The Sweden Embassy celebrated the fourth edition of Sweden Nobel Memorial week (October 22- October 31, 2010) at New Delhi, by organizing a Swedish food festival.

The festival began at Olive Beach Restaurant and ended with a grand finale of Swedish Brunch at Olive Bar, followed by a special Nobel dinner at the embassy. The guests who attended the festival were treated with elegant Swedish foods by none other than Master Chef Mark Phoenix.  Mark Phoenix is a member of food committee which decides on Nobel banquet menu.  This week long food festival highlighted the legacy of the Nobel Prize, in tune with the theme ‘Innovating for Good’.

Phoenix said that the typical Swedish fare consists of non-vegetarian dishes because 99% of the Swedish population is non-vegetarian. But he tried to prepare some vegetarian dishes to suit the taste preferences of Indian population, who follow the both food patterns. Phoenix whipped up some great vegetarian desserts in honor of the Indian guests, who attended the festival.

Some of the typical Swedish foods that were served at the festival included gravlax, sill, skagenröra, and kottbullar.

• Gravlax:  This is a typical Swedish dish which is usually served as an appetizer.  Gravlax is prepared by curing the raw salmons in sugar, salt and dill. The gravalx is usually spread on some kind of bread or on boiled potatoes and served with an authentic dill and mustard sauce.

• Sill: Sill is nothing but a pickled herring fish. The herring fish has been part of the Scandinavian food culture since last 3000 years. Pickled herrings are savored in other Scandinavian countries too. Generally the pickling process is carried out in two steps. The first step is salting and the next step is flavoring. And Swedes like to go for traditional flavorings which make use of mustard, onion, sherry and dill.

• Skagenröra: Skagenröra is a white gunk made of mayo and créme fraiche, with shrimp, dill and onion. It’s often spread on toast as a starter. It is also known as “toast skagen”.

• Köttbullar: Köttbullar is a Swedish meat ball, which is an authentic part of Christmas tradition. It is prepared by rolling minced meat, with ingredients like breadcrumbs, eggs, spices and onions. In southern Sweden people prefer to mince fatty meats like pork, whereas in north people do it by mincing lighter meats. This can be enjoyed with or without gravy.

During the food festival Swedish Ambassador to India Lars-Olof Lindgren, was seen mingling with guests and encouraging them to try out the special dishes prepared by chef Phoenix. He added "We Swedish people take pride in our food. Our chefs are very competitive and innovative when it comes to world cuisine, and now we want to make it popular in India too."

Image courtesy: rawrob.com