Potato salad w/beets and herring [Pictures]

LTH,

So I'm popping around the channels one night and I come across New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad. I've seen it a couple of times and find it more notable for the outdoor cooking sessions than actual recipes, though one dish on this particular episode, The Flatlands, caught my eye, literally, pink potato salad. I liked the way it looked, but when Viestad added herring I hit the tivo button.*

It's a simple recipe with seemingly, at least to our American tastes, unrelated ingredients that work well together.



The recipe is not on the New Scandinavian Cooking web site, here is my fairly accurate rendition.

Andreas Viestad
New Scandinavian Cooking
Potato salad w/beets and herring

Bake peeled beets w/white wine, vinegar and 1 bay leaf, cool and cube
Cube and boil potatoes
Mix equal parts mayo and creme fresh**
Herring fillets in vinegar
Thinly sliced red onion
Mix all ingredients
Pepper and salt to taste
Snipped chives or dill for garnish

My wife was not enthused at the prospect of herring in potato salad so I made her a batch without. Here is her plate with cucumber salad and a bit of smoked salmon.



Enjoy,
Gary

*In the old days I would have scurried off to get pen and paper, love that tivo.
** I slightly overdressed the potato salad

Where is the smoked salmon from? I have been searching for the best smoked salmon and have finally found it. It is Daniel Boulud's Smoked Salmon. It is so clean, so fresh, so beautiful - wait until you try it. Find it @ Fox & Obel or direct from Browne Trading or Boulud.

Just curious - dill is very strong to me and I usually chop it finely and use it sparingly when putting it on seafood - however, I see you putting more than a generous amount on the dish. Did the recipe call for that or do you just love dill?

Looks fantastic, Gary and has me suddenly longing for Midsommar!

Swedes would probably be hard-pressed not to add a little chopped onion and/or chopped hard-boiled egg to the mixture.

You could also mix chopped, boiled beets together with capers, onion, some dill and some shredded smoked herring. Season with sweet, stone-ground mustard and vinegar. Heck, why not throw in some chopped hard-boiled egg here, too? Sensing a theme?

Sigh. Yep - definately longing for summer now...

Snark wrote:Did the recipe call for that or do you just love dill?

Bill,

The dill is garnish, if you notice, while there is some incorporated in the recipe, it is not an overpowering amount.

Smoked salmon is Whole Foods brand, fine, but not anything to get excited about. Maybe an eighth step up from Costco's Kirkland brand, though the WF brand is 4x the price. It was leftover from our 'Spago' Oscar pizza the night before.

I haven't tried the Boulud smoked salmon, though I do like the hand cut Fox and Obel. Frankly when I want really good cured salmon, at a less than nose bleed price, I make it myself. I should point out that my home made salmon is gravlax, not (cold) smoked salmon. Bill/SFNM makes a cold smoked salmon, I can't find his recipe at the moment, though I did come across Bill/SFNM's terrific Bagel and Cream Cheese post.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bridgestone wrote:Swedes would probably be hard-pressed not to add a little chopped onion and/or chopped hard-boiled egg to the mixture.

Bridgestone,

Arrrrg, I forgot to include onion in the recipe instructions, even though thinly sliced red onion was added to the mix*, good call. Hard boiled egg sounds a terrific addition as well.

Bridgestone wrote:Sensing a theme?

Yes, and quite a delicious one at that.

Enjoy,
Gary

*I will edit the above recipe

Where are the pictures of the Spago Oscar Night pizza?

Regards,

Snark wrote:Where is the smoked salmon from? I have been searching for the best smoked salmon and have finally found it. It is Daniel Boulud's Smoked Salmon. It is so clean, so fresh, so beautiful - wait until you try it. Find it @ Fox & Obel or direct from Browne Trading or Boulud.

Snark,

Since your post I've had the Daniel Boulud smoked salmon from Fox and Obel a couple of times and yes, I agree, it's outstanding. Expensive as hell, but delicious.

Enjoy,
Gary

Since it is almost Midsommar, I'm glad you brought this thread out of the deep freeze Gary. Excellent smoked salmon is indeed a find! But I am also interested in the Sillsallad (beet/herring/potato salad). The version I have had (made by a collegue born in Finland) is made with 1/2 inch diced beets, potatoes, pickled herring, and whipping cream, whipped, with only a little mayo added for taste and hard boiled eggs for a garnish. Some of the recipes in my American Daughters of Sweden Swedish Recipes Old and New (Chicago 1955) include diced cold roast beef, veal or ham and apples.

One of my happiest recent memories is of a Midsommar Night party out on the lawn. I highly recommend this Scandinavian tradition to all Chicagoans, as Midsommar often is spared the sweltering heat that sets in on the 4th. Besides, my understanding is that strawberries are the traditional dessert for Midsommar, and they are at their best in mid-June.

For our pot-luck Midsommar Party we had Smoked Salmon, Grilled King Salmon, Sillsallad (Herring and Beet and Potato Salad), Cucumber Salad, Hardtack, Cheeses, Princess Cake, and Fresh Strawberries. Oh, and Absolut for the some of the hardy Vikings present. The kids made flower wreaths for their heads and the winners of the obstacle course game went home with Viking helmets (available in plastic at Wikstrom's in Andersonville). As a former Minnesotan, I've always felt like an honorary Swede and wanted to celebrate, so this was lots of fun. But I understand that one of the key traditions for Midsommar is a bonfire. I'm not sure where to arrange that in Chicago, but it could be spectacular on the beach!

I'm hoping that Bridgestone will weigh in on the festivities that he has attended.

Well, I'd love to document and post our festivities. However, this is made difficult as we've been scheduling in our 5 weeks of vacation to kick-off with Midsommar the past few years. And, since we normally spend our vacation in areas without access to telephones, computers or even television, logging in and reporting to LTHForum is difficult. Especially when one's spouse is wondering why 85% of the camera's memory chip is packed full of food pictures...

But, I'll try to get some sort of report made - even if it's with slightly stale information!

One little clarification - bonfires are not lit during Swedish Midsommar celebrations. I believe that's unique for Finland. Swedes do enjoy a good bonfire however only on "Valborgsmässoafton".