Fried herring (stekt sill)

When I was a schoolboy in Trelleborg - Sweden's southernmost city - we had a tradition in the family to eat fried herring for lunch on Saturdays. My mother bought the herrings in the Main Square. Fishmongers had simple stalls in the square where the fish was laid on ice. Since then fried herring has been one of my absolute favourite dishes.

Last Saturday we bought herring in the square in Lund (Mårtenstorget). Nowadays fish are not sold from simple open stalls, but from a large “fish truck” equipped as a real fish market.

Herring was already gutted.

After I had dried herring fillets with kitchen towels I breaded them in flour mixed with salt and pepper.

I fried the breaded herring fillets on both sides in a frying pan. They must be fried sharply so that they get a little crispy.

You can eat fried herring in two ways. 

Either you eat it right away when it is fried. You can also put the fried fillets in a bowl and add a pickle (vinegar 12%, water, salt and sugar) to the fried herring fillets. Shreds of onion are added between the herring fillets. 

Before serving the fried herring fillets will draw in the pickle for a while. They become even better if allowed to draw some day, but it's perfectly OK to eat them a while after roasting.

Fried herring fits in well with boiled potatoes. Some prefer mashed potatoes. I will be happy with some ketchup. Others would rather have lingonberry jam.

Whatever you do, this is a classic, fantastically good, Swedish dish.

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This is the vinegar I used. It is 24% in the bottle, but I have diluted the 24% vinegar with water to 12%.

The result of a walk in the woods: ground beef patties with mushroom stew

In Sweden we have something called "right of public access" (“allemansrätten”). It means that we have the right to walk in forest and land owned by others, and there, for example, pick mushrooms and berries.

Today, we were eager to have some mushrooms dish at dinner. Therefore, we went out to a forest and walked a long trip to find mushrooms. After a lot of searching, we managed to pick about 1 kg mushrooms. Most mushrooms were different kinds of boletus. In addition, a few chanterelles.

When we came home we cleaned the mushrooms and cut them into small pieces, which we parboiled in a frying pan.

We mixed 500 grams of ground beef (50% minced beef and 50% minced pork) with an egg, some breadcrumbs, allspice, black pepper, salt and thyme. By the mince we made large flat patties. 

These we fried in another frying pan.

When the fungus was sufficiently parboiled and fried, we made a mushroom stew directly in the frying pan.

We poured the stew over the patties and lay slices of cheese on top. Then it was gratinated in the microwave oven.

With home-grown potatoes, a piece of cucumber and half a tomato, this became a very good and satiating meal. But not so tidy.

(During our walk in the forest, we saw several deer a short distance from us)

Falukorv with spinach stew

Falu sausage (falukorv) is Sweden's gift to the culinary gods. 

Do not know what to have for lunch or dinner; you can always arrange a good meal with the help of the Falu sausage.

One of my favourites is fried slices of Falu sausage with spinach stew and a boiled egg. 

To this a tomato and a good sweet mustard. 

It's beautiful. It's good. It's healthy. You become strong: just ask Popeye.

What more could you ask for food?

You asked me about the mustard I have used. We have many kinds of mustard in Sweden. For this meal, I chose the one that is marked with a red arrow.