Tamarind and Thyme

My brother was down for Christmas again and this year, in between the roast pork on Christmas Eve and the steak on Christmas Day, we decided to put together our first proper gingerbread house, built from scratch. We chose to build Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. The original pavilion, built as the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exhibition in Barcelona, doesn’t exist anymore but it was reconstructed in the 1980s based on the original plans.

Here are photos of the real thing we saw last year in Barcelona.

The pavilion is built to scale (well, as much as is possible with gingerbread) using a blueprint we found online. It’s not made from your usual gingerbread but instead, Swedish pepparkakor, a recipe for which I used from Anne’s Food; I only halved the recipe but still had to freeze half the dough I made – the recipe makes a lot of biscuits. Very good, spiced, crisp biscuits, I should say. The pieces were put together with royal icing and gelatine sheets were used for the glass panes. It was fun… and tasty!

Further views of the structure can be seen in this Flickr photoset. If you’d like the plan we used, I’m happy to email it to you.

How were your Christmas celebrations?

I didn’t know much about the Swedish smörgåsbord tradition and even less about the Christmas variant, the julbord. What I’ve been told is this – everyone in Sweden sits down to at least one julbord every year, once with family on Christmas Eve and possibly another with work. It’s quite the institution and one that I hoped to experience while I was in Gothenburg.

As if they were reading my mind, the Gothenburg Tourist Board very kindly arranged a julbord dinner for both me and Jeanne on our second night but the restaurant they’d booked wasn’t actually in Gothenburg but on an island in the Gothenburg archipelago – on Styrsö. It sounded like a bit of an adventure involving a tram ride from the centre of Gothenburg to the end of the line and then a ferry (all transport covered by the Gothenburg Card). It did turn out to be a bit nerve racking to get there with everything being quite dark and the ferry running late but the restaurant at the Pensionat Styrsö Skäret was lit up like a Christmas tree, making it easy to find on the island.

We received a warm welcome inside and after being shown to our seat, we were offered hot glögg (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions were available) and pepparkakor. Raisins and slivered almonds had already been set out on the table to place in your hot glögg – the plumped up raisins and crunchy almonds making the drink, well, more than a drink. That warmed us up nicely and got us ready for the eating.

To drink with our julbord meal, we were offered Christmas beverages – Julmust is a Christmas beverage like a spiced Coke while the Christmas beer was a dark ale and both are only available at this time of the year. I knew Sweden took Christmas seriously!

There is an order in which a julbord (or smörgåsbord in general) is tackled and it’s probably best to follow the rules (I also noticed that the julbord was cleared in this order too…so don’t follow the order and you risk missing out on a whole course!). The restaurant was packed that night but seatings had been staggered, making trips to the julbord not overly crowded.

The first round should be the herring and gravadlax and other cold seafood. I’ve got a book on Scandinavian cuisine dating back to the 1960s that states that herring should be a course by itself, followed by the rest of the fish and seafood. I don’t know what approach is more common today but there’s nothing stopping you from just eating lots of herring.

Of the herring, my favourites were in a creamy white and dill sauce, one with lingonberries and another in mustard. Some preparations were a bit too salty but most were excellent. I can never turn down gravadlax too but I passed on most of the fish mousses. This being the west coast, there was a good variety of shellfish on offer too (prawns, crabs, langoustines) and we were most taken with the smoked prawns. In addition to the fishes, there were eggs topped with caviar, baked herring, hard cheeses, boiled potatoes and breads and whipped salted butter.

After you’ve had your fill of foods from the sea, move on to the cold meats. Salamis, sausages, pates, hams and other cured meats were all laid out invitingly. And as there should be on every julbord, there was julskinka, a Swedish Christmas ham, already sliced up. Pork, beef, lamb, duck – almost all the major meat groups were out in force on the table. In addition, there were lots of condiments – pickles, chutneys, a whole array of mustards and a mysterious mimosa salad, which I discovered later was mainly fruit in mayonnaise.

I loved the julskinka with its coating of mustard and breadcrumbs and also the sliced cooked pork belly. My favourite though was a smoked duck “ham” that had been cooked with cinnamon and cognac – gorgeous! And their red onion confit was wonderful.

The hot foods are the last savoury course. Swedish meatballs, pork ribs, prinskorv (little sausages like Vienna sausages), boiled sausage, creamed spinach, brown cabbage, green cabbage, lutfisk and poached fish with all the fixings (peas, bacon, melted butter, white sauce) and, of course, Janssons frestelse (Jansson’s temptation – a baked potato gratin with Swedish anchovies). My book from the 60s suggests that one should eat Jansson’s temptation with the first herring course but I pay attention to this combo on anyone’s plates that day.

