So hot!

Another heatwave, and as usual, I'm melting. I do what I can to keep cool, and I whipped up this super-quick icecream/milkshake/smoothie a few days ago.

Frozen strawberries and raspberries, milk and some vanilla ice cream, whizzed together in the blender. Let's call it Instant Brain-Freeze. Sometimes even that's preferrable to the heat.

A cookbook giveaway

I love new cookbooks, and I'm especially excited when fellow food bloggers publish books! The latest one in this genre is Gott att ge bort ("Good to give away") by the sweet Linnéa Seidel who blogs at Linneás Skafferi. She's young, but this is actually not her first book - she's done a whole series of books that were sold with one of Swedish newspapers, a few years ago. The photos for those books, as well as this one, are taken by Katja Kristoferson who happens to be a friend of my sister's. It's a small world!

This book is all about edible gifts - small things you can make to bring with you in lieu of flowers, or chocolate. It's much more fun - and much more personal. The book has a wide range of recipes - cookies, flavored sugars, jams and pesto, and even homemade cookie mixes in a jar. There are plenty of packaging ideas as well!

Linnéa and her boyfriend Sebbe just became parents (yeeeeay, congratulations!), and to celebrate that, and to celebrate the book, I'm giving away five copies. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post, telling me what your favorite edible gift is. Make sure you leave your e-mail address, so I can contact you if you win. The book is in Swedish, but I don't mind shipping internationally if you live elsewhere.

A big thanks to Bonnier Fakta publishing, for providing the books. Giveaway closes on Friday, July 1.

Sambal & Lemon Meatballs

I always find it very awkward to name a dish like this in English. In Sweden, the term is "pannbiff", and it's just not really translatable. It's not a meatball - it's flatter than that. It's not a patty, not really. A meatcake? Doesn't sound right. So for now, I'll stick with meatball. Which it's not.

But, whatever you call it, these are really good. You can use lamb mince instead of pork, that would also be awesome. A risotto is really yummy with these and I can't rave enough about buttered-and-creamed cabbage now that the cabbage is so young and green. Delicious! And super-simple, too - shred a bunch of cabbage and cook it in a large pan with a little butter, a little water, and at the end a little cream, salt and pepper.

Sambal & Lemon Meatballs

500 g pork mince
1 small yellow onion,finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lemon - the zest, plus half the juice
1 tsp sambal oelek (a very spicy chili paste)
1 tbsp mango chutney (I had a mango-habanero salsa)
salt



Mix all the ingredents, and shape into flattened meatballs. Bake in the oven at 200°C for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through. (You can also pan-fry these in butter.) Serve with risotto and cabbage.

Recipe in Swedish:
Sambalbiffar med citron

Lemon Cheesecake Macarons

I had another macaron class today - well, a class is perhaps overstating things, but I had some friends over to learn how to make macarons. We made two kinds - one with toasted hazelnuts and a chocolate ganache (awesome) and the equally awesome Lemon Cheesecake Macarons I've made before. This time, we shaped them to look like actual lemons - so cute, and so easy. All you need to do is take a toothpick, and as soon as you've piped your rounds, use the tootpick to draw out a little peak on opposite sides of the rounds. Ta-da!

Happy Midsummer's Eve!

Sweden's most beloved holiday (perhaps after christmas) is here. I'm celebrating with friends, and we're having a somewhat traditional menu: sill and new potatoes, barbecued meat, and a cake. And lots of strawberries. And snaps for those who want it - I'll pass.

I've also made some crisp rye bread - it's dead easy to make yourself, and no, you don't have to have a fancy "kruskavel".

For more about Midsummer in general, you can visit this page.

And some suitable recipes:
Crisp bread with caraway
Caviar Sill
Lemon Sill
Pickled Salmon
Chili & Rosemary Pork
Herbed Potato Salad
Strawberry Cream Cake

Cake for Midsummer's Eve

Today, I'm blogging at Sweden.se about a classic Strawberry Cream Cake - perfect for Midsummer's Eve!

Strawberry Cream Cake

Wednesday bookmarks, June 22

Oh, let's do a bookmark round-up with all sweets. It's summer, after all. And vacation time is coming up!

I'm definitely planning on making a lot of homemade ice cream, and Chocolate Cheesecake Popsicles? Yum. I'm also eager to try homemade chocolate shell topping - I've had the store-bought version once (it's not sold in Sweden), and it was tasty and fun.

Macarons are still all the rage, and I'm still having fun with them. Lemon and white chocolate sounds like a great combo, from 6 Bittersweet. I love how her macarons are lemon-shaped as well!

