Fried Sole Filets

Fried Sole Filets

One of the best fish dishes in Denmark is a breaded plaice (or just dusted in rye flour), preferably fried up as a whole fish in butter. But it's not a dish you come by every day, we'll only if you are a Fisherman. I still remember my father coming home with the fish so fresh that they were still alive. He put the fish in the bathtub with water, and the fish were swimming.

Most Danes have had breaded filets of plaice on rye bread, served with remoulade (a sweet tartar sauce). Often the fish was frozen and already breaded. This is nothing like the fresh fish, but it's will do in a busy lifestyle. If we wanted a fancier dish, we had a "stjerneskud" (shooting star). A stjerneskud is a breaded fried and a poached plaice filet. Topped with mayonnaise, cold water shrimps and caviar of lumpfish-roe, either served on rye bread or some good white bread. 

I found that sole is a good substitute for plaice, so I was happy to have my childhood favorite fried fish with remoulade.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4-6 sole filets
• all-purpose flour
• 1 egg beaten
• breadcrumbs, I used panko
• salt & pepper
• butter and oil for frying. 

Directions:

Add the salt and pepper to the flour. 

Dip the fish filets in:

1: all-purpose flour, shake off excess flour

2: egg, make sure the whole fish i covered, and let the excess drip of

3: breadcrumbs, again make sure the whole fish is covered, and shake the excess breadcrumbs of. 

This way the breading will stay on the fish. Otherwise it has a tendency to break apart when flipping the fish. 

Heat the skillet and add oil and butter. When the butter stops foaming, gently add the fish. Cook the fish for about 2-3 minutes on each side. 

Serve immediately on rye bread with remoulade and a lemon wedge. The fish can also be served with boiled potatoes and a white parsley sauce.

Spinach Pie Quesadilla

Spinach Pie Quesadilla

I stumbled over Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine’s recipe for spinach pie quesadillas. I had to try them, becauce they sounded like spanakopita minus the crispy filo pastry. And I love spanakopita, this crispy salty creamy greek spinach pie snack.

I'll think the filling will work great in a pita bread, frying it the same way. Served with a salad It would work great as dinner or lunch. And if you slice it in wedges you could use it as a appetizer.

makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ½ small onion, finely diced
• a small bunch scallion, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ¼ tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper
• pinch of thyme
• pinch of oregano
• pinch of cayenne
• 1 bag (170 g) fresh spinach
• 2 whole wheat tortilla, 8-inch in diameter
• 2 large egg 
• 2 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
• 4 tablespoon crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

In a small nonstick pan, heat the oil. Add the onion and scallions and cook until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and the spices.

Add the spinach a handful at a time and cook until wilted a bit before adding more. When all the spinach is wilted, pour the mixture into a bowl to cool a bit. When cooled, drain the mixture.

In another bowl whisk together the egg white, yogurt, and half the feta. Mix in the cooled spinach.

Clean the pan and brush with a splash olive oil.

Over low heat put the tortilla in the pan. Warm the tortilla on one side and turn it, before sprinkling the rest of the feta over the one side of the tortilla and get it to soften slightly. Turn the heat to medium and pour the egg-spinach mixture over the same half of the tortilla, fold the other half over and cook on one side until the egg begins to firm up about 3-4 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for 2-3 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Gravad Lax - Gravlax with Mustard Sauce (Rævesauce)

Gravad Lax - Gravlax with Mustard Sauce (Rævesauce)

Gravad lax, gravad laks or gravlax is a dill-cured salmon, normally served with a mustard sauce. Gravad lax means buried salmon, referring to back in  the old days, where the fishermen cured the fish and buried it in the ground for a few days. Now you would never put the fish in the ground when you have the refrigerator. 

Gravad lax is one big favorite in my house, if you ask my husband IT IS the favorite, when it comes to fish cold cuts, way better than smoked salmon. Gravad lax is perfect for appetizer, for small Hors d'oeuvre or on an open-faced sandwich on rye bread. The sweet salty salmon almost melt in your mouth, and with the mustard sauce, it's a little slice of heaven.

