Saturday 4 October 2008

swedish food

Below are some of the meals that Jonas and I enjoyed during our recent Swedish holiday.

Rökt Makrill: mackerel is my favourite type of smoked fish.
 
Kalles Kaviar med Banan:
Swedes love caviar in a tube. The first time I heard about it I was disgusted. Then Jonas told me they put this tube caviar on eggs and I was even more disgusted. Then I tried it and I was a convert. It rocks! It’s delicious! What is not delicious is this version pictured here that combines the original caviar cream with chemical banana flavouring. Warning: do not eat this rubbish!


Filmjölk:
a cultured milk somewhere between yoghurt and buttermilk. It is simply delicious and comes in many fruit flavours. When eating the original version, I love it best with sugar and ginger, but it’s also great on cornflakes.


Strömming:
Baltic herring crumbed and fried then marinated in a sweet vinegar. It has a special name (which I’ve forgotten) but it’s one of my favourite kind of fishy Swedish dishes.


Elephant Ear Salmon:
that’s the name of the “cut of fish”. It’s very thin and gets crispy. Here it’s served with parmesan and herbs.


This is one of the best desserts I’ve ever ordered in a restaurant (Avalon Hotel): delicious roasted strawberry sorbet with stewed rhubarb, fresh strawberries and homemade vanilla marshmallows.


Halibut with fresh horseradish. Another Avalon dish, also wonderful!


Plankstek
: steak cooked on an oak board so that it absorbs some of the smoky, wood flavours. The potatoes are also cooked on the oak.


Sill med Hjortron
: this was delicious pickled herring with cloudberries. An amazing, very Scandinavian flavoured dish.


Puck
(rhymes with cook): salt liquorice flavoured candy around vanilla ice cream with salt liquorice swirls. Shaped like a hockey puck. Tastes gross, unless you're Swedish - in which case it tastes like heaven.



Lax med Senapsås & Potatissallad
: fried salmon served with mustard sauce and a potato salad with a really tasty herb dressing.


Renkött med Lingonsylt & Mandelpotatis
: Jonas’ dad made this one. Slices of reindeer are fried up then served with lingon sauce and “almond potatoes”, a special potato from northern Sweden.


Laxfilé med Citronsås
: Jonas’ stepmother made these salmon fillets with a delicious creamy lemon sauce.


Rökt Lax
: we bought this beautiful smoked salmon from an old man who lived all alone in the middle of the Swedish countryside and filled his smokehouse with manikins which we suspected he kept for company. He was odd but his smoked fish was great.


Prästost
is the very tasty cheese and Havrekaka is the bread, which Jonas loves but I’m not so keen on.


Falvkorv
: traditional sausage that’s fried then served a mustard sauce and potatoes.


Nyponsoppa
: a sweet, thickened rose hip soup served with sweet almond crouton and usually ice cream. Can be eaten hot or cold.


Sill
: pickled herring comes in many flavours, but the most common are Senap (mustard), Inglad (sweet onion vinegar) and Matjes (spiced vinegar). They are commonly eaten with boiled new potatoes. Potatoes in Sweden taste better than any potatoes I’ve eaten from any other countries (I’ve visited 23 countries).

Stekt Strömming med Lingonsylt & Potatismos
: this is fried Baltic herring with lingon sauce and mashed potatoes.

For more Sweden-related posts check out Göteborg's Xmas Markets or these recipes:
Fisksoppa (fish soup)
Fläderblom Martini (elderflower cocktail) V
Glögg (spicy mulled wine) V
Glasört & Smör (samphire w butter) V
Kräftor i Lag (crayfish in dill broth)
Lingonberry Daiquiri V
Pepparkakor & Glacé Fruit Ice Cream Sandwich V
Pytt i Panna (potato & meat hash)
Rödbetssallad (beetroot & apple salad) V

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12 comments:

  1. wow you are very thorough when you go to Sweden! We don't eat half of that but ALWAYS ALWAYS Renskav! and now i am hungry....

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  2. Haha, sorry you had to try the Kalles with banana - I'd never, ever.. but then again, I'm not very adventurous ;)

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  3. hi anna. dropped by last week from haalo's blog, nice post. my memory of sweden is fish fish fish and some more potatoes, good thing i love potaoes, i used to love salmon but i came home wanting to never see a piece of salmon ever again and ate steak for months!

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  4. This post is lots of fun - I think I'll give the banana tube caviar and the puck a miss, although they look interesting.

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  5. What a great post. I found you through Anne. My partner has a house in Sweden and I also have some family, so needless to say I spend time there each year. A lot of this is new to me and some I am famaliar. But you did Swedish food great justice.

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  6. I liked your photos but couldn't read the captions. Can you make the font larger, please?

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  7. Fantastic post. I have only been to Sweden once, but I love the Swedish restaurants here in New York City. I have also recently discovered Kristian Regale, which is a Swedish Sparkling Cider, sold at Ikea. It is delicious!

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  8. What? Lakrits puck is awesome! :D

    I wish IKEA would stock all of the above food stuff, I miss it all.

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  9. HI there, I am trying to get Kungsörnen Rågsikt /bread flour/ is there anything you can help me with?

    Cheers
    George

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  10. anon - lakrits puck is not awesome. at all :)

    2706george - are you in australia? as far as i understand rågsikt is a mixture of rye (40%) & wheat flours (60%). so you could mix it yourself?

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  11. Hey Anna, wow you must have so enjoyed savouring all of those Swedish flavours. I've never seen anything like that Puck in my life though! :o

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  12. Hi, I'm looking to buys swedish food products in Sydney, particularly bread that is true to Swedish recipes. Do you know of anywhere I can shop for this? Thanks!

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Thanks for saying hello. It's great to know there are people out there in cyberspace!

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