My favorite Swedish foods

My favorite Swedish foods (in alphabetical order and with pictures):

Filmjölk och sylt
Filmjölk is a fermented soured milk very commonly served at breakfast in the Scandinavian countires. It is very similar to kefir which you may have seen in the grocery stores here in the US. Since it is a little sour, I usually add some sylt (jam). In the picture below, you see drottningsylt, which is made from raspberries and blueberries. Drottning means queen. In Sweden, most milk and milk type products come in the rectanguar boxes as pictured below.


Gravad lax
Gravad lax is thin sashimi-like slices of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. My dad actually makes his own gravad lax at Christmas time. It is super yummy and equally good at both breakfast and dinner. In this picture they are plated with hard-boiled eggs, which is not necessarily a traditional combination, but it looks pretty.



Kardemumma Bulle
A bulle is a type of sweet bun. Bullar (plural of bulle) are kind of like the American cinnamon rolls, but much less sticky. Sometimes the Swedes replace the cinnamon with cardamom, which makes for a very interesting and yummy taste. The bulle pictured below is from Vete-Katten, a bakery and café in Stockholm, which I highly recommend if you ever go to Sweden. It is the perfect place to fika (roughly translated “take a coffee break”).


Kroppkakor
Kroppkakor are potato-dumplings with a filling of pork or bacon. They are a traditional Swedish dish and are mainly eaten in the Swedish landskap (regions) Öland, Småland and Blekinge. We had the ones pictured below on Öland, an island of Sweden’s eastern coast.


Kåldolmar
Kåldolmar are Swedish cabbage rolls filled with pork and rice.


Messmör
This is a hard one to describe. Messmör is basically a sweet spread made from the whey of goat’s milk. I know it doesn’t make it sound too good, but it really is quite yummy. It is very good for spreading on ragkaka or Skogaholms limpa (see below).


O’boy
O’boy is basically the Swedish version of Nesquick.


Rågkaka
Rågkaka is a round Swedish bread made from vetemjöl (wheat flour) and rågmjöl (rye flour). My favorite variety is made by the Swedish company Polarbröd.


Saft
Saft is basically juice. It is usually made from some type of berry. It is commonly prepared or bought in concentrated syrup form and then reconstituted with the appropriate amount of water. The saft pictured below is made from svartavinbär (blackcurrants).


Senap
Senap is mustard. I mention it in this list because of the particular mustard pictured below, Slotts stark senap. Stark means strong. This type of mustard is particularly good on kåldolmar (see above) or mixed into ärtsoppa (split pea soup).


Skogaholms limpa
In Swedish, limpa means loaf, but it is also used to refer specifically to a traditional type of Swedish rye bread sweetened with syrup. One of my favorite varieties is made by Bageri Skogaholm, a major Swedish baker founded in 1926.


Tunnbröd rulle med korv och potatismos
This a common combo that you can get at most road-side kiosks. It involves tunnbröd, which is kind of like a tortilla, but slightly puffier. Korv is sausage and potatismos is mashed potatoes. The combo pictured below was topped with ketchup, mustard, and some lettuce.


Välling
Välling is basically a thin porridge. When I googled it for this blog, I came up with mostly hits for baby food, but I swear adults eat it too. I like to mix in a handful of raisins when I’m cooking it up, so that they get nice and plump.