The Body in the Fjord

BY Faith Sibley Fairchild A WORK IN PROGRESS

A sign in a Norwegian restaurant:

CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL IS FORBIDDEN UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY FISH. ALL FOOD IS CONSIDERED FISH, EXCEPT SAUSAGES. IF SAUSAGES ARE ORDERED, MAY GOD FORBID, SAUSAGES CAN BE CALLED FISH.

FISKEPUDDING WITH SHRIMP SAUCE

1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1½ pounds white fish fillets (Haddock or a combination of haddock and sole is good.) ½ cup light cream 1 cup heavy cream 2 teaspoons salt 1½ tablespoons cornstarch a buttered sheet of aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Melt the butter and coat the inside of a mold, such as a pudding mold or Bundt pan. The mold should be large enough to hold six cups. Set aside. Start boiling enough water so that the mold will be covered by water three quar- ers of the way up when placed in a large baking pan during cooking. Cut the raw fish into small pieces, approximately one-inch squares. Mix the creams together in a measuring cup with a spout or a pitcher. Using the sharp blade on a food processor or a blender, blend the fish with the cream, one batch at a time. Don’t overfill the container of the blender or food processor. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the salt and cornstarch. Beat vigorously. It will be light and somewhat fluffy. Transfer the pudding into the mold. Bang it on the countertop and smooth the top with a knife. (Norwegian cooking tends to get physical.) Seal the mold with the foil and place it in the baking pan. Pour in the boiling water and set the pan in the middle of the oven. Cook for one hour. Take the mold from the pan. Let it stand for five minutes and then unmold it on a decorative round platter. Drain off any liquid that may have accumulated. Spoon on some of the sauce (recipe follows) and garnish with whole shrimp and parsley sprigs. Serve the rest of the sauce separately. Don’t forget to serve with lingonberries and boiled potatoes. Faith actually likes this dish, but she uses steamed new potatoes or fingerlings instead of the boiled potatoes.

Serves 6.

Note: This can also be made in individual molds as a first course.

SHRIMP SAUCE

4 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 tablespoons flour 1½ cups milk 1 thin slice of onion ¹/8 teaspoon nutmeg salt white pepper ¾ pound uncooked small, fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

The sauce can be made while the pudding is cooking. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add the flour, cooking for two to three minutes over low heat, stirring constantly. Increase the heat slightly and slowly add the milk, whisking or stirring constantly again. Add the onion slice and continue to stir for five minutes. Remove from the heat, discard the onion slice, add the nutmeg, along with salt and pepper to taste. Return to the heat and add the shrimp, reserving some for the garnish. When the shrimp are pink, serve immediately. (You can make the sauce ahead and do this last step just before serving.)

Cook the shrimp for the garnish in rapidly boiling water until pink.

CUCUMBER AND DILL SALAD

2 large cucumbers 2 teaspoons salt ½ cup white vinegar 2 tablespoons sugar ¼ teaspoon pepper 3 tablespoons fresh finely chopped dill dill sprigs for garnish

Slice the cucumbers as thinly as possible, using a sharp knife or a food processor. One of my relatives uses a cheese slicer—an ostehøvel, “cheese plane,” which was invented by the Norwegians. When used with cheese, it produces one thin slice of gjetost at a time—possibly all one may want. If you have a slicer, it produces a cucumber slice one can almost see through.

Toss the cucumbers with one teaspoon of salt, cover, and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes. Drain the excess liquid.

Combine the vinegar, sugar, remaining salt, and pepper and pour over the cucumbers. Add the chopped dill and mix to be sure it is evenly distributed. Cover the cucumber salad and return to the refrigerator.

Before serving the salad, transfer it to a bowl, using a slotted spoon, and garnish with the dill sprigs. This salat is particularly good with fish (of course) and game. It is a koldtbord standard and, once refrigerated, will keep for days.

Serves 6 or more, depending on number of side dishes.

LUTEFISK

No, this is not a joke. I am reproducing my cousin Hege Farstad’s recipe verbatim, so you will know what people like Garrison Keillor are talking about. But Hege’s lutefisk bears as much resemblance to the butt of all those jokes as does, to paraphrase James Thurber, Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother to the wolf—or the Metro-Goldwyn lion to Calvin Coolidge.

The best raw material for lutefisk is torsk, cod, split along the backbone before hanging to dry. The dried fish is usually cut into two parts and put into cold water for six to eight days. The water is change twice daily.

After the fish is removed from the water, the fish is peeled off the bones and put into lut, acid, which covers the fish. The lut consists of thirty-five grams of caustic soda and seven liters of water. The fish should stay in the lut until soft, usually from twenty-four to forty-eight hours—that is, when soft enough to pierce with a finger. The fish is then put into cold water for two to three days, and the water is changed twice daily. The best way to keep finished lutefisk is to cut it into pieces and deep-freeze it.

