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!

Danish Breaded Pork Patties - Karbonader

Danish Breaded Pork Patties - Karbonader

This dish is a walk down memory lane, an old school danish dish. In Denmark you would call this type of food Mormor mad (grandmother food). And for sure this is the type of food from yesteryear, but sometimes this kind of comfort food is soothing. A lot of traditional Danish dishes are only seasoned with salt and pepper, making the ingredients take center stage. Some might call it bland, and for sure it can be bland. This I would call filled with subtle flavors. A juicy pork patty with a nice crispy crust, here served with fingerling potatoes, cauliflower and another classic: peas and carrots in a white sauce.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

Patties:

• 1 pound (450 g) ground pork
• ¼ pound (120 g) ground veal
• 1 egg
• bread crumbs
• salt & pepper

White sauce with peas and carrots:

• 25 g butter
• 2½ tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 300 ml milk
• 100-200 ml water from the peas and carrots
• ⅛ teaspoon sugar
• salt
• 600 g peas and diced carrots (I used frozen peas and carrots)

Directions:

Patties:

Start by dividing the meat into 4, shaping them into circular thick patties.
Beat an egg in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl pour in the breadcrumbs, seasoning it with salt and pepper.
Dip the pork patties in the egg mixture, making sure to cover the entire patty in egg. Then roll the patty in the breadcrumbs, again making sure to cover the whole patty. Repeat with the last 3.

Heat a mixture of oil and butter on a frying pan. Fry the patties for about 5-8 minutes over medium heat until they are well done, flipping them carefully from time to time.. 

White sauce with peas and carrots:

Cook the peas and carrots for about 10 minutes, in light salted water. Reserve some of the water for the sauce. 

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour, mix with a whisk and warm through, making sure not to get any color on the mixture.

Add some vegetable water while whisking vigorously making a thick paste without any lumps. Add more water and milk until you have the desired consistency, you want it to be a bit on the thick side. Let the sauce boil a few minutes to get rid of the flour taste. Season the sauce with sugar and salt. Stir in the cooked peas and carrots.

Serve the Karbonader with boiled potato, boiled cauliflower and a whiter sauve with peas and carrots.

Enjoy!

Spicy Thai Inspired Barley Salad

Spicy Thai Inspired Barley Salad

What's for dinner tonight? The daily pressure to come up with a tasty, healthy option. Even though I have a Food Blog, I DO get surprised, that we need to have dinner every night. And I do tend to grab to the 5-8 easiest and well-known dishes or even take-out. I know choking, right?

One of my Facebook friends posted a Thai Pork salad from NY Times, and this inspired me to create this dish. And WOW - we loved it. The different texture and flavors worked perfectly. This one is a keeper in my house.
If you're not big on spicy food, just add a small amount of chili, so you only tickle your tastebuds.

Ingredients:

• 1 pork tenderloin

Marinade/dressing:

• 2 serrano chilies

• handfull cilantro + stems

• 5 scallions

• 3 limes, zest & juice

• 6 garlic cloves

• 2-inch fresh ginger

• 4-5 tablespoons brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce

• 5 tablespoons soy sauce

• 5 tablespoons grape seed oil

• ½ teaspoon salt

Salad:

• ½ green cabbage, thinly sliced

• 5 scallions, chopped

• 1 serrano chili, julienned

• 3 carrots, in thin peels

• 1-2 cups pearl barley grain, cooked and cooled

• 1 handful cilantro, chopped

• 10 mint leaves, chopped

• a small handful roasted peanuts

Directions

Trim off the silver skin from the tenderloin and pat the trimmed tenderloin dry with paper towel. In a blender combine soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice and zest, shallots, cilantro, half the sugar, garlic, ginger, chiles and salt. Purée until smooth. Save half of the mixture for the dressing, add the rest of the sugar to the dressing, and set aside. Marinate the pork in the rest of the mixture in an airtight container over night.  

Preheat the oven to 320 ℉ (160℃).

Sear the pork in a ovenproof skillet, and roast it in the oven until meat reaches an internal temperature of 150℉ (65℃), about 20-25 minutes. Let meat rest while you prepare the salad. 

In a large bowl, combine the salad ingredients, reserving the herbs and nuts.

