Caraway seed soup

Caraway seed soup is a light and tasty dish. It is a simple dish, ideal for fast days, and a perfect starter for a banquet.

Ingredients 

• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1tbs flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups water or veggie stock

Method

• Heat the oil and toast the seeds until they release their aroma.
• Add the flour and let it brown a bit. 
• Add the paprika, and pour the water or stock over.
• Cook for 15 mins until it is silky
• Strain the seeds, and serve with crusty bread.

Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake is delicious! Great as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea or coffee. It is surprisingly easy to make.

Best of all, no zebras are harmed in its creation! It is named for its striped layers of chocolate and vanilla cake. 

The layers are usually not as wavy as mine are - when I was pouring the batter I discovered that the bench I was on sloped so the batter poured unevenly. It still tasted good though!

Ingredients

4 eggs

250 ml milk

250 g sugar

250 ml vegetable oil
2 cups (10 oz / 300 g) plain flour
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (equals 3 teaspoons) baking powder 

2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar and beat until light and fluffy.Add milk, vanilla and oil, and continue beating until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine and mix flour and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat just until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.  Batter should run slowly off the beaters. If it is too thick add more milk, if too runny add more flour.

4. Divide the mixture into 2 bowls.  Add cocoa powder into one of the bowls and mix well. You may need to add a little more milk to maintain the batters fluidity.

6. Lightly grease a round cake pan with oil. 

7. This is the most important technique in the whole process, as this is what gives the zebra cake its distinctive stripes. Pour 3 heaped tablespoons of vanilla cake batter into the middle of your cake pan. Then immediately pour3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter. Then 3 tbs of vanilla, 3 of cocoa, and so on until both batters are used up. DON'T stop until it is done. At the end you should see concentric rings of batter in your pan.

8. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

9. Invert, cool, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Pineapple upside down cake

  This is very yummy, quite buttery and sweet. 

Recipe is from the lovely Nigella -  http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/pineapple-upside-down-cake-51

Reprinted here below the pic. 

Ingredients

butter (for greasing)

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice)
• 11 glace cherries (approx. 75g total weight)
• 100 grams plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 100 grams soft butter
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 2 large eggs

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6/400ºF. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm/9 inches wide at the top and 20cm/8 inches diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm / 8-9 inch cake tin(Do not use a spring-form tin, trust me on this)
2. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in the picture.
3. Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.
4. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.
5. Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft move, turn it upside-down. Tap the cake tin and it should slide out onto the plate.

Lax Pudding (Salmon pudding)

This is a lovely way to use up leftover gravlax or smoked salmon. It is a terrificly warming winter dish - perfect for a rainy night. Another winner from Swedish cuisine!

You can make this in a large terrine, but I choose to make them as individual puddings. Took a little less tiem to cook that way, and they looked really cute in my little mini dishes!

Serves 8

Ingredients

250g new potatoes

2tbps butter
1 leek finely sliced
200g gravlax or smoked salmon finely sliced
2 eggs
 250ml milk
30 ml cream
handful of chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste

method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender. leave to cool
saute leek in butter until softened.
Thinly slice potatoes and place as a layer in the bottom of a terrine.
Add fine slices of salmon. then a layer of leeks.
Repeat until you run out of ingredients - end with a layer of potatoes.

Beat the eggs in a bowl, add in milk and cream and then beat together till combined. Season with S&P, the sir the dill through the egg mixture.

Pour the egg mixture over the terrine, and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown with a set egg.

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.