Today we wanted to explore a bit of our Norse heritage. There are a lot of Norwegians competing in the Winter Olympics this year. If you are watching any of the coverage, I'm sure you've seen some of them, particularly in skiing events.
Our menu today is Kalruletter and Sot Suppe. Kalruletter is a meat-filled cabbage roll with gravy, served with boiled potatoes and carrots and sot suppe (literally translated: sweet soup) is a fruit dish. The recipe for the Kalruletter is primarily from Arctic Grub blog with the cabbage prep parts and baking directions taken from the Thanks for the Food blog. I had originally planned on following the later recipe, but when I googled Kalruletter for an image search, most had a white or brown gravy and not a tomato topping. So, this morning I switched gears and decided to follow the Arctic Grub recipe, except for the cabbage part, which I had already done. The Sot Suppe recipe came from Cheap Recipe Blog.
The Verdict: The Kalruletter (cabbage rolls) was a success! Chip even commented how much the filling tasted like the meatballs he had years ago at the Norway pavilion at Disney World - and that was without him knowing we were having Norwegian food today. (He got home right as we were sitting down to eat and had missed the introduction.) While we enjoyed the rolls, by the time we got to our 3rd kalruletter, the cabbage was a bit much. Therefore, I would say that I would make this again, but only put about 1/2 the meat mixture into the cabbage and cook the other half as meatballs. The dill gravy was a nice compliment to the flavor of the meat. The Sot Suppe was a favorite for my youngest and I thought it was tasty, but the other two girls thought it was too sweet and Chip didn't like the flavors of the fruit. It was thicker than I anticipated, and Ebabe kept saying it looked like fruit slime... and it was sort of true!
Kålruletter
Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey (you can use pork, beef, or chicken instead, if you prefer)
2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 TBSP cornstarch or potato starch
about 1/2 cup heavy cream or milk
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 TBSP butter for sauteing onion
2 TBSP butter for sauteing onion
2 heads of cabbage
water
salt for water
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add in salt. You will want to add in about 1 tablespoon per 2 liters (about 8 cups) of water. Once the water is boiling, add one whole head of cabbage and allow it to boil for 5-7 minutes, or until the outer layers turn slightly transparent.Remove the entire head of cabbage from the water and allow it to cool off on a baking sheet until cool enough to handle. Repeat the same process for each head of cabbage.
Once the cabbage had cooled off enough to touch with your bare hands, remove the leaves from the core. They should be quite flexible and easily malleable, but if you get some resistance from the vein of the cabbage leaf when you try to bend it, shave it down with a paring knife. You should be able to get 16-20 leaves of cabbage.
Saute the onions over medium heat with the 2 tbsp of butter, plenty of salt and a dash of sugar. They should be caramelized and browned, adjust heat and avoid stirring too much but don’t let them burn. It will take about 15 minutes or so.
Combine the ground turkey with the sauteed onion, egg, salt, pepper, spices, parsley, cornstarch and cream/milk, either by hand or pulse in a food processor.
Next, add a lump of filling into the middle of the leaf, and wrap the edges of the leaf around the meat as to form a parcel or mini-burrito. Repeat this process until all the meat and leaves have been used. I made 20, using about 2-3 TBSP of meat mixture per leaf.
Place all of your cabbage parcels into a baking dish. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 375F for 35-40 minutes.
Serve the kålruletter with boiled potatoes and carrots and white gravy (recipe below).
White Gravy with Dill Recipe
2 cups milk
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp freshly chopped dill
salt, pepper, freshly ground nutmeg
In a small sauce pot over medium heat, pour in the milk and heat up until warm.
Place the butter into a shallow sauce pan over medium heat, as soon as it has melted add in the flour and whisk until combined.
Gradually add in the warm milk, while constantly whisking until smooth and a bit thick or until it has the consistency you want from the gravy (add more milk if it gets too thick).
Season with dill, salt, pepper and ground nutmeg.
Ingredients
5 cups water
1/4 cup large pearl tapioca
1 cup chopped prunes
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup mixed dried fruit, chopped (we used cherries, pears, nectarines,
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Zest from a lemon
1 TBSP lemon juice
Directions
Soak tapioca in a pot with the water overnight.
In the morning, add fruit, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest to the pot of tapioca.
Cook over medium-high heat in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan until tapioca is clear and the fruit is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Allow to cool. Store in refrigerator
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