Apple Cobbler

It's Friday, so I have to give you a dessert. Right? At least, that's my aim: something sweet for the weekend. (Granted, my aim has been a bit off these past few weeks, I just haven't been cooking or baking anything at all...) I made this a little while ago when my niece and her boyfriend came over for dinner, and it was really good. I found the recipe in "Min Äppelbok" by pastry chef Elisabeth Johansson, and while I omitted nutmeg and instead upped the amount of cinnamon, the rest of the recipe remains intact.

It was my first time making a cobbler, and I loved it. It was fun and easy to make, and while I was a bit confused as to how to properly spread the topping, it seemed to work out well. The recipe includes 200 ml of crunchy toasted oat cereal - something we in Sweden know under the brand name Start. I have no idea if this is available everywhere, and if it isn't, just use more oatmeal. I'm fairly sure that'll work!

Apple Cobbler
Serves 6-8

5 apples
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp water
2 tsp cinnamon
125 g butter, at room temperature
200 ml sugar
200 ml rolled oats
125 ml crunchy toasted oat cereal (in Sweden: Start)
125 ml flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg



Peel and core the apples, and cut into thin wedges. Mix water and honey in a saucepot, add the apples and bring to boil. Lower the heat and cover with a lid and let them simmer for a few minutes until they're almost soft.

Pour the apples into a large oven-proof dish and dust with cinnamon.

Beat butter and sugar until soft and smooth. Stir in all the dry ingredients, and finish with the egg. Spread (or dollop, more likely) evenly over the apples. Bake at200°C for 20-25 minutes. Serve with vanilla custard or ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Äppelcobbler

Top Chef 5 - coming soon!

I'm excited to see that my very favorite culinary show, Top Chef, will soon be launching into its fifth season! The bios of the cheftestants are now up on the Bravo site - looks promising!

Bulgur with Chanterelles, Feta & Pomegranate

This is a brilliant side dish, to any meat or chicken. It also works really well on its own, as a nice starter, or a vegetarian main dish. I first ate it at Dagmar's, but when I made it myself (to go with a roasted leg of lamb), I skipped the parsley and substituted feta cheese instead of chèvre since that's what I happened to have. It worked really well! I used golden chanterelles that had previously been frozen, and that was delicious. You can use any wild mushroom here, but I don't think ordinary button mushrooms would be great. You need the woodsy flavor to contrast with the salty cheese and the fruity pomegranate.

Bulgur with Chanterelles, Feta & Pomegranate

Serves 4

300 ml bulgur wheat
600 ml water
1 red onion, finely chopped
300 g chanterelles
1 pomegranate
100 g feta cheese, crumbled
100 ml pistachios, coarsely chopped
fresh thyme
butter, salt, pepper

Boil the bulgur in the water, it'll take about 10-15 minutes. Fry the onion and the chanterelles in a little bit of butter until all the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated. Mix with the bulgur, pistachios and thyme. Arrange on a large platter, and top with crumbled feta cheese and the seeds from the pomegranate.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bulgursallad med kantareller, fetaost och granatäpple

A nice selection of Swedish food

For those of you who think I don't post nearly enough about Swedish food - you have to check out this post by Anna in Australia, whose husband is Swedish. She writes about all the food she ate on her last trip here, and it's perfect for those of you wanting to get a feel for what Swedish food is like. (Although I don't eat half of that.. probably even less!)

That didn't take very long. At all.

I got the Philips juicer, the XXL kind with an extra large (or extra extra large, I suppose) feeding tube. And my first concoction was the heavenly apple lemonade: four apples and half a lemon (peel on!), yielded this delicious stuff in less than five seconds.

Nice morning!

I started my day with a press event by Philips. We were invited to meet "The Juice Master" Jason Vale, and world barista champion of 2006, Klaus Thomsen. Both held really nice presentations, but I have to admit, I was blown away by the juicer. I've been thinking about getting one anyway, and this just pushed me completely over the edge. So, stay tuned, I'm definitely adding a new toy to my kitchen!

Klaus Thomsen surprised me by actually creating really nice latte art on the fully automatic machines provided by the company - well, he steamed the milk manually for it, but still - it was quite nice. Not as good as on a manual machine, but still - good quality. The espressos got a really nice crema, and I'm anxious to try his own coffee roast (we were given a bag).

Orange Olive Chicken

Today, something that Per cooked for me last week. It comes from the Swedish food mag Allt Om Mat which always has really reliable recipes in my opinion. You can fiddle around with this as you please, but the basic idea is really good and really easy. I'd never imagined that olives would go so well with orange! Do use good quality olives though - it's easily worth spending a little more on, since the flavor is so much better.

Perfect weekday meal, as it doesn't take more than twenty minutes - tops!

Orange Olive Chicken
from Allt om Mat
serves 2

3-400 g boneless chicken (thighs or breast)
1 orange
salt, black pepper
butter
100 ml chicken stock or water
50 ml creme fraiche or cream, any fat content
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn starch
10 green olives
200 ml cous-cous

Cook the cous-cous according to the package instructions. Clean the orange and finely grate the zest. Squeeze out all juice.

Rub the chicken with orange zest, salt and pepper, and fry in butter until almost cooked through. Mix orange juice, chicken stock or water and creme fraiche or cream, and pour over the chicken. Let it simmer, covered, for about five minutes.

Mix the corn starch with cold water and stir into the sauce. Slice the olives and stir in those, too. Serve with the cous-cous.

Recipe in Swedish:
Apelsinkyckling med oliver