How to celebrate a Scandinavian Christmas

Matt Brady discovers an alternative Christmas menu, inspired by the fjords and snowy vistas of Scandinavia.

When we think of Scandinavia, of the snow and ice they experience for around half the year, and the warm fires inside, it’s easy to conjure up a picture of Christmas.

I’m in the demo kitchen at Aveqia, London to learn about a Scandinavian alternative to the traditional Christmas dinner. The food we’re trying out has simple, clean tastes that make for a delicious meal, but don’t – unlike turkey et al – leave us feeling bloated and suffering from indigestion.

Along with a host of other food writers I'm eager to get stuck in to the beautiful (and massive) salmon laid out on the counter top, the recipe for which was devised for the Norwegian Seafood Council. It’s stuffed with a simple mix of carrots, onion, parsley, butter and herbamare, which is sea salt mixed with herbs and kelp. And it smells amazing.

Chef and old friend of lovefood Signe Johansen tells us that Norwegian salmon is smoked very gently to induce a mild flavour that isn’t overpowering. Sustainably caught by regulated farms, it’s available year-round and smoked, roasted, or prepared pretty much any other way, it’s certainly delicious. The fish also contains lots of protein and essential oils, minerals and vitamins that are really good for you.

But I’m going to have to do a little work first to earn it.

Open sandwich starter

To start, we make our own ‘open’ sandwiches. This is something quite traditional in Scandinavia, and is known as a smørbrød, smørrebrød or smörgås, depending on which country you’re in.

We’re stacking sliced avocado, smoked Norwegian salmon, a blob of crème fraîche, pickled cucumber, a squeeze of lemon juice and a grating of fresh horseradish on top of a thick slice of sourdough bread. The combination of salmon and horseradish is actually very good – we don’t tend to use it with much except as a sauce with beef in Britain, but this is a combination I definitely recommend you try out.

You then garnish it with a sprig or two of dill, the ‘garlic of the North’ and a very popular herb in Scandinavia.

It’s a flavoursome starter, and though each of the ingredients makes its own strong contribution, they don’t linger all that long on the palate – this is what I mean by the ‘cleanness’ of traditional Scandinavian flavours. You can find the Scandinavian open sandwich recipe here

A whole salmon

You might want to choose something else for your starter unless you can’t get enough of salmon, but if I had to pick one or the other, it’d be this gorgeous whole salmon main. You can see it in its full glory at the top of this page.

If your fish won’t fit in the oven, you can cut off the tail, but for presentation purposes it’s better not to! By covering the fish in tin foil in the oven, Signe explains, you keep the skin from going crispy. Some people like crispy skin, and that’s fine to eat, but if you prefer not to and want the fish to retain that beautiful silver sheen, a layer of tinfoil creates a mini steam room for the fish, so it retains its moisture.

The resultant fish, served with a simple salad of kale rubbed with lemon juice and oil, roast carrots and butternut squash, and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds gives a perfect balance of flavours and nothing too heavy.

You can follow the whole baked salmon recipe here

Fyrstekake

Fyrstekake is a traditional spiced tart not dissimilar to frangipane. The name translates to something like “Prince Cake” or “Royal Cake”.

The strong almond flavour of the cake is perfect served with a warm mug of the wonderfully named ‘glögg’. Glögg is made from cherry brandy and spices, and tastes quite like mulled wine but with a cherry foundation rather than red wine. 

It’s also a traditional symbol of good luck to present people with a marzipan pig during the festive season. A slightly strange practice, if you didn’t grow up with it, but a rather nice little nibble all the same – and no more bizarre than chocolate eggs from an outsider’s perspective, I suppose. 

Are you tempted by any of Signe’s suggestions? Will you be trying out something new this Christmas? Let us know in the Comments below.

You might also like:

Iced Nordic berries with white chocolate & cardamom sauce recipe

Hot smoked trout salad recipe

Norwegian meatballs and gravy recipe