Nectarine Almond Salad

Just so you don't think I eat like yesterday *every* day, here's a quick but delicious salad that's perfect as a small starter. I can still get nice nectarines, and if you can too, definitely try this. Omit the radishes if you want to, it's still really good.

Nectarine Almond Salad
Serves 2

1 nectarine, thinly sliced
50 g rocket (arugula)
2 radishes, thinly slived
15 almonds
parmesan, shaved

Dressing:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan. Whisk together everything for the dressing, and mix with the rocket and radishes. Divide on two plates, and top with the nectarines, almonds and shaved parmesan.

Recipe in Swedish:
Nektarinsallad med mandel

Really quite the gourmet

People ask me if I eat fancy food every day. There's a real simple answer to that: no. I often eat fun food, things that might not be very difficult or made from expensive ingredients, but that are nicely put together and often with little twists - sure. But I have to show you this plate of orange-ness, because it's what I had for dinner a few days ago. That's Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (one of my favorite foods in the world, by the way) and.. fish sticks. With a dollop of mayo.

Gourmet might not be my middle name. But this sure hit the spot!

What's your favorite not-so-fashionable-or-fabulous-food?

Weekend... deer blogging?

No cats, but they were awfully occupied checking out this deer in my neighbor's garden a few days ago. We live in a calm little area, but it's just fifteen minutes from the city centre in Stockholm. I'm amazed at how much wildlife we have - I often see squirrels and rabbits on my way to work, and deers are really common too. Not usually as calm as this one though! He stood there for a good ten minutes, checking things out. The cats got really excited, totally glued to the windows. I wonder what they'd do if they actually met a deer, though!

Daring Bakers: Crackers & Dip

This month's challenge for the daring bakers was different. Checking out the hosts, Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl, I knew that one was vegan and one was gluten-free. I couldn't think of many things for the challenge, at all, but was somewhat relieved when it was finally known and it turned out to be nothing scarier than crackers (lavash) and some kind of vegan, gluten-free dip.

See, I certainly don't mind vegan or gluten-free cooking, but I'm not a big fan of using substitutes. I rather cook naturally free of certain things, rather than use something like vegan dairy, for instance. So, glad I didn't have to!

In fact, we could choose to make our lavash with or without gluten, and I used regular bread flour for mine. Or well, regular - it was a medium dark wholewheat flour. It turned out I needed more water than the original recipe called for, but other than that the dough behaved beautifull and gave me no problems at all.

I topped half of my lavash with a nice chili lime spice blend and sea salt and the other half with cumin and chili. For the dip, I made a roasted green tomato relish, since I had so many green tomatoes in the garden.

Roasted Green Tomato Relish
300 g green tomatoes
1 jalapeño, stem cut off but otherwise left intact
2 garlic cloves

Heat the oven to 200°C and place all ingredients on a rimmed baking sheet. Put them in the oven to roast for 15-20 minutes - they should start to look a little blackened by that time.

Tip the whole thing into a food processor, blitz away, and you're done!

I admit that this wasn't one of the most exciting challenges I've made, nor was I a big fan of the finish lavash (or the dip) - but I brought them to a party where they were very well received!



You can find the recipes here, the blogroll here, and the discussion forums - open to everyone! - here.

Earl Grey Vanilla Cookies

This is one of my favorite cookies, and I've written about them before but I haven't posted the recipe. It's definitely about time! I first found it through a Sugar High Friday event, where the theme was tea, and Linda from At Our Table made these. I think they might originally be from Martha Stewart though. The recipe is so easy, and you can even freeze the dough and have it hand for whenever the cookie monster strikes. Or just freeze the finished cookies. They hold up extremely well, and I've given these to many instead of flowers, as hostess gifts. I've even mailed them!

I know it sounds weird to have tea in cookies, but do give them a try. They really are lovely!

Earl Grey Vanilla Cookies
500 ml (2 cups) flour
125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar
125 ml (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
6 Earl Grey teabags
1 tsp vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
1 tsp water
200 g butter, unsalted

Use a food processor, and blitz the tea from all teabags with the sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar if using, and flour. If you're using vanilla extract, add this now, with the butter and water. Let the machine work it into a nice dough. If it's too dry, add another teaspoon of water, if it's too wet, add a little more flour.

