Big Apple Cake with Cardamom Sugar

Today is September 1. It's the first official day of autumn, and I can feel cool crisp air streaming through my window. The sun is up and while it will probably be pretty warm today, the air has a new chilly bite.

What better to cook than something with apples? This is one big apple cake. It serves 30 - or less people, if they want seconds. Perfect for those big, but informal functions. As my other "large scale recipes", this is also based on one from the book "Kyrkkaffe", "Church Coffee". The original recipe didn't include the cardamom sugar, but I think it added a nice touch. You could use cinnamon instead, or perhaps more vanilla. Anything goes.

You can use any apples for this - but it's best if they're crisp and not too sweet.



Big Apple Cake with Cardamom Sugar
30 pieces

5 eggs
650 ml sugar (2,5 cups)
250 g butter
750 ml flour (3 cups)
5 tsp baking powder
3 tsp vanilla sugar
5-6 crisp apples

2-3 tbsp cardamom sugar (mix 1/2 tsp cardamom with 2-3 tbsp sugar - you can make a big jar in advance and have at hand, if you'd like.)

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Melt the butter and stir in with the eggs. Mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar - and add that to the batter. Pour into a rimmed cookie sheet, or another big pan. (You're going to need a very big pan.)

Core and slice the apples, but don't peel them. Arrange the slices on the cake as prettily as you can. Sprinkle with cardamom sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown.

Urshultsbygdens äppelkaka med kardemumma

Blog Day 2006

Today is Blog Day! It's a very cool concept - you blog about five new (to you) blogs, and thus give your readers a chance to discover something new. I'll pick the five newest additions to my rss-reader.

1. I Lilla Myzans Kök
This is in Swedish, but as Lena happens to be one of my best friends, I can't neglect it, can I? Lena is a great cook, and I'm so happy she's decided to move into food blogging. (She's had a normal blog for quite a while now.) And if you can't read Swedish - well, look at the pictures, that will by the way get better and better since I know Lena has a lovely new camera, and if you see something you like, write her and I'm sure she'll translate the recipes. (Hey, if enough people write, maybe we can pursuade her to blog in English!)

2. An Open Cupboard
Shelly's blog is fairly new to me, but I'm an avid fan - especially since I met Shelly last weekend! She's visiting Stockholm for work, but is usually situated in the San Fransisco area.

3. Cupcake Bakeshop
Oh my god. Just cupcakes. And millions of them. Beautiful, beautiful little cakes. If this doesn't inspire you to get baking, nothing will.

4. Candy Addict
It's all about the candy here! Brian writes about candy - several times a day. And don't miss his classic post about top ten grossest candies of all times. It's great.

5. Rolling in the dough
So, the Baklava Queen has been around for a while, but I hadn't noticed it until one of my readers alerted me to her. Great posts - she writes very nicely, and good photos.

Now I can't wait to see what everyone else reads! So, if you feel so inclined, join Blog Day and tell us about five new blog finds!

Food Blogger's Picnic

Time flies - but exactly one week ago, we had a great blogger's meet here in Stockholm! Not just food bloggers, I was happy to see some other people too, and it was lovely to chat with you all. I was however especially glad to finally meet Ilva in the flesh, and get a chance to talk to two out of three Ragazze girls. We ended up not having a proper picnic - rain! - but had dinner at Spy Bar Humlegården, which was more or less deserted when we arrived, but you needed to be on the guest list to get in when we left. Huh. Apparently a cool place. The food was ok. I had an asian sort of salad with thin slices of beef in teriyaki sauce, and glass noodles. It was fine, but perhaps not worth the money. We finished with coffee and a lovely brownie at Espresso House, and all in all, it was a great evening. Thanks everyone - lets meet again soon!

My sister Ehva's kitchen

I visited my oldest sister, Ehva, a few weeks ago. She lives up north, and I don't get to see her very often. She's very crafty and full of great ideas, and I thought I'd show some pictures from her kitchen. I love her open cupboards - her kitchen is small, but this is a great way to have everything handy. And everything is kept in pretty jars, instead of in boring cardboard packages.



