Foodie in Aarhus

So, having completely forgotten about the fact that I'd started a food blog, finding myself in Aarhus with 2 days to kill before a food symposium, I realised that if I were to be in any way credible, I needed to start 'contemplating cuisines' once more. So I have- and here is, if not my first encounter with Scandinavian cuisine, probably my most thoughtful!

Night 1: NFK: Nordens Folkekokken

A menu (at a reasonable price) that took me 2 hours of walking in circles to find. In typical Laura fashion, I did absolutely no preparation, but instead headed off in a particular direction from my hotel opposite the Aarhus Cathedral and walked the streets, as it were. Mine was a pleasant eventual encounter- a set menu ranging from 2 to 7 courses, all of which were paired with wine- I'm in!

My decisions were typical- to start poached salmon paired with a Sicilian white. It came perfectly presented with a Danish cream cheese and lemon curd. I really appreciated this starter because it was light, yet satisfying and came accompanied with freshly baked bread to soak up the excess alcohol as this was my first meal since the plane 7 hours previously. The salmon itself had been cooked to perfection and did not have that overpowering oily fish consistency that is often a problem I have with salmon. The wine- a 2011 Grillo-Inzelia was refreshing and exactly what I needed after my trip about town...



The main course was also fish (Kulmule)- Hake on a chanterelle mash accompanied with fresh chanterelles, peas and a potato mash. This too was cooked to perfection and the fish melted in my mouth. The chanterelles were also not over-powering, but rather brought out the flavour of the fish that I'm used to eating fried back home (see previous blog at some of these attempts :) The only criticism that I can level at this dish was that it was quite rich and could have done with something to break the creamy textures of the fish, mash and chanterelles other than just a few peas. The white accompanying this was also an Italian one, but was a lot deeper in flavour with a smokiness complementing its fruity overtones- Triade Campanien 2010. (You will also note that at this point I remembered that I could also play around with Instagram for my photos :)


The final course was a selection of Scandinavian cheeses with a relish and honeyed nuts. Although I was worried that my choice may prove too much after the rich main course, my fears were unfounded and the variety and size of the portions was quite satisfactory. The blue in particular went really well with the nuts and the softer, Swedish cheese required the relish to bring out its qualities. The Puglian 2009 Passitivo finished the meal off in style.



So, it looks like my culinary experience has gotten off to a good start (as has my relationships with Instagram) and I'm super keen for the next instalment of my Danish food experience. I will try to do some research in the meantime so as to put an academic spin on this in relation to farming systems, which is what we will be discussing at this conference

Good Friday = Fishhhhh

It was quite coincidental that I started blogging again during the Easter holidays and that my posts are therefore quite religiously oriented, but I guess that the underlying reason for this is two-fold. First that it's only during these holidays when I actually take a breath in and feel like I can do something other than pure academia and secondly, a lot of the religious fiasco involves food... hence my Good Friday ritual

Having eaten nothing all day, I come back after sitting in Church for approx 3 hours to fry myself some fish as my mother would always do. As ingrained as lamb is for me on Easter Sunday so is re-enacting my mom's delish fried fish what I look forward to after a day of fasting. The only problem being that the fish that we get back home is a lot harder to come by in the UK than I would have liked.

So, Thursday afternoon I headed to the Covered Market fish market to get me some, white fry-able fish. With my asking for a hake or kingklip equivalent, the man behind the counter smiled benevolently and said- I can give you hake. Pardon? (thrown off my guard) Yes- hake- just choose which piece you want...

Now as you all know in order to fry fish in batter, this requires a fish fillet- so I'm expecting him to offer me the cod or even haddock fillets that are right in front of me, but instead he points to a pile of darnes (I just looked this up now- it is a cut of fish on the bone with the skin still on). In my terror and not wanting to look like a lazy fool I point at two that I think I may be able to butcher into fillets later, pay and proceed on my way.

Until this afternoon when I return home salivating for my fried fish, chips and greens... I take the fish out and- as I'm sure most of you know- completely fail in my task of transforming the darnes into fry-able fillets. Instead I land up with two chunks and 4 smaller piles of what is probably white fish flesh that I've unsuccessfully tried to stick together.

