I'm Michael Suodenjoki - a software engineer living in Kgs. Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. This is my personal site containing my blog, photos, articles and main interests.

Gourmet

Updated 2011.01.23 16:00 +0100

Dansk version

Welcome to my small gourmet page about food. For some time I have wanted to keep track of where I have been dinning and had some wonderful times. At the same time I have the opportunity to present my best recipes.

Good Restaurants (in Copenhagen, Denmark)

I'm not at all familiar with all good restaurants in Copenhagen, however I can highly recommend the following places (when you click the link you will be taken to www.aok.dk, that describes how you get there etc):

My Best Recipes

African Meettimbale

African Meettimball with yellow rice. Click for full size.Ingredients (4 persons): 500 g. of chopped beef, 20 soaked apricots, 3 tablespoonful shopped mango chutney, 25 g. of blanched almonds, 3 eggs, 2 large onions, 2½ dl. of milk, 1 thick slice of white bread, 3 tablespoonful of lemon juice, 2-3 teaspoonful of curry, 2-3 teaspoons of salt. Furthermore you need bay leafs, rice enough for 4 persons, gurkemeje and raisins. 

Chop the onions and burn them in a pot with margarine. Cut the crust from the white bread and put it into the milk. Mix the beef, one egg, onion, curry, salt, chopped apricots, mango chutney and blanched almonds into a minced meat bound within a bowl. Take the bread up from the milk and press it a little. Mix the bread with the minced meat bound and place it into a ovenproof dish. Whip the leftovers of the milk with the last 2 eggs and pour it over the dish. Decorate with bay leafs, whole apricots and e.g. almonds. Put the dish into a warmed-up oven to 180-200° (Celsius) in about 35-40 minutes until the crust is golden and firm.

Serve with yellow rice (rice added with gurkemeje and raisins) and bread.

Pork leeks

Collage with the original recipe from the recipebook 'Lige ud ad køkkenvejen med gris på gaflen' from the Danish eksport-svineslagteriernes sales union, probably sometime in the 1960'es.

Pork leeks can everybody like. It is a good old Danish dish. If you have served it for your family just once the leeks will quickly find its way into the family dinner plan.

Ingredients: As many leeks as your guests can eat and (at least) the same amount of pork slices (see picture). Furthermore you need eggs, breadcrumbs (rasp), salt and pepper.

The leeks should be cooked in boiling water in about 10 minutes until they are just tender. Cut off the rind of the pork slices and knock them lightly with your hand (see picture). Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Roll a slice around each leek. To keep them on place during the frying you may use a stick or some string to tie it. The pork leeks are dropped into whipped eggs and turned in breadcrumbs (rasp) mixed with salt and pepper. They are fried in butter in about 15 minutes until they are golden and crusty. 

Swaddle the pork around the leeks in a way so that they do not "reach over each other". In that way they are easier to fry. When to bread you should remember to ensure that the egg mass cover the pork leeks entirely. 

You can serve the pork leeks with boiled potatoes and e.g. peas.

Cutlet a la Special

This special variant over cutlets in a dish is simply fantastic. Let your guests try to guess which ingredients that have been used. They will often be surprised and some may not even believe it. The dish is by the way also fun to make - even though you have to keep track on a lot.

Ingredients: Cutlets, Dijon mustard (dark), ketchup (red), English sauce (dark), strawberry jam (red), curry (dark), paprika (red), 1 onion, ¼-½ liter heavy cream (double cream), 1-2 cans of skinned tomatoes. Salt, pepper, margarine, paprika, curry and lemon juice. Furthermore bananas, apples, oranges, salad and rice. 

Let the margarine calm down on the pan. Drip salt and pepper on the cutlets and make them brown on both sides on the pan. Now the cutlets should be coated with the following items - for each red/dark item the cutlet should be turned on the pan: mustard, ketchup, English sauce, strawberry jam, curry and paprika. Take the cutlets of the pan a put them into a ovenproof dish. Chopped onions, whipped cream and tomatoes are boiled on the pan. When it have boiled off the pan it is poured over the cutlets and warmed in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Serve with rice and salad. The salad should be made with the fruits. The cutlets are served with a slice of banana and sprinkled with paprika.

Chicken Chop Suey

Chicken Chop Suey.Chop Suey is a well known Chinese dish, that gradually have conquered the Danish latitudes. At the same time it's an easy and relatively cheap dish that by now are one of my favorite everyday meals. Basically Chop Suey consists of some meet and a wide range of vegetables such as bean sprouts, bamboo shoot, peas, mushrooms, black Chinese mushrooms, soybeans and carrots. You can choose to buy this is in a deep-freeze bag (at least this is possible in Irma - a local supermarket in Denmark) or you can buy the fresh vegetables yourself. 

Ingredients (2 persons): 250 g. of Chop Suey (the sliced vegetables), 200 g. of chicken breast filet, ¼ teaspoonful of ginger flower, 1 clove of garlic, 2 tablespoonful oil, ½ tablespoonful of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of Chinese soy, salt and pepper.

