Everyday luxury: going to the market!

Today´s Swedish word: torg. Means square.

One thing I have seldom done before I started this blog is shopping at markets, and I haven´t had a clue about seasons - when to buy the best.
Well, now I do! I have had a vegetable box coming all spring every other week with organic fruit and veg but this time of year I prefer to buy everything myself. I have the great luck to work just five minutes walk from the market square here in my hometown - so every Wednesday and also Friday or Saturday when the vendors are there I go down to shop for fresh vegetables and fruit.

These are some very, very nice cucumbers I bought from my favourite stand, a very kind man who runs a small-scale business outside town and go to the square laden with fresh veg, flowers and potatoes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I also bought some sprouted dill to use for pickled cucumbers - but no recipe yet. I have to try them before I can make any recommendations. Last year I failed with my cucumbers... For now it will have to make do with the pretty picture!

Vacation highlights: a cookbook find

Today´s Swedish word: kokbok. Means cookbook

We were a bit unlucky with the weather when we went to Estonia this summer - it rained, rained, rained... for days! And then it held up for a couple of hours so we could take a walk and then it started pouring down again. But I don´t complain, after exploring the big cities Riga and Vilnius and after a bumpy bus ride between Pärnu and Haapsalu I was more than happy to lie on the bed and read in our little cottage at Roosta Pühkeküla.

Anyway, on the third day of rain we decided to go into Haapsalu for a little shopping and then we stopped by a promising-looking café right beside the old castle.
I was standing in line when I saw a fantastic cookbook lying on a table and picked it up just to look at the beautiful photos. I don´t know any Estonian so buying cookbooks is not to think of. But then I realised, that this cookbook is written in Estonian and English. Perfect! I bought a cappuccino, a pastry and a copy of the book on the spot and then spent the afternoon and evening reading. And reading. And reading. And getting inspired... And learning lots of Estonian words!
This book is so, so nice. It is called Sapemaa Talu Köök, or The Kitchen of Sapemaa Talu. Sapemaa Talu is the summer home of the author Anni Arro, and the recipes are all "summer food" but highly versatile for the rest of the year as well. It is still on my bedside table now, I leaf through it almost every day to look at the pictures and drool over the recipes. The only downside is that almost every recipe uses garlic and I cannot use garlic because of A´s stomach but then again I am used to getting around those little cloves!

In the bowl beside the book is the result of my first recipe trial: broad beans cooked Estonian style as they are in the pods in heavily salted water. It appealed to me because de-podding broad beans is not my cup of tea and I love broad beans so I gave it a try. You should too, now while they are in season (at least here). Just put a large amount of broad beans in a big pot, cover with water and put in 3-4 tablespoons of coarse salt. Let them simmer for 30 minutes or a bit more until soft, drain and serve at once with a little sourcream. They were heaven! And it is good fun sitting around the table, picking and eating on a summer evening.

Another Pasta salad

Today´s Swedish word: matsäck. Means picnic.


Still many things going on in my life and not enough time for blogging, or cooking but I at least do it more often now than a month ago. I have been back to work for two weeks and it is OK considering I work part-time and hence have the possibility to enjoy the summer weather which of course showed up right on time for work to begin again.


This time of year we try to have a really quick dinner and then go out to the cottage or take the bikes and go for a swim after work. And sometimes we don´t even want to wait for dinner, but go immediately. This pasta salad was brought to the cottage last week in my beloved collapsible Tupperware bowl (you can even put it in the diswasher when it is flat like a pancake and it still gets clean!), paired with grilled chicken from the deli and the broad bean mash for dressing/dipping. Very good!

Vacation highlights: Double Coffee

Today´s Swedish word: dubbel. Means double.


When I am abroad I like to try new things and go to local restaurants, but nevertheless it is nice to have a reliable back-up, some place you know will always deliver. When you are just too hungry, or too tired, or if you have a cold and feel really sorry for yourself it is so soothing to just see a sign outside a building and say: "Oh, why not just go to..."


For many people it is McDonald´s and sometimes for me too, but on the road in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania we return to the chain Double Coffee again and again. Brekfast in Riga, and here it is lunch in Vilnius: a scrumptious potato pancake with cottage cheese and mushrooms and fresh veg. And dill, of course. Double Coffee is not very cheap, but not expensive either for us Swedes. They serve omelettes, breakfasts, salads, sandwiches, desserts and all kinds of coffee and drinks. Always fresh and nice and also with a local twist. The menu is not the same in all three countries (take that, McD!). And it is almost always open. Try it, should you be in the vicinity!

