Pølsesalat - Danish Sausage Salad

Pølsesalat - Danish Sausage Salad

Pølsesalat, or Danish sausage salad, is a typical mayonnaise based lunch salad served on rye bread in Denmark. I remember standing at the butcher shop's deli section with my mom or dad, and the sausage salad would be my pick, if I had a say. And sometimes I was allowed to get it. I do believe that I was the only one in the family who liked it. As an adult, I still bought it now and again, for a trip down memory lane. Most deli's would have pieces of cold boiled potatoes in their sausage salad, but I left them out here. 

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon ravigotte sauce, or a sweet mustard
• 4 german franks, boiled, cooled, sliced
• chives, for sprinkle

Directions:

Put the german franks in a Bowl and pour over boiling water, let stand for about 5 minutes. Remove the franks and put them into a bowl with ice-water, set aside to cool.

Mix the mayonnaise and ravigote sauce together in a bowl. Slice up the franks, and mix them into the dressing. 

Serve the sausage salad on a slice of Danish rye bread, as an open-faced sandwich. Sprinkle some chopped chives on top.

Enjoy!

Lemon Marinated Skirt Steak

Lemon Marinated Skirt Steak

I love grilling skirt steak. You can marinate the meat to make it fit the cuisine you are aiming for. The beef flavors are pretty intense and the it is not as pricy as regular steaks. Here I marinated the skirt steak in a soy-lemon marinate, giving the meat a clean bright flavor. 

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 700 g (1 ½  pounds) skirt steak
• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 lemon, for serving
• fresh coriander, for serving

Marinade:

• 60 ml (¼  cup) extra-virgin olive oil
• 60 ml (¼  cup) soy sauce 
• 2 lemons, the juice from 
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed

Directions:

Place the skirt steak in a ziplock bag, and add the ingredients for the marinade. Rub the marinade into the meat. Let the meat marinate for at least 1 hour at room temperature, or up to 6 hours in refrigerator.

Heat grill to medium-high. Remove meat from marinade and pat off excess juices with some paper towel. Grill the meat, just turning once, until  medium/medium rare about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer the meat to a cutting board, cover with some aluminum foil and let stand to rest for about 5 minutes.

Thinly slice meat against the grain (muscle fibers) and serve it with some cilantro on top, and lemon slices on the side. I served the warm Asian-style slaw on the side, but you can easily serve the meat in tacos.

Enjoy!

Ninja Turtle Cakes

Ninja Turtle Cakes - Ninja Kajkager

These cakes have been on my to-do list for the longest time. Normally they are made without the ninja bandana, and are called Kaj cakes. The name Kaj is the name of a puppet from a Danish children's program "Kaj og Andrea" I grew up with in the 1970's. The cake is a spongecake with a strawberry buttercream and marzipan.

This time Kaj went undercover or mutated into Teenage Ninja Turtles. 

Makes 8 cakes.

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 150 g sugar
• 110 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod

Strawberry Buttercream:

• 2 tablespoons pasteurized egg whites
• 125 g confectionary sugar
• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature
• 6 tablespoons cooled strawberry pure (Pure:400 g strawberries boiled with 25 g sugar, blended and strained)
• Red food color, optional

Decorating:

• Strawberry jam
• 200 g Marcipan
• green food color (orange, puple, red and blue for the bandana's)
• dark chocolate, small flakes for the eyes

Directions:

Cake: 

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Spray three 9-inch (22 cm) baking pans. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of each and spray this too. Set aside. 

Whisk the eggs light and foamy with the sugar, it takes about 5 minutes to get maximum foaming when whisking on a stand mixer.

Mix and sift flour and baking powder together, and set aside. 

Very gently fold the flour, vanilla and milk in the foamy eggs. Be very careful not to deflate the egg mixture to much.

Pour the batter onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet

Bake the cake for about 8-10 minutes, until light brown.

Set aside to cool.

You only need about a third of the cake for the 8 cakes.

Strawberry Buttercream:

Mix egg whites, butter, sugar in a bowl, and whip the buttercream until thick and fluffy over a double boiler. I used a saucepan with very hot water, and placed my bowl on top of that. I didn't have it on the stove. It takes some time to get the buttercream nice and fluffy. Save 1-2 tablespoons of this white buttercream for decorating. Mix in the strawberry pure. Put buttercream into a piping bag, with a large round tip.

Marzipan:

Color most of the marzipan with green color. Color small amounts marzipan with blue, purple, orange and red for the bandanas.

Assembly:

Ninjas in the making.

