Butter Chicken with Roast Potatoes and Butter-Garlic Sauce
Butter chicken is a comfort food in Scandinavia, butter chicken stuffed with garlic takes the pleasure up several levels.
1.8 kg chicken
250 g butter
4 bulbs garlic, whole
1 small orange, whole
15 g assorted ground seasoning – black pepper, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, garlic paprika, sumac, salt
10 g black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 160°C. Rub chicken all over with some of the butter, season. Stuff chicken with remaining butter and garlic, seal opening with orange. Bake for two hours, remove foil. Turn heat to 180°C and roast until skin has browned, about 30 minutes. Leave to rest. Cut garlic bulbs in half, squeeze out pulp, mix with the liquid in the bottom of the casserole, pour over chicken. Serve with mashed potatoes.
Roast pork in Denmark means crackling and gravy, the meat is almost incidental. The crackling must be crispy and crunchy and the gravy should be aromatic and meaty. This can be achieved with slow cooking in a tepid oven but it can also be achieved with carefully controlled cooking in a hot oven. Timing is crucial. Therefore a two kilo piece placed on a rack can be cooked at 130°C for five hours. Cooking in a preheated 225°C oven for 15 minutes to release the fat, then at 180°C for two hours, requires constant basting and is closer to the English method. The Danes prefer a slow-cooked roast on a low heat, the English a slow-cooked roast on a high heat.
2 kg pork, boned collar / shoulder with thick skin
2 large onions, halved crosswise
25 g salt
Preheat oven to 190°C. Lay pork on onions in a deep baking tray. Cook for two and a half hours.
Kale cooked with butter and cream is well known in northern countries. In Denmark it forms one of the country‘s traditional dishes when it is combined with pork in some form or other and served with caramelised potatoes.
Kale
1 kg kale
75 g butter
30 ml cream
30 g white wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
Black Pepper
Salt
Potatoes
1 kg Lammefjord potatoes, small
50 g butter
40 g sugar
Boil the potatoes in their skins, peel and leave to cool. Heat sugar in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the butter. When it foams add the potatoes and coat in the sugar-butter mixture. Keep the heat controlled until the potatoes are browned and heated through. Make sure they do not burn. Prepare kale. Make a roux in a heavy based saucepan, add kale and two tablespoons of water. Cook over a medium heat, adding a little more butter, finishing with sugar, salt and pepper. Serve with cooked smoked ham, pork sausages or pork on the bone.
Making a mince from fresh fish fillets is a very old tradition in northern Europe, particulary in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The recipe is essentially the same across Scandinavia, the modern Icelandic version owing more to the Danish tradition than Iceland’s own rich fish culture.
Fillets of cod, haddock, pollack, saithe and whiting are the usual choice of fish, but any fleshly white fish is suitable. Using salmon fillet is a relatively young addition to the tradition, and now farmed salmon is used.
In the countries that share a coastline with the Baltic sea, the mince is combined with cream and grits / manna croup and formed into breaded cakes, baked in the oven.
The mince is also made into a mousse or purée.
Eggs and milk add lightness to the mince when it is used to make fish balls.
The secret ingredient in leverpostej, the Danish liver paté, is anchovy.
Eaten every day by the majority of Danes, usually as leverpostejmad – the open faced liver paste sandwich, there are countless variations, in Denmark and across Scandinavia.
A Frenchman called Beauvais, who set up a charcuterie in a Copenhagen street basement in the early 19th century, minced fatty pork belly, pork liver, onions and seasonings to produce an expensive liver paté that was adored by the bourgeoisie.
A generation later every pork butcher in Denmark produced and sold leverpostej, and a tradition was born. Leverpostej became an essential element of the smørrebrød – open faced sandwich culture.
500 g pork liver, chopped
480 ml whole milk
375 g belly pork, chopped
150 g shallots, chopped
2 large eggs, beaten
100 g anchovies
30 g butter
30 g white spelt flour / white wheat flour
25 g pork fat
15 g salt
10 g black pepper, crushed
5 g allspice, ground
Cloves, ground, large pinch / Cinnamon, ground, large pinch
Water, for bain-marie
Grinding the pork belly, pork liver, shallot pureé and anchovies
Melt butter, add flour, then milk, cook gently for five minutes, leave to cool.
Put pork belly through a meat grinder twice, put the pork liver through the grinder three twice, then combine the two meats and grind once. Add the anchovies and shallot pureé to the mixture and run through the grinder twice.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Beat eggs and spices into the roux. Fold into meat mixture to form a thick batter.
Liberally grease a loaf tin with the pork fat, pour in the batter.
