Sweden: Kalops (beef stew)

Preparation: 15 mins

Cook time: 1.5 hours

Serves: 4-6 adults

Serve with: Pickled beetroot and steamed potatoes. 

Olivier's: ★★★

Me: ★★ (not disgusting, but edible)

I felt a bit bad, having abandoned Finland so many months ago, so thought I could at least try another Scandinavian country.  Unfortunately Sweden's stew is not much of an improvement on Finland's meat and onion broth, BUT, it did have carrots, bringing it closer to the kind of stew my nan (English) used to make. So, not amazing, but, edible. 

Having checked a few recipes, most of them had a combo of  meat, carrots, onions, all spice, water, peppercorns and bay leaves.  One had wine AND garlic in it, making it, on the whole, sound a bit too flavoursome for a traditional rendition of this meal, bringing about some comments to this effect at the end of the recipe:

"As a swede, I disagree with adding wine and garlic to kalops. Otherwise it’s as we normally do it."

and

"I concur with Kimberly! It is never garlic or wine in the Kalops! That is more like a Beef Bourguignon with the wine and garlic. So please remove it from the recipe if you want it to be like a real Swedish dish!"

Anyway, since none of the recipes were particularly inspiring, I went for this one, from a Swedish website, and added some all spice power, which most of the other recipes had suggested. 

I was a bit despondent so didn't even crack out the slow-cooker, instead using a fry-pan and a dutch oven. 

There was no way to make this look nice.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of butter

1kg stewing beef

2 onions

200g carrots

12 whole peppercorns

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons of plain flour

a good sprinkling of all-spice powder

salt (to taste)

1 litre of water

Method

1. Melt the butter in a fry pan, add beef and brown. Move it to the dutch-oven. 

2.  Brown carrots and onions.  Add to pot.

3.  Sprinkle on all-spice, turn it through the veggies and meat

4.  Add flour, turn it through the veggies and meat

5.  Add other ingredients, add water. 

6. Bring to a simmer on the stove (if using a dutch oven) and remove to oven.  If using a casserole, just put it straight in the oven.

7. Cook for 2 hours and här är! A greyish, brown, slightly greasy soup with bits of stuff floating in it.

Notes: Look, I thought the all-spice was going to save this recipe, and Olivier did note that it at least tasted kind of Swedish, but, really, unless beige is your favourite flavour, maybe don't bother with this one.

S.A.D

Next stop: Croatia