Even More Swede Food

thanks for the pic virge

If the Dalecarlian horses weren't a giveaway, it's still all Sweden all the time over here.  The tablecloth was broken out for company.

Pictured above are the apps.  Quick pickled beets (modified recipe from here), hearty and amazing Blackbird bread, two different butters, and  our favorite potato dish from our stay with the S.O.'s S-I-L.  I can't figure out what it's called, but there seems to be endless variations on the basic combination of potato, sour cream, roe (typically bleak, we used whitefish), dill, and chopped shallot or onion.  The way we learned how to make is was simple--shallow fry thin slices of sliced potato until crispy, and top with the sour cream, roe, shallot, and dill.  They can be DIY at the table, or, like here, we made them ahead of time and they held up great.  Super luxurious, and pretty stunning to see in person with bright roe, white sour cream, green dill, etc.  Check out this version.  I can't recommend making this enough.  It's like an everyman's bilini and caviar.

After the classic apps we had a salad along with simply seasoned and baked cod (skin on fillets, baked at 425 for around 12 min) topped with a sauce made of chopped dill, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and salt, and thinned out with a little fish stock made from the cod head and bones.  On the side was a mix of potato, carrot, and turnip that had been boiled together and run through a food mill.  With just a little butter, salt, and pepper, there couldn't be a better side--it's far from mashed potatoes, and depending on the carrot colors, beautiful to look at.

After all that it was just some cheese with regular and Wasa crackers.

Root vegetables, quality bread and dairy, a small piece of fresh fish, roe, lots of dill . . . you could do much worse.