The Picnic Round-up

Remember that I'm playing the Picnic game? It's time to see what everyone else brought! (A full round-up with photos will be posted at Louise's blog soon.) Bloggers sure make the best picnics! I wish it wasn't virtual - I want to taste everything!

We're going on a picnic and we're bringing...

A- Almond Joy Pie

B- Baked Beans

C- Chocolate Picnic Cake

D- Dutch Funnel Cake

E- Easy Blender Chicken Pie

F- Five Bean Salad

G- Granola Bars

H- Herb and Cheese Pasta Salad

I- Incredibly Fruity Raspberry Cakes

J- Jeweled Picnic Bars

K- Kaltschale (Cold Fruit Soup)

L- Long Island Lemonade Cocktail

M- Mushroom Tart

N- Nut Roast

O- Olive Nut Bread

P- Pomegranate Mousse Cake

Q- Quiche

R- Raspberry Chocolate Macarons That's me!

Dairy- & eggfree Cinnamon Buns

I know baking isn't all that appealing when it's hot, but believe me, it's well worth having cinnamon buns stashed in the freezer! Besides, you can totally bake at night. And the oven is only on for a very brief time anyway - but the rising does take some time. (It's faster when it's warm, though!)

These are standard cinnamon buns - sort of. I made them specifically for a kids party where one of Titus little friends - Nicoline - happens to be allergic to both eggs and dairy. It's fairly common with small children, but apparently they often grow out of it. Anyway, I wanted to make something special for her, and since Titus really, really, REALLY loves cinnamon buns, I thought this would be easy enough to adapt for her. And yes, they were. Sure, butter is better, but other than that, you really couldn't tell. The kids loved them! (No restrictions? Just follow my regular recipe.)

I use an oatmeal-based "milk"-substitute. I haven't tried it with soy or rice milk, but I'm sure it would work as well. It should be as neutral as possible, flavor-wise. Feel free to play with the filling - other spices would be nice, such as vanilla, cardamom and perhaps a dash of nutmeg. You can bake these in individual paper cups, or close together in a pan (and then cut, or break them apart.) They freeze really well, and you can re-heat them for about 30 seconds in the microwave!

Dairy- & eggfree Cinnamon Buns
(printable recipe)
about 40 large buns

50 g fresh yeast
400 ml "milk" from oatmeal
840 g all-purpose flour
180 g sugar (preferrably home made vanilla sugar if you have it)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cardamom
175 g dairy-free margarine, at room temperature, in thin slices

Filling:
150 g dairy-free margarine, at room temperature
150 g sugar
cinnamon

To decorate:
Golden syrup or honey
pearl sugar

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Add the oatmeal milk and half the flour and work into a soft dough. Leave to rise for two hours, covered. Add in the rest of the flour along with the sugar, salt, cardamom and the margarine. Work into a smooth and supple dough.

Place the dough on a floured surface, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for 30-60 minutes.

Mix margarine and sugar for the filling - beat well until fully combined.

Divide the dough into two equal parts. Roll each into a large rectangle, about 2 mm thick. Spread with the filling and dust with lots of cinnamon. Roll, starting at one of the long edges, into a tight roll, and slice. Place each slice in a paper liner, or in a buttered oven-proof dish. Leave to rise for 30 minutes.

Drizzle with a little golden syrup or honey, and decorate with pearl sugar.

Bake at 250°C for about 8 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mjölk- och äggfria kanelbullar

Garlic-stuffed Mushrooms

Here's a nice little side dish, part of a tapas spread, or a starter. I used a garlic soft cheese spread called Creme Bonjour, I'm sure you'll find something similar in your supermarket. Boursin is another popular one.

Garlic-stuffed Mushrooms
(printable recipe)

8 large button mushrooms
80 g garlic cheese
1 tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 tbsp breadcrumbs
olive oil

Remove the mushroom stalks and use them for something else. Mix together garlic cheese, cream cheese, parsley and garlic. Fill the mushroom caps. Top with breadcrumbs and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.

