Skaal!

Is what we say in Denmark instead of cheers. I use the two "A"s when in actuality one "a" with a little circle on top is the real letter, which might not translate universally on screen. The 2 "A"s make the same sound though, which goes something like "aw" said really fast. But who cares. We're here for the booze. Specifically the schnapps.

Danish schnapps is made from fermented grain or potato mash and may be infused with any number of herbs, spices, fruits, etc. Today I got a taste of an array of beautifully fragrant schnapps from herbal and medicinal to fruity and spicy. My favorite of the flavored bunch was the walnut. The perikon had a medicinal flavor almost like eccinacea. The mirabelle was fruity and caramelly. Out of them all I still go for the hefty, caraway infused Aalborg Aquavit (not present at the table). It's the no nonsense, ass kicking spicy one, clear and distinctly Danish. The closest one to it at the table was the Julescnapps (Christmas Schnapps). Oh YES!!!

Please excuse me for the poor quality of this video. I used my mobile video camera and, as it was a spontaneous decision to make the video I seized the moment without concern for back lighting. Allow me to introduce the brothers Froelund who try and explain, to the best of their abilities (after already consuming a few shots), what's what of the homemade potions. Feel free to come with questions as it's not the clearest video in the world!

The UnChristmas Snacks

Hi all. Enjoy these not so Christmassy snacks! And have a merry!

Christmas food?

Ok I'm in no way Christian, but if I had to guess - the food that Joseph and Mary ate around the birth of their son was not a giant ham. I would also guess that they were not giving little kosher Jeshuah glasses of milk with his steak, nor were they feeding him cream potatoes. OK, perhaps no steak? I'm sure they weren't feeding him yellow rice either. Based on absolutely nothing, but what I've heard was that Jesus and his family kept a kosher home. No swine. The food above is not any indication either to what they had in mind and maybe just the hummus might be recognized by the people who most of the modern world base their lives on. Chick peas. Mmmm. Hummus...mmmmm.

We also have some baba ganouj, felafel, broccoli and some fresh baked, gluten free millet bread.

Truffle tribute

During this experiment of deprivation I discover - at a time that could not be more convenient - that I am perhaps not lactose intolerant. Or perhaps it's a form of self enabling, denial of the truth? In regards to the experiment I am temporarily immune to my theoretic intolerance of milk products just long enough to enjoy these chocolate truffles.

intimate close-up of edible love

Chocolate truffles have always been a favorite of mine. My first job ever, when I was 15 just happened to stock them. Years later I found myself employed at Teucher Chocolatier. The job lasted one day as I lacked the flamboyance the manager was looking for. I was a dumpy college kid!

Inspired by one of my heroes, Mark Bittman of the New York Times, these ganache truffles are so simple to make and for now I will say that the sharp pain developing in my abdomen is probably psychological or may be attributed to some mysterious other chemical element. The NYT video shows the whole evil mess in under 4 minutes. Just click here.

I'm more than happy to have stumbled onto the treasure of learning how to make them. Mixed with my glee is a stabbing uneasiness that I have found the love of my life all too late. The ecstasy is combined with the daunting notion of attainability with a price too painful to pay. Enough chocolate drama. No more than two for now. And I can look at all the pictures I want!

Some things are just worth a little bit of discomfort:)

Ode to Habenero! (note my new logo!

Here's one take I have on huevos rancheros. Rice and beans with a habenero salsa and nice guacamole with garlic, red onion, jalapeno, lime, cilantro and salt. Oh my fucking god, one of my favorite dishes on the planet. I used to call in late for work and say, "I'll be working from home this morning" just to go to Cafe Havana on Prince and Elizabeth to get some espresso and huevos rancheros. The Chilaquiles are also still in my dreams. So now I need to import some of the flavor I remember to my own kitchen amidst the land of the bland.


Next we have more habenero with seared sesame salmon and a version of refried red beans. They fried slowly on the pan with garlic and onion. I let them break down and get partially mashed, but not fully, and left the root vegetables in tact. Served with yellow rice.