This is such a great idea. She's taken a simple wooden plank, and added hangers for her cups. All cups are unique, and her guests get to choose their favorite when it's time for coffee.



No kitchen is complete without a pestle and mortar. This one is absolutely massive.

Those of you who read Swedish can check out Ehva's blog here! Or my sister Åsa's blog, here!

Grilled Chèvre Sauce

This is a brilliant little sauce, that's goes perfectly with lamb or grilled veggies. If you don't have the barbecue handy, you can use the oven instead - and try it with roasted root veggies if you're going to heat up your oven, it's fantastic.

For variation, try it with different herbs. Thyme would be very yummy, too.

Barbecued Chèvre Sauce

150-200 g chèvre cheese
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp runny honey
100 ml thick greek or turkish yogurt
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh rosemary, about 1/2 tbsp, very finely chopped.

Crumble the cheese onto a sheet of aluminium foil. Mince the garlic, and sprinkle over the cheese. Drizzle with honey. Fold the foil up into a very tight package, and bake on a hot barbecue (or in an oven) for 5-10 minutes so that the cheese melts.

Transfer the cheese mixture to a bowl, and add yogurt and olive oil. Blend with a handheld blender (or an electric beater) until well combined. Season with salt, pepper and fresh rosemary.

Grillad getostsås

Weekend Cat Blogging #63 - Kelly

Princess Kelly with her gooseberry-green eyes. We're waiting for her to go into heat so she can visit her boyfriend for some sweet kitty love. Keep your fingers crossed.

I've spent today with Shelly from An Open Cupboard, visiting all the way from San Fransisco! We've been shopping, and then sampling various Swedish dishes - I couldn't choose what to make, so I opted for a sampler with Toast Skagen, an Estonian chanterelle salad (ok, not so Swedish, but very tasty) on crisp rye bread, Swedish meatballs with Jansson's Temptation, and pyttipanna with pickled beets and fried egg (mustard optional). We finished with warm cloudberries over vanilla ice cream. Very yum. I won't tell you what Shelly brought me from the States, but here are some clues - it's yellow, it's rubbery, it's brick-shaped, it's not at all natural and it's gloriously delicious.

SHF #22 - Adventures with strawberries & Limoncello

For this installment of Sugar High Friday (yes, I know it's technically Saturday, but Blogger wouldn't work with me last night.), Nicky from Delicious Days asks "Can you can?" And I'll answer with a resounding YES! I can can - and I can bottle, too!

I don't usually do so very much jams or preserves, mostly because as much as I love to make them, they tend to be forgotten quickly. I don't really eat much jams and thus my fridge fills upp too fast. But, regardless, I had to make something with all the lovely strawberries that were available this summer! I won't give you exact recipes - I used Swedish jamming sugars and stuff like that, and it's probably easier to follow your own products recommendations in that regard, but I'll give you some general ideas.



I made straight-up strawberry freezer jam. It's an old recipe from one of my friends from university, Cissi. The magic in this is that it's no-cook - just cut up the berries, sprinkle over sugar and Certo (a magic powder that you can use for exactly this, I have no idea what's in it and it was hard to find, too!) and a wee bit of water. Stir - and that's it. It tastes just like fresh strawberries, all year round.

Then I made strawberry-rhubarb marmalade with vanilla. However, it didn't set like it ought to so it's more of a loose jam - but very very tasty. I used 500 g strawberries, 500 g of rhubarb, and one vanilla pod that I slit open and let it boil with the fruit for ten minutes. (And jamming sugar, and water.)

Third one was a delicious mix of strawberries and raspberries! I used 600 g strawberries, 400 g raspberries, and jamming sugar. Couldn't be easier.

Now, I wouldn't want you to leave here without an actual recipe, so let's talk about bottling! I recently made Limoncello, that gorgeous yellow Italian lemon liqueur, and it was so easy! And it tastes amazing! I used Ilvas recipe. (In Swedish.)

Here, you can also see my labels that I've made. I use them for all kinds of foodrelated goodies - and I love them.



