Mixing up the traditions: Easter dinner in Stockholm

An international style Easter dinner.

“It was the strangest thing. We had the same food for Easter dinner that we had for Christmas.” So said Nici, a German friend who had dinner at her Swedish father-in-law’s house. And the rest of us all laughed. In sympathy. Because it’s true that here in Sweden, the same smörgåsbord meal is served up for every holiday celebration. Be it Easter, Christmas or midsommar, you can count on the the menu including pickled herring, snaps, salmon, Västerbotten cheese, hard bread, potatoes. It’s reassuringly predictable.

But because we cooked Easter dinner with a group of international friends consisting of just one Swede, one German, one Italian, one Australian and me, the American, we bucked tradition. As an appetizer, we had hummus, bread and olives and drank it with a prosecco that Roger had just brought back from Germany. The first course was a zucchini soup that Nici and Roger made out of vegetables from their garden last summer. For the main, Robert cooked New Zealand lamb, haricot verts, and roasted potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes. And we served a bottle of Riesling that we had brought back from Australia with it. For dessert, Giorgio made panna cotta. It was a perfectly international combination. And very, very tasty. But now you can laugh: I did kind of miss the herring!

Easter eggs, including ones from Graeter's, a chocolate store in Cincinnati. I've had these eggs every year since I was a kid in my Easter basket. And my Mom still sends them to me.

Giorgios' panna cotta.

Tagged as: Easter dinner in Stockholm, pickled herring, Västerbotten cheese