Stjerneskud - Shooting Star

Stjerneskud - Shooting Star

Stjerneskud, or shooting star, is a classic Danish open-faced sandwich. The kind you would see at most lunch restaurants or cafés in Denmark. A stjerneskud is white bread, with a piece of fried and poached fish and cold-water shrimps.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 fried petrale sole filets 
• 2 poached petrale sole filets*
• a handful cold-water shrimps
• 6 aspagus (I used Reese asparagus spears)
• thousand Island dressing (homemade or store bought) 
• caviar (I used salmon roe)
• 1 lemon
• dill
• butter lettuce (I forgot to buy that)

* Poaching:

• white wine
• lemon juice
• salt
• white pepper

Directions:

* Poaching:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Season the fillets with salt and white pepper. Roll up the filets and place them in an ovenproof dish with white wine and lemon juice. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Poach the fish for 7-8 minutes. (If you poach the fish on the stove and start with barely simmering liquid, poach the fish for 5-6 minutes.)

Fry the fish and make the dressing.

Toast the bread. 

Arrange lettuce, fish fillets, dressing, shrimps, caviar, dill and place the slice of lemon on top.

Enjoy with a cold beer, cold white wine or a cold lemonade.

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.