Well, I think- at least there is the batter- maybe that might work

and here Jamie Oliver to the rescue with his brilliant Italian fish batter recipe which can literally save any disaster in the kitchen (and which I tragically can't find the link for online- the trick is to use sparkling water and olive oil in the batter with the flour and the egg yolk to make the batter)

By some utter miracle this managed to hold my poor butchered fish together for long enough to cook and actually look like the piece of fish it was originally meant to be and was actually quite delicious.

(The same cannot be said for the oven bake chips that in my laziness I opted for- rule number one is never to take the short cut)

So, all's well that ends well- I'm one less species of meat in the fridge and already salivating over the prospects for Sunday's lunch :)

Kitchens

Taking a look back over the photos from my time at Oxford, I realise how much time has been spent in a kitchen- I even have entire albums dedicated to to my friend Esteban's kitchen (where we would gather every week or so, alternating cooking a meal for upwards of 30 people- whoever said large-scale catering was hard?). It was a culinary world tour- Colombian style tarragon chicken, to Yoko's amazingly fresh sushi and even I rolled out my mom's 'Biddy's chicken' recipe that is probably one of the easiest thing to prepare in bulk because all the work goes into the marinade the night before!



And this tradition continued even as friends came and went- living at the top of Headington Hill in St Hilda's JSL house, nobody would come to visit us so had to entice them up with tons of good food and of course, plenty of wine. We were so successful that all of our 'exchange dinners' tended to be one-way which suited us well enough...



Having moved into private accommodation with 3 good friends (all boys- though Robert actually cooks, and quite well), I have continued to use my attempts at cooking as an excuse to get good friends together- and it has continued to work remarkably well and new friends have been added into the mix. The trick is actually to keep it as simple as possible- which is not difficult given student budgets and the limits of our college/rental kitchens (in fact the only redeeming feature of The White House where I currently reside is its new kitchen which we insisted upon before moving in).

Food has become not only the means to and end- as a social gathering, but is itself a way of understanding each other, our diverse cultural backgrounds and upbringings. So whenever people used to ask me to cook something 'South African' I would be at a loss- waiting for the sun to come through and having a braai used to be my only response, but I have since learned that anything I feel like cooking, as a South African, can be considered a South African meal. I've done the traditional bobotie (after a trip to the South African shop to get the necessary indigenous ingredients like Mrs Balls hot chutney), but even steak on rolls dripping in hot chillies and olive oil is what I would call a Prego roll = typical Portuguese South African cuisine!



And so the tradition continues, food brings people together- we learn more about each other through cooking and being cooked for... bonding through the sharing of an honest meal.

Easter!!!

Right, so a new year... and a new blog, well, sort of! So the thesis has been handed in and I'm awaiting my viva so I can now, instead focus on what really matters to me and that is FOOD!!!

From now on this blog is not going to be solely about complexity, but about the complexity of those everyday mouthfuls that most of us (at least those of us with access to this blog) take for granted everyday- what is it about food that makes it so special? Food as a right, food as an experience, food as nutrition and as custom... I could go on for a while (and will) but at the moment my real focus is on food as celebration and ritual- cue Easter!

Once a year I don my domestic hat and decide to have all my friends who have been abandoned in Oxford at Easter over for Easter Sunday lunch. I have once again stocked up the fridge with a leg of lamb and a chicken, I've also sent out the e-mails requesting assistance with the additional dishes- Michael is bringing salad, Anika and Yuan are in charge of dessert and Raj is bringing the booze. But as I prepare for this every year I wonder what it is about Easter that makes me feel like I have to celebrate- but not just with any old food, but always with the roast lamb- it is the central element of the meal and Easter would just not be Easter without it (see photo from last year above...

and the year before that)

You see, it's all about the lamb and it hears back to my mother and her Easter lunches and of course there is the religious element too- Jesus as the sacrificial lamb and the lamb Jews eat over Passover (which is at the same time of course)


But enough about the lamb- Easter is also all about good friends being brought together to share in a good meal and I think that that's what makes it so special and that is why I'm really looking forward to this Sunday where I get to lord it over the kitchen once more, with a glass of red wine in hand and pouring more of it over my leg of lamb... mmmm, delish!!