A taste of Dalarna

Transcription

A taste of Dalarna

A TASTE OF DALARNA
A taste of
Dalarna
The food, the place AND the people
THE FOOD, THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
DALARNA has many facets – a beautiful, ever-changing
landscape, a rich cultural heritage and powerful industry. There are many places worth visiting and tourism is
important. But Dalarna also has a dynamic economy, with
many examples of entrepreneurship and innovation.
This book takes you on a culinary journey, with an insight into the culture of the region, accompanied by good
food. You get to meet some of the local artists and learn
about the traditions, art and music of the region.
Bo Masser tells of this magic landscape. Bruno Ehrs took
the wonderful pictures. And Görgen Tidén provided the
recipes and the food.
Bo Masser Görgen Tidén Photos Bruno Ehrs
www.icabokforlag.se
A Taste of
Dalarna
Bo Masser
Görgen Tidén
Photos Bruno Ehrs
Dalarna is Sweden in miniature, with forests, lakes,
rivers and mountains. In the south are small towns built
around ironworks dating back several hundred years,
and the countryside is dotted with cottages painted
“falu red” based on iron pigment. It is a beautiful and
ever-changing landscape. Those of us living here gladly
share what we have with others. We are proud of our
region, there are many interesting places to visit, and we
respect our traditions. Midsummer is the high point of
the summer season, and Vasaloppet, the world’s longest
(90 kilometers/56 miles) cross-country skiing race, is one
of winter’s big sports festivals, but there are many more
interesting experiences awaiting you in Dalarna.
Dalarna is one of Sweden’s most dynamic areas, with
a wealth of industry that exports to the global market.
Raw materials come from the forest and mountains in
the area, but the products are sold all over the world.
Entrepreneurship and innovation are key words
in describing Dalarna’s industries. Tourism is also
important and is another of our main sources of income.
The Dala horse – the beloved painted wooden horse
from Dalarna – has become synonymous with Sweden
and is the symbol of our country around the world.
When Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) traveled around
Dalarna in 1734, he wrote, “the people of Dalarna eat
a lot of bread, but very little meat and cheese”. He also
noted that “their meat and food come mostly from the
forest and include fish, fowl, reindeer, moose and other
wild game.” Much of that is still true today. Crispbread
is our most important kind of bread, and the forests in
our region provide wonderful raw materials for our local
cuisine.
In this book, “A Taste of Dalarna”, we are going on
a culinary journey through the countryside. We will
introduce you to good food made with ingredients from
Dalarna’s own pantry and inspired by the landscape and
our rich culture. Just like art and music, the cuisine of
the area is based on tradition, but it is under constant
development, and new dishes are being created all the
time.
I hope that you will be inspired to try some of these
dishes in your own kitchen. Have a great meal!
Maria Norrfalk
County Governor
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“the people of Dalarna
eat a lot of bread but very
little meat and cheese”
Dalarna – a place to return to
When you hear the name, you already long to be
here. Dalarna. There is something special awaiting
beyond the hills. Take route 80 up to the crest
and over the hills. Dalarna spreads out before you
with its magnificent views – the valleys, the lakes,
the glades, the marshes and the meadows in full
bloom. Dalarna is casting its spell over you.
Dalarna is a plural entity – more than one, and
no one knows just how many. Dan Andersson’s
ballads tell of Grangärde in the west. There’s
char and reindeer in northern Idre. You can hear
echos of Tony Rickardsson’s speedway in Avesta,
and rockabilly folk gather in the eastern valley of
Enviken.
Rye and other grain are cultivated here. The
crispbread belt meets flatbread country at Lake
Siljan. This landscape produces sausages with
rotected names, and a record amount of blue
p
berry soup is cooked in winter, while butter is
churned in local farms all summer.
Visions have been painted here – both of the
real and the literary Jerusalem, of the road to
heaven in the local theater, and of peace and
love at the biggest festival in Sweden. The poetry
of Erik Axel Karlfeldt belongs here, just like
the dance band week in Orrskogen, the fiddler
festival in Bingsjö and the joyful sounds of the
Borlänge band Mando Diao. People come from
far and wide to Classic Car Week and to Dalhalla
to listen to Kalle Moraeus play.
How do you get to know Dalarna?
There’s something beyond the hills.
The fine crystal
What is the limit of our deepest longing? Some
might say Avesta – others stretch as far as Grövel
sjön. Mine extends to the mines and cairns of Kallmora. That’s where Grandma Olga lived during the
summer, and old lady Brändin, who walked while she
knitted, and sang as she led her cows through the
town on their way home for the evening milking.
When you saw smoke rising from the baking
shed down at Ors – then you knew that Amanda’s
delicious sweet buns would soon be ready. Aunt
Amanda’s buns spread with butter just beginning
to melt are a culinary delight that can be compared
only to the soft, very chewy Orsa flatbread, made
from bitter barley flour and starchy potatoes.
Trout fishing with Papa and his brothers. As the
sun sank slowly into the brown-black waters of
the lake, the gnats were biting and our boots slid
about in the mud. You’re supposed to take a freshly
caught trout, gut it, sprinkle it with salt, roll it in
wet newspaper and place it right on the fire. When
the paper turns to charcoal, it’s time to open it and
eat the fish straight from the packet!
In the mid-1970s, when Uncle Lasse asked me
if I wanted to move up to Orsa and work with him
professionally making grindstones, I didn’t dare,
even though I had learned the craft, as my father
and uncles had after Grandfather Masser-Erik.
If I moved up there, what would I then long for?
Now every summer I sit in the middle of the
town of Kallmora, not far from Orsa. The people
have the same last names as their farms: Jugas,
Difslova, Holting, Erkapers, Masser, Lofs, Rustas,
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Orfs and Brändin. One man sticks out as different
– his name is Johansson. He came from Småland,
and everyone called him “the new guy”. When I was
little, I was called Masser-Bo by all the old folks in
town. According to the old naming custom, I should
be called Masser-Bo Holgersson.
And now it is midsummer. My mother-in-law
is in a hurry to start celebrating. It is important to
get the best benches, otherwise you have to sit far
up on the hillside to be able to see anything at all.
Midsummer in Skattungbyn. As an American who
sat beside us a few years ago said (as he shoved his
Stetson back on his neck): “This is awesome!”
The youth chorus is tuning up. Clear clean voices
mix with cracking teen-age throats as they sing,
“The fine crystal”.
And if I journey to the end of the world
my heart will call for you.
Everyone has longings. Dalarna. The ox dance, as
performed by Våmhus folk dance group, isn’t child’s
play – it’s a duel, with groaning and moaning and
tempo. From above Ollars in Skattungbyn, you
can see to the north for miles around. Beyond the
maypole, there’s an endless, billowing inland sea of
pine forest.
Ingmar Bergman liked places like this. In black
and white. The fine crystal – we can just catch a
glimpse of Lake Skattungen.
Salt herring and wild raspberries
We lay fat, whole salt herring directly onto the grill
– they’ve been only lightly soaked after their stay
in the barrel. Grandmother Olga cooks them on a
rack over the coals at the bottom of her woodburning stove. The herring skin is charcoaled, and
the salt in the flesh has been drawn out and turned
into white crystals. Take a piece of soft flatbread,
spread it with butter, mash a hot boiled potato on it
and top it with herring. Then roll it up and enjoy!
It’s called different things in different dialects, but
everyone understands delicious! Dialects used
to be so different from one town to another that
people living in relatively close proximity did not
always understand one another. When artist Anders
Zorn was 12, he went to Enköping to attend school,
and he had to learn proper Swedish. No one understood the Mora dialect.
Nothing tastes like wild raspberries still warm
from the sun eaten with only a splash of rich milk.
Flavor nostalgia – a yearning for flavors and aromas.
Researchers who have studied reactions to food
aromas say that smell is our strongest, earliest and
perhaps least understood sense, and it belongs to
the most primitive part of the brain. We remember
the tantalizing aromas of Grandma’s sweet rolls, of
sausages cooking over an open fire, and of creamy
vanilla ice cream. There is an entire industry that
is aware of this and makes good money from our
cravings. But that is another story.
A journeyman returns home
Our story tells of an artist with longings. For many
years, chef Görgen Tidén was a kind of journeyman,
working at many different restaurants. He felt
limited all the time – hampered by commercial and
technical constraints, or just silly trends that he had
to adapt to. Finally, he realized that he needed to
listen to his inner voice and return to his roots.
His childhood summers in Jämtland had given
him a feeling of closeness to nature and its purity.
And he wanted to create his own palette – to paint
with his spectrum of flavors.
Eventually Görgen started working at Hotel
Lerdalshöjden in Rättvik and became chef at the
hotel restaurant. Görgen doesn’t care about the
food industry’s flavor research room and innovative
triumphs. Others will have to build their international
reputations on technical jellies, froths and aromatic
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gases. Görgen is an artist who knows his own flavor
map and expects his guests to do the same, or at
least be capable of something in that direction.
And he respects us.
So Görgen moved to Vikarbyn and began riding
his moped to his job in Rättvik. The detours got
longer and longer. Elinor in the kitchen was always
angry that he never showed up in time for lunch.
His longings and a moped take him on a voyage
of discovery that has only just begun.
Inland ice and great potatoes
Görgen Tidén stands in the courtyard of his farm in
Vikarbyn. Lake Siljan is just below, and the forest
extends up the hills surrounding the lake. He notes
that almost all the hilltops are worn down to approxi
mately the same height, around 600 meters above
sea level, because of the inland ice. The forests
surrounding Lake Siljan are punctuated with mead
ows, fields and pasture. The landscape feels open,
with the forest providing the background.
Lake Siljan was formed by a meteorite that
struck around 360 million years ago, and its crater
is one of the largest in Europe. Around it are rocks
that rarely see the light of day, including chalk and
sandstone from primeval sea floors. You can see
sediment layers quite clearly at Styggforsen falls.
But the forest is more than just a background.
Dalarna consists of up to 70 % barren moraine soil,
where the only plants that grow well are fir trees.
Since most roads go through Dalarna’s farming
district, people think that farms make up a large
part of the area. But that is misleading, as only 4
percent of the land is used for farming. There are
huge swamps and most people know about them.
The biggest is Koppången, and Per-Erik Moraeus
wrote a song about it.
To the north are mountains with their own special
ecosystem. The inland ice created many ridges.
Those made up of boulders have a north-south
orientation, while moraine ridges were plowed in
front of the ice. The massive ice polished the rock
and created a mineral-rich moraine layer. For the
most part, all of Dalarna is a valley. Almost all water
run-off is collected in the two main rivers that meet
in Djurås to become the mighty Dala river. Silt with
low clay content was deposited along the banks
during the ice age, and now this sandy earth is perfect for growing potatoes and root vegetables.
