Salads ghg: Pictures from the Swedish midsummer Supper Club

Pictures from the Swedish midsummer Supper Club

3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

Left to Right: Chef Linn Soderstrom, msmarmitelover, chef Marian Ringborg of Spring restaurant: 3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

We started out by nicking beech leaves from the ground of a local council block. An old lady stopped me:

What do you think you are doing?

Don't worry, we would never harm a tree. We are gardeners, Swedish gardeners. (I hear Linn squawk in the background).

You should have asked tuts the lady.

I try to enthuse her about our project:

We are collecting beech to decorate a crucifix. It's a really important midsummer festival. For Swedish people. Everyone does it.

It's not pagan is it?

Noooo. Course not. Hahaha.

I'm not actually sure though. We've made a 7 foot high crucifix from willow branches. On each arm there is a ring. Beech leaves and flowers are wound around the willow. It's all quite Wicker Man.
Linn says we will have to sing a song and dance around it. Surprisingly our midsummer supper club guests appear quite keen on the prospect. They ask if they have to be nude as well.

It's up to you.

I answer, quietly hoping they will. Visions of smearing my body with mud while wearing a flower crown come to mind. Like The Slits cover. Linn looks appalled.

Midsummmer this year has been the hottest since we started three years ago. On the one hand, I'm delighted, it means we can definitely sit outside. On the other, the 33C heat is energy sapping. I can barely function in the kitchen even with the Aga (a Swedish oven) turned down. Fortunately much of the meal, the first half, the smorgasbord, is served cold. The second half is hot BBQ, cooked on the Big Green Egg outside. My fridges aren't coping very well in the heat however. Everything needs to be kept in the fridge. Everything is wilting.

A couple of days previously I have to throw away two sides of cured salmon that I was trying to cold smoke in the BGE. Even though I was doing it at night, when the temperature drops, it was still too warm. The salmon cooked rather than smoked. When I went to check at 4am, the salmon was luke warm and slightly squelchy rather than firm to the touch. I wasn't going to risk serving it. I discover that you can cold smoke from frozen so if this happens again, I will freeze the salmon. I still had one beetroot-cured salmon in the fridge which we could use as gravad lax.

The Telegraph has written that hygge is over and that Swedish midsummer feasts are the new trend. We aren't mentioned in the article. I expect everyone will be doing it next year. But if you want to come to the original Swedish Midsummer Supper Club, with chef Linn Soderstrom and myself, book early. We are the best.

The menu this week

Elderflower aquavit cocktail: 3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

canapés: 3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

Elderflower aquavit with tonic and wild strawberries

Vasterbotten cheese and Kallix roe on Peters Yard crispbread

Smoked salmon rolls with dill and sour cream on soft bread

sandalwood herring from Kladesholmen: 3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

Sandalwood pickled herring from Gothenburg company Kladesholmen

Potatoes, red onion, sour cream and chives, mustard dill sauce

Smoked salmon

Beetroot cured gravadlax and the Swedish midsummer horse: 3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

Beetroot cured salmon

Smoked salmon cheesecake with borage: 3rd annual Swedish midsummer supper club with msmarmitelover and Linn Soderstrom in London

Smoked salmon 'cheese cake' with borage and cucumber. (I saw this in my recent visit to Stockholm and asked Linn to make it about which she was dubious. It's actually quite naff in Sweden, the sort of thing your nan makes. It's the Swedish equivalent of quiche. When my nan discovered quiche in the 80s, every time we went round we got bloody quiche. I don't even like quiche. So I understand Linn's reluctance).