Red Seasonal Salad

I decided to make a couple of large salads for our large family gathering around christmas. This was one of them - it's from Nigella Lawson's Feast, and she says that it has a vietnamese vibe. I don't know - it seems pretty thai to me - but it was very tasty. I doubled the recipe, and it served 35 as part of a buffet, with a little bit left over. Her original has turkey, and it includes garlic - as we have some very adamant none-garlic-eaters in our family, I omitted that. I fiddled with the quantities - in fact, I just realized the original recipe calls for three TEASPOONS of rice vinegar, and I use tablespoons. Oops! But I liked my version...

Red Seasonal Salad
inspired by Nigella Lawson

500 g cold, cooked chicken, shredded
2 red chillies, very finely chopped
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp rice vinegar
juice of 1 lime
4 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced into half moons
freshly ground black pepper
700 g red cabbage, finely shredded
250 g radishes, cut into crunchy wedges
1 large bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Start by combining sugar, vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce and vegetable oil in a large bowl. Add the chillies, black pepper and onion, and let sit while you prepare the rest. Then add the chicken, and let it marinate for at least fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, shred the cabbage into a very large bowl or plate. Add the radishes and coriander. When ready to serve, add the marinated chicken and all the dressing, and toss well to combine.

Röd Kycklingsallad

13 courses - time for dessert!

I know you've been anxiously waiting - first appetizers, then main courses.. where are the desserts? We actually had four desserts. (And that's a great recipe for a successful dinner party right there.)

First out was a tiny little thing...



Caramels Fleur De Sel, or caramels with Sea Salt

Very easy to make, really. But don't even think about doing it unless you have a good candy thermometer! You need 300 g of sugar, 150 g of butter (salted!), 120 g of heavy cream and some sea salt. (I used an Australian brand.)

Melt the butter and the sugar, and boil until it reaches 175 °C. (Very, very, very, very hot.) Meanwhile, heat the cream until boiling. When the sugar and butter has the right temperature, carefully pour the hot cream into the other pot. (It will spit and fizzle, be careful!) Stir until smooth, and simmer until it reaches 130 °C. Pour into a small pan, and let it cool and set completely. Turn it out and cut into squares, top each squares with a few flakes of salt. Keep in fridge, but serve at room temperature, and watch those teeth!

(Incidentally, these were what was inside the tiny packages...)



Lemon ice cream

I can not begin to tell you how awfully good this was. Absolutely incredible - possibly my favorite dish of the whole meal. Lena kindly shared the recipe - which you can make even without an ice cream maker!

If you want to serve them in lemon shells (and it's a gorgeous presentation, don't you think?), you need to hollow out an appropriate number of lemons. Just scoop the ice cream-mix in them and place into freezer until ready to serve. Or just freeze the ice cream in a container, and eat as it is.

You need 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 egg yolks, 150 ml powdered sugar and 200 ml of heavy cream. Beat the juice, sugar and egg yolks in a small bowl. Beat the cream until it holds peaks, and mix with the egg mixture. Scoop into hollowed-out lemons and freeze, or freeze in a regular container.



White Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Sauce

Ah, this was delicious! Tesse and Danne provided this, no recipe.





Tiramisu

This was allright, but not excellent. Could be that we were all a bit full after the other twelve dishes. The recipe comes from The Gourmet Cookbook, and I think it helped me realize that what I really love about the tiramisu is the creamy filling, but not so much the soaked biscuits. I need to work on that.

Walnut Bread from Lux

As a general rule, I'm nuts for nuts, and I will always pick something with nuts over something without them. As such, I usually choose walnut bread as my first bread to try from a new place. In this case, this very nice (but fairly overpriced) walnut bread comes from Lux Dessert & Choklad which is a short walk from my husband's office. I look forward to trying more of their breads!

IMBB #22 - Chocolate Noodles

When I told Per I was thinking about making chocolate pasta for Is My Blog Burning, he shook his head and looked at me like I was crazy. I persisted, but when I actually made it - he told me that he had misunderstood. He thought I would be boiling regular pasta, and dipping it in chocolate. Huh. Yeah, I wouldn't have been so thrilled with that idea, either.

However, I figured that this installment of IMBB - Use Your Noodle - would gain mostly savory entries, and I really wanted to try something different. So, dessert it would be, sweet pasta was on the menu, and I was going for chocolate. I got the basic idea from Alexandra Zazzi's cookbook - she's a talented pasta chef, but is probably best known for the fact that she was the second winner (and first female) to win Survivor. Anyway. I tweaked quantities a bit, and made just enough for me and Per. Or so I thought, it turned out to be a bit more than that - it'll probably comfortably feed four. You really just want a little bit - it's very filling. I can think of thousandes of things to serve with it (orange segments in caramel, toasted nuts, coconut maybe, pineapple, fresh strawberries..) but settled on a simple raspberry sauce and lightly sweetened whipped cream. Yum.

Chocolate Pasta
serves 4

40 g flour
40 g cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 teeny pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tsp neutral oil

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the middle, and add the egg and the oil. Stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together, then use your hands to make a firm, smooth, elastic dough. Wrap it in plastic and let it rest for at least half an hour.

Then bring out your pasta maker (yeah, it's probably in the very back of some cupboard) and roll it out to desired thickness. Cut into tagliatelle, and boil in UN-salted water for two minutes. Serve immediately!

