Whoope Pies, attempt 1

I've had a, rather reluctant, love affair with macarons for a while now. This is not something I'm proud of. Everything having to do with macarons is so ridiculous. They are ridiculously coloured, ridiculously pricey and ridiculously hip. But still, with a black cup of coffee, a sweet little something to go with it, I can't think of anything better than a macaron.

I've been considering making them at home, but since everybody says they are so hard to get right, I haven't bothered. But then I heard of Whoopies. A distant American relative of the macarons.  Two soft cookies slammed together with a generous slab of creamy goodness in between. Bigger and not with the same level of sophistication (the way a lot American relatives tend come across) but more easygoing and great tasting nonetheless.

So I got Sara Billingsley and Amy Treadwells book "Whoopie Pies" to get myself aquinted to the subject. It's an inspiring little book.  There are 21 recipes for different cookies to use and 29 recipes for fillings. They are all listed separately, with some good combos listed, but mostly the user is encouraged to mix and match on her own. I really like that. The only objection I have is that the fillings are way too sweet for me, I think that's another Europe/American thing. But, hey, it the filling gets too sweet, just add more of everything else :)

The recipe we tried were lemon whoopies with chocolate buttercream filling. Not that I thought it would make the best combo, the choice was solely based on my sons whims at the time. But it worked out fine in the end. The cookies are a bit bigger and chunkier than intended (compare with the cover of the book above), while juggling two kids and baking at the same time I tend to take whatever short cuts there are... I'll definitely be refining the recipes to get something that works for European palates as well, cutting the sugar and adding more of whatever flavouring that seems like a good idea to use.

My X-mas present to myself - Cookbooks

I recently discovered that the Swedish webshop Bokus carries most of Amazon US titles. The books themselves are a little bit pricier than in the US, but when you throw in no tax, free shipping and predictable shipping times you suddenly have a bargain.

I decided that I needed a little something for X-mas for myself as well, so I have ordered the following:

• Whoopie Pies by Sarah Billingsley
• Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen
• Home Sausage Making by Susan Mahnke Peery
• Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll
• Thai Street Food: Authentic Recipes, Vibrant T... by David Thompson
• Enklare bröd : recept på knådfria bröd med och... by Martin Johansson

Should be 3 more days now until they arrive...

Black X-mas Pork

There is this flavour that I've been missing since I moved from Thailand. It's sometimes found in dark sauces served over pork on rice in tiny market stalls. And it's similar to the flavour of the broth usually served with duck noodles. It's not to far from Hoi Sin sauce and it's related to "5-spice" spice mix, but I've never been able to pin it down or find out what it's made from. Until now, that is.

Last Sunday my local Swedish newspaper had this feature on "X-mas dishes with an Asian touch" and there was this recipe named "Black X-mas Pork" that I decided to try out. I didn't follow it to closely, that just wouldn't have been me, but when I was done I nearly fainted. It was THAT TASTE. I had recreated it without having a clue in the world what was going on.

Black X-mas pork, picture is from www.dn.se

So here is the, improved by me, recipe:

Black X-mas pork

1/2 kg meaty pork ribs 
3 dl soy sauce
1 dl sugar
10 cm ginger, sliced into 1,5 cm slices
10-15 schezuan peppercorns
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and bruised
3 stars of anise
1 cinnamon stick
A generous splash of chinese black vinegar
Spring onions for decoration, cut into small pieces

Cut the meat into serving sized pieces.

Put meat along with all other ingredients, except the spring onions, in a pot.

Boil for about half an hour or until the meat is done.

Serve with rice and sprinkle the spring onions on top.

Clearing out the freezer

About a month ago I set out to clear out all those freezer jars full of leftovers. I'm all for reusing food. One days tortilla stuffing meat will make a grand contribution to next days chilli. But some stuff just doesn't get picked. Like those kids that are not very good at sports at gym classes. It just sits there at the back of the freezer, looking sadder and sadder every day.

So, I decided that I should try to make an effort to clear out all of them to make room for the upcoming X-mas leftovers, preferably by eating them. But the strange thing is, even though I thought, several times, "Ok, now I've cleared them all out", new (or actually older) jars seemed to appear the next time I opened the freezer door. Why I hadn't seen them before I do not know, probably something Freudian, but there they sat, staring at me with their sad, cold imaginary eyes.

This isn't a new phenomena for me, I remember thinking I had something like 3 freezer bags of rhubarb, but somehow, with me making rhubarb ice cream and cakes nearly every weekend, they lasted for about half a year. I remember thinking about Jesus and the fishes, but I really don't think there was anything like that involved.

But now, finally, I REALLY have cleared out my freezer. There is just lots of space, waiting for something new to happen. I'm so much looking forward to cook new fresh food again, not just coming up with ways to make unidentifiable brown mush with ice crystals on it seem appealing. YAY!!!

Black Currant Liquorice Ice Cream

I've been wondering why there is plenty of black currant sorbet to go around but hardly any ice cream made with milk or cream. This is a mystery that just wouldn't leave me alone so I decided to make a batch of whole fat, creamy black currant ice cream to try out.

Included in this post is the recipe I used. I found that the dairy somewhat took the edge off the black currant flavour, but nonetheless, this turned out into a great ice cream. Black currants can be very dominating, so having them a bit mellowed down is not a problem for me.

And about the liquorice. After having mixed all ingredients for the regular black currant ice cream I started thinking, it tasted great, but maybe a bit predictable. Black currant and liquorice are two flavours that often come together in wines, especially in some very good  Australian Cabernets I've had. How would they work out in an ice cream?

They were spectacular! At first, putting the ice cream into my mouth I just felt the black currant fruitiness, but after a second or so the liquorice caught up. After swallowing, there was a lovely mix of sweet, tart and a little bit salt lingering in my mouth. This is defenetely a flavour combo I'll be working on.

