Wednesday 18 January 2012

Recipe - Sailors Stew ; Recept - Sjömansgryta


Once again we're looking at a very classic Swedish recipe. This recipe has roots way back in time and was something simple that poor people cooked. The name indicates that it might have been cooked on ships in the past as well, something that would work well since it stews on its own.

My twitter friend Linda pointed out that this reminds quite a bit about scouse as well. I guess that most countries have versions of dishes like this.

If I were to literally translate the Swedish name of this dish we'd end up with 'seaman stew'. I choose not to use that name. ;-)

You can of course pimp it and add lots of extras but I kept it simple for once and that is the recipe you'll get below. One thing to think about is that the beer you choose (I used Spitfire Ale - thanks for the Christmas present Mark and Kate ;) ) have a impact on the 'gravy' in the end. The darker the beer, the darker the gravy turns out in the end.

I used feather cut steak but if you can't find that just use whatever steak you got. Make sure to whack it good with a meat mallet if it's too thick though. You don't want it to be more than 3 - 4 mm thick in this recipe.

The classic accompaniment to this is sliced pickled gherkins. Trust me, you want that on your plate with this.

Before we head over to the recipe, just a quick question to you readers - I've posted some what I consider classic Swedish recipes recently. Is this something you find interesting so I should continue or is there something else you'd prefer me to post about? Please use the comment form in this post to let me know what you think.

Now over to the recipe, this really isn't rocket surgery cooking.

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g or so worth of feather cut steak
800g or so worth of potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1 cm thick slices
1 tbsp butter
2 onions (or more to taste), sliced
A sprig or two of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
300ml beer
Salt
Pepper

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180c.

Heat up a casserole pan (with lid) on a medium heat on the stove and melt the butter. Once the butter is nice and ready, add in the onions and fry for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the pan and add in the steaks instead.

Fry the steaks until sealed on both sides. Pop the onions back into the pan and add in the thyme, salt and pepper. Top with the potatoes and pour in the ale.

Lid on and into the oven for about an hour or until the potatoes are soft but not a total mush. Serve with the aforementioned sliced pickled gherkins.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. DEFINITELY keep the Swedish recipes coming, Mike. I need the cultural back-up to keep slapping gherkins on my hot plate.

    BUt why is it called seaman's stew? Do Swedish seamen, like our own, apparently hate fish?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Åh, sjömansbiff som är så gott! Alldeles för längesedan jag lagade det.

    Förresten, när kommer receptet på Hunter's Pie ;-)?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Klassiker som funkar. Har haft lite av en nostalgtripp med nagra ratter som det har pa sistone.

      Mandag ar det dags for den... ;)

      // Mike

      Delete

Please leave a comment. Positive or negative - all comments are welcome and useful. I do enjoy hearing what you think of my posts, what is good and what needs improving so please post away.

// Mike