NORWEGIAN FOOD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 47, 17 May 1940, Page 44

NORWEGIAN FOOD

VERY aspect of Norwegian life is of interest at the present time, and not least is the subject of food. What are the staple dishes of this sturdy nation, and how do they maintain. their great physical stamina and resistance to the rigorous climate? I spent only one wonderful week in that beautiful country during my world tour, so cannot speak authoritatively; but it seemed to me that the housewife’s pride was to use as much homegrown food as possible, buying only the very minimum, so that milk, eggs, cheese, poultry, potatoes and all root vegetables; cabbages, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes, and particularly lovely rhubarb, were always set before one. The meals were very substantial, and it seemed to me that only the tourists demanded snacks in between. Specially I noticed how everyone drank plenty of milk; for although coffee was always served-and what lovely coffee!-and there was tea, too (good tea!) for the asking; yet the waitress came round with her big jug of rich milk and replenished one’s glass thtoughout the meal-time, very much as one is kept supplied with iced water in the United States. Fish is a staple food of course-fish-soup and plainly cooked fish-plenty of herring and salmon and barracouta. Pork is the principal meat used — in fact in the country household it is the staple food all the year round, either preserved in brine or as smoked or dried ham, which is eaten raw! Although we sat at small tables and were served by waitresses, yet there was nearly always a lavishly-spread buffet-table in the dining rooms also, Upon these were big baskets and trays of various rolls and sliced bread, and biscuits; bowls of stewed prunes, and apricots, and really "super" rhubarb, besides many varieties of the ever-present "smorbrod," or open sandwich --- a most substantial snack, covered with sliced sausages, veal, beef, ham, caviare, tongue, smoked salmon, scrambled. egg, cheese, lobster-almost anything, in fact. They are served with a cake-slice of silver. Here are a few Norwegian recipes which you might be interested to try: Fish Soup and Pudding Although the fish used is the barracouta, I should think we could follow this recipe out with a good-sized

schnapper. Scrape off all the flesh and put it aside in q bowl ready for our pudding. Place the hard skin and bones in a saucepan, cover with water, adding a little salt, and boil for 30 or 40 minutes. In the meantime, cut up finely a carrot, a parsnip and a couple of sticks of celery. Strain off the fish stock, cook the vegetables in it until tender, and then thicken the soup with arrowroot. Add a good cupful of milk, and just before serving add finely chopped parsley and a knob of butter. THE PUDDING: Scrape the raw fish into a pulp and work into it two fresh eggs. Use a big bowl and a wooden spoon, and make it smooth. Gradually add a pint of milk, stirring very vigorously; also a little pepper and salt, and grated nutmeg-to taste. Finally add a good tablespoon of arrowroot already melted in a little milk; and then steam the mixture in a basin for one-and-a-half to two hours. Fill the basin only three-quarters full, and cover it with a

buttered paper. If you have too much for the pudding, the remainder can be fried in butter-just dropped into the frying-pan in dessertspoonfuls. Stuffed Cabbage ZZollow out a large, firm cabbage by slicing off the top and scooping out the centre with a sharp knife. Mince together about one and a-half pounds of veal and half a pound of bacon or fat pork, and make it into a stuffing with breadcrumbs (or soaked bread), seasoning with pepper and salt and nutmeg.

(They nearly always put a little nutmeg in their meat flavourings). Moisten the stuffing with milk. Fill the hollowedout cabbage with this mincemeat, cover the top over with cabbage leaves, and either tie the whole in a cloth or bind it round with string to keep it together. Steam it in a big saucepan with not very much water for about three hours, Thicken the liquid with flour and serve with the cabbage. Cabbage Ragout Here is another simple and nourishing dish: Cut a large cabbage into slices, and put a layer at the bottom of a casserole or saucepan. Next put a layer of good stewing chops, and sprinkle with pepper and salt and a few cloves. Now another layer of cabbage slices, and another layer of chops, and so on till all is used up. Pour a cupful of water over and cook very slowly either in the oven or on top of the stove for two to three hours. Thicken the gravy with flour. Flotesans (Ox Liver) In Norway, cream is very plentiful and is used freely in cooking, which accounts for the rich, mellow flavour of their many savoury dishes. Ox liver, for instance, is much improved by a cream gravy. This is how they cook it: Cut up some fat pork into strips about three inches long, and quarter of an inch thick; and with these "lard" the surface of the ox liver, at regular spaces, leaving about an inch of fat loose at each end. Of course, a "larding needle" is necessary for this, and few of us have one of these; but one must*make shift and put the strips of fat over the liver somehow. Then melt a little butter in a saucepan, and brown the liver on both sides. Now’add about a cupful of stock and a seasoning of salt. When this is hot, stir in a cupful of cream, put the lid on the pan, and cook very gently for about an hour. Meantime, have a dishful of tomatoes baking in the oven, ina little butter. Serve them with the liver. This really sounds very tasty, doesn’t it? Mor Mousen This is a sort of butter sponge with currants on top. Beat together %4lb. of butter, %4lb. of sugar, and 3 egg yolks for about 15 minutes, or even longer if you have patience, or an electric beater. Sift together lb. of flour and a teaspoon of baking powder, and stir into the beaten mixture. A little vanilla flavouring is added before putting in the flour. Then fold the stiffly-beaten egg-whites lightly into the mixture. Butter a baking tin, and put the cake in, sprinkling the top with currants and chopped almonds. Bake for about half an hour in not too hot an oven. Leave it in the tin until cold, and then take out and cut into squares, ;