Our lack of vegetables had us hitting the peas, spinach and cabbage pretty hard – the spinach and cabbage were sweetened. The Jansson’s temptation was delicious though salty and the lutfisk was jellylike and flavourless, necessitating the stuff on the side. Strangely, this was the least exciting course to me – I think the strengths of the julbord and smörgåsbord lie in the cold and room temperature courses or perhaps my thoughts were a bit skewed because I was already quite full by this point.

Finally, the desserts and sweets. Swedish cakes and desserts aren’t particulary sweet and these were no exception. I skipped the ris à la Malta (a creamy rice pudding) and tried a dry cheese cake (it tasted like unsweetened pressed ricotta), an almond biscuit that I topped with cream and preserves and my favourite, a delightfully light and crisp fried biscuit topped with sugar. There were a few other biscuits and a selection of soft cheeses but those I skipped.

I was really saving myself for the sweets! There was a whole cupboard full of bowls of the most delectable looking titbits. There were homemade fruit jellies, chocolates, truffles, marshmallow santas (they appear to be very popular in Sweden at Christmas time), candied nuts, caramels and knäck (a Swedish Christmas toffee). The variety was enough to make anyone gasp in awe.

We were utterly stuffed after making our julbord rounds (there were definitely some repeats) but saved room for some tea and coffee to aid digestion. More popular in the room was the drinks trolley that was making the rounds.

It was a fantastic experience. The staff did everything to make us feel welcome, explained to us how to approach the julbord… and my apologies for rushing them at the end! We were having such a fab time that we almost lost track of time and found that we only had 10 minutes to run to the dock in time for our ferry. We made it!

I would definitely highly recommend everyone going to Sweden to try a julbord (or at any other time of the year, a smörgåsbord) – it’s very obviously a big part of Swedish culture and it’s good fun! It’s not cheap (this one was 535 SEK, not including drinks – and we were invited) but I’d definitely save up to have one. but Reservations are essential at this time of the year – book in advance.

Pensionat Styrsö Skäret
Skäretvägen 53
430 84 Styrsö
Sweden

Thank you again to the West Sweden Tourist Board (Facebook page, Twitter, Blog) and Visit Sweden (Facebook, Twitter) and also to the Gothenburg Tourist Board for organising this wonderful Christmas trip for us. Our flights were provided by SAS and a return trip to Gothenburg from London Heathrow is £103 including all taxes and charges.

That brings my Christmas in Gothenburg series to an end – all my photos from Gothenburg can be found in this Flickr photoset. Now it’s time for Christmas in London. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas is taken very seriously in Sweden and luckily, Jeanne and I were able to experience it in Gothenburg when the weather cleared the next day. Absolutely everything was decked for the holidays, even our hotel (the Hotel Royal – highly recommended for their excellent breakfast, warm rooms and friendly staff) had numerous jultomten (Christmas tomten) scattered about and gingerbread scenes (including the front desk!) next to the breakfast buffet. Gingerbread features heavily everywhere and the most common Swedish form is pepparkakor, the thin ginger snaps you can get easily in Ikea. Every shop, hotel, market counter seems to have an open tin of them for their customers (um… I ate a lot of them). Every cafe and bakery seems to sell their own homemade pepparkakor and gingerbread.

At Stora Saluhallen, the city’s centrally located covered market hall, patisseries, bakers, butchers, fishmongers, and grocers were all arranged neatly in stalls while that day, farmers set up smaller stands outside. There were lots of Christmas goods inside and Christmas trees and plants available to buy from the stands outside.

We found very good chocolates at Flickorna Kanold, including special Christmas season flavours. I took a boxful of them back to Blai and we loved the saffron one and the cinnamon and orange one but haven’t yet tackled the cuteness that is the Jul Marsipan chocolate.

Every sweet shop and patisserie was also selling marzipan pigs, which I think are associated with luck. These ones were my favourite as they looked somewhat insane.

We were actually in Gothenburg just before St Lucia’s feast day (13 Dec) and a saffron bun called a lussekatt is traditionally eaten on this day. These were gorgeous and tasted even better – it’s made with a rich brioche-like dough flavoured with lots of saffron.

On St Lucia’s Day, one girl is chosen to be Lucia for the city of Gothenburg (and other cities in Sweden and even in homes and other smaller community events). In the spirit of all things modern, you could vote for the one you wanted – the photo below was taken the next day in Nordstan, a shopping mall in Gothenburg. The Lucias wear a candle wreath in her hair and from what I understand, there’s a procession involving other girls and boys and singing.

At the nearby Feskekôrka (fish church – nothing religious about it apart from the market’s resemblance to a church), we gawped at the marvellously fresh fish and seafood on offer and sampled all variety of pickled herring. I wonder if some of that seafood will show up on Christmas tables. It was here too we discovered the combination of pickled herring and gingerbread – it sounds a bit odd but they really are delicious together (I’ve been recreating it at home with soft gingerbread and mustard herrings I brought back from Sweden).