Bake at 200°C for about 10 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Vitlöksfyllda champinjoner

Shoestring potatoes

I recently bought a Benriner Turning Slicer - a pretty cool little gizmo (that I have to take some action shots of) which allowed me to make these yummy shoestring potatoes! Delicious! We just ate them plain, but a friend recommended tossing them with chili and fresh cilantro, and a few drops of sesame oil. Any more ideas? I think we'll be making these a lot this summer...

Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

This is an entry for International Picnic Day, hosted by Louise. I chose the letter R, and decided to bring my Raspberry Chocolate Macarons - delicious! I really look forward to the round-up - picnics are great, even the virtual ones! (Edited: round-up is now here!)

It's the first time I'm really trying to flavor the shells (other than chocolate) and it's only because I was given a tub of freeze-dried raspberries by Dagmar. It's not available here, although I really wish I could have many more freeze-dried fruits or berries to experiment with. I chose to not color these shells. Partly because I'm never that successful with colorings, but mostly because it feels a bit silly to bake something lovely from scratch and then add unnatural additives to it. Besides, macarons are pretty regardless of the color, and more importantly - they're yummy.

Raspberry Chocolate Macarons
(printable recipe)

3 egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp caster sugar
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almonds, blanched
10 g freeze-dried raspberries (possibly a little bit more)

Combine powdered sugar, raspberries 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. Leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, to form a skin.

Bake at 150°C for 10-12 minutes. (I have a convection oven.) Let them cool completely before filling. Unused shells can be frozen, or kept in an air-tight container for a day or so.

Chocolate ganache:
150 g dark chocolate
100 ml cream (full fat, 35-40%)
small pinch of salt

Chop the chocolate finely and place in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a bowl and pour over the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Add a tiny pinch of salt - it'll bring out the chocolate flavor even more. Leave the ganache to thicken slightly as it cools. If it gets too thick, heat briefly in the microwave.

Fill the cookies, and store the finished macarons in the fridge where they'll keep for a few days, or in the freezer where they'll be fine for much longer.



Recipe in Swedish:
Hallonmacarons med mörk choklad

Great ice cream!

Excellent ice cream at 18 smaker! This is vanilla-strawberry, and white chocolate-fresh mint.

Fennel Risotto Crunchies

The photo doesn't really make this dish justice, but I'm sure you can imagine how good it tastes anyway. It's our favorite thing to do with leftovers, these days - and as a bonus, Titus likes it too. He won't eat risotto as it is, but rolled in breadcrumbs and fried? Yes please! (Smart boy, really.)

So, take your leftover risotto. Add an egg. (Add two if you have a lot.) Add leftover feta cheese if you have that, too! Shape small balls, roll in breadcrumbs (I prefer Japanese-style Panko breadcrumbs) and fry in oil. And that's really all there is to it.

And for those of you who missed yesterday's post - it was Fennel risotto with feta cheese.

Fennel Risotto with Feta Cheese

Wow, I've posted a lot of sweet recipes lately. It's not that I haven't been cooking, but I guess I haven't tried a whole lot of new recipes. As always, risotto remains one of our favorite dishes. It's perfect for a weeknight dinner, as it takes about half an hour in total. It's great on its own, or as a side dish. This particular one is nice served along a spicy sausage (like chorizo or salsiccia), or grilled chicken.

Fennel Risotto with Feta Cheese
(printable recipe)

1 yellow onion
1 small-ish fennel bulb
200 ml arborio rice
50 ml dry sherry
1 litre good stock (any kind of vegetable would work well)
100 ml finely grated parmesan
75 g feta cheese
butter, olive oil

Finely chop onion and fennel. Heat a little butter and olive oil in a heavy pot, and fry the onion and fennel on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the rice, and turn up the heat to let it color until golden. Stir all the time - it burns easily. When the rice is golden, add the sherry and let it reduce for a minute.

Add the stock, ladle by ladle. When the risotto looks dry, add more. It'll take about 20 minutes in total - keep tasting to make sure the rice is just right. You might not need all the stock, or you might run out - just add hot water in that case.

