We grandchildren and great grandchildren of Norwegian immigrants probably share food ties if not familial ties.
Do you like lefse? Me too but I am of the plain butter, no other adornment, tribe.
We just laid on the butter, rolled it up and scarfed it down.
We had friends who ate lefse with sugar. To substitue and save time I'll whip up a batch of pancakes (much easier to do) Spread a cold pancake with butter, sprinkle it with sugar and roll up like a fat cigar and eat it. We ate these as snacks, and used up the leftover pancakes.
The children Norwegian immigrants have more in common with each other than with the relatives back in Norway. We have much more in common with our fellow Canadians than we do with Norwegians. We are Canadian after all. Still we harbour a faint nostalgia for the old country and what it represents. A connection to the recent past where ancestral roots are deep.
Norway today is weathy. A beer might cost fourteen dollars but the Norwegians can afford it. Right off the bat we see that things have changed.
I belong to a Norwegian cultural group. A lot of Scandinavians, likely more Swedes and Danes than Norwegian get together and learn how to speak Norwegian or carve a piece of wood. I go for the food. Also it gives me a chance to wear my prized, but itchy, Dale of Norway sweater, purchased on ebay. I'm allergic to wool. Well, I first really went to find other people who could play Norwegian whist. Guess what? Nobody knows how to play bid whist anymore. Do you know how? Let me know as I want to try playing it again.
I learned to say Tusen Tak. In our family we only said mange tak. Ever the under statement.
Our Norwegian immigrant extended family always had coffee in the afternoon. It wasn't just coffee though. It was coffee with a sweet. This was the highlight of many a visit. I really felt gypped when we went to homes where afternoon coffee with sweet was not in the picture.
Even today I consider this custom very civilized. Visit for awhile and then gather at the kitchen table. All together, the kids and the adults. A ritual really. It isn't quite the same now, lounging about on the couch, munching on natchos and salsa while we covertly check our messages and listen to chatter out of the corner of one ear. Are you familiar with the sugar lump straining technique? Its hard to pull off with a lot of finesse.
I have read that Norwegians are still attached to the potato even though they can afford all manner of imported fruits and veggies. The potato was a big staple of our diet too.
We may have invented a sandwich and I share it here for the first time and encourage you to try it. As a kid it was one of my favourite snacks:
Harold's Cold Potato Sandwich
Butter two slices of good fresh bread, slice up a cold boiled potato. Put slices of potato in two faced sandwich with some slices of onion and salt and pepper. This makes a good and filling sandwich. (I liked it without the onion but the salt and pepper and buttered bread are mandatory). Cheap and filling.
Here's another simple recupe from my childhood:
Bedtime Snack
Break bread into a bowl.
Cover with milk and cream, sprinkle with sugar, good.
Or use jam instead of sugar.
These ingredients were always available so we never went hungry.
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Norwegian National Cake - A modern recipe not known by our ancestors - Kvæfjordkake - Verdens Beste
Kvæfjordkake
This recipe has been around in Norway since 1930s, so was not familiar to our immigrant ancesors but thank you to my cousin Florence for sharing!!
In September 2002, Kvæfjordkake was named Norway’s national cake.
A sponge cake bottom, with meringue, almonds and vanilla cream sounds pretty good so will share it here as I await other relatives to send recipes.
Thanks Florence via Linda L. - We will try out this cake!! Just to mention I do not know where the original version was posted and it uses ounces which is not our habit, so really I would just make a sponge cake base, spread on the meringe and almonds, bake, cool, and cut in half, spread whip cream between the layers, put in fridge until dessert and voila - happy birthday or whatever and I betcha it would be fine.
Ingredients
Meringue
3 egg whites
4.6 oz sugar
Cake
2.6 oz butter
2.6 oz sugar
3 egg yolks
2.6 oz all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla powder
3 tablespoons milk
Topping
1.9 oz almonds, roughly chopped
Filling
0.4 cups vanilla cream, instant vanilla pudding mix
0.8 cups heavy whipping cream
(Variation: Whip cream add a bit of sugar and vanilla extract. Omit the vanilla pudding.)
