Easy cooking with Nilsa and her Gandma: Meals in danish culture! (2,5 recipes in 1)

My big brother and his guest coming home, I have the attention of receiving them like kings. To do this I planned to give them good food with the participation of grand ma! As they arrive late on Fridays, their first meal will be breakfast. I also take this article to talk about meals in Danish culture. In case you would like to try one of our specialties! ^^

breakfast or “morgenmad” in Danish is between 6 am and 8 am. Hearty meal, it usually consists of cheeses, charcuterie, rugbrød, cereals, wienerbrød … Personally, I planned a dish that is called:
Æbleflæsk pork with apples. This is normally the traditional Christmas breakfast, but for such a reunion, I thought a festive breakfast was appropriate. (Yeah, well, I have two kilos of apples that I do not know what to do, that’s what happens when my boyfriend does the shopping on his own … I love him but sometimes he exasperates me!)

Ingredients for 4 persons :

• 12 slices of bacon – preferably smoked
• 6-8 slightly acidic apples – by size
• 2 large onions – preferably red onion
• 4 c. Coffee with sugar
• Salt and pepper
• Apple cider vinegar

First, cut the onions into slices and place them in a bowl and cover with cider.
In a hot frying pan, brown the bacon slices, turning them occasionally to make them crispy. Once finished, they are placed on absorbent paper and then dirty.
In the cooking stove, the pork is removed and the excess fat is removed and the sliced apples are sautéed with the onions and seasoned with the sugar, salt and pepper.
It only remains to serve!

My brother is someone who likes to be well dressed, I’m sure if he is not too tired from his trip, he will want to go shopping. (a point that we have in common)
There is a good chance that for the lunch (frokost) we will eat in a restaurant of smørrebrød, they are open sandwiches consisting of buttered rye bread on which we add a garnish of our choice (cold cuts, fish, cheese, egg…). It’s our national dish, you can not do more danish. In general it is served traditionally with aquavit, a brandy, but it’s a bit cheesy, young people consume rather with beer. (Like all our dishes, except coffee … that’s for the Irish!)

For the afternoon I have already committed to help grand ma for the end of year party preparations of her old school where she was director. Maybe my brother and his friend will help us or do something on their side.

For dinner, “aften” which takes place between 18h and 20h I have planned braised pork cheeks with brown beer and mashed potatoes and celeriac (I do not like it but my brother loves it, he’s weird), and yes it’s definitely a name too long for this dish!

For 4 people:

For meat:

• 1.6 kg of pork cheeks (cut into pieces)
• 0.5 l of dark beer
• 1/8 celery root, coarsely chopped
• 1 tomato, quartered
• 1 to 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 30 g of butter
• Salt pepper

For puree:

• 750 g potatoes
• 1/4 celeriac (I only put one eighth because it’s bad enough like that!>. <)
• 20 cl of milk
• 25 g of butter
• Salt, pepper

Preparation:

Braised pork cheeks:

We wipe the pork cheeks with paper towels and season them.
The butter is melted in a casserole over medium-high heat, then the pork cheeks are browned until golden brown.
The onion, carrot and celery are added, they are colored before adding tomato, beer and a little water, if necessary (the meat and vegetables must be completely covered).
Cover and lower the heat to simmer about 1 hour 30 minutes (adding boiling water, if necessary), until the meat is tender.
We reserve the meat then reduce the sauce before switching to Chinese and rectify the seasoning.

Mashed Potato – Celeriac:

Potatoes and celeriac are peeled, diced, steamed until soft, and mashed. One incorporates heated milk and butter. It only remains to season.

The braised pork cheeks are served on a bed of mashed potatoes (and the sauce separately). A few sprigs of parsley and that’s it!