Exploring the landscape by moped
The moped starts on the third try, and Görgen does
not bother to pull down his visor. But he does wear
a helmet. He rolls out of town toward the lake. Soon
the wild strawberries will be ripe. He slows down
by a spot where the small intensely flavored berries
seem to thrive. He stuffs the first handful into his
mouth. The flavor of a warm summer day just about
explodes in his head. No one can stop him now.
He turns his back on Rättvik and his job and takes
the road to Nittsjö. Near the ceramic factory are
many small roads with ditches and banks full of wild
strawberries. Then he loses track of time.
As soon as Elinor hears his happy greeting, she
realizes that it’s hard to be angry with him, even
though he is more than two hours late. With pride
and a sunny smile all over his face, he presents her
with a small bucket heaped to the brim with shiny
red berries, still warm from the sun. For a second,
Elinor forgets about the fish that she’s frying. She
is almost mesmerized by the wonderful aroma
coming from the bucket. She takes a fistful herself
and sees how happy Görgen is.
“Today there will be wild strawberry ice cream
on the dinner menu,” says Görgen and turns toward
the refrigerator for some milk. “But if they just want
the berries over ice cream, they can have that for
lunch! And soon there will be chanterelles!”
“Sure thing,” says Elinor and shakes her head
while she plates her char with lightly sautéed root
vegetables and a squash blossom from Massarbäck.
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Crispbread and dried ham
Görgen used to play ice hockey, but now he drives
around on his moped pondering life. There’s hardly
enough space anywhere in Dalarna for a football
field. With all the hills in the area, it’s no wonder
that the most popular sports are skiing and orienteering. The only ball sport that suits this terrain is
golf, and there are plenty of hilly golf courses.
Sometimes he can’t use the moped on some
of his trips. Görgen also finds cheeses, vegetables,
reindeer meat, cloudberries, fish and game. Many
of these foods have their own strong flavors that
he wants to retain, develop and even let loose in his
preparation. In all the magic of flavors, there is still
the harsh reality – the landscape may be beautiful,
but the soil is quite barren. This has governed the
type of animals that are raised, the crops that are
grown and what can be gleaned from the forest.
It has always been necessary to combine farming
with many other things in order to survive around
here, especially in central and northern Dalarna.
There are no castles or stately homes presiding over
endless fertile fields. Animals were the traditional
Swedish breeds of cattle, sheep and goats that
were kept in forest and marshy pastures where no
crops would grow.
Food had to be stored for the long, hard winters
– that meant drying, salting, smoking and making
cheese and baking bread that did not get moldy.
And that meant thin, hard crispbread.
On his moped trips, Görgen finds handchurned butter that is a brighter yellow than
the sun, whitefish caviar that is better than the
finest imported genuine caviar, and he comes
home with tomatoes that are little firecrackers
of flavor. He seems to be discovering new and
interesting things around Dalarna all the time, and
those things make him want to show others how
special they are. Flavors, feelings that we can’t
really describe, but we can enjoy. And want more
of, and remember with pleasure.
The forest pasture, the stony, sandy soil in the
fields, the clear water, the lichen on the moors, the
game and the fish – all that contributed to a rich
variation. Recipes and traditional dishes made use of
that, but today, we have lost a lot of those traditions.
Görgen Tidén is proud of his local products and
dishes, and he keeps them as simple as possible,
to bring out their own unique flavors. You might
call it local patriotism, but he sees an awareness
and pride in many of Dalarna’s skilled producers of
cheeses, sausages and other delicacies. They create
a multitude of products that everyone can enjoy,
and that he likes to use.
Görgen has often wondered why we import
dried ham. Drying meat and other foodstuffs was
a common means of food preservation years ago.
He began to experiment with the lovely hams he
got from Ickholmen. He listened to what old folks
told him and eventually found his way through trial
and error. Now he can serve his very own dried
ham, knowing that it could grace a table anywhere
in the world, even though it has never been outside
Dalarna.
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Working as a Dalkulla
Leksand native Daniel Grönstedt (1806–76) became Stockholm’s cognac king, and at his shop in the
old town, there was a list of employees that included
bookkeeper, cashier, Dalkulla (local dialect for a
woman from Dalarna), salesclerks and workmen.
Who else could be considered so industrious
and hard-working that her local identity could be
considered her profession? Women from Dalarna
tended the rowboats and paddlewheel boats in
Stockholm’s waters. These served as water taxis or
ferries during the 1800s and were called kullboats
after the Dalkulla. Many women also traveled to
central Sweden to work in fledgling industries there.
An important subject in the paintings of Anders
Zorn was the bottle washer at the breweries of
the time. His own mother, who came from Uppsala,
was one of them. Hair workers migrated from
Våmhus to other countries in Europe to make hair
jewelry. They couldn’t bring home heavy souvenirs,
so they brought with them colorful Ukrainian,
German and Polish shawls, which you can still see
worn with the Våmhus regional costume today.
Even now, women from Dalarna are out in the
world. Artist Britt-Marie Nilsson in Mora, “Britta in
Dalarna” takes the richly decorative floral painting
typical of Dalarna to new heights – bold, daring
and beautiful, yet still traditional and recognizable
as such, but now on pillows, trays and prints.
On internet fashion blogs, there’s a lot to read
about Nygårds-Anna Bengtsson from Garsås,
and you can do it in Japanese, English or German.
She creates clothing with details taken from folk
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costumes and other traditional dress in a blend of
modern and timeless.
Textile artist Lina Rickardsson’s business, Pappe
lina, has been a rocket in the international design
field. From the heart of Dalarna, she delivers her
appealing plastic rugs woven in Djurås. Plastic
rugs – that doesn’t sound very appealing, but they
take your breath away with their colors and shapes.
They are both pure and playful at the same time,
and they have humor!
Women with visions
One woman, who really placed Dalarna on the map
of the world, was Selma Lagerlöf. During her most
productive years, she lived in Falun, which became
the setting for many stories. Her big breakthrough
work ”Jerusalem” was about farmers from the town
of Nås who emigrated to the holy city. While she
lived there, Falun was blanketed in sulfur fumes
from the mines, and the surroundings were a rocky
wilderness. But great artist that she was, she found
her inspiration there and in the beautiful changing
landscape. She expressed the full range of human
emotion in her works, and even if her works were
not always so easy to understand, they were
eminently readable.
Wilhelmina Skogh (1850–1926) saw potential for a hotel, restaurant and tourist industry in
Dalarna. In the 1890s, right after the Gävle-FalunRättvik railway was completed, she took over the
management of Rättvik’s tourist hotel, as well as
hotels in Bollnäs, Storvik and other towns along
the railroad. It took only eight hours to travel from
Stockholm to Rättvik.
Wilhelmina Skogh contacted Thomas Cook’s
travel agency in London and arranged trips with
lodging, hunting and fishing. She started skiing
tourism and introduced vegetable tables in her
restaurants. For the most part, those vegetables
came from her own gardens and greenhouses.
Tourism is an important source of income for
Sweden and even more for certain regions. If you
look only at the number of brochures, maps and
ads at tourist information offices, you will find close
to two kilos (5 1/2 pounds) about Dalarna. Maria
Norrfalk, county governor of Dalarna, who lives
on Åsgatan in Falun, understands the power of
publicity. She holds an honorary doctorate from
the Swedish University of Agricultural Studies,
and she speaks of her work with love, intensity
and enthusiasm! Maria Norrfalk is also one of the
founders of The Swedish Game and Wild Meat
Academy. But most of all, she is an active county
governor with a capital G.
As county governor, she coordinates, administers and promotes the region’s interests in many
different areas. These can be as diverse as heavy
industry, including world leaders in the paper, steel
and power industries, the needs of hunters, and of
the nature reserve at Bromsberget in Söderbärke,
in the northern Transtrandfjällen mountains.
Maria Norrfalk grew up with hunting and has
always been interested in cooking. You can see that
in her personality and in her lovely home in central
Falun. She got her hunting license early on, and she
shot the main ingredient for Sunday’s dinner herself. Slow cooking is her way to give herself some
extra time. With moose osso buco on the stove,
she can take care of her family or guests and make
them feel comfortable and welcome.
Maria Norrfalk and Görgen Tidén found in each
other a shared interest in quality food products.
When he gets to prepare a menu in the dining room
of the governor’s residence, he uses raw materials
and techniques that honor all the entrepreneurs,
cultural figures and visionaries that found their
energy in Dalarna.
Inspired by Wilhelmina Skog, Görgen arranges a
vegetable table featuring the best produce that can
be found on an early autumn day in Dalarna. After
that comes the main course, a moose dish inspired
by Maria’s stories of her escapades in the kitchen
after a successful day of hunting. Selma Lagerlöf
was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1909,
and the dessert that year was Pear à la Queen
Victoria. Now Görgen honors her with a modern
version, Selma’s pear dessert!
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Very masculine
If the Dalkulla represented the industrious woman,
then no man would want to be called a Dalmas as
his profession. Mas comes from the Swedish word
masa, which means to move slowly or loiter. Both
of these terms, mas and kulla, were used almost
throughout Sweden generations ago. The former
was a term for slowpokes and lazybones, the latter
for women and even for hornless female animals.
In the middle of the 1800s, calling someone a
dalmas was like calling him a clown. Do you think that
people might have been a little jealous? In the 1800s,
there was a lot of activity in southern Dalarna; the
landscape bore evidence of backbreaking work in the
mines and on the farms. Much of Sweden’s economic
growth and industrialization took place here.
For hundreds of years, the Great Copper Mountain mine in Falun was Sweden’s most important
source of income. No one knows how long copper
has been mined in Falun. As early as 1347, the
mining and production of copper was so extensive
that King Magnus Eriksson was forced to issue a list
of rules for organizing work at the mine.
Mountain men and others who worked in what
are today called the service industries began to
settle down and build a town around the mine.
Soon Falun became Sweden’s second largest city
and was granted its charter in 1641. Copper was
exported all over Europe. Versailles, outside of
Paris, is one of many palaces with a roof made
of copper sheeting from Falun.
The mine is a dangerous workplace, and the
sulfur fumes emitted in the processing of the ore
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killed all vegetation between the mine and the
town. Techniques finally improved by the beginning of the 1900s. The enormous piles of slag that
resulted have been used to fill in wetlands around
the river and as building material. What once may
have been Sweden’s oldest bakery, Hammars on
Åsgatan, now a pizzeria, was built after the city
fires of 1761 in brick made of slag.
