Saturday, November 29, 2008

Gingerbread Cookies (Pepparkakor)

Here it is, the kick-off to Christmas season! I decided to try my hand at making these delicious cookies. I got a recipe from an expert- Johan's mom! And I needed them for the weekend. The reipe says to let the dough sit in the fridge for 2 days (I think I'm seeing a trend) so I made the dough a couple days ago. I began by boiling some light syrup, sugar and water together. I added that to the butter, cinnamon, cloved and kardemum. One the butter melted and the mixture came close to room temp, I added the flour and baking soda. Then it looked like this:

I had so much fun rolling these out! Unfortunately, it was by myself, but I still have 1/2 the dough left, so Johan can help me next time. Does anyone have a good technique to keep the pastry cloth in one place while trying to roll stuff out?
Johan' mamma was so kind to lend me some cookie cutters! These are traditional shapes for the pepparkakor. I have no idea why they use a pig, but they taste the same whatever shape! The trees are the perfect size- bite size.


This is my stack of cookies after one cooking session. Okay, there were a few more. I can't expalin what happened to those.

And here they are ready to head off to the First Advent celebration! I know, I know. Way more pictures than necessary of cookies. But I just had fun making them and it really got it feeling like Christmas! And got my house smelling so good!






Thursday, November 27, 2008

Indian Vegetables like in Kerala (Indisk Grönsaksgryta som i Kerala)

I know, another indian dish! But I love indian food, and have almost done without it since my move to Sweden. I've heard a lot about this cookbook author Anna Bergenström. I had one of her books on my Christmas Wish List, but then decided I wasn't so sure I wanted it- they're kind of expensive. Then, I found out that the local library has a great selection of her books! I stopped by and picked up a book called "Love, Olives and Thyme" and it's wonderful! The book is beautiful with such nice photos! It also contains a lot of information about nutrition. It talks of eating healthy, which rices are better than other, what's good to eat for breakfast, why protein is important and which foods contain a high amount of protein, which fats are good for us and so on. And yes, that is all in Swedish and I understood it (hooray for Swedish class!).

I agree, it seems a little random to find an indian dish in a swedish cookbook, but whatever. So this is the first one I tried. It is also simplified from what a true indian dish would be. There was quite a bit of prep work, but the entire meal didn't take too long to cook. I boiled some potatoes, then sauteed them in some oil. I then sauteed the cauliflower in the same pan, put that all aside. I then sauteed some curry and cummin. I added to that garlic, wedges of yellow onion and diced ginger. I then added a can chopped tomatoes and let that simmer for about 10min. Meanwhile, I cooked some basmati rice- cheaper than the naan I bought before, but still really tasty! I added the potatoes and cauliflower along with some hericots verts to the veggies and simmered another 8min or so. I added a little garam marsala, threw in a little fresh cilantro and dinner is served! Johan liked it a lot, as did I. It did, however, make our house REEK of indian food, the stench is still lingering! I like my food to smell like it, but not my clothes and hair so much. Nevertheless, I will make it again. That is, if it's legal to copy the book from the library...

Johan Scale: VG

"Kärlek, Oliver och Timjan" by Anna Bergenström

Monday, November 24, 2008

Best/Worst Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

I have always been an enormous fan of chocolate chip cookies. They were a weekly occurance at my house growing up. I have to stock up with bags and bags of chocolate chip when I visit the US so I can make the little angels- they don't sell chocolate chips here. So, a while ago I read a blog post from orangette which referred to this article in the NY Times. I suggest you read it for yourself. There was an extensive search for the world's best chocolate chip cookie recipe. They spoke to famous bakers around new york and accumulated the best tips to make this recipe. So of course, I had to try it. I was lukcy enough to aquire some of these chocolate disks (which the recipe recommends to get layers of chocolate) from my mom (thanks, mom!) so last week was the week.

The recipe doesn't call for much that is unusal. It calls for bread flour and cake flour, but those don't exactly exist here, so I used regular flour. And it said to cream the butter and sugar for 5 min in a stand mixer. I don't have a stand mixer, so I used my good ol' electric hand mixer for 5 min. And, I didn't have quite enough butter on hand, so I was a little short. So, I creamed the butter and sugar, added eggs one at a time, added vanlila, then the sifted flour, baking soda and salt, 'til just combined. The dough was really thick. Then it called for 20oz chocolate discs, next time I'd put just a little less. It sounded like a lot, and it was a lot. But it didn't make them taste bad. This was stage 1:

