The Susanne

To make the per­fect Rote­mos, all you need is some swede, car­rots, butter, salt, pepper and water!

this feeds four:

• 1 kg swede, peeled and chopped in 2 cm pieces
• 2 car­rots, peeled and chopped in 2 cm pieces
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp butter or margarine

Boil the veget­ables until tender, then drain over a bowl to keep the water.

Mash the veget­ables with the butter and a little of the water from the cook­ing. Only use about 1 dl water or just enough to give the mash a lovely con­sist­ency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If you’re also making Pinnekjøtt, an altern­at­ive could be using cook­ing juices from the meat in the mash instead of the water from the veget­ables, but be care­ful so it doesn’t become too salty.

The swede is one of my favour­ite root veget­ables. Prob­ably the favour­ite in fact. Mostly because of its taste, but I must admit it prob­ably also has some­thing to do with the fact that the Eng­lish name for it is so hil­ari­ous! Astrid Lind­gren, the amaz­ing Swedish author of children’s books, the most famous of them prob­ably about Pippi Long­stock­ing (Långstrumpa), has also writ­ten about a little boy named Emil who is a very curi­ous little boy that gets into a lot of trouble and is sent to the shed (snick­ar­boden) as pun­ish­ment when he’s been caught in his wrong­do­ings. Once, he hoists his little sister Ida to the top of the flag­pole, and is con­sequently sent to Snick­ar­boden, hop­pfallera. Little Ida has a song which I love. She sings

‘Lille ko, lille ko,

(Little cow, little cow,)

lille söte koa.

(cute little cow,)

De va ho, de va ho,

(it was her, it was her)

Ho som sket på broa.

(her that shit on the bridge)

Lille jag, lille jag,

(little I, little I,)

lille söte Ida

(cute little Ida)

Jag vill ha, Jag vill ha,

(I would like, I would like,)

Rote­mos til midda.’

(Rote­mos for dinner.’)

Rote­mos is so deli­cious. Mashed swede and car­rots, with butter, salt and pepper. Will post the recipe. Yum!