Food & Drink
In her new book, Danish chef and food writer Trine Hahnemann celebrates the flavours of her home city, Copenhagen
The taste of Copenhagen, plus Rose Murray Brown on great reds from Portugal
In this book I have described my home town, Copenhagen. It is not a general guide book; it’s my history of my city. This is the way I live in Copenhagen. I am not a young hipster; I have not just moved here. I was born and bred here and most of my history was made in this town. So, it is a very personal book about the place I grew up in and still live in.
While I have been getting on with my life, Copenhagen has become a cosmopolitan city, a place famous for its restaurants, coffee, bicycling culture, friendliness and hygge. Whole neighbourhoods have gone through major transformation for both good and bad. The restaurant scene has evolved tremendously; we now have great wine bars and cocktail bars, food from round the world, street food markets.
I have not mentioned all the places that deserve attention; there are lots of wonderful spots not necessarily on my radar. New things happen all the time. I have aimed to capture the atmosphere and related it to the history that I know. It is far from the full picture. This is my Copenhagen.
“Burning love” with beetroot
A true classic, though I have tweaked the traditional recipe a little, adding beetroot to the bacon, instead of eating it, pickled, on the side. If you don’t want the meat, replace the bacon with walnuts.
Serves four 1kg floury potatoes sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 25g salted butter 100ml whole milk, warmed ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg 400g smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped 4 onions, chopped 200g beetroot, peeled and finely chopped 1 celery stick, finely chopped leaves from a bunch of curly parsley, finely chopped
1 For the mash, peel and cut the potatoes into big chunks. Boil them in salted water until tender. Drain them, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Mash the potatoes with a balloon whisk until they are the texture you prefer. Add the butter and warm milk, stirring until the butter has melted, then season to taste with salt, pepper and the nutmeg. Splash in some of the cooking liquid if you would like a looser mash.
2 Meanwhile, for the topping, fry the bacon in a frying pan over a medium heat in its own fat until golden and crispy. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan.
3 Add the onions, beetroot and celery to the fat in the pan and fry until golden brown, then return the bacon and season with pepper.
4 Serve the mash with the bacon and beetroot, onions and celery on top, all sprinkled with the parsley.
Schnitzel with anchovies, horseradish and capers
Danish schnitzel is made from pork and classically served with brown butter, horseradish, capers and anchovies. I think a dash of lemon serves it well.
Serves four 50g plain flour sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 medium eggs 100g breadcrumbs 4 x 150g pork loin schnitzels 400g Brussels sprouts 65g salted butter 4 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed 4 canned anchovy fillets, chopped 4 tbsp finely grated horseradish, ideally fresh rather than from a jar handful of dill sprigs 2 lemons, cut in half
1 Mix the flour with salt and pepper on a plate. On a second plate, lightly beat the eggs; on a third plate, spread out the breadcrumbs.
2 Roll the meat in the seasoned flour, making sure it is thoroughly coated, then dip each piece into the egg until coated. Drain off the excess egg and turn the schnitzels in the crumbs until completely coated.
3 Trim the sprouts and cut them into quarters. Heat 20g of the butter in a frying pan and sauté the sprouts for 5 minutes, adding a few spoons of water if they start to stick to the pan and burn. Remove from the heat and keep warm.
4 Meanwhile, melt 30g more of the butter in a large frying pan until bubbling briskly. Fry the schnitzels for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden and crisp. Place them on a plate.
5 Wipe the pan and heat the remaining butter until golden, then fry the capers and anchovies over a high heat for a few minutes.
6 Serve each schnitzel with the horseradish and dill on top, sprinkled with the fried capers, anchovies and brown butter and accompanied by the lemon halves and sautéed sprouts.
Cardamom buns
Cinnamon rolls always used to be the big thing in Copenhagen, but these days it is all about cardamom snurre. These are perfect either for breakfast
or afternoon tea. Makes 18-20
50g fresh yeast 500ml lukewarm whole milk 1 egg, lightly beaten 850g ‘00’ flour, plus more to dust 250g caster sugar 2 tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp fine sea salt 350g softened salted butter 4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 For the buns, crumble the yeast into the milk and stir to dissolve, then add the egg. Now mix in the flour, 100g of the sugar, cardamom and salt. Mix 150g of the butter into the dough, then knead well on a floured surface.
2 Put the dough into a bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
3 Make the filling by mixing together the remaining 200g of butter, remaining 150g of sugar and cinnamon. Divide the dough in half and roll each piece out on a floured surface to make a rectangle measuring about 40 x 30cm.
4 Spread half the cinnamon filling over each. Roll each piece of dough into a wide cylinder, starting from a long side to get a long, slim log, then cut into 2.5cm slices. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can then stretch and twist the slices into elaborate shapes.
5 Line some baking sheets with baking parchment. Place the cardamon rolls on the parchment, pressing down on each so that they spread slightly. Cover with tea towels and leave to rise again, in a warm place, for 30 minutes.
6 Preheat the oven to 180C/gas Mark 4. Bake the cardamon buns for 25-30 minutes until well browned. Leave to cool on a wire rack before serving.