Black Currant Liquorice Ice Cream

Serves 4 as a dessert.

250 gr. black currants
1/2 dl water
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 dl sugar
2 dl milk
1 tablespoon liquorice powder
2 dl heavy cream

Boil the blackcurrants in the water until mushy. Should take about 10 minutes.

Stir the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl until foamy.

Heat the milk in a pot until it simmers.

Slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture, stirring meanwhile.

Pour the eggs and milk back into the pot. Heat carefully, stirring constantly, until "custard thickness" is reached. The eggs must not be overheated, as that will make them scramble, ruining the "smooth custard thing" we're trying to accomplice.

Pour the custard back into the bowl.

Add the berries by straining them through a sieve. Use the back of a spoon to press out all the juice.

Add the cream.

Stir in the liquorice powder.

Chill until "refrigerator temperature" is reached.

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the instructions.

Cocoa Nib Chilli Ice Cream

This ice cream I made for a dinner party yesterday. At first it tastes all innocently sweet and chocolatey, but when the ice cream goes down the throat the cool is replaced with a hot, slightly burning, sensation from the chillies. I love the way the hot and cold play off each others.

Cocoa Nib Chilli Ice Cream

3 dl heavy cream
3 dl milk
1 dl sugar
1/3 dl Santa Maria Cocoa Chilli Mix (or if unavailable where you live, see approximation below)
Pinch of salt
Cocoa nibs for decoration

Put everything except the decoration nibs in a pot and bring to boil.

Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 20 minutes.

Put the mixture through a strainer, removing the solids, into a bowl.

Let the mixture cool down in the refrigerator until  througoutly chilled.

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.


Santa Maria Cocoa Chilli Mix approximation

1,5 tablespoons cocoa nibs
0,5 tablespoons ancho chilli flakes
0,5 teaspoon cassia cinnamon (or regular cinnamon with a splash of vanilla extract)

Stir everything together, use in cocoa nib chilli ice cream.

Crazy Asian Beverages - Basil Seed Drink with Apple

Where I come from (Europe that is), beverages tend to be liquid. The exceptions I can think of is orange juice with small pieces of orange membranes in them, or a few chunks of fruit floating around in a punch bowl. In Asia however, things are different.

I'll never forget my first sip of grass jelly drink. A cloyingly sweet, black liquid, faintly tasting of ink, with black pieces of jelly floating around in it. Or pearl tea, I've no idea why it's called tea, the first one I had more resembled artificially fruit flavoured drinking yoghurt with big slimy balls of tapioca, nearly choking me.

But I have this personal trait, stuff I don't understand I tend to get a bit obsessed with. I get this urge trying to find reason where there does not seem to be any. And weird tasting stuff makes me happy. That might be a sight of mental instability, but it does. So I've decided, whenever I see an Asian beverage that I've not yet tasted, I HAVE to try it out.  This decision has given me some of my worst experiences ever drinkwise, but also I few nice ones.

Today I tried out this one, "Basil Seed Drink with Apple".

Look: Colour is amber, heading towards peach. The most striking feature are the basil seeds, closely resembling frog eggs. They are evenly dispersed through the liquid, looking like they've never heard of gravity.

Smell: Strong artificial apple aroma, almost nauseating in it's sweet artificialness.

Taste: Not as bad as one might assume from the smell. Tastes like sweet tea, with an addition of apple aroma. Not as sweet as these kind of drinks often are. Surprisingly enjoyable.

Mouthfeel: The seeds feel like raspberry seeds coated in slime. They kind of slide around in the mouth and whenever I manage to crush one between my teeth there is a satisfying little crunch.

Would you drink this?

Pot Roasts - continued

So, why this obsession with pot roasts. First, everyone in my family likes them. Second, you can eat it for days and have varied meals every time. The first day you eat it like a classical pot roast with gratineed/mashed/baked/whatever potatoes, gravy, pickles and gelée. The next days you make super thin slices and eat them on bread, making steak sandwiches.

My favourites are made with thin slices of meat on Philadelphia cheese and a liberal sprinkling of flaky sea salt on top. My husband likes to eat them with mayo, fresh tomatoes and avocado. And there is the classic, with pickled cucumber and roasted onions. If there is any meat left then (hasn't happened to us yet) I suppose it would work great to chop it up and use it in woks, soups, pasta sauces etc. The sky is the limit.

Well, pot roasts are theoretically easy to make, but not fool proof as you could read about in my last post. Here are some pointers for success:

• Good quality meat! If the meat isn't top notch, it's just not worth trying in the first place.

• An oven thermometer! It's impossible to know how warm the meat is inside just by watching the surface. Here are some temperature guidelines, my ideal is 58°C.

          55°C: rare
          60°C: medium rare
          70°C: medium
          75°C: well done

• Salt! As pot roasts are big chunks of meat, the main flavourings will be stuck on the outside. When sliced up and put on a plate every slice will need some salt, either in the guise of just plain table salt or in a gravy to taste interesting.

Pot Roasts - Working Towards Perfection

Usually in my household my husband goes away to the big grocery store every weekend to do the shopping for the week. My assignment is to do the shopping list, so I usually keep a list in the kitchen that I fill with what we need to get during the week.

Some weeks are busier than other, about a month ago I had hardly managed to jot down anything onto the list. My husband said something like, I'll walk around the store and see what I find. Ok, I said. This strategy doesn't normally work for us, but I didn't have any better ideas myself at the moment. Guess if I was surprised when he showed up with this big lump of beef, saying, I figured it would be really nice to do a pot roast!