World heritage and sausage
Such a large and important place of work as Falu
mine needed many workers and attracted immi
grants from abroad, including many Germans. In
addition to being able to dig for copper, they could
also make sausages. When they saw all the beef
that was left over after rope-making at the mine,
they developed the falukorv sausage. Ropes were
needed for elevators and hoists for both men and
ore, and in order to make them strong enough, they
were made of beef hide. So much rope was needed
that people drove cattle down from Småland to the
heart of Dalarna. We can only imagine our beloved
falukorv sausage’s fantastic history.
In his restaurant, called Görgen på Höjden, the
chef uses the falukorv sausage in many ways and
speaks with great enthusiasm of all the variations
produced by different sausagemakers. He likes to
use it in a modern way. While others dry expensive
ham to crispy chips, he transforms the sausage into
delicious chips and uses them in a lovely salad. But
he also likes to serve falukorv sausages in the oldfashioned way – fried with all the trimmings!
That the Great Copper Mountain mine has left its
imprint in both our refrigerators and in red summer
cottages all over the country is cultural history all
on its own, but that’s not really why Falun is on the
UNESCO World Heritage list. When the mine closed
in 1992, there remained an exciting cultural land
scape that had been built up over a thousand years.
Hard work, noise and dreams
Iron ore has been mined in many places farther south
in Dalarna for almost as long. The earliest smelting
of iron took place in western Dalarna using sea and
bog ore. Once the mining of iron ore underground
got underway, there was an amazing development.
Working at the mines was regulated from early on,
with different laws for mines in different districts.
In these earlier quite desolate mountain settlements, the men of Dalarna worked hard and built
a new world of cabins, sheds, dams and roads,
churches, manor houses and estates. They stacked
coal and loaded ore for shipping, onto boats for
transport on canals and waterways and onto sleds
for transport over the snow in winter.
The power of Avesta falls was first tamed by
Carl Jularbo on an accordion from Hagström’s in
Älvdalen. Clas Yngström added to the noise and
hullaballoo with his first Kent guitar, also from
Hagström’s. He and his rock group, Sky High,
produced the Dala sound with their heavy blues.
Dalarna has always faced the future at full speed.
There’s been steam, smells and sizzles, as if Tony
Rickardsson and all the other Dala men rumbled off
with their racing bikes as fast as they could. Here
people have been forced to make miracles, be creative and build. The entire landscape is still the same
big experimental cauldron it was for Christopher
Polhem (1661–1751) from Stjärnsund, the father
of Swedish technology, and today, 300 years later,
his discoveries are still relevant.
Endless toil and dreams are really two sides
of the same coin. The laborers at the mines and
mills started organizing, and the first millworkers’
union was established in Horndal in 1906. Socialist
visions were cultivated at folk high schools, such
as the one in Brunnsvik, with author-researcher
Karl-Erik Forsslund leading the way. A new genre of
poetry and writing developed with its own literary
ambitions, with both subjects and authors from the
labor movement.
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There is something beyond the mountain, beyond the
flowers and songs, there’s something behind the stars,
behind my warm heart.
Dan Andersson
The best stainless steel and horsemeat sausage
Steel manufacturing is a highly competitive industry
in a ruthless world market. Many mines and factories lived “only” for a few hundred years, but plants
in Avesta, Borlänge and Smedjebacken are still
producing steel and have their own special niches.
The world leaders in stainless steel are in southern
Dalarna.
Both the steel and paper industries required a lot
of energy right from the very beginning, so these
plants were built on rivers in order to utilize water
power. With electricity, the energy could be sent
through cables and the plants could grow even
larger. But the transmission of power also requires
its own techniques, and in that area, one of the
world’s leading producers and product developers is
in Ludvika.
The landscape around the Dala river, which is a
great source of hydroelectric power, is flat, so the
farms are larger than in the rest of the region. Since
these farmers were less dependent upon forestry,
they didn’t need so many horses during winter. The
local butcher dealt with the excess and turned the
lean horsemeat into sausages, and they are still
made today at Gustav’s. Another venerable tradition in Avesta is beer-brewing. Görgen gets the
beer that he uses both in his food and alongside it
from a farm brewery right outside of town.
With Avesta Art leading the way, an effort has
been made to lift this great industrial landscape in all
its beauty. For nearly two hundred years, all Swedish
coins have been minted here. Even today, you can
see the world’s largest coin in Avesta, a 10 daler
from 1644 that weighs 19.7 kilos (over 32 pounds)
and measures 32 by 63 cm (12.6 by 24.8 inches).
What did people eat in Dalarna in the olden
days? Many feel that salt herring was the food that
built all the factories. Maybe so. And after that, the
falukorv sausage built the Swedish welfare state!
Years ago, festive food for laborers and farmers
was often beef brisket, and the leftovers could be
put into the lunch box the next day. Görgen Tidén
braises his beef brisket in Oppigard’s beer, and that
would be delicious in any lunchbox.
Dalarna –
endless landscape
There must be something in the landscape – the
valleys, the forests, the marshes, the creeks, the
rivers and the glistening lakes, the meadows and
the red towns – views that people otherwise would
barely dream about. There are no boundaries, only
possibilities.
Were people drawn to Dalarna because of their
dreams? Or did those dreams take place here?
They may have been Socialistic utopias described
by the labor movement authors that flocked to
Brunnsvik, or Rune Lindström’s folkloristic fantasies,
or his son Pelle’s suggestive low-key blues. A birch
bark horn, a cowhorn or a folk flute (which looks
like a recorder) that trills. You can almost hear
Hugo Alfvén’s Swedish Rhapsody in the surrounding
landscape. Miss Li plays new hit tunes on her piano.
You can hardly describe Dalarna with mere words.
You have to express it in poetry, prose and music.
Everyone is an immigrant in Dalarna. The Sami
were the first to come. Traces of Sami and reindeer
herding can be found as far south as Falun, and they
date from way before anyone else had decided to
come, from right after the inland ice receded.
The southernmost of Sweden’s Sami towns is
Idre Sameby in the Dala mountains and surrounding
forests. Sápmi, Sameland, has no national borders.
Nature and geography have always governed
the way the Sami deal with their land, more than
any administrative body from without. Reindeer
are their main source of income, and they follow
26
their herds to different grazing pastures. Being
Jacks-of-all-trades has always been part of their
everyday life, and they have earned their livelihood
from many different sources, including handicrafts
and fishing. Char, whitefish, grayling and trout swim
in the crystal waters here. Today, many successful
businesses include tourism as part of their operations, with restaurants and experiences that feature
an interesting dose of Sami culture and nature.
Reindeer are still important, and the local herds
number around 2700. Görgen knows where to get
good reindeer meat and char.
They came and went a long time ago
What we today call the entrepreneurial spirit used
to be the struggle for survival. Farming was arduous
and difficult, and it was impossible to survive on
just that – forestry and handicrafts were vital
supplements. In Våmhus, women made jewelry
from human hair. They tanned hides in Malung,
carved wooden vessels, wove baskets and made
knives with red handles and painted traditional
floral motifs on the walls. The hairworkers spread
all over Europe, and others sold their products and
services all over the country.
There was also an inflow of people, Walloons,
Germans and others who came to work in the mills
and mines with both mind and muscle. A good deal
of immigrant labor contributed to modern indus
trialization. And now there are more schools and
more competence in all areas.
From the 1400s, Finland was part of Sweden,
and many forest Finns came to thinly populated
parts of Dalarna, Gästrikland, Hälsingland and
Värmland, especially in the 1600s. In our so-called
“modern” thinking with regard to national boundaries, this was not immigration, because Finland was
part of greater Sweden, but the Finns always had
their own culture. Their influence remains in place
names such as Noppikoski and Pilkalampinoppi,
where even today, Finnish culture is kept alive at
inns, restaurants and farms.
Sometimes Dalkurd Football Club from Borlänge
also rises in the rankings. Kurds are among the
newest immigrants to Dalarna.
The people of Dalarna are a mobile group. If
you want to put a face on all this migration, Johan
Jonatan is a good example. His roots in Dalarna can
be traced back to the 1400s. During the 1700s,
28
and went to London, later to Madrid, Toledo and
Seville. He traveled every year of his life and earned
enormous sums as a portrait painter of the rich and
famous both in Europe and in the US.
At the end of the 1800s, Anders and Emma
planned and built the Zorn farm. Whether he lived
in Paris or made long journeys to Budapest or
Algeria, he always returned to Mora, Gopshus
and Dalarna every year. There he had relatives
and familiar things that contrasted greatly with
the art salons of Venice, Paris and Amsterdam,
and the p
alaces of his American patrons in Boston,
New York and Washington. Although he painted
a portrait of an American president, he painted
his way into the hearts of his countrymen with
his Dala girls and the ripples of clear water right
by his home.
his forefathers moved to Voxna, Hälsingland and
became blacksmiths. His grandfather Lars Johan
Björn worked for a time in Finland; that’s where he
took the name Björling and married Matilda. It was
his grandmother Matilda who gave Johan Jonatan
the nickname Jussi. But by then they were back in
Dalarna, on Magasingatan street in Borlänge. After
that, Jussi Björling went out into the world, sang
and made records until his death in 1960.
Jussi from Borlänge sang about longing, “I long
for you, I long to be with you …” to the music of
Hugo Alfvén, a Stockholm composer who longed so
much for Dalarna that he eventually moved here.
If everyone has at some time immigrated to
Dalarna, when does one become a Dalmas or Dalkulla? Does it take a long time, like with that new
guy mentioned earlier, Johansson from Småland?
Or is it just a mental state?
Pictures of Dalarna travel the world
On a small side street in Madrid, there is a gallery
and picture frame shop with dozens of reproductions in its window. Six of those are from Sundborn,
right outside Falun.
It’s not just people who have wandered in and
out of Dalarna. Pictures of Dalarna have spread all
over the world.
How could Carl Larsson (1853–1919)
transform his home into a worldwide success
story? He came from Stockholm and met his future
wife, artist Karin Bergöö, in Paris. Carl and Karin
Larsson were open for new impressions and they
were interested in the trends and discussions of the
times, especially the Arts and Crafts movement in
Britain. Karin’s parents gave them a farm in Sundborn, and they lived in the middle of a landscape
that was part of the romantic idyll so prized by
international artists at the end of the 1800s.
Karin Larsson (1859–1928) absorbed artistic
influences from around the world. Her embroideries
were inspired by Japanese woodcuts, and she
designed furniture and other interior details for the
house herself. Some were so outrageous that the
local carpenter delivered them at night. But after
100 years, much of her furniture still looks bold
and modern. And Carl painted. The picture book,
“A home”, which was published in 1899, was a
global success for Sundborn, Dalarna and Sweden.
Enthusiasts came from Germany, Japan and the
rest of the world in such numbers that Carl and
Karin put up signs that said “protected area”.
