Wanderlust-ful cooking enthusiasts, rejoice! A new season of New Scandinavian Cooking, one of the most popular series across the globe, is set to premiere on US public TV stations.
Hosting Season 12 of New Scandinavian Cooking is one of the most well-known Norwegians anywhere — Andreas Viestad — the world-famous TV chef, respected food writer, successful restaurateur, and award-winning author of Kitchen of Light: The New Scandinavian Cooking
For viewers who haven’t had the pleasure of watching New Scandinavian Cooking yet, this isn’t your run-of-the-(pepper)-mill cooking show. It’s a hybrid food/travel series, with added bits of culture, history, and even adventure that make it as much a fun way to learn about Scandinavian anything (okay, not anything, but a lot) as it is about making Nordic dishes.
With Norway as the backdrop for the new season’s nine episodes, Andreas cooks his way across the country, from the islands to the mountains, with locally-sourced ingredients prepared in makeshift outdoor kitchens. (Well, mostly outdoors, as he also does a bit of prepping, cooking, and plating on a train and a ship, too.)
Episode 1: “Pale Fish”
During Andreas’ visit to the small community of Bulandet, a group of wind-blown islands in western Norway, he goes fishing for saithe, a type of pollock that is summer’s most delicious fish in Norway. Andreas also gathers kelp to make a tasty stock, and on a green pasture he grills juicy and tender beef from a local farm that he serves with wild herbs.
Episode 2: “A Traveller’s Bite”
Andreas does his own version of Norwegian Slow TV in this episode, as he travels by train from Bergen to Oslo. Unlike in the seven-hour-plus, dialogue- and food-free Bergensbanen minute by minute video, though, he takes a few minutes to prepare (and eat with knife and fork) a 20-shrimp sandwich as the train winds its way from west to east, through different climates and the mountainous heart of Norway. At Voss, Andreas detrains to cook up an herb-stuffed lamb roll that can be served warm or cold. He then goes fishing on top of a mountain and cooks the trout he caught on hot rocks inside a wooden bucket. As the train nears Oslo, Andreas begins preparing rhubarb for a dessert he completes with sweet strawberries and then eats by the fjord in the capital.
Episode 3: “Norwegian Versions of Classic Recipes”
As Andreas travels through Hardangervidda National Park, Norway’s largest, and the beautiful Gudbrandsdalen valley in western Norway, he investigates traditional Norwegian recipes that are deceptively similar to, and just as tasty as, classic Mexican, Italian, and American dishes such as tacos, gnocci, and pancakes.
Episode 4: “A Journey to the North”
On the train from Trondheim to Bodø, Andreas travels north across the Arctic Circle, and grills the salmon he caught from the Namsen, the “Queen of Rivers,” on a riverbank. In the highlands of the north, he makes reindeer meatballs, and later fries a piece of Arctic beef in the lusher, greener landscape of Bodø.
Episode 5: “Eat Like the Vikings”
Like the Vikings, Andreas travels by boat to visit the islands of Lofoten, where he prepares a traditional cod dish. He also visits an important historical Norse settlement in the high north, and cooks roast beef ribs Viking-style, over an open fire, inside a replica of a thousand-year-old long house. Andreas also makes a Norwegian risotto using the grain of the north — barley — with beetroot and local goat cheese.
Episode 6: “Northern Sea Passage”
While travelling north on the Norwegian Coastal Express ship, Andreas uses foods he finds from the sea and land to make an apple-stuffed roast of lamb in the lush fjords of western Norway, a dish with the dried and salted cod known as klippfisk in Kristiansund, the capital of the Bacalao in Norway, and arctic char (a variety of salmon) as a late bite for the ship’s crew. On the fields of Troms, he makes an autumn-tasting potato dish, and then before arriving in Kirkenes, Andreas prepares reindeer meat dumplings inspired by the Sami people as well as Russian influences of Norway’s northeast.
Episode 7: “Food for a Polar Expedition”
Andreas goes on a polar expedition aboard the Hurtigruten ship as it travels north along the beautiful and icy coastline of Norway. Along the way, he visits the mountains of northern Norway, where he cooks king crab. The journey continues to the northeast and ends in Kirkenes with a perfect hot chocolate at the Snow Hotel.
Episode 8: “A Whole Salmon”
In this episode, we travel with Andreas to the island of Skrova in northern Norway, where villages along the coast rely on traditional fishing that now coexists with modern aquaculture. Here Andreas shows us how to make his favorite salmon dish using a whole fish, before he discloses his secret family waffle recipe. (Ooh!)
Episode 9: “Happy Holiday Food”
Lastly, Andreas cooks up a genuine Scandinavian Christmas feast and shares his favorite Norwegian recipes of the season. He serves mulled wine with almonds and raisins, pressed pork, and a delicious crusted ham, then makes a traditional roast duck before finishing with a Norwegian dessert of barley cream with red berry.
Season 12 of New Scandinavian Cooking begins airing 1 June 2015 on public TV stations across the US, including those that make up the Create TV network. Check your local listings or contact the station that serves your area for broadcast details. To find the one nearest you, visit American Public Television’s station page.
For additional information about New Scandinavian Cooking, check out this article and the website at www.NewScanCook.com. For eye-catching, taste-bud-watering photos, go here.
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