My sister's kitchen

The mug tree.

I've shown you photos from my sister Ehva's kitchen again, but it's worth showing a new batch just because it's so incredibly cosy.


She's using sheer silk scarves as curtains - I think that's genius!


And open shelves. Note the small muffin jars above the stove - she uses them for different kinds of salt.

Daring Bakers chase after filberts

My dad and his birthday cake

Filbert Gateau. A what gateau now? Filbert? What's a filbert? Google, as always, is my friend, and told me that a filbert is basically a hazelnut. Oh - alrighty then! A hazelnut cake! Sounds good to me! Thanks Mele Cotte for choosing this - I happen to be a big nut fan. And as this cake had chocolate too, seriously, heaven. It did, however, have buttercream as well. And here my enthusiasm faded. See, buttercream is not at all traditional in cakes here in Sweden. It's really uncommon, actually. And I can't say I care for it much. So, what to do? I substituted something else - milk chocolate ganache. And was promptly punished for it, as you'll see later on.



I'm also quite thankful for my dad having a birthday this month - the perfect occasion to make this! And a big heartfelt thank you to my lovely kitchen equipment. Without the proper tools, this cake would have been so much harder. I particularly thank my Kitchen-Aid mixer, my Bosch food processor, my Demeyere sauteuse, and my Tupperware silicon spatula.



Now, for the actual parts of the cake:

Cake: This was to be a hazelnut genoise, and it had a few steps that was definitely new to me. I beat egg yolks really fluffy, gradually adding sugar, and I don't think I've ever made yolks that fluffy before! After adding vanilla (I didn't add the lemon zest - oops!) the batter was delicious! I then beat egg whites into meringue. But after that cake a scary step - combine the two. Really? I thought that would take all of the air out of the whites, but turned out it worked out nicely.

After that, though, I was to fold in my nut-and-flour mixture, while sifting it. I don't know about you, but I definitely needed an additional hand for that to work - one to hold the bowl, one to sieve the nuts, one to fold... Finally, adding clarified butter. I've never made clarified butter before, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy. I just melted it and let it sit, skimmed the surface, and carefully poured into a measuring cup. Huh! Oh - and I used ready toasted and skinned hazelnuts. It's recently become available here (at Ica!) and since skinning nuts is really my idea of kitchen hell, I'm thankful.



Syrup: Oh, simple, just boil sugar and water. I didn't add any alcohol since the guests for this particular cake don't care for any alcohol at all, but instead I poured it over a few vanilla beans to make vanilla syrup.

Praline paste: Oooh. Scary. First, making caramel - not very hard, but still scary. After that, I was to use my food processor to grind it into a paste. I thought for sure this would kill my poor food processor, but.. surprise, surprise - it went perfectly! Some daring bakers mentioned in the forums that they don't have a food processor, and were going to try grinding this by hand. Good luck to you.



Buttercream: Well, I admit that I just made a little for the decorations - for the filling, I instead made a whipped milk chocolate ganache with praline. (300 ml heavy cream, 200 g chopped milk chocolate, pour the hot cream over the chocolate, stir stir stir, chill overnight, whip, add praline paste.) However, it turned out a little thinner than I had planned, possibly due to overbeating the ganache. It was still delicious though. And the buttercream? Might be the very best buttercream I've ever had. I used my trusty method - beating egg yolks, adding hot sugar syrup and then butter - rather than the one called for in the recipe, and then added praline paste. It was nothing short of amazingly tasty. And now I wish I had made more!



Apricot glaze: Straightforward - I used a cheap brand, but it turned out fine.



Chocolate ganache: It seemed a little thick perhaps, I think most people had runnier ganaches which made for a shinier, more mirror-like surface. But I don't really care, it turned out fairly pretty and was tasty.



Decorating: Since it was my dad's birthday, decoration was a given. I really, really need to get a large coupler and some large tips though, it's no fun just working with tiny tips.



All in all, I loved this cake. It was fun to make, and very tasty. Thanks to Chris of Mele Cotte for choosing this one! For the recipe, please go here. Don't forget to visit the Daring Bakers forums, even if you're not a Daring Baker. And of course, the blogroll, to see how everyone's cake turned out!

