South Sweden The Hairy Bikers' Northern Exposure

'The hairy bikers are back on the road...

'doing what we love most...

'..biking and cooking.'

-Oh-ho-ho!

-Look at that.

'And it's going to be epic.

'This time, we're heading the furthest north we've ever been...'

We're in the Arctic Circle!

'..in search of exciting food

'and some of the most unexplored places in Europe.'

Oh, it's glorious!

Our route will take us 2,500 miles round the Baltic Sea.

Kicking off in Poland,

then travelling through the trio of Baltic states to Russia.

Russia!

Then, across to Finland and north to south through Sweden.

'To understand the food, we must expose ourselves to the elements...'

'..experience life on the wild side...'

I AM A VIKING!

'..and test our mettle to the max.'

-Hey, it's cold.

-WELL, IT'S THE BALTIC, ISN'T IT?!

-'I'm expecting vast forests...' BOTH:

-Skol!

-'..sparkling lakes...' BOTH:

-Wow!

'..and incredible biking roads.'

Look at that!

'There will be hearty home cooking, as well as cutting-edge cuisine.'

That's spot-on.

'And, hopefully, a warm welcome.'

'After all, these people are our northern neighbours.

'And it's time we got to know them better.'

Our lives are never going to be the same again

after we taste this sausage.

Cheers, mate!

Last time, we explored the wilds of northern Sweden,

discovering the secret world of the Sami.

An indigenous people who largely live off the land.

Oh, wow. It's fabulous.

And now we're turning our trusty steed south

to the heart of Sweden and beyond.

Burning rubber through Gavle on the coast,

before heading to the hip and happening capital, Stockholm.

Then, finishing our wild Swedish adventure

on the foodie island paradise of Gotland.

'We want to find...' Wow!

'..and taste.'

Oh, that... It's incredible.

'..the culinary Sweden that lives in the shadows of ,

'sensible cars and flatpack furniture.

'Along the way, we'll master the three classic

'dishes at the heart of every Smorgasbord...'

-My walnuts are bigger than yours!

-They're certainly not.

DAVE CHUCKLES

'..find out if our Viking looks, come from actual Viking DNA...

'..and chomp our way through the coolest,

'most exciting food on the planet.'

This is the perfect end to our voyage of discovery.

It's going to be an epic saga...

-of warriors...

-feastings...

..and Viking biking.

-Thank you very much.

-Top job.

-Skol.

-Skol.

And what a place to kick it all off.

This is the 15th century city of Gavle,

with its historic old town.

That's it, Si. We've done thousands of miles

and this is the last leg of our Baltic adventure.

This is Gavle.

Dude, you cannot come to Sweden...

without investigating the culture and wonderfulness

that is the smorgasbord.

It's life on a platter.

The smorgasbord is Sweden's best-known contribution

to world cuisine.

What started life 500 years ago as nibbles to eat with drinks,

is now a formal affair of five distinct courses.

It's the perfect way for us to get the lay of the culinary land.

So, we're meeting Peter at his cafe.

He's a chef that specialises in smorgasbords.

Here we are, Kingy. Gavligt Gott.

-You know what that means, don't you?

-Mm-hm.

-Damn good.

-Mm!

We're hoping that Peter's smorgasbord will be the ultimate expression

of the new Nordic cuisine we've been discovering on this trip.

A pioneering cooking style that promotes local ingredients

and traditional recipes, but with a modern international twist.

-How are you, man?

-Welcome to Gavle.

-Well, thank you very much.

-So, is that the board for the smorgas?

Yeah, you're going to try the smorgasbord, of course,

when you're in the Nordic countries.

The five steps are there's the fish part first,

the herring is very important,

and then the second part is other types of fish.

So, the smorgasbord comes in stages?

-Yeah.

-You don't just dive in and eat lots?

-No.

The third dish is the cold plates,

like, cold dishes, like sausage and stuff like that,

and the fourth is the warm food.

You could spot the foreigner coming into a smorgasbord, because you just

have a bit of this, bit of that, mix it up and it's wrong.

They build mountains

and that's the people I used to sweep out of my kitchen!

They don't belong here!

So, what are we going to start with and can we help?

Yeah, of course you're going to help us.

Time to smorgasbord.

The first course, of course, is herring.

-This is the sea buckthorn herring.

-Oh, look at that.

-Oh, right.

Sea buckthorn is a tangy, yellow berry

that's so rammed with vitamin C,

it turns oranges green with envy.

While us Brits ignore it growing wild, in the Baltics,

they can't get enough of it.

Perfect balance of savoury and sweetness.

But this is Sweden, where they love a pickled fish,

so we're having another two types of herring.

Oh, good grief. That is really good, Peter.

-So, guys, this was number one.

-Yes.

-And for number two, you have to work with me.

-Fantastic.

-Brilliant.

So we get prepared and we go back to the kitchen.

Put it down! You've eaten the board!

Peter is trusting us to make the second fish course,

in this case a classic Swedish smorgas starter.

Or in English, a sandwich cake. Yep, a sandwich...cake.

It's basically a triple-decker fish sandwich designed to

-look like a cream cake.

-What's not to love?

Make it look beautiful because, like I told you guys before,

the view should be nice of a smorgasbord also.

That's Swedish style. A real attention to detail.

We're combining salmon spread,

salad and cheese to build our smorgas starter.

And loading it up with avocado and shrimps.

These pretty savoury cakes are often served at birthday parties

or as a late-night snack at weddings.

-This is a sandwich of Herculean proportions.

-It is.

-I think we should go...

-Yeah, go on.

-Like that.

Careful, Kingy, it's got to look good.

We will do zis only once.

We're there.

Yeah, I fear our effort is more a throwback to Abigail's Party than

sleek Swedish minimalism, dude.

Luckily, Peter has got an impressive third,

fourth and fifth course for the smorgasbord.

'But before we get stuck in like a stag night at a cut-price pub,

'we need to remember the Swedish concept of lagom.'

Lagom means just enough, so it's important to take just enough.

