Smorgastarta roughly translates into “sandwich cake”, but don’t let its colors, icing, and whimsical presentation fool you. This sandwich cake is more savory than sweet, and is filled to the gills (pun intended) with all the goodness of cold cuts, salmon, ham and cheese. You don’t have to be a Viking to enjoy this dish and wow your friends. Master this dish, and make it your next crowd-pleaser!
Ingredients:
- White or rye bread
- Sour cream
- Mayonnaise
- 1 lemon
- Toppings (see list below)
First, prepare your bread. If you have round rye bread, slice it horizontally to make layers. Uncut loaves of bread will also be ideal for horizontal slicing. If you bought your bread sliced, this is still okay. You may wish to slice off the crusts, and save them to make bread pudding later. “Glue” the edges of each bread slice with butter and assemble into layers as you go.
Next, prepare your “icing”. Mix your sour cream and mayonnaise together, and add more mayonnaise to taste. Be sure to create a large batch of this mixture, as this is spread on the bread layers and “iced” on the smorgastarta itself. You may wish to add some lemon juice to the mix.
Assemble your smorgastata. Here’s where the fun begins. You may use, but are not limited to, these toppings:
- Boiled, shelled shrimp
- Boiled eggs – sliced, quartered, or diced
- Sliced ham
- Cold cuts
- Caviar
- Liver pate
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumber slices
- Avocado slices
- Smoked Salmon
- Tuna
Note: If you wish to add avocado slices, only add this just before you serve the smorgastarta.
Place your first layer of bread on a large serving dish. From here, you can mix and match the toppings of your smorgastarta as you please. You can generously spread liver pate on the first layer, then put a second layer of bread, then spread your sour cream-mayo mixture on it and arrange your desired toppings as you see fit, and so on for as long as you have bread layers. You can even decide to reverse the order of the toppings suggested above, or go completely mayo mix-toppings all throughout the smorgastarta. Let your gastronomic creativity guide you.
When the last bread later has been added, take the rest of your mayo mix and ice your sandwich as you would a regular cake. Decorate it with the rest of your toppings, and have fun with the colors, shapes, and textures of your food.
Serve and delight your friends with this unusual and filling dish!
As a thank you for reading, let the Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time crew show you how to make smorgastarta the viking way. It’s good for you.
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