Midsummer & Schnapps Salad

Midsummer Eve always falls on the third Friday in June. It is a survival of Teutonic pagan festivals celebrating the summer solstice. Also known as St. John´s Eve. Celebrations continue into Midsummer Day. I am not going to bore you with any details about the traditions of Swedish Midsummer. You can read about them here4 Midsummer and some traditions or here4 Midsummer .

A typical Midsummer meal consists of different kinds of herring served with sour cream (gräddfil), chives and fresh potatoes, schnapps and fresh strawberries.















One of my family´s favorite dishes is the so-called Schnapps Salad. (Nubbesallad) served with a small glass of Scandinavian liquor distilled from a grain or potato mash and often flavored with caraway seeds. The main salad ingredient is Matjes Herring. Matjes means maiden. Matjes herring is made from female fish that have not spawned. They are filleted and prepared with salt, vinegar, sugar, and spices.


INGREDIENTS:
* 300 g Matjes Herring, cut into small pieces
* 1½ dl (150 ml) mayonnaise
* 50 - 100 g crème fraiche
* 4 tablespoons smoked Swedish Caviar (a creamed cod roe paste)
* 1 red onion, finely chopped
* ½ dl (50 ml) leek, finely chopped
* ½ dl (50 ml) dill, finely chopped
* 5 boiled, cold potatoes, cut into small dices
* ab. 3 dl hard boiled eggs, finely chopped
* parsley, finely chopped

METHOD:
1. Mix créme fraiche, mayonnaise, caviar, onion, leek and dill.
2. Stir down matjes herring and potato.
3. Garnish with egg and parsley.

This year I am not going to celebrate Midsummer in Sweden. I am going to Rome, Italy, to stay with a son for quite a while. I suppose I am going to do in Rome as the Romans do.

See you at Piazza Campo di Fiori!

To Cook A Frozen Roast

Swedish: "Tjälknöl"
English: "Frozen Lump"













INGREDIENTS:
Serves 6 - 8

1 - 1,5 kg (1000 g - 1500 g) frozen roast; beef, moose or deer, boneless

MARINADE:
2 liter (2000 ml) water
1 ½ dl (150 ml) salt
½ dl (50 ml) sugar
4 - 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
10 black peppercorns
2 dl (200 ml) fresh herbes OR 2 tablespoons dried herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, chives, parsley...)

METHOD:
* Preheat oven to 75 - 80°C (170°F)
* Take meat out of your freezer, and put it on the roven rack.
* Place it in the lower part of the oven.
* Place a pan underneath.
* Bake meat for about 10 - 12 hours (overnight)
* Insert a thermometer after 7 - 8 hours.
* Meat is ready at 65 - 75C (Medium rare 145F, Medium 160F, Well done 170F)

MARINADE:
* Bring water, salt, sugar, and black peppercorns to a boil.
* Remove from heat, add garlic and herbs.
* Allow marinade to cool.
* Pour it into a strong plastic bag.
* Put the hot meat into the bag, seal the bag.
* Make sure that the meat is emerged in the marinade.
* Allow the meat to marinade for ab. 5 hours,
* Baste and turn it a couple of times.
* Pour out the marinade, cut meat in paper thin slices.
* Serve with a potato gratin and a salad.
(A potato salad instead of a potato gratin works fine too).

No, this dish is no joke. I was told that this recipe was invented by coincidence and forgetfulness, half and half. A piece of frozen moose meat was put in the oven to be defrosted. Then forgotten until the next morning. However, it was not at all spoiled. The meat was placed into brine. Four hours in the brine and the meat was easy to cut into thin slices.

I like the meat to be spicier. A brine isn´t enough spicy for me. However, not everybody does like garlic and herbs. Some like to put juniper berries into the marinade. I do not. Juniper berries have such a bittersweet taste so I don´t use them together with herbs.

This dish has many advantages. It is great for a buffé with many guests. Leftovers can be kept in the refridgerator for several days. Delicious in sandwiches. A potato salad instead of a potato gratin works fine too.

Next time I am serving this meat at a buffé, I´m going to try this dressing, allowing each guest to spoon a more spicy dressing over their meat:
INGREDIENTS: 4 tbsps freshly pressed lime juice, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsps Asian fish sauce, 2 tbsps finely chopped spring onions, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsps chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon chili flakes.