The idea of loading your plate up

and leaving half of it shouldn't exist, it's bad manners.

You should live your life lagom, just enough.

This is what I tell my friend, here.

Doesn't work down the pub.

Funny that. SIMON LAUGHS

-It's a really naughty sandwich, isn't it?

-Very.

You've got the salad, you've got the cheese, you've got the salmon.

-By God, it's good.

-It's really Swedish, 100% Swedish dish.

-Mm!

-Made with a lot of love from Britain.

-Yeah, thank you.

-Thanks, man.

-You're ready for number three?

-Oh, yes.

-Yes.

That's the cold course, usually sausages and cheese,

but it wouldn't be Sweden without crispbreads.

Crispbread. I mean, there's a culture here with crispbread.

-Yes, of course.

-That... I've never had crispbread like this before.

-We love a crispbread, don't we?

-We do.

This is the Rolls-Royce of crispbreads.

And the food keeps coming,

with a hot fourth course of elk and venison meatballs.

I think that's one of the few things that we know in Britain through

a certain store that you make furniture, that makes you irritated.

Everybody goes there and has their meatballs,

but this is like on another level really. It's superb, aren't they?

And for the final fifth course on our smorgasbord,

a cheeky chocolate cake.

I must say, this has been a fantastic culinary journey and thank you

so very, very much because the smorgasbord is a much abused thing.

You're welcome.

I'll tell you what, mucker,

that meal has set the standard for the rest of the trip.

No wonder they love a smorgasbord in Sweden.

And the great thing about the smorgasbord is

it's like a one-stop shop

for everything that is good about Scandinavian cuisine.

Too right.

It was like a culinary road map, but now we need to dig deeper

and track down things like mind-blowing meatballs.

And perfect pickled herring.

And what about some cracking crispbreads? They'd be good to make.

Because they're a staple here, dude, and healthy too.

The Swedes love them like we love toast and, well, digestive biscuits.

Let's find somewhere to cook.

This looks nice.

Wooden house, a big flag, a view of the Baltic.

It's more Swedish than a bevy of blondes singing ABBA karaoke.

It's been said for years but now it's coming true,

-we are going crackers!

-SIMON TRUMPETS

Swedish crackers! We're making Knackebrot.

Knackebrot in Sweden is an art form.

There is whole supermarket aisles taken up with knackebrot.

Yep, but now you'll be able to impress your guests,

titillate your friends with a string of home-made crispbread.

The recipe starts with wholemeal rye flour,

along with a good measure of salt, some baking powder, then...get seedy.

Yeah, not flashing people down the park seedy.

-BIRDS CAW

-That's a seagull.

That's the best laugh you've had for ages, that.

SIMON CHUCKLES

You can use whatever seeds rock your world,

but along with poppy seeds, I'm adding sesame seeds and aniseeds.

I bet ABBA ate loads of crispbread. They look like that, healthy.

Agnetha, she's the queen of crispbread.

Ooh... Anyway, back to the recipe.

# Honey, honey! #

SIMON GROANS

Butter, and bring it all together.

-Which was your favourite ABBA track, Kingy?

-Er...Waterloo.

Look at this fellow, look at the state of him. Look at that.

# ..I was defeated You won the war... #

350ml of water.

At first, you think it's too much, but bear with us,

if you don't have it sloppy, it'll crack.

SIMON GROWLS

Bear with you.

-Oh, bear.

-Get it?

-Yeah.

Bear walks into a pub, right?

He goes in and goes...

"I'd like a pint of...

"beer, please, barman."

Barman says, "What's with the big pause?"

He went, "Hm, born with them."

Right. And just add the water, slowly at a dribble.

This is going to make about eight big knackebrots,

but we're going to do like the traditional...

-I'm sorry! I know, I can't help it.

-Stop laughing at me!

-I'm sorry.

-No.

This will make about eight big traditional-sized knackebrots.

Remember, you could cut it into squares and make little crackers,

-do you know what I mean?

-Which would be...little knackebrots.

-Yes.

-We're almost ready to roll out the dough.

That's how easy they are to make.

A fancy rolling pin gives your crispbreads cute dimples

and then, a plate cuts them to shape perfectly.

We want them to look as though they've been manufactured.

-We want them to look like they've come out of a packet!

-We do.

Now, take a little cutter and put a hole in the middle.

Imagine, 500 years ago,

there could've been two fellas

standing on this very pier making knackebrot.

-Olaf and Lars.

-Oh, aye.

-It's inevitable, isn't it?

-Look at that.

But you know, this knackebrot is so perfect,

this is how I know that I am a Viking. Look at that.

I think we'll find I'm the Viking, my friend.

I mean, I've got the rugged good looks, you know.

It's no surprise crispbreads are popular in Sweden.

They're basically flatpack bread.

And they're easy to assemble without an Allen key.

I've got pumpkin.

Don't want too many, do we?

Now, these crispbreads are quite chunky,

so I'm going to cook them at 200 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.

And now we're going to share them with the lovely couple who've been

SUPER TROUPERS and let us cook on their picture-perfect jetty.

Knackebrot.

Looks very beautiful.

Eva, Janis, thank you so very much for letting us work at your house.

It's been fantastic.

Everybody thinks at home that we just find these locations,

-but they're actually people's houses, so thank you.

-Can we try?

-Of course.

-Absolutely.

-Thank you.

-Crispy?

-Yes.

-Seedy? Tasty?

What do you think of our crispbread?

-Lovely. Very good.

-Very good.

-Very good.

-Thank you.

-Perfect.

Crisp breads.

Easy to make and as good with Cheddar as they are with herring.

To get your head around Swedish food,

you need to know your Swedish climate.

The short summers and long cold winters mean they only have

a brief growing season, so preserving food is essential.

But what was once a life-saving necessity has become

a much-loved culinary trademark.

So, like bloodhounds on the scent,

we're tracking down another smorgasbord classic -

pickled herring.

We've come to this family fish shop to find the herring

-we ate at Peter's cafe.

-It's made by Eva Wahlstrom,

a local fisherwoman who catches, pickles and smokes her own fish.

