À la Dankertier

Second post in that "comfort food" series of post! This is a real sunshine in this dark grey January. It is actually the first recipe André shared with me, our very first exchange on Facebook message was about this. I was reminded of it recently when I eat a similar soup while in Bergen, where it was also grey and humid! The recipe is for 4 peoples. Heat a pot or big pan (I use a big pan) to medium-high heat and add a dash of olive oil . Slice up 1-2 garlic cloves , an onion (or a third of a leek),    a pepper bell (mix of green and red) , add to the pot as well as 500-600g of mixed sea creatures , cut in bite size pieces if necessary. In our case, we had 200g of salmon, 200g of cod and 150g of mixed seashells. Fry everything until golden. Deglaze with roughly 200ml of wine or saké . Add 2-3 diced tomatoes and a bunch of chopped fresh basil . Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the water is reduced: it's more of a stew than a soup mayb...

This is not the first time I am trying this Swedish classic at home but somehow, the sauce was never right. I took this in a couple of restaurants in town and always enjoyed it so much that I had, at some point, to find THE  recipe. I think this is it! It will need some small adjustments, but it's almost perfect!! The recipe should give you 4 good portions and is adapted from this recipe . I made the dish in one of our nice "ultra", the baking dish we have from Tupperware that we can put in the oven/fridge (very nice to have!). Also, stuff does not really stick to it so its nice. If you do not have it at home, butter a baking dish (size roughly 1.5-2 L, or 20x27 cm). Peel and cut roughly 700 g potatoes . Cook with your preferred method. In my case, I boiled them because there was just to much! In the recipe, they put quite a bit of butter and mash the potatoes, but instead I used 50g of butter (instead of the 200 g recommended in the original) and some of the deli...

Last week I stumbled upon this recipe here . I liked it immediately: the pine nuts, garlic and all in a nice green pesto! So when we had our romantic two people / two chefs surprise dinner on Saturday, I thought it fitted well, since I was responsible for the main course ( here's the appetizer from Sophie). At the beginning it sounded rather complicated, but once everything is in the food processor, it's straight forward. The pesto will be for four portions easily, even after I took only half of the amount for the ingredients given: A handful asparagus One big hand Baby Spinach Two cloves of garlic (here I left the original amount ;) A handful of Parmesan Half a cup of pine nuts Boil the asparagus for 3min. in salted water. Drain and keep the water. Cool the asparagus under cold water. Cut off the tips and put the rest in the food processor. Meanwhile heat up a frying pan and roast the pine nuts (be careful, don't brown them too much). Afterwards add 3/4 of ...

Weekends are special right now (one could argue they always are... but I mean culinary-wise). We are working like crazy during the week, eating good, but fast prepared stuff. During the weekend, we take the time to impress each other with amazing food. In Quebec we have a very popular chef whose name is Ricardo. I personally tried many of his recipe and always found them delicious (even though sometimes he pushes a little on the fresh stuff... not everyone has a farmers' marker in their back yard!!!). It's then no surprise that when I decided to cook Paella I found a good recipe on his website. The original recipe is here . But I also decided to copy my version :). I fried a little piece of chicken (maybe the equivalent of a small breast) that I cut before in bite size portions. I salted and grounded some pepper and waited until brown. I put aside and add 1 yellow bell pepper and 1 big onion , diced. I also add 3 pieces garlic , finely chopped (we loooooooove garlic!) a...