Aquavit: And the New Scandinavian Cuisine

by Marcus Samuelsson

Book Overview

An award-winning chef offers an innovative collection of recipes that emphasize the best in Scandinavian cuisine, including such unique dishes as Gravlax with Mustard Sauce, Swedish Roast Chicken with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618109412
• ISBN13: 9780618109418
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 4.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 11.3" x 10.4"

Customer Reviews

Finally, bringing Swedish food into the spotlight!

If you have ever eaten at Aquavit in New York, you know how hard it is to resist buying this gorgeous cookbook. If the meals at the restaurant can be created to be even half as amazing at home, the book is weel worth its cost!Luckily, they have turned out to be extremely successful in my own kitchen. And, might I add, most of them are far easier to make than they appear. I love this book and appreciate the chef's work so much that it blows my mind when I read some of the criticism in the reviews. First of all, this book is so beautiful that I keep it in a bookshelf in the living room, not the kitchen. The pictures are so lovely but at the same time might intimidate certain readers who fear they won't be able to recreate the image. To this I have to say: "It's ok. You aren't putting the meal into a book to be published and you're not serving it to paying customers... It's allowed to look different, as long as it still tastes good." Samuelsson is a chef. The food is on a different level than that of Ina Garten, Rachel Ray or Nigella Lawson (as much as I like all of them.) Some of these recipes will take a bit more effort, but many you can make with very little effort! The soups, roast chicken, meatballs, salads, and many main courses are not as difficult as they appear.Another gripe I've read in other reviews is that the recipes are not as much Scandinavian as they are Asian. Whoever said this knows very little about Swediesh food! As a Swede, I found all of the recipes to be based in strong Swedish tradition. But like the title says, it's the NEW Scandinavian cuisine, melded with tastes from all over the world. Ingredients like curry, have been used in Northern Europe for centuries now.This book has brought a lot of joy to our home. The pictures and tastes make us homesick! His food is authentic and groundbreaking at once and I believe Marcus Samuelsson deserves all the praise he has received.

Fabulous recipes

What I like most about this book is that I can prepare sophisticated meals with it without committing my entire day to the menu. I have the French Laundry cookbook, for example, yet I don't use it because of the enormous time commitment required by most recipes. Although none of the recipes in Samuelsson's book are meals-in-thirty-minutes, I can actually prepare them in a reasonable amount of time but have the kind of entree that I would often order in a restaurant. The outcome so far has always been wonderful and impressive.I agree with other reviewers that the recipes in this book are more Asian fusion than Scandinavian, especially with such ingredients as rice wine vinegar, miso, and cardamom pods. Still, the recipes are fantastic, especially the seafood recipes. This book is a must for anyone who enjoys modern California and Asian style cuisine.

Salmon, Dill, Mustard, Glogg, and More Salmon. Very Delish

James Beard Award winning New York chef Marcus Samuelsson has headlined the writing of this book of his `New Scandinavian Cuisine' and the food of the restaurant of the same name `Aquavit'. This book is a coffee table foodie picture and recipe book in the same style as Eric Rippert's `Return To Cooking' and Thomas Keller's `French Laundry Cookbook'. The price is a typically high $45. The big question is whether the acoutrements attached to the recipes make it worth more than a $30 cookbook. It is also a valid question to ask if it is worth $30 as a cookbook alone.I think the answer to the second question is a solid `Yes'. The cuisine and the recipes are interesting, inviting, and accessible to the average home cook. Samuelsson makes it clear from the subtitle of his book that he is spicing up the usual Swedish meatballs and gravlax with fusion elements. The surprise is that middle eastern spices arrived in Swedish cuisine several centuries ago through the Swedish East India Company trade between India and Stockholm.The book has thirteen chapters, mixing conventional with unconventional recipe categories. These are:The Raw and the Cured is preparations of uncooked salmon, herring, tuna, bass, char, cod, duck, and beef.Bites, Snacks, and Little Plates, appetizers and hors d'oeuvresSandwiches, more gravlax, plus wraps and crispbreadSalads, fairly conventional root vegetables, seafood, and trendy greens. Still delish.Soups, with mushroom consomme, yellow split pea, chicken soup, and smoked salmonFish and Shellfish with char, snapper, halibut, cod, monkfish, sea bass, tuna, lobster, and more salmonBirds, Meat, and Game with recipes using coffee, Glogg, lots of mustard, and fruitSides with lots of Mediterranean, Korean, Central Asian, and Northern European representatives,plus lots of mustard and even more smoked salmon.Crackers and Breads with typical Swedish flatbread, potato mustard seed bread, and bread with blueberries.Jams, Salsas, and Chutneys with mustard, berries, horseradish, and mangosDesserts with lots of unusual berries and candied beets, citrus, and ginger.Drinks with Aquavit, berrry liqueur, and glogg (a wine, spice, fruit, and sugar holiday drink)Some of the most interesting recipes are for Crispy Salmon Skin, Slow Roasted Turkey Wings, Tuna Burger with Cabbage Tzatziki, Salsify Cappuccino, Seared Tuna and Sfcallops with Soy Beurre Blanc, Prune-Stuffed Rack of Lamb, Crispy Duck (breasts) with glogg sauce, Carrot Parsnip cake. One of the most unusual pantry items in the book is Berbere, a hot Ethopian spice mix similar to Middle Eastern and Indian mixes. Other unusual ingredients are berries which appear to be exclusive to Scandinavia. Fortunately, few recipes include these berries.The very best part of the recipes, as it always is in book of this type, are the chef author's notes and comments regarding how the dish came about. The value of this text is what makes the difference between just another cookbook and something worth the extr

Tala Svensk

When Aquavit in Minneapolis closed, it was a sad sad day. However, this book allows one to remember what a great restaurant it was and still is.This cookbook is honestly the best I have purchased ever. Being a 28 year old female that doesn't cook often, and has a taste for more daring food, this cookbook is the perfect blend, just like every recipe in it. The recipes take a fair amount of time to make, but the items do not cost that much. I have been pleased with every recipe made from this book. A must have.

Swedish With A Twist

If you've ever eaten at Aquavit, then you know what to expect from this world class chef's first cookbook. It's loaded with wonderful recipes reflecting Marcus Samulesson's multi-culturalbackgroud and it's beautiful book to look at. While there are many classic Swedish dishes in this book, Marcus also shows us his creative approach to Scandinavian cooking. As a novice chef, I found the the recipes informative and easy to understand. I also liked the fact that many of the recipes had variations and included some background information or cultural history. And, just as you might expect from a restaurant named Aquavit, there's a nice selection of aquavit recipes in the drink section. This is now my favorite cookbook.