Stephen Jackson: Just wowed by Swedish cuisine

May 29 2009 By Stephen Jackson

Stephen Jackson, of the award-winning Weaver’s Shed restaurant in Golcar took a trip to Sweden and found stunning landscape and food to match

LAST week, my wife and I took a trip to Sweden, and I’d love to tell you all about it. I’d not been for many years, and Tracy had never been at all, so I booked a special surprise trip for us.

After we arrived at the airport, we took our hire car down the Sodertalje archipelago, a stunningly beautiful landscape of dense forests, wide fields and myriad tiny lakes and islands. On one such tiny island, Oaxen, there is the most amazing restaurant, and as we boarded the little ferry that potters across from the mainland, we were both giddy kippers. Oaxen Skargardskrog, for that is the name (don’t even bother trying to pronounce it correctly – it’s almost impossible), is a beautiful villa overlooking a small harbour in which is moored an old archipelago cruiser, The Prince Of Orange, onboard which one stays overnight. Although a little ‘cosy’, the boat is very comfortable, with all mod cons, and serves a terrific breakfast on the upper deck. The cheaper quarters share bathrooms, and the larger staterooms have their own facilities. The restaurant is only open in the summer months, and at Christmas, and serves ultra-modern Scandinavian cuisine with an emphasis on wild, local produce. Peculiar leaves and herbs sit on the plates, adding deft touches to the delicate flavours of fish and game from the nearby lakes and forests.

For dinner, one disembarks the boat and climbs the stairs to the restaurant. The staff are marvellous, and as usual with the Scandinavians, fluent in chatty English. Makes one quite embarrassed at times. We were shown into the simply-decorated dining room, lit with tiny candles and very cosy indeed, and the meal began.

Wow. What flavours! There were several pre- and post- courses served between the first, main and dessert choices, all explained impeccably by our waiters. There’s too much to list, but there were some definite highlights; a smooth, powerful anchovy mayonnaise was served with minute cubes of cured salmon, and topped with crunchy petals of rye bread. A small plate was brought to the table with an upturned glass on it, which was filled with the sweetest smoke. As it was lifted, the scent was intoxicating, and the smoke cleared to reveal a tiny canapé of raw cod liver on a tartare of whitefish. It was sublime. All of the flavours were so delicate and fresh; it was almost a whole new set of flavours to take onboard. There was goat’s butter spiked with bayleaves, something I’m going to try immediately. This was served with an amazing array of breads, one of which they called pancake bread – it was essentially like a tiny crumpet loaf, and was astonishing. Another amazing course was a combination of raw venison and scallop, served with wild leaves, ferns, yoghurt and seaweed. Mind-blowing flavours, pretty as a picture. A dessert made with wild sea buckthorn foam, with puff pastry and fresh strawberry jam tasted just like a warmed vanilla slice; oh, it brought back so many memories.

After a wonderful night’s sleep, rocked by the gentle lapping of the Baltic, we took breakfast and watched the Eider ducks and their ducklings swim around the boat, and then reluctantly left and headed north to Stockholm.