Another day off! Danish spring is filled with these little celebrations and days off!
Most Christian countries celebrate Ascension Thursday, the day Jesus went to sit at his father's right hand, after having spent 40 days walking around on earth proving to people, that he actually did rise from the dead. (Ascension is therefore always 40 days after his resurrection on Easter Sunday, in 2012 it's on May 17th) by having the day off. Often people will also take Friday off, thus create a whole little mini-vacation; a sort of pre taste of summer days soon to come.
There aren't any specific food traditions in connection with Ascension Thursday, however this day is often used for weddings, confirmations and other big family celebrations. This year my nephew in Denmark will have his Confirmation on this day and we will be sending him congratulatory wishes all day long. Confirmations in Denmark are a very big deal, one that warrants it's own post one of these days, I should think, as many traditions go into it.
While this blog isn't intended to explain any religious content, but only to share the traditions observed by all danes, it is in it's place to mention that it is a celebratory day and not a sad day like Good Friday for instance.
Enjoy the days off, and do start your own family food traditions.
Enjoying the privilege of reading through both my grandmothers' handwritten cookbooks. I feel a responsibility to preserve these old parts of Danish history before they are lost. Don't get me wrong. I adore adventure, culinary and otherwise, but we need to know our roots to fully appreciate the thrill of other adventures. Sprinkled with memories of my upbringing in a unique setting. Let me take you through a year of traditional Danish celebrations first:
Gammelgaard
Gammelgaard, where my grandmother and then my mother, ran the household and where I grew up. (Father's side)
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Pille Fjordrejer-Peeling Shrimp, a Deeply Addictive, Historic and Vastly Important Danish Ritual.
"You have to write about the Shrimp!" It is my husband urging me to share this delightful and decidedly Vikingesque part of my Danish upbringing. I must first explain, that we are dealing with an entirely different kind of shrimp than you are probably thinking of. These fjord shrimp are tiny, and not all from fjords, but that is besides the point. They are very small, about an inch to an inch and a half long, and they are EXTREMELY tasty! They are such an integral part of my upbringing that I don't even realize my first memory of them, the same way you probably don't realize the first breath you remember taking.
In early spring, I often find my thoughts wandering back to the annual "competition" amongst my mother and other family members and friends: who would procure this season's first batch of shrimp? As the waters around Denmark warm up in April, the tiny shrimp come closer to the shores to spawn; they hang around here until early fall when the waters cool again and they will seek toward deeper waters, areas that won't freeze in cold winters. This they have done since the beginning of time.
Everyone in our circle of friends and family had their personal shrimping connections and everyone would keep this name close to their vest; they never shared this information lest they'd have to compete for the shrimper's favors. Everyone wanted to be their shrimper's favorite, everyone declared that their shrimper always put the best shrimp aside for them, or that their shrimper, at times when the entire country was having a hard time getting shrimp, was the only one who could produce a batch. The real impressive move was the friend who could serve already peeled shrimp for a large party. You see no efficient machine has yet been invented, that can peel these tiny crustaceans, so it has to be done by hand and did I mention they are tiny?!
Peeling the shrimp is part of the enjoyment. People from around the world have developed social traditions around the peeling and sucking of shellfish; in Maryland they have their blue-crab parties and the Swedes have their crayfish parties; we Danes have our tiny succulent shrimp. You are provided with a slice of deliciously fresh bread. Some families feel strongly about the type of bread, that it either should be a thick slice of white bread, whole wheat bread or perhaps caraway seed bread, some people prefer rye-bread. In either event, the bread should be fresh.
You start by spreading butter on your bread, then you place the piece of bread on the bread plate that is to your immediate left (keeping the bread on a separate plate helps keep it clean from small crunchy shell-parts you might not want on your finished open sandwich). You place a pile of cooked shrimp on your large plate and then you proceed to peel. Peeling the shrimp is easy, people have different techniques. Some people like to leave part of the head on the shrimp while others prefer just the back and the tail; personally I find it gives more taste to leave part of the head on, and certainly also the roe; I cringe when I see people throw out the roe, but that's my preference. My grandfather, morfar, didn't bother to remove the back-shield, something I never understood (I tried it, it was much too crunchy and painful to eat) I think he thought it was good for his digestion, it certainly made him fast at finishing the peeling part. He was quite the crustacean connoisseur so this puzzled me.
