Danish Rye Bread, Cinnamon Buns, Rasin Buns, Vegetarian Lasagne and Borscht

Danish Rye Bread

One of the best breads in the North is the Danish Rye Bread, and I have been looking for a good recipe many times. This recipe I have got from my Danish frind, Lars, and these breads taste almost as good as the ones we can buy at the bakers in Denmark: If you are mixing it by hand, start with the dry ingredients, but if you do like me and use a mixer, start with the wet ones: This makes 4 or 5 breads, because I think that when I make the effort, I might as well bake as many as will fit into the oven - it also saves electricity. You will need bread pans for this recipe, 4 or 5.

1 1/2 liters (6 cups) of luke warm water
2 packs of yeast crumbled in the water
5 table spoons of oil (I use olive, but canola would be more "Nordic" as we grow that here)
5 table spoons of soy sauce (to give it a dark color and salt)
2 table spoons of apple vinegar (to enhance the rye flavour)
2 table spoons of dark syrup/molasses/honey



1.4 liters (a little less than 6 cups) of finely ground whole rye flour
1 liter (4 cups) of coarsely ground whole wheat flour
1 liter (4 cups) of white wheat flour
4 deciliters (2 cups) of wheat brand
4 deciliters (2 cups) of oat brand
6 deciliters (1 1/2 cup) of sunflower seeds, linen seeds and sesame seeds - and walnuts or other nuts that you like and might want to add

This will be a sticky dough, which I take over in very well oiled breadpans, I use spray grease. I wet my hands and press the dough down in the pans, put a towel over and let the breads rise for about one hour, before I bake them at 200 centergrades (400F) for about one hour.

Cinnamon and Rasin Buns

If you are a Nordic mother and don't know how to make these, you are really a loser, and a lot of mothers here make these on the weekends and for birthday parties. I developed this recipe while I was working in a kinder garten and realised that a lot of kids actually are allergic to milk, so this is without dairy products - or the rasin ones are. I like butter in the cinnamon ones, but of course you can use margarine if you prefer that..

1.1 liters (4 1/2 cups) of luke warm water
1.5 deciliters (1/2 cup) oil
1.5 deciliters (1/2) cup sugar
2 packs of yeast
4 heaped tea spoons of cardamom
3 heaped liters (13 cups) of white flour (2 kg)

1/2 liter (2 cups) of rasins
250 grams (about 2 sticks) of butter
sugar cinnamon

Mix the six first ingredients together, but stop as soon as that is done, because the longer you mess with a white yeast dough, the heavier it becomes, and you want this light. Let the dough rise till double size (about 30-45 minutes in a warm room).

Grease the kitchen counter with some oil and pour the dough out on it (you can also use flour for this, but I prefer oil because it's less messy and also then the buns get a coat of oil on them for the baking). Now devide it in two. One part is for the rasin buns, the other half for the cinnamon. Mix the rasins into the rasin part, devide the dough in 32 pieces (or smaller if you have small children). Roll each of them into a ball, and put on a baking paper. Again, easy does it. You do not need to make them all even, they will normally rise themselves nice. Let them rise to double size again and bake at 200C (400F) for about 15-20 minutes till they are light brown on top.

Devide the cinnamon part in two and roll each one out to a flat square (slightly bigger than a lap top - can't think of another international measure that fits all hahahaha). Spread room tempered butter over it, or use cold butter and  a cheese slicer (Norway's one and only contribution to the world of kitchen tools) then  sugar and cinnamon (be as generous as you like - sugar is not good for us, but very good for cinnamon buns). Roll it together from the long side and devide each roll into 16 pieces, which you cut and put on baking paper. Or you can put them in muffin paper cups, which I will recommend, as the butter will seep out of the buns and down to the bottom of your oven, so if you don't use muffin cups, put a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom of your oven for easy cleaning. Bake these also at 200C (400F) for about 15-20 minutes till they are light brown on top.