Tagged with: IMBB # 22 + Noodle

Chokladpasta

Weekend Cat Blogging #34 - Honey

Look how she has grown! This is Honey, that some of you might remember from last March, when she and her brother and sister were born. Honey is now ten months old, and live in Gothenburg with Linda and Anders, and her cat pal Misse. We're going down to visit them in a few weeks time - I can barely wait!



For more food blogger cats, head over to Boo at Masak-Masak who is hosting this week's installment!

Sugar Low Friday - Banan Pecan Biscotti

Sam is really forcing us to think creatively this month. For Sugar High Fridays, the sweet-filled event invented by the Domestic Goddess, she's decided to set the theme "Sugar LOW Friday". Oh. Sugar low? Huh.

I leafed through my recipe box the other day, and came across one of my biscotti recipes. It calls for bananas and pecans. Hey, I had two over ripe bananas begging to be used up (and I hate eating ripe bananas, so that's never an option) and for once, I had pecans. Lots and lots of pecans.

The recipe calls for some sugar, sure, but not very much. I switched from regular white sugar to very dark muscovado sugar instead. I don't know if it has any healthy benefits - I doubt it - but it seems a bit better than the evil white stuff. This recipe is also very low fat, as most biscotti recipes are, calling for just a tablespoon of oil. I decided to add in a little bit of dark chocolate, to make it more festive. (And frankly, to make it tastier. Low fat, low sugar - hey, we're not making bread.)

It turned out awesome! Do give it a try - these keep well as long as they're kept dry and preferrably in a tight-lidded container.

Banana Pecan Biscotti
about 36 cookies

1 egg
250 g ripe, mashed banana (peeled weight! Equals about two medium bananas)
1 tbsp neutral oil
1 vanilla bean (or use vanilla extract - about a teaspoon)
250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
75 g dark muscovado sugar
60 g chopped pecans
50 g finely chopped dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Score the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds in a large bowl. Add the oil, mix well. Add the banana and the egg, and mix. Add the sugar, salt, baking powder and flour. Mix well. Finally, add the pecans and the chocolate, and fold in. The batter will be quite sticky.

Flour your hands, and shape two flattened logs on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they seem fairly dry and have a bit of color. Remove from oven, and let them cool a bit. Lower oven temperature to 120°C.

When the logs are cool enough to handle, slice them into 1 cm slices. Place, cut side down, on a baking sheet, and let dry in the oven for 15 minutes. Flip them over to their other cut side, and dry for 15 more minutes.

Tagged with: SHF # 15 + Low Sugar

Biscotti med banan och pecannötter

13 courses - the main course

Yesterday it was appetizers, today: the main courses from our 13-courses dinner. Which, funnily, are nearly identical. The instructions were simple. Each couple was to prepare three small dishes - an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert. I kind of cheated, and made a few more appetizers and small dishes, rather than a main dish, since I thought we'd be very full anyway. Which I was right about. But, as it happens, but Lena & Nico and Tesse & Danne decided to bring fish soup for the main course! What are the odds of *that* happening?

So, we had two rather different fish soups, which in retrospect, was absolutely great. I loved being able to compare and contrast - and I was joyous about getting to eat two such fantastic soups without having to do any work!



Here's Tesse & Danne's soup. It had halibut and monkfish, and was served with garlic croutons and a saffron aïoli. It was absolutely great, so I wheedled the recipe out of Tesse. It's a cherished family recipe, but I got her permission to share it with you. Which I will, as soon as she sends it to me.



And here's Lena and Nico's soup. It was also saffron based, but had salmon and shrimps. The aïoli was a gorgeous light green from the olive oil used - so pretty!

13 courses - the appetizers

I told you about our huge 13-course meal, on Trettondagen (which is 13-day in Swedish) which falls on the 13:th day after christmas. (Belive it or not, the 13 courses was a coincidence.. but now I have a feeling it will be a tradition.)

We had six small appetizers.



Fried Halloumi with a Capers Lime Dressing



Cherry Marys

Very simple. If you have good injection skills, that is. You need a large needle. Plunge it into the tomatoes through the top, and try to remove as much tomato insides as you can without breaking it. A broken tomato is a ruined tomato. When you're done, mix a couple of tablespoons of vodka with a dash of tabasco, a pinch of salt and a few drops of worcestershire sauce. Carefully - very carefully - inject this into the tomatoes. And that's it!



Crostini with aragula, raitziki and grilled lamb

For the lamb, roll two small fillets of lamb in a mix of garlic, salt, pepper and shredded lemon peel. Grill on high heat for a minute on each side, remove and let rest in a foil package until ready to slice and serve.



Chanterelle Mushroom Tartlets

Lena made these, so no recipe. Sorry!



Grilled scallops and jumbo prawns with a citrus salsa

Tesse and Danne made these - no recipe!



Tuna Chichimi on cucumbers

Buy some really good tuna. You want a piece that's as wide as it is thick - about an inch. Roll it in Chichimi, which is a Japanese spice mix with chili, sesame seeds and orange, among other things, and sear it VERY briefly on VERY high heat. Remove, slice, serve on cucumber slices to cool things down.



