Almond-paste Rolls

When I first started baking egg-free treats I thought I would need to bake and bring for work more often than turned out to be the case. In fact, now I've been here for 2 years and the position is over, so there will be no more group meetings for me to which I have to bring egg-free baked goods. This leaves me with a surplus of ideas, so if I find the time the series will continue on this page.

These rolls are based on a recipe I got from my mother when I first told her I needed egg-free cake recipes. I baked them recently for one of the last work-related occasions: the celebration of the acceptance of my latest paper.

For these rolls I used an almond paste not sold as marzipan^[1] but I think marzipan should work quite well also.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (8.8 oz) margarine
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) milk
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) fresh yeast
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar (+ extra for sprinkling)
- ¹/₂ tsp salt
- 500 g (1.1 lb) flour (+ extra for rolling)
- 250 g (8.8 oz) almond paste^[1]
- 1-1.5 dL (²/₅-³/₅ cup) heavy cream (for brushing)


The margarine was melted over low heat, then milk was poured in and heating on low was continued until the mixture was lukewarm. The milk-margarine mixture was transferred to a bowl and fresh yeast was stirred in followed by sugar, flour (in portions) and salt. This dough was set aside to rise for half an hour.

The risen dough was parted in 4 roughly equal portions, and each of these were rolled to a circle some 24-25 cm (10 inches) in diameter. Each circle was divided into 8 triangular slices. Each triangle was added a thin layer of almond paste and rolled.

The rolls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and allowed to rise an additional 15 minutes before brushing with heavy cream^[2] and sprinkling with granulated sugar.

The rolls were baked 225 C (450 F) until golden (12 minutes) and transferred to a grid to cool.


The rolls were quite popular - more have already been requested...

^[1] The almond paste I used is 50% almond, 50% sugar - marzipan is often a different composition (usually less almond and more sugar).
^[2] If you are not in need of strictly egg-free rolls, you could certainly brush with a lightly beaten egg in stead of heavy cream.

White Asparagus Tagliatelle

White asparagus are in season around here these days, but we've never had a habit of using these. One reason for that is that Mrs. Throat-Erator isn't a big fan of the hollandaise sauce often suggested served with white asparagus.

When we saw a recipe for a starter with white asparagus and no hollandaise we decided to try some elements of that - along the way it became a meal rather than just a starter.

Ingredients:
- 6 large white asparagus
- juice of 1 small lemon
- same volume olive oil
- salt
- white pepper
- tagliatelle
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) sunflower seeds
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) pumpkin seeds
- 25 g (~1 oz) walnuts
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella
- fresh chives
- fresh dill

The asparagus were peeled and boiled gently for 10 minutes in water containing 1 tsp salt. The water was drained from the asparagus and they were allowed to cool a bit while preparing a marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and white pepper. The boiled asparagus were then marinaded while preparing the rest.

Tagliatelle was cooked.

The seeds and nuts were chopped coarsely and roasted in a dry pan with constant stirring till turning slightly golden and fragrant.

The marinaded asparagus were served on a bed of tagliatelle, drizzled with some of the marinade and added toasted seeds/nuts, sliced mozzarella and fresh herbs.

It was quite nice, although based on this I see little reason to prefer white asparagus over the green kind we normally get...

Red Basil

Not unlike other varieties of basil, I was unfamiliar with red basil until I came across it at the store. As before when faced with such options, the new item went directly into the shopping basket - what to do with it could always to be found out later.

I found this plant to be surprisingly (and a bit disappointingly) mild and subtle in flavour - I haven't seen any more since, so I don't know if this is general. Because of this, using it for wok and curry dishes is almost kind of wasted as the flavour is easily trumped by other strong flavours - although I must say it does look beautiful.

I did use it with some success for baking fish: pieces of white fish (e.g. cod) were wrapped in foil together with leaves of red basil and baked in the oven.

