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 

Lasagna stuffed squash

Lasagna stuffed squash

This is another take on my vegetable spaghetti with meat sauce, this time using my favorite winter squash as serving bowls, and as the "spaghetti". I really liked the color of the gold nugget squash at the store, but thought that the spaghetti squash would be more appealing for my I'm-not-into-squash-husband. Oddly enough he liked the god nugget squash better, so I might have to end bashing him here, for not liking squash, I might. 

You can change up this dish, by using another meat, adding bacon or vegetables, or go all in and just make a veggie bolognese. You can even use these roasted squash to dress up a leftover curry, the possibilities are endless. 

Serves 2-3.

Ingredients:

Squash:

Spaghetti squash

• 1 small spaghetti squash
• 1 small gold nugget squash
• 1 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper

Meat Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound (450 g) ground beef (lean)
• 1 can tomato paste
• ½ teaspoon beef base (bouillon)
• 1 cup (2 dl) water 
• ½ cup (1 dl) red wine
• ½ teaspoon rosemary
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

• some mozzarella cheese
• chopped fresh basil

Direction:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Slice squashes length wise and scrape out the seeds. Rub each squash half with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place each squash half cut-side down on a parchment paper lines baking sheet, and bake for 40-60 min until the squash is tender.

Meat sauce: 

Heat a drizzle of oil in a pot over medium heat and brown the onions. Add the garlic after a few minutes.  Add the ground beef and brown it, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon. Add the tomato paste and cook it until tomato paste turns a deeper red, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the rosemary, thyme, a little salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the wine, beef base and water. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer it simmers, the better it gets. 

Let the Squash cool slightly, so you can handle them. Flip them cut-side up.

Scoop the meat sauce into each squash half, and top with mozzarella cheese. (You can add a cheese sauce or ricotta cheese to the squash, if you like)

Turn oven to broil, and cook the squash for another 2 minutes, until cheese is browned and bubbling. You have to keep an eye on this process, because this happens very quickly.

Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Beef Stroganoff with Celery Root Mash

Beef Stroganoff with Celery Root Mash

Beef stroganoff was a fall favorite in my childhood. My mom loved to make simmer food, especially when entertaining guests. She could get the dinner started, clean up and get ready for the guests to arrive, instead of sweating over the pots and pans, when the guests arrived. I totally get her. I believe this is the way to go, when you're having guests over. 

Normally stroganoff is served with pasta, but in my family we have always had mashed potatoes. Today I opted for at lighter version with the celery root mash

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Stroganoff:

• 10 slices bacon (10 thin slices or 5 thick cut), diced

• 2 pounds Beef stew meat

• 2 tablespoons paprika

• 1 tablespoon hot paprika (or regular paprika if you don't like the spiciness)

• 1½ teaspoon smoked paprika

• 3 onions (medium or 4 small), diced

• 2 tablespoons salted butter

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 400 g button mushrooms, sliced

• 3 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1 teaspoon beef base

• 200 ml water

• 200 g creme fraiche

• ½ cup (1 dl) whipping cream

• salt & pepper

Mash:

• 2 celery root

• 4 medium potatoes

• 2- 3 tablespoons butter

• ¼ cup (½ dl) hot milk

• salt to taste

Directions:

Stroganoff:

Place bacon in a large pot or Dutch oven and heat over medium heat. Cook bacon until crispy and fat has rendered, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving some of the fat in the Dutch oven. 

Sauté onion and mushrooms in some of the rendered bacon fat, until golden brown. Remove from Dutch oven, and set aside. 

Put some all-purpose flour in a ziploc bag, add paprika, some salt and pepper. Pad dry the meat, and place them in the ziploc bag, cover the meat with the spicy flour.

Heat the butter in the Dutch oven and sear the meat in batches so you get a good sear on the meat, and set aside. Wipe the pot clean with a paper towel. 

Heat the olive oil to the pot, add the tomato paste and cook until tomato paste turns a deeper red, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add  meat, onions, mushrooms, bacon, beef base and water. (Beef stock can be used instead of water and beef base.)  Cook the dish for 2-3 hours on a low simmer. Add creme fraiche and cream, and let simmer for another 30 minutes.

Mash:

Peel and dice the potatoes and celery roots. Put them in a large pot with enough water to cover them. Add about 1 teaspoon salt. Boil them for about 25-30 minutes, until soft. 

Drain celery roots and potatoes well, return them to the pot, and let the remaining water evaporate for a minute or two before returning the vegetables to the pot. Add butter and mash with a potato masher until smooth. Add the milk and season with salt. I whipped the mash to get it more creamy, but that is optional. 

Serve Stroganoff over pasta or over hearty mash.

Enjoy!