Lamb Lasagna

Oh, I know, this looks like a disaster on a plate, but it was SO delicious. Nothing to it really - we simmered some ground lamb with onions, garlic, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, heavy cream, plenty of spices like chili and cumin and some salt. We layered that with lasagna noodles, ready-made cheese sauce and one layer of my ratatouille that was left over from a previous dinner. Yum, yum, yum!

Did you feel it? Are you ok?

I just heard that a fairly big earthquake just hit California. I have some close friends out in Long Beach, and I hope they and all their friends are ok. And I hope all of YOU are ok! Those of you in the area, did you feel it?

I was an exchange student in Long Beach back in 93-94, and was around for the Northridge quake. Pretty scary stuff! I remember it hit at night, and the bed felt like I was on a boat.

Ratatouille, my way

There are many, many ways to make ratatouille. Most of them include eggplant. Not my favorite vegetable by any means, so I never eat it. I do however like fennel, and definitely want some of that in my ratatouille. And most of all, I want peppers. I use bell peppers of different colors - red, green and yellow - and to tell you the honest truth, for this I simply used frozen, already cut up strips. See, I stumbled upon a huge bag of frozen peppers a while ago - a LOT cheaper than buying them fresh, and with no additives, so I picked them up. Hence the weird measurement in the recipe - if using fresh, I'd say you'd need at least four or five.

I loved this with some grilled salmon and cooked bulgur, and stay tuned to hear what I did with the leftovers!

Ratatouille, my way
Serves 4

1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 zucchini
1 small fennel bulb
700 ml - a little less than three cups - of bell peppers cut into strips, different colors
3 tomatoes
1/2-1 tsp chilli powder
1/2-1 tsp cumin
1/2-1 tsp coriander
1/2-1 tsp thyme, dried
1/2-1 tsp oregano, dried
olive oil

Chop the onion and garlic coarsely. Cut lengthwise down the zucchini, about 1 cm thick, so that you only get the outer parts. Discard the middle section, and dice the rest. Cut the fennel into thin slices.

Dunk the tomatoes into boiling water and peel them. Cut into wedges, discard the seeds.

Heat a little olive oil in a pot or deep frying pan, and fry onion and garlic on low heat until softened. Add all the other veggies, and all the spices. Leave on low heat, covered, for about half an hour or until everything has softened nicely. Taste to see if you like the seasoning, and adjust.

Recipe in Swedish:
Min ratatouille

A double rainbow

You don't see this very often: a double rainbow.

Weekend Cat Blogging

I know, I didn't post any kitten pics last weekend! Sorry! Here are some to make up for that. And with names, too! We finally decided on Klara Kristall and Kitty Karat. Kristall and Karat means.. well, Crystal and Karat, and that's to describe their colors. Klara and Kitty are more proper names - and Klara also means Clear in Swedish, so her name basically means "clear crystal". Pretty cute! And the common theme is, maybe a bit obvious, precious things. Which they are, of course.






Vampire Klara!



More photos available here.

Walnut Brownies

For my Fourth of July party, I wanted to bake a batch of brownies. What brownie recipe to choose, then? There are so many. Endless, really. I googled "best brownies" and found a recipe at Simply Recipes that looked very promising. I had to throw out my pecans as they were going stale, but I had plenty of walnuts instead, And after some minor adaptions, well, this recipe was made. The brownies, cut. Admired. Devoured.

The almond extract might sound strange, but oh boy, it gives a great flavor to these little squares of joy. Try for yourself - after all, it's Friday...

Walnut Brownies
makes 16

130 g butter
300 ml sugar (1.2 cups)
200 ml cocoa powder (o.8 cups)
2 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
125 ml flour (1/2 cup)
100 ml coarsely chopped walnuts plus 16 halves

Melt the butter in the microwave (or on the stove if you prefer) and stir in sugar and cocoa until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the almond extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. At this point, the batter should be nice and shiny. Add the flour, and stir really well until you can't see it anymore, and then stir it some more. (The original recipe said 40 strokes - I didn't count.) Finally add the walnuts.

