SC - FW: MMMM, good holiday food!

[Decker, Terry D.]

Here's a little something off the New Mexico Tech list.

Bear

>----------
>From: 	Steven L. Anderson[SMTP:steveo at nmt.edu]
>Sent: 	Friday, December 19, 1997 2:11 PM
>To: 	sca at mauve.nmt.edu
>Subject: 	MMMM, good holiday food!
>
>
>From CNN:
>
>Norwegian seasonal delicacies include
> fermented fish and
> fried sheep's head
>
> December 19, 1997
> Web posted at: 11:14 a.m. EST (1614 GMT) 
>
> OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Forget the haute cuisine of France, the
> rich pasta sauces of Italy and Japan's delicate sushi. 
>
> If cod soaked in caustic soda, half-rotten trout or fried sheep's head
> excite your gastric juices, then maybe you should  consider a gourmet
> trip to Norway in December. Not only is the twelfth month a time for
> skiing, Christmas and scenery of snow-decked fir trees and wooden
> cabins, it marks what Norwegians consider the height of the culinary
> calender. 
>
> Most specialties are still prepared by methods dating back six or
> seven hundred years, when long winters and freezing temperatures
> between November and March left the ground ice-packed and all
> supplies had to be conserved and stored.
>
> Beer flows freely as restaurants fill with Norwegians clamoring for
> their annual dose of seasonal fare. Such is the tradition that
> long-time emigrants as far afield as the United States and Singapore
> still join in the feasting.
>
> But, even with the most romantic, candle-lit surroundings, many
> Norwegian winter dishes are likely to present a challenge to a
> non-native palate.
>
> Most specialties are still prepared by methods dating back six or
> seven hundred years, when long winters and freezing temperatures
> between November and March left the ground ice-packed and all
> supplies had to be conserved and stored.
>
> "Most traditional dishes are based on three months of production and
> nine months of consumption," Astri Riddervold, a food writer and
> retired doctor of ethnology, told Reuters. "All basic foods had to be
> preserved, and the type of food and method were very dependent on
> geographical factors."
>
> Topping the menu of December delights is "lutefisk" or lye fish,
> which any self-respecting Norwegian will have at least once before
> Christmas. Lutefisk is rehydrated dried cod soaked in a strong
> alkaline solution for several days until the fish is soft enough for
> a finger to be pressed through without meeting resistance.
>
> Nowadays the alkali is usually caustic soda, but documents dating
> back to the Middle Ages tell that the solution was made from the
> ashes of birch tree. Some folklore says the dish originated when
> people scavenging for food after a wooden house burned down found cod
> lying sodden in ashes.
>
> After soaking, the cod is rinsed for several days in running cold
> water before cooking is completed by either steaming or poaching. The
> result is a translucent golden color fillet with a stiff-jelly
> consistency. Lovers of lutefisk say that, if cooked to perfection,
> each layer of fish meat should stand apart from the next.
>
> "Lutefisk is unique, the taste is very weak but the consistency is
> very important," Riddervold said. "It is an art to be a lutefisk
> cook, it mustn't be too jelly."
>
> Lutefisk tastes surprisingly bland and is usually enhanced by sauces,
> which differ depending on region. In the east, where pigs were
> traditionally farmed, molten pork fat with crispy bacon shavings is
> poured lavishly over the fish.
>
> In the western part of Norway white sauce with mustard seeds is more
> common, and in the north Norway's famous brown goat's cheese with
> syrup is the accompaniment.
>
>
>-- 
> ************************************************************************
> *  sTeve-O Steven L. Anderson *
> *  steveo at .nmt.edu P.O. Box 3098 C/S  *
> * Socorro, NM 87801  *
> ************************************************************************
>
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