Mystery Mocha

Not your best option if you're looking for pretty, but OH so tasty. I found this over at The Pioneerwoman Cooks, one of my always-favorite food blogs. We made this for a simple afternoon coffee-and-cake session, and it was very nice.

It will look really weird during the cooking. Don't worry. That's as it should be.

Mystery Mocha

175 g sugar
150 g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
30 g dark chocolate
25 g unsalted butter
125 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

topping:
100 g brown sugar
100 g sugar
4 msk cocoa powder
250 ml cold, strong coffee



Mix sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Melt the butter and chocolate, and add to the dry ingredients. Add milk and vanilla, and stir. Pour into a greased oven-proof dish, about 20*25 cm.

Mix the topping - brown sugar, sugar and cocoa powder. Sprinkle on top of the cake batter. Pour over the coffee. (This is when it will look really weird.)

Bake at 175°C for 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven, let it cool slightly, but serve it while it's still a bit warm. It's great with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.



Recipe in Swedish:
Mystisk Mocka-kaka

Make a royal Wedding Cake!

Today is the day of the British Royal Wedding! As we had one ourselves last year, I thought I'd remind you of the cake I made then. Go to the post here.

Bacon & Corn Lunch Omelette

We often make something along the lines of a tortilla/frittata/omelette for lunch. I fry whatever I happen to have (often leftover potatoes, but not this time), then add eggs and maybe some cheese. Good food, for the whole family.

Bacon & Corn Lunch Omelette
Serves 2-3

70 g bacon
1 small red onion
100 ml corn kernels
5 eggs
3 tbsp water
salt, pepper
a handful grated cheese, preferrably sharp. I used the Dutch Primadonna.

Dice the bacon and the onion. Fry, with the corn, on medium heat until the bacon becomes crispy and gets some color.

Whisk the eggs with water, and some salt and pepper. Add this to the frying pan, and stir the edges towards the middle as they start to set. When most of the omelette has set, add the cheese and let the omelette finish for a few minutes on medium-low heat.

Serve with a salad on the side.

Recipe in Swedish:
Lunchomelett med bacon & majs

Culinary highlights from Spain

Langoustines with lots of garlic and cilantro.


We ate at an Asian wok buffet place. Not exactly haute cuisine, but fresh and well-cooked food. (And kid-friendly.) Titus LOVED it, especially since it had both sausages (great ones) and meatballs on sticks.


Lamb chops with baked potatoes, and tzatziki. (Ok, so that was mostly Greek.)


Churros. I always get a bag when we're in Spain, and they're great when they're eaten just-made, still hot. I want to try making my own sometime!


A great salad with tomatoes, garlic, onion and sherry vinegar.


Titus eating paella. Yes, the recipe is coming!


And... as we walked hurriedly towards the gate on our way home, I saw... Starbucks. HELLO, Mocha Frappuccino!

Crock-Pot Carnitas

I finally tried the crock-pot for the first time today! And what better to try than... carnitas! Or at least, slow-cooked pork. I call it carnitas because that's how we ate it - we fried it in a skillet after the liquid was absorbed, and ate it with tortillas, red onions, and cilantro. (And I admit, a dollop of créme fraîche on mine.) I didn't season the pork a whole lot in the pot, thinking I'd season it more at the final stage instead, and that's what I ended up doing. I have most of it stashed in the freezer, and will definitely use up some for tacos, and some for pulled pork sandwiches with lots of barbecue sauce.

Because, let me tell you, this was so good. So, so good. Amazing really. My regular carnitas are good, too, but this was so much more tender. It truly fell apart at the touch of a spoon. I could hardly believe it. In fact, for the first hour or so, I was really sceptical. Nothing at all happened, so I put my slow cooker on high for half an hour or so, until I could at least feel it getting a little warm, and then back to low for about eight hours.


Titus adored this, too.

So, a recipe? Hardly need it. Here's what I did. I took a big piece of pork - about two kilos of shoulder - and seasoned it with salt, cumin and ancho chili. Placed it in the slowcooked, and added the juice of one lime and one orange. I also added about 100 ml of water, which in retrospect probably wasn't necessary at all.