Pour into a lined pan - mine is 8 inch square - and place the reserved walnut halves in an even pattern. Bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes.



Recipe in Swedish:
Brownies med valnötter

Young chef

Meet Alex, my great-nephew. He just got his first major kitchen appliance - a combined stove, oven and sink, with actual water.

Long before there were blogs...

Apparently the northern-most rune stone in Sweden, here in Östersund. I have no idea what it says though! Probably not about food...

Oh so cute!

The loveliest little charms, made by a friend of my sister. (Who I am away visiting at the moment.) You can find her blog about knitting and crafts (in Swedish) at http://kamillastickar.blogspot.com

Summery refresher

So simple, but such a good way to turn an ordinary glass of water into something more special: a slice of lime, a wedge of pineapple. Use any combination of fruit, try cherries, melon or raspberries.

My Chinese Take-Out

I don't know about you, but I always, always, always order the same thing when I get Chinese food: Beef with mushrooms and bamboo shoots. All the time.

"Swedish" Chinese food is probably rather dumbed down from real Chinese food. It's rarely spicy, and never very exciting - but it is reliable, and I really like it. Here, you don't have the cool take-out containers you see in American movies, nor do you get fortune cookies. And it's generally one person-one dish, you rarely order a bunch of stuff and share. At least that's my experience...

Blueberry Walnut Cake

Here's another delicious way to bake with berries. Blueberries are in season soon, but as far as I care, they're in "season" in my freezer all year round. Because yes, you can definitely use frozen berries here, and you don't even have to thaw them before using. Very convenient!

It's quite unusual - no beating of the eggs, just stirring, and it has a nice nutty streusel topping. Try it!

Blueberry Walnut Cake
from Skördetid, by Siv Key Nilson

75 g butter, melted
2 eggs
175 ml orange juice
175 ml sugar
350 ml flour
2 tsp baking powder
4-500 ml blueberries

For the topping:
125 ml chopped walnuts
50 ml brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom (ground, or preferrably just-bashed in a pestle and mortar)
2 tbsp melted butter

Butter a springform pan, about 24 cm in diameter. Flour it or use breadcrumbs to cover the sides and bottom.

Mix nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and melted butter for the topping and set aside.

Stir melted butter, eggs and juice for the cake, and add the sugar. Stir until it's well combined, and add flour and baking powder. Don't overwork the batter. Pour into the pan, and add about half the topping in dollops. Run a knife through it for some marbling. Sprinkle in the blueberries, and then the rest of the topping. Bake at 175°C for about 45 minutes.

Recept på engelska:
Blåbärskaka med valnötter

Quick Indian Chicken Curry

I love Indian food, but I don't cook it myself much. It just seems so complicated, and I barely know where to begin... however, I got a huge book from Workman Publishing, titled "660 Curries". 660?? Really? You're joking? No. I'm not. The book is huge. It's thicker than a bible. And to tell you the truth, it's more than a little bit overwhelming. It's not exactly like you can cook your way through it. (At least I don't want to undertake something that enormous of a task!) So, where to begin..? I paged through it quite randomly until I happened upon this recipe (which is slightly adapted, as always) for a fast and easy creamy chicken curry. It sounded good. And it was good. Really, really good.

For anyone who loves to cook Indian food - get the book. If you just love to eat it? Well, at least try this curry. And a helpful tip: count the amount of cloves and cardamom pods that you add in, so that you can fish them back out before serving. Biting into a whole clove is not extremely pleasant, in my opinion...

Quick Indian Chicken Curry
Serves 4

2 tbsp neutral oil
10 whole cloves
10 whole cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
4 garlic cloves, minced
fresh ginger, a thumbsized piece, finely minced
2 tomatoes, coarsely diced
3 tsp garam masala
2 tsp flaky sea salt
150-200 ml water
900 g chicken thighs or breasts, no skin or bones, bite-sized
100 ml cream
fresh coriander
toasted cashew nuts

Heat the oil in a large pan, and fry cloves, cardamom, bay leaves and cinnamon for a few seconds, until they start to release their aromas. Add ginger and garlic, and fry, constantly stirring, for a minute. Add the tomatoes, and stir well.