When the rice is done - slightly chewy but not crunchy, and definitely not mushy - stir in the parmesan. Taste to see if you need to season it, and serve with crumbled feta cheese.

Recipe in Swedish:
Fänkålsrisotto med fetaost

Royal wedding!

Today is the day of our Swedish Royal Wedding! I've made a cake to
celebrate - I'll tell you all about it, but it will take me a few days
to write up the recipe.

Rhubarb tartlets

Yuuuu-um! A friend made these incredible rhubarb tartlets, with puff
pastry, honey and grated white chocolate. Irresistable!

Lemon Strawberry Cake

Finally, here's the cake I promised you a few weeks ago! I made it for yet another birthday party, this one for Titus and his little friends that we've been hanging out with all year. It was a big hit - it's really a crowd-pleaser and perfect on a warm summer day.

It's not difficult, but sure, it does have a few steps. You can make it several days in advance and keep it in the freezer. Thaw it in the fridge before serving - to fully thaw it takes at least 4-5 hours, but it's delicious slightly frozen as well. Decorate with fresh strawberries just before serving.

You need two cake pans. One to bake the cake layers (they are by the way wonderful - so simple, so tasty, and really easy to cut into layers), that's about 24 cm in diameter, and one slightly bigger springform pan. Mine is 26 cm. That one also needs to be lined with sturdy plastic strips. (I use plastic sheets meant for overhead presentations - remember those, before Powerpoint came along? - and cut the in half.)

Lemon Strawberry Cake

Basic Cake Layers
4 eggs
375 ml sugar (1 1/2 cup)
400 ml flour (1 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp)
2,5 tsp baking powder
120 ml boiling water (just under 1/2 cup)

Beat eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Fold together flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add this, along with the water, to the egg mixture. Stir in a little at a time - first flour, then water, more flour and so on until everything is added and folded into a smooth batter.

Butter and flour a 24-cm springform pan. Pour in the batter and bake at 175°C for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan. When it's completely cool, turn out the cake and divide it lengthwise into three (or even four) cake layers. (It's easy - use a serrated knife and cut while turning the cake, that way it'll come out really even.)

Filling
300 ml lemon curd (about one jar. And store-bought is perfectly fine. Otherwise, make about 1 1/2 batch of this.)

Lemon mousse
5 egg yolks
3 lemons (preferably organic and unwaxed)
4 gelatin sheets
600 ml cream (full-fat)
210 g sugar
85 g water
600 g kesella (quark)

Clean the lemons. Zest the peel, and juice them. Set aside 3 tbsp of the juice. Mix the rest, along with the zest, with the quark.

Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water. Beat the cream into soft and foamy peaks. Beat the egg yolks until foamy, preferably in a stand mixer.

Mix sugar and water (those 85 g) in a small saucepan and heat until it's exactly 122°C. Pour this hot sugar syrup over the foamy egg yolks, while still beating them, and keep beating on medium speed until the mixture is at room temperature.

Remove the gelatin from the water and place in a small bowl with the 3 tbsp of lemon juice that you set aside earlier. Heat on low effect in the microwave - for just a few seconds - until the sheets have melted. Add this to all the other ingredients - the egg yolk mix, the cream and the quark.

To decorate
1 litre fresh strawberries (about 2 pints), quartered


A closer look at the decoration

Assembly:

Start by lining your 26 cm springform pan with plastic. You want strips to go above the edge of the pan. (Here's a picture of the cake in the pan.)

Spread the first cake layer with lemon curd. Place in the cake pan, and add enough mousse to cover completely. Make sure you cover the edges as well, as the cake layer is smaller than the pan. Spread lemon on the next cake layer, and place on top of the mousse. Again, add mousse to cover well. Spread the third cake layer with lemon curd (it should now be used up) and place, curd-side down. Add the rest of the mousse and spread evenly over the cake and make sure the edges are well covered. Tap the pan gently on the counter to help the mousse spread.