So the first trick/thing that makes these different, is that one should refrigerate the dough for at least 24hrs, 3 days is prefered. Apearantly because the moisture in them (butter) is not very liquid, it takes a long time for the flour to properly absorb the moisture. Well, I'm not asking questions, I just obeyed. So this sat in my fridge for 3 days. The second trick is to make the cookies big- dough ball about the size of a large golf ball. This gives the cookie dimension. The outer rim is crispy, the next inch is normal, and the inside is nice and soft and gooey. So, I put these huge balls of dough on my sheet, followed by the third trick, a little sea salt. I sprinkled just a touch of sea salt on top of the cookies, before they were baked. They baked for about 18min and looked like this:
So, why does the title of this post include "worst?" This made so much dough, I was constantly picking at the delicious dough for the 3 days it sat in the fidge. The yield said 6 cookies. Not quite. I made about 12 cookies, with a little dough left over to continue snacking on the dough. Keeping in mind that Johan isn't too big on sweets, one can conclude that I at so much cookie dough/so many cookies in the last week! I probably gained 5lbs. Don't get me wrong, these cookies were fabulous. I was so happy with them. I could have bought the anywhere and would be satisfied. The salt was an interesting contrast to the sweetness, I totally agree with the layers of chocolate the discs provide, and the 3 consistencies where delicious! Theses were amazing, and obviously worth the 5lbs I gained. But next time, I'll need to share a few more of them.

krämig (creamy) Daal

Mmmmm. I loved this one! For so many reasons! I found this winner in my ICA Buffé, distributed by the local market. It's and indian dish. I've never made any indian food, but love the taste! I think this is probably a very simplified version of anything traditional from India, but who knows. So I made this by sauteing an onion and a little garlic in oil, with some ground koriander and cummin. I then added some red lentils, water, a buljong cube and a can of coconut milk (the star of the dish!). That simmered for 10min, I then added some diced tomatoes and fresh spinach and let that simmer another 5 min, and done. I sprinkled some fresh cilantro on top and served it with some yogurt and store bought naan. Although the yogurt was good, I don't think it was necessary, next time I'll skip it. And I like the naan, but maybe cheaper with some rice. That I'll try next time. It was so delicious and pretty healthy, I used light coconut milk. Best of all, it was super fast. It probably took about 20min from start to finish. Wonderful on those days I just don't want to be cooped up in the kitchen. It made plenty for Johan and me, en riktig succé!

Johan Scale: VG

ICA Buffé 11, 2008

note: I noticed the Buffé recipes are online through www.ICA.se as well, so I will like to the online recipes.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Böngryta med Tomat och Spenat (Beans with Tomatoes and Spinach)

I found this under the "30 minutes" section of my Swedish Elle Mat & Vin magazine. It sounded pretty good, so I made it last night. I began by sauteing an onion and garlic. Added 1 Tbs ground cummin, then some water and canned tomatoes. I added a can kidney beans, a can cannellini beans and some hericots verts. Boiled all that for 5 min, added some fresh spinach and boiled for 5 more, then it was complete. I went to my Swedish class, and 2 1/2 hours later we ate it with some fresh bread I bought. It was surprisingly good! For how healthy and quick it was, we were really pleased (as evident by the grade). I added more water than it called for to make it a little more like soup. But it was hearty, warm and full of flavor. A success.

Johan Scale: VG-

Elle Mat & Vin, Nov-Jan 2009

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Broccoli and Red Pepper Soup with Sunflower Bread




I found this soup recipe kind of randomly. I was just looking on the vegetarian times website, it caught my eye, so decided to make it last monday. I began by boiling the broccoli and some rice in veggie stock for 40min. I roasted 4 red peppers and pureed them. Then I sauteed some onion with garlic, thyme, tarragon and cayenne pepper. I added that to the broccoli and pureed that. Then, I mixed in the pepper pure, juice from a lemon, white pepper, apple cider vinegar and salt to taste. Then it was finished! It was delicious. The rice made it a little thicker and it had so many dimensions of flavor! It was a little acidic, but sweet with the peppers. And pretty healthy, too. I used brown rice and olive oil. I also wanted some bread to make it a more filling meal, so I made this sunflower bread out of my Swedish Elle Mat & Vin. And I have to say, this turned out the best of any bread I've ever tried to make! It was moist and soft. It needed much more flour than the recipe called for and I would have added some salt. It called for herb salt (whatever that is), honey and oats along with the flour, yeast and water. It was a success, I'll definitely make it again!
Johan Scale: VG-
Bread: Elle Mat & Vin, Nov-Jan 2009