Now, we haven't ever done a pot roast before, so I consulted my cookbooks. Julia Childs "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" had a recipe that looked good. It said the meat should be marinated with (among other things) lots of wine, booze and olive oil for about a day. Can't go wrong with that, we thought. But it didn't turn out as good as we'd imagined. The meat just didn't taste very much in itself, dragging the dish down along with it. And we had yet to understand that a digital oven thermometer really is a must, so the meat was sadly overdone.

First attempt of pot roast, served with classic Swedish condiments of pickled cucumbers and gelées

Next week we had a new try, using elk meat this time. We used a recipe that called for marinating the meat with beer, veggies and spices. This time the meat was ok but the marinade turned out very bland. We tried to use it to make gravy but the whole thing just tasted wrong.

As we are very stubborn, or just do not know when to take a hint, the next week we were at it again. This time I had ordered grass-fed speciality beef from Gröna Gårdar, supposed to be especially suitable for making pot roasts.

First we made a type of pot roast that in Swedish is called Rostbiff. It's very easy, you just rub the meat in salt and pepper and braise it in 125°C until a thermometer inserted into the meat shows  60°C (or a bit more or less depending if you like your meat bloody or not). Now we were going places, this one was awesome. We served it as a part of a French themed dinner party along with French potato salad (potatoes and spring onions with a mustard vinaigrette) and baked tomatoes.

Marinating

Then, earlier this week, I made a pot roast that I'm finally very happy with. It's a bastardization of a type of pot roast that is called "Slottsstek" in Swedish and the French type using lots of wine :) Here goes the recipe:

Bastard Pot Roast

1 kg rump steak piece (fransyska in Swedish)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Marinade:
0,5 litre of red wine
1/4 pice of celery root in small pieces
2 onions in small pieces
3 carrots in small pieces
10 white peppercorns
5 allspice berries
3 bay leaves
5 anchovies fillets, mashed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Gravy:
Used marinade from above
Heavy cream
Butter
Salt and pepper

Make the marinade by mixing all marinade ingredients in a big baking pan.

Rub the meat in salt and pepper and dump it into the marinade.

Let the meat soak in the marinade for about half a day.

Heat the oven to 175°C. 

Brown the meat quickly on all sides in a frying pan.

Put the meat back into the marinade.

Insert an oven thermometer into the meat and put the baking pan with meat and marinade into the oven and let it bake until the thermometer shows 58°C (or more or less depending on your preferences).

Remove the meat and let it set for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make some gravy by spooning the "used" marinade into a pan (only the liquid, not the veggies). Add some cream, butter, alt and pepper until it tastes really good.

Serve the meat with the gravy.

Mmmmm, meat, with blood, my favourite

Blog remake

To be honest I'm getting a little bored with the cookbook reviewing theme I've been running. I very seldom follow a recipe accurately anyway, I like to do my own thing. So from now on I'm going to focus more on my own creations and maybe I'll throw in a review or two when I feel like it. This way I can freely print any recipes I like and I think that will make the blog a lot more interesting.

Hobgoblin Bread

This might be the best bread I've ever had. Seriously. The only liquid used in the dough is ale, but you wouldn't be able to tell that If you didn't know. The beer taste is subtle, but adds overall depth and a tiny bittersweet edge.

Hobgoblin Bread
One big loaf

760 grams bread baking flour (Vetemjöl Special in Swedish)
60 grams graham flour
2,5 teaspoons instant yeast
500 grams ale, at room temperature (I used Hobgoblin 3, 5%, but probably any flavourful dark beer would do)
2,5 teaspoons salt

Mix all flours and yeast in a food processor. While running on low speed, slowly pour the ale in and wait until the flour is all incorporated into dough.

Let the dough rest for 20 minutes

Sprinkle the salt over the dough and run the food processor again, at medium speed this time, for 7 minutes.

Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk, should take about 2 hours.

Move the dough onto a baking sheet and shape it into a ball.

Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk again, should take about an hour.

Bake the bread at 200°C for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 175°C and bake for 30-40 minutes more until your kitchen smells really good.


Adapted from the "Beer Bread" tin Rose Beranbaums "The bread Bible".

Real Chocolate Wafers

It's a bit of a mystery why these are called "Real Chocolate Wafers" since they're actually made with cocoa. But apart from that they are good, basic chocolate cookies, made with your normal chocolate cookie ingredients, rolled out and cut into different shapes.

I made these for my sons birthday about a month ago. The cut-out letters are the first letters of the names of the kids invited to the party. The cookies are a little bit bitter from the cocoa, but the kids really loved them and gobbled them up in no time at all. The big rounds I've put in the freezer, they're waiting for the right occasion to become ice cream sandwiches.

Roasted Squash Soup with Cocoa Bean Cream

A great thing about "Bittersweet" is that there is an entire chapter of savoury foods using chocolate and cocoa. I love the idea, but I've had some mixed experiences about using chocolate in food before so I thought it would be really interesting to see if the recipes here would work or not.

The first dish I've tried out is "Roasted Squash Soup with Cocoa Bean Cream". This soup is made by roasting a butternut squash in the oven with some olive oil. The squash is then mixed with some stock and sage, drawing on the classic combo of pumpkin and sage. Then the twist is added, by first boiling some cocoa nibs in cream, ladling the cream on top of the soup, and then sprinkling some cocoa nibs on top as well.

This soup was divine. The flavours came together and played off one another just beautifully. The squash contributed sweetness, the sage was dry and, well, herby, the stock was salty and the cocoa nibs added bitterness and crunch. I'm really intrigued by the chocolate and sage combo. I don't think I've ever seen them together before. I've been thinking of using it again in all kinds of preparations. What about "Dark Chocolate and Sage Truffles" or "Milk Chocolate and Sage Pannacotta" or in home made ice cream? There is just an universe out there waiting to be explored!

