Top 5 Scandinavian recipe ideas for everyone to enjoy

Meatballs may be considered an Italian specialty, but instead of being served with pasta, these small sized meatballs are ideal served with boiled
potatoes, vegetables and lingonberry jam a particular Nordic specialty. Using ground minced beef, onion, cumin, oregano and mustard for the meatballs themselves there is no need for a flavor overload, as these subtleties are all complementing each other. With this recipe there is a tomato sauce that is delicious poured over the top, and as an accompaniment to the potatoes and vegetables. For full recipe information, click here.

2. Herring with Dill and Mustard Potato Salad

Herring are traditionally associated with Scandinavia and in particular Norway, this recipe involves poaching the white-fleshed fish with white wine, bay leafs, peppercorns and water for about 12 minutes. Then for the potato salad all you have to do is boil some new potatoes and in a separate bowl mix mayonnaise, dill, wholegrain mustard and lemon, season if necessary. Combine the sauce with the potatoes and place the fish on top. Click here for full recipe.

3. Codfish (klippfisk) soup

This recipe is great for those looking to watch how much they are spending per meal as the ingredients for this dish are relatively inexpensive. This is including a special dried fish called Klippfisk (Salt Cod, available readily from a number of food retailers) which you will have to soak in water for 24 hours before you can use them, other components are rosemary, garlic, carrots, leeks and onions. It is also quite a creamy soup which is perfect for tempting younger ones if they aren’t as keen on fish, by the time they have tried the soup they will be fish converts! Click here for full recipe.

4. Salted Caramel and Apple Rolls

Twists on Danish pastries, these delicious bread treats are smothered in luscious homemade salted caramel. To make the caramel all you need to do is carefully heat sugar and water to a high heat until it forms the caramel, add the salt once it is cooled and then you can make a basic sweet bread recipe which can be found here. Once the bread has proved and baked with apple pieces on top you can add the caramel on top of them as a final finishing flourish.

 5. Norwegian Almond Cake

This is a recipe for a traditional and super yummy cake that has a delicious custard topping, however it does require some preparation, and the custard must be made in advance. Just set a glass or metal bowl over a pan of boiling water, then whisk together egg yolks and sugar. After that, stir in double cream until the mixture is much thicker and then remove from the heat and add in some butter, keep stirring until all the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Put some cling film over the top and leave to set in the fridge overnight. For the actual cake, whisk egg whites until they are at stiff peaks, separately mix chopped almonds, baking powder and icing sugar together. Then gently fold in the egg whites to the dry mixture, and then pop into the oven, once the cake has cooled spread the delicious custard over the top. Click here for the full recipe.

As these recipes show there is no end to the delicious Scandinavian delights on offer, why not venture there on holiday and choose a Baltic cruise as you next vacation destination and sample these delicious treats first hand?

Photos by BBC Food