>> 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: Here is King George, a little annoyed by the fact that he's taken out of the hotel and into this makeshift kitchen.

♪♪ ♪♪ Hi, and welcome to "New Scandinavian Cooking" from Nes in Eastern Norway.

I'm Andreas Viestad.

We're about an hour outside of Norway's capital, Oslo, but this is a very different place.

While the rest of the country is hills, mountains, fjords, and more mountains, the landscape here is flatter, more open, more fertile.

The farms are big.

This is one of the few places were you can find enormous grain silos and muscular combine harvesters, but lately, there's been a shift.

More and more people are thinking small instead of big.

We'll start off with fresh fish from the local River Glomma that I'll bake over an open fire and serve with apple, bacon, and herbs.

Then I'll use local grains to make porridge with my friend, Ann Kristin.

It's not your average gruel, I assure you, and I'll visit a local vegetable garden and see how we can make vegetables last through winter.

Some of the culinary innovations here are quite unexpected.

A small local company has made good business out of selling something you would think we have enough of here in the cold north -- ice.

I'll use the local ice to make a Norwegian martini with apples and cured plums, and then I'll visit a hotel fit for royals.

King crabs, that is, and it's a king crab hotel.

I'll use the crab to cook a barley risotto with roasted vegetables and herbs.

[ Bird cries ] ♪♪ ♪♪ A beautiful zander, huh?

>> Yes.

[ Speaks Norwegian ] >> Viestad: Oh.

Great, thanks.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Zander is a lively game fish that can be found in parts of northern Europe.

I'm going to cook it over an open fire.

I'm just going to fill it with some herbs.

Here I've got a combination of sage, oregano, and rosemary, so quite strong flavors but in the belly of the fish while it cooks.

Then I just rub it with salt a little bit on the outside, but that doesn't really make much of a difference, and then a little bit on the inside, as well.

If I want to speed it up a bit, I'll just put some burning embers on the other side of the fish, as well.

♪♪ And look at this beauty.

It's sizzling hot, so it's best to let it rest for a couple of minutes so that the juices can stabilize a little bit.

Meanwhile, I'm going to serve it with some baked apple.

This is an apple that I've just charred a little bit on the fire to get a little bit of those big sweet baked apple aromas, so I mix the baked chopped apple with some raw chopped apple and some finely chopped red onion.

I'm going to use this to make a sauce or a dressing, if you will.

Dressing is often associated with salad only, but it goes very well together with seafood or fish, as well, so I'm adding just a teaspoon or so of apple cider vinegar and about the same amount of freshly pressed apple juice, some rapeseed oil or canola oil, and that's one of the main crops here in addition to cereals.

Some herbs, in this case tarragon, tarragon has a really nice sweetness that goes very well together with fish.

I'm just taking the small leaves apart with my finger, mixing it in.

It can be overpowering if you use too much.

Then it's just to tear the skin off the fish, and you really see how the skin works the same way as aluminum foil.

It protects the fish, so even though it's quite charred on the outside, it's beautiful and steamed on the inside, so it's partly a dressing, partly a sauce kind of like a salsa, and some smoky, salty bacon on top.

And finally, some cabbage flowers, in this case arugula, which is a plant in the cabbage family.

You can use other cabbage flowers, as well.

They more or less all look pretty similar, and they have a similar flavor, as well, regardless of which plant, and here it is.

Mmm.

It's delicious.

It's mild and fresh-tasting, and with that salty smokiness from the bacon, that really balances it off.

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

It's almost impossible to overrate the importance of grains, cereals in Scandinavian culture, not just food culture, but as a foundation of our civilization.

Some of the oldest laws you'll find dating back more than 1,000 years regards growing of cereals and brewing of beer, and since then, we've eaten cereals at several meals every day, and today, it's much the same.

We eat bread for breakfast, for lunch, sometimes even for an evening snack, and we drink beer on occasion, but one thing that has almost disappeared is porridge, and in the old days, porridge was probably the dominant food.

You ate porridge several times a day, and it had one advantage, and that was that you could use a multitude of different cereals, not just those that are good for baking.

My friend, Ann Kristin, is a fighter for porridge.

She wants it to regain some of its position.

She has written a beautiful book about porridge, and now she's going to make one of her porridge favorites.

Hi, Ann Kristin.

>> Hi.

>> Viestad: Hi, good to see you.

Well, how many different types of porridge are there?

>> You know, there are so many types of porridge.

The whole world is filled with porridge, but we did 76, and then we had to stop.

We could do double.

>> Viestad: But now we are doing a barley porridge.

>> Yeah.

Barely, nice, nice barely flakes we're going, and I'm putting in water the day before.

>> Viestad: So why do you put it in water the day before?

>> Because to get the iron and the nutrition out of the flakes, so we bring it to a boil, and then we add some milk.

>> Viestad: So a good splash of milk.

>> Yes, it's supposed to be soft and nice and not dry.

>> Viestad: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

>> And then you add some salt.

>> Viestad: Mm-hmm.