Thank you

to whomever nominated me for Blog of the Day!

Week one - Gluten free adventure

It's been one week since I've shunned gluten, staved off milk products, corn products and several weeks since I've quit red meat and SWINE! I have to put emphasis on SVINE and spit on the floor three times. Kidding.

All is going well. Much easier than I anticipated, but I wonder how the hell I would do this if I wasn't willing or able to cook the food that I eat. My wife is certainly not on board with this endeavor and is far from interested in experimenting with negating all the foods that she lives for. Bread, butter, meat, among many other things that contain a lovely little thing called gluten. Anything from jam to that thick yellowy curry sauce that her Christmas herring is drowning in. Noo, noooo, NO as Amy Winehouse sings in her rehab song. Only in this case it's "...he try to make me quit gluten, corn, red meat, milk products and I say...nooo, noooooo, nooooo"

So some of the menu item this week have been as follows:

Seafood over quinoa

Mixed seafood cooked in the pan with lime, chillies, garlic, onion, olive oil, salt and splash of vinegar over a bed of quinoa. Freakin yummy!

Sesame tofu over vermicelli

Yes I'm using tofu. What of it? It soaks flavor nicely and I like the texture. Here's the tofu in cubes with broccoli, garlic, onion, chillies, sesame seeds, fish sauce over vermicelli. Delish!


Savory millet pancakes

Holy shit...it's getting better and better. Millet flour where have you been all my life??? It has a corn flour taste, but it won't freak my digestive system. These light pancakes are made with chillies, cumin, garlic, millet flour, eggs, salt and olive oil. For a nice sauce I crushed some chillies with garlic and cumin with honey, olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar. Gorgeous, spicy, delicious. I can't wait to make Mexican tortillas with this flour.

The sauce described above

Pan roasted potatoes in a hummus aoili

This is a "FUCK YEAH" dish. Tastes so so so good. I get on flavor kicks when I'll use a similar set of ingredients for every meal for maybe a week or so, but varying the balance of ingredients to create altered flavor ensembles. This week it's been garlic, Thai chillies, cumin. These potatoes roasted slowly with garlic, red onion, chillies and cumin in olive oil.

I made hummus. We all know hummus...chick peas, tahini, garlic, lemon, cumin, salt basically. Perhaps chillies. I put some olive oil in this and actually a little tart orange instead of lemon. Being experimental and a bit brave I tried fusing this hummus into a dressing using real mayonnaise. When I say "real" I don't mean Kraft or Hellman's, but basically egg, oil, lemon, perhaps vinegar. In this case I didn't make my own mayonnaise as I normally would, but I bought the most basic mayo with no crap in it. So we end up with not quite a hummus and not quite aioli, but a marriage reminiscent of the two with a consistency of aioli and a texture of hummus. The flavors work nicely together and we have cumin and chopped onion dashed on top. FUCK YEAH!!!!

There's not as much of that stuff as it looks. Don't worry..I'm not crazy! It's just around the potatoes.

Starter kit?

Part of a scene from Hannah and Her Sisters in which the Woody Allen character, Mickey has just seen a priest in search of meaning beyond this life. He is just entering his apartment...

With the hymn still playing, the screen goes black briefly.
Mickey opens the door, the light from a hallway illuminating
him.  He's just entered his apartment.  He closes the door
and walks through his dark foyer; he carries a brown bag.
He switches on the light, and walking past his spiral
staircase, past several framed pictures on the wall, he
makes his way to his living room coffee table.  Mickey pulls
a crucifix out of the bag; he looks at it, then puts it on
the table near a pile of books and some objets d'art.  He
then takes out a copy of the New Testament, putting it on
top of the crucifix.  Then out comes a framed picture of a
saint.  It too gets put on the growing pile.  But the bag is
not yet empty.  Next comes a large loaf of Wonder Bread and
a large jar of Hellman's mayonnaise.  Mickey sets them on
top of the saint.

