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When I was a kid, every other weekend I would spend with my dad and my step-mom. They lived in an old house in a residential neighborhood outside Copenhagen, with a great big yard with lots of plants and flowers and tables tucked away in corners. We always ate lunch outside when the weather was good, and I remember at the time I didn’t like it that much because of the bees, but it really was an amazing place to enjoy a good meal.
When I came visiting, often the first thing that greeted me was the smell of baked liver Pâté. My step-mom made the best liver Pâté I’ve ever had, and while it baked the whole house would take on the flavor and everyone would start gathering in the kitchen when we knew it was just about time to remove it from the oven. Ten minutes before, we would start toasting some dark rye bread and setup lunch outside. We would all gather the plates, cutlery and work together as a team, knowing that the reward was just around the corner.
The sound of the old timer’s bell chiming was the most wonderful thing you’ll ever hear. As we sat outside in the sun, making our warm liver pâté sandwiches, a silence fell as we enjoyed that first bite.
Perhaps I make it sound overly romantic, but that’s my own experience with this pate. My step-mom’s secret ingredient was curry, and she never gave it away. A few years ago cancer overcame her, and we thought her recipe was lost forever. However, a couple of months ago while I was visiting Denmark, I asked my sister again if she had found the recipe, and to my surprise she had. Tucked away in a pile of papers that had gone unnoticed for years, there it was.
So now, for the first time in maybe 15 years, this pâté which I have named Maria’s Liver Pâté after my step-mom, has finally seen the light of day again.
And once more, the house smells like childhood and summer and bees and flowers, and everything is as it should be.
 Maria's Liver Pâté Sandwich with pickles and fried onions
It can sometimes be very hard to find a great liver paté in your local grocery stores. Thankfully, creating one from scratch is easier than you might think, and the result is amazing. This recipe was handed down to me from my step mother Maria, who wooed everyone she knew with this magic creation. It is simply the best liver pâté I have ever had anywhere, and that says a lot. It is also very easy to make, given you can find the raw ingredients, which are not that common anymore, but which any decent butcher should be able to divine.
 Homemade Liver Pate
These shrimp are very versatile on sandwiches. They are chili-lime shrimp from Costco, pre-cooked, and they are very moist and succulent. To really try and savor their taste, we created this sandwich which combines them with mashed potatoes, lime, and a toasted bagel. The bagel gives the inevitable ‘crunch’, while the shrimps can triumph over the subtle taste from the mashed potatoes. A few sprouts just makes it look good. Of course, Anders can’t leave well enough alone, and sprinkled the whole thing with sweet curry. So much for subtlety.
 Mashed Potato Bagel Sandwich with Chili-Lime Shrimp …Continue reading Bagel Sandwich with Mashed Potatoes, Mayonnaise and Chili-Lime Shrimp
This sandwich blog is getting to me. For almost a week I’ve been anticipating a convenient time to make my famous (20 years ago in college at least) tuna salad. Each time I was about to make it, some other sandwich had to take priority (since we’re on a budget, we can’t just keep making new stuff without first eating all of the old). So, today I finally got to make it and what a blast. I got to use it on 3 different style sandwiches in just one day, and I still can’t get enough of it.
This one is a tuna salad sandwich with chili-lime shrimp and fresh lettuce and cucumber. Topped with a few cuts of green onion and 2 grape tomatoes cut in half. A bit of stone ground mustard adds the zing to the zong to the ramalamadingdong.
 Tuna Salad on a Roll with Chili-lime Shrimp, Grape Tomatoes, Lettuce, Mustard and Green Onions …Continue reading Tuna Salad on a Roll with Chili-lime Shrimp, Grape Tomatoes, Lettuce, Mustard and Green Onions
Contrary to what you might believe from reading the rest of this blog, sometimes we do enjoy the simple sandwiches. This one is about as simple as it gets: Bread and butter, salami and cheese. The only trick is to get good quality ingredients, freshly made bread, Italian salami with a great taste, and a fantastic cheese such as this Danish one called “Helge”. Yes, in Denmark cheeses have people-names. Go figure. Don’t even attempt this one if your bread is not fresh by the way, it will ruin your day.
 'Helge' Cheese sandwich with spicy italian salami …Continue reading ‘Helge’ Cheese sandwich with Italian Salami
If you are following our musing on this blog, you know by now that Anders looooves mashed potato sandwiches and we both love roasted garlics. So it should come as no surprise that we at some point had to mix the two. Of course, we also enjoy cheese, so this sandwich was inevitable. In a moment of pure inspiration (we’re very modest), Anders decided to cut up a piece of Teriyaki Beef Jerky into really fine pieces, very much like little bacon pieces, and sprinkle on top. The result was great. After you finish chewing through the first layer, you end up with little pieces of jerky at the end of each bite. Very cool.
 Mashed potato sandwich with teriyaki beef jerky, oven roasted garlic and shredded parmesan …Continue reading Mashed Potato Sandwich with Beef Jerky, Mayonnaise, Roasted Garlic and Parmesan
Our tuna salad sandwich saga continues with this fresh summer construction. A toasted bagel (one of those with everything on it), combined with fresh crunchy cucumber slices, tasty grape tomatoes, and green onions, sprinkled with a tsp of sweet curry. When you eat this, the smell of the curry adds to the experience before you even take a bite.
As you can see on the pictures, two sprouts from another sandwich somehow found themselves on this one. When we noticed, the pictures were taken, and the sandwich eaten, so please disregard the misplaced sprouts. They are harmless.
 Tuna Salad Toasted Bagel Sandwich with Cucumber, Tomato, Green Onion and Sprinkled with Sweet Curry …Continue reading Tuna Salad Sandwich on Toasted Bagel with Cucumber, Tomato, Green Onion and Sprinkled with Sweet Curry
This is a great little appetizer, very easy to make (even the tuna salad is easy), and you can put it together in 5 minutes flat. The sweetness of the Digestive biscuit and the red bell pepper matches the tuna salad very well.
