Weekend Cat Blogging - love, sweet love

Gisele Gruyère, left, has been on a date this week. On the right is her handsome boyfriend, Athos. Cross your fingers (and paws) that we'll get cute little kittens in nine weeks or so!

For more kitties, head over to Kiri and Clare at Eat Stuff!

Chèvre Grape Salad for the new year

Happy New Year! This year has been wonderful for me - and I hope all my readers feel the same way. I've had so much happening - the big thing: my wedding. I'm so very thankful for having found the one I plan to spend the rest of my life with, and having married him feels wonderful. I've also had the opportunity to travel a bit this year - to Paris, London and Spain - lovely. And of course, I've developed this blog quite a bit. Something which I plan to keep on doing next year, for sure.

I have very easygoing plans for this New Year's Eve - me and Per are going to a friend's house for dinner. I can't wait - her boyfriend is a great cook, and I happen to know they just bought an ice cream maker...

Now, for a recipe. This salad is one of the best I've ever eaten. Really. The flavor combination is incredible. The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Kitchen cookbook, and he says that you should use fresh tarragon. Well, I rarely have that. (very rarely, indeed.) So, I use rocket instead, and I use some dried tarragon thrown in with the vinegar. Excellent. By all means, use fresh tarragon if you have it - at least try it that way, you might find it a little intense - but this way is very nice too. It makes a really, really good starter - or a great dinner all by itself if you're not so hungry. Do try it!

Chèvre Grape Salad
Serves 2 as a light main course, or 4 as a starter

3-4 shallots, finely sliced
good white vinegar, 4-5 tbsp
1 tsp dried tarragon
4-5 tbsp olive oil
2 large handfuls of rocket, washed and dried
2 bunches of seedless grapes, sliced in half
150 g chèvre cheese
salt, freshly ground black pepper

Start by placing the sliced shallots in a small bowl. Cover with the vinegar and add the dried tarragon. Let stand for at least fifteen minutes. This makes the shallots incredibly crunchy and almost pickled.

Place the rocket and the grapes in a large bowl. Add the shallots and their vinegar, add the olive oil. Toss. Season with a little salt and freshly ground pepper if you'd like. Divide unto plates, and sprinkle with crumbled chèvre.

Sallad med Chèvre och druvor

Snowy Day

It's extremely snowy in Sweden today.

Love Yummies

I have written about these before, but without giving a recipe. This is a lovely little cake, that goes by many names in Swedish. I grew up with them as "Mocha Squares", Per's family called them "Maj's Spring Squares" and nowadays they're often called "Love Yummies" in the coffee shops. I prefer the last name, isn't it cute?

It's also fast and simple to bake, and it was the first thing Per made for me when we first started dating. It freezes well, if you're so inclined. Serve with coffee - it's perfect with a strong espresso!

Mocha Squares

2 eggs
300 ml sugar (about 240 g)
150 ml milk
450 ml flour (about 225 g)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
1 tbsp cacao powder
150 g melted butter or shortening

Butter and line a sheet pan with bread crumbs. Heat the oven to 225°C (~435°F)

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla and cacao. Mix the flour and baking powder, and add this to the batter with the milk. Finally, add the melted butter or shortening. Pour the batter into the prepared sheet pan. Bake for about 15 minutes. Take out and let cool completely.

For the topping:

200 g sieved powdered sugar
4 tbsp melted butter
4 tbsp cold strong coffee
1 tbsp cacao
2 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
dessicated coconut flakes

Mix everything together, except the coconut. Spread over the cooled cake and sprinkle with the coconut.

Foodie Gifts: Mastiha and Halva

I was fortunate enough to meet some of my blog readers a while ago! Tülin and Sakos from Greece were in Stockholm for a tabletennis tournament, and we managed to meet up and had some lovely coffee (or tea, actually) at Vetekatten. Being the incredibly sweet and generous people that they are, they had brought gifts! What to bring for a foodie - well, obviously, food.

Do you know what Mastiha is? No? Me either. But I was about to find out!

Mastiha starts as a semi-transparent sap from lentisk trees (actually evergreen bushes) found only in certain areas of the Greek island of Chios. As resinous granules, it was the original chewing gum, and the name "mastiha" is the root word of "masticate," meaning "to chew."

Mastiha is used in sweets, cooking, as a flavoring for liqueurs, and in soap-making, cosmetics, and toothpaste, among others. Recent evidence of its positive effect on ulcers has resulted in a boom in purchases by large pharmaceutical companies.