And on Calle de Hilarión Eslava 19 in Madrid, Arte
Store sells reproductions. In the window are wellknown pictures – “The Kitchen” and “Breakfast under
the big birch tree”, but also less well-known motifs
such as “Hide and seek”. After more than a hundred
years, these pictures are still popular and inviting.
Longing for midsummer light
Another artist who was also in Madrid and who
celebrated midsummer in Mora every year and
visited Skattungbyn was Anders Zorn. His paintings
hang in the Prado and in the Sorolla Museum. He became acquainted with Joaquin Sorolla in Paris, when
the Spanish artist became interested in the way
Scandinavian artists treated light in their pictures.
Anders Zorn (1860–1920) was the illegitimate
son of a German brewer and Grudd Anna from
Utmeland in Mora. Little Anders had a special talent
for drawing right from the start. After studies at
the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Art, he became
secretly engaged to Emma Lamm at the age of 21
Dalarna in shades
of white
Steelgray! You can’t call the heavens anything
else, says Görgen Tidén as he stands in the farmyard, high up in Vikarbyn. Lake Siljan is black as a
bottomless crater, and the surrounding mountains
are only a little lighter. A few sparse, wet snowflakes
are falling onto the grass as tiny dots of white.
There’s a little more activity down on the main
road as the odd car passes by early in the morning.
The street lamps spread only a weak cone of light
into the air. Görgen admits that it’s time to give the
moped a rest, but he can still think about all the
expeditions he will make next summer.
Maybe he should buy a snowscooter? The moped
is impossible to use on snowy hills, but a snow
scooter, yes! And he can ride it almost everywhere,
even over the bay to Rättvik, when the ice is thick
enough.
Now it’s time to get to work, as he has a busy
day ahead. A conference with 43 participants and
only one vegetarian and two lactose-intolerant.
They will be served the menu from the county
governor’s residence. Wilhelmina’s vegetable table
with different kinds of beautiful cabbages, onions,
carrots and some pickled mushrooms. Then Maria
Norrfalk’s moose with root vegetables and Selma’s
pear dessert.
After a few years in Dalarna, Görgen knows
what to expect. After the dark days of November,
the snow comes and blankets the landscape with
a silent white robe that never gets dark. At night,
30
the stars and sometimes the moon make the whole
area visible. If the clouds hang low, the light from
street lamps and cabins is reflected in the snow.
Lakes Siljan and Runn are both plowed. Long
distance skaters come from Stockholm, the Netherlands and Germany to try out their blades. The
quality of the ice is stable and good, so everyone
can expect to race with no problems at all. The
skaters enjoy the cold biting at their cheeks and
they find their own rhythm. Balance and harmony
with ice, snow and crisp clear air.
The white landscape is like a desert in nature.
Almost all water is frozen or at least difficult to
reach. Reindeer, roedeer and hares have a hard time
finding food. Görgen knows that when he goes icefishing, he will catch some fine pike.
Pretty soon the ski trails and slopes will open.
Skiing in Dalarna attracts people from all over the
country, and they come by car, charter bus and
train.
The right kind of winter
Sälen goes through the most unusual metamorphosis
every year. It is a small but well-known town with
32
652 official residents. The yearly White Guide,
which lists the best restaurants in Sweden, features
nine places in Sälen. That’s one good restaurant per
72 permanent inhabitants!
When the autumn darkness is broken by glisten
ing snow crystals, telephones begin to ring. Home
pages are compared and emails are sent, and the
town prepares for an onslaught. Slopes, trails,
ski-schools, lifts, coffee shops, a mountain church,
ski rentals, snow cannons, afterski places, pizza,
movies and cabin rentals. The world’s longest
cross-country ski race, Vasaloppet, takes place
in Sälen. Almost the same transformation takes
place in Romme, Bursås, Gesunda, Idre and many
other places. Everything is ready when we get
there, including some of Sweden’s best chefs and
restaurateurs.
T
he dining room at the home of artist Anders Zorn. With the world as his workplace, Anders Zorn was a shining star
in his time. When he and Emma lived and traveled abroad, whether in Paris, America, Turkey or Madrid, they always longed for Mora,
Midsummer and Dalarna, where they built the home of their dreams.
Zorn’s three plates with herring and caviar
A classic starter that suits most occasions.
4 servings
Pickled herring – basic recipe
8 salt herring fillets
2 red onions
1 carrot
1/2 leek
Brine
1 dl (1/3 cup) 12 % vinegar
2 dl (2/3 cup) sugar
3 dl (1 cup) water
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1 tablespoon cloves
Herring with fresh herbs
Half the herring from the above recipe
Herb sauce
1. Soak the herring to remove most of the salt. That
should take around 6 hours.
2. While the herring is soaking, make the brine. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat to boiling,
stirring to dissolve the sugar.
3. Remove from the heat. Peel and slice the vegetables.
Add to the warm brine and let cool.
4. Layer herring and vegetables in a jar and pour over
the brine. Refrigerate for at least 5 days before
serving.
5. Remove the herring from the brine and save half for
the next dish. Cut into 2 cm (3/4 inch) slices and
serve on small plates.
1. Pluck the leaves from all the herbs and place them
in a blender. Add the crème fraiche. Blend until finely
chopped. Fold in the mayonnaise.
2. Remove half the herring from the brine, cut into
2 cm (3/4 inch) slices and stir into the herb sauce.
3. Serve on small plates.
1/2 pot chives
1/2 pot flat-leaf parsley
1/2 pot fresh basil
1/2 pot tarragon
2 tablespoons crème fraiche
or sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Whitefish caviar
4 tablespoons whitefish caviar
1 red onion
To serve
Fäbod crispbread
Gullan or Västerbotten cheese
36
1. Place a tablespoon of caviar on each plate. Cut the
onion into thin slices and place on the caviar.
2. Serve with a spoonful of the herb-crème fraiche
mixture.
Fäbod crispbread and Gullan or Västerbotten cheese
are essential accompaniments to herring and whitefish
caviar.
Zorn’s ham hocks
4 servings
2.4 kg (5 pounds) salted ham hocks
(back shank) with bone
2 carrots
2 parsnips
2 onions
4 bay leaves
1 pot thyme
10 black peppercorns
1 bunch parsley
1. Place the ham hocks in a pot, add water to cover and
heat to boiling.
2. Peel and dice the root vegetables and onion, setting
aside a small amount for garnish. Pull apart the thyme
branches and add to the pot with the vegetables.
3. Lower the heat and let simmer for around 3 hours,
until the meat pulls away from the bone.
4. Remove from the heat and let cool.
5. Transfer the meat to a platter and strain the cooking
liquid into a saucepan, discarding the vegetables. Add
the raw vegetables to the cooking liquid, let simmer
until the vegetables are crisp tender and pour over
the meat. Garnish with parsley.
6. Serve with root vegetable puree or almond potato
puree and mustard.
Accompaniment
Görgen’s best root vegetable
puree
If you have cooking liquid left over from making the
ham, you can use it for cooking the root vegetables and
make a smooth puree that is a good accompaniment for
any slow-cooked meat. You can also use bouillon.
4 servings
750 g (1 3/4 pounds) root vegetables
(equal amounts potatoes, rutabaga
and parsnips)
Around 3 dl (1 1/4 cups) cooking
liquid from the ham, alternatively
chicken or vegetable stock
150 g (5 ounces) butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Or almond potato puree, see page 78
Mustard
38
1. Peel and cut the vegetables into chunks.
2. Place them in a pot and cover with stock or bouillon.
Heat to boiling, then cover and cook until tender over
low heat, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Puree with an immersion blender. Gradually add the
butter, a little at a time. Salt and pepper to taste.
Beestings pudding with wild raspberries
from Rättvik
If you can get raw milk (colostrum), then this classic dessert is worth trying.
If you can’t, there’s an alternative at the bottom of the page. Görgen has
added sorbet and crunchy cookie crumbs for a modern touch.
4 servings
5 dl (2 cups) raw milk
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1. Preheat the oven to 130°C (250°F).
2. Combine all ingredients and pour into an ovenproof
dish. Bake until set, approximately 20–25 minutes.
Cookie crumbs
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a cookie
sheet with baking parchment.
2. Combine all ingredients well.
3. Press the mixture onto the baking parchment.
Bake for around 12 minutes.
4. Let cool. Crumble or crush into coarse crumbs.
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons) soft butter
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
50 g (1/2 cup) ground almonds
60 g (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
Raspberry sorbet
7 dl (3 cups) raspberries
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) sugar syrup,
see page 104
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1. Place the berries in a food processor and process until
smooth. Press through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Discard the seeds.
2. Combine the berry puree with the sugar syrup and
lemon juice.
3. Freeze in an ice cream machine.
Garnish
Fresh raspberries
Presentation
Slice the beestings pudding and arrange on individual
plates with a spoonful of sorbet. Sprinkle with cookie
crumbs and garnish with fresh raspberries.
Alternative beestings pudding
with cream
Follow the instructions for beestings pudding at the top
of the page.
5 dl (2 cups) whipping cream
10 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons raw sugar
42
Jerusalem artichoke barigoule with
porcini mushrooms baked in olive oil
This barigoule is a good side dish for meat. Begin with the mushrooms and continue
with the root vegetables.
4 servings
Jerusalem artichoke barigoule
1. Peel the vegetables.
2. Mince the shallots and garlic, but leave the Jerusalem
artichokes and carrots whole.
400 g (14 ounces) Jerusalem artichokes
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the shallots and garlic
2 banana shallots
and sauté lightly. Do not allow to brown.
1 garlic clove
4. Add the Jerusalem artichokes, stock, wine and
1 bunch tiny carrots
thyme.
1 dl (1/3 cup) olive oil
5. Let simmer, uncovered, for around 20 minutes.
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) chicken stock
Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper
1 dl (1/3 cup) white wine
and let cool.
Branches and leaves from 1/2 pot
thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Porcini mushrooms baked in
olive oil
160 g (6 ounces) porcini mushrooms,
cleaned
3 garlic cloves
Salt
46
2. Scrape the stalks of the mushrooms, halve or quarter
if large, then place them in an ovenproof dish.
3. Peel and thinly slice the garlic and sprinkle over the
mushrooms. Salt lightly, pour over the oil and bake
for around 2 hours. Remove from the oven and let
cool.
4. Transfer the mushrooms to the barigoule. Serve with
grilled meat.
Beef tenderloin bresaola on toast
with chanterelles and cheese cream
A fine starter that can be enjoyed while standing with a glass of wine.
