Food and Recipes
Mat og oppskrifter
One of
my reasons for putting together this web site has been to try to hold on to a
bit of the culture of Stadsbygd for my generation and the ones that follow.
What better way than to share some family recipes?
I am
most interested in hearing of your recipes and variations and will post them
here you will send. E-mail Dennis L. Haarsager. I have had requests
for lefse and lutefisk recipes, but have no such recipes from staværinger,
so would appreciate any contributions.
Cookbook
Recommendation
The best
and most comprehensive Norwegian cookbook in my collection is my newest one, Norwgian
National Recipes: An inspiring journey in the culinary history of
Sorry, but I cannot help with the many requests I get for
recipes. If you can’t find the recipe
you want, please check one of the following excellent sources:
Cooking With Daughters of Norway (English
language)
Kokk.no
(Norwegian language. Kokk = cook. A very nice comprehensive web site about
Norwegian cooking with hundreds of new and traditional Norwegian recipes.)
Sons of Norway Recipe Box (English
language)
The Coffee-Lutefisk
Connection (from the Norway-L listserv)
By Børge Solem
Gud dei
I want to
start with expressing my gratitude to the list owner, and everyone on the list,
for making this such a good cultural meeting place.
Where I
live, in Rissa S-Trøndelag, many of the old folks still drink the coffee from
their saucer. If you ask them why, they will answer: "that's the way we
have always been drinking our coffee". I remember from when I was a child,
my g-aunt always bought coffee beans, and on her kitchen she would have a small
coffee grinder. When she was cooking coffee, a delicious smell would fill her
home. She cooked her coffee in an old brass coffee kettle. The coffee, of
cause, would be quite thick, kind of muddy.
My
g-uncle, he was a dog after lutefisk. They would have lutefisk several times
every month. I remember when they prepared the lutefisk, it was kind of a
ceremonial touch to it. They would always take care of the skin. They scraped
the skin till it was clean, and hung it up outside to dry. When the skin was
dried, they would cut it in to small slices. When they were having coffee, they
would put slices of skin in the cup and the skin cleared the coffee. Of cause
they would drink the coffee from the saucer, or at least my g-uncle would. My
g-aunt never did it if she had guests, and she would kick my g-uncle on his leg
when he did, just making him spill some of the coffee on the table cloth.
When
ever I smell good coffee, I think of them.
Regards
from Børge
Note:
Børge Solem is from
Ball (also called klimpor, klubb,
kumla, kumle, kompe, kumpe, potetball and raspeball in Norwegian and
potato dumplings in English)
I'm
going to start with potato dumplings, which we called ball (pronounced
the same as "ball" in English except that both l's are pronounced --
though in my family it sounds more like it looks, dull). My dad's parents,
Kjersten (Fenstad) and Elias Haarsager had sixteen children (spread out over 30
years, so not all were home at once). Ball was a staple there as it was
in my home growing up and was one of the first things my
Swedish-Danish-American mom learned to cook for Dad when they were married in
1946 (Mom reports he said, "Now you're a true Haarsager").
Dad and
his younger brother Cliff didn't like ball with the traditional small
piece of pork (bacon, salt port, or ham are all used) inside, so Grandma
Kjersten would make their vegetarian dumplings with an elongated shape and all
the rest round balls. I grew up with the elongated shape vegetarian ones, too
(something like small russet potatoes).
Ball is a chore to
make and leaves quite a mess to clean up. There is at least one manufacturer
offering a dried potato dumpling mix that's not bad. It can be purchased in
some Scandinavian food stores and upper
Although
ball is one of my favorite dishes (especially fried up the next day),
that love may be based more on tradition than objective culinary evaluation. It
is particularly lacking in what restaurateurs call "presentation"
since gray doesn't usually brighten up any plate.
Potato Dumplings 1
Doris [Johnson] Haarsager Olson's Ball
Mom got
the following recipe from one of Dad's ten sisters:
Recipe courtesy of Doris Olson,
Vermillion,
Potato Dumplings 2
Allan Hansvold and Ida Haarsager Hansvold's Potato Dumplings
Should
you be in a rollicking good humor, and stout in your resolve, prepare to make
ready as follows:
This
make approximately 20 dumplings, so that have that many pork cubes available.
If eaten
as soon as ready, skip the traditional heated fat. This was for arctic residents.
The pork gives enough fat, so that extra is not needed. No need to sprinkle
with salt, as there is plenty in the recipe and the boiling water. Perhaps too
much. Use pepper.
Crisp
celery goes very well with this meal.
Ska
du has liten gran?
--A. Hansvold
Recipe courtesy of Shaunee Hansvold
Power,
Potato Dumplings 3
Berit [Hårsaker] Berg's Raspeballer
My
second cousin once-removed, Berit, lives with her family and mother, Dagmar
Hårsaker, on the same farm in Stadsbygd on which my grandfather was born.
Ingredients:
Grate
potatoes and onion. Mix in flour and salt. Boil salted water. Form balls with
left hand and large tablespoon. Place them in boiling water for 1/2 to 3/4
hour. Serve with smoked, cooked meat, cooked rutabaga, or grilled bacon. Some
like to sprinkle sugar on the ball or else possibly syrup.
Recipe courtesy of Berit [Hårsaker Berg],
Potato Dumplings 4
Erik W. and Margit Fenstad's Klubb
Grete
writes: The potato dumpling is well known all over
I am
from
Recipe courtesy of Grete Usterud Fenstad,
Potato Dumplings 5
Master Chef Svein Magnus Gjønvik's Klubb
The
feature recipe on Tourist Magazine Norway's page for Trøndelag recipes is for
potato dumplings. The page is written by Svein Magnus Gjønvik, national
chairman of the Norwegian association of master chefs. Click on this link for a
klubb served with duppe an
interesting goat cheese sauce. There's even a color photograph of it!