So, lots of good-for-you properties! I got Mastiha alcohol, and a Mastiha cake (that I haven't tried yet, I'm saving it for a special moment!) - fun!

Read more about Mastiha here.


And, for christmas, I got a package of Halva from Tülin! A traditional turkish dessert, very very sweet and very very good. I believe this is what's also called Turkish Delight - and just what naugthy Edward asks the White Witch for.. yes, I recently watched Narnia...

Domestic Goddess Onion Soup

I can't believe I haven't had time to blog about this! It was a wonderful, wonderful soup, and I truly felt like a domestic goddess when I served it up. Contrary to what you might believe, the recipe is not at all from Nigella's book with the same name, but from another D G - Julia Child's classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" that was given to me by a friend who was moving and didn't want to lug the heavy book with him. (Thank you, thank you, thank you!)

It takes time - but it's time very well spent, no doubts about it. Do give it a try. Please. I urge you. I changed some things from the original - for one, the cream wasn't in there, but I like the round feel of it. (Besides, I had omitted quite a bit of the oil and butter, so I felt fine with adding some liquid fat instead.) Feel free to play around with seasoning, or serving - maybe with some toasted bread, croutons, a little floater with cheese.. anything. I liked mine as plain as possible, with some crusty bread on the side.

Classic Onion Soup
adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Childs
2 generous servings, or 4 as a small starter

3 large yellow onions, very thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 litre (4 cups) boiling water + 2 bouillon cubes, or 1 litre stock.
150 ml white wine
50 ml cognac
100 ml single cream

Melt the butter and olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, cover with a lid, and let it sweat for fifteen minutes on low heat. Remove the lid, and raise the heat to medium. Add the salt and a pinch of sugar, stir well. Let the onions caramelize for 30 minutes, stirring every five minutes. It must absolutely not burn.

Sprinkle in the flour, and stir well for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine, water and bouillon cubes (or ready made stock). Put the lid halfway on, and bring to a boil. Let simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes. Stir every now and then. Just before serving, correct seasonuing, and add cream and cognac.

Some cool new things

I've done quite a bit of shopping lately, and that means some fun additions for my kitchen, too!



-New Espresso cups! I found these handmade, unique cups, at an arts & craft fair that I went to with my sister. I fell in love at first sight - they're not only just the right size, but they're also comfortable to hold and intensely gorgeous. The designer - Louise Fredriksson - only had two that were the same shape, but hey, I'm happy with two.



-Copper Cookie Cutter! I love cat cookie cutters, and I'm always looking for new, unique ones. This one is my favorite - it's very large, and makes beautiful cats! But this little cat's head that I found at the same fair as above will make a good second, I think. I like that it'll make a smaller cookie, and I can't wait to try it out.



-Mise en place bowls. We've changed the way we cook lately, and we try to think more in "mise en place" terms than before. This means we have to have some decent bowls, and these beautiful stainless steel bowls from Ikea certainly fits the bill! I'm excited - good organization really makes for easier cooking, and more efficient, too!

Pralinhuset

Some more chocolate pralines found their way into my home - and tummy - the other day. These were from Pralinhuset, a great chocolate store in Stockholm. They have two locations, and are also frequently at different fairs, where I have encountered their mouth watering displays.

So, which ones did I pick? Left row, front to back: Wild Raspberry, Apple and Cinnamon Marzipan, Ginger. Right row, front to back: Toffee Caramel, Hazelnut Nougat, Tiramisu. My fave was the Apple and Cinnamon Marzipan - great flavor combination. The Ginger was also really nice, it had a very strong and fresh flavor.

Pralinhuset
Drottinggatan 112
or
Gallerian

Foodie Gifts: Tableas

I couldn't believe it when Lori of Dessert Comes First offered to send me some chocolate tableas, all the way from the Philippines. But she did. And they arrived. And they are great. Amazing, really, how some cacao, sugar and whatever else goes in these, can end up being so fluffy and luxurious when mixed with milk. Really delicious! We don't have anything like it here, so I'll just have to go to the Philippines to pick up some more! :)

Foodie Gifts: Confit de Roses

I got this lovely pink jar of goodness from a Secret Santa exchange at a cat forum I frequent. Many many thanks to sweet Allycat for knowing just what I wanted! :)