Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Itty-bitty pyttipanna It's fair to say that Sweden is not known as a culinary world superpower.* Indeed, the locals have generally favoured being blonder than average, writing sensational pop music and designing flat-pack furniture over pushing the nosh envelope. True, the country's meatballs are well regarded, and it is responsible for the truly …
Yes, the origin is most likely German. No surprise there. And I would add salty cucumber not beetroot. The potatoes should be fried a bit more.
As for the list of "culinary world superpowers", I cannot name even one.
To understand the background to Surstroming you should read the book "Salt".
In the plus side, they are pre-cooked, so you needn't worry about getting raw pork.
They are very popular in Sweden, and are called "falukorv" (Falun is a place, "korv" is sausage).
You can buy better quality German versions at Lidl. The Swedish one isn't good quality, but somehow very popular despite its low meat content. It can be chewed easily ;-)
It has a smoked taste, btw.
P.S: Unlike with bangers, homogenous sausages like bratwurst can still be good quality.
Sounds like Mattessons -
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/mattessons-smoked-pork-sausage-325g?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=dG%2FaDf%2BfI5zpO5AQJ8V3ZlNbtpwPZi5Ca6pe1gvajcWfrw0ib3OXQM%2FTAepnhgakO39%2Fh7jlL4zp%0AebO7jZsyAwx5kV5tYQXRmHAvauXlSVc3yhOqBCcYSzeQU0PdwAK8&ddkey=http:gb/groceries/mattessons-smoked-pork-sausage-325g
The other Swedish dish that is notable is the Thursday meal of ärtsoppa med fläsk followed by tunna pannkakor med sylt. Thick pea soup with pieces of ham - taste and texture more like English pease pudding. Followed by thin pancakes with lingonberry jam.
They don't do stodgy puddings - but their biscuits and cakes can be very tasty. What we call "Danish Pastries" they call "Wienerbrod" - viz Viennese.
The national biscuit is pepparkakor. Very thin, crisp, and spiced with ginger, cloves, and cinnamon - very more-ish. Can be bought in the UK as Annas Pepparkakor. Home made big slabs make very nice "gingerbread" houses using the "luxury" ingredients version at Christmas. That also uses the dough up quickly - otherwise the traditionally shaped thin biscuits use so little that it takes forever to bake a batch. Windows can be glazed with broken Fox's Glacier Mints or Fruits applied in the last 5 minutes of cooking.
200g diced brisket
200g diced smoked bacon or pork belly (Spanish panceta in our case)
1 small onion, chopped
1kg boiled spuds, diced
200g sausage, chopped
1 egg per wobbly diner
Unless you have discovered Super Massive Par Boiled Spuds and as a result solved the problem of Interstellar Travel.
Is this why The FAA is dragging its heels in respect of the launch date..?
Perhaps if you excluded the 'Sustaining Bag of Proper Chips [Made from Super Massive Par Boiled Spuds] and Portion of Gravy for the PlayMoNaut' from the payload they might give you 'Mission Launch'.....
Oh... Didn't think so.
where are the swedes? or turnips?
This (and an earlier post by AC mentioning that "Danish Pastries" are named Viennese) gave me the idea for a kind of Partridgesque cooking program where the presenter goes to Sweden to get authentic swedes, finds they're called something else there, packs it in there but then goes off in search of some other food named after a place (with the same result). So basically an excuse to travel around the world and not do any cooking. Any TV execs out there reading this? I'm available!
"[...] finds they're called something else there [...]"
Do they have traditional hamburgers in Hamburg? I remember on kibbutz a volunteer from New York asking the restaurant manager to confirm that the "hamburgers" did not contain any ham - which he did . Afterwards I asked the manager how he knew they were kosher - he smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
There is a school of thought that says a modern Cornish Pasty as sold in Cornwall - is the wrong shape and shouldn't contain any meat.
In my English childhood there was a long doughnut with a lengthways split filled with cream and jam. It was called a "Berlin Split" - but I gather that is not what it would be called in Berlin.
Do Chelsea Buns , Marlborough Buns, or Battenburg Cake have protected status?
Peking Duck is however correctly named.
" I asked the manager how he knew they were kosher - he smiled and shrugged his shoulders."
last time I was in London I was amused by the conversation between a drunken muslim chap and a late-night street corner hot dog vendor...................
"Of course its effing halal, all British pork is halal....."
He purchased the hot dog. Last seen walking through the west end happily polluting his soul with pig meet
I think it was too late by the time he reached the hot dog vendor, he'd already polluted his body with alcohol.
See, now I would argue that it depends what he was drinking. If it was fizzy yellow lager, then he's doomed.
But then of course my God doesn't care what I eat or drink, or wear, or how long my beard isn't.
"[...] finds they're called something else there [...]"<br>
As any old Cambridge man knows, Chelsea buns come from Cambridge (and preferably from Fitzbillies, if they are still in business). You used to be able to get sweets called "American hard gums" in the UK. I never saw them in America, a place where you can get "English muffins" which are nothing to do with the thing that is actually called a muffin in England.
I've had this before in Stockholm.. where the addition of lashings of hot pepper sauce made it a dish worthy of note, particularly after a night on the alcoholic sauce (you need something to compensate for the fact that your bank account is now empty after a night out in stockholm!)
The egg yolk is particularly delicious when mixed in.. hmm, think I'll have to make some tonight :-)
We should also probably point out that "the girl" (aka Katarina) is Lester's daughter, and so probably not wise to impune unless you're hard enough to upset a father with access to rocketry and all sorts of other fun SPB goodies (and who can dig a big deep hole if I remember well).
