I never grew up on “cultural” foods of my heritage. My paternal grandmother was Norwegian, but she married a Portuguese man. She didn’t make Portuguese food or Norwegian food according to my recollection. What I do recall was that she was a horrible cook. She burnt everything, but made it with love. My maternal grandmother cooked a lot of Italian food, but wasn’t Italian.  Now Portuguese is a common cuisine here in my part of New England, but Norwegian is not. I really wanted to start exploring that part of my heritage so I started digging up some recipes. So here is the first one I tried. Rekesalat (shrimp salad). It is basically a poor-man’s Lobster Roll, and it was frickin’ delicious!!  The fresh dill really makes this dish pop.

Ingredients

1 lb. shrimp (cooked, tail off)

2 tbsp fresh dill

2 tbsp finely chopped cucumber

1/2 mayonnaise or creme fraiche

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

salt & pepper ( I added a pinch of celery salt)

 

• I cooked the shrimp first and then let them cool. Do not over-cook the shrimp. They cook in a matter of minutes. If you over-cook them they get rubbery.

• The combine all of the ingredients and let the mixture chill for about 30 minutes.

• Serve on a toast New England style hot dog bun for that Lobster Roll feel.

Now it is time to discover some new ones. Please share some in the comments if you have any. I’m just drawing the line at pickled herring.