smilespray2's Profile
Norway's authentic cuisine
Right, so it turns out I'm the boyfriend in question, and I've been marshalled into providing an even more definite list - hehe! :-)
My GF has most of my personal preferences listed (surprise!), but I'll add a few choice staples.
First, a few pedantic corrections: swede (kålrabi), rømmegrøt. And you DO get salmon cakes in Norway - especially now that the international currencies are suffering in relation to the Norwegian Kroner - and we have to eat our own dog food, as it were.
Bacalao: Stock fish (usually dried cod). The Norwegian style is a stew with tomatoes, potatoes, vegetables, chilies and has a slightly salty, metallic taste to it. I often wonder what the metallic taste is about - I only ever taste it otherwise when people use a low-sodium table salt called LO-SALT, which contains a lot of magnesium. I abhor it in all other dishes but this one. The Portuguese variants of this dish are countless, but this is how most Norwegians prefer it from the original source of the raw material.
Lutefisk: Dried cod soaked in lye or caustic soda.
This is rehydrated for several days and then poached or baked in the oven. Northern Norwegians (can you tell I'm one yet?) prefer to use ample amounts of salt so as to draw extra moisture out of the fish, which makes it more flaky. Otherwise, the lye curing process with result in a gelatinous texture.
Smalahove:
Dried, smoked sheeps head. The cheeks are good.
Whale meat:
Yes, and surprisingly a lot like beef if not overcooked. And yes, my grandfather killed whales. With a knife in the shallows of a Faroe Island bay.
Rakfisk:
Rotten fish. Not like Gravlaks (or Gravlax, as some people call it) - this is proper disgusting stuff. Think Inuits and rotten whalrus. Look both up. I don't touch the stuff.
Here's an idea of a typical Norwegian meal day:
Breakfast: Simple open-faced sandwiches with regular hard cheese, brown cheese, salami, shrimp salad, liver paté, spread cheese.
Lunch: Either more of the above or a light dinner.
Dinner: Meat or fish with potatoes or rice and steamed vegetables.
All this is usually pretty dry. Occasionally, sour cream or rich sauces like traditional gravy (dark and especially savoury), bernaise and hollandaise.
Salads are best served boring. Iceberg lettuce with pink tomatoes and anemic cucumber.
Don't get me started about the day broccoli arrived in Norway. I remember it well.