Bittersweet by Alice Medrich

Time to pick a new book. As I've been talking about nothing but chocolate for a while, the natural choice for a cookbook is "Bittersweet" by Alice Medrich.It's a 370 page book containing nothing but chocolate recipes.

 

Chocolate Festival Loot

My main objective, going to the Chocolate Festival, was tasting lots and lots of chocolate, preferably for free, and maybe buy a few morsels as well to take home. The exhibitors were, of course, all into selling chocolate, luring innocent (or not so innocent) bypasses into spending lots of money on their warez by offering a first little taste for free. A marriage made in heaven!

I had set myself a mental budget of 500 Swedish Kronas (=74 USD). That much I could spend without having to feel bad about my chocolate habits. And I ended up on nearly exactly that. I also had a plan to skip most of the ready made pastries, truffles, boxes of chocolates etc. and instead go for more baking ingredient like stuff that can be harder to come by doing the everyday shopping.

First, the chocolate. Before going I had my mind set on buying a couple of Valhrona bars, but after a big tasting around I found this label, Barry Callenbaut. It was half the price from Valhrona and I thought it tasted at least as good. Also, the pellet format is much handier when baking, so I got these ones instead. There is 200 grams in each bag, and the chocolate is made from beans from Grenada, Madagascar, Ecuador, San Tomé, some palce starting with an F that I cant make out and then there is a bag of common white cooking chocolate as well.

"Plaisir Miel", a chocolate and honey paste. Similar to Nutella but with a more caramel like taste. According to the vendor, great in cakes and pastries.

Italian Licorice powder. Also for use in baking. I have never used it myself but it's supposed to be divine used in ice cream, panna cottas etc. I'm dying to find out.

Chocolate and sea salt covered almonds. This one I've already given away to my mother in law who babysat my 4 year old, giving me the free time to go to the chocolate festival.

Filipino unrefined sugar. I've been meaning to buy one of these for a long time.

I'd never seen one of these before so I bought it out of pure curiosity. The vendor told me they're commonly used in savoury dishes in South America. It contains cocoa and spices such as nutmeg and bay leaf and you're supposed to grate it in order to use. Will be interesting to try out!

Not chocolate at all, but salty licorice with a salmiak, chilli and cranberry flavour. This is, seriously, the best salty licorice I've ever had.

Chilli spiked fudge cake

Fudge cake (Kladdkaka) is a Swedish modern classic. If the food at high school had been bad, me and my friends used to make a fudge cake after coming home and preferably gobble it up before our moms came home and gave us a lecture about what would happen if we kept on ruining our appetites on food with questionable nutritional value.

This cake is based on a recipe I've used hundreds of times, with a little twist - the addition of cocoa nibs and ancho chilli, in order to make more interesting.

Chilli Spiked Fudge Cake

100 grams butter
2 eggs
3 dl sugar
2,5 dl flour
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons of Santa Maria Cocoa Chilli mix (if you don't know this brand, see my approximation below)

Stir everything together.
Pour into an oiled pan.
Bake for 18 minutes in 200 degrees C (=400 degrees F). It's supposed to be very sticky.
Serve with whipped cream alongside a cup of freshly brewed coffee.


Santa Maria Cocoa Chilli Mix approximation

1,5 tablespoons cocoa nibs
0,5 tablespoons ancho chilli flakes
0,5 teaspoon cassia cinnamon
Splash of vanilla extract.

Stir everything together.
Use in fudge cake.

Scandinavian trends in chocolate

Last Friday, me and my friend Anna-Karin visited the Chocolate Festival that is held annually here in Stockholm. The exhibitors are a mixed lot, there are bakeries and patisserie shops, chocolate importers, manufacturers, magazine companies and a big stage with live pastry making going on. A great place to be if you love your chocolate, that is :)

The far biggest trend this year was using salt, licorice and salmiak with chocolate. About every vendor had some truffles sprinkled with flaky sea salt or chocolate bars with salt ground in with chocolate. "Salty licorice" was another big thing, it's a traditional Swedish licorice preparation where the licorice is spiced up with salmiak. I'm not sure if salmiak is used at all outside Scandinavia, I've never seen it abroad. It's a very intense tasting salt that takes the skin off your tongue if eaten to much.

The main coming thing, I think, is preparations with raw cocoa. There have been bars with cocoa nibs around for a while, but now there were bars made from just pressed raw cocoa of different granularities and brown sugar. I suppose it's an extension of the global "going natural, no additives" trend.

Chilli was the biggest thing last year, there were still lots of chilli preparations, but I felt that one has peaked by now.

Summary - The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook

Time to wrap up my Italian Vegetarian theme. I found these dishes very useful for a quick lunch for myself but my son was unfortunately not very impressed with the veggies...

The author of the book, Jack Bishop, has a blog containing lots of  vegetarian recipes at: http://captious.wordpress.com/

Quick data:
Title: The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook
Author: Jack Bishop
Length: 568 pages
Recipe quality: 5 out of 5
Recipe complexity: 1 out of 5 (seriously, they are very easy)
Organization: 2 out of 5
Index quality: 4 out of 5
Food Porn Vale: 2 out of 5

Pros:

• LOTS of very easy to prepare vegetarian recipes. As long as there is one vegetable in your kitchen I can near guarantee you that there will be a recipe in this book you can cook.
• All recipes come with serving suggestions
• Italian + vegetables = Healthy but hardly ever bland or boring.
• I'd say this book is very useful even if you're not a vegetarian. This is the best resource for Italian style side dishes  I know of.

Cons:

• This book is WAY to big. Each recipe gets at least a page, even if the text takes up just half the page, and lots of recipes are very similar. I'd liked more master recipes with variations, in order to make the book easier to carry around in the kitchen.
• I would have liked more main courses. This is an issue with all my vegetarian cookbook, there is lots of salads, soups and sides but the main course chapters usually have a somewhat lesser feeling about themselves.