Place the tin in a deep baking tray, half fill the tray with boiling water and bake for 90 minutes, until the surface is golden-brown.
For a smooth paste, blend the liver and shallots, then the belly, add to the batter.
For an aromatic pâté, add 25 grams of coarsely ground black peppercorns to the meat during the combined meat grinding.
A shooting star because this is the most famous of the smørrebrød range of Danish open-faced sandwiches. These are the ingredients for one portion.
3 plaice fillets
6 large shrimp, cooked
30 g sour cream
15 g caviar
1 slice of brown bread / dark rye bread
1 egg, beaten
Egg, hard boiled, halved
1 lemon, juice
Asparagus piece
Breadcrumbs
Butter
Cayenne, pinch
Cucumber slice, twisted
Dill, pinch
Lemon slice, twisted
Lettuce piece
Paprika, pinch
Salmon slice
Sunflower oil
Tomato, sliced
Salt
Pepper
Speed is of the essense with this dish.
Whip a pinch each of cayenne and paprika into sour cream, mix in caviar.
Bring a steamer pot of salted water to the boil, turn heat low and place a fillet in the tray, cover and leave for three minutes. Roll up.
Heat a small piece of butter in a frying pan with a splash of oil.
Break and beat an egg into one dish, put breadcrumbs in a second dish, coat a fillet in the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Fry each side, two minutes each. Repeat with final fillet.
Toast the slice of bread, butter it, place one or two small leaves of lettuce on top, followed by the fish.
Garnish with shrimp, and a large splash of lemon juice.
Spoon cream mixture on top.
Finish with the salmon rolled around the asparagus, tomato slices, twisted cucumber and lemon slices, the egg halves and the dill.
A coarse large-leaf cabbage with a curly crinkled appearance, kale is the cultivated variety of the wild cabbage native to the Mediterranean, and rich in minerals and vitamins.
The ancient Romans introduced it to northern Europe and today it is still popular in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, where recipes gradually found their way to the Atlantic fringe – Ireland, Portugal and Scandinavia in particular.
Curly kale is the most cultivated variety along with local varieties adapted to their environment, such as Portuguese kale (couve) used to make caldo verde.
Being the good collectors that they are, the Flemish took kale to their culinary hearts.
Kale is an essential ingredient in stoemp, a mash made with potatoes, leaf and root vegetables.
Cooked with butter and cream it forms part of the Danish grønlangkål med skinke – kale with ham and caramelised potatoes.
The combination of kale, butter, buttermilk or cream, potatoes and spring onions / scallions or leeks is believed to be one of the oldest dishes in northern Europe.
Kale has made a comeback in recent years, because the colder climates improves its flavour.
Colcannon IRELAND mashed kale and potatoes
500 g kale
500 g potatoes, whole
10 leeks / spring onions / scallions, chopped
150 ml cream / milk
100 g butter / buttermilk
Salt
Pepper
Soak the kale in cold then warm water to remove dirt amd chase away the small spiders that love to weave their webs among its leaves.
Leave to drain for 30 minutes.
Remove stems, cut into leaves into strips then small pieces.
Bring to the boil in a little water, reduce heat and cook until al dente. Drain surplus water.
Boil the potatoes in their skins.
Cook the spring onions in the milk/cream over a low heat.
In a heavy based saucepan mash potatoes with the milk/cream and spring onions over a low heat.
Combine kale, seasoning and the butter, blend with a wooden spoon until the mash assumes the colour of the greens. Buttermilk can replace the butter to give a tangy taste.
Grønlangkål med Skinke DENMARK kale with ham and caramelised potatoes
Kale cooked with butter and cream is well known in northern countries. In Denmark it forms one of the country‘s traditional dishes when it is combined with pork in some form or other and served with caramelised potatoes.
1 kg kale
75 g butter
30 ml cream
30 g white wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
5 g black pepper
5 g salt
Potatoes
1 kg Lammefjord potatoes
50 g butter
40 g sugar
Boil the potatoes in their skins, peel and leave to cool.
Heat sugar in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the butter. When it foams add the potatoes and coat in the sugar-butter mixture. Keep the heat controlled until the potatoes are browned and heated through. Make sure they do not burn.
Prepare kale.
Make a roux in a heavy based saucepan, add kale and two tablespoons of water. Cook over a medium heat, adding a little more butter, finishing with sugar, salt and pepper.
Serve with cooked smoked ham, pork sausages or pork on the bone.
Boerenkoolstamppot met Rookworst NETHERLANDS mashed kale and potatoes with smoked sausages
Another traditional kale dish, this mashed kale and potato stew is a Dutch classic with numerous subtle variations – kale, potatoes, milk and butter the only constants.