Shape into sausages, wrap in plastic, and leave in the fridge or freezer to firm up for at least a couple of hours, or overnight.

Bake at 180°C for about 10 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Småkakor med Earl Grey & vanilj

And more on julbord

Just a quick photo of the Norwegian christmas food I got to taste last week! Tomorrow, you'll get a nice cookie recipe, I promise! :)

(And that's not wine, that's aquavit!)

A very early Christmas Smörgåsbord

Julbord, or a Christmas Smörgåsbord, is a very big deal in Sweden. Many restaurants will serve this - and almost always ONLY this - for the entire month of December. Most companies will have their employees out for Christmas dinners, and many go privately as well. Yesterday, me, Dagmar and Per were invited to a preview at Fjäderholmarnas Krog, who decided to serve up their julbord a few months in advance. I visited Fjäderholmarna last year, but I'd never been to the restaurant before.

It was really, really cool - and incredibly tasty. What made it different? Well, the big thing was that it was served in tiny portions, really. Instead of having big casseroles filled with, say, smoked salmon, the kitchen served up nice cubes. Everything was cut into bite-sized pieces, which really helped keep the whole thing fresh-looking. I didn't bring my camera, so bear with my iPhone photos.. we did also get a cd with some press photos, so I'm showing you those as well.

To sum up: if you're wanting to try Swedish julbord this year, do go to Fjäderholmarna! It's a fifteen-minute boat trip from Stockholm city, and well worth it. But do book in advance, because I'm sure it will fill up quite fast. Prices vary from 495-695 SEK depending on the day and time.

Now, for the entire menu... (yes, you get all of this.) (And no, I didn't try everything.)



First course - variations on herring:
Many types of sill (pickled herring), flavored with: curry, lingonberries & black pepper, herbs, Mackmyra (Swedish whiskey), sea buckthorn, black currants, aniseed, garlic & almonds, mustard, lemon & dill, rosehip & cardamom, vanilla & lime leaf, honey & jalapeño

Also, teriyaki herring, sillsalad, olive oil & saffron herring, vendace roe herring, matjesill (a special sort of spiced sill) with crème fraîche, allspice herring, tomato herring and herb-cured herring. And a few different types of sharp, well-aged cheeses.



Second course - more fish:
Orange & Sichuan cured salmon, cured salmon, salmon tartare with vendace roe, smoked herring, cold-smoked salmon, warm-smoked salmon, artic char with caraway, pike & shellfish paté, Västerbotten Cheese pie with vendace roe, boiled eggs with vendace roe, boiled eggs with shrimp, salmon in aspic, salted pike-perch, salmon & herb paté.



Third course - cold meats:
Rolled sylta (jellied meat loaf, sort of), veal sylta, wild boar ham, Christmas ham, sylta made from pork and pig´s feet, smoked lamb, reindeer salami, coarse liver paté, moose salami, Gustafskorv (made from horses), smoked reindeer, deer paté, rabbit sylta, orange smoked duck breast, pheasant paté, moose & shiitake paté, wild boar paté, smoked moose, chicken roulade, veal & pistachio sausage



Fourth course - optional - lutfisk with classic trimmings. (We skipped this, as it had to be ordered separately. And none of us like lutfisk.)

Fifth course - warm food:
Ribs, meatballs, brown cabbage, red cabbage, Christmas choucroute, mushroom omelet, shellfish omelet, sausages, Jansson's temptation, Kroppkakor, "Dopp i grytan" (essentially you dip bread into fat rendered from cooking your ham), and finally a fingerling potato cream with suovas (smoked, dried reindeer filet) with pickled chanterelles and lingonberries.

Sixth course - again optional - cheese:
Per ordered this, and got a well-aged stilton from Neal's Yard, Swedish Påverås Fjällädel, apple marmelade, fruit & nut bread and some sort of thinly sliced pears. Tiny pieces.



