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THE LOCAL RECIPES

FISH

How to make Sweden’s posh potato cakes at home

Known as 'Råraka' in Swedish, this potato and fish dish is common in luxury restaurants, but it's easier than you might think to make at home. Food writer John Duxbury shares his recipe with The Local.

Published: 22 April 2016 07:31 CEST
How to make Sweden's posh potato cakes at home
Roe is very similar to caviar. Photo: John Duxbury

Similar to caviar, roe is a type of fish egg adored by Swedes. 'Kalix löjrom', one of the most popular varieties, is harvested from the Bothnian Bay archipelago in northern Sweden. It is the only Swedish product with the European Union’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), the same stamp given to other famous delicacies such as Parmigiano Reggiano (which must come from the Emilia-Romagna region to be recognised in this way) and Champagne (named after the region in France where it originates).

Summary

Serves: 4

Preparation: 5 minutes

Cooking: 35 minutes

Total: 40 minutes

Ingredients 

100g roe, preferably kalix löjrom

1 red onion, finely chopped

120ml crème fraîche or gräddfil

4 lemon wedges

4 small sprigs of dill

600g potatoes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Thaw the roe in the fridge overnight. If it is a bit watery, rinse and drain.

2. Peel the potatoes and coarsely grate them. Put them in a bowl of water to prevent them from going brown.


Photo: Leif R Jansson/TT

3. Add half of the butter and half of the oil to a frying pan over a medium heat.

4. When the butter turns golden brown and is almost smoking, drain about a quarter of the potatoes in a sieve and then spread them out in the pan to make two potato cakes. Push the mixture down with a spatula so that each cake is fairly thin and about 5cm in diameter. Fry for about four minutes per side until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the pan, pat dry with kitchen paper and then keep warm.

5. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, adding more butter and oil if necessary.

6. To serve, put two potato cakes on each plate, top with the roe, finely chopped red onion, crème fraîche, a lemon wedge and garnish with some dill.


Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

Tips

– Serve the potato cakes with fried bacon and lingonberries, if you don't like or can't find roe.

– Roe is best served with mother of pearl spoons rather than metal or wooden ones, to avoid tainting the taste.

Recipe courtesy of John Duxbury, Editor and Founder of 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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