Get Back to the Table Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Get Back to the Table Wednesday, December 25, 2024
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Although my goal is to find joy in each moment and each season of life now-a-days, Christmas time just is the most wonderful time of the year. The warm coziness of being inside with slippers, hot drinks, a good book and time to linger, that we don’t necessarily do when the weather is lovely.
I am definitely dragging my feet a little this year to try and not hurry through everything. There are expectations of the season and then there are real circumstances. Somehow, we must find our way to meet in the middle.
There are not enough meals or time to make everything we can think of that is Christmassy.
For my family and for those that have a bit of Norway in their veins, lefse and kringles are a staple when the weather starts to turn, but most of all around the holidays when we would gather. I do remember pickled herring, and much talk of lutefisk.
It seems that in every culture there is some kind of tortilla, and in Norway that would be lefse – a thin fragile tortilla made from potatoes and a little flour. Spread with butter and sugar or brown sugar and rolled up to eat, there is nothing like it in taste, and it truly has always been a treat for me of special memories.
Lefse
5 cups mashed potatoes
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp butter or cream
3 cups flour
Of course, there is much ado about whether you should use real potatoes or instant. I would leave that decision up to your preference, but if using real potatoes, peel and cook potatoes. Run them through a ricer while still warm, and add salt, butter or cream. Stir until well mixed and butter and salt are dissolved and incorporated. Work it well.
Cool in the refrigerator. When cool, add flour. I believe the key is to add just enough flour to get the right consistency, but not overwork so it becomes tough. It takes a little practice to handle correctly, but a little common sense in the baking world helps.
Roll out thin on a floured cloth into a somewhat circle shape. Gingerly transfer onto a hot griddle or an iron flat plate made for cooking lefse and cook on each side just long enough to see a little puff begin on the top side, and slight – I call them liver spots – form on the cooking side. Flip and do the same on the opposite side.
Transfer to a cloth and cover to keep from drying out as you cook the remaining dough. You may need to cover with slightly damp paper towels in this process to keep them from drying out, and store in a plastic bag or covered container until eating.
Of course, when reading the recipe provided in the historical cookbooks, the only information provided was - add ingredients while hot. When cold add flour. Let set a few minutes before rolling!!!
This would have been a recipe for disaster when I was younger, but you must shake your head and pretend you are a Norwegian Grandma that would scootch people out of the kitchen and focus on your baking common sense.
Women are funny. Sometimes we don’t think others don’t know everything we know, or sometimes we can be stinkers and not share everything we know. I’m not sure which, but life experience helps in the kitchen!
Kringles – It seems all families have their own version of kringle recipe. This is my family’s.
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Crisco
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk (I use
powdered)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
3 cup flour
Mix sugar and Crisco, and cream together. Add one egg, slightly beaten. Add buttermilk, soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. Chill dough thoroughly before rolling. In a freezer about half hour or so.
Drop by teaspoons full on floured board. Roll into strips eight inches long and form into a pretzel shape. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 °F for approximately eight to 10 minutes. Will vary on ovens or how brown you want them. Brush with butter after baking.
This recipe is fairly simple, but again it is in the handling or amount of flour that is incorporated through the rolling. When the dough is chilled, it does give you some stability in rolling and getting it to the baking pan.
I think they are perfect when just beginning to get a golden hue but are still white colored. I also believe that the only way to eat a kringle is with butter spread onto the bottom. Butter makes everything better, and I almost have a panic attack if I see anyone attempting without butter. It is part of the taste.
Kringles are home. Our grandmother would have them baked anytime we stopped to visit. Coffee and kringles = home.
Four of my children have nearly all the heritage on their father’s side as Irish.
I believe they have some photos in the old tin types of relatives in Ireland, and letters penned that spoke of the potato famine.
This cookie recipe is so good, and it meant Christmas to their family.
This is my children’s great-great grandmother’s cookie recipe.
2 cups flour
1/2 pound butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
These cookies are really fragile and hard to roll and get to the pan. I chilled the dough with plastic wrap on top, so it didn’t dry out, but just tried to use minimal flour in rolling them and handling the dough as little as possible.
Bake at 350°F just until the edges start to turn brown.
Frosting
1/2 stick of butter
about 1/2 bag of powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
Mix in the mixer and frost cookies.
The recipe I received only had the ingredients and one sentence of instruction!
The next recipe is one of great controversy. It is a traditional seafood dish shared by several Nordic countries, especially at Christmas. It seems you either love it or hate it. It is made from dried whitefish, usually cod, cured in lye, and has a gelatinous texture.
Lutefisk, mmmmmm. In December, it is common to have a lutefisklag -the Norwegian term for a get together with good friends to enjoy a delicious lutefisk meal. I am sure at some time you have heard an Ole and Lena joke or two, and they may have been at the expense of Lutefisk.
Ole and Lena were sitting on the porch and smelled an awful smell. Dere must be a skunk under da porch! exclaimed Lena. Vell, said Ole, just throw some lutefisk down dere.
It’ll be gone in no time. Lena considers this and says, Ooo, vell, I don’t mind da skunk so much.
The only way I ever knew of its preparation was the traditional church recipe still carried on in many Lutheran dinners.
Skin and clean lutefisk before soaking. Cut fish into three or four pieces, depending on the size of the fish. Soak in cold water in galvanized tubs, jars or granite dish pan for at least one day.
If fish is to be kept five or six days, change the water every other day. Water should be ice cold.
Before cooking drain fish well in colander. Drop in hot salted water and let come to a boil. Drain in colander and serve with melted butter.
To warm up lutefisk put into a cloth or sack and dip in boiling water.
Now I’m thinking boiling fish, gelatinous texture? Not!
Well, in looking into the matter, traditional way to prepare in Norway, is in the oven and with bacon. Sound better?
4 1/2 pounds lutefisk – purchase
already prepped for cooking
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 3/4 pounds fingerling potatoes
or whatever potatoes you prefer
1 pound bacon in cubes
Place the lutefisk skin side down on a baking dish. Sprinkle with plenty of salt and place in the fridge to rest for two to three hours. Rinse the salt off of both the lutefisk and the dish and replace the lutefisk inside the dish. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cover the dish with foil and place into preheated oven 425°F for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size and firmness of the lutefisk.
Rinse and peel the potatoes. Boil them in water until tender, about 20 minutes.
Fry the bacon in a pan with butter until crispy. Serve lutefisk with bacon and butter on top.
From fish to cookies, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and remember to get back to the table.
Colleen Venner lives with her husband, Ivan, in the Southern Black Hills at the edge of Alabaugh Canyon at Hot Springs.
