>> Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... >> Up Norway, curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."

>> ♪ No, take me home ♪ Take me home where I belong >> Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.

>> Grieg Suites.

Chocolate with apples from Norway.

♪♪ Havila Voyages.

Pure Northern.

♪♪ >> Viestad: This is kind of like a childhood dream for me, or at least a very childish dream, having chicken soup by the Chicken Falls.

♪♪ ♪♪ Hi, and welcome to "New Scandinavian Cooking" from Honefoss in eastern Norway.

I'm Andreas Viestad.

It's October, and while the rest of the country is preparing for a long and hard winter and nature is going into hibernation, this is the highlight of the year here in the Ringerike in the inland region.

It's a time for the annual moose hunt and for the potato harvest.

I'll start off by making a hot infusion.

Think of it as a tea of the forest, with juniper, lingonberries and blueberries.

Then I'll go hunting for the king of the forest, the moose.

I'll use the moose heart and serve it with chanterelle mushrooms, cream and berries.

Right on the outskirt of the forest, there are hundreds of thousands of workers that work all summer to ensure that we have good crops and help pollinate the heather in the forest as well.

I'm referring to the bees.

They are essential for life, and with such a sweet result.

I'll use three different types of honey to make a honey ice cream, and then there are the local potatoes.

Ringerike's potatoes, small strange-looking potato that's difficult to grow and that has low yields but that tastes delicious.

I'm going to use it to make a rich potato gratin, with local cheeses and roast moose.

♪♪ ♪♪ It's autumn, but there are still edible treasures to be found in the forest, and I'm going to start off by making an infusion of forest berries here.

I have lingonberries and blueberries here.

I've got a teapot full of juniper, juniper sprigs and juniper berries.

Some are ripe, and some are unripe.

Then I just pour the berries into the chamber where you normally have the tea leaves, and also a teaspoon or two of dried lingonberries.

You can also use cranberries.

And then boiling water.

[ Grunts ] I just let it infuse for a couple of minutes.

♪♪ Then I just pump up and down a few times, just to release the flavor from the berries and also some of the color.

And it's fresh-tasting and tart, and it smells of the forest and of autumn.

You can also use other trees and other berries.

You could use spruce.

In the spring, you could use young birch trees and just some dried berries as well.

So this is a template on many different kinds of infusions.

You can find all the recipes at our website, newscancook.com.

♪♪ It is time for the annual moose hunt, and I'm off to meet Turid.

She's been waiting all summer for this.

How long have you been hunting?

>> I've been with my father, hunting since I was about 6 years old, but I wasn't hunting that time.

I was sleeping in my sleeping bag beside him.

>> Viestad: And there's a big social element to the hunt, isn't there?

>> For me, at least, it's that.

It's more about being with all these people because they've kind of become my family.

You know?

I grew up with them, yeah.

>> Viestad: One thing that strikes me as odd is, at one point, there was this big ox within shooting range, and you didn't shoot him.

Why?

>> First of all, I might not be the big, like, hunter that shoots on everything I see, but the principle is that we don't shoot the big ox in the beginning of the hunt because we have these breeding sessions for them.

>> Viestad: It's a very sort of Darwinistic way of being gentle to that particular animal.

>> That's a way of seeing it.

>> Viestad: Hmm.

♪♪ One of the first things that has to be done after a successful hunt is to eat the heart of the animal.

That is something that has an enormous symbolic importance.

To eat the heart of an animal is to show that you have conquered it, but it is also a way to honor it.

I also think that it's important to note that it makes sense from a gastronomic point of view.

Whereas the meat needs to hang and mature for a few days, the heart is at its very best when it's very fresh.

♪♪ Hi.

Can I borrow your knife?

>> Yes.

>> Viestad: Thank you.

Cooking heart is really incredibly simple.

You just fry it in the pan a couple of minutes.

I'm adding some red onions and some chanterelles.

This is the last chanterelle mushrooms of the season, and season with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Then I just add a good splash of cream, full-fat cream.

There's no point in being low calorie when you're in the woods, hunting.

And some lingonberries, just for some acidity.

Some scallion, spring onion.

This forest is, in a way, the beginning of the world's largest forest.

