Cooking with Aftelier essences, part 1 - Grand Fir

Mandy Aftel does not only make top notch natural perfumes, she also has a range of cooking essences and I've been lucky enough to get to try a few of them. The ones I've been experimenting so far are Yellow Mandarin, Blood Cedar Wood, and Grand Fir. The wooden ones I choose because those flavours are unusual in cooking and I love a challenge. Sweet mandarin I chose because I LOVE the taste of mandarins. Clementins and tangerines we can get all year round here, but real mandarins with their very special happy taste are very hard to come by. They only show up for a few weeks every year in speciality food stores, so having a small bottle of essence is a real treat!

So, what have I been using these essences for? Since I haven't had any finished recipes I've started easy. Doing simple, near fool proof, dishes just to get to get the feel for each essence. Initially I thought that the Grand Fir one would be the hardest one to use, it smells very assertively and resiny. A scent that I associate with masculinity, winter, deep forests and green Wunderbaums, hanging in cars belonging to guys with shady intentions. Fortunately, I've been delighted to find several great uses for it. I've tried adding a drop to a basic balsamic vinaigrette dressing, that works great with veggie salads or Greek salads, especially with sweet ripe tomatoes and feta cheese.

Veggies with Balsamic Fir Vinaigrette

Balsamic Fir Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegraitte
1 small drop Grand Fir Essence
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything in a small bowl. Taste!


Salad to go with the dressing

Use the any ones you like of the following:
Lettuce
Tomatoes, the sweeter and riper the better
Cucumber
Red onions
Grated carrots
Feta cheese

Cut up the veggies and feta. Put everything in a salad bowl. Either pour the dressing all over the salad or serve on the side.

A well known chefs proverb is "Grows together, goes together". Here in Sweden I think the fir is the most common tree, especially up north there are vast forests of them. All over the forest floor wild lingonberries grow. Their taste reminds me a bit about cranberries, but they are smaller, harder and tarter. The most common use for them is making jam. I was very curious about how lingonberries would take to the Grand Fir Essence so I made a quick, not so sweet, version of lingonberry jam to try. It turned out great, an interesting, and somehow deeper tasting, version of a Swedish classic.

Lingonberry Forest Relish

This is somewhere between a jam and a relish. For making jam, just boil the berries a bit longer and add more sugar.

1 cup of lingonberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 drop Grand Fir Essence

Put lingonberries, sugar and water in a pot.
Boil for 10 minutes until the berries start breaking up.
Add the drop of Grand Fir Essence.
Stir and serve.

Great served with Swedish meatballs.

So, this is enough cooking for today. I have several more posts coming up using the other two essences, so stay tuned :)



The essences were sent to me for trial.

Blogging Break

As I haven't been updating the blog for a while I've decided to take on official Blogging Break from this blog. The reason is that my baby girl is now eating the same food that the rest of the family, only that the food must be semi-mashable and not to salty/hot/sweet. That makes the food I make not very interesting and not visually appealing. But I will be back cooking cool stuff some day, don't forget about me!

Meanwhile, I do update my other blog, fragrantfanatic.  It's about perfume, everything olfactory and just general musings on stuff. Take a look if you like!

Restaurant review: Frantzén/Lindeberg

In order to celebrate that me and my husband have been together for 15 years we decided to have dinner at Franzén/Lindeberg, one of the top restaurants in Stockholm with two recent stars in the Guide Rouge. They are well known for their experimental approach to cooking and use of fresh local ingredients. There is no set menu, you get served a multicourse one that includes whatever is fresh that very day.

First thing that happens is that the waitress puts a box on out table, containing a loaf of rising dough. A little something to rest our eyes on, to help us get in touch with the meal we are about to experience. A little odd, but I've had worse company while eating out.

The starters are served in a series of 5 where the theme is "raw".
First, an amuse bouche. Two carrot meringues, sandwiched and served macaron style with a foie gras pâté between. The meringues were amazing, perfectly soft and brittle, sweet carrot flavour, no hint of chewiness.
Second, looks like a piece of sushi with raw halibut on top but instead of rice there is this paste containing crab, whitefish roe and chives. A vinaigrette is spooned over the fish, containing canola oil and butter(!).
Third a tartar of langoustine and ruby grapefruit served with a slice of lardo and rosemary and crushed almonds on top. A dollop of apple butter with vanilla on the side.
Fourth, a duck breast is "cooked" in front of us by pointing a blowtorch towards a piece of coal. The flame bounces off the coal onto the duck. I don't think this was a standard dish, there were sparks going in all directions, including into the carpet, making the staff look worried. The duck breast was then thinly sliced and served with duck heart, beetroots, rhubarb and raspberry sauce. Raw, frozen duck liver was grated on top.
Last starter was a chilled, foamy cucumber and horseradish soup. The soup was topped with caviar pearls and ostronört (oysterherb in direct translation). The ostronört gets its name as it tastes of oysters and I can guarantee you, it really does. I've never had anything like it (except for oysters then). I'm dying to get some and start cultivation it on my balcony.

