Elderflower cordial

I have just tasted my elderflower cordial which is sitting in the fridge and it is almost done - look forward to drink it later! (When I get water, that is. We got a note last week about the water shutting down 8.00-16.00 today and tomorrow. There are also signs on the door and in both elevators. But do I remember to fill buckets and bottles before 8? Nope. Better luck tomorrow...)

Elderflower is my favourite cordial, versatile for much more than drinking it plain. I use it as a sweetener for ice tea and in desserts, for example. This is the first time I try to make it myself actually, but it is easy. I got the elderflower from some dancing friends with a big garden but tried in vain to get hold of organic lemons. You can make marmalade of the lemons afterwards but I don´t think I will use these even though I scrubbed them with hot water and detergent. Besides, my fridge is still full of jam from last summer and now the berry season is coming up again...

Elderflower cordial
Makes about 2000 ml, to mix with water

30-40 elderflower "clusters", make sure you use the right kind with flat clusters
3 large lemons, organic, or wash them really carefully with a hard brush and detergent
about 2000 grams caster sugar, I used about 1500 grams but then you have to freeze it to keep it for a longer time
2000 ml water
30 grams citric acid
(In my recipe you should also include two pinches of something called natriumbensoat, I have absolutely no idea what it is called in English... But I guess that the citric acid is enough conservation...)

Slice the lemon very thinly and layer them with the flowers in a large stainless bowl. Bring the water and sugar to the boil and dissolve the sugar. Then stir in the citric acid. Pour it over the flowers and lemons and let it sit in a cool place for 3-4 days. Drain off the cordial and pour it in small containers or plastic bags for the freezer, or if you use more sugar in clean bottles. Fill them to the brim, seal them and keep them in the fridge.

Making this cordial has made me nostalgic. Mum making cordial and jam is one of my strongest food memories from my childhood. Redcurrants and blackcurrants from the garden, picked from the many very old bushes we have there - a bucket or more. If she was going to make jam she picked the berries one by one, carefully. If it was cordial it wasn´t so fussy and we children could help out (sometimes at least).
Then she put everything in her largest casserole, added water and sugar and it boiled and boiled. I remember it boiled for hours but it cannot have been so long. It smelled so good and we stirred it with a large wooden spoon which was almost black from all the cordial cooking.
She went up to the attic and returned carrying a lot of bottles and jars in her apron. She washed them and put them in the oven. Everything was hot, we weren´t allowed to help in case we got burned. But we looked! She filled the jars with jam and put them on an old newspaper beside the stove to cool off. The cordial was poured into a big cloth sieve over a stainless bowl and dripped for hours. Then she poured it in bottles and the cordial was ready. We kept the jam and cordial in the potato cellar and went to get it one by one. The blackcurrant and redcurrant jam and cordial was for everyday use - what a luxury! I remember telling one of my friends off when se said she didn´t like mother´s cordial...

The first chanterelles

*singing*
I just love picking yellow chanterelles, yellow chanterelles, yellow chanterelles...

These are our first yellow chanterelles for this year, picked yesterday and eaten (fried with a little butter) today. Usually we can pick the first ones at Midsummer but it has been so cold this spring so they are a bit late. Before I met my man I wasn´t too keen on picking mushrooms. OK, fun when you found some - but how? I never saw them. Fact is, I often stepped on them and crushed them. But he has taught me how to find them and we pick, pick, pick from June to late November sometimes. Our freezer is full of mushrooms and we use them for omelettes, sandwiches, meat stews and sauces. They are also fantastic to have with Jerusalem artichokes. My favourite flavourings with mushrooms are salt, pepper, butter and balsamic vinegar. Mushrooms are really fascinating and these last years I have tried to learn some more edible species although the man is so suspicious of them I have to eat them myself!
Well, that is all for today from the Mushroom department - I am sure I will get back to this subject! Until then, please tell me about your mushroom favourites! I will need a lot of recipes to get rid of all the freezed mushrooms and get room for this year´s crop.

Strawberries again

First day of vacation and it is wonderful! So far I have put up an IKEA CD shelf and filled it, and filled another book case with books. No cooking today, we are going to some friends for dinner. But this weekend I cooked. A lot! And ate! A friend and I visited another friend and her family on the west coast near Gothenburg. The first thing she asked us when she picked us up was "do you mind having fresh prawns for dinner?" Umm, no? "And tomorrow we are planning to grill some fish, is that OK?" Well... OK then!

