apple muffins

A couple of weeks ago my mother-in-law brought us three big bags of apples from Åsly. Since then our kitchen has been like an apple muffins bakery. I have served these muffins to lots of people and everyone loves them. Here is the recipe.

Start with marinating the apples. I'm not sure how many I used; 5-6 maybe. Cover them in sugar, cinnamon, the juice from half a lime and a splash of cognac (I used Braastads new organic cognac). Brown sugar, cinnamon and lime is also a good mix.

Mix 250 grams of butter (room temperature) and 250 grams of sugar until...

...it looks like this. Put the bowl in the sink with warm water to make the mixing a little easier.

Add three eggs. Stir until it's all well combined.

Sift in 250 grams of flour, 1 tsp. of baking powder and 1 tsp. of vanilla powder, and stir well until it's all combined.

Fill the muffin cups about half full,

and add as many apple cubes as possible. Use your fingers and push them into the dough.

Bake for about 25 minutes at 200°C.

Yield: ca 24 muffins, depending on the size of the muffin cups. You can also make a cake of it. I think a 24 cm springform pan is a good size, and it should bake for a little longer than the muffins; 45 minutes maybe. Both the muffins and the cake freeze very well.

Sweet regards from your muffin princess, Astrid

;-)

chocolate mousse

This is my go-to chocolate mousse recipe. It's quick, simple and really delicious. I got the recipe from my mom, who got it from... I don't know. I have adapted it a bit from my mom's original handwritten copy; I use very strong coffee instead of orange juice or some kind of other liquid, which could for example be cognac or whiskey or any other kind of liquor that goes well with chocolate.

100 grams chocolate (70 % cocoa)
2 tbs strong coffee
3 eggs
3 tbs sugar
2 dl cream

Melt the chocolate with the coffee and let it cool down. Whip egg yolks with sugar. Add the chocolate. Whip egg whites until stiff. Whip the cream. Carefully mix it all together. Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Yield: 5 cocktail glasses

the red deer dinner

This Sunday dinner was special.

Sølve’s colleague Asbjørn up in Stjørdal is an eager big game hunter. In the hunting season he more or less lives in his hunting lodge. He gets up at dawn and hunts for a few hours before he heads to the office. Everyone knows that he caught something nice when he grins like an idiot in the morning.

At least this is how the story goes according to Sølve.



For a hunter the sirloin of his prey is not just any sirloin. To prepare and serve a meal with this sirloin is the culinary equivalent of hanging the prey’s antlers on the wall. Therefore Sølve and I feel especially honored and privileged that Asbjørn gifted him this red deer sirloin that we had for Sunday dinner.

Before starting the preparation of the meat, it was slowly defrosted in the fridge over night, and then it lay in room temperature for half a day. Sølve cut of the tendons off the meat and sprinkled it with black pepper. Then it rested on the kitchen bench while he started the sauce.


Since autumn has arrived, it felt natural to include mushrooms – chanterelles, creminis and oyster mushrooms – as a side dish. For the sauce Sølve took half of all the mushrooms, chopped them and slowly fried them in butter on low heat. For the last couple of minutes he added finely chopped shallots and about 1 dl of Madeira. Mushrooms were the main ingredient in the sauce, but Sølve also used finely chopped Jerusalem artichoke. He added it with the Madeira + one finely chopped carrot and a fistful of finely chopped leek. Then he added 3 dl of cream and 2 dl of game stock and let it all simmer and reduced it to ca half. The main herbs in the sauce were fresh parsley and tarragon. Finally the sauce was topped off with a splash of Braastad’s organic cognac and fresh ground pepper, and then Sølve used a hand blender to make the sauce smooth.

While the sauce reduced, Sølve seared the meat before it was roasted at 60 ºC for about 2 hours. He had some butter on top of it so it wouldn’t go dry. When the meat reached 40 ºC Sølve took it out and let it rest. He then let the meat roast at 120 ºC until it reached 53 ºC. While it rested on the kitchen bench it rose to 55 ºC, and it fell to 54 ºC before it was cut and served.

While the meat roasted, Sølve slowly fried the mushrooms and boiled potatoes.



Rowan berry jelly would have been perfect with this meal. We totally forgot to buy it (or make it…), but the cherry tomatoes gave a bit of the same effect.

And voila! a most excellent dinner was served.

Thank you so much again, Asbjørn, for giving us the fantastic red deer sirloin for this meal! Hopefully next time we can enjoy a dinner like this with you.