Prepare a baking tin about 30 x 20 cm with parchment paper and preheat oven at 350 ºF.
Method
Meringue
1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form
2. Add sugar, little by little until the mixture is firm
Cake
1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy (5 minutes)
2. Add one egg yolk at the time and mix well
3. Combine flour, baking powder and vanilla powder in a bowl
4. Add the flour mix and milk alternately starting and ending with the flour. Do NOT over-mix, just until the flour is combined.
5. Spread the batter evenly in the baking pan
6. Spread the meringue evenly over the cake batter
7. Sprinkle chopped almonds on top
Bake in an oven at 350 ºF for about 20 minutes, or until the meringue is slightly golden and toothpick comes out dry when poked through.
Cool on wire rack and make filling. Do not leave on warm stove!!
Filling
1. Make the vanilla pudding according to instructions
2. Whip the cream until it forms medium peaks and gently fold in the vanilla cream
Assembling
1. Divide the cake into two parts, lengthwise or width-wise
2. Put one layer on a serving tray and ice with whipped cream.
4. Cover with the second part
5. Serve chilled
OK - I would leave out the pudding and make up the whip cream, put some strawberries or raspberries in between the layers and I bet it would be good. Add some cream of tartar to the whip cream so it holds its shape and serve within 24 hours, the sooner the better!!
This is sort of like a pavlova, cake, whip cream mixture.
Worse luck my youngest son can't tolerate dairy, although he got plenty of it as a kid. My life revolves around dairy. Mostly cream, butter and cheese. So he only learned about his intolerance as an adult and stopped slobbering all the time!! Part of this is a joke. Anyway he can't have this cake so it is not on the table for family birthdays.
Another version
World's Best Cake
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Line a 12 by 8 inch cake pan with parchment paper or grease.
Cake part
1 and 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 and a half Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup milk.
5 egg yolks (whites will be used in meringue)
Beat sugar and butter until light and creamy
Mix the baking powder and salt into the flour
Mix the egg yolks with the milk
Add flour and milk mixture alternately beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until flour is combined.
Spread cake batter into prepared pan.
Meringue
5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sliced almonds.
Beat the egg whites slowly adding in the sugar until peaks form. Should stand up and kind of droop slightly at the tip. "Ice" the cake batter with the meringue, sprinkle the almonds over it and place pan on middle rack of the oven. Bake 30 minutes and , cool on wire rack.
When cake is cool cut in half, place one half on a cake plate (meringue side up) and ice with whip cream and then top with the other half (meringue side up). Ice the sides with leftover whipped cream if enough to do so.
Whip Cream Layer
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar
make sure the beaters, bowl and cream are cold.
Beat until peaks form adding the sugar and vanilla as the cream starts to become thicker. Add some cream of tartar to help whipped cream maintain its bulk for a period of time.
Refrigerate until serving.
When you cut the cake use a serrated knife. There will be nice layers. Cake, meringue, whipped cream, cake, meringe. Garnish with a few slices of strawberries or whold strawberries if desired.
Monday, 27 April 2015
Open Faced Sandwiches Save Calories
Norway does open faced sandwiches although Denmark "made them famous.'
Part of the whole deal here is to make them eye appealing.
So to keep things simple, buy rye bread.
Butter well. The butter forms a barrier so whatever you put on top does not soak through.
You might want to cut the slices in half, on an angle. Crusts can be left on the bread.
Romaine lettuce works well on an open faced sandwich. Wash leaves and dry thoroughly. Put through a salad spinner and also blot with a paper towel.
Remove tough spine.
Note - the lettuce forms a little frill at the edge - bread is not seen, hidden away underneath the toppings.
Serve with home made lemonade or strong coffee. Ice water on the side, haha.
Simple suppers not for company:
Mom's Open Faced Sandwich
Simple snack for the sweet tooth:
Buttered toast with brown sugar, sprinkled with cinnamon - broil and serve with knife and fork.
Using one slice of bread instead of two saves on bread and calories.
Part of the whole deal here is to make them eye appealing.
So to keep things simple, buy rye bread.
Butter well. The butter forms a barrier so whatever you put on top does not soak through.
