Pineapple Fried Rice

Not a recipe as much as an idea, but I hope it might provide some inspiration. I love fried rice - it's one of fairly few "leftover dishes" I really enjoy so I always try to cook too much rice. (But far from always succeed.) You can put pretty much anything in it, and it'll turn out nicely. You can add lightly beaten eggs to the frying pan, or as we did, fry the eggs separately and serve on top.



This particular batch had garlic, a little bit of zucchini, pineapple (from a small tin), roasted cashew nuts, some freshly grated ginger, some cooked ham in cubes, soy sauce and... rice, obviously. Just fry the garlic and zucchini i a bit of oil. Add the pineapple, nuts, ginger, ham and rice, and season with soy sauce. Serve with an egg, and some chili sauce if you want some heat, and with cilantro (fresh coriander) if you're an addict like me.

Blood Orange Juice

This must be one of the best things about winter!

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes

So easy it barely needs a recipe - but so good it deserves a post on its own. Almost all root vegetables are brilliant when roasted (hey, almost all vegetables are), and this is no exception. They *are* hard to peel - they're very knobbly and uneven - but do it anyway because they payoff is great. It's a perfect side dish - we had this with the 40-clove garlic chicken.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes

(printable recipe)
Serves 4

1 kg Jerusalem Artichokes
2 tbsp olive oil
flaky sea salt

Peel the chokes and cut them into smaller pieces - halves if they're small, quartered lengthwise for larger. Place in an oven-proof dish and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with a good pinch of sea salt and toss. Roast at 175°C for 30-40 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Rostade jordärtskockor

Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

I'm still not well, but I thought I'd at least muster up the energy to share this delicious recipe with you. I'm always intrigued by making your own candy - it seems a little bit like magic to me. I've wanted to make marshmallows for years, but I didn't dare until I saw a great post about it on Ezra Pound Cake. This is the same recipe, but in different measurements. If you want US measures, try the original post.

I would NOT attempt this without a stand mixer. It's a massive job, and even my Kitchen-Aid was one, huge, sticky marshmallow mess towards the end. The end result was wonderful though - really great. I don't like marshmallows a whole lot, so I gave away most of them, which was very appriciated. (I did stick a few on forks and toasted them with a lighter - yum!)

And, I promise you - it's NOT difficult. Have fun!

Vanilla Bean Marshmallows
(printable recipe)
makes about 80

2 tbsp + 2,5 tsp powdered gelatine
125 ml cold water
125 ml warm water
125 ml white baking syrup (or corn syrup)
500 ml sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg whites
1 vanilla bean
200 ml powdered sugar

Prepare a tin - mine was about 24*30 cm - by greasing it with oil and sifting a thick layer of powdered sugar to cover the bottom and sides of the pan.

Pour the cold water in the bowl of your mixer, and sprinkle in the gelatine powder.

Mix warm water, white baking syrup, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Boil until the syrup is 116°C. Pour it over the gelatine (it's gping to bubble fiercely) and stir until combined. Beat the mixture on high speed until it's really thick, white and shiny. (5-6 minutes.)

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Mix those, and the seeds from the vanilla bean, into the marshmallow batter. Whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Try to get a fairly even layer - it will be easier if you sift some powdered sugar on top, and press with the back of a wooden spoon. Sift an even layer of powdered sugar on top, and place the tin in the fridge for at least three hours.

Next, turn the marshmallow slab out onto a cutting board. Cut into large dice, and sift more powdered sugar so that every side is covered - if not, it will be very messy.

When you're done, keep at room temperature, in an air-tight jar.

Recipe in Swedish:
Marshmallows med vaniljstång

Time out.

Sorry guys. I'm having a terrible week, involving stomach flu, a
husband away on a business trip (any readers in Owensboro, KY?) and a
baby with a cold. I can barely eat at all - toast and flat coke for
three days now - so writing about food? Sorry, no.

But I'll be back soon, promise.

Bed & Breakfast in Sweden

Are you travelling to Sweden, but don't want to stay in a hotel? I often get questions from people wanting to vacation in Sweden, so I thought I'd introduce a good friend of mine to you. Kråke Lithander runs an Agency called Days in Sweden - I'll let her introduce it to you herself.

"Days in Sweden is a bed and breakfast agency with the ambition to offer its guests a genuine Swedish experience. You can go Swedish all the way and stay with a Swedish family, an experience that will introduce you to Swedish customs, food and living. It will also help you to make your stay as interesting as possible.



