Brontë Aurell’s shares her delectably fresh recipe for Räkmacka Swedish-style prawns – the ultimate midday bite
“Ask any Nordic person, mostly Swedes, about the traditional prawn sandwich and they will most often associate it with boat trips to neighbouring countries.
Big open sandwiches loaded with delicious fresh North Sea prawns, are a total abundance of the sea. These are a meal in themselves – so if you’re lucky enough to have access to a lot of fresh prawns and you want a treat lunch, this is the one to make.
I’ll bet that no matter how many prawns you add to this, most homesick Swedes would still feel the need to add more. This is the only time where Swedes do not adhere to a lagom amount of something! Lagom means ‘not too much, not too little – just right – always in balance and never over the top’ as is the Swedish way.”
Ingredients
• salted butter, for spreading
• 2 slices of Swedish flat bread or white bread of your choice
• a few lettuce leaves
• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 50 ml mayonnaise
• 150 g cooked prawns (the prawns are the star here)
• a few strips of cucumber
• 1 baby radish, thinly sliced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• pea shoots, to garnish
• lemon wedges, to serve
• piping bag
Makes 2
Method
1 Butter the bread and place the lettuce leaves on top.
2 Slice the eggs using an egg slicer. Place an egg on each sandwich and fan out on one side of the bread.
3 Using a piping bag, pipe a generous dollop of mayonnaise in the middle, then pile the prawns on the sandwiches. Top with another dollop of mayonnaise and season with salt and pepper.
4 Top with the cucumber strips and sliced radish. Garnish with pea shoots, then serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over.
Recipe courtesy of Brontë Aurell, extracted from Smørrebrød by Brontë Aurell, published by Ryland Peters & Small (£16.99). Photography by Peter Cassidy
