Scandinavian Christmas: Day 3

Today Carina from Carina's Craftblog is popping over to share with us how to make Danish

brunede kartofler, a delicious and different way to make potatoes! I first met Carina when I started the Scandinavian Christmas series last year and have since enjoyed keeping up with her blog and many ventures such as her embroidery line Polka and Bloom, and her fabric designs on Spoonflower. She designed some of the cutest Dala horse fabric I've ever seen! I'm so glad she is participating in the series again this year and without further adieu, let's all learn how to make brunede kartofler!

Thank you, Kathryn, for including me in your Scandi Christmas celebrations!

Brunede kartofler are usualy eaten on Christmas Eve with regular boiled potatoes, roast duck or roast pork, along with pickled red cabbage and gravy. Brunede kartofler is perhaps a strange concept, but they are really, really yummy! Enjoy!

Brunede kartofler /Caramelized potatoes

You will need:

Potatoes - as many as you like/need

Sugar - enough to cover a frying pan (this will make more sense when we get to it)

A bit of butter - about a tablespoon's worth, cut into small bits

Water - ½-1 tablespoon

Frying pan with a lid.

Stirring utensil which isn't made of wood (it can be difficult to clean off the caramelized sugar)

Boil your potatoes in salted water until they are just cooked through, don't overcook them. Smallish potatoes are best. It's best to boil the potatoes in their skin and then peel off the skin afterwards. If your potatoes are larger than 5cm/2" cut them in half. Let the potatoes cool down completely before proceeding.

When caramelizing the potatoes it's important that the frying pan is only just large enough to fit the potatoes, this will help keep in the heat and prevent the sugar from crystalizing.

Cover the frying pan in sugar, should be about 1cm/ 3/8" thick. Give or take, it doesn't have to be that thick all over. Turn on the heat, medium heat, and let the sugar melt. Don't stir the sugar, just let it melt in its own good time. For a while it will look like nothing is happening, but resist that temptation to stir the sugar! Make sure that the sugar doesn't burn.

Once all the sugar is melted quickly add the butter and water and stir it into the melted sugar. Then immediately add the potatoes.

Make sure the potatoes are covered in the sugar mass. You might want to scoop the caramelized sugar onto the potatoes. Put the lid on the frying pan and turn the heat to low. After 5 minutes stir the potatoes and scoop more caramelized sugar onto the potatoes if necessary. Pop the lid back on and leave for another 10-15 minutes. The potatoes should start to look nicely browned by now. If the caramelized sugar isn't sticking that much to the potatoes, turn the heat down a little bit more and leave for a bit longer.

Thank you, Carina, for sharing this wonderful recipe!