We went for their "wine menu" to go with the food. The starters were served with a rosé from Tavel. Lots of herbs, more like a light red wine than the strawberry and rose flavoured rosé Swedish people gulp down by the bottle, hanging out in parks.

At some point around starter 4 the waitress takes our bread box back to the kitchen, and now the bread comes back out after beeing baked over burning charcoals. I have to say, this might be the best bread I've ever had. Silky soft on the inside with a thin but crackling crust, charry spots all around. With the bread comes a little pouch of home churned butter. A little saltier, a little sweeter and a little more acid that we're used to, this might be the best butter I've ever had.

Next, there is scallop in two servings. First it's served grilled in its own shell, gratineed with a paste of butter and duck egg. Grated brown truffle on top. Second time around our waitress pours a dashi inspired broth, made from mushrooms and algae, into the, by then, empty shell and hands us a small scallop tartar on the side.

A white Rhone (Chapoutier) with the scallop. 

Next in line is the "Satio Tempestas". This one is always on the menu and is a kind of house salad. There is a piece of white fish (I unfortunately don't remember which one) and about 30 different leafs, herbs and vegetables, chosen according to the season. All of these are prepared individually in whatever manner seems most suitable. There is parsley made into a pesto, leaves of "plister" au naturelle, a lightly boiled or steamed piece of carrot, leek powder etc etc. On top there is a light sprinkling of deep fried fish scales. This dish made me happy, so fresh and I just love when vegetables are treated with the respect they deserve, letting each one shine!

A powerful white Bourgogne with the chicken.

Then, a palate cleanser. Sorbet of lemon verbena and chamomile. A good combo. The verbena contributing freshness and the chamomile contributing calm herbness. Herbs in sorbets are underrated.

Next, two variations on chicken. First a velouté made with chicken stock and onions, served with a big dollop of cream whipped with liquorice. This was the only dish that I found to be a little bit to much for me. The soup was great in itself but the cream was a too sweet and the liquorice drowned out the great natural chicken flavour. Next serving was lardo wrapped chicken breast, served with charred onions, frothy almond milk, grated lemon zest and a dollop of pâté made with raw chicken livers. This one was great.

Red Bourgogne with the chicken.

Then, the epilogue: a small piece of newly curdled fresh cheese made of cows milk, served with canola oil, sea salt and grated almonds. This one was so small and simple but perfect. On top of fresh pasta it would be heaven.

Then, a threesome of desserts; one sweet, one salty and one sour. The sweet one; a small log on vanilla and rose ice cream, served with baked tomatoes and raspberry jam. The sour one; lemon variations (lemon meringues, plain lemon segments, lemon curd) served under a blanket of buttermilk with vanilla. A play on lemon meringue pie. The salty one; hazelnut praliné sprinkled with sea salt, served with mead and sorbet made from oxidized pears. The mead and pear sorbet were not very pleasant in themselves, but when they came together... a masterpiece!

Some very sweet German wine with the dessert. It managed to taste good, but very different, with all 3, no small feat!

And at last, with the coffee, 3 macarons. A sweet one stuffed with mashed potatoes and parsnips. A salty one stuffed with salted caramel. And a sour one stuffed with rhubarb and violet jam. By now we were so stuffed it wasn't fun any more...

Dining at Franzén/Lindeberg was a lovely experience. People and restaurants that take food seriously make me happy. The only thing that I'm a little bit hmmmm about are the wines. They were all good and everything but the food was the star and the wines felt mostly like support, not getting to shine. French wines are optimized to go with French food, and this was Swedish food. For me, I'd served it with birch sap (seriously) and a big carafe of iced vodka on the side, in order to keep up whatever level of alcohol people are used to when eating in restaurants.

And, if there is something to be learnt, this is it:

• All butters are not created equal.
• Everything gets better when wrapped in lardo.
• Don't be afraid to play around with your dairy products

Ekovinlådan - part 3, Le Temps des Gitans

Full name: 2009 Mas de Janiny Le Temps des Gitans Vin de Pays de l'Hérault. A clear bottle with a pretty cheap looking label it doesn't look like much, but this one has been the biggest surprise of the Ekovinlådan wines this far.

