Norwegian Potato-Ham Dumplings (Kumla, Kumle)

Joe's Norwegian ancestors came from the Bergen area of Norway in the 1800s. As they moved across the U.S. to establish the town of Roland, Iowa, they kept their heritage fairly intact. Today that whole area is settled with very tall fair complected people, and the name "Duea" is often seen in the town records.

My first Christmas with the family, I was introduced to these hearty, dense potato dumplings in ham broth. I think you might remember that ham and potatoes are two of my most favorite foods ever. The next day my future sister-in-law Chris sliced them and fried them in butter for breakfast. Yes, I love butter so much. It was love at first bite with kumla, obviously.

Thankfully, his family is not big on lutefisk, a powerfully-flavored dish of cod preserved in lye. I understand this is a meal for the strong-hearted and the brave, and I'm glad they didn't want to test my courage before allowing me into the family.

So back to kumla (KOOM-lah). I have since learned that people also call these potato balls klimpor, klubb, kompe, kumpe, potetball and raspeball - I guess these must be regional differences. Clearly this is not lean and light food, but it's a big satisfying meal in your belly during a midwestern winter, when the wind can tear across an entire state without hitting much that would slow it down.

On old farms, here and in snowy Scandinavia, settlers would often tie ropes from the house to the barn so that they wouldn't get lost in a blizzard while tending the animals a couple times a day. For weather like that, you need food that will fortify you.

If you make this for a holiday meal, I'd suggest a good snowball fight or a long walk in the woods to work it off afterwards. For me, food like this makes me appreciate the exuberance of a people who find winter life-affirming with the joy of an ample meal and a warm home filled with family and friends. I truly felt this warmth a few Christmases ago when Joe's brother Alan and sister Carolyn finally shared their family recipe with me. It's their wonderfully talented hands that are cooking in these photos.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I hardly ever cook without listening to music. When I was making this recipe last time, and writing it yesterday, I was listening to the movie soundtrack "We Bought a Zoo" on Spotify. The music is from Scandinavian singer Jonsi, frontman for the group Sigur Ros. It's wonderfully upbeat.

Ingredients

1 4-5 pound ham
10-12 cups water
5 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered
About 4 cups white flour (some people use a mix of white, whole wheat, ground oatmeal, and/or rye flour)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp butter, melted

Instructions

Place the ham in a large stock pot and cover with the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer into a rich broth, about 1 1/2- 2 hours. Remove the meat, slice it, cover it, and refrigerate until just about to serve.

Shred the raw potatoes by hand, or grind them in a food processor until crumbly. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the potatoes, flour, salt, pepper, and baking powder. The dough should be thick like bread dough, but still sticky.

Bring the remaining ham stock to a boil. Scoop out dough about the size of an egg or a plum, form it into a 2-inch ball, and drop it into the boiling stock. If you'd like, you can press a bit of the ham into the center of each dumpling.  Stir the broth often while dropping in the dumplings, so that they don't stick to each other or the bottom of the pot.

When all the dumplings are in the pot, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 1 hour, then remove from the broth. Pile them on a platter, drizzle them with the melted butter, and serve with the hot ham on the side.

Makes 25-35 dumplings.

Hungry for more? Find more of these great recipes at Sons of Norway. 

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New Nordic Open-Faced Sandwiches (Smørrebrød, Smørbrød, Smörgås)

From top right: Egg/Radish, Gravlax/Asparagus, and Liverwurst/Watercress Smørrebrød

New Nordic cuisine is hot: Scandinavians have been working for nearly a decade to create a fresh take on their traditional recipes. This includes working with locally-sourced, in-season fruits and vegetables that thrive in the special climate of Nordic countries.

While Chicago is much milder than Norway, I took the spirit of New Nordic cooking to heart when I surprised Joe with a smørbrød (smurd-a-bra) platter for brunch. He had been rehearsing with the worship band all week and then led worship for three Easter services, and when he got home Sunday afternoon, I made a pretty spread of open-faced sandwiches for him.

