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Many people associate Denmark with Andersen’s fairy tales, Hamlet and the eternally cloudy weather. And what do we know about the gastronomic attractions of this country, except for the famous smerrebred? Upon closer acquaintance, it turns out that the recipes of the Danish cuisine are easy to prepare, which does not deprive them of sophistication and interesting taste combinations. Today we are studying in practice the most popular dishes of Danish cuisine.
Hot Danish doggy
Today you can buy a hot dog in street vans in any country in the world. Danish cuisine also has its own variation. We cut the onion head into 4 parts and cut each one as usual. Sprinkle the onion with salt and pepper, roll in flour, fry in a large amount of oil, spread on a paper towel. At the same time, fry 4 sausages in a grill pan. Cut 2-3 pickled cucumbers into cubes. The sauce in the Danish hot dog recipe is mixed from 1 tbsp. ketchup and 1 tsp. not too spicy mustard. We cut the oblong buns in half, lubricate the sauce, put hot sausages inside and sprinkle with onion fries with chopped pickled cucumbers. Preheat the hot dogs slightly before serving.
Sandwich Parade
There are many recipes for the open Danish sandwich smerrebred, or rather fillings for it, there are many. Gravlax (raw fish of valuable breeds in a dry marinade), lightly salted salmon and seafood are especially popular. Sauces are necessarily added to them, most often mayonnaise, tartare or remoulade with pickled cucumbers.
We offer you to try smerrebred with herring. We cut the boiled beetroot into thick slices, sprinkle with vegetable oil and vinegar. We chop 2 pickled cucumbers in circles, and a purple onion-in half rings. Scald the onion with boiling water to remove the bitterness. We lubricate thin slices of rye bread with butter, spread beetroot, herring, cucumbers with onions in layers and decorate with arugula leaves. In Denmark, they like to serve this snack with beer.
Sausages with aging
Medisterpelse or medister is a traditional Danish pork sausage with spices. For the first time they are mentioned in the Swedish book on household management of the beginning of the XVI century. Since then, the composition of the ingredients and the method of preparation has not changed much.
For minced meat, we take 1.5-2 kg of ground pork. Ideally, the pork pulp should be finely chopped with a knife. Chop 2 large onions, pass 3-4 cloves of garlic through the press. Knead all the ingredients into the minced meat, season with salt, black pepper and ground cloves to taste. To make it juicier, add interior fat or meat broth. Next, we fill the natural sausage casing with minced meat, tie it tightly and cook or fry it if desired. You can serve them with cucumber salad and millet porridge.
Meat heritage
Danish pork with potatoes stegt flask is notable for the fact that in 2014, according to the results of the popular vote, it received the title of “Food of the Year”, beating even smerrebredy. The Danes really prefer pork to other types of meat almost always.
We put 1 kg of potatoes in a uniform to cook, after which we peel them and cut them into slices. Cut into pieces 600 g of pork brisket, sprinkle with salt and black pepper, fry strongly until crisp. The main highlight is the sauce. Melt 30 g of butter in a saucepan, dissolve 3 tablespoons of flour. Pour in a thin stream of 500 ml of milk and, stirring continuously, simmer the sauce over low heat until it thickens. At the end, we mix in a generous handful of finely chopped parsley. Fried pork is served with potato slices, generously sprinkled with sauce.
Stew with cabbage crunch
Beef is also loved in Denmark and is prepared from it a simple, but quite tasty stew, which can be ordered in any restaurant. Cut into small pieces 700 g of beef and fry in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil until light brown.
Then pour out 2-3 onions in half rings, 2 carrots with large straws and 2-3 finely chopped garlic cloves. After frying the meat with vegetables for 10-15 minutes, add 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, season with salt, black pepper and paprika to taste. Pour in 100 ml of meat broth, cover with a lid and simmer on low heat for an hour.
The addition to this stew is special — red sweet and sour cabbage radish, marinated in apple cider vinegar with sugar and cloves. In addition to it, whole tubers of boiled potatoes are necessarily put on a plate with meat stew.
“Snails” under a creamy glaze
Popular desserts include Danish apple pie, shortbread cookies with red pepper and ginger, puffs with sugar-butter cream, vanilla rings and apple donuts.
Lovers of homemade cakes will enjoy a Danish bun, reminiscent of French cinnabons with cinnamon. Stir in 200 ml of warm milk 11 g of dry yeast, 2 eggs and 80 g of softened butter. Beat 2 eggs with 100 g of sugar, add to the base. Gradually pour 500 g of flour, knead the dough and leave for half an hour. Next, roll out 2 rectangular layers, lubricate with butter and sprinkle with a mixture of 200 g of cane sugar and 4 tbsp. l. cinnamon. Roll 2 rolls, cut into 1 cm washers and bake for 20 minutes in the oven at 180 °C. Warm buns are covered with a glaze mixed with 80 g of butter, 50 g of cream cheese and 300 g of powdered sugar.
Pudding for good luck
Another Danish dessert that deserves attention is rice pudding risalamande. Traditionally, it is prepared for Christmas and put an almond kernel in it. It is believed that a guest who finds it in a plate will have a great success in the new year.
Bring almost 700 g of milk to a boil, stir 200 g of sugar and a pinch of vanilla. Pour out 200 g of round-grain rice and cook on low heat for half an hour, stirring with a spatula. Beat 500 ml of 35% cream into a fluffy foam, mix the cooled rice porridge and 70 g of almonds ground into a crumb. Do not forget to put one whole kernel. For the sauce, combine 300 g of thawed cherries and 200 g of sugar in a saucepan, pour 50 ml of water with 2 tablespoons of starch diluted in it. Simmer the sauce over low heat until it thickens properly. We lay out the rice pudding on the cremans, pour cherry sauce and decorate with mint.
You can cook all these Danish culinary hits yourself without any problems. They can quite diversify your family menu, everyday and festive. You can find even more recipes of the national Danish cuisine on the website “Healthy Food Near Me”. And if you happened to visit Denmark, tell us in the comments what you managed to try and what made a special impression on you.