NORWEGIAN FOOD

MILK - THE DAILY DRINK
All Norwegian love milk, being born into a milk-drinking culture. When Norwegian children come home after school, they head for the refrigerator for a glass of cold fresh milk. At supper, Norwegian couples have their sandwiches with milk. At breakfast, Norwegian workers head off to a full day's work fuelled with bread and milk.

COCOA AND HOT CHOCOLATE If you leave Norway without trying its cocia and hot chocolate, you would have missed something special. These drinks are especially popular among children, but if you are on a long walk or ski expedition, there is nothing more delicious than drinking hot chocolate from a thermos flask up in the mountains.
Norwegian cocoa tastes so good that one is hardly surprised to learn that Norway boasts of a very famous chocolate factory, immortalised in Norwegian-American author Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.The factory in question is Freia and the chocolates it produces are heavenly.

BREAD, FLATBREAD AND LEFSE Norwegians are great consumers of bread. Very often, a hungry Norwegian will be happy simply to have several slices of good bread, white or perhaps solid, coarse-grain bread. Norwegians eat bread at least three times a day - at breakfast (smorbrod), a packed lunch at school or at work (nistepakke), and a slice or two in the evening.
Bread, usually in the form of flatbread, is frequently served as an accompaniment to meat and fish dishes. In the old days, flatbread and lefse were the most important breads. Flatbread dough is made with freshly ground oats and water, kneaded in a large trough, divided into small balls of equal size, and rolled out with grooved or latticed rolling pins into thin round sheets about 50 cm in diameter. They are then rolled onto a thin wooden pin and then rolled out again onto a hot baking stone or griddle to bake.The result is a thin and crispy bread.
Lefseis baked hard or soft. Oat lefseis made of coarse flour, rolled thick and baked at such low heat that it becomes crisp or hard. Soft lefse has a much shorter shelf life as it is made of fine flour and cream, among other things. Lefse can be festive food if topped with the right ingredients. The most popular topping is lightly salted buter and cinnamon sugar. On the west coast of Norway, the lefse is thin and crisp or soft and thicker. But the filling is what gives this rather bland bread its special taste.

FISH Herring is often called the silver of the sea. Harvesting herring can be an uncertain trade as the fish might visit certain coastal areas, only to disappear completely and show up somewhere else. However, in 1996/97 the herring has come back to the coast of Norway - in as large quantities as in the 1950s..
From the 19th century and up to World War II, salt herring or spekesild was the most common dinner dish for people with limited means. Nowadays, ont the west coast, spekesild is sometimes eaten on Saturdays with cranberry sauce, fresh onion slivers, pickled beetroot, and boiled potato. When you first try spekesild, you will be overwhelmed by its salty flavor and rawness, but once you get used to it, you could find yourself longing for its light taste.
Herring is also canned in a variety of sauces such as lobster, wine, dill, and tomato sauce. These are often sold abroad as gaffelbiter or "tidbits."

If you have not tried Norwegian fishballs or fiskeboller, your first time is truly a gastronomic experience. The Norwegian fishball is soft and milky, both in color and flavor. It is an acquired taste, but you could get fond of it. Make a white sauce of butter or margarine, flour, and milk, and add a bouillon cube, and you have fiskeboller in white sauce!

Fish Loaf in Shrimp Sauce

Ground haddock makes the best fish loaf. Haddock binds exceedingly well and ensures a light and pliant fish dough. For best results, follow these simple rules: stand in a cool place while working; be sure that the fish is fresh and cold; stir the ground fish until stiff before adding the liquid; and finally, add the liquid slowly, al little at a time, and beat it stiff between each addition.
6 servings 2 lbs. fish fillets, haddock or pollack, All bones removed.
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. potato flour or cornstarch
1/4 tsp. mace
approx. 2 1/2 cups milk

Rinse the fillets under running cold water. Dry them with paper twoels. Cut the fillets in pieces and grind them once in a meat grinder. Add salt and potato flour or cornstarch and grind the fish 2-4 more times. It is important that the fish dough is as firm and stiff as possible. The oftener it is ground the finer the texture of the resulting dough.
Beat the fish with an electric beater and add the milk. Always add the cream last.
Successful fish dough should be smooth and fine textured at all times. It is important to stand in a cool place while you work.
Add mace. Poach a sample fish ball to test the flavor and consistency.
Grease a 6 cup mold. Let the fat harden. Pour in the fish dough. Fish loaf does not rise, so the mold may be filled to the rim. Smooth the surface carefully. Tap the mold against the table top to pack the fish dough well in the mold, avoiding air holes in the cooked loaf.
Place the mold in a roasting pan, and put the pan in the oven. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water. Cook the loaf about 1 hour at 250 degrees F. (120 degrees C.) Press the top of the loaf with the back of a spoon. When it feels firm, its is done. Let the fish loaf stand a few minutes in the mold before turning it out. Serve shrimp sauce with fish loaf.

SHRIMP SAUCE 1 1/2 tbsp. butter or margarine
2 1/2 tbsp. flour
approx. 2 1/2 cups milk or 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 cup fish stock
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 oz. cleaned, cooked shrimp, fresh, frozen or canned.

Melt butter or margarine in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the flour and stir well. Add the liquid gradually, stirring constantly. Simmer the sauce for about 5 minutes after the last of the liquid is added.
Add the shrimp. If canned shrimp are used, the stock in the can may be substituted for part of the milk in the sauce. If the shrimp are pre-cooked, the sauce should not boil after they are added or they will be tough.