And that was that. I can't believe it's this easy to cook this good. It took five minutes of prepping time, and then five more minutes before serving. Anyone, anyone can do this.

Happy Easter

Annamaria's chocolate cake

Happy Easter everyone! I'm happy to be back home, after an awesome vacation. My parents have a house in Spain, near Torrevieja, and that's where we went. (My parents joined us, too, for most of the time - it was great to get to spend some time with them.) It's lovely down there - very still and peaceful, and of course warm and sunny. Foodwise... a bit good, a bit not so good. (For example, the whole debate about organic food and additives must have not made it to Spain.) Anyway - we cooked a lot, since Titus was with us and that meant it wouldn't be so easy to eat dinner at restaurants all the time. I made an awesome paella, and dad made mussles in a creamy wine sauce with cilantro. More on the food when I've downloaded the photos from my camera!

We came home to find that winter has finally gone away, and spring is here. That means, among other things, that I have to get rid of my backlog of wintery posts really, really fast, in order to get to all the nice, spring-y food! Will make that my mission in the next few weeks.

Today, a chocolate cake originally from a Swedish food blog that's sadly not updated anymore. This cake was the runner-up to "best chocolate cake in Sweden" a few years ago, and I can well believe that!

However, believe me, this is rich. And I don't use that term lightly. Despite that, serve it with some whipped cream - it goes so well with the creamy chocolate truffle, and the crispy peanut butter cake layer.

Annamaria's chocolate cake

Bottom:
6-700 ml (about 2 1/2 cups) cornflakes
140 g golden syrup (try to find this, don't substitute corn syrup. If you must, substitute honey or agave syrup, but you might have to change the quantity.)
250 g peanut butter

Truffle:
175 g milk chocolate
275 g dark chocolate
100 ml full-fat cream
100 ml milk
50 ml pistachios, unsalted

To decorate:
Some extra pistachios

Start with the bottom. Use a springform pan with a loose bottom, and place a baking sheet in it. Crush the cornflakes slightly. Melt syrup and peanut butter in a saucepan, and add the cornflakes. Stir. Press an even layer into the pan and place in the fridge.

When the bottom is completely cool, make the filling. Coarsely chop both chocolates, and melt in the microwave. Heat the milk and cream and pour over the chocolate. Stir until completely mixed and smooth. (Use a stick blender if you'd like - I used a simple spoon and that was fine.)

Chop the pistachios and add to the truffle.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the bottom and sprinkle with the extra pistachios. Place in the fridge for at least five hours or overnight. Keep in the fridge until right before serving.

Recipe in Swedish:
Annamarias kladdkaka

Habas con fuet

To keep up with the Spanish food: fresh broad beans (habas) with onion, garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar and fuet sausage. Delicious!!

Paella!

I'll post the recipe when I get home. For now, enjoy the photo!

Cookbook Watch - Food, Love, and cooking for the whole family

Familjens Hälsokokbok, at Bonnier Fakta
This is the second book from Jacob Wismar (I've reviewed his first one here) and I like this one much better. The title translates to "the Family's Healthy Cookbook" and that's exactly what it's about - family food, and if not necessarily super-healthy, it's at least not unhealthy. I'm mostly interested in his homemade fish-fingers, and - very excitingly - his homemade falu-style sausage! Will definitely try those, and report back as I get around to it.



Om Mat och Kärlek (Ica bokförlag)
I had no idea who Tareq Taylor was when I picked up this book, which title means "About Food and Love". I know now that he's a cross-over cook (with Arabic-Swedish-British roots) and he's done quite a bit of cooking on Swedish TV. And he's run several successful restaurants, in Malmö. The book is, unusually, divided into decades. As we all know, food has evolved quite a bit, and it's interesting to think back to what was popular in the 70's, 80's, 90's and the 2000's. I like this way of presenting food, especially since it's followed by plenty of personal anecdotes. In short, I like this book quite a lot, and I'll definitely try out some of the recipes. The lamb marinated in marsala served with pickled pears is calling out to me...



Barnens första kokbok is a translation of Children's First Cookbook by Annabel Karmel, and just came out in Swedish at B Wahlströms Förlag. Since I can't wait to get Titus cooking, I'm collecting all sorts of cookbooks for him. (Yes, yes, I realise it might take a while... but he's definitely showing interest!) This one is very approachable and has good instructions, with lots of pictures. The food is pretty good - perhaps not haute cuisine, but not too boring either. And although it's a bit cutesy (lots of kids with a smudge of jam on their nose, and big red exclamation marks for all the steps that include using a knife), I think I'll give it a go. Or rather, I'll pass it on to Titus, and hope he'll enjoy cooking from it.

Essential oils in food

I have an old friend that I met back in the days when Usenet was big. We both hung out at a fashion group (alt.fashion) and I was so excited when suddenly, a few weeks ago, she e-mailed me. Anya is a natural perfumer, and she told me that she had developed a line of essential oils for food, rather than for fragrance. She asked if I wanted to try them - and of course I did!

I don't know much about essential oils or absolutes, so I asked Anya how they're made. She replied: "Essential oils are made by steam- or hydrodiffusion of plant materials, in a process called distillation. The "oils" aren't necessarily oils as we think of them, meaning the fixed oils. They're often much more ethereal than that, and many are lighter than water, and will float on water. However, water can also be used to disperse them, especially when the tiny amount you'll be using is placed in water. You can experiment with seltzer water, some simple syrup and ice."

Cool. Her range is very comprehensive, and includes holy basil, lavender, lime peel, vanilla absolute, saffron, mushroom absolute and many others.

I was sent four oils, but have only tried the cilantro leaf yet. I'm a cilantro addict, more or less - ever since I discovered this awesome herb, I want to eat it all the time. (And that was hard, because I fell in love with it while I was an exchange student in the US, and at that time, cilantro wasn't really sold in Sweden at all!) My store usually has fresh cilantro, but it's often pretty sad and the plants are tiny. I could definitely see the point of an essential oil, easy to add, drop by drop. And a drop is all you need, seriously. I added a drop - a big drop - to a small bowl of store-bought salsa, and ended up having to add much more salsa in order to get a milder flavor for the over-cilantro-ized salsa.

I meant to try many more things, but honestly, haven't had the time. As soon as I'm back home, I'll try a simple cilantro yogurt to stir into a soup, I bet that will be great. As for the other oils I received, I got pink grapefruit that I'm planning to bake macarons with, and thai lime leaf that I think will work wonderful for soup. And dill weed, which honestly, I'm a bit hesitant about - dill is not a favorite of mine, which is too bad since it's rather common in Sweden.

Other bloggers are writing about this too! Check out The Windesphere Witch, Perfume Shrine, Ca Fleur Bon, Better Baking and Bois de Jasmin. And Anya's own page, of course.

Om Nom Bombs

Just because I'm on vacation doesn't mean you won't have any blog posts! Good thing I have a bit of backlog. I made these balls a while ago - they're a version on rice crispie treats, and I found the original recipe here. Mine didn't come out very sweet at all but that will depend on your peanut butter. If you want them sweeter, add more honey.

Om Nom Bombs
makes 30

100 g almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
75 g rice crispies
20 g freeze-dried cherries
30 g pistachios, unsalted, whole
4 tbsp crushed linseed
3-4 tbsp honey
250 g peanut butter
coconut flakes

Mix everything, except the coconut, into a smooth dough. Shape into balls, about the size of golf balls, and roll in the coconut. Keep cool - I have mine in the freezer.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mumsbomber

Vacation!

We're in Spain, having a lovely time.

Cookbook Watch - Sweden, Skåne and Styling

Jamie Upptäcker at Bonnier fakta
Jamie Does... is the latest book from Jamie Oliver. It's made to accompany the tv-show, where Jamie travels around Europe and discovers food from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Morocco and most excitingly, Sweden. (I was actually one of the consultants for the production company before Jamie came to Sweden - sadly, I didn't get to meet him.) The recipes are classic dishes, but with an unmistakable Jamie twist which might not necessarily yield the most authentic results.

