Kitchen of Light: The New Scandinavian Cooking

by Andreas Viestad, Mette Randem (Photographer)

Overview

This charming and personal exploration of Scandinavian food and culture from one of public television's most charismatic cooks engages readers with personal anecdotes and flavorful recipes. Andreas shows the best way to cure gravlaks, make butter, prepare a poached salmon feast, and flambé a pork tenderloin with Scandinavia's favorite spirit aquavit. He shares his passion for traditional recipes such as Pork Rib Roast with Cloves, Mashed Rutabaga, and Norwegian Pancakes filled with berries.

In Kitchen of Light readers are transported to Viestad's Norway—fishing for cod, halibut, and salmon; gathering chanterelles, porcini, and wild berries. More than 100 recipes emphasize fresh, simple ingredients in delicious and elegant dishes such as Pepper-Grilled Oysters and Scallops and Roast Dill-Scented Chicken with Leeks and Potatoes. This inspired cookbook, a companion to the public television series New Scandinavian Cooking, is perfect for home cooks, armchair travelers, cultural food enthusiasts, and anyone who yearns for the simple life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781579653408
Publisher:	Artisan
Publication date:	09/04/2007
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	423,569
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.05(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Andreas Viestad is Norway’s premier food columnist and writes a weekly column in Dagbladet. He is also the host of American Public Television’s series New Scandinavian Cooking, now in its third season, which airs in more than sixty countries. When he isn’t traveling, he and his family divide their time between Oslo, Norway, and Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Where Flavor Was Born.

Table of Contents

Introduction: 9
On the Wings of Fortune: 15
The Best Cure: 37
How We Survived: Cod and Potatoes: 53
A Midsummer Night’s Feast: 83
Talking Fish: 97
In the Land of the Midnight Sun: 113
Out on a Limb: 127
Sheep in Black Tie and Stockings: 155
The First Vanguard: 169
Christmas: Same Procedure Every Year: 187
The High Life: 203
A Secret Place: 219
Bring Me Berries: 245
Skål!: 283
Mail-Order Sources: 294
Acknowledgments: 294
Index 295

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Dazzles readers with Scandinavia's bounty of flavors and the beauty of its culture and landscape."—Marcus Samuelsson, author of Aquavit

Editorial Reviews

Exciting, modern cuisine from the land of midnight sun.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

From the Publisher

Exciting, modern cuisine from the land of midnight sun.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

A witty and insightful tour through culinary and cultural norway.”
—Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

Refreshingly un-chefy. An enjoyable, beautifully illustrated book.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle

This compendium of modern Scandinavian recipes is a perfect marriage of fresh recipes, most of which aren't too difficult, and clean layout and design. Author Viestad finds a nice balance between seriousness and fun in his brief texts about everything from Hulda Garborg (a feminist and the author of one of the first-ever Norwegian cookbooks in 1898) to an ode to crayfish under the subtitle There Is Something Crawling in My Bathtub. Modern Scandinavian cooking, at least as represented here, is ideally suited to the way we eat now, with a healthy dose of fish and respect for ingredients that lets their flavors shine. In fact, about half of the book is dedicated to fish dishes. There are two recipes for transforming salmon into the Scandinavian classic Gravlaks and more innovative treatment of seafood in the form of Grilled Mackerel with Sweet Chili Glaze and Charred Sage, and Thyme-and-Garlic Steamed Mussels with a Hint of Cinnamon. An entire chapter on the staples cod and potatoes includes Truffled Cod with Garlic-Veal Glace and rustic Potatoes with Goose Fat and Lemon. Vegetable, meat and poultry dishes are less central than the trove of seafood recipes, but they hardly seem like afterthoughts in recipes such as Lamb Chops with Mushrooms, Zucchini, and Yogurt-Mint Sauce, and Onion Pie with Jarlsberg and Thyme. Desserts are often stunningly simple and fruit-based: Strawberry Snow is a simple berry mousse, while The Devil's Rhubarb consists of raw stalks dipped in sugar and nibbled between sips of vodka. (May) Forecast: Viestad is charming both in print and in his pictures. His PBS series New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad will begin airing in May, which is sure to propel what is already an extremely solid effort with breathtaking art and enticing recipes. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly