And we re also going to enlist the aid of dishes from other Scandinavian countries, most notably Denmark. Just thought we re all becoming a wee bit weary of Mediterranean cuisine. In addition to the change of culinary pace, our September Smorgasbord has the advantage of being entirely cold. That s perfect for the warm days of the second summer. And cold food also means that we can prepare dishes hours, and in some cases days, in advance.
Scandinavian cuisine is larded with two major elements, dairy products and seafood.
But there s no getting around the seafood. Our smorgasbord begins with gravlax, fresh-cured salmon. But don t tell them it only takes about 15 minutes of work. The texture of gravlax falls somewhere between sashimi and store-bought lox. You ll need a very sharp knife to get very thin slices that go on thin breads or crackers.