(You don't have to add all of the mousse - if you have leftovers, pour it into small cups and leave in the fridge for a few hours. It's a delicious dessert on its own, especially with berries.)

Place the cake in the freezer, overnight or at least for 3-4 hours.

On the day of serving, remove from the freezer. Remove the springform pan (you might have to heat it gently with a hair dryer) and remove the plastic strips. Move the cake to a serving platter, and let it thaw in the fridge for a few hours. Decorate as close to serving as possible.

My decoration was very simple - I started from the other edge and placed quartered strawberries in a circle pattern, letting each inner circle slightly overlap. It's strikingly beautiful, but the whole thing took about ten minutes at the most.


A closer look at the layers.

Recipe in Swedish:
Citrontårta med jordgubbar

I'm going to be in a cookbook...

Well, not just me - I'm one of fifty food bloggers collaborating on this project. We've each contributed a recipe for brain-healthy food, and the actual book will be published later this summer. For now, you can subscribe to the "Recipe of the Week"-campaign, that will run for 50 consecutive weeks. Those who sign up will receive one recipe from the ThinkFood cookbook in their email inbox every Wednesday and each recipe has at least one brain-healthy ingredient that benefits the brain. Each blogger will be featured for one week, and I'll let you know when it's my turn, of course.

What my recipe is? It's a secret, for now!

Cashew Chicken

Yes, not my best photographic effort, I know. It's blurry. Oh well. The food was good - do try to make it! (And I will take a better photo next time.)

Cashew Chicken
(printable recipe)
serves 2

2 small chicken breasts
3 garlic cloves
6 scallions
100 ml cashews, unsalted
2 tbsp rice vinegar
100 ml water
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
4 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp peanut oil
salt, pepper

Prepare all ingredients: cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Mince the garlic. Cut the scallions into 2-3 cm long pieces, and keep the white and greens separate for now. Toast the cashews in a dry pan.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok or large frying pan. Fry the chicken with salt and pepper on high heat for about a minute. Add the garlic and the white scallion parts, and fry for three minutes while stirring. Add the rice vinegar and lower the heat to medium. When it's mostly reduced - after a minute or so - add water, soy and hoisin sauce. Cook for another minute, at which point the chicken should be cooked through. Stir in sesame oil, cashew and the green scallions, and serve straight away over rice.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kyckling med cashewnötter

Ready to bake from American Cookies

When I was an exchange student in California, way back in the 90's, I was introduced to the marvellous world of ready-to-bake cookie dough. I was thus excited to get a big box with chilled cookie dough, brownie batter, and muffin batters in the mail, from Swedish company American Cookies. They have long been selling their baked goods in their own little cookie stand in one of the larger malls, and have apparently been delivering to chain stores like 7-11. And now they're read for mass-market.

I've tried everything I got - and my verdict? Well. Pretty good! Ingredients-wise, some of the things do contain a lot of additives and things like "blueberry aroma". But, I was rather impressed by especially the brownies, which were really tasty and didn't contain anything strange. The blueberry muffins you see above were rather average, and I would have liked more actual blueberries. The chocolate pound cake was ok, but didn't have a lot of chocolate flavor. (It was, however, pretty delicious with vanilla ice cream and strawberries.) The chocolate chip cookies? My husband was enthusiastic, calling them some of the best cookies I've ever made! Gee, thanks honey! Still, they're not half bad. And I wouldn't mind having some of these at hand in the fridge, for sudden sweet urges. I hope I'll see them in my grocery store soon.

Spiced nuts

Made some spiced nuts. Why do people buy mixes when it's so easy? Took
me ten minutes, and it's much tastier than what you can buy. That
said, I still really miss honey-roasted cashews and haven't been able
to recreate those very well at home. Oh well, can't have it all!

Bacon-wrapped asparagus

Well, this is one of the simplest little appetizers you can ever make, and it's perfect for summer. Just throw it on the barbecue - but pan-frying works too. And you hardly need a recipe. Just use a bunch of thin asparagus spears, cut them in half, and wrap two or three with a piece of bacon. Grill for a few minutes, until the bacon is crisp.

