Monday 23 July 2012

Strawberries

We have just returned home from a wonderful holiday in Italy. A week of seafood and white wine means that we by now crave for some red wine and what better than a nicely chilled (15-16) Chateauneuf du Pape. We find a bottle of Mont-Redon 2007 and so it is just a matter of what to eat.



Becoming used to the Italian style of a Primo and a Secondo we need to figure out what to start with and since Irma has chanterelles on offer we naturally go for a crostini with chanterelles.


Chanterelles crostini:
Rinse the chanterelles but try to avoid using water. Fry in good olive oil with some garlic, and a bit of herbs (on this day it was marjoram). When almost tender throw in a couple of deseeded fresh, sweet small tomatoes and a splash of lemon juice.
Serve on toasted bread and finish off with a bit of shaved parmesan cheese and lots of black pepper.



Another thing on offer and in season is a Danish trademark, strawberries. We have earlier experimented a bit with salad containing strawberries and so we try again. T prepares a salad of sliced strawberries, thinly sliced fennel and crumbled feta cheese. Add to that some mint leaves. The salad is topped with our best olive oil, raspberry vinegar, salt and pepper.

In the meantime K has marinated a flank steak (could be marinated like this, but on today it is olive oil, garlic, oregano, mint leaves, black pepper, lemon zest and juice and a bit of soy sauce.) which by now is grilled and when ready is sliced thinly. It all works out nicely and the Mont-Redon goes hand in hand with the strawberry salad 8,5/10

Friday 13 July 2012

Chardonnay

Looking at the sidebar it is quite apparent that we enjoy a bottle of Chardonnay now and then. Friday night was yet another occasion and we felt like something special. We had been postponing buying new suitcases for a while but now we drifted into the center of Copenhagen and we made a small detour to L’esprit du vin. We have been meaning to go there for quite a some time after our tasting at Copenhagen Wine Forum. This store holds the agency for some of the best winemakers (Leroy and Peter Sisseck) and is very clearly run by people with great passion for wine and also great knowledge. Somewhat nerdy.
We give them a difficult task of suggesting a Friday wine. They are clearly trying to figure out how much we want to spend and it takes quite a while. In the end we settle for Meusault-Genevrières 2002 from Hospices de Beaune. We also buy some of Peter Sisseck's new wines, Quinta Sardonia and PSI, but they will have to wait for another occasion.
Since we are getting ready for our holiday, we decide to ”snack” rather than prepare a warm meal. We purchase various charcuterie and a Ølandshvedebrød (bread) from Meyer's bakery.
We manage to eat most of what we bought at Magasin – Mad & Vin. Pata Negra (Iberian ham), Finocchio (Italian fennel salami), Saucission Noisette (French salami with nuts), Terrine de trois foie, gruyere cheese and a sheep's milk cheese, the name of which have slipped our minds. Our sole contribution is some guacamole.
Word of advise: If you want to buy pata negra, then Torvehallerne is a third of the price of Mad og Vin (and then it is even correctly cut).
Oh, and then a small sin – Summerbird's Flødeboller. T’s sister found them first, but they are heavenly with white chocolate, marcipan and a hint of liquorice.

Sunday 8 July 2012

Reunion

T has been away on holiday and golfing for far too long and we have been looking forward to the reunion. T is close to exhausted after golfing for three days in sunny weather, but not enough so to miss the opportunity to celebrate and so we go to Torvehallerne late sunday afternoon to get inspired. Most of the booths have closed or are in the process of closing, but we find an open fishmonger and get six norwegian lobsters (langoustine) and half a tail of monkfish. We find a single booth selling bread and get a nice rosemary focaccia. Next we need some vegetables and we head out of the glass building only to find the shop closing down. We get to pick from produce not yet packed away and so we buy broad beans, fennel, tomato, chanterelles and strawberries. (The latter we keep for next morning's breakfast).
Home again we start figuring what to do with our purchases. We start making a crostini of the chanterelles. The chanterelles are fried in olive oil and garlic and fresh tomato, without seeds. It is all arranged on the toasted focaccia and topped with some parmesan shaving. With it we drink our wine, Villa Fidelia Bianco 2004 from Sportoletti. This Umbrian chardonnay was served to us on our very first date, but now we have come to the last bottle. 8/10.
Next up is the seafood, which is grilled in the oven. The langoustine are split in halves (well only the tails), drizzled with olive oil, and rolled in mixed herbs and lemon zest, grilled along with the monkfish (which get the same treatment) for app. 8-10 minutes. On the stove we prepare the vegetables (actually it is K who does it as T just sits and checks out the results from his golfing exploits).
1 fennel is diced and cooked in olive oil with 3 cloves of garlic, one huge tomato, lots of herbs, a bit of cayenne pepper and, for the last ten minutes, a handful of black olives.
On the side broad beans are cooked just tender (2 min) in salted water and cooled in ice cold water.
The best olive oil is added along with some sheep milk feta cheese.
With it we want something special and K has saved a bottle for just such an occasion: Vintage Tunina 2006 from Jehrmann 9/10