Chocolate Festival #1

I have totally neglected to write about the Chocolate Festival at Nordiska Museet that Lena and I went to some weeks ago. Silly me! We had a great time, there was tons of chocolate and we ate.. way too much. Picture on top shows gorgeous oranges in chocolate, I'm dying to try and make them myself. Can't be too hard, can it?

Callebaut was there, and had brought some very large pieces of chocolate.

Look at this gorgeous chocolate sculpture!

I had to buy some things, of course. I got these chocolates from Neuhaus, several from Michel Cluizel (that I ate before I could take a picture), and then I bought these things - Scharffen-Berger Cacao Nibs, a marmalade with strawberries, raspberries and chocolate (so good it should be illegal) and several kinds of chocolate-covered fruit. Strawberries were my favorite!

Honey Roasted Muesli

Ok, I know - the idea of roasting and mixing your own muesli makes me sound like I have no life at all. But I don't like most commercial mueslis, and I wanted something not-awfully-bad-for-you to keep at work. This was actually fast, took virtually no work, and tastes great. But watch this in the oven - it can burn REALLY quickly. The measurements are in deciliters, which, I'll remind you converts like this: 1 dl - 0.4 cups.

Honey Roasted Muesli
7 dl cornflakes
4 dl rolled oats
1,5 dl wheathusks (Um.. don't know the proper name. Vetekli in Swedish, it's made from the inner husk of the wheat. Suggestion from readers: wheat bran!)
2 dl sunflower seeds
1 dl flax seeds
1 dl mixed nuts (I used hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts)
1 tsp salt
1 dl runny honey
200 g dried apricots, the soft and fluffy kind

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. (350F) Chop the nuts roughly, and sliver the apricots. Mix all the dry ingredients (not the honey, not the apricots) in a big bowl. Add the honey while mixing constantly. Pour into a large baking pan (you will probably have to do half at a time) and roast for 7-12 minutes. The muesli should turn golden, but not burn. Take out, repeat with the other half of the batch. Mix in the apricots. Keep in a tight-lidded container.

Apple-braised Lemon Garlic Pork, Cider Apples and Goat's Cheese Lasagna

Ah, what a Friday night dinner we had last night! Both Per and I were in an extremely good mood, and were *very* perky after having had an espresso before going grocery shopping. So, we felt that a good dinner was in order. I have recently gotten a recipe for Goat's Cheese Lasagna from my friend Linda, and I was aching to try that. (I adapted it just a bit, didn't have any thyme, and it needed a lot less milk than the recipe claimed.) And I happened to have a lot of pork tenderloin in the fridge.. and several apples that needed eating. So, we came up with pork tenderloin filled with garlic and lemon, apple wedges in an apple cider glaze, and the lasagna, which in addition to the goat's cheese has delicious sunblush tomatoes.

Goat's Cheese Lasagna
Serves 4 (Swedish recipe here)

100 g sunblush tomatoes
300 ml creme fraiche, the low-fat kind is perfect
100 g chevre
salt
pepper
2-3 tbsp milk
200 g fresh lasagna sheets

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Finely chop the tomatoes. Mix the chevre with the creme fraiche. Season with salt and pepper, and loosen with a little bit of milk to get a thick sauce. Add the tomatoes. Build the lasagna in a small oven-proof dish - start with sauce, and alternate with the lasagna sheets. The final layer should be sauce. Bake for 20 minutes.



Apple-braised Lemon Garlic Pork
Serves 2

400 g pork tenderloin
Finely shredded peel of one lemon
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt
olive oil
200 ml apple cider

Divide the pork into two or three stubby pieces. Score the pieces - first make a deep cut but not all the way through, in the middle of each piece. Fold that out, and make two more cuts (still not all the way through) on either side of the first cut. You should end up with a fairly flat piece of pork. Season with salt on both sides. Mix the lemon peel and garlic, and rub that all over the inside of the pork. Roll the pieces back up, and secure with a toothpick.

Heat up olive oil in a sauté pan, and sear the pieces on all sides on high heat. Lower the heat to medium, pour the cider over the meat, and cover with a lid. Let it cook for about ten minutes.

Cider Apples
Serves 2

2 apples, peeled and cut into wedges
butter
500 ml apple cider

Start by reducing the cider - a lot. You should end up with about 200 ml. This will take a while. Melt some butter in a pan, and gently fry the apple wedges until golden but not too soft. When the cider is reduced, add a pat of butter and let that melt, then add the apples.

I had so many flavors going on I didn't want to add more by spicing up the apples - but if you're serving them with something else, by all means go ahead and add a little spice. I bet cinnamon or cardamom (or both!) would taste great. As it was, it was a perfect combination. The tangy cheese, the flavorful pork and the awesome freshness of the apples all came together beautifully.

Weekend Cat Blogging #21 - The Sisters

Time for another Weekend Cat Blogging! Kiri has a birthday, and has announced a big party for all the food blogging cats. Glindas, as you can see, decided to don her very best attire for this. Pretty little girl! And, she brought her sister! Here's Gisele Gruyère! (do remember that Glinda's additional name is Gräddost, Swedish for Cream Cheese.. and her brothers are Gonzo Gorgonzola and Gideon Grevé, although now known as Bowser over at A Cat in the Kitchen.)



Gisele lives with my aunt, but is still my cat and part of our breeding programme. In fact, we're off to check out a possible boyfriend for her tomorrow! As for the rest of the breedings - we're still hoping that Ywette is pregnant. She certainly seems to think so, and woke me up at 4 am this morning to have her tummy rubbed. So keep your fingers crossed for us!

See more lovely cats at Clare Eats!

Friday Afternoon Coffee at Fridhem

If you happen to be out driving between Katrineholm and Flen, I heartily recommend a stop at an old coffee-house that happens to be right there - Fridhem. (Translates to the very pretty Peace-Home.) My mom and I were there a while ago when we dropped Ywette off at her new boyfriend's place. We had just passed Katrineholm, and were starting to get hungry. We were making dinner when we would get home, so we couldn't stop for proper food, and the idea of a gas station hot dog was not very appealing. Luckily, Fridhem appeared!