If you prefer to get a place of your own we have a number of lovely apartments and houses for rent. We have some rare objects that guarantees to give you an unusual experience - how about staying in a 17th century cottage in the centre of Stockholm? A 17th century wooden castle, 2 hour south of Stockholm, is a travel in time and a historical journey. Do you fancy going off the grid? Well, take a rowboat to a small island where you'll find a lovely fairytale cottage with no electricity or running water but still everything you'll need including the gear to catch your own fish for dinner. Or do you prefer an ultra-modern apartment? Small as well as big, we have that too.

Do you play golf? We have lovely places around Sweden close to golf courses. Do you want to learn to cook Swedish food, take a sauna and go skinny-dipping in the frozen sea, or experience how to pick crawfish, of course with the party and all the trimmings to go, Days in Sweden will help you out. If you have a special interest for your stay in Sweden don´t hesitate to ask and we´ll do our best to help you out. Rest assured you will have a memorable stay!"

Sleep well, Hamlet

I'm so sorry to have to write this post, but our beloved Hamlet passed away today. He turned nine in September, and as he's always been very healthy, we were expecting to have him with us for many more years. I hadn't really noticed anything wrong - except that he had been throwing up more than the usual hairballs, for a few days.



Late last night, he started to wobble. We immediately took him to the animal hospital, where he was also showing signs of liver failure. They took him in, and this morning, did an ultrasound. It showed something in the liver - they couldn't say for sure, but it was quite possibly a tumor. At this time, he couldn't support himself at all, and was just laying down. Needless to say, we decided to let him go straight away, and not put him through any more tests. It was clearly the right thing.



So. Heaven has another kitty tonight. I know Hamlet is meeting his girlfriend Ywette again, their daugther Edith, and many other beloved pets. And I bet he'll get all the shrimp and smoked ham he could ever want.



Hamlet was always the first - and usually the only - cat to greet us and all visitors at the door. That was clearly his job.



He adored Per, and was really his cat much more than mine.

Goodnight Hamlet. We love you.

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Garlic was on sale in my store - six or seven whole bulbs for very little. I knew I wanted to make chicken with lots of garlic - there are many different recipes, but this one is based on Ina Garten's, The Barefoot Contessa. It's ridiculously rich, so you want to serve a light starter and a very light dessert, if it's part of a three-course meal. You also don't need a whole lot of carbs with it - I had some roasted artichokes and steamed snow peas, and I ate some crusty bread with the leftovers.

If you think it's hard work to peel garlic - I know I did - blanching them really, really works. It makes it so much easier, and when the garlic is roasted like this, the flavor isn't compromised at all.

The hardest part of this recipe is breaking down the chicken. Sorry, I can't help with that, as I completely suck at it. I need much more practise... or someone else to do it for me. It's good to learn though, as whole chickens are much more economical than buying the individual parts.

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

(printable recipe)

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
salt pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3 whole garlics - about 40 cloves
400 ml dry white wine
3 tbsp cognac
2-3 tbsp flour
50-100 ml cream (full-fat)
salt, pepper, sugar

Bring a small pot of water to the boil. Add all the garlic cloves and blanch for one minute. Drain and let them cool - they will now be super easy to peel, which is your next step.

Dry the chicken with paper towels, and season with salt and pepper. Heat butter and oil in a heavy pot, and brown the chicke. Start with the skin-side down, and keep the heat fairly high. When the chicken is nicely browned on both sides, set it aside. You have to work in batches, or the chicken won't brown. When all the chicken pieces are done (and set aside), add the peeled garlic cloves to the pot and fry for about ten minutes on medium high heat. They should be golden, but they can burn easily so watch them!

Add the wine and two tablespoons of the cognac. Bring to a boil, add the chicken and cover with a lid. Lower the heat, and cok on low heat for about 30 minutes. Test to see that the chicken is done, and if it is, remove it to a serving bowl and cover with foil to keep it warm.

Scoop out about 100 ml of sauce and mix with the flour. Add it back to the pot along with the last tablespoon of cognac, and 50 ml of the cream. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes. Add more cream if it seems too thick. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar if the wine you're using is very acidic. Pour the sauce, with all the garlic in it, over the chicken and serve.

Recipe i Swedish:
Kyckling med 40 vitlöksklyftor

Ducobu

Ooh. Ooh. Sorry for the crap photo, but Darling P just came home from a business trip in Belgium bearing gifts! Macarons and chocolates, from Marc Ducobu!

Dinner.

