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THE LOCAL RECIPES

RECIPE

How to make pork fillet with Swedish apples

Perfect for a cosy autumn or winter evening, this dish, called 'fläskfile med äpplen' in Swedish, was inspired by food writer John Duxbury's visit to Kivik, southern Sweden's apple capital.

Published: 9 October 2015 07:00 CEST
How to make pork fillet with Swedish apples
Pork fillet with Swedish apples. Photo: John Duxbury

Summary

Serves: 2

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooking: 35 minutes

Total: 45 minutes

Ingredients

300g pork fillet (also called pork tenderloins)

3 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp Swedish mustard (or Dijon mustard)

1 apple, preferably slightly sharp, cored and sliced

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

120 ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock, made with half a bouillon cube

1/2 tbsp butter


Apples in Kivik in southern Sweden. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Method

1. Trim any silver skin from the pork and pat dry with kitchen towel.

2. Brush the pork all over with a teaspoon of oil and then sprinkle with salt.

3. Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F, gas 7, fan 190°C).

4. Whilst the oven is heating up, heat the remaining oil in an oven proof roasting dish on the hob. When hot, add the pork and brown on all sides, allow about 8 minutes in total. Transfer to a plate.

5. Add the apple, onions, black pepper and thyme to the pan on the hob. Cook until softened and just beginning to brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

6. Brush the pork with the mustard and then place on top of the apple and onion mixture. Insert a meat thermometer into the pork and transfer to the oven. Roast for 8-15 minutes until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 65°C (150°F).

7. Transfer the pork to a plate and cover with aluminium foil to rest.

8. Place the apple and onion mixture back on the hob on a medium heat. Add the chicken stock and simmer for about 10 minutes until reduced by half. Add the butter and stir until melted.

9. Carve the pork into 1 cm (½”) slices then serve on a bed of apples and onions with some sauce drizzled over the top.

Tips

•  Use a meat thermometer when roasting pork fillet as it is only roasted for a short length of time and so it can be easily overcooked.

•  Try to source apples from Kivik, the apple capital of the Nordic nation, situated in the south west of Sweden. Or head there yourself – it’s nestled in the countryside and has a pretty harbour.


An apple festival in Kivik. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

This recipe was originally published on food writer John Duxbury's website Swedish Food.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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