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THE LOCAL RECIPES

RECIPE

Swedish summer strawberries with elderflower parfait

Looking for a summer treat that's indulgent but still fresh? Food writer John Duxbury's recipe for marinated strawberries with elderflower parfait is the perfect dessert option for the warmer weather.

Published: 20 May 2016 06:59 CEST
Swedish summer strawberries with elderflower parfait
Strawberry and elderflower parfait. Photo: Jurek Holzer/TT

Summary

Makes: 6-8 portions

Time: 25 minutes (plus freezing time)

Ingredients

1 egg

1 egg yolk

100 g (½ cup)* caster (superfine) sugar

4 tbsp elderflower cordial

300 ml (1¼ cups) whipping cream

*Strictly, ½ cup less about 1½ tablespoons! For best results I recommend sticking with British units for this recipe.

Marinated strawberries

700 g   (2 pints) strawberries

2 tbsp  caster (superfine) sugar

1 lime

120 ml (½ cup) water

120 ml (½ cup) dry white wine

Sprig of lemon balm

Method

1. Prepare a bowl of icy water.

2. Bring a saucepan of water to a gentle simmer. Whisk the egg, egg yolk and caster sugar in a bowl over the water until the mixture is nice and creamy (about 2 minutes using an electric whisk).

3. Stand the bowl in the icy water and continue whisking until the mixture is cold (about 3 minutes using an electric whisk).

4. Stir in the elderflower cordial.

5. Whisk the cream until it is fairly stiff and then fold in the elderflower mixture. Transfer mixture to suitable contains lined with clingfilm. Freeze for at least 3 hours.

6. Slice the strawberries and place them in a bowl. Keep any badly shaped off-cuts to add to the marinade.

7. Place the caster sugar, juice of one lime (keep the zest for garnish), water, wine and lemon balm in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the strawberry off-cuts and leave the mixture to simmer for 5 minutes. Leave until cold and then pour through a sieve over the strawberries. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

8. When ready to serve, slice the parfait and place a couple of thin slices on each plate. Using a slotted spoon, scatter the strawberry slices round the parfait. Garnish with lemon balm leaves, lime zest and, if available, a few elderflowers.

Tips

– Allow the strawberries to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

– Line the parfait container(s) with cling film (food wrap). Although this is a surprisingly tricky task it makes serving the parfait much easier.

– If you haven't got any lemon balm, omit it from the marinating liquid and use some mint as a garnish instead.

– Although the marinade might not appear to be sweet enough, don't be tempted to add more sugar!

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

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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