Dinner at Manfreds

There are so many great restaurants in Copenhagen and this weekend we finally made our way to Manfreds on Jægersborggade in Nørrebro. Manfreds is the little brother of Michelin star restaurant Relæ and I have read great things about them, so I was expecting good quality and innovative food in a low-key environment. (Side note, super sorry about these totally low-quality photos! Hope you'll bear with me on this post!)

The husband and I both had the seven course menu and as they described on the menu, the dishes are primarily vegetable based. While we were there, we had one beef dish and one lamb dish, and that was all in terms of meat. One of my highlights from the meal was the amazing onion soup with the poached egg. They compared it to a ramen type of soup and I love ramen so this was a huge hit for me. I also really enjoyed the beet dish with rosehip petals. Who knew beets and roses would go together? This was a lovely flavor combination. Another special treat were the crispy artichokes with egg cream and dehydrated seaweed powder. Crunchy, chewy, and with a little asian twist. For dessert we ordered their almond cake with mascarpone cream and fresh oranges. This tasted like a classic pound cake which I haven't had in years and really reminded me of home. I loved it and am now craving more pound cake! (If you have a recipe, please share!)

Altogether we had a great dinner and enjoyed our experience at Manfreds. It's a great spot if you are looking for a place that carefully sources their food and wine as 90-100% of their ingredients are organic. It was also a refreshing change to have such a veggie dominant meal. We have at least two types of vegetables or greens for dinner each night, but at Manfreds, five out of seven dishes were vegetable based. Price wise, Manfreds is at a slightly lower price point than Höst for example or Geist. However, I found that the dishes at those two places were slightly more exciting. But again, we really enjoyed our dinner and we wanted to reign in our budget for this night out so Manfreds was a perfect spot!

Manfreds
Jægersborggade 40
2200 Copenhagen N

Jamie's Proper Chicken Caesar Salad

One of the things I really miss living here in Copenhagen is caesar salad. I used to work at Milestone's in Vancouver and their roasted garlic caesar salad is my favorite. I like a strong caesar salad dressing and I just haven't been able to find it in the bottled versions here in Copenhagen.

I borrowed Jamie Oliver's book "Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life" at the library recently and I just had to try his caesar salad recipe. And I must say, it is really good! Jamie's caesar dressing is light, but still rich in flavor. Combined with the roasted chicken and croutons, an extra sprinkling of parmesan cheese and a squeeze of lemon juice, it is the perfect summer dinner. I'm thinking next time I'll throw some roasted garlic into the dressing as well!

I would type out the whole recipe for you but Jamie's team already has some great instructions and step-by-step photos on his website. Find the ingredients and the recipe for Jamie's "Proper Chicken Caesar Salad" here!

It has been a really long weekend here in Copenhagen. Our weekend started with going to Distortion in Nørrebro on Wednesday night, running different wedding errands on Thursday and Friday, meeting with different friends for dinner and cocktails in the city over the last few days, and we have been enjoying the last day of the long weekend outside in our backyard. What have you been up to lately?

Something to Warm You Up: Chicken Garden Soup

It is snowing right now in Copenhagen and I am so glad that I am at home sitting under my covers! 

The fiance and I made this Chicken Garden Soup from Jamie Oliver last week and I wish we had some leftovers in the fridge for a windy and cold day like today. To make this chicken soup, you need a chicken carcass with some meat left on it still. So if you're planning on roasting a chicken or buying a rotisserie chicken for dinner this week, eat it, and then save the leftovers and the carcass for this soup! The fiance and I actually ate all the meat on the lemon thyme roasted chicken I made last week so I roasted some more chicken thighs and drumsticks so that we'd have some meat in our soup. And seriously, homemade broth is so healthy for you! 

Chicken Garden Soup (slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Makes 6 servings

6 carrots

6 celery stalks

2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 bay leaves

2 fresh thyme sprigs

salt

freshly ground pepper

4 whole peppercorns

1 roast chicken carcass, with leftover chicken attached

1 large knob butter

olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 onion, peeled and finely sliced

2 1/2 soup bowls worth of kale, washed and shredded 

200g spinach (we skipped this because we didn't have any)

1/2 lemon

To make the stock:

Wash 2 of the carrots and 2 of the celery stalks and roughly chop them. Add them to a large soup pot with the onions, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, peppercorns, the chicken carcass and a large pinch of salt.

Fill the pot with cold water until everything is covered. Place a lid on the pot  and bring the stock to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for at least 1 hour, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface from time to time. I cooked my stock for about an hour and a half. (Add salt and pepper to taste, you might need more than you think to get some more flavor.)

To make the soup:

About 20 minutes before your stock is ready, start preparing the other components of the soup. Wash and peel the remaining carrots, wash the remaining celery stalks, and slice them nice and evenly. In another large pot on low heat, melt the knob of butter along with some olive oil. Add the garlic and sliced onion and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until soft but not caramelized. Add the carrots and celery and cook for another 5 minutes.

When your stock is ready, remove the chicken carcass, pull of any remaining meat and leave that meat to the side. The rest of the carcass can be thrown away after this step. Strain your stock through a sieve into the pot with the softened vegetables. Bring soup to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Add the kale and simmer for another 10 minutes. Finish the soup by squeezing in the juice of half a lemon and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Add the leftover meat to the soup and serve! 

To bulk up our soup a little bit more, we cooked a little bit of rice and mixed that into the soup. Quinoa would have also worked too! 

I think chicken soup is the perfect remedy for a cold wintery day! Sending warm hugs out to you today!

Weekday Celebrations

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day so we had five friends over for a pancake dinner. It was fun to have people over on a Tuesday night and have breakfast foods. We served roasted potatoes, bacon, and three types of pancakes - good ol' fluffy buttermilk pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and lemon blueberry pancakes. There was butter and syrup, as well as whipped cream, strawberries, sliced bananas, and melon to have on the side or with the pancakes too. Although I love pancakes, I think we've had our fill and I don't think we will be eating them for a few weeks!

Although I don't normally make decorations when we invite friends over for dinner, I really enjoyed making the tissue paper pom poms and a little washi tape garland over the last few days. They just added something to the dinner and the mood. The decorations made it feel a little more special than any other Tuesday night.

Why should weekends have all the fun? I think more weekday celebrations are needed!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls: Making Guests Put Together Their Own Dinner

Last Sunday we invited two of our friends over for dinner. I had bought some rice paper earlier that day because another one of our friends invited a group of us to his place a few weeks ago and did a spring roll night and we really enjoyed it and were inspired to do it again. And really, having guests over for a spring roll night is super easy and it's a fun way to eat!

We bought a cucumber, spring onions, carrots, bean sprouts, a mango, some tiger shrimp, and two duck breasts to use as the filling. The longest part was defrosting the duck and the shrimp! Just finely slice all the vegetables and the fruit that you're using, choose some meat to use, cook the meat (and in our case the bean sprouts as well), and buy some sauce or mix a sauce up. We used a vegetarian hoisin sauce as well as mixing up our own peanut sauce. (The peanut sauce was very loosely based on some of the recipes I found online, but it is basically a few tablespoons of peanut butter, a tablespoon of hoisin sauce, a drop of soy sauce, some minced garlic, juice from a lime, and some water to thin it out.)

I'm trying to think of other interactive meals where you can put together dinner at the table with your guests...sushi? Tacos? Do you have any ideas?