Inspired by the winner of Master chef of the Decade, Catarina König’s, menu Patrik, Gisle and I made this our food challenge 19 December. You find the original recipes, in Swedish, on koket.se. – Starter | Main

Starter: Lightly pickled Char (röding) tartare with smoked quail eggs, dill mayonnaise and fried beetroot (We skipped smoked quail eggs)

Ingredients: 4 servings

Char (Röding)
3 char fillets
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon cold-pressed rapeseed oil
black pepper, freshly ground

Dill mayonnaise
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vinegar 12%
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
0.5 teaspoon liquid honey
4-5 leaves of baby spinach
1-2 tablespoons fresh dill, coarsely chopped
2 dl rapeseed oil
salt
black pepper, freshly ground

Fried beetroot and potatoes
1-2 almond potatoes
2 small beets

White asparagus
3-4 white asparagus
0.5 lemon, peeled + juice
butter

Garnish
red onion, finely chopped
fresh horseradish, grated
fresh chervil (“körvel”, we used cress (“krasse”)

How to:

Chart
Fillet the fish, peel and bone it out. Mix salt and sugar and rub in the char fillets. Let soak for about 30-40 minutes. Rinse and dry with kitchen paper. Cut the char into small cubes into a tartar. Mix the tartar with cold-pressed rapeseed oil and freshly ground black pepper.

Dill mayonnaise
Heat the spinach leaves in a dry frying pan until it “withers” becomes dark and soft, just a few seconds.
Add egg yolks, vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, dill and the heated spinach leaves in a blender or cylindrical container. Mix smoothly until completely green and then gradually add the oil to a thick mayonnaise. When the mayonnaise is really thick, remove the mixer and taste it with possibly more vinegar (for higher acidity), Dijon mustard, salt and freshly ground black pepper. The mayonnaise should taste Swedish summer and have a sweet and sour character.

Fried beets and potatoes
Slice potatoes and beets thinly on mandolin with the skins on. Heat the oil to 160-170 degrees and fry the potatoes first and then the beets until golden and crispy. Take up and let drain on kitchen paper and salt immediately.

White asparagus
Peel the asparagus. Boil lightly salted water with lemon peel and the peel from the asparagus. There should only be so much water that it only covers the asparagus.
When the water boils, lower it so that it just boils and put down the peeled asparagus. Let it cook “al dente” for a couple of minutes. Take up and set aside while the boiling water should now be reduced down to about 1 tablespoon left. Remove the lemon peel and asparagus peel towards the end.
Cut the asparagus into pieces, 2 cm long. Put back in the pan with the asparagus reduction. Add butter and a splash of lemon juice.

Serving
Put a tartar form in the middle of a plate, spoon in char tartar and press with a spoon so that it holds together when the form is lifted up. Add finely chopped red onion. Carefully lift off the form. Nicely wrap the dill mayonnaise with the white asparagus around the tartar. Put beetroot and potato chips in each clique of mayonnaise. Grate fresh horseradish over the tartar (like a bird’s nest) and put the egg in the middle. Garnish with chervil and dill.

Main: Beef fillet Rossini with magic Madeira sauce and planed truffle

Ingredients: Serves 4

4 pieces of beef fillet, tenderloin (à 200 g)
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 slices of duck liver
1 black truffle (we used deep fried parsnip)
butter, for frying
rapeseed oil, for frying

Madeira sauce
2 shallots
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 dl red wine
2-3 dl veal stock, not concentrated
2 tbsp madeira vine (we used Sherry)
25 g butter
salt
black pepper

Deluxe Potato Fondant
2 baked potatoes
3-4 tablespoons duck fat
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt

Green beans
150 g green beans (Haricote Vertes)
lemon, finely grated peel and juice
butter

Garnish
oxalis (we used parsley)

How to:

Madeira (Sherry) sauce
Start with the sauce, which must take plenty of time to become juicy, round and delicious.
Peel and finely chop the shallots. Fry the onion soft in butter together with crushed garlic and thyme. Add the red wine and reduce to half. Add the veal stock and reduce to half again.
Strain the sauce into a new saucepan. Add a whole sprig of thyme and let reduce a little more. Add madeira and finally stir in the butter. Whisk and set aside until serving.

Potatoes fondant
Punch out round, tall and nice cylindrical potatoes from the baked potatoes. Cut them evenly after punching.
Put the potatoes in vacuum bags and add melted duck fat, fresh thyme and salt. Vacuum the  potatoes with a vacuum machine. Boil the bags in a saucepan of boiling water for 15-20 minutes, the time depends on the size.
Before serving, burn the potatoes with a burner to get a wonderful “charcoal character” on the potatoes. (We fried the potatoes quickly on very high heat)

Beef 
Set the oven to 100-125 degrees. Salt and pepper the meat all around. Quickly brown the meat in a hot frying pan with butter and rapeseed oil, a few sprigs of fresh thyme and a crushed clove of garlic. Scoop the meat during frying. Place in an ovenproof dish, pour over the frying suace and put the meat in the oven until the internal temperature is 53-54 degrees.

Green beans
Cut off the ends so that the green beans are evenly long. Boil them soft in lightly salted water. Pour off and turn in butter, salt and lemon.

Duck liver
Cut the duck liver into 1 cm thick slices. Salt and pepper lightly. Quickly roast in a hot and dry pan on both sides just before serving.

Serving
Burn the potato fondant with a burner so it has a nice surface. (we fried them in a very hot pan) Place about 10-12 green beans next to each other on each plate. Place the pieces of meat on the beans. Place the grilled duck liver on the meat. Plane over the black truffle (we used deep fried Parsnip) and decorate with oxalis (we used chopped Parsley). Serve with the sauce on the side.

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse
(not from Catarina’s menu)

Ingredients: approx. 6 servings
3 egg
1 pinch of salt
2½ dl cream
1 large pinch (krm) of vanilla powder
100 gr dark chocolate
Little Kahlua
Berries and chopped chocolate for garnish

How to:

Separate the eggs. Wisp the egg whites hard with salt. Wisp the cream with the vanilla, not too hard.

Melt the chocolate. Let it cool a little bit. Add the egg yolk, one at the time. Add some Kahlua. Stir the mixture nice and easy into the egg whites until it becomes an even mix. Mix with the  whipped cream. 

Pour in serving glasses covered with plastic and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Garnish with berries, chopped chocolate and/or whipped cream.