4 servings
160 g (6 ounces) beef tenderloin
1 rosemary branch, chopped
1 thyme branch, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 dl (3 1/2 tablespoons) red wine
Day 1
1. Trim the beef and halve lengthwise. Rub with herbs,
garlic and salt.
2. Roll in plastic wrap, place in a rimmed dish and let
rest at room temperature for 90 minutes.
3. Pour over the wine and refrigerate for 2 hours.
4. Drain off the liquid, unwrap and refrigerate the beef
overnight.
Day 2
1. Freeze the meat for 72 hours.
2. Remove from the freezer and defrost halfway.
3. Cut into very thin slices.
Cheese cream
2 egg yolks
1 dl (1/3 cup) whipping cream
100 g (3 1/2 ounces) Gullan cheese
from Hansjö or Västerbottenost,
or aged cheddar
Toast
1 sandwich bread sliced horizontally
1 teaspoon olive oil
Chanterelles
1. Place the egg yolks in a saucepan and whisk in the
cream.
2. Stir over low heat until scrambled. Transfer to a mixer
or blender.
3. Grate the cheese and add to the egg yolks and mix
while still warm.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).
2. Cut the bread slices into 3 × 12 cm (1 1/2 by 5 inch)
pieces.
3. Brush with oil and toast for 15 minutes.
1. Sauté the chanterelles in butter.
80 g (3 ounces) chanterelles,
cleaned and blanched
Butter
Presentation
48
Arrange the meat slices on the toast. Dot or pipe with
cheese cream. Place the chanterelles on the cheese
cream, so that they stay in place. Garnish with herbs.
Marinated reindeer tenderloin from Idre
with apple and hazelnut salad
A fine starter that is easy to make and guaranteed to please.
4 servings
150 g (5 ounces) reindeer tenderloin
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1. Trim the tenderloin, rub with sugar and salt and
refrigerate for 4 hours.
2. Cut into very thin slices.
Apple and hazelnut salad
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Place the nuts
in a pan and roast for 10 minutes. Remove the hulls
by rubbing with a kitchen towel.
2. Strip the thyme leaves from their branches and add
to the honey. Mix with an immersion blender.
3. Peel the apples and cut into matchstick pieces.
Stir into the thyme honey.
4. Stir in the nuts and arrange on plates. Top with the
meat slices. Drizzle a little honey over and garnish
with sorrel or mangold shoots.
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) hazelnuts
(without shells)
1 bunch thyme
1 dl (1/3 cup) runny honey
4 tart apples, preferably Granny Smith
Garnish
Runny honey
Sorrel or mangold shoots
50
Chive terrine with marinated char,
golden caviar and pickled cauliflower
A lovely spring starter. Make it a day ahead of time and arrange on plates
and garnish just before serving.
4 servings
1 gelatin sheet
1 dl (1/3 cup) Greek or Turkish
(8 % fat) yogurt
1 bunch chives
2 bunches parsley
1 garlic clove
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 dl (1/3 cup) mayonnaise
Garnish
30 g (1 1/4 ounces) golden caviar
Thin homemade melba toast
Pickled cauliflower
1/2 head cauliflower
2 spring onions
Brine
1. Soak the gelatin in cold water to cover for
20 minutes.
2. Blend the yogurt and herbs until the yogurt turns
green. Add the garlic and lemon zest. Season to taste
with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
3. Stir in the mayonnaise.
4. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin and heat
slowly in a little of the yogurt mixture. Stir into the
remaining yogurt mixture.
5. Pour into a mold and cover with a lid or with plastic
wrap. Freeze overnight.
6. When partially frozen, cut into thin slices. Garnish
with pickled cauliflower and spring onions, a chunk
of char, a teaspoon of golden caviar, fresh herbs and
thin toast.
1. Combine the ingredients in the brine in a saucepan
and heat to boiling.
2. Divide the cauliflower into small florets and cut the
spring onions into 3 cm (1 1/4 inch) lengths.
3. Place the vegetables in the brine. Remove from the
heat and let cool in the brine.
3 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
3 1/2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
Marinated and baked char
1 char fillet, around 180 g (6 ounces)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
52
1. Trim the fish. Rub with sugar and salt and place in
a plastic bag. Refrigerate for 3 hours.
2. Roll the fillet in plastic wrap to form a dense roll.
3. Preheat the oven to 75°C (175°F). Insert a meat
thermometer into the center of the fish. Place in
an ovenproof dish and bake until the thermometer
indicates 37°C (98°F). That should take around 20
minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the
plastic.
4. Remove the plastic and cut the fish into neat chunks.
Olive ciabatta
30 rolls
4 dl (1 2/3 cups) water, 37 °C (98 °F)
50 g (1 3/4 ounces) fresh yeast
2 tablespoons sea salt
600 g (4 cups) bread flour
50 g (around 1/4 cup) pitted black olives
1 pot basil
1. Combine the water, yeast, oil and salt and stir until
the yeast dissolves.
2. Add the flour and knead in a mixer equipped with
dough hooks until the dough is very elastic (gluten
threads appear).
3. Chop the olives and basil and add. Let the machine
work the dough for a couple more minutes. The
olives must not be chopped too finely.
4. Turn out onto a baking board, sprinkle with flour,
cover and let rise for 25 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 300°C (600°F). Cut the dough
into 5 cm (2 inch) lengths and place on a baking
sheet. Let rise for 10 minutes more.
6. Bake for around 5 minutes.
Walnut and raisin rolls
30 rolls
4 1/2 dl (2 cups) water, 37 °C (98 °F)
1/2 dl (3 1/2 tablespoons) olive oil
100 g (3 1/2) ounces sourdough (see page 56)
150 g (1 cup) durum wheat flour
500 g (3 1/3 cups) bread flour
70 g (2/3 cup) chopped walnuts
70 g (1/2 cup) golden raisins
the yeast dissolves, Add the sourdough.
threads appear).
3. Add the nuts and raisins.
4. Turn out onto a baking board, cover and let rise for
25 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 300°C (600°F). Divide the
dough into 30 pieces of equal size and place on
a baking sheet. Bake for around 8 minutes.
54
White sourdough rolls
30 rolls
4 1/2 dl (2 cups) water, 37 °C (98 °F)
100 g (3 1/2 ounces) sourdough,
see below
150 g (1 cup) durum wheat flour
500 g (3 1/3 cups) bread flour
the yeast dissolves. Add the sourdough.
threads appear).
3. Turn out onto a baking board, sprinkle with flour,
cover and let rise for 25 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 300°C (600°F). Form the
dough into small mini-baguettes and place on
a baking sheet. Let rise for 10 minutes more and
bake for around 8 minutes.
Sourdough
1. Combine the flour and water in a mixing bowl.
2. Mix until smooth with an immersion blender.
Cover and refrigerate for 48 hours.
Day 1
2 dl (1 cup) fine rye flour
2 dl (1 cup) water
Day 3
2 dl (1 cup) fine rye flour
2 dl (1 cup) water
Day 5
1 dl (1/2 cup) fine rye flour
1 dl (1/2 cup) water
56
1. Add the flour and water to the dough in the
refrigerator.
2. Mix again, cover and refrigerate for 48 more hours.
1. Add the flour and water to the dough in the refriger
ator. Mix again, cover and refrigerate.
2. Let the dough sit in the refrigerator until it turns
sour, 48–72 hours. You will see that the dough will
begin to rise.
3. Remember to add new flour and water every time
you remove some sourdough. Feed it with 1 dl
(1/2 cup) water and 1 dl (1/2 cup) flour to add
new bacteria.
Salad with artichokes, falukorv sausage
chips and tomatoes from Massarbäck
You can use canned artichokes, but it is really worth the effort to cook your own.
Falukorv chips are delicious as snacks.
4 servings
Artichokes
2 banana shallots
1 carrot
1 garlic clove
1/2 dl (1/4 cup) olive oil
4 fresh artichokes
1 bunch thyme
1/2 dl (1/4 cup) vinegar
1 lemon, in wedges
Falukorv sausage chips
200 g (7 ounces) falukorv
or other thick sausage
Dried tomatoes
16 cocktail tomatoes on the vine
1 thyme branch
Salt and pepper
In addition
Lollo rosso lettuce
Red oak leaf lettuce
Romaine lettuce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
+ 1/2 dl (3 1/2 tablespoons)
cold pressed canola oil
60
1. Peel and cut the shallots and carrots into small
pieces. Chop the garlic. Sauté in oil in a pot.
Add the artichokes and thyme.
2. Add the wine and the vinegar, and squeeze the juice
from the lemon wedges over the pot. Add the lemon
wedges and cover with water. Cover and simmer for
25 minutes, until the artichokes are crisp-tender.
Let cool in the cooking liquid.
3. Remove the artichokes from the cooking liquid.
Remove the leaves and “beard”. Cut lengthwise into
wedges.
1. Place the falukorv in the freezer until partially frozen.
Cut into very thin slices, preferably with a machine.
2. Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F). Place the slices
on a parchment-lined baking sheet and dry in the
oven for around 35 minutes.
3. Remove from the baking sheet and let cool.
1. Preheat the oven to 115°C (225°F). Heat water in
a saucepan to boiling.
2. Cut an “x” at the stem end of each tomato. Dip in
boiling water for around 10 seconds, then transfer
to a bowl of cold water, so that the skin splits. Peel.
3. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and top
with thyme.
4. Dry in the oven for 1–2 hours. Sprinkle lightly with
salt and pepper.
1. Clean and rinse the lettuces. Drain and dry. Tear into
bite-size pieces.
2. Toss with vinegar and oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt
and pepper.
3. Arrange the lettuce leaves, tomatoes, artichokes and
falukorv sausage chips in pretty bowls.
Tartare of Dala beef with deep-fried
zucchini blossoms and capers
A beautiful starter with contrasts in both flavor and texture.
4 servings
160 g (5 1/2 ounces) fat-free
tender beef
Grated zest of 1 ecological lemon
1. Cut the beef into fine dice.
2. Stir in lemon zest and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Form into 2 cm (3/4 inch) patties.
Görgen adds!
If you like, you can grill the beef quickly on both sides.
Deep-fried zucchini blossoms
4 zucchini blossoms
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) capers
Batter:
2 dl (1 cup) lager beer
4 cl (2 1/2 tablespoons) vodka
1/2 dl (1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 dl (3/4 cup) cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Oil for frying
Garnish
Chervil
Olive oil
62
1. Combine all the ingredients in the batter and mix
with an immersion blender until smooth.
2. Pour the oil into a fryer and heat to 160°C (320°F)
(be careful).
3. Quarter each zucchini blossom. Dip into the batter
and deep-fry until golden, turning half way. Remove
with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
4. Arrange the tartare and zucchini blossoms on
individual plates. Garnish with capers and chervil,
and drizzle with olive oil. Serve immediately.
