Unbelievable: this ridiculous oven dish is a Swedish cult classic
Scandinavian cuisine has been hugely popular in recent years, thanks to Redzepi and his companions. Refined, innovative and exceptionally culinary. But we discovered a Swedish culinary secret that northerners have anxiously kept to themselves so as not to damage their gastronomic reputation. Note: (almost) every Swede has eaten this unbelievable oven dish at least once.
Like every country, Sweden also has dishes you would rather not burden anyone with. Flygande Jakob falls into that category. It is a crazy combination of chicken, banana, chili sauce, cream and crisped bacon, sometimes supplemented with peanuts. Sorry, what? Did someone randomly gather a few ingredients and throw them together in an oven dish? No, this really is an official recipe, one that people look back on nostalgically.
That strange Jakob
Is Flygande Jakob a classic? Tour guide and restaurant manager Annemie van Bennekom has been visiting Sweden regularly for twenty years; she ran a restaurant there for a while. ‘I had never heard of it,’ she says. ‘I looked through my collection of Swedish cookbooks, but found it in only one old book. I think it is part of the so-called husmanskost, simple peasant dishes. You do see those on the menus of old-fashioned restaurants, but I never came across that strange Jakob either.’
Everyone goes to Thailand
Chili sauce in a simple peasant kitchen? Not so strange, because Swedes have been holidaying in Asia since the 1970s, Annemie knows. ‘At a time when half of the Netherlands was lying on a Spanish costa, the Swedes flew a little farther, to Thailand and Indonesia. It makes sense, because to travel to the sun they had to get on a plane anyway; you cannot simply drive from Stockholm to Barcelona or Malaga. And flying to Asia is just as cheap, or even cheaper. That explains the use of exotic ingredients, including in classics. Supermarkets generally do not offer a very wide range of fruit and vegetables, but sometimes you find fruits that we cannot get in the Netherlands, from the Far East.’
Incomprehensible
Flygande Jakob, translated as flying Jakob, sprang from the imagination of Ove Jakobson. He worked in aviation and published the recipe in a Swedish culinary magazine in the 1970s. In his original version, chicken fillets are covered with slices of banana, doused with a mixture of crème fraîche and chili sauce, then sprinkled with bacon and peanuts, and served with rice and a green salad. ‘Nowadays there are also vegetarian versions and a version with fish,’ Annemie says. ‘I think we should try it. At the same time, I wonder: will we ever be able to understand this? Sometimes you have to eat something in the country itself to truly get it.’