Lefse 1
Ingeborg Leinslie Sann
Ingredients:
Mix all this together. Take some of the dough, use a rolling
pin and make a very thin (about 2 mm) "lefse" about 30 cm (12 inches)
in diameter. Bake it on both sides on a takke or something similar.
When this lefse is finished, it is always folded once. When
we are going to serve it with a cup of coffee or tea, it is normal to put
butter and sugar on one half of it, fold it together again, and cut it in 4-5
pieces.
Says her son, Jan Sann: This is one of my favourites (also
for my children) and my mother always bakes this before every Christmas. This
"lefse" is very big and very thin. I think the diameter is about 30
cm and is normally baked on a "takke". A "takke" is a cooking
plate with a diameter of 40 or 60 cm. I do not have one, but it is common out
on the coutryside. In fact it is a factory in
Recipe courtesy
of Ingeborg Sann,
Lefse 2
Berit [Hårsaker] Berg
Ingredients:
Mix together milk, cream and sugar. Blend in flour, hornsalt.
The dough must not be too loose (soft).
Roll out the dough into a thick "sausage," divide up in suitable
portions and roll out into round shapes. Cook in frying pan or special stiketakke
[lefse cooker; see above -- ed.]. Turn the lefses (while cooking) and they
shall be light (colored) on both sides. Cool the lefses and serve with butter,
sugar and cinnamon. Fold together in three parts meeting in the middle.
Recipe courtesy of Berit [Hårsaker] Berg,
Rømmegrøt (also rømmegraut)
Berit [Hårsaker] Berg
Ingredients:
Cook the
cream under cover for about 3 minutes, add half of the flour and stir
vigorously such that the flour is not lumpy. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the fat
comes out. Take care of the fat. Mix in salt, sugar and vanilla sugar. Cook for
about 10 minutes. Serve with the fat, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Recipe courtesy of Berit [Hårsaker] Berg,
Jennie Buns
Jennie Haarsager (1887-1989)
This
recipe is for the famous "Jennie buns" which, if not to die for, at
least were to drive for. Jennie Haarsager's famous buns drew Haarsagers from
around the
Ingredients:
Mix
together. Beat with a spoon instead of kneading. Knead some. Let rise a couple
of hours or so. Knead it down and form into buns and let rise again. Bake at
350° until they're brown.
Hakke pølse
Doris [Johnson] Haarsager Olson
The
following dish was my father's favorite.
He pronounced it "huck paish" or “huck pash” (in American
English; men hakk-peishj or hakk-pæshj på
norsk). Hakke means to mince,
grind or chop, and pølse means sausage.
A friend from Orkanger says that heart, lung and diaphragm were also
used, preferably from sheep, but also from calves. Her family called it “hakkmat” (ground food) or “innmat-pose”
(organ meat bag).
Warning:
This smells pretty bad when it is cooking.
Mom
says, "Ralph loved this. Was like a bear if we helped ourselves to too
much. This is also good when cold -- cut into pieces and fried in butter or
oil."
Recipe courtesy of Doris Olson,
Vermillion,
Mølje
From Johan Bojer's 1923 novel, Den siste viking (The Last of the
Vikings)
Einar
Haugen's Norwegian-English Dictionary describes mølje simply as
"crumbled flatbrød in fat." The novelist Bojer was a a trønder
who wrote great novels describing the lives of ordinary people in Stadsbygd's
county. Den siste viking was about Lofoten cod fishermen from Stadsbygd
who thought mølje was a great delicacy. He also visited
The
English version of Bojer's book gives the following charming if, to me who grew
up thousands of miles away from the nearest fresh cod, unappetizing recipe as
translated by Jessie Muir:
"Melja! 'Get away from the table, men! Here's supper at last!' Henry
brought in several plates of broken-up flat-bread, and then, taking in the
saucepan full of boiled, steaming hot liver, he ladled out a liberal helping
into each plate. The oil glistened as it flowed over the piles of flat-bread,
and over it was strewn grated goat's-milk cheese, after which treacle was
poured all over in long, golden-brown, sinuous lines. The next thing was to
stir it all up with a spoon, and there you had a mixture that was worth
tasting!"
Bojer's
original reads as follows:
"Mølje. Kom attåt bordet, folk, nå skal her endelig bli mat.
Henrik bar inn flere fat med knekket flatbrød i. Nå kom gryta full av kokt,
rykende lever, som han auste rundelig av I hvert fat. Fettet lyste og flaut
over flatbrødhaugene, og sia var det å skave opp mysost og strø over og til
slutt helle sirup I lange, glyne slanger over det heile. Så er det å røre det
heile rundt med skei, så det blir som en graut, å jo, det lønte seg å smake
på."
My
double 2nd cousin, Walter Sand, of
"Flap of Bread With Liver-Fat or Lard. Come to the table folks, now there
is finally food. Henrik carried in more fat with broken flatbread on it. Now
comes the kettle full of cooled smoked liver that he spooned plenty of into
every bowl. The fat shines and flows over heaps of flatbread and besides you
had to carve up (lots of) whey-cheese, spread it over and at last pour syrup in
long streams over the whole thing. Then you stir the whole thing arouind with a
spoon. It looks like mush. Oh yes, it (pays) to taste it."