Patagonian scallops

My store was all out of fresh scallops when I needed them, so I went over to the deep-freeze and got a packet of Patagonian Scallops just in case. Turned out the next store I went to had regular, fresh scallops, so I stashed these in my freezer for another time.

As you can see, they're absolutely tiny. One packet was 250 g, which was enough for two. They tasted sweet and fresh - and very much like regular scallops. Being frozen, they need to be thawed before you sear them. I did it by placing them on coarse salt, which in hindsight turned out to be pretty stupid. They did thaw nicely, as all the moisture was drawn into the salt, but the salt also stuck to the little rounds, and I ended up having to rinse them. Which obviously made them wet, again. Oh well.

I didn't get a photo of the finished dish, nor did I measure anything, but it was basically a matter of searing the scallops and setting them aside, pouring some marsala and some cream into the saucepan to deglaze it, and then pour this over the scallops. I fried some red onion and some garlic in olive oil, added halved cherry tomatoes, and then tossed this along with the saucy scallops with freshly cooked spaghetti. Pretty yummy!

I think I'll pick up another package when I run across them again - however, they're almost as expensive as fresh scallops, so it's not a very thrifty option. Still, nice to have at hand!

Toasted Coconut Macarons

This is my submission for this month's MacAttack, by the girls over at MacTweets. We were asked to try something new, and well, at least this was indeed new!

I really want to learn how to make a nut-free macaron. That's quite a challenge, since a macaron basically is an almond meringue cookie. I found a recipe that used coconut instead of almonds, which many people with nut allergies can eat, over at Baking Obsession, but as you can see from my photos, it didn't work out all that well.

Let me put it this way: it's an awesome coconut cookie. It's not a macaron. I think part of the problem was the ratio between nuts and sugar - next time, I'll try my regular recipe, just swapping coconut for almonds. And hope for feet - the little ruffled edges that is the mark of a true macaron. These sadly never got any.

I made two delicious fillings - both went beautifully with the toasted coconut: salted caramel and dark chocolate ganache. I have both stashed in my freezer, for lucky guests over the next few weeks...

Coconut Macarons with two fillings

(printable recipe)

Toasted Coconut Macarons:
5 egg whites
3 tbsp sugar
190 g coconut (dried coconut flakes, not the sweetened kind)
225 g confectioner's sugar

Heat the oven to 100°C, and toast your coconut for 5-8 minutes. It should be lightly golden and fragrant. Let it cool completely. Then mix it with half the confectioner's sugar and grind in a food processor for a few minutes. Sift through a fairly fine sieve, and mix whatever didn't go through with the rest of the confectioner's sugar in the food processor for another few minutes. Either sieve it again, or, like me, trust that it's ground fine enough.

Beat the egg whites with the sugar to a stiff, shiny meringue. Add the coconut and carefully stir into a thick, even batter. Pipe round, small cookies onto lined baking sheets. Top with some more coconut if you'd like.

Leave at room temperature for an hour, so that the cookies develop skins. Bake in the oven at 150°C for 15 minutes.

Cool, then fill cookies. Freeze the shells you won't use right away.



Salted Caramel:
235 g sugar
85 g salted butter
125 ml cream (full fat)
pinch of salt (optional)

Measure butter and cream and leave at room temperature for 1-2 hours before starting. Melt the sugar in a heavy pan (preferrably one with a light interior so that you can see what you're doing) and place over medium high heat. When all the sugar is melted and golden brown, add the butter and stir. It will bubble and spit, so be careful. Then add the cream, and stir until smooth. If some of the sugar seizes and crystallizes, just heat it gently again and stir until it's all smooth. Add some more salt if you'd like.

Let it cool to room temperature, then chill. It needs to be completely cold to be thick enough to use for the cookies.

Dark Chocolate Ganache:
80 g dark chocolate, finely choped
50 ml cream (full fat)

Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Heat the cream until boiling. Then pour it over the chocolate and stir until smooth. Chill it in the fridge for a few minutes so that it thickens, then fill the cookies.

Recept på svenska:
Kokoskakor med salt kolafyllning och chokladganache

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know I teased you last night by showing a photo of a wonderful cookie - that was actually from my breakfast yesterday. I've been in the mood for chewy chocolate chip cookies for a while, but I only got around to making them yesterday morning. And I don't know why I put it off because it seriously didn't take more than 20 minutes. At the most. It's easy - real easy.

And, obviously, delicious.

Recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen, and she uses US measurements so use that one if you're not fond of measuring by weight.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

(printable recipe)

170 g unsalted butter
300 g flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
210 g brown sugar
100 g sugar
1 egg yolk
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
170 g dark chocolate chips

Melt the butter. Mix flour with baking soda and salt in a bowl. Stir together both sugars with the melted butter. Beat in the egg, the egg yolk and the vanilla extract, until the mixture turns light and fluffy. Stir in the flour mixture, and finally the chocolate.

Scoop cookies onto a lined baking sheet, and leave plenty of space for them to spread out. (I could fit about 9 per full-size baking sheet.) Bake at 165°C for 10-12 minutes. Adjust if you make very small or very large cookies, but do not overbake them!

If you don't want to bake all the cookies at once, you can freeze scoops of cookie dough individually, and when they're frozen through, just place them in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Get them out as you're ready to bake, and either thaw for a little while or add a few minutes to the baking time.

Recipe in Swedish:
Sega Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmm

I made really good cookies this morning. Really, really good. I'll
tell you all about them tomorrow, ok?

Scallops with Cauliflower Purée & Crumbly Bacon

Another dish from our 13-course dinner! It's something I dreamed up a few days before, when P said that he'd really like to have scallops soon. I love the way the crispy surface of the scallops give way to the chewiness, and it's perfect with a smooth, creamy purée. Try it even if you're not a huge fan of cauliflower - the flavors work really well together, and with the bacon and garlic... ah. (This is again proof that bacon really should be thought of as a spice - it adds such wonderful flavor.) Really . do try it!

It's easy to scale this up or down, and it's actually easy to cook for quite a crowd too, but you can't really make the scallops in advance. The purée and the bacon crumble can definitely be made beforehand, just heat the purée before plating. (No need to heat the bacon bits.)

Scallops with Cauliflower Purée & Crumbly Bacon

(printable recipe)
Serves 4

Cauliflower Purée:
150 g cauliflower
50 ml milk (full-fat)
50 ml cream (full-fat)
salt

4 scallops
olive oil

70 g bacon
1-2 garlic cloves
1 tsp olive oil (use one infused with chili if you happen to have it)

Cut the cauliflower into small florets and place in a saucepan with cream and milk. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and cook on low heat until the cauliflower is completely soft. It takes about ten minutes. Mix it in a blender or with an immersion blender, season with salt, and set aside. (Keep on low heat if you're about to eat, otherwise reheat just before serving.)

Cut the bacon into very small dice, and finely mince the garlic. Heat the oil in a frying pan, and fry the bacon until very crispy. Add the garlic for about a minute, but it burns easily so be careful. Set aside.

Cut the scallops in half along the middle, so you end up with two "coins" from each scallop. Dry the surfaces with a paper towel, and salt lightly. Fry in olive oil on medium heat for about one minute per side, until nicely colored and crispy.

To plate, place a dab of purée on each plate. Add two scallops and top with the bacon crumble.

Recipe in Swedish:
Pilgrimsmussla med blomkålspuré och baconsmul

Blood Orange Vanilla Sorbet

This might turn out as an actual sorbet, or it might turn out as a granita. It's hard to predict, as it will really depend on how sweet your oranges are. Although, to be on the safe side, you can add more sugar syrup, as that will make it freeze softer. I didn't want this to be very sweet, so I was fine with an icier texture - I served it as part of our huge 13-course meal and it was the perfect palate cleanser.

Blood Orange Vanilla Sorbet

(printable recipe)

300 ml blood orange juice (from about 5 oranges)
100 ml vanilla simple syrup

Juice your oranges and mix with simple syrup. Add a little at a time to get it as sweet as you'd like. Place in the fridge until very cold, and then run it in an ice cream machine for 15-20 minutes.

Vanilla Simple Syrup
500 ml sugar
500 ml water
2 vanilla beans

Mix water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Make sure all the sugar has dissolved. Score the vanilla beans and scrape ut the seeds, add them and the beans to the syrup. Pour in a bottle, keep in the fridge for a few months.

Recipe in Swedish:
Blodapelsinsorbet med vanilj

Winners!

Finally, time to announce the winners of my recent giveaways!

The Krusell cases go to Gabriela (green), Julie (red) and Catarina (beige). The sour rats go to Shirley!

Congratulations all!

Pierre Marcolini

Just a note. If you're in Brussels, there's chocolate, everywhere. The best one, however, is made by Pierre Marcolini and it's absolutely great. I always force my friends who go to Brussels to bring me back a box - it's horribly expensive, but still worth it. However, I think you have to go to one of the actual shops, i don't think it's available at the airport. (Or is it? Does anyone know?)