The wine is dark red, verging on blue. It smells like lots of dark berries and minerals but there are also traces of maceration carbonique, contributing with candy like notes of raspberry gumdrops and the like. A wine mote complex than you'd guessed by the label, heading in several directions at once. It also manages to be very smooth without being wimpy. My mother-in-law said: "There is just no resistance whatsoever when gulping this down", and I agree about that.

With food it got even better. We served it along risotto with chicken, grilled red peppers and fried aubergines, recipe taken from the current issue of Swedish Gourmet magazine. This was an excellent food pairing. The wine was good on its own, but the food brought it to live.

The wine costs 85 SEK on its own. A very good buy. I'm going to order myself 3 bottles right away. This could be my new black dress wine, a wine that goes with everything, for every occasion!

Unfortunately I had this a wile ago and didn't think of taking tasting notes so this review might not be what is could be, but fortunately there are other bloggers that have reviewed as well. For more details, check out last review in this blog posting in "Finare Vinare"  (in Swedish) or Organic Wine Journal

Ekovinlådan, part 2 - Domaine La Réméjeanne Côté Levant Rosé 2010

Rosé wines have become incredibly "in" in Sweden during the last few years. Nothing like laying down, roman style, on a blanket in a park during summertime, sipping somehitng pink.

The wine is light pink with a unusually high acidity for a rosé. To be honest this wine, tastewise, reminds me more of a chablis than the softer rosés you usually get. Ok, both strawberry and rose is in there and also a herbiness, typical of Southern France but the main feature is the acidity. The level of alcohol is also high, a whopping, but not very noticalble, 14%!

Our bottle of Domaine La Réméjeanne Côté Levant Rosé 2010 me and my husband finished off while watching the sunset on our balcony during the first magic warm night of 2011. I imagine it would be even better served with a platter of finger food such as salami, parma ham, olives etc. But it was excellent on it's own.

If you get a bottle at Systembolaget it's 125 SEK. I think that's well spent money. This is one of the best quality rosés I've had. Unfortunately, as it's not the typical cordial type of rosé wine, not everyone might appericiate it.

Wines from "Ekovinlådan" - part 1

I do, weirdly enough, have a sommelier degree. However, with 2 little kids there is no way I have the time to taste my way through as many wines as I'd need,in order to be anywhere near confident in my wine knowledge. I know what I like, and tend to stick to buying the same type of wines over and over again. This is safe, but it does get boring. Therefore I sometimes like to take advice blindly. If someone recommends something I go for it, even though I might have this little voice somewhere saying "Is this really a good idea?". Well, the worst that can happen is that I buy a crappy wine, in most cases I get to try something new and delicious that I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't tried.

In Sweden, there is this company called Ekolådan. They most commonly deliver ecological vegetables to your door. When I found out they had this crate of ecological wines you can order I decided to give it a try. Check it out here (links to a page in Swedish).

There is a new crate for every season, I went for the "spring" one. There are 6 wines in a crate, in the one I got there were one rosé, 2 white ones (one fresh and one full flavoured) and 3 reds (one fruity, one spicy one full bodied). Also, a note came with the wines with some background info and serving suggestions.

The first wine we tried was the spicy red one: "Le 20 Rouge", 2008, from Appellation Côtes du Roussillon Contrôlée. It's made from syrah, grenache och carignan and described as tasting a lots of herbs like thyme, bay leaf, rosemary and pepper. It's supposed to be great served with lighter meat dishes and roasted root veggies.

This is, what I call, a very French wine. All elements are well integrated and nothing really sticks out, which makes it hard to describe. It's the "archetype of red wine" type of wine. There is fruitiness, most notably blackberries and dark cherries. Also some salami, smoke and pepper from the Syrah. There is a green and herby element as well, but I don't get all those herbs described by the vendor. It's medium bodied, 12.8% alcohol. The acidity is pretty high. The tannin bite is at medium. It's not a wine to enjoy by itself, it needs some food to go with it in order to really shine.

Is it a good buy? Hm, I not sure. You can buy a bottle at Systembolaget for 125 SEK. I think that's quite much. This is the sort of wine that French farmers drink by the cup to quench their thirst after a log days work at the arbour. It is a proper, but after all, pretty rustic wine. I'd be happy to give something like 80 SEK for it, but then, I don't how much is fair to add to the price as the wine is biodynamically made.

I improvised a dish to serve with the wine, round steak stuffed with garlic and herbs. In Swedish, round steak is called "rumpstek", and the Swedish name of my dish (örtfylld rumpstek) in direct translation in to English is "Herb stuffed ass roast". My son thought this was the funniest thing he'd heard in a long time and went on laughing about it for half a day. Sometimes I envy him his sense of humour!

Herb and garlic stuffed round steak, served with roasted root vegetables and feta sauce.