Fridhem is beautiful. Inside, it's very cosy. They have chairs and tables outside, but it's getting a bit cold for that. I bet it's lovely in the summer time! They serve coffee - excellent coffee, I might add - out of a copper pot. So pretty. I love it. We were wanting something to go with the coffee though, and while everything looked nice (they had apple cake, cinnamon buns, chocolate cake...) we spotted a small sign that said "waffles with whipped cream and jam", and were decided in a heartbeat. Waffles. Yes, thanks. Waffles.




The waffle was amazing. Never had better. If I'm on that same road again, I'm definitely going back.

Garlic Mushroom Pasta

On our trip to Spain, Per did most of the cooking, since I was feeling sick most of the time and generally was busy scratching all my itches. My favorite of what he made was this lovely simple pasta dish. The recipe was featured in the latest issue of Buffé, a free magazine that again proved to be better than I had thought. (Although I've changed it slightly, I don't really enjoy stock cubes in my food if they're not necessary. You can find the original here.) This pasta is something we couldn't wait to make again - so we made it a few days ago, too. This time, we used chanterelle mushrooms. Honestly, I can't say that it makes a huge difference in this dish. Use whatever you've got, and remember that ordinary button mushrooms will be perfectly ok. As for the cream, use whatever fat-content that you're comfortable with. We used a 20%-fat the first time, and that was delicious. Back home, we cut back to a much slimmer one - and sorry, but it wasn't quite as good. Not very surprising, perhaps.



Garlic Mushroom Pasta
serves 4

300 g whole wheat pasta
1 large yellow onion, sliced
140 g diced bacon
300 g mushrooms, cleaned and cut into pieces
2-3 cloves of garlic
pepper
250 ml cream
handful of shredded parmesan

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet. Meanwhile, fry the bacon. When it starts rendering fat, add the onion, and fry gently. Add the mushrooms. Mince the garlic, and add that, too. Season with pepper - and salt if you need it. Add the cream, bring to a boil and let simmer until the pasta is done. Drain the pasta, reserve some of the water, pour the sauce over the pasta and toss. Add a little bit of water if you need to loosen it up. Add the parmesan. The magazine also suggests tossing in a handful of fresh herbs, or maybe some fresh spinach - I'm sure both would be lovely, but I haven't gotten around to trying it.

Gorgonzola Pear Crostini

If you like gorgonzola, that blue, creamy, sharp Italian cheese that some think smells like stinky feet - then this is for you. If you don't - don't bother, you'll hate it. I got this recipe from Ilva's blog Aglio e Olio. It's a lovely blog, sadly for many of you, she writes in Swedish. But luckily, she's started another blog, this one in English! This recipe is there, but I'll re-write it for you - I don't ever want to lose track of it, it's that good. Very fast, easy, and satisfying.

Gorgonzola Pear Crostini
4 large slices

4 slices of rustic bread, toasted
2-3 pears (depending on size), peeled and sliced into wedges
butter
1 tbsp (or less) of sugar
100 g gorgonzola

Preheat your oven grill, or if you have a toaster oven I'm sure that'll do the trick. Melt the butter and the sugar, and fry the pear wedges for a short time. They should soften and become a little bronzed from the caramelized sugar - but not too much. You don't want them to turn mushy. Spread the gorgonzola (this amount is just.. a guideline. Use more, use less. Use more, in fact.) on the toasted bread. Divide the pears on top of the gorgonzola. Put on a baking sheet, and slide into the oven for a couple of minutes. The cheese should melt - watch closely, it'll just take a few minutes! Remove, serve, swoon.

Wow!

I woke up to discover a really cool e-mail in my inbox. Or at least, very cool to me. It was from Henry Bronett, who has written one of the cookbooks on my wishlist - this one:



Henry has grown up with the circus, and his book has recipes that he's gathered from many sources. I've only leafed through it, but it looks absolutely delightful. It's clear that he loves food (at least as much as I do!) and he has some very entertaining stories to tell, too.

Apart from being a circus director, Henry has also worked as an actor, and a producer - and I mostly remember him from the Swedish soap opera "Varuhuset" ("The Department Store") which was hugely popular when I was a kid.

Anyway. Henry e-mailed to say that he was flattered to see his book on my wishlist. (Henry - not half as flattered as I am that you actually wrote me!) And then he wrote again to ask if it was ok if he linked to my blog. (Henry's blog - in Swedish - is here, and I hope he writes much more because his writing is really lovely.)

This totally made my day! :)

Cardamom Cookies

I'll be honest - these didn't turn out as I had hoped. They were too solid for that, I wanted them to be lighter, airier. Could be the left-out ingredient, cream of tartar, I suppose. It's just that I can't find cream of tartar here, to save my life. So, I just omitted it. It worked, but.. well. Hard cookies. Per loved them so I still feel ok posting about them, but I was a little bit disappointed. The flavor is great though - VERY cardamom-y. Perfect for dunking in your coffee!

The recipe? It's from Maida Heatter, via Nic at Bakingsheet. I'd love to make them again, but maybe I should try to track down that cream of tartar first.

Peanut Butter Cups

When I lived in the US, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups was one of the greatest candies of all time, in my opinion. What could be better? I got highly addicted. Well, I came home, and.. no Reese's. No peanut butter candy at all, actually. Which was a shame, because Peanut Butter M & M:s? Oh. My. God. Even better.

Anyway. I guess I've grown out of it, more or less - I don't crave it anymore, and I rarely buy any, either. (You can find Reese's in some stores, with the other "American" food - Newman's Own Caesar Dressing, Little Becky Marshmallows, Oreos..) But when I came across a recipe for making my own? Heck yeah! I used this recipe, from Culinary in the Desert, but I scaled it down so much I'm re-posting it. I got a little under 20 cups from this - actually 20 with peanut, but only 17 with chocolate, so... I have to pace myself a bit better next time. Anyway, here we go:



Peanut Butter Cups
20 small cups

100 g smooth peanut butter
56 g powdered sugar
12,5 g brown sugar
125 g dark chocolate
22,5 g butter - divided into 15, and 7,5 g

In one bowl, place the 15 g of butter, the peanut butter, the brown sugar and the powdered sugar. Mix until smooth. (You *could* use a food processor, but for such a small amount, I'd rather not.) In another bowl, break up the chocolate, and add the tiny little 7,5 g pat of butter. Melt in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stir until smooth. (Or over a double boiler, by all means.)

