Archive for August 15th, 2007
August 15th, 2007
Swedish: “Tjälknöl”
English: “Frozen Lump”
INGREDIENTS:
Serves 6 - 8
1 - 1,5 kg (1000 g - 1500 g) frozen roast; beef, moose or deer, boneless
MARINADE:
2 liter (2000 ml) water
1 ½ dl (150 ml) salt
½ dl (50 ml) sugar
4 - 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
10 black peppercorns
2 dl (200 ml) fresh herbes OR 2 tablespoons dried herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, chives, parsley…)
METHOD:
* Preheat oven to 75 - 80°C (170°F)
* Take meat out of your freezer, and put it on the roven rack.
* Place it in the lower part of the oven.
* Place a pan underneath.
* Bake meat for about 10 - 12 hours (overnight)
* Insert a thermometer after 7 - 8 hours.
* Meat is ready at 65 - 75C (Medium rare 145F, Medium 160F, Well done 170F)
MARINADE:
* Bring water, salt, sugar, and black peppercorns to a boil.
* Remove from heat, add garlic and herbs.
* Allow marinade to cool.
* Pour it into a strong plastic bag.
* Put the hot meat into the bag, seal the bag.
* Make sure that the meat is emerged in the marinade.
* Allow the meat to marinade for ab. 5 hours,
* Baste and turn it a couple of times.
* Pour out the marinade, cut meat in paper thin slices.
* Serve with a potato gratin and a salad.
(A potato salad instead of a potato gratin works fine too).
No, this dish is no joke. I was told that this recipe was invented by coincidence and forgetfulness, half and half. A piece of frozen moose meat was put in the oven to be defrosted. Then forgotten until the next morning. However, it was not at all spoiled. The meat was placed into brine. Four hours in the brine and the meat was easy to cut into thin slices.
I like the meat to be spicier. A brine isn´t enough spicy for me. However, not everybody does like garlic and herbs. Some like to put juniper berries into the marinade. I do not. Juniper berries have such a bittersweet taste so I don´t use them together with herbs.
This dish has many advantages. It is great for a buffé with many guests. Leftovers can be kept in the refridgerator for several days. Delicious in sandwiches. A potato salad instead of a potato gratin works fine too.
Next time I am serving this meat at a buffé, I´m going to try this dressing, allowing each guest to spoon a more spicy dressing over their meat:
INGREDIENTS: 4 tbsps freshly pressed lime juice, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsps Asian fish sauce, 2 tbsps finely chopped spring onions, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsps chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon chili flakes.
Copyright ® 2007. It has come to my attention that ignorant people blatantly make use of copyright protected material. Every hosting company has very strict rules for clients about copyright infringement. Obviously not every host has. My RSS feed is for personal, noncommercial use only. If you are perusing this post on a site that is neither My Recipes nor your news aggregator, the Web site you are reading has likely stolen my material, and I’d like to know about it. Please send me an e-mail at kireneATspray.se. Splogs (Spam+Blogs) need to be stopped. Google and Yahoo have added check-off boxes for reporting spam. Thanks for your assistance in this matter.
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August 15th, 2007
“Tunnbröd” (thin bread) is a Swedish flatbread and comes in many variants. It can be soft, or it can be hard and crispy. The dough is made from any combination of wheat, barley and rye. From my point of view, “tunnbröd” looks like Matzoth (Jewish in origin). Flat, perforated crisp crackers of flour and water, baked in large rounds or squares. I am not familiar with this bread, so, I really cannot tell. Perhaps somebody else knows.
This website has recipes for “tunnbröd”, unfortunately only available in Swedish 4 Homemade “Tunnbröd”
Crispy “tunnbröd” differs from “knäckebröd” (crisp bread). It is thinner, more compact and contains less air bubbles.
Soft “tunnbröd” is sometimes used as a wrap for other food, not unlike a crêpe or burrito. A popular fast food dish is soft “tunnbröd” rolled around mashed potatoes and a hot dog. A substitute for the soft variant in the U.S. could be a floppy flour tortilla.
This is a dish that is popular in Sweden, often served as a starter at restaurants.
INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4
* 4 pieces of crisp “tunnbröd”
* 250 g smoked salmon
* 1 hardboiled egg, finely chopped
* 2 tablespoons dill, chopped
* ½ dl (50 ml) mayonnaise
* ½ - 1 dl (50 - 100 ml) crème fraiche
* black pepper to taste
GARNISH:
50 g caviar (red fish roe)
dill sprigs
lemon
METHOD:
1. Hold the bread in the steam over a pan of boiling water.
2. Steam each bread soft and shapeable.
3. Put immediately on upside down mugs.
4. Shape bread into a basket, and leave to dry.
5. Meanwhile cut the salmon into very small pieces.
6. Mix salmon, egg, and dill.
7. Mix mayonnaise, crème fraiche, and black pepper to taste.
8. Stir down salmon mixture, and fill the baskets with the mixture.
9. Garnish with caviar, segments of lemon, and a sprig of dill.
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August 15th, 2007
A simple, straight-forward recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4
* 1 large yellow onion
* 200 g fresh mushrooms
* 300 g ground meat
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 3 cloves garlic, pressed
* 2 teaspoons chinese soy
* 3 - 4 dl (300 - 400 ml) cream
* cayenne pepper
* salt
METHOD:
1. Chop the onion and slice the mushrooms thinly.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet, fry and crumble the ground meat.
3. Add onion and mushroom.
4. Lower the heat, simmer for 5 - 7 minutes, and give it a stir now and then.
5. Add garlic, and season to taste with cayenne pepper.
6. Stir in cream and soy.
7. Simmer, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes.
8. Taste with salt.
Let´s have a Pasta Sauce Potlock Party!
There will be a large bowl with cooked tagliatelli, grated parmesan and salad on the table. I serve my sauce. You bring yours. I am thrilled! What will it be? A ragout or a sauce?
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August 15th, 2007
Today, on 6th of June, it´s holiday. It is the Swedish National Day. This day became the Swedish national day in 1983. Previously known as Swedish flag day. It marks the coronation of Gustav Vasa in 1523. This old king defeated the Danes and established Lutheranism in Sweden. This day also marks the adoption of one of our constitutions from 1809.
The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) only designated this day a public holiday in 2005. Many immigrants associate the day with receiving Swedish citizenship. They celebrate living in a free and independent country.
There are celebrations in Stockholm, 600 kilometers away. I do not know what to do with a holiday in the middle of the week.
Anyway, here you are. I hereby give you the recipe of our National Day Pastry. A result of a pastry chef competition. The prize winner was Helena Bergmark.
4The Recipe in Swedish
INGREDIENTS:
10 Servings
LAYER:
300 g almond paste, grated
150 g butter
3 eggs, slightly beaten
TOPPING:
100 g almond paste, grated
about 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, (Grand Marnier) or fresh orange juice
1 l (1000 ml) strawberries
lemon balm
METHOD:
* Preheat oven to 175° C [350°F].
* Line a smaller oven pan (ab. 18×24 cm) with parchment paper.
* Grate almond paste.
* Crumble butter and almond paste in a mixing bowl.
* Add slightly beaten eggs and mix to form a mass.
* Spread batter evenly, 1 cm thick, in the oven pan.
* Bake in the centre of the oven, 12-15 minutes.
* Allow to cool.
The topping:
* Mix grated almond paste and liqueur, or orange juice.
* Spread the mixture on top of the almond paste layer.
* Cut into squares or ovals.
* Slice the strawberries lengthwize.
* Place the slices in the almond paste mixture.
* Garnish with lemon balm and a flag.
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August 15th, 2007
I was going to bake this cake in April. We had invited guests for dinner. I needed ripe passion fruits at once. The perfect coffee cake, I thought. However, the passion fruits were hard as stones and looked more or less like purple plums. How long would it take for them to ripen? A week or a month? No one knew.
Now I am able to purchase wrinkled and crumpled passion fruit. Its seeds add a special taste and color to this sticky chocolate cake.
INGREDIENTS:
12 pieces
3 dl (300 ml) flour
4 dl (400 ml) sugar
8 tablespoons cacao powder
3 teaspoons vanilla sugar
2 dl (200 ml) margarine, melted
4 eggs
100 g white chocolate ( check that it contains a high level of cocoa butter)
2 passion fruits
METHOD:
* Heat oven to 175°C [ 350°F].
* Melt margarine.
