At Freaky Foody we are totally obsessed by winterish moods, and summer is definitely not our favourite season. Especially now that we are back to the hot and muggy Mediterranean weather. We have to admit that Barcelona´s summer is not to blame at all. Actually, it is possibly one of the best city in Europe where to spend these four months of beaches, volleyball, cocktails, ice-creams, and relax. Yes, we have to admit it!
However, last year we have been clever enough to bring a bit of winter with us when we went to Norway and we bought an amazing cooking book, which is all about Nordic culinary inspirations.
In order to go through this long and torrid summer, we´ll try to find some relief in the intriguing and sophisticated recipes illustrated in Fire + Ice. Classic Nordic Cooking.
Darra Goldstein, the author of the book, is an authority in the US about everything regards Scandinavia and food as a cultural good and a tool to promote tolerance as well. She founded a magazine – which we strongly recommend to follow on a constant basis – called Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, along with another publishing foodie jewel, which is Cured, totally focused on the ancient and noble art of fermentation (every time we say f-e-r-m-e-n-t-a-t-i-o-n sound so satisfying!)
The book doesn’t feature only inspiring Nordic recipes, it is indeed completed by a wide and sophisticated selection of pictures by Stefan Wettainen that will immediately bring you to the Scandinavian atmosphere. Wooden abandoned houses, solitary old boats lost in calm and beautiful lakes, smoked fishes and bright beetroots, just to name a few of the elements that compose the visual mood of the book (which is definitely worth to buy it even only for this amazing pictures). Of course, we are not alone in this photographic appreciation of the book, which has recently been nominated for the James Beard Award in the Photography category.
Unfortunately, due to our lack of food styling skills (we´re quite aware of our limits, but we’re working on them!), we won´t bother you with the pictures of us experimenting with the recipes taken from the book. But, we can tell you what are our favourites ones from the repertoire explained in the cooking book and what are, in our humble opinion, the must try: Karelian Pies, originally from the Finnish region of Karelia and now quite popular all over Finland, Estonia and northern Russia; the Chanterelle Soup from Sweden (we wouldn’t have ever thought about putting chanterelle mushrooms in a soup before!); fish cakes and crisp-fried salmon skin drove our attention over Denmark’s deli; while Norway inspired us with its tempting roasted apples and onions with lemon and elderflower, the spinach pancakes and the root vegetable cakes also known as Kasvispihvit.
Nyte måltidet!
Freaky Foody 