Salmon Salad With Feta Cheese Custard

Greeks view the olive, the bread and the wine as symbols of life. The olive, the fruit of the sacred tree, is processed in many ways. Oiled or vinegared, they accompany practically all dishes.

Bread is a necessary accompaniment to all meals. Often bread is served with Feta Cheese. Feta, which has been known in Greece for centuries, always accompanies their traditional country salad.

I won´t say this salad is a Greek dish even though many ingredients are items of a Greek Country Salad. I have been to Greece twice and never did I see Feta Custard on the menues. I wrote down this recipe several years ago and don´t remember where it originated. This salad is a meal in itself; tremendously tasty and healthy.




INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* 600 g salmon, cut into cubes
* salt and pepper
* olive oil


* 1 large tomato, cut into chunks
* ½ cucumber, cut into slices
* 1 red onion, cut into slices
* black olives
* green olives
* salt, pepper and sugar

CROUTONS:
* white bread, cut into roughfly 1 cm cubes
* 2 cloves garlic, grated
* olive oil

FETA CHEESE CUSTARD:
100 g Feta Cheese
1 dl (100 ml) milk
olive oil
basil, chopped
black pepper
( you may need salt depending on how salt the Feta is).

METHOD:
1. Fry the salmon in a frying pan of heated olive oil.
2. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Sprinkle some sugar on the tomato chunks & the cucumber slices.
4. As for the Feta Cheese Custard, heat the milk and Feta in a saucepan.
5. Run the mixture in a blender with some olive oil.
6. Salt, pepper and basil to taste.
7. Heat oil and garlic in the frying pan, add the bread cubes, fry until crisp.
8. Place the salad ingredients in a large bowl, sprinkle croutons on top.

Serve the salad with Feta Cheese Custard.

Sweets aka "Bird´s Nests"

Cooking with kids is fun.These small sweet things are nothing much to look at but easy for kids to make. Perhpaps they will need some help measuring up the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:
* 100 g margarine
* 1 dl (100 ml) sugar
* 2 tablespoons cacao powder
* 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
* 4 tablespoons golden syrup
* 1 ½ dl (150 ml) coconut flakes
* 3 dl (300 ml) corn flakes
* (or Kellogs Special K. Flakes)

METHOD:
1. Melt the margarine, add sugar, cacao powder, vanilla and syrup.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat, add the coconut flakes and cornflakes.
4. Stir gently until the cornflakes are well coated.
5. Spoon pieces of the mixture onto parchment paper (or into muffin cups).
6. Refrigerate for about 10 - 15 minutes, then enjoy.

"When one teaches, two learn" (quote: Robert Heinlein 1907-1988)

A young boy at my school once gave me this recipe. He called them "Fågelbon" (Bird´s nests). I suppose he was thinking of magpies´ nests. A magpie is a European long-tailed, black and white, noisy bird in the crow family. Its distinctive nest is built in a tree. It is cup-shaped and roofed by a dome of twigs.

A Celebration Cake

Whitsuntide. Weddings. Examinations. Christenings. Mother´s Day.

Mother´s Day is always celebrated the last Sunday of May in Sweden. Our memorial day in honor of mothers originated in USA. Earlier a similar British tradition was called "Mothering Day" or "Mothering Sunday"; a celebration on the fourth Sunday in Lent for all those working young boys and girls away from home. They were allowed this one day's holiday to return to their homes, visit their mothers and spend the day with them. They also brought a gift, a so called "Mothering Cake".

Anyway, now there are a lot of celebrations in Sweden.

It is cake time.



Actually this cake is meant to be a homemade wedding cake. The picture and the recipe come from a book called "Stora kakboken" (Bonnier 1965) (i.e. The Great Baking Book). I have never baked this cake myself. It does not look too difficult, though. I only hope to inspire somebody else. There is no need to follow the recipe blindly. Choose other fillings, fruits or berries. Choose other decorations.

INGREDIENTS:
12 eggs
360 g sugar
360 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

FILLING I:
1 l (1000 ml) whipping cream
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 jar pineapples, chopped
1 jar peaches, chopped
2 oranges, chopped
2 bananas, chopped

FILLING II:
Nougat
100 g sugar
50 g almonds
1 marzipan lid

DECORATION:
20 marzipan roses
20 marzipan leaves
1 large marzipan rose OR
for a wedding cake - a bride and groom cake topper

YOU WILL NEED:
1 greased cake pan 30 cm
1 greased cake pan 24 cm
1 greased cake pan 18 cm

METHOD:
* Beat 6 eggs with 180 g sugar.
* Add 180 g of the flour + 1 teaspoon baking powder.
This batter is for the large cake pan.