* Mix flour, cacao powder, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl.
* Mix the dry ingredients with margarine.
* Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
* Pour batter into a greased baking pan, 24 cm in diameter
* Bake in the lower part of the oven for 30-40 min.
* The cake should be moist and sticky in the middle.
* Allow the cake to cool.
* Melt the white chocolate. (How to melt?)
* Spread evenly on top of the cake and allow it to stiffen.
* Scoop out the passion fruit seeds and sprinkle them over the cake.
Early Spanish Christianly minded explorers discovered this plant in South America. They considered the exotic flower symbolic of the crucifixion of Christ. The five petals and five sepals were thought to represent the 10 faithful apostles; the corona was the crown of thorns; the styles were the nails; the stamens suggested the wounds of Christ; and the tendrils were the scourges.
Because of the beautiful flowers the plant Passiflora Caerulea is cultivated in Sweden as a potted plant.
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August 15th, 2007
Swedish meatballs are one of the best-known Swedish cooking specialties. However, there are so many recipes. Almost all meatball recipes call for some type of extender such as mashed potatoes, rolled oats or breadcrumbs. Less expensive items than meat.
My mother ground very well trimmed meat (ab. 300-400 g) in a hand turned meat grinder. She even used to make her own breadcrumbs. She took 4 crisprolls and crushed them with a bottle between two layers of paper. Then the crumbs were soaked in 1 coffeecup of milk for a while to make a crumb paste. Salt, pepper, grated onion and 1 egg yolk were the other ingredients.
My meatballs are a lot easier to make. [The recipe can also be used for patties]. Cook and taste one meatball before you bother forming the rest.
INGREDIENTS:
* 400 g ground meat (ab. 90 % beef + 10% pork)
* 2 teaspoons potato starch
* ½ dl (50 ml) milk
* 1 - 1 ½ teaspoon salt
* ½ - 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 egg
* butter
METHOD:
1. Mix the ground meat with egg, salt, pepper, milk and potato starch.
2. By hand form into small balls 25 mm - 30 mm (1″- 1½”) in diameter.
3. Heat a skillet with butter to medium-high heat.
4. Fill the skillet about half full with the meatballs.
5. Fry them for about 7 - 10 minutes.
6. Shake the skillet to keep the meatballs turning and to cook them evenly.
7. When they are browned, take them out of the pan, keep them warm until ready to serve.
Cook them in the oven when you want to make large quantities. That is easier. Preheat oven to 200 - 225°C [ab. 400°F]. Place the meatballs on a greased baking sheet. Cook in the centre of the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes. Turn them around with a spoon a couple of times.
I serve my meatballs with cooked potatoes, a mushroom stew, red currant jelly and cooked broccoli bouquets.
Mushroom stew:
INGREDIENTS:
* 250 -300 g fresh champignons (white mushroom, button mushroom)
* butter
* 1 tablespoon flour
* 3 dl whipping cream
* salt and pepper
* 2 tablespoons sherry or port (optional)
METHOD:
1. Clean and slice the champignons, as thinly as possible.
2. Heat butter in a saucepan, add champignons.
3. Fry the champignons,
4. Turn them around now and then until all liguid has evapurated.
5. Add more butter, sprinkle with flour and mix well.
6. Season with salt and pepper, add whipping cream, a little at a time.
7. Simmer for at least half an hour on low heat, stirring.
8. Add more whipping cream if necessary.
9. When the stew is glossy and nice, and has a delicious taste you may add wine.
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August 15th, 2007
Greeks view the olive, the bread and the wine as symbols of life. The olive, the fruit of the sacred tree, is processed in many ways. Oiled or vinegared, they accompany practically all dishes.
Bread is a necessary accompaniment to all meals. Often bread is served with Feta Cheese. Feta, which has been known in Greece for centuries, always accompanies their traditional country salad.
I won´t say this salad is a Greek dish even though many ingredients are items of a Greek Country Salad. I have been to Greece twice and never did I see Feta Custard on the menues. I wrote down this recipe several years ago and don´t remember where it originated. This salad is a meal in itself; tremendously tasty and healthy.
INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4
* 600 g salmon, cut into cubes
* salt and pepper
* olive oil
* 1 large tomato, cut into chunks
* ½ cucumber, cut into slices
* 1 red onion, cut into slices
* black olives
* green olives
* salt, pepper and sugar
CROUTONS:
* white bread, cut into roughfly 1 cm cubes
* 2 cloves garlic, grated
* olive oil
FETA CHEESE CUSTARD:
100 g Feta Cheese
1 dl (100 ml) milk
olive oil
basil, chopped
black pepper
( you may need salt depending on how salt the Feta is).
METHOD:
1. Fry the salmon in a frying pan of heated olive oil.
2. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Sprinkle some sugar on the tomato chunks & the cucumber slices.
4. As for the Feta Cheese Custard, heat the milk and Feta in a saucepan.
5. Run the mixture in a blender with some olive oil.
6. Salt, pepper and basil to taste.
7. Heat oil and garlic in the frying pan, add the bread cubes, fry until crisp.
8. Place the salad ingredients in a large bowl, sprinkle croutons on top.
Serve the salad with Feta Cheese Custard.
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August 15th, 2007
Cooking with kids is fun.These small sweet things are nothing much to look at but easy for kids to make. Perhpaps they will need some help measuring up the ingredients.
INGREDIENTS:
* 100 g margarine
* 1 dl (100 ml) sugar
* 2 tablespoons cacao powder
* 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
* 4 tablespoons golden syrup
* 1 ½ dl (150 ml) coconut flakes
* 3 dl (300 ml) corn flakes
* (or Kellogs Special K. Flakes)
METHOD:
1. Melt the margarine, add sugar, cacao powder, vanilla and syrup.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat, add the coconut flakes and cornflakes.
4. Stir gently until the cornflakes are well coated.
5. Spoon pieces of the mixture onto parchment paper (or into muffin cups).
6. Refrigerate for about 10 - 15 minutes, then enjoy.
“When one teaches, two learn” (quote: Robert Heinlein 1907-1988)
A young boy at my school once gave me this recipe. He called them “Fågelbon” (Bird´s nests). I suppose he was thinking of magpies´ nests. A magpie is a European long-tailed, black and white, noisy bird in the crow family. Its distinctive nest is built in a tree. It is cup-shaped and roofed by a dome of twigs.
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August 15th, 2007
Whitsuntide. Weddings. Examinations. Christenings. Mother´s Day.
Mother´s Day is always celebrated the last Sunday of May in Sweden. Our memorial day in honor of mothers originated in USA. Earlier a similar British tradition was called “Mothering Day” or “Mothering Sunday”; a celebration on the fourth Sunday in Lent for all those working young boys and girls away from home. They were allowed this one day’s holiday to return to their homes, visit their mothers and spend the day with them. They also brought a gift, a so called “Mothering Cake”.
Anyway, now there are a lot of celebrations in Sweden.
It is cake time.
Actually this cake is meant to be a homemade wedding cake. The picture and the recipe come from a book called “Stora kakboken” (Bonnier 1965) (i.e. The Great Baking Book). I have never baked this cake myself. It does not look too difficult, though. I only hope to inspire somebody else. There is no need to follow the recipe blindly. Choose other fillings, fruits or berries. Choose other decorations.
INGREDIENTS:
12 eggs
360 g sugar
360 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
FILLING I:
1 l (1000 ml) whipping cream
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 jar pineapples, chopped
1 jar peaches, chopped
2 oranges, chopped
2 bananas, chopped
FILLING II:
Nougat
100 g sugar
50 g almonds
1 marzipan lid
DECORATION:
20 marzipan roses
20 marzipan leaves
1 large marzipan rose OR
for a wedding cake - a bride and groom cake topper
YOU WILL NEED:
1 greased cake pan 30 cm
1 greased cake pan 24 cm
1 greased cake pan 18 cm
METHOD:
* Beat 6 eggs with 180 g sugar.
* Add 180 g of the flour + 1 teaspoon baking powder.
This batter is for the large cake pan.
* Make cake batter from the remaining eggs, sugar, flour and baking powder.
* Divide batter between the smaller cake pans.
* Place the large cake pan in cold oven.
* Set temp. to 190°C, gradually lower the temp. to 150° and 100°C.
* Baking time 35 minutes.
* Bake the smaller ones for 25-30 minutes at 180°C.
* Cool and divide each cake into 3 layers.