"It's fair to say that Sweden is not known as a culinary world superpower". Yes it is - only the late great Escoffier (him what did the cookbook and reformed French cooking) said "Gravad lax is sublime, and is the Swedish contribution to world cuisine".
On the other hand, as I have lived in Sweden for many years, I agree entirely that pytt i panna is a real delight.
Some people adore "Janssons frestelse" (Jansson's temptation).
I bought one from the supermarket without reading the ingredients properly - judging it by the picture as something like a Shepherd's or Cottage Pie. Urrrgggh - the first mouthful was immediately rejected by my palate.
This BBC recipe says that "ansjovis" translates as sprats not anchovies - but my reaction was the same as previous experiences where anchovies had been slipped into a pizza. On the other hand -- some people do find it irresistible.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/janssons_frestelse_24036
Pyttipanna is a bit on the stodgy side for me, but I can see that Poms might like it for that reason.
Personally I'd prefer the fermented herring after a night out; it's fairly salty and just the thing for post-pub electrolyte replacement. Thin flatbread, onions, mature cheese and boiled spuds - preferably the local almond spuds 'mandelpotatis' - completes the culinary requirements specification.
(Disclosure: I have a whole shelf in my fridge dedicated to surströmming tins; like good wine it gets better as it ages.)
Haha. No, I open the tins in the traditional manner - submerged in a bucket of water.
Though I don't know why a people (the English) who regard pheasants as being fit to eat only after they fall off their feet that they have been hung up by should feel threatened by surströmming. I've gutted quite a few pheasants that have just been hung a few days and they stink enough for me.
OK, I have to ask, what the hell have you been doing with that spatula? Looks like you've been lighting a bonfire with it, or maybe tarring the road?
Still I'm sure it adds a certain flavour to the mix, which aside from that I must say looks quite delicious...
Icon cos it looks like what the poor thing has been used to extinguish
A bit off topic for this specific recipe, but I just learned my definite word of the day which is definitely SPB. It's the German word "Kummerspeck", literally translated as "grief bacon". Defined as "Excess weight gained from emotional overeating".
Definitely a word that needs adopting into English as well for suitably melancholy times.
Pyttipanna is really a winter food for those cold dark months in Sweden (September to April). It is the best way to get maximum calories into your system in the shortest possible time. It serves the same purpose as TirollerGrostl does in Austria. I lived in Stockholm working for /// on and off for about 12 months including two whole winters.and this food was welcome. In summer it is all sliced meats, salmon, herring and salads (some pickled).
The Swedes have another culinary oddity. Each Thursday there was always pea and ham soup served together with pancakes and strawberry jam. Not unpleasant but it is not a combination that instantly jumps into the imagination.
Surströmming is the work of the Devil. I got within about a metre of a dish and backed off. One of my Swedish colleagues had worked on a lines contract in Libya as a younger man and his team had asked for a case of tinned surströmming to be sent out. It arrived in the Libyan desert at about 45 degrees with the tins blown out like footballs. Once the pressure had been carefully released, it was clear that the contents had completely liquified. It should have been put in a HAZMAT bag and buried but apparently some of those with stronger stomachs ate it as a fish dip with local flat bread.
I think the pale Swedish complexion is due to the stress of an ever pending threat of being served rotting fish.
"[...] pancakes and strawberry jam [...]"
The ICA recipe adds honey and lime with the jam. There is apparently a celebrated children's(?) TV programme's song about it - but my aural Svenska is not good enough to understand the lyrics completely. Seems to be a celebration of summer as ice cream and sausages get mentioned too?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylYiDj60nEY
"Surströmming is the work of the Devil. "
A Finnish acquaintance in the 1970s was a social worker in Finland. She didn't like surströmming - but some of the people she visited used to give it to her as a "special treat".
Had a summer holiday with my Finnish girlfriend's family at their recreational stuga (cottage) on the Baltic. They used to put out the fishing nets every few days There was fresh fish for dinner - and the rest was smoked in tins over an open fire to last for several days.
It was an interesting contrast with their Helsinki house. Her father was a senior government minister and head of a large company - yet the cottage's facilities were fairly primitive. In hot weather it was paradise - apart from the whining, biting midges.
When my girlfriend was young the mothers and children would move to their cottages for the whole of the very long summer holidays. Their husbands would join them at weekends. They used the cottage all year round - even if though they had to drive over the frozen sea in the winter.
The sauna tradition was interesting. Friends and neighbours were invited over for a sauna session. It was built at the sea's edge - with a jetty to clear the shore boulders. When you had had enough of the heat you opened the door, ran down the jetty, and plopped into the sea. It was the moment when I finally lost my English inhibitions about being naked in a public place.
My girlfriend said that in winter some people rolled in the snow instead. At -20C she found the snow rather hard - so she preferred to cut a hole in the sea ice.
> tinned surströmming to be sent out. It arrived in the Libyan desert at about 45 degrees with the tins
> blown out
Sounds like it had become garum (the sauce that built the Roman Empire - the legions were so desperate to get away from it that they went a-conquering in the hope of finding decent nosh..)
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Potatoes, meat and pickled beetroot reminds me of red flannel hash, a childhood favourite of mine. It's even simpler than this- throw potatoes and corned beef into a pan, cook until spuds are crispy, add pickled beetroot. The beetroot gives it a slightly alarming magenta colour but adds just the right sour/sweet tang to a dish of stodge. See http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3727/red-flannel-hash
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