Lam og Rejer Tarteletter med Dild og Salturt

Tarteletter are one of those homey grandmother style dishes that everyone likes eating during holidays and celebrations, but almost never any other time. Danish people love tarteletter. It is part of general pop culture and referred to in TV and movies all the time. Here are some clips from Danish TV. Check it out:

That's some pretty weird stuff. 

Tarteletter are baked puff pastry cups filled with a savoury filling. The most common filling is exactly like chicken pot pie, but shrimp and asparagus is also popular. I decided to make lamb, shrimp, and dill tarteletter for Easter lunch to be a bit different.

  Lamb and shrimp stew is a classic Scandinavian dish that seems a bit strange at first. The combo feels more like something you would get in Hong Kong or Vietnam, but I suppose the marriage of land and sea applies to a lot of cuisines. Gumbo in Louisiana, paella in Valencia, shrimp and pork gyoza, etc. The lamb is cooked slowly like a blanquette de veau and the shrimp and herbs are added near the end. It makes a nice spring dish. I found some samphire they had at the fish shop to add some salty crunch and to kind of tie the land and sea thing together. It worked out great and I will make them again. Tartletter shells are available in all the supermarkets in Denmark. You could use large vol au vents or even turn the whole dish upside down and make it with a puff pastry top if you want.

Recipe for Lamb, Shrimp, and dill Tartlets

Take 1kg boneless lamb leg cut into bite size pieces and put it in a pot with about 1l water, a few bay leaves, 1 chopped leek, 2 diced carrots, 1 diced onion a bit of salt and a splash of white wine.

Simmer for about a hour and a half until the lamb is very tender. Thicken with a small amount of beurre manié (flour and butter) and add 1dl whipping cream. Finish seasoning with cracked pepper and more salt if necessary.

Add 250g baby shrimps and a handful of fresh chopped dill and heat through.

spoon into puff pastry tart shells and serve

If you have access to samphire, blanch it for about 30 seconds in boiling water to soften, and take away a bit of the saltiness. Add it with the shrimp and dill, and keep it in mind when your seasoning the blanquette

Staying in a Cueva in Guadix

Not far from Grenada near the Sierra Nevada Mountains lies Guadix, a town that is famous for its many cave houses. These houses look like a cross between hobbit houses and the Flintstone's residence, and hundreds of Cuevas can be found in Guadix and the surrounding countryside. People have been living in caves in this area for centuries, and it makes sense. The caves are a great way to shield yourself from the sun and enjoy cool temperatures in the summer and warmth in the winter. The temperatures are extreme here. And the desert like vistas were perfect for filming the spaghetti westerns of the 1960's. Walking around you can imagine Clint Eastwood riding out of the hills.

Between the hills and the fields of almond and olive trees you can see small white chimneys sticking out of the ground indicating a cave house neighbourhood. Although many cuevas lie unused,  thousands of people still live in them and more and more tourists are coming to stay in one of the cave house hotels that have popped up in recent years. Many of the caves are quite luxurious inside, and most of the refurbished ones have electricity and running water with stuccoed walls painted bright white.

We stayed in a cave house complex called Cuevas de Rolando just outside of town. Our cave was a smallish two bedroom apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, wood burning stove, and a great outdoor terrace with a brick barbeque. Although most of are vacation was spent experiencing the hectic Semana Santa celebrations around Andalusia, our cave was cozy and quiet, and it was great to just kick back and relax for a few days.
  

There are no stores nearby, so you have to buy your supplies in town. There was a large supermarket near the bus station which had an incredible selection of produce, meats, cheeses, pastries, and specialty sausages. We bought a ton of stuff including some local vermuts and finos. Besides wandering the hills and fields, there is not much to do. Neither Mia or I drive so we couldn't explore the surrounding region much, and we spent the next few days feasting and relaxing.

Tapas in the afternoons, including serrano wrapped dates, chorizo, marinated fish, manchego, and mojama with romesco

A BBQ every evening with various sausages and vegetables

Eating roast chicken with bacon wrapped grilled strawberries

and drinking lots of sherry while watching the sunset over the Sierra Nevada Mountains

One morning we walked down to the nearby Guadix Train Station and had a typical Spanish breakfast in the cool retro diner attached. Pan con Tomate y  jamon y queso

Another day we made plato alpujarreño. A regional dish of the area with sausage, eggs, pork loin, and lots of fried potatoes and spicy peppers. A great hangover cure.









We had a great time in our little cave house and would like to go back. Renting a cave house in Guadix for a couple of weeks would be a perfect way to unwind and get away from it all.

View from our Cave

Retro Train Station Diner

Almond Trees

Nearby Cave Houses

Sunset

Apple and Blackberry Trifli with Homemade Granola

It seems everyone is talking about hygge these days. It was one of the "new" words of the year in 2016. There are many interpretations of the word, but at this time of year, when your really getting sick of the weather, it means lets do something nice to make our lives seem less shit. That's why one crappy February day Mia and I made this nice and fancy little dessert for ourselves. Apple and Blackberry Trifli with Homemade Granola.

Trifli is a classic Danish dessert that is similar to English trifle except trifli doesn't usually have alcohol in it and instead of layers of sponge cake, trifli uses makroner, a crispy almond flavoured biscuit. Traditionally layers of a fruit compote such as prune, rhubarb, gooseberry, or apple are layered in a clear glass with sweetened whipped cream and crushed makroner. We added some of Mia's homemade granola to give the dish extra crunch and texture. The whole thing was delicious and a luxurious treat. A real hygge pick me up on a dreary Danish winter afternoon.

I'm not going to provide a recipe for this particular dessert because its pretty straight forward, you can use any combination of fruit compotes and fresh berries according to what you have around and what is in season. Find a few nice looking glasses and layer compote, then crushed biscuits and granola, then whipped cream, and repeat. Top with fresh berries and a sprinkling of granola.
If you can't find makroner you could substitute amaretti biscuits. If you can't find amaretti biscuits then you could use French macarons, but they get quite chewy quickly, so assemble everything right before serving.