We brought some gifts, all food-related of course. A bottle of rosé wine, a must in summer, some champagne tea and a Jamie Oliver flavour shaker which I haven´t tried yet but I really like the idea and thought it would suit the foodie friends. As it turned out their young son also was very very fascinated by this new kitchen gadget. He´s 15 months, very perceptive and very sweet. On Saturday I discovered quite a lot of ripe strawberries in their garden, along with some mint plants. I decided to try the shaker out making some of Anne´s mint sugar (who actually thinks she got the idea from Oliver himself). The shaker is quite handy and easy to use but you really get a lot of exercise for your arms! I put sugar and mint in it and began shaking it like mad in front of the little boy who watched me with big round eyes for a long while. He had already started calling me "Ninna" on Friday but after my mint sugar exercise in the kitchen that evening the name Ninna was accompanied by shaking his little hands frenetically. I texted with his mother yesterday and he still talks about Ninna and shakes his hands, apparently! Too sweet. They will have a hard time keeping the shaker from him, he really liked it!

The mint sugar was fantastic with sunwarm strawberries right from the garden. Next time I will try it with pineapple as Anne suggests. I will just have to buy a shaker for myself now, it was great fun to cook with it! And speaking of Anne - she and I will go to this place tomorrow for a really substantial coffee...

Summer in Gamla stan

Just a short "sign of life" post while waiting for some photos to upload for a work thing. It is some bug or other in the system and it is soooo slow.
Outside the window summer in Gamla stan is in process. Västerlånggatan is full of tourists, enjoying the sun and the shops and the icecream and every now and then a horse-drawn carriage goes clippety-clop outside the office - it is a guided tour which seems quite nice. The sun has come to stay, they say, and I work today and on Monday, then I go on vacation for four weeks. My man works for another week before we head off to Riga and at first I had lots of wild plans for my lonely week - but I think I will just stay at home and cook! Well, maybe I will sit on the balcony reading books and sipping ice tea too, once or twice. And maybe, possibly, meet some friends. But mostly, I will cook. My kitchen cabinets are bursting with groceries I want to try, and my calendar is bursting with recipes I have scribbled on small papers. I will cook, and I will blog about it too - something I haven´t really had time for these last weeks.

See you in the kitchen and on the balcony next week! Tomorrow I am heading for the west coast of Sweden, meeting friends and above all meet a little boy for the first time. I hope you too will have a nice weekend!

Glad midsommar!

... or Happy Midsummer to all of you! Before I did anything else this morning I prepared the strawberry cake for this evening when we are having a little party in a cottage by a lake - very Swedish and very nice, I hope. First, though, I will spend all afternoon folk dancing and also helping out in the traditional dancing and playing around the pole. Our strange habit to jump around a phallic symbol and singing "koackackack" like frogs must be described in all guide books. Our town is head quarters for the big medical company Astra Zeneca and every year I stumble apon a totally fascinated Englishman och Australian who wants me to translate what we are doing. Well, I try my best!

Strawberries are what we long for this time of year, next to new potatoes. The ones in the picture are the first I bought this year. They are much more expensive than the German and Polish ones on offer, but if there are Swedish strawberries I want Swedish strawberries, no matter what they cost. They are small and knobbly but the taste is unbelievable! This evening we will have a very traditional meal. First new potatoes, matje herring and sour cream. Then we will grill some meat, and then we will finish with my strawberry cake. The base is a french yoghurt cake, my recipe comes from Clotilde of Chocolate and zucchini. Then I have filled it with a mix of chopped strawberries and vanilla custard. I poured some elderflower cordial in the custard when I made it yesterday but cannot really detect the taste today - will have to experiment more with that since strawberries and elderflower is soo tasty together. Before we eat it we will spread it with whipped cream and cover with strawberries, eat and enjoy the sunset.
And tomorrow, like almost all years, we will try to find some yellow chanterelles. More than once we have found a bunch on Midsummer´s day...

Rooibos ice tea

I have just watched the football game England-Sweden for a full 20 minutes or so, but really - I couldn´t be bothered. Oh yes, it is fun if they win but don´t force me to watch it! Perhabs if I take a book and some popcorn I can keep my football-loving man company on the couch...

But first: ice tea! My favourite beverage in summer. Refreshing and stimulating, a great pick-me-up after a long, hot day. We have had some sunny days and as soon as the first weather forecast came about the heatwave I made my first jug of ice tea. First I made some lemon ice tea but didn´t have any lemons in the house. It was good, but a little too sweet and too little lemon flavour. Perhabs the teabags were a bit old. I am still practising making ice tea from scratch, before I have bought these ready bags with a powder you just dissolve in water. It is good, but you don´t know a thing about the contents really. I will save the factory-produced ice teas for the occasional bottle of Liptonice on my way home from work...

