Christmas Dinner in Norway

Just in time for Christmas to be over, I thought I'd describe what we ate on Christmas Eve in Norway. We had lutefisk, kjøttkaker or meat balls, mashed peas, bacon, potatoes, lefse and salad. Lutefisk is available here in my part of Norway in the stores around Christmas time, but I've been told that not many people here eat it on Christmas eve or Christmas day. With my cousin Unni we had pinnekjøtt, which is a west coast dish of salted, steamed lamb and julepølser, or Christmas sausage. I went against the advice many of my brother's friends gave him before he came to visit me, and made lutefisk.

After defrosting two pieces in water, I put them on an oven pan and covered them with tinfoil.

We cooked it for about 30 minutes in all, on 180˚C or 356˚F.

For part of our International Student's Christmas dinner we had lutefisk with mashed peas and bacon, and I thought it was really good. So I made it again with my dad and brother:

Bacon makes anything good, right? Even lutefisk.

This I made from a package:

Mashed peas in 5 minutes. "Accessories to the most traditional Norwegian meal time. Delicious" Sorry for the bad translation but you get the idea.

Now this was good, even though it came from a can:

That's the kjøttkaker. In brown sauce.

With some salad and curried potatoes (hey, curry's not Norwegian!) we had ourselves a great feast.

Except for the lutefisk. I ate mine but couldn't even look at the leftover fish afterwards. I think I'd had a smaller piece at the other dinner or something...I put butter on it too! I don't think I'm alone among Norwegians in not liking it though. It is a strange invention. Who makes fish soaked in lye a traditional dish?

Merry Christmas!

Beef brisket with sauerkraut

I was at Cub looking for one of those boneless pork loin roasts. I was a little disappointed that the ones they had were not as good as the ones I am used to seeing there but they did have a nice looking beef brisket.

I was looking in Joy of Cooking for basic beef brisket preparation directions and came across a recipe for beef brisket with sauerkraut. It looked easy.

The recipe specified a large Dutch oven (that means French oven where I live) which I do not have. I do happen to have a very nice and quite large stainless steel pan with a tight fitting cover. I was pretty sure that my pan would, while not being true to the Joy of Cooking recipe, work just fine.I started off with the kraut. One of the first things that has to be done after starting the beef is to cover it with the drained kraut and two cups of boiling broth. I drained the kraut to measure how much juice was in there and then boiled about half of the kraut after adding a cup of broth to bring the amount of liquid up to two cups. I saved out half of the kraut because I prefer my kraut cool instead of hot, crisp instead of cooked. The saved kraut will be added back in to my portion after every thing else is cooked.

The recipe said 3 tablespoons of oil, to me that means a bunch, I used olive oil. The recipe also said that it is plenty OK to brown 1/4 cup of chopped onions. To me that means about that many, I hope I was close.Add the meat to the pan, cover with the kraut and broth, add an apple, cored and quartered. I went off recipe and went ahead and added the rest of the onion, quartered because I know how much TOPWLH likes her cooked onion.Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 3 to 3 1/2 hours.Easy.I see absolutely no reason why the same recipe wouldn't work just fine for that pork loin roast I was looking for in the first place.

Chicken & Rice Soup

Step One - make an Herbed Roast Chicken and have some guests over to eat most of it.

From there, here are the additional steps for some seriously delicious Chicken & Rice soup:

1) In a large soup pot, place the skin, carcass and bones (picked of any remaining meat) with a few cut up carrots, an onion cut into quarters, a few cloves of garlic, some parsley, salt & pepper. Celery is good if you have it, but we didn't at this point. Add cold water to the pot until it covers all of that by about an inch. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for about 4 hours:

2) After all of that has simmered for 4 hours, strain it through a fine mesh strainer to get rid of all the chunks, and then return it to the pot. You can throw out all the stuff you just strained out - the flavors have been extracted, so their work is done.

