Brownies

Per got to choose dessert last time we had guests, and he picked brownies. He wanted a really classic brownie, with "no stuff in it". Stuff, meaning nuts, usually. I myself love walnuts and dried apricots in brownies, but he prefers plain. So, here goes, a very plain brownie. Still, very good! And as you can see, I served it with ice cream and a creamy caramel sauce that was just divine!

Brownies
(printable recipe)

200 g dark chocolate
125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
280 g sugar
1 small vanilla bean, seeds
2 eggs
150 ml flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Finely chop the chocolate. Set aside half of it. Melt the other half. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, and add the seeds from the vanilla bean. (Feel free to use extract if you prefer.) Mix in one egg at a time. Stir in the melted chocolate, and then the flour and cocoa powder. Finally add the rest of the chopped chocolate.

The batter will be fairly stiff. Scrape it into a buttered pan (mine is about 20 cm square) and bake at 175°C for about 25-30 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Brownies

OMG

I've written about my love for Starbucks many times, but not even I am
this desperate! (for new readers: no, no Starbucks in Sweden.) I found
this in my local supermarket today - ground coffee in 12 oz bags, for
139 SEK. That's about $17! Apparently the store is aware that this is
crazy, since they felt the need to point out the price for a flight to
New York...

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I've made bagels before, but I like this recipe that I found over at Smitten Kitchen. I've simplified it by not retarding the bagels overnight - but you certainly can - and I find that it works really well like this as well. I also don't bother with different oven temperatures or rotating the sheets, but then again, I have a convection oven with fans, so it bakes pretty evenly.

You can certainly omit the cinnamon and raisin for variety, and top them with whatever you like. I don't like toppings on my bagels, but I do like a bit of flavor in the dough itself. Any ideas for other things than cinnamon? I'm thinking of doing a more bread-y version with caraway seeds.

After baking, I slice all the bagels and freeze them. Every night, I defrost two, and then pop them in the toaster for breakfast for me and Per. Very convenient!

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
(printable recipe)
makes about 15

Starter:
1 tsp dry yeast
600 g high-gluten flour (can be labelled as strong or bread flour)
625 ml water, lukewarm

Mix everything, and leave to rise for about two hours.

Main dough:
the starter
1 tsp dry yeast
450-500 g high-gluten flour
5 tbsp sugar
3 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp molasses or honey

200 g raisins



Knead everything but the raisins into a very hard dough. It shouldn't feel sticky. Count on 8-10 minutes in a Kitchen-Aid, or twice the time if you do it by hand. Add the raisins towards the end.

Divide the dough into 15 equally sized pieces (my bagels are usually around 120 g) and shape into round balls. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Shape each ball into a bagel, by poking a hole in the middle with your finger, then gently stretching the hole and twirling it around your fingers. Leave to rest for another 20 minutes. At this point, you can retard the bagels by placing them in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Bring a wide pot of water to boil, and add 1 tbsp baking soda. Boil the bagels for one minute on each side (I can usually fit three at a time), and then place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 225°C for 10 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bagels med kanel och russin

Macarons from Laduree

We had friends over for dinner the other night - friends who came straight from Paris! Knowing what I'd love, they presented me with this cute little box and I was very excited to see an assortment of macarons from famous Ladurée. I'm really having fun making my own macarons, but it was perfect to get to try out these - many think that they're the best in the world. These were chocolate, pistachio, raspberry and I think vanilla - I loved them all, but the vanilla was really outstanding. Or was it really vanilla? It had a caramellish element to it that I really enjoyed.

Coca Cola Baked Ham

Oh enough with the soda already! Honestly, another recipe involving cola? Yes. Really. Cola is actually quite nice to cook with - it's sweet and slightly spicy and the flavor does go very well with meat. This recipe comes from the lovely and entertaining The Cracker Kitchen cookbook by Janis Owens (I've written about it before) and I'm very pleased with it. I made this for Easter (and yes, I really should have posted about it before) and we just ate it plain, with fresh pineapple. It'd go really well with a potato au gratin though!