>> And it's finished, okay?

>> Viestad: And now it looks nice and creamy, yeah?

>> Mm-hmm.

It's supposed to.

>> Viestad: Is it done?

>> Yes, it's done.

>> Viestad: Okay, super.

So this is the foundation, and I think the interesting thing about your book is that you show that there are at least a couple of different ways to actually boil the cereals to get porridge, but then there's, like, an infinite range of possibilities on how to serve it.

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: And now we're going to serve it with -- What are these?

>> These are seeds and nuts roasted with some honey and just a pinch of salt.

>> Viestad: You shouldn't forget that there's actually porridge here, as well.

>> The grains also taste really delicious, so... >> Viestad: Yeah, and here are some lingonberries that are incredibly sour and tart.

>> Has sour and some bitterness.

>> Viestad: Hmm.

>> But it's nice with, you know, the cheese that we are going to put in and with the honey and nuts.

>> Viestad: Yeah.

>> It's nice to have the little tang.

>> Viestad: The final sort of super Norwegian but also very surprising element.

>> Yes.

It's fudge goat cheese.

>> Viestad: Yeah, the Norwegian fudge cheese that is almost like a caramel.

You can find it sometimes as Ski Queen, and it's quite sweet.

It's almost like dulce de leche, and if you can't find it, you can also just use a few drops of caramel or just a spoonful of honey, as well.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Viestad: Oh, this looks delicious.

Can I take the big one?

>> Of course.

I can take the small one.

>> Viestad: Mmm.

This is porridge like I've never tasted it before, but this is exciting and colorful and delicious.

>> Mm-hmm.

It's nice.

>> Viestad: Mmm.

Mmm.

>> And it's warm.

>> Viestad: And it's healthy.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Viestad: Mmm.

>> And it's from here.

>> Viestad: Here in Nes, there are some really big, really productive farms.

To be more precise, there are 350 of them.

That's quite a lot, but if you consider that there are more than 20,000 people living here, then most of them are not farmers.

Most of them do not have that one-to-one relationship to the food that's produced, and what is it like to live in a place?

Well, you get that connection if you can get close to something, if you can get dirt under your fingernails.

That's why more and more people are thinking small.

They are starting to grow their own vegetables.

This makes for exciting local food, and not least the food that you will never find in a store, but that is only grown for families so that they can eat their own food, and I'm now in Andrew McMillion's kitchen garden, which is, I think, one of the most interesting kitchen gardens I've seen.

Andrew operates after permaculture principles.

He sees entire farm as being one living organism, and it's self-sustained.

He uses leftover food, coffee, grits, leaves, and branches, and he makes compost and fertilizer that allows the plants to grow.

>> This is compost, so this is not aged compost.

It's fairly fresh compost and a little bit of chicken manure, and I just put that in with water and add air so that we get aerobic bacterias instead of anaerobic bacterias, and then I just put a little bit -- >> Viestad: That's a good thing?

>> That's right, because the roots of the plants, they need the right kinds of nutrition, and they get that from the aerobic bacteria.

>> Viestad: Wow.

This is like a Garden of Eden.

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: You've got a multitude of different plants.

How many different?

>> About 150 different varieties this year.

>> Viestad: I mean, compare it to the stuff you get in the store.

It's not just that every tomato tastes better, but you also have much more vegetables to choose between.

>> It's a totally different type of way of thinking.

Instead of thinking production, you're thinking nutrition.

>> Viestad: And that's one of the things that I'm going to use in my cooking today, trying to make some of the produce that is in season now last throughout the year.

>> Nice.

>> Viestad: So I was wondering, can I pick some of your vegetables?

>> Please do.

>> Viestad: Can I pick some -- >> Some lemon squash.

>> Viestad: Some of the squash?

>> Sure.

>> Viestad: It's incredible to see how scraps and remains can turn into such an abundance.

The compost that Andrew is feeding his plants can also be utilized in other ways.

In Oslo, the municipality has a program to use household waste as a resource, not just something to get rid of.

The green bags with organic material are turned into soil and fertilizer for city parks and biogas for city buses.

Amazing to think that my leftovers make the city greener and the air cleaner.

All gardeners know the triumph of harvest time, the abundance of August and September, but then in Norway, it kind of ends, and in winter, you're stuck with whatever you find in the stores, and the produce then is not always very exciting, so there's been a movement towards trying to find ways to conserve the bounty of autumn and an emphasis on things like pickling and fermentation.

But I want to show you something that is even simpler.

Here's a wonderful fresh squash from Andrew's garden that I'm just slicing into thin, thin slices.

Then I dip the squash in salt herb water.

It's simply salted water that I've brought to a boil with some sage, rosemary, and tarragon, so it's got a nice, herby flavor, and once the tray is full, I just brush the squash with this syrup.

This is a mixture of honey and vinegar, so it's sweet and sour at the same time, and it's smart just to brush this on the top side because it's rather sticky.