Take-home sushi

I've promised it several years now, but still haven't gotten around to it - making sushi, that is. And you know what? I don't think I will. I really doubt it's worth the trouble - it's too hard to get the good ingredients and they cost a lot, so I think I'll stick to buying my sushi when the craving hits. I'm picky though - but luckily, I rather like the sushi nearest to me, Neko Sushi. It's a chain, and they're not remarkable, but they're definitely fresh, clean and well, good enough. I really don't like nori at all, so I never order any rolls. (If I liked rolls, it would definitely be worth making them at home, but alas, I don't.) My favorite is salmon, and sometimes shrimp. I only like tuna if it's REALLY good, and the one at Neko isn't. Avocado is ok once in a while, but I have to remove the strip of nori first.

What are your sushi habits? Do you eat it often? Make it yourself? Favorite pieces? Discuss!

Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches

I never was much fond of ice cream sandwiches, but they're my husband's absolute fave, and he'll go for them every time we get ice cream. So, for our 13-course dinner, I thought it would be fun to make some myself. Remember, you *could* make these with store-bought ice cream, and cookies too - or use any cookie, and any ice cream. Go ahead and experiment!

Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches

(printable recipe)

The cookies are from Fanny at Foodbeam, and the ice cream from David Lebovitz.

Chocolate Cookies:
180 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

200 g dark chocolate
30 g unsalted butter

2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
150 g brown sugar

Mix flour with baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, melt chocolate and butter. (In the microwave, or over a waterbath.)

Beat eggs and brown sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and the melted chocolate-buttermix. Finally stir in the dry ingredients. Drop round cookies onto a lined baking sheet - leave some room, but they won't spread a lot.

Bake at 175°C for 6-8 minutes. If the cookies are still mounds rather than flat when they come out (mine did), use a small ball of aluminum foil and press them flat. Let them cool completely, then freeze.

Coffee Icecream:
250 ml cream (35-40% fat), divided
375 ml milk (full-fat)
pinch of salt
150 g sugar (I used homemade vanilla sugar, a jar of regular sugar with a few vanilla beans)
125 coffee beans (whole)
5 egg yolks
pinch of ground coffee

Mix together 125 ml of the cream with milk, sugar, salt and coffee beans in a saucepan. Heat until boiling, then cover with a lid and remove from heat. Let it steep for one hour.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Add the warm cream mixture while beating, and then scrape the whole thing back into the saucepan. Heat gently while stirring all the time, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Pour through a sieve into a clean bowl, and add the remaining 125 ml of cream along with a pinch of ground coffee. Stir over an ice bath until cool, then leave in the fridge overnight. Freeze in an ice cream maker.

Let the ice cream freeze for a few hours to firm up. Assemble the sandwiches, and let them freeze in a baking sheet or a cutting board until really firm. Then wrap them in plastic or keep in a tight-lidded box.

Recipe in Swedish:
Chokladsandwich med kaffeglass

Thirteen courses on Twelvth Night, 2010

For the fifth year in a row, we had our annual Twelvth Night (Eve of Epiphany) dinner two days ago. We did it the same way as always - invited friends, and let them do some of the cooking. This year, we were only three couples, so each couple made four dishes each. (I made five.) My recipes will be up shortly, and Dagmar will probably blog about hers, too. Anna, I don't know if you'll turn your or Martin's blog into a food blog!


FIrst off, drinks and a nibble. Anna & Martin were in charge, and made Berry Cider Mojitos, with olive nachos. A great start!


Dagmar and Fredrik taught us how to make Vietnamese spring rolls with basil, cilantro, pickled carrots, mango, cucumbers and lettuce. They were served with Nuoc Nam dipping sauce.


Titus had some mango.


I made sautéed scallops on cauliflower purée, with crispy bacon & garlic crumbles.


Next came something that might sound very exotic to some of you - smoked moose heart, with horseradish cream and sweet rye bread. Really very tasty!

I didn't manage to photograph my own dish that came next - a simple grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized onions and grated gruyère cheese. It was devoured before I had a chance to get out the camera. (We were still pretty hungry at this point, believe it or not.)


Next, venison! Wonderfully tender, served with cheesey potatoes and a delicious but potentially dangerous sauce of false morels. (It was very carefully prepared, as false morels contain a certain poison that's removed by blanching it, several times.) Think of it as the blowfish of the forest!