* Make cake batter from the remaining eggs, sugar, flour and baking powder.
* Divide batter between the smaller cake pans.

* Place the large cake pan in cold oven.
* Set temp. to 190°C, gradually lower the temp. to 150° and 100°C.
* Baking time 35 minutes.
* Bake the smaller ones for 25-30 minutes at 180°C.
* Cool and divide each cake into 3 layers.
* Spoon fruit juices over the layers to make the cake damp.
* Fill between layers with whipped cream and fruit.
* Fill the upper layer with nougat.
* Place a marzipan lid on top.

METHOD FOR NOUGAT:
* Chop the almonds.
* Put sugar in a clean cast iron pan
* Melt it on low heat until it is golden brown
* Stir frequently with a wooden spoon
* Add almonds, stirring to coat them.
* Pour the mixture onto an oiled baking sheet.
* Allow the mixture to stiffen, then crush it.

DECORATION:
* Pipe whipped cream on top of the cake and all around.
* Decoratively place roses and leaves on the cake.

The recipe in Swedish 4 Bröllopstårtan

Our Daily Bread

I might as well say it at once. I do not bake bread very often - only at special occasions. Why? Beacause my family likes the Swedish crispbread most of all.

Wasa is the world's largest producer of crispbread. Every year the company sells around 60,000 tons of crispbread in 40 countries. Swedish people eat more crispbread than any other people in the world, almost 4 kilograms per capita. Well, my family eats a lot more than that; in fact, about 20 - 25 kilograms every year and most of the time we are only a two-person household.

Reading about crispbread I found Bob Greene’s The Best Life Diet. A lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping if off. Bob Greene helped Oprah achieve her dramatic weight loss. Oprah had Bob Greene on her show and she said: "I really love those little Swedish delights”. Wasa didn´t pay her for saying that.

Although it is surprisingly easy to bake crispbread, I have only done that a few times. Here´s the recipe4

Knäckebröd (Crispbread)

INGREDIENTS:
½ liter (500 ml) milk
½ tablespoon honey
½ tablespoon golden syrup
15 g yeast
500 g graham flour
250 g rye flour (course-grained)
3/4 teaspoon salt
some barley flour

METHOD:
* Preheat oven to 250°C
* Heat milk, honey and syrup to 37 °C
* Mix in yeast, salt, ab. 250 g of the graham flour and ab. 125 g of the rye flour.
* Then work in remaining flour to make a dough.
* Let rise for about 60 minutes.
* Divide dough into 12 pieces and form into balls.
* Roll the balls in plenty of barley flour with a rolling pin.
* Turn a couple of times during the rolling
* Finally roll to very thin rounds with a peg rolling pin.
* If you use an ordinary rolling pin, score and prick before baking.
* Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 8 minutes.
* Then turn the bread over and bake the other side another 4 min. or until slightly browned.
* Cool on a rack.

In an ordinary oven you can bake only one bread at a time. A hot air oven bakes three at a time at 225 °C.




Swiss Lake Dwellers of over 8000 years ago baked their hard crusted bread on hot stones. For centuries after, this unleavened mixture made of flour and water remained the only known variety of bread. This bread was more or less like fried porridge.

About 3000 B.C. the Egyptians developed the first leavened loaf, the legend being that a forgetful slave set aside a wheat flour dough which fermented and rose. Disregarded this unusual phenomenon, the slave shaped the dough to bake leavened bread much as we know of it.

Now every culture of the world and every country has its own traditions and bread styles. In many cultures bread is the symbol of life itself.

The soft Indian Chapati consists of flour, salt and water. You cook it like a pancake on both sides. Tastes lovely hot and buttered.

Ethiopian Injera; not only a kind of bread — it’s also an eating utensil. It is only cooked on one side. To eat, you take pieces of injera that they give you in a basket, and fold it around the piece of food you want to eat, for instance a meat stew and/or a vegetable stew.