3) Cut up another 3 stalks of celery, 3 carrots, and dice half a white onion. Prepare some brown rice - we have a rice cooker, but stove-top rice works too:

4) Dump the carrots, onion, and celery into the pot with the strained stock. Bring it back to a boil and simmer until the veggies are almost as tender as you'd like them to be:

5) Add a few shakes of these spices too, while you're at it. The red pepper gives the soup a nice kick:

6) Chop up any remaining chicken meat into bit sized pieces and throw it and the rice in the pot and continue simmering until the chicken and rice are heated through:

7) Serve in a really nice soup bowl. So yummy, so winter appropriate. Plus, my house smells like heaven right now.

8) Make sure you have some crusty bread with it to mop up the dregs in your bowl. You'll really, really want to.

This makes a whole lot of soup, just FYI. We'll have leftovers for at least two more meals. I am really looking forward to it.

Ying's Eggplant, Variation on the theme by Adam

Here's the ingredient photo --half an eggplant, sliced lengthwise, three scallions, three garlic cloves, three shallots, ginger, olive oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce and five spice powder.

Slice the eggplant, put it in a frying pan over medium heat with a little olive oil, and put on the cover to let the eggplant begin to soften.  Slice the shallots and the white part of the scallions, and add it to the eggplant.  Cover.

Smash and chop the garlic, then slice the ginger very thin.  I'm told the ginger is too pungent if it is not sliced very thin.  Chop it all up a little, then add it to the pan with the eggplant, drizzle in a little more oil, stir, then replace the cover.

The five spice powder has fennel, anise, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in it, so a work around is possible if you don't have the exact spice ingredient.

Add about 1/8 cup of the rice vinegar with the five spice powder.  Replace the cover, let it simmer while you slice the green portion of the scallions.  I was told the correct length is roughly the length of two joints of your finger.  Add scallions, stir, pile the vegetable mixture into the center of the pan, and replace the cover.  Allow it to continue to cook for a few more minutes.

The eggplant should be soft, but not mushy, and the rest of the veggies should be cooked when it is done.

It is extremely fragrant, and the flavors blend nicely.  No single flavor overpowers the dish, and it is a mild complex of tastes.  Here it is plated with some brown rice for Adam's lunch.  Easy and quite tasty.

Mustard Chicken

Mustard chicken proves that an event does not have to happen every year in order for it to have the status of tradition. When I told JB that GZ was fixing supper tonight, he responded, "mustard chicken?" And that was before the aroma of good mustard and chicken was filling the house. Here's the finished product, plated with wide Amish noodles and some veggies.
Here's the ingredients he used this time. Chicken breasts, olive oil, stock or broth, and about a half jar of grey poupon mustard. Salt and pepper. Amounts are flexible.

Brown the chicken.
Make a space to pour in about a half inch or so of broth, to make the base for the sauce.
Mustard gets stirred into the broth, then more is spread on top of the chicken, which is turned to coat it with the mustard sauce. More mustard is added until it looks appropriately saucey.

The cover goes on the frying pan and the chicken is simmered in the sauce until done -- maybe a half hour, maybe more. Depends somewhat on the size of the chicken pieces, I think.
It's excellent.

Rhubarb Sauce

Late edit: Yum! I put some in a bowl with a few strawberries and some Splenda, put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, and it was like eating pie filling for breakfast. With none of the guilt. I think it would be excellent over ice cream, if you like that sort of thing.

Original Post:
I've been thinking about rhubarb for a while. The Anderson women used to make rhubarb sauce regularly, and I remember that it was often eaten for breakfast. I bought 8 stalks last week, a pretty puny amount of rhubarb, and made some sauce today.
Wash it, of course, and cut off the ends.

Slice it down the middle and dice it into chunks. This made 3 cups of diced raw rhubarb.

I added a half cup of water and a third of a cup of sugar to the rhubarb. It was probably more water than was strictly necessary. And probably less sugar, but I plan to add some Splenda to it to sweeten it up when I eat it. Or maybe some strawberries.

Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. It cooks down quite a bit, so I don't have a lot of it, but I think I am the only person who lives here who likes rhubarb. It is currently chillling in the refrigerator. I think I will serve it tomorrow -- it's a nice pinky red. Now I just need some white and blue.