Divide the peanut mix into small cups. Smooth with a spoon, or your finger. The cups should be about half full. Spoon over chocolate. Place in the fridge until the chocolate is set. Enjoy!

IMBB # 20 - Cloudberry Vanilla Soufflé

Again, the exciting food blog event "Is My Blog Burning?" has made me stretch my limits. And I love that. The host this month is Kitchen Chick, who has a lovely blog. The super cool theme - "Has My Blog Fallen?" I'm proud to say that no, it has not! I made my very first soufflé and it worked out perfectly! I'm so excited, can you tell?

My first thought was to go very basic, and make either a cheese or a chocolate soufflé. Then I thought a bit further, and realised I wanted to try something a bit more unique. I leafed through one of my basic cookbooks - Bonniers Kokbok, which was incidentally entirely re-written a few years ago, I heartily recommend it - and came across a basic recipe with many variations. And one variation was cloudberries. Perfect!

Cloudberries are hard to come by. They only grow way up north. In Sweden, there's a lot of "north" so there's a decent amount of cloudberries - but I've never seen any fresh for sale. You either buy them frozen, or in jam-form. You can read up on cloudberries here, and here. They are delicious, and if you get a chance to try some - go for it! They worked very well in the soufflé, and paired perfectly with the subtle vanilla, which I added just because I had so much of it. As you can see here, in a pic straight from the oven, they rose SO well. I'm really happy about that! This recipe made a bit more than I needed - I got four large-ish ramekins (As you can see in the picture, very cute heart-shaped ones from Le Creuset) and two smaller ones.

Cloudberry Vanilla Soufflé
6 small ramekins

40 g butter
40 g flour
200 ml milk
1 vanilla bean
4 egg yolks
40 ml cloudberry liquer, Lakka
200 g cloudberries, thawed
5 egg whites
3 tbsps sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

butter and sugar for the ramekins

Start by buttering and sugaring your ramekins, all the way to the top. Place in freezer. Score the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds into the milk. Add bean, bring to a boil. Cover with a lid, remove from heat and let infuse for ten minutes. After that, discard bean.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the flour, and let it cook for a minute. Add the milk, whisking vigourously for two minutes until it all comes together and easily slips from the saucepan. Let cool for a little while, then add the egg yolks, one at a time. Whisk, whisk, whisk. Transfer into a bowl. Add the Lakka, and the cloudberries. Mix well, and set aside.

Beat the egg whites with the sugar and lemon juice. I used my Kitchen-Aid but a fairly low setting as everyone warned me against beating them too much or too fast. I went slowly, until I had a thick, creamy mass that passed the "invert bowl over head"-trick. I figured that was enough. And it was, apparently. Beat in a third of the egg whites with the soufflé mix, and then carefully fold in the rest. Divide between the ramekins, and place in fridge for up to 3 hours.

When ready to eat, preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Bake soufflés for 12-15 minutes. Take out, immediately dust with powdered sugar and serve. I added some cloudberry coulis on the side - just cloudberries cooked for a couple of minutes with a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Serve with more Lakka if you have it!



Tagged with: IMBB # 20 + Souffle

An improvement on an already great snack

I've already written about the wonderful spicy caramel almonds, but yesterday it occurred to me that I had some pumpkin seeds begging to be used up, so I made a batch of Spicy Caramel Almonds & Pumpkin Seeds. Yum, yum, yum! The seeds popped from the hot oil and sugar, and puffed up.

Perfect for an evening of Eurovision - which we had last night. Every year, there's the Eurovision song contest. Yesterday was a big 50-year celebration where the best Eurovision song of all times was voted for. Winner? Why, ABBA, of course! Waterloo is indeed the greatest Eurovision song ever made!

Happy Birthday Dear Blog!

Yes - it's time for Anne's Food's first birthday! I posted my first post exactly one year ago. Exciting, isn't it? I can't believe how fast time has passed...

Well, a celebration is in order, of course. So, I decided to make a classic Swedish cake - Prinsesstårta. This translates to Princess Cake, and the rumor is that once upon a time, three Swedish princesses had a teacher - Jenny Åkerström - who taught them how to cook and bake, and she invented this cake. Well. I don't know. But I do know that you can find it any Swedish café or bakery. Opinions differ on whether or not you should include jam. I like jam, so I include it. You can do as you please. However, you can not bargain away any of the other components - the very light and fluffy cake, the creamy vanilla custard, the whipped cream, or the very important bright green marzipan lid. (You can buy this ready made, or roll out your own. Guess what I did?)

For the cake:
200 g eggs - about four
100 g sugar
100 g flour

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Butter and line a 24 cm springform. Beat the eggs and the sugar lightly, then place over a hot water bath and beat vigourously until very very fluffy, and slightly hot to the touch. (This takes quite a while, even with electric beaters.) Carefully fold in the flour. Place in springform, and bake for 15-20 minutes, use a cake tester or the tip of a sharp knife to check for doneness. Take out, release from springform, place on a rack and place the springform inverted on top while it cools.

For the custard:
3 egg yolks
250 ml milk
1 vanilla bean
20 g cornstarch
60 g sugar
15 g butter

Score the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds into a saucepan. Add the milk - and the bean - and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and let the milk infuse for ten minutes. (Put a lid on top.) Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks with cornstarch and sugar. When the milk is done, remove the vanilla bean, and pour the hot milk over the egg mixture. Mix well, and pour back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring CONSTANTLY. It will thicken a lot all of a sudden. Remove from heat, and quickly beat in the butter. Then press through a sieve into a clean container, straight away. Cool quickly, preferrably in a cold water bath.

You also need:
300 ml whipping cream, whipped with a tiny bit of sugar to fairly stiff
1 marzipan lid
a couple of tablespoons of jam

Assembly:

Divide the cake into two layers. (Or three, if you're up to it.) On the bottom layer, start with a very thin layer of jam. (Use your favorite - I'm using a seedless raspberry-violet jam from Christine Ferber.) Follow with a thick layer of custard. Add a little bit of whipped cream. Top with the second layer. Again, use a little bit of jam. Mix the remaining custard with a little bit of whipped cream. Spread this on the second layer. Try to make it slightly rounded, higher in the middle. Top this with the whipped cream. This time, be very careful about shaping. Top - careful, careful - with the marzipan lid. Decorate as you wish.