You can definitely serve them as they are, but they're even better with a dipping sauce. I like a simple one with crème fraîche, dijon mustard and chili, or you could even use barbecue sauce.



Titus tried it, but wasn't a huge fan.

Banana Blueberry Bread

Ah, the wrath of the Mystery Produce Box hits again. I, once again, ended up with tons of bananas. Which, again, I don't eat much. (I can enjoy a very under-ripe banana every now and again, but that's it.) And Titus adamantly refuses them, in every form. Except, apparantly, this one. Banana bread was yummy! And especially with the addition of some juicy, plump jumbo blueberries (that were also in the box, by the way).

I've made banana bread before, but haven't been all that happy with the results. This time, I also felt too rebellious to follow a recipe, so I pretty much made one up. I held my breath and... success! Do give this a try - it's really tasty. You can omit the blueberries, or substitute other berries. And as with all banana bread, an addition of some walnuts or pecans wouldn't be bad, or even a smattering of chocolate chips.

Banana Blueberry Bread
(printable recipe)

150 g wholewheat flour (I use spelt)
150 g all-purpose flour
75 g sugar
75 g brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 bananas (about 450 g, peeled weight), mashed
100 ml canola oil
100 ml buttermilk (or Swedish filmjolk)
2 eggs
1 vanilla bean
200 g blueberries, fresh



Start by mixing both flours and both sugars with salt and baking soda in a bowl. Mash the bananas and mix with oil, buttermilk and eggs. Score the vanilla bean and scrape out the "caviar" into the wet ingredients and mix well. Add all the wet stuff to the dry ingredients and stir together.

Butter and flour two small bread tins (mine are 8 inches/20 cm) and divide the batter between them. Push the blueberries into the batter, half in each tin.

Bake at 175°C for about 45 minutes.

You can certainly use a larger tin or make muffins, but you do need to adjust the baking time.



Recipe in Swedish:
Banankaka med blåbär

Broccoli Soup

It's been a while since I posted a soup recipe, and well, maybe it's not exactly soup weather right now. At least it isn't here - but they say it's about to rain for the rest of the week, so hey, maybe some soup will be good.

Use any kind of white whine. I had an open bottle of a fairly sweet wine and that worked out well, but I'm sure any kind will be nice.

Broccoli Soup
(printable recipe)

1 yellow onion
1 garlic clove
butter
1 broccoli stand
50 ml white wine (I used sweet, any kind works)
500 ml water
1 peperoncino (tiny, dried chilipepper)
lemon zest, from 1/2 lemon)
50 ml cream
salt, pepper
milk (optional)

Chèvre creme:
100 g chèvre cheese
2-3 tbsp cream

Coarsely chop garlic and onion. Fry in a little butter, it should soften but not color. Add broccoli (coarsely chopped), wine, water and peperoncino. Cook for 5 minutes. Add cream and lemon zest, and cook for five more minutes.

Blend until smooth - I use an immersion blender, but a regular blender or a food processor works as well - and season with salt and pepper. Stir in a little milk if the soup is too thick.

Make the chèvre creme by crumbling the cheese and stirring in some cream until smooth.

Serve with the chèvre creme, and some good crusty bread and a few slices of Serrano ham.

Recipe in Swedish
Broccolisoppa

Cookbook Watch - June 2010

Middag hos oss, ("Dinner at our place") by Ulrika Jisland and Anna Jonassen (published by Bonnier Fakta) looks immediately very Swedish. The cover has gorgeous photos of pretty food, pretty Swedes sitting on a dock holding live crabs (the authors), and boats. There's a strong summer vibe throughout. This is the first book I have by this particular duo, but they have written a few others as well. They're not chefs - one of them is a teacher, and the other a journalist. However, they love food, and they love having dinner parties, and that's what this book is all about. It has tons of recipes for easy and quick meals that are "good enough for company". I'm particularly in love with the picnic chapter, and am planning to try most of those recipes (as soon as we get our backyard in order!). How about mini omelettes with bacon and chèvre cheese, or perhaps rhubarb soufflé? Sounds right up my alley!



