Hellbay Forest Creamed Mushrooms

As you've probably figured out, there are two ingredients we love above most - namely, cream and butter. There is nothing like the smell of butter sissling away in a hot pan or the the feel of luscious creamed stuff on the tongue.

A couple of days ago we went hunting in the local forest. We went hunting for mushrooms. Not far from the tracks we found great spots where chanterelles, yellowfoot and hedgehog mushrooms thrived. We got a couple of handfuls and went home to make dinner...

To make this the way we did, you'll need:

20 g butter

salt

1 ts freshly ground black pepper

2 tbls white wine vinegar (or white wine - add a bit more)

mushrooms (we used chanterelles, yellowfoot and hedgehog)

(if you're planning this as a sauce on steak or roast, use the pan meat juice as well - if so, you might want to ease up on the butter...)

Here is what you do:

Sort the mushrooms and check again for quality (wouldn't want any extra passengers in there). Be sure to know the species. If you're inexperienced, stick to the safe ones (like chanterell and hedgehog in Norway). Wipe off dirt and moss and cut them in chunks that suits you. Toss the chunks in a really hot and dry pan. When the mushrooms gets golden and moist and start making noise, turn the heat down low and add a good chunk of butter, the pepper and a pinch of salt. Getting excited?... As the mushrooms are all sissled together in wonderful butter (and gravy), pour the cream over it all and add the white wine vinegar (or white wine). Let it simmer. Stir! When it's creamy its done :) Taste it and add salt (or pepper) if needed.

We served this sauce on lamb roast marinaded in thyme and garlic, with Raisin Hell Salad on the side. Yum!

Raisin Hell Salad

1/2 dl raisins
Salad - mix whatever sorts you can get your hands on
1 dl bean sprouts
1 dl pumpkin seeds
cherry tomatoes
juice from 1/2 lime
1 tbls good quality balsamico

Chop it and mix it.
Enjoy!

Works great as a side dish to lamb roast and Hellbay Forest Creamed Mushrooms

Game in Black Currant

So... here is the backdrop for the menu tonight. We bought a bottle of quite expensive barolo red wine. Oh, joy... what a feast we were going to have! Back home, all snuggled up in the sofa with pillows and blankets, a movie and what not it turned out to be a BIG disappointment! The wine had turned on us. Acid. Yiack!

Turning the disappointment to our advantage, we went trough our fridge in search of meat. Meat and wine in the hands of two patient cooks is bound for success ;) We found some game meat of unknown origin - We got it from my mum a while ago...

These ingredients were at hand (the store was closed today):

- Black-currant syrup

- Cinnamon

- Mushrooms

- Red wine (BAD)

- Mushroom soya (extract)

3/4 bottle of red wine and 0.5 dl sweet black-currant syrup was poured into a hot pan. The meat was chopped in chunky bits and added. The meat simmered in wine for four hours. Keep an eye on it, and add water to ensure that it doesn't cook dry. The mushrooms (we had some of those in the fridge as well) were sizzled in a LOT of butter and added. Add some mushroom extract (about a table spoon - depending on how salty it is) and a tea spoon of crushed cinnamon. Taste it. You may need to add a pinch of salt and some more syrup. It's supposed to be sweet and powerful :)

Works great with the HellBay Forest Creamed Potatoes.

HellBay Forest Creamed Potatoes

Yesterdays lamb was waaay too much for two people to consume for dinner. Fortunately, roast leftovers are one of my absolute favourite dishes. At least when served as we did tonight. Although we both love cooking, it's nice to get a great tasting meal with minimum effort. All we had to do was;

heat the oven to about 200 C,

slice three medium sized potatoes (...we're talking really thin slices!)

and one red onion

and put it all in an oven proof pan,

pour a good 2 dl of cream over it

and add some chunks of butter,

a couple of pinches of dried chilli

and salt...

Let it bake in the oven for about 30 min before covering with cheese :)

Let it bake for another 10 min or so till the cheese is golden...

Mmm...!

HellBay Forest Roasted Lamb

Aaahh... Easter dinner as it should be. Lamb is normally stretching our budget a bit, but come Easter and soon to come birthday (when I'll be in Denmark, away from Lars and our dog :( ... ) today we decided to jump into our fancy pants and get crazy. Lamb roast is on the menu. Side dishes will be celery root purée and baked vegetables. - Dig it!

Here is what you'll need:

LAMB:

1 - 1 1/2 kg lamb (we got a piece that was "pre-seasoned" with thyme, basil and rosemary)

6 cloves of garlic

a couple of butter slices

1/2 dl madeira

BAKED VEG:

1/2 red and 1/2 yellow pepper

4 shallots

leek

salt

dried chili

white wine vinegar

a couple of butter slices (no surprise)

PUREE:

150 g celery root

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 dl cream

30 g butter

salt

If you, like us, bought a "ready to go" version, punch a couple of holes in the roast (nicely distributed). Chop the cloves of garlic in two and shove them in there. Mix the meat juice with the Madeira. Place the garlic infused wonder in an oven-proof pan at the lowest rack in the oven at 175 C until the roast holds about 70. Pour some of the meat juice mix on top of the roast whilst cooking;) Let it rest for 10-15 min in a pan with a lid (or wrap it in aluminium foil).