Mandarin granita

Absolutely perfect after the tuna. This is a great palate cleanser! And it couldn't be easier. Just freeze mandarin juice (Brämhults make an excellent one!) in a shallow container. When frozen, scrape with a fork or a spoon, and put the crystals in small chilled glasses. (These thermo glasses from Bodum are brilliant!)

Fishcakes with Garlic, Ginger and Parsley

On Sunday, Per and I had a late lunch or an early dinner, it all depends on what you want to call it. I'd been wanting to try out an idea posted by Niki at Esurientes a while ago - fishcakes. It turned out really tasty, and I'll definitely be making this again. We ate it with a simple avocado salsa, and a chili-yogurt dipping sauce. Here's what I used:

Fishcakes with Garlic, Ginger and Parsley
Makes 12 cakes, which comfortably feeds 3-4 people

400 g trout fillets (use any white fish)
2 cloves of garlic
a thumbsized piece of fresh ginger
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp japanese soy sauce
3 tbsp coconut milk
2-3 tbsp sweet chili sauce
big bunch of flat leaf parsley (although next time, I'm using coriander. My store was out.)
Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
Oil for frying

You need a food processor. Start by pulsing the fish for a short while, until you have a paste. Add garlic, ginger, fish sauce, soy sauce, coconut milk, sweet chili and parsley. Pulse for a few moments until you have a smooth paste.

This will be sticky - use plastic gloves if you've got them! Pour panko in a shallow bowl. Shape rough balls from the fish mix, and coat on both sides in panko. Set aside. After shaping 12 balls, heat oil and shallow fry these little darlings. Or deep fry, if you've got a deep fryer. Fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side. They should be golden.

Avocado salsa

1 avocado
1/2 red pepper
handful of cherry tomatoes
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 red onion
salt, pepper

Cut everything in small pieces, combine.

Dipping sauce

thick greek or turkish yogurt
sambal oelek or other chili paste

Simply combine, and serve. Thin with a little water if desired.

Fiskkroketter med thai-stuk

Foodie Gifts: Citrus Reamer

I first saw a device like this in one of Nigella's books, I think. I looked everywhere for it. And I do mean everywhere - including Spain and France. I asked friends and family to help. And then, suddenly.. I was visiting a friend, who was absent-mindedly using one to muddle her drink. Huh! I shriked with excitement and asked where she had bought it. She replied "Oh, this old thing? Ikea, I think." Off to Ikea. No luck. At all.

A few weeks later, I finally found one - at Debenhams, which had just opened in Stockholm. Joyous day! A day after that, I was given a second one, by my friend. So, I had two.. I quickly decided I should have one at my parents' house, for when I cook there. It's one of my favorite little gadgets - so very useful for quickly juicing a lemon or a lime, and so much easier to clean than a full on citrus press.

While out shopping with my mom a few days ago, we came across this one - in steel, as opposed to the usual wooden ones. I fell in love instantly, and my mom bought it for me. God, I love it. Isn't it pretty? And now my spare wooden one will move up to our summer cottage in Dalarna, so I always have one handy...

Hay Hay it's Donna Day: Coconut Macaroons with Lime and Orange

Another blog event! This one is a fun little thing called "Hay Hay it's Donna Day" -a very specific event, created to celebrate the cook Donna Hay. I'm not awfully familiar with her, but I do have a Donnay Hay magazine, and I actually have three of her books. I've rarely used them though, heaven knows why. Anyway. This month's event is hosted by Glutton Rabbit, and it goes like this: Everyone makes the same recipe, but with their own twist. This month's recipe was Coconut Macaroons with lime. I didn't change it very much, but I did add orange peel and vanilla sugar, which added a really lovely flavor that complimented the lime very well. I was going to dip them in chocolate, too - but as I was bringing them for a party, I thought the better of it and left them plain like this so that people would have a lighter alternative. They were very tasty, and although they are definitely best straight from the oven, they keep reasonably well in the freezer or in an air-tight container.

I used more egg whites than in the original recipe simply because I had a lot of frozen egg whites and I had forgotten to mark how much was in each bag. Pretty sure it was three, though. And these proportions worked well!

Coconut Macaroons with Lime and Orange
makes about 20 cookies

3 egg whites
90 g (~100 ml) sugar
200 g coconut flakes
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
the peel of 1 lime
the peel of 1 orange

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Mix all of the ingredients, and drop spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden.

(Oh, and the thing in the picture that's not a cookie? It's a flower pot decoration stick, made by one of my sisters. I love it!)

Kokoskakor med apelsin och lime

Weekend Cat Blogging #33 - Ywette

Ywette had a big day yesterday. She was neutered - quite a large operation for a female kitty, and quite a dangerous one for a cat as old as Ywette. She'll be nine this summer. But, everything went perfectly well. She's feeling fine, but a little tired. And so far, she's absolutely uninterested in her stitches, so we're keeping her without the evil funnel thingy that we made Edith wear.


Check out more cats over at Clare and Kiri at Eatstuff!

The best buns

I know, I've written about cardamom buns before, and I've also written about Dalarö Bageri. But I haven't posted a picture of these perfect beauties before, and it's about time. Best buns ever! Cardamom with a filling of almond paste... ah, delicious.

Gisele, my just-became-pregnant kitty, lives with my aunt in Dalarö, and I can't wait for an excuse to visit... very often.

