I love a good tartarmad as much as anybody and have already posted about the traditional way of preparing it, but I've been stricken with the uncontrollable urge to explore non-traditional variations of classic smørrebrød, and wanted to share a recent discovery with fans of Danish Sandwiches!

A delicious treat for lunch and day of the week!
Just looking at it now makes my mouth water!

First of all, I have to acknowledge Aamanns restaurant in Copenhagen as the source of this new tasty treat. I was perusing the various blogs with posts about smørrebrød and I came across a great post by some food-savvy tourists who were visiting Copenhagen and ended up spending some quality time at my favourite smørrebrød joint. In the blog, they went into painstaking detail on the many sandwiches they ordered, taking close-up photos of each. It is from one of these photos that found my inspiration.

One of the things I love about Aamanns, and its especially true with this sandwich, is how the various ingredients so thoroughly complement each other - texture, flavour, and appearance are all harmoniously in balance and wonderfully unified by the Danish rye bread. I also love the way Aamanns comes up with new variations on traditional themes in a way that allows the old and the new to co-exist together.

From a design & architecture standpoint, this is something I pick up on when I visit Denmark. Sure it’s a very old country with a rich history, but the people don’t live in the past – they are constantly updating their environment to bring the old and the new together in ways I find very cool. For instance, you can see many examples in Copenhagen where new modern structures (say the Metro system) stand in juxtaposition to the historic landmarks (say Kongens Nytorv), in a way that enhances the overall appearance. (This is just my non-scholarly opinion – there may be groups of design advocates out there who will want my head on a platter for saying this – who knows???)

Here are a couple of architectural examples of the old and the new living side-by-side in Copenhagen:

 

Metro system at Kongens Nytorv:
Pyramids provide entrance for lighting in undergound system

UNIBANK Headquarters, Copenhagen:
New modern architecture, part of its surroundings

OK, let’s get back to the topic at hand – something I feel a lot more comfortable bloggin about - a new tartarmad sandwich. You'll need:


Fancy tartarmad: What you'll need to make it

• Buttered Danish rye bread
• Chopped uncooked beef
• Creamy egg sauce (though egg yolks would be just fine, too)
• Cornichon
• Red onion rings
• Fresh tarragon
• Crispy sliced potatoes

Buttered Danish rye is the foundation upon which this great sandwich is built. Homemade is best, but don't let that get in the way of enjoying this masterpiece - store bought is better than nothing.

Chopped beef: It only takes a few minutes,
but watch your fingers! 

Chopped beef - When making tartar, you want to get a great piece of meet from an excellent quality butcher. Ask for something like flank steak or sirloin of you want something with a bit of fat (i.e taste). Use filet mignon if you want the ultimate in tenderness. You need about 200g for 4 sandwiches. Then you want to take that tasty meat and hand chop it with a sharp knife as finely as you can reasonably manage. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate until ready to use.

Egg yolk or "Magic Sauce" - Egg yolk, with its rich velvety texture, goes so well with raw meat it's scary. Cooked egg yolks, on the other hand, don't work at all and are a very poor substitute for the real raw thing. And while I love eating raw egg yolks with tartar, some people get all weird about possibly poisoning themselves, so here are a couple of alternatives:

·    Quickly pasteurize the egg yolks in a double-boiler until they are warm, but not cooked. Careful that the yolks don’t seize up.

·    Whip up a batch of what my friends and I mysteriously call Magic Sauce – basically a rich custard-like mixture with a slight hint of mustard. Here’s my recipe:



The things you'll need for Magic Sauce...

Ingredients for Magic Sauce:

• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 125ml whipping cream
• 1 heaping TBSP Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. Gently heat the cream until it is frothy and very hot

2. Pour a little bit of hot cream into the yolks, stirring constantly, to temper the yolks. This will ensure that they do not curdle when added to the rest of the cream.

3. Add the yolks into the rest of the cream and heat over a bain-marie while stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened (about 5 minutes).

Whip it good!

4. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool completely.

5. Add the mustard, salt and pepper and refrigerate until ready to use. It should have the consistency of mayonnaise.

Red onions, cornichon, tarragon, and crispy potatoes – These ingredients should all be readily available to you. If you want to be really fancy, you can deep fry your own potato slices, but my taste testers were more than happy to eat this sandwich topped with potato chips (use a good unsalted kind of chip from a company like Miss Vickie’s or Cape Cod)

Some Assembly Required

To assemble the sandwich, you simply spread out enough chopped up beef to cover the rye bread, add a dollop or two of “Magic Sauce” and cover artfully with the remaining ingredients. Enjoy with a cold beer, fork and knife!