Borscht

Airbnb reminds me to buy orange juice whenever they send customers here, and I keep wondering: Do people really come to Norway and expect orange juice? No oranges grow here, so it'sobvious that it will have to be imported. The orange juice we get here used to be oranges in Florida some years back, before they were freeze dried, stored, shipped to Norway, rehydrated and added vitamine C, so why keep buying it, I asked myself for a while before I stopped and bought kohlrabi instead because it is called "the orange of the North", contains a lot of vitamine C and even I can grow them. Instead I drink chilled Borscht for breakfast. I make a huge portion and freeze. For it you need:

Beetroots
Onions
Carrots
Celeriac or cellery
Parsnips, kohlrabi or other spicy roots
Garlic
Oregano
Vinegar
Salt/buliong cube

How much of each is up to you, the only really necessary ingredients here ar the beetroots and the onions (and I think celeriac). Cut all the vegetables  in big hunks and put them in a big pot - you don't even need to peel them. Pour water over and let it simmer for an hour or two. Line a pasta sieve with a wet linen cloth (or tea towel). If you don't wet it, the borscht will soak the tea towel before it starts to drip out, so this way you get more liquid and also the tea towel will be easier to wash. Sieve off all the vegetables and taste it off with salt/bulion powder, pour in jars but not all the way up to the top, as liquids expand when they freeze - and freeze. When defrosting, do NOT put the jars in hot water as they will break. Take them out a day before you need them and serve chilled as a breakfast drink (WAY healthier than orange juice), or hot as soup. And it contains both vitamine C and lots of antioxydants.

What to do with the rest of the vegetables, you might wonder, because you are left with a lot of washed out looking vegetable pieces. You can eat them, but remember now they are not peeled (or in my case, not even washed) and all the nourishment they once contained is now in the broth, besides it looks like something out of a cows behind - I would not eat it. You you can use for compost, you can give it to your dog or you can wash it down the toilet.

Lasagne Bastardi (Vegetarian)

This is a very good lasagne that will make your house smell of Italy (which is really good in Norway in the middle of the winter). I got the recipe from the chef of a fish restaurant in Laigueglia in Liguria because I got sick from some shellfish he had cooked the day before (and which tasted delicious). And which obviously shows that both the Bible and the Kuran are right: Do not eat shellfish from the Mediterranean, you will get sick! (Now, had the two prophets ever been near the North Sea, which they never were - the story would have been a different one, I am sure). Anyway, I have not had shellfish from any other ocean than the North Sea ever since, and when in the Southern countries, why bother having shellfish when they have so muc delicious of other stuff? Vegetables and cheese for example. This dish contains both. I have made it so often, that some people think of me when they smell this lasagne. You need

Onions
Celleri
Carrots
Garlic

all chopped in little cubes and how much of each is up to what you have. In this particular portion I used 3 stalks of cellery, 2 carrots, 2 large red onions, 2 small white onions, 1 leek and 7 cloves ov garlic - because that is what I HAD today. I also used one can of crushed tomates, 4 heaped tablespoons of tomato paste, and about 1/2 liter (2 cups) of water. 2 tablespoons of each oregano and basil.

Olive oil
Tomato paste (and fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes if you have, but if you have not, tomato paste is fine)
Basil
Oregano
Pesto
Sour cream
Parmesan cheese
Shredded yellow cheese -any kind

Fry the vegetables translucent in olive oil, add tomato paste, herbs and water and let it all boil for about 20 minutes. Then add pesto (a small jar), sour cream (2-3 dl - one cup) and Parmesan cheese (two handfulls of coarsely grounded) and mix together. Layer it with lasagne plates and shredded cheese in an oven proof dish. Make sure you have cheese on top. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200C (400F), or till it has brown spots on top and bubbles along the sides. This portion makes two of those dishes that you see below.

Two Very Easy to Make Cakes, and Some Yummy Punch Balls

When I mean easy to make, I also include the dishes. Both these two cakes leave few things to wash up. They are easy to make and taste fantastic. The first one is

Mississippy Mud Cake

This was actually Elvis' favourite cake, and if you google it, you can find some very elaborate and fattening recipes for this cake on the internet. Most of the time, this cake contains about one kilo sugar, but most of it is actually in the frosting, so by omitting the frosting, the cake gets a little bit "healthier", if one can say that about a cake.