Salad with Orange Juice Vinegraitte and Toasted Walnuts

A super simple green salad made from fresh leaves, roasted walnuts and shallots with a dressing made of fresh orange juice and walnut oil. Not the bite you normally expect from a vinaigrette type of dressing, but much softer and more mellow. The toasted walnut add spine and direction to what would otherwise be a rather bland mixture. 

Orange and walnuts are a combo I usually associate with Xmas food, and I think this salad would be a great addition to all the salty and fatty foodstuffs people in Sweden love to stuff themselves with at Christmas time. I've put a Xmas tag on this post, and hopefully I'll remember it in December.

 

Fava Bean Purée on Crackers

These beauties I picked up at the farmers market this weekend. I'm not sure what they are called in English, in fact I don't even know what they are called in Swedish, but I decided to put them to use in a recipe for "Crostini with Puréed Fava Beans". That couldn't be to far off the mark.

Green beans

A starter recipe with lots of steps, first, the beans had to be shelled:

Shelled beans, aren't they beautiful?

Then, they had to be boiled.
After boiling, the thick white skin on each bean had to be removed by hand, and an "inner bean", all spring green, revealed itself.
The "inner bean" was then mashed with salt and olive oil.
The last step was smearing the purée on crostinis, but since I didn't have any crostini on hand, I used crackers, like in the third pic:

Spread on crackers

And the taste? Well, they were ok. A bit like those dried green peas on can buy as snacks. But a lot of work considering the outcome.

Red Wine Risotto with Rosemary and Garlic

Risottos are not something that I do a lot. I've tried it a few times but, in fact, I've never been happy with the result. Therefore I couldn't wait to try one out from "The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook" and hopefully add it to my repertoire of "black dress" dishes (stuff that goes with anything).

However, risottos are tricky. Not really technique-wise, it's all about boiling rice. The problem is that this rice needs to be stirred and have stock added to it for at least 30 consequent minutes. And that is a very long time when you have 2 hungry little kids competing for your attention!

But I tried to be organized and plan ahead. My 4 year old, I placed in the sofa in front of the TV with a big supply of tomato wedges and cucumber slices. My baby girl (she's only 3 months old and hasn't started to eat solid food yet, that's why I don't mention her a lot in the blog), I put in her little baby chair where I could look at her and talk to her all the time, making sure she was well fed and recently changed.

Then I started to cook. First, the rice is fried in oil with garlic, rosemary and scallions. Then half a cup of red wine is added. When that is absorbed stock is added little by little until the rice is all soft and done. At the end, lots of grated  parmesan cheese is added.

And, I managed to pull the dish off. The fried garlic and rosemary made the kitchen smell magical. I served the risotto with chicken and it was absolutely delicious. The only negative comment I have about this is that the colour of the risotto was very dull. I had expected something more ruby-ish, as I used red wine, but it turned out a rather unappealing shade of brown. Maybe the stock had to much yellow turmeric in it. I use a Swedish vegan brand that tastes very good, but the next time I might use another brand, or simply add some more wine at the very end of cooking.

Pasta with Sautéed Fennel and Fresh Tomatoes

Can't have an Italian cookbook without some pasta dishes in it! In the "Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook" there are 41 pasta recipes, and several of the side dishes or polenta toppings would work out great as pasta toppings as well.

The pasta dish I chose to try out is made with fennel and fresh tomatoes. It's a fast and simple dish, anyone who has figured out how to turn on the stove will be able to cook it.

Start out by sautéeing the fennel in olive oil with some garlic. Throw in the tomatoes and cook until everything is done and  the tomatoes have gone all mushy and saucy. Toss with pasta and serve with some parmesan cheese, black pepper and nice olive oil on the side.

Most of the pasta recipes in the book are built around one or two types of vegetables that get cooked in an optimal way, pasta sauce wise. They can be stewed in a tomato sauce, simply tossed with olive oil, roasted in the oven or tossed with ricotta. Note though, as in most recipes that contain few ingredients, each ingredient gets a lot of exposure. That means that this dish will taste just as good (or bad) as the quality of the ingredients used.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Here is a great meal for cold autumn nights. A simple puréed carrot soup, the first dish in the Soup chapter of "The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook".

The recipe is straightforward. First, slice some carrots into pieces. Sautée them quickly with garlic and shallots in butter. Add vegetable stock and boil until carrots feel soft. Then, add some cream and purée everything in a mixer. Taste, then add salt, pepper, lemon or whatever makes the soup sing.

This is one of my favourite technique to showcase a single kind of vegetable, and I've tried it on lots of different vegetables before. Some good ones to cook this way are:

• Peas
• Leeks and potatoes
• Jerusalem Artichokes (my favourite)
• Spinach

Actually, I can't think of a single vegetable that wouldn't turn out good puréed as a soup.

My son loves raw carrots and he loves his "välling", a kind of loose milky porridge commonly fed to small children here in Sweden. I figured that this soup would be a neat hybrid of those two favourites of his so he just HAD to like it. Did he? No, not at all. He thought it was an awful way to destroy good carrots. So I'll be feeding him his carrots raw now onwards.

 

On a closer look the soup is not completely puréed, it's full of small chunks of carrot. That's what happens if you're not patient enough to let the carrots cook until they are all really soft and not just "kinda softer than before". The toppings, feta cheese and parsley worked out nice. And, some home made bread (this is the "10 Grain Torpedo" from The Bread Bible) was the perfect accompaniment.

The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop

For most part of the year it's just not possible to get locally produced vegetables here in Sweden, but in September and October there is a great little farmers market not very far from where I live. I love to go there, buy whatever looks nice and them go home, look in my cookbooks and figure out how to cook my new acquisitions.