If this is your first time, your table mates will be delighted to show you how it is done. You peel and talk and talk and peel. The peeled shrimp you put on your bread in very neat rows, when the rows cover your slice of bread, you start a second tier and then a third. Some people leave the shrimp in a jumbled pile to be transfered to the bread when they deem there is enough. The very experienced and kind peelers are likely to help you out and will probably put a few on your bread, others focus on the task, maybe they haven't done it in a while, maybe it wasn't as big a part of their upbringing as it was of mine. You dip your fingers in the little personal rinsing bowl, that has a slice of lemon floating in it (to help eliminate the smell of shellfish from your hands) and then you taste the very cold white wine (this can of course also be done on the pier/dock/beach/boat, straight from the bowl and with a cold beer!) while you look at your progress (or lack of same) and at your fellow diners' progress. If this is your first shrimp sandwich of the year, your anticipation of that first bite is great and you can hardly wait. We children always competed to see who could have the most tiers of peeled shrimp on our open sandwich.
YUMMM!
If you are lucky enough to get these tiny shrimp, you will need to act fast. They have to be alive ; if they don't flap their tails, don't buy them and don't cook them! Cooking shrimp is easily done, although most people have little variations they swear by. Essentially you bring a large pot of water to the boil, you add a handful of salt (it should be quite salty, probably as much as the water it used to swim in, which is a good amount) and a little bit of sugar along with some sprigs of dill. When you have a roaring boil going, you add the shrimp, cover the pot for one to two minutes (depending on exactly how small they are) then turn off the heat, leave them in the pot for another minute; then you pour them into a colander and shock them with cold water. (One of my grandmother's friends had a trick: she always saved the broth/cookingwater and froze it, to use again next time she boiled shrimp. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like it would only concentrate the delicious flavor.)
Leave them somewhere cool (not refrigerator) for a couple of hours and then start the peeling party. If you have to leave the peeled shrimp till the next day, of course you will have to refrigerate them, which isn't a problem, they just lose some of their deliciousness in the icebox. In order to bring that back, you have to get them back to just cooler than room temperature (shrimp at refrigerator temperature have very little taste left); you then add some crushed dill seed, a little bit of salt and a little bit of sugar, mix it around in the shrimp and let it sit for a while. This will bring some of the freshness back to day-old refrigerated peeled shrimp. (You may also keep them with the peel on till the next day in the refrigerator, they can still be peeled and enjoyed the next day, although at all times better in taste when brought to just cooler than room -temp.)
Interesting shrimp facts:
-The first 2-4 years the shrimp lives as a male, whereafter it changes gender to live the rest of its life as female!
-Shrimp mate in the fall, whereafter the female shrimp carries the eggs between her legs until spring, when they hatch.
-The shrimp described here, the Fjord shrimp (or "Roskilde Rejer") are clearish grey before cooked and light salmony-pink after they are cooked (see photo above).
For years there were no shrimp to be had, as they were wiped out by bacteria. In the last several years there has been a happy revival of the shrimp population only to suddenly be disappearing again on account of a very hungry fish, the black Goby, which has migrated from the Black Sea up to the Baltic. I hope this sea monster will be brought under control as otherwise this old Danish ritual may become extinct in the not so distant future.
In early spring, I often find my thoughts wandering back to the annual "competition" amongst my mother and other family members and friends: who would procure this season's first batch of shrimp? As the waters around Denmark warm up in April, the tiny shrimp come closer to the shores to spawn; they hang around here until early fall when the waters cool again and they will seek toward deeper waters, areas that won't freeze in cold winters. This they have done since the beginning of time.
 |
| 1996 my mother shares her well-kept shrimp secrets with my 3 year old daughter |
Everyone in our circle of friends and family had their personal shrimping connections and everyone would keep this name close to their vest; they never shared this information lest they'd have to compete for the shrimper's favors. Everyone wanted to be their shrimper's favorite, everyone declared that their shrimper always put the best shrimp aside for them, or that their shrimper, at times when the entire country was having a hard time getting shrimp, was the only one who could produce a batch. The real impressive move was the friend who could serve already peeled shrimp for a large party. You see no efficient machine has yet been invented, that can peel these tiny crustaceans, so it has to be done by hand and did I mention they are tiny?!