10 things you didn't know about me

1. I own over 400 eyeshadows
2. I'm running for local elections this year (and I work full time in politics)
3. I once won a dart championship (and won a trip to London!)
4. I burn from the sun - even in a tanning salon
5. I work out quite a bit - spinning and bodypump being my favorite forms of exercise
6. I'm a sucker for pretty jewelry (thank goodness my sister owns a jewelry store!)
7. My favorite color is red
8. I love gadgets, and would die if my PalmPilot was lost
9. I have been active on various boards and in different organizations since I was twelve.
10. I have a Master's degree in "Science, Technology and Society in Europe". (Quite a mouthfull.)

Kevin tagged me. I'm tagging Niki at Esurientes, Lori at Dessertfirst and Oslofoodie!

I was tagged for the "7 meme for 7 bloggers" by Rokh from the blog Tham Jiak, all the way in Malaysia! Cool! But oh my god, very hard questions. I couldn't deal with it - sorry!

Matcha Vanilla Pannacotta

Look at that pretty picture! Just look at it, gorgeous pale green creamy mounds in a deep chocolate sauce.. Look at it.

Seriously. Just look at it. Don't attempt to eat it.

It tasted.. not good at all. *sigh* My first experimentation with matcha, and.. um, no. This was not a great idea. I used a basic pannacotta recipe, added two vanilla beans to steep in the cream, and then about a tablespoon of matcha.. which actually clumped up and made quite a mess, but I sieved it, and saved it. Or so I thought.

Anyway. Everything goes down with chocolate.

Peanut Caramel Cookies

This was originally a cookie I found over at Martha Stewart's website, made with cashews! As cashews are pretty expensive, and this recipe calls for so much of it.. I decided to try them first with another nut: Peanuts. And frankly, they're so good that I'm very glad I did. I'll try them sometime with cashews, sure, but to be totally honest I think they won't be any better than this.

Peanut Caramel Cookies
30 cookies

250 g roasted, salted peanuts (divided)
2 tbsp neutral oil
110 g butter, room temperature
1,8 dl (3/4 cup) brown sugar
1,25 dl (1/2 cup) sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 dl (1 2/3 cup) flour

150 g caramel candies - I used soft Werthers Original
3 tbsp heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Start by mixing 100 g of the peanuts in a food processor until roughly chopped. Put aside. Process the remaining peanuts until they're very finely chopped, and add the oil. Process until you have a creamy mix - think peanut butter, because that's what it really is.

Beat the butter, brown sugar and the regular sugar with this peanut butter, until it's fluffy. Add the egg, and the vanilla. Add the flour, a little at a time, and work to a smooth dough. At the end, add the roughly chopped peanuts.

Roll into balls and put on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 6 minutes. Then gently flatten the balls with a spatula, and bake for 5-6 more minutes. The bottoms should start to color.

Remove from oven, and let cool completely before you make the topping. For that, simply melt the caramels with the cream, and drizzle over the cookies as best you can. Beware - hot caramel is *really* hot, so don't hurt yourself! Let the decorated cookies cool and set completely.

Jordnötskakor med kolatopping

Christmas Candy: Cherry Pistachio Bark

Another really simple holiday candy. Or a candy, not for the holidays. I obviously didn't remember to post this in time. But, it's still tasty!

Cherry Pistachio Bark

-Dark chocolate, 200 g
-White chocolate, 200 g
-small handful tart dried cherries, chopped
-small handful roasted, unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped

Melt the dark chocolate, and spread out in a pan. Let cool completely. Melt the white chocolate, add the nuts and fruit, and spread over the dark chocolate. Let cool completely,then turn out of pan and cut into pieces.

Choklad med pistach och körsbär

A cookbook Meme

My good friend Tülin (who I wrote about here, and who has just started her own blog here) tagged me for a cookbook meme! Fun!

1. How many cookbooks do you own?

As you can see in the picture - quite a few. I recently did a cleaning, and gave away ten or so, but I still have around 125.

2. Which cookbook is the one you bought most recently?

That would be two, that came with the same order from Adlibris, my favorite online bookshop. One was Paul Hollywood's book, 100 Great Breads. I was introduced to Hollywood's baking by Nic, and I did this great bread just before christmas. The rest of the breads in his book look equally wonderful, so I really look forward to it. The other book is "Två Systrars Söta" by the owners of The Cookbook Café. Just sweets - cookies, cakes, icecream.. this book has them all.

3. Which cookbook is the one you read most recently?

Still reading, really. The Gourmet Cookbook.

4. Name five cookbooks which mean a lot to you



I'm cheating, and using the same answers as last time I talked about my cookbooks. I still feel the same way.

- Stora Kokboken (Translates "The Big Cookbook")

This used to be my grandmother's. My other grandmother (maternal) had one too, which I grew up with, since she lived with us. That one is another edition, and I'm much more used to that one - but mom would never give it up, so it lives with her. Instead, I got this one when my other grandmother (paternal) died. She got it for christmas in 1953. I use this a lot! This has so incredibly many good basic recipes, it's something I always look at.

- Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners

Well, this is my favorite of Jamie's books, but I have all of them. We cook extensively from this one, as its very inspirational. More importantly, everything has come out absolutely perfect so far. Yum. A safe book.

- Nigella Lawson - Nigella Bites

Again, I have all of Nigella's books, but this is my personal favorite. I have made about half the recipes in it, I think, and I love it. It's not as dependable as Jamie, but it's even more used.