Weekend Cat Blogging #20

We got a new toy. In this picture, you can see me and Glinda modelling our latest cool purchase. This is a baby sling. Or a kitty sling, as we prefer to call it. The idea struck me some time ago - a baby carrier thingy might work perfectly for carrying cats. Right? Glinda loves to cuddle, and she loves being carried around. This is especially evident at cat shows - and who can blame her, sitting in a cage all day isn't a lot of fun. However, Glinda's getting pretty heavy. So, a sling.. I ordered this one from Ebay, and I heartily recommend the seller. You'll find her listings here.

We've only tried it out a little so far, but we LOVE it. Edith and Kelly enjoys rides in it too, while Ywette is a bit more sceptical. Hamlet is just too big, there's no way he's going to fit. But the rest... oh, not bad. I think I'll train all my future kittens to be sling-carried!

See more lovely cats at Clare Eats!

Sugar High Fridays 13: The Dark Side - Coffee Chocolate Truffle Two Ways

Loveschool is hosting this edition of Sugar High Fridays, and finally, finally, finally - the theme is dark chocolate. I bet many more than myself have been waiting for this one.

I chose to make a dark chocolate truffle, flavored with coffee. Because, come on - what's darker than dark chocolate? That's right, coffee. I then used the truffle for two things. Above, you can see hazelnut macarons with coffee chocolate truffle filling. (And I know, my macarons are lacking a lot - I know. They still tasted good, but.. the shape plain sucks. *sigh* I used the recipe Nigella has for pistachio macarons, from How to be a Domestic Goddess, and just substituted hazelnuts. If anyone wants to give it a try...)



My other creation was very successful - dark chocolate muffins with truffle filling. Yum! I brought these to the cat show too, and they disappeared very fast. In the picture, some have white dots - these are mint chocolate candies that I used instead of truffle for a few muffins: I ran out.

Now, to the recipes!

Coffee Chocolate Truffle

130 g cream (full fat)
250 g dark chocolate (I like Chocovic, just use your favorite)
40 g honey
12 g coffee beans

Chop the chocolate, put in a bowl. Roughly crush your beans with a pestle and mortar. Bring the cream to a boil, pour over the beans and let it steep for five minutes. Strain the cream back into the pot (make sure to press down on the beans to get maximum flavor) and add the honey. Bring to a boil, again. Pour over the chocolate, and stir until smooth and elastic. Let cool in room temperature. (If you want, you can add a little bit of butter at the end, too.)

Dark Chocolate Muffins with a Truffle Center
makes 20 small muffins

2 1/4 dl flour (a scant cup)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1,5 dl cacao (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp)
1,25 dl sugar (1/2 cup)
65 g butter, melted
100 ml milk
1 egg

Truffle as above, scooped into 20 small pieces and placed in the freezer

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Get out your muffin cups. I used pretty small ones, since these are very rich muffins. Mix all the dry ingredients. Beat the egg with the milk, and add the butter. Add this to the dry ingredients. Stir well, and divide in your cups - they shouldn't be more than half-filled. Add a piece of truffle to each one, press down well.

Bake for 10-15 minutes - check for doneness and make sure to not let the truffle burn!

Tomato Soup with Rice

This is not the most exciting of soups, but I tell you what it is: easy, and fairly good for you. It's a weight watcher's recipe, very low cal, and... yeah, pretty good. I liked it. I will make it again. I might fiddle a bit with the seasoning - I used herbs this time, but I have a feeling it'll benefit from a more Indian vibe too, with cumin and chili. Maybe curry. Anyway, it's pretty good as it is.

Tomato Soup with Rice
serves 2

1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
500 ml crushed tomatoes
250 ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp honey
dried herbs - I used a small pinch each of sage, thyme, basil, oregano and tarragon
40 g (1/2 dl) basmati rice
water

Heat the oil, and fry the onion and the garlic for a couple of minutes on medium heat. Add the tomatoes, the stock and the honey, and let it simmer. It should be at least 10 minutes - more if you have the time. Tomatoes always seem to benefit from time on the stove. I let mine simmer for about half an hour. Add the herbs and the rice, and let it simmer, covered, for another 20 minutes. At the end, use more water to dilute soup to your desired thickness. Serve with a good crusty bread.

Umm, my blog birthday is coming up this Saturday.. is it absolutely ridiculous to buy your blog a gift? I'm eying a bright red metallic espresso maker.. Hm. Will think about it.

White Knives?

A Swedish tv-chef uses white knives right now - the entire knife-blade is white. Pretty cool! The only white knives I can find on the web are ceramical ones (as I imagine they'd have to be) from Kyocera. Any feedback? Has anyone tried them? Are they good? Or is it just a cool gimmick?

More goodies in the mail - Vanilla Beans!

I love vanilla. It's heady, aromatic, flowery flavour is one of the best. Unfortunately, good vanilla is not so easy to come buy. Here, you can buy three things.

-Vanillin sugar - fake vanilla in powdered sugar
-Vanilla sugar - real vanilla in powdered sugar, but not much
-Vanilla beans - expensive and usually dried out and boring

No vanilla extract - I stock up while I'm in the US, and I sometimes have friends send me more to replenish my supply. So, I was very excited when I read on Brownie Points about her successful Ebay order. I immediately placed one myself, and a few days ago, the most wonderful package arrived. A whole pound of vanilla! All MINE! I'm so excited. Now I have to think of a million things to do with it. Any favorite ideas out there?

Orange-Ginger Biscuits

I found these cookies over at Esurientes. They are from Bill Granger's cookbook, Bill's Open Kitchen - a book I've been wanting to get for a while, but I haven't quite got around to it yet. Anyway. I couldn't wait to try these out, so I didn't. I wanted to bake for the cat show I was at last weekend, I usually like to bring something for my friends. And especially this time, since we were going to have a meeting. These cookies sounded perfect - and they were. For once, I'm going to give you the translated recipe, in Swedish, for all those who tried the cookies and wanted to know what was in them. All the rest of you can head over to Niki's blog and find the original recipe. I followed it more or less exactly - adding a bit more orange (The very outer peel of two oranges) and three tablespoons of brandy right away.

