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SWEDISH FOOD

Recipe: How to make classic Swedish steak on a plank

Steak on a plank (plankstek) is a staple Swedish dish you'll find at many traditional restaurants, and with this recipe from food writer John Duxbury, you can make it at home too.

Published: 27 April 2018 06:59 CEST

Recipe: How to make classic Swedish steak on a plank

Swedish plankstek (steak on a plank). Photo: John Duxbury/Swedish Food

Plankstek was a particularly popular in Sweden during the 1970s, but it is now enjoying something of a revival. Plankstek is nearly always served with pommes duchesse (duchess potatoes), béarnaisesås and vegetables, usually grilled or stuffed tomatoes and French beans or asparagus wrapped with bacon.

Summary

Serves: 4
Level: Moderate
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Total: 45 minutes

Tips

– Use our recipe for homemade béarnaisesås! It is so much better than shop-bought bea!

– For our recipe for pommes duchesse (duchess potatoes) click here.

– Use the oven and top heat/grill together, sometimes called CircoTherm grilling.

– You can buy wooden planks for grilling meat online or at the barbecue sections of some garden centres. These days the planks used in Sweden are normally made from oak, although you can use any plank designed for going under a grill.

– The boards must be treated before used for the first time, so follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Ingredients

4 sirloin steaks, about 150 g (6 oz) each

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp oil, for frying

15 g (1 tbsp) butter, for frying

800 g (1¾ lb) duchess potatoes

200 g (8 oz) asparagus spears of French beans, blanched*

8 slices of thin unsmoked (green) streaky bacon

béarnaise sauce, lightly warmed

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

finely chopped tarragon, to garnish

*See advice below on blanching.

Method

1. Unwrap the steaks, pat dry, trim any fat from the steaks and beat them lightly with a meat mallet so that are an even thickness. Season both sides with pepper, but not salt at this stage. Leave to come to room temperature.

2. Preheat the heat oven with grill to 200ºC (400ºF, gas 6, fan 180ºC).

3. Prepare the planks by piping the duchess potatoes along two sides and adding the tomatoes and the beans or asparagus wrapped in bacon.

4. Preheat a frying pan (skillet) until smoking hot and season the steaks on each side with salt.

5. Fry the steaks in oil and butter for about a minute per side, to seal. As soon as you put the steaks into the pan, put the planks with the potatoes and vegetables under the grill.*

6. When the steaks are sealed, transfer them to the planks and grill for about 4 minutes, until the potatoes are nicely browned.

7. Drain off any juices and spoon a little béarnaise sauce over the steaks so that it melts into them, serving the rest in a jug or individual bowls. Garnish the steaks and sauce with freshly chopped tarragon. Serve immediately.

Timings

*Timings are for medium rare. The potatoes and vegetables need grilling for a total of about 6 minutes, depending on your grill. After frying the steaks for a minute on each side, they need grilling for about 2 minutes (rare), 4 minutes (medium rare) or 6 minutes (medium), depending on the thickness of the steaks.

Blanching

Bring a pan of lightly salted water to a boil. Plunge the trimmed beans or asparagus spears into the water. Return to the boil for 1 minute. Drain and then refresh by plunging in lots of cold water to preserve the colour. When cold, dry and wrap in bacon and add to the planks.

Recipe courtesy of John Duxbury, editor of Swedish Food.

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How to grow your own fruits and vegetables in Sweden

Know your growing zone

Sweden is split into eight different growing zones, known as växtzoner in Swedish, with one being the mildest zone in the far south of the country and eight being the harshest, in the far north.

The easiest way to figure out which zone you live in is to search your address on a digital growing zone chart like this one from the Swedish Garden Association.

There are two “bonus” zones too, which you’re unlikely to see on plant labels: zone zero, which refers to extra mild conditions in zone one, like a sheltered south-facing garden or the climate inside an unheated greenhouse, and the fjällzon or zone nine, which is found in mountain regions.

Lots of fruit trees can handle snow, for example, but not all of them will survive the winters in harsher, colder zones.

“Apple trees or fruit trees will survive snow,” British gardener and cider maker John Taylor, known for presenting Swedish gardening show Trädgårdstider (Garden Times), told The Local.

“You can grow all kinds of apples, pears, plums, cherries, we can grow edible quince in southern Sweden, so there’s a bunch of fruit trees which will survive, but it depends what rootstock they’re on – that’s called grundstam in Swedish,” he explained.

“There’s one rootstock called B9 that survives down to minus 40, because it’s from Russia, then there’s another called M106, and that probably doesn’t want to live in the depths of Norrland.”

Buy plants local to you

An easy way to make sure the plant you’re planning on buying is going to survive in your zone is by sourcing it from a local plant nursery or garden centre, as they won’t sell plants that can’t handle the local climate.

“There’s a nursery in the north of Sweden and Finland called Blomkvists, they sell lots of fruit varieties which will survive up there,” Taylor said. “You can grow pretty much anything you want up there, just as we can [in Skåne, southern Sweden], but it will be different varieties that taste different and will survive the frost.”

