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Hi Neil,
I can inform you that the crayfish season starts on the 14th of
August this year, yum, yum...
However, the sad fact is that the "autochtonous" crayfish is almost
wiped out due to a crayfish plague, that struck us some years ago.
So we have to survive on imported ones, if you don't belong to
the super-rich (well, almost).
Otherwise things surrounding this gastronomic fete are the same,
thank Lord!
Bo
ES, DEC, Sweden
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| I could never stand these little, ugly poor creatures... who on
earth would like to eat them? And how would you like being boiled
alive?
All other things served at these parties, yes, but not a single
rapu [Finnish].
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When I was in Sweden one summer with my Swedish brother, we
arranged a meal with crayfish hand corn on the cob (something they
would never have thought of eating themselves - it's gris mat!)
so we could all sample some of the other's food. Yes, the crayfish
had to be imported from Russia, but they were absolutely delicious.
Don't knock it until you've tried it!
-Jerry
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| Group soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected]
Subject: Kr�ftor menu - swedish style
Organization: Ericsson Radar Electronics, Stockholm, Sweden
To celebrate the occasion of my 30-th birthday (hooray) I will actually
have a Cray-fish party with some friends tomorrow (Saturday).
So here is my ideas on a Cray-fish menu Swedish style.
To begin with there are the Cray-fish themselves, the way we do it here
we serve the Cray-fish cold. They are prepared by being boiled in a
broth of the following constitution:
For each 'tjog' of Cray-fish (that is multiple of 20) you take one
palmful of salt, the most essential ingredient apart from this is the
'krondill' this is a tall and sturdy herb. Now I don't know if this
herb is common outside Scandinavia so if you can't get hold of it there
is regretably no suitable substitute.
Some people also advise that you shold take a piece of sugar for each
tjog and add a bottle of dark beer to the boiling pot. If you do the
cooking yourself be sure that you taste it before you serve any guests.
It is a common mishappening that the Cray-fish becomes to salt. Should
this happen to you then let them lay in succesive baths of water before
serving.
For my own part I will buy readymade deepfrozeen Cray-fish, my prefered
brand is 'Hartwigs Louisiana Cray-fish'. I am pretty sure that they are
sold only in Sweden (the reason we take Cray-fish in Louisiana is that
the indigenous River Cray-fish has suffered of the so called Cray-fish
pestilence).
With the Cray-fish you serve plenty of toasted bread and akvavit along
with light beer. After that you may feel a desire for warm food. This
is a personal judgement, you may try some demanding french "bouf de
complexite' " if you want to impress the guests but if you are informal
let do with small sausages and/or meatballs. As a finish, serve some
different kinds of hard cheese like the Swiss Emmenthaler along with
radishes, sweet pepper and melon.
Leif Sterner
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From: [email protected] (Bj�rn Lisper)
Subject: Krondill (was: Re: Kr�ftor menu - swedish style)
Organization: The Royal Inst. of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden.
"Krondill" means dill flowers, "crown dill". While dill certainly is
known outside Scandinavia (although I think it's especially common in
Scandinavian cooking), I've never heard of the flowers being used
elsewhere. When I think of it, it's not being used with anything else
than crayfish here too. Typically you use some to decorate the plates
with the piled-up crayfish, which makes for a beautiful sight. The
flowers are quite tasty too, in my opinion. They do have a dill flavour
but also a more spicy bite.
Crayfish are eaten in August here, and dill will have flowers in August
too. I guess that's how the combination originally came around. Anyway,
it's a good one.
Bj�rn Lisper (Bjoern Lisper)
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