I grew up eating sliced cucumber salad but we called it agurke salat (a-gorka sal-at) which is the Danish name. My mother being a dane would serve it to us as a side dish or on open faced sandwiches called Smørrebrød. Just writing about these sandwiches is making my mouth water.

Here’s a photo of what the opened faced sandwiches called Smørrebrød look like. This photo below is from http://www.copenhagenet.dk/. Smørrebrød sandwiches are as much art as they are a delicacy. I remember my mor mor (mother’s mother or grandmother) taking her time to assemble a plate of these delicate sandwiches for lunch. And when I was just a kid visiting her in Denmark, we would go to Tivioli Garden where there was a shop that sold them individually. She would let me pick out my favorites and then we would go sit somewhere in the park and dine. I can’t wait to take my kids there when they get older. Some of these sandwiches used agurke salat as one of the ingredients.

When I tell friends about my Danish cucumber salad, I’m often told they know it but call it by another name native to their own ethnicity.  I’m guessing it is a popular dish to all the northern Scandinavian countries and their neighbors.

Agurke Salat

There are two important steps when preparing this cucumber salad. First, slice the cucumbers paper thin. Second, salt them to remove, as my mother would say, “the burp” from them. Other than that, the rest is easy.

I like to make a big batch at a time and eat them all week long. I even use the vinegar mixture a second time and just slice and salt some more cucumbers.

Ingredients

3 large cucumbers
Table salt
1 cup of white wine vinegar
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
salt & pepper, to taste

How to Make Sliced Cucumber Salad

I leave the peel on but you can peel them if you like. I find it makes them too flimsy if you cut them paper-thin. I used a food processor to slice them but you can use a mandolin or if you have a lot of patience, slice them by hand but be sure they are paper thin.

Next I lay them out on some paper towels and sprinkle them with salt. I’m not sure if it is true, but my mom says the salting helps remove whatever is in the cucumbers that make them repeat on you. Let them sit there for about 10 minutes.

After they have been salted, put them in a colander and wash all the salt off with cold water. If you don’t get most of the salt off, the final result will be way too salty. Gently squeeze the sliced cucumbers in your hands to get rid of as much water as possible. You can let them drain in the colander while you make the vinegar mixture.

Prepare the Vinegar Mixture

In a medium sized bowl that you are going to serve the cucumbers in, add the vinegar with the water, then the sugar and coriander seeds. Mix well until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the cucumbers and coriander seeds and mix together with your hands or spoon if you don’t like to get your hands dirty. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours so the cucumbers pick up all the flavor of the sugared vinegar.

This is really simple to make and goes especially well with pork.

A perfect summer side dish with a South American flair that goes great with anything you put on the grill. I found this recipe in Cuisine at Home cooking magazine (one of my favorites) that was served with their Grilled Pork with Chimichurri Sauce.

I wasn’t sure how sweet potatoes and pineapple would work together but I am happy to tell you they got along just fine and were delicious. On a hot summer night, they were the cooling influence to a hot and spicy Chimichurri sauce.

Couldn’t be easier. Here’s how to make them at your house. The next day we served the leftover pork with the leftover sweet potatoes for a great meal. A photo is at the end of the blog.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple and Banana

Ingredients

1-pound sweet potatoes
1 banana
½ cup fresh pineapple
¼ cup orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Prep

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes in to 1-inch cubes. One pound of potatoes should yield about 3 cups. Peel the banana and dice the pineapple.

How to Make at Home

Add the potato to a pot filled with cold water and bring to a boil. Always start with cold water. Never add potatoes to water already boiling. Add some salt and cook until fork tender. Takes 10 to 12 minutes.

When the potatoes are done, drain them and add them back to the pot. Heat the potatoes over medium high heat for a couple of minutes to dry them out a bit. When done, add them to a bowl for mashing.

Add the banana, pineapple, orange juice, and honey to the bowl and mash to your desired consistency. Be sure to not over mash them. You want them a little bit chunky.

Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

I’ve recently posted two Hungarian recipes, Beef Goulash and Paprikas Csirke on my blog under “Ask a Chef” and both would be great served with homemade spaetzle. I asked Chef Ricco who provided the two recipes for his favorite spaetzle recipe and I would like to share it with you.

First Ricco gave me his little history of who invented spaetzle along with a few tricks in making the dough. He says,

“Austrian and Germany are fighting over who invented this egg noodle pasta, that is why the Hungarians serve that noodle called csipetke. It’s really a spaetzle, but maybe a little stiffer dough.  

There are a few tricks in making this dough. Winter wheat flour is the best or you may call it “hard flour”. It has more gluten than summer wheat or “soft wheat flour”. The other trick, this is really not a trick, when you mix the ingredients you must use a wooden spoon, now here comes the fun part, you have to mix it until your arm hurts, then mix it some more, until it feels like your arm is going to fall off. The spaetzle is going too look very glossy; the texture will be in-between dough and a batter.

When boiling the spaetzle use a big pot with maximum water and plenty of salt. If you use a special spaetzle sieve, just a plain colander or even if you put the batter on a wooden board and flick little pieces of the dough into boiling water, the most important thing here is too keep the batter as far as you can away from the steam. The steam will make the dough very gooey.

Cook the spaetzle in small batches, when they float to the top of the pot skim them out and put them in a cold-water bath just until they are cooled. Then coat them with a little oil so they don’t stick together. To reheat the cooked spaetzle, just sauté them up in a little butter. If you are going to sever them right away, don’t cool them just toss them in a little melted butter. “

Now for the recipe.

Spaetzle Ingredients
 
18 ounces of sifted flour
4 whole large eggs
1-tablespoon olive oil
3 - 4 tablespoons heavy cream
1-tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

How to Make Spaetzle at Home

Combine all the ingredients as described above but just before your arm falls off.

Boil in a large pot of salted water until the dough floats.

Work in small batches.

Skim the floating spaetzle from the pot and place cold water to cool off.

Coat with a bit of oil to prevent them from sticking together.

Photo from Germanfoods.org web site until I can take a good photograph myself.