Easy Recipes

At various times in my office-bound life, I have been part of lunch collectives. I got the idea several years ago, when I was working at NYU and watched some of the grad students in a neighboring lab try to save their meager grad student wages by having lunch together every week. Each day, one student took a turn bringing in food for the group, and then the five of them would cycle through again the next week. Cooking for five twenty-something mouths is definitely a big undertaking. But when you average it over the week, you ultimately end up cooking less, saving money, and eating better.

In years since, Ive brought this practice to bear in a couple of my workplaces. Usually its been limited to once or twice a week, to accommodate varying schedules and available leftovers. But its still a win-win proposition: after establishing the initial ground rules (various food allergies, restrictions, and common definitions of healthy food (we end up being fond of both fruits, vegetables and butterfat)), you sit down with your coworkers to enjoy a delicious glimpse into someone elses kitchen. Even if the meal is nothing more than a homemade soup and salad, its still miles better than the greasy takeout options in walking distance. But for me, really, it comes down to something else: an excuse to indulge in some dairy.

Living with a someone whos lactose intolerant, Im probably much healthier than I would be if left to my own devices. But Im also left with a powerful craving for cream. Last week I made this soup for lunch club, which fulfills both dietary preferences at once: on its own, it is vegetal and lovely, with sweetly soft-cooked fennel and carrots touched with a bit of fresh orange juice. But for others (like myself and my lunch club), stirring in just the tiniest bit of sour cream gives it a lovely, complex, barely-there tang, giving its lightness a bit of balancing heft. I felt compelled to round out my lunch club contribution with a batch of broccoli-cheese knishes and some cookies (were still in the impress-the-co-workers first round), but it would be lovely on its own, with just a bit of crusty bread and a salad if you want.

And I must belatedly amend last weeks post: I talked about a dramatic chocolate dessert, and lamented that, barring this confection, my life tends to be free of sitcom-worthy drama. But while away at the beach this weekend, I was reminded of a jaunt to a friends parents beachfront cottage last year, wherein one of the guests used hand dishwashing soap instead of the meant-for-machines version in the dishwasher. Acres of suds spilled across the floor. To be fair, the machine didnt walk itself across the kitchen, nor did this occur as we were frantically trying to clean up after throwing an ill-fated party while our parents were out of town. But still: drama!


Creamy (or not) Carrot Fennel Soup

tweaked from Amanda Hesser in The New York Times
yields 2 quarts

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium fennel bulbs, washed and thinly-sliced
3 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced into fat coins
2 cloves garlic, thickly sliced
~ 6 cups water or stock (or half of each) - honestly I forgot to measure this ingredient, and details on freestyling are below
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
dash maple syrup
1/4 cup sour cream
salt and white pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over a medium flame. Add the fennel, carrots and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until they soften and just start to color (~10-20 minutes, depending on how large your pot is). Add the water/stock until it just covers the vegetables. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat until its just high enough to maintain a simmer. Simmer uncovered until the carrots are meltingly tender, ~45 minutes. Longer doesnt hurt.

Let the soup cool slightly, and puree in batches (I prefer it just shy of smooth). Place it back in the pot, and add additional broth/water as needed to get a nice consistency. Add the orange juice, maple syrup, sour cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Usually Portlands temperate climate is pretty inviting. Sure, we get rained on in the winter. But other parts of the country get blizzards. At least when the clouds part here, its fairly balmy. Well, usually.

Recently it looks like the rest of the country is warming up to spring. But here in Portland, weve been getting dumped on by daily rainstorms, and the ground has sogged up to a muddy sponge. Its like its winter or something, I keep telling friends (to nobodys amusement). Our downtown farmers market just opened for the season yesterday, but Im not really thinking about tender green shoots. Im thinking about stuffed cabbage.

I never liked stuffed cabbage all that much as a kid, mostly because Id only tasted versions that played up the sweetnsour Eastern European flavoring a bit too much (Im of the firm opinion that meat and raisins should never play together). But a few months ago I was filling up a friends freezer during a visit, and figured stuffed cabbage would be a great dish for cold storage. I came across a lovely version from this lovely blog, which lightens up the filling with sweet and earthy carrots and parsnips. I made a beefy version that my friend loved, and have since twice made it vegetarian by swapping some faux chicken for the meat. Its a great veg-packed all-in-one meal, and does a lovely job of getting you through the last soggy days of winter.



