Frikadeller - Recipe from Denmark

Frikadeller are traditional meatballs from Germany, Denmark, the Nordic countries, and Poland.

The term Frikadelle (German) or Frikadeller (Danish) comes from the French fricandeau and the Latin frīgere, meaning to roast or fry.

The oldest known Frikadelle recipe appears in Maria Sophia Schellhammer’s cookbook from the late 17th century. It is believed that the Germans inherited the tradition from the Dutch, and it later spread throughout Northern Europe. Americans, for their part, claim that hamburgers are derived from this dish.

Frikadeller are a national dish in Denmark, often served with caramelized potatoes and red cabbage. This is the recipe I’m sharing today—the Danish version of these meatballs.

Ingredients:

- 250 grams minced pork meat.

- 250 grams minced beef meat. 

- 2 teaspoon Salt.

- 1 chopped onion.

- 1 egg.

- 3 tablespoons flour.

- 200 ml milk.

- Black pepper.

- 100 grams butter.

Preparation:

1- Finely chop the onion into small pieces.

2- Put the onion, meat, and salt into a bowl, mix well, and knead for 5 minutes. The key to this recipe is the kneading time and the resting periods, which help achieve a tender, smooth texture.

3- Add the egg and knead for 2 more minutes.

4- Add the flour and pepper, then knead for 3 more minutes.

5- Add the milk step by step ,mixing and kneading after every step.

6- Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 2 hours, but every 30 minutes knead the meat for a few minutes.

7- Put the butter in a pan, and once it’s hot, add each meatball to fry. To shape the meatballs, use two teaspoons to scoop the mixture and form them into small rounded shapes.

Fry the meatballs on both sides until the meat looks fully cooked.

Now you have this classic Danish dish, which you can serve with caramelized potatoes and red cabbage—recipes I shared in previous weeks.

Receta en Español

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Denmark

Berlinas from Chile

Berlinas are a dessert typical from Berlin and North Germany.

Due to the migration of german people all over the world, this kind of dessert has reached other countries like Spain where this is called  'bombas' ,it also reached South America, specially Chile where the dessert has become a National dish.

The Berlinas are filled with custard cream, caramel spread or jam. The most common filling is the custard cream.

They can be cooked in the oven or fried in a pan, the most traditional way is to fry them, that is the recipe I present today.

Ingredients for the dough:


- 500 grams flour.
- 1 tablespoon baker's yeast. (20 grams).
- 75 grams butter.
- 60 grams sugar.
- 200 cc milk.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- 2 eggs.

Method:

1- Put the dry ingredients in a bowl; sifted flour, sugar , a pinch of vanilla sugar, salt and yeast. Mix well.

2- Add soft butter and mix well.

3- Add milk at room temperature.

4- Add the eggs and mix well.

5- knead using your hands:

6- Until the dough has this consistency:

7- Cover with cling film and let stand for a couple of hours until it doubles its size. My dough took 3 hours.

8- This was the dough after 3 hours:

9- Make a cilinder with the dough and divide it in pieces that weight 60 grams.

10- Smash every piece of dough and roll it until you get a ball.

11- Put the balls on baking parchment, cover with cling film and let stand for 45 minutes.

12- Fill a pan with oil, the amount of oil should be enough to let the balls float.

Heat the oil until 170ºC, if you do not have a thermometer you know that the oil is ready when you put in the oil a little amount of dough and you see bubbles in the oil.

Fry 3 minutes for every side.

13- Put the berlinas on absorbent paper to get rid of the excess of oil.

14- Let the berlinas get cool, make a little cut in the middle and fill the berlina with custard cream.

The custard cream must be cold , you should prepare it time before.

15- Sprinkle some powder sugar , and There you have the berlinas!.

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Chile

Empanadas from Chile

 Empanadas are typical in Chile, the dish was brought by the spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia. In the 1600s the empanadas were eaten by creoles and indigenous people. The most common filling is called pino; a mixture of meat, onion, raisins, eggs and chili pepper.

Pino comes from the mapuche word 'pinu' that means filling.

Ingredients for the filling:


- 900 grams onion.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 450 grams minced meat.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 1 teaspoon cumin.
- 1/2 tablespoon paprika or merkén.
- 1/2 tablespoon ground garlic.
- 1/2 tablespoon corn starch.
- 2 boiled eggs.
- 8 olives.
- 24 raisins.


Ingredients for the dough (8 empanadas):


- 450 grams wheat flour.
- 1 teaspoon chemical yeast.
- 100 grams butter.
- 120 cc water.
- 120 cc milk.
- Salt. 

Method:

1- First we will prepare the filling, it must be cold when we are going to use it for the filling. Because of this we can prepare it the day before.

2- Cut the onion in little pieces, cook in boiling water for 30 seconds.

3- Get rid of the water and keep the onion.

4- Cut the garlic in pieces and sautée it , then add the onion and sautée for some more minutes.

5- Add salt, cumin, paprika, ground garlic and meat, stir well and cook at medium heat covered with a lid until the meat is done.

6- Add corn starch, mix well and cook one more minute.

Let cool, you can use it the following day.

7- Now it is time to do the dough. Mix the flour and chemical yeast.

8- Melt the butter and add it to the flour.

9- Add salt, warm milk and water. Mix well.

9- Knead until the dough is homogeneous, at this moment you should stop kneading. Let stand for half an hour, covered by cling film.

9- Put some flour on a surface, put the dough on the surface and put the dough in the shape of a cilinder. 

Cut the dough in pieces of 60 grams weight, make a little ball for each piece.

10- Flatten every ball with the help of a rolling pin, put it in a circle of 20 cm diameter.

11- Now it is time to fill the empanada, put some filling in the middle, leave some space without filling at the borders.

12- The filling has the meat prepared the previous day, some pieces of boiled egg, raisins and some pieces of olives.

13- Use some water to wet the borders of the circle.

14- Look at the pictures to see how to close the empanadas.

15- Pinch the surface to allow some air  to enter into the empanada.

16- Paint the surface with beaten egg.

17- Cook in the oven at 200 ºC  for 45 minutes.

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Chile