TARTELETTER MED HØNS I ASPARGES

The word “tartelette” is self-explanatory: little crispy pastry cases, served warm with
filling. They are popular with a shrimp filling but nothing beats the ever popular ”høns i asparges” – a filling of chicken and white asparagus. If you cannot get hold of the ready-made “tarteletter”, you can substitute with vol-au-vents although these are not as fine in texture. If you want to make them yourself, use a very light short crust pastry dough. Here’s a video to show you how.

Serves 4 (two pastries each)

Ingredients
8 ‘Tarteletter’ pastry cases

1 small free range chicken (around 1 kg)

For the stock: 2 shallot onions, 2 carrots, 1 leek, 2 bayleaf, 3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper

2 jars of white asparagus ( around 200g – can be replaced by green asparagus in

same quantity) cut into 2 cm pieces.

150g peas (frozen)

50g butter

50g plain flour

4 dl chicken stock

Salt, pepper

Let’s cook!
1. Prepare the chicken. In a large sauce pan, cover the chicken with water and all the stock ingredients. Bring to the boil and skim off any foam as it cooks. Keep on simmer for about 40 minutes or until done.

2. Remove chicken from water and leave to cool a bit before removing all the meat (cut into rough bite sized chunks) and place in a separate bowl. Put all bones and skin back in the pot and continue to boil for about 10 minutes. Take off heat and put stock through a sieve – discard bones and veg, set stock aside.

3. Drain the asparagus – save the water (about 200 ml). Melt the butter in a saucepan at medium heat and add the flour to form a roux – keep whisking as it thickens. Add the asparagus water bit by bit and keep it on the boil. Add chicken stock – keep going until you have a good consistency sauce that is not runny. Season with salt and
pepper. Add a dash of cream if you want your mixture a bit more creamy.

4. Add the asparagus and peas and chicken pieces. Simmer for a few minutes and fold carefully (the asparagus will breakup easily). Take off the heat.

5. Heat the tarteletter cases in a hot oven for a few minutes, place on individual plates and fill each case with the chicken and asparagus mixture. Decorate with a sprig of parsley. Serve immediately.

Notes:

The whole dish can be prepared up until and including step 4 the day before. Keep the mixture chilled and re-heat in a sauce pan, gently, until heated through, and then
complete step 5. Fillings can be changed to reflect seasons: chicken and mushroom is a good variant, as is prawns and crayfish.

Freeze left over chicken stock for future use.

Recipe from www.scandikitchen.co.uk

 

DRØMMEKAGE

Drømmekage (literally “Dream Cake”) is Danish classic! The cake itself is soft and spongy, and loaded with vanilla while the topping is thick and soft with a caramel, coconut flavour that lingers on your tongue. It is a firm favourite with both kids and grownups and everyone in Denmark knows it.

Serves 12-16 people

Ingredients for the cake

350 grams caster sugar

5 eggs

80 grams butter

350 ml milk

450 grams flour

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla sugar or 2 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for the topping

150 grams butter

350 grams soft, dark brown sugar

175 grams dried coconut

50 ml milk

Making the cake:

Melt the butter and put to one side to cool a bit. Whisk sugar and egg until it is light and frothy. Sift the flour, baking powder and vanilla (if using vanilla sugar, if using extract, add this at same time as butter) and fold into the mixture (don’t over work it).  Mix butter and milk and fold carefully into the batter.

Line a baking tray with baking paper (a 30 cm by 30 cm is about right) and add the mixture. Bake the cake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes or until almost done (the cake is done when a skewer comes out clean)

…and the topping:

Add all ingredients to a saucepan and melt – stir until all sugar has melted and you have a good spreadable consistency. When the cake is done add the topping immediately on the whole cake and bake for another 5 minutes on 180 degrees. 

Let cake rest before slicing.

 

KOLDSKÅL

The temperature is slowly, but surely beginning to rise. In Denmark the 

supermarkets are stocking more and more fresh fruit, specially strawberries, cherries and melons, and no matter where you go, you will be able to buy koldskål and
kammerjunker. In Danish this means one thing – Summer is approaching!

No Danish summer is complete without lots and lots of koldskål (cold -bowl). The best part of koldskål is, that you can eat it when ever you want – morning, lunch, dinner. It does not matter! However, most Danes eat it at “sun time” at either lunch or dinner.

