I found them!

Lately I've been feeling like cooking more catalan dishes up here, for myself and to show the culture to family and friends... But there is a problem: where do I find the ingredients!?
I have taken out the dishes that involve local sausages because I know that it would never be the same, even if I found something a bit similar...

But after my last visit to my dad, where he made "arròs negre", I really feel like making a rice dish! Specially because I have never tried making one before, even when I was living in Catalonia.
I called my dad and asked for the recipe. I needed cuttlefish (its ink included), artichoke and good rice for this kind of dish (basmati and jasmin or these things you can find in denmark are not good for this..). Since it is not season for artichoke anymore, I asked him for an alternative, so I got rice with cuttlefish and scampi, which seemed easier to get, since I didn't need artichokes or the ink.
My plan was to prepare this for family on Easter holidays, but I wanted to try it first at home.. that being my first time with rice.

I went to the fish shop of the harbor in Aarhus. To two of them, actually. No sign of cuttlefish :( One of the problems is also that the danes have one single words for octopus, squid and cuttlefish, so I wasn't sure how to ask for it. I saw that they use the italian names for those sometimes, so it turned out not to be so difficult. Still, no cuttlefish :( And I can't make a rice with squid!! I know some do, but it wouldn't be the same...

I gave up and looked for some other dish.. I decided I will prepare a "mar i muntanya", which is also very typical, and it is easier to find the ingredients.

I was at the same fish shop again, this time to buy the scampi for the dish.. and guess what I found? They had one single box of frozen cuttlefish! From the Pacific, which is probably not the same as the mediterranean ones I'm used to, and frozen, which I'm not used to either... but I couldn't help it and I bought it! Now we have one kilo cuttlefish in our freezer :) I will not use it this time, since I decided to stick with the chicken recipe, but I'll experiment with them when we are back from the Easter holidays.

Oh, and I also found salted cod there! I've been looking for it for a while... now I can prepare many of my catalan favorite dishes!!

I feel like cooking now!! :)

Gnome Journal is out :)

A new number of GNOME Journal is out.. do you see anyone familiar there? http://www.gnomejournal.org/article/87/where-are-they-now-the-participants-of-the-2006-womens-summer-outreach-program

Well, that's an article about a project I participated three years ago..

I hope they keep trying to encourage more women to join this fantastic community! (I'll keep spreading the word too..)

Halloween

I'm not a big fan of Halloween... I think I would never get a costume on and go bananas celebrating this american tradition.
But any change to do some cooking and to spend some cosy time with friends is welcomed.

We planned to have a cosy evening with friends, meeting for cooking and having some nice food yesterday night, and just a couple of days before we realized it was actually halloween. So we decided to have something haloweenish for dinner.

It ended up being pumpkin soup for a starter (with coco milk and ginger... yummy!), roast-beef with sweet mashed potatoes (a bit orangy) and a fabulous bat-cake!

The cake came already prepared, in a nice box, but the rest we made it together, with a glass of wine in hand and good company!

The bat-cake is a secret... but here you have the other two recipes... Pumpkin soup with coco milk and Roast-beef with sweet potato mash ... get ready to enjoy some good food :)

Roast-beef with sweet potato mash

Ingredients
(serves 4 people)

800g-1kg prepared roast-beef
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, or 1 teaspoon smashed black peppercorns
Salt
3-4 sweet potato, peeled and cubed into small pieces
3-4 baking potato, peeled and cubed into small pieces
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons cream fraîche
100ml  (or more if necessary) cooking cream (about 12-15% fat)

Instructions

Cover the roast-beef piece with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees and then brown the meat for 15 min. Put the temperature down to 165 degrees and let the meat cook until it is done (it has to be about 60 degrees inside). It should take about 40 min.

While the meat is cooking, place the sweet potato and baking potato chunks into a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil, and cook until fork-tender, about 20 minutes from the boil.
Drain off the potatoes, and then return them to the same hot, but now dry, pot. Put the pot on a low heat for just about 1 minute, to allow any excess liquid to burn off. Add in the butter and crème fraîche and season with salt and a bit of pepper. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Then add the cream until you have the consistency you desire. Mash a bit more, and you're done.

Pumpkin soup with coco milk

Ingredients
(serves 6 people)

1 piece of pumpkin (about 1200g)
1 bunch spring onions
2 carrots
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 liter of vegetable broth
Sal
Freshly ground pepper
A bit of ground nutmeg
1 / 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150 g of cream
400 ml. coconut milk (canned)
2 tablespoons grated coconut

Instructions

Remove the seeds from the pumpkin, peel and cut into small pieces. Wash and peel the onions and carrots. Cut the carrot into small cubes and onions into big pieces. Separe part of the green stalk and cut in slices for garnish.

Melt butter in a pan and sauté onions until transparent. Then, incorporate pumpkin, diced carrots and ginger and cook everything for 1 minute.

Add the vegetable broth and spices, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cover the pan and let simmer about 20 minutes.

Reduce to a purée using a blender, and stir in the cream and coconut milk, stirring constantly. Give one boil, season with salt and pepper and garnish the soup with green onion slices and reserved coconut.

Change of look

I haven't been much around here... But I'm back!

First thing I did was to change the face of this page. Hope you like the new look :)

I have a lot of things to talk about, starting for JAOO conference, two weeks ago. But... first things first: exams!

So see you all in a week, when I'm done with them (until they come again!)

de vacances!

Per fi les vacances d'estiu altre cop!

Portem tot el juliol amb mal temps i aquesta setmana, de cop i volta, ha sortit el sol. Ni fet expressament! El sol em somriu :)

D'aquí uns dies baixo cap a casa uns dies... i, com cada vegada, em poso a pensar què ha passat en la meva vida des de l'última vegada, o des de les últimes vacances d'estiu... Aquesta vegada en surto molt ben parada, jeje! Per començar, he perdut disset quilos, i surto a córrer els meus 3 o 4 km dos o tres cops per setmana. Sorpresos? Doncs també vaig conèixer un xicot genial just tornar de vacances l'any passat, i ara vivim junts en un piset preciós a Skanderborg, amb vistes al llac :) Ah, i no ens oblidem que encara conservo la feina (cosa important, aquests dies...) i que el meu danès ha millorat força i ja puc mantenir converses d'una manera més o menys normal.

Avui ha començat un festival de música aquí a la nostra ciutat que es diu "El festival més bonic de Dinamarca" (traducció literal de Danmarks Smukkeste Festival, en danès). I ho és, de bonic! Es fa al mig del bosc, amb un escenari a tocar del llac i tot. Ja hem plantat la tenda i hi anem ara després de dinar :) Uns dies de relax, solet i festa!

I després... cap a terres catalanes! I ben acompanyada! Amb ganes de veure els amic, la família, d'ensenyar els llocs que més m'estimo, i potser descobrir-ne de nous tot fent turisme.

Fins ben aviat!!!