Linnéas Skafferi is a great Swedish food blog (and she just came out with a gorgeous cookbook - I'm planning to review it soon and give away a few copies!) and her frozen strawberry cheesecake looks wonderful.

And finally for something intensely comforting. Risotto Rice Pudding, with brown sugar and vanilla. Oh. Joy the Baker has nailed it again.

Food Blogging Etiquette

I had plans to post something else today, but then I saw this excellent post from I Am Baker:

Food Blogging Etiquette

And it's just brilliant, so please, please do read it.

Chicken, Bacon & Apple Wraps

Summer is the time for picnics. Or if not picnics, at least for eating outside. There are so many occasions when it's suitable to bring your own food, rather than resorting to often very meagre offerings - say, at the zoo, or the playground.

For those times, I want something portable, and something that doesn't require plates or cutlery. Sure, you can bring a salad, but that means you'll have to use disposable plates, or have to bring home dirty dishes. I rather not. So, this summer, I'm making wraps. These ones in particular - they are so delicious.

The combination of chicken, bacon and apple - with the addition of pine nuts - is just incredible. And you can definitely play with it - I'm thinking pears would be good rather than apples, and maybe exchange those pine nuts for walnuts... and maybe add some blue cheese instead of dijon mustard? Wouldn't that be good?

Wrap them in plastic or sandwich paper, and they'll keep for at least a day in the fridge. It's a good lunch to bring to work, too.

Chicken, Bacon & Apple Wraps
makes 8

8 wheat tortillas
200 g chicken, cooked
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp thick yogurt (Greek or Turkish style)
1 tsp sriracha sauce (or another spicy chilisauce)
1 tsp dijon mustard
30 g pine nuts
150 g bacon, diced
200 g apples, peeled and diced
70 g fresh spinach or arugula, well cleaned

Shred the chicken and mix with mayo, yogurt, sriraha and dijon mustard.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan, set aside.

Fry the bacon until crispy. Add the apples, and let them fry along for a few minutes, to soften a bit.

Divide the chicken salad in the middle of each tortilla. Top with bacon, apple, pine nuts and spinach, and roll into a tight wrap.

Recipe in Swedish:
Wraps med kyckling, bacon och äpple

Cookbook Watch - June 2011

Laga mat tillsammans by Sara Begnér, (Norstedts) ("Cook together") is a book about cooking with kids. I think that's a great idea, and this book is perfect if you want to find new family favorites that are also somewhat h
ealthy and good for you. (Even though that's not the emphasis of this book, Sara has previously had a very strong health aspect in her writing.) Letting kids help in the kitchen is rewarding in so many ways - not only does it teach good habits and life skills, but it's often more fun to eat what you've helped make.

The book has nice photos - both of the food and of Sara and her family. A bit too many of the latter for my taste - it takes a lot of space, and the recipes themselves are kept brief. Some recipes use shortcuts like store-bought tortellini and meatballs, but there are also much more ambitious dishes like Osso Buco.



Camilla Läckberg is a famous author, and Christian Hellberg a successful chef - maybe not the most obvious pair to write a cookbook, but Fest, Mat & Kärlek (Party, Food & Love) is actually their second. (I reviewed their first book here.) This one is all about party food, what you're likely to eat with good friends. Most things look impressive but are actuallty quite simple. There's a lot of luxurious dishes including oysters, scallops, lobster and truffles, but also thai-spiced kebabs, and tomato salad with lime and tons of coriander, and a very yummy sweet potato dip served with fried flour tortillas. It's a beautiful book, with a nice layout and good photos, and definitely a good idea for those that like to entertain. It's a plus if you like seafood a lot, though.



Macarons are popping up everywhere these days - in bakeries (sadly, often pre-bought, frozen, industry shells with tons of additives), magazines, blogs and books. I don't have a lot of macaron books - up until recently, only the Japanese one called I Love Macarons, and frankly, that one isn't very good at all. So, I was excited, yet sceptical, when I recieved Macaron - Chic & Delicious French Treats by Annie Riggs, that just came out in Swedish at Bonnier Fakta.

I'm happy to report that it's great! The macarons are pretty and look just right (as opposed to the Japanese book, where they look lumpy and bumpy) and the recipes seem very promising. She uses pretty much the same basic recipe that I do, so I do trust that - she has a tad more sugar and less almonds, though. The book has about 20 flavor combinations, with detailed recipes. Some of them sound pretty exciting - I want to try blackcurrant chocolate ganache, and definitely banana toffée! If you like making macarons and want some new ideas - get this book!

Cookies!

I really, really recommend having frozen cookie dough at hand. That way, you're never more than 15 minutes away from these - Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies.

