Tour of Europe: Norway's meal

Our next European country we are visiting is Norway.  Granny (my mom) lived there when she was in second-fourth grade when my Grandpa was stationed in Asgardstrand.  She remembers eating “white” meals, which meant their plates were filled with cod, boiled potatoes, bread … it was not very appetizing!  Also, Grandpa’s (and my) ancestors arrived in the US from Norway many years ago. 

Most Norwegians eat three or four regular meals a day, usually consisting of a cold breakfast with coffee, a cold (usually packed) lunch at work and a hot dinner at home with the family. Dinner (middag) is usually eaten around 4-5 PM. This is the most important meal of the day and includes carbohydrates such potatoes and animal proteins such as meat or fish.  Supper (kveldsmat) is usually eaten around 7-8 PM. This may be some open bread sandwich.

Menu:  Gravlax (Cured Salmon), Lefse (Potato Bread), Fårikål (lamb stew), Gjetost and Snofrisk cheeses, crispbread, smoked salmon, sardines, and smoked salmon devilled eggs.

Outcome:   Granny and Grandpa joined us for this meal.  I think everything went quite well!  We served this as two courses – first was the various crispbreads, cheese, sardines, and salmons, and second was the stew.  My favorite was the gravlax.  I liked it a lot better than the smoked salmon that I am used to.  This differs from the cured salmon that I made before, as this one sits a lot longer, is heavily weighted to remove water, and contains a good amount of dill.  We all loved the mustard-dill sauce, too! 

I’d never had lefse before, so I didn’t know what to expect.  I followed the recipe as written … we rolled out balls of the dough on a floured board to a 6” diameter, but we only ended up with 15.  Not the 30 that the recipe said we’d end up with, so I guess the ones we made were twice as thick as they should have been.   On a few, we buttered and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, then rolled them up.  This was pretty good!  Better than expected.  The rest were served on the table and everyone could top pieces as they chose with salmon, cheese, etc. 

After the table was cleared, we served up the Fårikål (lamb and cabbage stew.)  This is the national dish of Norway.  It was pretty good and everyone seemed to like it.  Perhaps if we’d left more time between courses 1 and 2, we’d have been able to eat more!  LOL

P.S.:  I forgot the Jarlsburg cheese; it was in the other fridge.  Sorry!

Next up:  Since we had company, we let them have a turn!  Granny and Grandpa chose San Marino!

Devilled eggs -- mixed some mustard and smoked salmon with the yolks and topped w/ dill

Salmon platter, mustard, and Snofrisk (garlic goat cheese spread)

 

 

 

 

Sardines, Wasa, toast crisps, cracker crisps

Gravlax (Marinated Salmon)

Ingredients:

• 2 fresh or frozen salmon fillets
• 1 large bunch fresh dill
• 1/4 cup coarse sea salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. pepper
• Juice from 1 lemon

Beautiful fresh salmon, from Walmart

 

Look at that beautiful skin!

Directions

1. Place first salmon fillet in deep glass-baking dish skin side down. Cover fillet with cleaned, chopped dill.
2. 
   
   
   
3. In separate bowl, mix salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice. Add evenly over dill and fillet.
4. Add second half of fillet - skin side up.
5. Cover both fillets with plastic wrap.
6. Use a board (slightly larger than fillets covered in plastic) and place over fish.
7. Place (4 cans/4 pounds or a brick inside a plastic bag on top of a board to weigh it down.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Turn fish over every 6 hours, basting each time with sauce from bottom of pan. Separate fillets - baste both sides. Replace weights each time.
9. After 3 days - remove fish from sauce, scrape away dill and seasoning - pat dry with paper towels.
10. Place fillets skin side down and cut even thin slices at an angle. This is now ready to be served. Garnish with dill, and/or parsley and lemon slices, accompanied with Mustard Sauce.

    

    Smoked salmon on the left, Gravlax on the right, shown with mustard sauce

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

(Add Ingredients in order listed. Double recipe as needed.)

• 5 Tbsp. fresh cut dill
• 2 Tbsp. coarse robust mustard
• 2 Tbsp. sugar  
• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• Ground sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients, except oil, in a small bowl.
2. In the same bowl, drizzle oil gradually while stirring together completely.
3. Chill for about an hour. 

Potato Lefse

Ingredients

• 6-7 medium potatoes, cooked  
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• 2 ½ - 3 cups flour

Directions

1. Boil and drain peeled potatoes; mash and gradually add butter, salt, milk and sugar. Whip well until fluffy. Chill mixture in refrigerator.
2. Gradually add ½ cup flour and mix well. Add enough of remaining flour to form soft dough. Place onto lightly floured surface. Divide into 30 pieces of dough. Roll into 6" round discs.
3. Place the rolled out discs in middle of a hot, dry griddle. Bake until light golden. Turn and bake on other side. Place on clean, dry dish or paper towel and cool.

   

   Lefse (on the right is Gjetost, a brown goat whey cheese from Norway)

"You can bake them without a griddle. Use a large iron frying pan instead.  You may have to make smaller ones, but that is OK, they will be easier to roll out and handle.

One way to serve this traditional Norsk delicacy is to spread it with softened butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and make a roll. Cut the roll in the center at an angle and serve.  Lefse can also be filled with favorite sandwich meats and cheeses. Pop it in the Foreman Grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts. In Norway we also eat lefse with thinly sliced brunost (sweet Norwegian goat cheese/Gjeitost).  This soft, thin bread is ideal to make delicious appetizers. All you have to do is fill; roll and cut it at an angle."

--from a Norwegian food cooking blog

Fårikål

The National dish of Norway

Ingredients

• 8 ounces sliced lamb meat
• 1 head cabbage, cored and sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3-4 carrots, cut into coins
• 2 cups water
• 1 ½ Tbsp. whole black peppercorns
• Salt to taste

Directions

1. Arrange a layer of sliced lamb in the bottom of a Dutch oven or soup pot.
   
   Top with a layer of cabbage and onion slices. Repeat layering as many times as you can. Tie the peppercorns into a small piece of cheesecloth, and place them in the center of the casserole. Pour the water over all, and cover with a lid.
   
2. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Remove the package of peppercorns before serving.
3. Serve with boiled potatoes.