The wonderful ruby red beverage in the picture is from my second batch of home made ice tea. This time I used some roooibos teabags I had in the cupboard. I don´t like it warm but as you know I don´t want to throw away things. Hence the tryout with rooibos ice tea! And it is *very* good, I think. This brand of rooibos, the only I have tried so far, is very spicy with a clear ginger note.

I used three teabags to 1000 ml boiling water in a jug and let them sit for 3-4 minutes. Then I added some fresh ginger and a tablespoon of sugar and let it cool off. Put in fridge for a couple of hours and enjoy with some ice cubes if you like.

Now I wonder what tea to use next, I have quite a few just sitting in the cupboard... Green tea perhabs?

June veggies

Ooops, I ate it all before I could photograph it - but believe me when I say my steamed fresh white cabbage was goood, and beautiful. Summer is here to stay and Swedish fresh veggies can be found in the shops again. Long time, no see!

Yesterday I took my bike and went down to the square, returning with the following: a bag of new potatoes - walnut-sized and with the delicate thin peel already hanging loose, a small head of white cabbage, a light green, loose knot, and a bag of the tomatoes you see in the picture (sorry, blurry). Here in Södertälje we have one of Sweden´s biggest suppliers of organic tomatoes and these little darlings had travelled approx. 2 kilometers from the plant to the square. I like! I tried them for lunch with some halloumi, on the balcony of course.

Here´s a little thingy you can do with delicious new cabbage - cauliflower or white cabbage are equally delicious. Leeks are also very good with this ham stew. This is an old-fashioned and typically Swedish dish and I make it quite often in summer.

Stewed cabbage with ham
Cut the cabbage in large pieces and steam them or cook them in as little water as possible, with a little salt. Just cook it until just tender, not mushy! Drain off and save the fluids. Keep the cabbage warm.

Take some smoked ham or bacon and cut in little pieces. Chop a small onion. Fry ham and onion in a little butter until the onion is a little soft. Powder over some flour, maybe 3-4 tbsp and stir, then add the fluid from the cabbage and let it simmer until the sauce thickens a little. Add some cream or milk and let simmer for a couple of minutes, spice to taste with a little white pepper and pour it over the cabbage. Serve with new potatoes.

Football

... you know, when Sweden played against Paraguay this evening I walked home on a normally busy street and not as much as a cat in sight. Everyone but me was inside, watching TV. And now we won - well, that´s OK I guess. I would have felt sorry otherwise, for all the people who have bought blue and yellow sweaters, hats, socks, balls, underwear and God knows what more. Now they can use the stuff for a couple of weeks more.

Warmer than Greece...

... was the headline in my local newspaper yesterday. Now it is cooler but the good weather will return tomorrow. I am enjoying the feeling that my vacation is drawing nearer and nearer, today in two weeks is my first day and then four weeks off! I really need to relax, since I work with politics and the elections is coming up in the middle of September. My holiday plans: first a weekend in Gothenburg visiting one of my best friends. Then a couple of days up north with my grandfather and grandmother. Then our famous trip around the Baltics beginning on Saturday evening July 8th when the ferry leaves for Riga. And then some sailing.

But, well, before I can relax the days are hectic and I don´t cook much at the moment - I read food blogs and magazines though and the pile of untried recipes is growing. I know most foodbloggers bookmark recipes to try but I write them down on small pieces of paper and store them in my calendar. This was the last I wrote down, picked from the magazine Land "the magazine for us who enjoy country living". I read it at work and their food section is really good. Doesn´t this sound tasty?

Rinse three fennel heads and slice them very finely. Squeeze over the juice from one lemon and add 50 ml of olive oil. Then gently squeeze the fennel with your hands until it softens a little, spice to taste with salt and pepper and serve as a salad.

What are your summer plans and what recipe do you look forward to try?

Stockholm foodie tips

Woohoo, I just realised I crossed the 100th blog post barrier with my latest posting on the rhubarb! Imagine, how time flies...

The weather today is just...fantastic! (Very typical for Swedes, the weather obsession). The sky is blue, the sun is shining and above all it is hot. Almost 30 degrees. I will really try not to complain - this is what I have wanted for over six months. Old Town where I work is full of tourists and I feel inspired to make a quick lunchtime posting about some of my favourite places here in this part of town. I will try to write more some other time about other parts of the city too.

