Mandel Päron (Almond Pears)

Following on the recent fascination with all things Swedish is this simple yet delicious dessert. A lovely quick dessert for those times you don't want to fuss.

Serves 8

Ingredients

8 ripe pears, peel, halved, and cored
juice of 1 lemon
2tbsp of butter
350g ground almonds

cream or custard to serve

Method

Place the pears in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Put a small piece of butter on each pear and then sprinkle the ground almonds evenly on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, basting once or twice with the juices, until they are soft and the almond crust is a light golden colour.

Serve warm with the cream or custard.

Appelkaka med vaniljkräm (Apple cake with vanilla cream)

This is an amazingly luscious dessert. The addition of lemon to the topping is absolutely inspired.
This was part of our Swedish Eurovision feast!

While you can eat it cold, it comes into its own when it is warm. Eating it straight out of the oven it is a slice of heaven itself. It is more of a pudding/crumble than a cake - so don't expect it to hold its form perfectly when serving!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
7 eating apples
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup white sugar
2 egg yolk and 3 egg whites
100g ground almonds
grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon

For the vanilla cream
double cream, whipped with 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
Butter a 20cm flan or springform tin
Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples and put in a bowl. Add in the caster sugar and cinnamon and toss till coated.
Put into baking tin.
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg yolks and then add the almonds, lemon, and lemon rind.
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and then fold into the mixture.
Pour this mixture over the apples.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the golden brown on top, and tender apples on the bottom.
Serve with a dollop of vanilla cream.

Swedish meatballs

This was the second course in our Swedish Eurovision feast!

These  Swedish meatballs are served in a gravy lightly flavored with nutmeg and cardamom. They are delicious, and even better the next day! Lingonberry jelly is traditionally used with Swedish meatballs; you can substitute cranberry or red currant if you can't find lingonberry jelly.

INGREDIENTS

Meatballs:

    1 large onion, finely diced
    2 Tbsp butter
    2/3 cup milk
    4-5 slices of bread, crusts removed, cut in pieces
    2 eggs
    500g  pork mince
    500g pounds beef mince
    2 teaspoons salt
    1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
    1 teaspoon ground cardamom
    1 tsp allspice
    2 teaspoons black pepper

Sauce:

    6 Tbsp butter
    1/3 cup flour
    1 litre beef stock
    1/2 to 3/4 cup sour cream
    Salt
    2 to 4 Tbsp of Lingonberry, cranberry, red currant or raspberry jelly, more or less to taste (optional)

METHOD

1 Sauté the onion in the butter  until the onions soften and turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

2 In a medium bowl, mix the bread pieces with the milk. Set aside for 15 minutes, or until the bread soaks up all the milk. When it does, pulverize the bread in a food processor and pour it into a large bowl.

3 Add the cooled onions to the bowl of milk and bread. Add the rest of the meatball ingredients—eggs, pork, beef, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, pepper. Using your (clean) hands, mix well for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are well combined.

4 Use a tablespoon to measure out the meat for the meatballs. As you form the meatballs, set each one aside on a sheet pan or plate. You should get 40 to 50 meatballs.

5 Heat 6 tablespoons of butter for the sauce in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium and add some of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan. Work in batches, browning them slowly on all sides. Be gentle when you turn them so they don't break apart. Do not cook the meatballs all the way through, only brown them at this stage. Once browned, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan, setting them aside so you can make the sauce with the remaining pan butter.

6 Start the sauce. (Check the pan butter to see if it has burned. If the butter tastes burnt, discard the butter and replace with new 6 tablespoons.) Heat the pan butter on medium until hot. Slowly whisk in the flour. Stirring often, let the flour cook until it is the color of coffee-with-cream; this is a classic roux.

7 As the roux is cooking, heat the beef stock in another pot until it simmers. When the roux has cooked until the color of coffee-with-cream, slowly add the hot beef stock a little at a time. Everything will sputter at first, and the sauce will seize up and solidify. Keep stirring and adding stock slowly, and it will loosen up and become silky.

