This blog has moved to andershusa.com

Please check out andershusa.com if you want to continue reading about my food explorations.

You can also follow me here:
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

http://andershusa.com/

Interview in Oslo Folk Collective

I am featured in the latest issue of the online publication Oslo Folk Collective.

Check also the other great articles about food, fashion, music and art in Oslo.

Entrecôte with Béarnaise and Goose Fat Fried Potatoes

Last weekend Anders’ parents were in town and we took them to Gutta på Haugen to secure the Saturday night dinner. Anders wanted to cook with his dad. Ever since Anders was a kid his favorite meal if he can choose is a juicy piece of meat with Béarnaise sauce. Gutta’s Entrecôte is a perfect choice, and we also got some French unsalted butter and goose fat for the potatoes.

Ingredients

200 g per person of high quality entrecôte from Gutta på Haugen
1 tbsp whole black pepper
Sunflower or rapeseed oil and clarified butter

6 small potatoes per person
1/2 jar of goose fat
Maldon salt

Béarnaise sauce:
500g butter, unsalted
2 egg yolks
1 shallot
1 dl white wine
1/2 dl white wine vinegar
fresh tarragon, 1 medium plant
fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1 handful
salt & pepper

Gutta’s Entrecôte

Mise en place

Mise en place is usually a good idea, especially for food like this. Place your meat on a cutting board in room temperature. Cut all of the potatoes in two, vertically, to expose as much as possible of the “meat” inside without peeling. Leave potatoes under running water to remove some of the starch. Meanwhile, separate the egg yolks from whites. Keep the whites for something else.

Chop the flat-leaf parsley and put aside. Take 3/4 of the tarragon plant and remove the leaves, chop them finely and put aside. Take the remaining 1/4 and chop the leaves along with the sprigs. Put this aside in a separate bowl where you also put the finely chopped shallot. Measure up the white wine and white wine vinegar in a measurement cup.

Roast the tablespoon of whole black pepper in a frying pan on high temperature. Watch as the pepper corns look like they are popping and jumping around in the pan. Remove from heat and mortar into medium fine pieces. Sift the pepper to remove the finest pieces. Use the medium fine pieces and rub it all into the entrecôte.

Mise en place

Time to cook

Béarnaise sauce:

We start by making the Béarnaise sauce. Melt the 500g of unsalted butter on low heat in a pot. Once melted, skim off the top layer of milk foam with a spoon. To remove the lower level of milk solids you slowly pour the butter into a new container, leaving behind the milk in the pot. You now have clarified butter. Set aside, but try to keep somewhat warm. Remove 2 tbsp of the clarified butter that you will use for frying the meat later.

In another pot on medium heat; add shallots, 1/4 of the tarragon and the sprigs, white wine, white wine vinegar and 4-5 twists of a pepper mill. Cook until 1 tbsp of liquid remains, then sift through a strainer to remove the herbs and onions. Allow the liquid to cool while you ready a water bath. Bring the water to a boil, then turn off heat completely.

In a glass or stainless steel bowl that can be lowered slightly into the water, add the egg yolks and the concentrated liquid. Start whisking. A big heavy whisk is preferable. You want a good foamy consistency before you start pouring the melted butter very slowly into the mixture. Whisk heavily. Start with a few drops of butter, then add more when you are comfortable. It may take a bit of butter and some time for the temperature of the egg yolks to rise in order for the emulsion process to start properly. As long as you do it slowly it should work out fine. Once all butter is added and you’ve whisked it together to a thick sauce, add the 3/4 of the chopped tarragon and all the chopped parsley. Add salt to taste. Leave the sauce in the bowl immersed in water to keep it warm, but pay attention to the temperature to make sure the emulsion don’t start to break. If it does; quickly add some drops of cold water and whisk heavily.

Béarnaise sauce in the making

Entrecôte:

This can be done simultaneously as you start cooking the potatoes, but the procedures are separated here for a better overview. In a mixture of sunflower/rapeseed oil and clarified butter, on high temperature, fry the meat about 2 minutes on each side to give it a caramelized crust. Wrap in aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Set your oven to 180 degrees C. Cooking time for medium/rare is about 6-8 minutes with the weight and thickness of the meat we used, which was roughly 350g per piece and a thickness of 4 cm. You can also use a cooking thermometer. In such a case you’re looking for 52 degrees C at the core before you remove the meat from the oven. It will rise to at least 55 degrees C while cooling. Wrap in aluminum foil and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are ready.

