Fishballs in white sauce - typical Norway!

When I do grocery shopping I often have an idea in my head what to buy, which means I also have an idea of what to make for dinner. But some days I like to let the colours in the shop guide me. Like the day I found this beautiful white and green fennel. The day was cold and grey, and after a walk home from work I had wet, wet feet. I needed some comfort food, and knew that the sweet, licorice taste of the fennel would be just perfect. I knew I alreday had fishballs at home, so then the desicion was easy. Fishballs in white sauce is a traditional dish here in Norway. Not the tastiest food there is you might say, but it depends on the sauce, and from time to time I love to make it. And to eat it.


Fishballs in white sauce

the sauce:

melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the pan. add 3 tablespoons of white flour and stir well. add milk, a little at a time and keep on to stir well, till you have a smooth sauce. add salt and white pepper, and as I did this time, thin cut fennel. add the fishballs and warm it all. Serve with potatos and vegetables, we often use raw grinded (wrong word, or?) carrots with a little bit of sugar and lemon juice.

I should really give you some traditional Scandinavian music today, but we are doing a caotic redecoration in the music corner in our livingroom and all my cds are stored away in huge baskets. So the fishballs will have to be eaten in silence. or may be some food talk? Do you have a traditional recipe to share?

Cod Paella, risotto med torsk

One of the pleasure is life is to visit fishmarkets. We don't have one like the Rialto market here in Trondheim, still the one we have is a nice one with quite a good selection of choices according to the season. When Terje and I visited Ravnkloa (the fish market here in Trondheim) yesterday, I was looking for fish for a paella, and the cod filets looked perfect.

I have a favorite restaurant out at Murano (in Venice) where I have discovered a marvellous risotto with fruits from the sea. Unfortunately you have to be two to order the dish, I remember one time Terje and I had it, we almost licked the plates at the end, the taste was too good to let go. I was not able to create the same juicy taste in my paella, but I am on the right way. Give me some more practice, and I am there.

cod paella

dice the cod filet into small pieces
fry in an extravagance of extra virgin olive oil
add salt and pepper
cut an onion and a green sweet pepper
fly in more olive oil

fry the rice in the leftover oil in the pan
add fish bouillon and white wine
add the fried fish and let boil for about half an hour
add the onion and the sweet pepper

serve with olive bread dipped in olive oil, the one we had is baked in Lom, sold in the delicatessen at the fish market.



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I fist fell for Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 because of the beautifil painting on the cd cover. The music is just as beautiful, and suits well on an icy, wintry Sunday morning.

Dirty Sunday traditions.

Alot of my time is spent in the kitchen these days, cooking old traditional meals, creating new traditions. Father in law has come to stay for the holidays, sons have come home for Christmas and they bring friends at all times, family and friends are coming to wish us Merry Christmas, and we love sharing time around the table. Last night we had pizza on the menu, followed by a game of scrabble. I had my camera ready and was going to take photos of the pizza for The Blue Café, but as often happens I was too busy taking care of food and guests to remember my camera. Just like today. I started with very good intentions to take photos of our traditional lutefisk dinner, but ended up with photos only of the unfinished meal.

Not even did I only end up with photos of the unfinished meal, I never even finished this Dirty Sunday blog post. I was going to write about the tradition we have created over the past years when we invite a few family and friends over for lutefisk on "lillejulaften" (little Christmas Eve - ie the night before Christmas Eve). But The Blue Café has been so full and busy the past week, I have had no chance for food blogging. I have kept my main blog alive with a daily entry, but that took all my computer energy. I still struggle to focus on food blooging, but decided to post these photos and words anyway just to keep my food blog alive. I promise to be fully back soon.......