Whatever you do when you are in Old Town, don´t waste too much time on the main street Västerlånggatan! Lots and lots of people, tacky souvenir shops and expensive restaurants. That said, I can continue with the rest, the best... When you come walking from the Parliament Västerlånggatan there is a pharmacy (Apotek) on your right. Turn right after the pharmacy on Gråmunkegränd, walk down one block and you are on "my" street, Stora Nygatan. On the right side a few blocks up is a wonderful tea shop, Gamla stans te och kaffe, where you can find among other things my favourite: champagne tea with strawberries! (If you take right one block up on Stora Nygatan and walk one block down you are near my favourite lunch place at Postmuseum.)
Now back to Stora Nygatan. A few blocks further up the street on your left hand you can shop for good-quality and unique clothes at Gudrun Sjödén. Her design is very special but just right if you like colours and bright patterns. I like her "basic" clothes. Towels, carpets, bed linen and such also available, in the same style. Continue on Stora Nygatan as far as you can, then take left up to the square Järntorget where you preferrably go to Café Järntorget for a sandwich or an ice cream in freshly baked wafer. Good value and great food!
Now take right and continue around the corner on Österlånggatan with lots of cool shops and galleries. Choose any alley up the hill and you reach the "real" Gamla stan with calm, narrow streets, small parks and all the wonderful old houses. Sooner or later you come to Stortorget, another tourist spot but well worth seeing, it is a beatiful square surrounded by old buildings. In the corner opposite the entrance to the castle courtyard you find another favourite, Grillska huset, a café and restaurant run by an organisation for homeless people, Stadsmissionen. This is the place for lunch, the food is always delicious and their salad table... yum! Lots of food and salad and water and coffee for about 70 SEK. Try their roof terrace.
Now back to the castle. The large yellow building with the Nobel museum is well worth a visit. Then take the street going down to the left of the building. Visit Burkina Faso boutique if you want cool gifts to bring home, and dried mango. Take right, and you are soon on Västerlånggatan again. Walk 50 metres or so down Västerlånggatan and on your right is a shop called Wistra with Swedish non-tacky souvenirs and - most importantly - a good selection of Swedish food souvenirs such as jam, spices, bread and kitchen utensils. Another 75-100 metres up the street, also on your right, is a wonderful sweet shop where you can get old-fashioned Swedish candy like polkagrisar. They also sell hand made chocolates from Åre chokladfabrik.
Watch out for pick-pockets and enjoy your stay in Old town if you ever can make something of my tour advice!

Rhubarb/raspberry cheesecake

My rhubarb muffins turned out all right, but not more. It got stuck in my muffin pan for example. What´s the use for a teflon pan if you still have to grease it? Hmpf.
But I bring you another lovely rhubarb recipe instead! I made this cheesecake last Saturday for dessert when we had dinner for my in-laws. Actually I am not a huge cheesecake fan since they often contain digestive biscuits - a cookie I can live without. But for my birthday I got a wonderful book from my sister, Strawberries and rhubarb, Jordgubbar och rabarber, by Sandra Leigh Draznin. I want to try everything in this book and started with this cheesecake, partly because I could find a use for my old (but not too old) ginger snaps from Christmas.

I tweaked the original recipe by using a little less cream cheese (because I didn´t want to buy three packets) and by adding some raspberries from the freezer to the jelly. The author of this book must have found some other kind of rhubarb because her jelly was bright pink. Mine would have been light green and I didn´t think it would look so great... Next time I make it I will add some more rhubarb for a more intense taste, in this it was quite light. A matter of taste, of course, and on which kind of rhubarb you use. Next time I will also make the cookie bottom and the cheese one day and the jelly the next - makes it easier to cut... And yes, a LOT of sugar in this but hey - it is a dessert and it is delicious!

Rhubarb/raspberry cheesecake
10-12 pieces in a spring form with diameter 22 cm

250 g ginger snaps or digestive biscuits, crushed
75 grams butter, melted
4+3 gelatine sheets
350 grams rhubarb, peeled and finely sliced (will use more next time, at least 400 grams)
200 ml water
120 ml sugar
100 ml raspberries + some tbsp sugar
500 ml cream cheese
3 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla pod (I used some tbsp vanilla sugar)
1 egg white
3 tbsp sugar

Mix the cookie crumbs with the butter and press it out evenly in a spring form. Soak the gelatine. Boil the rhubarb with the water and sugar until soft. Drain it and save about 200 ml of the fluids. Press the water from 4 of the gelatine sheets and melt them in the warm rhubarb mush. Whip sugar, cheese and vanilla (scrape out the seeds) and fold into the rhubarb. Whip the egg white with the sugar firmly and fold it in too. Spread it as evenly as you can over the cookie bottom. Cover and put in fridge for about 2 hours so it settles.
Heat up the raspberries and mix with the rhubarb fluids so it is about 200 ml on the whole. Melt the remaining gelatine in this and pour over the cake. Let it settle in the fridge and serve.