I had major problems with the roll-out though. I didn't have time to roll it out straight away so I stuck it in the fridge, figuring that this would just make it easier. No. Not so. Not at all. And when I finally got it rolled out, I thought it was boring to just cut out rectangles (besides, my cutting skills seriously suck) so I got out my heart shaped cookie cutter. And ended up with vaguely heart-shaped blobs. These cookies spread and they do NOT hold their shape very well! I finally found that what worked the best for me was to shape the dough into a rectangular log, and slice. Perfect! And thankfully, I had a lot of dough with which to experiment, because this recipe makes a truckload of cookies. I got over 100.

I'm very glad I got that many, because they are incredibly tasty. Everyone loved them, and even my mom who usually is not so much into cookies had two right away. I will definitely be making these again - definitely for christmas, but they're good any time of the year.

Smarriga kakor med apelsin, kardemumma och konjak

Från Bill's Open Kitchen, Bill Granger
Drygt 100 små kakor

375 g mjöl
2 tsk bakpulver
1 msk malen ingefära
1 tsk malen muskot
1 tsk malen kardemumma
250 g smör, rumstemperatur
345 g farinsocker
3 msk konjak
finrivet apelsinskal från 1-2 apelsiner, bara det allra yttersta

1 äggvita
extra strösocker

Sätt ugnen på 180 grader. Blanda mjöl, bakpulver, ingefära, muskot och kardemumma i en skål. Vispa smör och socker fluffigt. Tillsätt konjak och apelsinskalet, blanda ordentligt. Blanda ner mjölblandningen. Nu är det enklaste att forma degen till en lång fyrkantig "rulle", ca 3-4 cm hög, och sen skära i skivor om ca 5 mm. Lägg på en plåt, och tänk på att de flyter ut litegrann så lämna avstånd. Pensla med uppvispad äggvita och strö över socker. Grädda i 9-10 minuter beroende på hur tunna de är - men grädda inte för länge, då blir de hårda och trista.

På bilden har jag, som ni ser, kavlat ut degen och tagit ut hjärtan. Det var inte helt lätt. De flyter alltså ut en del, så lämna i så fall GOTT om avstånd.

Peperoncino

Finally, I get around to blogging about the wonderful packet (a lifetime supply!) of chili peppers that showed up in my mailbox some time ago! They come from Ilva, who has the wonderful blogs Aglio e Olio and Lucullian Delights about her Italian cooking. (The first one is in Swedish - which is too bad for most of you.) These little cuties pack a real punch - they're as you can see dried, and quite spicy. Ilva uses them in a lot of her recipes, and I'm excited that now I can do that, too! Yeay! Thanks Ilva!

Mexican Corn Soup

Corn is my favorite vegetable, and it always has been. When I was a kid, I'd eat corn and butter as a snack - or as a makeshift dinner if I had to. Just frozen corn, water, brought to a boil.. and topped with butter. Yum.

No wonder corn is still my comfort food of choice. I recently saw that Victoria of the blog Kardemumma posted a recipe for Mexican Corn soup. Oooh. Promising! So, I made it for lunch on the weekend. It was indeed absolutely delicious. I'm re-posting the recipe here so all you readers who don't know Swedish can enjoy it, too. (I changed a few minor things from Victoria's recipe, slightly different spices, and I omitted the black pepper.)

It was indeed delicious. I loved it - Per didn't, but he's a bit sensitive to the mushy texture corn gets after being pureed. So, I ended up eating half his bowl as well.. I was too full to have dinner. But oh, the soup was good.

Mexican Corn Soup
serves 2

500 g frozen corn kernels (or a mix of frozen and canned corn, which I used)
1 small red chili, finely diced
1 tbsp oil
salt
1 tsp sugar
500 ml water
1 chicken stock cube
100 ml light creme fraiche (15% fat)
1 tsp each of powdered chili, cayenne and cumin
1 tsp white balsamic vinegar

Fry the corn and the chili in the oil until they're a bit brown. Add sugar and salt. Add the rest of the ingredients, and let simmer for five minutes. Pure with an immersion blender (careful! It's hot!) or in a food processor. Eat!

Weekend Cat Blogging #19 - Cat Shows part 2

Ok, we're home! We had a *really* good day! Glinda did everything that she should, and got her first certificate. Two more, and she'll be a champion! The judge thought she was a bit teenage-y, but she's only 11 months, so what can you ask?

Edith did GREAT, and made it to the finals. She behaved beautifully, and charmed many people with her beautiful, unusual color. She spent most of the time in the corner of the show cage, as you can see - she's the dark blob behind Glinda. Glinda, by the way, who's happily examining her prize ribbons. Excuse the lousy picture - it was way too dark to get any decent snaps. Hopefully Lena got some!

And her cat, Janson, did really well too. The judge loved him, and picked him as her best Brit, AND in three additional "just-for-British"-categories: best head, best coat and best bone structure. We're very very proud, and he beat a very merited beautiful silver tabby. Good job Janson!

Tomorrow it'll be back to more talk about food, but today is all about the cats! But I have to mention that I met a woman who reads my blog, and I'm so excited about that. Gunnel - it was great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed the cookies! :)

Round up of Weekend Cat Blogging can be found here.

Weekend Cat Blogging #19 - Cat Shows

In addition to being a foodie, I also show and breed cats. This can be tough to explain to people - not only do they have to deal with me having one "odd" hobby ("umm.. so you write about food? Daily? On the Internet?!"), I have two. (Or more, depending on how you count.) I don't show my cats much, since it's pretty tedious, but a couple of times a year, I do. And today is such a day. It's 5.50 AM and I'm waiting for Lena to show up. We're driving to Norrköping with our cats - Glinda, Edith and Janson are coming - and will have a full day of cat show ahead of us. Wish us luck!

I'll update with a picture when we get back tonight.

As always, you can see more beautiful cats and discover new food blogs over at Clare Eats.

Chicken with Lime, Honey and Garlic

Here's a newly found favorite. I first saw this recipe on Swedish tv ("Landgång") and immediately dismissed it as being too simple, boring, and hey - of course it's good if you add cream. Pah! No challenge. Hrm, well, let's just say I changed my mind. I wanted something fast and easy to cook, and I was in the mood for something creamy. I happened to have all the ingredients, so... and oh my goodness, it was great. This is something I can't wait to make again.

