Try the World Box: Sweden

The Sweden box was a bit incoherent. It had plenty of treats, but not enough ingredients for a Swedish meal. The recipe card included recipes for salmon and dill toasts, Swedish dumplings and ham & cheese toasts. There was also a pointer to a Swedish meatball recipe. The closest thing to an ingredient for these dishes in the box were the crackers and lingonberry jelly to garnish the dumplings.




We did make the toasts, and dumplings. They were good, but not enough for a meal. We augmented it with a Swedish shrimp sandwich called räkmacka that I learned about on a business trip to Sweden. Räkmacka is a pile of tiny shrimp with a lump of mayo and egg on the side. People mix as much of the egg and mayo as they want into each bite. Together these dishes made a mini Swedish smorgasbord.

Sweden also has a tradition of fika, which is a mid-day sweet snack with coffee. Swedes will drop everything in the middle of the workday: "Time for fika." The box included cookies, licorice, fudge and coffee in support of fika. Swedes like strong coffee, and have barely heard of decaf.


The box included:

Mörsjö Deli gourmet crisps - A thick salty cracker, that was good. Our package was a little bit crunched up.

Nordic Rosehip Fudge - This very soft fudge was flavored more like penuche. It was very good, but we didn't taste any rose flavors.

Tillmans Elderflower saft syrup - This was the star of the box. A little of this in a glass of seltzer made for a deliciously refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail.

Gille Double Chocolate Crisps - This was an interestingly elaborate cookie with two cookie layers enrobed in chocolate sandwiched with some caramel.

Löfbergs Kharisma Coffee - Good strong Swedish coffee.

Hafi Lingonberry Preserves - Lingonberry jelly just yells Sweden to me. It's sort of sweet and sour like a mix of strawberry and cranberry.

Lakritsfabriken Sweet Licorice - A good, strong licorice with a slightly salty flavor. This was a softer version of the center of a Good & Plenty.

Liss Ellas Sweet and Hot Mustard - This was a decent hot and sweet mustard with big mustard grains.

Four-M Chicken

Gail and I saw someone selling pre-made Three-M Chicken that sounded so good, we had to try it. We remembered it as mushrooms, mascarpone and Marsala wine. Looking it up on-line we found all the recipes were for mustard instead of mushrooms. We decided on Four-M Chicken adapted from a recipe on foodnetwork.com and came up with something rich and wonderful. You can't see the beautiful sear on the chicken in the picture. It tasted delicious, but the chicken could just as well be left out of the dish for a vegetarian version.

The side dish of rainbow chard blended perfectly with the Four-M sauce.  The acidity and sweetness of the Austrian Huber Wines Gruner Veltliner 2010 Hugo nicely cut through the thick sauce. The wine was wonderfully crisp. This was my second gruner veltliner and I think I will seek out this varietal as a character filled alternative to savignon blanc.

Four-M Chicken, with Mushrooms, Marsala, Mascarpone and Mustard
Serves 2

4 t olive oil, divided
½ lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thigh
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 t butter
¼ c chopped onion
⅓ lb cremini mushrooms
4 t minced garlic
4 oz tri-color fettucini
1 bunch Swiss chard
⅓ c dry Marsala wine
⅓ c mascarpone cheese
2 t Dijon mustard
2 t chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus whole sprigs for garnish

1. Heat half of oil in large heavy skillet over high heat; season chicken with salt and pepper while oil heats. Cook chicken just until brown, about 2 min per side for thighs and 4 min per side for breasts; remove from skillet; tent with foil.
2. While chicken cooks, chop onion and mushrooms.
3. When chicken is out of pan, reduce heat to med-high; melt butter in same skillet. Saute onion until tender, 2 min. Add mushrooms and half of garlic; sauté until tender and juices evaporate, 12 min.
4. While mushrooms cook, boil water for pasta; cook according to package directions. Rinse and chop chard across bunch into 1”-thick slices; pat dry; heat remaining oil with remaining garlic in second skillet over med-low heat.
5. When mushrooms are tender, add wine; simmer until reduced by half, 2 min. Meanwhile, increase heat of second skillet to med-high; saute chard.
6. When wine is reduced in mushroom mixture, stir in mascarpone and mustard.
7. Cut chicken pieces crosswise into ⅓”-thick slices. Return chicken and any accumulated juices to mushroom skillet; simmer, uncovered, over med-low heat until chicken is just cooked through and sauce thickens slightly, about 2 min.
8. Stir in chopped parsley; season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain pasta.
9. To serve: place sautéed chard on one half of plate and pasta on the other. Top with chicken, mushrooms and sauce.