Posts under "Traditional"

Get out the pølse-grilling season is here!

Posted by kari No Comments
May 12 2011

As I often do, I must begin this post with a brief comment about the weather where I live.  In case anyone doubted that the climate in MN is one of the most variable in the world, check out the weather reports from last week and this week.  Early last week we saw what we hoped we wouldn´t see until next fall-snø (snow).  The temps were in the 30s in the morning and the 50s during the day.  Yesterday, just 8 days later, the thermometer read 91 degrees at the warmest point of the day-a ridiculously massive change.  We are used to this and we are also used to complaining about the cold and complaining about the heat as soon as we have it.

One of the only foreign teams, Norway´s grill team for the Memphis in May BBQ in 2008

While I will say that yesterday and today´s humidity levels were stifling, I am quite happy that the official grillesesong (grilling season) has begun.  I have a friend who will gladly barbecue and grill in the dead of winter so that he can get his meat fix (and enjoy the entire process from raw meat to marinated and rubbed juicy meat to scrumptious meals of comfort).  However, the truth is that most people barbecue and grill only in the summer months when it´s actually tolerable to be outside without layers and layers of clothes on.

In Norway, 1 in every 3 people will grill at least 15 times per year.  That´s roughly once a week if you consider the season is a little longer than three months.  The most common thing to throw on the grill are grillpølsa (hot dogs), followed by svinekoteletter (pork chops) and hamburgere, but Norwegians eat quite a bit of lammmekjøtt (lamb meat), kjøtt (beef), kylling (chicken), skalldyr (shellfish), and fisk (fish), among other delicious foods that become even more delicious when grilled or barbecued.

As in most other cultures around the world, Norwegian men grill and barbecue far more than Norwegian women.  Furthermore, men typically prepare more red meat and or fattier meats (i.e. sausages and ribs) than women.  Women tend to be more concerned with eating healthy and thus choose kylling, fisk, and skalldyr more often than men.

 

See this video for a recipe and instructions for how to grill spareribber (spare ribs)!

The following is a list of grilling tips that you can try yourself on.  Can you understand some of them?  There are quite a few cognates involved in food words and you know the context, so have at her!

Slik griller du riktig:

• Sørg for rene lavasteiner i gassgrillen (sjekk bruksanvisningen eller kontakt produsenten av grillen for råd mht rengjøring).

• Ikke grill på flammene: Unngå å la flammer komme i direkte kontakt med maten. Grillingen bør først starte når kullet er glødende og grått på utsiden.

• Unngå at fett grillmaten drypper ned i grillen. Dette forårsaker røyk som tilfører maten PAH. Bruk stekebrett eller folie som hindrer fett å dryppe ned.

• Grill mindre fettrik mat.

• Grill ved lavere temperatur over lengre tid.

• Plasser maten lenger vekk fra grillkull-/grillelement.

• Vend maten flere ganger under steking/grilling.

• Grill større kjøttstykker slik at overflaten blir mindre i forhold til volum.

• Mariner kjøtt på forhånd eller forkok i mikrobølgeovn.

• Sørg for god lufttilførsel under grillingen.

• Unngå å bruke oppsamlet stekesjy til saus.

KILDE: Matportalen.no

Grillentusiastens tips:

• Ikke ha kull i hele grillen. Opprett en “temperert sone”, gjerne med aluminiumsfolie på risten.

• Griller du med kull, må tennvæsken få tid til å trekke skikkelig inn. Vent med grillingen til det blir skikkelig glør. Når du bruker kull, tar det ca. 20 minutter. Du kan se at grillen er varm nok når kullet er dekket av hvit aske.

• Pass på, og reguler avstanden mellom varme og rist hvis det blir for varmt. Sørg for god lufttilførsel.

• Du trenger ikke bruke alle blussene i en gassgrill. Reduser varmen på ett, og ha eventuelt ett slått av.

• Pensle grillristen med litt olje før du legger på maten.

• Ta kjøttet ut av kjøleskapet i god tid. Kjøttet bør helst ha tilnærmet romtemperatur når du legger det på grillen.