It's a spruce forest that stretches all the way into Siberia, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

And spruce is really not just the national tree of Norway, but it smells great, and it tastes great, at least in small quantities.

If you don't have spruce, you can also use sage.

Oh, hi.

[ Speaking Norwegian ] [ Laughter ] [ Speaking Norwegian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Viestad: That reproduction is essential to the life of animals and humans is something that we take for granted, but that the same applies to plants is often forgotten or neglected.

But every raspberry flower that blooms in spring longs to become a raspberry.

Every cabbage flower or pea flower longs to be pollinated and to become what it is destined to, but very often, the plants can't do it themselves.

They need help, help from bees.

That's why Erik keeps seven beehives on his property.

Erik runs the farm alone, with his wife and two daughters, but most of the workers here are not humans.

They are bees.

He has nearly 300,000 of them.

It smells fantastic.

>> Yes, it's the most aromatic honey, the heather honey that comes late in the season, like now.

>> Viestad: Can I taste?

>> Yeah, of course.

Just take your finger down there and get honey on it.

>> Viestad: Okay, okay.

How sweet it is.

>> [ Chuckles ] >> Viestad: Mm!

I like honey, but this is something special.

Was it because your honey is extra good or is it the fact that I'm tasting it straight off the honeycomb?

>> Well, that it's really fresh, that makes it taste a lot, of course, but also the area where my farm is in makes the honey very good, and it also has a lot of different flavors.

>> Viestad: What do you mean, different flavors?

>> From year to year and through the year to the seasons, it tastes different.

Do you want to taste?

>> Viestad: Yes, absolutely.

>> This one is what we call the virgin honey.

It's the one we harvest first, in early summer.

It's still quite runny.

>> Viestad: It's mild, but it's quite complex.

You can't really track down what it tastes like.

>> No.

I think that's because it comes from a lot of different kinds of flowers that flower early in summer, and... >> Viestad: What about this?

>> This is a typical raspberry honey.

>> Viestad: Okay.

>> It's very creamy and... >> Viestad: Mm.

Hm, yeah, it has a almost like berry, berry-like flavor.

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: It just tastes like summer.

On a summer day, it smells like this.

>> Yeah.

For me, that, as a honey enthusiast, that's the taste of summer.

>> Viestad: Mm.

And this one is much, much darker.

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: Is that the full honey?

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: So this is more or less the same that we've tasted?

>> Yeah, that's the same honey.

It's the latest honey that we harvest, and it's a heather honey.

>> Viestad: Mm, and that means that in late summer, there are no more flowers on the farm.

>> That's right.

>> Viestad: So they have to cross the road... >> Yeah, cross the road.

>> Viestad: ...and go in... >> It's not far.

>> Viestad: No, it's just over there, but they collect mainly here from the forest.

>> Yes, that's right.

>> Viestad: This, I think, is my favorite, in a way, and this is the most Scandinavian, at least, because it uses some of the plants that we have a lot of here but don't grow well further south.

>> Yeah, I think is typical Norwegian honey.

>> Viestad: I'm going to use all of them, I think, in my cooking.

>> It's wonderful.

It's really wonderful.

♪♪ >> Viestad: Honefoss is a town situated around some falls, and these falls are called Chicken Falls, for completely different reasons, but I've always associated it with chicken, and now, finally, I'm going to make chicken soup by the Chicken Falls.

And the base of this delicious chicken soup is a fantastic chicken stock made with old hens, and I've got a wonderful recipe that takes a bit of time, but it's not very labor-intensive.

You simply put a chicken or an old hen in water, together with bay leaf and a couple of black peppercorns, and you put the pot in the oven at somewhat below boiling temperature, so around 90, 95 degrees Celsius, or 200 Fahrenheit, and you leave it for 24 hours.

Then you remove the chicken, add a new chicken, leave it for 24 hours.

Then you remove the chicken, add a new chicken.

So this is actually the third chicken that has been cooked in the same stock.

So you get a very, very concentrated flavor.

Some recipes ask you to cook the chicken in a lot of water and then reduce it by boiling, but the only effect will be to flavor your curtains.

Here, all the flavor is left inside the pot.