Koldskål

3 tbsp. sugar
½ vanilla pod, corn of
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
(3 lemon slices )
½ litre buttermilk
½ litre pouring yoghurt or regular full fat yoghurt

Kammerjunker

250 g plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp. vanilla sugar
75 g caster sugar
75 g cold butter
1 large egg
50 ml. whipping cream

Kammerjunker

Preheat the oven to 200 °c / 400 °f / gas 6.

Sift flour and baking soda together into a food processor, add the sugar and vanilla sugar, then add the cold butter and blitz.  Add the cream and egg and wizz again until the mixture forms a soft dough.

Turn out, and roll out onto a floured surface until the dough is 2.5cm thick. Cut out little circles using a 3cm round cutter. Place on a greased baking tray, and bake for 7 min.

The kammerjunker should rise in the oven. Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, cut in half, creating a top and a bottom, then bake again at 200 °c for a further 6 min.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Koldskål

Slit the half vanilla pod open along its length, then scrape out the small, sticky seeds using the tip of a small, sharp knife.

Next, add the buttermilk and yoghurt to a large bowl together with the sugar and vanilla corns. Whisk vigorously until the mixture becomes airy. Now add the lemon juice and lemon slices, stir and pop in the fridge for 30 min, or until needed.

Serve with Kammerjunker and/or strawberries.

God fornøjelse!

THAT DANISH RYE BREAD

The Danes are world famous for their love of rugbrød. This particular kind of nutritional brown rye bread can be found in all supermarkets and local bakeries across Denmark. What makes this bread so special is that it’s very low in fat and very rich in whole grain and dietary fibre. This takes time and dedication, but once you’re hooked, you’re most likely going to keep baking.

Making a rye bread sour dough starter 
250 gram of rye flour 
4 deciliters of water 
Generous pinch of salt 
2 tablespoons of honey 
2 tablespoons of yogurt 

Mix the ingredients to a mud-like consistency in a bowl. Cling film but punch some 
holes in the film, so that the sour dough can breathe. Leave for 2 days at room 
temperature, on the third day, put some extra rye flour ad water in, and leave for a day or two, until it starts bubbling. Now it’s ready. You can store sourdough in the fridge for up to two weeks or more. To keep it alive give it a little fresh rye or wheat flour once in a while.

 

RYE BREAD WITH SEEDS (2 BREADS OF 1 KG) 

For the first day: 
500 grams of sour dough 
250 grams of rye grains 
50 grams of linseed 
150 grams of wheat flour 
5 deciliters of lukewarm water 
1 tablespoon of salt 
1 ½ tablespoon of honey 

For the second day: 
1100 grams of rye flour 
3 tablespoons of salt 
1 ½ tablespoons of honey 
9 deciliters of water 
A little corn oil for the baking tins

On day one stir the first-day ingredients together, leave for next day under a wet cloth. On the second day, take the dough from the previous day and work together with 
second batch of ingredients for 10 minutes. Take away 500 grams of sour dough for next time you are baking, put in a plastic container in the fridge.

Rub a little oil into two large baking tins and pour in the dough which should be the 
Click here for a video of how to make the bread.

“Danish Diaspora” featured work by a group of highly recognized Danish craft makers, who have made Scotland their home. Coming from a Danish background – with its strong craft heritage and aesthetic infusing their education and upbringing – their life and work are now thoroughly rooted in and inspired by the vast variety of Scotland’s wild scenery.

The five artists have exhibited nationally and internationally and are actively engaged with and enriching Scottish craft culture. The exhibition at The Danish Cultural Institute ran through Edinburgh’s busy festival season and ended with the Doors Open Days 2014 in the last weekend of September. 

The Danish Cultural Institute is an independent institution established in 1940. We initiate and support cultural projects which promote either Danish culture in the UK or British culture in Denmark. The Danish Cultural Institute can assist in contact mediation, finding venues, organizing seminars or simply answering general queries on Danish and British culture. Regrettably, we are not able to fund projects, but ideas on cultural events or exchanges are welcome!
 
The British office has been based in the historic New Town area of Edinburgh since 1957. As well as a head office in Copenhagen we have institutes in the Benelux countries, Brazil, China, Latvia, Poland and Russia.

For more information on the organisation, please visit the head office website. You can go to the websites of the other Danish cultural institutes on the right side of this page under ‘Institutes’.
 
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