In a sucepan, cook up:
200 grams of butter or 1 deciliter (1/2 cup) of oil
2 deciliters (1 cup) of water
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder, let it cool down

In a bowl put
4 deciliters (2 cups) of flour
4 deciliters (2 cups) of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 deciliter (1/2 cup) sour cream
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs

When the cocoa mix is cool, add it to the bowl and stir it all well together before you pour it into a spring form that you have greased well (I use the sort of grease you get in a spray can). Bake it at 200 center grades for about 45 minutes or till a piece of wood comes out clean when you stick it into the middle of the cake.

I normally serve the cake like this, with no frosting added, because it's really moist without. I normally serve it with vanilla custard, whipped cream or creme fresh, or some times only with a little bit of powder sugar sprinckled over.

Sour Cream Cake from Trøndelag (which is the middle of Norway for those who don't know)

You need:
4 lage or 5 small eggs
3 deciliters (1 1/2 cups) of sugar
3 deciliters (1 1/2 cups) of sour cream
3 1/2 deciliters (1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon) of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Mix it all together in a bowl, pour it into a greased spring form and bake at 160 center grades for one hour. Like the other cake, this also tastes good with no frosting, and with berries or jam and cream, sour cream or custard, it's a delicious dessert.

Punch Balls

These cakes are so delicious. They are sold in all bakeries all over Norway and Sweden, and according to the blog where I found them, this is the sort of cakes for which the baker uses leftovers from his other baking. However, since I NEVER have leftover cake, I actually have to bake one of each of the cakes above to make one portion of these cakes (or you can buy two cakes). And here is the rest of the recipe:

In a mixer mix togtether till it's white:
100 grams of butter (an American stick of butter is 125 grams, so a little less than a full stick)
2 deciliters (1 cup) of powder sugar
Then add one egg yoke and mix for one more minute.
Crumble the cakes into this mix with 2 heaped tablespoons of apricot jam and 1-2 teaspoons of rum essence and let the mixer go till all is mixed. Pour it out on a table and roll it into small balls - walnut size. In a saucepan mix together 300 grams of chocolate and some coconut fat (the kind that goes stiff when cold), and dip each cake in the chocolate mix. If you add more coconut fat the chocolate covering gets thinner, less thicker. Let them drip off on a baking paper and put them in the fridge to cool. Keep them in the fridge till serving time. I put them in little muffin cups and keep them in a tight box in the back of the fridge - unbeknownst to all but me.

I found the recipe on Tom's blog and he has given me permission to post the pictures from his blog here. So thank you Tom.

http://kringlevridern.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/puncheboller-barnas-favoritt/#comment-77

On Demand

People some times ask me for recipes for things they have eaten here, and I am happy to give out those recipes, unfortunately if I am not planning to eat that dish for dinner, I will not make pictures of it. So here are a couple of recipes that people have asked for, but for now, without pictures.

Salmon Burgers

This recipe is for Keren, and she is from Israel, so this dish is actually Kosher (according to her that is, I wouldn't have any idea).

You need for 4 burgers:
a slice of bread per person (or a burger bun, but we normally have open faced sandwhiches that we eat with a knife and fork)
about 200 grams of salmon without skin and bones. In general salmon is sold in pieces, and I find that one piece is enough for two people, so two pieces of salmon.
2 teaspoons of potato starch (or other starch if you don't have it)
cream
1/2 onion finely chopped (or chives or leek or spring onions)
salt, pepper
1 carrot
1/2 apple
lettuce
lemon wedges
mayonaise

Use a stick mixer to mash the salmon (or you can use a teaspoon and scrape it), add a little of the cream to make it go around more smoothly. Add the starch and stir in so much cream that the batter is soft, but not too soft. You should be able to make cakes out of it. Then add the onion, salt and pepper to taste. Make four burgers out of the meat that you fry in a mixture of butter and oil till they are dark brown. In the mean time shred the carrot and the apple and mix it with as little mayonaise as you need to make it hold together (you might want to add a bit of Dijon mustard to that mayonaise). On the bread put first some lettuce, then a spoon of the carrot salad, then the burger which you top with a lemon wedge. That's it. For it you might want some

Cucomber Salat

Cook up 1 deciliter of vinegar, 1 deciliter of sugar and 1 deciliter of water. Slice the cucomber in about 1/2 cm thick slices, put them in a bowl and pour the hot liquid over. Ready to be eaten when cool.