- Bitchin' in the Kitchen - The PMS Survival Cookbook

I picked up this little gem in a weird store somewhere in a mall in California, many years ago. It's written by Jennifer Evans and Fritzi Horstman, and I completely fell for it straight away. Who wouldn't love a cookbook with chapters like "Chocolate", "Comfort Foods", "Sugar, Sugar", "The Salt Fix" and "Desperado Feasts"? I heartily recommend this. All recipes also come with a "piggie rating". I don't use it *that* much, but what I've tried, I love. And it's fun just for reading. No pictures though.

Now, who do I tag.. let's go with some Swedes!

1. Dagmar of A Cat in the Kitchen
2. Ilva of Lucullian Delights
3. Kristina of Clivia´s Cuisine
4. Manne of Tummyrumble

Kama Truffles

Those of you that read Pille's blog, Nami-Nami, knows all about Kama already. It's an Estonian product, a sort of flour made from roasted seeds and peas. It has a very distinct taste. Pille, being the sweetheart that she is, had her parents mail me a bag from Tallinn, just so I could surprise my dad who is also Estonian. Isn't that wonderful?

I used a little of it to make Pille's Kama "truffles", made with Mascarpone, sugar, hazelnuts and a dash of liquer (I used Vana Tallinn, since it's Estonian and I happened to have some). This was served as part of a feast on Boxing Day, when my dad's part of the family always gets together. We were over 30 people this year - the cousins are all starting to have kids. I'm the youngest cousin, and no kids on my part - yet :)

These truffles were a huge hit, especially with the older generation. I liked making something with traditional flavors, but in a new form - this was really fun. And tasty? Well, it mostly tasted nutty to me, actually.

Back to your roots - Pork with Roots

This post is part of Some Pig Blogging Weekend, a little event started by Kate Hill's French Kitchen Adventures in order to celebrate San Antonio Abate, whose feast day is January 17. Pretty cool!

I like pork a great deal. Mostly, I just fry up a nice cutlet, which goes with so many things, but it's nice to do a different sort of dish once in a while. This one is very healthy - nice for January, when I'm sure more people than me are trying to get into good habits - and surprisingly tasty. I say surprisingly, because I know the ingredient list doesn't look all that great. But do try it! It's so good!

Use thinly cut pork if you can - that will be more tender in this dish, since it's not simmered for very long.

Pork with Roots
serves 2

250-300 g lean pork, no bones
2 medium carrots
200 g swede (rutabaga)
100 g celeriac
1 turnip
1 yellow onion
1 bouillon cube
200 ml water
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
dried thyme, oregano and tarragon, a pinch of each
freshly ground pepper
2 tsp runny honey
olive oil

Cut the carrots into thick coins. Dice the swede (rutabaga) and turnip into 1 cm dice, and the celeriac into tiny dice. (0.5 cm)

Cut the onion into wedges, and the meat into bite-sized pieces.

Heat up a little bit of olive oil in a large pot. Brown the meat. Add the carrot, swede (rutabaga), turnip and onion, and give it a good stir. Add the bouillon cube, the water and the balsamic vinegar. Add the dried herbs - a good pinch of each.

Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and lower heat. Let it simmer for 30 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft. Season to taste with runny honey and freshly ground pepper. I use a pepper mix with white pepper, black pepper and pink peppercorns. You might want to add a touch more vinegar.

Serve with brown rice, or just with bread. Delicious!

Blue Kongo Potato Chips

Not home made, although I bet it's easy enough to put together with a mandoline and a deep fryer.. these gorgeous blue chips are really tasty. I bought them at a food fair, along with the root chips.

Weekend Cat Blogging #32 - Edith, Premier

The cat show last weekend went well for Edith, who won her title - Premier - and was also nominated for best in show. Good girl! Glinda didn't do quite so well, because, I swear - she's shrunk! She's tiny, tiny, tiny, and the judge just laughed when I presented her. Oh well, she has her whole life to be adult, so if she wants to be a kitten, that's fine by me.

Great news! Gisele is indeed pregnant, so it looks like we'll have some tiny kittens to show you for WCB #38 or so. A cat is pregnant for nine weeks - did you know?

For more gorgeous food blogger cats, head over to EatStuff and check them out!

Apple Crumble with Vanilla and Walnuts

It's Friday the thirteenth. Has anything happened to you? I hope not. For me, I had a slight mishap with a heavy glass and my ice machine. I was getting ice, and lazily, let the glass stand against the ice machine while opening the fridge. Not a great idea. The glass flipped - spraying ice all over the kitchen, and landing with a firm thud on the base of my big toe.

Ouch. To make matters worse, it's the same foot that I banged very hard against my coffee table last weekend - a pain that was just starting to go away. Sigh, I guess I'll be hobbling for a bit longer. Good thing I just bought three lovely food magazines (Waitrose, Delicious and Fresh)

Anyway. Here's a great apple crumble to keep you going, if you had a bad day. Or if you had a great day - there's always time for a crumble. The inspiration for this one comes from The Traveler's Lunchbox, an excellent blog that's nominated in several categories over at The Accidental Hedonist Blog Awards! Have you voted yet?