You might want to cut the slices in half, on an angle. Crusts can be left on the bread.
Romaine lettuce works well on an open faced sandwich. Wash leaves and dry thoroughly. Put through a salad spinner and also blot with a paper towel.
Remove tough spine.
- Completely cover the buttered slice of bread with a piece of lettuce. Arrange thinly sliced ham or salami on bread. Could fold over the ham so it covers about half the piece. Pipe a delicate swirl of dijon or other mustard on a corner of the ham. Slice hard boiled eggs. Only use the pieces with yolk centred nicely , save the other pieces to use for something else, like egg salad. Arrange on the bread with the ham and lettuce and then add a sprig of Italian parsley.
- Make your own piping tool with parchment paper rolled up like a cone, one end will be very tight so snip off a little bit and put whip cream or mayonnaise or whatever in and pipe out an attractive swirl.
- Cheese open faced sandwich ... well buttered bread covered by a frilly edge lettuce. Top with thinly sliced white cheese like Havarti or Jarlsburg. Garnish with strips of red or yellow peppers. .
- Thinly slice gjetost - buttered bread with gjetost. Thinly slice English cucumber, cut to middle of slice and make into a twist and garnish the gjetost with symmetrically arranged cucumber twists. A mandolin works well to slice the cucumber.
- Place assorted sandwiches on a plate and serve with knife and fork.
Note - the lettuce forms a little frill at the edge - bread is not seen, hidden away underneath the toppings.
Serve with home made lemonade or strong coffee. Ice water on the side, haha.
Simple suppers not for company:
Mom's Open Faced Sandwich
- On a slice of buttered toast arrange thin slices of cheddar cheese. Place cooked bacon over the cheese and on top of that arrange slices of tomatoes. Broil til cheese melts and serve with knife and fork. Good. Also nice as a bunwich, toast bun half in oven briefly and then top off with the cheese, bacon and tomatoes and broil.
- Another light supper dish: canned salmon drained and stirred into salted and peppered white sauce, stir (could add a bit of dry mustard to the white sauce along with the flour). When the mixture is heated pour over buttered toast and eat with a knife and fork. Peas or carrots make a nice side dish but use your imagination.
Simple snack for the sweet tooth:
Buttered toast with brown sugar, sprinkled with cinnamon - broil and serve with knife and fork.
Using one slice of bread instead of two saves on bread and calories.
Saturday, 11 April 2015
Norwegian Milk Porridge Not quite Rommegrot
Most people call a version of this Romegrot.
We used sweet milk and cream, not sour so we called ours just plaint grot which sounds pretty
unsavoury in English but it is nothing like the grout between tiles.
It is a smooth pudding-like texture, eaten warm, with more milk, some cream, Cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over top. To die for if you remember it as comfort food. It wouldn't be good without the cinnamon and cream!! Eat a bit, add more cinnamon, eat some more and then doctor it up again.
If you can make a basic white sauce you can make this. The trick is to not let it burn. That's where the microwave comes in. Ever made banana cream pie and used a microwave for the filling? Lemon pie? Microwaves work great for this not so much because it is faster but because the scorching will not happen.
So this version is an update on mom's over the stove, stir, stir, stir, method, but much more likely to turn out. Otherwise if you do it on the stove watch out that it does not burn.
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups of milk and cream mixed
Sugar and salt
Serve with more cream and cinnamon.
You can double this recipe of course but basically it is equal parts of butter and flour.. Milk and or cream and a bit of sugar and two pinches of salt.
Melt half cup of butter and then stir in half a cup of flour, as for a white sauce and cook it a little, making sure that it is well mixed.
Add two cups of milk and cream. I use mostly cream and water it down a bit with milk, so one and a third cups whipping cream mixed in with two third cup of milk - preheating milk mixture in microwave - maybe 1.5 minutes, depending on the microwave, reduces the stirring process.
Pour heated cream mixture, a little at a time, into the well- stirred butter/flour. Slowly, a bit at a time, stir, cook, add milk, stir, add milk, you want to bring it to a gentle boil and cook it. Add a few tablespoons of sugar and a few pinches of salt, say half a teaspoon, cook it a bit more, add more hot milk and once it looks good and the mixture is about the consistency of say cream of wheat or custard pudding it is ready to serve. Too thick? Add more milk.