The Norwegian Buffet Table- Smorgaasbord

The Norwegian buffet table or smorgaasbord is a fascinating array of cold and hot dishes that delight the eye and please the palate. When you are in Norway, you must sample a smorgaasbord meal to know why tourists talk about it.

You will probably encounter your first Norwegian buffet at the hotel breakfast table. Norwegians believe in a hearty breakfast, and a roll and jam just won't do for a hungry Norwegian. A Norwegian breakfast buffet will have different kinds of bread, milk and juice, cereal, cold cuts, eggs, cheese, jam, marmalade, and little jars of pickled herring in sherry or mustard marinade. The Norwegian buffet lunch boasts a similar array, added to which are fish and shellfish dishes, dried meats with side dishes, hot dishes made with fish, meat, and occasionally asta, salads with dressings, and desserts like ice cream, caramel and chocholate puddings, Bavarian creams, cakes, berries, and fruit.
Actually, smorgaasbord is a Swedish word for the famous Scandinavian buffet table laden with a multitude of different dishes, mainly cold, ranging from spicy cured herrrings and other fish, through meats and salads, to cheeses. The world literally means "bread-and butter table," the idea being that you help yourself from the various dishes and eat the bread and butter with these. The Danish and Norwegian name is koldt bord which means "cold table," but smorgaasbord is the better-known name and has remained to distinguish this type of buffet.
Various kinds of bread, such as Danish rye bread, white bread, Norwegian wafer-thin flatbrod, and knekkebrod or crispbread accompany the hot and cold dishes on a Norwegian buffet table.
The drink that goes down well with smorgaasbord is schnapps, aquavit, or beer. Schnapps is sometimes served in the traditional klunke-flaske (distinctive glasses with exceptionally long and hollow stems), so called because of the gurgling sound it makes when you pour from it.

The Norwegian Main Course

The main meal of the day for Norwegians is middag - the only hot meal in the day. Middag is dinner, which is normally eaten at 5 p.m. In the countryside, middag takes place a little earlier, at 4 p.m.
At middag it is important that the entire family sits down to the meal together. This is one main focus for family interaction. Parents and children may have their routines, but at dinnertime, they all sit down together to give thanks for the food and to see each other. Most Norwegians serve only one main course for dinner.

Potatoes, Potatoes, and Potatoes again...

The common potato is a much valued tuber in Norway. It is so much used in Norwegian kitchens that no Norwegian can conceive of a main meal without the ubiquitous potato. It is eaten boiled, baked, fried as chips, sliced and baked in fricassee, served in soups...

Meatballs in Brown Sauce

Kjottkaker or Norwegian meatballs are a common staple in the Norwegian diet. Norwegian children love it. It is made of minced beefseasoned with salt, pepper, and a touch of ginger, potato flour, and milk, then formed into patties and fried until golden-brown. You only need to brown the meatballs, not cook them thoroughly. Next, make a brown sauce from the oil left behind, ading flour, milk, and soup stock, or use an instant brown sauce mix. Simmer the meatballs in the brown gravy and serve them with boiled potatoes.

Porridge, Our oldest warm dish

In former times sour cream porridge was only eaten on special occasions. It was brought as a gift to the new mother during her lying in. It was served at weddings and funerals, to celebrate the harvest and to feed neighbors who gave a helping hand at busy times. The porridge was made form sour cream, flour and salt. The best sour cream porridge was so rich that it "danced" in the kettle in its own fat - food tht was heavy and hard to digest. In our day we usually dilute the porridge with a little milk.
Sour cream porridge is most often made with white flour, but one can also use barley flour or a mixture of white flour and semolina. In some communities it is traditional to alternate layers of sour cream porridge with semolina pudding in the bowl, making a dish that is less rich and easier to digest.
Accompaniments to sour cream porridge are also strongly tied to tradition. Some people serve the porridge with salted herring or with poached fish, salted or fresh. Others serve cured salted ham, "spekeskinke" (prosciutto), salami and other salted meats with sour cream porridge.
It is popular to sprinkle the porridge with sugar and cinnamon. Fruitjuice or milk is drunk with sour cream porridge.

Lamb Stew with Cabbage

Faarikaalis a traditional Norwegian dish in the fall when mutton is abundant(it is slaughter time for sheep then).
This stew is a heavy dish, very solid and nourishing. The chunks of mutton are put in a pot and boiled with wedges of cabbage, peppercorns, salt and a bayleaf or two, for a couple of hours. The cabbage becomes soggy, but that is the way it should be. The meat is tender and the stew is rich and soupy. Delicious - with boiled potatoes, of course.

Lapskaus or Potato and Meat Stew

To make lapskaus, throw cubed potatoes, carrots, sliced leek, sausage, and any meat leftovers all togetjer into water to make a soupy stew that is warm and good, especially in the winter. "Brown" lapskaus is made with primarily leftover cooked meat, boiled potatoes, and a little gravy.

White Lady

Ask a man from Bergen what he considers the best cake in the world, and he is sure to answer "White Lady." This cake is a Bergen speciality and "the lady" is always present when Bergenites have a party. The cake itself consists of eggs, sugar,flour and bakingpowder. Filling: Strawberry jam and heavy cream. Marcaroon: sugar, hazelnuts, flour and eggwhites. Cover: Marzipan, walnut halves and powdered sugar. Yum, yum!!