Apple Crumble with Vanilla and Walnuts
serves 4

-4-5 apples, peeled and cored
-50 g sugar
-1,5 tbsp corn starch
-1 vanilla bean
-1/2 lemon, the juice of

-60 g flour
-40 g oats
-50 g raw sugar
-70 g regular sugar
-2 tsp cinnamon
-75 g butter
-25 g hazelnuts, finely chopped
-35 g walnuts, roughly crushed

Preheat the oven to 175 °C. Divide the apples into quarters and slice thickly. Put in a bowl with the lemon juice, the corn starch, the sugar, and the seeds of the vanilla bean. (Score it and scrape out all those lovely black dots!)

Make the topping. Mix flour, both sugars, cinnamon, butter and both kind of nuts in a big bowl, and blend with your fingertips until you have uniform crumbs. Put the apples in an ovenproof dish, and top with the crumbles.

Bake for an hour. The filling should become really soft, and the topping should be golden and crunchy. Serve with vanilla custard, cream or ice cream.

Äppelpaj med vanilj och valnötter

This year, I dare...

Ilva challenged me! She listed five things she'd dare to make this year that she hasn't previously dared to try. Interesting. Her choices included soufflés - which I made for IMBB. It was surprisingly easy - and I'll try to make some more this year. I think I'll also give Puff Pastry another go - that also went quite well. But what challenges are left for me? Lots, lots, lots. These are the top five I could think of:

1. Budapest Swiss Roll, or Budapest-rulle as it's called here. It's what you see in the picture above - this particular one being flavored with chocolate and filled with raspberries and cream. It's like a swiss roll, which I tried for the first time last year, but harder since it's much more filling, and since the bottom is much crumblier than regular cake. (It's sort of a nut-meringue bottom.) Indeed, I'll try more advanced pastries, in general!

2. Roast Chicken. That's right. I've never roasted a whole chicken. I'm embarrassed, yes. I've roasted turkeys - successfully! - but never a chicken. So, I promise to try at least three different recipes for roast chicken. Ok?

3. Gnocchi. I've eaten ready-made from the store, and I've very happily eaten the ones Lena and Nico makes - but I haven't tried them myself. Lena says they're simple - well, I don't know. I kind of doubt it. So I will try for myself this year. Hopefully with some supervision. As a bonus-promise, I will also make Swedish Kroppkakor (translates nicely into "body-cakes) which are large potato dumplings filled with fried pork, onions and allspice.

4. Real veal stock, per Anthony Bourdain's instructions. I know, I should probably be shot for not having done this already. But where the heck do you get veal bones? I need to work up the courage to ask someone in my local store.. and hope they don't look at me like i'm completely nuts.

5. Last, but not least: Penne alla Vodka. I've read many recipes for this, and I'm always intrigued.. but also intimidated. Vodka? In my pasta? Why? And can it really be good? This year, I'm going to find out.

So, now, tell me all about your five dares for 2006! I'm tagging the following five - but if you're not tagged, and you want to join in - by all means, go for it! This is not invitation only! :)

1. Kevin of Seriously Good
2. Sailu of Sailu's Food
3. Andrew of Spittoon
4. Nic of Bakingsheet
5. Jocelyn of Brownie Points

Good things come in small packages

These little beauties are off to a blogger, somewhere in Europe. (EBBP3)

I'm famous!

Ok, maybe not so famous. But I *am* mentioned - along with some other European food bloggers - in Wall Street Journal Europe! Isn't that cool? I was interviewed by Elena at Intrepid Gourmet a while ago, and I was thrilled just because of the actual interview. Yesterday, I got a copy of the paper (which doesn't seem to be available in Sweden) and I really liked the story. Elena is a great writer!

Foodie Gifts: Gourmet Cookbook

My darling knows just what I wanted for christmas, and presented me with this huge book on Christmas morning. I've only read the first hundred pages or so - but I absolutely love it, and I know there are tons of things I want to try here! What a fun book! I've already made a lovely tomato sauce for gnocchi, and I tried the pizza dough, too.

Swedish Christmas Ham

I'd be a bad Swedish blogger if I didn't give you at least a couple of Swedish christmas recipes. Ok, sorry, safely after christmas - but I didn't really have time to post about it before, being busy with actual preparations. Anyway. Most Swedes eat ham on Christmas, and most prepare it this exact way, with a mustard coat. I'm not a big mustard fan and usually make something else - a herb crust, or a honey glaze - but this year I did it the traditional way, to Per's relief. You could also add whole cloves in a decorative pattern - but really, that's a little over the top for me.

So. Get a ham. Either a pre-boiled one, as most seem to do these days (I know I certainly did) or a salted one that you boil or bake yourself. Cut off any visible fat. Preheat oven to 225°C. Take three tablespoons of hot, sweet grainy mustard, and one egg. Beat vigorously together until you have a uniform, silky mixture. Brush this over the top of the ham. Sprinkle over breadcrumbs - loads and loads of breadcrumbs - and press them into the mustard.

Bake in the oven for fifteen minutes, watch closely so it doesn't burn.

That's it! Eat cold, in thin slices. Will keep well in the fridge for quite a while, wrapped in foil.

Crunchy Winter Salad

Another large salad, for a large crowd. This one is from a recipe in Jamie's Kitchen, by Jamie Oliver. Definitely one of my fave cookbooks. Jamie's recipes always seem to work so well for me - while not very elegant, the flavor combinations are.. well, good. Really good in fact.