Brunost

Brunost (= brown cheese) also known as Myseost or Geitost (= goat cheese) is a Norwegian speciality, and one of those food items that I remember switching from hating to loving. Different varieties are made either from cow's milk, goat's milk or mixtures - but it is always made from whey.

As a child I remember being highly suspicious of this product: not only was it made of goat's milk - it was brown. But my mother loved it (still does) - back then I wasn't sure if this wasn't just part of her loving everything Norwegian. You could buy it in Denmark, but it was rather expensive, so whenever anyone we knew went to Norway my mother would ask them to bring her back a kg or two. Which would always be consumed surprisingly quickly upon delivery: thinly sliced on bread, possibly with slices of cucumber on top. My mother even had a special cheese cutter she only used for this cheese. The latter was due to its unusually soft texture.

Some years ago I saw it in a store in the US and was suddenly curious - would I still not like it, like I used to as a child, or had my tastes developed ? As you can probably guess, my tastes had indeed developed. Suddenly I found the sweet caramel with a hint of sharpness oddly pleasing. I still don't think I am as crazy about as my mother (quite frankly, I don't think I ever will be) - I certainly don't consume as much of it as she does, but from time to time I get some (here in Sweden it is of course readily available).

Bear Roast

Do you remember when I graduated? Although I took the time to celebrate this back then, there was something that bothered me - something that nagged. More specifically, what nagged was that although I did graduate the one big project that I'd worked on during my entire Ph.D. - the project which I'd estimate I spent some 60-80% of my time on, the project that took up the first 250 pages of my thesis - wasn't finished. It wasn't finished and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had to move on. I had to leave it to persons unknown to me, to a future unknown to me. Would it ever be finished? Would I ever see that work published in any other form than the highly limited edition that was my thesis?

Several months ago now, I heard rumours that it had in fact been finished, but it wasn't till recently that it was submitted to one of the more prestigious journals in my field - and a few weeks later it had been accepted for publication after peer-review. This past Friday it appeared on the web site of the journal in question. In a week or so it'll be two and a half years since I graduated, so this all comes with a sense of justification: if it took this long to finish the project, I couldn't have finished it by just staying 3 months more.

But enough about that. This calls for a celebration! And what better way to celebrate than to take some time to cook a very special meal.


Other recent events include the beginning of bear hunting season in Sweden. I've been eager (to put it mildly) to taste bear for quite a while, so when a few weeks ago I saw a piece of frozen bear at one of the butchers in Östermalmshallen (one of the big in-door markets in Stockholm) I decided to splurge and bought it.

In a moment of karmic balance I decided to thaw the piece of bear on the very day the paper appeared online - that is: before I knew that it was going to be released on that day.

Ingredients:
roast:
- lard
- 4 small cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1.3 kg (~ 3 lbs) bear roast
- salt & pepper
- ~500 g (~ 1 lb) red boiling onions
- 1 L (~ 1 quart) water
sides:
- boiled potatoes
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 170 g (6 oz) crayfish tails
- 200 g (7 oz) black chanterelles
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) cream
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) pan juices
- salt & pepper
- pickled green tomatoes
salad:
- green leaf lettuce
- pea sprouts
- sun-dried tomatoes
drink:
- Bollinger Special Cuvée


First I took the piece of bear and slit several deep narrow holes in it with small sharp knife. In each hole I stuffed several thin slices of garlic. Secondly, the roast was rubbed on both sides with generous amounts of salt & pepper. In a large pan on high heat, the roast was seared in lard on both sides until darkened appreciably. The roast was then placed in an oven-proof tray together with the boiling onions and 1 L of water. The roast went in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 2 ¹/₂ hours (opening the oven occasionally to pour some of the pan juices over the roast) before being removed to a cutting board, covered with foil and left for 20 minutes before slicing.

The boiling onions were transferred to bowl (to be served as a side with the roast). ¹/₂ dL of the pan juices were set aside for the sauce and the rest (about 5 dL) was frozen as 'bear stock'.