Goose fat fried potatoes:

Boil the potatoes for 5 minutes in a pot. Remove water, put the pot back on the heat and shake it quite heavily back and forth to dry the potatoes for water and give them a rougher surface. This is important to allow the potatoes to soak the oil. Set your oven to 245 degrees C. In a deep baking tray; pour half the jar of goose fat and distribute it evenly. Place in oven to increase temperature, but pay attention as it starts to give off smoke if you leave it too long. Once warm put the potatoes into the goose fat. Cooking time is roughly 15-20 minutes, but you have to pay attention as all ovens are different. Flip the potatoes around a bit every 5 minute. The last 5 minutes you want to activate the hot air program to really finish off that crispy outside. If done perfectly the potatoes should still be soft inside, while out-of-this-world crispy on the outside. Sprinkle with Maldon salt.

Good food deserves good wine. A magnum Château Beauséjour Saint-Émilion Grand Cru 1986.

Also posted on Two Foodies Eating

Steen & Strøm’s New Food Court

Enjoy

On of the new trends we see in Oslo is that the big malls are refurbishing and opening food courts in their lower floors. Paleet in Karl Johan did so earlier this autumn, as parts of modernizing their mall. Now Steen & Strøm in Nedre Slottsgate has done the same. While Paleet’s attempt turned out to be more of a gathering of restaurants in one floor, Steen & Strøm has actually made a food court where you can shop around and grab a table where you feel like it.

They have a total of twelve restaurants, food vendors and specialty stores at the moment, as well as a super market. Newspapers are already calling it Oslo’s third food hall, following Mathallen at Vulkan and Maschmann’s Matmarked at Skøyen. We went to test all of the places, to see if they could live up to the expectations.

Hello Good Pie

Hello Good Pie has offered their delicious sweet and savory pies at Mathallen for two years already. At Steen & Strøm they have made a beautiful new restaurant, that looks even prettier than the original. The huge glass menu on the wall with gold leaf writing is almost as inviting as the pies. Through the windows on the counter you can see the tempting pies at one end, and follow the baking process at the other end.

Pork, beef and ratatouille are offered at 89/95 NOK if you just need a snack, and in a bigger size with condiments for 149 NOK to enjoy as dinner. Dessert pies with lemon meringue, chocolate and peanuts, apple crumble and pumpkin and caramel are 64/70 NOK. All in all we find this a good value for money place, especially considering the quality of the ingredients and the love that goes into making each and every one of them.

Lemon meringue, pumpkin pie with caramel cream and chocolate & peanut pie.

Gold leaf on glass! Beautiful

Cordelia pressing the pie doughs into their forms.

Baked with love

Just like home made pies

Burrito Project

Burrito Project immediately caught our attention on our first visit to the food court last week – before everything was opened as scheduled. They offered some samples of their slow cooked Josper grilled meat and it tasted really good. The concept reminds us of the high quality fast food chain Chipotle, which is found everywhere in North-America and has reached some major cities of Europe as well. Turns out this place is run by Oslo-based New Yorkers, so maybe that is where they got their inspiration.

Burritos are filled with either rice or beans and then a choice of Josper grilled vegetables (NOK 83), chicken (NOK 95), pulled pork (NOK 118)  or entrecôte (NOK 145). The remaining condiments are all included, except for guacamole which costs and additional NOK 23. Condiments include salad, pickled red onions, corn, cheese, different salsas and fresh coriander. You decide what to put on.

The meat still tasted good, but not as good as the samples we got the other day. Could it be because they store the meat in open air and it had gone cold? The salsas were a little runny, and the girl serving us was rather cheap on the guacamole we paid NOK 23 extra for. We got maybe a tablespoon or so per burrito, and thus the flavor disappeared almost entirely. Overall it tasted quite good, though, and we will return to to test some more later.

Entrecôte burrito with “everything” except rice.

