Serves: 4
Approx cost: €10
Approx calories (per serving): ~650
Approx preparation and cooking time: 60 minutes
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;”]It’s my 100th post! Yep – I’ve now published 100 recipes on FiveEuroFood.com – here’s to the next 900 ;). Let’s take a trip down memory lane – what have I learnt from my early posts? Well, check the final pic on my first post! Eesh, you won’t see that anymore – horrid photo! My food photography for one, while far from perfect, has been improving over time. My wife recently bought me a wonderful book – “Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling” which has a whole heap of useful advice inside and I’m looking forward to applying the knowledge and making the photos on my blog here look even more delicious.
I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who comes here. In the last 9 months I have met some great people through my site. I love reading your comments – and I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – you inspire me to carry on. Those of you with food blogs yourselves – when I’m feeling unmotivated, I just need to look at one of you peoples’ blogs and I get a whole load of great ideas – ideas I never would have thought of in a hundred years, and it’s amazing to see the sort of things that other people are doing with ingredients I’m familiar (and not so familiar) with, so I thank you!
Before we move on to today’s recipe I did promise a giveaway. After seeing some comments on this subject before, I’ve decided that I’ll be offering out an awesome kitchen knife to the person winning the draw. I’ve read many comments before where people lament not having a decent knife, and it’s seriously one of the most important things you can have in the kitchen. My wife bought me a set for my last birthday present and they’re really good. Great weight, great build quality. The knife is a 6 inch utility knife, pictured below, and will be sent directly from the factory in Thiers, France. It can even be personalised with your name! The winner will be drawn on the 6th of September and all you need to do to enter is just leave a comment below – be sure to enter a valid email address on which I can contact you! You can get two entries into the”pot” by “Liking” FiveEuroFood in the Facebook box to the right of this post – let me know that you’ve done this too in your comment 🙂
Now onto the recipe! At the time of writing the post I still didn’t have a functioning oven and despite peoples’ wonderful suggestions I was, unfortunately, in no situation to make a cake. I got to thinking and realised I needed something sufficiently “celebratory”, but I so badly wanted a cake, so why not have a “Swedish Sandwich Cake”, or “Smörgåstårta” (pronounced “smur-gors-torta”). The recipe below is really purely a guideline because there are about a million ways you can customise it. It’s a very popular celebratory food in Sweden – something commonly seen at all manner of parties and events. I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Ingredients
- 6 slices Sandwich Bread
- ~400g Prawns or Shrimps
- ~6 slices of cold meats – ham, beef, turkey, chicken etc
- ~350g Crème Fraiche
- ~6 tbsps Mayonnaise
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Onion
- Half a Red Bell Pepper
- Large chunk of Cucumber
- 2 or 3 pickled Gherkins
- 2 tbsps Horseradish Sauce
- Large handful of fresh Parsley
Instructions
- Chop the cold meats into strips place in a bowl. Chop up the gherkins finely and add into the bowl with 2 tbsp of Crème Fraiche, 1 tbsp of Mayonnaise and the Horseradish Sauce. Mix well and set aside. Next, mix 3/4 of prawns or shrimps in a separate bowl with another 2 tbsps of Crème Fraiche and 1 tbsp of Mayonnaise. Peel and chop the onion finely, add half to the shrimps and mix well and then set aside. Boil the eggs for about 6 minutes and peel them, and then chop the cucumber and the bell pepper into thin slices. Mix the rest of the Mayonnaise and the Crème Fraiche together well in yet another bowl.
- Cut the crusts off the bread and arrange two slices next to each other. Scoop over the chopped up meats and spread to cover the bread slices. Place another two slices on top and then spoon the shrimps/onion/mayo mix on top. Again, spread out to cover the bread and then finally place the last two bread slices on top. Spread or pour out the Mayonnaise/Crème Fraiche mix you have made and spread it out to cover, as best as you can, the entire top and sides of the “cake”. Different mayonnaises and Crème Fraiches will yield different results – some will be spreadable and thick, others much more runny. Finally, peel and chop the eggs and the parsley finely, and arrange each remaining ingredient on or around the “cake” in a pleasing manner. I’ve surrounded the bottom with cucumber and chopped egg, placed bell pepper and shrimp and onion on top and topped it all off with parsley.
