What's For Lunch?

I dont think I am all that bad about making the same dinners over and over again, but when it comes to lunch I do repeat the same pattern over and over again. Leftovers from the night before or a sandwich/salad. I don't actually mind it all that much, but I am not only cooking for myself so I try really hard to make sure my husband does no get the same packed lunch with him to work every day.

And I bet I am not the only one that have difficulty having to come up with something new for both dinner and lunch so will share a few of the greatest hits I have made lately.

What about You out there? What do You prefer for lunch and what criteria does a nice lunch have to live up to?

For me, it has to store well. 

At the moment I have the luxury to be able to make my husbands lunch box in the morning, so everything just have to get through the morning, but once I get back to school/work I will have to do things that will store well over night.

Second it has to be filling but no heavy. Don't you know that feeling after lunch where you just want to take a nap if you had a stew or a greasy burger? I rarely get that feeling if I eat a salad...

I think these 3 options checks both boxes as well as being tasty.

White Bean Cheese Muffin, Fried Egg and Curry Fried Chickpea Salad

White Bean Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

200 gram ready to eat white beans (quite sure most beans will work here)

1 big carrot - grated

1 Egg

1-3 Tbsp Whole Wheat Flour

Salt, pepper and a herb (Rosmary, Thyme or Sage works well)

Oil for the muffin pan

Topping:

Cherry tomatoes

Cheese (I used good quality Mozzarella Cheese)

Heat the oven to 175C.

Blitz all the ingredients together and adjust the consistency with the flour. You are looking for a thick porridge consistency.

If it is to dry you can add milk or water.

Grease the muffin pan with oil - even if you use the "easy slip"  kind I would grease it because the isn't any fat in the "dough".

Top every muffin with cheese and tomato and perhaps some of the herbs and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until firm and golden on top.

These muffins freeze really well but I would reheat them after freezing them. They do keep well in the fridge.

Curried Chickpea Salad

Ingredients

Ready to eat Chickpeas

Carrots, cut into chucks

Onion, sliced

Spinach, washed and spinned

Oil

Curry, Salt and Pepper

Heat up the oil in a pan and fry the curry for 1 minutes or so. Curry always taste best if it is fried in fat since that realizes the fat soluble flavors.

Add the onions, carrots and chickpeas and fry until the onions are clear.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the spinach in a bowl, add the slightly cooled ingredients from the pan and toss.  

I choose to serve this up with a fried egg - sunny side up - but it would taste great on its own. 

I have packed fried eggs in lunches before but if you think it is to messy opt for a soft boiled egg instead.

Baked Sweet Potato With Mexicans Inspired Kale, Corn, Black Beans And Beef Stir Fry

I felt so great and healthy eating this. The flavors were balanced and the colors just made me happy - don't you agree?

If you are serving this as a lunch I would definitely make it the day after I had served baked sweet potatoes since that is the part that will take you the longest.

My husband got this for lunch and apparently could not cope with the long line in front of the micro wave and reported that it tastes really well cold - very  nice to know when talking about lunches.

Ingredients

1 baked sweet potato (one big one was enough for me and hubby to share)

Ready to eat black beans

Kale, washed and sliced however you like it

Freash or tinned tomates, chopped

Onions, sliced

Corn (I perfer fresh of the cob but frozen and canned will do fine here)

Cumin, Cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, sugar and fresh coriander

Minced beef (can easily be left out)

To serve - Fresh coriander, lime and/or greek yoghurt

The baked sweet potato

Just in case you have not baked a sweet potato before, it is basically the same as baking a regular potato.

Rince the spud and wrap in tin foil - I like to add a bit of oil, salt and pepper an well.

Bake in a 200 C hot oven for a least 1 hour, sometimes more, depending of the size of the potato.

I like my baked sweet potatoes to be fairly soft, but if you like it any other way go with your instinct.

The stir fry

Fry the onion and the minced beef in a little oil. I used some already cooked leftover mince from the night before and actually very little of it. 