Note - you can leave out the sugar as we add that to taste while eating.
Dish into soup bowls and serve with milk, cream, sugar and cinnamon. The warm porridge, the cold milk, the velvet like texture of the pudding, wow it is good.
In Turkey they have a drink called salep. A kind of thick hot milk-like drink with cinnamon. It reminded me of grot. Is there anything new under the sun?
Most of these recipes are very cheap, even cheaper in the states where butter is cheaper. Also cheese is cheaper and even with the dollar so bad against American currency there are still dairy bargains. Pity my youngest can't tolerate dairy as it is a big part of our heritage.
Which reminds me of a question to my relatives - do any of you or your offspring have mongolian blue spots? Let me know.
Friday, 10 April 2015
Kumle Krub, Crube, Ball, Klubb - A Potato Dumpling By any Other Name May Not be Norwegian
Olga's Recipe for making Norwegian Potato Dumplings - the Etnedal branch referred to them as crube, however I can't find that name on the net and dad's family from the west coast called them ball.
In Lithuania we enjoyed a potato dumpling called cepelinai. One particular type was called a Zeppelin for its shape. It was similar but not the same. Lithuanians are very fond of potatoes also.
Whatever did Norwegians do before potatoes? This is not Viking food, in fact Norwegians did not start growing potatoes until around 1750.
They got creative and thus we have lefse and potato dumplings. (we do call it crube, and never call it potato dumplings, but I'm walking a thin wire here to balance out the klubb, crube and Ball people).
Olga's Recipe
Ingredients: raw potatoes, flour, old fashioned dry oatmeal (not instant!!), salt, a kind of dry type of sausage like mennonite sausage from Coaldale Alberta, (we cook it first), water - (if you happen to have some on hand, but we never did, fresh blood could be substituted for the water). Then instead of being a lightish grey colour the crub will be a murky brown.
Warning - this dish is not appealing to the eye. But it sticks to the ribs, is filling, and to the initiated really good!! Plus economical.
Wash and peel potatoes. Hand grate.
Or you can grind them in a food processor.
In the meantime have a couple of pots of water on the stove - it needs to be boiling once you get the mixture made.
Add equal amounts of flour (mixed with maybe a teaspoon of salt) and oatmeal a cup at a time to the grated potatoes.
Add about a cup of water - this depends on how many spuds you used and the phase of the moon.
Rough guide: for every two cups of dry ingredients add a bit less than 1/3 c water. Approximately.
Ok you want the dough to stick together and form a ball without being too stiff. Practise.
In the olden days she used salt pork in the centre but later switched to a dry version of sausage cut in say one inch chunks - maybe a bit bigger. Rinse hands in Cold Water. Pick up a handful of dough in left hand and in right hand have a piece of sausage. Stick the sausage in the centre flip the dough around to cover the sausage and form a ball, smaller than a softball, bigger than a tennis ball, maybe the size of a hard ball. Make as round as possible. It isn't that critical but you neither want them too big or too small.
Drop in the boiling water (be careful) and quickly get on with making more, dropping each into the boiling water as you progress through the dough. You do not want the crub to burn so watch closely and turn heat down from high once water returns to the boil.
Every once in awhile rinse hands in cold water to ease the ball making procedure.
When water comes back to the boil turn the heat down but ensure the water remains boiling and leave to cook for 1 hour and fifteen, maybe an hour and a half.
Remove from water when done. Serve as is, with butter or slice up and fry and serve with butter.
Mom always made a big batch and the first meal was the boiled crube with butter.
Then the second meal was crube sliced up, maybe 1/2 inch thick, a bit less, fried served with butter.
I don't like to eat anything else with it - the potatoes are your veg, the flour is your carb, the sausage your protein and the butter is the dairy. A meal in itself. And oatmeal is good for you.
Deelishus.