**********

The next two recipes are for Cristina from Romania who stayed with us for a month last summer, and obviously thought that I could only make one dessert: Pavlova (when you have Bearnaise or Hollandaise sauce, you end up with a lot of egg whites, and we have those sauces quite often in the summer both for fish and barbeques). So I guess she was quite surprised when she came to dinner here the other day and got something else for dessert! She got

Lime Ice Cream

And to make it you will need:
4 eggs
250 grams of sugar
6 deciliters of cream
shredded peel and juice from two limes (may be even three if they don't have much juice)

Whip the eggs and the sugar together til you can write ole in the mix. Whip the cream till it's thick also, then mix the two together with the peel and juice of the lime. Pour it into a container that you have lined with cling film and freeze. This is actually called a parfait, which means that you don't need to stir in it while it freezes. Just take it out about 15 minutes before you want to use it. And with this you can serve

Lime and Cardamom Slices

You need:
220 grams of butter
75 grams of powder sugar
60 grams of grounded almonds
250 grams of wheat flour
2 teaspoons of ground cardamom. You can buy that already grounded, but last time I bought cardamom I actually bought it whole and grounded it myself, and the difference in taste was enormous, so I suggest you do that.
The shredded peel and juice of 2-3 limes.

Mix the butter and sugar together till it turns white, add the other ingredients and devide it in two parts and form each part into a sausage. The thinkness of the sausage will be the diameter of the cookies, and I like them small - 2-3 cm. Wrap them in baking paper and put them in the fridge over night. Next day you slice the sausages in about 1/2 cm thick slices and put them on a baking paper. Bake at 180 center grades till they are light brown.

Gravlaks - Cured Salmon

This is a dish I DO like and I am sure a lot of you will too. It's the sushi of the North, as it is raw fish, but we have cured it for a couple of days first. We normally buy it already made, but it's easy to make yourself if you get good salmon. And good salmon does not need to come from Norway. I think I would prefer Irish salmon (if I had a choice, which I don't), since they seem to produce their salmon in more open water than we do, and which should guarantee that the fish get fresh water all the time, and in spite of this, it seems to be sold at half price in comparison to the Norwegian salmon in most places I have visited. And that, my friends, has nothing to do with the quality of the fish. It's because the salaries of the Norwegians who produce our fish is so much higher than the salaries of the Irish who produce their fish. However, if you have a posh moment, go for the Norwegian fish by all means, just remember that we will not starve if you chose the Irish - we have other stuff in our waters besides fish!

You need:
 1 fillet of salmon divided in two across
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
brandy, or aquavit (optional)
lots of fresh dill (or dried, but here fresh is better) finely chopped.

Wash the salmon well and scrape off the shells on the skin side. Put one piece with the skin side down in a dish, (at this point you drip brandy/aquavit over it)  rub in half the salt/sugar/pepper mixture into it, and do the same with the other half. Put the dill over the first fillet, the other fillet over and this time with the skin up. Put the whole dish in a plastic bag, and put something flat over, such as a cutting board. Put something heavy on top of that, as it needs a bit of pressure. Now you just leave it in the fridge for three days. Once per day take it out and turn the fish over.

Here is a Swedish guy who shows you how to do it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzIrYFbLC-U

And if you can't be bothered, I hate to say it again: IKEA!

