Rodbedesalat

There are dishes in the Danish kitchen that never arrive alone. Rodbedesalat is one of them. You don't make it for its own sake. You make it because there's leverpostej in the fridge and rugbrod on the board and the afternoon calls for a proper piece of smorrebrod.

This is the cold topping that turns a slab of warm, rich liver pate into one of the great pieces of the Danish lunch. Diced pickled beetroot, tart apple, a whisper of onion, grated horseradish, all bound with creme fraiche and a teaspoon of the beetroot's own pickling liquid. It takes about ten minutes to put together, assuming your pickled beetroot is already in the jar, which in most Danish kitchens it is. The salad belongs to julefrokost, the long Christmas lunch that starts at noon and ends somewhere near darkness, but it also belongs to any Tuesday evening when you want something cool and sharp against something warm and rich.

The thing to pay attention to is the dice. Same size for the beetroot and the apple, smaller for the onion. That's what makes the salad sit properly on a slice of leverpostej instead of tumbling off the bread. And fold the dressing in gently, not briskly. The beetroot will streak the cream in soft pink veins, and those streaks are the mark of a salad made in a kitchen rather than bought in a tub. Once you've made it this way, the supermarket version will taste like a distant relative.