Cold-Rise Breakfast Bread

I'll be quick, because I need to get into the kitchen to whip up another batch of these for tomorrow's breakfast. And so do you.

Because these are great! Brilliant! Really, really good bread for almost no effort at all. All you have to do is mix a dough - by hand, no need for kneading - let it sit in the fridge overnight, do some mimimal shaping, and toss in a hot oven.

People, anyone can do this.

I use Swedish rågsikt which is a specific flour mixture containing about 60% wheat flour and 40% rye. You can most definitely mix your own, or just use wheat flour if you'd prefer that.

Cold-Rise Breakfast Bread

From the brilliant bread blogger Pain de Martin

10 g fresh yeast
400 ml cold water
540 g rågsikt or just all-purpose wheat flour
10 g salt
25 g honey

Mix everything - just mix, don't knead. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic. Place in the fridge over night.

In the morning, take your dough and tip onto a well-floured surface. Pull it into a long rectangle, and fold length-wise so that you have a long and skinny rectangle.

Brush with water and top with some seeds if you have them - I used sunflower and linseed. Press gently, so that the seeds don't fall off. Sprinkle with flour.

Heat the oven to 275°C, and pre-heat a baking sheet as well. When the oven, and the sheet, are hot, remove the sheet. Cut your dough into about ten pieces, and place on the hot baking sheet. Lower the heat to 225°C, and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

Please note: I use a fan-assisted oven, and your oven times might vary. Trust your instinct.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kalljäst frukostbröd på rågsikt

Rhubarb & Pineapple Cobbler

Wednesday already? I know it's really time to share bookmarks but I haven't posted a recipe for several days and I really want to share this awesome rhubarb-pineapple cobbler with you. It's really yummy! A cobbler is somewhere in between a cake and a crumble, and in combination with tart fruit, it's really quite perfect. You can use all rhubarb or all pineapple, of course, but I liked the combination a lot. I bet some cherries would be nice in there as well, should you happen to have any!

Rhubarb & Pineapple Cobbler
Serves 6-8

300 g rhubarb
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar (preferrably raw demerara sugar)
1/2 pineapple, fresh
100 g butter, at room temperature
90 g sugar (preferrably raw demerara sugar)
1 egg
50 ml cream (full-fat)
60 g rolled oats
60 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking powder



Peel the pineapple, and cut into small pieces. (I usually do this by halving it lengthwise, then cutting it again into thin long wedges, that I slice.

Slice the rhubarb into similar-sized pieces as the pineapple. Melt the butter (2 tbsp) in a frying pan, add the rhubarb and sprinkle over the sugar (2 tbsp). Fry for a minute or so until very lightly caramelized. Place in a pie dish along with the pineapple.

For the topping, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the egg and the cream, and then stir in all the dry ingredients. Dollop the batter over the fruit.

Bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes, until the cobbler is golden brown. Serve slightly warm, with ice cream or vanilla sauce.

Recept på engelska:
Rhubarb & Pineapple Cobbler

Macaron Class

I'm by no means an expert on macarons, but they usually do turn out pretty good. So, after getting a lot of questions, I decided to invite some girls for an afternoon of macaron baking. It went very well, and we ended up with two yummy batches - Strawberry buttercream and Cocoa & Coffee. It took three hours, including a coffee break in the sun. Great way to spend a Sunday!

News!

I have som exciting news! Starting today, I'm not only blogging right here, but also at Sweden.se which is a large portal site for anyone interested in Sweden and Swedish culture. I'm writing about Swedish food - what else? - and for now just twice a week. No massive changes for this blog, but I'll definitely link to the recipes I blog about there, too. And if you're interested in specifically Swedish food, you might want to bookmark the new blog!

Anne's Food at Sweden.se

This is exciting for me - partly because it also means I've started up my own business. That means that it'll be much easier to do freelance work, and sell text or pictures. (Heads up any editors that might be reading this - this means I can do magazine work, for example.)

This blog won't be changing - I still aim to post as often as possible. Maybe not every single day, but pretty close to it.

And the winner is...

Wow, I had so many entries for the smoothie contest! Awesome, I'll have smoothies to try out all summer long. In the end, I had to pick a winner.. and it ended up being a very adult smoothie with raspberries, coconut milk, vodka and vanilla. It was suberb - really great for a hot summer evening! The combination of raspberries and coconut was really good, and it was definitely our favorite of the three we ended up tasting. (Titus got his sans the vodka, obviously.) Congratulations to Dagmar for the winning recipe!

An honorable mention to Alva, 7, who sent in a entry for her very Special Easter Smoothie, containing strawberries, raspberries, melon, currant, blueberries and orange! Very yummy as well!

