Norwegian Thick Salt-Pork Pancakes With Sugared Lingonberries

NORWEGIAN THICK SALT-PORK PANCAKES

Fleskepannekaker (Norway)

In Norway, a salt pork or bacon pancake can be made in various ways. It can be pan fried, as here, or it can be a thick oven-baked pancake, like the Swedish fläskpannkaka. This version is often served with finely snipped chives, and sometimes a bit of rømme, or even grated cheese. I have also seen a recipe or two that suggest fried apple wedges as an accompaniment. The Swedish version of this dish is usually served with Sugared Lingonberries.

Preparation and cooking time: 35 minutes

Makes: 4-6 pancakes

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 oz (¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon) weak (soft) wheat flour
• 5 eggs
• good pinch of salt
• 20 fl oz (2 cups plus 1 tablespoon) milk
• butter, for frying
• 11 oz salt pork or bacon, sliced or cut into sticks

Instructions

1. Combine the flour, eggs, salt and half the milk in a mixing bowl and whisk until no lumps remain. Add the rest of the milk, whisking continuously.

2. Heat a little butter in a frying pan or skillet and add a generous amount of the pork or bacon batons. Fry until they start to brown a little, then ladle in some batter. You are aiming to get 4–6 pancakes in total, so divide the pork and batter accordingly. Fry the pancake until the underside is golden, then turn and fry on the other side.

3. Keep warm while you fry the remaining pancakes and serve with your choice of accompaniments.

SUGARED LINGONBERRIES

Rårörda lingon (Sweden)

Lingonberries contain a lot of naturally occurring benzoic acid, something that industry adds to many preserves and jams to help them keep. The levels are so high that lingonberries just don’t go bad. Thanks to this, there is really no point in boiling them into jam and bottling them; you can just add some sugar for flavour and they will keep in a fairly clean jar at the back of your fridge for years. You can use fresh or frozen berries. It makes no difference to the end result. Especially in northern Scandinavia and Finland, we eat sugared lingonberries on so many things, sweet and savoury. They all seem to benefit from a good scoop of sweet and astringent ruby loveliness.

Preparation and cooking time: 5 minutes

Resting time: at least overnight

Makes: 670-700 g/1 lb 7 oz-1 lb 8½ oz

Ingredients

• 1 lb 2 oz (5 cups) lingonberries
• 5-7 oz (⅔-¾ cup) sugar

Instructions

1. Place the lingonberries and sugar in a large bowl and mix with a spoon. Keep the bowl at room temperature and stir from time to time, until the sugar has dissolved. It should take a while for this to happen, at least overnight. Refrigerate when done.

Adapted from The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson (Phaidon, $49.95 US/$59.95 CAN, October 2015)