Notes
I have cooked crub in a big pot with one of those strainer things that fits inside. Makes lifting them out at the end easier, kind of contains the mess and also prevents them from burning as they aren't touching the bottom of the pan. I have also suspended cheese cloth like a hammock in a pot and cooked them that way. Same reason, but secure the cheesecloth well and don't let it touch the burner.
I am fond of salt so I also put a bit of salt in the water.
People have been known to boil up a ham bone and then cook crube in that water, maybe with a hunk of ham in the middle. I'll post that recipe later. Rhea knew somebody who made her crube like tubes so they were efficient to slice up and fry.
We have frozen the cooked balls and they were ok to eat when sliced and fried up.
Jeff's version
Grate potatoes by hand, add equal parts of flour and oatmeal, cooked sausage in centre, boil. He adds no salt and no water. The crube tastes good. Always serves it fried with salt and butter on the table.
YumYum.
More recipes:
Some very good recipes are posted online of course and here are two links, shared with me by a friend in Norway:
'From where I come from the Faarikaal (Fårikål) or Lamb Casserole is quite popular in the autumn around october. It´s rather simple to make and even better the next day. http://www.norway-hei.com (my comment - And even better this is a crock pot dish!)! http://www.norway-hei.com/lamb-casserole.html be careful not to eat the pepper. It´s only used to give some extra taste during the cooking."
Aunt Lilly who grew up in Norway - near Aalesund, spoke to me of a similar dish with lamb - one of her favourites from back home. I never got the recipe from her though, thirty years ago we didn't eat much lamb (none) in my tribe. We have become more adventurous since then!!
http://www.bestnorwegian.com/norwegian_svele.html
Here is a funny thing - a contact in Norway - who I have never met - sent me the above information - I say "friend" as what else do you call a nice person you communicate with regarding your ancestry? Cousin? The cousins who have responded to my request for a family recipe have all come from families where they never "cooked Norwegian" or if they mentioned what they still made did not share the recipe. I only have 70 cousins and I haven't contacted many, but the initial response has been discouraging.
Perhaps they think these recipes are readily available on line - they are, but they are not our brand which I was shooting for - mainly I am doing this for selfish reasons as I wanted to have a recipe section in our family history book so my kids could follow along. And of course I would share this around with interested relatives - patience is a virtue so maybe they will still be forthcoming. On my pilgrimage to my "old country," Saskatchewan, I will ask again.
My brother made his own lutefisk - where did he get the lye? His wife makes the best lefse and I have these recipes yet to post.
If you are my cousin, please send me a Norwegian vintage recipe you use or at least has been used in the family. Thank you. This is all about nostalgia.
Recipe
5 pounds of potatoes
3 Tablespoons salt
4 cups flour
4 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup water
grate peeled potatoes.
Mix with other ingredients - form into balls with sausage in centre
Drop carefully into generously salted boiling water. Cook.
In Lithuania we enjoyed a potato dumpling called cepelinai. One particular type was called a Zeppelin for its shape. It was similar but not the same. Lithuanians are very fond of potatoes also.
Whatever did Norwegians do before potatoes? This is not Viking food, in fact Norwegians did not start growing potatoes until around 1750.
They got creative and thus we have lefse and potato dumplings. (we do call it crube, and never call it potato dumplings, but I'm walking a thin wire here to balance out the klubb, crube and Ball people).
Olga's Recipe
Ingredients: raw potatoes, flour, old fashioned dry oatmeal (not instant!!), salt, a kind of dry type of sausage like mennonite sausage from Coaldale Alberta, (we cook it first), water - (if you happen to have some on hand, but we never did, fresh blood could be substituted for the water). Then instead of being a lightish grey colour the crub will be a murky brown.
Warning - this dish is not appealing to the eye. But it sticks to the ribs, is filling, and to the initiated really good!! Plus economical.
Wash and peel potatoes. Hand grate.
Or you can grind them in a food processor.
In the meantime have a couple of pots of water on the stove - it needs to be boiling once you get the mixture made.
Add equal amounts of flour (mixed with maybe a teaspoon of salt) and oatmeal a cup at a time to the grated potatoes.
Add about a cup of water - this depends on how many spuds you used and the phase of the moon.
Rough guide: for every two cups of dry ingredients add a bit less than 1/3 c water. Approximately.
