Fish cakes - fiskefrikadeller

Fish cakes.

Fish cakes was a lunch dish in my home growing up. They were bought pre-made and they were very uniform and had a weird texture.

Back home in Denmark I bought a store-made batter and fried up the fish cakes in a skillet, making this an easy and healthy meal. Living in California we have a lot of fish available but no store-made fish cake batter. 

We tried several recipes before I came up with this. 

Serving 4

Ingredients:

• 400 g true cod
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 dl whipping cream
• 1/2 bunch of dill
• 75 g salmon
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• butter and oil for frying  

Directions:

Put the cod in a food processor and grind coursely. Add the salt and pulse until it gets sticky. The idea is to bind the moisture so that the fish cakes don’t fall apart. Add the egg, flour and cream a little at a time and pulse until combined.

Cut the salmon into small cubes (max 1cm X 1 cm). 

Place the fish batter in a bowl and stir in the salmon and chopped dill.

Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. 

Using a spoon and your hand, make plum-size cakes and fry them in a mixture of half oil and half butter in a skillet, until golden brown on both sides.

Enjoy!  

English tea cake

English tea cake

My mom found the recipe for this english tea cake in a magazine in Denmark, and it became a family staple on special occasions. The spices and the crispy bottom is what makes this cake. 

Ingredients:

• 300 g brown sugar 
• 125 g butter (cold)
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 250 g sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 75-100 g chopped hazelnuts

Directions:

Crumble the butter in the flour and brown sugar, until it looks like bread crumbs

Crumble done.

Pour half of the mixture in a springform pan, and press it lightly.

Mix the other half of the mixture with the rest of the ingredients, and pour it in the pan.

Sprinkle the nuts on top, and bake for about 40 minutes at 356°F.

Cool cake completely on a rack before serving. 

Fennel salad

Fennel salad

Fennel salad - who comes up with things like this?

One of my danish friends gave me a book on salads by Claus Meyer called Salatværksted (Salad workshop). A great book with salads for every season. One of the first I had to try was this Fennel Salad. It's light, crispy and phenomenal with Salmon. What it lacks in color, it has tenfolds in taste.

• 4 small or 2 medium fennels

Dressing: 

• 1/4 cup Lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic (finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons Sugar
• Salt 
• Pepper (freshly ground)

Direction:

Wash the fennels, cut it very thin on a mandolin. Put the fennel slices in ice cold water. 

Thinly sliced fennel and the dressing.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing, season with salt and pepper.

Drain and wipe the fennels dry with kitchen towel. Mix the fennel with the dressing and season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy

Crepes - pandekager

Crepes or danish pancakes

I grew up on crepes like these. We had them for dinner when my dad worked nights. Normally it's a dessert, but my brother loved them, and it was so much easier for my mom, than making a real dinner, after a long day at work. If we were really lucky we could get a scoop of ice cream inside of one of them. But normally the crepes was served with sugar and/or jam and roiled. 

Makes 10-12 crepes mad in a 8" skillet. 

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, room temperature

• 250 ml (little over 1 cup) whole milk, room temperatur

• 15 g butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for crepe pan

• 160 g all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions: 

Add all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until combined. 

Let the batter rest for 20 minutes. OK - I always forget to rest the batter, and it works fine. 

To cook crepes, heat a crepe pan or 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Brush bottom of pan with a thin layer of melted butter. Using a ladle, pour just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, tipping it to coat evenly. Place pan back on heat and cook until batter is set and turned light brown. Flip the crepe with a spatula and cook another 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer cooked crepe to a plate and continue with the rest of the batter, brushing the pan with more butter as needed and stacking finished crepes on top of each other.

Serve crepes with jam, sugar, fresh fruit, nutella or ice cream, or mix and match.

Enjoy!

The ultimate Hamburger Buns / Light Brioche Buns

The ultimate Hamburger Buns / Light Brioche Buns

There are certainly thing I never made my self. Hamburger buns was one of those things. It was so easy to grab a bag of buns in the store. But after we figured out how to make our favorite burger on the BBQ, we needed a better bun, one that didn't crumble under the patty.

I found a recipe on Foodfanatic.dk, the recipe originated from NY Times and chef Michael Symon.

The first times I made these hamburger buns, the dough was very sticky, so I made some corrections. This is how I made them:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Milk
• 1 pack Dry Yeast (7 g)
• 240 g Water (warm)
• 2 tablespoons Sugar
• 465 g All-Purpose Flour
• 35 g Butter (salted, room temperature)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon salt (8 g)

Toppings: 

• 1 Egg (beaten)
• Sesame Seeds or what ever topping you like. 

Directions: 

In a bowl, combine warm water, milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. 

In the stand mixer bowl, whisk flours with salt. Add butter and mix it with a flat beater until the flour looks like crumbs. Stir in yeast mixture and a beaten egg until a dough forms. Knead the dough for 5-8 minutes on medium, (8-10 minutes if kneaded by hand), until smooth and elastic. 

Shape dough into a ball and let the dough rise covered for 1-2 hours until doubled in bulk.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let buns rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃) with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Gourmet Burger.