The holiday season is a time for decadence, and the Danish know how to do indulgent meals in style. If you’re planning your own traditional Christmas dinner, you’ll need a side dish of Danish browned to potatoes to go with it. Burnede Kartofler, or browned potatoes are boiled potatoes coated in butter and melted sugar.
Ingredients
- 2lb of small baby potatoes
- Water for boiling
- ½ cup of sugar
- 1 oz of butter
- ½ cup of duck grease
- Salt to taste
Directions
- Clean your baby potatoes, but don’t peel the skin.
- Fill a medium-sized pan with water and add a sprinkling of salt. Place your potatoes in the pan and boil them for around fifteen minutes (don’t let them get too soft).
- Peel your potatoes using a knife and let them cool for a few minutes. Danes will usually do this the day before they need the potatoes.
- Add your sugar in an even layer over the bottom of a cold frying pan. Turn the stove on at a medium heat and leave the sugar to melt without stirring. Try to avoid a non-stick coating on your frying pan, as this can make the process harder.
- When your sugar is melted, add the butter to the pan and turn the heat up high. Add your potatoes to the sugar/butter mixture.
- Fry your potatoes in your sugar and butter mixture for between 5 and 7 minutes, turning them regularly. If you’re making the potatoes for your Christmas dinner, add the duck grease for an extra Christmassy flavor.
- Once the sugar has begun sticking evenly to the potatoes, they should be ready to serve. Pour them out (keeping plenty of the sugary, buttery coating into a bowl for serving.
Danish browned potatoes origins
Brunede Kartofler is a popular treat and side dish for the Danish Christmas dinner. There’s no specific story about where this rather indulgent meal came from, but we know it’s a speciality of Danish food. You can also serve these sugary potatoes with virtually any other meal of your choosing. Once you’ve tried a serving yourself, it’ll be hard to resist.
Scandification: Discovering Scandinavia.