Ok you want the dough to stick together and form a ball without being too stiff. Practise.
In the olden days she used salt pork in the centre but later switched to a dry version of sausage cut in say one inch chunks - maybe a bit bigger. Rinse hands in Cold Water. Pick up a handful of dough in left hand and in right hand have a piece of sausage. Stick the sausage in the centre flip the dough around to cover the sausage and form a ball, smaller than a softball, bigger than a tennis ball, maybe the size of a hard ball. Make as round as possible. It isn't that critical but you neither want them too big or too small.
Drop in the boiling water (be careful) and quickly get on with making more, dropping each into the boiling water as you progress through the dough. You do not want the crub to burn so watch closely and turn heat down from high once water returns to the boil.
Every once in awhile rinse hands in cold water to ease the ball making procedure.
When water comes back to the boil turn the heat down but ensure the water remains boiling and leave to cook for 1 hour and fifteen, maybe an hour and a half.
Remove from water when done. Serve as is, with butter or slice up and fry and serve with butter.
Mom always made a big batch and the first meal was the boiled crube with butter.
Then the second meal was crube sliced up, maybe 1/2 inch thick, a bit less, fried served with butter.
I don't like to eat anything else with it - the potatoes are your veg, the flour is your carb, the sausage your protein and the butter is the dairy. A meal in itself. And oatmeal is good for you.
Deelishus.
Notes
I have cooked crub in a big pot with one of those strainer things that fits inside. Makes lifting them out at the end easier, kind of contains the mess and also prevents them from burning as they aren't touching the bottom of the pan. I have also suspended cheese cloth like a hammock in a pot and cooked them that way. Same reason, but secure the cheesecloth well and don't let it touch the burner.
I am fond of salt so I also put a bit of salt in the water.
People have been known to boil up a ham bone and then cook crube in that water, maybe with a hunk of ham in the middle. I'll post that recipe later. Rhea knew somebody who made her crube like tubes so they were efficient to slice up and fry.
We have frozen the cooked balls and they were ok to eat when sliced and fried up.
Jeff's version
Grate potatoes by hand, add equal parts of flour and oatmeal, cooked sausage in centre, boil. He adds no salt and no water. The crube tastes good. Always serves it fried with salt and butter on the table.
YumYum.
More recipes:
Some very good recipes are posted online of course and here are two links, shared with me by a friend in Norway:
'From where I come from the Faarikaal (Fårikål) or Lamb Casserole is quite popular in the autumn around october. It´s rather simple to make and even better the next day. http://www.norway-hei.com (my comment - And even better this is a crock pot dish!)! http://www.norway-hei.com/lamb-casserole.html be careful not to eat the pepper. It´s only used to give some extra taste during the cooking."
Aunt Lilly who grew up in Norway - near Aalesund, spoke to me of a similar dish with lamb - one of her favourites from back home. I never got the recipe from her though, thirty years ago we didn't eat much lamb (none) in my tribe. We have become more adventurous since then!!
http://www.bestnorwegian.com/norwegian_svele.html
Here is a funny thing - a contact in Norway - who I have never met - sent me the above information - I say "friend" as what else do you call a nice person you communicate with regarding your ancestry? Cousin? The cousins who have responded to my request for a family recipe have all come from families where they never "cooked Norwegian" or if they mentioned what they still made did not share the recipe. I only have 70 cousins and I haven't contacted many, but the initial response has been discouraging.
Perhaps they think these recipes are readily available on line - they are, but they are not our brand which I was shooting for - mainly I am doing this for selfish reasons as I wanted to have a recipe section in our family history book so my kids could follow along. And of course I would share this around with interested relatives - patience is a virtue so maybe they will still be forthcoming. On my pilgrimage to my "old country," Saskatchewan, I will ask again.
My brother made his own lutefisk - where did he get the lye? His wife makes the best lefse and I have these recipes yet to post.
If you are my cousin, please send me a Norwegian vintage recipe you use or at least has been used in the family. Thank you. This is all about nostalgia.
Recipe
5 pounds of potatoes
3 Tablespoons salt
4 cups flour
4 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup water
grate peeled potatoes.
