Spagetti & Minced Meat Sauce, Swedish style

The Swedish word husmanskost means something like simple home-cooking. Only last week I saw an article in the paper  about how popular husmanskost is with the Swedes, but also how the definition of what is typically, traditional Swedish fare has changed over the years. Now, apparently, dishes like pizza, pasta, and tacos are considered husmanskost by the coming generation. Well, I grew up with pasta, certainly, the first dish I ever learned to cook properly was spagetti and mincemeat sauce, but I do remember a time when a pizza restaurant was rather exotic, actually. Tacos were introduced in the late 80´s. When we were in San Francisco in 1994, we had fajitas, which was unheard of here then, but it was introduced not long after.

For me husmanskost is, for example, kalops, a meatstew with alspice and bay leaf, served with beetroots and cucumber. It is also kåldolmar, stuffed cabbage rolls - which is another import, it came to Sweden with the armies of Karl XII, returning from Turkey in the early 18th Century. It is probable that the most classic of Swedish dishes, the meatball, also originates from the Turkish köfte. If you go far enough back in time, there is no such thing as typically Swedish anything. There isn´t even a Sweden - as we know it - in the 15th Century!

Anyway, spagetti and mincemeat sauce: chopped onion fried with mince meat (any kind, local produce is good) in olive oil, add a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of sliced mushrooms; spice it with salt, pepper, something sweet to add punch to the tomatoes (anything from a teaspoon of marmelade to Heinz chili sauce, depending on your mood), some drops of tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Fresh basil and garlic, if you have it, will turn this from husmanskost to gourmet food. This is also fast food; never takes longer than half an hour to make. Well, unless you make your own pasta, that is...

Shrimp Sandwiches

While I am the main cook in the family, there are some things that the husband is really very good at, and luckily (or naturally, perhaps) they are dishes that he loves and I am not as keen on. They would, honestly, never be made if he did not make them. I can almost always count on him when I am not feeling up to cooking for some reason, to make a shrimp sandwich. He will make his own sauce, using mayonnaise and chili sauce and whatnot, but since his sister introduced us to lemon mayonnaise (we are really bad at trying out new things at the supermarket, we just always buy the same-old) his sandwiches have reached another level.

There are usually hard-boiled eggs involved, cucumber or lettuce or both, cooking apples (Granny Smith is often in the house) tomatoes, even cold potatoes if there are any (sandwiches of any kind is a great way to use left-overs), dill (indispensable really, but once or twice we have been out of it and he has come up with novel ideas like using paprika), and whatever bread we happen to have. The bread is toasted and buttered, or even fried sometimes. Perhaps he skips the bread and makes a cocktail of it, as an appetizer. Or serve bread on the side, which I suppose makes it a salad? Oh, almost forgot the most important thing: the shrimp. We buy them already peeled, and they must be large and fine-looking. Never frozen.

Käsespätzle

What we made from the left-over spätzle: mixed them with cheese and baked them in the oven. The paprika on top was the husband´s inspiration. We served it with left-over steak fried with onion. Quick and easy!

Proper Fast Food

Since I started on the subject of fast food, I thought I´d follow up with our local hamburger chain, Max, which started its first restaurant in Gällivare in 1968. They are so good that MacDonald´s have had serious problems trying to establish themselves in the area, and at present I think there is only one MacDonald´s, in the outskirts of town, near a motel and an industrial area.

Max is family-owned, has been early with environmental thinking, and now you can see on the menu how much carbondioxide everything you order releases, and some of what you pay for your food goes to re-forrestation and such. Lately, they have expanded and have restaurants all over Scandinavia.

On April 1, they announced that they were quitting potatoe fries, and of course everyone thought that was an April Fool´s joke. It was, and it wasn´t, as they have changed the recipe for their fries, and I suppose the timing of the announcement was a ploy to get some extra attention. The new fries are called Crispy Fries, are made from unpealed potatoes and seasoned with seasalt, and now that I have tried them, I must say: they are the best fries I have tasted. Excellent flavour, excellent texture.

Also, they have a new express system, where you order and pay through a terminal at the entrance. After a few minutes your number comes up at a special counter, and I kid you not, from the moment we opened the door to enter, to the moment we left, it didn´t pass 15 minutes. Of course, we did order an old standard, the Max Original burger meal. I´m not usually in favour of quick eating, but when you have somewhere to be, like a concert, or in this case, a basketball game, quick is good.

Max also keep their tables very clean and the people who work there are always cheerful. They used to give you a free coffee after your meal, but I understand they don´t any more. Anyway, the coffee is ecological and very good. I honestly can´t say, patriotism aside, that I have ever been to a better hamburger place.

Fast food, the Swedish way

Well, how to start this little food blog? With a Swedish classic, I think, gubbröra (= old man´s hash). Actually, it just happened that way, and that´s the way this blog is going to happen. I have no ambitions to impress you here, I just want to write about and post photos of what I actually eat.

Gubbröra is a classic smörgåsbord dish, and something that we associate with old-style Swedish principal town hotels. 

To feed two people: use two hard-boiled eggs, one half onion, 80 g of anchovy (a regular tin), a heaped tablespoon of sour cream, dill. Chop and mix. You can also make a hot version of this, but that is something I have yet to try - not as fast, obviously.

The best bread to use for this is a Swedish sweet rye loaf, and mine is home-made, grandma´s recipe. I will blog that soon, as I am planning to bring one to an Easter feast. But any kind of bread will do. Rye is best, though. Butter it generously. Add a vegetable for some crunch. I had a cucumber.

Beer would have been nice, but it´s a working day and it makes me sleepy, so we go with Swedish saft, which is a fruit drink made with fruit syrup and water. Not home made, but there is a good selection in stores these days. Our current favourite is Tillman´s ecological elderflower saft, which comes from Grangärde cider factory (I just realized this - I grew up there!).