A Danish meal

One of my friends from the international student's organization over here, who is also Danish, promised her roommates to cook them up a proper Danish meal. She asked me to join and help me cook the meal.

I'm posting to different recipes for it, since we did a little adapting on the recipe. Not only is it incredibly hard to find the right ingredients over here, but my friend is on a low-fat diet and one of her roomies is allergic to lactose, gluten and soy, which made Danish food a long shot, since traditional Danish food is all about gravy ;)

We ended up making fried fish("stegt fiskefilet") with a parsley sauce, potatoes and a carrot salad. I hope you enjoy!

Fried Fish

Standard recipe

Filet of fish. We used some cod and some common sole. In Denmark we commonly use European plaice. I think we used about 400lbs of fish per person, but there was some left. We cut each filet in two or three pieces.

Flour - Just some standard, nothing fancy, all-purpose. Not something with raising agents in it ;) You only need a handful or two. 

Eggs - We used two eggs for 1600lbs of fish.

Breadcrumbs - Use what kind you like. We used panko, which is one of my favourites, and while it's not all typical, it's very nice and a little less greasy.

Butter or oil for cooking

Gluten-, lactose- and soy free edition

We changed the flour for sweetened rice flour. You can use gluten-free flour, but Safeway didn't carry that. Fine maize-flour will also work.

The breadcrumbs were changed for corn flakes. They were crushed up, so the size of it were like the panko/breadcrumbing.

How-to

If the fish is a bit "wet", pat it dry with a piece of paper towel. Put flour, eggs and breadcrumbs in each their bowl, and get a plate ready. Whisk the eggs. Add salt and pepper to the breadcrumbs/panko/cornflakes. One by one, turn the fish in the flour, till they are thoroughly covered with a light dusting. Transfer the fish to the egg mix, make sure not to get too much one, just so that they are lightly covered. Then transfer the fish to the plate with the breadcrumbs etc, and make sure it's covered, before letting it rest on the plate. 

At this point, you can decide to finish all of the fish before cooking or cooking as you go. Heat a skillet on medium heat and use a GOOOD amount of butter or oil. I'd always chose to use only real butter, but my friend preferred to cook in oil. They need to fry a bit. Don't touch them for the first 5-7 minutes. Ideally you only want to turn them over once, after 5-7 minutes or when properly browned, to make sure they don't lose their breading. When done on both sides, transfer to a plate covered with a paper towel.

Classic Danish parsley sauce

Standard recipe

20 grams of real butter(Maybe we used a bit less, due to her diet)

2 table spoons of flour

5 dL full-fat milk(we used no-fat, due to my friend's diet)

1 dL of cream(I'd use that normally, but we didn't due to diet)

Parsley. We used a bundle, maybe two or three handfuls. To me, the more, the better.

Lemon

Gluten-, lactose- and soy free edition

I was actually surprised how well the sweetened rice flour worked for our sauce. We substituted the flour for this. 

In regards to milk - Whatever rocks your boat. I'd normally have used soy milk and cream instead of milk and cream, but since she was allergic to soy, that wasn't an option. I'd probably go for rice milk. Make sure it is unsweetened.

How-to

This sauce is made with a roux. Start out by chopping the parsley finely. Then melt the butter in a skillet with a thick bottom. Add the flour and keep whisking on light/medium heat, until it is "baked" and the flour-y taste is gone. Turn up the heat a bit, to medium and add milk little by little, and keep whisking. You'll see that it becomes a thick, thick paste. Just keep whisking and add a little more milk, it'll be fine eventually. Add the cream at the end, keep whisking. Add the parsley and taste the sauce with lemon and pepper. Let it boil through for a couple of minutes, while whisking. Finish tasting with salt.

Potatoes with butter and parsley

Ingredients

Potatoes

Butter

Parsley

How-to

Boil potatoes with salt. I like them over-boiled, so I boil them way too long. Add a bit of melted butter and some chopped parsley. 

Carrot salad with apple, raisins and seeds

Ingredients

Carrots

Apple

Raisins

Orange juice

Lemon juice

Sunflower seeds

How-to

Grate carrots and apples. Add raisins and seeds. Add the juices as a dressing, don't use too much. This can be done in the beginning, so that the salad has time to set.