This original had some more ingredients - tahini and sesame seeds - but I omitted it since I wasn't sure about allergies. Next time, I'll probably omit the raisins too. They add a nice holiday touch - but I don't particularly care for them. A doubled version of this recipe served 30 as part of a buffet. Try to prepare it right before serving - the veggies will go soft if they're left to stand. If you absolutely must prepare well in advance, keep the veggies submerged in ice water - that should retain their crunch.

Crunchy Winter Salad
inspired by Jamie Oliver

3 large carrots, julienned
2 good apples, quartered and sliced (I use Pink Lady, my new favorite apple)
150 gram radishes, sliced
1 small handful of raisins
1 handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 bunch of mint, small leaves left whole, larger torn in half
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp neutral oil
freshly ground black pepper
salt

Start by combining vinegar, oil, salt and pepper in a jug. Prepare all the vegetables, and add to a large bowl or platter. Add the herbs, and the dressing - toss to combine well, and serve immediately.

Knaprig vintersallad

Stockholms Glasshus

One of the oldest ice cream makers in Sweden is Stockholms Glasshus. They're also one of the very best, with tons of flavors. I like their Italian icecreams, gelatos, and in this picture I got Caribbean Chocolate which was a very intense chocolate ice with four different kinds of pepper (spicy!!) and Banana cookie which had ripe banana chunks and Oreo cookies! Oooh.

For my next visit, I'm planning on getting Teheran which has saffron, rose water and pistachios, or maybe cucumber sorbet.. They even have beer sorbet! And beet sorbet! Wild!

Do pay them a visit if you're in town!

Stockholms Glasshus
Götgatan 58
or, in other locations, they have several in Stockholm.

13 courses

Last night, we had a gourmet dinner with four of our closest friends. Each couple were instructed to prepare three small dishes - I went with seven, but made mine REALLY small. So, we had 13 in total.

It was an absolute blast - delicious food, and extremely pleasant company. As a hostess, I had chosen things that could be prepared well in advance, and left the kitchen to the others who needed to heat and/or chill their things. I'll tell you more about my own dishes soon, and share pictures - but for now, here's the menu:

-Fried Halloumi with a Caper Lime dressing (borrowed from here.)
-Cherry Marys - cherry tomatoes injected with a vodka-tabasco mixture
-Crostini with aragula, raitziki and grilled lamb
-Chanterelle tartlets Lena and Nico)
-Grilled scallops and jumbo prawns with a citrus salsa (Tesse and Danne)
-Yellowfin Tuna Chichimi
-Mandarin Granita

-Soup with Monkfish, Halibut, garlic croutons and saffron aïoli (Tesse and Danne)
-Salmon soup with olive aïoli (Lena and Nico)

-Lemon ice cream - served in frozen lemons (Lena and Nico)
-Fleur de sel-caramels
-White chocolate mousse with strawberry sauce and fresh strawberries (Tesse and Danne)
-Tiramisu

As you can see, both visiting couples decided to prepare fish soups - it was really fun to compare and contrast, and marvel over how different two so similar dishes can taste. (And that's what we get for not organizing in more detail who gets to bring what.) We're definitely doing this type of dinner again - soon! - it's perfect for sharing lots of good food, and absolutely excellent if you have friends that are as happy to cook as you are.

Night and Day Cupcakes

I made these for a large family feast – cupcakes are great when you have a crowd. They’re rather basic, but tasty – a flavorful, moist cake base with a not-too-sweet frosting. I tripled the cupcake recipe, and ended up with an absolute truckload. I think I had well over 30 large cupcakes, and 30 more miniature ones. I ended up not frosting all of them, but giving away a dozen right away, and putting some in the freezer. I doubled the frosting recipe, and it still made too much. So, feel free to fiddle with the quantities... and rest assured, it makes a lot.

Night and Day cupcakes
From Nigella Lawson’s How To Be a Domestic Goddess

2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp boiling water
75 g sugar
50 g dark muscovado sugar
125 g flour
3 g baking powder
2 large eggs
125 very soft butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400F). Mix the cocoa to a paste with the boiling water and set aside while you make the cupcake mixture.

Put the sugars, flour, eggs, and butter and vanilla in the processor and blitz to combine smoothly.

Scrape the mixture from the sides and add the cocoa paste. Blitz, and add milk down the funnel. You might need a little more milk – batter should be soft, and drop easily off a spoon.

Drop spoonfuls into the paper baking cups in a muffin pan and bake for about 15 minutes. (For large ones - about 10 minutes for small ones.) An inserted cake tester should come out clean.

Leave to cool completely before frosting.


Frosting
200 g powdered sugar
100 g cream cheese
Juice of ½ lime
chocolate decorations, optional

Simply beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar until creamy. Add the lime. Frost the cupcakes, and decorate with dark chocolate, if you want to.

Natt och Dag-Muffins

Peeling Pecans?

Pecans are usually really expensive and hard to find here, but I recently picked up 2 kilos at the after-christmas sales. I did that a couple of years ago too, shelled like crazy and made some excellent baked goods, and now it's time again. However, I remember the actual shelling as a horrible nuisance. Any ideas for helping it become a little easier?