She's promised to show us the secrets

to her family's 80-year-old recipes. What a treat.

-I'm looking forward to this.

-Aye. After you.

So, Eva, where did it all start?

In 1928, my grandfather,

and he said, "Oh, I found a good place for fishing."

-Who's that?

-I don't know.

-No, it's me.

-It's you!

-Is that you!

-Wow!

-That's a wonderful picture, isn't it?

-Yes.

So, you started smoking fish

and working with your grandfather at a really early age.

-We lived together.

-Yeah.

-Grandmother, grandfather,

my father, mother, brother, my aunt, my...

-Wow!

-..uncle, everybody in the whole house.

-Look at that one.

That's the most wonderful portrait.

Eva makes a wide range of smoked and pickled fish, but her

favourite recipe is the pickled fried herring we tried at Peter's.

-This is the best one.

-This is it, this is the signature.

-The big gun.

-Yes.

And it comes from your grandmother, you were saying, is that right?

-Yes, yes.

-Fantastic. Can we have a taste?

-Yes. No, it's mine.

-Go on!

-Of course!

Oh, thanks, Eva.

-Mm!

-Oh, what?

Herring fried then pickled. Wow!

-That is superb.

-That is wonderful.

-The balance of that is absolutely exquisite.

-It's best on a hard bread.

-If it's best on a hard bread...

-Yes.

..that would go perfect with the crackerbreads that we've brought.

We'll bring the bread.

On the condition, Eva, if you could teach us how to do this recipe.

-Yes. I'm glad but don't tell anybody else.

-We'll keep it to ourselves.

-You sure?

-Yeah.

-Not a chance.

-Cross your fingers.

Crossed fingers I'll keep behind my back.

THEY LAUGH

I'll get the knackebread.

Swedes have been preserving Baltic herrings since the Middle Ages

and no wonder. They're packed with omega-3

and vital vitamin D for the sun-starved winter months.

It's probably why the Swedes have such a long life expectancy.

But now we're going to make the things you really like,

pickled herring.

I got up at four this morning to get this only for you.

When a woman brings you fresh fish it's hard not to love her.

And when she sandwiches a couple of fillets together

and douses them in rye flour, well, then, you want to marry her.

And when she fries them in butter - ooh, well, then you want to...

Say no more, Dave, say no more.

If you live in a flat, in a big house, many of the people know

when you fry herring, because the smell, the whole house.

I mean, the Baltic herring, it's famous the world over, isn't it?

Sweden has a wonderful relationship with a herring.

Look at my father.

He go to the hospital and he take a test, he's really, really healthy.

He eats herring maybe eight days a week.

-Eight days a week. Built on herring.

-Yes.

I hated it when I was a small child. Always herring, herring, fish.

-I like meatballs.

-THEY LAUGH

Frying the fish before preserving it

is the surprising part of Eva's process.

After that, the process is pretty classic.

We're making a pickling brine from three cups of water,

one cup of white vinegar and two of sugar.

-So, this is how you would preserve the fish in the old days.

-Yes.

Then, add a small handful of white peppercorns and the same of black.

Then, 142 of this...

-No, joking. Make it 30.

-30?

-Yes.

Allspice.

Heat the brine until all the sugar has dissolved.

Now you put the herring.

-Is there a method or just flat?

-Yes.

Perfect.

Then, layer up the herring with raw onion

till your pickling pot is packed.

-Now you put the pickle...

-My pickling...

-Put... Put the pickle.

-You put the pickle!

What Eva is trying to say is pour your cooled pickle liquor

into the air pockets and pop a weight on top.

It's to stay for 24 hours, but if you have four, five weeks,

-you have it really perfect.

-Fantastic.

-But it's a problem because...

-Everybody's eating it.

My husband gets up in the middle of the night, you know.

"Ah! Mm!"

-My wife's like that with cake.

-THEY LAUGH

Our home-made crispbreads are at the ready.

We're tucking into Eva's personal stash of herring as ours

isn't ready yet, obviously.

Pickled herring on crispbread -

a family favourite in every Swedish house. Like cheese on toast for us.

Do you know what I love about this recipe?

The herring is such a humble little fish and it's transformed

that humble fish into something really quite special.

You know what, mate? I'm getting the feeling that's Sweden all over -

taking honest food and refining it to the very best it can be.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Eva.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye, Eva.

I love the way Peter's smorgasbord

has become our road map through Sweden

as we track down its many dishes.

Now it's taken us south in search of the very best meatballs.

Meatballs are to Swedes what sausages are to us -

the best comfort food there is.

So much so that the famous yellow and blue furniture store

sells a billion of them every year.

That's a lot of balls.

But we're not going to flatpack furniture land for ours.

Oh, no, we're making our own, of course.

Don't be fooled by the deer, we're not here for the venison.

We're after a traditional and ancient Swedish ingredient.

We are cooking... wild boar meatballs.

Yeah, this is like proper meatballs, to celebrate the game of Sweden.

They're Viking meatballs.

You know, the Norse gods Freyr and Freya,

they had wild boar as sidekicks. The wild boar was a symbol of power.

The boar is important to the spirit as well as the belly.

And at the table of feast in Valhalla, after you've died,

there is an endless wild boar to eat forever.

Aye, but enough mythology, we need to go and buy some mince.

And it's not just Vikings who had a taste for the lean

flavoursome meat of wild boar.

Today, you can hunt for it in Sweden's southern forests,

or in its supermarkets.

-Oh, everybody loves meatballs.

-Everybody.

Like many things in life, it starts...

-onions.

-One. Two.

-Thank you.

Two onions chopped finely.

With my battle axe, I will cleave this onion

-into a million thousand pieces.

-Fine, dude, fine.

-Yeah, I know.

Now, pretty soon these onions will sweat, they will sweat

like an English village that are about to be raided by a Viking.

-Do you know what I find fascinating though about the Vikings?

-What?

-They did the most amazing voyages and seamanship.

-They did.

But without, kind of, GPS, engines. The seamanship was incredible.