Mix with other ingredients - form into balls with sausage in centre
Drop carefully into generously salted boiling water. Cook.
Thursday, 9 April 2015
My Mother Made Primost
Did your mother or grandmother make primost?
Mine did, but the rest of the family didn't like it. We never bothered to find out what she did to create a soft spread that resembled caramel icing but tasted nothing, nothing like caramel.
When we eventually bought Gjetost cheese I always thought it was a version of Primost. Similar in colour and flavour but not in texture.
Recently I found myself enjoying a bit of Gjetost. An acquired taste, apparently.
(Tip - It is good on well buttered open-faced bread with a few thin cucumbers slices (twisted)on top.)
Gjetost has goat's milk, primost is made from cow's milk. We did not have a goat but we did have a good milk cow. Mom made butter and maybe she used the whey to make her primost and she added cream. It had a smooth, if a bit grainy, texture. Sour, maybe a bit bitter, slightly sweet, not like cheese at all. I recall Mom now, relishing every mouthful.
Why I thought about primost for the first time in over fifty years is beyond me. I'm troubled since this is one of the many questions I neglected to ask. How do you make primost mom and why do you like it so much? Do you enjoy the Gjetost as much as primost?
Yes, mom cooked Norwegian. Not all the time of course but we had a Norwegian dish at least once a month.
The regularity may have faded out a bit once we moved to town and no longer had access to unpasteurised milk, cream, buttermilk and a good supply of Norwegian neighbours. As we associated more with whoever happened to be our neighbours, work or school colleagues we kind of drifted away from the Norwegian dishes - still the odd time she made klubb and we loved it. Always at Christmas we had lutefisk and lefse and meatballs in gravy.
She very rarely made milk porridge (my absolute favourite with cinnamon and sugar - a meal fit for a queen and my favourite supper) anymore. It has a name but I have to look up the spelling we called it grout - but the name usually used is something like romagrotte. I'll doctor this up later. The kind I've had at cultural fairs is different from mom's. I don't think she ever used sour cream and we didn't put butter on top.
We put sour cream on top of our pancakes - try it you will like it - for a modern touch I also have used plain yogurt. Pancake, butter, sour cream, phony maple syrup or jam - delicious.
Mom's phony maple syrup - brown sugar, maple flavouring, water, a bit of flour to thicken, heat to a gentle boil, add the maple flavouring last, serve. I still make this by the way.
She also made fruit soup, we ate it with thick cream on top, very good. Such a long time ago. Everything changed when we no longer had a dairy cow - the most luscious cream - better than devonshire cream.
So over time I am going to post family recipes, I will check with cousins to see if they have the primost recipe. And other old time recipes that came with our grandparents from Norway in the late 1800s. Peasant food adapted to the prairies. Some of it was viking food.
I think flatbread, which apparently keeps for years and spikachit, should be on hand in case of disaster. If I had a tsunami kit those two foods would be involved. The Norwegian equivalent to bannock and pemmican. Or maybe the forerunners of crackers and beef jerky. So if my relatives would send those recipes I could have a survival kit. I live on the west coast people - does anybody care? No, they have that independant streak, every man for himself. Must have been an American view, passed on as muscle memory. Take pride in doing every thing yourself. Help shows you are weak. Need help? Weak and beyond redemption.
May I remind you that our ancestors came to North America and first settled where they knew people and formed a community of Norwegian immigrants who hopefully helped each other out. They encouraged other relatives to come to the new world - whether they meant that as hey, come over, you will be successful here, or hey, misery loves company I don't know.
Nobody raised sheep or lamb in our district and the fishing was sketchy, no lake nearby, or even river. So yes the recipes were adapted to the prairies.
I do know how to make gravlax though and a great mustard sauce to go along with it. I'll put those recipes in as my contribution. Nice if you have ready access to fresh salmon.
Note - Prim is in the stores in Norway -
http://www.tine.no/merkevarer/tine-prim/produkter/tine-prim
Also here you can see a nice picture of primost on bread. (looks much like peanut butter).