I'll probably shell them all in one huge shelling frenzy, and then freeze the shelled nuts until I have a chance to use them up. (I'm eyeing some Pecan Pie Bars in the new Gourmet cookbook!) If anyone has a great pecan recipe, do send that my way! :)

Salmon and Couscous

I really should try to eat more fish. And so should probably most of us. This is a really simple recipe from - again - Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners, which is probably his most useful cookbook ever. We switched things around a bit, but essentially, it's the same recipe. And it was absolutely delicious.

Salmon and Couscous
serves 2

200 g couscous
boiling water
2 salmon fillets
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small zucchini, sliced into sticks
1 red chili, finely chopped
handful cherry tomatoes, halved
juice of a lemon
fresh coriander, chopped
crème fraîche, to serve

Put the couscous in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside. Drizzle the salmon fillets with olive oil, and rub in salt and pepper. Fry in a non-stick pan, and add the zucchini and chili. Mix the tomatoes, lemon juice and coriander into the couscous, and add a little bit of olive oil. Season to taste. Remove the salmon to plates, and add the veggies in the pan to the couscous, and mix.

To serve, place prettily on a plate, and top with a dollop of crème fraîche.

Lax med couscous

Root Chips

I couldn't resist taking a photo of these gorgeous root vegetable chips before I devoured them. And that went fast, because they were absolutely delicious! Beets, parsnips, Blue Kongo potatoes and turnips.. all fried to crispness. I want more. These are bought, but I imagine they can't be too hard to make yourself, so I think I'll give it a go when I have some time to spend with my deep fryer!

Foodie Gifts: Macaroni & Cheese

'Nuff said, really. You all know what this is. Manna from heaven. Or manna from Amsterdam, in this case. A fellow blogger, Henrik from MUMS (in Swedish) decided to send me a surprise gift. What a sweetie!

And yes, that third box is indeed ripped open. And the contents? Inhaled, almost.

And would you believe my luck? I *also* got a package with even MORE Mac&Cheese from Jennifer over at Taste Everything Once. I'm feeling so spoiled that it's ridiculous. But very, very, very happy, too!

Foodie Gifts: Velveeta

It's a custom to give little rhymes with your christmas presents, so that the reciever can guess what he or she is getting, before opening the package. My family has never employed this habit, but many people do. Lena is one of them.

She was recently in Washington, and came home with a christmas present for yours truly. The rhyme was - in Swedish: "Tomten vet vad du vill ha - något gult från USA". This translates - roughly - into "Santa knows just what you want - something yellow from USA." (And yes, it does rhyme in Swedish.)

It was a block of Velveeta! I'm SO happy! I love fake cheese stuff - Kraft Mac & Cheese truly is one of my favorite foods ever. And I'm being serious here. (Might have something to do with it being virtually impossible to get here.) So, Velveeta.. thank you Lena. Great present! I have to make something really "worthy" with it.

Orange Chicken Caesar Salad

This was delicious! I wanted a salad, Per didn't - so we bought half a grilled chicken and divided it. I used mine in a Caesar Salad, he.. did something else, I can't remember what.

I wanted a different type of Caesar, so I played around a bit with flavors. Instead of adding lemon juice to the dressing, I added orange juice, and orange segments to the salad. I also added fresh grated ginger, to give it a bit more heat. Deee-lish! I skipped croutons this time, and went for some crunchy red onion instead.

Orange Chicken Caesar Salad
Serves 1

cold chicken, shredded
1/2 red onion, in thin half moons
romaine lettuce
1 orange
egg yolk
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
fresh grated ginger, about 2 tsp
1 anchovy fillet
handful of shredded parmesan

Put the egg yolk in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, drop by drop, and blend with an immersion blender. Add the garlic, ginger, anchovy and blitz again. Add half of the parmesan.

Toss the lettuce with the dressing, the onion, the chicken and the rest of the parmesan. Cut out segments of the orange, and squeeze out the juice over the salad. Top with more parmesan if you want to.

Caesarsallad med kyckling och apelsin

Something new

A new year - so I figured something should change around here, too. And what is that?Well, most of you probably won't even notice.. but for those of you who are Swedish, and prefer to read recipes in Swedish - it's a major thing.

Every time (I'll try!) that I post a recipe, it'll have a small link at the bottom, to a Swedish translation of the recipe. All of those will end up in a separate blog, in Swedish. I won't be doing any proper blogging there, since I plan to keep having all of my writing here, but I will post the recipes there. So if you'd like to try my recipes, but have a hard time translating ingredients, measurements or instructions - you're in for a treat this year.

Happy New Year!

(And as for the photo... It's a "Seasonal Breeze." I made these from Nigella's Feast, the night before christmas. Ewww - can you say bitter? It was supposed to be a third campari, a third cranberry juice, and a third blood orange juice. I couldn't find blood orange, so I substituted ruby grapefruit juice... and threw in some sliced oranges. I quickly downed one glass, and tossed out the rest - it was undrinkable, really. But it looks pretty, doesn't it?)

Milka Triolade

I love chocolate - you probably know that by now. I like trying new chocolate bars, and I always pick some up if I'm out of the country. I went to Spain in September, and for some reason, I completely forgot about this huge Milka bar that I bought in the airport, until I found it in the back of my cupboard the other day. (Yeah, I know what you're thinking - I can't really love chocolate all that much if I don't even remember to eat it, right?)

It's called Triolade - and it's great! It has a milk chocolate base, white chocolate in the middle, and it's topped with dark chocolate triangles. Mm, delicious!