Seventh course - desserts:
Cloudberries with cream cheese and gingerbread, dark chocolate mousse with peaches, pear, lemongrass & lingonberries with vodkamousse, warm cheesecake with raspberry jam, almonds and white chocolate mousse, fruit salad, fig fruitcake, marzipan, burnt almonds, a special chocolate flavored with Mackmyra whisky, cherry fruit cake, Swedish knäck, "ice chocolate", "mint kisses" (mint fondant with dark chocolate), "polka-pigs" (similar to candy canes), chocolate cake, candied orange peel in chocolate, truffles with raspberries, three types of marmalade (white peach, apple and blackcurrant), and a delicious licorice & salt chocolate bark. And fruits, but who could eat fruit after all that..?


My dessert plate

About copyright

I found a really good informative post about copyright and what you can do to protect yourself over at Scribbit. Essential for all bloggers.

(And to everyone else - don't assume that you can use someone elses texts, or photos, without asking permission!)

Old El Paso presents Crispy Chicken

I'm usually pretty wary of spice mixes of various kinds. They're usually full of not-so-good stuff, and often, I just don't like the results.

I've talked about Swedish taco habits before but for a very short recap: Swedes LOVE tacos, which is not just tacos, but a whole plethora of vaguely Mexican food, and we have two major brands on the market: Santa Maria and Old El Paso. (They sound Mexican, but they're very much not so.)

I probably would never have tried this new Crispy Chicken mix if I hadn't gotten a package in the mail. But I'm glad I did! It's a shake-and-bake thing, where you put chicken pieces, a little bit of oil and the spice mix in a bag, shake and bake in the oven. We ate it with tortillas (flour is very dominant here, I've only recently found corn tortillas, and there's no masa harina to make your own. Unless you're me, because I happen to have a huge bag, courtesy of Coco Cooks!) and a spicy avocado salsa which was actually flavored with yet another spice mix, but from Santa Maria this time. Which I would not bother buying, but this was while we were away on vacation, and I didn't have my spice collection - this came in mighty handy.

And the chicken mix? Actually really good. I like it. Two thumbs up! (As long as I don't look too closely at the ingredients list.)

Regarding shake-and-bake by the way. It's not available here, and my only real exposure to it was when I was an exchange student in California. My host sister was slightly obsessed with it - not eating it though, just the concept. I remember her wrapping it up for one of those secret gift exchanges at christmas time...

Warm Oat Salad with Apples & Mushrooms

Oats is not something I usually cook for dinner, but one of our big grain companies has just put out something they call "mathavre" - "food oats" - on the market. It's similar to wheatberries, but made from oat - I'd imagine it's basically whole oats, parboiled. They cook in just over 10 minutes, and are great to use in salads.

I was asked to create a recipe with it for a competition they're having, and I decided to go with a seasonal warm salad with oats, apples and mushrooms. I served this with pan-fried salmon and a lovely mustardy yogurt crème. First time, we used fennel and bacon instead of the salmon, and that was lovely too, but the fennel was a little too dominant, and the apples didn't come through as much as I wanted. But feel free to fiddle with it as you please!

If you can't get these oats, try it with bulgur, small-shaped pasta, or israeli cous-cous (moghrabi) instead!

Warm Oat Salad with Apples & Mushrooms
Serves 4

200 ml "mathavre" ("food oat") or other large-ish grain
2 large carrots
2 large apples
200 g mushrooms
1 yellow onion
butter or oil for frying
salt, pepper

4 serving pieces of salmon

Mustard Thyme Yogurt Crème
200 ml greek yogurt
1-2 tsp runny honey
1-2 tsk dijon mustard
a few drops of hot chili sauce, like Tabasco
salt
fresh thyme

Cook the oats according to the package instructions. Meanwhile, peel and dice the onion and apples. Peel and slice the carrots thinly, and divide to mushrooms into small pieces. Fry everything in a little bit of oil or butter. When the oats are soft, add them to the other ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper and fry for a few minutes on each side in a non-stick frying pan, on medium-high heat to give them a nice, crispy surface.

Stir together everything for the yogurt crème, and top with some extra thyme.