Add garam masala, salt and water, and then the chicken. Bring everything to a boil, and cover with a lid. Lower the heat to medium, and cook for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is done. Fish out the whole spices you used at the beginning. Add the cream. Serve with rice, fresh coriander and toasted cashews.

Recipe in Swedish:
Snabb indisk kycklinggryta

Happy Birthday, Malin!

Today is my niece Malin's 18th birthday! We celebrated her last Sunday, since her mom (that'd be my sister) is scheduled to have a baby in a few days time, and we didn't want to risk having a party just as she was going into labour.

Malin had made a really yummy lemon cheesecake, and as you can see in the photo, there was plenty of other goodies too. Happy birthday!

Great dinner!

Chicken and feta cheese in Phyllo dough, with homegrown salad. We're at Dagmar's for dinner, and it's delicious as always.

Rhubarb Blackcurrant Crumble

There wasn't a lot of rhubarb left at my in-laws, but I got a good handful of stalks to take home and turn into something yummy. I was thinking about a chutney, or maybe some sort of marmelade... but in the end, I decided a classical crumble was the way to go. I was leafing through my book "Smulpajer" (means "Crumbles") by Elisabeth Johansson, and I liked the sound of a rhubarb-blackcurrant pie, with cardamom flavor. I have three bushes with blackcurrants outside my kitchen window, in the grassy area that we share with ten of our neighbors, and no one ever picks them. So out I went! I gathered enough for the crumble - hardly made a dent, there's so much right now - and got busy baking.

As it happens, the theme for Sugar High Friday this month (hosted by Food Blogga) is berries! And that was also the last theme for "Waiter, there's something in my..." hosted by Jeanne, but I totally missed the deadline for that. So, this is my entry for SHF!

Rhubarb Blackcurrant Crumble
Serves 4-6

For the filling:
250 g rhubarb
250 ml (1 cup) blackcurrants
1/2 tbsp potato flour
1 tbsp muscovado sugar (or regular brown sugar)
2 tbsp homemade vanilla sugar (or regular caster sugar, or brown sugar, it doesn't matter much)

For the crumble:
125 g butter, cold, diced
120 g flour (can be wholewheat, all-purpose, or a mixture of the two)
50 g rolled oats
100 g muscovado sugar (or regular brown sugarn)
1-2 tsp cardamom seeds, pounded in a pestle and mortar

Slice the rhubarb into 1 cm pieces, and mix with the blackcurrants, potato flour and both kinds of sugar.

Place the butter with the flour, oats, sugar and cardamom in a bowl, and use your fingertips to pinch this into a crumbly mixture. Add more flour if it's too sticky, or a few drops of water if it seems way too dry.

Place the berry-rhubarb mixture in a large pie dish. It should be one, thin layer. Cover with the crumbles. Bake at 225°C for 15-20 minutes, and eat with vanilla custard or ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Rabarber- och svartvinbärspaj

Some more photos from our trip

Östergötland is a really beautiful part of Sweden. I lived in Linkoping for seven years - it was there, at university, that I met Per. He is from Motala, and his family still lives there, and it was where we went earlier this week.





Like I said, we visited Söderköping to eat ice cream. The restaurant - or ice cream bar - is right by Göta Kanal, the very popular channel that goes through Sweden.



We also visited Brunneby - they make jam and fruit cordials that can be found all over Sweden, but this is their actual factory. They have a great café, and a lovely store where you can find all of their products as well as locally produced eggs, flour and other things.



And Per's mom made one of my favorite meals: Mushroom Chicken Pie.



She also made Per's favorite: Salmon Rolls. (His mom's were better than the ones he makes - more cheese, less mustard, and fresh dill.)

Raspberry thumbprint cookie

Incredibly tasty cookie from Dalarö bakery. That's another summer must-do if you're in Stockholm.

In Grandma's arbor - a book giveaway!