It gives a very nice beefy flavor, but the vegetables are the stars here and you already get proteins from the beans so it is optional.

Add the kale, corn and black beans and fry until the kale has has wilted.

Add the tomatoes and season. I like this one to have a bit of a kick, but you might not agree. 

I only add a pinch of sugar to bring out the tomato flavor. You do not want it sweet, especially because the sweet potato is sweet enough.

If you have any other vegetables in the fridge - by all means - add to the stir fry. Bell peppers would work well, so would carrots and zucchini.

Kale Salad With Carrots, Oven Roasted Chicken And Crispy Parma Ham - Hummus And Vegetables - Baked Berrie And Bread Pudding - Greek Yoghurt with Berries And Ceriel - Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich

Now you are probably thinking - what the heck kind of a head line is that?

Well - this is what my husband would eat during a day at work. People who knows my husband will have noticed that he eats ALL THE TIME. Not a lot at a time, but little meals very often.

I do the same - but since I eat alone most of the time, people just don't notice.

This works really well for me. It rearely get too hungry and make poor food choices and I don't have huge up's and down's during the day due to blood sugar spikes.

If you feel this is something you tend to do, you should give it a go.

You might look at the headline or the picture and think "that take way to much time to prepare" but with good routines and a bit of planning its not that much work.

Kale Salad With Carrots, Oven Roasted Chicken And Crispy Parma Ham

Ingredients:

Kale, washed and spinned dry

Vinaigrette of salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice

4-5 slices of oven roasted chicken

Carrots in small chances

Crispy Parma Ham

First add the kale to a roomy bowl and add the dressing. Massage the dressing into the kale for as long ad you have time to - at least for 1 minute.

This brakes down the though texture of the kale and makes it smooth. 

The hard texture is also one of the reasons why kale is a good choice for a salad you need to make the day before - it will hold up with our getting soggy even after adding the dressing.

Once your kale is smooth and silky top with the other ingredients.

Berrie And Bread Pudding

This is kind of a mix of french toast and bread and butter pudding.

I think I made it as a late night snack or a breakfast and just decided to send the rest with my husband to work as a treat.

Ingredients

Slices of whole grain bread (stale is best)

Eggs

Milk

Vanilla extract

Honey

Berries (fresh or frozen)

Butter

In an oven safe dish add some berries. If you got a sweet tooth or just some very sour berries add some sugar.

Make a mixture of milk, honey, vanilla extract and eggs. 

Rip the bread into big chucks and place them on top of the berries and poor over the milk/egg mixture.

You want to make sure that the bread can soak up most of the milk/egg mixture so you might want to mix it up or push the bread down.

Put a few dots of butter on top (and perhaps some sugar) and set aside for as long as you got time for - preferably 20-30 minutes but I have let it sit as little as 5 minutes.

Then bake it all in a 175C hot oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

It keeps well a few days in the fridge.

This treat tastes really really good with apples and raisins as well.

Hummus

Ingredients

Ready to eat chickpeas

Greek yoghurt

Olive oil

Garlic

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Blitz the chickpeas in a blender and add olive oil and greek yoghurt until you get a smooth texture. Add the rest of the ingredients to taste.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil on top and a dash of smoky paprika and eat with sticks of vegetables.

It is really easy to prepare beans and chickpeas your self and they all freeze really well. I really recommend you to take the time once in a while to soak the beans over night and cook them in salty water for 1-2 hours instead of buying the tinned versions.

It is cheaper and you get less sodium.

But if this step is what is holding you back from using beans in your cooking go ahead and buy them tinned.

They are filled with fibers and are a good source of protein - really good reasons to include them in your diet.

The snacks are kind of self explanatory so I wont tell you how to make them, but a good idea is to take a day in your week to prepare them so they are easy to grab on the go.

Here are some of the things I would recommend to have on hand.

Vegetables sticks. If you for some reason don't use them as snacks you can always use them in your cooking and cut down on the prep time.

Ready made bags with a mix of nuts, dark chocolate or dried fruits. I try to keep one of these in my car/handbag at all times so I am not tempted to buy something I shouldn't just because I am on the go.