Recipe in Swedish:
Havrepytt med äpple och champinjoner

Weekend Cat Blogging: Klara, not enjoying her first outing

Today, I thought I'd show some pictures from last weekend, when we were away in Dalarna. Klara got to try out a leash for the first time, and she was surprisingly uninterested in the great outdoors. Fresh air, warm sun, green grass... all very bad, apparently. I did get a few nice photos though!





This Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Luna.

Apple Shortbread Cakelets

This is basically a large thumbprint cookie. The Swedish name means "apple caves", and it's really more common to make these with raspberry jam, but for a nice autumnal touch, applesauce is great. Preferrably homemade, of course! I found the recipe in a Swedish food magazine recently, Allt Om Mat.

The cookies themselves use a little bit of custard powder. It's something I didn't discover until fairly recently - I had a recipe that called for it (Pistachio Buns), bought a box, and have since encountered many more uses for it, in other recipes. Not completely sure what it does, except impart a nice subtle vanilla flavor, but it seems to work so I'll go on using it. I haven't tried simpy omitting it here, but I *think* the cookies would still work out nicely.

A mini-muffin tin is not essential but really nice if you have one, since the cookies will hold their shape a lot better. The ones that were not baked in the tin is the ones you see above, and they tended to swell and expand much more. Oh, and you can totally freeze these - you can even eat them straight from the freezer. (How do I know that?)

Apple Shortbread Cakelets
makes about 36

280 g unsalted butter
150 g sugar
260 g flour
100 ml custard powder
1,5 tsp baking powder
100 ml applesauce
36 small paper cups

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. It's easier if the butter is at room temperature, but it will still work if it's cold, just cut it into fairly small pieces.

Mix flour, custard powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl, and add to the butter. Mix until your dough comes together - it might still be a little bit crumbly but that's ok.

Place the paper cups in a mini muffin tin if you can, or just place them on a baking sheet. Take a small ball of dough and press into each one, make a largish dent with your thumb and fill the holes with applesauce.

Bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Äppelgrottor

A few tips and cool things

I keep piling up info about new stuff that I mean to tell you about, but somehow I rarely get around to it. Ok, let's do a top five.

1. Spice Boy is a new spice grinder, that's the one in the photo. I think it's so cool - not only does it look nice, but it's really functional. You can grind all kinds of spices - not just pepper - and by filling it up with different things, you can get your very own spice mix. It's definitely on my wishlist - just have to decide on the color. (But I'm leaning towards red.)

2. Cod from a sustainable source is not very easy to find, but it's getting easier in Sweden since Coop's selling it under their own brand name "Änglamark". It's fished by Norwegian Domstein, and something that I find exceptionally cool is that there's a code on each packet telling you *exactly* where it was fished, and by what boat. Neat!

3. Be your own celebrity chef, or at least enjoy watching others, on Ifood TV. There are probably many similar sites, but what I like about this one is that their player shows the recipe if you just click on "info". Pretty cool. (And no, you won't find any videos of me there. At least not yet.)

4. Adagio tea now has a European site, and ships all over Europe. (Their American site is here.) I'm not a huge tea buff, but I enjoy a cup every now and then. Adagio kindly sent me some samples, and while I haven't gone through the very big box yet, I have to say that they're really high quality. The leaves are huge compared to what I'm used to, and they smell great. I've tried Jasmine Pearls so far, and that was great. Thumbs up!

5. Yesterday, I was invited to Christmas lunch. A little early, perhaps? One would think so. But it was neat - it was hosted by Norwegian liquor company Arcus at the Norwegian Embassy and we were treated to traditional Norwegian christmas food (which is not necessarily the same as in Sweden) and some newly released Aquavits to go with it. Dagmar took a lot of photos, so I hope some of them turn out.

Vanilla Apple Sauce

I don't know if everyone knows this, but apple sauce? It is SO easy to make. Don't bother to buy it. Ever. It'll take you fifteen minutes, and be infinitely better than the store-bought version. I don't know what took me so long, because I just tried this very recently. Then again, I don't really eat a lot of apple sauce. Or I didn't. These past few weeks, I've had it on oatmeal porridge every morning!