Peeling the shrimp is part of the enjoyment. People from around the world have developed social traditions around the peeling and sucking of shellfish; in Maryland they have their blue-crab parties and the Swedes have their crayfish parties; we Danes have our tiny succulent shrimp. You are provided with a slice of deliciously fresh bread. Some families feel strongly about the type of bread, that it either should be a thick slice of white bread, whole wheat bread or perhaps caraway seed bread, some people prefer rye-bread. In either event, the bread should be fresh.
You start by spreading butter on your bread, then you place the piece of bread on the bread plate that is to your immediate left (keeping the bread on a separate plate helps keep it clean from small crunchy shell-parts you might not want on your finished open sandwich). You place a pile of cooked shrimp on your large plate and then you proceed to peel. Peeling the shrimp is easy, people have different techniques. Some people like to leave part of the head on the shrimp while others prefer just the back and the tail; personally I find it gives more taste to leave part of the head on, and certainly also the roe; I cringe when I see people throw out the roe, but that's my preference. My grandfather, morfar, didn't bother to remove the back-shield, something I never understood (I tried it, it was much too crunchy and painful to eat) I think he thought it was good for his digestion, it certainly made him fast at finishing the peeling part. He was quite the crustacean connoisseur so this puzzled me.
If this is your first time, your table mates will be delighted to show you how it is done. You peel and talk and talk and peel. The peeled shrimp you put on your bread in very neat rows, when the rows cover your slice of bread, you start a second tier and then a third. Some people leave the shrimp in a jumbled pile to be transfered to the bread when they deem there is enough. The very experienced and kind peelers are likely to help you out and will probably put a few on your bread, others focus on the task, maybe they haven't done it in a while, maybe it wasn't as big a part of their upbringing as it was of mine. You dip your fingers in the little personal rinsing bowl, that has a slice of lemon floating in it (to help eliminate the smell of shellfish from your hands) and then you taste the very cold white wine (this can of course also be done on the pier/dock/beach/boat, straight from the bowl and with a cold beer!) while you look at your progress (or lack of same) and at your fellow diners' progress. If this is your first shrimp sandwich of the year, your anticipation of that first bite is great and you can hardly wait. We children always competed to see who could have the most tiers of peeled shrimp on our open sandwich.
YUMMM!
 |
| My friend Nethe Plenge shocks her shrimp |
If you are lucky enough to get these tiny shrimp, you will need to act fast. They have to be alive ; if they don't flap their tails, don't buy them and don't cook them! Cooking shrimp is easily done, although most people have little variations they swear by. Essentially you bring a large pot of water to the boil, you add a handful of salt (it should be quite salty, probably as much as the water it used to swim in, which is a good amount) and a little bit of sugar along with some sprigs of dill. When you have a roaring boil going, you add the shrimp, cover the pot for one to two minutes (depending on exactly how small they are) then turn off the heat, leave them in the pot for another minute; then you pour them into a colander and shock them with cold water. (One of my grandmother's friends had a trick: she always saved the broth/cookingwater and froze it, to use again next time she boiled shrimp. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like it would only concentrate the delicious flavor.)
Leave them somewhere cool (not refrigerator) for a couple of hours and then start the peeling party. If you have to leave the peeled shrimp till the next day, of course you will have to refrigerate them, which isn't a problem, they just lose some of their deliciousness in the icebox. In order to bring that back, you have to get them back to just cooler than room temperature (shrimp at refrigerator temperature have very little taste left); you then add some crushed dill seed, a little bit of salt and a little bit of sugar, mix it around in the shrimp and let it sit for a while. This will bring some of the freshness back to day-old refrigerated peeled shrimp. (You may also keep them with the peel on till the next day in the refrigerator, they can still be peeled and enjoyed the next day, although at all times better in taste when brought to just cooler than room -temp.)
Interesting shrimp facts:
-The first 2-4 years the shrimp lives as a male, whereafter it changes gender to live the rest of its life as female!
-Shrimp mate in the fall, whereafter the female shrimp carries the eggs between her legs until spring, when they hatch.
-The shrimp described here, the Fjord shrimp (or "Roskilde Rejer") are clearish grey before cooked and light salmony-pink after they are cooked (see photo above).
 |
| The Black Gobi that has migrated from the Black Sea |
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