• Mariner gjerne kjøttet på forhånd, men sløyf sukker i marinaden til større stykker kjøtt, da dette lett brenner seg. Tørk av marinaden før du legger kjøttet på grillen. Unngå også salt i marinaden, da dette trekker ut kjøttsaft.

• Kjøtt med mye fett eller mye marinade på utsiden, gjør at fett kan dryppe ned på varmen. Hvis det flammer opp, flytter du kjøttet over på folien til flammene har slukket. Griller du magre kjøttprodukter, unngår du dette.

• Ikke slukk flammene med vann, for når vannet har fordampet vil fettet begynne å brenne igjen.

• Grill store stykker kjøtt på lavere varme, da disse trenger lengre grilltid for ikke å bli brent. Bruk indirekte varme og legg over lokk. Indirekte varme vil si å fyre med kull/gass på halve grillen. Ha kjøttet ved siden av varmen, og dryppskål i aluminium under.

• Bruk steketermometer når du griller store stykker. Da får du god kontroll og oppnår best resultat.

• Mindre og tynnere stykker har kortere grilltid og kan grilles på god varme.

• Pølser og burgere blir fort brent, bruk derfor svakere varme.

• Når kjøttet har fått en fin stekeskorpe, er det viktig å snu kjøttet ofte!

• Bruk grillklype og ikke gaffel. Ikke stikk eller press på kjøttet. Da renner saften og den gode smaken ut.

KILDE (Source): Oda Christensen from the ´Din Mat´Section of Aftenposten.

 

Norwegian Street Food

Posted by kari No Comments
Mar 1 2011

I´m sure it seems odd to think about Norway as a place with a lot of street food.  Before I lived there, I didn´t imagine there would would be so many options, nor did I think Norwegians would be keen on street food.  Not the case at all!  There are plenty of options for street food if you are on the go.  Perhaps you are on your way to work or school, or on your lunch break.  Or maybe it´s 3am and you´ve left the bar saturated with alcohol and you want something to eat while you´re waiting for your taxi, the t-bane, or walking to your final destination.

You can find both traditional and modern cuisine in the form of street food.  If you´re in the mood for something sweet, I would highly recommend vafler (waffles) topped with syltetøy (jam), bær (berries) and-or krem.  You will not find syrup as a topping.  In fact, come to think of it, I´m not sure I´ve even seen syrup in matbutikker (grocery stores).  I´m sure it exists, but it is certainly not a popular pålegg(topping).  Another sweet item you will see in most convenience stores such as 7 Eleven or gas stations is softis (our equivalent to soft serve, but in my opinion, it is much better in Norway!).  You can order your softis plain in several flavor varieties, as well as with strø (ice cream topping, literally sprinkles), such as godteri (candy), nøtter (nuts), for example.  My personal belief is that all dairy items in Norway are far better than what you typically get in the US.

Another very popular item to buy if you´re on the go is smørbrød (an open faced sandwich) with various pålegg, such as hard boiled egg, reker (shrimp), pesto and  kylling (chicken), or something of the sort.  Baguettes with similar fillings are common, as are calzones and hot food such as pizza, warm Chinese food, or pasta.  Deli de Luca is my personal favorite for buying these items.

By far the most common after-bar foods are pølser (hot dogs) either plain in a bun or lompe (lefse-type wrapping) with some sort of saus (and maybe even bacon wrapped) and kebabs.  That´s right-kebabs.  My favorite kebab joint in Oslo is called Bislett.  In it, you can have kylling or kjøtt (which means meat, but in this case, beef) and they are typically filled with løk (onion), mais (corn), paprika (peppers), and lots of saus, wrapped in a pita.  My favorite kebab joint in Tromsø, in case you find yourself there in need of a gyro, is Snappes Kebab.