I made this from hand-picked apples that a co-worker gave me, but apples from the store are of course perfectly fine. The less tart ones are better, as they generally fall apart a bit more. With harder apples, be prepared to cook them for a little bit longer. You can spice this up as much as you want, but I like using homemade vanilla sugar (you know, the kind where you stick a few vanilla pods in a jar of sugar and forget about it for a few weeks) and crushed cardamom. A cinnamon stick, whole cloves or star anise would also be nice.

Vanilla Apple Sauce

1 kg apples
50 ml water (3 tbsp + 1 tsp)
200-250 g homemade vanilla sugar
1 tsp crushed cardamom (optional)

Peel and core the apples. Cut into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the water. Cover with a lid, bring to boil, and then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. The apples should be fairly soft. If you're using cardamom, put that in the pan as well, right from the start.

When the apples are soft, remove the pan from the heat, and with a wire whisk, whisk until the apples break up. Add the sugar and whisk some more. That's it! Pour into clean jars, and freeze the ones you won't use right away since these don't contain any kind of additives for preservation.

Recipe in Swedish:
Äppelmos med vanilj

New best friends

I somehow seem to be fairly good at winning things. My latest feat - an Electrolux Kitchen Assistant. This is sadly not an actual assistant (that would have been swell) but it's the Swedish version of the Kitchen-Aid: a stand mixer that's changed very little design-wise since the 1950:s or so.



Nice, isn't it? I wouldn't have bought one myself, being so in love with my Kitchen-Aid, but as this one was a prize, I'll definitely keep it. I haven't tried it yet, and I frankly don't plan on using it a whole lot, but I think it'll come in handy for baking bread or yeasted doughs in general. It's a lot bigger and stronger than the Kitchen-Aid, and while I don't think it'll make a killer meringue or a super buttercream, I do think it'll work a bread dough well and good.

From a very brief inspection, I have to say - I had a hard time figuring out how to even place the attachments, and everything seems a little bit loose (especially the lid, which doesn't fit very well at all). But - never look a gift kitchen appliance in the mouth!

What did I do to deserve it then? Well, it was a photo competition over at a Swedish discussion forum about food, Matforum. I won with this one!

Vietnamese Beef Salad

I'll admit it: I've never been to Vietnam, or even to a Vietnamese restaurant, so frankly I don't know how authentic this is. Possibly not very. But the recipe comes from a Vietnamese cookbook, that came out earlier this year in Sweden: "Kök i Hanoi". Very nice cookbook, with a lot of information about the country. And this salad? Very, very nice. I changed a few tiny things, but nothing major. I couldn't find purple thai basil in my grocery store, so I used the normal kind - but if you can get something more exciting, by all means, do.

This is a really tasty salad - easy to make, and easy to eat. Don't worry if you're scared of celeriac and daikon - the dressing really helps to make them flavorful and juicy. And I don't know about you, but if you had a weekend full of excesses (like me), it's nice to know that this salad is almost fat-free!



Vietnamese Beef Salad
Serves 2

200 g beef
2 small yellow onions, fresh - or just one, regular. Thinly sliced.
200 ml shredded daikon
200 ml shredded celeriac
2 carrots, thinly sliced
3 tbsp fresh basil
3 tbsp fresh coriander
4 tbsp toasted and unsalted peanuts, crushed

For the dressing:
4 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar

Boiling liquid:
300 ml strong beef stock
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf

Start with the dressing, and pour it over the daikon, onion, celeriac and carrots. Leave it to infuse for about an hour, and then divide the vegetables onto plates.

Slice the meat thinly. Mix everything for the boiling liquid, bring to boil and let it simmer for a few minutes. Gently add the meat and let it simmer for just a few seconds - it should be warm, but not completely cooked through. Place the meat on top of the vegetables.

Finish with a liberal scattering of basil, coriander and crushed peanuts.

Recipe in Swedish:
Vietnamesisk biffsallad

Weekend Cat Blogging - kittens, all grown up

Or well, they're still pretty tiny. Kitty moved last weekend, and Klara, as you already know.. well, Klara stays with us. She's such a little darling! Apart from getting carsick (which we solved by letting her sleep in my lap for the entire drive) she really liked our vacation.



