Recipes: Classic Swedish open sandwich ideas

Smoked salmon, egg, capers and dill. Photo / Doug Sherring

Smoked salmon, egg, capers and dill

1 Make your toast as you prefer. Either spread butter or a little mayo on it.

2 Arrange slices of smoked salmon across the toast and then some slices of hard boiled egg.

3 Drop a few capers on to the top and sprinkle with chopped dill.

4 A good grind of black pepper and a little salt and it is ready.

Pate with gherkins

1 Toast some nice grain bread, remove the crusts and cut in half.

2 Spread the slices with a good layer of pate.

3 Top with thinly sliced gherkins.

Blue cheese and grapes

1 Toast your bread and cut to size.

2 Generously spread with a good creamy blue cheese of Nordic origin.

3 Slice grapes and arrange across the cheese.

NB: If you use one of those hard crumbly blue cheeses, blend it with some cream cheese first.

Ham and mimosa salad

Asa left the bread untoasted for these.

1 Mix sour cream and mayo together, then fold through some chopped apple, chopped canned pineapple and sliced grapes.

2 Pile the Mimosa salad on to the bread and ruffle some shaved ham across the top.

Meatball sandwich

Another classic Swedish take on this snack is made from leftover meatballs.

1 Make a beetroot salad by mixing creme fraiche, fine diced pickled beetroot and diced apple. Season with salt and pepper, and spoon on to the toast.

2 Slice leftover meatballs and arrange these across the beet salad.

Crayfish mix

Asa also shared a way to prepare "crayfish". By this she means fresh water prawns, but you could try this with crayfish or unshelled prawns.

Serves 4

60 fresh "crayfish"(prawns in shell) or 1 NZ crayfish
5 litres of water
1½ bottles of beer
5 sugar cubes
200g of coarse salt
1 large bunch dill with the crowns (seed heads)

1 Boil the water, beer, sugar cubes, salt and and dill (stems and seed heads) for 5 minutes. Remove the stems and put back half the dill tops.

2 Bring back to the boil and add 20 prawns. Put the lid on quickly.

3 When the mixture boils again add the next 20 prawns. Bring to a boil again and add last 20, keeping the lid on at all times. Boil everything for 5 more minutes.

4 Remove the lid and cool rapidly, adding the rest of the dill tops. Leave overnight.

I haven't tried this but I will. I imagine it would result in a great, briny dill-flavoured dish. I'd offer it with some mayo and chips.