Chicken with Lime, Honey and Garlic
serves 2

2 chicken breasts, cut up into strips or large pieces
2 limes
2 tbsp honey
2 cloves of garlic
200 ml cream (any variety you want - I used one with 20% fat, but I'm sure lighter ones would have been fine.)
salt, pepper, dried chili flakes

Grate the limes, and juice them. Mince the garlic. Combine lime peel, lime juice and garlic in a small bowl. Fry the chicken in a bit of olive oil or butter, and season with salt and pepper. Add the cream. Add the lime-garlic mixture, and let simmer for 10. Add the honey, and if you want it more spicy, a little bit of dried chili flakes. Serve with rice and some kind of vegetables.

Nut Tart from Bageri Kaveln

I'm not a big fan of tarts in general, but this one.. oooh. I do love nuts, and this one is crammed with different kinds. It has hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, walnuts.. all held together in a flaky, buttery crust. It's the same bakery that has the wonderful bread - Bakery Girls.


Bageri Kaveln
Skvaltans väg 15 (next to Bygg-Ole)
Nacka

Toast with Rocket

I learned this recipe many years ago, from a girl who worked at the student restaurant Herrgårn in Linköping. She also catered a dinner for a large student union event that we held, and this is when she made these toasts with rocket. Now, let's clear up what rocket is. It's called Ruccola in Sweden, Aragula in some other parts of the world, and Rocket in others. I've learned to love this bitter leaf, and it's very tasty in most salads. It's indispensable in this creamy mix, for sure. As for the cheese - I usually use whatever pre-grated I can find, and that's fine. Last time, I used parmesan - but I actually didn't like it that much. It dominated a bit too much - and let's face it, with strong players like rocket and garlic, you have enough flavor. Still, you want a cheese that can hold its own, so don't go too mild. As for the ham - you can serve it rolled up prettily on top. This time, I chopped it up and mixed it in with the other ingredients. Again, I can't say I really recommend that, the flavor didn't come through as nicely as I had expected. Still, it's an option.

Toast with Rocket
Serves 4

4 pieces of bread, toasted
200 ml creme fraiche
150 g grated cheese - you can use any fairly sharp cheese
2-3 cloves of garlic
100 g of rocket, finely chopped
salt
pepper

4 slices of cured ham - prosciutto, serrano or the Swedish Tvärnåskinka.
optional: yellow peppers, sliced thinly lengthwise, or basil leaves

Grate the garlic, and mix with the creme fraiche, salt and pepper. Add the rocket. Add the cheese. Let the mix stand for half an hour or more, to let the flavors blend in. Divide on the pieces of toast, and top with a rolled up slice of cured ham, preferrably rolled around a couple of thin slices of yellow peppers. If you go the other way and chop the ham and mix it with everything else, top with a couple of basil leaves instead.

The best fast food in town - Filips Pitaburger

This has been my favorite fast food for over ten years. I grew up in Saltsjöbaden, a small place in Nacka outside of Stockholm. (I still live in Nacka, but in another part.) When you go from Saltsjöbaden to Stockholm, you pass Filips Gatukök, a tiny little burger shack on the edge of the freeway. It doesn't look like much, tucked behind the gas station, but I assure you: it's excellent.

The owner - who's confusingly not at all named Filip, as far as I know - has one claim to fame: The Pita Burger. He invented it! Is it a pita? Is it a burger? Is it a pizza? It's everything. Essentially, a pita bread made from pizza dough, freshly baked, filled with a burger, shredded pizza cheese, iceberg lettuce, onions, hamburger dressing, cucumbers, tomatoes (always just one slice of each) and ketchup and/or mustard (never mustard for me!). That's it. And that's heaven.

I take every opportunity to have one. Last time was a few days ago, after a visit to my dentist in Saltsjöbaden. I definitely needed some comfort after that, so I went straight to Filips. I always get my pitaburger to go, because it's even better after one minute in the microwave, so the cheese melts.. Yum. Have one.


A pic of it open - I know, you can't see the burger. It's there though, I promise.

Filips Gatukök & Pizzeria
Repvägen 2, Saltsjöbaden
08-7172636

Pesto Crostini

We ate so much snacks and finger food in Spain. I've already told you about the tapas we had for dinner most every night, but we also really enjoyed the fried fava beans (I bought several bags to take home - this truly is the bean for me), potato sticks and one night we made crostini from some left over bread and pesto. It's the simplest thing, and great as a light appetizer or a snack before dinner.

Pesto Crostini

slices of bread, preferrably a day old, very thin
pesto of your choice - the regular pesto with basil and pine nuts, or a red pesto with sundried tomatoes, or chili, coriander.. go wild - it will all be delicious

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. (About 400 F) Spread the bread slices with generous amounts of pesto, and place on a baking rack. Make sure you have a pan underneath to catch any drippings, or you'll end up with a very messy oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the bread is toasted. Take out and let cool - you could eat them warm too, but I usually wait until they're a bit cooler. You can prepare these hours in advance, if you have to. They keep very well.

In the Pink

Emily at La Dolce Vita has asked us food bloggers to cook up something pink this weekend, to help with breast cancer awareness. We were also encouraged to take pictures of ourselves wearing pink. See the end of this post.

Anyway. I tried two pink dishes. The first is Pink Piccante Prawns, from Nigella's Feast. Success? No. Not really. And it's not that pink either. I won't be making this again. The flavors just didn't work very well together, for me. Per liked it more.

But the other dish - yumminess! The picture shows strawberry ice cream with white chocolate ripple, and this is something I really encourage you to make. The recipe is from Elisabeth Johansson's Iskallt! - an excellent book if you like ice creams. This is the first recipe I'm trying, and I like it a lot. I wish I had had time to let the ice cream custard cool over night - I had to rush it a bit - but it turned out fine anyway. And it certainly is pink - albeit fairly pale pink. Picture shows it a bit melty - sorry about that.

