An Array of Flavors from Norway: Aquavit-Cured Salmon, Snøfrisk, Gjetost #EattheWorld

This month the Eat the World crew is traveling by tabletop to Norway. Let's be real: if you were watching the World Cup, there is no way you didn't walk away with a little bit of a crush on that team and those players! So I picked it as our destination. Read more about the Eat the World project here.

Memories of Norway

Unlike most of the countries in our Cooking Around the World Adventure or this Eat the World challenge, I have actually been to Norway. A couple of times, actually. I had some good friends who lived there while I was in college and directly after. So, I flew there once, from Berkeley, for a self-declared long weekend. And I took the train from Rome when I was living and working in Italy a couple of years after that. The wife is Norwegian, the husband American. So, they split their time between there and here.

My memories of those two trips are hazy; my memories of the food and drinks are even more so. I remember going to a microroastery and espresso bar in Oslo. I do remember eating Pølse (basically hot dogs) rolled in lefse (flatbread) with mustard and raw onions. And I clearly remember, standing at at the edge of a frozen lake, debating which items to carry on my back while we skiied to her family's cabin. Akevitt won out over food. Yes, my priorities were way out of whack in college: booze over food.

A Few Fun Facts

• Norway is in Scandinavia and lies above the Arctic circle.

• In Norway you will find reindeer, which are also called caribou. These animals use their antlers to scrape the snow away from the ground to find food. The caribou have four toes.

• Arctic fox also lives in Norway; its coat changes with the seasons. In winter its fur is mainly grey and white, while in summer it changes to a light brown.

• You can buy beer in grocery stores, but you have to buy wine and hard liquor at one place and one place only-Vinmonopolet (which literally means ´Wine Monopoly´).

• Norwegians hunt whales.

The Norwegian Table by the #EattheWorld Writers

• An Array of Flavors from Norway: Aquavit-Cured Salmon, Snøfrisk, Gjetost by Culinary Cam (you're here)

• Fiskesuppe by A Day in the Life on the Farm

• Norwegian Risgrøt Rice Porridge by Sneha's Recipe

• Scandinavian Almond Cake by  Amy's Cooking Adventures

Aquavit (or Akevitt)

I wanted to start with a quick primer on aquavit. Despite how long Scandinavians have been making and drinking aquavit, it's largely unknown outside of those countries. It's such a shame because, as a spirit, it's completely beguiling.

The name 'aquavit' derives from two Latin words: aqua vitae and translates to "water of life." The French have a clear brandy eau de vie which means the same thing, but has a very different flavor. I've had more fruit based eau de vie while aquavit is decidedly more spicy. Aquavit has many different recipes and flavor profiles between brands, but the dominant flavor is caraway seeds. This one, from Linie, is a potato-based spirit distilled with a blend of Nordic herbs and spices and, then, rested in Oloroso sherry casks where it crosses the line, the Equator, twice. According to their website, maturing the spirit at sea exposes it to constant rolling and fluctuating temperature.

This aquavit is balanced with a strong caraway flavor that I love! It is brilliantly clear with spicy notes and aromas that are smooth and seductive with delicate notes of star anise and vanilla. We sipped on chilled glasses of it while we enjoyed our Norwegian-kissed cheese board.

The board included two distinctly Norwegian items: Gravlax, cured salmon, and Snøfrisk, a white, unripened and creamy goats' milk cheese. I rounded out the board with fresh tomatoes, a local-to-me lamb salami, different breads, and pickled quail eggs, blueberries, and fiorelli.

Aquavit-Cured Salmon

I have been making gravlax for years. It had never occurred to me to do so until I heard a quick recipe mentioned on NPR's The Splendid Table and saw that recipe online. I have been making it ever since! I used The Splendid Table recipe as a starting point, but made several modifications to fit the ingredients I had in my kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sea salt

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon fennel pollen

• splash of aquavit

• 2 pieces of wild-caught salmon, well matched in size and shape, if possible

Procedure

Mix the salt, sugar, and pepper together. Spoon a third of the mixture on a piece of plastic wrap and place one of the salmon pieces on top of it, skin-side down. Put half of the remaining salt mixture on top of the salmon. Sprinkle with the fennel pollen. Drizzle the filet with aquavit. Fit the other piece of fish, skin-side up, on top. Use the remaining salt-sugar mixture on the top.

Wrap the salmon tightly with the plastic wrap. And place it in a glass container because it will weep through the duration of the curing process. Every twelve hours, flip the salmon. Do this for three days.

Before serving, rinse the salt-sugar off. Serve thin slices.

Snøfrisk

Snøfrisk also appeared on this board. The brand was launched during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Produced in a town named Ørsta, it is made from a blend of 80% goat's milk and 20% cow's milk from free-roaming animals on the western coast of Norway. Because it's produced without stabilizers or additives, the cheese is created over the course of only two or three days. I served the original and the dill versions.

Gjetost

I discovered this in 2014 when I taught a six-week cheese class to a dozen fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. The kids dubbed it 'caramel cheese.' I'd go so far as to call it salted caramel cheese.

Gjetost (pronounced YAY-toast) is made by cooking a mixture of milk, cream, and whey very slowly. The heat transforms the milk sugar into caramel. The texture of gjetost is smooth and firm and a little sticky - not unlike a real caramel. Due to its sweetness, I usually serve it on a dessert cheese tray. Today I served it with slices of apple and a fresh baguette. Kinda like a caramel apple.

That's a wrap for my Norwegian offering for this month's Eat the World. Next month will be the group's 100th month. And Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm is hosting us on a tabletop adventure through our culinary heritage. Stay tuned!