1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (87 page)

Beet and herring salad.

Although herring lovers are not confined to Scandinavia, the Nordic countries celebrate those silvery, saline fish like no other part of the world—with more than twenty spectacular variations on the theme. Anyone who hasn’t tried a good
percentage of these cannot be considered a true herring maven.

Differences lie first in the fish: whether they are the rosy, satiny, salty-sweet reddish fillets of
maatjes
(technically maiden fish that have not yet spawned); the firmer, meatier salt herring; the unctuously rich, supple, and juicy schmaltz or fat herring; or the smallish, intensely flavored Baltic herring
böckling.
From those come a kaleidoscopic array of cuts, cures, and sauces, and a buffet table with fewer than ten specimens is not considered worthy of the title
smörgåsbord
(see
listing
).

Rose-red maatjes fillets—cut into
gaffelbiter
or “fork pieces”—are most appreciated raw and plain, laid out on big, bricklike blocks of ice under sprigs of dill, to be picked up in pieces as diners circle the cold table. Cooked, the fillets are sometimes presented as
currysill
, in a curry sauce with bits of potato, onion, and hard-cooked egg; or in a green sauce of spinach, capers, parsley, eggs, and mustard.

Salt herring may be fried (
stekt
) or pickled into the most beautiful of Swedish creations,
glasmästersill
—glassblower’s herring, so named because the silver-blue herring pieces are pickled in tall, straight-sided glass jars in a clear brine along with slices of carrots, red onion, and bay leaves, all suggesting an edible stained-glass window. (Schmaltz or
fett
herring are also often pickled, but are favored in creamy mustard sauce, as a dish called
senapssill
.) For a garnet-colored salad of beets, apples, potatoes, and red onion, or for roasting in parchment with dill, parsley, chives, and plenty of sweet butter, salt herring is the choice.

One type of herring you will never find on a smorgasbord is the Swedish
surströmming
, or sour Baltic herring. Sour is an understatement: Cleaned, brined, and cellar-fermented in barrels for a year prior to being canned, the fish attains the crumbling, pasty texture and intense aroma of Roman
garum
or the Vietnamese fish sauce
nam pla.
A can of surströmming is opened out of doors for the best of reasons—assuming the festering gases inside haven’t already caused that bulging can to explode, the smell is enough to cause retching. But believe it or not, a taste for its salty, bitterly fishy flavor can be acquired, if one lives long enough. Almost needless to say, it takes lots of crispbread, aquavit, and beer to get the job done.

And then there are the anchovies—tiny sprats or near-herring that go into such specialties as the Swedish
Janssons frestelse
, or Jansson’s temptation: a luscious, layered gratin of julienned potato strips, onions, anchovies, butter, and heavy cream favored not only on the smorgasbord but as a late-night restorative as well.

Another festive favorite, the following herring salad lends color to a smorgasbord and is also common at Christmastime in Sweden.

Makes 10 to 20 portions; serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer

3 large salt herring, ¾ to 1 pound each, soaked and trimmed to make 6 fillets

3 cups finely diced canned cooked beets, juice reserved

2 medium-size potatoes, boiled, peeled, and diced

2 medium-size tart green apples, preferably Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

About 1½ cups sour cream, beaten until thin

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Sugar

2 hard-cooked eggs, for garnish

Fresh dill sprigs, for garnish

Scandinavian crispbread, for serving

1.
The herring are best soaked whole for 24 hours in a change of water, but if your store will not do that, have the herring filleted and soak them at home. Place the fillets in a bowl and add cold water to cover. Cover the bowl and let the herring soak in the refrigerator for 24 hours,
changing the water several times. Drain the herring fillets and pat them dry with paper towels, making sure all of the fine, hairlike bones are removed. Dice the fillets.

2.
Place the diced herring in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Add half each of the beets, potatoes, apples, and red onion, and toss to mix. It is a good idea to add each of these ingredients to the herring gradually so you do not overdo the onion or apple. After adding the first half, taste to see how much more of each ingredient you need for a balanced distribution, setting any leftovers aside for another use. Add the vinegar and toss to mix.

3.
Place 1 cup of the sour cream in a small bowl and blend the mustard into it. Fold the mustard and sour cream mixture into the herring salad. Stir in just enough of the reserved beet juice to add a slight pinkish blush of color, up to ½ cup. Add up to ½ cup more sour cream, if needed, to bind the salad so that it is moist but not runny.

4.
Taste the salad for seasoning, adding salt, white pepper, and sugar to taste, and more vinegar and/or mustard as necessary. Refrigerate the salad, covered, for 8 to 24 hours before serving, tossing it very gently with a fork every 5 or 6 hours to distribute the juices.

5.
When ready to serve, toss the salad with a fork thoroughly but gently and place it in a glass or ceramic serving bowl. Separate the whites and yolks of the hard-cooked eggs and rub each through a coarse sieve. Sprinkle the grated whites over the salad, then top it with the grated yolks. Arrange a few sprigs of dill around the edge of the salad and pass the crispbread at the table.

Where:
In Stockholm
, Den Gyldene Freden, tel 46/8-249-760,
gyldenefreden.se
;
in New York
, Aquavit, tel 212-307-7311,
aquavit.org
;
in Elk Horn, IA
, Danish Inn, tel 712-764-4251,
danishinnrestaurant.com
;
in Santa Barbara, CA
, Andersen’s Danish Restaurant and Bakery, tel 805-962-5085,
andersenssantabarbara.com
.
Retail and mail order:
In New York
, Russ & Daughters, tel 212-475-4880,
russanddaughters.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Scandinavian Christmas
by Trine Hahnemann (2012);
The Scandinavian Cookbook
by Trine Hahnemann (2009);
food.com
(search scandinavian pickled herring);
saveur.com
(search sildesalat).

