HACKED BEEF

A friend posted a picture of comfort food. Specifically, hakkebøf. Which looks easy to pronounce, although putting on a slight Swedish Chef accent from the Muppet Show would undoubtedly sound better. And as a native speaker of Dutch (hairballs), I probably shouldn't say stuff like that. Hakkebøf are Danish minced beef patties, somewhat similar to Salisbury steak. Brown gravy, potatoes, pickled beets, augurks. Garnish with chives or parsley.
It can also be served with broad noodles and a mushroom sauce.

The soft-fried onions on top are perhaps essential: bløde løg.

Another essential element is increasing the frying surface of the thick meat patties by tapping all over each side with a knife edge, indenting them. That way the browned meatiness is greater, and the pan juices better for making a sauce.

In the same way that most Americans would feel that it's incomplete without bacon, cheese, and ranch dressing, and a typical Dutchman would say "that's a platte gehaktbal and sharp mustard would go well with that", I shall strongly suggest adding some minced capers and a squeeze of lemon when preparing the sauce and eating it all with sambal (chilipaste).

The Danes have not discovered sambal yet.

There are good reasons to suspect that if one of my favourite chachantengs had this as a set lunch, it would come with rice and a vegetable, possibly a few stalks of mustard green, a small bowl of soup, plus your choice of coffee or milk tea.

Which would be totally splendid.



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