Broadbean mash

Today´s Swedish word: bondbönor. Means broad beans

For the elections 1994 my party produced a give-away notebook in very fashionable brown environmentally-friendly paper - it is so knobbly you can only write on one side of the sheets! Anyway, I used it as a recipe book and it is fun to leaf through it now and see what 20-year old me fancied to cook in the filthy corridor kitchen. Many of the recipes originated from my mother, such as frozen Daim cake (but I could never make that as I only had half a shelf in the freezer and it was always crammed with microwave pizzas), the pie recipe that came with her food processor and that we always make at home and of course Blå Jungfruns muffins which I still often make. Then there are things that I have had at parties - a special vanilla sauce, two pasta recipe from my dear friend Eva-Lotta who also lived at the corridor, stuffed lemons (?), "amateur jambalaya"... Oh yeah, this notebook is fun!

Last week I bought a bag of broad beans at the market and left them lying around for a while thinking about what to make. Maybe a potato salad? But then I remembered that I had a recipe jotted down in that old notebook - from where I don´t know and I have never tried it. Now was the time. I didn´t have 300 ml of broad beans at the time so I just improvised the quantities but it turned out very good! I have had it with pasta salad but it would also be good with hard-boiled eggs or as a spread for a sandwich.

Broad bean mash
300 ml boiled broad beans
100 ml mayonnaise
100 ml sourcream of some kind, I used turkish yoghurt
salt and pepper
a good handful of chopped fresh herbs: I used chives, basil, parsley from the balcony

Mash the cooked beans in a bowl and fold in the rest of the ingredients. Spice to taste. It keeps in the fridge for a couple of days.

Vacation highlights: Riga

Today´s Swedish word:gryta. Means stew, or casserole.

I came back this Sunday from a rather long stay in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Three small countries with a lot on offer! This time we mainly spent time in the capitals Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn but also in the adorable little seaside town Pärnu and the countryside in western Estonia where my mother-in-law comes from. Our first week was all sun, sun, sun and then it was rain rain rain almost all our time in Estonia. Luckily we already love this country so we wasn´t a bit put off!

I thought I would share some culinary and maybe other highlights of our trip. This is a stew I had at a traditional restaurant in Riga´s Old Town on our first night there. Sadly I didn´t take any notes but I remember it as a rather simple stew with quite a lot of tomato taste. It reminded me of my meat stew with peanut butter actually. The stew was served with whole barley and of course decorated with a lot of dill, the classic garnish in this part of the world. My man is a big dill-lover so he was in heaven for two weeks!

Summery meatloaf

Today´s Swedish word: köttfärs. Means mince.

Perhabs a meatloaf seems like an odd choice for this time of year, but for me mince patties and meatloafs are very summery. The ultimate meal in summer is at my parents´veranda, with mince patties, potatoes right from the garden, sometimes there is grated beetroot in the patties also fresh from the garden, fresh dill, fresh salad, fresh tomatoes and our own milk. Luxury! I hope to be able to do the same in my own house as soon as we buy one. (Well, I will have to compromise on own milk).


This is my sister-in-law´s recipe for a meat-loaf that you roll up instead of filling it from the top. I don´t know where she got it from so cannot give credit, but whoever made it knows what she/he is doing. The sauce is particularly nice, but I also like a cold sauce with my mince - yoghurt or sourcream with herbs. From the garden. I can imagine that you can vary the filling in one million ways - use what you have on hand!

Meatloaf with classic Swedish cream sauce
Serves 4
400 grams mince
1 egg
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
50 ml water, boiling
1/2 tbsp concentrated veal stock
good pinch of salt and pepper

Filling:
10 button mushrooms, or chanterelles from the freezer
1 small onion
7 sundried tomatoes
125 grams of mozzarella cheese
fresh basil and /or thyme

Pour the boiling water over the tomatoes. Chop and sautée the onions and mushrooms. Chop up the soaked tomatoes, shred them and stir in with the chopped herbs. Put aside. Save the water for the breadcrumbs and let them soak for a couple of minutes. Stir in the egg, veal stock and the mince.
Put a large piece of plastic foil on the kitchen counter and spread out the mince in a rectangular shape. Crumble over the mozzarella cheese and the mushroom-onion-tomato mix. Roll it up using the plastic for support and dump it in an ovenproof dish. Bake in 180C for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce...
250 ml cream, I use cooking cream
1 tbasp concentrated veal stock
2 teaspoons corn starch
pan juices
splash of dark soy sauce
salt and pepper
Mix the ingredients and bring to the boil. Let it thicken on low heat and spice to taste. You can add a splash of worcestersauce as well. When the meatloaf is ready pour the pan juices in the sauce for extra taste.
Serve with boiled potatoes and green peas for example.