Boar is readily available here as Sweden's wild population needs

to be culled regularly, but beef and pork will do.

Whatever you do, add breadcrumbs.

It's the bread that gives the meatballs

-that kind of spongy texture.

-Springy. Lovely.

-Yeah.

In go eggs and, for seasoning, anchovies.

They're not just any anchovies, look at this. ABBA anchovies.

-Never!

-My, my! And they didn't cost much money, money, money, either!

It's time to pile loads more stuff into your Viking mixing bowl.

Along with the anchovies, cooled onions and garlic,

goes a traditional slug of cream and some ground allspice.

Mm, you can smell that.

Followed by grated nutmeg and salt and pepper.

Then, get squidgy.

Vikings didn't use spoons. Oh, no.

Marvellous. And it's good actually, because it means that everything

is evenly distributed and you can actually feel it as you go.

When it's good and mixed, roll it into walnut-sized balls.

About that, then?

-That's a big walnut.

-What do you reckon?

-No, it's too big.

-I'm not being pedantic or anything.

-No, that's not like you(!)

But that, my friend, is a walnut.

-My walnuts are bigger than yours!

-They're certainly not.

DAVE CHUCKLES

DAVE HUMS

-Dave.

-Yeah?

-Why is smaller better than bigger?

Because they'll brown nicely all over. I like to be able to take

a whole ball and put it in my mouth in a oner.

A big ball, it gets stuck. But they're just about perfect.

'When you're happy with your balls,

'let your mate gently tickle them for a few minutes in a frying pan.'

Oh, come on, we've got to try one.

Should be just slightly pink in the middle. Perfect. Great.

Now, seasoning.

Perfect, mate.

But what makes these properly Swedish is their sauce.

Now, the meatballs are traditionally served with, like,

a white wine gravy and then, on the side, some lingonberry jam,

so we're going traditional.

Starting with a basic white sauce of butter and flour,

-we're adding a glass of white wine.

-Only one, mind.

-Booze is expensive in Sweden.

-Oh, that smells fantastic.

-Yeah.

The next step is, we add a litre of good beef stock.

Cook that for about five minutes, it's reduced and thickened,

not a lump in sight.

It's beautiful. Now for the good stuff.

A nice big splash of cream.

And I've got some lovely home-made lingonberry jam.

Somebody's home, not mine.

That's just to give a nice sweet note to the gravy.

-Are you ready, Mr King?

-I am, sir.

-Are you ready, meatballs?

-IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE:

-Yeah.

Meatballs are ready.

Let's taste it now.

We need some fortification before we find out the news of the test.

Those would be the DNA tests where we finally find out

if either of us are Vikings.

They're sublime.

It's a real old-fashioned way to season with the anchovies

and the allspice, and it works.

It is so comforting and so flavoursome, you're going to love it.

Mate, I reckon we've nailed the key dishes of the Swedish smorgasbord.

But is it the food of our forefathers?

It's time to unlock the secrets of our past.

I'm going to find out whether I'm a Viking or not.

No, we're going to find out whether I AM a Viking or not.

# ..I've got to be a macho man

# I've got to be a macho, macho man... #

You're not a... TURNTABLE STYLUS SCRATCHES

We're going to find out whether WE are Vikings or not.

# ..Macho, macho man, yeah! #

To end this confusion, we've had our DNA tests done

to establish right down our lineage, who is the true Viking.

This Viking malarkey is quite tiring, isn't it?

It's knocking hell out of my knees.

We've come to Gamla Uppsala,

home of these thousand-year-old Viking burial mounds.

It's the perfect setting for us to discover the results of our DNA test.

We're meeting Robin Lucas, archaeologist, university lecturer

and, most importantly, Viking expert.

-This looks like a very special place.

-It is.

It is. It is one of the centres of Vikingdom really.

Robin, who were the Vikings?

I know they weren't a race or a political party. Who were they?

-They're more like a class...

-Right.

-..or even you'd say a profession.

-A sort of warring aristocracy.

-That is remarkable, isn't it?

What are the common falsehoods that people are under about Vikings?

-The horned helmets.

-Right.

-I love those.

-Yeah. Didn't happen.

-Really?

-Actually, they rarely used helmets at all.

-Rape and pillage?

Well, to a certain extent, yes.

They're trying to rehabilitate the Viking saying,

well, they were actually traders and that's true, they were.

They were settlers and yeah, that's true as well,

but they were also raiding homicidal maniacs.

They must have been fantastic navigators and, you know, logistics

-and fighters and warriors.

-They were that.

They had a warlike attitude, they had a warlike mythology.

They had the technology, they had these amazing ships.

They realised they could get away with it. It's as simple as that.

This was in an area of very little central power in Europe.

The Roman Empire had collapsed, there was, kind of, a vacuum

and they went in and they had their day.

But we're here for more than a history lesson.

We've come to find out if the blood of Odin courses through our veins.

It's time to discover the results of our DNA tests

and meet our ancestors.

We've always kind of half said that he's got to be a Viking, but then,

I kind of thought, given my Cumbrian lineage, that I might be a Viking.

-You might be, dude, you might be.

-But then, we got to think, who are we?

Well, I think you're about to tell us. It's quite a serious moment.

I am indeed because I have the results.

Shall we do Si first?

Si. Yes.

-You're not a Viking.

-Really?

Your foreline comes from the Germanic peoples of the Alpine

regions of southern Germany and Switzerland and northern Italy.

Northern Italy is a good 'un.

Well, at least I know why I like chocolate, pasta and beer.

It's because I'm Swiss, Italian and flaming German!

-You look great in lederhosen.

-Aw, shut your face!

-Oh, no!

-You do, however, have another link to the Baltic.

Everyone who has blue eyes is descended

from the first person to have them.

About 10,000 years ago, a person was born who had blue eyes

and it is likely that this person lived around the shores

of the Eastern Baltic Sea.

'That must be why I felt at home in Estonia -

'I was channelling me past, dude!

'Ha! Your non-Viking past!'

-Right, come on.

-Oh!

-Oh, I'll never live this down if he's a Viking!