Final touches to the walls still being done.

Mamma Pizza

This place, run by Italians, is the second location to open after getting a decent reputation at their main store in Dronningens gate just a few blocks east of Steen & Strøm. They offer pizza by the slice “Rome style” as well as traditional round pies with thin crust. We tested the oxtail ragu and tuna by the slice. The oxtail ragu was really good, just look how tempting it looks on the picture below. The tuna was not so good, but that was probably due to our preferences or being overshadowed by the much tastier ragu.

Oxtail ragu

Summerbird

Summerbird has had countless of pop-ups at Steen & Strøm recently. As such it was no surprise to see that they now opened their own store here. Gutta på Haugen has always been our go-to-place to get our Danish delights, but it is welcoming that Summerbird now have their own shop as well. Here you get amazing “flødeboller” with marzipan bottoms – we especially recommend the Christmas edition! Their chocolate coated almonds rolled in different flavors like lemon and chamomile or raspberry are highly addictive! Not to mention truffles filled with passion fruit caramel. Don’t believe us? They are always generous on store samples, so go have a taste. If you want the Danish Christmas spirit to last all of December you should get their Advent Calendar just like we have.

Everything is organic! All ingredients are of the highest quality. We have heard rumors that these crazy Danes went hunting for organic oranges in Italy. They found their perfect tasting orange, but the farm was not run organic. The farmer refused to facilitate for organic operation. Summerbird called him every Thursday for two years, and even went to visit him again several times. Until he gave up! Today he delivers the perfect oranges as they wished for, and he thanks them for convincing him to do it organic.

Lakrids by Johan Bülow

Johan Bülow is “Lakridskongen”. The young Danish entrepreneur that started to make liquorice in his home kitchen just a few years back, and now runs a highly successful company of more than 100 employees in over 20 countries. Just like Summerbird, this place is generous on samples, and they will gladly help you to discover your favorite. We don’t really like liquorice as much, neither of us, but we have to admit – this is something else! Who knows, maybe next year we will have the Advent Calendar from Lakrids?

Sebastien Bruno

We already know Sebastien Bruno from their flagship store in Frognerveien and the temptations that meets you as soon as you enter Mathallen at Vulkan. This is truly one of the best macaroon makers in town! Try the olive oil and basil flavored macaroon, or if you want something seasonal how about rhubarb with cinnamon or milk chocolate and mandarin? Do not miss the roasted and caramelized pistachios coated in chocolate either!

A.C. Perch’s Thehandel

Yet another Danish store! We know this as our favorite Copenhagen tea store, and now we are lucky to have one in Oslo too. They offer teas in every imaginable flavor and combination, and just look at how charming and welcoming the store is to visit.

Olive Tree

Olive Tree has a vast variety of olive oils offered in lovely, hand crafted and painted bottles. However, when it comes to olive oil the flavor is definitely more important than the design. Is this as good as the olive oils we usually get from Gutta på Haugen or Oliviers & Co? The samples we tasted did not convince us, but we will have to try more varieties another time.

What’s Soup

Apparently inspired by the Soup Nazi from the classic Seinfeld episode, What’s Soup serves a selection of different soups and stews. On the menu at the moment is Dal – Indian lentil soup (NOK 89), cauliflower soup (NOK 89), chili con carne (NOK 109) and “pinnekjøtt”soup (NOK 109).

We took no chances and followed the correct procedures: “As you walk in the place move immediately to your right,  keep the line moving, hold out your money, speak your soup in a loud, clear voice, step to the left and receive. Do not to embellish on your order. No  extraneous comments. No questions. No compliments.”

The soups were ok, especially the Dal tasted quite good. The “Pinnekjøtt”soup is a little boring. If you add that it is priced at NOK 109 and leaves you less than full even for lunch – it doesn’t really work so well. Nothing here that screams of legend status as far as flavors are concerned. I guess we’ll come back – one year.

Jonathan Sushi

Jonathan did not offer any samples or ways to test their menu without buying a full meal. As this was our last stop of the tour, we did not buy the sushi this day. Sorry Jonathan, no preview – no review.