Actually, the only food shopping I like more is being drunk in an ethnic store, buying whatever seems like a good idea at the time. Dont worry! I don't do this a lot, actually it has only happened once, but I'll never forget the look in my husbands face the next day, holding a half kilo package of tofu skins, asking, "And how did you say we were going to cook these?"

But, never mind, returning to my original veggie track, the next cookbook I'm doing here is "The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook".

It's a huge book, containing lots of relatively easy preparations for vegetables. As veggies are generally not a big hit with my son, I'm hoping to find some new preparations that he (and my husband and myself) actually like.

Flu Fighter Sorbet

Here is a recipe I want to share that I worked out myself. Honey, ginger and lemons are all well known cold remedies, and I figured putting them into a sorbet just had to be the best thing for treating a sour throat.

• 4 dl water
• 1/2-1 dl honey (or more to taste)
• 2 big knobs of ginger (the older the ginger the hotter the flavour)
• 3 lemons (or more to taste)

Cut the ginger into pieces. You don't have to peel it.
Heat the water until boiling.
Throw in the ginger pieces. Remove the pot from the heat.
Add the honey, let it melt.
Chill the mixture to "refrigerator temperature".
Squeeze in all the juice from the lemons.
Taste! If you like it sweeter, add more honey. If you like it tarter, add more lemon. It's supposed to taste good ;)
Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove ginger and lemon pips.
Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker.

Note 1: About the amount of honey, preference for sweetness is highly personal.  1/2 dl honey does not make a very sweet sorbet at all. I like it this way because I'm raised in Sweden on lättmjölk and lördagsgodis (low fat milk and eating sweets only once a week), but I think most people will like at least 1 dl of honey, if not more.

Note 2: If you're to lazy (or desperate) to wait for the mixture to first cool down, and then freeze, you can of course drink it warm as a herbal tea. Just pour the lemon juice in along with the honey.

Starting up the ice cream maker

Summary - Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen

Ok, I'm done with this one for now. It's a great book, the best I've seen for getting into Vietnamese cooking from a European standpoint. I'd recommend it to anyone serious about making tasty Vietnamese food at home.

Quick data:
Title: Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
Author: Andrea Nguyen
Length: 344 pages
Recipe quality: 5 out of 5
Recipe complexity: 3 out of 5 (ranging between 1 and 4.5)
Organization: 5 out of 5
Index quality: 4 out of 5
Food Porn Vale: 4 out of 5

Pros:

• Great variety, there actually even is a charcuterie chapter! But I haven't tried making my own sausages yet.
• Clear instructions and explanations.
• Nice anecdotes and stories of the authors family.
• All recipes I've tried work, although not all dishes are "me".

Cons:

• The only thing I can think of is that I'd like more vegetable/vegetarian recipes. Common cold weather vegetables like cauliflower, carrots and cabbage are considered "fancy" in South east Asia so I'd love to get more ideas how to cook them.

Fresh springrolls

The Vietnamese take on "taco night". You choose basically whatever stuff you like,  wrap it into a soft little parcel of rice paper, then dip the whole thing into sauce and eat it. In "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" there are 3 different takes on springrolls; there are "Southern Salad Rolls" with shrimp, pork, noodles and herbs, "Beef and Jiacama Hand Rolls" and "Shrimp and Crab Rolls".

Filling the spring roll

We chose to make real simple ones, containing shrimps, noodles, spring onion and herbs. The wrapping is bought in hard dried sheets that you soak in water to soft them up. These work great with my (now) 4 year old son, we just make sure that there is some stuff he likes and then let him manage his rolls on his own.  

Ready to eat

Egg, shrimp and scallion pancakes

These little fellas, that really are more of omelets than pancakes, are one of the easiest recipes in "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen". Just whisk together some eggs. Throw in some shrimps and chopped scallion pieces. Some salt and pepper and that's it. With rice and Vietnamese dipping sauce they are a great little lunch.The dipping sauce is crucial though, without it the pancakes just wont shine.

Pho - mabye the best noodle soup ever

Can't really write about Vietnamese food without mentioning this one, it's my favorite noodle soup dish in the whole wide world!

The broth is a very hearty beef one, subtly spiced with star anise, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. It's poured over rice noodles and thin slices of raw beef tenderloin, barley cooking the surface of the tenderloin, keeping most of it raw. Then everything is topped with raw onion rings, fresh leaves as Thai basil, mint and cilantro. For a perfecting touch, a few slices of chilli and some lime juice.

In "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" this is one of the most complicated recipes. The broth takes at least half a day to make. Also, marrowbones are really hard to get here and they are unreasonably expensive. I really need to befriend a butcher (anyone?) cause I find that a bit strange considering how much beef there is around. But, after airing those complaints, this is something definitely worth trying out. I think it's something about the combo of the superior home made broth, nearly raw meat, fresh leaves and perfectly balanced tastes in the condiments that makes this a totally sublime dish.

And about the child factor. Keeping it simple, cutting out the toppings, generally works in my household. That means some noodles, some broth and some meat and you're home.

Roasted Chicken with Carrot and Daikon Pickles and Greens

The Viet name of this chicken dish is Gá Rô-ti, revealing a relationship to the French Rotisserie Chicken. This has been my go-to technique for chicken lately because it's got the best "amount-of-work to taste ratio" of any chicken recipes I know of. You just pick out any cuts you like, dump them in a marinade for a while. The one suggested in "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" contains lots of garlic, soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar and oil, but you can really use any marinade. Then the chicken is put in a foil clad baking dish and baked in the for 20 to 40 minutes depending of the size of the pieces.