Baked tomatoes with ham and
shaved cheese from Hansjö dairy
A lovely starter or light dish when served with homemade bread.
I dry my own ham, but you can buy good-quality ham.
4 servings
20 cocktail tomatoes on the vine
10 orange plum tomatoes
1 garlic clove, chopped
Sea salt
3 thyme branches
To serve
8 slices air-dried ham of good quality
(Parma-style)
8 slices Gullanost (from Hansjö dairy)
or Västerbotten or aged Cheddar
cheese
Ciabatta or similar bread, thinly sliced
and toasted
64
1. Preheat the oven to 100°C (210°F). Heat water in
a saucepan to boiling. Cut an x at the stem end of
each tomato. Dip in the boiling water for around
10 seconds, then transfer to a bowl of cold water,
so that the skin splits. Peel.
2. Cut the tomatoes into wedges and place them on
a parchment-lined baking sheet with the garlic.
Sprinkle with salt and thyme and drizzle with olive oil.
3. Dry in the oven for around 2 hours.
4. Remove from the oven and arrange on a platter.
Top with ham and cheese. Serve with thin slices of
toast.
Pike-perch from Lake Barken with
artichoke and tomato ragout
Dalarna meets the Mediterranean in this beautiful dish. Make the
accompaniments first and fry the fish just before serving.
4 servings
600 g (1 1/3 lb) pike perch fillets
1 liter (quart) water
50 g (2 1/2 tablespoons) salt
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons) butter
1. Cut the fish into 4 pieces. Combine the water and salt
in a bowl. Add the fish and let steep for 40 minutes.
2. Remove from the brine and drain on a towel. Wipe dry.
3. Heat the butter in a cast iron skillet and fry the fish,
skin side down, for a couple of minutes. Remove the
pan from the heat and turn the fish. Return the pan to
the burner, turn it off and let the fish sit in the residual
heat until it reaches an inner temperature of 47°C
(117°F), or just begins to flake when prodded with
a fork. Transfer to a platter.
Semi-dried tomatoes
1. Preheat the oven to 95°C (200°F). Heat water in a
saucepan to boiling. Cut an x at the stem end of each
tomato and dip in the boiling water for around 10
seconds, then transfer to a bowl of cold water, so that
the skin splits.
2. Peel the small tomatoes and halve the plum tomatoes.
Remove the seeds and set aside.
3. Quarter the plum tomatoes and place all the tomatoes
on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with
salt and dry in the oven for one hour.
6 ecological orange plum tomatoes
12 ecological small tomatoes
on the vine
1 thyme branch
Olive oil
Sea salt
Barigoule –
artichoke and tomato ragout
2 garlic cloves
4 onions
3 carrots
4 artichokes
4 small zucchini
1 red chili
Shredded zest of one ecological lemon
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) white wine
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) chicken stock
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 large thyme branch
1 dl (1/3 cup) black olives
66
1. Peel the onions and carrots. Remove the leaves from
the artichokes. Slice the carrots and zucchini. Chop the
chili. Sauté with the tomato seeds in oil in a sauté pan.
Add the lemon zest.
2. Add the wine, stock, vinegar and thyme. Heat to
boiling, lower the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove all vegetables except the artichokes with a
slotted spoon and set aside. Let the artichokes simmer
for 30 minutes more.
3. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan and reduce
over high heat until 2 dl (1 scant cup) remain. Add the
butter and mix with an immersion blender.
4. Halve the artichoke bottoms and remove the beard.
Cut the artichoke bottoms into coarse chunks.
5. Sauté the vegetables in a little oil and add the semidried tomatoes and olives. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with bouillon alongside the fish.
T
he county governor’s residence. With the world as her marketplace, county governor Maria Norrfalk is host to
industry, entrepreneurs, sportsmen and cultural figures, who contribute to Dalarna’s economy with steel, paper, energy, arts
and crafts, music, the world championships in skiing and tourism.
Moose osso buco with pickled horn of
plenty mushrooms and squash cream
Serve this lovely autumn dish on a cool evening. Prepare the mushrooms the day
before serving.
4 servings
2 kg (4 1/2 pounds) moose veal leg or
veal leg, in 3 cm (1 1/2 inch) slices
2–3 dl (1 cup) all-purpose flour
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons)
unsalted butter
2 carrots
2 parsnips
2 banana shallots
1 garlic clove
2 dl (1 cup) red wine
6 dl (2 1/2 cups) game or chicken stock
1. Dredge the moose in flour and brown in some of the
butter in a cast iron pot.
2. Peel and dice the root vegetables and onion and
brown with the meat.
3. Add the wine and stock and heat to boiling. Lower
heat, cover and let simmer until the meat nearly falls
off the bones, around 2 hours.
4. Strain the cooking liquid, reserving the vegetables,
and reduce over high heat until half the original
amount remains. Whisk in the remaining butter and
simmer for a few minutes.
5. Serve with pickled mushrooms and squash cream.
Pickled horn of plenty mushrooms 1. Combine the ingredients in the brine in a saucepan
4 dl (1 2/3 cups) horn of plenty
mushrooms (or other wild
mushrooms), cleaned
Brine
and heat to boiling.
2. Add the mushrooms and boil for one minute. Let cool
in the brine.
3. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Pluck the parsley leaves from the stems and use as
garnish.
1 dl (1/3 cup) vinegar
3 tablespoons (2 1/2 tablespoons) sugar
Garnish
Flat leaf parsley
Squash cream
1 medium butternut squash
2 banana shallots
1 garlic clove
Grated zest from 1 ecological orange
Olive oil
Salt
70
2. Peel the squash and scoop out the seeds. Cut into
cubes and place in an ovenproof dish. Chop the
shallots and garlic and sprinkle over the squash
with the orange peel. Add olive oil to cover. Bake
for around 2 hours.
3. Strain off the oil and transfer the squash to a food
processor. Puree until smooth. Season to taste with
salt.
Selma’s pear dessert
Poached pears with pear and yogurt sorbet, crumbled blue cheese
from Stora Lunån and hazelnuts
4 servings
Poached pears
2 pears
1 ecological lemon
1/2 dl (1/4 cup) white wine
Pear cream
8 medium very ripe sweet pears
Grated zest and juice from 1 ecological
lemon
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
Pear and yogurt sorbet
8 medium very ripe sweet pears
Juice of 1 ecological lemon
1 1/2 dl (2/3 cup) sugar syrup,
see page 104
2 dl (scant 1 cup) Greek or Turkish
(8 % fat) yogurt
Garnish
80 g (1/4 cup) hazelnuts (without shells)
80 g (3 ounces) blue cheese
(preferably from Stora Lunån)
4 plain sugar cookies, crushed
Presentation
72
1. Peel and core the pears and cut into wedges. Place them
in one layer with the butter in a sauté pan over low heat.
2. Peel a couple of strips of lemon peel with a potato
peeler (no pith) and add. Squeeze over the juice.
3. Let simmer for around 5 minutes. Add the wine and
let simmer until almost all liquid has evaporated.
1. Peel and core the pears. Cut into chunks.
2. Place in a saucepan with the lemon zest, juice
and sugar.
3. Cover and let simmer until the pears disintegrate.
4. Puree with an immersion blender and add salt to taste.
1. Peel and core the pears. Cut into chunks.
2. Puree with the lemon juice and press through a sieve.
3. Combine with the sugar syrup and yogurt.
2. Crush the nuts and place on a baking sheet. Toast in
the oven for around 10 minutes.
Arrange the pears on individual plates. Top with a spoonful of sorbet, some crumbled cheese, nuts and cookie
crumbs.
Shoulder of lamb braised in white wine
with merguez sausages and baked tomatoes
A lovely slow-cooked dish with homemade sausage.
4 servings
1 kg (2 1/4 pounds) lamb shoulder
on the bone
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 parsnips, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves
3 banana shallots, coarsely chopped
5 dl (2 cups) water
1 pot thyme, chopped
2 rosemary branches, chopped
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1. Preheat the oven to 165°C (325°F). Brown the lamb
on both sides in butter in a heavy pan. Season with
salt and pepper. Transfer to a deep ovenproof dish.
2. Peel and sauté the vegetables lightly and add to the
lamb. Pour over the wine, water and herbs.
3. Braise in the oven until the meat almost falls off the
bones, around 2 hours. Remove the meat from the
bones.
4. Strain the cooking liquid and reduce over high heat
until 1 dl (1/2 cup) remains. Whisk in the butter
and cook for a few minutes more, whisking until
emulsified.
Merguez – Moroccan lamb
sausage Dalarna style
1. Preheat the oven to 100°C (210°F). Place all the
ingredients except for the casings in a food processor.
Process until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag.
2. Pipe the mixture into the casings to make a sausage
around 1 1/2 cm (3/4 inch) in diameter. Twist the
ends and cut the remaining casing.
3. Bake the sausage in the oven until the internal temperature is 58°C (137°F), which should take 30–40
minutes. Let cool.
4. Fry the sausage in butter, cut into sections and serve.
160 g (6 ounces) ground lamb
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon harissa (chili paste)
20 g (around 2 tablespoons) black
Nicoise olives, pitted and chopped
(or Kalamata olives)
1 garlic clove, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
Lamb casings (can be ordered from
a butcher)
Butter
To serve
Baked tomatoes, see page 64
Presentation
76
Carve the meat and sausage and serve with side dishes.
Beef cheeks braised in red wine
with almond potato puree
If you can’t get beef cheeks, use beef chuck roast, which is also
tender and aromatic after slow cooking.
4 servings
4 beef cheeks or 600 g (1 1/3 pounds)
beef chuck
2 carrots
2 parsnips
3 red onions
4 dl (1 2/3 cups) red wine
1 dl (1/3 cup) balsamic vinegar
8 dl (3 1/3 cups) veal stock
3 rosemary branches
Till dekoration
4 spring onions, shredded
Porcini mushrooms
8 baby carrots
200 g (8 ounces) fresh porcini mushrooms, cleaned and blanched
2 banana shallots
Almond potato puree
750 g (1 2/3 pounds) almond potatoes,
peeled
150 g (5 ounces) unsalted butter
2 dl (3/4 cup) milk
Salt
78
1. Trim the meat. Peel the root vegetables and onions
and cut into chunks.
2. Brown the meat and vegetables in butter in a heavy
cast iron pot. Salt and pepper well.
3. Add the wine and vinegar and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the stock and rosemary.
4. Cover and let simmer over low heat for around
4 hours for the beef cheeks, 1 1/2 to 2 hours for
beef chuck. The meat is done when it falls apart
when prodded with a fork. Remove the meat from
the cooking liquid.