Hummus and other bean mousses. They last a week in the fridge easy and you can flavor them in different ways so you don't get bored. I like roasted pepper hummus!

Greek yoghurt (or regular yoghurt/Skyr in Denmark. The small tubs make an easy "on the go" snack if you have a bag of cereal with you. And at home I would eat it with honey and almonds, fresh fruit/berries or flavor it with peanut butter or vanilla.

I always keep peanut butter on hand. It is great in smoothies and dressing, but most of all it is such an easy snack. Try it the traditional way in a sandwich with jam (I prefer fresh berries or banana instead) or use it as a dip for apples or vegetable sticks. My all time favorite is peanut butter with chunks of 70% dark chocolate to dunk my apples in.

Salmon Burger With Rice Vinegar Marinated Vegetables And Salad

Ok - this one is not really anything amazing or complicated but some days you just can't handle anything else and this was kind of a "what can I whip up with what I have" day.

And it checks a lot of the boxes. Protein - check (and checked one of the "fish 3 days a week" box as well). 

Whole Grain - check. 

Vegetables - check. 

Sometimes that is enough.

Salmon burger

Ingredients

Salmon fillet

Spring onion

Salt, pepper and lemon juice

Blitz the ingredients together in a blender and for into patties.

If you can't get them to hold together - try adding an egg.

Cook on a skillet - not to much heat and not to long. If you are starting to get that white stuff coming out of the fish (you probably know what I am talking about) it is a sign that the fish has gotten to much heat to fast - As you might be able to see on the picture that happened to me.

So don't overdo it!

Marinate thinly sliced vegetables(I used radishes and carrots, but cucumber and zucchini would also work well)in rice wine vinegar with a bit of salt, sugar and pepper for at least 10 minutes.

Serve it as a side to the salmon patty in a whole wheat bun with some salad.

The sour moist vegetables was enough for me this day, but avocado or mayo would really put the "dot over the i" here.

Something Fishy And A Snack

Who knew that it could be this hard to take decent pictures? I have made lots and lots af great healthy foods lately, but the picture part is really the problem.

It is mostly at dinner time I make something new and interesting - lunch are often just leftovers or I double whatever I make for the husband to bring in his lunch box.

But at dinner time I am tired, hungry and the light is awful which all in all sums up to me (and the hubby) not at all being in the mood for waiting another 30 minutes until we get to have the, by then, cold dinner.

If anyone out there has any tips - please feel charitable and share!

Well enough complaining, more recipes!

Apparently we have had a bit of fish lately as you see from the pictures and it all turned out great!

Pea Purée, Potatoes, Parma Ham Wrapped Cod And Balsamic Reduction

This was really easy to make and it came out perfect.

Pea purée

Peas - fresh or frozen

Water/chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon juice

Heat it all up - do not boil it for a long time, you get gray peas and you lose some of the taste.

Put the peas in a blender and hold some of the water back. Blitz until you get a texture you like - ad more of the water if you think it is to clumpy.

Ad lemon, salt and pepper to taste.

The Balsamic Reduction is made by slowly cooking Balsamich Vinegar until it is reduced to a sirupy consistence.

Scrumpsius but most cheap balcamics are made with sugar, so only use to garnish.

Parma Ham Wrapped Cod

Cod

Parma Ham, enough to cover the cod

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Lemon

It is basically as easy as it looks.

Heat up the oven to 200C and while it is heating you add a little salt and pepper to the cod, wrap the Parma ham around it and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top.

Pop in the over for 15 minutes and squeeze some lemon juice over it.

Serve with small potatoes and a side of green salad for some more veggies.

Emptying the cabinets

This meal was basically made up from what I had in the fridge and the cabinets on one of those days where you just don't want to go to the store.

Not at all new or extraordinary but it tasted great and just wanted to make the point that you can make something healthy if you just make sure you have good things on stock.