Monday, November 17, 2008

Mammas fiskgratäng (Mom's Fish Gratin)


This was a fun one! Another recipe from my Hela Sveriges Husman (All of Sweden's Husman). Husman is a type of traditional Swedish food. The local market has compiled recipes from folks all over Sweden into this book, which cost me a $3 coupon- not bad! The recipe used a really inexpensive white fish called Sej, I don't know what it is in English. The frozen fish cost almost as much as fresh and since it's crappy fish anyway, we went and bought some nice, fresh crappy fish. I baked it in the bottom of a casserole dish for about 10min. Then I piled (with the help of Johan!) some mashed potatoes around the fish and filled the dish with a mushroom sauce I made- milk, butter, sauteed mushrooms and a little flour. Lastly, I layered some sliced tomatoes on top and back in the oven for 15min or so, mostly to lightly brown the top of the potatoes. And this turned out great! It made a lot of food and the sej was surprisingly good! Well, how could it not be with all that milk and butter added! But it was a great combination with the mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and the mildly flavored fish. And fun to add another type of fish to our diet!
Johan Scale: VG-
"Hela Sveriges Husman" by ICA

Red Cabbage Pizza with Gorgonzola and Walnuts


Another pizza from the Cheeseboard book! This one was great, as are all the rest. But it was pretty unique, I thought. I was surprised to find red cabbage at the market so thought it must be a sign, I must make this pizza! I made my usual dough (Mario Batali's pizza crust) then layered it with cheese- recipe says Mozzarella, i used Herrgård cheese. Then some caramelized onions, sliced cabbage mixed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little salt and pepper, more mozzarella then some blue cheese crumbles. My half had chopped walnuts- Johan's allergic. I thought it would be a good idea to try to make calzones for lunch the next day- I was wrong! They tasted just as good, but where such a mess! I didn't have enough dough to stretch over the insides. But the pizza looked and tastes fabulous! On the health scale this might not rank so high, but my belly was more than satisfied!

Johan Scale: VG

"The Cheese Board Collective Works" by the Cheese Board Collective

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Hearty Lentil Soup


This was a new one, I found it on a blog that was recommended by my friend Jessie. And it was really good! A fairly basic lentil soup, but it was different than what we usually eat and with the rice, made a 'hearty' meal! I started with a chopped onion and 2 chopped carrots. I let them soften in some oil. I then added garlic, canned tomatoes, the lentils, some herbs and a little red wine. That boiled for some minutes, I then added a little balsamic vinegar, and viola! Pour that on some rice for a delicious dinner! I have half of it saved in the fridge, can't wait to finish it off! It's extremely healthy, which contributes to it's high grade on the Johan Scale. The only fat is just a little olive oil. And filling with the rice and lentils. It had many dimensions of taste, a perfect fall (okay, I'll finally realize it's winter!) dinner!
Johan Scale: VG-

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Blåbärsgrött (Blueberry Oatmeal)

This was really fun. I found this recipe in a swedish cookbook I have- although you don't really need a recipe. All it is is regular oatmeal, but adding as many blueberries as oats (I used frozen blueberries) and adding a bit of honey to sweeten it. You see mine with milk on the left, Johan's on the right. It was really tastey! It was fun to mix up our usual breakfast a bit. It was quite sweet, I wouldn't make it every morning (and 'cause blueberries aren't cheap!) but it was a fun treat. I added flax seed to mine, because it's healthy, but also because I thought it was a little to gummy. It had the consistency of pudding to me. But with that, it was perfect, and what a fun color!

Hela Sveriges Husman by ICA

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Clam Chowder in Pumpkin Breadbowl


Yesterday was Halloween. For a while growing up we had this tradition- every halloween my mom would go to the Provo Bakery and pick up some pumpkin breadbowl and we'd have them with clam chowder. I've made the chowder before, so there's nothing really to report on it. But I don't have a Provo Bakery in Uppsala, so I had to make my own. The first problem I had was that once the dough was kneaded, it was near impossible to distribute the food coloring through it. But, that's okay. Then they didn't rise so well, and when they were risen they were super flat. A bunch of people had this problem in the reviews of the recipe, so why I thought it wouldn't happen? I don't know. But the bread was really good anyway and the soup, as always was deliciou! It was really fun to have them for Halloween, seeing as how that's the only Halloween celebration we had. Unfortunately we left the soup out on the counter all night and spoiled a huge pot of left-overs. I even have more pumpkin bowls! I'll have to find some way to blame this one on Johan.
Johan Scale: VG