Happy street food eating!

the long, but worth it line

Root vegetables in Norwegian Cuisine

Posted by kari 2 Comments
Feb 6 2011

Glazed Leg of Lamb with Roasted Root Vegetables

Glazed Leg of Lamb with Roasted Root Vegetables

Root vegetables are important ingredients in Scandinavian cuisine. In this dish the lamb meat is accompanied by a plethora of root vegetables – scented with mustard, rosemary and garlic—New Scandinavian Cooking

So I went to ´The Inn´last night with my family.  I had heard it was a new Scandinavian restaurant in Minneapolis and everything about it last night proved this true.  Oddly enough, the website for the restaurant does not say anything specifically about a Scandinavian influence.  Either way, it was fantastic.  The atmosphere was great-it felt cozy, casual and elegant at the same time.  Our server was awesome and the food and drinks were phenomenal.

We had a few appetizers including a cured meat plate, potato dumplings, and smoked trout.  I drank a `Scandinavian´which consisted of Aquevit, orange, and bitters (the bar is big into mixology)-it was delicious.  I ordered a pork hanger steak accompanied by a warm apple mostard (mustard soaked warm apples) and I ordered a side of turnip purée.  The turnip purée was absolutely amazing.

I don´t pay enough attention to certain root vegetables.  I eat a lot of gulrotter (carrots), løk (onions), hvitløk (garlic), and poteter (potatoes), but other root vegetables, such as kålrabi (rutabaga), turnips, and parsnips are not frequently in my shopping cart or on my order at a restaurant.  It seems like only more upscale restaurants offer these sorts of root vegetables and I wonder why?  They are simple to prepare and don´t seem super pricy either.

My pork steak last night was prepared at the perfect temperature and tasted great, but the turnip purée was seriously to die for.  It was mildly sweet, creamy, and salted to perfection.  Root vegetables like turnips and kålrabi are typically a bit sweet and pretty dense.  I´m really terrible at describing how food tastes, so forgive me, but if you don´t eat these root vegetables often, I highly suggest that you try them again.  They are sooo good!

Kålrabi is a very common food in Norway.  It grows in cooler climates and can be stored for up to 6 months.  It is low in sodium and high in calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorus, vitamin E, beta-carotene, almost all vitamins B.  So, it is very good for you, especially if you live in a cooler climate during the winter when you need all of those vitamins that you aren´t getting from the sun.

You can eat kålrabi prepared in many different ways, similar to poteter.  Try them raw, mashed, fried, in soup or salad, steamed, boiled, roasted, or baked, or even in cake!  Eat root vegetables:)

Check out the menu at “The Inn”

Andreas Viestad

Posted by kari 1 Comment
Jun 11 2010

Andreas Viestad is a famous Norwegian culinary delight.  He is a food columnist,  TV chef, and cookbook author who for years has aired on TV channels in 50 countries throughout the world, will finally air on Norwegian television.  Viestad, born in 1973 in Oslo, has been referred to as ”Norway’s culinary ambassador”  and “Norway’s most exciting food writer.”

While he is not a trained chef, Viestad is deeply involved in food science, as well as creating delicious cuisine.  He has been a part of the “molecular gastronomy” movement since 1999, a discipline that seeks to explain the scientific processes that occur during the transformation of ingredients during cooking.  Since 2008, he has written a monthly food science column titled “The Gastronomer” for the Washington Post.  Another well-known food scientist that may inspire you, to give a comparison, is Alton Brown (who hosts a show called “Good Eats,” which is fabulous).

Back in 2003, Viestad premiered as host of the series “New Scandinavian Cooking” on public television.  Americans tuned in by the millions.  The show was immediately a hit for several reasons: the ingredients chosen and the fact that all episodes were shot on location.  Viestad aims to get as close to nature and the ingredients as possible, so his shows are sometimes next to a beautiful lake or a jagged mountain.  Norwegian culture had not received that much attention since a decade earlier with the olympics in Lillehammer.  He really put new Scandinavian cooking on the world’s plate.