Oooops

I had arranged for some posts to "magically appear" on the blog while I am away but seem to have done something wrong... Now you can see them all though! Sorry.

I am currently at a beachside summer´s cottage village in Estonia, it has been raining for a few days but we are enjoying ourselves anyway! Both Riga and Vilnius was fantastic and I had some great food.
Until I write again - enjoy your summer as well!

Wedding decorations: flowers

Today´s Swedish word: näckros. Means water lily.

I love being able to take proper photos again! This is a close-up of one of the table decorations for the wedding: a glass vase with a water lily, some pebbles and leaves... Simple and beautiful! When I arrived on Friday (sadly I had to go alone since A was sick) the one thing to do was to roll up the sleeves and get to work laying the tables for the party. It was held in an old barn with a gooood dance floor, and the colours chosen by the bride was light green and white.

Porridge

Today´s Swedish word: gröt. Means porridge.

This is my brother sitting at one of the best kitchen tables in the world: my grandparents´, in a little village up north. I associate this table a lot with summer breakfasts, and porridge. My grandfather very often made blueberry porridge for us, blueberries and rye. After all grandchildren had finished eating as much as we could usually there still was a lot of porridge left for grandpa to finish, which he always did squeezing in the last spoonfuls and saying: "ooooh, that was a lot of porridge I ate right there".

Now my brother has taken over the tradition of eating *a lot* of porridge, and he is even "worse" because he has to pour the milk in a bowl by the side to get room for all the porridge he needs to get through the day. This day was a really special day since we all were going to my cousin´s wedding, going on from noon until 3 in the morning. And yes, with great food. More to come on that...

We are on our way...

.... to Riga! This afternoon we will get on the ferry and go to our very nice neighbour conutry Latvia, and its beautiful capital RIga. We will stay there at least one night, and then go down to Lithuania to see either Vilnius or the coast, depending on weather. Then we will go back up to Latvia and further to Estonia, and go back to Stockholm next weekend. All in all nearly two weeks in one of the favourite parts of the world!

I hope you my dear readers will have a good time wherever you are, with lots of sun and delicious summer food, for example a trusty pasta salad like this one. I have no recipe, what goes in the salad depends on what I have in the fridge but I usually have some kind of cheese in it, and olives. I also always pour over the dressing, usually a vinaigrette while the pasta is still hot.

I will have some posts about the wedding appearing here while I am away, and hopefully by the beginning of the week after next I will be back with lots of nice memories from my holiday!

Wedding: the food!

Today´s Swedish word: tallrik. Means plate.

OK, so we have come to the food! All was prepared by relatives and friends for the buffet. This is my plate, loaded about a week ago...

• spring rolls


• tzatziki


• smoked salmon


• potato salad


• bean salad


• tomato salad


• roast beef


• "tjälknöl", another kind of cold sliced meat


• lamb sausages


• my uncle´s tapenade


• ... and I am sure I forgot something!

For starters we had my uncle´s lobster soup, served in jugs to pour over little bowls with crawfish tails and dill - a very nice way to serve this. After the buffet and before the dancing we had chocolate tarts with raspberries in them, decorated with rose petals.

Wedding decorations: crown

Today´s Swedish word: krona. Means crown.

More wedding decorations - perhabs some of you are interested... My aunt made a large "crown" from birch leaves and blueberry leaves with ribbons and paper water lilies: paper flowers are traditional to use at weddings both for the bride and the decorations. She also made the other crown, a slightly smaller one to put on the head of the bride. My cousins made long pleated garlands, which hung from the walls and up to this crown, with fairy lights and also white cloth ribbons which in fact is the kind of weave you use to protect your plants from cold nights. Handy and inexpensive! And soooo beautiful. The crown hung over the tables in the old barn where we had the party.

(I have not yet quite mastered all the functions of my camera so the photo is not very good but I hope you get the feeling of it.)

New camera!