The chicken breasts are cut into strips and burned together on a pan (or Wok) with the garlic and oil. Sprinkle with ginger flower and let it fry in about 5 minutes. The Chop Suey (the vegetables) are put into the pan. Everything should be fried under carefully stirring in about 4-5 minutes until the dish are well hot. Add the sugar, soy, salt and pepper and warm them together.

Serve with rice and heated French flutes. Besides chicken meet you can also use turkey meet, pork or beef.

Leek Pie

Leek Pie

Leek pie is a lovely light dish which do well after a hot summer day in the summer cottage. The recipe is my own slightly altered recipe from the Danish classic recipe book "God Mad, let at lave" by Inger Erner Andersen and Lotte Haveman from Lademanns publishers.

Ingredients (4 persons): 75g butter/margarine, 100g wheat flour, 50g whole wheat flour or grahams flour, ¼ dl. of water, 4 large leeks or 6 smaller (approx. ½ kg.), 1 large ordinary onion, approx. 100g ham strips, 1 small cup of 18% crème fraîche, 1½ dl. of leek water, 5 eggs, ½ teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, grated cheese, salt and freshly grinded pepper.

Preparation time: approx. 75 min. for the pie dough bottom and approx. 35 min for preparing and baking of the pie.

The pie dough is prepared. Cut the butter in smaller pieces and crumble it into the flower. Add a teaspoon of salt. Assemble the dough lightly together with the water. Place the dough in a cold place for approx. 1 hour. Roll the dough into a smeared pie form (spring form in about 25-26 cm in diameter). Use a fork to place holes into the dough and place the pie form with the dough in a cold place. Turn on the oven at approx. 200-225º.

Ingredients for the pie are prepared. Prepare water to boil the leeks. Clean the leeks and cut them into fine slices and boil them in well salted water for about 5 min. Let the leeks dripp but remember to save about 1½ dl. of the leek water. Whip the crème fraîche, the leek water and the eggs together and add the spices (salt, pepper and grated nutmeg). Cut the onion into fine dices.

The pie is assembled. Bake the pie bottom for about 10. min. Distribute the cooled leeks and the onion dices into the pie. Add the ham strips and pour the egg mass over. Sprinkle with the grated cheese. Bake the pie in the middle of the oven at approx. 200-225º for about 20-30 min.

Served best with a light salad and a good bottle of white wine.

Peach pie

This dessert is simply the classic of all classics in my collection of desserts.

Ingredients (6 persons): 150 g. of butter, 240 g. of white flower, 125 g. of sugar (approx. 1½ dl), 1 teaspoonful of vanilla sugar, ½ teaspoonful of ginger flower, 1 egg, 4 peaches (or half peaches in a can) and possibly one tablespoonful of water. 

Cut the butter in smaller pieces and crumble it into the flower. Stir the sugar, vanilla sugar and ginger into the flower. Collect (assemble) the dough quickly with egg and water. Lay the dough cold for an hour. Smear a pie form (spring form in about 23 cm in diameter) with butter. Divide the dough in two parts and roll each part out into a circle that fits into the pie form. Put the first part into the bottom of the pie form and press the dough up along the edge. Peel the peaches and split them. Take out the peach cores and place the half peaches into the pie form with the curved side upwards and with the stalk-ends pointed towards the center. Place the other dough circle above the peaches and press firmly on the edge so that the dough parts are assembled. Paint with cold water and sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake the pie in the middle of the oven in about 40 minutes around 200° degrees (Celsius).

Serve the pie warm and with whipped cream.

Ricetaffel

Ristaffel som det ser ud på Galathea.Ricetaffel is an Indonesian dish which is well suited for being presented to your guests, since they themselves can put together the different spices that are a crucial part of the dish. The different accessories can be put into small cups or the like and be presented as a delightful table. At the same time it gives you an opportunity to explain the strengths and tastes of the different spices and accessories. For example that the chili can be strong and that the banana is excellent for taking the strong tastes. 

Ingredients: Pieces of pork meat (da. Flæskesmåkød), carry, oil, onion, apples, salt and pepper + accessories (se below). Furthermore water, flower and possibly some mushrooms. 

Burn the carry off in a pot - with some margarine added some little oil. Add fined chopped onions and apples into the pot. Add the meat and brown it. Add salt and pepper. Put water into the pot together with a stock cube - add as much water as you like. If you like you can furthermore add mushrooms in to toughen the meat a little. When the meat is well tender the dish is thickened with flower.

Serve with rice and bread.

Accessories: raisins (e.g. mixed with nuts), ordinary coconut flower or seroendeng (grilled coconut), bananas (e.g. grilled), mandarin's, pine apples, pees, mango chutney, grapes, carry, ginger flower, chili (strong), garlic, cinnamon, gurkemeje. You can for yourself add other accessories. I have heard that you can serve corn, tomatoes or eggs.