While the roast was still in the oven, the salad was prepared, and the potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

While the roast was resting before slicing, the bacon was fried till crisp, then removed from the pan, chopped and set aside. The crayfish tails were fried in the bacon fat for a minute before adding the black chanterelles. After a few more minutes, the cream and pan juice were added. Once heated through, the sauce was ready.

Slices of bear roast were served with mushroom-crayfish sauce and bacon bits on top - salad, potatoes, onions and pickled tomatoes on the side.


So how was it?

The bear was excellent. Very tender and very tasty. This is most 'game' meal I have ever cooked - the meat was clearly recognisable as red meat, but it did have notes of something 'different' and these notes were stronger than when I've cooked venison or moose.

The black chanterelles were as delicious as I expected - this is the first time I've had them fresh (previously I only had dried ones), but I have to admit the crayfish didn't really do so much for the dish as I had hoped. I was going for some sort of Swedish surf^turf, but in the end the crayfish were too anonymous against the rest of the ingredients - so if I ever do this again, I'll leave those out (or maybe try to find something more bold).

This was the first time I tried my own pickled green tomatoes. They were a little firmer than I thought they would be, but the taste was pretty close to what I had in mind - sour, sweet and vanilla flavoured all at the same time. Perhaps a little too much vanilla. My muse didn't really like them, but I thought they went very well with the meat.

Oude kaas

When you go out for a drink in the Netherlands you can typically order some snacks with your meal. The selection of snacks varies from place to place, but there are certain classics which you find time and again.

One of those is Oude kaas: quite simply blocks of aged Gouda. Simple, yet brilliant.

On the way back from my most recent trip to Amsterdam I couldn't resist the temptation of bringing home a nice big piece of it. I had a lot of nice cheese this summer, but I think this one takes the prize ... so gooooooooooooooood!

Almonds

When my parents came to visit me in California we rented a car and headed for a national park. While I was busy at the wheel observing the road ahead, my parents were busy observing everything else, discussing plants and animals as we went along. Somewhere in the Central Valley, I understood, we were passing by some almond plantations. And for all I know that's about as close as I've ever been to an almond tree.

Interestingly, I never saw fresh almonds for sale while I lived in California (despite California being the single largest almond producer world-wide). While on vacation in southern France this summer, I suddenly found fresh almonds at the supermarket one day. Needless to say, I bought a handful just to have a look.


The fresh almonds (lower left corner) could be peeled (with some effort) to leave the shell bare (upper right corner). Cracking the shell of a fresh almond revealed the skin of the almond below which there was a white, rather soft nut that didn't taste all that much like the almonds I usually get - I'd say the taste was reminiscent of fresh beechnuts (although I haven't had those in many years).

Letting the almonds dry for a month or so, the peel could no longer readily be removed from the shell. Cracking open the shell at this stage revealed a dried, shrunk almond (upper left corner). Although very thin and having a funny texture, this almond tasted much more like the almonds I usually get. Soaking the dry almond in cold water overnight, produced nuts (lower right corner) there were quite similar to the ones found when cracking open the fresh almonds.

Asparagus & Pancetta Linguine

For the May BACC various circumstances forced a number of modifications on the dish - although I believe it still carries the spirit of the original recipe - to wit:

• Fettuccine did not appear to be available where we went shopping, so instead we went for wholegrain linguine.
• Peas are not yet in season here in Sweden and as we did not feel like using frozen peas we left the peas out.
• Turns out we did not in fact have any garlic (and we did not want to fetch some by the time we started cooking...)
• Although we could easily have gotten some Parmigiano cheese, I decided to use the rest of our Pecorino cheese instead.
• Since we are getting ready to move all our graters had been packed down, so for the cheese and the lemon zest we had to go for 'finely chopped' rather than grated - lending the dish a slightly more rustic feel.
• I did not add any olive oil as that seemed a bit superfluous.
• The dark green parts of the scallions were not stirred in but instead sprinkled on top together with last of the basil and parsley.
  

