The Yardavore: Skål
Skål!
by Maria Reidelbach
If you think we upstaters have it rough in the winter, check
out Sweden. It's got the same latitude as Nova Scotia, and parts of Sweden are
so cold that they're frozen from September through May. The first day of winter
has a mere six hours of sun. Swedes really need to party during the darkest
days, and it's no wonder that they have created fabulous winter holiday
traditions.
I'm lucky to have a Swedish-American friend, Bibi Farber,
who grew up there with her mother. Every year Bibi celebrates the holiday
season at her Kerhonkson cottage with at least one party featuring delicious
Swedish dishes: creamed potatoes, beets, gravlax, and sweet-and-sour cabbage.
She also serves glögg, a hot spiced wine that is a wonderful antidote to cold
and darkness. She uses pretty white demitasse encircled in red hearts that she
inherited from her mother. I don't know which is more warming, the glögg or
Bibi's beautiful smile as she pours and passes the cups.
To bring a little of the Swedish spirit to your holiday
celebrations, here are a couple of fun and interesting recipes. Despite their
Scandinavian origins, I've added local twists.
Harold McGee's Cured Salmon with Pine Needle
Cured salmon, also called gravlax or lox, is easy to make;
you just need a little lead time to let the salt and sugar do their work. The
great food science and history authority Harold McGee suggests the following
variation on traditional Swedish gravlax with dill by subbing pine. It works
beautifully as a resiny aromatic—a delicious counterpoint to the richness of
the salmon. And I'm told by Kevin Best, an avid fly-fisherman from New Paltz,
that our local trout, whose season is just ending, would be wonderful served
this way, too. It would be a treat to try it!
1 to 2 lbs. center cut salmon filet
6 Tbs. kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. coarsely ground pepper
2 Tbs. vodka, aquavit, grappa, or other strong white spirit,
optional
1 1/2 cups pine needles (any type of pine), chopped
Dry the filet and cut it in two. Mix the salt, sugar, pepper
and pine needles. Sprinkle 1/3 in the bottom of a baking dish. Lay in the
filet, skin side down. Sprinkle the rest of the mixture on top. Cover and
refrigerate. Let cure for at least 24 hours for thinner pieces, up to 72 hours
for very large pieces, turning and basting a couple of times a day. When the
texture has become firmer throughout, remove from the dish and rinse off the
pine needles, dry and serve in very thin slices with mustard sauce on rye
crackers or thin slices of brown, white or rye bread.
Four-star tip: Chef John Novi, from the DePuy Canal House,
told me that you can treat salmon this way for a shorter time period and then sauté
it, with extraordinary results.
Mustard Sauce
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.
Bibi's Grandma's Glögg
Bibi says, “All the
booze can be the least expensive variety and the measurements are approximate.”
2 bottles of burgundy or
other hearty red wine (New York state, of course)
1/4 cup brandy, or more
to taste
1/4 cup vodka, or more
to taste
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sugar, or more
to taste
1/2 cup honey, or more
to taste
1 cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves
1-2 cardamom pods
Peel of half an orange
1 cup blanched almonds*
*To blanch almonds,
bring a couple cups of water to a boil, add the almonds and let boil for about
two minutes. Drain and let them cool and the skins slide off easily. Bibi
warns, “Watch out as they may fly around the room when you squeeze them!” Maria
says, “Best to do this before you start drinking glögg!”
Warm all ingredients
except almonds together in a pot. Don't let it boil even for a second or the
alcohol will evaporate. Put an almond or two into each cup and fill with hot
glögg, using a ladle.
Skål!
Good links:
Harold McGee—he makes
food science and history fascinating: www.curiouscook.com
Bibi Farber's NextWorld
TV—great videos about sustainability: www.nextworldtv.com
Shawangunk Wine Trail—a
fun way to discover local wineries: www.shawangunkwinetrail.com
John Novi's DePuy Canal
House—the Hudson Valley's only 4-star restaurant: www.depuy.com
Maria Reidelbach is the
proprietress of Homegrown Mini-Golf on Kelder's Farm, the only miniature golf
course with edible landscaping (m@mariareidelbach.com).
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 4:59 PM.
Filed under
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0
