Easter Celebration

Easter, translated as Påsk in Swedish, is one of the most important holidays in Sweden. Although not everyone observes the religious practices during Holy Week, this is one tradition that has been annually celebrated since Christianity was brought to the land of the Vikings. One thing noticeable here is that Swedes almost have a default set of food served in Sweden during special occasions. We were able to capture images of some of them.

The first one is a plate of boiled eggs sliced in half, with crème fraîche and caviar. A variation of this would be just lemon-flavored mayonnaise as toppings to these eggs, Kavli Citron Majonnäs being our favorite brand. 

The second image found below is sausages, which are called "prince sausages" if directly translated from their names in Swedish. More details about this type of food can be found on Wikipedia. The second plate is that of pickled herring, which is a delicacy here. They are prepared variously in bottles, and usually always sold out during major holidays including Christmas and Midsummer. There is another type of herring in Sweden called Surströmming, which is directly translated to fermented baltic herring and was said to have a smell so pungent that if you opened it indoors, the entire room is going to smell of it. 

Below are croustades, empty pies that can be filled in with your choice of food. They are pre-made and can be bought off any grocery shelf. You can use seafood or other types of meat and tasty fillings. For this plate, the same filling on top of the hard boiled eggs were used, crème fraîche and caviar.

Below is dessert, a Berry Meringue cake. Mårten's mom baked the meringue dough herself, added the whipped cream and berries on top plus a dash of creamy icing to finish the deal. This is her recipe and we would not be able to share this on this entry. However, we might be able to make our own someday, and we can share THAT instead.

There you have it, hopefully this have given you an insight of how the table is set during Easter in Sweden. If you happen to visit the country during any of these given dates, you will now know what to expect :)

Availability of Ingredients

• Sour cream can be used in place of Creme Fraiche when it comes to texture and density, but tastes a bit different and stronger too. Amount to be added depends on your taste.