Remember Kinna? Last fall, I told you about her book "I mormors berså" where she and her mom has collected family recipes from five generations. The book is truly a treasure chest for anyone who likes baking - it has bread, cookies and cakes, all part of the Swedish tradition. It's also a very pretty book - it looks just like old-fashioned writing books, and it's very lovely design is made by Kinna's sister Elina. They've even published the book themselves, and they've done a great job getting into many bookstores, and they get a lot of well-deserved attention in the Swedish media.

Now, many of you don't read Swedish. But today is your lucky day - because the book was just translated into English! It's called "In Grandma's Arbor", and guess what? Kinna and Elina has given me two copies of the book to share with you!

All you have to do is leave a comment, and make sure you have a valid e-mail address so that I can contact you. I'll randomly draw the winners, and it doesn't matter where you live - I'll ship it anywhere! You have until Sunday, noon (my time).

If you're not so lucky, you can order the book from here. International orders are shipped through Sweden bookshop, and they ship worldwide.

Mixed Seed Bread

I promise to not just blog with my iPhone, but I have to tell you, it's pretty tempting to just upload quick photos and texts like that! I'm sure I'll get back to the kitchen eventually, but right now, in the middle of summer, I don't really cook or bake much at all. However, we do need bread, and as I don't like to buy bread, I decided to make these quite quick little rolls a while ago. They're really flavorful from all the different seeds, and you can even add nuts if you'd like. They keep very well in the freezer, and I prefer to toast mine before eating - it makes the seed flavor even more pronounced.

Mixed Seed Bread
Makes about 20

50 g fresh yeast
500 ml tepid water
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
50 ml pumpkin seeds
50 ml sesame seeds
100 ml sunflower seeds
100 ml rye flakes (or rolled oats, if you can't get rye)
300 ml wholewheat flour
800-1000 ml strong wheat flour

Start by toasting pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds in a dry pan until fragrant. Set aside.

Crumble the yeast into a bowl, and add the water. Stir well. Add salt, honey and oil, and stir in the rye flakes, the wholewheat flour and all the seeds. Add the wheat flour, a little at a time, until you have a robust dough. Work it really well, preferrably in a stand mixer, until it releases from the sides of the bowl. It might still be a little bit sticky to touch though, that's ok.

Cover, and let it rise for two hours. After that, work the dough slightly by hand, and shape small rolls. Place on a baking sheet, cover with a tea towel, and leave to rise for one more hour. Score them before baking if you wish.

Bake at 175°C for 25-30 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Fröbullar

And then, chocolate

After all that icecream, we went to Cloetta chocolate factory in Ljungsbro. They don't have tours, but they do have a store. Filled with chocolate! Good day, this.

Icecream in Söderköping

I wrote "cream" yesterday, but meant icecream. And not just any, but
home-made (edited: nope, apparently not!) from Smultronstället in Söderköping. They have some amazing creations, but we went for these relatively simple ones:
hazelnut, marsipan-chocolate and pecan-caramel for me, pineapple and orange topped with soft-serve vanilla and whipped cream for Per. No lunch today. This place is definitely worth a special trip.

Time for fika

Very Swedish: coffee and homemade cinnamon buns. We are visiting the in-laws for a couple of days. We have something very special planned for tomorrow - icecream!

Best fast-food in Stockholm

I think I've told you before, but it';s well worth repeating. I just
ate this delicious burger at Filips in Fisksätra. What makes it so
different is the bread - no boring bun, but a freshly baked pita.
This particular one had feta cheese as well. If you're anywhere near,
I implore you to go there and have a pitaburger.

Weekend Cat Blogging: finally, some names!

Ok, we finally decided. I proudly present Kellycats Klara Kristall and Kitty Karat! (Quite obviously Kristall means Crystal, and Karat - well, you should recognize that one easily. We thought it fit their colors perfectly!) Kitty is already booked, and Klara is still for sale. They're not eating on their own just yet, but they use the litter box! Both are so friendly and cuddly, with a strong purr. It'll be hard to let these ones move out! Good thing there's still eight more weeks...




Klara, busy killing her octopus




One of my favorite photos ever, Kelly with Kitty.

More photos on Flickr.