Also posted on Two Foodies Eating

Jian Bing – Chinese Pancake with Confit Duck and Hoisin

Sponset innlegg/reklame

Jian bing with confit duck

Time to test some more of the awesome products we received from Matbazaren.no. This time we wanted to make something with the confit duck. Confit duck is duck legs cooked and then preserved in duck fat. What better match to this fat meat than some sweet chinese pancakes (jian bing) and hoisin sauce? This dish is of course inspired by Hitchhiker, who recently removed it from their menu.

Ingredients (serves 2 people)

1 can of confit duck

Hoisin sauce

Spring onions

3 eggs + 2 eggs

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 dl all-purpose flour

2 dl whole milk

Ready your chop sticks and start cooking!

Chinese pancakes are dead easy to make. Whisk together 3 eggs, by hand or in a kitchen machine if you have. Add sugar and salt. Sift in the flour. 1 dl is an estimate, make sure it gets sticky. Then start adding whole milk to make the consistency more runny again. You want the batter to be more runny than traditional pancake batter, in order to make the pancakes thin enough. Set the batter aside for now. Whisk together the last 2 eggs in a bowl.

Set your oven to 225 degrees C. Open the can of confit duck and strain the duck fat. Keep the fat in a sealed container and store it somewhere! This is amazing for frying potatoes another time. Place a deep baking tray in the middle of your oven, and fill it with 2-3 liters of water. Then place a roast rack above it. When the oven is warm, place the pieces of confit duck on the rack. The water makes sure the fat doesn’t burn in your oven, and also helps keeps the meat juicy. Set the timer to 15 minutes.

Chop the spring onions and ready the hoisin sauce for serving.

Heat your pan to medium low temperature. Add some oil, but spread it out with kitchen paper. You just want a thin layer of oil. Add enough batter to completely cover your pan with a thin layer. Thin is a keyword here! A rotation movement of your wrist should be enough to evenly distribute the batter in the pan. If the first pancake gets too thick, or it’s difficult to spread it out properly try to 1) dillute the batter with more milk 2) reduce the heat on your pan 3) use less batter. Leave the pancake for a few seconds until the upper side solidifies and then brush a layer of the eggs you whisked together. Give the pan a hard shake. If the pancake loosens it is time to flip it. Let it fry on the other side until it starts getting a golden color, but not longer. You don’t want the pancakes to get too dry.

Sometime during your pancake frying the duck should be ready. Take it out to le the meat rest, while you switch on your oven’s grill or hot air progam and increase to 250-275 degrees C. When the oven is warm enough you return the duck for a final speed grilling to make the skin crispy. Pay attention! The duck goes from perfectly crispy to burnt very fast.

Use two forks to pull the meat from the bones. This is like pulled pork in consistency, even smoother. Fill your pancakes with meat, spring onions and hoisin sauce. Roll. Cut in four small or two big pieces. Sprinkle with more spring onion or thai basil. Serve.

Samsung Cookalong – Korean BBQ Hitchstyle

Team Black

Samsung invited me along with other food bloggers, writers and journalists to a Korean cookalong. The event took place in Kanonhallen in Oslo. I want to share some pictures from the event, as well as the recipes for the food I made: Kimchi Express and Pjolter Waffles.

Stian Floer from Hitchhiker in Mathallen was there to share his quick and easy recipes for a Korean BBQ feast. Samsung was there to promote their new “dual cook” ovens, which can cook two dishes at their own temperatures in the same oven. I met my fellow foodies and bloggers Julie and TK. We teamed up for the cookalong.

We appointed Julie to team leader and she took care of the BBQ meat. TK made the Pajeon pancakes and accompanying dip as she had just recently made Korean pancakes at home. I made kimchi and “Pjolter”-waffles, named after my favorite restaurant Pjoltergeist. We were also joined later by Per Asbjørn Risnes, author of the cookbook “Pappamat”, who helped Julie with the meat and made the Korean sallad. In all humbleness I have to say we were quite the dream team.