MEAT STEW INGREDIENTS:
1 large onion, chopped
1 kg (1000 g) beef, cut in pieces
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon berbere spice mix
2 teaspoons rosemary
2 green chili peppers, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
3 tablespoons neterkive

METHOD:
1. Fry and brown the meat in oil.
2. Add onion and fry until all the meat juice is gone.
3. Add neterkive, berbere, rosemary, salt and a small amount of hot water.
4. Cook for 5-10 minutes more, then add tomato and chili.

NETERKIVE: On low heat melt 100 g butter in a saucepan, stirring. Add 1 small chopped red onion and 1 tablespoon cardamom. Bring to a boil and cook for about half an hour or until the mixture is frothy.

What´s your favorite bread?

Kick Off Contest at Mama´s Coffee Corner & RS Designs

Linda at Mama´s Coffee Corner and Revka at RS Designs, recently began new blogs.


They thought it would be fun to collaborate to create a kickoff contest. Linda is giving away your choice of either a selection of Brazilian goodies or a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate, and Revka is giving away a free custom header.

So if you want a chance to win, join! Winners will be announced on May 25.

Tomato Salad

INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* 4-6 tomatoes
* 1 bunch chives, finely chopped
* 1-2 shallots, finely chopped

SALAD DRESSING:
* 5 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 ½ tablespoon vinegar
* 1 ½ teaspoon salt
* black pepper, freshly ground
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

METHOD:
1. Slice the tomatoes
2. Place them like roofing-tiles close upon each other.
3. Combine the dressing ingredients,
4. Season dressing with salt and pepper.
5. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes.
6. Garnish with finely chopped chives and shallots.
7. Put the salad in the fridge for 1 - 1 ½ hour.

A simple tomato salad is so delicious. It is a perfect hors d´oeuvre but it works well with pasta too. Then all you need to do is to chop the tomatoes instead of slicing them, perhaps add some extra olive oil, more garlic cloves, some basil leaves, chopped parsley, shredded Parmesan cheese, freshly ground pepper....... Voila ! You get a really healthful and delicious dinner.

This time of the year I start buying tomatoes from a local producer. They have only travelled about 20 kilometers. I do not buy local tomatoes just because they are local, but because they are better. They are free from pesticides and herbicides. Local does not necessarily mean greener. It may sometimes be better for the environment to import winter tomatoes from Spain than to grow them here in Sweden in heated greenhouses.

The name "tomato" is derived from "tomatl", the Mexican Indian name for the fruit. Although tomatoes were eaten by Mexican Indians, who probably developed the common large-fruited forms, they were long thought to be poisonous by other peoples. However, by 1550 tomatoes were being grown in Italy for use as vegetables, and by the middle of the 18th century they had achieved some use elsewhere in Europe.

Papas Arrugadas Con Mojo (Wrinkled Potatoes With Sauce)

Here we are on Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, the archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. (Early explorers discovered a great many dogs on the islands, hence the name from the Latin canis, meaning dog). Originally inhabited by Berberlike peoples, known as Guanches.

We are sitting in the cave restaurant Tagoror, Barranco de Guayadeque, having "papas arrugadas con mojo". The Barranco de Guayadeque is a valley stretching from Gran Canaria's coast into the heart of the island. Within this valley there are hundreds of old Guanche caves and burial chambers. The traditional Guanche way of cooking potatoes was in sea water, they say.

Small sized potatoes are nowadays served at restaurants, eaten with its skin and dipped in Mojos. Sauces come in many colors and tastes. The most well known and most common ones are the mojo picante (spicy red mojo) and the mojo verde (coriander green mojo).

Trying to recall a memory from summer 1998 ....













INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* ½ - 1 kg (500 g-1000 g) small new potatoes
* 2 dl (200 ml) sea salt/liter water

SAUCE:
* 4 - 5 cloves garlic
* 1 red bell paprika
* 2 1/3 dl (230 ml) olive oil
* 1 teaspoon cumin, crushed
* 3/4 dl (75 ml) lemon juice
* 2 -3 tablespoons tomato purée
* cayenne pepper

METHOD:
1. Wash the potatoes well.
2. Put salt and water into a saucepan
3. Boil potatoes in the salted water, with the lid ajar, until almost all the water has evaporated.
4. Pour off remaining water.
5. Put the saucepan with the potatoes back on low heat again.
6. Drain and steam dry, shaking the saucepan (a white salt layer should form on the potatoes, they should be soft and slightly wrinkled).