Swedish National Day

Today is June 6th, our National Day here in Sweden. I have spent the afternoon in this outfit, my costume from Södra Unnaryd/Västbo, a place in the south-western part of Sweden. Both my maternal grandmother and my father´s family comes from this region so it feels just right to wear it! I have always had a national costume, when I was little I wore one from where my mother grew up in northern Sweden but then I got my grandmother´s old costume on my 12th birthday. I have outgrew it, but my mother has made a new skirt, apron and vest during the last couple of years. The skirt is dark blue with a red edge, the vest is striped differently in different villages (this stripe pattern is from the village Reftele) and the apron is printed cotton. On the side I wear a loose pocket and I wear a silver brooch on the blouse

The Unnaryd costume is one of the oldest described costumes in Sweden with details dating back to the 17th and 18th century - such as the model of the vest and the hat which is for unmarried women. I have never wore it until today but decided to try and wear a correct costume (adult women are supposed to wear something on the head) for this festive occasion - as you can see I also wear my silk shawl since I wasn´t going to dance so much today. Otherwise I wear a simple white cotton shawl when I dance because in this costume you wear the shawl inside the vest and you don´t want to sweat in fragile silk...

All in all a good day! And that hat protected me from the blazing sun... Now I am going to make some rhubarb muffins for tomorrow, I hope they turn out fine so I can write about them!

Sunday lunch

We go sailing for a couple of days each summer and how to make good food is always an issue. The ingredients has to be rather sturdy, and preferrably not in need of a fridge. All we have is an isolated bag... Then it cannot be too fiddly with a lot of chopping and different procedures because the kitchen is miniscule (although you can stand up straight there...) with two gas flames and a little sink with sea water and fresh water. Washing up is complicated too so you don´t want too many pots and things to be used either. It also has to be safe, and so far I have never ever cooked pasta during the days at sea - it is simply too dangerous having a big pot of boiling water waving about. And this is such a pity, because a warm, tasty pasta is exactly what the crew craves! I have often made risotto instead, but now I have found several recipes in a short time for pasta cooked "risotto-style" and decided to give it a go for Sunday lunch.

And, my friends, I have found a solution to our food problems at sea! The slow cooking makes the pasta really tasty, you get a lot of flavour from it. This is also a great way to use leftovers! Yes, a success. This just has to be the perfect way to cook pasta! No fuss, you can use anything and it is sooo tasty and easy.

Pasta the risotto way à la my fridge this afternoon
Serves 1 very hungry person

100 grams good pasta, I used a tasty wholemeal version
about 200 ml hot stock or water, I didn´t have any stock cubes at home so I used some white wine (leftover!), water and herbes de provence
3-4 sundried tomatoes, soaked in hot water or in oil (leftover from Saturday night)
1 finely chopped yellow onion
fresh herbs, fresh tomatoes or whatever greens you have on hand (we made filled pork loin yesterday so I had some left of a lovely parsley/basil/sundried tomato mix)
3-4 slices of streaky bacon (also a leftover from this week)
some good strong cheese, like parmesan, but I always substitute Västerbotten cheese which is a lovely strong and flaky Swedish cheese

Chop the onion and sautée until a little soft in some olive oil. Add the pasta and stir until it is covered with oil and a little shiny. Add the wine or water or stock or what you use, it should just cover the pasta. Boil on low heat until the pasta is done and check it once in a while if it needs more fluid. If some fluid is left when the pasta is done don´t drain it, it has lots of flavour. Serve immediately with crispy bacon, veggies and some cheese on top.

Oh Lord(i)

On TV right now - an outdoor concert live from Helsinki with the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi. Now I know what they did with all the leftover orch costumes from the Lord of the Rings movie. At least some of them were sold to this bizarre Finnish rock band! Also they resembles the rubber dinosaurs my brother collected when he was little. But where did they get that mummy on a stick they are waving?
Lazy thoughts from the couch! We are enjoying a lovely long weekend, starting yesterday on Thursday. Today it feels like Saturday but it is Friday. Earlier it felt like a Sunday but it wasn´t. It is raining but I am enjoying myself by planning for the balcony garden and of course cooking. And we are also planning our coming holiday in Latvia and Estonia. July 7th we are leaving for Riga, and then driving over the islands Saaremaa and Hiumaa to Estonia. So now we have lots to do booking ferry tickets and accomodation...

