So, after a terribly long silence I am finally recording our wonderful Danish evening. We should have perhaps got around to travelling there before now, seeing as the majority of the family are either one quarter or one half Danish, but we somehow have been delaying it.
This simply meant that it was a perfect Travelling Tuesday choice for the recent in-laws visit. How wonderful to have another thinking about the food and getting all excited about the cultural journey. I thought we'd make something pretty straightforward, maybe something Inge normally cooks for the kids when they go to visit, but it's a pretty meaty cuisine and we have a vegetarian in tow. (Did I mention that previously?!). But she had a brainwave, and fiskefrigadeller it was.
Of course we couldn't stop there. Not with the idea of a smorsgabord hailing from those Viking shores. Their 'Smørrebrød' is an almost limitless option with an amazing range of things on ryebread. We had the wild (pickled herring) from our wonderful cornershop, and the ristede løj (toasted onions) which Inge smuggles back in her suitcase every time she travels to Denmark. Sausage (a not very Danish chorizo the only thing in the fridge), pepper, hard boiled eggs and rather too much red onion just added to the spread. The only thing Inge couldn't provide, which you can't be without if you're travelling to Denmark is 'remoulade' a yellowish mayonnaise made with pickled cucumber or capers. I got the job of making it from scratch because it's 'really easy'. Ha! (hollow laugh). Unmitigated disaster more like. Think I may have got the quantities wrong so while it tasted pretty authentic it was more like soup than mayonnaise. Which, if you ever need to know, is not that easy to spread on bread.
THE DISH
Thanks to
the Family Dinner Book for this.
FOR 4-6 SERVINGS, YOU NEED:
2 pounds mild white fish, like pacific cod, halibut or tilapia (
check to make sure your choices are good for both your family and the sea).
1 cup un-seasoned bread crumbs
¾ cup milk or water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ small onion
3 bacon slices, or 3 ounces smoked salmon (optional)
½ lemon, zested
A small handful fresh parsley and/or dill
1 teaspoon salt (less if you are using the bacon or salmon)
Pepper to taste
Grapeseed or canola oil
Put the bread crumbs, milk, eggs, salt and pepper in a small bowl and let soak.
In your food processor, put both onions, bacon or salmon, lemon zest and herbs and pulse until fine. Then add your fish and pulse until everything has the consistency of a coarse pudding. (If you don’t have a food processor you can finely chop everything by hand, it will only take a few minutes longer, but be diligent, it needs to stick together in the end). Fold the fish into the breadcrumb mixture.
Heat up a heavy skillet and drizzle in a thin layer of oil to cover the bottom. With wet hands gently form about 1 heaping soup spoon of the batter into a cake or quenelle (mini foot ball) and slide onto the pan, repeat with the remaining batter. Let the cakes sizzle over medium heat for about 4 minutes before you check if they are golden and release easily from the pan, if they do flip them, if not wait a bit longer … it is best not to flip them too early as they will stick to the pan. If you are making more than one batch keep the first ones warm in a 200℉ oven.
Quick remoulade sauce
YOU NEED:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley and/or dill
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped tart pickles (I used capers)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon mild curry
pepper, to taste
To make 1 cup, mix everything together, put in a nice bowl, chill.
Cumber side dish (agurkesalat)
There's one recipe on
My Danish Kitchen but I think Inge just made it up, to be honest. It's basically cucumber sliced very finely and marinated in vinegar and sugar with a little black peppercorn and dill thrown in.
THE REACTION
The worst thing about not blogging straight after the event is that I can't remember intimate details. The kids always like to have their grandparents over so it was a good vibe generally and there weren't too many complaints about travelling to Denmark. In fact it was with some shock ourselves that we realised we last went there in real life in 2009 - when the Littlest was only 3. Time to book another trip I think. Especially as he was the only one of the kids who tucked into the sild - in another shocking departure from his normal circumspection of all things new.
The table looked amazingly colourful and the mixture of coke/fanta (it was the holidays, after all) and Aquavit (the ubiquitous Danish liquor based on the humble potato) definitely contributed to the conviviality.
THE VERDICT
As with our visit to Sweden I have to report that the kids aren't ryebread converts yet. N remembered how much he likes it so maybe we should have it in the house more and gradually chip away at them. And though fishcakes are not their favourite either they did pretty well and a good time was had by all. We even say a Danish grace, 'natch.
Alle gode gaver,
de kommer oven ned,
så tak da Gud, ja, pris dog Gud
for al hans kærlighed.
It's the chorus of 'We plough the fields and scatter'. The English version is:
All good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above,
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all His love. I try and remember the last line in Danish by thinking of it as 'all his curly hair'. Which is why I'm not a linguist.
DESSERT
I don't know why we don't have æbleskiver more often. They're just like balls of pancake mixture and it is no secret that this family is overly keen on pancakes. I guess they're just a little bit harder to make, even if we do have the rather lovely special pan ... which on reflection could be used to make those terrible trendy 'pop' cakes.. if I could ever be bothered.
Æbleskiver
2 egg whites
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
60g butter, melted
475ml buttermilk
250ml vegetable oil for frying
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they can hold a stiff peak. Set aside.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, egg yolks, melted butter and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Gently fold in the egg whites.
Place 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in the bottom of each aebleskiver pan hole and heat until hot. Pour in about 2 tablespoons of the batter into each hole. As soon as they get bubbly around the edge, turn them quickly with a fork. Continue cooking, turning the ball to keep it from burning.
And later we had some good old Danish entertainment involving intergenerational music and some hygge... (roughly translated as cosy fun... for more see
Visit Denmark).