So otherwise, it will stick to the tray, and it's very interesting flavor-wise because that means that one side is salty and one is sweet and sour.

You can dry almost all vegetables, celeriac, parsnip, carrots, in this case beetroot.

This is an elongated beetroot that looks very nice, or kale, and no one really likes kale, do they?

But when it's dried and crunchy with this sweet and sour syrup and the salty herb mixture, it's really delicious.

And I'm using a dehydrator to dry it, but you don't really need special equipment.

You can use your oven set at very low temperature and a fan, or you can just leave the vegetables on top of your radiator.

The point of drying is to make the vegetables last much longer, but that's not the only point.

When it comes straight out of the oven or the dehydrator, it's really nice and crunchy, and you can eat it like chips, and that's what I'm going to do, so I'll make a dip.

This is sour cream that I'll flavor with carrot... ...and caraway, a very Scandinavian spice that is actually a relative of carrot, and sprinkle with a little bit of salt.

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

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ They say that it is impossible to sell sand in the Sahara or to sell snow to Eskimos.

How true is that, really?

Who has tried?

Here in Nes, there is a company that has tried more or less the same thing.

They've tried to sell ice to the coldest people in the world, to the Norwegians, and it's a great success.

The ice from Nes is not just a local or national success.

It's being exported to the other side of the world to countries like South Korea and Japan, and I'm going to use that as an inspiration to make a drink, a martini-like drink, very fresh tasting.

I just fill the glasses with ice to make them very, very cold and then grain vodka.

In Norway, potato vodka is just as common, but we're in a cereal-growing part of the country, and then a couple of these great ice cubes.

Then I just pour out the crushed ice.

Then I just add a little and then twirl it around the rim like this so that everything is coated with it, and then just pour it out and then add the shaken vodka.

And something that looks like a green olive, right, but it isn't a green olive.

It is an unripe plum that I've pickled much the same way as you pickle olives, and it is quite similar in taste because it's vinegary and salty, but it has a little bit more fruitiness to it which I think is very nice.

Hey, ice man.

You want to try?

>> Oh.

>> Viestad: You can smell.

You can smell the apples, right?

>> Strong.

>> Viestad: Mmm.

>> It's a very dry martini.

>> Viestad: I poured out all the apple juice.

>> Very good, very tasty.

>> Viestad: It's interesting how much that little one drop of apple juice can do to the aromas of the drink.

>> Absolutely, totally changes the character.

>> Viestad: Mmm.

It tastes a bit like an olive, doesn't it?

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: But a little more fruity.

>> Absolutely.

The identity is sort of plumy olive-ish-ish.

[ Both chuckle ] ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Viestad: I'm here surrounded by 1,000 living king crab in what must be the world's only king crab hotel.

And here's the hotel manager.

I mean, the idea of a king crab hotel, why on Earth in the middle of the country?

>> Well, to be able to reach our customers all over the world from Dubai to Norway and Copenhagen or New York, we are located very close to the airport, and our logistics makes it much shorter from here than from north Norway.

>> Viestad: Let's see.

What about this one?

Let's call him King George.

>> King George is okay.

>> Viestad: Okay, so if someone orders him in Dubai, how fast can he get to Dubai?

>> If they order before 7:00 in the morning, I can pack it the very same day, and it will be in Dubai in the evening, and I guess the transfer time, it would be less than 10 hours.

>> Viestad: Can I have one?

>> You can have one.

Let's grab one.

>> Viestad: Whew.

>> That's the one.

>> Viestad: Ah, thank you.

♪♪ ♪♪ Here is King George, a little annoyed by the fact that he's taken out of the hotel and into this makeshift kitchen.

I'm going to use him to make a risotto, a barley risotto.

Don't think too much about what's happening with King George right now.

Well, here I've got barely that I've soaked in water overnight.

It's just like Ann Kristin said.

That is what brings out the nutrients, so it's good for you.

I'm going to boil it in fish stock, and if you think of it, a risotto or a barely risotto is very, very similar to a porridge.

It's basically just grains or rice that you boil with liquid so you get a sort of creamy texture, and here's George.

When you have super fresh king crab, the flesh tends to cling to the shell, and we want to release that.

You can either do it by dipping it in liquid nitrogen, or you can just give it a flash of heat, and I'm just going to char it a little bit.

And it doesn't take many seconds.

It starts to pop and crack and make all sounds, sort of funny noises, immediately.

King crab is delicious when it's boiled or steamed, but you get that really rich flavor when you fry it in the pan, and I'm also going to fry some of the pike that we just caught, and pike is a delicious game fish, as well.

It's a little bit bony, but I don't mind.

I think the flavor is more important.

And I cook the fish only skin side down, but I spoon some of the butter over it so it cooks a little bit from the top.

Now the barley risotto is done, and I'm just adding a little bit of cream to make it creamy.

I also serve it with some roasted vegetables from Andrew's gardens.

This is pumpkin and onion.

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

And here it is, land and sea on one plate.

Hi.

[ Indistinct conversation ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> 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.

♪♪