I really enjoyed the chapter on Sweden. You'll find dishes like Split Pea Soup, Meatballs (topped with warm lingonberries, or suggested as a substitute, blackberries!), beetroot-cured salmon, and a very unorthodox Pyttipanna with salami and quail eggs topped with flowering dill.
The book is quite charming, but I don't know if I'll cook a lot from it. I will try Jamie's supposedly Swedish cardamom buns with blueberries and orange though, as they sound amazing!


Skånska Smaker, by Mattias Kroon, at Ica Bokförlag
Skåne is the southern-most part of Sweden, and they have a very distinct cuisine. There haven't been a whole lot of cookbooks available, so I'm happy to see this one - the title means "Flavors from Skåne". The food is *very* rustic, and often includes pork, eggs and potatoes. Yum, in other words! You'll find the traditional dishes here, but also a lot of contemporary takes, like a warm tomato salad with crumbled goat's cheese. The book is divided into chapters by main ingredient, for example canola, elderflower, pork, apples, distilled white vinegar, eel, cabbage and goose. The photos (by Åsa Siller) are remarkable, and if you have ancestry from Skåne, I imagine you'll love this book. I hope it'll get translated into English!



Food Presentation Secrets just came out in Sweden (Ica bokförlag), with the title "Stajla maten", by Cara Hobday and Jo Denbury. As a food blogger, I was pretty excited. Would I learn new cool tricks to make my food look better? Well, I was underwhelmed when I opened the book. Probably because I had expected something else. This is all about presentation, as the English title clearly states, and it'll teach you tricks like how to cut your vegetables into spaghetti or roses, how to make a perfect lattice top for pies, how to fan out an avocado and.. lots of stuff like that. And I have to admit, I find it rather boring.

Awesome salad

You already know I love broccoli slaw, but I had to share this great variation as well. It's simple, but oh-so-good: it has feta cheese instead of onions!

A quick sketch - raw broccoli, both florets and stem, thinly sliced. A handful of yellow raisins. Some toasted almonds, chopped. Crumbled feta cheese. For the dressing, combine mayo, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.

Crafts

I'm not super-crafty, but I enjoy some knitting and crocheting, and now and again I try my hand at other crafts as well. Like this birthday bunting. Oh, I love it. I made it for a birthday party I held over the weekend, for my darling sister, and I'll be using it for lots of more birthdays to come.



I used a tutorial that I found here.

Lentil Soup Day

Today is, apparently, Lentil Soup Day. I admit to preferring Waffle Day or Cinnamon Bun Day, but I suppose the humble lentil soup has it's moments, too. I had the ambition to actually try a new recipe to post about today, but that didn't happen. Instead, let me remind you about some older lentil soups I've made:

-Here's a Creamy Lentil Soup
-My absolute favorite: Italian Lentil Soup.
-Potato Lentil Soup with subtly Indian spicing.
-Tana Ramsay's Lentil Soup, with tomatoes and white beans.
-And a simple, basic Red Lentil Soup.

What's your favorite lentil soup recipe? Do share!

Mushroom Barley with Caramelized Onions

Easy, quick and delicious - this was an attempt to vary Titus' favorite dish: risotto. It's sort of a barley risotto, and it's absolutely great. I know it doesn't look like much, but really, the flavor makes up for it.

You can eat it like we did, on its own, or as a side dish for perhaps a chicken breast or a steak.

Mushroom Barley with Caramelized Onions
serves 2

1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp sugar
200 g mushrooms, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp salt
250 ml barley (I use a quick-cook kind)
500 ml water
1 bouillon cube (chicken), or concentrated chicken stock
olive oil

I use my Le Creuset dutch oven for this dish - use any pot that has a close-fitting lid and that's good for frying.

Start by frying the onion in some olive oil for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the sugar and fry until the onion is caramelized - a few more minutes. Set aside in a bowl.

Heat some more olive oil, and fry the mushrooms with garlic and salt until the mushrooms have released their liquid. Set aside, in the same bowl as the onions.

Combine the barley, water and bouillon cube in the pot. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and lower the heat - cook until the barley is soft. (Mine took about ten minutes, but you have to follow the instructions on your package.) Add the mushrooms and onions, and season with more salt and black pepper.