Veggies are my friends -- Veggie Pi(e)

Another veggie recipe, no surprise. It's a Betty Crocker recipe, though there are similar ones out there that are just a little different. This has a half cup of Bisquick in it, so with the milk there is close to one carb serving in a quarter of the pie. I tweaked it a little bit -- the recipe link above has some suggestions for different versions of it, as well.
I used a 12 ounce package of frozen broccoli flowerets, which I microwaved for 3 minutes, then drained on some paper towels while it cooled a bit. Next I mixed the broccoli with a half cup of chopped onions, a half cup of chopped orange pepper, and a cup of 2% shredded colby jack cheese, (or a sharp cheddar). I added salt, seasoned pepper, parsley, basil, and Italian seasonings.
I greased a pie pan and filled it with the broccoli mix. I then put tomato slices over the top.
I mixed two eggs, one cup of skim milk, and a half cup of Bisquick. Thoroughly. I poured it over the top of the broccoli pie filling and put it in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes, until it was brown.
It makes about 6 servings. It went really well with pork, according to JB, and I found it to be a nice change of pace from my usual vegetable choices. I've since made it with a package of mixed broccoli and cauliflower, which was also good -- turkey burgers were the main course that time. I left the peppers out of that one. It heats up well in the microwave as leftovers, too. It will definitely make it into the rotation, though with the eggs and cheese, it has a few more grams of saturated fat than I'd prefer.

Pork Roast

We've been eating a lot of the "other white meat" lately -- it's a lean meat, tasty, and the leftovers make really good sandwiches. Most of our visitors here this year have had to eat it a few times, too, and today was the second time for TT. I like the boneless rib end pork roast for this. (I totally ignore the instructions printed on the label.)
I put the roast in a Pyrex dish with a cover. The pork roast is just a little smaller than the dish. I add enough broth to bring the liquid level about 2/3 of the way up the roast, and sprinkle it generously with seasoned pepper but no salt.
I put the cover on the Pyrex dish, then I roast it at 300 degrees for about an hour per pound. Today I roasted a 2 pound roast for about 2 hours and 10 minutes. At the end of that time I used tongs to lift the roast out of the pan (using a fork lets the juices run out, something I want to avoid at this point.) I put it on a plate and wrap it in aluminum foil and let it "rest" for about 15 minutes.
Slice.
Eat.
Yes, I put gravy on my cauliflower.

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

When I was in high school, we had an early release day once a month, on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday for a couple of years, I would go out to lunch with my mom, and my two best friends Megan and Meghan. We always, always went out to Olive Garden and had the endless soup & salad lunch combo. It was a great ritual and I will always remember it fondly. My soup of choice at the Olive Garden was the Zuppa Toscana, a spicy sausage & potato soup with some greens and a creamy broth. I finally decided it was time to learn how to recreate it. Here's my best effort.

Ingredients, left to right: One bunch kale, washed and torn into bit sized pieces; 32 oz/4 cups chicken broth; 1/2 of one large white onion, diced small; 3 russet potatoes, cut into chunks; 1 pint/2 cups half & half; 1-2 cloves garlic, minced.

You'll also need one pound of italian sausage. The sausage makes the soup, so make sure you get seriously quality stuff. Get the spicy sausage if you like spicy foods - it adds extra kick to the soup:

Step 1: Crumble the sausage into bite-sized chunks and brown it in batches:

Step 2: Remove the sausage to a plate, then cook the onion in the same pot until softened:

Step 3: Add garlic and cook for another minute or so until fragrant:

Step 4: Add the sausage back to the pot with the potatoes:

Step 5: Add the chicken broth. If it is not enough liquid to cover the potatoes, add water as necessary:

Step 6: Bring it to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are completely cooked and fork tender:

Step 7: Add the kale and 1/2 & 1/2, then leave on the heat until warmed through. Do not boil.

Step 8: Serve and enjoy with some crusty bread:

So yummy! I officially never have to go to the Olive Garden again.