Kimchi Express

1 Chinese cabbage
1 carrot
a handful of grated ginger
4 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp Sriracha sauce
2 tbsp Kimchi base

Rince all vegetables in cold water. Cut the cabbage in 2 cm pieces, grate the carrots and ginger. Mix everything in a bowl og rub the salt into it. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

This is all our recipe said. In addition I added some Chinese radish, and I put on plastic gloves and massaged the vegetables with the salt and sauces for 20 minutes. That makes them very soft, and in my opinion makes this express kimchi more similar to proper kimchi.

Pjolter Waffles

2 dl express kimchi
2 dl waffle batter

Waffle batter:

2,5 dl all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
2,5 dl buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter

Mix the ingredients and let it rest and grow for 20 minutes. Mix in the kimchi and fry the waffles.

Goodie bag

Pjoltergeist – just another reason to love this place

Elk tongue

Yesterday me and kleinjinx tested the newly opened Piscoteket. We were out dining with my parents, and we bumped into fellow foodie donmahr who was being a true gentleman taking his mom for a date. After the full set menu Marius was still not truly satisfied about showing his mom the best of Oslo. He decided to take her to Pjoltergeist as well. We thought it was a great idea, and joined them.

Apart from great wine and pjolters as always, the only food item we ordered was the elk tongue which was written with with a red marker on top of the printed menu. It was a beautiful dish of elk tongue with an apple mousse in the bottom, shredded apple on top and dusted with grated smoked elk heart. The guy serving us was Swedish and told us it was Swedish elk. So I jokingly asked if he shot the elk himself. No, he explained, his mom and dad had killed a few elks recently and they gave him this particular one to use in the restaurant. That’s why I love this place.

Smoked elk heart

Piscoteket – more ceviche power to Oslo

Anticuchos

Last November it was the Mexican kitchen which opened two new restaurants in Oslo – Taco Republica and Tijuana. The first being quite hyped, and the latter almost anonymous in comparison. However, Tijuana became my favorite because of the food, concept and prices, although I can still enjoy Taco Republica as well.

This November, it is the Peruvian cusine – First out was Aymara two weeks ago and yesterday Piscoteket had their opening Pisco Disco.

Pisco Sour and an aquavit cocktail

Both places have received equal distribution of media attention. The Peruvian kitchen is the hype more than the specific restaurants. Piscoteket has Jaime Pesaque, though – chef and owner of Peruvian restaurants all over the world. That does create some expectations.

We were here on opening night, just like Aymara. The menu was a set menu (NOK 450), with options of wine or cocktail pairing.

Canchita (Peruvian popcorn)

What we liked about it:

– The huge bar in the middle of the room, pumping out cocktails.

– The presentation of the dishes. It looked good on the plate.

– The interior design of the place, the logo, authetic bus tickets and peruvian posters. Pretty colors!

– The authentic Peruvian music playing in the background.

– The traditional Pisco Sour.

Classical ceviche

What we hope they will improve:

– The ingredients… Those shrimps we got were super tiny, and couldn’t possibly be fresh. The octopus was tough and hard to chew, I had to spit it out. Some of the entrecote pieces as well. The scallops did not have the same fresh taste or mouthfeel as the ones we got at Aymara. I could even swear some of the vegetables had a taste of being canned… We really hope this was due to opening night and improves in the weeks to come.

– The flavors of the different leche de tigre is a big part of the meal here, and they did not appeal to us as much.

Overall it was not so exciting. Soon they will have Ají de Gallina, Lomo Saltado and Causa on the menu as well, and we will probably go back to test them.

Scallops tiradito

Warm ceviche

Quinoa con pato

Arroz con leche

Dessert cocktail

Have you been to Piscoteket? What do you think? Has it improved?

Take Over at Smalhans

An early Sunday morning in November the two of us along with Jose “Pepe” Talavera took the bus to neighbourhood restaurant Smalhans at St. Hanshaugen. The mission: To take over the intensive two hour daily lunch/dinner service between 4pm and 6pm.

The main dish was Ají de Gallina. A creamy hot dish with shredded chicken and yellow Peruvian chili (aji). Served with rice, potatoes (much carb love), eggs and black olives. In addition we decided to decorate it somewhat untraditional with Blue Congo potatoe chips. We kindly asked our assistant chef to go to Gutta på Haugen and buy some potatoes for us. Meanwhile we started prepping. We thought we were prepared for the amount of work that lay ahead of us, but in hindsight we had no idea. Making this dish for eight people is easy, but we had to prepare for more than a hundred just in case. Anders was finely chopping 80 cloves of garlic, and Andrea was shredding almost 100 chicken filets and that took an immense amount of time.

