HEALTH AND ENJOYMENT
Swedish cuisine is about balance
RHUBARB MERINGUE TART
Serves: 8 For the pastry:
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp (15 mL) granulated sugar
7 tbsp (105 mL) cold butter, cubed
For the filling:
3 1/4 lb (1.5 kg) rhubarb, cut into 2-in (5-cm) lengths
2/3 cup (160 mL) superfine sugar
1 orange, zest
3 tbsp (45 mL) ground almonds
For the meringue:
Generous 1/3 cup (80 mL) blanched almonds
3 egg whites
1 cup (250 mL) superfine sugar
3 tbsp (45 mL) slivered almonds
1. Begin by making the pastry. Place the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and blitz to a crumb-like texture. Gradually add 3 tbsp (45 mL) ice-cold water, pulsing between each addition until the mixture comes together into a dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
2. Preheat the oven to 325 F (160 C). Tip the rhubarb into a roasting tray, sprinkle with the sugar and orange zest and bake for 15 minutes until the rhubarb is soft when pierced but still holding together. Remove from the tray onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet to drain, and leave to cool completely.
3. Roll out the pastry dough to 1/4 in (6 mm) thick and use to line a 8 1/2-in (22-cm) springform pastry tin. Prick the base all over and return to the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
4. Increase the oven temperature to 350 F (180 C). Scatter the blanched almonds for the meringue in a roasting tray and toast for 10 minutes until golden, tossing halfway through. Tip onto a board and finely chop. Spread out to cool quickly.
5. Line the pastry with a circle of crumpled baking parchment and fill with baking beans or rice. Blind bake for 15 minutes, then remove the beans. Bake for 5 minutes more to dry out.
6. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar 1 tbsp (15 mL) at a time until you have a glossy meringue, then carefully fold through the chopped almonds. Sprinkle the tart case with the ground almonds, then add the rhubarb, piling it up to form an even layer. Spoon the meringue all over, then bake for 30 minutes, sprinkling over the slivered almonds before the last 10 minutes of cooking. Cool before serving.
LAURA BREHAUT
Balance is at the heart of Swedish cuisine, Steffi Knowles-Dellner says.
In contrast to the eating extremes depicted daily on Instagram, she describes the approach as neither strict nor punishing.
“(It’s) a meeting in the middle of healthy eating on the one hand and enjoying life on the other,” the Swedish cookery writer and food stylist says.
For her, one word encapsulates this tradition of eating harmoniously: lagom (pronounced lahgom). The Swedish expression lacks a direct English translation but is “simply a manifestation of equilibrium,” meaning just the right amount.
“The whole idea behind lagom is to approach food with a healthy attitude but then at the same time, (recognize) that life is too short not to eat cake,” Knowles-Dellner says.
In her debut cookbook, Lagom: The Swedish Art of Eating Harmoniously, she illustrates the “varied, flavoursome and light” side of her native cuisine. Rather than setting out to “ride the wave of the new hygge,” she says her goal was to share insight into “real Swedish cooking and family foods.”
Often, knowledge of Swedish cooking doesn’t extend past Ikea canteen classics — meatballs, lingonberry jam and cream sauce — or the “outlandish” fare served at high-end restaurants specializing in New Nordic cuisine. Neither of which represents what she knows as Swedish food, Knowles-Dellner says.
“I was really keen to show how many different influences there are on Swedish food,” she adds. “Swedes are really well-travelled and have been for a long time. And we’ve had an enormous influx of immigrants.”
African, Asian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North American newcomers have made an impact on the cuisine, KnowlesDellner says.
Her Thai-inspired fiskbullar (fish balls) and cumin-scented lamb meatballs served atop couscous are examples of how faraway flavours are incorporated into everyday Swedish dishes.
Spices such as cinnamon and cardamom, now entrenched in the cuisine, first came to Sweden during the Viking age.
Knowles-Dellner highlights them in four recipes in the book for lightly sweetened fikabröd (fika bread); blueberry buns topped with lemon and marzipan; sticky buns topped with salted caramel; and cranberry and clementine buns with maple and pecans.
“Cardamom, cinnamon, saffron and vanilla are all spices that we think of as classically Swedish. I think it surprises people when they visit.”
Recipe excerpted from Lagom: The Swedish Art of Eating Harmoniously by Steffi KnowlesDellner, published by Quadrille Publishing c/o Chronicle Books.