The ScandiKitchen Cookbook (eBook)

THE SCANDI PANTRY

Here is a small guide to some of the products you may find in a Scandinavian pantry today. It is by no means a complete list – Scandinavia is over 2,500 km/1,550 miles from top to bottom – and our pantry varies from region to region. We have included notes on some of the ingredients most commonly found across the countries, and those we get a lot of questions about at the café. Being an authentic expat shop, we often help people to find the exact ingredient for their particular recipes. You’ll find a comprehensive list of products on our website at www.scandikitchen.co.uk

HERBS AND SPICES

Allspice

Used in minced/ground meat dishes, such as meatballs. Usually bought ground, but you can buy the dried berries and grind them at home.

Caraway seeds

These often feature in bread, and many of our cheeses use them as a flavouring.

Cardamom

Vikings first sampled this aromatic spice during their raids on Constantinople. It’s used mainly in baked goods and cakes. The recipes in this book are made using pre-ground cardamom, which loses potency quickly once opened, so adjust accordingly. Alternatively, shell cardamom pods to grind your own. Bear in mind that if you do grind your own, you’ll need to adjust to a lower quantity, as it is so much more potent. You can buy cardamom seeds ready-shelled in speciality shops.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is used extensively in Scandinavian baking. It is worth opting for a good-quality ground cinnamon rather than buying cheap cinnamon powder.

Cloves

Used in Christmas baking and cooking – and in Glögg, aka Nordic mulled wine. Ground cloves feature in our ginger biscuits.

Curry

In Danish cooking, and some Norwegian and Swedish dishes, mild curry powder is used (Meatballs in Curry Sauce, and Curried Herring, to name but two dishes). Danes have been using curry powder for at least the past 100 years in several traditional dishes. It’s never spicy and you sometimes have to add ground turmeric to increase the desired yellow colouring.

Dill (fresh)

Used in many fish dishes. We also use crown dill (dill that has been allowed to flower) when cooking crayfish in August. We usually favour fresh dill, although dill seeds and dried dill are also used. Dill is also used to flavour aquavit.

Fennel seeds

Used in bread baking – both in crispbread and other breads.

Ginger (dried)

We usually use ground ginger in our Christmas baking. Pieces of dried whole ginger are sometimes used in our mulled wine.

Juniper berries

Often used in game dishes. They’re great with reindeer and venison.

Liquorice

We use liquorice powder, syrup and root for baking and general cooking. Look for high-quality syrups and powders such as ‘Lakrids by Bülow’ – they cost more, but will improve the end result immensely.

Saffron

Swedes love using saffron at Christmas in baking – we rarely use it in savoury cooking. You often find powdered saffron in Swedish supermarkets. You can use the strands, too – but you have to grind them finely before using in baking. To intensify the colour, soak in the warm liquid specified in the recipe before using.

Salt

For centuries, our diet has utilized salt to preserve our fish and meats, and it is said that this is why Scandinavians often have a taste for anything salty. Our love of all things salty means we even like salt on our liquorice.

Seville orange peel

Seville orange is bitter, and we use this at Christmas time for Glögg and for baking speciality Christmas breads. If you can’t get Seville orange, substitute with other dried orange peel, but note that the result will be less subtle in flavour.

Star anise

We use it in both sweet and savoury cooking.

Vanilla

We use a lot of real vanilla, but we mostly use vanilla sugar (rarely extract), which looks a bit like icing/confectioners’ sugar. You can make it at home by adding 150 g/1 cup of icing/confectioners’ sugar to a small food processor with a dried-out vanilla pod/bean. Pulse until completely pulverised, then sift out the large pieces of pod/bean. You can buy vanilla sugar in Scandinavian food shops.

BERRIES

Cloudberries (bakeapple)

It’s near impossible to buy fresh cloudberries and frozen ones fetch a very high price (around £40/$64 per kg). The cloudberry is hard to cultivate – people who forage for it know the best patches and they definitely don’t kiss and tell. On top of that, cloudberries grow on stalks and break easily. If you are lucky enough to find someone who is a cloudberry forager, make him your best friend immediately. Most cloudberries are turned into jam, which is considered a gourmet item; for that reason, we don’t spread it on toast, but use it in desserts and with cheese. It’s hard to substitute – a very tart raspberry is closest.

