ISO Scandinavian recipes

[buckytom]

aww, c'mon, lutefisk is a delicious albeit acquired taste.

lutefisk is salt cod (not fresh cod. the best is from norway, harvested in the winter) that's been rehydrated in a dozen changes of water over a few days. then it's soaked in caustic soda,or powdered lye, to allow the flesh to absorb even more water. then it's rinsed and soaked a few more times to make it safe to eat again. then it's boiled.

it's served with loads of melted, unsalted butter. yes, the smell is incredibly bad, and the texture is unique, but the strong salty and fishy flavors play well with the butter.

it has to be served piping hot, too. the weird thing (yeah, i know. the entire idea of it is weird, but) i've found is that it's often served on a plate with other bland, white foods like mashed potatoes and steamed root veggies. but that sets the base for the flavor of the lutefisk.
you'd think with all of that freakin' snow they'd want a colorful plate, but hey, it works.

getting away from odd squarehead foods, how about norwegian pancakes? a simple crepe is filled with butter and sugar and rolled. occasionally, you can substitute lingonberry jam for the butter and sugar.

or how about fiskerboller. cod and potato balls served in a soupy milk and herb gravy.

ok, so a lot of it is strange, but the pancakes are good!

[KitchenScrapbook]

Well, I agree about the lutefisk... that I don't care for it and that it's an aquired taste. I had a Scandinavian meal for the first time this past Christmas Eve. Some of my friends are part Norwegian and they cooked up an incredible meal! LOADED with butter! It was really good!

I wish I'd have the recipes, but all I have is pictures since I didn't make it myself. I won't post them here, since pictures are not what you asked for, but I do have them on my cooking blog if you want to see them... Kitchen Scrapbook If you see something you like, I could ask my friend for the recipe. His mom brought the recipes along when they moved here from Norway, so they should be pretty authentic.

[simplicity]

Okay, lutefisk is an acquired taste. My parents loved it. As a young child I wanted nothing to do with a gray smelly fish, with the consistency of Jello being placed on my plate, when I thought fish sticks were the epitome of culinary delights. LOL.

Another thing they treasured was blood pudding for breakfast.

Josh's Adventures in Sweden: Blood Pudding

Thinking back, it makes me laugh.

One food I enjoyed was Sylta, or head cheese. Here is a recipe

How To Make Swedish Sylta | eHow.com

[cookinmonster]

On the New Scandinavian cooking website, try Tina Nordstrom's potatoes with hazelnuts. It uses a weird marinade of ketchup, orange juice, worchestershire, and some other stuff. Very unusual, but surprisingly good.

[Irland]

Kottbullar is Swedish meatballs! Can't believe they haven't been mentioned yet.

Gravlax can be pretty tasty - take a salmon fillet and coat it thoroughly with salt and brown sugar, wrap it and let it sit in the fridge for a few days. Rinse it off and slice it paper thin on a bias and you're in business. Awesome on crackers, with some cheese, or even in sushi!

[xmascarol1]

The latest issue of Eating Well has a lovely section with Danish Recipes. The were great adaptations of the kinds of things I ate over there. Do make the Rutgut mit flude.