Æbleflæsk - Apple Pork

Æbleflæsk - Apple Pork

Æbleflæsk, or apple pork, is one of the oldest dishes in Denmark. It is rooted in the pre-industrial era, dated before 1860's. Back then, the diet consisted mostly of rye bread, smoked or salted pork, beer and more local ingredients like herring. 

Nowadays æbleflæsk is a lunch dish, mostly served at christmas time. As a child I didn't like it, but as I got older, I learned that the smoked, salty flavor from the bacon pairs perfectly with the sweet apples. 

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

• 500 g apples, peeled and cored
• 550 g thick sliced bacon, fried 
• apple cider
• sugar
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Peel and core the apples, and slice them up. Let them sit in some cider, to prevent the browning.

Fry the bacon in the oven or in a pan, until crisp, and it has rendered a lot of fat. 

Use some of the bacon fat to sauté the sliced apples, put the lid on, and steam the apples until tender. Season with sugar, salt and pepper. 

I like the apple to still have some texture, and not to be like an applesauce. 

Serve the steamed apples with the bacon on the side and a slice of good rye bread. 

Enjoy!

Rullepølse - Spiced Meat Roll

Rullepølse - Spiced Meat Roll

December 15th.

Rullepølse is a traditional cold cut served for lunch in Scandinavian countries. The spices may be different for the different countries, but my favorite is the spiciness from pepper and allspice. 

Here I served rullepølse with meat flavored jello/gelatin, and raw onions. Another way is with mustard and pickled beets. Another more untraditional way is with mayonnaise and raw button mushrooms. The latter was my favorite way to eat my parents homemade rullepølse.

My parents always made rullepølse in the weeks up to christmas. Normally they would buy rullepølse at the grocery store. To be honest, the homemade tasted so much better, but in a busy life, we all take shortcuts. 

Makes 1 

Ingredients:

• 1 - 1½ kg (2-3 pound) pork belly or pork loin

• 3-4 tablespoons coarse sea salt salt

• ½ teaspoon sodium nitrite (food grade) optional*

Spice blend:

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• ½ teaspoon ground allspice

• 2-3 packets (21 g) gelatine

Cooking broth:

• water

• 2-3 teaspoons salt

• 10-15 whole peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 onion optional

Directions:

If you are using a pork loin, you need to cut the meat into a large rectangle about ⅕ inch (1 cm) thick.  

Cut off any large chunks of fat, but don't make it too lean. Trim the ends so they are straight.  Trim any really thick places if that side is too thick when you roll it up. Lay the pork belly flat on a cutting board and sprinkle salt and sodium nitrite all over. Fold the meat up, and place it in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. 

Rinse the meat, and pat it dry with paper towel. Lay the meat flat on a cutting board, and sprinkle it with ⅓ of the gelatin powder. Spread the chopped onion on top. Sprinkle a good amount of pepper and allspice blend on top, ending with the rest of the gelatin. 

Carefully roll or fold up the meat into a large sausage. Use cooking twine to tie the meat up all the way.

Bring water to a boil, and place the rullepølse in the water with salt, peppercorns and bay leaves. Cook the rullepølse for 2 hours at a simmer. 

When cooked, place the rullepølse in a press. I used two loaf pans and tied it up hard with more twine. Put the rullepølse in a large ziplock bag and into the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Remove the twine, and slice the rullepølse in thin slices, and serve it on rye bread or another good bread, as an open faced sandwich.

Enjoy!

*Sodium nitrite makes the rullepølse keep the pinkish color.

Christmas Liver Pâté

Christmas Liver Pâté

December 8th.

Liver pâté is a big part of the Danish Christmas celebration, especially for the christmas lunches. Most workplaces throw a Julefrokost, aka christmas lunch. It might not be during normal lunch hour, but more likely a big party at night including food and a lot of beer and snaps. I've been to large events, with stand-up comedians and live music. At a traditional julefrokost/christmas lunch one of the dishes will most likely be warm liver pâté with crispy bacon and sautéed mushrooms.