Lingonberries

You will find whole lingonberries in our freezers and most likely a version of lingonberry jam in our store cupboard. We use frozen or fresh lingonberries for both sweet and savoury dishes. The jam is most often used together with meat dishes. It’s rarely used as a jam on toast.

VEGETABLES

Asier

A Danish speciality food, asier is a type of cucumber which is peeled and pickled. It’s often served with Christmas pork and on liver pâté.

Pickled beetroot

We use sliced pickled beet(root) in salads, as a side dish to meals and on our open sandwiches. Nordic pickled beet(root) tends to be sweeter than others, so you may need to add sugar for a comparable taste.

Pickled cucumber

You’ll find various types of sliced pickled cucumbers in our cupboards. It’s used as a side dish or as a sandwich topping. Lightly pickled cucumber salad (soused cucumber) is more commonly used in Denmark.

Wild mushrooms

Dried wild mushrooms are used, especially in Swedish cooking. We use fresh whenever we can, but during seasons where fresh ones do not make it, we may use dried or even canned. We most often use ‘Kantareller’ (chanterelles) and ‘Karl Johan’ (porcini).

FISH

Ansjovis

The Swedes are to blame for the confusion around this ingredient: many years ago, they named a tin of sprats in brine ‘Ansjovis’ – despite not being anchovies at all. They are silver-bellied and blue-green on the sides like their Mediterranean brothers, but the end result is a spicier and sweeter one rather than salty. The famous dish Jansson’s Temptation (see page 84) has been ruined by many people substituting ‘Ansjovis’ for anchovies. The ‘Ansjovis’ sprats are much more like pickled herring than Mediterranean anchovies – so if you need to substitute, use herring instead. Store these tins in the refrigerator. You can get the real deal at any Scandinavian food store, even those selling bookshelves.

Herring

Eaten all across the Nordic countries, Atlantic herring is one of our staples. We pickle it, smoke it, cure it, fry it – it is a delicious fish, high in omega-3 fats. It comes both canned and in jars, but do store them in the refrigerator.

OILS, VINEGARS AND MUSTARD

Ättika 24%

This Swedish vinegar is very strong and you dilute with water accordingly. Many Scandinavian pickling recipes will specify the percentage you need to pickle your produce in (5–6% for vegetables, 12% for herring and so on). It’s near impossible to find in supermarkets/grocery stores in the UK/US, but it can be bought in speciality shops.

Mustards

Scandinavians favour sweet, strong mustards. You can substitute with the grainy Dijon mustard in recipes, although, you may need to add sugar. Scandinavian mustards are rather good and if you happen to come across a stash, do stock up.

Rapeseed oil (canola oil)

Rapeseed oil is traditionally used in Scandinavian cooking – it’s local and it has less saturated fat than olive oil. However, cheap rapeseed oil is not great so don’t go buying an inferior brand instead of using other good-quality oils you may already have.

FLOUR AND GRAINS

Crispbread

There are more types of crispbread than there is space to mention. We use the healthier fibre/high wholemeal or high-rye ones for day-to-day use and the sweeter, wheat-based ones for treats. We enjoy crispbread for breakfast and lunch. It’s not a diet bread, though.

Malt

Barley malt is important in Danish bread baking. You can buy malt protein powder online at bakery speciality stores. You can also use barley malt extract from health food stores. We also drink something called Hvidtøl, a low-alcohol malt beer used in many older Nordic recipes, which can also be used in bread baking.

Oats

Used for porridge, granola, muesli, baking – and we also eat them raw with milk for breakfast. Oat flakes (jumbo oats) or cut oats are favoured. We rarely use oatmeal.

Potato flour

Many Scandinavian recipes call for the use of potato flour (potato starch). You can buy this in speciality stores. Once potato starch is added, the dish should not boil (especially in fruit-based sauces as these will go cloudy after boiling). Substitute with cornflour/cornstarch for general cooking, although not in baking.

Rye

There are two types of rye grains available: the whole grain and the cut one (kibbled or cracked rye). I use whole rye grains for salads. The cracked rye is for bread. The two are not really interchangeable: if you bake with the...