The most common types of berries were lingonberries, blueberries, crowberries, raspberries and cloudberries. The potato was the most important vegetable. It provided a lot of nutrition and was easy to grow. Here are recipes for vegetables and berries from North Troms.
Before the Second World War, few berries were used in households because sugar was expensive. It was common to sell the berries, but some were kept and used, mostly as toppings.
Blueberries and raspberry that didn't last long were eaten first. Lingonberries was boiled and put in a barrel, and was used both as a spread and a dessert. Also crowberry and blueberries was used to make juice.
Krøkebæra was often eaten with sugar and milk, and in Reisadalen the krøbæra was stored in sour milk throughout the autumn.
Multebras was boiled, or just poured boiling water over and stored in jars.
Potatoes was the most important vegetable. It provided a lot of nutrition and was easy to grow. It was also cheap and durable, and could be used for most things. In addition to dinners of all kinds, the potato was used in flatbread and lefse, and potato flour was made from it. Fried potato slices in the oven or baked in embers/ash was another variation.
Vegetables were grown if there was room in the field. Cabbage, kohlrabi, turnips and carrots were mainly grown.
Potato pudding
750 gr potatoes
7 dl milk
2 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons potato flour (egg powder)
3 tablespoons of sugar
almond drops
Grind the freshly boiled potatoes 1-2 times in a grinder or crush finely with a mallet. Bring the milk and butter to the boil and add the potato mixture. Stir well until smooth, then add the potato-flour mixture and stir well. Then take the pudding off the hob and add a little egg powder if you have it. Eggs can be added to make the pudding better.
Flavour with sugar and almond drops. Pour the pudding into a bowl or mould. Sprinkle with a little sugar to prevent the pudding from becoming stringy and vault the pudding.
Potato tea (Nordreisa)
100 gr. boiled potatoes
100 grams of flour
100 grams of marrow
Grind or crush the potatoes and work well together. Leave it to cool for a while before rolling it out. The loaves should not be thicker than 2-3 mm. Prick the loaves well and cut them out to the appropriate size. The tarts should be light-coloured all over, and just before serving, fill them with fruit puree and sprinkle with icing sugar or cream. Bake in a medium-hot oven.
Potato soup
1 ½ litres of water
½ kg potatoes
2 onions
2 tsp butter
3 dl milk
1 tbsp sago
¼ tsp pepper
Water, salt, sliced potatoes and onion are boiled until the potatoes even out. Strain through a colander, add to the pot together with milk, fat, sago and cook until the sago is ready.
Risk
1/2 kg raw potatoes
35 g barley flour
1 teaspoon of salt
fat
a little sugar
Grate the peeled potatoes, stir in the flour and salt and leave to stand for a while. Heat the pan and place small patches on top. Smooth out the batter and fry the rice until it is slightly crispy. Eat freshly fried with sugar or fried pork.
Potato flour (Årviksand)
potatoes
flour
Peel the potatoes, grate them on a grater. Take the pulp in a sieve over a vessel. Drain the water through the pulp and stir it a little at the same time. Discard the potato pulp, but keep the water. Leave the water to stand for a couple of hours. Carefully turn off the water and top up with clean water. Leave it until the next day and drain the water.
Raw cranberry juice
4 kilos of cranberries
About 1 litre of water
for one litre of water: approx. 300 g sugar
Grind the berries once or crush with a mallet. Stir in the water. Tie a silk scarf on an inverted chair and place a bowl underneath. Pour in the berry pulp and leave to drain until the next day. Measure out the juice, add sugar and stir until the sugar has melted. Fill into clean, boiled bottles. Cork and close.
Trollkrem (Skibotn)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 kg cleaned cranberries
3 egg whites
Beat the egg white and sugar until stiff. Pour in the berries and beat until it turns a nice pink colour.
Troll cream. Photo: Reni Jasinski Wright.
Gooseberry juice (Reisadalen)
10 litres of crushed gooseberries
2 litres of water is boiled and cooled
This should be mixed together and left for 2 days, then strain the juice.
Add about 500 grams of sugar to 1 litre of juice. Mix in about 30 grams of tartaric acid. Leave this to stand for two days. Stir frequently. Then pour into clean bottles.
Turnip steak
approx. 2 kilos of swedes
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp salt
½ tsp pepper
fat
some onion
2 dl water or stock
Peel the swede and cut it into finger-thick slices. Boil the slices until half-tender in salted water. Remove and allow the water to drain. Mix the flour, salt and pepper and roll the slices in the flour mixture. Brown nicely. Use the onion. Place the slices on a hot plate and top with the onion. Bring the pan to the boil and turn the gravy next to the swede. Serve with mashed potato.
Sursylta nepe
½ kilo nepe
approx. ¼ litre diluted vinegar
200 grams of sugar
some whole ginger
Wash and peel the turnip. Cut it into approx. 1 - 1 ½ cm thick cubes. Cook until half-tender. Remove the pieces and let the water drain off. Make a sauce from the mixed vinegar, sugar and ginger. Add the cubes to the sauce and simmer until they are clear and the sauce is slightly syrupy. Then pour into clean glasses or jars. Tastes great with fried dishes. You can use kohlrabi instead of turnip.
Cranberry porridge with milk (Kåfjord)
1/4 berry
1/2 litre of water
2 dl sugar
Mix the ingredients together and cook. Add a mixture of potato flour and water. Serve the porridge with milk.
Blueberry porridge
1/2 litre of blueberries
1/2 litre of water
approx. 200 grams of flour
approx. 40 grams of potato flour
some cold water
Bring the blueberries, water and brown sugar to the boil. Make a mixture of potato flour and water and add.
Rhubarb soup
1/2 kilo rhubarb
1/2 litre of water
1-2 cups of sugar
2 tbsp potato flour
Cut the rhubarb into small pieces and boil in water until soft. Add sugar and potato flour stirred into cold water.
Lingonberry loaf / caraway
Pick cranberries in autumn and dry them. Place in airtight jars. Do the same with caraway, but only use the flower, not the leaves. Boil water and add the heather. Steep for about 10 minutes. Drink with sugar or honey.
Sources and old links
Booklet Mat og tradisjoner i Nord-Troms, 1997