Coca Cola Baked Ham
(printable recipe)

About 2 kg cooked ham
1 can of Coca Cola
6 tbsp brown sugar

Mix the cola and sugar in a large plastic bag, and let the sugar dissolve. Place the ham in the bag, tie it, and leave it to marinate overnight. Turn the bag a few times to make sure the whole ham is covered.

Bake at 175°C for 45-60 minutes, basting it a few times meanwhile. Leave it to cool slightly before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe in Swedish:
Coca cola-bakad skinka

Pane Pecorino

Sourdough bread, plenty of grated pecorino, a handful of arugula, a few walnuts, a drizzle of honey. Texturally interesting as well as very flavorful - a perfect light dinner.

Cauliflower Pasta with Toasted Bread

Oh, I know - many of you hate cauliflower, and I always get upset e-mails about it. I know. But many of you seem to love it, too, and since I personally enjoy it very much, I'll continue to blog about it every now and then!

This pasta is pretty carb-y - in fact, it's pretty much all carbs! Sometimes, that's just what I'm craving...

Cauliflower Pasta with Toasted Bread
(printable recipe)
Serves 2

200 g spaghetti
200 g cauliflower, small florets
2 slices of white toast
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil + extra for frying
1 tbsp chili oil
parmesan

Dice the toast, and fry with the breadcrumbs in some olive oil. Set aside. Boil the cauliflower florets in salted water for 3-4 minutes. They should be soft, but still retain some bite. Drain and set aside.

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water. Drain, but save some of the cooking water. Toss with the cauliflower, toasted bread and breadcrumbs, chili oil, olive oil and parmesan. Add some of the pasta water to make it saucier, and top with extra parmesan if you'd like.

Recipe in Swedish:
Blomkålspasta med rostat bröd

Yellow Pepper Soup with Salsiccia

Soup time! Per isn't a big fan of soup for dinner, but it's acceptable if it has some sort of meaty, crispy topping. Bacon is the obvious choice, but the store had a great deal on salsiccia a while ago so I picked up a package that turned out to be perfect for this soup. It's a rather sweet soup, and quite spicy and smokey depending on how much Pimentón de la Vera that you add - that's something you should have in your spice cupboard by the way, it's a really neat spice.

You can add onions and garlic as well. I try to stay away from those right now, or at least onions. Garlic seems to be ok for Titus but onions definitely gives him a tummy ache.

Yellow Pepper Soup with Salsiccia
(printable recipe)
serves 2

olive oil
2 yellow peppers
3 medium potatoes
2 large pieces of grilled red pepper (jarred, or homemade)
4-500 ml water
salt
1/2 tsp Pimentón de la Vera (smoked, hot paprika)
1-200 ml single cream

handful of arugula
2 salsiccia sausages (or other spicy sausage), sliced

Cut the peppers, potatoes and the grilled pepper into smaller pieces. Fry the yellow pepper in olive oil for a few minutes until slightly softened. Add the potatoes, the grilled pepper, and enough water to just cover. Boil until the potato is soft, then blend the soup. I prefer an immersion blender but you can definitely use a regular one, or a food processor.

Add the cream, and season with salt and the hot, smoky paprika.

Fry the salsiccia slices until crispy, and add the arugula for a moment so it wilts. Serve the soup topped with sausage slices and arugula.

Recipe in Swedish:
Gul paprikasoppa med salsiccia

Lunch at bistro Voltaire

Stuffed pepper with grilled halloumi and herby home made fresh cheese.
Very good!

Darling baby

Titus is just over two months, and growing so fast. I got a special request for some new photos of him - I'm happy to oblige, of course. He smiles a lot, and is starting to laugh, too. Adorable!

Blue Cheese Bacon Burger

Here's a nice burger we ate the other night. It has a blue cheese sauce on it, which was a pretty good idea. Normally, I would just crumble on blue cheese for this combo, but this makes it milder and creamier, and it was excellent with the crispy bacon. (The burgers by the way are made by Scan, and sold as "bistro burgers" in the frozen section of the grocery store. It's the first mass-market burger that I really like, so we always keep these at hand for quick meals.)

The recipe came from Bobby Flay's new book, "Burgers, Fries & Shakes", but I don't think I'll repeat this particular recipe again - I'll probably improvise, next time. It needs a little bit tweaking.

