Medisterpølse - Danish Pork Sausage

Fried Medisterpølse - Danish Pork Sausage

Happy First Friday in December. I better start upping my game. Normally I get stuff ready for the blog for December. But this year have been different. Somehow the holidays sneaked up on me - again. But this time we have guest staying here for the past few weeks. So yet again I’m late to the Christmas preparations. But I will be posting christmasy stuff as I get to it.This medisterpølse have been on my blog - to-do list for the longest time. So with this happy December from me to you. 🎄

Medisterpølse/julemedister/christmas medister or Danish pork sausage is something I had very often for weeknight dinners. I was easy to make, and its was on the cheaper end of meats. During November and December the sausage get another seasoning, adding cloves making it more christmasy. This is what I was aiming for here, and I think I’ve succeeded.

Christmas medister is served warm on an open-faced sandwich with pickled red cabbage on Danish rye bread at Danish Christmas luncheons.

Making sausages is a labor entensive process, but the final product is well worth it. Another pro is that you know what's in the sausage.

Makes 3-4 medisterpølser.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg (2¼ pound) pork (could be a cheaper cut like shoulder)

• 200 g (½ pound) fatty pork belly

• 1 onion

• 1¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 2 teaspoons ground allspice

• ½-1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

• 3 tablespoons potato starch

• 2 egg whites

• about 300 ml chicken stock, ice cold

• 2-3 meter (yards) sausage casing.

Directions:

Make sure that all your ingredients are cold.

Cut meat, pork belly and onion in pieces that can go into the meat grinder. Grind it all 2 time on the corse setting. Add all the spices, potato starch and egg whites and mix it well. Start adding the cold chicken stock a little at a time. You want the mixture to be soft but by no means runny.  Put the mixture into the refrigerator to rest for 30-40 minutes. 

Rinse the casings in plenty of cold running water. Let tap water run through the casing. This way you’ll fine any holes in the casing. 

Take a little dollop of the mixture and fry it on a small skillet, and tast it, when its cooked completely. This way you can taste the mixture, without tasting the raw meat. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and other spices.

Use a sausage filler to fill up the casing. There are many different model on the marked, but follow the instructions for the one you have. 

But here is some general TIPS:

• Use nozzle that fits your casings. 

• Wet the tip of the nozzle with a tiny amount of meat mixture, this will help you getting the casing onto the nozzle. 

• Put all the casing onto the nozzle

• let the casing sit close to the tip, this will ease your sausage making.

• Do NOT tie a knot on the casing, this will just trap a lot of air.

• Gently pull and squeeze the casing while filling it with the meat mixture.

• Do NOT fill the casing too much, you are aiming for a soft sausage, the mixture will expand when heated.

Traditionally medisterpølse is made as one big sausage, but of course you can make smaller sausage links. Let the sausage rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator before cooking.

Raw Merdisterpølse - Danish Pork Sausage

How to cook a medisterpølse? This is a matter og taste or believes. Some would boil or lite simmer the sausage for about 10 minutes before pan-frying it. My mom never did that. She pan-fried it directly, and it worked just fine. The casing rarely split open.

I pan-fried it directly in butter on medium heat for 15-18 minutes until fully cooked, turnip the sausage a few times.

Another option is to put some water and butter in the pan, and place the raw sausage in the pan and then heat the whole thing up. Turning the sausage ones before the water evaporate, and the frying starts. This way you are pre-boiling and frying the sausage in 1 step, and no need for additional pots and pans.

Serve medisterpølse/pork sausage with boiled potatoes, pickled red cabbage and maybe even some pan-gravy. (Pan-gravy is made in the pan where you cooked the sausage, by adding some stock (water used to boil potatoes) and some milk/cream, then thickend, seasoned and colored with gravy browning).

Enjoy!

Millionbøf - Million Beef

Millionbøf - Million Beef

Millionbøf can be translated to a million steaks or beef. But its roughly a danish bolognese, without the tomatoes and only seasoned with salt and pepper. Generally oldschool Danish food is kinda bland. We didn't use many spices or herbs. Danes are basically meat and potatoes people. Well a bit more potatoes than meat, because the potatoes were inexpensive. Nowadays the Danes eat a lot of meat. But like everyone else that is changing again. The food trends in Denmark are to eat more local produce and less meats.

