Re: Question?/for the food-ie Kate ;0)...Reb's Swedish Jul

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Gasp! (clutching abdomen) Burp!Wow! Thank you for this one, Reb n To: MSersLife Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 9:45:36 AMSubject: Re: Question?/for the food-ie Kate ;0)...

We'll be spending Christmas at my mother's house this year. But...Christmas dinner (served sometime during the afternoon, early evening, on Christmas Eve,a ns is supposed to last at least a couple of hours) in Sweden is, like I understand Thanksgiving dinner to be in the US, pretty much set from year to year. And wouldn't it be, since it contains more or less every food known to man...Or well, a pretty standard, traditional Swedish Christmas dinner would contain the following:To start with:- Herring (pickled, preferrably at least 2-3 kinds, but could be more)- Eggs (boiled)- Potatoes (boiled)- Herring sallad (contains: salted herring, red beet, apple, cream and mayonnaise, and sometimes potatoes, served cold)- "Janssons Frestelse" (litterally "Jansson's Temptation", a gratin of potatoes and anchovies (or sprats), with cream, butter and onion)- Smoked salmon, or "gravlax" (ie. a Scandinavian

dish consisting of raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill), or sometimes BOTH smoked salmon and gravlax (and here the traditions differ somewhat, some families save the salmon for the second part of the dinner)To follow:- Ham (boiled, then baked with mustard and breadcrumb, and some other things as well, have watched my mother do it every year as a child, but still not sure of what exactly goes in there...)- Swedish meatballs (absolutely essential!)- "Prinskorv" (accordning to Wikipedia, it's called that in English too, it's a small Swedish sausage, the name literally means "Prince sausage")- "Fläskkorv" (again, Wikipedia offers no other name in English, the translation is "Pork sausage", it's a traditional Swedish Sausage)- Liver sausage (I don't like it, but LOVES it)-

Head Cheese (it's a meat dish, despite it's name), up to THREE different kinds.- Ribs - "Leverpastej" (a paté made of liver - I LOVE it)- A red beet sallad (sort of like the herring sallad, but without the herring, goes excellent with the meatballs)- Red cabbage- "brunkål" (literally "brown cabbage", it's cabbage fried and then boiled with, among other things, syrup and vinegar)And these are just the basics, other fish or meat could be added, my mum sometimes add smoked lamb, for instance.If, by any chance, you manage to still be hungry, or, more likely, if you are still able to get anything down without risking an ER-visit due to over-eating, the traditional way to finish this off would be with rice pudding.The Christmas dinner is in Swedish known as "julbord", where "jul" is the word for Christmas and "bord" means table. As the word may imply, it is a version of the, perhaps more famous, Smörgåsbord.

I think the strangest thing I ever heard anyone say about the Swedish julbord was that it left them still hungry (it was in an intervju with someone of Swedish heritage living abroad, and in the context of "We ried it one year, and we liked it, but the problem is it left us still hungry, we need more food than that"). I could understand not liking it, but I must say, if you leave a julbord still hungry, especially if you like what's on it enough to have even minimal pieces of everything, you are DEFINITELY not doing it right... I suppose that would be obvious from the list above... And finally, a recipe of a white hot chocolate we will be making and enjoying this year (we are doing it instead of bringing homemade candy this year):You need:- 1 litre of milk- 5 star anise (spice)- 3 cinnamon quills- 1 vanilla pod- cardamom (about 1 teaspoon)- 100 gram (about 0,22 pound) white chocolateDo it like

this:Heat and boil milk with all the spices, put it aside for a while, and let the milk really absorb the taste. Then pour it through a strainer to remove the spices. The seeds from the vanilla pod should be returned to the milk, though. Then reheat the milk and let the white chocolate melt in it. Serve hot! It's absolutely irresistible!love - and Happy Holidays to all!/Reb -