Lime Ice Cream with Berry Sauce

We're having very, very, very warm weather at the moment (well, for Sweden) so I'm trying my best to cool down. Ice cream is always good, and I've been trying out a bunch of different smoothies from the smoothie contest as well! (I hope I can announce a winner this weekend, so stay tuned for that.)

This is a super fast ice cream that I made a few weeks ago, as a light dessert. It doesn't contain eggs, so there's no need to make a custard and let it sit overnight. Instead, you do all of your hard work - not so hard - in a food processor. There's a similar recipe in my favorite ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, but using lemons. Will definitely try that, too!

The berry sauce should be fairly sweet to go with the tart ice cream. I use a white baking syrup which I imagine is close to corn syrup. You can use honey instead, if you'd like.

Lime Ice Cream
zest from two large limes
125 g sugar
125 ml fresh-sqeezed lime juice (I needed three large limes for this)
200 ml milk
300 ml cream (full-fat)

Zest the lime directly into a food processor, and add sugar and lime juice. Mix until the sugar has dissolved - about five minutes. Add milk and cream, and process for a few more minutes, until it's well mixed and starts to thicken.

Place the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour, then freeze in an ice cream maker.

Berry Sauce:
150 g strawberries
150 g raspberries
3-4 tbsp white baking syrup

I used frozen berries - semi-thawed, but it'll be just as good - maybe better using fresh berries. Mix berries in a blender and add syrup gradually. Taste to see that it's sweet enough, and not overly sweet. Serve with the ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Limeglass med bärsås

Summery Tomato Soup

Summery Tomato Soup
serves 2

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
½ red bellpepper, in small dice
400 g cherry tomatoes, tinned
3 basil sprigs
2-300 ml water
1 cube chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil
50 ml cream
salt, pepper

Heat a little olive oil, and fry onions, garlic, carrot and pepper on medium heat, for about five minutes. Add basil and tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add water and stock cube, and cook for ten minutes,



Blend the soup until smooth - I use a stick blender. Add the cream. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with more fresh basil if you'd like, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I made yummy ones with cream cheese as well as regular sharp cheese that melted when I fried them in a little butter.

Recipe in Swedish:
Somrig tomatsoppa

Wednesday bookmarks, June 8

I rarely show photos of myself, but this one, taken by Tea at our blogger's picnic on Monday, turned out pretty good. Besides, you can see how nice the weather is here in Stockholm!

With summer in mind, I immediately bookmarked a lovely flank steak marinated in coca-cola - perfect! Unfortunately, Gittos Mat is only written in Swedish, but you can always use an online translating tool.

And when you have that translating tool handy, give these Knäckebrödshjärtan a whirl as well. Crisp rye bread, cut out with cookie cutters, and topped with caraway seeds. Yum!

I'm a fierce noodle fan, and I have to try the Spicy Peanut Sauce from Amateur Gourmet, as well as Mexican Vermicelli from Weelicious.

With both my own and Titus birthday behind us, I'm not sure when I'll get a good reason excuse to bake a cake again. But when I do, it'll be this Thin Mint cake from I am Baker. It looks incredible!

I keep all of my bookmarks here. For non-food-stuff, I've just started using Pinterest!

Hawaiian Meatballs

Honestly, I had never imagined such a thing as meatballs in a sweet- and sour sauce with pineapples and peppers, served with rice until I found it at The Pioneer Woman. It sounded rather strange to me... but appealing, too. I bookmarked it and cooked it as soon as I found a nice pineapple - and it was actually really good. Definitely a keeper!

I've changed the quantities slightly, but if you prefer US measurements, just use Ree's recipe.

Hawaiian Meatballs
serves 4

500 g ground beef
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 egg
100 ml breadcrumbs (panko is preferrable, but regular are fine)
salt, pepper, chili flakes (about 1/2 tsp of each)
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
cooking oil for frying
2 green bellpeppers, diced
1/2-1 fresh pineapple (depending on how big it is and how much you like pineapple), diced
500 ml beef stock
2 tbsp soy sauce
100 ml sherry vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
salt, chili flakes

Mix beef, onion, egg, breadcrumbs, and a little salt, pepper and chili together. Shape small meatballs and place on a cutting board or baking sheet. Freeze them for about 15 minutes, so that they firm up - it'll make them hold their shape much better.

Mix stock, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and corn starch. Set aside.

Roll the meatballs in the flour, and brown in cooking oil on medium-high heat. They don't need to be completely cooked through at this stage, but they should be nicely browned. Work in batches. Set the browned meatballs aside.