Today´s Swedish word: apa. Means monkey.

My prescence here on the blog has been no less than a disaster lately - partly because I have been busy with Real Life and partly because of our lousy camera. It is just no fun blogging about food if the photos of the lovely concoction you just made looks like a blur.

But this Saturday I took the car and drove to a shopping center and bought a camera. Yay! I have however not cooked anything really this week so my motifs has been our lovely little nephew G and the lemur monkeys at Skansen. This photo is however a little food related, because the leumur seemed to want to have my friend´s cell phone for lunch.

Friend: give-it-back
Lemur: ooooh, yum yum. Gnaw gnaw gnaw, tug tug tug.

Well, I am off to prepare for the weekend. This Saturday my cousin is getting married up north and I have to get packing and rent a car because it doesn´t seem as my man can go with me; he is ill, and I don´t want to drive our own car alone - it has started to jump as a lemur on the road again. I will resume taking food photos this evening!

Sweets from Germany!

Today´s Swedish word: Tyskland. Means Germany.
Ooooh, sorry sorry sorry for dragging so much behind posting about this. Too much weddings! Anyway. Of course I participated in the 7th round of EBBP, Euro Blogging By Post, hosted by the passionate cook Johanna, and here is what turned up in my mailbox a week or so ago. Süßigkeiten from Florian of Küchenkrieg - all the way from Hamburg, Germany!

I got all sorts of stuff - even ice cream! (unfrozen!) Oooh, I really have to get a new camera but the ice cream is the blurry thing in the middle in front of the Kinderegg, a regular treat for Swedish children too! You know - it is chocolate, a toy and a surprise! I also got other chocolates, biscuits, jelly, cherry lollies... oh, and some smurfs of which the daddy-smurf apparently is the best. I haven´t tried him yet! All the sweets came with a nice long letter explaining about everything, giving me a recipe for the jelly (thank you! My German is not what it should be. At all.) and a personal story behind each item.
Thank you so much Florian! If you want to know more about the EBBP round head over here to read!

Sister of the bride

Today´s Swedish word: brud. Means bride.

Did you miss me? I have missed myself too! For a couple of weeks my whole mind (almost, I had to spare some space for my exam in law) has been occupied with this gorgeous girl, my dearest sister Helena, and her wedding.

Our flat is a mess, I have barely cooked anything in weeks and the intray is out of control but what does it matter when you get to share such a magic day with all your family and relatives? We also got to tie two families together in more than one way. Not only did these two marry each other but we all got to know each other while preparing for the party. We worked all night on Friday laying tables, making flower arrangements and I prepared small sandwiches with creme fraiche, sundried tomatoes and basil. I also (beforehand!) made the wonderful biscotti with ginger, almonds and pink peppercorns from the passionate cook. A great success with the bubbly and strawberries when the bride and groom had arrived - her riding a large black horse and him walking by her side...

We celebrated all night, eating and dancing and singing, and the next day we had a do in my parents´garden with lunch and coffee with leftover wedding cake. Now I am a bit tired but it will be back to normal in a few days I guess. And our flat will be clean and proper again and we will plan our vacation and I will fill in all the boring forms for my part-time unemplyment. It will all feel better to do all this when I have nice memories like this wedding to think of!

And I will cook again, and blog - about sweets from Germany and LA, veggies, rhubarb and loads of other stuff. And in a month we will head off for another wedding!

P.S. Of course we had cheesecake for dessert! D.S.

Another Swedish cheesecake

Today´s Swedish word: ost. Means cheese.

I have written before about Swedish cheesecake, different types and recipes. When we were up north last weekend we passed the absolutely stunningly beautiful landscape Hälsingland and layed our greedy hands on a large piece of cheesecake the Hälsingland way. Here it is, slightly warmed and served with a nice spoonful of cloudberry jam. We bought it at a regular food store in Järvsö, 30 kilometres north of the place where my mother grew up.

I won´t give you the recipe at the moment, I have never made it myself and those who knows things say that making Hälsingeostkaka is much harder than Smålandsostkaka. But since A is really pissed off that I just stole the last piece like this I guess I will have to start experimenting in the kitchen...
This cheesecake is more smooth than the Småland cheesecake, and a little bit chewy - like halloumi but not salty at all and not that solid. I guess (but have never tried) that you could try and slice it and fry in butter, cinnamon and sugar! Mmmmm.
Next time we´ll have Hälsingeostkaka is at my cousin´s wedding in July, and next time we´ll have Smålandsostkaka is at my sister´s wedding in just over two weeks!

