International Cuisine

I must start by saying thank you -  So many helpful comments about the curtains, I feel much more able to tackle the task. But that's next week... 

For Christmas, Steph gave me an aebleskiver pan. Aebleskiver means "apple slices" and the pan makes 7 of these  Danish snacks at a time.

The batter is light and fluffy, similar to a Yorkshire pudding batter - but you separate the eggs, folding the beaten whites into the mix so it is full of air. You cook one side then flip them - and the result is a plateful of golden globes. A recipe was printed on the packaging - it made 3 batches, I put apple slices in the first 2, and squares of dark chocolate in the rest. [the batter keeps in the fridge, we didn't eat them all at one sitting]

I looked up the history of this snack. They date back over 300 years, some people maintain that they were first made by the Vikings, cooking them on their dented shields. I think that's a little far fetched. But here's an old Danish wife with her pan

In Belgium and the Netherlands, they serve a similar sweet treat called poffertjes. In Norway, they are munker [monks' balls] and in Germany nonnenfürzle [nun's farts] I prefer the Danish name. The batter took a while to prepare, but I got into a good rhythm cooking them. I'd seasoned the cast iron pan and the little balls slipped out easily. 

I look forward to cooking them again,I think the children will enjoy them. Here's Bob tucking into some chocolate ones. Recipe HERE

My other foray into international cuisine this week was to make Jannson's Temptation. This is a Swedish dish involving layers of slim potato batons, sliced onions, tinned/jarred sprats, and lots of cream.

I've wanted to try this out for ages, and I picked up a jar of fish in IKEA.  There's a recipe HERE

My bake looked just like the picture. But Bob did not enjoy the dish at all! He said it was the wrong sort of fish, he would prefer cod, or salmon or prawns... And were he Jannson, he'd be tempted to throw it out of the window! [it is really unusual for Bob to react so strongly against a meal too] 

Never mind, you win some, you lose some...