Recipe in Swedish:
Korn-otto med svamp och karamelliserad lök

My visit to the Cube by Electrolux in Brussels

Life as a blogger is usually not very glamorous. But sometimes, it is! I was invited to visit The Cube, a pop-up restaurant by Electrolux - in Brussels, which is the first stop. It will later appear in Italy, Russia, Switzerland and Sweden, each time different since it'll be run by different chef.



The Brussels Cube is run by Bart van Pooter, who usually runs De Pastorale, a two-star restaurant. It's located in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, on TOP of the triumph arc. As you can tell, I didn't have to think very long before replying that yes, yes, I would indeed love to go to Brussels to lunch at The Cube. After all, it's just a two-hour flight. And besides, I was hoping for a chance to a) get to buy some chocolates from Pierre Marcolini, and b) have a frappuccino at Starbucks at the airport. (I accomplished both!)



The Cube experience will probably be very different in the various locations. The structure itself remains the same, and judging from the cool location in Belgium, it will probably be pretty spectacular in every city it visits. And I know some excellent chefs are booked to work with it, so I imagine the food will be awesome as well. It's open for lunch and dinner, and is reservation-only, since it only seats 18.



Those 18 all sit at a long table (made from corian - I loved this, it was very futuristic yet practical), and together share a "complete experience" - not just food, but also music chosen by the chef. The Brussels cube had iPad2:s, so that the diners could take photos of each other and e-mail them - I found that quite amusing, if not exactly necessary.



Now, let me show you the food. (Hope you don't mind a lot of photos.)



We had champagne and amuse bouchées on the deck. I loved the first one - a delicate cracker filled with parmesan cream. The following ones, a bit less.



Tandoori crackers with foie gras and beetroot. And an olive cake with anchovies, almonds and garlic confit. I'm just not a foie-fan, and anchovies are not really among my faves either.



This one - well, I'm not completely sure what it was. My notes say nori jelly with dashi cracker and crab. I didn't finish this, because algae jelly? Sorry, not for me. (I know, I'm way picky to be a foodie!) It was pretty though!



So was this: crispy chicken skin! I love the serving dish, obviously designed for this one thing.



It was served with this appetizer, which had roast beef, some sort of chutney and macadamias. Tasty! And on very unique piedestal-plates, inspired by (if I heard correctly), Brussels water tower.



Next came a light dish with smoked haddock, beer bouillon, horseradish and, I think, hop sprouts.



Grilled turbot with artichokes, and a tangy risotto. A little quail's egg, too. Good! I love artichokes!



We moved on to desserts, and were surprised to see the chefs come out wearing heavy raincoats. They rolled out a sheet of silicone on the table, and started to plate the dessert right there, on the table. It was very artistic - Bart said that he was inspired by Grant Achatz of Alinea for this dish. It had chocolate mousse, some sort of chocolate cake, aerated chocolate, a sesame cracker with truffle and sea salt, and an ice cream which was smoked somehow.



We were then offered infusions of mint or lemon verbena, which were actually growing in planters inside the Cube. With them, this tray of treats - a chocolate sphere with vanilla cream (I think this was called a Dame Blanche?) and something with strawberry-passionfruit-pistachio. Both awesome.



Next, total awe as the servers lifted the trays and revealed five more little bite-sized treats. I don't know for sure what all of them were, but I know the one in the back is speculoos-mandarin in a sort of marshmallow texture, we had something with chocolate and hazelnut, something with white chocolate and peanut butter, a lemon cheesecake and something more chocolatey.



I could hardly believe that we still got more desserts - this little lemon variation was wonderful, and my first introduction to finger limes. (Interesting by the way - sort of woodsy?)



At this point, I didn't think I would ever eat again. Yet, somehow, I managed to eat a lemon macaron, a canelé, and a chocolate truffle. I was overwhelmed.



I asked chef de Pooter to pose for a photo with me. He was very friendly and quite happy to oblige. I think I'll start collecting photos of myself with chefs - cheesy, but a little bit fun, right?

Whew. What a meal. And what a day. It was a lot of fun, and I hope I get a chance to eat at the Cube when it visits Stockholm - it'll be manned by members of Sweden's culinary team, so I'm sure the food will be top-notch.