The vegetable chapter in "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" is the only one I'm not completely happy with. There are not so many recipes and the vegetables used are not generally vegetables I'm very fond of. Daikon is used a lot. I'd love to like it but I just don't understand the East Asian fascination with it. That said, I still give it a chance every now and then to see if it has grown on me. In this salad it's grated with carrot and put into a sweet and sour brine. It's an ok side dish, but nothing I'll be doing again any time soon.

Deep Fried Wontons

Before frying

I don't think that this recipe is especially Vietnamese, these type of wontons are found all over East Asia. The filling is made from ground pork, chopped pieces of shrimp, scallions and seasoning. Then it's wrapped into wonton wrappers and deep fried until the meat inside is done.

What is Vietnamese though is the dipping sauce that goes with the wontons. At least half of the recipes in this book has some sort of dipping sauce on the side. The most simple one is just fish sauce, water and chillies. The more elaborate contain chicken livers, ready made Hoi Sin sauce and a lot more. The dip sauce recommended for these is a middle-of-the-road one. Some fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chillies, vinegar, garlic and water to dilute with.

Lets just say, this is not for the calorie conscious. Me and my husband shared the whole batch of wontons just the two of us, and I wasn't hungry until in the afternoon the next day...

After frying

About deep frying, I'm not very confident with it, cause I'm scared of oil fires. Actually, my husbands did the deep frying of these beauties. But if you don't have anyone to do your dirty work for you, some pointers for success when deep frying:

• Turn the kitchen fan off 
• Keep a lid on the side as oil fires can only be put out by suffocation, not with water.
• While the oil is warming, keep some bread cubes on the side and toss one into the oil every now and then. When the bread turns golden within a few seconds, the oil is warm enough for start frying.
• If the oil starts smoking, boiling or if you can see a faint blue shimmer over the surface, immediately remove the oil from the heat. This means that it's close to catching fire.

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen

Next book in line is the Asian cookbook I've probably cooked from the most durintg the last few years - "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" by Andrea Nguyen.

What's so great about this book then? Well it's basically about the Vietnamese cuisine, which has similarities to both Chinese and Thai cuisine, but it has a fresher feel to it. Vietnamese cuisine is all about contrasts, dishes tend to be spicy but very light at the same time. There are lots of fresh herbs, but everything tends to be dunked into fish sauce based dips, making things more exciting. Also, this book does not shy away from what the French colonization brought to Vietnam in terms of cooking techniques, foodstuffs and tastes, making the recipes even more accessible to a European cook like me.

As extra bonus, the author has a blog at: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/

Summary - Noodle Comfort by Kentaro Kobayashi

Time to wrap up this little book now. A good resource for anyone who likes noodle dishes but does not want to spend to much time in the kitchen. No made-from-scratch stocks or other purist stuff but some days that's just not an option anyway.

Quick data:
Title: Easy Japanese Cooking - Noodle Comfort
Author: Kentaro Kobayashi
Length: 96 pages
Recipe quality: 3 out of 5
Recipe complexity: 2 out of 5 
Organization: 3 out of 5
Index quality: 1 out of 5 (no index, but a TOC naming every recipe)
Food Porn Vale: 2 out of 5

Pros:

• Easy, quick and very accessible recipes. Anyone can cook these dishes.
• No special equipment needed.
• Great photos of all dishes. Some have step-by-step illustrations.
• All dishes that I've tried (5 so far) have tasted great.

Cons:

• A certain level of Japanese goofiness.
• Translations are somewhat odd, sometimes it's hard to understand the instructions.
• Only about half the recipes are actually Japanese. But many of the non-Japanese ones do have a Japanese cross-overish twist which I find interesting in itself.

Tan Tan Noodles

Again, I'll let the recipe intro describe the dish: "Delicious meaty miso with sweet, sour and spicy sauce, served on top of smooth Chinese noodles". Sounds lovely, doesn't it, except it's a bit odd to describe miso as "meaty", but whatever.

Tan tan noodles is one of my husbands favourite dishes. It's a spicy dish, the noodles are served with a fried spicy minced pork mixture laying in a sesame and chilli spiked broth. In "Noodle Comfort" there are two version of this dish, one where the noodles are served in warm broth and one served with cold sauce. We've tried the cold version, but, after some trial and error, we've found that we like it better when the sauce is heated, to resemble soup.

In our version, the pork is fried quickly with garlic, spring onions, ginger, and sesame oil. The real work lies in the sauce, a miso based mixture containing sesame paste, sesame oil, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and chilli paste. As we've made this dish a few times and every time the sauce has turned out somewhat different, so now I just keep adding whatever I think it needs until it starts to taste like I remember it from Japan.

In the soupy "hot broth" version the meat mixture is a little more elaborate. The meat is fried with schezuan peppers, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shots, bean sprouts and sesame paste. Then any type of "soup mix" broth is poured onto the noodles and meat. I'm sure this will turn out great as well, as long as a decent quality of soup mix is used. 

Salmon and Penne au Gratin

One of the recipes in "Noodle Comfort", from the more Western oriented "Pasta" chapter. I thought it might be interesting to see how a Japanese cookbook presents a Western dish to its audience.

Basically, it's penne, tossed in a cream based salmon, mushroom and asparagus sauce, topped with cheese and then baked in the oven. This is something I might cook for myself, but lets take a closer look at the sauce. It is based on cream, garlic, white wind and olive oil. Then there is some parmesan added and curry powder. To most European chefs there is one ingredient mentioned here that does not belong. I decided to keep an open mind and went with the curry powder even though I didn't really believe in it, but actually, it turned out great. Even my son ate it, after I had removed all the mushroom and asparagus pieces from his dish.

Bang Bang Chicken with Noodles

The recipe intro says: "Potently flavoured sesame sauce, combined with the refreshing taste of boiled chicken. Light and luscious, yet rich and delicious".  How anyone would think of describing the taste of boiled chicken as refreshing, I don't know, but apart from that, the intro says it all.