Limoncello
Makes 2 liters

1 litre of vodka - preferrably 70%
11 ecologically grown lemons (unwaxed)
1 litre of water
700 g sugar

Start by peeling the lemons carefully, making sure that you only get the yellow part and no white. Put it in a bowl, and cover with the vodka. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and let stand at room temperature for five days. Stir once in a while.

After five days, remove the lemon peel. Bring water and sugar to a boil, and let it cook for ten minutes to make syrup. Cool completely.

Combine sugar syrup with the alcohol, and filter through an ordinary coffee filter into clean bottles. Let stand to develop flavor for a month, then serve really, really cold.

Limoncello

Pink Pepper Biscotti

Copy cat time! I made these lovely biscotti (or cantucci, I really can't tell the difference) from Johanna's site a while ago, and they are lovely! They have pink peppercorns, a generous helping of ginger, and plenty of almonds for extra crunch. Do try them! (Pille has, and she loved them too!)

Farmer's omelette with golden chanterelles

Chanterelles are in season! After a very hot summer and a very rainy week - it should be easy enough to find in the forests. Lacking that, you can always find it at the market. And there's so much to do with them. For this meal, I paired them with a lightly smoked ham and new potatoes, in a rustic farmer's omelette. (Which is what we in Sweden call an omelette with potatoes - better known as tortilla in some countries.) It's delicious as a quick dinner. As with all egg dishes now, I love to season with my gray French salt with dried cepes - THANK you Meg. It's truly excellent.

Farmer's omelette with golden chanterelles
Serves 2 generously

4-5 boiled new potatoes, peeled and cut into smaller pieces
1 yellow onion, diced or thinly sliced
200 g golden chanterelles, carefully cleaned
100 g smoked ham in thin strips
4 eggs
4 tbsp milk or water
grated cheese - a small handful
salt and pepper
butter
olive oil



Start by frying the chanterelles in a dry pan until they have released their liquid. Then add a pat of butter, and set aside.



Fry the potatoes in oil until they start to brown. Add the onions and the ham, and fry for a few minutes. Add the chanterelles. Beat the eggs with milk or water, and salt and pepper, and add to the pan. Push the edges of the omelette in towards the middle as they set, to make the omelette set a bit quicker and more evenly. When it's looking about half way set, sprinkle over the cheese. When totally set - serve, preferrably with a salad.

Bondomelett med kantareller

Quinoa salad with two cheeses

I love salads, especially foody ones with a lot of different things in them. And quinoa is a new discovery for me. So tasty! This is not an exact recipe, because once again I have forgotten exactly what I did. But the good news is, you don't need it. Just use whatever you'd like. It will be great. This one was something like this:

-quinoa (rinse well, boil in plenty of salted water, drain.)
-pan-fried halloumi with garlic
-thin slivers of red onion
-cherry tomatoes
-rocket (aragula)
-crumbled feta cheese
-salt and pepper
-olive oil

I think that was pretty much that, but you could of course add any veggies you'd like, and any cheeses you see fit. Or go carnivore and add bacon, yum. Or chicken. Or - well, yeah, I'm sure you see the point by now.

Want more salads? Gabriella at My Life As A Reluctant Housewife is hosting a summer salad event, so head over there and check them out!

Honeybaked Peaches

This is a simple little dessert, very quick to throw together. It uses canned peaches - both the peaches and the juices - and I really wouldn't bother using fresh. (Although of course, you certainly could.) You can substitute the pistachios for almonds, and I've substituted the almond paste for small almond biscuits before - that works really well too. The recipe lends itself well to experimenting in general - have fun with it!

Honeybaked Peaches
Serves 4-6

2 small cans of peaches (or one large)
50 ml white wine
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp chopped dried apricots
50 g almond paste, coarsely grated
50 g unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

Sauce:
200 ml peach juice from the cans
50 ml white wine
1 tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to 275°C, on "grill" if you've got it. Mix wine, honey, apricots, almond paste and pistachios for the filling. Place the peaches with hollow side up in an oven-proof dish, and spread the filling on top of them.