A stand had been set up in the middle of the hall with glögg and Christmas treats for shoppers and vendors alike.

We strolled over to Haga, a particularly pretty district of Gothenburg and found a Christmas Market taking place on the main street (Haga Nygata). There were lots of craft stands and food vendors set out along the cobbled streets and it is certainly good for Christmas shopping. We were surprised to see that everything sold was beautiful and of good quality, not like the tat commonly found at Christmas markets in London (wooden ties, anyone?).

There was quite a bit of music too that Saturday with carollers setting up along the street and a grand ol’ marching band complete with festive cheerleaders and flag girls continually marched and played up and down between the stands.

The biggest and possibly most famous of the Christmas Markets in Sweden can be found in Gothenburg and it’s at Liseberg, the big amusement park in the city. Using our Gothenburg City Cards (provided by the Gothenburg Tourist Board), we hopped on an old-fashioned wooden tram in the centre of town that took us directly to the park and then gained entry to Liseberg. This was exciting – both Jeanne and I are big fans of Christmas markets and here we were at Sweden’s largest. It was hard to get in the festive spirit with everyone else there equally excited.

Most of the rides were closed but a few were still open for those who enjoy being flung about in the cold.

The whole park looked wonderfully festive with its beautiful lights and Christmas goods on sale. While it took a lot of willpower to not buy a little candle powered angel chime, we happily handed over our money after sampling some gorgeous hot smoked salmon.

There were even reindeer and a whole section of the park dedicated to Lapp culture (they had the most delectable looking flatbreads and reindeer kebabs). They say that almost 5 million lights are strung up in Liseberg at Christmas time; I believe them. I’d recommend going when it’s dark as it’s difficult to see them during the day and also make sure you allocate at least a few hours to see everything!

I was particularly tickled by the numerous Wheels of Fortune in Liseberg. I’m not sure if giant bars of chocolate and humongous bags of crisps are normally the prizes at other times of the year but they were out in full force at Christmas and people were going crazy over them. You buy a number or range of numbers, wait for the wheel to spin and if your number comes up, you win a prize – I only saw regular sized bars of chocolate being handed out. I suspect that you must collect quite a few of these before you can trade them in for a giant bar. There were a surprising number of people with multiple giant bars – I don’t even want to think about how much they must have spent on the wheels. It became my mission to take photos of all the wheels we encountered and this is just a selection of them. And no, I didn’t have a go at them.

Sadly, we didn’t eat much while inside as we had a big dinner that night and we had to leave the park early when we were hailed on but the Swedish are tough! We passed lots of them watching a outdoor show on ice, paying no attention whatsoever to the rain and hail.

That night, we sat down to one of the most epic of Swedish Christmas feasts – a julbord. That’s in the next and last post on our trip to Gothenburg.

It had been a somewhat traumatic first day in Gothenburg. None of it was Gothenburg’s fault, of course! I and the lovely Jeanne of CookSister were invited back to Gothenburg by the West Sweden Tourist Board and this time it was to experience a Swedish Christmas and were we excited! We both adore Christmas markets and to see the best one in Sweden was going to be good, we could tell. We didn’t expect what happened that first day though…

We had arrived Friday morning on an SAS flight from Heathrow and the landing had been horrendous – there had been serious turbulence all the way until we landed (enough to warrant a shriek from someone a few rows ahead of me). It’s quite disconcerting to watch as your plane wobbles from side to side with the ground just within spitting distance from you. It turned out to be the tail end of the big storm that hit Scotland the day before: high winds and rain were the order of the day and while Gothenburg is renowned for its rain, even this was a bit extreme. That wasn’t the end of it: luggage was left behind in Heathrow, an umbrella broken, we got wet and lost. We ended up giving up for the day (I barely have any photos to show of the day) and just settled into a cafe – SoHo in Gothenburg where we were due to meet Stephanie from Travel PR, Emelie from West Sweden Tourist Board and Eva of Gothenburg Tourist Board for fika. Thank goodness for Gothenburg’s many warm and comfy cafes!

The hot coffee warmed us up and got us ready for more indoor activity – shopping. I’ll keep it brief but yeah, I love Scandinavian design and the everything there is beautiful. Anyway, our stomachs were quite empty come dinnertime as the events of the day caused us to forget to eat properly (I know!); I was experiencing this unfamiliar feeling called hunger and it caused me to feel somewhat lost and out of sorts. Eva had kindly arranged for our dinners during this trip and that night we went to Restaurang Familjen. The place is ultra casual but sports a Bib Michelin and was totally packed that Friday evening. Dinner there turned out to be just the thing we needed.