After three days your fish is done and you slice it in as think slices as possible, and at an angle, so that you get as big pieces of it as possible. When serving I use either Pumpernickel bread or buttered toast. On top of that I put a lettuce or two, then the gravlaks which is garnished with a lemon wedge and a twig of dill. For this we have

Mustard sauce

Mix together  1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 tablespoon of chopped dill (dried is fine here). Add drops of oil to the mixture while you stir, like as if to make maionaise. When the sauce seems to be like .... sauce, you are done.

Lutefisk

I think that of all the grosse stuff we eat for Christmas in the North, lutefisk is the most famous. The reason for this being that when most Norwegians emigrated to USA about 100 years ago, this was something they looked forward to eating for Christmas, mainly because they had nothing else to eat, and which is why they emigrated in the first place....

So these days, the world record holder in lutefisk eating (yes they have comeptitions like that in USA) is a very fat man from Minnesota. I am obviously not too fond of it myself, but I crawl to the cross as least once a year, and make it for those who like it. And I always make enough fried bacon and mashed peas, not to mention my very strong and very sweet mustard, so it will be enough for those who will not eat the fish, and for those who only pretend that they like the fish (there are strong rumours about that it actually makes hair grow on your chest when you eat it) and want to drown the vile flavour of it.

Lutefisk

Put the pieces in an oven proof dish with the skin down. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake it at 200 center grades for about 40 minutes. That's it.

Crispy Fried Bacon

Cut the bacon in small pieces and fry them at low heat for a loooong time. Stir in it a bit while it happens.

Mashed Peas

Cook a pack of frozen peas wit a little bit of butter, when they are soft, crush them with a stick mixer and add salt, pepper and a bit of tyme to taste.

Sweet and strong mustard

This mustard will cover any taste of the lutefisk, and should make you be able to divulge at least a little piece of it. Mix together
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons of coarse, sweeet mustard (we use mustard from Skåne in Sweden for this - IKEA!)
2 teaspoons of powdered English mustard
2 teaspoons of honey

This is traditionally served with our customary floury potatoes and Christmas beer which holds 7% alcohol, and aquavit, and I am sure this is the reason why we still make it here, as next day, people have normally forgotten what it tastes like...

And here you have a very happy Norwegian family eating lutefisk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLqIDzEdEHg&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLC34B5824AE7D2406

Pumpernickel Bread

For those who like German bread, this is really worth making. I normally make it late in the evening, because the baking time is 12-14 hours, and I do it during the night. I use a mixer, but you can do it by hand if you have someone strong by. Mixing this dough together is actually man's work. You need 3 bread pans for this recipe and also to grease them properly, I use spray grease that comes in aerosol cans. All the ingredients are cold.

You need:

1.7 liter (7 1/2 cups of water)

600 grams of coarsely grounded rye

600 grams of coarsely grounded wheat

300 grams of finely grounded rye

300 grams of finely grounded wheat

300 grams sunflower seeds (or whole wheat corns that you have put in water the day before, and which I always forget, so I use sunflower seeds instead)

300 gram normal wheat flour

1 tablespoon of molasses

3 tablespoons of salt

50 grams/one pack of yeast

Dissolve the yeast in the water with the molasses and then add all the other ingredients and stir. It's supposed to be a sticky mass not looking much like bread dough at all. When well mixed, pour it over in 3 bread pans, that are not supposed to be more than 3/4 full. Seal them with aluminum foil on top, before you put them into a cold oven that you put on100 center grades and bake for 12-14 hours (I normally let them be there for 13, but if you don't wake up on time, 14 is still ok).

This bread needs to be kept in the fridge or freezer when done, as it contains a lot of moisture and mildewes easily. I normally cut them in half before I freeze them. And like a lot of European food, this bread also tastes better after a night in the fridge.

Pickled Herring

Christmas morning would be a flop here if we don't have pickled herring on Pumpernickel bread. Because while you people of the English speaking world were out partying, we were home opening up our presents, so Christmas morning here is a looooong and elaborate breakfast that lasts till lunch, which is another loooong eating experience. I make two kinds, spicy herring and tomato herring. If you buy salted herring, you need to water out the pieces for about one hour in cold water to get some of the salt taste out first.

