Swedish crayfish party – Traditional Cheese Quiche

I am in Sweden at the moment. August is the time of the year when the Swedes fish and eat Swedish crayfishes. The tradition is to arrange a small party around this dinner, where we also wear funny hats, drink a snaps and sing songs.

Traditional food served with crayfishes variate, but I like to serve it with toasted bread topped with sour cream, caviar and red onion and a green salad (I was so lucky to get mz mom’s own lettuce from the garden). In addition, I also serve the traditional Västerbotten cheese quiche to the crayfishes. The Swedish Västerbotten cheese has a light yellow color and is a granular cheese with a distinct character and powerful aromatic aroma. The taste is very unique, but to compare it to a more international cheese, it reminds you of the Parmesan cheese; salty but with sweeter notes. The texture is crumblier than an Italian Parmigianino Reggiano.

You can read more about my favorite Västerbotten cheese here: https://vasterbottensost.com/en/.

Here is the recipe to the Västerbotten cheese Quiche. Since we can’t find this cheese in USA, you can replace it the Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients (1 quiche):

Quiche

• 7 tbsp butter
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp water

Filling

• 1 1/2 cup grated (Västerbotten cheese if in Sweden) parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• 6 1/2 oz milk
• salt and black pepper

Quiche

Add the room temperature butter in pieces into a bowl. Add the flour. Mix that together with using your hands, or use a food processor. Add the water and mix together to a dough.

Press out the dough into a pie plate (9”). Let the plate with the dough stay cold in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Pre heat the oven to 400ºF.

Use a fork to peck the dough. Pre bake the quiche crust in the oven for for 10 minutes. Take it out and let it cold down.

Spread the grated cheese over the crust.

Whisk egg, milk, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the cheese. Bake the quiche in the oven for approximately 30 minutes.

Serve the quiche with a fresh green salad.

Smaklig måltid!