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

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.

Red Dwarf Food: Triple Fried Egg Chili Chutney Sandwich Recipe

The trick, Lister says, is to eat it before the bread dissolves.

Extensive research and recipe testing has been done to get this sandwich recipe as perfectly accurate as possible to the sandwich in the Red Dwarf episode, Thanks for the Memory. Many versions of this sandwich are out there on the web, but I think this one is the most accurate to the show. When making this recipe, keep in mind that it's Lister who recommends it. Lister, with his one remaining taste bud and his British equivalent of white trash eating habits. Ironically, it's DELICIOUS.

Most recipes I've read assume the 'triple' refers to the number of eggs, but if you watch the sandwich scene closely, you'll notice that the 'triple' refers to the number of pieces of bread. Which incidentally, should be the cheapest white bread you can find: would Lister really eat whole grains? Artisan bread? Specialty Loaves? Not on your life.

Four eggs turned out to be the magic number, fried to a runny, gloppy perfection. This is NOT a neat sandwich.

The chutney we found is an inexpensive, gooey and sweet concoction more like jam than anything else and it pours beautifully, making a perfect mess of the bread. Lord knows what it's made of (something brown?). If your chutney has fruit that can actually be identified, it's too fancy - something only used by class traitors. Gourmet chutney can lead to freqenting WBs, eating tapas, hankerin' for pine kitchens... who KNOWS where it could end?!

The one compromise we were forced to make was that we had a hard time finding East Indian chili sauce in the Pacific Northwest. We're sure that's what Lister would have used, but lacking that we got the next best thing, Rooster Sauce, which is easily as hot and since it's from Southeast Asia, it uses similar peppers for the base.

3 slices of the cheapest white bread you can find.
4 Eggs, fried with runny yolks.
Chili Sauce
Chutney

Spread generous amounts of chutney and chili sauce on two slices of the bread.

Place 2 fried eggs each on the prepared bread.

Stack the layers, placing the third piece of bread on the top.

*Eating this sandwich should feel like you're having a baby. If not, you need more chili.

EDIT: Try it with a Beer Milkshake.