Restaurant Review: Finn's Café, plus their recipe for Traditional Norwegian Waffles

There is a little café here in Sugarhouse called Finn's Café, which serves Scandinavian food. They are especially known for their breakfast menu, which they serve all day. They have a fun variety of dishes, and everything we tried there is simply delicious!

 One of my favorite things on their menu is the Eggs Benedict Royale, which serves a poached egg with hollandaise sauce over an english muffin and smoked salmon. 

Another popular item on their menu is the Jule Kake French Toast. A Jule Kake is a Danish Christmas bread with raisins and spices. 

They have some fun drinks as well. They flavor the lemonade with mint, and serve a green drink made of cucumbers and a few other veggies. Their hot cocoa is amazing! The flavor is mild and delicate, not the rich American cocoa. 

They also serve Norwegian Waffles, and have the recipe listed on their website. So, naturally, we tried them at home. 

Traditional Norwegian Spiced waffles - served with maple syrup, sour cream and lingonberries.

Ingredients:

6 eggs 
1 cup sugar 
1/4 cup sour cream 
1 cup flour 
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 
1/8 teaspoon cardamom 
1/8 teaspoon dried ginger 
cooking spray 
waffle toppings 


Batter:

Combine 6 eggs and 1 cup of sugar. Whip until firm peaks are formed. Blend in 1/4 cups of sour cream. Add 1 cup flour and 1/8 teaspoon each of nutmeg, cardamom and dried ginger; fold in until thoroughly mixed. Chill batter in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Cooking:

Preheat waffle iron and mist with cooking spray (Pam). Gently pour in batter. Cook until golden brown (2-4 minutes). Traditionally served with sour cream and lingonberries, but also goes great with any of your favorite jams, or syrups!

Note: I found my lingonberry preserves at IKEA, or at a local store here- Harmons. I haven't found it at other grocery retailers yet. 

Glögg: A Scandinavian Beverage

Everyone loves the movie, "Frozen," but I was especially excited to  see that they included Glögg, a traditional scandinavian beverage, in the movie! We have some ties to Scandinavia, so it's been a Christmas tradition in our family to make it every year. We had a hard time finding it in the stores, so we found a few recipes to make it at home. Since then, we have found one local store that sells it, and we end up buying the few bottles they carry. I am glad we found a recipe though - some of the best Christmas traditions are the homemade ones. Cheers! Or should I say, "Skol!"

9-12 cardamom seeds or 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1 cup slivered almonds (optional)

2 cinnamon sticks or 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

6-12 whole cloves or 1/2 tsp. ground cloves

6 figs or 1 cup raisins (optional)

2-4 cups orange, pineapple, or cranberry juice

6-8 cups apple cider or apple juice

1/2 cup crystallized ginger slices, diced or 1 lemon, sliced (optional)

1/2 cup candied orange peel, diced or 1 orange sliced (optional)

Combine all ingredients (except citrus  slices if using fresh citrus). If using whole spices and raisins, tie up in cheese cloth or tea bag and remove before serving. Heat to steaming. Serve with citrus slices in each cup.

One variation to this recipe is to use a raspberry lemonade base instead of the apple cranberry base:

1 6oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate, reconstituted

1 6oz. can frozen raspberry concentrate, reconstituted

4 cinnamon sticks, or 1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

4 cardamom pods, or 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4  cup raisins (optional)

3 Tb. sugar

1 orange, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

  

Combine all ingredients except for the fruit slices, and heat to steaming. When ready to serve, float citrus slices on top.