Christmas buffet

This year our Christmas buffet was rather tiny. It contained only the most essential dishes in a typical Swedish Christmas buffet. In the picture you can read which dishes was served.

 

 The most important: the Christmas ham:

Christmas ham (julskinka) - the most important dish on the swedish Christmas buffet

The main dish at a Swedish Christmas buffet (julbord) is the Christmas ham (julskinka). 

This dish has a very long tradition.

In our family, we prefer to have a Christmas ham which is sugar salted and then smoked. This type of ham is most common in southern Sweden. The majority of Swedes do not want smoked ham on Christmas.

Earlier, it was common practice to boil ham yourself. This year we bought a ham, which is ready cooked.

Because the ham is already cooked it shall only grill after coating with egg and breadcrumbs. We mix mustard and one egg. The batter is brushed on the ham. Then we sprinkle breadcrumbs ("ströbröd" or "skorpmjöl") over it.

  Then it's time to grill the ham in the oven for 15 minutes in 200 °C (392 °F).

  When it has cooled slightly, you can cut slices and enjoy.

This preparation for the Christmas Eve buffet, we do already the day before Christmas Eve - that is on December 23.

Mustard - homemade with a mustard ball (senapskula)

Many families in southern Sweden have a tradition of self grind their mustard for Christmas.

The mustard is mainly used in the sauce that you have to lutefish / lutfisk / stockfish. It is also common to have it in the sauce for boiled cod. 

To grind the mustard you need an iron ball (sometimes called a mustard ball or a cannon ball).

In our family we have several mustard balls. The one we use the most is from the 1940s. A mustard ball is an important property and you have to care for it tenderly. 

You also need a round bowl. In the bowl you pour brown mustard seed.

Then you let the ball rotate in the bowl in which it crushes the seeds. When the seeds are crushed just enough you pour in some water and continue to grind.

Now a strong scent of mustard rises from the bowl and your eyes fill with tears. The mustard is complete. 

When the grinding is completed you scrape up the mustard from the bowl and put it in a nice jar. This can be set on the dining table when to eat.

The mustard is added to a white béchamel sauce. This can be done already when making the sauce in a pan, but it is also possible to add the mustard when you have poured the sauce on the plate. Then you have the ability to customize the strength. If you take too much mustard you can expect that it slams into the back of the head.

Here, the sauce with added mustard, is served with boiled cod, boiled potatoes and carrots.

Kajsa’s beetroot bread (rödbetsbröd)

Normally I do not use other people's recipes and pictures on this blog. But sometime you have to make exceptions. Here is one.

My brother in law, Per, showed on Facebook how he baked beetroot bread based on a recipe that he got from a friend, Kajsa.

The result - the finished loaves - looked somehow typical Swedish / Finnish. Therefore, they are out of place here.

The image, that has been photographed by Per, shows the ingredients used in baking (the potatoes should not be used).

Here you can read Kajsa's own description of how baking is done:

Beetroot bread (two loaves)

10-15g yeast
3 dl water or christmas beer (or any dark beer)
2 dl grated beetrot
3/4 dl oil (I used olive oil)
2 tsp salt (use less if using beer instead of water)

9 - 10 dl wheat-flour 

Stir the yeast in the water (or beer). Add oil, salt and beetroot. Mix in the flour little by little. Knead thoroughly. Let rise overnight.

Next morning, shape into two loaves. Let rise about half an hour. 

Bake at 175 degrees Celcius for approx. 45 minutes. (175ºC = 347ºF)

Let the bread cool on rack.

Per wrote on Facebook: 

"Tasting beetroot bread and I can tell you: it WAS delicious and looked very nice! (I tasted a slice with some cold butter a minute ago.)

If you want to use the more traditional method rather than letting the bread rise overnight, use 25 g of yeast instead, and fingerwarm water. Let rise for an hour, shape into loaves, let rise again for 45 min before baking.

Traditional bread baking (rågkakor)

In many Swedish homes, it is traditional to bake some of the the bread you eat. Even in our family.
Mostly, it is me baking the bread.
One of our favorite bread is round soft rye cakes. It is a bread with a long tradition. My wife has told me that her grandmother baked such breads.
Today it was me who baked rye cakes. A batch of dough is enough for four round cakes + a small bun made from the dough left over when making holes in the cookies.
I start with 50 grams of fresh yeast, which I dissolve in 0.5 liters of water warmed to 37 degrees Celsius (99 ° F). I also add 50 grams of melted margarine and 2 tablespoons syrup.

Seasoning consists of

• 1 teaspoon ground anise,
• 2 teaspoons ground fennel seeds and
• 1.5 teaspoons of salt.

Then it shall be seven deciliter rye flour and 5-6 deciliter of wheat flour .

All the ingredients are kneaded in an Electrolux Assistant - a classic Swedish household appliance.


The dough is fermented for at least 30 minutes. Then I take it on a breadboard and knead it.

When the dough is kneaded, I share it in four parts.Each part is rolled out into a round cake which is 17 centimeters in diameter. I put the cakes on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. There they rise for another 30 minutes.

