Dinner with friends...

Last February, some Swedish friends invited John and I to dinner at their home.  Another couple, of whom the wife is Finnish and the husband is Swedish, were also coming.   The idea of the evening was that each couple would prepare a portion of the dinner/dessert, that represented their country.  For our part, we brought a Hersey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake.  In my opinion, it is the best chocolate cake recipe. Period.  I also brought candied orange peels.  I am not sure that is an American tradition, but it is something I make, and is not well known among my Swedish friends, so I thought it was fair game. 

Below are some of the pictures I took recording the evening. 

Herring - un-pickled.

Clipping the fin.

Above you see frozen (now-thawed) parsley, a mix of rye flour and...salt (I think) and, 

of course, the herring. 

As I recall...

We:  floured one side of the fish, laid the floured side down, sprinkled on parsley, and placed another fish fillet  on top, which had also been breaded on one side.  This all got pan-fried.

In the meantime, our Finnish friend made these shockingly tasty morsels.   I say, "shocking"" because they are so simple, but they are fabulous. The dough was made from rye flour.  It was rolled into an oval, and then the filling (which I think is ~ savory rice pudding...or potato) was placed in the center and the edges were pinched up. See recipe below. 

Our Swedish friends said that this was not particularly Swedish, but it was good none-the-less.  This smoked sausage was split and onion and pickle were put in the middle before it was grilled in the oven.

The Rye Wonders (my name) were brushed with butter....

This is the kicker - 

the Rye Wonders were topped with cold butter that had been blended with hard boiled egg.  

It was to DIE for!!! 

Flowers and candles make every evening, 

even cold dark February evenings, 

lovely and special...

So here we have it, grilled sausage, Rye Wonders (recipe to follow later), carrot salad (similar to one you would find in the US) mashed potatoes ("potatismos"), and lingon (think cranberry sauce). 

It was a lovely - and delicious! - evening.