THE SAUCE:
1. Peel and chop garlic cloves.
2. Deseed paprika and cut it in small pieces.
3. Fry garlic and parika in oil together with cumin.
4. Run it in a blender to make a thick purée.
5. Continue blending, adding oil and lemon juice.
6. Taste with tomato purée and cayenne pepper.

For a thinner sauce, add water. The sauce is rather hot. For a hotter sauce, add fresh and finely chopped chili pepper. Serve with slices of goat´s cheese to temper the hotness.

Salmon Served With Caviar Sauce

Tomorrow, the 17th of May, it is public holiday (Ascension Day) in Sweden.

Tomorrow Norway celebrates its Constitution. Norwegians certainly know how to celebrate their National Day!

Hurray for Sweden’s neighbour-country and all the people of Norway on their National Day on the 17th of May!

A special warm greeting to my Norwegian friends!












INGREDIENTS:
Serves 6

* 6 slices of salmon fillets (150 grams/each)
* salt
* pepper

SAUCE:

* 5 dl (500 ml) crème fraiche
* 100 g red caviar
* 5 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
* lemon juice, freshly pressed
* salt
* black pepper
* ½ teaspoon sambal oelek

METHOD:
1. Combine sauce ingredients, taste with lemon juice, salt, pepper and sambal.
2. Set aside in the fridge for a while.
3. Sprinkle salmon fillets with salt and pepper
4. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
5. Place fillets in the pan, grill about 3 minutes on each side.

Serve together with the sauce and fried potatoes.

(Norway continues to be the world’s largest salmon producer with increased production and export volumes. Salmon export in April 2007 was of 1,3 billion NOK (!). The volume increased with more than 6000 metric tons compared to April of 2006).

A Sunshine Drink To Our Health

Once the different parts of the human body became very cross with the stomach. They thought it had a too good time, lying there quietly in the middle of the body, having nothing else to do but enjoying all the good things, brought to it by the others.

The hands did no longer want to bring food to the mouth, and the mouth did not want to receive it, and the teeth did no longer want to chew the food. And the feet meant, that they would no longer be at service by carrying the stomach back and forth. They were all very displeased with the constant toiting and moiting to please the stomach. It would be better if everyone minded their own business, and then you would see, how the useless stomach would manage on its own.

What became the result ? When the feet did not want to walk, the hands not work, the mouth not eat and the teeth not chew, the body started to decline.

Then all of them realised that the stomach had its work to do too. It did not only receive food, but also delivered nutricion to all the parts of the body. So, they all reconciled with the stomach. They all served each other again, and soon they were as hale and hearty as before.

Well, this was only an old fairy tale.

When my children were small and had a poor appetite, or when they were sick, I used to give them this nutricious orange juice drink.

1 GLASS
* 1 egg yolk
* ½ - 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 dl (100 ml) orange juice
* 1 - 1½ dl (100-150 ml) milk

METHOD:
1. Whisk together egg yolk and sugar until smooth.
2. Stir in orange juice.
3. Add milk, whisk until it is foamy.

La pâte à choux

Some weeks ago Gia at Cooking smart asked me about Swedish éclair recipes. At first, I did not know what an éclair was. I went searching and soon enough found that Petit choux, Profiteroles, and Cream Puffs are pretty much the same. I had eaten them but never cooked them myself - until now.

Once, one of my sisters-in-law cooked them. She made a filling of genuine Swedish Caviar, [from siklöja (Coregonus albula) fished in North of gulf Bothnia, Norrbotten, North of Sweden]. They were served as a side dish and not as a dessert.

Who came up with such an idea in the first place? Cooking dough in a saucepan!

Pâte à Choux - which translates to "chou pastry" is not too complicated, but has to be done right, otherwise you end up with a terrible mess.















