semiswede

It’s kräftskiva (crawfish time) in Sweden and after celebrating at home with our family I couldn’t bring myself to toss out the shells. There is such a minimal amount of meat in those little crawfish bodies and such a vast amount of flavor in the shells that it seems a waste to just bin them.

In case you haven’t heard, crawfish are a big deal in Sweden, but only in August. There is a long-standing tradition of cracking open these bright red crustaceans at parties where paper crawfish decorations, goofy party hats, and smiling moons decorate festive outdoor parties. Masses of crawfish and aquavit (snaps) are consumed between the first Wednesday in August and the […]

One of my favorite things to order when we go out for ice cream is cassis sorbet. In my efforts to avoid freezing the rest of the black currants I picked at my in-law’s I decided to try making it myself. Well, I guess I technically still froze them, but you get the idea. 

This is still a favorite recipe from my childhood and now my kids can’t get enough of them. The recipe came from my Swedish grandmother but unfortunately I can no longer ask her the true source. The pancakes I have tried in Sweden are not quite the same since this version seems to have a higher […]

I had a bit of a hard time coming up with a title for this post because Swedish saft isn’t exactly a syrup, or a drink, or just juice. It is fruit and/or berry juice boiled with sugar to create a concentrate that becomes drinkable when water is added. In British English it is squash or […]

Clockwise from top: strawberry-red currant, wild raspberry, cherry-rhubarb, gooseberry-elderflower, and black currant I have a friend with a truly amazing garden that I swear should be in ads for Miracle-Gro. There are cascades of red and black currants, a plethora of perfect cherries, gargantuan raspberries, and substantial globes of red and green gooseberries. It’s like […]

It’s black currant time in Sweden and I have eagerly been awaiting this moment. Last year I tried my hand at making crème de cassis (black currant liqueur) and it was so tasty I couldn’t wait for the next black currant season to arrive.

This is the time of year when I am faced with a challenge. Everything seems to be coming into season at the same time and with my berry picking addiction I can tend to go a little overboard. I have some wonderful friends and family who generously share the bounty of their gardens and in the […]

It’s been a bit of a weather rollercoaster in Malmö lately with some days feeling more like early fall than July. Yet another rainy day seemed to call for soup. Fisksoppa (fish soup) is common on menus in Sweden and I’ve ordered several tomato-based versions that are really lovely and I was anxious to try making one […]

Due to the near-death experience of my laptop, this post is much later than I had anticipated. But thanks to my husband it has been resurrected and I have access to the images just in time to post about Midsummer today. So…..in a country with long, dark winters, the summer solstice on June 21st is […]