(Works as a journalist. Food lover. Has been cooking for 20 years. Major consumer of cookbooks, food programs and food blogs online. Often includes large dinners with haute cuisine).
Philip
Originally, the plan had been to make roast pork for himself and his friend Gustav tonight. But Gustav got sick, so now Philip is just doing his regular shopping. Whenever he and Gustav are together, Gustav requests the roast pork which is Philip’s piece de la resistance. “We make sure to eat it whenever the girlfriends are not around, because they have this weird reluctance to eat pork”, Philip explains. “They think pork is unclean meat, which is pretty irrational. In fact, pork is very healthy.”
The pork for this dish must be bought at the organic butcher downtown, Philip explains. It’s the best place for good organic meat, even if it’s harrowingly expensive. It’s a half hour drive from Philip’s house to the butcher, but he would never dream of buying the meat elsewhere.
The cookbook
We’re meeting to shop together at the mall. It has a very well-assorted high quality supermarket which Philip uses for shopping. When I meet him, he looks extraordinarily pleased. He pulls a book out of his plastic bag. “Check this out!”, he exclaims. “I’ve been trying to get my hands on this cookbook for years!” He shows me a thick cookbook called “The Silver Spoon”. It contains recipes from some of the famous Michelin cooks in Denmark, and the book has recently been reprinted after being sold out for ages. I display befitting admiration of the book, and then we enter the supermarket.
Shopping at the supermarket
When in the supermarket, Philip peruses through the aisles. There are a number of specific products he wants to buy, but otherwise he lets himself be inspired as we move along. He doesn’t have a shopping list. “I love this supermarket because it has an amazing selection. It’s really well-stocked”, he explains. He takes me to the aisle with the wines. “Look at this!”, he points to the small posters hanging above the wines. “They give you lots of information about the wine, and then they display the reviews which the wine received. I think that’s really cool”, he says. Philip drinks wine frequently, and at weekends he’s happy to spend 15-20 £ on a good bottle of wine. “When I shop food, I really don’t think about the price”, he says, “I go for the good stuff”.
Organic
We arrive at the vegetables. Philip shows me the onions, carrots, cabbage and leeks he’ll buy. He always goes for organic if it’s available. To him organic equals quality and health. In the fruit department he picks only organic too, even though it is very pricy compared to the regular fruit. He tells me that the same thing goes for meat. Not only is it healthier, but it also puts his mind at ease about possible animal welfare issues. His eggs are from free range hens too.
Philip loves fruit. He always has a large batch of apples, oranges, bananas, pears and kiwis lying around at home. Organic and fresh.
When buying vegetables, he goes for the ones in season. “Freshness is really important in good food”, he explains.
Taste above health
We arrive at the cold cuts and spreads. He shows me his favorite liver pate – an organic brand. I notice that he doesn’t pick the low fat one from the same brand. “It doesn’t taste as good”, he says. “I don’t care about the fat percentage, I care about the taste. And fat tastes good!”
The same thing goes for his choice of cheese. The low fat cheese is not his style. He has a favorite cheese from the brand Thise, which he spends a long time trying to find on the dairy shelves. It’s not there. “We have to go to the cheese shop then”, he says. “I have to get that cheese.” Philip learned about this cheese in a restaurant review which mentioned it. Since then he always has it in the house – along with 4-5 other cheeses of different types and tastes. He’s a bit of a cheese fiend.
Where to shop
Philip has two favorite supermarkets where he gets his basic shopping items. Apart from that he uses a number of special shops: the organic butcher downtown, his local butcher, his local vegetable shop, his local cheese shop, his local fish shop, his local bakery, and a number of ethnic shops for special ingredients. He would never just buy everything in the supermarket. He goes to the place where he can get the best, and he is happy to spend that extra time and money. For steaks he always uses his local butcher. One steak costs 10£ which is pretty exorbitant. But he never buys it anywhere else. “You wouldn’t believe how fantastic that meat is!”, he says.
Butter
Philip grins when I ask him about butter. “Don’t you know that they call me the King of Butter? I LOVE butter. I use butter in everything: baking, frying, roasting, cooking and on bread.” He loves to eat a good piece of bread with a thick layer of butter and nothing else. That’s a truly divine taste, he claims. His favorite brand is Thise, but he’ll go for the Lurpak too. He always buys ecological salted butter except for when he makes gravy. Then he uses unsalted butter. Generally, he buys one pack of butter a week, but occasionally he buys two. “I eat a lot of butter!”, he grins.
“Butter should be kept in the fridge”, he explains. He just keeps it in the paper wrapping even if it’s not very practical and easily tears. Every once in a while he might buy a spreadable butter for some bread, but as a rule he feels that butter should be real butter – not some substitute product. Obviously, butter is also a component in Philip’s specialty, roast pork. It’s a pretty elaborate meal:
Philip’s Recipe for Roast Pork
Roast pork:
Start by boiling the cracklings, facing downwards in a roasting-pan for 20 minutes (put boiling water in the pan). After this, rub a large amount of salt on the cracklings and stick laurel leaves in between them. After this the roast goes into the oven. The time depends on the size of the roast. Most importantly, the cracklings must be placed completely horizontally; otherwise they will not get crunchy.
Red cabbage:
You need 2 kg of red cabbage, finely chopped; butter, 2 ½ dl of sweet red currant juice; 1 dl red wine vinegar; 4 tablespoons of muscovado; 2 red food apples.
Lightly fry the red cabbage in butter for approximately five minutes. Add the red currant juice, the red wine vinegar and the muscovado and thoroughly stir. Put on lid an let boil lightly for approximately 20 minutes. Finely dice the apples. Add them to the cabbage after 20 minutes of boiling and then let boil lightly for another 10-15 minutes under a lid.
Sauce:
Use a good veal stock made with onions and carrots plus juice from the pork roast and 3-4 dl water. After a while, add a tablespoon of Blue Castello cheese and a tablespoon of red currant gel. Then add ¼ liter heavy cream plus salt, pepper and sauce color. End up by adding some corn flour to reach the right consistency.
Serve all this with boiled potatoes and chips
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