INGREDIENTS:
Makes 15

* 3 dl (300 ml) water
* 100 g butter
* 2 dl (200 ml) flour
* 3 eggs

FILLING I:
* 2 dl (200 ml) whipping cream
* 2 bananas

GARNISH:
* powdered sugar
* lemon juice
* 50 g melted dark chocolate

OR

FILLING II:
* 2 dl whipping cream
* raspberries

GARNISH:
* powdered sugar

METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 200°C [400°F].
2. Bring water and butter to the boil.
3. Stir down flour beating vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, allowing them to incorporate each time. Best done with an electric mixer, because the batter separates and looks like a mess each time the eggs are added. Do not worry, it will come back together and be smooth and shiny.
6. Spoon the dough into a piping bag.
7. Squeeze into ovals (this can be tricky with a sticky dough) onto a wax paper-lined baking sheet.
8. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 minutes.
9. Allow to cool.

FILLING I:
When ready to fill, melt chocolate, whip the cream, and mash the bananas. Mix powdered sugar with some lemon juice. With a serrated knife, cut upper third from each puff. Fill them with mashed bananas and whipped cream; recap with the top. Glaze and drizzle with melted chocolate, if desired.

FILLING II:
Whip the cream, mash the raspberries and mix carefully with cream. Cut upper third from each puff. Spoon the raspberry cream into a piping bag. Fill the pastrys. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

For best results, use puffs within 24 hours, or wrap airtight and freeze.

You may use two tablepoons instead of a piping bag: With one spoon, scoop up about 2-3 tablespoons batter for a large puff. With other spoon, push batter off first spoon and drop onto the prepared baking sheet. Place about 5 cm (2 inches) apart.

Not sure about the dough? Watch an excellent video (3 min. and 43 sec.) from Video Jug 4 How to make Pâte à Choux .

Chicken Garam Masala

All Indian and Pakistani cookery depends on herbs and spices. Every household has their own spice mixes. "Curry", which means "sauce", is the best-known Indian culinary term. Curries may be prepared in dozens, if not hundreds, of ways. They are, in fact, a whole category of cooking involving meat, sea-food, and vegetable dishes (although Hindus do not take beef)

Garam Masala, whose literal Hindi meaning is "hot or warm spices", is a blend of ground spices: Peppers, cinnamon, basil, coriander, garlic, celery seed, cumin, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, garlic, turmeric...

Commercial spice mixtures may also contain dried red chili peppers, dried garlic, ginger powder, sesame, mustard seeds, bay leaves, and fennel.

Indian cooking the Swedish way is not that spicy. A lazy day in my kitchen, when I wish to spice up a chicken, Santa Maria has already done the spice mixing job. So, I only pretend this is an Indian dish.













INGREDIENTS:
Serves 3-4

* 4 chicken fillets
* 1 pkg Santa Maria Garam Masala Spice Mix
* 2 dl (200 ml) crème fraiche
* 1 dl (100 ml) water
* chopped parsley

METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 200° C [390-400° F]
2. Put chicken fillets into a narrow ovenproof dish.
3. Blend the spice mix with crème fraiche and water.
4. Pour the mixture over chicken.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven until chicken is fully cooked, ab.30-40 minutes.

Sprinkle with parsley, serve with rice and a mixed salad.

Meringue Cake (a.k.a. Brita Cake)

I do not know why this meringue cake is named Brita Cake. I can only guess.

In 1960, a magazine arranged a Swedish Cake Championship. The winning recipe was a Pinnocchio Cake with an airy layer of meringue, chopped walnuts and whipped cream; baked in a round spring-form cake tin with separate bottom.

Through the years, I have seen many varieties of this cake; often with fillings of whipped cream mixed with berries or fruit. So, maybe the mother of this meringue cake once was a woman named Brita.











LAYER INGREDIENTS:
* 125 g margarine
* 1 dl (100 ml) sugar
* 2 egg yolks
* 1 dl (100 ml) milk
* 1 ½ dl (150 ml) flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder

MERINGUE:
* 2 egg whites
* 1 3/4 dl (175 ml) sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
* 100 g nuts, chopped

FILLING:
* 2-3 dl (200-300 ml) whipping cream

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 180°C [ab. 350°F]
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add egg yolks and beat well.
Blend flour and baking powder.
Add flour mixture and milk alternatively.
Beat egg whites until stiff, add sugar and vanilla, continue beating until really stiff.
"Dress" your oven roasting pan with lightly oiled baking paper,
Pour in the cake batter and spread it out evenly with a rubber spatula (as thin as gauze).
Spread the meringue mixture on top and sprinkle with chopped nuts - it has to cover.
Bake for ab. 20 minutes, allow to cool and split it in two.
Cover one half with whipped cream and put the other half on top.

