Meat quiche

Today, I decided to not go grocery shopping, and just make a dish out of the few things left in my fridge. In my drawer, I found a powder pie base - I do not know why I ever bought this, making it yourself is not at all difficult, but it was probably cheap. Well, this was then my base, and in the fridge I had eggs, some bell peppers and a pack of minced beef.

Actually this dish was almost free, since the meat, which I brought home from Netto the other day, I had accidentally stolen. I do not know, how I succeeded on this, but I suspect it to be among my other groceries when packing, although I am pretty sure I did not pay for it. This gives me a bad conscience, but what should I do, I was already home, and of cause it should not go to waste.  - On top of all, it was also organic, which I do not usually buy in Netto. If I want to buy some good organic meat, I would go to the butcher instead.

Well to make an already too long story short, I fried some onions in a pan, added the beef, and mixed in chopped green bell pepper at last. I seasoned the meat with some different spices, cumin, chili powder, ramsons powder, and of cause salt and pepper. It smelled nice, so my expectations was actually okay high.

I added the meat mix on top of the pie base and poured eggs mixed with some milk on top. To finish it off I arranged finely sliced red bell pepper on top. The results looked as below, which I actually find pretty nice.

My problem with this dish is that pretty much every time I make a pie, I do not feel satisfied with the bottom of the pie. I know the dough is cooked through, but it is always a little gooey. I am not sure whether it is actually possible to make it crisp - I have not found the secret yet. Also, even though the meat mix smelled very nice, I would still like the pie to have much more flavor. Maybe the secret to this, is just to double my spices.

Bonus post: The other day, I decided to make my boyfriend Tiramisu - he says I make it way so seldom, so I suspect he very much likes it :)

For this I use the Danish brothers Price's recipe, but I exchange some things. Although Danish eggs have been confirmed Salmonella free, I usually use pasteurized eggs. I used a whole vanilla pod and instead of topping off with cocoa, I like to use grated chocolate. I think cocoa powder is too bitter, so 70% chocolate fits my taste better. Oh yeah, and instead of Amaretto I use Kahlua.

Remember that the Tiramisu needs to settle in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, and ideally a couple of days - believe me.

This recipe has actually gotten several of my friends and family to like Tiramisu, though they all stated up front that they did not like it.

Steak with potato fondant and fennel salad

Friday night dinner. Special offer at the local butcher. Red wine marinated ribeye steaks, which of cause calls for a bottle of red wine from the secret safe - the closet :)

My boyfriend and I enjoy to buy some delicious meat at the butcher or some lovely fish from the local fisher man. Most often this part becomes the center piece of the evenings dish. Therefore we do not usually put much thought into the side dishes. Well this night was a mix. Today we tried cooking potatoes in a way I have never tried before. Not a difficult dish, but fun to try something different.

A potato fondant is simply a baking potato cut into small cubed pieces. First you fry them in lots of olive oil and butter on the pan. Then you cook them in the oven at 200 degrees with for example chicken stock up to just underneath the top of the potatoes and together with some in our case thyme, and of cause seasoning. Fry them until they have a nice color, then cook in the oven until done. In our case this was around 10-12 minutes.

The cubes 

The steaks only got just a little more than 2 minutes on each side on a very hot frying pan and then rested for 5-10 minutes. Add some whole garlic cloves - do not bother peeling, thyme and butter while frying.

Finally we made a very simple but very tasty fennel salad. Slice the fennel very thin. Remember to cut out the middle part. Marinate in equal parts of lemon and olive oil while you cook everything else. Remember to season.

Steaks with potato fondant and fennel salad.

The sauce, I have to admit was a bought sauce from Irma (a danish finer grocery shop). This was actually not the greatest match. The cognac pepper sauce drowned the fine flavors of the meat.

If the post has any spelling mistakes, bear over with me. The red wine was good :)

"Frikadeller" and potato salad

Another danish form of meat balls - "frikadeller". It is made on minced pork, and my favorite kind is the small version. Plenty of lovely crust. I made the meat balls the day before in another dish. I used a whole kilo to make sure there was enough for the day after. I also cooked the potatoes the day before. This made it a very easy dish for making after for instance a workout, where your body only wants to lie on the couch.

The meat balls are seasoned well with salt and pepper. Ingredients also included chopped onion, eggs a little milk and flour. Very easy.

As a side dish I made a lovely potato salad. Instead of buying the greasy kind from the supermarket, try to make this yourself. I mixed small bites of potatoes with radishes, cucumber (without the middle part), green bell peppers and chives. Mix it all with equal parts of sour creme and a nicely smoked cheeses from the island of Fyn - between Sealand and Jutland. Also add some lemon juice to bring out the flavors.

After mixing the potato salad, pour it into a clean bowl and add some of the chives on top. Sometimes a little presentation goes a long way.

Frikadeller and potato salad

I have also added a picture from a while back. We made pancakes for dinner - you are allowed to do that, when you are a grown up :). The last pancake always gets a funny shape. This one I thought looked like a fat rat of some kind, and therefore wanted to share with you.

Fat rat pancake