Recipes from Denmark

Featured in this post: Potato bread, ham and pea soup, and hot slaw, three recipes right from Denmark.

Two out of the three dishes in this meal should suit most peoples' palettes, as everyone enjoys a good slice of bread, and pea soup - while not looking incredibly appetizing - should suit most everyone after a bite or two. However, the last dish, 'hot slaw', doesn't always go over well with everyone, most particularly younger kids. Since the only meat in the meal is a few chunks of ham in the pea soup, it's a good idea to use our 'bonus recipe' instead of the slaw if you have younger kids, or are having company over. Included with the rest of the printable recipes are the instructions for creating 'Danish meatballs'. All the family loves them, and though there aren't pictures, it's a relatively straightforward recipe.

Once you have decided on which recipes to include in your meal, we move on to the actual planning and cooking part.

For the pea soup, you will need:

5 cups split peas

cold water to cover

2 tbsp butter

2 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced

8 cups water or broth

1 ½ tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 ½ cups diced cooked ham

First off, the peas for the pea soup need to soak in a bowl of water the night before, so make sure to plan at least a day ahead and get them soaking at the right time.

Once you've done that, you can rest until the next day. About 5 hours before you plan to serve the meal, melt some butter in a large pot. Add in the chopped up celery and saute for 5 minutes, or until they are soft. Add in the peas, and the 8 cups of either water or broth, and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat, and let the sup simmer for 4 hours.

When you're an hour away from serving, throw in the diced up ham, and let the soup cook on low heat for another hour.

That's all you have to do for the soup. Just make sure you're stirring it often, as it can turn into a bit of a mess if it starts sticking to the bottom and burning.

The bread takes a little more work. You can start doing it whenever you feel like, but four hours before dinner is a good call, as you need a decent amount of time to let the bread rise.

For the potato bread, you will need:

2 – 4 potatoes; enough to make 1 cup when boiled and mashed.

Enough water to boil in

½ cup reserved potato water

2 packs yeast (or 2 tsp. dry yeast)

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

8 cups flour

melted butter

When you've got your ingredients together, peel your potatoes and dice them into quarters (or smaller if your potatoes are large). Put them into a pot of water and boil for 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes, but make sure you pour the potato water into a bowl, as you need to save some of it for later. Mash the potatoes with a fork or potato masher.

Once the water from boiling the potatoes is warm enough to touch, place it in a bowl along with the yeast, and a tablespoon of sugar. Stir and dissolve. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes. It should start to froth after a little while, if it , your yeast is dead and you will have to start with some new yeast.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. When the yeast is ready and the sugar and egg mixture is beaten, mix the potatoes, yeast, and sugar and eggs together in a bowl, along with half of the flour. Mix until the mixture is smooth. Add in the rest of the flour little by little, until a stiff dough is formed. If you have extra flour left over, that's fine.

Turn on to a floured surface, such as a cutting board, and knead for about 8 minutes. you should end up with a ball of dough that is slightly elastic and not sticky. You can add extra flour in while you're kneading the dough.

Dough once it's been kneaded:

Let the dough rest in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, in a warm place until doubled. This will take 1-2 hours. When it's doubled, punch it down and knead it for another couple minutes, then split it into two halves. Put the halves into two loaf pans, and then let rise again for another hour.

When it's ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and bake the bread for 40-50 minutes. You should check it every once in a while after bout 30 minutes, and turn the heat down a bit if the bread seems to be browning too quickly. The bread is done when browned and sounds hollow if you tap it.

The slaw only takes a total of 30 minutes to prepare and cook, so it should be the last thing you start should you choose to include it in the meal.

Your ingredients will be:

1 head cabbage

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 teaspoons sugar

¼ teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoons butter

¾ cup milk

¼ cup vinegar

To start, beat the egg in small bowl until frothy. Add in the flour, salt, mustard, sugar, and pepper, and mix until smooth.

Fill a pot with enough water to cover the cabbage. Add some salt, and bring the water to a boil. Put the diced cabbage in, and cook for 6 minutes. Make sure you don't cook it any longer. The cabbage should be crisp.

Meanwhile, get your double boiler set up, with an inch or two of water in the bottom pot. Melt the butter in the top of the double boiler, and then stir in the milk and egg mixture. Drizzle in the vinegar slowly. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly so the sauce does not burn.

This is what the sauce will look like:


(On closer inspection of the picture, you may notice that our 'double boiler' doesn't quite match up to the other double boilers out there in the world. Nonetheless, it works just fine, and if you have to resort to sticking a metal bowl on top of a water-filled pot, that's ok!)

Once the sauce thickens slightly, throw together the cabbage and sauce in a bowl, and mix until sauce is evenly distributed over cabbage.

Hopefully at this point, everything has gone ok, and you now have a nice Danish meal to serve. Here are some pictures of the final outcome of the food:

Potato Bread:


Hot Slaw:


The Final Product:

Of course, here is a link to the printable version of these recipes: Link

The meatball recipe is included in the above link.

Quite soon we'll be doing a meal from Saint Lucia. Saint Lucia? I'd never heard of it before my random country generator spit it out, but apparently it's an island in the Caribbean Sea. The menu is quite... interesting, to say the least, so we'll see how it turns out. Either way, it'll be an adventure.

Denmark

For our next big meal, we are going to head over to Europe, and more specifically, Denmark.

Denmark is one of the most progressive countries in the world, as well as one that has retained many of its old traditions. Travelling through the larger towns of the country, you would notice the varying architectural styles, traditional food, and sense of culture. However, Denmark is very progressive as well, being one of the leading countries in environmental protection, as well retaining a very open stance on many modern issues.

As for food, Danish cusine has many features which seperates it from the rest of the world. As local foods are preferred over imported foods in the country, much of the dishes depend on what is already widely available. For this reason, dairy products, grain products, and a variety of vegetables feature in Danish meals, as well as meat such as pork and beef.

Next we will be taking a look at a meal that you might see on a Danish dinner table, consisting of hame and pea soup, potato bread, and hot slaw, as well as a tasty bonus recipe, Danish meat balls.