A rather large cake for grand occasions with just a few ingredients.
Serves about 12.

A Tasteful Chicken Noodle Salad

I bought my first wok about seventeen years ago. I saw it in a magazine and ordered it at once. My first thought was "what a large frying pan". But the wok was more than a frying pan. When I say "wok", I mean "stir fry", which means cooking food quickly, stirring constantly over extremely high heat in a small amount of fat. As a matter of fact, the wok worked good for steam-cooking too, and other methods of cooking.










INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4-6

* 500 g noodles
* 1 dl olive oil
* 500 g chicken fillets
* 3 cloves garlic
* 3 teaspoons sesame seeds
* juice of 3 limes
* 4 tablespoons soy
* 1 teaspoon wasabi paste
* 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
* 6-8 salad onions
* 2 teaspoons sambal oelek

GARNISH:
* fresh coriander or parsley

METHOD:
1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a wok or frying pan.
2. Fry the chicken fillets, set aside when they are cooked through.
3. Peel and chop garlic, fry until golden with the sesame seeds.
4. Add lime juice, soy, wasabi, rice vinegar, stir to mix, set aside.
5. Cook noodles according to package directions.
6. Cut chicken fillets thinly into pieces and place in a bowl.
7. Pour the dressing over and add noodles.
8. Trim, slice and add salad onions.
9. Finally add sambal oelek and the remaining olive oil, give the salad a good stir.

Serve warm or lukewarm.

Chocolate & Almond Cake with Cloudberry Cream

Some weeks ago I was touched by Accidental Hedonist´s blog post about cloudberries - the precious berries, which I almost take for grantage. They are a bit picky about weather, though.

This plant prefers moist tundra, bog habitats and heaths. It is widespread across the low arctic and boreal forest regions - in Sweden especially in the northern part of the country.

Cloudberries are sometimes damaged by frost - in the sensitive period of flowering. Picking them in July and August means that you have to stand mosquitoes and other, bigger bloodthirsty insects - fight them and feed them.

Cloudberry plants are male or female. Only the female plant bears fruit; a hard red berry with seeds that turn yellowish when ripe in late July. They are extremely rich in vitamin C, but they also contain amounts of vitamin A, iron, magnesium, folacin, calcium, kalium, carotene and fibers.

I cannot describe the unusual, sweet-and-sour taste. When the cloudberries are eaten fresh, they have a tart taste: A concentration of the nordic nature in a berry. When they are made into jams, preserves and liqueurs, or are served as a dessert, they are sweet and delicious. An easy way to store ripe cloudberries is simply mixing them with sugar (mylta). Their high benzoic acid content then acts as an inbuilt natural preservative.

This is a dessert: A damp cake with cloudberry cream.









INGREDIENTS:

* 200 g grated dark chocolate
* 200 g butter
* 6 eggs
* 200 g (240 ml) sugar
* 200 g almonds
* 1 dl (100 ml) cloudberry preserve
* 2 dl (200 ml) whipping cream

METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 150°C [302°F]
2. Grease and lightly flour one round baking pan, 20-24 cm
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
4. Separate the egg yolks from the whites.
5. Beat egg yolks and sugar until fluffy, then beat egg whites until stiff.
6. Chop the almonds.
7. Mix egg yolks, almonds and chocolate, fold in egg whites gently.
8. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.
9. Bake for ab. 45 minutes. It should be a bit sticky inside.

CLOUDBERRY CREAM: Pour the cream into a bowl. Whip the cream until stiff. Fold in the cloudberry preserve.

A Warm Chicken Salad

"Saladday". I went Googling for that word. What I found was that there probably is no such word in English. Maybe "Saladday" is a Chinese or a Japanese name. I do not know. Dozens of sites with foreign characters were found.

The Swedish word "sallad" has a double meaning - on the one hand different kind of lettuces, on the other hand, in most cases, one or several ingredients mixed with some kind of dressing. As a rule, when I talk about green salad I think of lettuce. In reality, there are several similar plants.

So today it is Thursday, but it is also Salad Day. I know, I should eat a salad every day, but I do not. I would not mind losing weight. Salads are not difficult to make. Everyone knows how to make them and there are endless ways to make and season a salad.

