC series The Delicious Miss Dahl. Now I probably won't be making any of the recipes from her book, they just don't really appeal to me. But I'm having the best time reading it. Miss Dahl knows how to write in a deliciously visceral way, especially about food. And that's exactly why I'm so glad to have discovered her, because I see in her a very kindred spirit. Miss Dahl can cook, certainly, but that's not why I love watching her. It's not the food itself but the way she talks about it, the way she handles it. The way she dresses the room, and herself, to turn food into a meal. The way she finds music and poetry to go alongside the food. To mingle with it, marinate in it, until the whole thing comes together. (The fact that the poetry so often comes from Mrs Parker certainly doesn't hurt either)
Even more than knowing her food, Miss Dahl clearly knows all about Hygge. She understand the importance of mood. The comfort you can achieve by making a certain dish at a certain time, with a certain song playing in the background.

To conclude: one of Miss Dahl's favorite Dorothy Parker quotes, which happens to also be a favorite of mine. (Miss Dahl recited it, very appropriately, while making Martini's)

"I wish I could drink like a lady.
I can take one or two at the most.
Three and I'm under the table.
Four and I'm under the host."

Brunsviger

A traditional Danish recipe which originated in Funen. Brunsviger sits comfortably in the realm between bread and cake. It's soft and slightly sweet. Traditionally served with coffee, it also wouldn't be out of place sliced thinly and served as a dessert, with a dollop of icecream. And if you manage to not eat it all at once, and it gets stale, slice it, fry it in butter, sugar and cinnamon for an awesome variation on french toast.




250 ml lukewarm milk
20 gr dried yeast
2 eggs
75 gr butter (melted)
500 gr flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
pinch of salt

glaze:
100 gr butter
150 gr dark moscovado sugar

Add the yeast to the milk and, while stirring, add the eggs and butter. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar and salt and add this to the wet ingredients. Stir to combine and knead for five minutes. Cover the bowl and let it rise for about thirty minutes. Take it out of the bowl and press it down into an ovendish. Let it rise again, for about fifteen minutes. Melt the butter for the glaze and add the dark sugar. Using your finger, jabb the dough all over, creating an uneven surface covered with indentations. Cover with the glaze, which will pool, spill and cascade gloriously. Bake for thirty minutes on 200C.

Produce

Kitchen Garden

Recently my balcony has been closed off to the ravages of wind, rain, hail, all that stuff. But also direct sunlight, unfiltered by glass, so it seemed a terrible shame at the time.
The amount of time it took the builders to close it off with great big windows proved just long enough to kill all the plants i had living there, save my precious fig and olive which i managed to find a home for during the winter. They have since returned, and been joined by a truckload of 'eat-ables'. Seeing how it was during the build (closed off with iron fences, filled with rubble and splinters so big they could've been props on Buffy), it's somewhat remarkable how it's since flourished into an awesome kitchen garden. Just two short weeks ago I put in tomatosaplings, which are already waisthigh.
I've got lemons, peppers, chillies, rhubarb, eggplant, a cucumber that will soon be brushing the roof and all manner of herbs. I've even got a hobbitsized apple tree. It smells amazing, green (yes green is a smell) and fresh, it looks terrific and I've been eating spectacular cherry tomatoes for a week.
Now I have to stress: I don't have a whole lot of room. In fact there's just one truly sunny corner (now packed with plants), but it's amazing how much produce you can gather from such a tiny space. Even if you've just got a windowsill, pop a tomatoplant on it. It's great to avoid all the plastic supermarkets pack their produce in and being able to pick your own.

Nigellapp

I never got into Jamie Oliver. His charm completely eludes me and while there is something to be said about his influence on the 'approach to food' thing, I found the whole hype completely over the top. I did like his series on his kitchen garden, mostly because I love kitchen gardens, but even then... Watching him never got me into the kitchen.

Nigella Lawson however... She's a horse of a different colour (and I mean that in the most loving way possible). She always gets me into the kitchen. I love the way she talks about food, deals with it, cooks with it, the whole scene she sets. It's very hyggelig. And now I also love the fact that I can keep in (very literal) touch with her wherever I am. The Nigellapp is awesome. It's still very new but there's already a ton of features to explore. Recipes, tips, video's, a handy shopping list, etc.
Seeing how it's on iPhone, it's also very hip. I'm sure that's important.
I for one think her chicken in golden curry recipe alone is worth the purchase. Also, it's a great little Nigella fix for all of us waiting for her new book (due september).

Okay, from the top...

First posts are always awkward, I find. Best to focus on the necessary information and move on quickly.

Hygge started out life as a pet project of mine (and so it remains), which involves (but is not limited to) me making cookbooks via iPhoto. I'm currently working on Hygge 2, having just finished Påske Hygge (the Easter edition). Earlier editions include Hygge 1 (obviously) and Julehygge, the Christmas edition.
I started making these books because I love cooking and want to eat well. I was looking for a way to preserve recipes in a way that actually works (scraps of paper with blotches and stains, while charming, never really do the trick). This, combined with narcissistic habit of photographing things I make, led to a cookbook. Made sense at the time.
Naturally I now have way too many pictures (I snap away like mad and usually only one or two pics make it to the printed page). So I need a second outlet. Seeing how I've recently developed an addiction to foodblogs (seriously, don't start reading those) it only made sense to start my own (and no you shouldn't read this one either).
I'll be uploading recipes, with pictures, as often as I can. Also foodrelated facts, bits of inspiration, news on foodies, etc. I'll also be doing my best to refrain from using the term 'foodies'.

So here goes.
Vi hygger os enormt!