Finally!

Various cheese and charcuteries. I've been waiting very patiently!

Meet Titus, the tiny chef

Born May 14 at 8.44 am
Weight 3710 g
Length 51 cm

Dark Rye Sourdough

Since I'm about to leave you for a few days (Baby time! I might make small updates from the iPhone), I thought I'd give you a project to last for a couple of days. Here's one thing to make with your handy sourdough, which surely you have started by now. No? Then you need to check out this post, first. You must have some active starter to make this bread.

It looks fiddly. It isn't. It does however take time. A lot of it. But other than that, and a warm place for the bread to rise, it's really nothing.

Dark Rye Sourdough
based on a recipe from Bröd & Marmelad från Rosendahls Trädgård
makes 2 loaves

(printable recipe)

Day 1 (night):
300 ml tepid water
100 ml active sourdough starter
180 g rye flour

Whisk everything together, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm-ish place overnight.

Day 2 (morning):
300 ml tepid water
180 g rye flour

Add to the dough from yesterday, cover in plastic and leave for at least 3-4 hours.

Day 2 (afternoon):
300 ml tepid water
20 g salt
150 g all-purpose flour (wheat)
400 g rye flour
100 g sunflower seeds (optional)

Mix everything together, and don't worry - it's supposed to be sticky. Leave to rise for at least an hour, or two.

Pour into greased bread tins, cover with plastic and let them rise for 1-2 hours - they should reach to the edge of the tin.

Heat the oven to 250°C. Put in the bread, and lower the heat to 200°C. Spray some water into the oven to build steam, or have some water in a pan below the bread. Ive cubes work well too. Bake for 60 minutes, but remove the loaves from their tins for the last fifteen minutes, to make the crust nicer.

Cover the breads with a towel and leave to cool on a rack, overnight.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mörkt rågsurdegsbröd

Jamie's Chicken Tikka Masala

Here's another Indian curry from Jamie's Ministry of Food! I didn't like this one as much as the korma, but then again, I never order tikka masala in restaurants either. As last time, it's a lot easier than it might look from just seeing the ingredients. There's nothing to it - I promise, everyone can cook this!

Jamie's Chicken Tikka Masala
(printable recipe)
Serves 4

600 g chicken, in bite-sized pieces
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 red chili, finely chopped
small bunch of fresh coriander, separated into stalks and leaves (and stalks chopped)
cooking oil
a pat of butter
400 g (1 tin)crushed tomatoes
400 ml (1 tin) coconut milk
3 tbsp flaked almonds
1 batch tikka masala paste, below
salt, pepper

Tikka Masala paste:
2 garlic cloves
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 fresh red chili
2 färska röda chilis
1 tbsp coconut flakes (unsweetened)
2 tbsp almonds, chopped
small bunch of fresh coriander
1 tsp whole cumin
1 tsp whole coriander seeds

Start by toasting the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan, until golden and fragrant. Grind them in a pestle and mortar. Peel the garlic and ginger, and mix all ingredients in a food processor until you have a smooth paste.

For the curry: Heat a little bit of oil in a deep pan or pot, and fry the onion, ginger and coriander stalks on medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir well so it doesn't burn.

Add the spice paste and the chicken. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Add coconut milk and tomatoes, and about 3-400 ml of water. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and lower the heat. Cook for about 20 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve with rice and the fresh coriander leaves. A dollop of yogurt is good with this, and so is a squeeze of lemon and some additional flaked almonds.

Recipe in Swedish:
Tikka Masala

Avocado Edamame Salad

Here's an extremely yummy side salad that I found at Kalyn's Kitchen a while ago! I've made it twice in as many weeks, both times to accompany a piece of grilled salmon. She specifies red onion - I tried it with yellow as well, and actually preferred that one a little bit more, but feel free to use your favorite. And you can most definitely add fresh coriander if you're so inclined - it makes it even more guacamole-like, which is never a bad thing if you ask me.

Edamame comes frozen, and for this, it's really nice to have the shelled variety. If you can only find unshelled, you'll need to up the amount, instead.

Avocado Edamame Salad
(printable recipe)
Serves at least two

2 ripe avocados
100 g cherry tomatoes
1 small onion (yellow or red are fine)
200 ml (0.8 cups) edamame beans, shelled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 - 1 tbsp olive oil (if you have a good one with lemon - use that!)
salt, pepper, cumin

Dice the avocados and quarter the tomatoes. Finely dice the onions. Place the frozen edamame in a pot, cover with water and bring to boil. Drain and rinse with cold water. Mix with everything else - including lime juice and olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and a good pinch of cumin.

Recipe in Swedish:
Avocadosallad med edamame

Butterscotch Thins

These yummmy cookies come from Nicole at Baking Bites - as always one of my very favorite baking blogs, and probably the one where I have the most recipes bookmarked. (I used a slightly different method, so click on the link above for her original recipe.)

These were really quick and easy to make, and I brought them into work where they were quickly devoured. People thought they were gingerbread cookies, since that's what they look like, so they were rather surprised by the strong caramel flavor. You could certainly add a few spices to these if you'd like - cardamom, cinnamon, ginger.. it would all work very well.

I rather like the plain-ness of these - nothing special, just a nice cookie to go with your cup of coffee. However, they would also be great as sandwich cookies - maybe with a chocolate ganache (a white chocolate ganache in particular!) or even ice cream would be super tasty!

Butterscotch Thins
(printable recipe)
about 40 cookies

250 ml (1 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
120 g unsalted butter - at room temperature
200 g dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until it's smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients.

The dough will be very sticky, so put it in the fridge for a while to firm up. Then, shape small and even balls and place with plenty of space between them on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 175°C for 8-10 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Muscovadokakor

Cinco de Mayo!

It was Cinco de Mayo at Santiagos, and we wasted no time in getting into the festive mood. Colorful balloons, a couple of sombreros, a few well mixed margaritas and soon the fiesta was in full swing. We hope you had a great Cinco de Mayo as well, and look forward to seeing you at Santiagos!