Starter
Cured capercaillie tartare
The capercaillie is a bird that is associated with the wild forests of inland Västerbotten. The flavour of the bird is complemented by the flavours found in the surrounding landscape such as matsutake mushrooms, pickled spruce shoots, pickled blackcurrant leaves, unripe blackcurrants with capers, pickled chanterelles and lingonberries.
The capercaillie is a bird that lives in the wild forests deep inland in Västerbotten; beautiful in appearance, interesting in personality and slightly forgotten in our cuisine. Many hunters hunt capercaillie but few restaurants cook with it.
Main course
Baked arctic char
Arctic char from the mountain lakes has beautiful flesh and a gentle, attractive flavour. Here it is served with Västerbotten cheese browned butter, almond potatoes, blackened cucumber, vendace roe, deep-fried black salsify, pickled kohlrabi pockets with a chive aioli, tender broccoli, radish shavings and Västerbotten cheese crisps.
Arctic char is a fish often associated with Västerbotten. It loves clear, cold waters.
Dessert
Bryta with a twist
No-one would deny that the traditional dish bryta is part of Västerbotten – even though not everyone might have eaten it. The uninitiated might reasonably ask what it is.
A simple dish, it can best be described as a kind of snack where cold milk is poured over broken hard flatbread before adding jam, and on the side of the plate there should be a bit of smoked sausage to add a salty, savoury flavour and make the dish feel filling. Master chef Freddy Holmgren at Wild River has spent some time thinking about how to transform it into a restaurant-worthy dish. This is his attempt to give bryta the attention it deserves, derived from his memories of a childhood with loving grandparents. Here it is served in a new guise with goat’s milk, a flatbread panna cotta, a cloudberry sorbet, frozen soft goat’s cheese, flatbread fried with sugar, a bird cherry and rhubarb jelly and bacon candied with birch syrup, all decorated with cornflowers.
The creators behind Västerbotten’s new county meal run a small restaurant beside the rushing waters of the Mårdselforsen rapids where they spend the summers serving food with flavours they love themselves. They are driven by a desire to create food clearly rooted in local ingredients from the forests and farms nearby.
The people behind the menu
Concept and recipes
The Västerbotten meal is created by master chef Freddy Holmgren, who runs the Wild River restaurant at Mårdseleforsen with his partner Emma Wåhlstedt.
Today the rapids are a nature reserve on the Vindelälven river whose bridges provide excellent opportunities to gaze at the wild and mighty rushing water. The seasonal restaurant Wild River is beside a picnic spot on road 363.
The menu takes us on a journey through the forests of Västerbotten with a focus on local ingredients and the forest as nature’s larder.
To drink
Starter
Rålund Classic blueberry wine makes for an amazing flavour combination with the capercaillie
Idunn (Norsjö Wine & Co)
Main course
Bergskär Lingonvin
A lingonberry rosé, which appreciates the smoky notes of our fish dish
Idunn (Norsjö Wine & Co)
Dessert
Bute sparkling ice cider from Carlshem in Umeå
With its dark apple flavour and attractive bubbles, it goes perfectly with the Bryta