For the rest of the photos, look here.

Dalhalla

Possibly the most beautiful concert venue in the world.

This is much better

Do not eat

Breakfast of champions

Here's what I've been eating for the past week. Oatmeal porridge, topped with home made apple sauce, home made spice sugar and milk. For dessert, a small bowl of fruit, usually kiwi, raspberries and passionfruit. Delicious, and sturdy enough to keep me happy for many hours.

Apple Marmelade

Finally Friday! I'm actually away, we travelled up to our cabin in Dalarna yesterday to spend the weekend. It's so lovely here, calm and serene and the air is cool and clean. We brought all the cats with us, and they love it up here too. I think they know it's vacation, because all they do is sleep and eat - they eat SO much more food here than at home. It's really quite strange.

Klara, like I said yesterday, was horribly carsick all the way, no fun when the trip takes four and a half hours. I wonder how she'll do on the way home?

Now, over to something edible. Apples. I love apples. I wish I had an apple tree, but alas, I don't. However, I have friends. With trees. And one of them, Monica, presented me with a huge bag of apples a few days ago. I made loads of apple sauce (another post, I promise) and then I made this yummy apple marmalade. It's best to use fairly tart apples to give a nice contrast to the sweet sugar syrup, and they also hold their shape better. This is great on toast, but it's also perfect with sharp cheeses.

Apple Marmalade

100 ml water
300 g sugar
500 g apples

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed pot, and boil for five minutes. Meanwhile, peel and core the apples, and cut into small wedges or dice. Pour into the sugar syrup, lower the heat slightly and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Most of the liquid should evaporate (so don't turn the heat down too low), but watch it towards the end, it can easily burn.

Pour into clean jars (or jar, in my case) and keep in the fridge. Because of all the sugar, I think this will keep for quite a while, but freeze it if you're unsure.

Recipe in Swedish:
Äppelmarmelad

Carsick

Definitely no fun being a tiny, carsick kitten. Many more miles to go.
She seems to feel slightly better on my lap, but it isn't very safe.

Cookbook Watch - Various new Swedish books

Elisabeth Johansson is a busy girl - here's yet another little book from her, but this time I suspect that she's used some old material as well. It's called Chocolate, and it really is a tiny thing of 76 pages. Every single one of them with delicious things though, so no complaints here! I really like Elisabeth's recipes in general - they're easy, innovative and dependable. From this one, I can't wait to make her chocolate meringues topped with candied violets and roses! And next in line - if I gather up enough courage to make chocolates again - is coffee- and banana truffles. Because of the tiny format, this book would make a very nice hostess gift.



Africa On My Mind is written by Marcus Samuelsson who is Swedish, but probably much more well-known in the US. His latest book is all about African food, and he's done a very ambitious job indeed. It has a lot of information about the different regions in Africa, and great many base recipes for spice mixes and sauces of various kinds. The book has photos, but not so many pictures of the actual food. That's something I always find quite annoying - my ideal cookbook has photos of everything, and not so many "travel" snapshots. Sure, those are nice, but it's not why I buy a cookbook. So, will this be a book I use a lot? No, I really don't think I will. The recipes sound nice, but not compelling. I actually find that with all the books by Marcus Samuelsson - I can't point to anything specific, but I just don't feel the urge to get into the kitchen. Sorry!



I've mentioned Jan Hedh from time to time - he's Sweden's most well known pastry chef, and he comes out with lovely cookbooks from time to time, as beautiful as they are complicated. He's not particularly instructive - much better in person, I'm sure - but I can't help loving the books anyway. His last one is called Glasspassion, which translates to Ice Cream Passion, and it has the most amazing array of ice cream recipes you could ever think of. All the basics, for sure, but also really out-there creations like lobster ice cream, or even foie gras ice cream. Half the book holds the recipes, half the book is on elaborate desserts using ice cream. It's pretty amazing, really, and the only thing keeping me from loving it completely is a slight feeling of trepidation. His books are overwhelming in general, and so is this one. My favorite ice cream book remain's The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz.