So here I've got 7 1/2 deciliters, 3 cups, of this super concentrated stock, to which I'm adding 2 1/2 deciliters.

That's 1 cup of full fat cream.

When you have this super concentrated stock, it's always nice to have an element of sweetness as well, so I've taken a pumpkin and just baked it in the oven, and then I've pureed it with a stick blender so you have something that looks like baby food.

And I'm adding 3 tablespoons of this, and that also adds great color, and then finally, I'm adding a splash of white wine just to give it a little bit acidity as well.

♪♪ You can find all the recipes at our website, newscancook.com.

>> [ Children calling ] >> Viestad: This is kind of like a childhood dream for me, or at least a very childish dream, having chicken soup by the Chicken Falls.

And with me to celebrate this moment of triumph, I have the mayor of the town, Kjell Borre Hansen.

Mr. Mayor, nice to see you.

And I'm going to serve the soup with just chunks of chicken meat as well.

Well, Mr. Mayor, isn't this a special thing, to drink chicken soup by the Chicken Falls?

>> Yes, it is very good and delicious.

♪♪ >> [ Speaking Norwegian ] >> !Hei.

>> [ Speaking Norwegian ] >> Super.

>> [ Speaking Norwegian ] >> [ Speaking Norwegian ] >> [ Speaking Norwegian ] >> [ Speaking Norwegian ] ♪♪ >> Viestad: I'm going to use Erik's three different types of honey to make a dessert with three different flavors of honey.

First, I'm going to start by making a honey ice cream, and for that, I need 5 deciliters, 2 cups, of milk, 2 1/2 deciliters, 1 cup, of whole-fat cream, and I'm sweetening it with the mild and creamy summer honey, about 1/2 cup, or a little more than a deciliter of that honey.

And it's still quite firm now, since it's quite cold, but it will dissolve in the warm milk and cream.

Meanwhile, I'm adding 7 egg yolks to this bowl.

Erik's eggs are so beautiful.

They all have somewhat different color on the shell, and then they've got this deep yellow-orange egg yolk.

Just mixing it together, and once the milk, cream and honey mixture is almost boiling, I'm pouring it into the eggs, and that will thicken it, hopefully enough to make a good custard as a base for my ice cream.

Now I'll let this cool off properly before adding it to the ice cream maker, and while the ice cream freezes, I'm going to make a honey crumble, and for that, I'm going to use the virgin honey, the first honey of the season that's even earlier than the summer honey, and I'm making it by simply toasting some breadcrumbs, adding a little bit of honey.

At first, it's quite sticky and runny, and then it feels like it dries up.

You've got to work it all the time, and when it's like this, it's at its peak.

It has started to caramelize a little bit, but if you overdo it, it will start to burn.

Then I simply cool it off and mix it in a blender, so I have a fine crunchy crumble, and when you hear that the ice cream machine is struggling, then the ice cream is done, and look at it.

It looks fantastic.

Now, did I mention that I really want this dessert to taste of honey?

So I'm adding just a little more honey.

This is the dark autumn honey, the heather honey.

I've just warmed it a little so that it's just runny enough.

Do you want a taste, Erik?

>> Yes, please.

>> Viestad: I made dessert with your honey.

>> Ooh.

>> Viestad: So this is ice cream with your summer honey.

It's a crumble with your virgin honey, the early honey, and then there's some heather honey on top.

>> Ooh, looks delicious.

>> Viestad: It is remarkable that you can sort of have this wide variety of flavors, even though it all tastes of honey.

>> You know, a lot of different flowers.

>> Viestad: Hmm.

♪♪ ♪♪ While people live to go hunting once a year, what they do every day is eat potatoes, and people here at Ringerike are very serious about their potato.

In fact, the local potato has become a national celebrity, and the Ringerike potato is small, kind of ugly, almost impossible to peel, but it is incredibly tasty.

So this is the Ringerike potato, and is it...It's said to be a local potato variety.

But how local can a potato be?

>> You know, all potatoes originally came from South America, so it probably came from there.

We don't know when.

We don't know how it came here, but my great-great-grandfather started growing it here in this area.

Growing it here gave it this very special taste and color, which comes from the nature in this area, the soil, the way it has been grown for, now, 150 years.