To serve lutefisk (4 people): 2 to 2½ kg lutefisk, 1 to 2 spoonfuls of salt, some water. Use a pan for poaching fish. Put water into the pan nearly up to the rack. Put the lutefisk on the rack when the water boils, the larger pieces first. Sprinkle the salt over the fish, put the lid on, and boil until you can pierce the fish with a small baking pin, about ten to fifteen minutes. The fish must be served immediately!

Trimmings: béchamel sauce, with mustard added according to taste; fried bacon strips and fat; steamed green peas; boiled potatoes. Serve lutefisk with Norwegian beer and Linie aquavit (NOT that Danish stuff). Norwegian aquavit can be called linjeakkevitt only if it has been shipped in barrels to Australia and back—that is, crossing the linje, the equator, twice.

In this country, it may be more convenient to start with dry, unsalted cod. Norwegian-American cookbooks call for potash lye to make the lut.

Now you know.

SMØRBRØD

OPEN-FACED SANDWICHES

If you have traveled in Scandinavia, you have some idea how delicious—and addictive—these are. The point is to compose something as appealing to the eye as to the palate, and a buffet of several different kinds of smørbrød makes for a good party, aquavit or no aquavit.

The bread, which may be white, wheat, rye, whole-grain, or whatever you like, acts as the platform for the creation. Slice the bread thin, but thick enough to hold what you will be arranging on top. Spread it with unsalted butter or herb butter. In addition to the butter, most sandwiches start with a lettuce leaf, but you can also use other thinly sliced vegetables. Smørbrød are eaten with a knife and fork. Thick bread detracts from the taste of the other ingredients and is also hard to cut through.

Generally, white bread is used for more delicate flavors, such as shrimp. Heartier breads are used for things like smoked fish or roast beef.

To make Pix’s favorite, spread the bread lightly with unsalted butter, add a leaf of Boston lettuce, then arrange several rows of small cooked shrimp on top. Pipe some mayonnaise (Norwegian mayonnaise is a bit sweeter than Hellman’s) from a pastry tube on top of the shrimp. Cut a thin slice of lemon, remove the seeds, then cut the slice almost crosswise and twist it, placing it across the shrimp.

Other good combinations are:

Roast beef topped with a thin slice of tomato and horseradish mayonnaise

Thin meat patty (beef or veal) grilled, then topped with fried onions and served at room temperature

Smoked salmon topped with thin asparagus spears that have been marinated in a vinaigrette and a final dollop of crème fraîche

Smoked salmon topped with slices of cucumber and dill salad

Slices of hard-boiled egg topped with anchovies or herring and tomato slices

Smoked mussels or smoked eel on top of scrambled egg

Sliced liverwurst topped with crisp bacon and garnished with a sliced cornichon, the small, tart French gherkin

Jarlsberg cheese with turkey, topped with a spoonful of chutney

It is important to put enough on the sandwich so the bread is hidden. It is also important to decorate the surface with chopped parsley, a carrot curl, sprigs of herbs, capers, caviar, strips of pimento or peppers fanned to make a floral shape, or lemon.

The sandwiches are served on large trays or platters that have been covered with paper doilies.

VAFLER SOUR CREAM WAFFLES

2 eggs 1 cup sour cream ¹/3 cup melted butter ¹/8 teaspoon vanilla (or substitute ¹/8 teaspoon of ground cardamom to vary flavor) ¾ cup milk 1 cup flour 3 tablespoons sugar ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt

Beat the eggs and add the sour cream, whisking well together, then add the butter, vanilla, and milk, whisking again. Add the dry ingredients and stir. The batter may seem thinner than your usual waffle batter. Cook in a preheated waffle iron; one that makes heart shapes is all the better. The finished waffle should be nicely browned. Makes approximately two dozen three-inch heart-shaped waffles.

Vafler are served room temperature with jam and butter, or sometimes with powdered sugar—never maple syrup.

PEPPERKAKER

GINGER SNAPS

²/3 cup butter (1 stick plus 2 /² 3 tablespoons) ¹/3 cup brown sugar ¹/3 cup white sugar 1 tablespoon molasses 1½ teaspoons ground clove 2¼ teaspoons cinnamon 2¼ teaspoons ginger 1 teaspoon baking soda ¼ cup boiling water 2½ cups flour

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Heat the butter, sugars, and molasses in a heavy saucepan over low heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the spices. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let cool for five minutes. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the bowl. Stir in the flour, mixing well to make a smooth dough. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Working in batches, roll the dough to a thickness of approximately /¹12 of an inch. These cookies are best when thin and crisp. A heart and a fluted round cutter, each two inches wide, were used for the recipe. Bake the cookies on lightly buttered sheets for eight to ten minutes. Transfer immediately to cool on brown paper or racks. Makes approximately six dozen cookies. Store the cookies in an airtight tin. The dough may also be frozen for use later.

Pepperkaker are made all year long, but they are essential at Christmas. Norwegian families with small children have a pepperkaker baking day just before the holiday. The dough is cut into many shapes: hearts, stars, men, women, and pigs or other farm animals. White icing is piped onto the cooled cookies to decorate them. My cousin Hege relates that the dough is so good that at these parties, usually only half makes it into the oven!