Whisk the dressing and use just enough to dress the salad.  Let the salad sit for a few minutes for the flavors to blend, then right before serving, add herbs, nuts and maybe some more dressing.

Serve the salad with the sliced pork on top, sprinkle with some more nuts.

Enjoy!

Danish Meatballs

Classic Danish Meatballs with creamed green cabbage.

Danish meatballs or frikadeller as they are called, are a popular dish in Denmark. It might even be the national dish at one point. According my mom the traditional meatballs are made with half pork and half veal, but you can make them with most ground meats. I always use rolled oats in meatballs, even though my mom used all-purpose flour. I think the meatballs become more compact using flour. This recipe is the basic recipe for Danish meatballs, and the taste fantastic. But you can spice them up by adding different spices like garlic, rosemary, thyme or any other spice you like. 

There are many different ways of serving these simple meatballs. You can serve meatballs with:

• boiled potatoes, brown pan-gravy and pickled red cabbage.

• creamed green cabbage or pointed cabbage

• a cold potato salad

• or served on rye bread as a open-faced sandwich

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 750 g (about 1⅔ pounds) ground pork

• 750 g (about 1⅔ pounds) ground veal

• about 50 g (about ½ cup) rolled quick oats

• 2 eggs

• 2 medium onions, finely chopped or grated

• ⅓ cup milk

• 1½ teaspoons salt

• pepper

• olive oil for frying

Directions:

Mix the meat with salt.  Divide the meat in quarters, lift one quarter up unto the other quarters. Fill the missing quarter with rolled oats (about 50 g or ½ cup). Put in finely chopped or grated onions, the eggs, milk and pepper and mix until you have a cohesive meat mixture.  Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in the skillet.

How to make the meatballs taken from my lamb meatball post.

Forming the meatballs dip a tablespoon in the oil and scoop up a good spoonful meat. Use the hand and the spoon to form the meatball.  The meatball should be oval an the size of a small egg. Placed the meatball in the skillet, repeat until you have a full skillet. Be careful not to let the meatballs touch each other.

Fry the meatball for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side until they are well-browned and no longer pink in the center. Depending how big the meatballs are and how hot your pan is the time may varies.  When done remove the meatballs and set aside.

If you have a more meat mixture in the bowl, clean the skillet with a kitchen towel and add new butter and fry another batch.

Serve the warm meatballs. 

Enjoy!

Pork Roullade with Prunes

Pork Roullade with Prunes

My mom loved this kind of pork roulade called rullesteg (rolled roast) in Danish. It might have been the prunes that made it special for her. And I have to agree with her, the prunes gives this roast a sweetness that pairs well with the pork and the saltiness.

Don't get me started about the gravy. Danes are a meat, potato and brown gravy kinda people. The sauce or gravy should be spooned over the potatoes and not just used as a small amount of dipping sauce. The sauce from a roast like this makes the most fantastic sauce. All the flavors from the roast is concentrated in the cooking liquid, making the sauce to die for.  I normally only make a sauce like this at christmas when we have roasted duck or/and Danish pork roast, but this roast calle for the traditional brown sauce. 

Ingredients:

• 1½ kg (3 lbs) pork belly, no skin
• 200 g pitted prunes
• salt & pepper
• butter and olive oil for the searing
• 4-500 ml (2 cups) water

Directions:

Cut off any large chunks of fat, but don't make it too lean. Trim the ends so they are straight.   Lay the pork belly flat on a cutting board and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides. Place the prunes on the pork belly along one of the sides. Roll the pork belly into a tight sausage keeping the prunes in the center. Use cooking twine to tie the meat up all the way.

Heat butter and oil in a pot, and sear the roast on all sides. Add the water, turn heat to low and let to simmer for about 90 minutes, turning a few times during the cooking process.  

Remove the roast from the pan, and let rest on a cutting board, before slicing.

Extra: Make a sauce from the cooking liquid, by adding cream (or whole milk) to the pan, and bring it to a boil. Thicken the sauce with a thick mixture of water and all-purpose flour. Add browning (kulør) to get the brown color. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.

Serve the roast sliced thin with boiled potatoes and some kind of vegetables.

Enjoy!