The Nordic KitchenOne year of family cooking
Discover the delights of fresh, Scandinavian family cooking with this book from Noma co-founder Claus Meyer.
Discover fresh, Nordic family cooking with this book from Noma co-founder Claus Meyer. With its focus on good, seasonal ingredients and lightness of touch, Nordic cuisine is perfect family food.
In this book, Claus Meyer brings the ethos that built Noma into the world’s best restaurant into the home with easy-going, accessible dishes that will fit seamlessly into family life. The book is divided into four seasonal chapters so that you can get the most from the food and flavours in season. There are also features on food from the wild, including chanterelles, dandelions and blackberries.
With recipes including Creamy Root Vegetable Soup with Crispy Bacon, Braised Pork Cheeks with Beer and Plum Vinegar, Pan-fried Mullet with Cucumber and Peas in Dill Butter and Rhubarb Cake you can bring the delicious flavours of the Nordic countries into your own kitchen.
Claus Meyer is the co-founder of Noma in Copenhagen, a restaurant regularly selected as the world’s best. He has published 14 cookbooks in Denmark and has hosted his own TV series, New Scandinavian Cooking, in Denmark and the US. Among his other business ventures, Meyer owns catering, fruit and chocolate supply companies. He runs a cookery school and is an affiliated professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen. In spring 2016 he will open a large-scale food space within the Grand Central Terminal in New York City, specifically a Nordic-themed food hall, informal restaurants and a 100-cover Nordic ‘brasserie’.
Spinach tart with cottage cheese
Pastry
¾ cup Öland or organic wholegrain wheat flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup oat flour
½ cup rye flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄3 cup standard canola oil, plus extra for greasing
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup lowfat plain yogurt
Filling
1½ cups cottage cheese
1 cup lowfat milk
3 organic eggs
3 gratings of nutmeg
sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons butter
1 lb 2 oz fresh spinach leaves, washed and drained
1 shallot
1⁄3 cup grated hard cheese
To finish
1 shallot
1 handful of fresh herbs, such as sweet woodruff, chervil, and sweet cicely
a few drops of apple cider vinegar
a few drops of cold-pressed canola oil
First make the pastry. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl to make a dough. Seal the dough in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Mix the cottage cheese, milk, eggs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper together in a bowl to a smooth paste.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and briefly sauté the spinach, just until it starts to collapse and release its liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the spinach to a sieve and strain off the liquid.
Roll the pastry dough out into a thin layer on a floured work surface, then transfer it to a tart pan 1¼-inches deep with a diameter of 9½ to 10½ inches, and greased with canola oil. Press the dough firmly into the dish and trim the excess dough from around the edge.
Put the drained spinach into the pastry crust and cover with the cottage cheese paste. Peel and slice the shallot into very thin rings, then spread over the top of the paste. Lastly, scatter the grated cheese evenly over the tart.
Bake the tart on the bottom rack of a preheated oven at 325 to 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes until the filling has set. The tart should be light golden on the top and the pastry crust baked through.
Just before serving, peel and cut the other shallot into thin rings, then toss with the freshly torn herbs in the vinegar and canola oil, just to give them a bit of shine. Arrange the shallot and herb mixture on top of the tart and serve warm. If you want more greenery, serve with a small salad on the side. You can also choose to make the tart a day ahead and serve it cold for lunch or as an accompaniment to a main course.
The Nordic Kitchen by Claus Meyer, Mitchell Beazley 2016, photo: Anders Schonnemann
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