This smørrebrød looks great, tastes great, and is easy to make. What more can you ask for!

Tartarmad - good, old fashion smørrebrød

Sadly, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not, some wonderfully delicious delectables fall out of fashion and spontaneously disappear from dining room tables. Tartarmad - or Danish smørrebrød of steak tartare on hearty rye bread - is a perfect example of one such casualty of the fast-paced world of changing food tastes - it has been gone from popular cuisine for ages and ages. Whether it is due to fears of eating raw meat and eggs, or just because there are so many other yummy treats to eat these days, Tartarmad is definitely not on today's culinary radar.

Tartarmad:
Back on the culinary radar

But fear not! I love Tartarmad, and this week's post will show you just what you need to do in order to bring the oldie but goodie back into style in your home...

First of all, let's talk about ingredients. With tartarmad, probably more than any other sandwich in the pantheon of all-time great smørrebrød, you are relying heavily on the quality of its component ingredients - you absolutely need the freshest, highest quality ingredients, especially in terms of beef and eggs. The few extra dollars you'll need to spend on great meat from a top butcher is worth it, in terms of the final taste, and of course in terms of food safety. And the eggs - if you can get farm fresh, free-range eggs, the flavour will be that much better (and safer). And needless to say, it all comes together on thick slices of buttered Danish rye bread.

Ooey, gooey good!

Simply put, I love this smørrebrød. I love the way the ingredients come together harmoniously and combine to make an ooey-gooey-good lunch. With savoury, tender meat, smooth egg yolk, chewy rye bread, crunchy pickles, and potent horseradish you are getting an exhilarating sandwich experience like few others. It's like eating in a great French bistro, without the surly waiter. Add a bowl of pommes frites, and you have an unforgettable treat.

Clean is good...

A note on food safety and hygiene: I am no food safety expert, but I am not squeamish when it comes to eating things raw. I do realize that not everybody shares my zeal for "living dangerously". So here is my advice for those of you who are thinking of taking a stab at "extreme" tartare eating for the first time. If you have any doubt about the quality of the produce, don't take any chances. Avoid the back alley free-range egg merchants and the suspicious meat rack at the supermarket. Mad Cow and Salmonella have funny names, but that is where the humour ends.

So ends my public service announcement. Now on with the recipe...

Sirloin! Perfect for tartarmad.

So let's start with the meat. You want to go to a good butcher and get a whole (unground) piece of nice quality meat - I suggest sirloin here. It's tender and has a bit of fat to make it taste slightly richer than, say, filet mignon. 500g of sirloin will get you enough meat for 5 or 6 generous smørrebrød.

Once you've got your meat, you need to chop it by hand with a really sharp knife. This is for a couple of reasons. 1) It helps to ensure the best possible hygiene, as meat grinders are notoriously hard to keep really spick and span, and 2) you end up with a nicer coarse texture to the meat. Tender, high-quality meat need not be ground beyond recognition  - there is nothing to hide!

Chop sirloin by hand

Chopping sirloin is not hard, but it tasks a bit of patience. Make sure you work on a clean surface, work fast (without risking your fingers), and try to keep the meat as cold as possible to inhibit the formation of unwanted bacteria.

Once you've chopped it to the desired degree of coarseness, give it a dash of seasoning (salt and pepper), and even throw in a couple of table spoons of minced onion. Then wrap it up in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Nothing to hide  - Yum!

Meanwhile, prepare the other accompaniments:

• Slice a small onion into rings 
• Grate horseradish, if you can find it fresh
• Dice pickles and red beets
• Separate the egg yolks from the egg white (you'll need one egg yolk per open sandwich)
• Put out 3-4 spoons of capers

When you are ready to build the sandwich, here's what you need to do:

1. Start by buttering the rye bread.
2. Cover the bread completely with a generous portion of seasoned chopped sirloin, then flatten the meat out evenly across the top of the bread using a fork.
3. Place an onion ring atop in the centre of the meat.
4. Place one egg yolk inside the onion ring.
5. Serve with accompaniments such as horseradish, pickles, capers, and red beets. 
6. Enjoy with fork and knife and large glass of Danish lager. Skål!

Tartarmad: old-school goodness and pretty, too!