An englishspeaking friend of mine, Linda from our Douzelage-friendshiptown of Sherborne, was here for a three day visit last week. She had been looking at my food-blog and said: “It all looks so delicious, but why don’t you write them recipes in English? You could get so many readers”.

Well, nothing would please me more, but currently I have not the surplus to do the time-consuming work of translating recipes from Danish into English. No, Google Translate is not really an option.

“But don’t you ever cook from English cookerybooks? I think you said once, that you do so”, another friend said today, when I was talking about converting my blog into English. And she is right! That is the solution! At least for now.

As I am one of those odd persons, who keeps record of what I have served for my guests (and how it turned out!), I also have a list of English recipes, that I am well satisfied with. So I’ll post them on the blog along the way – and then maybe one day, I’ll do everything in two languages.

Only thing is; I do not have photos of all that food, as some of the English recipes are on food – like the one below – that was served at a dinner long before I got a digital camera, so if a photo exists, it’ll be glued into a photoalbum!

Hot beetroot consommé with ouzo cream

(serves 4-6)

350 g raw beetroot

3 x 400 ml Cans of beef consommé

3 tbsp madeira

3 tsp ouzo

4 tbsp créme fraiche

caraway seeds, to garnish

Peel the beetroot and grate coarsely (rubber gloves recommended for this) into a pan. Add the consommé, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until the broth is well coloured by the beetroot. Strain into clean pan, pressing the beetroot in the sieve to extract maximum liquid and colour.

In a small bowl mix the ouzo into the créme fraiche. Reheat the consommé, add the madeira and pour into mugs. Swirl ouzo cream on top of each and freckle lightly with caraway seed.

Serve, if you like, with beetroot crisps.

Note 1: In the recipe the consommé is served in mugs. I served it in deep plates as a light starter – with good bread on the side.

Note 2: Ouzo is a Greek anise-flavored aperitif, but I guess you can use any other anise-flavored drink like pernod or pastis.

Note 3: I made my own beef consommé, but by all means buy it in a can, if you are able to – I don’t think that is possible in Denmark 🙂

(The recipe is from a magazine, which I subscribed to for many years and which I still love and buy once in a while – it’s just too expensive, I think. It’s called Food & Travel, and this recipe is from 1999)