Medelhavsmat för svenska kastruller ("Mediterranean food for Swedish pots"), by Cecilika Wikbladh (published by Kakao förlag) seems rather generic at first glance - just another Mediterranean cookbook? There are tons of them. Swedish people love Mediterranean cooking, and it's really shown in the cookbook publishing for the last couple of years. However, this one is subtly different. The recipes are much more adapted to what you can actually find in Swedish stores, and it's also clear that the author has included recipes from more places than just Italy and Greece which are the most common "mediterranean" cuisines. You'll also get ideas from France, Portugal, the Middle East and Northern Africa, and I'm pretty excited about recipes like Oven-baked Ratatouille, Chicken & Orange Pasta salad, and a fabulous Galette with Mascarpone Cream.



One More Slice is the latest book by one of the most hyped Swedish cookbook authors at the moment: Leila Lindholm. (Published by Walter & Books.) She's often compared to Nigella Lawson, and is portrayed in a similar way in her tv show - very sensual, lots of footage of Leila sticking her finger in her mouth and saying "yuuuuuum" and so on. And, as with Nigella, I don't really care for the tv shows, at all. When it comes to the books, Leila and Nigella are nothing alike. Nigella is a writer, so her books are always beautifully written. Leila is a chef. This book is a follow-up to "Piece of Cake" which is available in English as well. As with that one, the idea is to have a basic recipe for, say, cheesecake, and then providing lots of variations. Some might feel tricked by this, since you're not really getting a lot of recipes, but I'm charmed by her sheer inventiveness. I like that there's over 20 versions of waffles and pancakes (even though some require a Belgian waffle iron which I don't have), and that there's nine flavor ideas for "tortano" (filled Italian bread).

Leila is really popular in Sweden for her "American-style" , but I imagine those that would buy her book in English are more interested in Swedish-style baking. And then, sadly, this is not the book for you. (Not that it's available in English yet, but I imagine it will be.) However, I'm sure this will be a smash-hit with Swedish bakers, and I'm sure she'll provide inspiration for very many.

White Chocolate Chèvre Cheesecake

I got a lot of comments asking for the recipe for the White Chocolate Chèvre Cheesecake I included in my post the other day about not-so-successful things I've made. So - here it is! And now that I write about it, I realize how easy it really is (no baking!) and all you really need is a food processor. Make sure you don't burn the white chocolate on top though - that was my downfall.

It's excellent served with cloudberry preserves, but those can be pretty hard to find outside of Sweden (unless you have an IKEA nearby). I'll try this with fresh strawberries next time, I'm sure that's a really delicious pairing!

White Chocolate Chèvre Cheesecake
(printable recipe)
Recipe from Fredagskocken by Mattias Larsson
8-10 servings

70 g butter
175 g digestive biscuits
170+100 g white chocolate
150 g chèvre cheese
200 ml cream (full-fat)
325 g cream cheese

Melt the butter. Break the biscuits into smaller pieces and mix in a food processor until you have small crumbs. Add the butter and mix well. Pour into a pie tin and press into an even layer, making sure to go up the sides as well. (It's good to use a pie tin with removable sides, by the way.)

Chill completely.

Chop 170 g white chocolate and place in the food processor. Crumble in the chèvre cheese. Heat the cream until boiling, add to the food processor and mix until smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix again.

Pour the filling into your pie shell and place in the fridge until completely set. (Overnight is best, but at least 3-4 hours.)

When the cheesecake is completely set, grate the white chocolate and distribute evenly on top. Gratinate under a hot broiler (250°C) for just a few minutes and watch carefully so it doesn't burn.

Place in the fridge for a few more minutes, then serve.

Recipe in Swedish:
Vit chokladcheesecake med chèvre

Strawberry Lemon Cake

We had another birthday party for Titus and his little friends today,
and I made this cake. Three layers of cake and lemon curd, and lots of
lemon mousse. It was very zesty and light - I'd definitely make it
again!