These traditional sandwiches are usually made with rye or pumpernickel bread spread with butter, pig fat, or mayonnaise. Asparagus, watercress, and radishes looked fresh and tasty at the produce store on Saturday, and are also fairly common to these sandwiches. We used a chewy rye bread, but pumpernickel is also traditional. Taking the latest suggestion from Bon Appetit magazine, we cut the vegetables into a variety of shapes to add visual interest to the plate. The following recipes fed two hungry people.

Egg/Radish smørbrød

Chive and garlic butter (1 tbsp snipped chives in 3 tbsp butter)
2 sliced hardboiled eggs
1 slivered hot radish
1 tbsp chopped celery
1/4 cup sliced cucumber or dill pickle
Dash Sriracha sauce or Sriracha salt for each sandwich

Gravlax/Asparagus smørbrød

3 oz. cured salmon
Horseradish cream cheese with parsley (1 tbsp horseradish in 3 oz cream cheese)
1/4 cup sliced cucumber
1/4 cup shaved raw asparagus
2 tbsp slivered carrots
Dash lemon pepper for each sandwich

Liverwurst/Watercress smørbrød

Dijon mayonnaise (1 tbsp Dijon mustard in 2 tbsp mayonnaise)
3 oz. liver pate
1 slivered hot radish
2 tbsp slivered green onions
1/4 cup chopped watercress

Assemble the sandwiches in the order of ingredients.

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Slim Swedish Meatballs (Köttbullar) with Spaetzle

After Joe and I made traditional Norwegian meatballs (kjottkaker) and German Spaetzle with Swiss cheese a few weeks ago, we decided to make some Swedish meatballs with spaetzle. Swedish Meatballs are heavenly, but they're usually pretty heavy food. When we cooked one sublime version, we literally poured the fat off the finished sauce before serving. And yet, they're such crave-able little bites, we can't swear off on them forever. We came up with this lighter version of an authentic Scandinavian recipe. Check out more traditional Swedish foods here.

To make this a slimmer dish, we exchanged half the meat for lowfat turkey, used fat-free milk and sour cream, and used egg whites instead of a whole egg. These substitutions work wonders to lighten up delicious recipes without sacrificing flavor. May they make you slimmer, too!

Köttbullar (SHUT-boo-lahr) are traditionally served with egg noodles, lingonberries, and sliced pickled cucumbers. Unfortunately, we didn't find any lingonberries in time for dinner.

Ingredients

For the meatballs

1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound lean ground turkey
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2/3 cup bread crumbs (try to find low-fat bread crumbs, or make your own with light bread)
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup egg whites or egg substitute
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp beef bouillon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp oil

For the sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 2/3 cups boiling water
2 tbsp beef bouillon
1 cup fat-free sour cream

Directions

In a large bowl, stir together all the meatball ingredients. Dig in with your hands and mix until well combined. Form the mixture into 1-inch balls.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking pan. Put a rack in the bottom, if you like, so that any oil from the meatballs will drain below the meat and you can pour it off.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the meatballs on all sides. You may have to cook these in several batches so they're not crowded in the pan. Place in the baking pan, cover, and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

In a saucepan, whisk together all sauce ingredients. Heat to a low boil, stirring constantly.

Remove the pan from the oven and drain off any fat. Remove the rack if you used one. Pour the sauce over the meatballs and return to the oven. Cover and cook for 20 more minutes, until the sauce is reduced and thickened.

Try serving this over egg noodles or whole-wheat pasta, too.

Makes 4-6 servings for dinner, or more for appetizers.

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Norwegian Meatballs (Kjottkaker)

Joe's Norwegian roots are pretty interesting. The first couple of the family, Jonas and Martha Duea, came to the U.S. in the 1800s, and Jonas was a sergeant in the U.S. Civil War. Along with several other Norwegian families, they moved to Iowa and founded the town of Roland. They were some of the most prominent citizens of the town. When Martha passed away, Jonas brought over an 18-year-old Norwegian girl, Henriette, and raised another generation of children with her.

