Swedes come up with odd combinations for food

[kareina]

This afternoon I was feeling hungry for something with a bit more protein than I have had in my diet the past couple of days, so I looked at the shelf, spotted the container of chickpeas, and decided they would make a lovely base. I drained and rinsed them and put them into the food processor with some sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and pumpkin seeds. After grinding them I added some spices (garlic, onion, pepper, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and cilantro)and an egg and blended it some more. Then added some milk, and some fil(a liquidy sort of yogurt available here), some thawed chopped spinach, a handful of rolled oats, and a small scoop of rye flour. The resultant texture was sort of like a thick muffin batter. I debated baking it, but finally settled on frying it in butter. This worked quite well. I spooned it onto the hot pan in small amounts, and wound up with little browned patties that are vaguely reminiscent of sausage in their texture. Being hungry, I ate a stack of them straight away, and put the rest into the fridge.

When archinonlive came home from work a few hours later I showed them to him, and he decided to take a couple, and ate them reheated with mashed potatoes, cheese, and a huge dollop of raspberry jam on them. I would never have thought of putting jam on such a dish, but he says they are really good that way, and he points out that they look kind of like liver sausages, which are traditionally eaten with lingonberry jam. I reminded him that it is only here that people do that...

Comments

[fjorlief.livejournal.com]

I remember the first time I had swedish meatballs at Ikea, and how odd it seemed to have jam with meatballs and potato. It soon seemed odd but good though, actually by the end of the meal. And it is traditional at USA thanksgiving to serve jam (aka cranberry sauce) with turkey after all...

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I never, ever went anywhere near that cranberry sauce--it was on the table, but I never saw anyone actually eat it...

[fjorlief.livejournal.com]

I know folks who love it, personally I find it loathsome, but I do not like cranberry...

[tafelspitz.livejournal.com]

Cooked fruit with meat is actually pretty common. Apple Sauce with Roast Pork, Prieselberries with Venison. Apricot Chicken. Duck l'Orange... Tafelspitz, (see avatar above)

[kareina.livejournal.com]

It might be, but the jam is just so darned sweet--the only way I can cope with it at all is to think of it as desert and spread it on a cake and cover it with whipped cream. And then I have to make the cake with way less sugar than normal cake recipes call for, in order to deal with the huge quantity of sugar in the jam.

Come to think of it, since I have been introduced to the concept of not using jam but instead massing frozen raspberries with cream and using that as the cake filling I am unlikely to go back to using that sugar-full stuff.

Who, me, lacking in a sweet tooth? Yah, mostly, why do you ask?