It's Chris's birthday and he and a bunch of buddies have headed to Northern Vermont for a guys' weekend. Not being a guy myself, I'm not exactly sure what goes on at these weekends, but I imagine fire, meat, whiskey and cigars at the very least. I doubt I'm off base.
Meanwhile, here in CT, I'm doing some fall nesting, part of which is preparing for this month's Secret Recipe Club. We were assigned Delishhh, a food blog by Ewa who was born in Sweden. Delishhh is filled with recipes from all over the globe, but since I've never made anything Swedish (not even a meatball...), I headed right to her Swedish Food section. It was then I realized that I was facing a perfect convergence of events - while Chris is away, I can spend the weekend preparing Delishhh's recipe for one of his favorite foods (gravlax), and when he comes home, he can detox from his meat-and-fire-filled weekend with some flavorfully cured raw salmon.
Meanwhile, here in CT, I'm doing some fall nesting, part of which is preparing for this month's Secret Recipe Club. We were assigned Delishhh, a food blog by Ewa who was born in Sweden. Delishhh is filled with recipes from all over the globe, but since I've never made anything Swedish (not even a meatball...), I headed right to her Swedish Food section. It was then I realized that I was facing a perfect convergence of events - while Chris is away, I can spend the weekend preparing Delishhh's recipe for one of his favorite foods (gravlax), and when he comes home, he can detox from his meat-and-fire-filled weekend with some flavorfully cured raw salmon.
Gravlax is one of Sweden's most famous dishes. Being new to Swedish cuisine, I decided to stay with Ewa's tried and true recipe, even preparing the "Hovmästarsås," or mustard sauce, accompaniment. I purchased a beautiful piece of salmon fillet and rubbed it with a salt, sugar, and white pepper mixture as instructed.
When it was ready, I served it over grilled rye bread with the mustard sauce drizzled over it. Chris was both surprised and thrilled at the result, pronouncing it indeed "Delishhh," and saying he could eat it every day. Even better, he has it all to himself, as nothing about gravlax is, as my friend Joanne would say, "Amy-approved" - neither salmon (raw or cooked), nor dill, nor mustard sauce. Happy Birthday, Chris! And thank you, Ewa!