The book is nice if you're into burgers - the burgers are basic (Flay tells you to not add anything at all to the meat, just to shape it and season the outside for maximum juiciness) but the toppings and additions are quite exciting. The section that made me put this away quickly was the chapter on shakes, though. Every single one sounded absolutely irrisisible, but considering they seem to contain at least the daily calorie requirement - I'll pass.

Printable recipes

I've been thinking about printable recipes for a long time. (A very, very long time.) Finally, a tutorial on Food Blog Alliance helped push me in the right direction, and from now on, all recipes will have a link to a printable version of them, so you don't have to cut-and-paste anymore. (And mostly so I don't have to do it.) I'll be adding the feature to old recipes too, but it'll take me some time, considering the sheer volume of recipes on this site.

Anyway - hope you'll like it!

Macarons with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

I finally made macarons! I've been gearing up for this, gathering courage, for a long time. A very, very long time. A few years, actually. And now that I've done it? I can't imagine what kept me for so long, because this was a breeze! I had read so many descriptions of how to make them, and long cautious tales about how disastrous they could turn out, I was prepared to have to make many, many batches before finally succeeding.

Well, surprisingly, my first one turned out great. Really great! And it wasn't hard at all. I had read that the egg whites should ideally be aged, but those of you who read me frequently know that planning ahead - that far ahead - isn't really my strong suit. I let mine sit at room temperature for a few hours, and that was fine. The eggs weren't super fresh - they had been in my fridge for at least a week, or more - so maybe they were already aged. I don't know. It worked.

I'm experimenting with keeping these in the fridge and freezer for a few days, to see if they're as good as when freshly baked - we'll see. I do want to make some variation of these for Titus' baptism, but they will need to be made in advance. And I really have to come up with some interesting flavor - I think I'd prefer something blue-ish... perhaps a white chocolate-blueberry ganache as the filling? This filling was just a very basic fast buttercream - very tasty though!

Many people write about macarons - the theory, what they should look like, common mistakes etc - I won't. Instead, check out David Lebovitz's great collection of links.

Macarons
About 15 filled cookies
(Printable recipe)

3 egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp caster sugar (or in my case, homemade vanilla sugar)
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almonds, blanched

Combine powdered sugar and almonds in your food processor, and grind until very fine. Sieve. Re-grind any lumps or big pieces of almonds. Mix carefully (they tend to separate a little bit when sieving, since the sugar falls through first.)

Beat egg whites and sugar until you have a thick, glossy meringue. Don't overbeat. Stir in the almond-sugar powder, and fold together. Don't overmix this - most seem to say that you should use less than 50 strokes. (You can try it by dolloping a little batter on a baking sheet - if the peak falls down, it's ready. If it doesn't, try a few more strokes.)

Pipe small rounds on a baking sheet with baking paper. If you'd like, sprinkle some extra ground almonds on half of them. Leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, to form a skin.

Bake at 150°C for 15-20 minutes. (I have a convection oven, and 15 minutes was perfect for me.) Let them cool completely before filling. Unused shells can be frozen, or kept in an air-tight container for a day or so.



Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
90 g powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 egg yolk

Split the vanilla bean open, and scrape out the seeds. Mix all ingredients to a smooth cream. Pipe or spread on half of the cookies, then top with another cookie. Keep in the freezer, or serve straight away - they should keep a few days in the fridge as well.



Recipe in Swedish:
Macarons med vaniljsmörkräm

Friday night quesadillas

Simple food, but classically Swedish. Creamed cauliflower - a simple white sauce with boiled cauliflower - and fried falukorv, Falu Sausage, with boiled potatoes. It's very much about the balance between sweet and salty.

I was actually served this while in the maternity ward, and liked it so much I had to go home and make it.

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Anchovy Sauce

We have a food profile in Sweden called Paulo Roberto. When I grew up, he wasn't known as a foodie, but as a gangster, more or less. Later on, he became a professional boxer. And now, he cooks. I admit, I was sceptical. Very. I skipped his first cookbook, never watched the tv show, but then I happened to get his latest book, called "Mina Gästers Mat" ("the food for my guests") and... I admit, he sure can cook.



