I had a big, late lunch, so dinner was necessarily light.
I found some Knäckebröd and Matjessill while I was in Guadeloupe of all places. Knäckebröd is Swedish crispbread, or hard bread (aka Wasa bread), usually rye without the caraway. It’s hard, thick (about a ¼” or 6mm), coarse, bland and healthy, but it also makes a perfectly strong foundation for multi-tiered open faced sandwiches without interfering with the flavors of the other sandwich ingredients. I used to eat it for snacks, or a light lunch, with cheese like Jarlsberg, cucumbers, a sprig of dill and a cup of bouillon.
But when a jar of Matjessill was around, I would build a sandwich by laying on a 1/8” (3mm) thick slab of strong, rich golden-yellow Västerbotten cheese which is a semi-hard, crumbly cheese that tastes kind of like a strong, aged cheddar with a hint of Parmesan.
Next I’d unroll a filet of the Matjessill onto the cheese. Matjessill are small herring filets pickled in vinegar, onion, a little sugar, ginger, allspice, oregano, black pepper and bay leaf. (It comes out red – the original red herring.) Then I’d put a slice of red onion on the herring, about as thick as the cheese. Then, because the Matjessill spices are so strong, I’d slap on a dollop of creme fraiche to tone it down a bit. Then, to give the whole thing a nice freshness, I’d press a couple of slices of fresh cucumber into the creme fraiche. And lastly, I’d sprinkle just a sprig or two of dill on top of the cucumber. Trust me, it was delicious. Most Swedes drink beer with this, but to my Swedish wife’s horror, I would drink fish bouillon.
Anyway, tonight I substituted a run-of-the-mill cheddar for the Västerbotten cheese, yellow onion for the red, and sour cream instead of creme fraiche. I used fresh cucumber and dill from the garden. It was good, but nothing like the sandwich described above. Didn’t even come close. But I had four of them with some fishhead soup. It would have been a great sandwich, though, if I’d never tasted Matjessill with Västerbotten cheese.