Smoked sausages (generally Gelderse) complete the dish but it is also garnished with bacon.
Vinegar is a tangy ingredient in some of the classic preparations, a role also played by mustard while the modern versions call for dried vegetables, herbs and spices.
Leeks have also been known to find their way into the ingredients list because they add a gentle flavour to the kale.
The Gelderland smoked sausage story is told by traditional food specialists Vers-inspiratie (Fresh Inspiration).
1.5 kg floury potatoes, peeled, cubed
1 kg kale leaves
550 g smoked sausages
300 g onions
100 ml milk, hot
30 g butter
5 g black pepper
Salt, pinch
Mustard, for dressing
Boil onions and potatoes with a pinch of salt in sufficient water to cover in a large pot, strain, retaining the cooking liquid.
Put the kale in a large bowl with the liquid, cover and leave until leaves wilt.
Transfer kale and sufficient liquid to cover it to a saucepan, cover and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes, drain, squeeze out liquid and chop small.
Put the sausages in the remaining liquid, cover and simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes.
Mash onions and potatoes with butter and milk, fold in the kale, season. Serve with pieces of sliced sausage dressed with mustard.
Other Traditional Kale Recipes
Caldo Verde PORTUGAL kale soupBöreği / Börek TURKEY pies (kale is a filling)Ekşili Pilav TURKEY bulgur with greens and yoghurtGraupensuppe mit Kasseler GERMANY pearl barley soup with smoked pork neckHamsi Diblesi TURKEY Black Sea anchovies with kale and riceKiełbasa z Jarmuż POLAND smoked sausage with kaleOstfriesische GrünkohlGERMANY kale with bacon, onions and sausagesPierogi / Pīrāgi / Pirogi Пироги POLAND RUSSIA UKRAINE pies (minced beef, apple, kale and onion filling)Solyanka Солянка RUSSIA winter soup potSukuma Wiki EAST AFRICA braised greensVrzotovka SLOVENIA kale soupYaini CAUCASUS meat and vegetable soup
The story of the bulette was featured in a major Berlin daily
Brought to the former Prussian capital by the Huguenots in 1700, the bulette is established as an institution, and now that we are in Berlin we can debate the peculiarities that make Berliners agree to disagree about ingredients and methods, then we can reflect on the meatball versions across Europe.
Berliner Bulette
500 g beef / pork / veal, minced *1
150 ml milk / water
100 g onion, chopped small
100 g soft white roll or two thick slices of a baguette, soaked whole in milk or water
1 egg
50 g speck (bacon) *2
30 ml vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped *3
1 tbsp marjoram, chopped small *4
1 tbsp parsley, chopped small *4
5 g caraway seeds *4
5 g dried green peppercorns, fresh ground
Nutmeg, about 1/6 of nut grated
Salt, large pinch
*1 A two to one ratio of beef to pork is usual but buletten can be made with equal amounts or all of beef, pork or veal.
*2 Small cubes of bacon can be fried in onion until crisp, added cold to the mix.
*3 Garlic can be added fried with the bacon and onions, or added raw.
*4 The herbs are optional. The amount of caraway is a personal decision because of its pungent flavour.
Preheat oven to 175ºC.
Squeeze out the liquid from the buns. Add to the mince with the egg, onion, nutmeg, herbs and seasonings. Combine into palm-sized balls, about 50 grams each, flatten.
Brown in a frying pan over a high heat in oil.
This will take a couple of minutes, turning constantly.
The rival to the Berlin meatball is the Bavarian meatball. Dijon mustard is the principle difference between them. Despite similarities the two recipes have different origins, and are not related to the frikadellen family prevalent throughout northern and western Europe. The same applies to the Danish frikadeller and the frikadellen of Germany. And that story comes in part 3.
300 g beef, minced
200 g pork, minced
100 ml milk / water
100 g onions, chopped small
100 g soft white roll, soaked whole in milk or water
1 egg
50 g breadcrumbs
30 ml oil
25 g mustard (traditional Dijon made with verjuice or wine is favoured)
15 g butter
10 g salt
1 tbsp parsley, chopped small
1 tbsp marjoram, chopped small
5 g black pepper, fresh ground
Incorporate soaked bread with the egg, onions, parsley, mustard and marjoram. Add mince and seasonings. Mix by hand.
Spread breadcrumbs sprinkled with salt on a large plate. Wet hands and take a palm-sized lump of the mixture, about 50 grams each. Form into a compact ball, roll in breadcrumbs.
Continue until the mixture is used up.
Brown in butter and oil over a medium heat. Cook for 12 minutes, turning constantly.
