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Embrace Swedish Cosy Fridays with this Easy Taco Recipe
Think Swedish food and you probably don’t think tacos. For millions of Swedes, though, Friday night means just that. You come home from work, change into some comfy clothes, put on some music and wait for them to heat up. It’s a weekly tradition known as fredagsmys or ‘Cosy Friday’.
Fredagsmys has its origins in a marketing campaign for crisps. OLW used the slogan Nu är det freeedagsmyyys… (‘Now it’s cosy Friday time…’) back in the 1990s. Without hygge or koselig, Swedes jumped on an opportunity to put a label to their (just as enthusiastic) candle lighting and jumper wearing. Fredagsmys is not the same as hygge: that’s an all-week thing. But, as any Swede will tell you, saving all your cosiness for one night only works better.
Fredagsmys is deeply rooted in the weekly routine and takes many forms. For a family, it’s about everyone cooking together. For a couple, it might be one person’s treat to have the dinner cooked for them. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be about tacos. Finger food, however, is obligatory and takeaways are always banned. Basically, as long as there isn’t a big pile of dirty pots and pans, you’ve succeeded. I’d stick with tacos. They work whatever the season. In winter, they warm you up. In summer, you can cook fillings on the barbeque and eat them outside. And tacos are still great the next day. Taco pies and taco pizzas make regular appearances on weekend tables, and village shops in Sweden even sell family leftovers the next day. Television also plays a major role in fredagsmys. Often, it’s a film (Westerns and Star Wars are the most popular), sometimes a programme on television, Midsomer Murders is recommended, as is catch-up of that week’s Skavlan.
Why not embrace fredagsmys with your own plate of tasty tacos…
Ingredients
For the filling:
1 chicken
4 sprigs thyme
olive oil
1 lemon
1 bulb garlic
500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 cos lettuce
250g cherry tomatoes
2 avocados
100g mixed seeds
200g feta cheese
For the salsa:
2 red/green chillies
500g green tomatoes
1 bunch fresh mint
1 bunch fresh coriander
2 spring onions
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
olive oil
tequila
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C and allow chicken to come up to room temperature.
Pick the thyme leaves and squash in a pestle and mortar with salt and pepper, then rub over the chicken with olive oil. Halve the lemon, peel and bash the garlic bulb, then stuff inside the chicken. Place the chicken in a roasting tray and cook for 1 hour 30 minutes. Insert a knife into the thickest part of the thigh – if the juices run clear and the meat pulls away, it’s done.
Meanwhile, place the flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and 150ml cold water, stirring continuously until the mixture forms a rough dough. Transfer to a flour-dusted surface and knead for 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic, then shape into a long sausage shape. Slice the dough into 16 pieces, roll into balls, then set aside for later.
Prick the chillies with a sharp knife, discard the papery skin from the tomatillos, then place on a griddle. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until blackened all over, turning occasionally.
Trim the spring onions and peel the garlic. Put the mint leaves, chillies, tomatillos, spring onions, garlic and remaining salsa ingredients in a food processor with a couple of generous pinches of salt, then whiz until smooth.
Once cooked, allow the chicken to cool slightly, then shred.
On a flour-dusted surface, roll the dough balls into circles. Preheat a frying pan over a high heat, then add the tortillas and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until lightly golden, turning halfway. Wrap the tortillas in tin foil to keep them warm as you go.
Meanwhile, shred the lettuce, quarter the cherry tomatoes and de-stone the avocados.
Assemble the tacos!
We’ll see you this Friday for tacos, chats and a lot of chilling!