-Dave...

-Yeah?

You really ARE a Viking!

-Yes!

-SI LAUGHS

Your marker is very rare across Britain.

5% of all the men on the Isle of Lewis have this marker.

But in England, the frequency is tiny - just 0.1%.

-Right!

-Wow!

This is part of the Norse empire

that stretched all along the, er, the Scottish coast.

-I'm standing on the tomb of my forefathers.

-Oh, God!

-No, here we go!

-No, there's no point in you just being jealous now.

I am! I'm jealous!

-I'm really chuffed with that.

-Oh, that's good, that, Dave.

-I am.

-It's good, man, you know where you come from!

-I've come home!

'Oh, dear, Si King, you're no Viking! But I am!

-VOICE ECHOES:

-'You can call me Myers the Mighty!

'Will ya shut up?!

'It's time to do some modern-day raiding.'

Stockholm epitomises everything that is cool about Sweden.

It's an epic mix of cutting-edge design and food

alongside old elegance.

It should have new Nordic cuisine writ large, Kingy!

Pride in the local, inspiration from the past

and influences from the wider world.

The Swedish food in the north, it's simple but perfect,

but get down here, it's something else!

It is just great produce, great cooking traditions

and what will be a very interesting cuisine, because they're not going

to stop other influences coming on and influencing their cooking.

'At this point, most TV shows would just rock up at some posh eatery.

'But new Nordic cuisine is all about great ingredients,

'so we're going to where chefs source their produce.'

This is Rosendals Tradgard, a 200-year-old ornamental garden

and urban farm in the heart of Stockholm.

This community-based farm provides fruit and veg to everyone,

from the city's young families to Michelin-starred chefs.

It's the kind of place that makes Swedish food so exciting.

-It's organic and it's available to all.

-Yeah.

Do you know, the most wonderful thing is it's a brilliant example

of from soil to plate.

'This is Johan, who not only grows the produce,

'but is an expert in making it last.'

You've got the most sort of wonderful produce,

-you've got the most wonderful ways of preserving it.

-Yeah.

What can we harvest now, Johan?

I mean, today, we're going to find some onion here in the fields,

-some chard, some herbs.

-That will be great.

-We've got some fennel, we've got some rhubarbs.

-Mm-hm.

So we're basically going to ferment

some of the fresh things we find today.

So, guys, I just want to cut some of these flowers.

Let's see what we find. We have a few here.

And we just want to add them to the box, so let's cut.

'Dave's going to get a masterclass in preserving.

'But Johan's asked me to take these rose petals

'to the garden's own in-house bakery.'

See you soon.

-Linnea?

-Hello!

-Hello, I'm Si, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you too.

-How are you?

-I'm fine!

'I've got a date with head baker Linnea.

'She's promised to initiate me into the ways of the famous Swedish bun.'

-So this is a sweet dough...

-OK.

-..that we use for any type of bun that we do.

-Right.

-So it contains a lot of cardamoms and Swedes love cardamom.

-Yes?

And we're going to make a blueberry bun out of this.

'Swedes have an insatiable appetite for sweet rolls.

'On average, they each eat over 300 a year.'

-Then we will have some butter on the top.

-OK.

-The Swedes love their butter, don't they?

-Yeah.

And it's gotta be about the climate, hasn't it?

-And about the cold winters...

-Yeah.

-..and just comfort food.

-We need grease.

-Yeah! THEY LAUGH

'Along with the butter, these buns have three types of sugar in them.

'But we're also piling on loads of fresh blueberries.

'They're a superfood, you know?!'

'Proved, glazed, baked and sugar dusted -

'Linnea's blueberry swirl sweet buns are ready

'for a final touch from the garden.'

-And you've picked some rose petals, right?

-Yes, indeed.

Oh... HE LAUGHS

Aw, that...

-It's incredible!

-Do you think so?

-Absolutely incredible!

I could never work here. You'd never get me out of the door.

Like physically never get me out of the door. My goodness!

'While Si gets to grips with the Swedes' guilty pleasure,

'I want to learn how and why preserving

'plays such a vital part in the Swedish diet.'

-Your seasons must be quite short here.

-Short, yeah.

You know, so you've got your crop, but that's the problem, isn't it?

-How you keep it through the winter.

-Yeah. I mean, basically, we can have

degrees minus in the beginning of June and already September.

-Right.

-So you have three months.

So, for the rest of the year, you have to preserve.

You have to dry or ferment or cook or freeze.

-Right.

-That's what you have to do.

So we've done an awful lot of smoking in the north,

-we've done pickling, but your way is a little different, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-And here, we do a lot of fermentation.

-Right.

That's what we have here.

'The first ingredient in the fermentation process

'comes as a bit of a surprise!

'Red currant leaves.'

Now, we're going to use some leaves to start up

the fermentation process, so they have a lot of lactic acid bacterias

and, basically, they support our digestive system and also,

-like, how we break down...

-Right.

-..and get nutrition.

So is this a really healthy and a really old way of preserving?

It's an old way and, basically, when you preserve things, there is

more nutrition that is available for your body than if you eat it raw.

-Right, yeah.

-So...

-So there's benefits to it.

-It's magical.

'The fermentation process not only stops the veggies from rotting,

'but makes the nutrients easier

'for our digestive system to absorb - that IS magic!'

I think the only thing we're going to add is water and salt. That's it.

-Really?

-We're going to add some of the leaves

just to start up the fermentation process.

They have a lot of bacterias on them. What we have here is

more or less the same thing as is happening in the compost heap.

-There is a breakdown...

-Yeah.

-..and what we do is

stop the breakdown before it gets rotten.

-We just do the first part.

-Brilliant.

This is a garlic that was resting like two months in the compost heap.

-Right!

-Basically, the compost heap keeps, like, 60 degrees.

-Yeah.

So we put it in a vacuum bag and we left it for two months.

So you have... And smell it. It's beautiful.

-So this is also fermentation process.

-Oh!

-You could spread that on bread.

-Just have a taste. This is amazing.

Like it brings out some liquorice sweet taste.