Place in the oven for 3-4 minutes - make sure they don't burn!

Meanwhile, make the sauce by heating up peach juice, wine and honey, and letting it cook down for a few minutes.

Serve with ice cream.


Peaches pre-oven

Honungsgratinerade persikor

Veggie Béarnaise

I love béarnaise sauce - it's delicious. However, it's mostly melted butter, and thus not very healthy. I was leafing through one of my older cookbooks, "Annas Mat" and found a recipe for vegetable béarnaise - although very, very fake I thought it might be worth a try. The verdict? Well, it aint béarnaise. But it is a nice vegetable sauce, I rather liked it with grilled meat and some roasted root veggies. Give it a go sometime!

Veggie "Béarnaise"
Serves 4-5

2 medium-sized carrots
100 g celery root
300-400 ml vegetable stock
4 shallots, peeled
1 small leek, white part only
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp tarragon vinegar
1 tsp dried tarragon
salt, white pepper
2-3 tbsp butter

Peel the carrots and the celery and cut into small pieces. Slice the leek and dice the shallots. Fry everything over low heat in the oil, for about three minutes. Add vinegar, tarragon and the vegetable stock, and let the veggies boil slowly for about 30 minutes.

Mix to a purée with an immersion blender or in a regular blender. Season with more tarragon vinegar if you want, salt and freshly ground white pepper. Stir in butter - you need quite a bit, but it will still be fairly healthy.

Grönsaksbéarnaise

Weekend Cat Blogging #62 - my little tiger

Looks can be deceptive.


"I am mighty, hear me roar."

Well, time for an update on baby Glinda. Baby in her ways, not so much in her age - she's nearly two. And showing no signs whatsoever of becoming adult. Not that we complain, it's lovely having a kitten around. It's just that it'd be nice to have actual tiny kittens too, so we hope Glinda will be ready for a boyfriend sometime this winter. We have plans for mating Kelly soon though, so with a bit of luck we'll have little darlings in November or so.

Anyway. Glinda might be my little tiger, but there are actual big tigers that need your help. Susan Farmgirl wrote a wonderful post a few days ago on big cats that need help - as in money, and if you know of a place that can take care of a few big cats, that would be wonderful too. Head over to Susan and read her post, or go straight to The Wild Animal Sanctuary. They could really use some help right now.


This week's round-up is hosted by Heather at Heather's Space! Head over here to check out more gorgeous kittycats!

Åsa Klockars Pottery

Quite a few of you have asked about my blue pottery. It's very special to me, and made by pottery artist Åsa Klockars. Åsa lives and works in Dalarna, a beautiful part of Sweden. I bought my first piece at least five years ago, I think - and I've gotten quite a few favorites since then. And as you can see, I like photographing them! So here's some of what I have:

-a large mug
-a custom made set of plates
-a cake stand

I also have - but have neglected to photograph, I realize - a large shallow bowl, a lovely pie dish, a much used small milk jug (perfect for frothing milk before I bought the espresso machine) and plenty of small bowls that I originally bought for the cats. In fact, Åsa recognizes me now as the one who has all the cats.

Åsa has her workshop in her home, and also sells out of her home - but since two years, she also has a summer café along with a friend who makes cheese. Me and my mother went there this summer, and it was very lovely indeed.

I bought some new stuff, as you can see up above. It's a salt cellar (although Åsa insists on calling it a peanut bowl - it could be either), and two bowls. The turqouise is my favorite. She mixes the color herself, and it's really her signature. She does make a lovely light glazed blue as well, and white and black - but the turqouise is special. And in fact, I like it so much I had a wall painted the same color in our old apartment! (You can see it in this picture.)


It's called Bönhuset in Söderås, located very close to Rättvik. And it's an old mission church. Beautiful!


Part of the store


Gorgeous display!


I really like the square plates!


Another cake stand - or maybe more suitable for cookies.

So. If you're ever close by - do pay her a visit. I can't wait for my next one!