Blue Cheese Gratin

This is a really delicious side dish I discovered this summer. It could also a nice vegetarian dish, if you're so inclined, but it will go great with all kinds of meat or perhaps a nice salmon. Tonight, we had it with chicken. It's very versatile!

I found this recipe, as so many others, in Ica's Buffé magazine, a grocery store chain publication. It's from a small cheese farmer, and the original name is Agnes' Gratin - if I remember the story right, Agnes is one of the cows that has a blue cheese named after her.

If you can get small, new potatoes, that's ideal. Don't bother peeling them in that case. And you should us a cheese that you really like, the flavor will really come through.

Blue Cheese Gratin
Serves 4-6 depending on what you serve with it

1 kilo potatoes
3-4 carrots
150 g mangetout (snowpeas)
80 g fresh spinach
140 g blue cheese
250 cream (single cream is definitely fine)
butter
salt, pepper

Peel the potatoes and the carrots. Cut into smaller pieces. Fry in a little bit of butter in a large skillet and season with salt and pepper.

Cut the spinach and the mangetout/snowpeas into small pieces and mix in with the potatoes and carrots. Place half of this mix in a large oven-proof dish. Crumble in the cheese, and cover with the rest of the vegetables. Pour over the cream.

Bake at 200°C for about 45-60 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil after 20 minutes, or it might get a little bit dry.

Recept på svenska:
Agnes gratäng

Before and after

Some might think that this is a pretty bizarre post. I think so myself. But in a way, it's not at all.

Let's face it, the anonymous lamb in the grocery store was once cute, too.


Lamb chop, roasted veggies, tzatziki

In fact, what better way to enjoy food than to buy meat that's been raised locally? Meat that you *know* comes from an animal who's been treated well, and who has had a lovely life? In this case, my lamb comes from a friend who raises them as a hobby. This is his first year selling any meat, but I hope I'll have the opportunity next year as well. As for now, my freezer is well stocked, and the lamb is incredibly tasty, tender and flavorful.

Warm Bean Salad with Poached Egg & Bacon

It all started with a leftover loaf of sourdough and a hankering for some good croutons.

So, I made some. I tore the bread into smaller pieces, tossed with olive oil and a clove of garlic, and placed it in the hot oven to toast for 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, I took out green beans, edamame beans and broad beans from the freezer, and boiled all of them for a minute or so. I fryed up some bacon, and added the beans to that. Next, I added a few spoonfuls of sherry vinegar and olive oil, and some finely chopped red onion and tarragon. A little pinch of sugar and salt, and a little grainy mustard, and that was that.

I divided some rocket onto serving plates, topped with the warm salad and the croutons, and finally added a poached egg. Dinner - all in twenty minutes.

Cheater's Barbecued Meat

There's probably not a lot of days left to barbecue this summer, but if there is, try this one. It's really fast on the grill, since you do all the preparations far in advance. But be prepared: this is cheater's barbecue.

What you do is take a cut of meat that's not super tender, something usually intended for a stew rather than pan-frying. I used fransyska which is.. a piece of loin, as far as I can figure out from comparing different cuts. Brisket would be great too. Really, any not-so-super-tender meat would be great here. It's so hard to compare world-wide, since apparently meat is cut very differently around the world. I wonder why?

Anyway. You cook that meat. In a pot. For a couple of hours. And then you leave it to cool - overnight is fine, or even a few days in advance. Next, brush it with a great glaze, and grill it. It'll be wonderfully tender and flavorful, and no one will know that you haven't been barbecueing for hours.

This recipe, slightly modified, comes frm the Swedish BBQ team. (Yes, we have one!)

Cheater's Barbecued Meat
Serves 4

800 g meat - see above for suggestions
2 litres beef stock
3 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed

Place the meat in a pot. Pour over the stock, which should just about cover the meat, and the garlic. Bring to a boil, and use a ladle to remove any scum on the surface. Cover with a lid, and boil for about two hours. The meat should be really tender, but still hold together. Place the whole pot in the fridge, and let the meat cool down for at least five hours.