 Tuna Salad on Digestive biscuit with Chopped Red Bell Pepper …Continue reading Tuna Salad on Digestive Biscuit with Chopped Red Bell Pepper
It’s easy to buy pre-made tuna salads in a store, but it’s so much more fun and creative to do it yourself. The whole process takes about 5 minutes, and you get exactly the taste you want. Spice it up, or keep it mellow. This is our recipe for tuna salad, but every time we make it we change a thing or two. You will find this version on some of our upcoming sandwiches, such as the Tuna Salad Appetizer. Bon Appétit.
…Continue reading Homemade Tuna Salad with Capers
This spicy roast beef cheese sandwich has hot (but sweet) chili sauce inside, and is made with a strong pungent cheese as well, both adding to the spicy flavor. It’s made on a toasted ciabatta roll, and has plenty of crunch from the sprouts. Adding a few fresh basil leaves brings it to a whole new level.
 Spicy toasted roast beef cheese sandwich with sprouts and fresh basil …Continue reading Spicy Roast Beef Sandwich with Cheese, Olives, Onions, Fresh Basil Leaves and Sprouts
It was Tuesday, and I want to write it was raining cats and dogs, but I live in San Diego so the weather was really very nice, just like the last 6 months or so. In any case, I got a crazy craving for Danish meatballs, and on my way home from work I had to stop to get some ground beef and pork. Danish Meatballs are called “Frikadeller” (singular form is frikadelle), and they can be made from many types and blends of meats, but this is a classic.
The sandwich itself is a ciabatta roll with ducks fat and roasted garlic smear. Two meatballs are heated and cut in half, and topped with stone ground mustard. A bit of sea-salt is sprinkled on, and it’s decorated with blueberries and a pickle. Fantastic sandwich. The blueberries jumped out of my pantry at me, and I thought I would give it a go.
 Danish Meatball (Frikadelle) Sandwich on Ciabatta Roll with roasted garlic, mustard and blueberries …Continue reading Danish Meatball Sandwich with Blueberries
This is another of those recipes that we have to add to this otherwise exclusive sandwich blog. These Danish meatballs are great for sandwiches, and will be used in some of our other posts. They also happen to be the national food of Denmark, and is consumed by everyone by bulk. They are great with mashed potatoes (Which in turn is great on mashed potato sandwiches), or as a side to a salad. Total cooking time is about 50 minutes, some of which is spent waiting for the meat to cool down before frying. Simple.Easy.Good.
While this recipe is ingrained as part of the danish culture, we notices that some american blogs have also gotten a hold of it, most noticeably the excellent simply recipes which we love to read. It’s nice to see these easy and excellent frikadeller spreading out in the world.
 Danish Meatballs (Frikadeller) with Fennel Seeds and Onion …Continue reading Danish Meatball (Frikadelle) Recipe
I loooove Saturdays. They are rife with possibilities. After a long work week devoted to other people’s pursuits (namely those of my job), I look forward to enjoying the simple things that bring me pleasure. Chief among them is lazily meandering through one of the many farmers’ markets that dot the San Diego landscape. Last weekend, it was time to revist my local market in Poway. For me, the market is all about the fresh fruits and veggies… and the Thai coconut pancakes – conveniently sized to be just about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, I can pop them in my mouth and eat them whole. Yum, that’s the way to start a weekend. For Anders, the market is most pleasurable when it involves the pursuit or serendipitous discovery of meat. This week, he found some salami made from locally farmed pork. Nothing like supporting the local farmers…makes me feel connected not just to my food, but also to my community. So in a complete diversion from my normal breakfast fruit bowl, Sunday morning’s breakfast was a tomato and hard boiled egg sandwich topped with salami slices.
 Tomato Egg Salami Sandwich …Continue reading Breakfast Sandwich with Tomato, Egg and Salami
I consider this a variation on the veterinarians midnight snack, a classic Danish sandwich (In Danish: ‘Dyrlægens natmad‘. Try saying that one!). The bones of Anders’ Viking ancestors will rattle in their graves to protest me saying this, but in this variant, the inclusion of the roasted garlic and the removal of the aspic is a HUGE improvement. Together, those simple actions make this sandwhich palatable for me, a non-Dane. Anders thinks this presentation is a bit more playful, looking a bit like a rib cage or something medieval. I suppose, it’s his attempt at appeasing the spirits  It consists of liver pate on home-baked rye bread with butter, with a rolled up slice of ham. This is topped with half-moon slices of onion rings, roasted garlic and a couple of dill pickles. Fennel seeds and ground black pepper spices it up a bit.
 Liver Pate sandwich with ham, onions, roasted garlic, sweet pickles, and pepper …Continue reading Ham and Liver Pate Sandwich with Roasted Garlic and Dill Pickles
For some, if not most, the concept of having a mashed potato sandwich may seem disturbing. However, if you find yourself wondering whether you are loosing your mind, you probably have never tasted one. They are delicious! So overcome your inhibitions, and make a mashed potato sandwich next time you have a little leftover. For this one I felt like adding flax seeds and ham. Since I want the ‘crunch’, I toasted half a ciabatta roll, and added fried onions on top for good measure. For a little hint of sourness, sweet dill pickles always does the trick, and a sprinkled of my newfound love, Dukkah, seals the deal.
 Mashed potato sandwich with dukkah, mayonnaise, flak seeds, ham and fried onions …Continue reading Mashed Potato Sandwich on Ciabatta with Ham, Fried Onions, Pickles, Flax Seeds and Dukkah
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