Cookbook Watch: Short & Sweet Dessert Deck

I'm on a cookbook roll - I'm really excited about the new books that've come out late fall, and what's in line for early spring.

This one is part of a four-book lineup from Potter Style publishers (the other ones are tapas, cheese and cocktails), and what I really like about it is its small compact format. It's not exactly a book, but every recipe is on a separate recipe card. I'd say *very* handy when it comes to actually cooking, and not just leafing through a cookbook. For browsing, it's obviously a bit less convenient.

I haven't tried any recipes yet, but I'm eager to - especially ricotta-sweet potato beignets, peppermint crunch ice cream sandwiches, sugar-roasted lemon sorbet and.. well, you can probably sense that this collection is pretty interesting. It has classics, but often with a unique twist. The author is Gale Gand (who's according to the backside blurb is a food network star?), and the recipes are taken from her previous books "Short & Sweet" and "Chocolate & Vanilla".

Nigella's Sandwich Slaw

Another winner from Nigella Express! It's just a simple slaw salad, but it's pretty different from other ones I've tried, and it's very tasty. As always, I've made a few changes to her original.

Nigella's Sandwich Slaw
Serves 2

1 red apple, coarsely grated
1 carrot, coarsely greated
100 g cabbage, finely shredded
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp mango chutney
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt

Go ahead and julienne the veggies instead of grating them, if you like. (I find it kind of fun.) Mix caraway seeds with mango chutney, lemon, mayo and salt, and pour this over the veggies. Mix carefully, then serve. We had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with it, and it was delicious.

Recipe in Swedish:
Nigellas kålsallad till smörgåsar

Cookbook Watch: The Cornbread Gospels

How would you feel about a book about a singular subject - cornbread? I was a bit hesitant when I first found out about the Cornbread Gospels, written by a woman with a most improbable name of Crescent Dragonwagon. But as soon as I heard it, I also thought "cornbread? Oh, but I love cornbread!" and thus, I agreed to review the book. And boy, am I ever glad I did. Wait, did I say glad? That doesn't describe my feelings accurately. At all. Because this book? This book is just.. oh, it's definitely the first single-subject cookbook I've been enthused by to this degree, and it's the first book in ages that's really prompted me to get into the kitchen N O W!! And in fact, it also sent me scrambling to buy a decent cast-iron skillet, because I didn't have one.

See, Crescent Dragonwagon is an incredible writer. I'm sure she's also a very fine cook, but her writing is so top notch that you can't help being excited. The book is brilliant - simply brilliant. Not only does she have a myriad of cornbread recipes - everything from Southern, Northern and Southwestern to muffins, cornsticks, yeasted breads and desserts - but also a lot of facts, hints and tips. She writes extensively about a few things, like for example the difference between Southern and Northern cornbread, why stone-milled corn meal is so much better than steel-milled, and how to properly season a cast iron pan. (This one was so enthusiastic I had to search out one in the middle of the post holiday sales.)

The one thing that bothers me is that I can't get decent corn meal here. I can get polenta, and that's it. White corn meal? Blue?? Stone-milled??? Forget it. Polenta is what I've got, and it's what I'll use. I guess I could try to find a place that ships to Sweden, but I'm betting the post office would charge an arm and maybe also a leg to get it here, so for now, polenta it is.

The first recipe to try was Crescent's very own from Dairy Hollow House where this was served for many years. Since it's also on her own website - the Cornbread Gospels - I don't feel bad about writing it out here, too. (Click here for the original and her instructions.)If you're only going to try one cornbread, try this one. You won't regret it. I have to admit that I was hesitant about the whole baking-in-a-skillet thing. Deep inside, I felt that it surely wouldn't work, but stick to the pan and never ever come out. I was wrong. And when I lifted out that heavy skillet (really, really heavy by the way) filled with glorious golden cornbread, it really delighted my inner domestic goddess. And when I ate it, I felt even better.

Oh. And you might want to put that book on your wishlist. Really. It's excellent.



Dairy Hollow House Cornbread

250 ml (1 cup) cornmeal
250 ml (1 cup) white flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp sugar
310 (1,25 cups) buttermilk (or light filmjolk, soured milk)
1 egg
60 ml (1/4 cups) neutral oil (I like rapeseed)
2 tbsp butter

You need a cast iron skillet, about 25 cm in diameter.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk the buttermilk (or filmjolk) with baking soda, sugar, egg and oil in another bowl.

Heat the skillet on the stove, and melt the butter. When the butter sizzles, quickly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and combine with as few strokes as possible. Pour into the hot skillet and place it in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden.

Recipe in Swedish:
Majsbröd från Dairy Hollow House

This year, I dare.. what, exactly?

For the past two years, I've made foodie new year's resolutions, choosing five things that I want to make in the coming year. That has gone.. well, not so well the past year. In fact, I've only managed to make one of the five things. That, my friends, that... sucks. So I'll have to finish off the backlog, obviously, and to be honest, there's a few things left from 2006 too.