Strawberry ice cream with white chocolate ripple

1 vanilla bean
350 ml milk
400 ml cream
6 egg yolks
150 ml sugar
100 ml good quality strawberry jam (I used homemade)

For the chocolate ripple
100 white chocolate, chopped up
75 ml cream

Halve and scrape out the vanilla bean into a pot. Add milk, cream and the entire bean, and bring to a boil. Set aside. Beat the sugar and the egg yolks until pale and fluffy. Mix with the cream mixture, and add back into the pot. Bring up to simmering - do NOT let it boil. Run through a sieve, and let it cool - preferrably over night.

For the ripple, simply bring the cream to a boil, add to the chopped chocolate and mix until smooth. Let it cool in room temperature.

When it's very cool, add the strawberry jam, and run in an ice cream machine until your preferred texture. When it's done, add the chocolate ripple, and place in the freezer for a couple of hours. Enjoy!

And just for some more enjoyment, and some more pinkness - here's a picture of me, in pink. :)

Where the magic happen

Due to.. oh, I don't know if I can really call it popular request, but kind of - here's my kitchen. I rather like it. It's small, and I wish I had more counter space, but it's easy to work in. I painted all the cabinets red when we moved in, and I love the warmth of it.



We splurged on two things. The first is this lovely american-style side-by-side fridge/freezer. I adore it. It has an icemaker. I don't know how I ever lived without it.



And then this. This is a rolling work-table, sort of. You can cut stuff directly on it, but I'm too weak for that, I usually just use it to bake, and to prepare things on. It's excellent to have, but it does take up a lot of space. No matter - I love it. It's very sturdy, and it was hell to find. Even worse, it was pretty tough to get home. We had my dad's little sports car and I have not so fond memories of driving across town, table legs pointing to the air, open trunk.. oh well, it's here now. I dread having to move.

kitchen photos

Weekend Cat Blogging #18 - Glinda

She's getting big, my little darling. Glinda turns one year in November, and has her second show next weekend. She's still a baby, but her sister is becoming a raging hormonal adult as we speak, according to my aunt Gith with whom Gisèle lives. Glinda loves helping me in the kitchen. She enjoys sitting on the counter as I'm tinkering with something, and she'll often lend a paw to stir something. She's also a very accomplished bowl-licker.

Food bloggers - blog about your cat(s) on the weekend, and send your permalink to Farmgirl at Farmgirl Fare! The perfect way to watch gorgeous cats AND discover yummy new food blogs.

See the round-up here.

Peaches in Wine and Honey

I had some leftover peaches and nectarines the other night, and I was in the mood for something to accompany some excellent vanilla ice cream that happened to be sitting in my freezer. So, very inpromptu, I made up this little recipe:

Peaches in Wine and Honey
serves 2, generously

3 small peaches
1 nectarine
1 tbsp light brown demerara sugar
pat of butter
100 ml white wine
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon

Cut the peaches and nectarines into rough chunks. (If you feel fiddly, go ahead and peel the peaches - I didn't feel fiddly, so I didn't. It was fine.) Put them in a small saucepan with the butter and the brown sugar - heat on medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the white wine, and let the peaches simmer for 2-3 minutes until somewhat softened but definitely not mushy. Stir in the honey. Finish with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and serve with great vanilla ice cream.

Eating out in Spain

We didn't go to a lot of restaurants - I wasn't in the mood to explore, since I had my allergic reaction, and we were satisfied with light meals - but we did go to two places. One is Chinese, the other British. I know, it's practically sacrilege - but everything else we ate was Spanish. The British one happened to have Fish'n'Chips-night, so that's what we got. Absolutely delicious. The fish was perfect, lightly battered and fried golden and fluffy. The fries were great too - the peas, well, no, not so much. But who cares, when you have so much fried food? Not me.



The Chinese - yum, and very different from Swedish Chinese restaurants. We ordered ribs, which is rarely found on menus here, but were startled by the bright red meat peeking out at us. Wow. I have no idea what they did to it to make it that color. It didn't taste like much, just vaguely sweet. The Chow Mein however, was great. I love good noodle dishes, and sadly I suck at cooking them myself. It's definitely on my list of things I need to learn though, because it's very comforting and tasty.

Mystery fruit

I picked these up at the market in Spain, but what are they? They look like squashed peaches, and are fuzzy. They taste.. different. Sort of like an apple or pear, not very flavorful and not very juicy. (Maybe mine weren't that ripe.) I saw them labeled in a store as Paraguayos. Who knows more?

I have a back log like you wouldn't believe - so it'll have to be real boring food for a while so I can post about everything fun I've made recently! Or not - I'm seriously in such a good cooking mood, and I've been fiddling a lot in the kitchen every day for almost a week now.

A lot of fun food blogging events are coming up! This weekend, it's cook something pink! Then we have Sugar High Fridays, with the promising theme of dark chocolate. Mm. Not so promising, in fact, rather daunting, is the theme of Is My Blog Burning. Soufflés. Huh. I've secretly been waiting for this. I have no idea how to go about it. It's very frightening.

On Friday, Lena and I are heading to Nordiska Museet and the Chocolate Festival! Excitingly, we have tickets to a chocolate/alcohol tasting hosted by Betsy Choklad, which sounds so very promising on the homepage - can't wait! And I promise to tell you all about it. The back log will just have to wait a leeeeetle bit longer.

Cinnamon Bun Day

Today is the official Cinnamon Bun Day. Bet you didn't know that! Or that this is the seventh year, for this very special event. But it is. Those of you proficient in Swedish can read more here. Those of you who aren't will just have to do without. But, go out and enjoy a cinnamon bun! Or bake your own!

My favorite cinnamon bun is not a bun, but a roll, from Sweet Jill's. That's a small pastry shop on Second Street (Belmont Shore) in Long Beach, California. Needless to say, I don't eat them very often. But on my California trips, Rebecca always takes me for breakfast at Sweet Jill's, and we always get a cinnamon roll and orange juice. The rolls are huge - incredibly large, I bet they weigh a pound. And so incredibly delicious. Hey, if you're in the area, go have a cinnamon roll for me!

I baked Schnecken - a recipe from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. Deee-lish. They're different in that what I would normally put as a filling - butter and sugar - is instead made into a syrup or buttercream, and placed in paper cups. You then place the buns on TOP, bake, and invert. Nigella suggested a muffin tin, now, I have no idea how that would work. You'd need a big tin, because these are large buns. I used paper cups, which was not ideal. Some of the syrup melted and ran out. But there was still plenty. Messy. But oh-so-good. I'm not re-printing the recipe, but you can find it easily enough over at Nigella's Kitchen if you don't happen to have the book.