Cilantro Carrots

Thank you everyone, the blog is back to normal (it was a sidebar problem, I figured it out) and I've had a much better day today. (The only way was up, really.)

I found this recipe a while ago over at Too Many Chefs. It's absolutely brilliant, and I've made it several times lately. And I will make it many more times. It might not sound very exciting, but trust me - it's great.

Cilantro Carrots

1 kilo carrots, peeled, cut into long pieces and quartered lengthwise
6 tbsp water
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
fresh coriander, to taste
salt, pepper

Put the carrots and the water in a large saucepan with a lid. Salt a little. Bring to a boil, and let cook for about 7 minutes or until the carrots are tender but not too soft. Remove any water left in the pan, and transfer the carrots to a large bowl.

Add the lemon and olive oil, the cumin and the garlic. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper. You can prepare the dish up to this point and let it stand for up to two hours at a cool room temperature. Just stir in the coriander right before serving. (And it should be served at room temperature - the flavors are much nicer.

Morötter med koriander

The fun continues.

And now it seems that my blog isn't feeling so well either (I bet the computer picks up on my headache sometimes and translates into whatever I'm trying to do) and my sidebar is pushed down to the bottom of the page. I know this is usually because of large pictures, or long links - I can't find either, and it was fine this morning. Man. Sometimes I just feel like hurling the computer out the window.

Taxinge Slott

The view from a walkway at Taxinge

I've had a miserable day. Work is hysterical - we're one month from the elections, and since I work with politics full time, well, you can imagine. Things haven't been going well at home either - our new fridge and freezer are acting up, and to top it off even my espresso machine decided to go on strike today.


My cake - it had mocca buttercream and merengue

So. What better than to look at photos and think about some of the fun things I've done this summer? This batch is from Taxinge Slott, where I went with fellow food blogger Kristina to check out an art exhibition, and to eat cake.


A pistachio "biskvi" - it's a macaroon base with buttercream filling


Taxinge is known as the "cake castle", and they have an absolutely amazing pastry buffet with all kinds of yummy stuff. I didn't take a picture of the pastry room, but there are some on their webpage.


Kristina's plate

Taxinge is located about an hour from Stockholm, and well worth a visit! And now, unfortunately, it's back to work for me.

Blog Party # 13: Pea Chèvre Crostini and Watermelon Agua

I've never managed to participate in Blog Party before (or have I? I can't remember, but I don't *think* so...) so this time, I'll come early. This event is hosted by Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness, and the theme is no-cook. This little appetizer has served me and my friends well this summer. It takes mere minutes to put together, and it's a real conversation piece due to it's appearance. I usually ask people to try a piece before telling them that the green stuff? Yes, it's peas. and it's been successful so far.

I made it with broad beans the first time, but it works well with peas too. I use frozen ones, just leaving to thaw for a few minutes. The recipe is from a magazine - I *think* it was Good Food, but I'm not completely sure.

You can top them off with a little chopped mint. I used that the first time, but I didn't really like the flavor combination.

Pea Chèvre Crostini
Makes 20 crostini

-100 g green peas or broad beans (peeled). Thawed if using frozen, blanched if using fresh.
-1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-50 g chèvre cheese
-20 crostini
-fresh mint, optional

Put peas (or broad beans) and garlic in a small bowl, and blend with an immersion blender. (Or use a food processor.) Add olive oil until you have a smooth paste, and season with salt and pepper. Keep cool until ready to eat.

Spread on crostini and top with crumbled chèvre, and if you'd like, a sprinkling of fresh mint. Serve right away so the crostini won't become soggy.



Stephanie also asked for a coctail. Well, I've been leaning towards non-alcoholic while it's been so hot, and a real cooler has been the Watermelon Agua. It's simple - just blend watermelon flesh, a bit of sugar and water in a blender, and let it run through a filter to get rid of the slushy bits. (Or don't - they're good too.) Mix in the juice of a lime, and then lots of cool water. Perfect.