6. Strain the cooking liquid. Set aside the vegetables
and reduce the liquid over high heat until 2 dl (1 cup)
remain.
7. Whisk in the butter in pats and cook for a few minutes
more, whisking until emulsified.
8. Serve with the porcini mushroom mix and almond
potato puree. Garnish with shredded spring onions.
1. Peel the carrots and set aside. Scrape the mushroom
stalks. Halve or quarter if large.
2. Peel and mince the onion. Sauté the onion and mushrooms in the butter for a few minutes, then add both
wine and water and let simmer for around 25 minutes.
3. Add the carrots and let simmer for 5–6 minutes.
4. Strain off the cooking liquid and add the mushroom
mixture to the meat.
1. Boil the potatoes until they begin to split, drain and
press through a sieve or potato ricer.
2. Melt the butter, add the cream and milk and heat
until hot.
3. Pour the cream mixture over the potatoes and stir
carefully. Season with salt.
Görgen adds!
For a less rich puree, just use milk.
Roast fresh Dala bacon with potato cakes
and sautéed chanterelles
Lovely tender meat, aromatic chanterelles and a new way to serve potato cakes.
4 servings
Roast fresh bacon
500 g lean pork belly with rind
2 teaspoons salt
1 garlic clove
1 ecological orange
1 thyme branch
5 dl (2 cups) water
Butter for frying
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted
butter, see Görgen adds! at the
bottom of the page
Potato cakes
600 g (1 1/3 pounds) almond potatoes
180 g (just over 1 cup) durum wheat
flour
3 egg yolks
80 g (3/4 cup) grated Gullanost from
Hansjö dairy or Parmesan cheese
Pinch grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
Butter
Chanterelles
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted
butter
80
1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Cut the rind
into a grid pattern with a sharp knife. Rub all over
with salt. Place in an ovenproof dish.
2. Chop the garlic and press into the meat.
3. Peel strips of orange zest with a potato peeler and
place on the pork.
4. Chop the thyme and sprinkle over the pork.
5. Add the water and wine and place in the oven.
6. Braise for around 2 hours, until the meat almost falls
apart when prodded with a fork.
7. Remove the meat from the cooking liquid and place
under a press (you can use a dish with a can or
morter on top).
8. Cut the pork into slices and sauté until golden brown
and crunchy. Spoon over some of the cooking liquid
and serve with sautéed chanterelles and potato
cakes.
1. Peel and boil the potatoes until they are al dente (not
quite tender). Grate on the fine side of the grater.
Combine with the flour, egg yolks and grated cheese.
Season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
2. Knead into a dough and form into 6 cm long rolls that
are around 2 cm in diameter (2 1/2 inches by 3/4
inch).
3. Heat lightly salted water to boiling. Add the potato
cakes, a couple at a time. When they float to the top,
remove with a slotted spoon.
4. Brown in butter in a frying pan.
Sauté the chanterelles in butter over medium heat.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Görgen adds!
Reduce the cooking liquid over high heat until around
1 dl (1/2 cup) remains. Add 50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons)
butter and let simmer for a few minutes. This is a
delicious accompaniment to the meat.
Beef brisket braised in beer with mustard
sauce and glazed root vegetables
Authentic traditional Swedish country cooking that never goes out of style.
This is a modern version with glazed root vegetables.
4 servings
800 g (1 3/4 pounds) salted beef brisket
2 bottles (2 × 33 cl/2 1/4 cups)
Oppigårds Ale, or other ale
6 dl (2 1/2 cups) water
3 carrots
2 parsnips
3 onions
1 large thyme branch
10 black peppercorns
1. Place the beef brisket in a large pot and add both
liquids.
2. Peel the vegetables and cut into chunks. Add to the
beef with the thyme and peppercorns.
3. Cover and let simmer until the meat nearly falls apart
when prodded with a fork, 1 1/2–2 hours. Add more
water if the meat starts to dry out.
4. Strain off the cooking liquid for the sauce. Serve with
sauce, glazed vegetables and almond potato puree,
see page 78.
Mustard sauce
1. Peel and chop the shallots. Sauté until soft but not
brown.
2. Add the cooking liquid and cream and reduce until
around 2 1/2 dl (1 cup) remain.
3. Add the mustard and mix with an immersion blender
until thick. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
2 banana shallots
50 g (3 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
5 dl (2 cups) cooking liquid
3 tablespoons Liss-Ella’s sweet-strong
mustard or other similar mustard
Salt and pepper
Glazed root vegetables
1 bunch tiny carrots
1 parsnip
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon water
Sea salt
82
1. Peel and cut the carrots into sticks if they are large.
Peel and cut the parsnips into sticks. Cook in lightly
salted water until al dente.
2. Combine honey and water in a saucepan, add the
vegetables and stir to coat.
3. Heat the butter and brown the vegetables lightly.
Sprinkle with salt.
The vegetable table. Wilhelmina Skogh introduced the vegetable table at her restaurants, and she grew many
vegetables herself.
Saddle of young reindeer from Idre with
sautéed funnel chanterelles and lingonberries
A lovely autumn dinner from nature’s bounty. Serve with root vegetable puree,
page 38, or potatoes.
4 servings
1 saddle of young reindeer,
around 2 kilo (4 1/2 pounds)
Garnish
Lingonberries
Thyme leaves
Funnel chanterelles
500 g (1 1/4 pounds) funnel
chanterelles, cleaned and blanched
75 g (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 banana shallots
Reindeer sauce
2 red onions
2 garlic cloves
1 parsnip
2 carrots
2 tablespoons butter for frying
1 dl (1/2 cup) red wine
1 dl (1/2 cup) port wine
1/2 dl (1/4 cup) balsamic vinegar
1 liter (quart) reindeer or
other game stock
1 bunch thyme
86
2. Trim the saddle and remove the tenderloins (use them
in marinated reindeer tenderloin, see page 50).
3. Heat the butter in a large cast iron skillet and brown
the saddle on all sides.
4. Transfer to a roasting pan and roast in the oven until
the inner temperature is 45°C (113°F), around
15 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and let rest. The inner tem
perature will rise to 52°C (125°F).
6. Carve the strip loins from the bones in one whole piece
per side. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Cut each strip loin into slices and place back on the
bones. Garnish with sauce, mushrooms, lingonberries
and thyme. Serve the rest alongside.
1. Sauté the mushrooms in butter over low heat for
around 15 minutes.
2. Peel and mince the shallots. Add toward the end of
the cooking time. Do not allow to burn.
1. Peel and chop the vegetables. Brown in butter in
a cast iron skillet.
2. Add both wines and the vinegar. Let simmer,
uncovered, for around 10 minutes to bring out
the sweetness of the vegetables.
3. Add the stock and thyme and reduce over high heat
until around 2 dl (1 cup) remain.
4. Strain the sauce and whisk in the butter.
5. Reduce the sauce for a few minutes.
Smoked vendace from Byrviken with
horseradish cream and herbs on crispbread
Salted and smoked vendace on crispbread is true luxury.
4 servings
12 vendace or 500 g (1 1/4 pounds)
whitefish fillets
3/4 dl (1/3 cup) salt
1 liter (quart) water
Day 1
1. Cut off the heads and fins and scrape the scales off
the fish. Gut and rinse well.
2. Combine the salt and water.
3. Add the fish.
4. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 8 hours.
Day 2
1. Sprinkle the inside of an ABU home-smoker with
wood chips (or line a wok with foil and add wood
chips, top with a small rack) and place on the burner.
2. Add the fish and cover with the lid.
3. Smoke for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and let cool.
Remove any small bones.
Horseradish cream
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) Greek
or Turkish (8 % fat) yogurt
2–3 tablespoons grated horseradish
Salt and freshly ground white
or black pepper
In addition
Crispbread
Dill
Parsley
Rucola
88
1. Combine all ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Place small spoonfuls of horseradish cream on the
crispbread. Top with fish, then sprinkle with chopped
herbs.
Fried falukorv sausage
with creamed cauliflower
Traditional Swedish country cooking at its best. Serve
with boiled potatoes. Make the creamed cauliflower first.
4 servings
Creamed cauliflower
1 large cauliflower
1 banana shallot
2–3 spring onions
5 dl (2 cups) whipping cream
600 g (1 1/3 pounds) genuine falukorv
sausage
1. Cut the cauliflower into florets. Peel and mince
the shallot. Cut the spring onions into thin slices.
2. Sauté the shallot and cauliflower for 1–2 minutes.
They should not brown.
3. Add the cream and cook until it thickens, add the
spring onions and cook a few minutes more.
4. Cut the sausage into slices and brown in butter.
Warm-smoked perch
from Lake Siljan
4 servings
3 whole perch
1 liter water
3/4 dl (1/3 cup) salt
1. Gut the fish and scrape off the scales.
2. Combine the salt and water. Add the fish.
3. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Sprinkle the inside of an ABU home-smoker with
wood chips (or line a wok with foil and add wood
chips, top with a small rack) and place on the burner.
5. Add the fish and cover with the lid.
6. Smoke for 8 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the
fish cool over residual heat.
7. Serve with boiled potatoes, sour cream and chives.
90
91
S
undborn. With the world as their inspiration and Dalarna as the venue, Karin and Carl Larsson created a new ideal picture
of the Swedish home and family. They are still much loved today and people from all over the world visit Sundborn more than
100 years later.
Beef Tataki
4 servings
120 g (4 1/2 ounces) beef tenderloin
Salt flakes and freshly ground
black pepper
1. Heat a skillet until very hot and brown the meat.
3. Remove from the heat and let rest for at least
5 minutes.
4. Cut into thin slices and arrange on individual plates.
Tataki dressing
Mince the shallot and combine with the remaining
ingredients.
2 banana shallots
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
Garnish
4 spring onions, shredded
1 dl (1/3 cup) small bread croutons
4 cress flowers (optional)
94
Karin’s pasta with dried ham
and sautéed chanterelles
Görgen dries his own ham for 25 months, but you can use purchased dried
ham in this dish.
4 servings
Pasta dough
10 egg yolks
2 medium eggs
6 dl (2 1/2 cups) durum wheat flour
Accompaniments
1 1/2 dl (2/3 cup) shaved Gullanost
from Hansjö dairy or Västerbotten
cheese
8 slices air-dried ham
Flat leaf parsley
Salt flakes and freshly ground
black pepper
96
1. Place the egg yolks, eggs and flour in a bowl and
knead into a stiff dough. Let rest for around 1 hour.
2. Roll into thin sheets, then cut into spaghetti with
a pasta machine. Let the pasta rest under a damp
towel.