8 Add the meatballs to the sauce and turn the heat down to low. Cover the pot and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. You might need to do this in batches.

9 To finish, move the meatballs to a serving dish. Add the sour cream and mix well. Either add the lingonberry jelly to the sauce or serve it on the side.

Yield: Serves 4 vikings, or 8-10 regular people.

Gravlax: Cured Salmon

We have a little tradition at our place - every year we watch the Eurovision final, and every year we cook a meal from the country that is hosting the show. This year was Sweden, so  a Swedish feast was in order.

We started with a lovely entree of Gravlax with a mustard and dill sauce. This is actually very easy to make, though you do have to plan in advance as the curing process takes time. Sadly, my picture does not do the gravlax justice - these are the leftovers from the entree plate!! We were too carried away to take photos earlier lol.

Ingredients

Gravlax ingredients

1kg fresh salmon, filleted and boned, with the skin on.
1/2 cup sea salt
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tsp crushed peppercorns
2 cups chopped fresh dill
fresh dill fronds to garnish

Mustard and dill sauce

100g Swedish mustard (you can substitute dijon if you cannot get Swedish)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
100g fresh dill fronds

Method

To make the gravlax

• Pinbone the salmon to remove any residual bones
•  mix the salt and sugar together.
•  sprinkle half the mixture of sugar/salt onto a sheet of foil. Place the salmon on the mixture, skin side down.
•  sprinkle the crushed pepper and dill on the salmon, then cover with the rest of the sugar/salt mixture. 
•  Wrap the salmon tightly in foil and place in fridge for 48 hours. Turn the salmon once every 12 hours. 

To make the sauce

put the sugar, mustard, vinegar, and salt and pepper, into a bowl and mix together. Slowly drizzle in the oil into the mixture, whisking it all the time until you have a thick and shiny sauce. Stir the dill fronds through the mixture.

To serve

Take the salmon out of the foil and wipe of the remaining curing mixture. Finely slice it from on end at an angle of 45 degrees. The skin will be quite tough, so it is important to remember to only cut off the flesh.

Garnish with dill fronds and serve with the sauce.

Pumpkin Soup

There is nothing like a warm bowl of pumpkin soup on a cold autumns evening. This is savoury and filling, and a perfect way to use up those many pumpkins my little garden grew!

serves 4

Ingredients

750g pumpkin
250g potato
2 onions chopped
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
1 litre water

Method

Saute onions, add in pumpkin and potato. Cover with stock and water, and boil until everything is soft.
Puree to soft consistency.
add in 1 tbs of cream and stir to combine.

Serve with crusty bread.

Coconut and ginger squash and rice

This coconut and ginger squash and rice recipe was born out of my rather desperate need to find new ways of incorporating spaghetti squash into dishes, after growing a glut of them. It is a really yummy dish, and goes well with curries. It is also delicious as a dish in its own right.

Ingredients

1 shallot, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 little finger sized nob of ginger finely chopped
2 cups jasmine rice, cooked
2 cups spaghetti squash, cooked

1 tin of coconut milk
1/2 cup of zucchini, cubed

Method

saute shallot, garlic, and ginger until translucent
add in zucchini and saute till golden
add in rice, squash, coconut milk.
combine and toss until warm.

Cabbage and Pasta

I have to apologise at the lack of photo here. You see, we love this so much, that as soon as it was cooked we ate it all up!!!

Seriously wonderful, quick, easy, and delicious comfort food.

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked pasta (any sort will be fine - we usually use bowties or macaroni)
2 onions finely sliced
1 tbs caraway seeds
1/2 cup of sour cream
3 or 4 cups of finely sliced red cabbage
oil for frying + a small knob of butter for extra flavour
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Saute onions gently in the oil + butter until they are soft, sweet and translucent.

Stir in the caraway seeds. Add in the cabbage and cook until tender.

Add in the pasta, stir to combine. Then add in the sour cream, and stir through. If it is a bit "dry" and not saucy enough to coat add in a splash of water or milk. It should not be a runny sauce, but it should coat/cling to the pasta and cabbage.

Eat and enjoy!