Bolero

Today´s Swedish word: trevlig. Means nice.
If you have plans on vacation in Stockholm I know a place where you can eat. Well, I know a lot of places but until now it has been quite hard to find something decent in the very heart of our beautiful capital. There are good places in the south, north, east and west - and Gamla Stan - but if you are hungry around Sergels torg there are mostly fast food restaurants and boring cafés.
Go to Café Bolero at Klarabergsgatan, right across the street from the large department store Åhléns. I was on my way to Burger King some Fridays ago with a severe dip of blood sugar after a shopping round (dress for my sister´s wedding) when I suddenly recalled the Swedish food blogger Alice Brax writing about some place in the city and turned on the heel to go there instead and wait for my equally low-blood-sweet boyfriend.
After a fantastic salad with beef, lettuce, olives and parmesan cheese for me and a grilled chicken sandwich for him we were both nice and sweet again, our wallets only slightly lighter (i.e. reasonable prices) and our bodies very relaxed after sitting on a soft couch listening to nice latino music.
Go there!

A thousand shades of green

Today´s Swedish word: grön. Means green.

One of the reasons I love the month May is that the trees are so beautiful when the leaves starts to come. For a couple of weeks the forest you see from the train, the road or from our windows come in thousands of different green colours, from the lightest green birches to deep green pine and spruce. Here and there you also see clouds of flowering blackthorn towards the green. It is so beautiful, you cannot stop looking at it. During the summer all the trees are the same green, but then in September-October you get lots of different colours again.
I think of the trees when I look at my newest sewing project, the effect on this quilt reminds me of what I see outside the window right now.

A dear friend of mine got a baby boy in February, and since I liked sewing the quilt for little G I decided to make another one for this little L. This time I went for all fabrics green and nature-related since his father is an biologist and his mother works with environmental issues and I must say I am very pleased with the way it came out. The photo is terrible, we really have to get more pixels soon, so you may not be able to see all the frogs, grass, leaves, forests, farms and dragonflies....

I am looking forward to 4 days off now, due to Ascension day. This afternoon we will probably (if A gets a good deal at the hotel) set off for Sundsvall, a very beutiful town up north where we have a good friend to visit. This trip comes on rather short notice but while we still don´t have kids or any pets we can be spontaneous!
Have a good weekend, you too!

Free gourmet food

Today´s Swedish word: gratis. Means free.

Farmers must be careful with money and every saved krona can be put somewhere else where it is more needed. A classic saying from my father is "Un-bought, that is the best thing there is!" When he finds something for free, or when he can fix something that is broken not having to replace it he smiles pleasantly and says it, with a certain glow to him.

As I am very much my father´s daughter, last weekend these little stingy darlings made me glow. Nettles, true gourmet food. Tasty, very good for you and best of all: they are free. Well, apart from a few drops of fuel for the car that is. We decided to go and pick a good bunch of them while they are still fresh and delicate, for freezing and using later on. The only downside is the stingy part of the business, even if I wear thick gloves I always seem to get burned somewhere, picking or preparing.

We used some of the nettles for soup and some for a frittata, and froze the rest in small bags for soups and pies later. Pick as many small, delicate, fresh nettles as you want and put them in a large bowl or the wash basin in the kitchen, with lots of cold water. Stir and work with your hands (they don´t burn in water if you are careful) very carefully so the sand sinks to the bottom. Pick out grass, leaves, bugs and woody stalks and scoop up the nettles into a large pan. Bring to the boil with water and let simmer for abot 15 minutes. Strain the nettles (save the stock for soup!) and pack into plastic bags or chop them and use for example in a...

Nettle frittata
Serves 4
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
olive oil for frying
about 100 grams parboiled nettles
150 ml grated cheese, I used some "ordinary" cheese and some parmesan
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
4 eggs

Put the oven on 200C. Fry the onion in the oil until soft and shiny. Add the chopped nettles and stir in. Whisk the eggs and add the onions and nettles, stir in the cheese and spice to taste with salt and pepper.
Grease a small ovenproof dish or line it with greaseproof paper. Pour in the egg batter and bake until settled, about 15-20 minutes. Serve hot, tepid or cold with for example smoked salmon.
Recipe from Swedish TV chef Maud Onnermark, originally with green kale but I have used both spinach and now nettles.