Crostini med bondbönor och chèvre

Nigella's Pasta with Meatballs

This is not very summery, and it's a long-neglected post, but it's raining today and I'm getting the first feeling that maybe, maybe this summer won't last forever after all, so here you go. It's a great dish - not very fancy, but that's what I like so much. Meatballs in Sweden are not generally served in sauce like this. The traditional way would be to eat them with gravy, boiled potatoes and lingonberries. Or with plain pasta, perhaps dressed with a little ketchup. But to make a whole pot of sauce and boil the meatballs therein - totally new. To me.

This recipe is from Nigella Bites, and I've made it over and over again. Super tasty! She always specifies to use dried oregano, and I never do - I usually opt for sage, dried or preferrably fresh. Also, I bet the British have bigger bottles of tomato passata than we do, since Nigella specifies a 700 g bottle. The packages I buy are 500 ml so that's what I use. And I've even used crushed tomatoes in a pinch when that was what I had at home - it was perfectly fine.

Pasta with Meatballs
Serves at least 6.

for the meatballs:
250 g minced pork
250 g minced beef
1 egg
1 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp sage (dried or fresh)
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
black pepper
salt

I always start by cracking the egg in a bowl, mixing in breadcrumbs and spices and combining into a paste. Then I add the meat, and mix until combined. Shape the mixture into small balls and place on plates until you're ready to cook them.

For the sauce:
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried oregano (or other dried herb)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
500 ml tomato passata (or crushed tomatoes, it works too)
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper
100 ml milk

Mix onion, garlic and dried herbs in a food processor into a paste. Heat butter and oil in a big pan, and gently fry the onion mixture on medium heat for about ten minutes. It shouldn't color much. Add the tomatoes, and about 3-400 ml of water. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, and boil for about 10 minutes. Stir in the milk, and start adding the meatballs, a few at a time. Don't stir until the meatballs are looking brown rather than pink, or they might break. Cook everything for about 20 minutes, then adjust seasoning to your liking.

Serve with your choice of pasta.

Köttbullar med tomatsås

Weekend Cat Blogging - Edith

Edith is *so* ready for summer to be over.

Snack time

Sort of a crisp-bread crostini with taleggio, a sharp blue cheese (Söderås blå) and my home made raspberry-strawberry preserves. Absolutely delicious.

The crisp bread is a recent find, it's made by Vilmas and is a sourdough spelt bread with several different types of seeds - pumpkin, sunflower and sesame were easily identified. It's very crisp and brittle, and very complex in flavor. A new favorite for sure.

The cheese - Söderås Blå - is locally produced in Rättvik, close to our cabin in Dalarna. The producer keeps sheep for milk, and has a café together with my favorite pottery artist, who made the gorgeous blue mug I showed yesterday. I'll tell you more about my latest visit there soon. For now, here's a picture of the cheese:

Lavender Chocolate Biscotti

Biscotti comes in so many flavors. It is just so adaptable. An added feature is that it travels well, which is why I chose to include these little yummies in my package to Dinner For One in the recent round of EBBP.

I got this recipe from Viktoria at Kardemumma, a Swedish blog. She in turn refers to Rosendals Trädgård for the original. I changed a few things, omitting lavender sugar and using dried lavender instead for instance, but other than that, not much. Here is the recipe I used.

Lavender Chocolate Biscotti
about 60 small biscotti

120 g almonds
2 eggs
200 ml (0,8 cups) sugar
1 tbsp dried lavender
1 tsp salt
400-500 ml (1,6-2.1 cups) flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 g dark chocolate

Roughly chop the almonds and the chocolate. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Mix together almonds, eggs, sugar, lavender and salt. Add 300 ml (1,2 cups) of the flour and the baking powder, then the chocolate. Mix carefully and add just as much flour you need to hold the dough together.

Roll out into thick rope shapes and place on a lined baking sheet. (I got three long ropes about 2 cm thickness)

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the dough is lightly golden. Remove from oven, and when cool enough to handle, cut into small biscotti. Dry in the oven, at 100°C for 30-40 minutes.

