My hometown, Stege, on the island, Møn in Denmark, was established around 1100 because of all the herring they were catching in the ocean surrounding the island.
When we had parties, and we were serving the Danish open-faced sandwiches, it was a tradition to always start with a herring sandwich. The first bite of the herring was usually followed by a small glass of snaps, and we would, of course, say "skål".
Mild Spiced Herring
1 jar of herring (salt herring or herring in wine sauce)
1/4 stick of cinnamon
1 star anise
2 cloves
1 tsp cumin
1/2 -1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cardamom
1 bayleaf
(you may want to increase spices according to your taste)
Rinse the herring under the faucet. Next, cook all the spices in approx. 1 cup of water for approx. 5 min., and let it cool down before you pour it over the herring pieces.
Leave the herring in the spices for approx. 2 days before you eat it. Leave the herring in the refrigerator, and I sugest you eat the herring within one week.
Herring Sandwich
Butter a slice of ryebread and place a hardcooked sliced egg on the bread. Add the herring as well as the capers, chives, and sliced onion.
In Denmark, we eat dark
sourdough rye bread as open-faced sandwiches with cold cuts, cheeses and other toppings at
least once a day. I grew up eating rye bread with our sandwiches every day
for lunch.
There are different variations of sourdough rye bread. The following wholegrain rye bread recipe is a sourdough rye bread. This recipe is fast and easy to make. To give the bread extra flavor I sprinkled sunflower. I like the added extra flavor of sunflower seeds. However, the sunflower seeds are optional too.
Below is my recipe of the Danish Wholegrain Rye Bread.
See Karen Grete prepare this delicious
Danish Wholegrain Rye Bread on our YouTube video
Ingredients: Makes 1
bread
2 cups
water
1 cup
wholewheat flour
1 cup
rye flour
1 cup
chopped rye kernels
1/2 cup
sourdough
1/2 cup
sunflower seeds
1/2 cup
flax seeds
1 pkg
yeast
1 tbsp
dark molasses
1 tsp salt
Directions:
Put the
sunflower, flax seeds and rye kernels into a pot. Add enough water to cover the mixture. Boil the mixture for approx. 5 min or
until the grains are soft.
After the mixture has been cooking for 5 minutes, pour it into the mixing bowl, and let it cool
down a little. Add the rest of cold water into the mixture as it is cooling down.
As soon as the mixture is finger warm add the
salt, molasses, and 1 cup of the flour. Then mix the mixture.
Next add 1/2 cup
sourdough and 1 pkg of yeast into the bowl and mix it again.
Finally add the last 1 cup of flour.
If it is too wet add a little more flour, so it can keep its shape. Mix the mixture for about 5 to 10 minutes.
Spray the
baking pan with oil and sprinkle with flour.
Pour in the dough and let it
rise for 1-2 hours.
After the bread has risen slice the bread across.
Brush the bread with cold water and sprinkle it with sunflower
seeds.
Bake the bread in the oven for approx. 1 hour 15 min at a degree
of 375F.
Take the
bread out of the oven, remove it from the form and place it on a rack to
cool down before you put it in a plastic bag or a bread box.
You might want to wait
till the next day before you slice the bread.
As you can see in our YouTube video that I enjoyed the bread with just butter. That is how good this recipe is! Of course if you like to have a simple sandwich just with cold cuts or a delicious smørrebrød this bread is great for this too. Be sure to check out our selection of smørrebrødto see the variety of possibilities. Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish,
Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/ *how
to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe
(Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)
Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages,
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get cooking Scandinavian foods!
Gravlax is a family favorite. So surprisingly easy to make. We are sure you will enjoy both making and
eating it. Perfect dish to make during the
holidays!
Gravlax is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon, cured in salt, sugar, and dill.
Ingredients
1
pounds fresh salmon, center cut
1
large bunch of dill, plus 1/4 cup chopped dill for serving
1/2
cup salt
1/2
cup sugar
2
tablespoons pepper
Optional:
1 tablespoon whole fennel seeds
Pumpernickel
bread, sourdough bread, or crisp bread (knaekbroed) for serving
Mustard/Dill Sauce Ingredients
Capers,
chopped onion, horseradish,lemon slices
Trivia: Did you know that during the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen, who
salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the
high-tide line?
Directions
Cut
the salmon in half crosswise and place half the fish skin side down in a deep
dish.
Wash
and shake dry the dill shop it and place it on the fish.
Combine
the salt, sugar, crushed peppercorns in a small bowl and sprinkle it evenly
over the piece of fish.
Place
the other half of salmon over the dill, skin side up.
Cover
the dish with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Place something heavy on
top. Refrigerate the salmon for 2 and up to 3 days, turning it every day and
basting it with the liquid that collects as well as the salt/sugar/pepper.
Lay
each piece of salmon flat on a cutting board, whip off the salt/sugar/pepper
and dill, and sprinkle the top of the salmon with chopped fresh dill.
With
a long thin slicing knife, slice the salmon in long thin slices as you would
for smoked salmon.
Serve
with dark pumpernickel bread, crisp bread or sourdough bread and mustard sauce.
You can also serve with chopped onion, horseradish and capers, if desired.
Trivia: Did you know that the Scandinavian word gravlax means
buried salmon?
grav (or gravad)=grave
lax (or laks)=salmon
Danish =Gravad laks
Norweigian=Gravlaks
Swedish=Gravlax
We hope you enjoyed the video on how to make this recipe! If you like the video, please be sure to subscribe to
our YouTube Channel Scandinavian Today. Our channel has videos including
Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish,
Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/
Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages,
Pinterest and Subscribe to our YouTube Chanel Scandinavian Today! Let's
get cooking Scandinavian foods!
This delicious Norwegian Smoked Salmon (røkt laks) sandwich is great for either lunch or dinner. We added to this delicious sandwich an extra seafood (skaldyr) twist by adding shrimp (reker) and caviar (Kaviar) which makes it a delicious feast for the seafood lovers! To give the Norwegian salmon sandwich a little extra color and a yummy twist either dill or parsley can be used to garnish too.
The open sandwich recipe below is a
tall sandwich because of the layers of colorful toppings. The recipe is
easy to create your own tall open sandwich. Below is a our recent YouTube video on how to make a SMØRBRØD open face sandwich.
Ingredients:
1 slice of white bread (Italian or French)
butter (European-style butter is easier to spread)
2 tablespoons of cream cheese
2 pieces of smoked salmon
3 or 4 pieces of shrimp
1 to 2 teaspoons of caviar
1 large pieces Boston or Romaine lettuce leaves
chopped parsley or dill for taste & decoration
1 lemon wedge slice for garnish
Instruction:
Smoked Salmon Rolls:
First spread cream cheese across two slices of smoked salmon.
Sprinkle chopped dill across the cream cheese.
Roll the cream cheese up into a roll.
Place the smoked salmon rolls onto a plate and put it in the refrigerator.
After an hour, take the plate out of the refrigerator. Slice the rolls into 1/4 inch slices. (See our video)
Open Sandwich:
Before adding a topping, spread butter onto either a
slice of French or Italian bread. This protects the bread from moisture.
Place a piece of either Boston
or Romaine lettuce leaves on the bread.
Then, place 3 or pieces of shrimp one end of the white bread
Next place 4 slices of the Norwegian smoked salmon rolls next to the shrimp on the bread.
Add one or two teaspoons of caviar over the shrimp
