Tuesday, November 27, 2012

On the Menu: Swedish Food

Swedish Food: More than Meatballs!


I  LOVE  IKEA!!!!
Yeah, Swedish meatballs are awesome. The soft, fluffy meatballs in the creamy gravy...I'm drooling remembering the ones I had at IKEA yesterday.  But there is a lot of other food in Sweden.  They eat a lot of fish, salmon and herring and whitefish, smoked or pickled.  If you read this blog regularly, you know I'm not a fan of fish, so we're not having pickled herring.  They eat a lot of potatoes and beets.  Nope, we're not having those either.  They eat a lot of venison.  Well, Bambi is safe from me because we are having Svenska Tunnpankakor!!  What?!?  Oh, in America that would be Swedish Pancakes! YUM :)  These are very similar to crepes, really thin and folded or rolled.  Since I happened to be at IKEA yesterday, I picked up some Lingonberry preserves and served our pankakor with Lingonberry butter.  They were delicious.  Here is the recipe.  BTW, I found this recipe on a website called VerySwedish.com so it should be pretty authentic.

Swedish Pancakes (Svenska Tunnpankakor)

For the recipe you will need:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 3 1/3 cups milk
  • 3/4 t salt
  • 3 eggs
  • butter
1.  Add eggs, salt and 1 1/3 cups milk to bowl.  Whisk well.
2.  Add flour and blend until well combined.
3.  Add rest of milk.  The batter is really runny!
4.  Heat frying pan to medium heat and melt some butter in pan.  Add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter to pan and tilt pan to spread batter evenly.
5.  Cook until top is almost dry and then turn over and cook 30 - 45 seconds on other side.  Transfer to plate and keep warm.
6.  Repeat.  repeat.  repeat.

These were really good and surprisingly filling!  We mixed our lingonberry preserves with some butter and put a dollop on top of each folded crepe.  Then we sprinkled on some powdered sugar.  Then we ate then like a pack of starved wolves because they were so warm and delicious!!  When I say we, I'm not counting the kids, I really thought I was gonna hit a home run with these.  I mean who in there right minds wouldn't eat these??  Well, apparently my children are those people.  Oh well, more for us :)  I may never get to Sweden in real life, but tonight my tastebuds were there...and they were very happy!!!!!

Our delicious pancakes with lingonberry butter, fresh fruit and a sausage!!  The picture doesn't do it justice.  A food stylist I'm not.