Pour out any remaining oil, and fry the bellpeppers for about a minute. Add the pineapple, and fry for another minute. Add the sauce mixture, and the meatballs. Stir, and cook on low-medium heat until the sauce has thickened and the meatballs are cooked through.

Season with salt, and some more chili flakes. Serve over rice.

Recipe in Swedish:
Köttbullar Hawaii

Fluffy Rice Pancakes

I have a (very vague) memory of my grandma making tiny rice pancakes for me as a kid. They were not at all like these, but the flavor is similar. Hers were more like Swedish (thin) pancakes, but small, and with rice. I haven't been able to find a recipe that looks promising, so for this, I just took my favorite recipe for American pancakes and added rice.

This is the perfect dish to make when you have leftover rice. I often do, because I always aim to have a little extra - either to make fried rice, or now that I've discoved this dish, to make this.

They're more filling than regular pancakes, and a bit sturdier. Easy to eat cold as well, and without anything else - I liked mine with maple syrup, but they were great on their own too.

Fluffy Rice Pancakes
10-12 pancakes

250 ml buttermilk, filmjolk or neutral yogurt
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 egg
1-200 ml cold, cooked rice

2 tbsp sugar
250 ml all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk the wet ingredients with the rice. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and add the wet ones. Stir until all lumps are gone.

Fry small pancakes in butter on medium heat. They're ready to flip when they start to look dry, and when they have small bubbles on the surface.


And Titus loved them...

Recipe in Swedish:
Fluffiga risplättar

Curried Potato Salad

This is the first, but certainly not last, potato salad of the season for me. We eat quite a lot of cold salads in the summer, as they're the perfect thing to serve along barbecued just-about-anything, and potato salad is really my husband's favorite. This one is adapted from a recipe in The Lee Bro's Simple Fresh Southern cookbook, and I think it turned out really tasty. I used a light hand with the curry as it can be overpowering, but if you like curry - bring it on.

Curried Potato Salad
Serves 4

900 g new potatoes, cut into small dice
100 ml mayonnaise
4 tbsp buttermilk (I used Swedish filmjolk)
4 tbsp sweet pickle relish
2 tbsp lemon juice (I didn't measure, but used one large lemon)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 yellow bellpepper, in fine dice
1 red onion, finely diced

Cook the diced potatoes in plenty of salted water in a pot with a lid. Bring to a boil, and cook until it's just starting to soften - about 3-5 minutes. Cover with the lid, remove the pot from the heat, and let it sit for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the mayo, buttermilk, relish, lemon and vinegar. Season with salt, curry powder and garam masala.

Drain the potatoes and rinse with cold water. Toss with the dressing, the red onion and the bellpepper, and serve.

Recipe in Swedish:
Potatissallad med curry

News from Nespresso

I've been using my Nespresso Citiz for about a year now, and while I love it, I was pretty excited to try the new Nespresso Pixie. It's slightly more compact in size, but otherwise very much comparable. It's a little faster, but the difference is small. The Citiz feels sturdier and seems to have better build quality. All in all, I'm not completely sure which one I prefer...

A boy and his bun

Since we're away, I'll keep the blogging short for a few more days. We stopped on our way for a coffee break, at Kupolen Cafe in Borlänge. Titus enjoyed a huge cinnamon bun, as you can see. It was a nice place with a good pastry assortment, and everything looked like it was actually made by them and not just bought frozen or bake-off as is sadly quite common in Sweden nowadays.

Summer!

Well, maybe its not really summer yet, but we're having beautiful weather. Enjoyed an ice cream (from Hansens, very good) on the quays of Stockholm earlier this week.

You can still win a blender!

Just a reminder - the giveaway for an Electrolux Powermix Silent Blender is still open. Details.

Wednesday bookmarks, June 1

June already?! Spring went by so quickly this year - I guess it's because of the long winter. Anyway, june is here, and it starts off with a very long weekend that we're planning to spend in beautiful Dalarna. Can't wait!

I also have some very exciting news for the blog that I'll tell you about in a few weeks - I think you'll like it!

Now, to some bookmarks. Not that many - but a few. First, a very good-looking baguette from one of my favorite bread bloggers, Pain de Martin. (In Swedish.)

Joy the baker has made what might be the most decadent cupcakes I have ever, ever seen: Chocolate, Peanut Butter dough and Toasted Marshmallows.

After that, it's time for something healthy. How about a lentil salad for non-lentil lovers, with onions, peppers, raisins, parsley and corn. I think it sounds delicious, and am thankful to Kicki for posting it. (In Swedish.)

I keep all of my bookmarks here. For non-food-stuff, I've just started using Pinterest!