3. Sauté the chanterelles slowly in half the butter.
4. Heat a pot of water to boiling.
5. Add the pasta and cook for around 45 seconds.
6. Drain the pasta and mix with the remaining butter
until creamy. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
7. Arrange the pasta on individual plates.
8. Top with cheese, mushrooms and ham. Garnish with
parsley, salt and pepper.
Karin’s cognac wreaths
A recipe from the Larsson family collection.
35 cookies
1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) sugar
7 dl (3 cups) all-purpose flour
3 cl (2 tablespoons) cognac
98
1. Combine the butter, sugar and flour with a pastry
blender.
2. Add the cognac and knead lightly into a smooth
dough.
3. Form into a ball, flatten, cover with plastic wrap and
refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Roll the dough into thin “pencils”.
6. Take two “pencils” and twist them like rope. Cut into
10 cm (4 inch) lengths and form into wreaths.
7. Place on baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes.
French meringues with cloudberry sorbet
and fresh cloudberries
This beautiful dessert is sweet, sour and crispy all at the same time.
4 servings
French meringue
50 g (1 3/4 ounces) semi-sweet
chocolate
2 1/2 dl (1 cups) confectioner’s sugar
4 egg whites
Cloudberry sorbet
2. Melt the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl over
a water bath, stirring often. When it is melted,
set the chocolate aside but leave the water bath
on the burner.
3. Place the sugar in another stainless steel bowl.
4. Add the egg whites and place over the water bath.
5. Beat constantly until the temperature measures
64°C (187°F) on a candy thermometer.
6. Remove the bowl from the water bath and beat with
an electric mixture until the mixture has cooled.
7. Fold in the melted chocolate. Do not mix too much,
as there should be chocolate streaks in the meringue.
8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon
the meringue into 4 mounds. Bake for around
10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 100°C
(210°F) and bake for 8 minutes more. Open the
oven for 2 minutes.
9. Bake for 8 minutes more. Remove from the oven and
let cool.
1. Blend the berries and press through a sieve using the
back of a spoon to extract as much juice as possible.
500 g (1 1/4 pounds) fresh cloudberries 2. Combine the cloudberry puree with the sugar syrup
and the lemon juice.
(or orange raspberries, which look
similar)
4. Break each meringue into pieces and place on plates.
3 1/2 dl (1 1/2 cups) sugar syrup,
Top with sorbet and garnish with berries.
see page 104
Juice of 1 lemon
Garnish
100 g (4 ounces) fresh cloudberries
(or orange raspberries)
102
Cheesecake with wild strawberry sorbet,
crumble and fresh wild strawberries
Wonderful summer flavors! You can make the individual components of this
dish a couple of days ahead of time and assemble just before serving.
4 servings
Basic recipe sugar syrup
Combine sugar and water and heat to boiling. This syrup
keeps for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
6 dl (2 1/2 cups) sugar
5 dl (2 cups) water
Cheesecake
1 gelatin sheet
150 g (5 ounces) full-fat cream cheese
(do not use light), softened
2 dl (3/4 cup) sugar
90 g (1/3 cup) quark or cream cheese
Finely grated zest and juice
of 2 ecological lemons
3 egg yolks
1/2 dl (3 1/2 tablespoons) sugar syrup
1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for around 10 minutes.
2. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, quark, lemon zest and
juice until smooth and creamy.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar syrup until frothy.
4. Whip the cream and fold into the egg yolk mixture,
then fold into the cream cheese mixture.
5. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin and melt
carefully. Stir into the cream cheese mixture m
aking
sure that the gelatin is distributed evenly.
6. Pour into a small square cake pan and freeze overnight or for at least 8 hours. Defrost before serving.
Garnish
1 dl (1/2 cup) fresh wild strawberries
or small very ripe strawberries
The recipe continues on the next page.
104
Wild strawberry sorbet
250 g (9 ounces) wild strawberries
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) sugar syrup
see page 104
Juice of 1 lemon
Crumble (cookie crumbs)
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
50 g (1/2 cup) ground almonds
75 g (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
Lemon curd
1 gelatin sheet
100 g (3 1/2 ounces) butter
3 egg yolks
1 3/4 dl (3/4 cup) sugar
Finely grated zest and juice
of 1 ecological lemon
Presentation
106
1. Puree the strawberries in a blender.
2. Combine the strawberry puree with the sugar syrup
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (350°F). Line a cookie
sheet with baking parchment.
2. Combine all ingredients well.
3. Press the mixture onto the baking parchment.
Bake for 12–15 minutes.
4. Let cool. Crumble or crush into coarse crumbs.
5. Use as garnish for desserts.
2. Cube the butter.
3. Combine the egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and juice
and whisk over a water bath until creamy. Whisk in
the butter.
4. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin and
stir into the egg yolk mixture, stirring until well
combined. Let cool. Spoon into a pastry bag.
Cut the cheesecake into small pieces and arrange on
individual plates. Serve sorbet alongside and sprinkle
with crumble. Dot with lemon curd and garnish with
fresh berries.
Smashed strawberries with
strawberry sorbet and vanilla cream
A lovely summer dessert that is hard to beat. Swedish strawberries are delicious.
4 servings
Smashed strawberries
Slice or quarter the strawberries and mash lightly.
2 liters (quarts) strawberries
Vanilla cream
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) whipping cream
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) milk
2 vanilla beans
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 dl (scant 1 cup) sugar
5 egg yolks
Strawberry sorbet
250 g (9 ounces) wild strawberries
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) sugar syrup,
see page 104
Juice of 1 lemon
1. Combine the cream and milk in a saucepan and scald.
2. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the
seeds. Add to the cream mixture.
3. Mix the cornstarch and sugar in a saucepan. Whisk in
the egg yolks.
4. Place over low heat or in a water bath and whisk until
creamy.
5. Whisk in the cream mixture. Cook over low heat,
whisking constantly, until slightly thickened. The
mixture should be just under the boiling point, around
85°C (185°F). Do not allow to boil.
6. Remove from the heat and let cool, whisking now
and then.
1. Puree the strawberries in a blender.
2. Combine the strawberry puree with the sugar syrup
Garnish
Crumble, see page 106
Mini-meringues
Presentation
Divide the strawberries among four bowls. Sprinkle with
a little crumble. Top with a spoonful of sorbet. Spoon
over vanilla cream and garnish with mini-meringues.
Hint!
You can also use a piping bag for the vanilla cream.
108
Bavarian cream with blueberry sorbet
Bavarian cream goes well with fresh berries and sorbet.
4 servings
2 gelatin sheets
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) milk
1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) sugar
2 lavender branches
2 tablespoons honey
5 egg yolks
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) whipping cream
2. Combine the milk, half the sugar, lavender and honey
in a saucepan and heat to simmering.
3. Whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar until thick
and lemon-colored.
4. Whisk into the milk mixture and heat to simmering,
around 85°C (185°F). Do not allow to boil.
5. Squeeze excess water from the gelatin and add,
stirring to melt. Strain.
6. Let cool until almost room temperature. Whip the
cream and fold into the gelatin mixture.
7. Pour into a mold or square pan.
Blueberry sorbet
1. Puree the blueberries in a blender and press through
a sieve.
2. Combine the blueberry puree with the sugar syrup
7 dl (3 cups) blueberries
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) sugar syrup,
see page 104
Juice of 1 lemon
Garnish
Fresh blueberries
Lavender flowers
Runny lavender honey or other honey
Presentation
110
Divide the Bavarian cream among 4 plates. Top with
sorbet. Garnish with blueberries, lavender flowers and
drizzle with honey.
Starters, small dishes and side dishes
36. Zorn’s three plates with herring and caviar
46. Jerusalem artichoke barigoule with porcini
mushrooms baked in olive oil
48. Beef tenderloin bresaola on toast with
chanterelles and cheese cream
50. Marinated reindeer tenderloin from Idre with
apple and hazelnut salad
52. Chive terrine with marinated char, golden
caviar and pickled cauliflower
60. Salad with artichokes, falukorv sausage chips
and tomatoes from Massarbäck
62. Tartare of Dala beef with deep-fried zucchini
blossoms and capers
64. Baked tomatoes with ham and shaved cheese
from Hansjö dairy
88. Smoked vendace from Byrviken with
horseradish cream and herbs on crispbread
96. K
arin’s pasta with dried ham and sautéed
chanterelles
Desserts
42. B
eestings pudding with wild raspberries from
Rättvik
72. S
elma’s pear dessert
98. K
arin’s cognac wreaths
102. F
rench meringues with cloudberry sorbet and
fresh cloudberries
104. C
heesecake with wild strawberry sorbet,
crumble and fresh wild strawberries
108. S
mashed strawberries with strawberry sorbet
and vanilla cream
110. B
avarian cream with blueberry sorbet
Thanks to:
38. Zorn’s ham hocks
Chia Jonsson, Carl Larsson estate
Johan Cederlund, Zorn museum
The county governor’s residence in Falun
Märta Kallur, Kulturhuset
Christer Larsen
Siljans chark
Mikaela Willers
Nittsjö ceramics
Yngve Stamnäs
Björn Kronvall
66. Pike-perch from Lake Barken with artichoke
and tomato ragout
www.icabokforlag.se
94. Beef Tataki
Bread
54. Walnut and raisin rolls
54. Olive ciabatta
56. White sourdough rolls
Main dishes
70. Moose osso buco with pickled horn of plenty
mushrooms and squash cream
76. Shoulder of lamb braised in white wine with
merguez sausages and baked tomatoes
78. Beef cheeks braised in red wine with almond
potato puree
80. Roast fresh Dala bacon with potato cakes and
sautéed chanterelles
82. Beef brisket braised in beer with mustard sauce
and glazed root vegetables.
86. Saddle of young reindeer from Idre with sautéed funnel chanterelles and lingonberries
90. Fried falukorv sausage with creamed
cauliflower
90. Warm-smoked perch from Lake Siljan
2012 The authors and Ica Bokförlag, Forma Books AB
All rights reserved. No part of this book, either whole or in part, m
ay
be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publishers.
This includes every method of reproduction, including printing, photo
copying, audio tape, electronic retrieval and dispersal, etc.
Forma Books AB is a subsidiary of Forma Publishing Group which is
environmentally certified according to SS- EN ISO 14001
Text: Bo Masser
Photo: Bruno Ehrs
Recipes and food preparation: Görgen Tidén
Stylist and recipe editing: Liselotte Forslin
Photo assistant: Emil Fagander
Project leader: Ingela Holm
Editor: Gunilla Wagner
English translation: Melody Favish
Graphic design: Kjell Benettsson
Repro: Italgraph Media AB
Printed by Grafiche Flaminia, Italy 2012
ISBN 978-91-534-3775-8
112

A taste of Dalarna

Transcription

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