This post is to announce an important thing: I have had matje herring for the first time this year. Ask any Swede (almost) and the thought of matje herring with new potatoes and sourcream, gräddfil brings tears in their eyes. Not without reason, it is extremely tasty! Other tasty things this weekend: kroppkakor, (like gnocchi balls with filling of ham and onion) made by my dear man yesterday, roasted asparagus with Västerbotten cheese and a lovely sweet and sour beef and dill casserole I am cooking tomorrow.

Ah, sorry for this blah blah posting - just felt like writing something!

Cyberkocken 2

Today is no ordinary day because it is Cyber chef day! Cyberkocken is the Swedish edition of Paper Chef, this time hosted by Frida of Broccoli who by the way got married yesterday. Congratulations! And since she goes on honeymoon Ilva fixes the round up.
And now Swedish! English version further down!

Hmm, mango, spenat, quinoa och något rökt var inte de lättaste ingredienserna att kombinera. Men skam den som ger sig! Idén att göra någon slags rullar fick jag av vännen A - tack! Däremot justerade jag resten i sista stund eftersom jag inte hade lust att gå iväg till affären, en folkdansuppvisning i ösregn hade tullat allvarligt på mina krafter. Istället för den kalla rätt med färska varor som jag hade tänkt mig blev det en varm version av de ingredienser jag hade hemma. Mangon är i chutney-form dels för att jag som sagt inte orkade gå till affären och dels för att det kändes som om det skulle bli godare. Och det blev det. Men nästa gång jag går till affären ska jag skaffa en ny chutney, nu använde jag Santa Marias och det var faktiskt aningen för mycket nejlikor i!

Kristinas kalkonrullar
2 huvudrätter eller 4 smårätter

6 skivor rökt kalkon
1 dl quinoa + drygt 2 dl vatten eller buljong
2 dl bladspenat från frysen, tinad och grovhackad
1 finhackad liten gul lök
salt och peppar
3-4 msk god mango chutney

Skölj quinoan i hett vatten och koka den sedan i vatten eller buljong tills den är mjuk och de små "svansarna" har tittat fram. Fräs löken på svag värme tills den är mjuk och genomskinlig, tillsätt spenaten och låt det puttra ihop någon minut. Smaka av med salt och peppar. Blanda väl med quinoan.

Bred ut kalkonskivorna på en skärbräda och bred lite mango chutney på varje. Lägg på en rejäl hög av den varma quinoa-spenatblandningen och rulla ihop till trevliga små rullar. Servera bums med en bit gott bröd.

... And in English...

Cyberkocken this time was about the ingredients quinoa, mango, spinach and something smoked. My dear friend A suggested I should make some kind of rolls and I jumped at the task Saturday evening buying some smoked turkey. Today I would buy fresh mango and spinach and make a delicious cold salad, and wrap it in turkey. So I thought. But after folk dancing in pouring rain today I was so exhausted I couldn´t be bothered to go to the shop. Luckily I had all ingredients at home, but the mango is in chutney form... The cold salad turned into something warm salad-like and the rolls turned out great even though my new chutney is not so good, to much cloves in it. I am definitely going to try my invention more times, this is a good summer´s dinner or lunch I think and can be varied endlessly.

Kristina´s turkey rolls with warm quinoa salad and chutney
serves 2 as a main course and 4 on a buffet or as a starter

6 slices of smoked turkey or ham
100 ml quinoa + 200 ml water
1 finely chopped yellow onion
200 ml spinach from the freezer, thawed and roughly chopped
salt and pepper
3-4 tbsp of your favourite chutney

Rinse the quinoa and boil it until soft in the water. Fry the onion until soft, add the spinach and sautée for a couple of minutes. Mix with the quinoa and spice to taste with salt and pepper.
Spread the mango chutney on the turkey slices, put a good amount quinoa/spinach mix on each slice and roll it up. Serve immediately with some good bread.

Throwing food away...

This week I heard on the evening news that Swedes every year throw away 900 000 tons of food. For various reasons, of course, sometimes you just fail cooking something, but the main problem is that people has stopped sniffing and tasting food before they bin it. They look at the expiry date and if it has passed - off it goes!
The same thing happens in food stores where the staff every day has to throw away perfectly good meat, milk and vegetables just because the date is "wrong". The reporter said to compare that everything grown in a country big as Belgium correspond to the amount of veggies that are just thrown away every year.

This report really made me think about my own habits. We try not to throw away food in this house, and we try to use our groceries before they are too old (and I mean really too old, I taste and sniff!) but compared to older generations we are real wasters! I have an old cookbook from 1925, the year my maternal grandmother was born. In that book is a whole chapter on what to do with leftovers! Has anyone seen such a thing in a modern cookbook? No. I think not. So from now on I will try even harder to really treat food with the respect it deserves. Use leftovers, not buy more than I need, look in the fridge before I go to the shop so I don´t buy something we already have... And this is easier said than done, everyone knows how easy it is to just drop in the shop on the way home and buy something new instead of going home and be creative with all the random strange things you have lying around...