A rite of spring worth rediscovering.

A luscious surprise for those expecting all Danish food to be wintry, this pale jade-colored cream soup is redolent of the season’s first asparagus and enriched with airy veal dumplings. Once a standard in Copenhagen’s upscale
traditional restaurants, it seems to have been relegated to the history books—but it well deserves resurrection, even if only by home cooks.

Serves 6 to 8

For the soup

3 pounds thin, young asparagus stalks

2 cups light cream or half-and-half

1½ cups veal broth or chicken broth

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

For the dumplings

1 pound ground veal shoulder

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Pinch of ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

For finishing the soup

8 extra-large egg yolks

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Minced fresh chives or fresh chervil leaves, for garnish

1.
Prepare the soup: Rinse the asparagus well under cold running water. Snap the tough woody part off the bottom of each stalk, setting the tops of the stalks aside. Rinse the bottom ends again to remove any sand, place them in a large saucepan, and add 1 cup of water. Let simmer over moderate heat for about 15 minutes. Strain through a sieve and set the broth aside, discarding the stalk bottoms.

2.
Cut the tips off the asparagus tops, about ¾ inch from the end, and set aside the center pieces. Place the asparagus tips in the saucepan, add 1½ cups of water and a pinch of salt, and simmer over moderate heat until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain the asparagus tips, setting them aside. Add the cooking water to the broth already reserved.

3.
Cut the remaining, center pieces of asparagus into 1-inch lengths, place them in the saucepan, and add 4½ cups of water and a generous pinch of salt. Simmer the asparagus over moderate heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer the asparagus center pieces and their cooking water to a food processor or blender and puree them. Return the pureed asparagus to the saucepan, adding the reserved asparagus broth, and bring to a simmer.

4.
While the pureed asparagus simmers, place the cream in a small saucepan and heat over low heat until tiny bubbles form around the sides of the pan, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and cover the pan to keep the cream hot. Place the veal broth or chicken broth in another small saucepan and bring to a simmer.

5.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. When the butter bubbles, stir in the flour, and simmer until well blended and pale blond in color, stirring gently, about 5 minutes. Stir in the hot cream and hot broth all at once and whisk over low heat until thick and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. Beat the cream mixture into the simmering asparagus puree and simmer until smoothly blended, about 4 minutes. Set the asparagus soup aside.

6.
Make the dumplings: Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Place the veal, flour, eggs, pepper, nutmeg, and ½ teaspoon salt in a mixing bowl and, using a fork, gently combine. Do not pack the veal mixture down. Shape the mixture into tiny balls, about ¾ inch in diameter.

7.
Drop the veal dumplings gently into the boiling water. When they are done, they will puff up and float to the surface, 7 to 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked dumplings to a bowl and keep them warm in a little of the cooking water.

8.
Finish the soup: Just before serving, bring the soup to a simmer. In a medium-size bowl, beat the egg yolks with 3 tablespoons of cold water and then slowly pour 2 cups of the hot asparagus soup into the yolk mixture, beating constantly. Remove the soup from the heat and add the yolk mixture, beating constantly. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and white pepper as necessary. Gently reheat the soup, but do not let it boil or the egg yolks will coagulate.

9.
To serve the soup, place 3 or 4 veal dumplings and 4 or 5 asparagus tips in each warmed serving bowl, then ladle in the soup. Garnish each portion with minced chives or chervil.

Where:
In Odense, Denmark
, Carlslund, tel 45/65-91-11-25, restaurant-carlslund.dk.
Tip:
The soup can be prepared up to 30 minutes before dumplings are made, but then add egg yolks just before finishing so the soup will not curdle as it is reheated.

With a tingly salt-sharp bite and a fresher, simpler flavor than the more complex blue cheeses of England, France, and Italy, the Danish blue is consistently appealing. Made of fresh cow’s milk and almost entirely mass-produced, it features a creamy texture that makes it easy to spread, slice, or crumble. A traditional dessert after a fish dinner, it also forms a delectable open sandwich when topped with a raw egg yolk and some shaved radishes.

But Danish blue reaches its true apotheosis in a preparation invented by the late Peter Heering, the owner of the Cherry Heering brand of deeply winey, sweet-tart cherry liqueur. To intrigue dinner guests, he would begin a meal by presenting a large, five-pound cylinder of Danish blue cheese. With a silver tablespoon, he would scoop out a core four or five inches deep into the top of the cheese. Setting aside the extracted cheese, he poured some ruby-red Cherry Heering into the well and crumbled the reserved cheese back into it. There it sat during the two-hour meal, after which portions of the tangy, cherry-soaked cheese were served as dessert.

Naturally, an extra helping of the liqueur Heering was poured into iced, fluted glasses to help guests better appreciate the mollifying effects of cherries on the sharp sting of the cheese.

Mail order:
For whole wheels of Danish blue, amazon.com (search danablu); for Cherry Heering,
internetwines.com
(search cherry heering).
Further information:
danablu.dk
;
cherry-heering.com
.
Tip:
The Flora Danica brand of Danish blue cheese is that country’s finest. It is best to buy the cheese in a shop where it is cut to order in a large piece. But if a large piece is not available, drizzle some Cherry Heering over each portion one hour before serving. A few English-style wafer biscuits would be a good flavor foil.