*A squeeze of lemon juice enchances a salad.
*Adding vegetables that are seasonings in themselves: Onions, parsley, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms.
*Olive oil, herbs, spices, seasoned bread crumbs, dices of cheese, chopped nuts, fruit, toasted sesame seeds, are only a few of the many garnishings that add flavor.

Today I am using leftover rotisserie chicken, transforming it into a colorful salad, quick, simple and easy. But you might as well use chicken fillets.










INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* 4 chicken fillets
* salt and pepper
* 4 raw potatoes
* 1 lettuce or iceberg lettuce
* ½ cucumber
* 4 tomatoes
* 1 bell paprika
* 1 red onion, chopped
* 1 dl (100 ml) nuts, chopped, or sunflower seeds, toasted

METHOD:
1. Cut chicken fillets into bite-sized pieces .
2. Season with salt and pepper, fry in oil.
3. Peel and slice potatoes, fry in oil.
4. Cut cucumber, tomatoes, paprika and lettuce into pieces.
5. Mix the vegetables with chopped onion.
6. Pour a dressing over the salad and toss until combined.
7. Add chicken and potato, sprinkle with toasted nuts, or toasted sunflower seeds.
8. Serve while warm.

DRESSING:
* 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 small garlic cloves, crushed
* 1 teaspoon Italian Seasonings

Homemade Coconut Milk

Living in a country far away from palm-trees and coconuts, having a husband who does not like coconut milk/cream available in cans from supermarkets. What to do when a recipe calls for coconut milk/cream? When Christmas time comes around, I can buy real coconuts. The seed is surrounded by a buoyant and impervious fibrous husk. I have tried to break through that hard husk once. I am not going to do it again. What a mess! Three "eyes" on the husk suggest a monkey´s face, hence the genius name Cocos, which is the Portuguese word for "grinning face".

How about making your own from coconut flakes? (French: Noix de coco rapée; German: Kokosraspel)














METHOD I
1. Bring 3 dl (300 ml) whipping cream and 3 dl (300 ml) milk to a boil.
2. Pour in 200 grams (ab. 650-700 ml) of coconut flakes.
3. Stir and set aside for ab. 5 minutes.
4. Pour mixture into a blender and run.
5. Strain through a piece of muslin cloth, gather the ends of the cloth together and squeeze it in your fist to extract the liquid OR strain through a siever by pressing with the backside of a spoon.
6. If necessary, add water to make an amount of 4 dl (400 ml)

METHOD II
1. Cook equal parts of coconut flakes and milk.
2. Set aside until the next day.
3. Strain and use the liquid.

Ready to use!

This milk is ideal for stews, sauces, ice creams and drinks such as Piña Colada, but of course also in Thai and Indian dishes.

The Piña Colada is a cocktail which now consists of Rum, Pineapple and Coconut. According to Wiki, the Piña Colada started life as a non-alcoholic drink, which was either served "colada" (strained) or "sin colar" (without straining). The Piña Colada was also alternatively known as a Piña Fria, or Piña Fria Colada.

My Piña Colada
1 glass

* 1 dl (100 ml) pineapple juice
* ½ dl (50 ml) homemade coconut milk
* 2/3 (ab. 60-70 ml) Bacardi Rum
* ½ dl (50 ml) crushed ice cubes

METHOD:
1. Run pineapple juice, coconut milk and rum in a blender until mixed.
2. Pour into a glass filled with some crushed ice and garnish with a pineapple spear or slice.

For a refreshing non-alcoholic drink substitute the rum with ice cream.

Holiday
Today, the 1st of May, it is public holiday in Sweden. Yesterday it was Walpurgis Night, associated in German folklore with the witches´sabbath on the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains.

This night was originally dedicated to St.Walburga ("Valborg" in Swedish). She died 779 and was born in Devonshire, England. She accompanied St. Boniface on his mission to the Germans. She became abbess of the double monastery of Heidenheim, Bavaria, succeeding her brother St. Wunibald. In the Finnish, German and Swedish calendar, Walpurga´s feast day is May 1.

That was history. Now we light large bonfires and sing songs of spring. We celebrate the end of the winter. But where is spring? It is still freezing cold! Cheers anyway! Spring is probably right around the corner, waiting ...