Denmark

Denmark has consistently been ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world. I think part of the reason is because they eat delicious but unpretentious food like smørrebrød on a regular basis. Smørrebrød is at its core an open-faced sandwich. What I'm saying is that Denmark basically invented avocado toast.

Smørrebrød comes from the Danish words "butter and bread" but has evolved to include a variety of interesting ingredients. Often smoked, pickled, and cured fishes are eaten, but it wasn't hard finding inspiration for vegetable focused combinations.

I started with potatoes. I chose baby potatoes that would soften up quickly when boiled and would be easy to slice and fit on bread. Plus these are fun colors.

Next I made some quick-pickled onions. I let the thinly sliced sweet onions soak in a vinegar, honey, and fennel seed mixture for about 30 minutes.

I then started prepping some radishes. I love radishes with their earthy sweetness and their crunchy texture.

Look at this little guy! So cute.

I made some "horseradish" mayonnaise to serve as the fat layer instead of butter. I used a white hot sauce that tastes sort of like horseradish, since horseradish is often used in traditional recipes. It ended up being way spicier than I meant it to be, but at least all the other ingredients helped cool it down.

I had to take about a billion pictures on this table because I had about five minutes of great late-afternoon sunlight coming in and I had to take advantage of it. Here you can see the bread I chose. Traditionally, dark Danish sourdough rye is used, but that can be hard to find in a regular supermarket so we used a combination of regular rye and some pumpernickel rye.

I thinly sliced my radishes and some cucumber for a light, crunchy topping.

And sliced some potato and havarti cheese for a richer, heavier topping.

I then started piling on my toppings. The smørrebrød on the left has brown mustard, arugula, pickled onions, and potato (havarti and dill were added next). The smørrebrød on the right has mayonnaise, radishes, cucumber, and dill (havarti and onions were added next).

You do have to make sure that you're stacking toppings neatly and logically. Otherwise everything falls off when you start eating it. Technically you should eat smørrebrød with a knife and fork, but we really didn't feel like pulling out the silverware so we went the hand-held route, which worked fine.

There was nothing overly messy, but I could see how things like egg salad would be a little more difficult to eat on an open faced sandwich without getting it all over your hands.

The Danes have a concept called hygge, which can be defined as a kind of cozy togetherness. It's comfort and warmth and tranquility. As we enjoyed our smørrebrød while letting the last light of the evening sun stream through our living room window, I thought about how I could definitely move to Denmark, if it meant eating open-faced sandwiches and watching sunsets every day. No wonder they're one of the happiest countries in the world.

Recipes Used: Vegetarian smørrebrød // How to Make Smørrebrød // Combination Ideas