Scandinavian Thanksgiving dinner

We now celebrating a Scandinavian Thanksgiving dinner. With the delicate things that are in season right now. There are always things to be thankful for. In the past, we haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving in Sweden, for obvious reasons.

In fact, in Skåne, where I live, we have Mårten Gås. Which is a massive geese dinner, with black soup as a starter. The black soup is basically blood soup, I’m a little embarrassed to admit – I have never tried this tradition.

However, over the past couple of years a lot of American traditions, have made their way into our Scandinavian homes. Which we have adapted and Thanksgiving is no exception. We make an appreciation dinner out of it. And, personally, I think it’s a lovely way of bringing friends and family together. Also, I really love to create a beautiful table setting and just make the most of it. This is why themes work so well, it’s easier to set the scenery.

For a lot of my table settings, I use things from Søstrerne Grene, (they have worldwide stores, for my international readers) They have beautiful, affordable decorations and I can use them over and over again. And I always get my flowers from Florista. Sophie, who owns the place is very talented at what she does, very sweet and have breathtaking flowers in her shop.

So, this was the build-up for the Scandinavian Thanksgiving dinner. Pretty isn’t it? And no celebration table is complete without a cheese platter.

This is what Scandinavian Thanksgiving dinner menu looked like:

Starter: Roasted tomato soup, you will find the recipe here.

Main course: Swedish wild duck with lingonberry sauce

Sides: Brussel sprouts with chard and dried lingonberries and butter glazed carrots

Dessert: The chocolate dream

I will give the duck recipe today. Now there’s a little background story to the duck. My neighbour, L is a hunter. And I have been spoilt for the last couple of years with extremely good quality meat. Which is also one of the reasons I eat less meat. But when I do, I eat the good kind.

Anyways, I got wild duck filets for my Thanksgiving dinner. The biggest difference between the wild duck and the grass-fed duck is the fat. The wild duck is the lean meat and the cooking time. It takes only takes a few minutes and you have to be careful not to overcook it. Otherwise, it will taste like liver.

[lt_recipe name=”Wild duck filets with roasted veggies and lingonberry sauce ” servings=”6″ prep_time=”20M” cook_time=”40M” total_time=”60M” difficulty=”Medium” summary=”Roasted veggies in the oven, with delicious duck accompanied by lingonberry sauce.” print=”yes” image=”https://usercontent.one/wp/www.carolinevass.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/fullsizeoutput_22d7-300×190.jpeg” ingredients=”2 large sweet potatoes;1 kg small potatoes;1 -2 medium sized turnips;1 large yellow onion;6 cloves of garlic;40 gr chopped parsley ;4 tsp flaked salt;6 duck breast filets;500 gr lingonberries;600 ml plant-based cream;2 shallots;2 tbsp agave syrup;2 tbsp sherry (optional);2 tsp flaked salt;2 tsp ground black pepper;100 gr olive oil ” ]Start by preheating the oven to 225 degrees Celcius. ;Then by peeling the root vegetables, slice them in larger pices and pat them dry with a paper towel. ;Slice the onion into larger chunks.;Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the veggies, onion, garlic (in their skin) parsley on top.;Drizzle with olive oil and flaked salt. ;Bake for about 30-40 minutes.;In the meantime, pat the duck breasts dry and season with salt and pepper. ;Dice the shallots finely and fry them in olive oil until soft.;Add the sherry, agave syrup, lingonberries and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. ;Lower the heat and add the cream and season well. If the sauce is too thin, add some corn starch to make it thicker. ;When there is about 10 minutes left of the veggies heat a pan with about 4-5 tbsp of olive oil or butter.;Quickly fry the duck, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Wild dick is red in the middle. ;Place them in foil and leave to rest for about 3 minutes.;Serve! [/lt_recipe]