We will also continue to get our monthly Universal Yums box, which we will also do in a similar fashion to those countries we randomly select, so you will probably definitely see some countries replicated.
Anyways- on to our destination!
This months box was Scandinavian themed. There's a bit of debate as to what countries exactly make up the Scandinavian region, and for the purpose of our meal, we went with the original three: Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The box included treats from Finland and Iceland as well.
We decided to do one dish from each of the three original regions: Swedish meatballs from Sweden, Burning Love - (Brændende Kærlighed)from Denmark, and skolebrod from Norway.
Svenska Kottbullar (Swedish Meatballs)
I used a recipe off allrecipes.com for this. I cant guarantee they're 100% authentic, but from all my research and millions of Swedish meatball recipes I looked at, it seems to be pretty close- as they all vary a bit from family to family.
Ingredients:
- 2 slices day old bread, crushed into fine crumbs
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 small onion, mined
- 2/3 pound ground beef
- 1/3 pound ground pork
- 1 egg
- 1 TBSP brown sugar, optional
- 1 tsp salt, pepper to taste
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger, optional
- 1 TBSP butter
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 3 TBSP flour
- 2 cups beef broth
- 4 oz sour cream
- preheat over to 350
- Place the bread crumbs into a small bowl, and mix in the cream. Allow to stand until crumbs absorb the cream, about 10 minutes. While the bread is soaking, melt 1 teaspoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat, and cook and stir the onion until it turns light brown, about 10 minutes. Place onion into a mixing bowl; mix with the ground beef, ground pork, egg, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. Lightly mix in the bread crumbs and cream.
- Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Pinch off about 1 1/2 tablespoon of the meat mixture per meatball, and form into balls. Place the meatballs into the skillet, and cook just until the outsides are brown, about 5 minutes, turning the meatballs often. Insides of the meatballs will still be pink. Place browned meatballs into a baking dish, pour in chicken broth, and cover with foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the meatballs are tender, about 40 minutes. Remove meatballs to a serving dish.
- To make brown gravy, pour pan drippings into a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk the flour into the pan drippings until smooth, and gradually whisk in enough beef broth to total about 2 1/2 cups of liquid. Bring the gravy to a simmer, whisking constantly until thick, about 5 minutes. Just before serving, whisk in the sour cream. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve the gravy with the meatballs.
braendende-kaerlighed (burning love)
I used a recipe from danishnet.com for this dish and it was fantastic....mashed potatoes with bacon and fried onion.....how could it be bad?!?!
Ingredients:
- 1 pound potatoes
- 2 onions
- 1/2 pound bacon, preferably Danish
- 2 TBSPs butter, preferably Danish
- 2 tsps chives or parsley
- salt and pepper
- Peel or scrub potatoes, and boil them for 20-25 minutes in unsalted water or until tender enough to mash
- Cut bacon in small cubes
- Fry bacon on frying pan, and place on platter with paper towel when done
- Chop onions, and fry them in the bacon grease
- Mash the potatoes and mix with butter and salt
- Serve the mashed potatoes with a mix of onions and bacon on top
- Sprinkle the dish with chives or parsley before serving
Tip: To make this Danish dish even better and more authentic, serve with pickled beets on the side.
skolleboller, Norwegian 'school bread', courtesy The Transplanted Baker
These buns are awesome....I absolutely love the cardamom in them. It's not a spice we use frequently here in America, but it really makes these little dandies fantastic.
Ingredients:
- For the buns:
- 2 cups (5 dl) milk (preferably whole, but 1% or 2% will work too), luke warm
- 2 oz. (50 grams) fresh yeast, or 2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup (50 g) sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom
- 6 - 7 cups (650- 750 grams) All-Purpose flour
- For the vanilla custard:
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 1 3/4 cups (4 dl) whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
- 1 Tablespoons cornstarch
- For the sugar glaze and topping:
- 1 cup (100 grams) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
- 1 teaspoon water
- + desiccated coconut (sweetened or unsweetened) for topping
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the luke warm milk. Add the melted (and cooled) butter, the sugar, cardamom, and 5 cups (550 grams) of the flour. Blend well.
2. Slowly add more flour until a smooth, slightly sticky dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead for a minute or two until a soft dough is formed. If needed, add another tablespoon or two of flour to prevent sticking.
3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic, and allow to rise to double its’ size, about 1 hour.
This would be a good time to make your vanilla custard (ingredients above and instructions at the bottom):
4. Punch the dough down, divide into small balls (12-14 will make the traditional, large skoleboller, while 22-24 will make nice, little kid portions).
5. Form each ball into an evenly round, flat bun. Place on a parchment-lined baking tray with at least an inch between each one. Cover with a clean dishcloth and allow to make a second rise for about 20 minutes. In the mean time, preheat oven to 400F (200C).
6. After the 20 minute rising period is up, use the back of a spoon to create a good-sized indentation in the center of each bun (about the size of a soup spoon).
7. Place a generous spoonful of the egg custard in the center of each indentation. Bake on the bottom rack for 10-12 minutes. Take your skoleboller out when they begin to slightly brown on the tops and the egg custard is just starting to set.
8. Allow to cool on a wire rack (The vanilla custard will set a bit once cooled down). Once your buns are cooled, you can drizzle on your confectioner’s sugar glaze – simply whisk the powdered sugar and water together. The glaze should be white, not translucent, and should be able to drizzle but not run, add more sugar or water, accordingly).
9. Once glazed, dip your buns into a bowl or plate full of the desiccated coconut and swirl around a bit until all of the glaze is sufficiently covered with the coconut- careful not to destroy your custard centers.
10. Serve with coffee and milk at home, at school, at the office, at social hour, at a birthday party, on a picnic, on a hike, or anywhere else that seems fit.
To make the vanilla custard:
1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together very well.
2. Bring the whole milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the milk, whisking briskly. Add the vanilla.
3. While your egg and milk mixture is still simmering, add the cornstarch, little-by-little, whisking briskly. Allow the cornstarch to fully dissolve and the custard to thicken while stirring the entire time. It will take about 3- 5 minutes for the custard to thicken enough.
4. Allow to cool on a ice water bath.
Dinner was awesome! After dinner we dug into the box and tried some of the goodies from Scandinavia!
Once we were done with all that, it was time to kick back and watch a movie. We chose Klown, a comedy from Denmark.