Yes immigrants bring traditions that are frozen in time. The home country moves on, changes, but the immigrants pass down their memories of food from the time and circumstances they left. We're talking about homesteaders here, not the nobility.
Mine did, but the rest of the family didn't like it. We never bothered to find out what she did to create a soft spread that resembled caramel icing but tasted nothing, nothing like caramel.
When we eventually bought Gjetost cheese I always thought it was a version of Primost. Similar in colour and flavour but not in texture.
Recently I found myself enjoying a bit of Gjetost. An acquired taste, apparently.
(Tip - It is good on well buttered open-faced bread with a few thin cucumbers slices (twisted)on top.)
Gjetost has goat's milk, primost is made from cow's milk. We did not have a goat but we did have a good milk cow. Mom made butter and maybe she used the whey to make her primost and she added cream. It had a smooth, if a bit grainy, texture. Sour, maybe a bit bitter, slightly sweet, not like cheese at all. I recall Mom now, relishing every mouthful.
Why I thought about primost for the first time in over fifty years is beyond me. I'm troubled since this is one of the many questions I neglected to ask. How do you make primost mom and why do you like it so much? Do you enjoy the Gjetost as much as primost?
Yes, mom cooked Norwegian. Not all the time of course but we had a Norwegian dish at least once a month.
The regularity may have faded out a bit once we moved to town and no longer had access to unpasteurised milk, cream, buttermilk and a good supply of Norwegian neighbours. As we associated more with whoever happened to be our neighbours, work or school colleagues we kind of drifted away from the Norwegian dishes - still the odd time she made klubb and we loved it. Always at Christmas we had lutefisk and lefse and meatballs in gravy.
She very rarely made milk porridge (my absolute favourite with cinnamon and sugar - a meal fit for a queen and my favourite supper) anymore. It has a name but I have to look up the spelling we called it grout - but the name usually used is something like romagrotte. I'll doctor this up later. The kind I've had at cultural fairs is different from mom's. I don't think she ever used sour cream and we didn't put butter on top.
We put sour cream on top of our pancakes - try it you will like it - for a modern touch I also have used plain yogurt. Pancake, butter, sour cream, phony maple syrup or jam - delicious.
Mom's phony maple syrup - brown sugar, maple flavouring, water, a bit of flour to thicken, heat to a gentle boil, add the maple flavouring last, serve. I still make this by the way.
She also made fruit soup, we ate it with thick cream on top, very good. Such a long time ago. Everything changed when we no longer had a dairy cow - the most luscious cream - better than devonshire cream.
So over time I am going to post family recipes, I will check with cousins to see if they have the primost recipe. And other old time recipes that came with our grandparents from Norway in the late 1800s. Peasant food adapted to the prairies. Some of it was viking food.
I think flatbread, which apparently keeps for years and spikachit, should be on hand in case of disaster. If I had a tsunami kit those two foods would be involved. The Norwegian equivalent to bannock and pemmican. Or maybe the forerunners of crackers and beef jerky. So if my relatives would send those recipes I could have a survival kit. I live on the west coast people - does anybody care? No, they have that independant streak, every man for himself. Must have been an American view, passed on as muscle memory. Take pride in doing every thing yourself. Help shows you are weak. Need help? Weak and beyond redemption.
May I remind you that our ancestors came to North America and first settled where they knew people and formed a community of Norwegian immigrants who hopefully helped each other out. They encouraged other relatives to come to the new world - whether they meant that as hey, come over, you will be successful here, or hey, misery loves company I don't know.
Nobody raised sheep or lamb in our district and the fishing was sketchy, no lake nearby, or even river. So yes the recipes were adapted to the prairies.
I do know how to make gravlax though and a great mustard sauce to go along with it. I'll put those recipes in as my contribution. Nice if you have ready access to fresh salmon.
Note - Prim is in the stores in Norway -
http://www.tine.no/merkevarer/tine-prim/produkter/tine-prim
Also here you can see a nice picture of primost on bread. (looks much like peanut butter).
Yes immigrants bring traditions that are frozen in time. The home country moves on, changes, but the immigrants pass down their memories of food from the time and circumstances they left. We're talking about homesteaders here, not the nobility.
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