Tuna salad

Canned tuna

0%fat greek yoghurt

Mayo

Capers

Pickled cucumbers

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Mince the capers and pickled cucumbers and mix in with all the other ingredients.

Serve on a bed of lettuce.

I had some potatoes left over from the cod meal and some broccoli that I just heated through.

The rest of the leftover Parma ham was also fried nice and crispy on a pam with a bit of olive oil. Pat it with kitchen paper if you want the excess oil of before serving it.

I had a couple of tomatoes left, a bit of mozzarella and a lot of fresh hers and voila - a tomato salad god a bit more interesting.

Chicken, Sweet Potato Fries, Eggplant Purée And Orange Salad

The chicken was just a basic oven baked chicken - nothing fancy. Just oil, salt and pepper and in the oven at 200C for 1 - 1 1/2 hours depending on the size.

Oven-baked Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet potatoes - about 1 - 1 1/2 per person.

Flour

Olive oil

Salt, pepper and cayenne pepper/hot paprika if you like.

Sweet potatoes must be one of the single best thing that I have discovered in the states. I have had them back in Denmark, but the first time I tried a sweet potato fry I was in heaven. 

And the baked variety comes pretty close.

Peel, or don't - up to you, the sweet potatoes and cut the into thick fries. Add them to a plastic bag with olive oil and shake. Then transfer the potatoes into another bag with flour, salt, pepper and some cayenne pepper/hot paprika and shake well.

Bake in the oven in a single layer at 250C for 45 minutes.

Eggplant Purée

1/2 an eggplant

Olive oil 

Lemon juice

Cumin

Parsley

Garlic

Salt an pepper

Cut the eggplant in two down the middle and coat one half in olive oil and bake in the oven until it is very soft and the skin peels off easily.

Add the eggplant flesh and the rest of the ingredients to a blender and blitz until smooth.

You can add a bit more olive oil and perhaps some tahini if you have some.

Is sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds on top when it was served.

Orange Salad

A couple of oranges

Red onion

Parsley 

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Cut the peel of the oranges and slice it into bite size pieces. Slice the red onion finely, ditto the parsley.

Add the last ingredients to taste and you got yourself a salad.

Peanut Butter Balls & Prune Balls

I think it explains itself, but the peanut butter balls are on the left and the prune balls are on the right ;)

When we are on the go or just want something sweet to snack on these are great to carry with you.

They are high in energy and fat, so I normally eat two with a glass of milk.

First time I made them we liked the peanut butter ones best but this time we liked the prunes ones best.

I think I put too little honey in them this time.

I didn't meassure the amounts so I am giving you ball park numbers.

Peanut Butter Balls

A small jar of peanut butter

Oats - about 100 grams

Honey - to taste

Salt

Dark chocolate 70% or above

Butter - optional

Graham cracker crumbles for decoration - optional

Blitz peanut butter and oats together until smooth. Add a pinch of salt and honey until slightly sweet.

Mealt the chocolate. A bit of butter can make the chocolate easier to work with.

Form small balls - about the size that you would be able to eat in two bites.

Dip the balls in the chocolate and sprinkle with the graham cracker crumbles if you feel like it.

Prune Balls

Prunes - about 500 grams

Almons - about 250 gram

A peeled orange, if the consistency is to lumpy

Salt

Dark chocolate 70% or above

Butter - optional

Unsweetened coconut shavings

Blits the almonds and prunes and add either the whole orange or just the juice if you need to adjust the consistency and a bit of salt.

Then the process is the same as the peanut butter balls. Roll to balls, dip on chocolate and dip in coconut shavings.

They are addictive! I think I might need to make some more soon.

Time Flies

Wow those months just vanished! But thats how it goes when you are having fun. We have had family come visit, dinners with good friends and we even had time for a trip back home to Denmark.
Who knew that you would be so busy being a stay at home wife ;)

But I have had a lot of time to cook some great food - some that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of. So I guess I will just have to make them all over again one of these day - to bad.

So because it has been so long since I have blogged this post will not have a specific theme but just be a mix of some of the "greatest" hits since last time I blogged.