Ingredients:
- ~ 250 g (~ 9 oz) wholegrain linguine
- 80 g (2.8 oz) very finely sliced pancetta, cut in strips
- 250 g (8.8 oz) asparagus, cut in inch-long pieces
- 125 g (4.4 oz) scallions, sliced - parted by colour
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
- ~ ¹/₂ dL (~ ¹/₅ cup) pecorino romano, finely chopped - parted
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- zest of ¹/₂ lemon, finely chopped
- fresh parsley, chopped - parted
- fresh basil, chopped - parted
- salt & pepper

The pasta was boiled in lightly salted water - when cooked the water was poured off, but about 2.5 dL (1 cup) of it was retained for later use.

While cooking the pasta, the pancetta was fried crisp.^[1] The pancetta was removed from the pan and the asparagus pieces were sautéed in the pancetta drippings for 3-4 minutes before adding the paler ²/₃ of the scallion slices. After an additional 2 minutes this mixtures stirred into the cooked pasta and added cream together with lemon juice, lemon zest, about 1 dL (²/₅ cup) of the pasta ccoking liquid, most of the cheese, half of the parsley, and half of the basil. The mixture was tossed and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

It was served immediately, sprinkled with pancetta pieces, the dark green slices of the scallions and the rest of the cheese, the parsley and the basil.

Delicious - despite all the short cuts performed. I've had pasta dishes with lemon before, but I cannot think of one where the lemon blended as nicely with the other flavours as in this one.

^[1] Pancetta is sometimes referred to as 'Italian bacon' - like other types of bacon it has been salt cured, but in contrast to most other types of bacon it has been spiced. This was actually my first time ever using it, and I found the spicy bacon smell from frying quite interesting. The variety of pancetta I bought was very thinly sliced (I would say that ordinary thinly sliced bacon is about 5 times as thick as this pancetta) - but since it was my first time buying it I don't know if that is the norm for pancetta.

Red Seafood Curry

A good friend of mine concluded, after moving to Singapore, that all his previous attempts at making curries had been suboptimal at least in part due to the inferior curry pastes that has been available to him in the US. To back up his claims, he brought me over a selection of curry pastes from Singapore when we met up before Christmas - so thanks to him for providing the curry paste used here.

Generally, mini-eggplants are not available around here, so when I found some when I went to a new store, I immediately picked some up - thinking already of using one my packs of parallelly imported red curry paste.

Ingredients:
- sesame oil
- red curry paste^[1]
- 200 g (7 oz) crayfish
- 100 g (3.5 oz) shrimp
- 200 g (7 oz) squid rings
- 10 mini eggplants, quartered
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- coconut cream
- kaffir lime leaves
- salt
- large bunch scallion, chopped
for serving:
- boiled rice
- roasted peanuts
- fresh Thai basil

A little sesame oil was heated in a wok, then added a dollop of the curry paste, followed by the crayfish. After frying for 1-2 minutes, the shrimp were added and after an additional 1-2 minutes the squid rings. 1-2 minutes later, the quartered mini-eggplants were added, then the chopped bell pepper, dried kaffir lime leaves, the remaining curry paste and the coconut cream. The contents were brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting it simmer for a few minutes. The dish was seasoned to taste with salt. At last the scallions were added and after a minute or so the wok was removed from the heat.

Served with boiled rice, roasted peanuts and fresh Thai basil.
Delicious. For my taste the spiciness of this dish was just right.
Now I just have to find out where I can buy more of similarly good curry paste - or if I can emulate it from more basic ingredients...

^[1] Curry paste brand: Dancing Chef.

Chicken with Pearl Onions

Over the holidays I had occasion to do some shopping, and I happened to pick up a bag of nigella seeds. This is a spice I had been curious about for some time, and now I have a good amount to play with and try out some ideas. First, I tried it with chicken..