You won’t be able to grow Mediterranean fruits like lemons or oranges in Sweden unless you bring them inside during the winter, although you should be able to grow peaches or nectarines in most of the country.

“The further up in the country you go, the further north you are or the further away from the coast, the harsher the climate becomes, so you might need to have them on a south-facing wall or in a greenhouse,” Taylor said.

Think outside the box

Although the growing season in Sweden may be shorter than it is further south, there are still a number of crops from warmer climates that do surprisingly well.

“People don’t really grow cucumbers outside here, I don’t think they realise that you can actually grow them outside,” Taylor said. “Tomatoes, too. You don’t need a greenhouse, you just stick them in the ground, they’re basically a weed – you’ll get so many you won’t know what to do with them.”

Sweetcorn, for example, performs well in a Swedish climate, Taylor said, although Swedes more often grow it as a feed crop for pigs.

You can also test things by trying to build a microclimate so you can grow things that are one or even two growing zones away from yours. Usually this is done by providing shelter from the wind and the weather using fences, hedges or by planting near buildings, as well as providing protection during the winter.

And if you’re pushed for space, look into companion planting, where you can grow multiple plants which complement each other in the same space.

One example of this is the “three sisters”: corn, climbing beans (or peas), and squash. The corn provides a support for the beans or peas, which anchor the corn in high winds while fixing nitrogen in the soil, while the squash’s large leaves provide shade for the soil, preventing it from drying out.

Don’t be put off just because you don’t have any outside space

Thinking outside the box applies to balconies too.

“If you’re in a built-up area, you will get reflected light from other buildings, so even if you’re on an east-facing balcony, you should be able to grow a lot of stuff. North is a bit more tricky, but east and west are probably better than south as you’re not getting hammered by the sun all day,” Taylor said.

You should be able to grow things like tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers, but it’s important to get hold of good soil and replenish it each year, so your plants have enough nutrients.

“Anybody with a balcony can grow pretty much the same that you can in a garden, you just have to get the soil up there and you always have to fertilise, the soil becomes nutrient deficient after one season.”

“But if you’re prepared to get the soil up on your balcony you can grow anything, even fruit trees. They will be smaller and stunted, and won’t give as much fruit – I’ve done it myself – so don’t see it as an obstacle, see it as a possibility.”

Kale and tomatoes growing on a balcony. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Take inspiration from Swedish growers

Thinking outside the box doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore what all your Swedish neighbours are doing. If you’re not sure what to plant in your garden or what fruit and veg you should try to grow, take a look at what other people who live near you are growing.

You might also come across some crops you’ve never tried before which work well in a Swedish climate, like Alpine strawberries (smultron), honeyberries (blåbärstry), wild garlic (ramslök) or sea buckthorn (havtorn).

This doesn’t just apply to varieties, but also where you plant them in your garden. Some crops need full sun, some work best in shade, and others, like asparagus, can grow tall and cast a shadow over your garden.

“You want a south-facing location for all fruit, and berries – check out what your neighbours are doing,” Taylor said.

If you don’t want tall plants to cast a shadow over other crops, see if you can plant them at the northernmost edge of your garden, while making sure that sun and soil conditions are still optimal. Blueberries, for example, need acidic soil to thrive, meaning you will probably need to amend your soil if planting in the ground, or even plant them in containers.

Think about what you want to do with your harvest

This may seem obvious, but it’s important to plant what you like to eat, too. If you hate the aniseedy, licorice-y taste of fennel, why bother growing it?

You should also choose the variety of crop based on what you’re going to use it for. Do you want to make pickles with your cucumbers, or are you going to eat them on salads? Do you want cherry tomatoes for snacking on, or big beef tomatoes for making sauces?

“Think ‘what am I going to do with my harvest’,” Taylor said. “Am I going to juice it? Am I going to preserve it? Am I going to make cider with it, for example?”

Apples, for example, can range from sweet eating apples to tart cooking apples, so make sure you do your research before you commit to buying an apple tree. Most varieties exist in English-speaking countries, so you should be able to search the name of the variety online and find some information in a language you understand, if you don’t speak Swedish.

“Patience is a virtue,” he added. “A lot of fruit trees are going to take two or three years, or even more, to give a harvest. So you have to have patience.”

Learn to deal with the Swedish weather

Many areas of Sweden along the coast or in the south of the country can get windy, which you’ll have to learn to deal with.

“How to deal with the wind? You can’t,” Taylor said. “We cannot affect this, we are powerless.”

“What you have to do is plant them in areas where there’s less wind, usually behind large buildings.”

Some plants simply won’t survive the wind, so either you plant them close to buildings, protect them, or accept that you’re restricted in what you can grow.

Make sure to provide supports for crops which will grow tall, like sunflowers, peas, beans and sweetcorn, and tie these down well or bury them deep in the ground, so summer storms can’t blow them away.

Listen to the full interview with John Taylor in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers. Out on Wednesday, May 8th.

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