Eating Raw Seafood - What You Need To Know:

It's always best to cook seafood thoroughly to minimize the risk of food-borne illness. However, if you choose to eat raw fish anyway, one rule of thumb is to eat fish that has been previously frozen for 24 hours. FDA

Ingredients:

• 750 g (26 oz) fresh salmon filet with skin on

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons salt

• 2 teaspoons crushed white pepper

• 2 bunches dill, chopped

Directions:

To minimise the risk connected with eating raw fish, you should freeze the salmon before preparing it. When defrosted, scale the salmon and remove all small bones, but leave the skin on.

Mix salt, sugar and pepper and sprinkle it all over the salmon, cut the salmon in half. In the dish you are going to marinate the salmon in, sprinkle a good layer of dill, place the one piece of salmon, skin side down. Sprinkle a thick layer of dill on that, and place the second half on top sin side up. Sprinkle the rest of the dill on top. Put some plastic wrap over the salmon and use a weighted cutting board to press on the salmon. Refrigerate for 24−48 hours, turning the salmon filet a few times. Rinse the salmon in cold water, and pad it dry. 

Use a sharp knife to cut the gravad lax. (Filet knives, boning knives, and Japanese sashimi knives work well for this role.) The gravad lax should be sliced paper-thinly at an angle (15-20 degree angle), making sure not to get any skin on the slices. 

Serve the gravad lax on a slice good bread, with a mustard sauce.

Mustard sauce - Rævesauce

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 8 tablespoons oil (use a neutral oil - not olive oil)

• dill, finely chopped

• salt & pepper to taste

Direction:

Whisk sugar, mustard and vinegar together and add the oil in a thin stream to make the emulsion. Stir in the dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Meyers seedless rye bread

Seedless rye bread

I've made rye bread before, but this time I wanted to try the seedless kind. My dad didn't like to many seeds in his bread. And if you have a child who just started getting solid foods, you want to start off with a softer version of the traditional rye bread.

The bread is soft and light with a mild rye bread taste.

This recipe is from Claus Meyers Bagebog

Ingredients:

• 1100 g water - finger-warm

• 30 g yeast (live yeast)

• 1 dl sourdough

• 500 g all-purpose flour

• 1100 g rye flour

• 30 g sea salt

Directions:

Pour the water into a big bowl, and mix in the sourdough and the yeast. Add the all-purpose flour, rye flour and salt, mix it well. If you do it by hand, kneed the dough for about 10 minutes. If you kneed it in a stand mixer, mix it 3 minutes on low and then 5 minutes on high. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel an let it rise/ferment for about 3 hours.

Divide the dough in three and form loafs. Put the loafs into baking pans. Cover the pans and let the dough rise/ferment for another 3 hours.

Preheat the oven for 350℉ and put the breads in the oven and bake them for about 45-50 minutes.

Take the breads out of the baking pans and brusk the tops with melted butter.  Let the breads cool completely.

Curry Salad - Karrysalat

Curry Salad on pickled herring

Curry Salad is another traditional side for the Danish open faced sandwiches. Danes like fish, danes like pickled herring, but danes, for the most part, don't know how to make pickled herring, and this includes me. But I know how to make the curry salad to go with the herring, and it's so yummy. 

In Denmark you can buy pickled herring in a curry sauce, but sometimes homemade is better, And when you can't figure out how to pickle the herring, you can always make the curry sauce or salad, to get the homemade feeling at your lunch.

At my family's christmas luncheons the seafood part was the most important, we all loved pickled herring, smoked Salmon and fried fish fillets. Normally a danish christmas luncheons is a feast on all thing pork, but fish is a plays a big part too. 

Ingredients:

• 2 pickled cucumbers/gherkins (you can use 5 small cornichons)

• 3 eggs, hardboiled

• 175 g mayonnaise

• ½ cup (1 dl) sour cream

• 3-5 teaspoons curry powder (I use madras curry)

• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce (Lea & Perrins)

• a splash HP sauce

• ½ teaspoon turmeric

• salt & pepper to taste.

Directions:

Mix mayonnaise, sour cream, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce and turmeric. Dice the cucumber/gherkins and the hardboiled eggs in small pieces, fold it into the sauce. season with curry, salt and pepper.

Refrigerate the curry salad for an hour or so for the favors to blend better. This salad will keep for 5-6 days in the refrigerator. 

You can add diced apples for a sweeter taste, or diced red onions for a sharper taste.