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Out of electric current but not disabled
I just called home and found out they had a power cut. The emergency power was on so there was not much more to do than polish table silver. The picture depicts my mum Märtha where she sits and plans a party or a wedding.
Skald loafs
I made this bread for the first time, some weeks ago. It is an old family recipe so I called home to get some advice, because the dough was stone hard on day one. Calm down, just calm down and wait till tomorrow was the answer. Day two it was kneadable and shapeable and balanced beautifully.
Most of the time I freeze the bread as soon as it is completely cold, cut into smaller pieces which I take out gradually. Then the bread is fresh out of the freezer. I recommend a slice of bread with liver pâté and pickled cucumber.
The origin of the recipe is from great grandmother’s cookbook. “With small changes it has turned out to be delightful bread” says Märtha.
Skald loafs
(2 loaves)
Day 1
2 litres sifted rye-flour (8 cups)
1 litre water (4 cups)
Day 2
1 tablespoon salt
50 g yeast
Wheat-flour
Day 1: Pour the sifted rye-flour in a bowl. Bring the water to boil and pour it over the flour. Work the dough well. Cover and leave over night.
Day 2: Blend the yeast with a little water and mix into the dough together with salt. Work the dough with a little wheat-flour until it has a firm consistency. Let rise to double size. Take out the dough and put on the pastry board. Split into two pieces and shape into two lengths. Put on a baking tin. Let rise slowly in room temperature, 1 -1 ½ hour. Bake at 175 degrees C for about 50 minutes. Brush the baked breads with warm water.Updated: 1 cup 250 ml
Tried my findings at the foodfair, the small, red quinoa seeds. A very exciting new ingredient in the kitchen. Above all, I thought they were interesting because they are gluten free. Therefore a good alternative when having guests who have an allergy and vegetarians who have specific requirements.
The taste? They did not have so much taste, maybe a bit nutty. Comfortably crispy against the teeth – I thought they were chewy.
Preparation and serving tips for quinoa seeds
Tried carefully to boil them and poured the water of. Brought them to boil again and let them cook for 15 minutes. They looked rather funny because white “tails” were sticking out of the seeds. The quinoa seeds went a long way. I boiled about ½ dl seed per person and it would have been enough with half as they were a complement in the salad.
I used them then as a base in a salad with finely diced pepper, seeded and diced cucumber and finely chopped union. Added some grilled chicken, which also was finely cut. Poured a great deal of fresh pressed lemon over it and added some salt and pepper out of the mill. Here are many possibilities to vary it.
Fried zucchiniTasty to serve with it is zucchini, sliced lengthways and fried very little in oil. After frying they are put in a larger dish, press a good wedge of lemon over. Crumble feta cheese on top and spread mint leafs over it.
I’d better confess – I love Christmas, all fragrances, traditions and to buy a little fine, handmade Santa Claus every year. I have already bought one today, in the Old Town of Stockholm, to give away. Preferably I would like to keep it, because it matches my own collection.
My partner and I are already planning for a glögg-party. We had a party last year and reckoned coldly that our friends would drink many litres of glögg and have lots of ham. How surprised we were when only three litres of glögg was consumed but 12 litres Christmas-must (a sweet tasting Christmas soda). Not to talk about how much ham we had to freeze. Thank God it was finished after a couple of months.
This year we are re-stocking. We have glögg left over from last year – nearly 6 1 ½ litre bottles. We made the glögg which you can read about below – “en masse”. It smells wonderful for several weeks when you arrive home from work and a bucket of glögg is in the kitchen. Worst Christmas feeling.
I recommend saving some glögg, because it just gets better as it gets older.
The recipe comes from a student friend of my brother in Uppsala.
Christmas glögg
5 litres small beer
2 kg caster sugar
50 g yeast
500 g raisins
¾ dl cloves
2 pieces of fresh ginger
6 large, peeled, potatoes in slices
1 packet of cardamom seeds
4 pieces of cinnamon stick
Blend all ingredients in a large bucket. Stir daily. Leave fr 2 weeks. Strain, leave for 1 week. The glögg is drinkable. If you have some left over it will improve if you keep it till next year.
It is a great luxury to be able to walk around and try exciting wines, ostrich sausages, cheeses from Italy and peppery green olive oils. I have just done that and am now sinking down in the sofa, enjoying and relaxing. I have been visiting the Fair "Det goda köket" in Älvsjö, Stockholm and spent four hours there. Perfectly wonderful!
I brought some fun things home with me I will try out this weekend – quinoa seeds which can be used as couscous. I bought both red and white ones and will report how they taste. When I searched the Internet I found that they a have low GI-index and belong to the health food group. To combine pleasure with profit is not bad at all.
A new packet of Puy-lentils went down in the bag. I got a tip they are good to cook with raisins, prunes and dried apricots. Serve with a piece of meat. Worth trying as I love sweet dried fruits along with meat. I have tried the lentils before together with finely diced celeriac and carrots out of Anna Bergenströms “Nya Annas mat”. See recipe below.
A couple of vanilla sticks, a bottle of glaze and real cinnamon sticks also got some room and smell wonderful. This cinnamon tastes totally different compared to the one I usually buy. This one is soft, easy to break into small pieces in contrast to the one in the larder – which I considered good cinnamon.
The goodies were bought at Werner Gourmet Service. Their things are found at NK if you can’t make it to the fair this weekend.
Lentil casserole with cinnamon from Anna Bergenströms “Annas nya mat”
(4 servings)
1 l boiled green lentils (here I used Puy lentils) (400 g unboiled)
2 medium sized finely chopped yellow onions
3 finely chopped garlic cloves
½ medium sized carrot diced
About 75 g finely diced celeriac
1-3 teaspoon curry
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons wheat flour
5 dl water
1 cube vegetable broth
½ dl chopped parsley
Fry finely chopped onion and garlic but only a little carrot. Maybe also some finely diced celeriac but in that case only little. The onion should dominate. Fry slowly about 15 minutes.
Sprinkle in curry, crushed caraway seeds, a dash of oregano. Stir. Put in very little flour and dilute with water until syrupy. Crumble the vegetable stock cube. Bring to the boil and stir again. Put in the boiled and very well drained lentils. Warm the casserole. Serve with chopped parsley and rice. One can also blend the rice into the lentils mixture to make a rice casserole out of everything.
I have just read lots of food-blogs and got inspired to create something on my own out of the things I have at home.
To cook the chicken perfectly I use a food-thermometer – my best friend in the kitchen. The inner temperature of the chicken has to be 70 degrees Celsius and the Oven on 250. Then you don’t risk getting it raw but it will turn out just enough done.
Honey and lemon-marinated chicken breasts with tarragon
(2 servings)
2 chicken fillet
Rind and juice from half a lemon
1 tsp honey (preferably Swedish)
1 sprig estragon
Salt and pepper
Blend a marinade of lemon rind, juice and honey. Score along the chicken breast; put half of the tarragon in each breast. Place the chicken in the marinade. Let marinate for 10 minutes or longer. Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Fry the chicken breast on both sides to get a nice surface. Stick the thermometer in to it and choose the inner temperature, 70 degrees. Put it in the oven and put some rice to boil on the stove. Spinach leaf fried in butter goes nicely with it.
Out of electric current but not disabled
Tried my findings at the foodfair, the small, red quinoa seeds. A very exciting new ingredient in the kitchen. Above all, I thought they were interesting because they are gluten free. Therefore a good alternative when having guests who have an allergy and vegetarians who have specific requirements.
