Monday, June 24, 2013

Dining Danish: Koldskål

A few weeks after coming back from Denmark, I found myself pining...for Danish food. In order to quiet my Danish food cravings, I decided to attempt to replicate some of the recipes of my favorite foods in Denmark, especially those that were particularly unique to the country.

When the weather finally got warm in Copenhagen, grocery stores exploded with displays of quart containers and pre-made cups with cookies in the lid of this stuff called koldskål. I decided to buy a cup of it, not actually knowing what it was (as was the case most of the time when I went grocery shopping in Denmark).

Koldskål (literally translated as "cold bowl") is a traditional Danish dish served in the summer (thus, the increase of product when the weather got warm). It's kind of hard to describe, but it sort of resembles a lemony, buttermilk-yogurt soup. That doesn't sound appetizing, but trust me, it is unique and delicious. I saw people eating it on the train for breakfast, but I ate it as a dessert with strawberries and nut granola on top. The things in the container lid are a type of cookie called kammerjunker (you can't make these words up if you tried), which are akin to a vanilla wafer.

I used the recipe below and served my koldskål with blueberries and vanilla wafers. Enjoy a little taste of summer in Denmark!


Om nom nom


Koldskål
Adapted from Secret Pocket Blog

1 cup yogurt (I used nonfat plain Greek)
4 tablespoons sugar
3 cups buttermilk (I added a little bit of milk, too, to get the consistency to my liking)
zest of one lemon
juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the yogurt, sugar, and lemon zest in a bowl. Using a mixer or whisk, mix together until the sugar dissolves. Mix in the rest of the ingredients until blended. Keep in a pitcher in the fridge. Serve with fresh berries, granola, and/or vanilla wafers.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Back in the USA

Look out, Chicago! The good people of the Department of Homeland Security at O'Hare International Airport let me back into the country. It's great to be back!

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. After I ended my work at DTU, my parents came to visit for a week, and right after that, Andy came to visit for ten days. Andy and I went on a wonderful (and tiring) trip around Europe including stops in Stockholm, Paris, and Zurich. Phew!

I took Tuesday off to get myself back together. I did exciting things such as:
Staying in my pajamas until 10 AM
Unpacking
Laundry
Going to the bank to get quarters for laundry
More laundry
Eating sushi takeout
Even more laundry

Quite the thrilling day, indeed.

Is retroactively blogging about your exploits kosher? I have lots of photos from the trip that I'd like to share with you all, but I'm trying to filter through the hundreds of pictures I took to give you S&C-ers the best of the best. More on this as I continue my photo filtering. Cheers!