I've tried a few things from it so far, and I love it all. It isn't complicated, it isn't fancy, and all of it is pretty traditional Italian (Neapolitan to be more exact). The recipes are provided by his Italian aunts. So - the book is totally good (only available in Swedish) but I'll let you in on a little secret. All of the recipes, from both this book and his first, are available online. His publisher is behind the site www.recept.nu and they're all there for you to browse. Again, in Swedish only.

This pasta is the first one we tried, and it was a smash hit. The flavors are clean and simple, and it takes virtually no time to cook.

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Anchovy Sauce
(Printable recipe)
Serves 2

250 g spaghetti
6 anchovies
250 g cherry tomatoes
25 ml olive oil
25 g butter
2 small garlic cloves
1 small dried chili (peperoncino)
60 g black olives, halved (kalamata is my favorite)
1 tsp (or more!) capers

Mince the anchovies, and halve the tomatoes. Heat olive oil and butter in a saucepan. Add the anchovies, garlic and chili and fry for five minutes on medium heat. Discard the chili. Add tomatoes, olives and capers and leave to simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Discard the garlic. Season with a little bit of salt, if you feel that's needed.

Toss the sauce with freshly boiled spaghetti, serve!

Recipe in Swedish:
Spaghetti med tomat- och sardellsås

Refreshing

A nice summer salad - maché lettuce, poached shrimp, watermelon, feta cheese, creamy avocado and crunchy homemade croutons.

It doesn't get much better.

Wild mushrooms sauteed with a little bit of butter and cream, on
toast. Amazing.

Flag cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

So, this is the cake I made for Fourth of July. I've seen them before, but have always thought it would be way too much work. This time I decided to make the effort, and realised.. it wasn't very hard at all. Anyone can do it - I promise!

This recipe does make a huge cake, and it originally comes from Barefoot Contessa. I found it at Pioneer Woman Cooks, and go there if you want the original US measurements. I've changed things a little, using slightly less sugar and fresh vanilla rather than extract. I used a smaller pan than the one specified and ended up with ten cupcakes as well. (Bake those for a slightly shorter time, about 15-20 minutes.)

Flag cake
(Printable recipe)

250 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
700 g sugar
6 eggs
250 ml sour cream
1 vanilla bean
750 ml flour (450 g)
40 g corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Beat sugar and butter until well blended. Add the eggs, two at a time, and beat well after each addition. Stir in the sour cream, and the seeds from the vanilla bean. (Score it and scrape it all out.)

Mix flour, corn starch, salt and baking powder, and add this to the batter. Spread the batter - which will be very thick - in a well buttered and floured pan. Mine was about 20*30 cm, and I got ten cupcakes as well.

Bake at 175°C for about 25-30 minutes. Check with a cake tester - it should come out pretty clean. Let the cake cool completely.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
600 g cream cheese, at room temperature
400 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
400 g powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean

500 g strawberries
100 g blueberries

Score the vanilla bean and scrape out all the little seeds. Mix with cream cheese, butter and sugar, and beat well until smooth. Place in the fridge for a while if it seems too soft.

Use half of the frosting to spread evenly on the cake. Put the rest in a piping bag, and use a large star tip to pipe stripes. Alternate with halved strawberries. Don't forget to reserve a square in the left hand corner to fill with the blueberries.

Serve with extra berries.

Recept på svenska:
Flaggtårta

Better Scones

I'm always searching for the perfect scone. It needs to be light and fluffy, but not too crumbly so you can't put butter on them... these ones are better than the recipe I've been using, but not perfect. Do you have a great recipe? Please - do share!

Better Scones
(Printable recipe)
8-10 small scones

225 g flour
50 g butter
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
25 g sugar
150 ml milk

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the cold butter in small dice and work into the flour mixture until it's all been properly distributed throughout. Add the milk and work quickly into a soft dough. Shape into scones, or if you're feeling adventurous, roll it out and use a cutter to make neat shapes. (I always feel that the dough is too sticky for this.)

Bake at 225° for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bättre scones

Yummy potato salad

This was a good dinner! New potatoes, tossed with capers, black
olives, crumbled feta, a few spoonfuls of sour cream, a little mayo
and dried thyme. Spicy sausages on the side.

