I was paging through the IKEA’s Real Swedish Food Book recently.  With no Swedish in my nationality background, I was struck by how much Swedish food is comprised of shrimp & salmon (and other water living creatures & vegetation).  I always thought Swedish meatballs was the basis for all their dishes and anything else added to it was just window dressing (just kidding!). Recipe for Baked Potatoes with Shrimp Filling after the jump!

The other thing that struck me was that their measures, as I assumed, were in metric units.  However, what is a “DL”?  It seems to be a measure similar to “tsp” or “tbsp”.  So, I googled (the verb doesn’t need to be capitalized, does it?) “metric” and “dl” and found it to be “deciliter”.  Now, I have a technical background which makes me comfortable measuring things with deciliter units … but in the kitchen?  This American is really narrow minded, isn’t he?

I can’t wait to try some of the recipes … maybe I’ll start with something like “Baked potato with shrimp filling”.  It sounds simple enough, and includes an ingredient “creme fraiche” which I love hearing the contestants on “Top Chef” and other cooking reality shows say!  If you wish to join me and don’t have the book, here’s the recipe:

Baked potato with shrimp filling (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

4 large baked potatoes

1 jar of Swedish caviar (OK, now I have to go to the grocery store)

200 G of peeled shrimps “RAKOR” (Safeway … do you carry those?)

2 DL creme fraiche

3-5 DL chopped dill

1 spanish (red) onion (quantity of 1 onion … I can handle that without translation!)

salt & pepper

Procedure: (love those technical terms!)

Wash the potatoes and bake them until soft in the oven at 225 degrees C (I’ll have to convert that one … my oven only does degrees F!) for about 50-60 minutes (aren’t you glad that time measurement is universal?) … or in the microwave on full power (no time given).  Chop the red onion very small and mix with the roe and shrimps.  Now fold in the creme fraiche and the chopped dill.  Add salt and pepper to taste, then leave to stand in the fridge for an hour or so.  When the potatoes are done, cut a cross on top of each one, then squeeze the sides to open the potato and make room for the shrimp mixture.  A sprig of dill makes a nice garnish.

Bon appetit!  (I wonder what the Swedish version of that is?)

Come and visit me at Colorado IKEA Fans!

Dave is the creator of ColoradoIKEAfans.com (formerly ColoradoIKEA.com). He shares his IKEA enthusiasm (obsession?) and up to date news & views about IKEA. When not Guest Blogging at IKEAFANS, Dave blogs regularly at ColoradoIKEAFans and you can also find him on Twitter @ColoradoIKEA

Tags: ColoradoIKEAFans, Recipes, Swedish Food

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 AM by ColoradoIKEAfans and is filed under Guest Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.