Vegetarian (or not) Stuffed Cabbage

yields 1 large tray (the exact number of rolls will vary, depending upon the size of your cabbage)
adapted from Smitten Kitchen, but baked instead of simmered, green instead of savoy cabbage, and a different sauce

1 large head green cabbage
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1-2 carrots, shredded
1-2 parsnips, shredded
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup rice, uncooked (or 1/2 cup brown rice, par-cooked for 20 minutes and drained)
1 lb beef, or grated vegetarian beef substitute (Ive used chicken-style patties to good effect)
2 cups tomato sauce or v8-style tomato juice
1 cup vegetable broth
1-2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1-2 Tbsp sugar
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the cabbage by cutting out the core (without cutting into the leaves too much). Place in a large pot, and cover with boiling water. Let sit in the water to soften ~10-15 minutes (the cabbage will float, so try to spin it around a bit to ensure it all comes in contact with the water). Alternately, you can soften the cabbage by placing it in the freezer the night before and allowing it to thaw (the ice crystals will do enough damage to the cell walls that the thawed cabbage will be limp enough to work with), but I never think of this in advance.

Heat the oil over a medium flame in a large skillet. Add the onions, and saute until translucent and softened. Add the carrot and parsnip, and saute for another minute or two, until softened. Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper (season a bit heavily if using beef, just to taste if using a pre-seasoned meat alternative). Add the tomato paste, rice and meat (or meat substitute).

Drain the cabbage, and pull off the leaves. If the center rib of any leaf is big and unwieldy, you can cut it out with a v-shaped slice (but this isnt necessary). Take a leaf, and scoop 1/4-1/3 cup filling in the center (the exact amount will vary based upon leaf size - no need to overstuff). Fold the sides of the leaf around the filling, and roll up the remainder. Place the stuffed leaf, seam side down, in a large casserole dish. Repeat with the remaining leaves and filling. If you have leftover leaves, you can chop them finely and scatter them over the top, although that sadly distracts from your neat little packages.

In a separate bowl, mix together the tomato sauce, broth, vinegar and sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper, adjusting the vinegar and sugar as needed to make a sauce that is just a little bit sweet and tangy. Pour the sauce over the stuffed cabbage (you may need to wait a few moments to make sure it settles into all of the nooks and crannies, depending on how densely youve got them packed). Cover tightly with a lid or foil, and bake until the filling is set and the cabbage is totally soft, ~ 1 hour. Enjoy right away, or let cool and freeze.

Years ago, one of our family members was a Butcher and he had his own Butcher Shop in Lendemarke (next to Stege). We regularly shopped at his Butcher Shop each week.  One of the cold cuts we purchased was his homemade salami. It was always fun visiting his shop and seeing the family.



My mother made our lunch every day.  A typical lunch was a salami open sandwich. Our family have happy memories sitting with each other, eating a salami open sandwich and talking together. Because we had salami in the house all of the time, it was one of our comfort foods to eat either for lunch or snack. When I think of a salami open face sandwich, it has that hyggelig feeling of coziness and happy family memories.

The open face salami Sandwich is very easy to make. This sandwich is a great way to learn to make your first open face sandwich. Most of the ingredients you probably have in your refrigerator. We made a YouTube video to show you to make a high top "Smørrebrød" (see below). 

Ingredients: 
* 1 piece of dark rye bread (rugbrød)
* butter (smør)
* 3 or 4 slices of salami (spegepølse)
* 3 or 4 slices of tomato (tomat)
* 6 or 8 raw onion ring slices (løg)
* 3 or 4 slices of cucumbers (agurker)


Please share and like our video. For more Scandinavian cooking videos please subscribe to our channel too! Thank you! 


Instructions:
As you may know that a buttered dark rye bread (rugbrød) is essentially the base for most of the famous Danish open sandwiches. So, first spread on the dark rye bread either margarine or a European style butter.  Layer the bread with 3 or 4 slices of salami.  Then add a slice of tomato then a slice of cucumber.  Then repeat layering the vegetables across the salami sandwich in the same order.  Then layer on top the sandwich with onion rings.  This layering creates the famous high top "Smørrebrød". You can use other variety of delicious toppings stacked on top of each other.

The sandwich has to be eaten with a knife and fork too. If you are having a formal Smørrebrød, we usually serve the salami open face sandwich on a Royal Copenhagen plate. We traditionally have Danish beer with the salami sandwich and say skål frequently!  We hope you enjoyed the video on how to make the Smørrebrød Danish Open Face Salami Sandwich video and recipe!

Food Trivia: Did you know that any breads containing wheat flour are not considered rugbrød, but white bread?

If you like the video, please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel Scandinavian Today.  Our channel has videos including

*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)
*how to make Swedish Glogg for Christmas & cold evenings! (glögg or mulled wine recipe) 
*how to make aeblskiver (æbleskiver)
*how to make Danish Christmas Klejner
*how to make easy Danish cucumber salad (arguksalat)
*how to make Danish sugar browned potatoes (brunede kartofler)
*how to make Danish red cabbage (rødkaal)
These recipes are perfect for the holiday season. Please let us know what you think! Glædelig Jul and Merry Christmas♥ !

Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://.blogspot.com/

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