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Salmon Mix & "Thin Bread Baskets"

"Tunnbröd" (thin bread) is a Swedish flatbread and comes in many variants. It can be soft, or it can be hard and crispy. The dough is made from any combination of wheat, barley and rye. From my point of view, "tunnbröd" looks like Matzoth (Jewish in origin). Flat, perforated crisp crackers of flour and water, baked in large rounds or squares. I am not familiar with this bread, so, I really cannot tell. Perhaps somebody else knows.

This website has recipes for "tunnbröd", unfortunately only available in Swedish 4 Homemade "Tunnbröd"



Crispy "tunnbröd" differs from "knäckebröd" (crisp bread). It is thinner, more compact and contains less air bubbles.

Soft "tunnbröd" is sometimes used as a wrap for other food, not unlike a crêpe or burrito. A popular fast food dish is soft "tunnbröd" rolled around mashed potatoes and a hot dog. A substitute for the soft variant in the U.S. could be a floppy flour tortilla.

This is a dish that is popular in Sweden, often served as a starter at restaurants.



INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* 4 pieces of crisp "tunnbröd"
* 250 g smoked salmon
* 1 hardboiled egg, finely chopped
* 2 tablespoons dill, chopped
* ½ dl (50 ml) mayonnaise
* ½ - 1 dl (50 - 100 ml) crème fraiche
* black pepper to taste

GARNISH:
50 g caviar (red fish roe)
dill sprigs
lemon

METHOD:
1. Hold the bread in the steam over a pan of boiling water.
2. Steam each bread soft and shapeable.
3. Put immediately on upside down mugs.
4. Shape bread into a basket, and leave to dry.
5. Meanwhile cut the salmon into very small pieces.
6. Mix salmon, egg, and dill.
7. Mix mayonnaise, crème fraiche, and black pepper to taste.
8. Stir down salmon mixture, and fill the baskets with the mixture.
9. Garnish with caviar, segments of lemon, and a sprig of dill.

Pasta with Meat Mushroom Cream Sauce

A simple, straight-forward recipe.



INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* 1 large yellow onion
* 200 g fresh mushrooms
* 300 g ground meat
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 3 cloves garlic, pressed
* 2 teaspoons chinese soy
* 3 - 4 dl (300 - 400 ml) cream
* cayenne pepper
* salt

METHOD:
1. Chop the onion and slice the mushrooms thinly.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet, fry and crumble the ground meat.
3. Add onion and mushroom.
4. Lower the heat, simmer for 5 - 7 minutes, and give it a stir now and then.
5. Add garlic, and season to taste with cayenne pepper.
6. Stir in cream and soy.
7. Simmer, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes.
8. Taste with salt.



Let´s have a Pasta Sauce Potlock Party!

There will be a large bowl with cooked tagliatelli, grated parmesan and salad on the table. I serve my sauce. You bring yours. I am thrilled! What will it be? A ragout or a sauce?

A Strawberry & Almond Paste Pastry

Today, on 6th of June, it´s holiday. It is the Swedish National Day. This day became the Swedish national day in 1983. Previously known as Swedish flag day. It marks the coronation of Gustav Vasa in 1523. This old king defeated the Danes and established Lutheranism in Sweden. This day also marks the adoption of one of our constitutions from 1809.

The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) only designated this day a public holiday in 2005. Many immigrants associate the day with receiving Swedish citizenship. They celebrate living in a free and independent country.

There are celebrations in Stockholm, 600 kilometers away. I do not know what to do with a holiday in the middle of the week.

Anyway, here you are. I hereby give you the recipe of our National Day Pastry. A result of a pastry chef competition. The prize winner was Helena Bergmark.

4The Recipe in Swedish















INGREDIENTS:
10 Servings

LAYER:
300 g almond paste, grated
150 g butter
3 eggs, slightly beaten

TOPPING:
100 g almond paste, grated
about 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, (Grand Marnier) or fresh orange juice
1 l (1000 ml) strawberries
lemon balm

METHOD:
* Preheat oven to 175° C [350°F].
* Line a smaller oven pan (ab. 18x24 cm) with parchment paper.
* Grate almond paste.
* Crumble butter and almond paste in a mixing bowl.
* Add slightly beaten eggs and mix to form a mass.
* Spread batter evenly, 1 cm thick, in the oven pan.
* Bake in the centre of the oven, 12-15 minutes.
* Allow to cool.

The topping:
* Mix grated almond paste and liqueur, or orange juice.
* Spread the mixture on top of the almond paste layer.
* Cut into squares or ovals.
* Slice the strawberries lengthwize.
* Place the slices in the almond paste mixture.
* Garnish with lemon balm and a flag.