-Incredible! It's almost like a date.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Jammy!

-And this was a garlic two months ago.

-It's amazing, huh?

-Yeah, yeah.

'To preserve his new seasoned rhubarb,

'Johan heats water to 40 degrees and adds salt. Just 2%, though.'

-It's not that much salt.

-No.

-It's not like a brining, is it?

No, we try to keep it very low,

-because we don't want to stop the process.

-Yeah.

We just want to have something that keeps it preserved and not go bad.

-Because salt can kill yeast, which'll kill the bacteria.

-Yeah.

-So too much salt would basically stop the process.

-Yeah.

Let's make another jar with other things

-and wait for this to cool.

-Brilliant!

-I thought we'd just make some with mixed veggies from the garden.

-Yes.

So, in the dark Scandinavian winter,

I could imagine you could sit there by the fire with some cheese

and some of these vegs.

And you dream about the next summer.

-DAVE LAUGHS

-What, for about 10 month?

'Pickling used to be a British artform too.

'But apart from jams and chutneys,

'we seem to have lost the taste for it

'since the invention of freezers and flown-in veg.'

Look at that, we're building up quite a kaleidoscope of veggies!

-If you eat with your eyes first, you want to eat that, don't you?

-Yeah.

So we just add the salty water,

so we know that the process will not go bad.

-We just make sure we cover all the veggies.

-Fantastic!

-And, of course, now you eat it in a few months.

-Yeah.

-Brilliant!

-That's for you guys.

So we've got smoking, pickling and now fermenting.

It's a wonderful, wonderful food culture here.

Oh, can we try some? You're bound to have one you did earlier.

-We have, we have.

-Yes!

-So let's get to it.

'Johan has some preserved rhubarb that's two months old.'

-It's fantastic!

-Yeah. It's slightly salty.

-Yeah.

-But of course, if you cook it with something sweet,

-you can still use it for dessert.

-That really is wonderful!

-Normally, they only stay well until the end of June.

-Mm-hm.

Then, they go too fibrous, but here, if you put it in,

-you have rhubarbs for the whole year and it's still fresh.

-Tasty!

So you can bring it up in December

and make a dessert with fresh rhubarb.

-We'd better go and find

-Si. Yeah. So let's give him a present now.

-Yeah, we'll put these to bed for three months.

-Superb.

'I reckon Kingy's going to lap these up,

'like a reindeer let loose on the Schnapps!'

-Aw, they look beautiful, man!

-Swedish rainbow pickles.

It's another example of how the Swedes preserve

the bounties from that short season for the long winter.

Fabulous.

I've got you a cake! Blueberry swirls!

Look at this.

-The acidity, though of those...

-Mmm!

-..hand-picked fresh blueberries.

-Just amazing, aren't they?

-Wonderful stuff.

-Right...

Let's go and sit comfortably somewhere -

i.e. your room or mine - and eat it.

Well, they'll be ready in two months.

-Aw!

-But this'll keep us going!

-THEY LAUGH

-I forgot about that!

-Mmm!

With the sweet buns, pickles and smorgasbord,

we've nailed the flavour foundations of Swedish food.

Now it's time to visit a place that has built a temple

to the culinary gods on Norse foundations.

We're off to the island of Gotland,

a place of pilgrimage for food lovers and our journey's end.

This bite sized morsel's in the heart of the Baltic Sea.

A three-hour ferry ride from the mainland.

I do like ferries.

That was the best part of the holiday

when our Jenny used to take us to France on the ferry. I loved it.

Gotland may be a tiny island

but it's big news in Swedish culinary circles.

Gotland is famous for some fantastic produce.

Lamb and crayfish.

That sounds like a good excuse for a food tour, Kingy.

Coolio!

Our first stop is Visby, one of the best preserved

medieval cities in Scandinavia.

And a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Even better though, it's the place to taste the island's famous lamb.

Part one of our Gotland taste tour.

Apparently it's really good because the soil is limestone.

It makes incredible veggies, incredible grass.

The sheep eat it and you have the most wonderful lamb.

Boom boom, shake the room!

Oh, look, a Swedish hen party.

The tradition here is to kiss the bride in return for a drink.

Marital advice?

-If you would like to write some advice?

-Of course.

My advice is, never put the fork in the toaster.

I will remember that!

Take care of each other.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

But we're not here to meet eligible women, we've come to meet Manny.

He's a "Manny" after our own hearts.

Hello, I'm fine, and you?

I'm Dave. Nice to meet you.

Welcome, nice to meet you.

Look at him, he could be our brother, dude!

-So, are you hungry?

-Yeah, we were born hungry.

-I see. Me too!

-Wow!

-Here we have the home grown lamb from Gotland.

-Wow.

It's pretty amazing.

Manny's approach is to keep things simple.

In the North of Visby, on the north of Gotland, is a lot of really good

herbs so the lambs are marinating themselves during the life.

-This is why the Gotland lamb is so good.

-That's why.

When we are doing the lamb, we do it for five hours,

totally natural without any herbs or anything.

It's just cooking in their own fat. It's really good.

Then the last half hour, we put in a really good marinade,

like a glaze, so we have this caramelised thing.

Wow, I really, really, really like you.

We've hit a home run here.

With cuts of leg, fillet and rib.

Oh, yes!

Wham bam, thank you lamb.

-That is stunning. Thank you.

-See you later.

-Cheers, Kingy.

-Cheers!

I think this is one of those culinary moments,

like Gotland lamb, it's worth travelling for.

Definitely.

I think it's got to go down as some of the best lamb I've ever eaten.

-Top, top job, man.

-Thank you.

Manny's lamb comes from the island's own breed called, funnily enough,

Gotland Sheep.

They were first bred on the island by Vikings.

-Yeah, you mean by my ancestors!,

-Get over yourself, will you?

If the rest of Gotland's offerings are as good as the lamb,

we may never go home.

Gotland is a favourite summer destination for Swedes

but here, seaside holidays don't mean fish and chips.

Instead, everyone's head over heels in love with crayfish.