Ingredients:
- 900 g (2 lbs) chicken pieces
- salt
- pepper
- smoked paprika
- cayenne pepper
- ground coriander seeds
- nigella seeds
- 250 g (9 oz) red pearl onions
- 250 g (9 oz) white pearl onions
served with:
- quinoa, boiled
and:
- 360 g (13 oz) grilled red peppers
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- fresh coriander leaves

The chicken pieces were fried in a large, deep pan with all the spices, until well browned on all sides. The peeled pearl onions were added whole, the pan was covered and the heat was reduced to medium. Left while preparing the rest:

The quinoa was boiled in lightly salted water.

The grilled peppers and the coriander leaves were chopped coarsely and mixed with the lemon juice.

I was quite happy with the note the nigella seeds added to the chicken.

Yerba Mate (more applied mathematics)

One morning at a pousada in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, I found myself with limited tea options. True: there were a number of different bags that I could chose to make a hot infusion from, but none of them were a straight tea. Personally disliking most flower, berry and/or spice teas I opted instead for the joker - the to me previously not encountered yerba mate. I was quite pleased with my choice. The resulting drink wasn't entirely unlike tea - straight tea, mind you - perhaps a bit smokier, but by no means too much for my taste.

When I found bags of yerba mate for sale at very reasonable prices in the supermarket I decided to import some myself (being back home again I see that I can buy it here, although not nearly as cheaply). It might not be the most authentically Brazilian thing to bring home, seeing as it is considered the national drink of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, but it's also commonly enjoyed in southern Brazil (as well as in other countries in South America).

While the drink made from yerba mate, commonly known as mate (pronounced ma-te), is quite like tea, there are a number of differences. For starters, the plant is actually a species of holly and the caffeine content is generally higher than in tea (though not as high as in coffee). Supposedly, a strongly bitter and disagreeable taste results if one pours boiling water on yerba mate. Water at 80 C (176 F) is recommended. Not wanting to find a thermometer, I opted instead for mixing proper amounts of boiling water (i.e. 100 C = 212 F) and tap water, which I assumed to be at room temperature (20 C = 68 F). Since I'm mixing water with water I don't have to worry about the specific heat capacity and the calculation simplifies quite a bit. Setting the volume of boiling water to x and the volume of tap water to y, we get (ignoring units):

100x + 20y = 80(x+y)
20x = 60y
x = 3y

which is to say that I should use 3 parts boiling water to 1 part tap water.

Another interesting difference to tea: The dried ground leaves end up as a very fine powder - much finer than any tea I've ever had. Accordingly, when I made my first pot of mate, some of the powder wasn't retained by the sieve I used. The drink had a slight cloudiness to it at first, but then the particles settled to the bottom of my tea cup. Of course, I have no right complain - drinking, as a I am, mate like a know-nothing barbarian. Tradition dictates that mate be drunk through a specially designed metal straw (called a bomba or bombilla) from a hollowed gourd.

Jackfruit

I recently went to Brazil and one of the cities I visited was the city of Ribeirão Preto, in what was once the heartland of Brazilian coffee production. Now, according to locals, the only coffee trees that remain in Riberão Preto are those separating the two directions of traffic down the middle of Avenida do Café. On the grounds of what used to be one of the very largest coffee plantations in Brazil, but which now belongs to the Ribeirão Preto campus of USP (Universidade de São Paulo), one finds the Plínio Travassos dos Santos municipal museum and it's direct neighbour, the Coronel Fransisco Schmidt coffee museum.

Shortly after entering the municipal museum a lady working there inquired as to my origin, and my attempts to explain Sweden were initially stumped by my lack of proficiency in Portuguese (as far as I could understand the only language she spoke). Then when I found the museum's collection of coins which contained a few Swedish coins, I was able to tell her Suécia. After trying to explain to me some details of a painting of the coffee plantation that used to be there she gave up on me for a while, only to come to me later to make sure that I also visited the neighbouring coffee museum.