Bread and crispbread (knäckebröd) and butter and a jar of chicken liver pate with pickles and crispy fried onions were brought to our table. Crispy fried onions! They just make everything better and indeed, I adored the crunch it gave the creamy pate. (A tubful of the crispy onions left with me that weekend.)

We both chose the Menu – three courses with a choice of two main courses, priced at 335 SEK. A la carte was available as was another Menu Familjen priced at 455 SEK.

To start, a Baked pork belly, glazed with honey and apple cider vinegar, black cabbage and puree of Jerusalem artichoke from Lödderup arrived looking dainty but it turned out to be just the right size. Sweet and tangy and soft was the meat but I only wished the crackling had been crunchier. To accompany, black cabbage (cavolo nero) deep fried to a crisp and a delicious smooth puree (much better than the one time I tried to roast Jerusalem artichokes).

For my main, I chose the Braised chuck steak with porter fried turnips, pearl onions and cream of yellow onion. The steak could have benefited from a longer braise but it was still quite tender and so good with that cream of caramelised onions.

Jeanne had the Seared Swedish potato gnocchi with cauliflower cream and chestnuts, served with a roasted cabbage bouillon. I’ve decided that seared gnocchi is really the way to go and that for cauliflower, a cauliflower cream is right up there flavour-wise with roasted cauliflower.

Dessert was simple yet impressive. This was not the lingonberry cake with star anise bullion that was on the menu but instead was a Gingerbread cake with vanilla ice cream served with lingonberries, saffron bullion and crisp of Christmas spices. The saffron syrup at the bottom of the bowl was so fragrant – I had no idea that the use of saffron is so popular in Sweden. The lingonberries had been ever so slightly stewed and popped gently like salmon caviar.

I like to think of it as sophisticated comfort food. The preparations are familiar to us all but the ingredients were novel to me at least. It was obvious that the restaurant cooks seasonally but despite the obvious limitations of this in Sweden (hello, cold Scandinavia!), the food was delicious. And yes, perfect for when there’s a gale outside. Booking recommended.

Restaurang Familjen
Arkivgatan 7
411 34 Gothenburg
Sweden

I’d been aware of Hot-Headz, an online hot sauce vendor, for a while but had never ordered hot sauces online, preferring instead to pick up a bottle here and there when I was at markets or on my travels. I think I was of the impression that they only sold those crazy hot sauces but they’ve actually also got a good range of Mexican classics that I’ve been looking for.

I need to say this upfront but I wasn’t fond of their press release they sent out for Christmas: it was geared towards men, suggesting that men might enjoy receiving hot sauces in their stockings (wait, that’s not how it should sound…). Well, I will stand up for everyone, male or female, and say that anybody of any gender will enjoy hot sauces and do enjoy hot sauces! Anyway, Hot-Headz sent me five bottles to try and from first impressions, they ranged from very mild to incredibly terrifying.

With five bottles, I thought a little tasting was in order. This was set up in my office and well….here are the results. Comments from my colleagues are in bullet points.

Brother Bru-Bru’s Mild African Pepper Sauce
This was the mildest of the bunch and one of the tastiest too. Family friendly.

• More about taste rather than being hot – good.
• Tasty!
• Nice flavour.

Tapatío
Ah, a classic that I thought was made in Mexico but is actually American (and they export to Mexico). I slathered some on my burrito today.

• Very tasty.
• I can’t determine the taste. A bit sour? Not hot.

Pyromania!
Looks scarier than it is. I mean, a she-devil? Its name even sports an exclamation mark. Texturally, it’s lumpy, like one of those posh ketchups.

• Nice smoky flavour.
• Like barbecue sauce with a hint of spice.

Who Dares Burns Crushed Naga Bhut Jolokia Chilli Sauce
I originally thought this was going to be the hottest sauce as I’d read about the naga bhut jolokia – supposedly the hottest chilli in the world.

• Good amount of spice.
• It’s very hot!
• Still has flavour. It is hot but manageable.

Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce
Oh geez, this hot sauce is not actually meant to be eaten, is it? Our tongues BURNED for a good long while after tasting it. It is stupidly hot and it incapacitated some of my colleagues. I picture it more as a sauce to add a bit of to a chilli con carne to give it heat or one just to buy if you feel you need to prove something.

• Owwww! My tongue! It delivers the desired effect.
• OMG! Crazy spicy.
• Well eating a healthy dose of this certainly changed the course of my morning for the worse.
• It has no flavour – it’s just hot.
• I thought the flavour was fire.

The five sent turned out to be a great range with four definitely usable sauces and one um… jokey one? I know it’s the Christmas season and you’d probably expect to hear that hot sauces are great as stocking fillers (each bottle is about £4 with the exception of the 357 which is about £7) and all that jazz but you know what, if I received a selection like this for my birthday (in the summer), I’d be quite thrilled!

Do you like hot sauces? What’s your favourite and what do you put it on or in?