My Rendezvous With Swedish Cuisines

I often get a simple question from my friends. They ask me what the most popular Swedish cuisines are. I usually take the easiest route. I list down a few of my own favorites. The list is not new. It has been the same since the first year I had started to explore food in this country. It might sound a little cliché but all my encounters with my favorite Swedish dishes were filled with a lot of curiosity and expectation. It was thrilling.

Before trying the local stuff, I had been cooking and taking my own food to the office and eating it there with other colleagues. It usually works that way in the beginning. But then one day I decided to try something new. I went straight to the office canteen and ordered the non-vegetarian menu. Before this, I had never tried continental food.

Baked Salmon:

Salmon is a kind of fish that tastes very close to an Indian breed called Hilsa. For those of us that come from West Bengal (the eastern part of India) are, by and large, genuine fish-lovers. When I found Salmon in my office canteen for the first time, my eyes lit up! Here I come! The genes and cells inside my deepest tissues started talking to me, “It is now or never!”. “Drop everything else, run, and grab the Salmon!”

Now here comes the catch. Yes, I got Salmon. But it was only baked Salmon! There was no luxury of a curry or a green chili or mustard oil to go alongside. How can that matter? Baked, no baked, cooked, raw, curry, boiled, roasted, fried - when it comes to fish of the caliber of Salmon, all is fair! It was love at first sight, more love at first taste.

Meatballs:

Meatballs are very Swedish. It is served with mashed potatoes and "lingonberry" sauce. My first encounter happened through some persuasion. I had never eaten meat (pork or beef) before. A certain mutton Keema (minced mutton) I had eaten before in India. I had eaten a ball (Kofta) made of the Keema. I had even tried fried Keema. But I could never imagine Keema balls served with a creamy sauce and mashed potatoes. This was certainly new. After a little hesitation, I could win over all my doubts. A perfect combination of ingredients that fit together nicely gave me huge satisfaction that day. My mind, heart and stomach all fell in line. I was happy.

Pytt i panna:

                       

Before this experience, I had never tried recooking "leftover" food. Hence, when Pytt i panna was explained to me by a friend, I was a bit suspicious at the start. Why to mess around with leftover? But, leftover is not always left out! The curiosity increased further when I learnt the technique. First, both the leftover meat and the leftover potatoes are cut into smaller pieces. A point to note - these must be cooked already. Either boiled, or roasted. Then these two items are fried in a pan with butter. A few chopped onion pieces are put into the frying mixture. The whole dish is garnished with an egg omelet and freshly cut beet root circles. The experience was amazing. It was mouth-watering. Now I know why I should never get rid of old food. There is this fallback option called Pytt i panna!