First up - a soup course

This soup is called Egg Drop Soup and though it does not look very appetizing it is very tasty and is a great thing to make if you don't have a lot of things in the fridge and need to make a quick lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

Chicken broth
Mixed vegetables cut into small stips (carrot, spring onions, cabbage, peppers)
Nudels
1 beaten egg
Seasoning

When it comes to seasoning I used what you see in the picture below.
Soy sauce for the salt
Sweet chili sauce
Oister sauce
Fish sauce
Thai basil leaves
Fresh chili
Flavored oil - because i didn't feel like chopping ginger and garlic
Coriander
Fresh lime

How to cook:
Heat the broth and add the noodles. Once tender, add the vegetables, seasoning (except the lime), meat and heat through.
Now - for the best result, - but not at all necessary for the taste - take out all the vegetables, noodles and meat and put into your serving dish. Now you are left with the seasoned broth that you will bring to a boil again. Stir hard so you make a whirlwind in the middle and drop the beaten egg into it and beat again.
Add a sqirth of lime and poor the broth over the filling.
Springle a few coriander leaves on top and dig inn.

If you haven't tried Thai basil before you have really missed out on one of my absolute favorite herbs.
It has an almost anise like flavor and an absolute necessity in the thai kitchen.
I haven't found them in the supermarkets here in Connecticut yet, but I was so lucky to find a store that sold herbs for planting in your garden whom had both Thai basil and lemon grass. Unfortunately they both died when I went in vacation back home.
You might also find Thai basil under the name Holy basil.

 Beets - Beets - Beets

A few months back I was talking to one of the local farmers and they told me that many people in the local area simply don't know what to do with beets which for me was kind of funny since we eat a lot of root vegetables where I come from - simply because we are not blessed with the Connecticut warm summers and can only grow hardy vegetables that will grow in low temperatures.
Honestly I thing everybody rather eat those beautiful delicate summer vegetables like squash, tomatoes, eggplants and so on.
But necessity is the mother of all inventions and we had to come up with good ways to use our local produce.

The most simple way of preparing is Oven Roasted Beets.
Simply peel the beets, cut into chunks, season with salt, pepper and a green herb (I used parsley, but thyme is really really good as well).
Drizzle with oil and mix well.
Bake in the oven until tender - about 45 minutes at 200C/390F.

Don't they look beautiful?

If you don't like all the peeling you can easily bake the beets with the skin on at low heat for a couple of hours - just add a bit of seasoning.

Once they are done and cooled enough for you to handle them, cut the top of and simply squish them out of the skins.

A really good way if using them is as Dressed Beet Salad

Cut into small chunks or thin slices and add a dressing made of balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and berry sirup or jelly (black currant are perfect) and let sit for 30 minutes.

Now, you can eat the beets as they are, but I really think that adding just 3 more ingredients will transform it to another level.

Those 3 things are Feta, fresh oregano and hassle nuts. 

Arrange the beets onto a platter and scatter the remaining ingredients on top and you have a wonderful filling salad great for pork and roasts.

If you are looking for a more delicate and elegant way of using beets the following adaption of a recipe from the danish newspaper Politiken is really delicious.

Glazed and raw beet salad with goats cheese

Ingredients

8 small beets + 1/4 big beets per person

        more than one color is pretty and leaves on is perfect

Butter

Salt and Pepper

Vinegar

Sugar

Goats cheese

A drop of milk

Baby leaves - if there are non on the beets

Start out by plucking of the beet leaves, if there are any, wash and spin them dry.

Else just use the baby leaves from your local supermarket.

Boil the small beets in salted water with the skin on until soft and tender. Put out of their skins once they are cool enough to handle.

Melt the butter and ad the vinigar, sugar, salt and pepper and toss the mini beets in the mixture until nice and glazed.

In the meantime peel the big beet and make paper thin slices with a peeler. Put the slices into ice water so they become nice and crisp.

Now to the goats cheese.

Beat the goats cheese with a bit of milk, salt and pepper until fluffy. Add to a icing bag and start to assemble the dish on a plate as shown on the picture above.

