It’s many days after the second day of Fittja Caffe, and we’re overdue on updating the blog with the amazing weeks spent in Fittja in October with Marjetica Potrc and her studio of students from HFBK in Hamburg, farmer-artists Kultivator, and student artists from the Konstfack and Royal Academy of Art Schools here in Stockholm.

(photo credit:  Johanna Padge)

However, it’s no longer sunny – in fact, when we arrived in Stockholm today at 3pm, it was already dusk turning to dark and snow was falling everywhere! Now the front yard of the caffe is covered in snow, and student artist Ryo Yonami from Berkeley, the most recent OPENrestaurant intern and collaborator, is making snowpeople for the first time!

Here is Ryo in front of the same apartment/residency/caffe, two months after the photo above, at 5 in the afternoon!

We will be updating the blog daily, or as often as we can, during the next week and a half that we are here in Fittja, making the recipes we learned in October during the OPENFittja Caffe / Common Roof Kitchen, and creating a recipe and leftovers exchange in the gallery at Botkyrka Konsthall.

(photo credit: Anneli Backman)

This is Hilda, niece of our project manager Anneli, running past OPENrestaurant’s table at the State of the Craft Exhibition at Botkyrka Konsthall. The table is one of fifteen that were made for the Common Roof Kitchen at Fittja Open / OPENFittja Caffe by Til Richter and others from HFBK (Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst, Hamburg).

Saturday, 15 December from 12:00 – 15:00 we will be filling the table with Fittja Food in an exchange of leftovers for our takeaway containers. Sunday we will be in the gallery again making more of the containers with gallery visitors.

Here are the takeaway containers in their shipping crate, all intact after 24 hours of plane travel!

We will be cooking at Residence Fittja, 26 Krogarvagen tomorrow, Wednesday, December 12 from 14:00 – 18:00.

All are welome to visit, eat, cook, and share ideas.

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Already today in the taxi from the airport, Ildo our driver shared some recipes. He lives in Tumba with his wife, his two-and-a-half-month-old daughter, and his son, who is five and who loves to cook. They are always in the kitchen together, cooking Swedish food, and cooking Estonian-Russian fare with his wife – Ildo says this is “quite a bit lighter” than Swedish food!

Ildo suggested that if we are making Fittja Food, maybe we would try Baklava? And he contributed a few recipes for Tumba food, including the recipe for Jansson’s Frestelse (Temptation), which will be on his Christmas table, along with salmon, mashed potatoes, vodka of course, and a salad of grated beets, garlic, and mayonnaise (“100% for sure!”).

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Jansson’s Frestelse a la Ildo

Use anchovies, or scandinavian sprats.

Line the bottom of a casserole with butter, then potatoes cut into fries, then sprats.

Repeat with potatoes and sprats, potatoes and sprats, until the top, sprinkling each layer with salt and black pepper.

Onions can also be used, sauteed first in a pan to soften them and then layered in with the sprats and potatoes.

Over the top, sprinkle crushed knackebrot, then pour cream or half and half over all.

Bake it in a 425 degree oven for one hour or until cooked through and browned on top.

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