A very easy recipe of egg noodles with pieces of chicken and cucumber in a sesame sauce. Just boil the chicken with some garlic and ginger. Cut cucumber and spring onion into pieces (the cucumber pieces probably should have been more matchstick shaped than I made mine, but I really have a thing against cutting stuff into very small, equally sized, pieces). Then the ingredients for the sauce are mixed together; lots of sesame oil, ground sesame seeds, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and salt. The sauce is poured over the noodles and chicken. As garnish, some sesame seeds are sprinkled on top.

The result - a nice noodle dish that tastes a lot of sesame. I loved it, but it was no hit with my son, the sesame flavour was a bit to much for him. I spooned some of the chicken cooking water over my dish to make it more soupy, a nice addition.

Noodle Comfort by Kentaro Kobayashi

This book is totally different from the last two. It's thin, playful and aimed at starter cooks like students or anyone learning his or her way around the kitchen (it's part of a series named "Easy Japanese Cooking"). I got it after a trip to Japan where I was impressed with the variety and pure deliciosness of the noodle dishes available there. This book is originally written in Japanese, originally aimed at the Japanese market, but now also translated into English.

There are 8 recipe chapters with between 3 and 12 recipes in each, being the following:

• Chinese Noodles
• Udon and Soba
• Yakisoba (fried noodles)
• Rice Vermicelli and Naengmyeon (Vietnamese Pho fits into this chapter)
• Ultimate Noodle Experience (I'd guess that these are the authors favourites)
• Pasta (European style pasta dishes, most with a Japanese twist)
• Thin Japanese Noodles (mostly Somen noodles)
• Sides and Sweets

Summary - The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Quick data:
Title: The Bread Bible
Author: Rose Levy Beranbaum
Length: 640 pages
Recipe quality: 5 out of 5
Recipe complexity: 4 out of 5 
Organization: 5 out of 5
Index quality: 3 out of 5
Food Porn Vale: 3 out of 5 

Pros:

• Very detailed instructions, nothing is left by chance
• A big selection of recipes for lots of different types of breads
• Author has a big forum on her web site, so it's easy to ask around about the recipes if anything is unclear
• Full of information on anything bread related, useful both for novices and bread buffs
• Measurements in both weight and volume
  

Cons:

• A bit overwhelming, most recipes are several pages long
• Made for America, using U.S brands that are not available here
• Some of the recipes are more involved than what I'm used to, i.e. the sourdough is expanded twice, which I've never done before and it puts me off because it takes way to long
• Small quantities (but hey, as long as you read carefully and multiply by need, this isn't really a problem) 
•  

But all in all I think that The Bread Bible is a great resource and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in baking great breads at home.

Levy's "Real" Jewish Rye Bread

I don't have a lot of experience shopping at Jewish bakeries so I did not know what to expect when I decided to make Jewish Rye Bread.

It turned out to be a rustic, very decent, type of bread. The ratio between wheat and rye flour is 83% vs. 17% which makes it medium coarse and the only aromatic is caraway. The crust was great, and got even crunchier when toasted. Excellent served with salami. I prefer this one over the soft white "sandwich" type of breads, there's just more food to it somehow.

Banana Muffins

The easiest and fastest recipes in the "Bread Bible" are the recipes in the "Quick breads" chapter, made with baking powder and/or soda instead of yeast. You just stir the all the ingredients together, pour the batter into a baking container and bake. I tried out the banana muffins. Great moist sweet little morsels made with mashed banana, lemon zest and some vanilla as well.

My only objection to this recipe (and that goes for all recipes in the Bread Bible) is that the quantities they turn out are really small. The banana muffin recipe is for 5 American sized muffins (that means 10 Swedish sized ones) - that's nothing! Me and my son gobble that up in a sitting, just the two of us. The bread recipes are normally for just one loaf. Ms Beranbaum says the quantities are small because baked goods are best fresh, right out of the owen. She has a point there, but I still think it's advisable to multiply the quantities and freeze what's not eaten within a day or so if you don't have the time or energy to bake every day.

Great Bread Pictures

Apparently, a guy named Matthew Boyer has baked his way all through the Bread Bible, taking pictures of every single recipe, check them out at:

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2010/08/the_complete_bread_bible_inclu.html

Potato Sandwich Loaf

"Sandwich loaves" are that white soft type of bread (formfranska in Swedish) you normally get in plastic bags at the supermarket. I had no idea that you could make them at home, but apparently, you can! Beranbaums book has 9 different recipes for sandwich loaves. First there is the the basic white plain one, then there are variations made with i.e. cheddar, banana, potatoes, flaxseed, sweet potato and more.

I went for the potato bread as I had some leftover potatoes on hand. The dough was made with wheat, yeast milk and of course, mashed potatoes.

Most breads in the book are made by the "sponge process". That means that half the dough (but all liquid ingredients) are mixed first, this is the sponge  The rest (only dry ingredients) are mixed separately and sprinkled on top of the sponge. The "topping" is called the flour mixture. Then everything gets to rest somewhere between 1 and 24 hours to ferment, this gives more depth in flavour. I'm sure it's not necessary to top the sponge with the flour mixture, the author says that it protects the sponge but you can probably do that with a film of plastic wrap as well. But on the other hand, I found it good to measure up all ingredients at once, so if you notice that there just isn't enough flour at the end, you can go to the store and get more before it is time to mix all the ingredients together.

The dough was very stiff at first, more like pie dough, but after processing it for 10 minutes or so it resembled a more "normal" yeast dough.

And, here is the result:

This bread is very soft and spongy at the same time. I imagine if you sat down on a loaf and then stood up it would just sprooooing back to it's original shape. Not that I tried though, but I have to admit that is would be an interesting experiment  :)