Pepe did an amazing job peeling nearly 150 potatoes. He probably valued his experience from the time as a marine commander, sometimes cooking for his staff of several hundred people. Chef Pepe was calm.

We had been prepping all day when suddenly it was less than an hour to service started. We brought everything upstairs from the prepping kitchen into the main kitchen. The big pot of Aji de Gallina was simmering and getting ready, but with just ten minutes to go, and the first orders already ticking in, our fellow Smalhans chefs suddenly noticed that the rice had not been boiled properly in the rice cooker. Thankfully Captain Hipstakokken entered at this moment and took control over his ship. Rice was put to boil everywhere. In the steam oven. In pots. High and low rice was being cooked. Service began at 16.05.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the prepping kitchen still, Andrea was facing her own race against time with the dessert. The damn dulce de leche cream just refused to thicken! However, the biggest problem was that it still had to be cooled before we could put Italian meringue on top of it. At one point it almost looked like we would have to cancel the already heavily marketed dessert. Andrea has worked as a chef before too so she kept her cool, though.

To Anders and Pepe’s surprise, desserts arrived in time for the first guest to finish their main course. Our assistant chef had given Andrea a great tip to put the Suspiros in the instant freezer. One lesson we learned this day is that chefs help each other a lot, and we would not have managed half as well without the great help of our coworkers.

More than 50 people ordered Suspiro a la Limeña (“the sigh of the Lima woman) this afternoon. Which turned out to be a new record! As for the main course we didn’t sell enough to break Hipstakokken’s own record of 103, but we landed a nice fourth place with 88 pax.

Cooking at Smalhans was such a great experience for us, and we know a lot of our friends that came to eat had a good time as well. Thanks to Smalhans for inviting us and giving us this opportunity. We hope to return for another take over at some point. Until then we have learned that the chef life is even harder and more stressful than we think about, and that you should eat and drink something during eight hours of work or else you get a headache.

To our great surprise Smalhans decided to donate 5000 kroner of the profits this day to the Movember movement in support of prostate cancer research. Thanks!

Guest chefs at Smalhans

This Sunday me and kleinjinx will be guest chefs at Smalhans at St. Hanshaugen in Oslo. We are also flying in Jose Talavera all the way from Schwarzwald for this special occasion!

Every day between 16.00 and 18.00 Smalhans have a new disch they call “Dagens Husmannskost” – the daily special with focus on traditional dishes from all over the world. Many have been guest chefs before us, including Bent Stiansen from Statholdergaarden, Ole Martin Alfsen and jr. sous chef at Fat Duck at the time; Markus Dybwad. Several bloggers have cooked here too; amongst them chikujenta and bonjourtristesse.

The dish we are preparing is called “Ají de Gallina” and translates to “the chili of the hen”. It is a traditional Peruvian plate of shredded hen or chicken in a creamy and nutty cheese sauce made with yellow aji amarillo chili peppers. It is served with rice and potatoes, as well as boiled eggs and olives. “Dagens husmannskost” always cost NOK 160 and you can get a second serving if it wasn’t enough for you – it’s supposed to be a hearty meal!

We are also preparing a dessert called Suspiro a la Limeña, which means “the sigh of the Lima woman”. The name should be self explanatory – this sweet ending to a meal is heavenly! Dulche de leche (manjar blanco in Peru) in the base and port wine infused Italian meringue on top, sprinkled with cinnamon dust.

Book your table now at http://www.smalhans.no/ between 16.00 and 17.45 on Sunday the 16th of November. If you do not wish to book, or reservations are not possible anymore, just pop by. There is always room for more people at the neighbourhood restaurant Smalhans. The bar stools along the counter are not open for reservation and is actually an excellent place to sit. Especially for those who wish to capture the moment and share with their friends on Instagram with hashtags #smalhans #gjestespill and #threefoodiescooking. Take away is also an option!