I gave my other liver pâté recipe a makeover. I wanted a smoother texture and I wanted to eliminate the pork fat. I really like how this turned out. This one will definitely be my go-to recipe. It's simpler to make and the favor is spot on.

Makes 5-6 small or 3 big loafs.

Ingredients:

• 600 g calf liver

• 170 g onion

• 90 g button mushrooms

• 240 g bacon

• 250 g butter, melted

• 200 ml heavy whipping cream

• 75 g all-purpose flour (use rice flour for a gluten free version)

• 2 eggs

• 30 g anchovy paste

• ½ teaspoon beef better than bouillon paste

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon all-spice

• 1 teaspoon paprika

Directions:

Using a meat grinder at the finest setting, pass the liver, bacon onions and mushrooms through the meat grinder twice.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. When melted take off the heat. Add the cream to cool it down. 

Mix all the ingredients together. Pour mixture into 5-6 small aluminum baking pans and top each with a small piece of bacon. (I wasn’t able to find the small pans, so I used a bigger size, and ended up with 3 pates. 

Bake the liver pâtés in a water bath at 360℉ (180℃) for about an hour. I preheat the oven, and place a slightly larger baking pan in the oven. Place the liver pâté on the baking pan and add some boiling water to the pan.

Let the liver pâté cool somewhat before eating. But warm liver pâté taste really good served hot with bacon and sautéed mushrooms.  

Enjoy!

You can freeze the uncooked pâtés and bake them, when needed. 

Other recipes for the christmas lunch:
Curry Salad for the pickled herrings.
Pickled beets for the liver pâté and frikadeller.
Danish Rye Bread
Pork roast 
Pickled red cabbage 

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

This week is all about getting ready for Thanksgiving here in the US. Every store is filled with turkey, stuffing, cranberries and gravy. 

I took a look back on my recipes, to see which ones would be perfect as Thanksgiving dinner sides. And here is my top 3.

Brussels Sprouts Purée  

Sweet creamy purée with a crunchy brussels sprouts salad on the top.

A new way to serve brussels sprouts. This one can make any kid and adult love brussel sprouts.

Sweet, smokey scalloped hasselback sweet potatoes.

highly addictive and a must-have at your Thanksgiving dinner.

Roasted Winter Squash, A healthy colorful side. The sweetness of the squash is well balanced with the onions and chili. 

Roasted Winter Squash

Roasted Winter Squash

For years I heard about the hokkaido pumkin/squash from my Danish friends, but I have not been able to locale it here in California. Well, now I learned that is the same as the red kuri squash, and I found this in my local Whole Foods Market. 

I'm still on the quest to get my husband to love squash, so I had to find a way to make it, in a different way than I made other squash dishes. I actually thought that hokkaido/red kuri would be sweeter than it was, and sweet and mushy squashes will never persuade my husband, that winter squash is his thing. I really like winter squash, and I love having them as another option instead of potatoes. I like that squash is high in vitamin A, and has a good amount  (1.8g/100g) of dietary fiber. (Potatoes have 2.4g/100g.)

So I needed to season it with some bold flavors. I stumbled upon a recipe from the Danish blog "loisogbearnaisen," baking the squash with red onions and carrots. It looked so so good, and adapted my version from this.

Serves 2 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 small or ½ medium red kuri squash/hokkaido pumpkin

• 1 red onion

• 2 carrots

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 1-1½ teaspoons salt

• 1-2 sprigs rosemary

• ¼ cup pumpkin seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F (200℃). Halve the squash lengthwise, and scrape the seeds out. 
Peel the squash with a vegetable peeler and cut  into bite size cubes. Peel onion and carrots and cut them in bite sized chunks.

Place all the vegetables in an ovenproof baking dish. Toss with oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. Sprinkle rosemary and pumpkin seeds.  Roast until just tender with some bite to them, about 30 minutes.

Serve with any kind of meat, or eat it alone for a nice healthy lunch.

Enjoy!