Chop the vegetables (about the size of half a shallot) and toss 'em into an oven-proof pan with some olive oil, a couple of pinches crushed dried chilli, a couple of pinches salt, two tablespoons of white wine vinegar and some good chunks of butter...

Boil the celery root until mellow. Mush it with cream until preferred consistency, add salt and pepper (and again - taste it while you add it!)

A cold Bernard lager did it once again;)

- Absolute heaven!

Herring is not just for bait!

I'll be having dinner alone today. I'll use today to make a very healthy dish that most people don't like, or more correct, think they don't like. You should give it a try!

It has been a belief among people that the oceans are so large that we are unable to empty them, but later management and science has proven this conviction to be wrong. Many resources are depleted, and marine fisheries also have to follow strict management rules. It is with great sadness that I have discovered that many outstanding fish species are over-harvested. We need to be careful about what species we eat and harvest. The population of cod, halibut, munkfish among others are seriously in trouble, and they should be harvested with great care (see  panda.org for more information). Also the North Sea herring population has been in trouble in the sixties, but the population is doing great now!

Another good argument for eating herring is found in public health guidelines. We should eat more fat fish, and herring is indeed a fat fish. It is also low in the trophic pyramid, meaning that the level of bioaccumulation is low. This means that the amount of environmental contaminants is sparse. One should also remember that the chances of getting complications from environmental contaminants is extremely low compared to the health benefit from eating fat fish. As the prevalence for complications by eating fat fish is calculated in parts pr thousand or lower (especially from fish low in the trophic pyramid), the health benefits are absolute. Everyone will benefit from eating fat fish! Bottom line is: eat more herring, it's a waste to use it as bait!

Todays dinner is also a very simple one.
One baked red onion. Make a cross in the top of the onion and squeeze some limejuice, butter and thyme into the cross. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes. You might also just use the onion raw.
Two cooked potatoes.

Two salted and spicy herring fillets (raw, just soak them in water for some hours if they're too salty)

Some sour cream
Some more butter for the potatoes (of course, there is only one thing that is better than butter, see post on the Hell Bay Forest Bread)
Some pickled beetroots

Serve on a dish.
It is really good, and this recipe serves one hungry guy.
Enjoy!

- Lars-

The Full Bodied Hellbay Forest Onion Soup

Most people eat to live, but some of us, at least some days, live to eat. Today is one of the days. Dinner today is served in two dishes. First comes the Full-bodied hellbay forest onion soup. This is a full dish for two persons. As a starter, you better halve the recipe.

One red onion

One regular onion

Four Shallots

1/2 liter water

1/2 cube bullion

1 laurel leaf

1 ts dried estragon

2 tbls white wine vinegar

1/2 ts black pepper

1/2 tbls maizenna

4 tbls butter

2 slices loaf

1 dl grounded cheese (blend of parmesan and jarlsberg)

Slice onions and fry for a couple of minutes in most of the butter. Add maizenna and dilute with water. Add the rest except loaf, the rest of the butter and cheese. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Fill into two oven proof dishes. Fry the loaf-slice in the butter. Put on top of the soup add cheese and bake 5 to 10 minutes.

Tastes lovely. Bon apetite.

As an improvement, I would use a dry white wine and real meat juice instead of vinegar and bullion.

HellBay Smoked and Peppered Mackerel

For a second dish of today's dinner we made a Mackerel salad. It's really simple in composition, but tastes great after the sweet and heavy taste of onions. Here's what you'll need:

Whole grain pasta (about four handfuls)

1 smoked mackerel with pepper

1/4 yellow pepper

2 tomatoes (try to get some sweet, ripe ones)

1 avocado

1 shallot

pine nuts

3 cloves of garlic

1 lime

really good olive oil

salt

Cook the pasta. Rinse it briefly in cold water and put it in a bowl. Drizzle some good olive oil over it and stir. Remove the skin and bones from the mackerel. I like to remove the dark grey fish fat before tearing it into suitable pieces with my bare hands, but do as you like. Either way, toss it in with pasta.

Cut and slice the vegetables into pieces that suits your palate. I like to "pop" the garlic before making thin slices of it, but either way is fine. Chop, slice or press it, do whatever suits you, but be sure to add enough ;) Roast the pine nuts in a hot and dry pan until they're golden brown. Add everything to the party in the bowl and add the freshly squeezed lime juice and a couple of pinches salt. Taste it while you ad it!

You probably won't be able to eat it all after the onion soup, but don't worry. It's great for breakfast on top of a thick slice of the HellBay Forest Bread.

If you, like me, are one of the few that struggles a bit with smoky foods here is a tip: Serve the salad with sour cream (or preferably Norwegian seterrømme) mixed with a bit of lime juice and salt (taste it while you add it). There you are :)

We enjoyed Bernard Lager (Czech imported) to both dishes - Perfect!

The HellBay Forest Bread

We are both quite into coarse bread. This is a recipe that I have experimented with a bit. It is very simple, perhaps the coarsest bread I've ever made successfully. It must be made in two operations, because it is a sourdough.

First day you simply blend 1 liter of coarse ground whole rye flour...

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