When the cookies are fermented they are baked in the oven at 225 degrees Celsius (437 °F). 
When ready they look so good:

Time for glögg (mulled wine) while we wait for Christmas

Now we are in December - the Christmas season. December 24 is Christmas Eve - the most important day of the year in Sweden. But before we get there we will prepare ourselves for Christmas.
It starts already the first Advent.
At that time we will gather happily at the home of someone drinking glögg (mulled wine) and eat saffron buns and gingerbread.
Glögg is spiced wine, that we drink hot with almonds and raisins.
There are many varieties of glögg.
Now there is even vintage glögg.
This is how the 2013 glögg bottle looks. The design is inspired by traditional Dalecarlian painting

The taste is very good. Not too sweet and with a lot of flavor of wine and spices.

Falu sausage fried in the oven – food for angels

To hear the the Swedish angels singing cheerful songs, where they sit on their white clouds and look down at the polar bears who walk on snowy streets, you offer them oven baked Falu sausage.

We mere mortals often face this dish in staff canteens. But we also do it gladly at home.

It's good. It is easy to prepare. It's even pretty to look at. What more could you ask for?

Start with a Falu sausage ring. You can use the entire or a part of it. It depends on how many you shall saturate.

Remove the skin. Cut the sausage into slices, but not completely through. They shall hang together at the bottom. In the gap between the sausage slices you add onion slices and cheese slices. Place the sausage in an ovenproof dish. Then add chopped apple in the dish. You can instead use chopped tomato. Place slices of cheese over the sausage (if you like melted cheese - otherwise leave it be). Pipe over ketchup and mustard.

Put the dish in the oven on about 392 º F (200 º C) for about 30 minutes. 

Best way to see if it's done is to look at the course in the oven. 

Serve with vegetables and mashed potatoes; ketchup and mustard to taste.

Dine and enjoy - and wave to the angels!

Pytt i panna (fried diced meat with onions and potatoes)

One of the most useful dishes in Sweden is “pytt i panna” (fried diced meat with onions and potatoes).

This dish is one of our many classic national dishes. You can make a “pytt i panna” for lunch when you have some remnants of meat and potatoes, which you want to use. You can also be served it in the middle of the night after a nice big party. Then you say that it's "midnight snack."

“Pytt i panna” consists mainly of prepared meat of any kind. It may be, for example, pieces of steak, smoked pork or meatballs. I also like bacon and sausage in this dish. The meat should be cut into smaller pieces. 

The other main ingredient is cooked potatoes cut into pieces. Of course you can also fry raw potato pieces, but a point with “pytt i panna” is often to use something that is already cooked. You also need chopped onions to get a good “pytt i panna”. Some salt and pepper to enhance the taste. 

You fry all the ingredients together in a frying pan. I normally start with the onion, then the meat and finally the potato pieces.

Classic accessories are pickled beetroots, pickled cucumber and/or lingonberry jam. Ketchup can also be added.

Some pieces of raw carrot,  maybe a piece of boiled parsnip and some pea pods enhances the quality of the meal.

For everyday use I drink milk or plain water from the tap to the “pytt i panna”. 

When you eat it as a "midnight snack" after a party, beer and snaps are the right drinks.

Snaps - "skål"

Fish soup with lots of vegetables and aioli

Today fish soup was on the menu. 

Unfortunately we did not have time enough to visit the fish car in the town's market square. Therefore we had to use frozen fish fillets of salmon and cod. These we first thawed in the microwave oven.

Then we cut them into small cubes.

Fish soup consists of much more than fish. In our soup we have carrots, potatoes, fennel, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions and parsnips.

Everything is cut into small pieces and then put into a sauce pan. The vegetables (except the leek), shall first fry for a while in the pan in some oil.

Then we add about 1 litre of water and two dices of fish broth and half dice of chicken broth (which provides a smooth flavour to the soup).

 When the vegetables have cooked about 15 minutes, we add the leeks.

At the same time 1 decilitre of cream is also added. When everything has boiled up again, it is time to add the fish into the pan. The soup will now cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, we make an aioli made ​​up of garlic, mayonnaise, Turkish yogurt, salt and pepper.

The soup is served in deep round bowls. 

The rest is pure enjoyment!

Crumble cake with apples (smulpaj)

Most Swedes live in cities. Many Swedes - even in cities - live in villas or have allotment gardens. Therefore, horticulture is very popular.

Now it is autumn and the fruit harvest is in full swing. Then you have to take care of at least part of all the fruit trees produce.

 A good dish is apple pie made with crumb dough. Called "smulpaj" in Swedish.

First you have to peel and clean the apples, so that only good parts come with the pie. If you use fallen fruit it will be much left in the sink.

Then you remove cores from apples and cut the apples into strips and put them in an ovenproof dish. 

I usually pour on a little brown sugar and syrup on apples and put them in the oven so that they may melt a bit before the crumb dough is applied.

Crumb dough consists of

1.5 deciliter flour

1.5 deciliter Oatmeal

1-4 tablespoons sugar

100 grams of margarine or butter.

All this stirred together so that it becomes crumbly.

Crumb dough is in place and the dish is in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Now the apple pie is ready and tasted. Delicious!