Tunnbrödsrolle Tutorial

I have a Swedish friend. I ask her all of my pressing, international inquiries such as, "How can I pay this Norwegian parking ticket?" and "Where should I leave my shoes at the pool?" and "What else do you eat with the crunchy roasted onions?"

Visiting Nordens Ark, we discovered that Swedes like to put crunchy roasted onions on their hot dogs. Friends repeatedly confirmed this when we were invited over to barbecue and offered roasted onions for our hot dogs.

Americans will recognize this food as "that crunchy stuff we only eat once a year on top of the green bean casserole at Thanksgiving". We call them "French fried onions" and ours are more like strips, but the Swedish ones are more like little chunks.

After this crunchy deliciousness came to my attention, I noticed it in the grocery stores. Sometimes, it is sold in giant bags. I couldn't imagine that all of that was for hot dogs, so I asked my Swedish friend: What else do you put that on?

She replied, "Nothing... Except, if you want to make your hot dog a bit fancier, you can do this."

And then she proceeded to describe to me the Swedish specialty known as a tunnbrödsrolle (translation: thin bread roll).

And here's how you make it!

Step 1: Get our your tunnbröd

It looks like this. Don't get the crispy kind!

Step 2: Make some mashed potatoes. You can get all fancy-like and boil actual potatoes, but this isn't gourmet food. I opted for the instant version.

Instant potatismos!

Just follow the simple instructions!

Step 3: Cook up some hot dogs. Again, you could grill them if you're feeling fancy and you want to make your life difficult. I put them in a pan of hot water.

Bacon and cheese make everything better.

That's not a blurry photo. That's steam!

Step 4: Get out your roasted onions and ketchup.

These are so delicious. Why can't we put them on everything?

Ok, yeah, I should've gotten some Swedish ketchup, but y'know.

Step 5: Put it all together! Smear some potatismos on your tunnbröd. Then toss a grillkorv on there, and top it with the rostad lök. Roll that sucker up and you're ready to go!

See how easy?

Voila! Dinner is served!

It is sort of like a hot dog burrito, I guess? Or hot dog wrap? The addition of the mashed potatoes was... interesting. Can't be any weirder than putting French fries in your Cali burrito, amiright?

Oh, and apparently if you want to take the fanciness factor of this dish up to eleven, you can add shrimp salad. Yes, that is correct. Shrimp salad. As in, cold cooked shrimp tossed in mayo. (Needless to say, my family did NOT approve of this variation.)

This dish got a passing grade from the Long family. I asked the kids what they thought of it and got one, "It's good," and one mute nod. Jeremy and I liked it just fine, but I think I'll stick with a traditional hot dog. In a bun. As long as I can pour a pile of those crunchy onions over the top of that, it'll be all good!