In the original recipe the glaze had no vinegar or sugar, but marrow and fresh beet juice. I had neither so I just improvised.

Furthermore their plate was decorated with elderflower berries - another thing I did not have.

But I am sure that it would have been delicious.

Lagkage

My husbands birthdays was in august and of course I had to make a cake. Tradition ni Denmark is to serve - amongst other cakes -  a Lagkage which is a layered cake and in my family we always made it with peaches - even though I have never seen anyone else do that.

It is a pretty easy but time consuming cake to make and it will get a lot better if you make a day ahead. 

I made the vanilla creme and the sponge cakes my self but if you can get your hands one these things any other way you can still make a pretty decent cake.

A Lagkage can be decorated with chocolate flowers, springles, marzipan, little flags and naturally candles.

Ingredients for the spongecakes
150 gr/5,2 oz sugar
150 gr/5,2 oz flour
3 eggs
0,5 tea spoon of baking powder
Butter

Heat the oven for 460F/240 C.
Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy, sift in the flour and baking powder and mix together.
Now you can either grease 3 pieces of baking paper and pour the mix onto 3 circles that you have outlined to fit your serving dish or you can put the batter in a round baking tin with a loos bottom that has been greased with butter on the sides, bottum and greased baking paper in the bottom (seems unnessesary but believe me - you need to do this).
If you take metoed one then they will take about 5 minutes to bake and a little longer the other way around (check with a wooden squer - when no batter sticks after "stabbing" the center - the will cake be done)
I feel that you get higher cakes with metod two so I went that way.
Once the cakes are done, set to cool for 5-10 minutes before trying to get the paper off. It might help if you spray some water onto the papers because the steam will help loosen the cake from the paper.
Then cut the big cake into 3 layers.

Vanilla creme

A vanilla creme is basically what the english know as custard - only a bit thicker - and what the americans know as vanilla pudding as far as I can make out.
It is easy to make and always taste delicious.

Ingredients
2 cups/5 dl of milk
3 egg yolkes
40 gr sugar
30 gr starch (corn or flour)
Vanilla extract or 1/2 a vanilla pod

Beat the eggs, sugar and starch together until nice and fluffy.
Half the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the vanilla and add to the eggs and sugar mix.
Heat the milk over low heat with the vanilla pod - there are still good stuff in there.
If using vanilla extract just add to the egg and sugar mix at any point.

When the milk is hot - but not boiling - ad a ladle full to the egg mix and stir.
Then ad the egg mix back in the milk and stir over low heat until it thickens.
Remember that it will thicken a bit more after cooling.
Set aside in the fridge until cooled.

Rå creme

If hot liquid and eggs sounds scary you can always make a "rå creme" meaning raw creme.
It is very easy, taste even more fantastic but it does not thicken as much which will not give you the same hight in the layer cake and you will need to use pasteurized eggs.


Ingredients
3 pastorized egg yolkes
1/2 a vanilla pod/vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup of heavy creme

Whip the eggs, vanilla and and sugar fluffy in one bowl and the creme to whip creme in another bowl.
Gently mix the two together and your done.

You even have a 3 option if you like the custard but think it gets a bit heavy - then mix in whiped creme. Also a wonderful creme!
Love vanilla cremes!

Well - on with the Lagkage.

Fruit filling

You can use any kind of berries or fruit that you like - but in this one I used canned peaches cut into small bits.

Optional:
In my opinion the cake becomes much better and "spongier" if you add some liquid to the spongecake.
When you assemble the cake simply dridssle a small amount of any liquid that will suit your filling.
For instance - coffee, liquor, sirup from canned fruite, fresh squeezed orange juice and so on.