Guiding me through the garden towards the coffee museum, she suddenly pointed to some rather large fruits sitting several meters up a tree in the garden and exclaimed "Jaca". Judging alone by size of the fruits I guessed that these might be jackfruits - which is correct according to wikipedia. Not thinking much more of it I entered and quickly toured the coffee museum. The quickness of my tour was due mainly to (a) the relatively modest size of the coffee museum (b) my poor ability to read Portuguese (even if better than my ability to speak it) - more so than the fact that I don't actually drink coffee. Upon exiting the coffee museum, I found my new friend approaching with a plate of palish yellow pieces of fruit flesh.. yes, it was time for me to taste the jackfruit.

My new friend proceeded to show me how each seed sits in a coat of fruit flesh, which can be torn from the fruit and eaten. It was quite sweet and personally I rather liked it.

Green Enchiladas with Prawns and Chèvre

I admit it: when I was living in California, I neglected enchiladas. Why? I'm not sure, I was vaguely aware that they existed, but for some reason I underestimated their potential. Last year I realised this had been a mistake when I went to dinner at a friend's place and had some enchiladas there. Then I kinda forgot about it for a while, until I saw a recipe for green enchiladas in bon appetit, but thought I couldn't do anything about it as I hadn't seen tomatillos anywhere since leaving California. But recently I found some at a market right here in Stockholm, and here follows the result.

Ingredients:
- 12 tortillas (medium sized)
salsa verde:
- 4 tomatillos
- 7 jalapeño peppers
- 2 cloves garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- salt
filling:
- 400-500 g (1 lb) tiger prawns
- 1-2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 large red onion
- small bunch fresh oregano
- 2 jalapeño peppers
- 8 scallions, chopped
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) chèvre
topping:
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 avocado

I started with the salsa verde:
The tomatillos were de-husked, rinsed and boiled for 15 minutes, then blended with crushed garlic, jalapeño peppers, lime juice and a little salt.

The prawns were fried with ground cumin, then added onion boats, oregano, and finely chopped jalapeño peppers.

The bottom of an oven-proof tray was coated with a little less than half the salsa verde.
Working one at the time, the tortillas were added a line of prawn-onion mixture down the middle, then added chopped scallion and a little chèvre. The tortilla was then rolled and placed in the tray. The tray was nicely filled up once all the tortillas were rolled and the rest of the salsa verde was spread over them. They were baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

The enchiladas were served with freshly chopped cilantro and avocado wedges.

Delicious! Now I really want to make more enchiladas...

Mint Syrup & Quick Mint Julep

Since we started growing our herbs we became interested in trying some cakes with mint. Towards this goal, the first can be the production of a mint syrup.

Mint syrup:
- 1.25 dL (1/2 cup) fresh mint leaves
- 167 g (1/3 lbs) sugar
- 2.5 dl (1 cup) water

Water and sugar was brought to a boil in a small pot, then added the rinsed and chopped mint leaves. The heat was reduced to allow the pot to simmer for 10 minutes. Then the pot was removed from the heat and allowed to cool before filtering and storing syrup.





Cake recipe(s) to follow.

As an added bonus, this syrup is an excellent starting point for a quick mint julep: mint syrup and bourbon was mixed in a roughly 1:1 ratio and added a couple of ice cubes and fresh mint leaves.

Rosehip Jam (less chunky)

I hadn't been living in Stockholm for a long time before I started noticing that rosehip bushes were by no means scarce around here - I saw them on my way to work, I saw them when I went jogging and at various other places around town. As I passed them daily it was easy to follow their progress: By September there were lots of ripe berries on the bushes and I decided to make an excursion (it's no coincidence that the Swedish word for 'autumn' is 'höst' which also translates as 'harvest').

