Student Recipe

The last and also my favourite dish to introduce in a Swedish Christmas dinner: Janssons frestelse (meaning Jansson’s temptation) which is made of potatoes, onions, anchovies (or sprats) and cream. I had a search on Wikipedia, and it says there is a mistranslation into English where the original recipe uses sprats instead of anchovies, because sprats in Swedish are known as "ansjovis". Anyway, what I used was sprats and I don’t think it matters.

Budget: £
Cookery level:
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 50 min
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
4 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into strips
2 tbp butter
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 can of anchovy or sprats, drained
2 tbp breadcrumbs
1 cup of heavy cream
½ cup of milk
White pepper

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 220^oC.
2. Heat the butter in a saucepan then add onions and cook until they are soft but not brown.
3. Spread some butter on the container or baking tray, arrange a layer of potato strips on it, then alternate layers of onions and anchovies ending with another potatoes layer. Sprinkle each layer with a little white pepper.
4. Scatter bread crumbs over the top layer of potatoes
5. In a small saucepan, heat the milk and cream until it barely simmers, then pour 2/3 of it over the potatoes.
6. Bake in the oven for 30 min and pour over the read of the cream and bake for another 15 min.

Kåldolmar (meat stuffed cabbage rolls)
Budget: £

Another hot dish in the Christmas dinner is called kåldolmar, which is a cabbage rolls filled with meat. I bought them ready-made in supermarket freezer, not expensive but they need to be cooked before serving. Cook them in a saucepan with a little oil, turning it regularly and use medium heat to cook, they will be ready in about 15 min. They actually taste much better than it looks!

Meatballs (köttnullar) and small sausages (prinskorv)
Budget: £

I’ve skipped the second course of the Swedish Christmas dinner because it’s only a selection of cold sliced meats like turkey, roast beef, and Christmas ham (julskinka), nothing much special about it.

Now we go onto the third course of hot dishes, which consists of the famous Swedish meatballs and sausages. They can easily be found in supermarket at cheap price and big pack that can last for a long time in your freezer. They are easy to cook, just put them into a saucepan until hot, or add three or four into your pasta or instant noodle. Good cheap, easy to cook processed meat!

Budget: £

This bread and gingerbread play an important role in the Swedish Christmas period. The bread is called Vörtbröd and it has a great smell just like the Glogg, it usually served with Christmas ham and some mustard on top, or just some butter on top will do just fine. The gingerbread, Pepparkakor, is everywhere during Christmas, you can find them in shops or people handing it out in some Christmas market or on the street.