Local producer Ulf doesn't just have a fabulous Viking name,

he also farms top-quality crayfish

in specially designed freshwater ponds.

-The crayfish you farm are the noble crayfish?

-Yes.

Which is the right species for the area.

Yes, it's the only species that are allowed on Gotland

because we are in a preservation area.

So the noble ones were the indigenous crayfish?

Yes, they are protected by the government.

Here's the big question. How do you get the crayfish...

..out of the pond

and into Dave and I's waiting arms?

-Er, we use sometimes pasta.

-Really?

-And cat food, you know, these canned cat food.

-Yeah.

They like, also, because crayfish they eat everything.

-So could we have a look?

-Yeah.

-Let's go fishing.

-Let's have a look, boys, come on!

'It's funny when you think about it, Kingy.

'We're on an island in the middle of the sea

'and we're fishing for freshwater crustaceans in a pond!

'I think fishing is probably overstating it, Dave,

'but it's still an authentic Swedish experience all the same.'

The crayfish are there but they're all under rocks,

-they're all hidden.

-Yeah, yeah.

But then you tease them out with bait in a yellow pot.

'Then we just need to sort and size them.'

-We can put the big ones in.

-Nice one, look at that.

'The tiddlers go back to the pond.

'And the big 'uns go into the pot.'

Cor, that's like a scorpion.

Well, here we go.

I haven't been crayfish fishing before in a crayfish pond.

-No.

-That's a first.

'These lovely little fellas will be the stars

'of our very last cook of our whole Baltic bash.

'We need to do something de-flipping-licious, dude.

'How about crayfish chowder, Kingy?

'Perfect!'

It is a treat, this one. But, it's the last recipe of the series.

I'm quite depressed.

This is me, depressed.

-You're always depressed, really.

-I'm not!

He was depressed when he found out he was German. Hey-hey!

That DNA thing, it was a fix!

Well, you know, we always say this, it's a modern phrase,

"It's all in the DNA."

I know what's in my DNA and I like it!

I know what's in mine - Swiss clocks.

# Duh, duh, diddle, diddle, duh.

# Diddle, diddle, duh. Oh-oh, oh-oh! #

THEY LAUGH

-Right!

-We are going to make the most perfect crayfish chowder.

It's proper Nordic.

It's going to be the best soupy thing you've ever tasted.

We've got the crays, we need to start making the stock for the soup.

We don't waste anything.

It all goes into one pot. It's all about recycling flavours

because we don't want to lose a single molecule of flavour

out of this dish.

'The recipe starts with oil in a pan.'

-Which is quite unusual for Sweden, cos normally it's butter.

-Yes!

And lots of it.

'Then onions followed in short order by

'celery and carrots.'

I mean, that's a classic mirepoix except it's big chunks,

so we call it a maxi-poix.

-It sounds like a bra size that, doesn't it?

-It does, doesn't it?

-Maxi-poix.

-She's a big girl, she's got a maxi-poix.

'Then separate the cooked meat from the shells.

'But it's not the meat we're after at the minute,

'we want the shells for the stockpot.'

So the heads, everything goes in.

Cos you want all of that flavour out of 'em.

Just bash them a bit

in the bottom of the pan.

It's going to be a really, really rich broth.

Shall we start adding the aromats, Kingy?

Why not mucker, why not.

One-star anise goes in.

'But we don't stop there, Oh, no!

'Black pepper corns, garlic, bay leaves

'and a curl of lemon zest.'

-That smells amazing, mate.

-It does, like, it's so nice.

'Then we add half a pint of dry, white wine

'and wait for the alcohol to cook out.'

-Gotland, the jewel of the Baltic.

-Oh, it is.

-It's like the Baltic belly button, isn't it?

-It is.

But every bit of fluff you eat is delicious.

-Perfect!

-You can smell it, the alcohol has burned off the wine.

Result...nice flavour.

'Cover the mix with water, pop in dill flowers and parsley

'and let it cook for about 45 minutes.

'Now, viewers, may I present some pretty pictures of Sweden

-'just to pass the time.

-Oh, lovely!'

Right, dude, listen... I'll check and see if this...

-Oh!

-It's perfect. Excellent.

'Sieve off your now perfect soup stock.'

Whoops! You nearly got some in the pan.

'This is going to be the gunpowder of our chowder.

'And, for the body of the dish, more onions,

'chopped leeks

'and more onions.'

It's a chowder - potatoes.

Now obviously we've diced these, they're raw

because we want to cook them in that beautiful stock.

That has all the flavour you need.

It's so good.

'That cooks for 15 minutes,

'giving us time to melt a Swedish sized lump of butter.'

And you want it to foam - bubble and foam.

-Foam.

-Foam.

Bubble and foam.

-RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION ACCENT:

-You want the butter to bubble and foam.

'We're giving our lovely crayfish a nice, warm bath in the butter

'before flambeing them in Swedish whisky.

'Now that's a first.'

# Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening...

# Hey, Galileo. #

Cor, look at those crayfish.

Glazed with that whisky butter.

We're going to pile those up in the bottom of the bowl

and just load up the chowder on top.

So when you sink through that chowder you're going to hit those

whisky, buttery crayfish.

There we have it, our Gotland crayfish chowder.

I'm flipping chuffed with that.

-It seems a shame to spoil it, doesn't it?

-Never mind.

-Do you know what, mate?

-Mmm.

Those flambeed crayfish work really well in that fab whisky.

Fab!

'Sweden's been a real education and an adventure.

'With amazing scenery and fantastic food.

'A trip this good deserves a big finale.

'And I know just the man to deliver it.'

Filip Fasten, Chef Of The Year in Sweden.

It's going to be incredible.

What a climax to the trip to taste some of the best food in the world.

Absolutely!

'He's so Scan-deliciously cool, he's running a top-end restaurant

'here in a converted limestone quarry.'

A fabulous location.

'Filip's a Grade A pots and pans prodigy.

'This baby-faced 25-year-old has already been named

'The Country Chef Of The Year.

'So we've asked the kitchen maestro to show us his award-winning

'take on new Nordic cuisine.'