How to assemble the cake

Find yourself a nice serving platter and put in the first spongecake.
If you want a really nice high cake use the baking tin to "build" the cake in. It will keep the filling in until really set. But most Lagkager are fairly flat - I am just a sucker for hight.
Maybe because I am so short hmm..... Anyway...
Drizzle the liquid onto the cake, add the fruit filling of you choice and then the creme.
Repeat the process once more and end with a drizzled spongecake.
Now the cake need to set in the fridge - preferably over night.
Before serving you can decorate your cake any way you like - but I would mention that danes do not use frosting in the way that the US does and I would expect it to be a bit overpowering.
Some danes would use a frosting made of confectionary sugar and water -  perhaps with a bit of food coloring if a theme cake is wanted - to coat the top.
I finde this way to sweet and to me there is nothing more disappointing that an over sweet cake.
I simply covered the top in dark chocolate - always goes great with vanilla and fruit.
The sides would almost always be covered in whipped creme, but some leave them bare.

And there you go - your Lagkage is ready to eat. Now you know why so manny just buy ready made spongecakes, "just ad milk" creme and simply use jam as the filling.
It is time consuming but it really makes the difference.

And from one danish tradition to another.

Smørrebrød and Håndmadder

One of the only things that Denmark has really added to the colunary world are our Smørrebrød which is an open sandwich on rye bread with beautiful leayers of meet, vegetables. pickles and herbs.
Smørrebrød rufly translates into buttered bread.
It is an education on its own to learn how to make Smørrebrød and I simply can't make them as beautiful as the pros.
But I can make Smørrebrød informal younger brother - Håndmadder.
A Håndmad rugfly translate to a hand food and is more along the lines of what you would put in your lunch packet or make at home for an informal lunch - each person will assemble their own Håndmad.

The day that I made this was the last hot day if 2012 here in CT - 27 C/80F in the beginning of October!
Amazing weather and we simply had to have lunch on the porch because I was so lucky to have a husband that worked from home on this wonderful day.
That also required some creativity from my side since he told me on the day and I therefor had not prepared lunch for two - I normally just eat leftovers from the day before.
Some might say - why didn't you just go to the shop? You had plenty of time between breakfast and lunch.
Very true, but I have a food budget that I had almost used up (needed to save my last cents for the farmers market the next day) and I am also against food waist.
And I am always up for the challenge to use whatever I have in the freezer and the fridge.
So I had some rye bred - more on how to make that later - some eggs, pickled herring and different vegetables.

Håndmad with Eggs and tomato

Butter up a piece of rye bread, add a salad leaf, hard boiled eggs in slices and top with tomatoes, chives, salt and pepper.

Really simple, healthy and delicious.

The other Håndmad took some more work.

Håndmad with Pickled herring and curry salad

The pickled heering are simply raw pickled fish. You can make it your self but there are some factors in the process that can go really really wrong so I always buy mine - here in the states I have only seen them in IKEA Food. 

They are an acquired taste but really really healthy - sort of a Scandinavian take on Sushi!

Of course the reason for this way of eating fish dates back to the days before the fridge where the only ways of preserving any kind of food would be salting, smoking, pickling or drying.

Curry Salad

Ingredients

2 hard boiled egg

Mayonnaise

Greek Yoghurt

1/2 Apple

Onion

Curry

Salt & Pepper 

Chop the eggs up into small cubes and put in a bowl. 

Grate in some onion using a fine grater - not a lot, a table spoon is more than enough.

Cut the apple into small cubes and add to the mix.

The rest of the ingredients I put in to taste - you want it to be creamy and with a distinct curry taste, but not to greasy and loose.

And then you assemble.

Butter a piece of rye bred, add the herring, top with curry salad and if you feel decorative add finly sliced rings of onion.

Because we try to eat our 5 veg and fruit a day (6 a day i Denmark?) I served this with carrot stick and apple slices. Furthermore I dressed some cauliflower florets in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and topped with some pine nuts.

Perfect for lunch in the sun!

But but  but - you can't make Håndmadder without Denmark's favorite bread - Rye!

Rye bread is a very dark sour dough bread. Originally it was simply just rye flower, but today it is often filled with cracked wheat berries, sunflower seed, cracked rye and many many other kinds of seed.