It would be really interesting to write a cookbook where the starting point is different leftovers and not the usual: meat, poultry, fish, vegetables... It would be good both to wallets and environment!

And now I am curious:

• Which leftovers are most common at your place? (Ours: cooked rice and potatoes and bread)
• What is your most common leftover dish? (Mine (at the moment): Japanese trick with old rice)

Flying Jacob

Flying Jacob is a true Swedish classic and true comfort food. Fat-wise it has it all - bacon, whipping cream, grilled chicken and peanuts. And taste-wise it is simply glorious, even if you don´t want to have it every day, not even every month. I tried to find out some history about this rather peculiar dish but didn´t succeed. Maybe someone else knows?

Anyway, yesterday after nearly a full day´s work cleaning out the office in our dancing club´s house I made a "Jacob" for dinner and we enjoyed it on the balcony watching the sunset. Sorry about the lousy picture... Try this recipe - and then compensate by having something healthier the day after!

Flying Jacob
Serves 4-6
4 servings of plain rice, cooked
1 grilled chicken
150 grams streaky bacon, cut in pieces and fried until crisp
300 ml whipping cream
50 ml chili sauce or ketchup
100 ml toasted and salted peanuts
2 bananas

Spread the rice in an ovenproof dish. Take off the skin from the chicken and shred all the meat. Spread it over the rice. Slice the banans and put them on the chicken. Whip the cream and stir in the chili sauce, spread it over the chicken. Top with bacon and peanuts and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes on medium heat, 200-225 degrees. Serve immediately with a fresh salad.
Some people include a little curry powder in the cream but I don´t. You can also serve the rice on the side if you want

BBQ premier with home made potato salad

Another premier yesterday, first barbecue of the year with good friends, catching up and admiring a baby girl, three weeks old. I also did a lot of playing with her big sister, aged 2, who is very talkative and takes her new role in the family very seriously. She told me several times: "it is my little sister!" and when I held the baby she came and said "help out!" Of course she could. I lifted her up to my lap so she could help me keep the baby happy with a lot of hugging and kissing. What could be better an evening in May, entertaining two adorable little girls and enjoying a good meal outside in the garden?

For the grill we tried one of two samples I got when I attended my first (and last? Quite a unique arrangement) press release barbecue lunch this Wednesday at Scan, with Anne. More on that later. We got some steaks called Mammut, that´s mammoth in Swedish (by the way, do you know why there are not any mammuts left? There were no papputs! Haaahaaahaaa! Get it? Pappa is father in Swedish) and some ready skewers and I brought the mammuts to the party. Normally I prefer to choose and spice my own meat for the grill but this kind of meat ready for the grill come in handy many times. I think I will try the Mammuts again this summer because the taste was really really good and the meat (pork) very tender, but the skewers were nothing for me, something with the spice... A matter of taste perhabs?

Now back to our Saturday dinner. I really hate that greasy mayonniase-y white potato salad you buy in plastic boxes. Expensive and with an ingredient list longer than... oh I don´t know. A snake? Anyway, I always make my own and almost never use "white" things - I prefer vinaigrette or a good stock to flavour the potatoes but will maybe try it out with some Greek yoghurt soon.

Potato salad with variations
I don´t give exact quantities, merely an idea of what I ususally whip up in summer when I want a potato salad...

Boil 1-2 medium potato per person - watch it so it doesn´t overcook because you don´t want that. Cut in nice chunks.
While the potatoes are still warm, this is essential so they really suck in the taste, toss them with some good vinaigrette spiced with what you prefer - mustard or herbs or a little garlic... Let it sit until it has cooled off, then carefully stir in for example:

• capers, turnip kale, green pepper and zucchini as in the picture
• ground feta cheese and very finely sliced leeks
• very finely chopped red onion
• chives
• fresh herbs of your choice - like parsley, basil, thyme
• rocket salad

Enjoy your summer evenings!

balcony premier with club sandwich

I have, as you may know, waited eagerly for the spring, the sun, the warm winds. And they are here! Today I had my first lunch outdoors, chicken with herbs and chanterelle rice, on a very nice and sunny roof terrace with my dear friend A. And this evening my man and I had our first dinner on the balcony. We have a lovely balcony turned westwards so we get a lot of evening sun, and soon we will fill it with geraniums and other flowers, and herbs for cooking.