* Spoon fruit juices over the layers to make the cake damp.
* Fill between layers with whipped cream and fruit.
* Fill the upper layer with nougat.
* Place a marzipan lid on top.
METHOD FOR NOUGAT:
* Chop the almonds.
* Put sugar in a clean cast iron pan
* Melt it on low heat until it is golden brown
* Stir frequently with a wooden spoon
* Add almonds, stirring to coat them.
* Pour the mixture onto an oiled baking sheet.
* Allow the mixture to stiffen, then crush it.
DECORATION:
* Pipe whipped cream on top of the cake and all around.
* Decoratively place roses and leaves on the cake.
The recipe in Swedish 4 Bröllopstårtan
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August 15th, 2007
I might as well say it at once. I do not bake bread very often - only at special occasions. Why? Beacause my family likes the Swedish crispbread most of all.
Wasa is the world’s largest producer of crispbread. Every year the company sells around 60,000 tons of crispbread in 40 countries. Swedish people eat more crispbread than any other people in the world, almost 4 kilograms per capita. Well, my family eats a lot more than that; in fact, about 20 - 25 kilograms every year and most of the time we are only a two-person household.
Reading about crispbread I found Bob Greene’s The Best Life Diet. A lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping if off. Bob Greene helped Oprah achieve her dramatic weight loss. Oprah had Bob Greene on her show and she said: “I really love those little Swedish delights”. Wasa didn´t pay her for saying that.
Although it is surprisingly easy to bake crispbread, I have only done that a few times. Here´s the recipe4
Knäckebröd (Crispbread)
INGREDIENTS:
½ liter (500 ml) milk
½ tablespoon honey
½ tablespoon golden syrup
15 g yeast
500 g graham flour
250 g rye flour (course-grained)
3/4 teaspoon salt
some barley flour
METHOD:
* Preheat oven to 250°C
* Heat milk, honey and syrup to 37 °C
* Mix in yeast, salt, ab. 250 g of the graham flour and ab. 125 g of the rye flour.
* Then work in remaining flour to make a dough.
* Let rise for about 60 minutes.
* Divide dough into 12 pieces and form into balls.
* Roll the balls in plenty of barley flour with a rolling pin.
* Turn a couple of times during the rolling
* Finally roll to very thin rounds with a peg rolling pin.
* If you use an ordinary rolling pin, score and prick before baking.
* Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 8 minutes.
* Then turn the bread over and bake the other side another 4 min. or until slightly browned.
* Cool on a rack.
In an ordinary oven you can bake only one bread at a time. A hot air oven bakes three at a time at 225 °C.
Swiss Lake Dwellers of over 8000 years ago baked their hard crusted bread on hot stones. For centuries after, this unleavened mixture made of flour and water remained the only known variety of bread. This bread was more or less like fried porridge.
About 3000 B.C. the Egyptians developed the first leavened loaf, the legend being that a forgetful slave set aside a wheat flour dough which fermented and rose. Disregarded this unusual phenomenon, the slave shaped the dough to bake leavened bread much as we know of it.
Now every culture of the world and every country has its own traditions and bread styles. In many cultures bread is the symbol of life itself.
The soft Indian Chapati consists of flour, salt and water. You cook it like a pancake on both sides. Tastes lovely hot and buttered.
Ethiopian Injera; not only a kind of bread — it’s also an eating utensil. It is only cooked on one side. To eat, you take pieces of injera that they give you in a basket, and fold it around the piece of food you want to eat, for instance a meat stew and/or a vegetable stew.
MEAT STEW INGREDIENTS:
1 large onion, chopped
1 kg (1000 g) beef, cut in pieces
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon berbere spice mix
2 teaspoons rosemary
2 green chili peppers, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
3 tablespoons neterkive
METHOD:
1. Fry and brown the meat in oil.
2. Add onion and fry until all the meat juice is gone.
3. Add neterkive, berbere, rosemary, salt and a small amount of hot water.
4. Cook for 5-10 minutes more, then add tomato and chili.
NETERKIVE: On low heat melt 100 g butter in a saucepan, stirring. Add 1 small chopped red onion and 1 tablespoon cardamom. Bring to a boil and cook for about half an hour or until the mixture is frothy.
What´s your favorite bread?
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