Using a cookie cutter cut out 8 circles about 2-inch (5 cm) in diameter. Divide each disk horizontally. Spread a thin layer of jam between the two thin disk of cake. Pipe a nice top onto the disk. 

Roll the green marzipan out very thin. I did it a little at a time between two pieces of plastic wrap.   Wrap the marzipan on top of the buttercream, trying to seal the marzipan close to the cake disk. This way you end up with a green bobble.

Cut a large slid into the cake in about a 45 degree angle, press a little on each side to open the cut. This will be the mouth. 

Roll out the colored marzipan and cut a ribbon for the bandana. Pipe white buttercream dots on top of the bandana, for the eyes, place a small chocolate flake on top for the pupil. 

Serve the cake with a cup of tea or coffee. 

Enjoy!

Danish Meatballs

Classic Danish Meatballs with creamed green cabbage.

Danish meatballs or frikadeller as they are called, are a popular dish in Denmark. It might even be the national dish at one point. According my mom the traditional meatballs are made with half pork and half veal, but you can make them with most ground meats. I always use rolled oats in meatballs, even though my mom used all-purpose flour. I think the meatballs become more compact using flour. This recipe is the basic recipe for Danish meatballs, and the taste fantastic. But you can spice them up by adding different spices like garlic, rosemary, thyme or any other spice you like. 

There are many different ways of serving these simple meatballs. You can serve meatballs with:

• boiled potatoes, brown pan-gravy and pickled red cabbage.

• creamed green cabbage or pointed cabbage

• a cold potato salad

• or served on rye bread as a open-faced sandwich

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 750 g (about 1⅔ pounds) ground pork

• 750 g (about 1⅔ pounds) ground veal

• about 50 g (about ½ cup) rolled quick oats

• 2 eggs

• 2 medium onions, finely chopped or grated

• ⅓ cup milk

• 1½ teaspoons salt

• pepper

• olive oil for frying

Directions:

Mix the meat with salt.  Divide the meat in quarters, lift one quarter up unto the other quarters. Fill the missing quarter with rolled oats (about 50 g or ½ cup). Put in finely chopped or grated onions, the eggs, milk and pepper and mix until you have a cohesive meat mixture.  Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in the skillet.

How to make the meatballs taken from my lamb meatball post.

Forming the meatballs dip a tablespoon in the oil and scoop up a good spoonful meat. Use the hand and the spoon to form the meatball.  The meatball should be oval an the size of a small egg. Placed the meatball in the skillet, repeat until you have a full skillet. Be careful not to let the meatballs touch each other.

Fry the meatball for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side until they are well-browned and no longer pink in the center. Depending how big the meatballs are and how hot your pan is the time may varies.  When done remove the meatballs and set aside.

If you have a more meat mixture in the bowl, clean the skillet with a kitchen towel and add new butter and fry another batch.

Serve the warm meatballs. 

Enjoy!

Creamed Cabbage

Creamed Cabbage

Creamed cabbage is for the mostly served with Danish meatballs. The creamy white sauce is not made with cream, but with the water from boiling the cabbage and some milk. This make this side a lot lighter than if using cream. Taste-wise I don't think you miss much, well I have never had it with cream, so what do I know???

Even though the creamed cabbage is a very simple dish, the way you eat it is different depending on traditions and geography inside Denmark. My dad (from Jutland) sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top. My mom (from Copenhagen) sprinkled cracked black pepper on top, while I sprinkle nutmeg on top. 

So my Danish friends and others what do you favor on top of the creamed cabbage??

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 large green cabbage 

Sauce:

• 25 g butter 
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ½ cup (1 dl) water (from boiling the cabbage)
• about ½ cup (about 1 dl)  milk
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Remove outer leaves of cabbage, and cut cabbage into quarters and remove the hard core.  Slice the cabbage across the quarters width-wise. To get uniform slices I use a mandolin.

Boil the cabbage in salted water until tender 5-8 minutes. Drain the water from the cabbage, saving some of the water for the sauce.

Sauce:

Melt butter over medium heat in a sauce pan. Add the flour and a sprinkle of salt, stirring constantly, until all the flour is incorporated with the butter. You don't want it to get a golden.  Whisk in a little at a time of the hot water (from the boiling of the cabbage), making sure to not to have any lumps left, then whisk in the milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens and gets a bit shiny, 2 to 3 minutes. Add more milk if the sauce is too thick. You want a thick sauce, because it will get some water from the drained cabbage. 

Add the cabbage and season the creamed cabbage with salt and pepper.

Serve the creamed cabbage immediately.

Enjoy!