Räksmörgås (Swedish Shrimp Sandwiches)

Bite Sized Bay Shrimp Sandwiches with Citron Mayonnaise and Dill

When my mother came to visit me in Sweden, we were on the ferry between Helsingborg and Helsingør when I asked her if she wanted a snack. Fearing the worst kind of vending machine ferry food that you'd expect to find in the states, she was astonished when I returned with an open-faced sandwich piled high with sweet, fresh shrimp, a dollop of tart lemon mayonnaise and a frosty Tuborg to go with it.

These sandwiches are scrumptous.

Since then, this has been the anecdote that I use to explain the difference between Swedish and American expectations of food. Admittedly, the US ferry system is really trying to up it's cafe quality but I don't think they serve anything that would inspire a foreigner to write a blog post about it. Unless it was the bad kind of post, I suppose...

Sliced Bread
Fresh, steamed bay shrimp or pink shrimp - the smaller the better
1-2 Tbl lemon juice (adjust to taste)
1/4 Cup mayonnaise
Fresh Dill
Butter

Lightly butter the bread
Mix the mayonnaise and lemon juice (optionally add finely chopped fresh dill)
Put a dollop of mayonnaise on the corner of the bread
Pile as high as you can with shrimp.
Poke dill sprigs in as a garnish, or chop the dill and sprinkle on top

Optionally you can add flat slices of hardboiled egg, cucumber and lettuce under the shrimp but I think it competes too much with the delicate flavor of the shrimp and lemon.

The full-size, fork-and-knife version

Fyllda Ägghalvor (Deviled Eggs with Lox)

Deviled Eggs with Dill and Lox

Deviled eggs are a ubiquitous party appetizer in Sweden. The addition of cured or smoked salmon and dill is simple and delicious, like the best food is. The trick to making these authentically Swedish is to leave off the garlic and onion. I had a boyfriend in Sweden once who literally asked me [in Swedish], "You stink! Did you eat garlic this week?" I found the comment particularly ironic coming from a guy who'd eat surstromming.

Filling:
12 hardboiled eggs
4 Tbl Whole Grain Mustard
1/3 Cup Sour Cream
1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
1/2 White Pepper
2 tsp Salt (or to taste)
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Garnish:
Lox, Gravlax or Soft Smoked Salmon & Fresh Dill

Peel and cut the eggs in two. Remove and mash the yolks with the remaining ingredients. Make sure you taste it as you go.

Get the mash into a very fine paste and run it through a pastry piping tube with a star tip, filling the egg halves from the bottom as illustrated below.



Garnish with a thin slice of rolled Lox or Smoked Salmon and a generous sprig of fresh dill.

Ägg Smörgås (Caviar and Egg Sandwiches)

Tiny Egg and Caviar Sandwiches
Front to Back: Lumpfish, Capelin, Smoked Herring (Kalles)

Eggs with eggs. Chicken with Fish. Funny how some things are food and some, condiments. These sandwiches are elegant and delicious, but not for the faint of fish. Despite its reputation, caviar can be delicious and affordable if you know where to look. Abba makes a perfectly respectful Lumpfish caviar (orange), and I found the most luciously rich Capelin caviar (black) at Cost Plus World Market, both for about $5 per jar.

The lumpfish is a bit sharper and fishier than the Capelin, which was unctuous and complex, but the surprise winner at the party was the Kalles smoked herring roe caviar, which comes in a toothpaste tube. It's a little like bacon, if bacon were made of fish, ground into a paste, salted heavily and squeezed from a tube. It's GREAT with boiled eggs.

The sandwich recipe is simple: butter the bread, slice the eggs and put a dollop of caviar on each. For a variation, mix the caviar with a little sour cream and finely diced shallot.

I like to use a variety of breads with these sandwiches and like all Swedish Smörgås, they're traditionally served open-face to be eaten with a fork and knife. For parties, making bite-sized versions is practical and beautiful.

Take-n-Bake baguettes from Fred Meyer, Homebaked Amish loaf

I love Caviar. Nothing photographs quite as beautifully.

Sillsalad Smörgås (Herring Salad Sandwiches)

Swedish Herring and Apple Salad Sandwiches

Swedish Sandwiches are served open-face, and eaten with a fork and knife. For buffets like a Julbord, it's easier to make them more like canapés, to be eaten in a couple of bites. This one is an interesting combination of tart, sweet and salty. And um... fish.

1 Cup Wine Pickled Herring
1 Tart Apple, like a Granny Smith
3 Hard Boiled Eggs
1/2 Sweet Onion, like Walla Walla

Finely dice all the ingredients and mix together. The proportions above are suggested only - aim for equal quantities of each, diced.



Add in a little pickle juice if you like it more vinegar-ey and let the salad sit in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight. Optionally, add 1/4 cup diced pickled beets but that will turn your salad kind of pink. Herring and apple salad is strange enough for Americans - I don't recommend an ungodly shade of pink to boot.

For tiny appetizer-sized sandwiches, sliced baguette works nicely. Lightly Butter the bread before putting the salad on it because it's a) traditional, b) keeps the bread from getting soggy and c) delicious. Garnish with a sprig of Dill, and Varsågod!

The full-size, fork-and-knife version.