Food & Drink

Swe-dishes: SwedishFood.com’s Open Prawn Sandwich

The dog days of summer have arrived. Cue the pool days and air conditioning!

Hot days call for easy, light meals, so we’re bringing you an open-face prawn sandwich (räksmörgås eller räkmacka) recipe from John Duxbury, founder of SwedishFood.com.

Perfect for a midday meal or light dinner, Duxbury’s recipe couldn’t be simpler to follow and uses classic Swedish staples like dill, seafood and eggs.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 4 slices of good-quality bread
• 6-8 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 8-12 lettuce leaves
• 1 lb. prawns/shrimp (pre-cooked, shelled weight), steamed
• 1 lemon
• 8 small sprigs of dill
• 4-8 cherry tomatoes

 Directions

1. Place the eggs in a saucepan of water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 8-10 minutes (longer for bigger eggs and a firmer set). Plunge into plenty of cold water. After one minute, drain and cover with more cold water. Shell when cold.
2. Spread a light coating of mayonnaise on each slice of bread.
3. Add the lettuce leaves and spread lightly with mayonnaise.
4. Slice the eggs and spread them out on top of the lettuce.
5. Lay the prawns on top of the egg slices.
6. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the prawns and add a couple of teaspoons of mayonnaise on top of each sandwich.
7. Garnish with dill sprigs, lemon slices and cherry tomatoes.

Tips

• Buy the best prawns (shrimp) you can. North Atlantic cold-water prawns are best, rather than king prawns.
• Use good-quality bread. John prefers a good rye bread, such as danskt rågbröd(Danish style rye bread), but many people prefer a good-quality, toasted, white bun.
• Store-bought mayonnaise is fine, but don’t overdo it! Many räksmögåsare spoiled by excessive amounts of mayonnaise.
• John prefers to use just lettuce and tomatoes, but cucumber often is added. Radish, asparagus and avocado occasionally are added.
• Swedes debate whether butter or mayonnaise should be spread on the bread; John votes for a light coating of mayonnaise.

John Duxbury enjoys cooking Swedish food and went to the trouble of learning Swedish so he could read Swedish cookbooks. The love affair with Swedish food started as a result of numerous visits to Sweden when he was working with Swedish students. When he retired from teaching he decided to set up http://www.swedishfood.com so other people with an interest in Swedish cooking could benefit from his work.