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Yes, it sure is a "murder one on the stomach", as I sometimes refer to it (which, reminds me, I need to buy some antacid before tomorrow...). But it sure is good too... love/Reb>> Gasp! (clutching abdomen) Burp!> > Wow! Thank you for this one, Reb > > n> > > > > > ________________________________> To: MSersLife > Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 9:45:36 AM> Subject: Re: Question?/for the food-ie Kate ;0)...> > > We'll be spending Christmas at my mother's house this year. But...Christmas dinner (served sometime during the afternoon, early evening, on Christmas Eve,a ns is supposed to last at least a couple of hours) in Sweden is, like I understand Thanksgiving dinner to be in the US, pretty much set from year to year. And wouldn't it be, since it contains more or less every food known to man...Or well, a pretty standard, traditional Swedish Christmas dinner would contain the following:> > To start with:> - Herring (pickled, preferrably at least 2-3 kinds, but could be more)> - Eggs (boiled)> - Potatoes (boiled)> - Herring sallad (contains: salted herring, red beet, apple, cream and mayonnaise, and sometimes potatoes, served cold)> - "Janssons Frestelse" (litterally "Jansson's Temptation", a gratin of potatoes and anchovies (or sprats), with cream, butter and onion)> - Smoked salmon, or "gravlax" (ie. a Scandinavian dish consisting of raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill), or sometimes BOTH smoked salmon and gravlax (and here the traditions differ somewhat, some families save the salmon for the second part of the dinner)> > To follow:> - Ham (boiled, then baked with mustard and breadcrumb, and some other things as well, have watched my mother do it every year as a child, but still not sure of what exactly goes in there...)> - Swedish meatballs (absolutely essential!)> - "Prinskorv" (accordning to Wikipedia, it's called that in English too, it's a small Swedish sausage, the name literally means "Prince sausage")> - "Fläskkorv" (again, Wikipedia offers no other name in English, the translation is "Pork sausage", it's a traditional Swedish Sausage)> - Liver sausage (I don't like it, but LOVES it)> - Head Cheese (it's a meat dish, despite it's name), up to THREE different kinds.> - Ribs > - "Leverpastej" (a paté made of liver - I LOVE it)> - A red beet sallad (sort of like the herring sallad, but without the herring, goes excellent with the meatballs)> - Red cabbage> - "brunkål" (literally "brown cabbage", it's cabbage fried and then boiled with, among other things, syrup and vinegar)> > And these are just the basics, other fish or meat could be added, my mum sometimes add smoked lamb, for instance.> > If, by any chance, you manage to still be hungry, or, more likely, if you are still able to get anything down without risking an ER-visit due to over-eating, the traditional way to finish this off would be with rice pudding.> > The Christmas dinner is in Swedish known as "julbord", where "jul" is the word for Christmas and "bord" means table. As the word may imply, it is a version of the, perhaps more famous, Smörgåsbord. > > I think the strangest thing I ever heard anyone say about the Swedish julbord was that it left them still hungry (it was in an intervju with someone of Swedish heritage living abroad, and in the context of "We ried it one year, and we liked it, but the problem is it left us still hungry, we need more food than that"). I could understand not liking it, but I must say, if you leave a julbord still hungry, especially if you like what's on it enough to have even minimal pieces of everything, you are DEFINITELY not doing it right... I suppose that would be obvious from the list above... > > And finally, a recipe of a white hot chocolate we will be making and enjoying this year (we are doing it instead of bringing homemade candy this year):> > You need:> - 1 litre of milk> - 5 star anise (spice)> - 3 cinnamon quills> - 1 vanilla pod> - cardamom (about 1 teaspoon)> - 100 gram (about 0,22 pound) white chocolate> > Do it like this:> Heat and boil milk with all the spices, put it aside for a while, and let the milk really absorb the taste. Then pour it through a strainer to remove the spices. The seeds from the vanilla pod should be returned to the milk, though. Then reheat the milk and let the white chocolate melt in it. > Serve hot! It's absolutely irresistible!> > love - and Happy Holidays to all!> /Reb> > ->