- Last but not least, cut into slices and enjoy!
Shame it has cucumber 😛 Grats on the 100th post!
Cucumber rocks! Bow down before your gherkin master!
Congratulations Charles!!!! This is the most original birthday cake idea you might have found for your 100th post! Very inventive, beautiful and certainly healthy! One more Swedish delight I must try!
Visiting your blog is always a pleasure, a surprise, an inspiration and, what is difficult to find, an enriching exchange of thoughts and opinions. Thank you for being on the web! I hope you'll celebrate many future hundredth anniversaries and am already looking forward to see your 1000th post!
Thanks Sissi! It's been a pleasure to get to know you over the past couple of months too, and I love seeing your posts! The great thing is, now I finally have an oven back again, so I can make a *real* cake once more!
Wow, what a recipe! (and I have to say that your photos just keep getting better – beautiful). One serving of this hearty and delightful sandwich gateau and I think I'd be good for the week 🙂 Congratulations on your 100th post – I've really enjoyed reading, viewing and learning from you and look forward to many more!
Thanks Kelly – it's very filling. If you have a search online you can find some absolutely incredible looking sandwich cakes – hopefully I don't offend any Swedes with my attempts, although my wife did say it was good 🙂 Thanks for the compliments – I meant to tell you, I just came back from England and I was so happy – I found spelt flour, almond butter, goji berries, agave nectar…. SOOOO many things I can't get in France!
Oh, that's so exciting! A truckload of culinary goodies to enjoy…
Congrats on your 100th! I love seeing recipes like this, because I'm not as familiar with them. I wasn't really exposed to Swedish cuisine growing up! You have a great blog keep it up. A knife with my name on it would be pretty darn cool. If it's open to those in the U.S. I'm in!
Cheers Greg – While I don't think I could survive solely on Swedish cuisine… quite devoid of vegetables sometimes, and pretty meaty and starchy, they do have some wonderful things – you should definitely try and explore some of it when you have a chance. As for the knife – it's absolutely available to those in the US… they claim to ship everywhere so it shouldn't be a problem!
Holy cow! This looks so decadent! I would be full for the whole day after one piece (well, at least until dessert). This looks fantastic. I've never seen anything like it.
I'm reading the same book that your wife picked up for you. Great read so far. Hopefully I'll be able to retain some of it and apply what I learn. Photo technology does not come naturally to me.
Congratulations on your 100th post!!!! Great work! I'm so happy to have found your blog. I enjoy reading all of the posts and always learn a great deal (not to mention get a great laugh sometimes!). Keep it up! You are inspiring. 🙂
And…you've been "liked." If it's open to the U.S., I'm in!
Thanks a lot Kristy! It is a delicious dish, especially since you have so many customisation options… very filling too, although not always the most healthy 😀
For food photography – it's really freaking hard. Sometimes I feel quite pleased with one or two photos I take, but then I look at them later and, compared to the "pro" photography people they're very badly lacking! It's a great book though so hopefully I can learn a lot too. I'm going to invest in some nice backgrounds and cloths and what not too!
Thanks for the "Like" – I'll put you down for two entries 🙂 It's absolutely open to the US – the company says they ship everywhere so no worries! Hope you're having a good day 🙂
Grats on the 100th post!)
The book about the digital food photography must be awesome. I read a bit about it, you need to do crazy things with food to make it look good. Like using hairspray and stuff ) Good luck, I hope to see even more awesome pictures here )
P.S. I already "liked" the site before, so the button is not active for me (
Thanks Marianna – don't worry – you'll get two entries still 😀 I don't think I'll be spraying my cakes with hair-spray… I still would like to eat them afterwards 😀
Btw did you see the mail i sent you? With the Russian recipes) You should try something from there!