Not always successful.

Lemon Chiffon Cake. Could not get it out of the tin. Tasted good, but ugly.

I notice that sometimes I get very anxious about posting some photos and recipes on here. It's usually when the photos aren't great - or downright bad! - or when the food didn't turn out spectacularly. But you know what? I'm not a professional. Not a professional food photographer, nor a chef. I'm me.

The post earlier this week reminded me about some other not-quite-successes that I haven't wanted to post about before - they just didn't come out as I expected. Some, I'll try again. Some - never.


Supposedly ants on a tree. Did not work out well. Way heavy on the soy sauce. Need another recipe, please.


An apple mousse cake, topped with cinnamon jelly. Or, in reality, the jelly sort of sank in, creating this unappealing cake. It tasted great, but was ugly. *sigh*


White chocolate goat cheese cheesecake - actually absolutely delicious, but I managed to burn the top (which is shaved white chocolate that you put under a very hot broiler for a few seconds to caramelize - but not burn - it.) Served with cloudberry preserves - and this one I will most definitely make again.


Vanilla Roasted Pears. Nothing wrong, exactly, but they were rather ho-hum. Won't make again.

Roasted Aubergine with Feta

Aubergine - or eggplant as it's also called - is really not one of my favorite vegetables. It's the texture - too spongy, and I think it's really bland. However, I got one in my produce box, and I turned to my brand new Ottolenghi cookbook to help me. This is what I ended up with and I'm happy to say it was pretty good! Perfect as a starter or as part of a larger spread.

Roasted Aubergine with Feta
(printable recipe)

1 aubergine
olive oil
salt and pepper
50 g feta cheese
1 small handful basil
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
3 tbsp pomegranate seeds

Cut the ends off the aubergine. Divide into two. Cut the fatter part into 8 wedges, and the thinner part into six - each wedge should be about the same size. Place in an oven-proof dish, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes at 200°C.

Leave to cool slightly before arranging on a platter. Sprinkle with feta cheese, basil, pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.

Recipe in Swedish:
Rostad aubergine med fetaost

Should have worked...

Well, I thought this recipe sounded so promising - mashed potatoes, corn, grated cheese, mustard, spices. It should have worked. No, it should have been great! But, sadly, it wasn't, at all. The avocado-with-garlic on the side was yummy, as always, but that was pretty much all I ate.

Cranberry Hazelnut Bagels

I just bought myself a Bosch MUM86 (I reviewed one last year, and really fell in love with it for baking bread - and now I decided I had to have one.) and for the inauguration, I decided to make bagels. It's definitely one of my favorite breads, but everytime I make it in my Kitchen-Aid, I end up with a lot of clean-up (since the recipe yields a slightly too-big dough to fit properly in the bowl) and I'm always afraid that it'll break the gears. Plus, last time I tried, my yeast must have been old because they never rose properly.

This time, I wasn't taking any chances with dry yeast, but decided to try the same recipe with fresh yeast instead. It worked very well - so this is probably what I'll do from now. Fresh yeast is extremely accessible in Sweden - it's in every grocery store - and it's much cheaper than the dried yeast. But, feel free to make it with dried - as long as it's not too old!

I wanted to try a different variety than the normal cinnamon-raisin that I usually make, so I went with cranberries and toasted hazelnuts. Yum! What's your favorite bagel flavor?

Cranberry Hazelnut Bagels
(printable recipe)
about 16

Starter:
12 g fresh 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
12 g fresh yeast
450-500 g high-gluten flour
5 tbsp sugar
3 tsp salt
1 tbsp molasses or honey

100 g dried cranberries
100 g toasted hazelnuts, halved


New toys!

Knead everything but the cranberries and the hazelnuts into a very hard dough. It shouldn't feel sticky. Count on 8-10 minutes in a stand mixer, or twice the time if you do it by hand. Add the hazelnuts and cranberries for the last few minutes.

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.

Recept på svenska:
Bagels med tranbär & hasselnötter