I had planned for a pasta with beef, mushrooms, zucchini and mustard but as it turned out my man wanted to celebrate spring with the best meat available in the shop, Swedish fillet of beef. Since he is the sandwich expert in this household, I have told you before about his great prawn sandwiches, I only assisted him in the making of these delicious club sandwiches with fresh rocket and spinach, tomatoes, a thick stew of mushrooms and zucchinis spiced with a little mustard and of course the wonderfully tender meat. He is also very good at the presentation as you can see!

This weekend it is going to be about 20 degrees each day, lovely lovely! I have lots to do cleaning, folk dancing and meeting friends but will try to blog a bit too.

Fantastic club sandwiches
Serves 2 on a sunny balcony

2 slices of fillet of beef or some other good meat
10-12 champignons or other good mushrooms, cut in half or quarters
1/2 small zucchini in half-moons
2 tbsp plain flour
100 ml cream or milk
1-2 tbsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper
4 slices of good bread
a handful of rocket and spinach
some tomato slices
2 slices of mozzarella

Start with the stew. Prepare the mushrooms and zucchinis and fry them in a little butter until a little tender. Powder over the flour and stir a little to bind the fluids, then add the milk a little at a time and let simmer for a couple of minutes until it thickens. Spice to taste with mustard, salt and pepper.
Fry the meat a couple of minutes on each side - everyone seems to want their meat differently but we prefer it a little pink inside. Salt and pepper. Put the meat aside and let it rest while you fry the bread. Get your plates ready and combine your sandwiches as you please. Ours were bread-salad-meat-stew-bread-mozzarella-tomato. A wooden skewer helps to stabilize it. Carry them out in the sun and eat them immediately! A cold (Estonian) beer is nice to have with it. And try to ignore the teenagers driving back and forth with their mopeds (aaargh! Is this an international problem? Drives me crazy, but I also understand it is irresistible).

Cyber chef

Firstly I want to thank you all for visiting - my counter has passed 7000 visits now - a number I couldn´t believe some months ago... I still think it is so fun to blog about food and meet other foodies - in the comments and mails or even for real. Today for example I met Anne for a truly unusal lunch, but more on that subject when I get the photo of her, me and...

Last week I participated in the Swedish edition of Paper chef, called Cyberkocken i.e. Cyber chef. Phew. That was complicated. Anyway, the winner was Frida of the Swedish food blog Broccoli with some fantastic-sounding meatballs with lentils. I will try it and translate it some time. Another winner is Lexi of Catching points (also linked) who blogs in English and won the prize for "quick and easy" with a scrumptious lentil salad with ricotta...

My own contribution to the contest (the given ingredients were red lentils, rocket salad, pistachio nuts and something yellow) was with a recipe I am very proud of, tweaked a bit to fit in with the ingredients. I made it up many years ago when I had a party for some friends. Among the guest was a girl who was lactose intolerant and also a vegetarian and I created these peppers with lentils because I wanted her to have something nice and warm and filling. As it turned out not only she but all of the guests loved them so I have made them many many times since! They are tasty warm and cold but doesn´t freeze well, but you could make a double batch of lentils and freeze that. It also makes a good soup if you pour some water in... Now the recipe!

Kristinas peppers with lentils and spring salad with rocket and pistachios.
Serves 6 on a buffet or 3-4 people as a main course. (I served it with some grilled chicken as you can see in the picture)
6 medium peppers, I like them in different colours
1 finely chopped yellow onion
1 tin peeled whole tomatoes or 3-4 fresh, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large bay leaf
200 ml red lentils
salt and freshly ground black pepper
large pinch of dried herbs, I often use herbes de Provence or a small handful of fresh thyme
If you want: some grated cheese (I used some left over halloumi this time)

Cut off a lid on the peppers and remove seeds. Rinse and put in an ovenproof dish. I never parboil them, don´t think it is necessary. Chop up the lids and the onion and sauté in some olive oil until a little soft. Add the red lentils and the tomatoes with the spice and bay leaf and stir. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the lentils are soft. The mix should get really thick, but watch it so it doesn´t burn. Spice to taste.
Use a large spoon and fill the peppers to the brim with the lentils. Crumble over osme cheese if you like (feta cheese is wonderful!) Bake in 200C 20-30 minutes until the peppers are alittle soft and the cheese has some colour...

The salad is simple but delicious. I just spread the salad on a plate and stirred a little yoghurt with some lemon zest - drizzled it over the salad and added, at the last minute, some toasted pistacios right from the pan, still warm... I also used some flakes of my Fleur du sel.