Tonight I cooked what might be classed as sort of Norwegian food. Sirloin steak seasoned with juniper, fennel, salt and pepper, seared and grilled over charcoal to medium rare, then topped with a unique sauce of beef stock, flour, juniper berries, salt, pepper, sour cream, akvavit, and last but not least, Norwegian gjetost cheese. This is a delightful cheese made by boiling the milk until it caramelizes, for a sort of sweet brown goat cheese.
Plated up, we've got the steak with gjetost sauce, boiled potatoes with fresh dill and butter, lingonberries, and a few slices of extra gjetost. Accompanying, the only aquavit I could find locally at this time, a pretty straight-ahead caraway-to-the-forefront akvavit from Aalborg in Denmark. Delicious, regardless.
5 comments:
First off, I want some. Secondly what could we compare akvavit to for those of us who have never had it?
First off...find a Viking or Scandinavian movie good enough to make a Movie Night out of, and I'm game. Secondly, best way to think of akvavit is vodka flavoured with caraway. Caraway being those seeds they put in a jewish rye bread. It's not unlike gin in the sense that it is a clear, unaged spirit distilled with herbs or spices. Like gin, it has a prominent flavoring (juniper for gin, caraway for akvavit) but other flavorings can be added. There is another version I've had that has a lot more emphasis on dill and orange peel, but this particular one is pretty much caraway only.
Sounds tasty. I'm a big gin fan and am interested in trying the akvavit.
I'll see if I can find a good Viking movie...13th Warrior?
I second The 13th Warrior. In fact, I think I'll stream it right now!
It looked good before I got to taste it... now I know it is freakin' incredible!!!!
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