I just logged in to check it now, thanks! (I'm on vacation at the moment you see). They look wonderful, in fact they're both things I wanted to make since some time already, so expect to see them up "soon"(tm)! I might have a problem finding sour cream though… Never seen it in France… /sigh 🙁
you could use crème fraîche – its not the same, but will give you an impression )
Congratulations on your 100th post. I hope to see your post of any/all of the 3 Indian dessert suggestions that I made, though rasmalai and rasgulla are the same basic dessert though the latter is in a sugar syrup and the other is served in a sweet milk. My attempt at rasgulla was, well, less than successful so I hope to get some pointers. 🙂
… knife giveaway!!! Looking forward to a chance to win and am "liking" your post as well if that gives me a second 'kick at the can'. Later
Thanks a lot! I'll put you down twice in the draw! I'm very much looking forward to trying the things you suggested. Do you have a "favourite"? I'm wondering which I should try first!
Just revisited the post and saw your question about preferences. I think the rasgulla/rasmalai would be the most challenging (I made my own paneer for the cheese balls) so if you tried that first, it would be terrific. I added rosewater to the sugar syrup for the rasgulla but found the result too floral. I much preferred the sugar syrup with a cardamom flavouring as with the gulab jamun.
The trick with the gulab jamun is to get the frying temperature right (200-250 deg F) … too high (300 deg F) and the outside gets too hard to absorb the syrup later on. Too low (< 200 deg F) and the ball is grease-logged.
Let me know if you want my starting recipes for either recipe.
Thanks, I'd love your starting recipes actually to take a look at… I keep meaning to properly investigate these recipe, see which I can easily start with and so forth so if you had some tried and tested recipes to use as a leaping off point that would be really handy, thanks a lot!
Charles, I sent you the recipes via your YouTube addy (using my account name there) as I didn't want to clog up the comment page here. 🙂
I got the recipes on my YouTube mailbox, thanks a lot! Looking forward to giving them a try 🙂
I've never heard of Smörgåstårta, but this definitely looks delicious. I love learning something new. And of course, Congrats on the 100th post.. I know you will continue creating great dishes and great post 🙂
Sorry Kay, completely missed your comment here. It's the perfect thing to serve to multiple people – and you can make it as cheaply, or as luxuriously, as you like – really adaptable! 🙂 Thanks for your encouraging words 🙂
I am speechless! What a sandwich this is….! Certainly has a celebratory feel to it – or perhaps that's just your gorgeous presentation Charles 🙂
Thanks Michelle! Rather high in calories though – not something you'd want to be eating every day 😀 The good thing is, I am "with oven" again now, so the next time I have a blog celebration… probably October to celebrate my blog's one year anniversary, I can make a real, baked, cake 😀
i ate these almost every day when i was in sweden last. so addicting!
Awesome, did you have a chance to sample any other Swedish… ahem… "delicacies"? Surströmming for example? (dear God that stuff is bad!)
Hi Charles, many congratulations on your 100th post! I'm so glad you have an oven now! I'm really looking forward to seeing your cake recipes as your Mum must have handed you some awesome recipes! I loved the comment about spraying hairspray over the cake, I could never waste a cake just for the picture though! Your food photography always looks inviting but it will be lovely to see your new ideas and cloths etc. All the best, Jenny.
Hi Jenny, Thank you so much! Next "milestone" will be the 1 year mark in late October. I'm having a lot of fun with my blog and it's wonderful I can combine two of my passions, food and photography, and learn and improve as I go along! I saw this video a while ago showing just some of the dodgy tricks of the trade involved in food advertising. Talk about feeling cheated! 😀 Hope you're having a good weekend!
When are you bringing some creations in to work? 🙂
Haha, problem is, stuff doesn't usually stick around long enough to make it into work. I'm gonna make some Millionaire's Shortbread sometime soon… I'll bring that in 🙂
WOO HOO! What could be nicer than a Sabatier knife?! Thank you for the wonderful giveaway!
I like Five Euro Food on Facebook — Beth McDonald, catskill quilter
Thanks for stopping by! I'll be making the draw tomorrow and will let you know the results in a new post then! Hope you're having a good Monday!
For everyone who subscribed to comment updates on this post, I've now published the winner of the giveaway detailed above in my most recent post. You can read all about it here! To those who weren't lucky this time, I'll be doing more giveaways soon so keep checking back! 🙂