Not wanting to ingest more exhaust fumes than I have to I wanted rosehip bushes not standing next to major streets. I knew two good spots off of the top of my head: one which I usually pass jogging and one which I pass on my way to work - the latter was further from my home and so lost out. So, at the end of a quiet street that ends into the park next to it I was able to quickly pick 1.25 kg (2.75 lbs) of suitably ripe rosehips.



At the time I was a little afraid that I would end up being sorry I didn't pick any more (there were plenty more to be picked).

Now, looking back, I'm glad I didn't pick any more than I did - I literally spent hours on rinsing them. Fortunately, after being rinsed they can be stored in the fridge overnight before proceeding.

After rinsing them, I was left with some 800 g (1.75 lbs) of rosehip shells, and given the results last time, I cut them in smaller pieces this time (quarter shells or smaller).

I also decided to change the taste a little by adding vanilla.





Ingredients:
- 800 g (1.75 lbs) cleaned rosehip shells
- 5 dL (2 cups) water
- juice of 1 lemon
- juice of 1 lime
- 500 g (1.1 lb) + 66 g (2.3 oz) sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
- 2.5 tsp red label Melatin^[1]
- 4 times 2 tsp Atamon^[1]
Storage:
- Three 0.5 L (2 cup) glass jars









The rosehip pieces were put in a large pot together with the water, the lemon juice and the lime juice and brought to a boil. As another tool towards reducing the chunkiness of my previous batch, I let them boil for 35 minutes under a lid before adding the larger portion of sugar. Simultaneously, I added the seeds from a vanilla pod and let it boil for another 15 minutes (no lid this time, and keeping an eye on it that it didn't foam too much). A pre-stirred mixture of the red label Melatin and the smaller portion of sugar was added along with 2 tsp Atamon. After boiling an additional 2 minutes the pot was removed from the heat.


Each jar was shaken with 2 tsp Atamon - excess liquid was poured out (but the walls of the jars should be moist with Atamon for preservation of the jam) before filling the jars while the jam was still warm.

I am happy to report that this batch is indeed less chunky than the previous one - and that I quite like the added taste of vanilla. A success.

^[1] Fortunately, the brand that sells both Atamon and Melatin in Denmark also operates in Sweden - both products were easily found at the supermarket. See previous post for more details.

Pork Wok w/ Thai Basil

Until I saw one at the supermarket I had no idea there was such a thing as 'Thai Basil'. In hindsight it makes perfect sense, though: all those times in Asian food I had something which was almost exactly like basil, yet unmistakeably somehow ... different.
When we first got it home it looked kinda sad, but after being watered and allowed to stand in our eastbound kitchen windowsill it looked much happier. Now, weeks later, it's still going strong and I hope to have it for a while yet even though the hours of daylight here are rapidly declining.

I decided to use some leaves of it one day when I was in the mood for pork..

Ingredients:
- oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 medium-strong chilli, seeds removed
- 350 g (12 oz) thinly sliced pork chops, cut in strips
- 3 red onions, cut in boats boats
- 1 head cabbage, coarsely chopped
- 1 can coconut milk
- freshly cooked rice
- roasted peanuts
- fresh leaves of Thai basil

The pork chops (which were only some 3-4 mm (¹/₆ inch) thick) were cut in strips about 1.25 cm (¹/₂ inch) wide and stir-fried with crushed garlic and finely cut chillies till browned all over. Then the onion boats were added, and a few minutes later the cabbage together with the coconut milk. When everything was warm, it was served on rice with roasted peanuts and fresh leaves of Thai basil sprinkled on top.

Moose roast

The meat section of the Swedish supermarkets are dominated by beef, pork and chicken - which in itself is neither particularly unusual nor surprising, but it is a bit more extreme than I expected. Add to that the selection of cuts available is also narrower than I have been used to, and it becomes quite intriguing that apparently there are practically no butcher shops here.

