A little embarrassing, it had been almost two years since I visited Långbro Värdshus in the Stockholm suburb of Älvsjö. This beautiful inn is set in a peaceful park less than 20 minutes with subway from Stockholm Central Station and here you will find an award-winning chef and restaurateur with tons of experience on his CV.
Fredrik Eriksson has been a member of the Swedish Culinary Team and has represented Sweden in the Bocuse d’Or. He won the Swedish Chef of the Year awards in 1987 and has twice been named “Sweden´s Chef of Chefs”. For his extraordinary contributions to Swedish food culture he has also been awarded the Swedish Gastronomic Academy’s gold medal, and acting as both chef and co-owner of well known Fjäderholmarnas Krog and Villa Källhagen in Stockholm he helped the restaurants build a great reputation over the years.
It goes without saying that Chef Fredrik Eriksson is one of the most important ambassadors for Sweden and Swedish food.
In the warm and welcoming surroundings of Långbro Värdhus Fredrik had prepared a five course lunch menu for me on Tuesday 30th April.
First I was served a fresh cold salad of thinly sliced crispy asparagus, herbs and truffle. In the bottom was some cabbage cream being smooth and perfectly salty. This was a joyful and pleasant thing to eat.
King crab was next, cooked beautifully having a sweet and rich flavour and tender texture, with tomato mayonnaise, baked tomatoes and fried capers. The tomatoes was a nice addition to the crab being sweet and a little sourish while the fried capers added the salty flavour and crispy texture this dish needed.
Next was beef cured in porter beer with vendace roe, Smetana, horseradish, chives and pickles. A well balanced dish which managed surprisingly good taste from the beef with its light porter character and melting texture, bearing in mind that this was a plate with lots of components on it. Långbro Pale Ale from Skebo was a perfect match with this dish.
I was happy to see that Fredrik served greater weever, a fish I have had only once in a restaurant earlier. It is delicious, having similar texture and flavour as perch. Here it was simply pan fried with lots of butter and bread crumbs and served with beurre blanc (very classy indeed) and a fun take on the Swedish classic “Gubbröra” (an anchovy and egg mix) which in this case was anchovy-onion-mashed potatoes with a poached egg on the side. A fresh little salad of dill and its stems added freshness and texture. In my book this is comfort food at its absolute best.
For dessert I had cheesecake but forget about the always-so-boring version with biscuit base and cream cheese filling. This cheesecake, a culinary heritage from Småland, is produced by adding rennet to milk and letting the casein coagulate. Cream, sugar, eggs, almonds and bitter almonds are added to create a batter and then it’s baked in the oven. Fredriks version was nothing but delicious, served at the perfect – lukewarm – temperature in order to let all the delicate flavours come through. Whipped cream and strawberry jam on the side. Nothing else needed except some fine Tokaji.
There is some really impressive comfortable food being served here and I very much enjoyed the atmosphere in this old villa being genuine and country like, combined with beautiful surroundings and friendly people. In other words reasons more than enough not having to wait two years until my next visit. Perhaps next time I will check out the outdoor barbecue and cocktail bar, open during summer months, at Långbro Värdshus.
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More pictures from my visit to Långbro Värdshus can be found here!
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Stora mans väg 4
125 59 Älvsjö
info@langbrovardshus.se
Tel: +46 8-646 00 50
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