The humor in this, of course is that Mickey comes home with a "starter kit" for becoming Catholic. After hearing good news from the doctor that he doesn't have cancer he's ecstatic upon leaving the hospital. Until it hits him - he's going to die someday. And then what?

I've been going through a similar transformation. No I am not becoming any kind of Christian. No I am not seeking the answers to the mysteries of the after-life. What I am seeking is a higher degree of self preservation, which is why I came home and like Mickey, I plopped down some items on my counter in effort to change my life:


We've got everything organic - tofu in one of those embryo jars, quinoa, chick peas, Rice milk, tahini, peanut butter, hirse flour (have no idea what that is, but it might be a Danish word for something, buckwheat...

And here's what I had for lunch today:

Ok the idea is to be gluten free, milk free, but I'm still very much addicted to eggs. And there's smoked salmon under there too. It's 2 poached eggs on rice cakes, smoked salmon with a makeshift mustard vinaigrette, mixed greens and Tabasco sauce. Yumelicious.

It's like rearranging a home with that fresh, new feeling.

What to do????

Know what this is? I didn't either because the bag read, "Boghvedegryn". I made a guess that it was something called buckwheat, which I wasn't sure if I'd ever tried before. Turns out I have tried this. Kahsa! The little kernel thingies in kasha varnishkas (buckwheat with bowtie pasta) or the stuffing in kasha knishes. Why did I pick a bag of this not knowing what it was? Because on the back read, "GLUTEN FRI" (fri being the Danish word for free). It's a long story. Well maybe not that long.

It all started about 2 weeks ago when I decided I wanted to cut out red meat and swine. At least for now and cut it down to a minimum forever. I've just been reading a lot about cancer and the dangers of too much red meat. And yes, I think I am growing a more sympathetic heart for the poor, slaughtered animals. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy chicken either. What's HAPPENING TO ME???? So it goes on a bit.

I've also been pondering the possibility that I might have a gluten intolerance. You see...without getting too much into it I have had some ...let's just say digestive challenges over the years. Not to mention respiratory problems and ADD. Fun. A blast! So I thought I'd try cutting out wheat products too. My friend Tracy just recently cut out wheat products and feels much better. At the final suggestion of my cousin Jessica I decided to try the experiment. Along with.. MILK PRODUCTS TOO!!!! WTF???

So after a couple of days of eating rice, lentils, greens, almonds....I actually do feel more focused and more energetic. And my intestinal issues have calmed a bit. Perhaps too early to tell yet. And I probably should have started this experiment with one product at a time, but I know if I have some milk product after a week or so I'll feel the effects pretty fast.

One other thing - this morning I had a bowl of polenta. This complicates things because I remembered being told I had an allergy to corn as a child. After years of ignoring this information I think I really felt a difference after eating the polenta. I woke up fresher and lighter than I had in years, but the corn flour sent me wheezing again and put me back on the toilet in no time. Could it just be the corn? I mean anything is possible at this point. I've been limiting my diet so much these days that maybe I just noticed more what an effect the corn had on me. So what? Wheat? Corn? wheat and corn? Lactose? We'll find out I guess within the next couple of weeks when this mess unfolds.

Meanwhile what the hell can I possibly offer now? " weeks ago I was serving you shrimp nachos (nachos made with corn flour) and before that yummy pasta (wheat) and before that goulash (red meat) and now I can offer you some Kasha porridge. Oh god...unless I can learn how to make those beautiful and colorful macrobiotic dishes...I guess the Heady Pepper will be out of commission for a while. Or in an altered state. Or...just a heady pepper! :(

Latkes and more...

Here it is. Probably the first in a very long time - Hanukkah party - here in SW Jutland. The menu consisted of

1. The beautifully simple, yet deliciously surprising potato latkes. I mean surprising to me as I let the shredded potatoes sit over night not realizing they would oxidize into a reddish black color. I wasn't sure what would happen, but I think I discovered a new kind of natural dye for fabrics! Anyway they were tasty. So I've heard.


2. Spanish Tortilla. In keeping with the food-fried-in-oil tradition I thought - what could be more apropos of Hanukkah. I imagine Maimonides could think of no better dish in celebration of Hanukkah!


