Kjeldsen and Peitersen had the boat filled with Greenlandic provisions on their voyage around the world
Food waste
– a new word that entered our language in 2014. Since then it has become an everyday word.
A Russian woman wondered why we threw out a lot of good food.
The only thing wrong with the carrots, the yoghurt, the flour and the grains was that they had passed their sell-by date. There was really nothing wrong with them.
Since then many chefs and kitchen people have both told and shown how we can make delicious food out of leftovers and avoid food waste.
That has resulted in piles of new cookbooks and cookery programmes.
Apps have been developed so that together we can rescue food from the bin.
Shops and restaurants sell the food they have not sold during the day at a bargain price.
You just have to go to the shop or the restaurant yourself and pick up your bag of food.
The supermarkets have made spaces and boxes with yellow price labels for food that is close to its sell-by date.
There is good economy in minimising food waste.
So use your leftovers.
They can become new and interesting dishes,
and hey presto – suddenly you have also saved a little on your household budget.
All of it interesting, tempting and new
– or is it really?
Is it not just good, old-fashioned common sense, the kind Laura used in the Varnæs kitchen in Matador?
Back then, good food was not to go to waste either.
Everything on the pig had in some way or other to become good food.
From a wise Russian woman to a wise Greenlandic woman.
In Aasiaat, a town in Disko Bay, Dorthe Kjeldsen has lived for 30 years together with her husband Jens.
The two of them have sailed through the Northwest Passage in their sailing boat “Killua”, out to the small islands of the Pacific.
It was the fourth time Jens and Dorthe put to sea, because they find it life-affirming to sail out and experience the world.
The reason they chose to take the trip through the Northwest Passage is that the journey is the stuff of legend.
The Inuit used that route more than 100 years ago, when they travelled from Canada to Greenland.
On that trip Dorthe became the first Greenlandic woman to sail through the Northwest Passage.
That is also why she was chosen as Woman of the Year in Greenland in 2020. She was nominated for the prize because she is both tough and modest.
She is a good role model for women, because she shows that you can do what you set your mind to.
Jens Kjeldsen’s childhood friend, the film maker Erik Peitersen, joined the crew of the Kjeldsens’ boat “Killua” in Aasiaat before they set off for the Northwest Passage.
The trip was planned to take about three months.
That meant they had to bring enough provisions so that they would not also have to worry about food if they got stuck in the ice along the way.
Wind, current and waves are also something sailors respect. They can make it impossible to reach harbour and take on supplies.
Greenlandic provisions
Ahead of the trip Dorthe had gathered a lot of Greenlandic provisions.
That is what Greenlandic food is called.
It is good, solid Greenlandic food such as muskox and reindeer meat, seal and fish.
Food that people have eaten themselves happy and full on for generations.
Peitersen was given tastes of the provisions when he came on board Killua, as a welcome.
Among other things he was to taste mattak (whale skin). It is a lovely Greenlandic delicacy – and it tastes wonderful.
To Peitersen’s surprise, mattak is very clean in flavour, a little in the style of oysters and sushi.
Boiled seal intestines with mustard
One evening out at sea Dorthe served boiled seal intestines with mustard, which goes well with seal meat.
Peitersen was set to plait the intestines.
They look much more delicate and inviting when they are plaited. Otherwise it just looks like an ordinary boiled sausage.
It was the first time Peitersen had tasted seal intestines.
To his surprise he liked the flavour. In taste it is a little reminiscent of sliced heart.
Full and content, Peitersen noted that it is good to see that EVERYTHING on a seal is used.
That is, meat, blubber and innards alike. It can all be eaten. No food waste here.
The claws become interesting jewellery and the sealskin becomes beautiful clothes and lovely shoes.
That is how it is, and that is how it has always been.
Everything on a seal is used.