Here's another shot of the lovely Schnecken. And one of them pre-oven.

Lovely fruit

I love the fruit markets in Spain. Or well, the markets - period. In our area, there's a different market in a different town on any given day - Friday afternoons in Pilar which is our closest town, and another day in San Pedro which is also close. And you can find everything. Fruits and vegetables, sure, but also your houseware, kitchy garden gnomes, a wide variety of pickles and olives, underwear, shoes, handbags - everything, really.



We bought a lot of oranges, to have freshly squeezed juice in the mornings. Mm, delicious! They were really sweet and juicy, and very cheap. We also bought plums and peaches. The peaches were made into a clafoutis, but.. that didn't turn out so well. I'm not sure what clafoutis should be like, but I'm fairly sure it shouldn't be the gelatinous mass that I ended up with. It looks pretty, sure, but.. absolute inedible. Oh well, another lesson learned.

Eight Cookbooks of Separation

I read about the Eight Cookbooks of Separation-challenge on Food Blog School a while ago, and I *meant* to post about it right away. But.. well, I didn't. Anyway, better late than never. So. The picture above shows pretty much all my cookbooks. They have an entire bookshelf to themselves. It's a pretty big shelf. But I bet many of you food bloggers easily match this collection.

Anyway, it'd be stupid to blog about each and every one, so here's a couple of my favorites and most used books.



1. Stora Kokboken (Translates "The Big Cookbook")

This used to be my grandmother's. My other grandmother had one too, which I grew up with, since she lived with us. That one is another edition, and I'm much more used to that one - but mom would never give it up, so it lives with her. Instead, I got this one when my other grandmother died. She got it for christmas in 1953. Stainfactor? Very low as in it's well protected, but very high as in used a lot. This has so incredibly many good basic recipes, it's something I always look at.

2. Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners

Well, this is my favorite of Jamie's books, but I have all of them. We cook extensively from this one, and I'd have to say it has a stainfactor of 7 or so. More importantly, everything has come out absolutely perfect so far. Yum. A safe book.

3. Nigella Lawson - Nigella Bites

Again, I have all of Nigella's books, but this is my personal favorite. I have made about half the recipes in it, I think, and I love it. It's not as dependable as Jamie, but it has an even higher stainfactor. Say 8.

4. Bitchin' in the Kitchen - The PMS Survival Cookbook

I picked up this little gem in a weird store somewhere in a mall in California, many years ago. It's written by Jennifer Evans and Fritzi Horstman, and I completely fell for it straight away. Who wouldn't love a cookbook with chapters like "Chocolate", "Comfort Foods", "Sugar, Sugar", "The Salt Fix" and "Desperado Feasts"? I heartily recommend this. All recipes also come with a "piggie rating". Stainfactor? 6 or so. I don't use it *that* much, but what I've tried, I love. And it's fun just for reading. No pictures though.

Now, head over to Tomatom who thought up this cool idea, and read more about cookbooks!

It's fall - so here's a stew

Stews and one-pot dishes are very much a fall and winter food for me. Today is definitely the beginning of fall in Sweden - it's cool, crisp and gorgeous outside. I decided on a stew with a lot of red wine, adding some of the rosemary and sage that has survived the first frosty nights outside, and a couple of pears that were sitting in my kitchen. And as it happens, stews with wine are quite nice to drink with wine, and since Andrew tagged me for the Meme With Two Tails - this is my entry for that. It's certainly the most wine-appropriate food I've cooked for quite a while, and definitely the first wine I've had in several weeks. (Not by choice - but with all the antibiotics.. yeah.)

And who am I tagging? For a foodie, I'm choosing Pille at Nami Nami who's away in Mexico and I bet is sure to have lots of wine-food-experience to talk about, and for a wine blogger.. I'm actually going to tag a Swedish one, Vinbloggen who is run by Morgan Skantz, currently living in Spain.

So - what wine would that be then? I'm using a bottle of Graham Beck Merlot, 2003 from South Africa. It was very nice here - soft and mellow, and a perfect pairing with the aromatic rosemary and sage, and the sweetness from the pears. This is, however, the time to admit that I mostly like wine on its own, or possibly with cheese. I rarely manage to get that ultimate experience with a great wine/food pairing, and thus usually drink water with my food.



October Stew with Pears

1 kilo meat for stewing (I use fransyska), in large pieces
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
375 ml (half a bottle) of red wine
3-4 carrots, peeled and divided in large pieces
3 small pears, peeled and cut into wedges
100 g walnuts, whole or roughly crushed
1-2 tbsp cornstarch
250 ml cream (or half and half, or whatever substitute you'd like)

salt (Falksalts Rosemary Salt if you can find it)
butter
fresh rosemary, a small handful, chopped
fresh sage, about ten medium leaves, chopped

Get out a large pot, and melt a pat of butter. Sear the meat, until it has some color on all sides. Add the garlic and onion. Salt generously. Add the wine - it should almost cover the meat. If it doesn't, add water. (About a cup or so). Bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes. At that point, add the carrots and the fresh herbs. Keep simmering for 20 more minutes. Then, add the pears, the walnuts and the cream. Continue to simmer for another fifteen minutes, then add the cornstarch, bring to a final boil and simmer until it's thickened slightly. Serve with your choice of carbs or starch - we ate it with bulgur, it'd have been nice with boiled potatoes or rice as well.

Weekend Cat Blogging #17 - Edith

Behold little Smokey Edith, enjoying her very snug space atop our tv-computer. She loves rolling around there - it's nice and warm when it's turned on, and she feels safe and happy.

In Hufflepuffs cat news, Ywette is away on a date. She is very much the Queen Bee around here, so the other cats are acting a bit differently when she's not around. Keep your fingers crossed that Ywette likes the beau we've picked out for her - his name is Screaming Eagle - and that we'll end up with beautiful little babies in a couple of months!

Food bloggers - blog about your cat(s) on the weekend, and send your permalink to Clare at Eat Stuff! The perfect way to watch gorgeous cats AND discover yummy new food blogs.