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THE LOCAL RECIPES

SALMON

How to make Swedish smoked salmon and asparagus tart

Spring is the season of asparagus in Sweden. Food writer John Duxbury shares his favourite recipe for a delicious spring tart with smoked salmon with The Local.

Published: 15 April 2016 06:59 CEST
Updated: 15 April 2016 12:59 CEST
How to make Swedish smoked salmon and asparagus tart

Summary

Serves: 4

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooking: 35 minutes

Ingredients

250 g (9oz) chilled puff pastry, ready rolled

2 eggs, lighly beaten

200 g (7oz) light Philadelphia cheese

2 tbsp dill, finely chopped

freshly ground black pepper

400 g (7oz) green asparagus (200 g if already trimmed)

olive oil

200 g (7oz) smoked salmon, sliced

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

2. Unroll the puff pastry and lay it on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. If using a larger sheet, trim the pastry to about 20cm x 30cm.

3. Use a sharp knife to mark a 2.5 cm border round the sheet, cutting half way through the pastry. Brush the edge of the pastry with beaten egg and bake for 10 minutes until the pastry begins to turn golden brown.

4. Meanwhile, mix the cheese, dill, chives and egg, then season to taste with freshly ground white pepper.

5. Snap the ends off the asparagus spears and discard the woody bits (or keep for soup). Toss the spears lightly in oil.

6. Cut round the inside edge of the pastry frame with a sharp knife and lightly press the pastry down inside the frame in the middle, taking care not to spoil the frame.

7. Add the smoked salmon, then pour in the cheese mixture and finally add the oiled asparagus spears. Bake in the bottom half of the oven for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set.

8. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes and then serve with a mixed salad garnished with thinly sliced fennel.

Tips

– Choose a mild smoked salmon to avoid overpowering the asparagus.

– If you want to reduce the fat content, use Philadelphia Lightest instead of the Light version. It is not quite as easy to incorporate, but the taste and texture is still good.

– The original recipe used five tablespoons of dill and five of chives. Our tasters thought there was too much dill, but try it for a really strong Swedish taste.

– The original recipe added salt to the cheese mixture but I think there is enough salt in the smoked salmon, so that it doesn't need any more – but then I'm British!

This recipe is courtesy of John Duxbury, founder and editor of Swedish Food, who adapted it from a Swedish recipe by Maud Onnermark for magazine Matmagasinet.

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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