Many mass produced rye bread in the danish supermarkets actually have a lot of wheat in them because it makes a lighter bread which suites most modern palettes. 

I like my bread with a whole lot of seeds and a mix of whole wheat and rye flower.

I always make my bread without a recipe but most recipes goes something like this:

Ingredients

2 cups/5 dl whole wheat flour

2 cups/5 dl rye flower

2 cups/5 dl cracked berries and seeds (wear, rye, sunflower, pumpkin or what ever you can find)

4 cups/1 L water (filtered! - clorine will kill the live bacteria i sour dough)

1 cup/2 dl sour dough (I always use 2 cups/5 dl)

1 tblsp sweeting - honey or maple sirup

1 tblsp salt

Butter for grasing up the bread tins.

This recipe will give you two big rye breads.

Before you think about making a Rugbrød (rye bread in danish) there are one thing you have to know - it takes a LONG time.

First you have to have a sour dough which - the first time you make it - will take about 1 week.

The good thing about this is that it takes very little of your time.

Simply mix together any kind of flour and filtered water to a thick paste the consistency of oatmeal in a jar and let it sit on the counter top with a cloth or very loos lit over it.

Yeast is in the air all around us and will find its own way into the water and flour mix. 

Check every other day if you need to add more water or flour to the mix to keep the consistency.

After a few days the mix should begin to bubble and smell yeasty and sour - something like the picture below.

You can help your sour dough along by adding a bit of organic honey or any yoghurt that have active bacteria in them.

Once your sour dough has the right smell and is nice and bubbly you can put it in the fridge - again with a cloth or loose lid on it.

From now on you just have to feed it every once in a while with flour and water and this dough will keep a lifetime. By adding this to the dough you give the yeast bacteria new food and you make sure that you always have enough sour dough to bake with.

You can keep it alive in other ways - by using it in your pre dough - but that is much more complicates and have ruined a couple of sour doughs for me, so I won't cover that on this blog.

As part two of making Rye Bread, the bread itself will take 15 hours a least to make - so this is not something you should make the day that you run out of bread.

What I use for my Rugbrød + seeds that I forgot in the picture

How to make Rye bread

Mix all the ingredients together and stir for at least 10 minutes (easier with a machine) - the dough should be quite wet.

A very very long time ago the dough would have been mixed with our feet. This might sound crasy but there were a few reasons for this. The bacteria that lives on your feet have a good effect on the Rye bread and mixing anything by hand for 10 minutes can be really though. Much easier to use your feet and leg power. That said - I haven't tried it myself.

Pour into the buttered tins - only half way up and cover with a moist cloth. 

Now you wait - around 12 hours or until the dough has risen and filled up 70% of the tin.

This step may take a little shorter or a little longer depending on how active your sour dough is.

Then prick your breads with a wooden squire 20 times each all the way too the bottom of the tin - this gives steam an ability to escape from the bread without breaking the crust from the rest of the bread.

Put the breads in a cold oven and set to 200C/390F and let them bake for about 75 minutes.

You can use a thermometer to help you decide if the rye bread is done - it should reach 96C/204F.

Take them out of the tins, butter all the way around for extra flavory crust and now you have to decide if you want a crisp crust or a soft crust.

If crisp is your choice simply let them cool on the rack - else put them in a plastic bag once they have almost cooled of. The last steam will soften the crust in the back.

No matter you choice of crust you will have to leave the breads alone for at least 4 hours before cutting.

Now after all this time is it really worth it? Defiantly! Sure Rugbrød is - again - an acquired taste because of the slightly sour taste and very dark heavy bread but give it a try. 

It is full of healthy fats and fibers. Us danes could not live without it. 

Also - even though it takes a long time to make- the bread will keep in the fridge for over a week and freeze really well.

So you don't have to do this very often - I make 4 at a time and slice three of them up and freeze for later use.

Easy peasy!

Typically me - I forgot to take a picture of the finished bread because of the long time between making the dough and the end result, so you will have to do with a picture I have borrowed from the wikipedia.

Well thats all for now - please leave a comment if you read anything you like.