3. Assorted Jewish soul food staples might not scream Hanukkah, but they sure do go nicely with the starchy, oily stuff. I'm talking about what any non-Jew might consider just "food", but I would consider it all soul food let's say ... for a Yom Kippur Break fast...or a Sunday brunch at a local bagel shop. Tuna salad, egg salad, smoked salmon, herring...

You'll find it all on this table. Unfortunately I shot the picture after the first round so it's not as lush as I wanted it to be for the photo. That's...OK.

That challah looking bread on the right side is not really challah. But as Kim said, "it looks like challah bread. I've never made challah bread so I have no idea. If it looks like it it's good enough for me"...or something like that.

And let's not forget another Hanukkah staple - the Jelly donut. In Denmark it's called a Berliner, but nobody needs to know that for the sake of the Jewishness of this post. The one below is not the actual one that was served. I neglected to snap a shot of the fuller, rounder ones we had and the holes were on the top. Not the sides.

And last, but not least - the company! We were pleased to have special guests - among the other special guests - Kim and Thor who drove all the way from Copenhagen to join us. For a great read check out Kim's blog, kimananda's House of Fortune and perhaps you'll find all of life's answers there.

Around the table we have (left to right): Hans, Marie, Nete, Kristen, Sofie and Thor

From left to right we have: me, Tracy, Martin, Kim, Thor, Sofie and Marina

And again - HAPPY HANUKKAH!!!!

Potato Latkes LOVE!!!

Hi all. It's Hanukkah this evening at sundown. Fire up those menorahs and enjoy potato latkes, blintzes and other fried, yummy Hanukkah things to eat. This video is being re-posted from a year ago. It's the second food video I've ever made and the production value is a little less than what it is now...*cough*. In any event, enjoy all the love and glory of these latkes that (pardon me for being a bold here) the Macabees themselves would battle over.

What's been consumed lately

So I'm experimenting with cutting out red meat and swine. I'm not going out of my way either to consume animal products. I don't want to label myself anything at this point, but I would like to try this indefinitely. I hope it's not a killjoy to those of you who really appreciate a good steak, pork loin, side of bacon, filet mingon, juicy burger with blue cheese and red onion...OH GOD I'm not sure how long this will last, but here's what I've been making lately...


Cous cous burger (cous cous cooked then blended with egg, flour, salt, oyster sauce and black pepper cooked on the pan.)


Here's a funny casserole of some hybrid nature - Started out like a Spanish tortilla, then evolved into...well... started to sautee some eggplant, garlic, tomatoes and then some feta cheese in a separate pan. In the first pan were the cut potatoes, onions in olive oil on low heat until the potatoes got soft. Then I soaked the potatoes in a couple of eggs, not unlike tortilla Espanola...but here's the switch. The eggplant, tomato, garlic and feta mix got folded into the potato onion, egg mix and then it all got placed in this casserole and cooked for about 20 minutes in the oven. Talk about an orgy of flavor. Delicious. My palate is still in culinary post coital bliss.


If you can get passed the lump of bean paste in the foreground of the plate then you're halfway there. Melissa if you're reading this - does it remind you of anything? Anyway this dish is bulgur prepared in a tomato-tikka masala broth, spinach with onions, garlic and that delicious feta, and a red bean paste. The sauce drizzled onto the plate is Spanish olive oil, honey, balsamic and oyster sauce.


Here are some nachos I made with my own habenero salsa and guacamole, cheddar cheese and tiger shrimp. Mmm yummy! And ugh, filling!

There you have it! If I go off the meatless wagon I'll let you know. It's almost Hanukkah, which means in the place where I am - I will be the only one celebrating as this is the land without Hanukkah. There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas, and there won't be dreidels in the homes of my neighbors, BUT there will be plenty-O swine on their tables. I picked a perfect time to avoid meat.

Lots of Latkes to ya and happy Hanukkah. I hope to have a video made before the 8 days are over, but regardless, I'll be re-posting my Latkes Love from last year.