In 2006, I promised:
-Budapest Roll
-Roast Chicken
-Gnocchi (tried once, with disastrous results. Must try again.)
-Real veal stock (ummm... still haven't researched where I can get veal bones.)
-Penne alla vodka

And last year, I promised this:
-Sushi (Nope, didn't get around to that)
-Chokladbiskvier (I've come quite far with that one - so far as to get my neighbor's favorite recipe AND borrow her almond grinder. So, soon, I hope!)
-Glace au Four. (At least I have a recipe. That I look at from time to time.)
-Vegetarian Week (this was just a bad idea, I think I'll scrap it. It's not much of a challenge, since we eat a lot of vegetarian food, but it doesn't hold much excitement either.)
-Swedish Crisp Bread. In fact, I made it twice.

So, this year? I have a few ideas. Not very many though, so I figured I might take requests! What do YOU want me to make this year? Leave a comment and let me know!

To start this new year off fresh, I have a new profile picture - taken last night, feeling festive and pretty, so I hope you like it! I had at least one reader e-mail me last year (ha! It wasn't very long ago) and saying that I looked so sad in the previous picture so, hey, time for a change.

And I want to direct you to two of my favorite food blogs that I discovered in 2007. If you haven't seen them already, you're in for a treat. Me, I'm happily browsning through their archives, giggling aloud at their great writing, and marvelling at their pretty pictures and detailed instructions. I really love both - they're similar in one way, but very different in others. Witout further ado, I give you:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

and

French Laundry At Home

Go on. Try them for yourself. Maybe you'll find new favorites as well.

Perfect with Champagne

Happy New Year!

May you all have lovely celebrations tonight with the ones you love, and may you all have a very, very, very happy 2008!

Me, I'm cooking for four tonight, just us and our dear friends Tesse & Danne who are basically family. We're having this little number as a small appetizer, perfect with the first bottle of champagne. (Moët & Chandon is what we'll have.) I got the recipe from my mother in law who made this for us the last time we were visiting, and it's absolutely great! I add a bit of finely chopped red onion for some extra bite.

You do need soft, thin breads to make this. Swedish thin bread is often made with rye and slightly sweet - and you might not be able to find exactly that, but the idea is to have something fairly neutral to roll this up in, and I'm sure you can think of a creative substitute.

Hot Rolls with Ham & Parmesan

3 soft thin breads
100 g ham - you can use air-cured ham like Serrano or Parma, or regular smoked ham, depending on your preferences
150-200 g parmesan, grated
100 ml (or so) thick yogurt
1-2 tsp sambal oelek (or any other chilli paste)
1/2 small red onion

Cut the ham in really small dice, and mix with parmesan, onions, sambal oelek and enough yogurt to bind it all together. Spread this on the breads, and roll them up tightly. Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for a while to give the mixture time to set. Cut into bite-sized pieces, and place them on an oven-proof tray. Bake at 200°C for 5-6 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Varma tunnbrödsnittar med skinka och parmesan

The best of 2007

Zorra from Kochtopf asked me what my favorite recipe was for 2007. You have to know this about me: I am seriously indecisive. When faced with a choice, I am almost always confounded. This one? That one? But what about that one? This leads to some problems - for example, when buying clothes. What color to choose? I often buy two. (Only to find out that in real life, I really do prefer one over the other - almost always black, by the way - and the other one goes sadly unused.) And in this case? Choosing ONE recipe? I have enough problems choosing 40 for my end-of-year cookbook that I make for friends and family every year.

So. What did I do? I chose one from every month. Here you go - some of my favorites from 2007!

January - Taleggio Risotto

February - Swedish Pancakes

March - Healthy Bread with Hazelnuts

April - Bacon Wrapped Halloumi

May - Team Cookies

June - Rice Krispie Cake

July - my favorite guacamole

August - Fire Roasted Corn Salsa with Feta Cheese

September - Beet Salad

October - Oscar II:s Almond Cake (also popular around the world as the almond cake at Ikea)

November - Crunchy Salad

December - Potato Canapés with Chanterelles

Creamy Lentil Soup

Here's another hearty soup recipe - and a vegetarian one, this time. Or well, almost - you can certainly skip the bacon if you're so inclined. I love the smokey flavor it imparts, but it's no biggie. There is one thing about this soup (which I found at the Culinary Review blog) that I don't love though. And that's its uncanny likeness to sauce bolognese. It looks *just* like it. And honestly, the flavor is.. somewhat reminescent of it. Still, it's a really good soup - and hey, if it can double as a veggie (well, skipping the bacon) alternative as a pasta sauce, why not?

Creamy Lentil Soup
Serves 4

70 g bacon, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
fresh thyme
400 g crushed tomatoes
250 ml (1 cup) lentils de puy (beluga lentils would work out nicely as well - something that holds its shape fairly well is what you need here)
1 bay leaf
1,2 liters of vegetable stock
50 ml white wine
1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt
black pepper

Fry the bacon until crispy. Add onions, carrots and garlic and fry for a few minutes. Add lentils and tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes. Add wine, the bay leaf, thyme and water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

Use a stick blender (or a regular one) to blend the soup until fairly smooth, but not completely. (According to your liking, obviously.) Season with salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar.

Recipe in Swedish:
Krämig linssoppa