Spicy Pickled Herring

This is enough for two jars

You need:

6 fillets of herring cut in pieces

1 deciliter or 1/2 cup of 7% vinegar

2 deciliters of 1 cup of water

1 deciliter or 1/2 cup of sugar

2 bay leaves

20 whole black pepper corns

2 teaspoons of whole mustard seeds

8 whole allspice corns

10 whole cloves
2 stars of anis

2 onions sliced in thin rings

or

1 white onion in rings

1 red onion in rings

1 piece of leek in rings

1 carrot in very thin slices

In clean jars put herring in layers with the different onions. Put half the spices in each jar. Mix together the water, the vinegar and the sugar over a little heat till the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool again before you pour it over the fish (do NOT pour it over hot, then you will cook the fish and it's supposed to be raw). Leave it for at least one day before you eat it.

Tomato Herring

This also makes 2 jars

You need:

6 fillets of herring in small pieces (a bit smaller than for the spicy herring)

2 onions chopped semi-finely

1/2 liter/2 cups of tomato paste

4 tablespoons of sugar

3 tablespoons of vinegar

1 teaspoon of powdered cloves

2 bay leaves

For this I mix together all the ingredients except for the bay leaves before I pour it over in jars. I put one bay leaf in the mixture and one on top for decoration. This too need to be in the fridge for at least one night before eating.

Für die Deutsche:

And since the people who seem to love my pickled herring the most all are German, below is the recipe in German with special good wishes for Lutgar and Jana:

Hier wäre der erste Weihnachtstag ohne in Essig eingelegten Hering auf Pumpernickel ein Flop.
Während ihr Leute der englischsprachigen Welt ausgegangen seid um zu feiern, waren wir zu hause und haben unsere Geschenke ausgepackt. Der erste Weihnachtstag beginnt mit einem weiterem Esserlebniss, einem laaaaaaaaaaaagen, ausgiebigen bis zum Mittag anhaltenden Frühstück . Ich mache zwei Sorten Hering; würzig und in Tomate.

Würtzig Hering

 Ergibt zwei Gläser
  Würziger Essighering
6 Heringe in Stücke schneiden
1 dl oder ½ Tasse Essig 7%ig
2 Lorberblätter
1 Tasse Wasser
1 dl oder ½ Tasse Zurcker
20 Pfefferkörner
2 TL Senfkörner
8 Pimentkörner
10 Nelken
2 Zwiebeln in Ringe schneiden
1 rote Zwiebel in Ringe schneiden
1 Porree in Ringe schneiden
1 Möhre in feine Streifen schneiden

Den geschnittenen Hering mit den Zwiebeln in die Gläser schichten. Die Hälfte der Gewürze dazu geben.
Die andere Hälfte der Gewürze mit Wasser, Essig und Zucker auf niedriger Stufe erwärmen, bis der Zucker gelöst ist.
Abkühlen lassen! und über den Hering geben und mindestens einen Tag ziehen lassen.



Tomatenhering

Ergibt zwei Gläser
6 Heringe in Stücke schneiden (etwas feiner)
2 Zwiebeln fein gehackt
½ l oder 2 Tassen Tomatenmark
4 EL Zucker
3 EL Essig
1 TL Nelken gemahlen
2 Lorbeerblätter

Nun werden alle Zutaten vermengt und in Gläser gefüllt. Auch dieser Hering muss mindestens eine Nacht ruhen.
Da die Deutschen meinen eingelegten Hering besonders zu mögen scheinen, unten das Rezept auf Deutsch. Mit besten Wünschen an Ludger und Jana!

And for those who don't live around the North Sea and might have problems finding herring fillets, try this. It's a trick I learned from a Swedish American who had learned it from his mother. You buy a jar of already made pickled herring, which one actually can get in most well assorted grocery shops all over the world, and if not (and still, I hate to tell you this) they have it in IKEA.  Pick out all the herring pieces from the jar, rinse them well in cold water and discard the rest, then proceed as above. The result will be very close to the result you get from starting with the herring fillets.