Then, for the glaze, which you can certainly also prepare well in advance:

Honey Soy Glaze
150 ml Japanese soy sauce (light in color)
150 ml honey
100 ml water
2 tbsp ginger, grated
1 chili, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp cornstarch, stirred with a little bit of cold water

Mix everything except for the cornstarch in a small pot, and bring to a boil. Stir in the corn starch, and let the glaze simmer for a few minutes. Let it cool completely before using.

Remove the meat from the stock, and cut it into serving portions. Brush with glaze, and grill on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Turn it over frequently, and add more glaze as needed.

Recipe in Swedish:
Grillad Fransyska

Zebra Cake Mishap

So, I wanted to make a zebra cake. It looked so easy. It sounded so easy. In fact, it should have been SO EASY. But alas, it wasn't. And my cake turned out more marble than zebra. Still tasted good though.

Head over to Nicole at Baking Bites and find out how it *should* have looked. She has the recipe, too.

Vanilla Roasted Plums

I made the plum chutney, but still had a lot of plums. What to do? Well, I simply sliced them in half, removing the stone as I went along, and placed them cut side up in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. I dusted them with homemade vanilla sugar (the simple kind where you just leave a few vanilla beans to infuse in a jar of sugar), and added a few splashes of vanilla extract.

Then, I let them roast in a fairly low oven - about 125°C - for an hour. After that, I cranked it up to get more of a caramelized surface, to about 225°C for 20 minutes or so.

Finally, I let them cool off and transferred into small plastic tubs aimed for the freezer. I bet this will make a delicious dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream later this fall.

Lunch

Beautiful organic lunch, presented by AXA who basically makes different kinds of cereal products. They have a new range with organic products like flour, granola, and pasta. Judging from this delicious lunch, it's good stuff.

She stays!

Sorry for a mid-week cat post, but I have such good news I can't wait to share them with you. Little Klara Kristall is staying with us! The truth is, we just can't bear to part with this particular little one, who's been constantly purring and pushing her way into our hearts. I should have expected it to be this hard to part with a hand-reared kitten, but somehow, I didn't. Anyway, last night I made a very hard phone call, and I'm extremely grateful that her prospective buyer was kind enough to let us keep her - she's really amazing and I hope to help her find another cat soon. Because this one, this one is all mine.

For many more pictures of Klara, click here.

Marie's Plum Chutney

Marie at work asked me if I had a recipe on my blog for plum chutney. I said no, and she offered to bring me hers. I said sure. Next day, she brings me the recipe - AND a big bag of just-picked plums from her garden! Isn't that just wonderful?

I followed her recipe almost to the letter, but instead of regular curry powder, I used garam masala, instead of yellow mustard seeds, I used brown, and I added a bunch of cardamom pods. I haven't tried it yet, since it has to sit and mature for a month, but it's almost time! She assures me that this is wonderful with pork, and I think it'll be great with flavorful cheese too.

Marie's Plum Chutney

1 kg plums (without the seed)
1 large onion
200 ml vinegar (white, red or apple cider vinegar is fine)
500 ml sugar
300 ml raisins
1 tsp salt
2-3 tsp curry (or garam masala)
1 tbsp light mustard seeds (or dark)
1 garlic clove
2 tsp ginger, ground
20 cardamom pods (optional)

Cut the plums and the onions into smaller pieces. Mix everything in a pot, and bring to boil. Let it simmer, without a lid, for about an hour. Remove the cardamom pods if you want (and feel up to it). Pour into very clean, warm jars, and leave to mature for at least one month.


I never manage to stick to a recipe without making changes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Maries Plommonchutney

Some long overdue photos

...of this summer's crawfish party. Actually, it was just ten days ago, but it feels like much longer since fall really came with a big bang here. Basically overnight, summer was gone. I hope it'll come back, or my poor tomatoes in the garden will pretty much die...



I didn't actually cook for this (I love having foodie friends). I bought crawfish. And bread. (My favorite - Grand Blanc from Gateau bakery, it's a great white sourdough.) Tesse brought cheese pie. Dagmar brought nubbe - flavored vodka, which is of course essential. And Lena brought dessert, a delicious cloudberry mousse cake. Yum!