Lavendelskorpor

Alvin's Banana Pancakes

Alvin is my nephew. He turns one in just a little over a week - time flies! He's a big boy who loves to run and play. My brother, his fiance and Alvin had lunch with us a few days ago, and I made these little banana pancakes for Alvin. He seemed to like them - and they're very suitable for small children. If making them for adults, I'd add a touch of salt, and perhaps a bit of sugar, too. Depending on how ripe your banana is, of course. You can make these ahead and freeze them, and eat warm or cold. Very adaptable!



Alvin's Banana Pancakes

-1 banana
-1 egg
-1/2 dl flour (that's 50 ml, or 3 tbsp + 1 tsp)

Mash the banana, and beat with the egg and the flour to a smooth batter. Fry on medium heat in a little bit of butter.


And a kid *must* have dessert, too. Right?

Bananplättar

Mackmyra

Yesterday, I started my day by standing in line at Systembolaget, Sweden's only chain of liquor stores (state-owned) for half an hour. Why on earth? Well, it was time for release number two of Mackmyra. Mackmyra is the first Swedish-produced malt whiskey, and while it's still very young, they are releasing six different "Preludium" versions. I bought number one a few months ago, and now I have number two safely resting in my (overfilled) cabinet.

What's so special? Taste-wise, I have no ideas as we haven't tried ours yet. But the idea is fairly special. They only use Swedish raw materials of high quality, everything from water to barley, yeast and peat. And as whiskey aficionados - Per more than me - it was imperative to get a bottle. They only released a few thousand, and they sold out in a few hours. (In a few minutes, for most of the stores.)

Wanna know more? Head over to Mackmyra's very informative website. You can also buy a whole cask here, and specify the way you want them to make it. Customized! That's pretty cool.

EBBP #5 - package from Germany

I love blogging events! And some of the most fun ones include getting packages in the mail - Blogging by Mail and European Blogging by Post. The lovely Cook Sister - Jeanne - hosted this round, and I got a lovely package that was waiting for me when I got home today, from Meeta in Germany. Meeta blogs over at What's for lunch, honey? which was a new blog to me. (That's another bonus of these events, since you get to discover new delicious blogs!)

Meeta sent me a gorgeous photo that she had taken herself, and explained that to her, summer is all about berries and fruit. So, I also got a jar of her home-made pineapple-yellow plum preserves with ginger (yum!!) and a big log of honey cake that I will eat with the preserves. Also in the package was an incredibly tasty bar of chocolate with almonds and chili. I've already eaten some of it, and I can't help feeling sorry that I can't have more. It's delicious - the crunchy almonds and the almost not-there-but-still-is-present heat of the chillies just go so well together. Maybe it's a good thing I can't have it very often - although if I'm in Germany, I'd be sure to stock up!

My own package went out a few days ago, and is heading for.. well, I won't tell you. But I hope the recipient gets it soon! It has, among other things, some lavender chocolate biscotti that I'm planning to tell you about in a few days.

If you want to join in, Stephanie is hosting the next round of Blogging by Mail!

And if you're a Swedish blogger, or just happen to be in Stockholm - we're having a foodie picknick on August 23. It's open for everyone, so just come and join in the fun! We'll be in Humlegarden, from 17.30. E-mail if you want to know more!

Onion rings

We have a deep fryer but don't really use it much - the smell is usually more than I can bear. However, in the summer, we can use it outdoors and then it's really not a problem. We tried making onion rings for 4th of July - as you can see, it was pretty successful but we had some problems getting the batter to stick to the rings. We ended up with a thin, crunchy coating - not at all bad, but it'd have been nice to have a thicker coating. Except for buying pre-battered onion rings, frozen (not a great option) - does anyone know of a good way to ensure onion-success? We'll gladly give it another go.


Onions: action.

Upside-down Banana Caramel Cake

I found this recipe in an issue of Delicious. It's absolutely great - I often have leftover bananas that I won't eat because they've gone brown, and this cake is the thing to do. Sure, regular banana bread is good, and you can make muffins or biscotti, too - but this cake is quite special. Really - try it even if you're not crazy about banana cakes in general: it's that good.

