Swedish food Part I

Falukorv

On our excursion to the IKEA we found a Coop-Forum (a supermarket similar to Pick-and-Pay). While browsing we came across a traditional Swedish sausage named: Falukorv, which means 'Sausage from Falun'. These sausages are traditionally made from ground pork and beef with potato-flower and mild spices. They date back to the 16th century where were made at the Falun copper mine from the meat remaining after slaughtering the oxen for their hides (to make ropes).


The slices are fried and usually eaten with mash and lingonberry jam. It tastes like a hybrid of viennas and russians.


Mushrooms and Berries

In addition, Swedish forests are rich in wild foods commonly consumed here. So we needed to try some of these delicacies starting with mushrooms. We therefore went straight to the city to get some of the local produce gathered by experts (every year a number of people die from mushroom poisoning - Wikipedia)

Here is the stall where we found the chanterelle.


Some close-ups of the fungi.



Sauteing them in butter (real butter).



Once cooked these beautiful yellow fungi tastes real great on buttered toast.

Being a bit more daring (and seeing someone else eating these) we went to the woods to gather billberries. Following is a short video of our expedition (note: 3.7 Mb, 59 seconds and narrated in Afrikaans).




These berries are apparently good for your eyes. They are easy to find as they grow in large patches in the forest undergrowth and they taste a bit like mulberries.

Nyponsoppa (rose hip soup)

Another Swedish classic is rose hip soup. It is made from the fruit of the rose plant. Wild rose plants occurs along many of the paths and are currently in fruit. We decided to try and make rose hip soup from a recipe on the internet. So off we went and picked these fruits from the thorny plants (we stopped at about 300g after some thorn related bleeding).


After picking the fruits need to be cleaned, the stems and flower heads removed, soaked in water and then boiled to a pulp and strained through a sieve.


Afterwards you add lime juice and sugar. The following picture indicates our result: on the left, after the whole afternoon's toiling we generated half a glass; on the right, you can buy 1l of rose hip soup for about R8 at the local ICA-store. It tastes delicious either way.



We will keep you updated on our culinary adventures.
R&C

p.s. for more photos on food and other things in Sweden see Carina's face-book profile.