What I did last week

This is mostly intended as a diary for myself, so that I don't forget what I have done lately. The problem is I already forgot half the stuff I did.

Last Saturday I had planned to cook and eat the "griseknoke" I bought the other day. A griseknoke is a heavily brined pigs knuckle, skin and all. It's heavenly delicious, but needs to be soaked in cold water for 2-3 days prior to cooking, or your physician will have a go at your sodium levels. I braised the knuckle with some onion, carrot and spices for over three hours, until it started to come apart nicely. Anyway, my plans went awry when Knut called and invited me for a perfect three star dinner at his place, starring a large chunk of organic veal. We were fed proper, and got proper drunk on good wine too. What an evening! Knut is king.

Sunday was Mølje party, as described in detail in earlier posts.

Monday, enter griseknoke! Fantastic thing, to come home quite late from work and find a parboiled pigs knuckle in the fridge. It was too much food for one, so Geir came over to help. The little pig was served with carrots and turnip cooked tender in the cooking liquid of the knuckle, boiled potatoes and parsley sauce. Kudos Fergus Henderson, the man is a genius. We also had salad and bread for starter, and fresh plums with slivovitz and cream for desert. Not a bad way to start a week.

Now it starts to get blurry, too many things to keep track of during the week. One day I had poached cod with a vermouth beurre blanc and salad. That was pretty nice, and I ate more than I should have. I also made a dirty-bomb-soup, using stuff that needed to be eaten ASAP. It ended up as a pureed soup of celeriac and leek with a bit of milk, cream, chicken stock and a bit of asparagus. Not bad at all, but not the best I've done. Leek, especially the green part, is quite troublesome in a smooth, pale soup. It also lacked butter.

Friday lutefisk was on the menu, since it was on sale, 29 kr/kg! Insane. It was served the traditional Finnish way with boiled potato, béchamel sauce and a load of finely ground all-spice. Too good. For dessert we had "floating islands"; A thick vanilla custard with boiled meringues and a warm raspberry reduction.

Saturday, enter griseknoke again! They were on sale, you see, 34 kr/kg. How could you resist? I bought a load. This time it was served with a cous-cous, broad beans and, surprise, Fergus's fantastic parsley sauce. For dessert we had berries with crunchy meringues and a port wine sabayon. That was the nail in the coffin, and I never quite recovered from that. The sofa was to be my best friend for the rest of the evening. Oh yeah, and I baked some bread of course. Not much to say about that. I got a bad batch of wheat flour (8 kg) which does not perform very well, as can be seen from the pictures.

Sunday, well that's now, and I have not cooked yet. Went skiing to Fagerfjell (873 m), and we had fantastic conditions although it was very windy. It looked quite bad, and will be, but the snow was still a really nice soft power. And the sun was shining! A really nice day! But, back to the food. I have a whole, albeit small, 1 kg monk fish (breiflabb, marulk) in the fridge. I got it super cheap from my favorite fish mongerer, only 99 kr/kg! That is very cheap, in the south they are paying up to 300 kr/kg. It's a very meaty fish, and I'll just roll the fillets in chickpea flour and pan fry them. I hope it goes nicely with an iceberg lettuce with tomato and avocado and mint. I'm not sure about the mint, but I have a whole bunch o fresh mint to use. I'll go easy on it anyway, just in case.

I'll write more on griseknoke and parsley sauce later, because it's definitively a dish that deserves a bit more attention and praise! All pigs are equal, but some are just tastier than others.