The recipe specifies self-rising flour - since I don't have that, I used 2 tsp baking powder instead. And I upped the spices, as I normally do. And I didn't have sour cream in the house, so milk would have to do. (And it was fine.)


Upside-down Banana Caramel Cake

Adapted from Delicious magazine

1 very ripe banana, mashed
2 tbsp sour cream (or milk
180 g flour (self raising - or add 2 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
90 g butter, at room temperature
180 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Topping:
60 g butter
120 g brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
3-4 ripe bananas, sliced thinly

Heat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 24 cm springform pan. Get started on the topping: melt the butter in a saucepan, add the syrup and the sugar. Let it cook for three minutes, while stirring. Pour into the pan, and tilt to cover the base. Arrange the bananas in a pretty pattern to cover the caramel.

For the cake, start by mixing the banana with sour cream or milk. Mix flour, baking powder if using, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs, beating well to incorporate fully. Reduce the speed to low, and add the flour mixture. Finally, add the banana mixture.

Pour the batter over the banana slices, and be careful not to disturb them. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until lightly golden and springy to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before inverting carefully onto a plate. Pick off any stuck banana slices and just place them back on the cake. (And do sneak one for yourself, they're very good.) Serve at room temperature or slightly warmed with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Banankaka upp och ner

Salad with chicken, feta cheese, watermelon & creamy basil dressing

Friday, already? I just got home from visiting my sister Ehva in Östersund. (She has a blog by the way - in Swedish, but if you read Swedish, head over there!) It's been a lovely trip, and I took some great pictures of my great-nephews (surely that's what it's called? It's my niece's children.) and of Ehva's smart design details in her apartment. She is very creative, and has some really cool stuff.

Now, speaking of cool. Sweden is not. It's been a very warm summer, and as far as I've heard, that's true for most of the world. So, how about a cool summer salad? This is a really tasty flavor combination - feta and watermelon goes so well together! Feel free to skip the chicken if you want a lighter meal, but it does make it more substantial.

Salad with chicken, feta cheese, watermelon & creamy basil dressing
Serves 2

100 g mixed salad greens
1/2 rotisserie chicken (or two grilled chicken breasts will do)
1 avocado
1/2 lemon
1 small red onion
100 g feta cheese
1 fat wedge of watermelon

Rinse the salad well, dry, and arrange on a platter. Cut the avocado into large dice, and distribute evenly. Press over the juice of half a lemon, and toss. Cut the onion into thin half moons, and sprinkle over. Cut chicken and watermelon into bite-sized pieces and arrange on the platter. Top with crumbled feta cheese.



Creamy Basil Dressing
1 small handful of basil leaves
1,5 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp mild olive oil
3 tbsp crème fraîche (low fat is fine)
salt, pepper

Using an immersion blender or a small food processor, mix the basil with the oil and the vinegar. Add salt and pepper, and finally stir in the crème fraîche.

Sallad med kyckling, fetaost och melon med krämig basilikadressing

Tacos

Tacos is a big deal in Sweden. It's something many families enjoy on the weekend, as a special treat. It's a far cry from actually Mexican food though, but it's still good. Remember, we don't have any Mexicans in Sweden (well, hardly) so it's just not that genuine. And we, sadly, don't have any Mexican fast food. (Taco Bell, are you listening??) I remember ten years ago, when my US friend Rebecca visited me. We were at a festival, and there was a taco stand.. and the guys working there were typically tall, blond, blue-eyed Swedes. In sombreros. Rebecca just couldn't stop laughing about that one.

We eat tacos, or something along those lines (usually quesadillas) quite often. I recently got to be part of a focus group about tacos, and it was a lot of fun. We got two "taco dinner kits" sent home, and then we were supposed to cook them, the way we normally would, eat, and then fill in a form. And we got a tiny disposable camera to document the whole thing. I used my own camera too, so that you'd get a look of what it's normally like here - lots of little bowls with stuff, and then it's "build-your-own". Not in the picture, but a necessity: Taco Bell Mild Sauce. Yes, I take oodles of the stuff with me when I'm in the US.