Spiced Pecans

I'm a sucker for nuts. It's probably my very favorite snack, and especially if they've been covered in some sort of spices and sugar. That sweet-salty combinatin is just wonderful, and with the added crunch and flavor of the nuts themselves... well, I just love it. I've been wanting to make spiced pecans for quite a while, but had a hard time deciding on a recipe to use. Pecans are pretty expensive here and I wanted to make sure they turned out really good. I made these for our fourth of july party and let me tell you: they were great.

And as always.. I just can't bring myself to measure spices. Just can't! I plan to, every time, but somehow it never happens. If you like heat, add lots. If you prefer them milder, add less. Bonus? They take just about a minute to make, plus time in the oven. It's that easy.

If you have any left over - it's unlikely, but maybe - they would be excellent in a salad. And they make a great gift, too. If you can bear to part with them, that is.

Spiced Pecans
(Printable recipe)

300 gram pecans
50 ml brown sugar
75 ml sugar
good pinch of salt
cayenne pepper
ancho chili pepper
cinnamon

1 egg white
1 tbsp water



Mix the sugars and the spices in a bowl. Beat the egg white with the water until foamy. Mix the egg white with the nuts, and then add in the spices. Spread the spiced nuts on a baking sheet (lined with baking paper - it'll be sticky), and bake at 150°C for about 30 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kryddiga pecannötter

Shrimp sandwich

If you happen to visit Nacka - just outside Stockholm, where I live - you have to go to Melanders. It's a fish store and restaurant, and they have several locations - however, I'm not sure the other ones serve this same shrimp sandwich. We bought one each for dinner the other day. Well, what you can't see in the photo is the size. The avocado will give some indication - but let me say, this sandwich is about the size of a dinner plate. It was HUGE. And wonderful! A mountain of fresh shrimp, sliced hard-boiled eggs, a little bit of mayo... oh, and some bread underneath it all, too.

And no, we couldn't finish them. Next time, we'll get one to share.

Fourth of July

As always, I like to have a little party on 4th of July - after all, it's much more fun to celebrate the American national day than our own. So, a few of our friends came over for a nice potluck picnic.



We had tons of delicious food, including chicken wings, barbecued ribs, fried chicken, caesar salad, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, potato wedges with cheese and bacon and tons of dipping sauces. And as you can see in the first photo, a flag cake! It was great fun to make - I'll post the recipe soon.



And of course, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.



Titus wore some stars, and enjoyed his very first Independence Day.

Blueberry Squares

Something tasty for the weekend!

Blueberry Squares
(Printable recipe)
makes 16

150 g unsalted butter
140 g sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
150 g flour
200 g blueberries (frozen are fine)

Beat sugar and butter until fluffy. It's easier if the butter is softened, but it will work even if it's cold. (I rarely remember to soften my butter.)

Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Stir in the flour.

Grease a square pan (mine is about 20 cm) and spread the batter in it. Top with the blueberries.

Bake at 175°C for about 30 minutes. The cake should look golden and shrink away slightly from the sides.

Recipe in Swedish:
Blåbärsrutor

Chicken Ragu with New Potatoes

Quick, easy, fairly light and summery. What else could you want? This is perfect for when you want something more substantial than a salad. Serve it with a good bread, and you're all set. Add onions and garlic for more zing - I'm staying away from those two at the moment, because it seems they are a bit upsetting for my baby's tummy.

Chicken Ragu with New Potatoes
(Printable recipe)
serves 2

2 chicken breasts
olive oil
500 g tomato passata (crushed tomatoes will do)
300 g new potatoes
1 large bulb of fennel
2-300 ml water
2-3 pieces of grilled peppers (jarred)
salt, pepper

Dice the chicken breasts and brown in a little bit of olive oil. Set aside. Cut the new potatoes in smaller pieces. Quarter the fennel lengthwise and slice thinly. Finely chop the grilled peppers.

Fry the fennel in a little bit of olive oil in a pot, then add chicken, tomatoes, potatoes and a little water. Cover with a lid and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Add more water if it seems too thick. Stir in the grilled peppers and season with salt and pepper.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kycklingragu med färskpotatis