Exotic Chocolate Cake

I was going to bake this cake in April. We had invited guests for dinner. I needed ripe passion fruits at once. The perfect coffee cake, I thought. However, the passion fruits were hard as stones and looked more or less like purple plums. How long would it take for them to ripen? A week or a month? No one knew.

Now I am able to purchase wrinkled and crumpled passion fruit. Its seeds add a special taste and color to this sticky chocolate cake.











INGREDIENTS:
12 pieces

3 dl (300 ml) flour
4 dl (400 ml) sugar
8 tablespoons cacao powder
3 teaspoons vanilla sugar
2 dl (200 ml) margarine, melted
4 eggs
100 g white chocolate ( check that it contains a high level of cocoa butter)
2 passion fruits

METHOD:
* Heat oven to 175°C [ 350°F].
* Melt margarine.
* Mix flour, cacao powder, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl.
* Mix the dry ingredients with margarine.
* Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
* Pour batter into a greased baking pan, 24 cm in diameter
* Bake in the lower part of the oven for 30-40 min.
* The cake should be moist and sticky in the middle.
* Allow the cake to cool.
* Melt the white chocolate. (How to melt?)
* Spread evenly on top of the cake and allow it to stiffen.
* Scoop out the passion fruit seeds and sprinkle them over the cake.

Early Spanish Christianly minded explorers discovered this plant in South America. They considered the exotic flower symbolic of the crucifixion of Christ. The five petals and five sepals were thought to represent the 10 faithful apostles; the corona was the crown of thorns; the styles were the nails; the stamens suggested the wounds of Christ; and the tendrils were the scourges.

Because of the beautiful flowers the plant Passiflora Caerulea is cultivated in Sweden as a potted plant.

Meatballs With Mushroom Stew

Swedish meatballs are one of the best-known Swedish cooking specialties. However, there are so many recipes. Almost all meatball recipes call for some type of extender such as mashed potatoes, rolled oats or breadcrumbs. Less expensive items than meat.

My mother ground very well trimmed meat (ab. 300-400 g) in a hand turned meat grinder. She even used to make her own breadcrumbs. She took 4 crisprolls and crushed them with a bottle between two layers of paper. Then the crumbs were soaked in 1 coffeecup of milk for a while to make a crumb paste. Salt, pepper, grated onion and 1 egg yolk were the other ingredients.

My meatballs are a lot easier to make. [The recipe can also be used for patties]. Cook and taste one meatball before you bother forming the rest.











INGREDIENTS:
* 400 g ground meat (ab. 90 % beef + 10% pork)
* 2 teaspoons potato starch
* ½ dl (50 ml) milk
* 1 - 1 ½ teaspoon salt
* ½ - 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 egg
* butter

METHOD:
1. Mix the ground meat with egg, salt, pepper, milk and potato starch.
2. By hand form into small balls 25 mm - 30 mm (1"- 1½") in diameter.
3. Heat a skillet with butter to medium-high heat.
4. Fill the skillet about half full with the meatballs.
5. Fry them for about 7 - 10 minutes.
6. Shake the skillet to keep the meatballs turning and to cook them evenly.
7. When they are browned, take them out of the pan, keep them warm until ready to serve.

Cook them in the oven when you want to make large quantities. That is easier. Preheat oven to 200 - 225°C [ab. 400°F]. Place the meatballs on a greased baking sheet. Cook in the centre of the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes. Turn them around with a spoon a couple of times.

I serve my meatballs with cooked potatoes, a mushroom stew, red currant jelly and cooked broccoli bouquets.

Mushroom stew:

INGREDIENTS:
* 250 -300 g fresh champignons (white mushroom, button mushroom)
* butter
* 1 tablespoon flour
* 3 dl whipping cream
* salt and pepper
* 2 tablespoons sherry or port (optional)


METHOD:
1. Clean and slice the champignons, as thinly as possible.
2. Heat butter in a saucepan, add champignons.
3. Fry the champignons,
4. Turn them around now and then until all liguid has evapurated.
5. Add more butter, sprinkle with flour and mix well.
6. Season with salt and pepper, add whipping cream, a little at a time.
7. Simmer for at least half an hour on low heat, stirring.
8. Add more whipping cream if necessary.
9. When the stew is glossy and nice, and has a delicious taste you may add wine.