>> Viestad: So you say that it's a little bit like in France, with the wine growing, that you...

It's not just a vine, and you've put it into the soil.

It's the fact that it's grown there over time, what the French refer to as terroir.

>> That's the word.

We, unfortunately, don't have that word in Norwegian, but terroir, it has to do with the geography, the soil, the way and the techniques of growing it and the climate, of course, which is very special here.

We don't have too much rain, but we have rain.

We have a pretty good temperature in the growing season, and it makes it a special potato with a distinct taste, and it tastes a lot, and that is why it has been so popular for 150 years and that we still actually grow it here.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Viestad: Thorbjornrud Hotel used to be a well-renowned conference hotel.

There's nothing wrong with that, but not terribly exciting, either, if you ask me.

Then the owner, Olav Lie Nilsen, decided that he wanted to do more, and he wanted the hotel to interact with its unique surroundings.

He wanted to turn it into a beacon of local food.

So he started working differently, started collaborating with local farmers and producers, and in the end, they became one.

They transformed the way they worked, and the most lovely example of that transformation is that they turned the former pool area into a dairy, where they make excellent cheeses, and what was once a normal ornamental garden is now the kitchen garden that they use every day.

For a main course today, I'm going to make moose sirloin.

Sirloin is one of the cuts that finds the balance between having a lot of taste and being quite tender.

It's from that part, here, on the back, and I'm going to serve it with the lovely local Ringerike potatoes that are really flavorful, and I'm going to use them in a gratin, with some Jerusalem artichokes from just over there.

This is a very quick and efficient way to smash the potatoes and crush them a bit.

Some recipes call for pressing the potatoes through a sieve, for instance, but that's only necessary if you want the gratin to be super soft.

I think that it can be quite as interesting to have chunks of potato in the gratin or in a potato puree or a mash.

Then I add some cream and some of the lovely local cheese, and I'm just going to flavor it with some thyme, which is quite nearby.

I love it when you just grab a handful of herbs and end up with two different herbs.

Here's a combination of normal thyme and lemon thyme, so there's just a little hint of that lemony sweetness to it, as well, and then just sprinkle with a little more cheese and bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 175 Centigrade, for about 30 minutes.

Moose is game, but it's one of the milder game meats, so you've got to be a little bit careful when you're flavoring it.

So I'm simply going to flavor it with salt, pepper and powdered porcini.

This is simply dried porcini, dried mushrooms.

I'm cooking the meat in a quite special way.

I'm using a lot of butter.

This is a full stick of butter, more than 100 grams, and I'm continuously spooning the butter over the meat, so that way it gets cooked from all sides, but that's also a great way of cooling off the butter, so the butter doesn't burn.

You get maximum flavor.

You get this rich deep brown butter flavor and the flavor of the browning of the meat.

So no rest at any point, and it smells fantastic.

So I'm just going to let the meat rest for a few minutes.

I'm going to use this as a foundation to make a sauce that has all the flavors of the caramelized meat, of the brown butter and of the porcini.

So I'm adding some normal all-purpose flour and making what is termed a roux, the foundation of a sauce.

So frying the butter and the flour together.

Then I start adding a little bit of stock.

This is a good game stock.

You can also use a beef stock, and then some cream, about 1/2 cup, a little more than a deciliter.

So I've just lightly steamed the kale with some lightly salted water and a little bit of butter, and then I'm adding some black currants.

There are actually still black currants on the bushes, even though it's late in autumn, and they taste fantastic.

It doesn't have to be black currants, but I think it's nice always to have an element of a berry or a fruit together with game.

Remember that you can find all the recipes at our website, newscancook.com.

And here it is, sirloin of moose with potato gratin, game sauce, kale and a little wedge of grilled pumpkin.

!Hei, hei.

>> !Hei.

>> Viestad: [ Speaking Norwegian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> For more of the "New Scandinavian Cooking" experience, visit our website or Facebook page.

♪♪ >> Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... >> Up Norway, curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."

>> ♪ No, take me home ♪ Take me home where I belong >> Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.

>> Grieg Suites.

Chocolate with apples from Norway.

♪♪ Havila Voyages.

Pure Northern.

♪♪