Fried beef tartare or "Parisian steak" - Pariserbøf

Fried Beef Tartare or "Parisian Steak" - Pariserbøf

Pariserbøf has nothing to do with Paris or France. It's a traditional danish dish with a fancy name. Maybe the white bread it's served on is why it's called Pariserbøf. In Denmark the soft white bread is called French bread. 

Pariserbøf is a patty of lean ground beef on a slice of white bread, panfried and served with raw onion, pickled beets, horseradish, capers, danish pickles and a raw egg yolk on the top.

Danish pickles is vegetables (cauliflower, onion, pickling cucumbers and carrots) pickled in a mustard vinegar sauce. Much like the english Piccalilli.

Pariserbøf is normally on lunch menus in danish restaurants, but it can easily be served as dinner.

Disclaimer: This sauce is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. This would minimize the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized eggs in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood.  In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA,  Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on eggs. 

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

• 2 slices of good bread, like a good sourdough bread

• ½ red onion

• 3 tablespoon capers

• 4 tablespoon pickled beets, diced

• 2-6 teaspoon horseradish, freshly grated

• 2-3 tablespoons danish pickles or Piccalilli

• 2 egg yolks

• salt & pepper

• butter for frying

Patties (4 pieces):

• 200 g very lean ground beef (freshly ground)

• 1 teaspoon good mustard like grey poupon country dijon

• 1 teaspoon capers, finely chopped

• 1 egg

• salt and pepper

Directions: 

Dice the pickled beets, grate the horseradish, drain the capers, slice and chop the onions and separate the yolk from the egg white.  

Mix the ingredients for the patties, and form 4, not to thick, patties slightly larger than the bread slices. Put the patty on top of the bread, make sure the patty will stay on the bread. Season with salt and pepper. The extra patties, can be fried and saved for lunch the next day.   

Add a good amount of butter to a skillet and fry the pariserbøf patty-side down first until golden brown. Turn to fry the bread side until crisp. Pariserbøf is served medium to well done. If you use pasteurized eggs or no eggs, the pariserbøf can be served medium rare.

Serve right away with all the toppings.

Enjoy a pariserbøf with a good cold beer.

Steak Rolls - Benløse Fugle

Steak Rolls - Benløse Fugle

As a child we sometimes had steak rolls, or “benløse fugle" (directly translated: Birds with no legs - sounds weird, right?) This was thin slices of meat wrapped around a piece of smoked speck. To be honest that was not one of my favorites. But the thought of swapping the speck with a smoked cheese might be a way to give this old-school dish a new life. 

It totally worked. The spiciness from the chili and the smoked cheese with the meat, made a perfect flavorful combination. It won't be the last time I make these steak rolls.

Ingredients:

• 4 thin slices skirt steak like the meat you use for carne asada
• 4 small blocks smoked gouda, the size of string cheese
• 1 handful spinach
• 8 small slices sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 jalapeño, divided in 4, lengthwise 
• salt & pepper
• oil for searing

Directions:

Season the steak pieces generously on both sides with salt and pepper.

Take a strip of the steak and lay it with the short side towards you. Place some spinach leaves, a slice jalapeño, 2 pieces of tomatoes and one block of cheese in the middle and roll the steak up over the filling, securing it with a toothpick along the length of the roll. Repeat with the last three steak rolls.

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃)

In an ovenproof skillet, heat a splash of grape-seed oil over medium-high heat. When hot add the steak rolls, sear them on all sides. Place the skillet in the oven and let it roast for about 15 minutes, until the steak rolls are done, when the cheese are expanded out of the rolls. Serve the rolls with your favorite sides.

Enjoy!

The Danish version:

Benløse fugle

Ingredienser:

• 4 tynde stykker oksekød såsom flanke- eller flapkød
• 4 bjælker røget gouda, på str. med ostehaps
• 1 håndfuld spinat
• 8 små stykker soltørrede tomater
• 1 jalapeño, delt i 4, på langs 
• salt & peber
• olie til stegningen

Fremgangsmåde:

Krydder kødet med salt og peber.

Læg et stykke af oksekødet på skærebrættet, med den korte side henimod dig. Læg lidt spinatblade, ¼ jalapeño, lidt soltørret tomat og en ostebjælke på kødet, tættest dig selv. Rul kødet rundt om fyldet og "lås" rullen med en tandstik eller kødnål. Gentage med de sidste 3 kødstykker. 

Forvarm ovnen til 200℃.

Brun rullerne på alle sider i en pande, der kan gå i ovnen, i lidt vindruekeneolie. Sæt panden i oven i ca. 15 minutter, indtil rullerne er møre og osten er "vokset" lidt ud af rullerne.

Server de benløse fugle med dine foretrukne grøntsager. 

Velbekomme!