Most people outside of Norway, I would argue, didn’t have a clue what kind of things could be done with Scandinavian cooking-isn’t it just plain meat, fish, and potatoes? No.  Sure, it can be, but it can also be so much more.  To quote Viestad from his own webpage books.html, Viestad writes “In a land where torsk (cod) and poteter (potatoes) are no joke, I try to show that a contemporary touch can be both relevant and exciting. Yellow and Red Cod with Pomegranate-Mango Salad, anyone?”  Many oppskrifter (recipes) may contain seemingly “boring” or “tame” ingredients, but with the right krydder (spices), a meal that would otherwise be relatively smakløs (tasteless) can be almost eksotisk (exotic).

Viestad has written 2 books, The Kitchen of Light-New Scandinavia Cooking (2003) and Where Flavor Was Born (2007, which traces the Spice Route around the Indian Ocean).  His recipes and writing have appeared in Food & Wine, Gourmet, The Sunday Times, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.

Several years ago Viestad started another series called “Perfect Day”, which involves more traveling around the country, but is still very similar to “New Scandinavian Cooking”.  In addition to his writing, Viestad spends a lot of his time focused on farming.  He has a small farm in Farsund, a city in southern Norway, as well as an agricultural project in Elgin, South Africa that is home to 50 different citruses.

What a guy!

Norwegians Know Good Bread

Posted by kari 11 Comments
Mar 14 2010

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                                               brød med pålegg (bread w- toppings)

Believe me. If you go into any matbutikk (grocery store), much less bakeri (bakery) in Norway, you will be able to find dozens of kinds of brød (bread). I personally go for the tykk grovbrød (thick whole wheat bread) med nøtter og kjerner (with nuts and seeds) eller mørkt rugbrød (or dark rye bread).

I don’t like brød that you can smush up into a ball in your hand like most of the brød I find in matbutikker i USA. Of course there’s Wonderbread, which I don’t even think should be considered brød. I think if I ate a whole loaf, I wouldn’t even feel mett (full). I think half of the content is air. I like tykk, sunn brød (thick, hearty bread) that have a lot of smak (flavor) and actually fill my tummy, not to mention provide my body with næringstoffer (nutrients) it craves. There are 2 private bakerier in my town and 2 bakerier i matbutikker and I struggle to find god brød.

We have family friends that live on en gård (a farm) and they built en kjempestor mursteinovn (a huge brick oven) outside and they bake det beste brødet i hele verden (the best bread in the whole world)! They also have pizza natt (night) at their farm hver tirsdag (every Tuesday), which is out in the boonies, mind you. Again, the best-the best pizza i hele verden. Hver ingrediens (Every ingredient) (comes from the farm) unntatt for (except for) gjær (yeast) and ost (cheese), som kommer fra en gård i nærheten (which comes from a farm in the vicinity). Selv kjøttet kommer fra gården deres (Even the meat comes from their farm). And the best part is, they don’t advertise; it’s all word of mouth. It’s clear that lot’s of people opened their mouths and spread the word about how great this pizza is because they sell i gjennomsnitt (on average) 200-300 pizzas.

So back to brød, you might suggest that I stop complaining and either move to Norway if brød is really that important to me (I’ve considered it) or just bake my own! Certainly an understandable suggestion. However, I have never been known to be a good baker. In fact, I think I’m a natural at completely messing up oppskrifter (recipes)when I bake. Maybe if ta et kurs (take a class) or just watch a Norwegian do it. Until then, I wonder hvilket merke (what brand) of brød you all like? Do you secretly love Wonderbread? Country Hearth? Brownberry? What’s your favorite type of brød? Is it rugbrød (rye bread), allminnelig brød (light rye), fint brød (white bread), grovt brød (dark bread)?

And check this link out.

The Norwegian Olympic team has for the past 20 years or so had Norwegian bakers travel with the team to bake homemade, Norwegian brød that they are used to eating at home-120 loaves a day, to be precise. I think that’s so awesome. It makes sense though, right? If you eat a certain way at home, you need to eat the same way when you’re away if you’re an Olympic athlete-the body needs consistency, and good brød!

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                                                 et typisk bakeri (a typical bakery)

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