Danish Dinner

Hey Cheeky,
I am so very far behind with posting to this blog. I'm sorry about that. First I had the cold from hell, and was laid up in bed for a month, and then I was trying to catch up with everything else. I've managed to get a few things done, craft wise, but finding the time to sit down and blog about it has been a bit difficult.

Of course, it didn't help that I reinstalled Dragon Age Inquisition, and so whenever I was on my computer I was generally playing that, but that's beside the point!

Today I want to focus on one of the recent international meals I've made recently. In June we were meant to have a Danish meal, and in July we'd have French, but because we were all sick (Moogi and Da had this cold too - Da wasn't so bad but he did have to run backwards and forwards looking after Moogi and I), the Danish meal got bumped back to July and the French meal happened last night - the 1st of August. August's meal is going to be Pakistani, and I'm determined to have it this month. I just might need a couple of weeks to recover first.

Danish
As is so often the case, the first thing Kyroun and I thought of making was the dessert, because that's one of the most fun parts, right? So of course we made danish pastries. Quick fact - did you know that in Denmark, Danish pastries are called Vienna bread? Apparently they came from Austria originally. The Danish have done a fantastic job of making them their own though, so that is all that matters. Once we figured out what we were making, pastry wise, we sorted out what we'd do for the rest of the meal as well.

I don't have too many photos of this meal, unfortunately, although I was sure I snapped some more. But oh well.

The menu was as follows:
Entree
Barley Soup with Nut bread

This was delicious, which kind of surprised me because the recipe was kind of odd. I can't find the link to the soup recipe. Sorry about that. 

The bread was so tasty. Lots of seeds (see the left photo) and a very dense bread. It is something I really should make again, because I've got so many seeds left over. But not sure when yet. 

Main

Grilled Pork Belly with Parsley Sauce and Pickled Red Cabbage
I love Pork Belly, and this was pretty delicious, although I think I'll keep my regular recipe when I cook it in future. I know you wouldn't eat it, so I'll just explain - it looks terrible when you first get it. It seems to be mostly fat. But then you cook it slowly and the fat seems to melt and meld with the meat and even though it sounds terrible, it is so delicious. 

With the red cabbage, I was meant to use red currant jelly but that's not so easy to find here, so I used cranberry sauce instead and that tasted fine. No idea if a Dane would approve, but oh well. *shrugs* 

Dessert
Danish Pastries. 
This was so much fun - we made two different types.The ones in the left photo are filled with chocolate and the ones on the right have sultanas in them. The pastry so was so yummy and flaky, and really really easy too! We wanted to try and make other sorts as well, but decided we'd probably made enough. I'll have to make them again though!

Decorations
We were trying to get a cosy vibe, to fit in with the Hygge concept, which is a Danish thing about cosiness and comfort and so on. So we had lots of candles everywhere and daisies (margureitte daisys are appareontly the national flower).

Gift
I wanted to give everybody a gift this time, so we put these together. They are glass mugs, and I knitted a mug hug for each one. There are two tea bags - one for chai tea and one for lemon and ginger tea. We also made some chocolate spoons (yes, I have a silicon mold to make spoons!) and put them in plastic bags. We also put in a couple of marshmallows. To make some hot chocolate you heat up some milk, stir the milk with the chocolate spoon, and by the time it melts you have a lovely hot chocolate that you can add the marshmallows to!
We also made coffee sticks. We bought some bubble tea straws (nice and thick) and sealed one end, with a match and pliers. Then we added a spoon of instant coffee, trimmed the end off and sealed it again. Then we poked holes in the straw, so you could just put the straw in a cup of hot water and the instant coffee would come out. Kind of like the tea sticks you used to have!
We also made sugar cubes. Just added a tiny amount of water to some white sugar, pressed them into fancy moulds, and gave each person two. All in all it was a mug full of lots of lovely warm drinks. It took a bit of work to fix it but it fun.

Flag
We also did a flag again. For the lebanese meal we used Hummos and paprika. This time we used Danish Salami and Danish fetta! Makes me laugh, but it worked well so who cares right?

That's everything. Next I'll tell you about the French dinner we had. I'll try not to take three months (or whoever long it was) before I post again. Hugs

Love Dorky.