NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
KNOPF, 2008
(available in paperback from Vintage, 2009)
JOURNALIST MIKAEL BLOMKVIST is in disgrace, having just been convicted of libel for an article he wrote exposing businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström’s fraudulent business dealings with the Swedish government. The piece appeared in Millennium, the magazine Blomkvist publishes and co-owns with Erika Berger, editor-in-chief and Blomkvist’s longtime lover. Berger agrees to fire Blomkvist to allow the furor to subside.
With his career in free fall, Blomkvist receives a mysterious invitation to meet with aging industrialist Henrik Vanger on Hedeby Island, a wintry outpost north of Stockholm. There, the elderly Vanger begs Blomkvist to fulfill a wish before he dies: investigate the disappearance of his grandniece, Harriet, who vanished forty years earlier. Vanger suspects murder—perhaps by a member of his own clan, who still reside on the island—but a body has never been found. If Blomkvist succeeds, Vanger promises, he’ll receive not only a handsome salary, but also information about Wennerström’s criminal activities that will clear Blomkvist’s name.
Under the guise of chronicling the Vanger family history, Blomkvist moves to Hedeby Island and starts questioning members of the clan. He is soon joined by Lisbeth Salander, a sullen, tattooed, motorcycle-riding young investigator with a photographic memory and a talent for hacking computers. Salander copes with a troubled private life—in particular, a sadistic guardian—but tackles investigations with precision and tenacity. Together, Blomkvist and Salander piece together details of the events on the day of Harriet’s disappearance, along the way making grisly discoveries of violence and abuse over multiple generations. The shock waves of their revelations reverberate throughout the Vanger family and Millennium magazine, and put their own lives in peril.
Made of seasoned pork, beef, and sometimes veal, and covered with a brown or cream sauce, Swedish meatballs were brought to America by Scandinavian immigrants in the late nineteenth century. The meatballs became popular in America at the beginning of the twentieth century and again in the 1950s and 1960s, and are currently enjoying another renaissance, including among book clubs.
The three working moms of Read Between the Wines in McHenry, Illinois, have been friends since childhood, and share a love of reading, journalism, and English. For their discussion of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Heather Arnold served these Swedish meatballs, along with egg noodles and lingonberry jam on the side. (Lingonberries, plentiful in the forested regions of Sweden, are a staple of Scandinavian cuisine. Blomkvist and Vanger share bacon pancakes with lingonberries as they discuss the investigation.) “I think the unique spices make these meatballs exotic compared to the ‘standard’ Italian meatballs that we as Americans know,” says Arnold. Group member Jill Tsuji agreed the food was a perfect accompaniment to the book. “The meatballs and red wine served at our meeting were as hardy as the story, but the soft noodles and rich sauce softened my mood and satisfied my appetite,” says Tsuji. “I left both the meeting and the end of the book wanting more.”
This recipe was adapted from Martha Stewart Living (February 2005).
NOTE: The standard meat loaf mix is N pound ground beef, N pound ground pork, and N pound ground veal. You can use a different ratio of meat depending on your taste, or simply use 1 pound of ground beef.
If you can’t find lingonberry jam, cranberry relish is a nice substitute.
For the meatballs
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1 pound ground meat loaf mix (see note) 1 small onion, grated on large holes of box grater (about G cup) ½ cup sour cream 1 large egg, lightly beaten 3 tablespoons dry bread crumbs |
Freshly ground pepper ½ teaspoon ground allspice ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided |
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2 tablespoons red wine 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups beef stock |
Egg noodles for serving Chopped parsley for garnish Lingonberry jam for serving (see note) |
Preheat oven to 275°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
To make the meatballs: Combine meat loaf mix, onion, sour cream, egg, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and spices. Shape into 1-inch meatballs.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook half of the meatballs, turning gently with a spatula (so they don’t break apart) until browned and cooked through, about 6 minutes. Place meatballs on the lined baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Repeat with remaining oil and meatballs.
To make the sauce: Pour off fat and large brown bits from skillet. Add wine; cook over medium heat, stirring until mostly reduced. Whisk in flour; add stock. Raise heat to medium-high. Simmer, stirring until thick, 8–10 minutes.
Toss meatballs in sauce to coat. Place meatballs with a bit of sauce on top of a bowl of cooked egg noodles. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve remaining sauce and lingonberry jam on the side.
Yield: 25–30 meatballs, 4 to 6 servings
(See photo insert.)
Glögg, or mulled wine, is a popular drink during the Christmas season in Sweden. Lisbeth is invited to holiday glögg celebrations—although she rarely attends—and at the end of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we find Blomkvist sipping glögg at Millennium’s annual Christmas party.