Nevertheless, a few exotic specialities native to the region are available - particularly frozen: moose and reindeer roasts, f.ex. Having heard much praise thereof (and having already tried a variety of preparations of reindeer) I decided that to try a moose roast and since they are in season now I went for using some chanterelles as well.

Ingredients:
- 900 g (2 lbs) moose roast
- oil
- salt & pepper
- potatoes
- 2 brown onions, cut in rings
- 300 g (²/₃ lb) yellow chanterelles
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
salad:
- fresh spinach
- red lettuce
- caper berries

The roast came in a net. It was rubbed with salt and pepper and seared on all sides in a pan using a little oil. When nicely browned on all sides, the roast was transferred to an oven-proof tray with a little water (ca. ¹/₂ cm (¹/₄ inch)) and roasted in the oven at 150 C (300 F) for 2 hours.

While the roast was in the oven potatoes were rinsed and boiled in lightly salted water.

A salad was prepared from fresh spinach, red lettuce, and caper berries.

After removing the roast from the oven and transferring to a board, the onion rings were sautéed for a few minutes in a large pan, then added the rinsed and coarsely chopped chanterelles. After an additional couple of minutes the cream was added together with the liquid from the roast.

After resting while preparing the sauce, the roast was sliced and served immediately.


So, how was it? Weee-eeell, it was definitely good. It just wasn't as much better than beef as I expected. Perhaps not enough to justify the price difference.

Beans - Re-revisited

Before moving to Sweden, I was worried bout the availability of black beans here (having been really disappointed with options last time I looked around for beans in Danish supermarkets).

As it turns out, I needn't have worried at all. The Swedes apparently are much more up on exotic foods than the Danes.

After buying my first bag of black beans in Sweden, I saw just how different beans can be - unlike the black beans I bought in Geneva, these black beans needed only a little over one hour of boiling (after overnight soaking).

Ironically, I might not have to boil dried beans here, as it appears canned beans are again available at a more reasonable price relative to the dried ones...

(Asian) Fish soup

For my birthday this year, Mrs. Throat-Erator gave me dried curry and kaffir lime leaves - and then things got a little hectic, so I didn't have a lot of time to think about ways to use them for a couple of months...

But I thought they might add a nice touch to a fish soup - more specifically, I was thinking of some of the nice Asian fish soups I've tried, which I would like to emulate, so I tried it out.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 hot chillies, finely cut
- 2 fillets of pangasius, cut in chunks
- 2 fillets of tilapia, cut in chunks
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 leeks, cut in rings, white and green parts separated.
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) fish stock
- 0.5 g^[1] dried curry leaves
- 0.5 g^[2] dried kaffir lime leaves
- 250 g (¹/₂ lb) sunchokes, diced
- 3 tomatoes, diced coarsely
- 24 prawns

A little oil was heated in a large pot, and crushed garlic and finely cut chillies were sautéed for half a minute before adding chunks of fish.

After a couple of minutes, the diced onion and the white leek rings (white rings only) were added and after an additional couple of minutes, the fish stock and the dried leaves were added.

After adding diced sunchokes and large chunks of tomato, the pot was brought to a boil. The heat was reduced, the pot was covered and allowed to simmer for 10 minutes. The prawns and the green leek rings were added, and the pot was brought back to a boil and simmered for a final 5 minutes.

I was very happy with the result - the combination of of chillies, curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves resulted in exactly the fresh kind of taste I was going for, and although perhaps not traditional in Asian cuisine (although I admit I don't know) I thought the sunchokes added a really nice nuance to the flavour.

^[1] As much as you see in the picture..
^[2] ..more than you see in the picture!

New herbs

Having decided to make the most of our kitchen window sill during the period of long days we were considering ways to maximise our herb collection.

Mrs. Throat-Erator read up on the subject and learned that both basil, mint, and thyme should be able to sprout new roots if freshly cut stems are placed in a glass of water. We decided to try it out.

In the course of a couple of weeks all did as predicted, and they were planted in their own pots and are doing well several weeks later.