Millionbøf had a lot of names. Tusindbøf (thousand beef) and væltet lokum (tipped toilet 😳) is coming to mind. But it’s actually quite tasty in contrast to the nasty name. Growing up we had millionbøf regularly, it’s an easy weeknight dinner. Normally we would get it with mashed potatoes and pickled beets. But it’s not uncommon to serve it with pasta and pickled cucumber or Danish cucumber salad. This time I added some brussel sprouts to my boiling potatoes the last 5-10 minutes. I chopped them and added them to the mashed potatoes, giving it some texture.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 400 g ground beef (about 1 pound)

• 2 yellow onions, chopped

• 3 bay leaves

• 400 ml beef stock

• salt & pepper to taste

• kulør (gravy browning)

For thickening:

• 100 ml water (mix with the flour, to thicken the sauce)

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• a pinch of salt

Directions:

Saute the onions in the golden brown butter. When they start taking color, add the ground beef, and brown it well. This is an important process to create flavor. Add beef stock, bay leaves and pepper. Let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes with the lid on. Stir occasional. Mix the water and flour and add some of it in the million beef while whisking, add more until you have the desired consistency; not to runny and not too thick. Season the million beef with salt and pepper, and add the gravy browning.

Serve the million beef with masshed potatoes and pickled beets.

Enjoy!

Franske Snegle - Cinnamon Palmiers

Franske Snegle - Cinnamon Palmiers

Normally these cookies are large, in fact huge. But I wanted to make them smaller, so you get a delicate cookie rather than a huge piece you cannot finish. So I decided to cut the roll into even smaller pieces than I described in the directions, so I ended up with cookie sized cinnamon palmiers. I hope you will try these, they are relatively easy to make.

Makes 12-16.

Ingredients:

• puff pastry, store-bought and defrosted

• 100 g butter, room temperature

• 100 g sugar

• optional 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 10 ml simple syrup (half sugar and half water boiled into a thick syrup)

• extra sugar for sprinkles

Icing:

• confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• Unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)

• and a little warm water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 355℉/180℃ with convection, if you don't have convection, then preheat the oven to 400℉/200℃).

Cream the butter with the sugar, so you have a soft light mixture. Mix in the cinnamon.

Roll the pastry in to a 20 x 16 inch (50 x 40 cm) rectangle. Gentle spread the fluffy filling all over the pastry. Roll the pastry up tight. Cover the roll in plastic wrap, and let it sit in the refrigerator for 10-20 minutes to firm up a bit.

Cut the roll into 1 - 1.5-inch (3-4 cm) thick slices. Place slices on its ends, and press them flat to about ⅓-inch (1 cm) high. Brush both sides with the simple syrup. Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle with sugar on top.

Bake the palmier for 20-30 minutes until deep golden brown. Let the palmier cool, before icing.

Enjoy!

Teriyaki Glazed Lamb Sirloin with Green 'Couscous'

We really enjoy eating lamb. But this cut was new to us. Not sure if it would be a tough piece of meat or what. I decided to try to cook it medium, hoping for the best. And it turned out perfect. Clearly not the last time I’m serving lamb sirloin.
I was looking for a non-starchy side, because I want to cut a little back on starchy carbs. This cauliflower couscous was a good replacement for regular couscous. Easy to make, no cooking needed. Next time I will add some kind of fruit, to give it some sweetness.

Recipe inspired by Årstiderne.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• ¾ - 1 pound lamb sirloin ‘steaks’

• 100 ml teriyaki-sauce

• olive oil for frying

Green 'Couscous':

• 1 bunch kale

• 1 medium cauliflower

• 1 preserved lemon , finely diced

• 1 small handfull almond, dry roasted on a skillet

• 1 shallots, thinly sliced.

Directions:

Sear the sirloins on both sides in olive oil. Turn the heat down, and keep cooking to the desired doneness. I cooked it for about 5-8 minted and ended up with medium steaks. Add the teriyaki sauce, and turn the steaks så they are glazed all over. Slice before serving.

While cooking the steaks, wash and trim the kale of the stems, and chop finerly. Wash and grate the cauliflower. Peel and thinly slice the shallots. Mix all the ingredients for the ‘couscous’ putting the almonds on top - set aside.

Plate ‘couscous’ and sliced steaks.

Enjoy!

Rhubarb Mazarin Cake

Rhubarb Mazarin Cake.

I really love rhubarbs. They are tangy, sour and are perfect in desserts and cakes. So when I found this recipe, it was a no-brainer. I had to bake it. And it was ohhh so good. And it is the perfect cake to bring to a summer barbecue.

Serves 6-8. (Recipe from the magazine Søndag).

Ingredients:

• 200 g rhubarb

• 200 g sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 150 g marzipan

• 150 g butter

• 3 eggs

• 80 g all-purpose flour

• 80 g almond flour

• 1 lime, the zest of

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃).

Clean the rhubarb and cut them into small bite-sized pieces. Place them in a bowl and stir in with ¼ (50g) of the sugar + the vanilla, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, mix in the grated marzipan, making sure the mixture again gets light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix just until fully incorporated. Gently fold in the flours and lime zest.

Pour the dough into a non-stick tart pan. (I used a 9-inch square pan with removable bottom). Place the rhubarb on top of the cake, and bake it for about an hour, until it's firm in the middle and golden brown.

Let the cake cool before serving it with a dollop of creme fraiche or ice cream.

Enjoy!