I made a blood orange sorbet or really more of a granita since it didn't become very smooth. Very light and refreshing!


Dagmar and Fredrik served pretty little galettes filled with roquefort cream and beef. They were so tasty everyone went for seconds!


Next, I made my first recipe from the Momofuku cookbook: ginger scallion noodles. I used soba noodles and topped them with pickled cucumbers and lamb ribs that had been slathered in hoisin sauce.


And then, the first of the desserts. Anna surprised us all by serving sweet olives, but along with other berries, lime sugar and vanilla mascarpone, they tasted great!


Dagmar served some exotic fruit with a spicy dipping sauce - golden kiwi fruit, mangosteen, rambutan, mango and rose apple!


I made ice cream sandwiches, with chocolate cookies and coffee ice cream.


And finally, Dagmar made beautiful heart-shaped cherry pies, with locally picked cherries. The perfect conclusion to a wonderful meal!

Want to see what we've had the other years?
2006
2007
2008
2009

Not blog-worthy bread

Let's be honest. I had planned to blog about all of these breads, painstakingly writing out the recipes for you, but let's face it, I won't. Some of them were made in.. let's see now, May? I think it's safe to say that I probably don't remember exactly what I did anyway. And they weren't all that good. So, basically this post is just a bunch of photos of bread, and most importantly: a promise that in the future I will blog a bit quicker about the things I actually want to tell you about. And while I'm making promises, I also promise to try and take better bread photos. I find that particularly hard, for some reason. (It could be that it's usually late at night, but I'm also very uninspired as far as styling goes. Sorry!)


Same light sourdough as the photo on top. Good, but not great. Second time I made them, they came out horribly flat.


A darker sourdough bread, made with both wheat and rye.


All-rye sourdough, spiced with caraway. Very flat, probably over-risen. Gave these to dad, who liked them.


Walnut Sourdough. Very tasty, but slightly over-risen and thus too flat.


Swedish limpa. I was quite excited about this, until I tasted it and realized it came out much too dense. I have no idea why, or what to do differently.


Same as above.


And finally, "bagels" from one of my favorite bread books this season, "Bröd" by Helène Johansson. (Actually, the failed limpa is also from her book.) This is.. well, good bread, but bagels? No. They're quite dense and chewy but nowhere near as good as my other bagel recipes, especially this one.

Dill-Mustard Sauce

This is a very traditional Swedish sauce that you'll find on every Smörgåsbord. It's usually served with gravlax, the salt-and sugarcured salmon that's very popular at Christmas, Easter and Midsummer. (And often in between, as well.) I made it for myself the first time this Christmas - I usually just buy it, but it's really simple to make yourself as well, and I wanted to give it a try. A lot of you have been asking for a recipe, so it was the perfect opportunity to try it out!

The measurements are by no means exact. Improvise as you go along. You might need more oil - or less! Season to your liking - there should be a good balance between sweet, sour and sharp!

Dill-Mustard Sauce
(printable recipe)

2 tbsp sweet and hot mustard
1 tbsp dijon-style mustard
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
black pepper, ground
white pepper, ground
salt
5-6 tbsp canola oil
100 ml finely chopped dill

Whisk both mustards with sugar, apple cider vinegar, black and white pepper and a pinch of salt. While whisking (I used the Kitchen-Aid), slowly add the oil, drop by drop. The sauce will thicken, just like a mayonnaise. Keep going until it's as thick as you like, and viscous. Add the dill, and season a bit more if you like.

Keeps in the fridge for a few days, but try to add the dill as close to serving as possible.

Recipe in Swedish:
Hovmästarsås

Giveaway!

Ok, first giveaway of the year! (I still have to draw a winner for the sour rats - I'll do it tomorrow, so if you want to enter, this will be the last day.) This one comes from Swedish accessory maker Krusell and isn't very food related - but I thought it was a nice deal so I accepted it anyway. They make small bags for your gear - cameras, mobiles, computers - and I've been given three cases to pass on to you guys. I have one laptop case - (fits up to 12") in beige, one green "Edge" case that's about the size of an iPhone, and one ruby red Luna case which is a little smaller. All are made from leather, and you can read more about them on the Krusell webpage.

To enter, you have to find out how many colors the Edge case comes in, and leave the correct answer in the comments.
1. 50
2. 10
3. 1

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you if you win, and also let me know which of the three cases you'd like to win. This is open for all readers, world-wide, and it'll be open for one week, until Sunday January 10.