The women of Morsels for the Mind in Grand Rapids, Michigan, research the book selection before meetings, and tie refreshments in to the book’s theme. Hostess Nancy Dausman served glögg for the group’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meeting. According to Laura Lewakowski, the warm drink helped set the “cultural atmosphere,” introduced members to a new, exotic beverage, and “really hit the spot on the wintry night” when their meeting took place.
There are many versions of glögg, some made with sweet wines, and some that incorporate stronger liquors such as brandy, vodka, or Blomkvist’s favorite, aquavit. This recipe, made with Madeira and brown sugar, along with cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, is particularly sweet and warming—a perfect antidote to the ice-cold Swedish winters described in the book, and the cold-blooded machinations of its characters.
NOTE: Choose a medium-bodied burgundy or blend that is not too fruity and not too dry. It is not necessary to buy an expensive wine because the spices will infuse it with flavor.
Cardamom pods are available at specialty grocers. Do not use ground cardamom because it will give the wine a heavy consistency. To crack cardamom pods: Lay the flat edge of a butter knife on top of the pod, and press with your palm hard enough to crack the pod. Place the pod and seeds into the liquid.
Although glögg can be served immediately, for best flavor prepare it a day ahead of time and allow the spices to steep.
1 750-milliliter bottle red wine (see note) 1 cup Madeira wine 6 tablespoons brown sugar 3 1-inch pieces orange peel |
3-inch stick cinnamon, plus 8 (6-inch) cinnamon sticks for garnish (optional) 6 whole cloves 3 whole cardamom pods, cracked (see note) |
Put all of the ingredients in a medium stainless-steel saucepan. Warm gently over medium-low heat until steaming, but do not boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, continuing to watch closely so liquid does not boil.
Serve immediately. Or, for best flavor, cover pot and refrigerate 12–24 hours to let spices steep. Reheat gently. To serve: Strain liquid into tempered glass mugs and garnish with a cinnamon stick if desired.
Yield: Eight 4-ounce servings
NOVEL THOUGHTS
The Spicewood Springs Library Mystery Book Group relished the challenge of trying to solve the central puzzle in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a classic whodunit. “We enjoy mysteries like this one, in which the reader has to follow the trail of bread crumbs, the clues, the logical sequence of events, and put the puzzle together,” says Kay Stewart. Some members were taken aback by the sexual violence depicted in the book (the graphic scenes might come as “a bit of a shock” to book clubs unaccustomed to reading mysteries, says Stewart) and felt Larsson had painted a picture of Swedish life at odds with their preconceived ideas about the country. “We were surprised at the level of abuse of women,” says Stewart. The group appreciated Larsson’s passion for certain issues: corporate corruption and greed, governmental cover-ups, and violence against women. “Larsson was an investigative journalist and I think his skill at digging for the dirt shows in a lot of ways,” says Stewart. “I suspect that Mikael Blomkvist is Larsson’s alter ego.”
More Food for Thought
Brianne Smith prepared an all-purple meal for her fellow book club members in Tallahassee, Florida, when they discussed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Her meal included purple potatoes (sliced thin, baked, and dipped in a homemade aioli sauce); red cabbage, boiled, then stir-fried with vegetables and tofu; soba noodles stained purple by boiling in the cabbage water; and, for dessert, coconut rice topped with brown-sugar-roasted purple figs served in martini glasses. “Turning almost everything purple fit the eclectic nature of Lisbeth,” explains Smith. “The ingredients, like noodles and vegetables, were simple, but turning everything purple gave the meal an unusual theme. To the world, Lisbeth appeared to be a simple person, but you learn how unique she is underneath. The meal was a representation of how not to judge things superficially.”
Between the meal and the book, which the group loved, Smith calls this one of the group’s best meetings. “Usually, we’ll converse more about our own lives, but for this meeting, most of our discussion was about Lisbeth. We had become attached to and protective of her, as if she were a real person—ironic since we were also aware she proved she could fend for herself. The character of Lisbeth was able to capture every facet of womanhood—from fragility to strength—and this made each of us want to know more about her.”
Morsels for the Mind in Grand Rapids, Michigan, savored a Swedish feast, including Swedish meatballs (see recipe), salmon puffs with sour cream and caviar sauce, Swedish nuts, Swedish cabbage-and-orange salad, potato lefse, glögg (see recipe), and, for dessert, kladdkaka (sticky chocolate cake) and Swedish thumbprint cookies. “This smörgåsbord was a true taste of Sweden,” remarks Laura Lewakowski, “and we enjoyed every morsel as we discussed the book.”