-Hello, Filip.

-Hi, guys.

Hello, I'm Dave, pleased to meet you.

How are you doing?

-It's good to see you.

-Finally...

-Yes, finally.

-Time for some cooking.

-Yeah.

-Ooh!

-Yes, why not?

-This is very serious cooking.

'Filip's assembled wild roses, wild mushrooms

'and even wild moss for his recipe.

'Well, that alone gets my taste buds tingling.

'I mean, how new Nordic can you get?!'

All the old techniques we have in the country, we are

trying to use them in like the "new" Scandinavian Nordic cuisine

that's grown-up now.

It's a lot of pickle, a lot of salting, a lot of fermenting

and also a lot of like produce that we get from the forests.

But, you know, it's massively important, isn't it to

kind of keep those traditions, those culinary traditions alive.

Repackage them however you want them,

-but the essence is still there, isn't it?

-Yeah. Exactly, exactly.

What are we going to do first?

First, we start to boil the moss

'In true new Nordic fashion, Filip's making our dinner

'out of something that the Sami feed their reindeer.'

It's like a loofah!

THEY LAUGH

Si and Dave's cooked loofah!

So here is the stove, or the grill.

We put everything on an open fire.

We are using wood because of the flavour. I love to work with wood.

-I love to work with fire.

-Right.

'As this is Gotland, there's also lamb on the menu.

'We're making a tartare, a classic raw meat dish.'

I'm choosing my menu, and my cooking style, over the weather.

I think, you don't want to eat the same thing on a rainy day,

like a sunny day.

So do you plan on the morning?

I plan in the morning and sometimes it's raining in the morning and the

sun shows up at five o'clock and we need to change the whole menu again.

-It's a little hit and miss sometimes.

-Dear me! Dear me!

I bet your kitchen's going to love you!

'As long as the weather doesn't change, we are

'lightly smoking a lamb over juniper wood, but not cooking it.'

How long would you smoke that for?

We are going to smoke it just for a minute, to give it a nice flavour.

'Tartare dishes are generally associated with France

'but they eat both meat and fish versions right around the Baltic.'

You can see now, we've changed the texture a little bit,

-to give it some colour. You can see the smoke flavours on it.

-Yeah.

It's so brilliantly simple.

You just need Gotland lamb, a juniper forest,

an outdoor kitchen like this and like the number-one chef in Sweden.

It's that simple, Kingy! There's no secret to it.

There's not, there's not, mate.

Joking aside, Filip's food is all about harnessing nature,

not complicated cheffing.

You worked in Stockholm in a two Michelin-star restaurant,

do you prefer this?

-Of course. Before I was cooking for 40 guests.

-Yeah.

Nowadays I'm cooking for myself and letting guests taste my food.

I'm doing food that I want to eat.

'I've been given the job of flaking the smoked fish while

'Si's helping Filip deep fry the moss.

'Hee, he doesn't know what happened when Si deep-fried bladder rack

'seaweed in a two-star Michelin restaurant once.'

It went everywhere.

There was explosions, it was complete chaos.

He ain't got two stars now!

No, he hasn't!

I think he's only got one eye, as well.

THEY LAUGH

'Now it's time to assemble Filip's new Nordic cuisine.

'Starting with sour cream, a classic flavour here.'

-I'm trying to be Jackson Pollock.

-Jackson Pollock, yeah!

'Then the lamb, representing the best of local produce.

'Next, the smoked fish which epitomises the Baltic

'custom of preserving food.

'The moss represents the Swedes' innovative use of ingredients.

'And the chanterelles, which symbolise the foraging tradition...

'Clever, eh?'

And just to add some more colours, the rose flowers.

Wild roses.

They're quite sweet in flavour.

-Cheers, guys.

-Cheers.

-Skal.

-Skal.

Oh, wow!

That's absolutely sublime, isn't it?

-That is stunning.

-Mmm.

This is the perfect end to our voyage of discovery.

It sums up what we've learnt in the months all

the way around the Baltic from Poland,

through Russia, Finland, the Baltic Chain, from the Sami people.

This is the pinnacle of Baltic cuisine.

-Not just Sweden.

-No.

-The whole Baltic region.

-Mmm.

'That meal was the perfect way to say farewell to Sweden.

'And the whole of our mighty Baltic tour.

'It's been an epic, educational and Epicurean adventure.

'A journey of discovery around a region that's been under the radar.'

It's not what I expected from an Eastern Bloc country.

You could be in the Mediterranean in the spring, it's beautiful.

'We've spent over 40 days on the road, starting in Gdansk,

'we travelled through Poland.'

It's a beautiful country and the food is fantastic.

'Across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, riding the Baltic Chain.'

Boom.

Hello!

'We raised a glass to St Petersburg.'

-Imperial Russia.

-Yes.

And Glasnost.

'And chilled out in Finland.'

Look at that!

'And then biked the length of Sweden,

'from the Sami people in the Arctic Circle

'and through Yervla.'

This has been a fantastic culinary journey.

'And Stockholm, all the way to the exquisite edibles here on Gotland.'

Well, Kingy, here we are right in the middle of the Baltic.

It's been quite an emotional journey for us both, hasn't it?

Yeah, but it's been fantastic. I've learnt such a lot.

It's been so inspiring.

'I reckon we discovered sausage nirvana.'

That is, without doubt, the best sausage I have ever eaten.

'I've never scoffed so much, all such good fish.'

This could be one of the nicest things we've ever tasted.

I think you're probably right.

'And stuffed ourselves silly with every kind of pickle.

'But it hasn't just been about our bellies,

it's been about our hearts, too.

'We've made new friends...'

Do you like motorcycles?

-Yeah?

-Yeah. Vroom!

'Discovered new favourites...'

I think Thursday at home should become pea soup day.

'And relished some quality time together.'

-Give us a kiss!

-Hey!

-I think it's been possibly our best adventure yet.

-Yeah, it has.

Good food.

Good motorcycling and good company.

Hey-hey!

And I'm a Viking.

Aw, will you shut up!