The Norwegian culture ran deep through these families, right up to Joe's father's generation. Once Joe's father started school, his father told him, "No more Norwegian, only English. We're Americans."

We have only a few Norwegian family recipes, like many children of immigrants who assimilate. This Christmas, our bible study group had its usual Christmas party and white elephant gift exchange. We got the best gift of all - a copy of the book Gudrun's Kitchen, the cookbook and reminiscences of a Norwegian woman who immigrated to Chicago in the 1920s and became a prominent cook. It's fascinating.

We found by comparing a number of recipes for kjottkaker (say KYET-kahker) that the distinctive things about Norwegian meatballs are that they are served in a brown gravy, and they use sweet spice ingredients of nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. Use as much or as little as you like.

Traditionally, these are served over noodles or mashed potatoes with cranberry or lingonberry sauce on the side.

Ingredients

For the meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork (if you like, you can lighten it up by using ground turkey instead)
2 cups crushed crackers or fresh bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup onion, minced
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp marjoram

For the gravy

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tbsp beef bouillon base (Norwegians tend to use Oxo brand, but we like "Better Than Bouillon")
2 1/2 cups boiling water

Directions

In a large bowl, stir together all the meatball ingredients. Dig in with your hands and mix until well combined. Form the mixture into 2 inch balls, then flatten them slightly into patties.

In a large frying pan, brown the meatballs on all sides. You may have to cook these in several batches so they're not crowded in the pan. Allow to drain on paper towels.

Melt the butter and oil in the frying pan, then add the flour and sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until the flour browns. Dissolve the bouillon in the boiling water and then slowly pour the water into the flour, stirring constantly until smooth. Heat to a low boil, reduce heat, and simmer until thickened and reduced, about 20 minutes.

Add the meatballs to the pan and simmer for 20 more minutes.

Serves 6.

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Norwegian Poached Salmon

Joe, being true to his Norwegian roots, loves salmon and every other type of seafood he's ever tried. I'm a little more picky about strong-tasting seafood. I have heard the saying that you have to try something seven times (or twenty or thirty or whatever) before you develop a taste for it, but even though I tasted bits of Joe's salmon whenever he ordered it, I could never get past the strong fishiness.

When I took a Humanities course in the United Kingdom, I developed a bad ear infection in Inverness, Scotland. Left behind by my classmates, I wandered around the deserted hotel and watched the staff take down holiday decorations.

Marriott hotel, Inverness, Scotland

At lunch, the waiter told me they'd just gotten salmon that was caught the day before in Norway. I decided to try their poached salmon recipe, and really liked it. If you have trouble eating salmon, you might just like it this way, even if your salmon fillet wasn't swimming in the Atlantic a few hours earlier.

Highway in Northern Scotland

That night, our Irish bus driver attempted to heal me by ordering me a hot toddy of Highlands whiskey, hot water, lemon peel, and honey. I felt better until the next morning, when I made an appointment with a local doctor and got a prescription for antibiotics. Their public health system was top-notch. 

The Scots told me this is an authentic Norwegian staple recipe.You can skip the drizzle of melted butter if you're watching your fat intake.

Ingredients

2 tsp fresh dill

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp anchovy paste

2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth or white wine

1 bay leaf

4 4-6 oz. Norwegian salmon fillets

2 tbsp melted butter

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Whisk together the dill, cream, anchovy paste, broth, and vinegar. Lay the salmon in a large skillet and pour the sauce over the fish. Break the bay leaf in half and lay it in the sauce. Bring the liquid to a gentle boil. Cover the pan, reduce heat, and let it steam for 15 minutes, or until the fish is flaky when poked with a fork. 

Remove the bay leaf. Put the fish and sauce on a serving plate. Drizzle the melted butter over the fillets, and sprinkle with salt and pepper before serving. 

This is really good with Mushroom and Pine Nut Wild Rice Pilaf.

Serves 4.

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