1 round steak
half a garlic
1 dl olive oil
big pinches each of dried rosemary, thyme, basil or whatever dried herbs you've got on hand. Fresh ones probably work great as well!
salt
pepper

carrots
potatoes
beetroots

feta
thick yoghurt
olive oil

Some hours in advance:

Make the marinade and stuffing: Run garlic, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper in a blender.

Cut a big slash right into the meat, like you're cutting a cake into 2 layers, but don't slice all the way.

Rub the garlic and herb marinade onto the meat. Make sure that a lot of the garlic and herbs go into the slash.

Tie up the meat with a piece of string.

Let meat rest and marinate in a cool place.

About one hour before eating: Heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Cut the root veggies into bite sized pieces. Spread them on a baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil, leftover herbs, salt and pepper.

Put veggies into the oven.

After 30 minutes: Lower oven temperature to 150 degrees C.

Put a thermometer into the meat, put meat in oven.

Roast the meat until termometer shows 58 degrees C. This took me half an hour.

Meanwhile, watch the root veggies, if they start getting to black for your liking, remove them from oven.

While meat is roasting, make the sauce.

Mash feta and stir in some yoghurt. Taste with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Avocado and Shrimp Soup

When finding good avocados, this is the perfect way to use them up.

Avocado and Shrimp Soup

Serves 1
1 avocado
15 unpeeled shrimps
1 tsp buillon powder
3 dl water
1 dl half and half
1 lime
chilli

Peel the shrimps, do not throw away the shells.

Put the shrimp shells in a pot, add the water and boullion powder.

Boil the shrimp shells for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mash the avocado, along with juice from half a lime in an blender.

Discard the shells, but collect the stock.

Add stock and cream to avocado.

Blend some more.

Add salt, chilli and more lime juice to taste.

Carefully warm the avocado soup.

Add the shrimps and maybe a some slices of lime as decoration

Serve.

Best Beef Tortillas Ever

Before rolling up.

If I'd name one dish that is my families summer signature dish it would be my husbands beef tortillas. 

Best Beef Tortillas Ever

serves 3

2-3 beef steaks depending on how hungry you are
Yoghurt
Feta cheese
Avocado
Lime
Fresh Salsa (recipe below)
6-9 tortillas (again, depending on how hungry you are and the size of the tortillas)

First, grill the steaks. They are supposed to be red in the center and done on the outside. Cut them into strips.

Make the Fresh Salsa.

Ladle the yoghurt and feta cheese into bowls.

Cut the avocado in pieces, squeeze some lime juice over them.

Warm the tortillas in the oven, or over the barbecue.

Put everything on the table and assemble tortillas anyway you like.

Fresh Salsa

Fresh Salsa

20 cherry tomatoes
1 shallot
Bunch of cilantro
Chilli, as much as you can stand
Half a lime
Salt

Chop tomatoes, chilli, cilantro and shallot.
Squeeze in the lime.
Sprinkle over some salt.
Taste and adjust until it's just the way you like it.

Noodle Soup

A staple all over Asia, it's very strange that it's so hard to order decent noodle soup at restaurants here in Sweden. I only know of one restaurant in Stockholm that does them ok and that's just not very many!

The key to a good noodle soup is to have good stock. For the best Pho you have to boil marrowbones for hours, lots of work. But for an everyday-using-up-all-leftovers I find it enough to boil some spices (star anise, a cinnamon stick, some cloves, peppercorns and schizuan pepper) in bouillon cube based stock.

This soup was done in that way. Boiling some spices. Chucking in cubes of tofu, leftover meat and half an egg. Top with coriander or whatever leafs you've got on hand. Done.

Khao Klug Gapi

A while ago my husband came home from the supermarket with a bag full of green mangoes. "They were on sale", he said. Great I thought, you don't come across green mangoes everyday in Sweden.

I sat down and thought for a while, when I stayed in Thailand, what did we use green mangoes for? Then I remembered, "Kao Klug Gapi". A dish consisting of rice fried in shrimp paste, flanked with whatever tidbits you've got on hand that complement each other in flavour. In Thailand that typically is glacéed pork, shredded omelet, shredded green mango, lime wedges, minced shallots and a big pile of chillies. The ingredients are normally served separate so each eater takes whatever he or she like on her rice and mixes it all up just before eating.

Yep, said and done, this is my version og Khao Klug gapi:

Clockwise from upper left corner, lime wedges and shallots. Then shredded omelet, fried with a bit of fish sauce. Then the rice, fried with shrimp paste and garlic. Last, glacéed pork (glacéed with brown sugar and fish sauce) and mango.

Notice the color of the mango. When I cut up those great green mangoes they were all yellow on the inside. Clearly not the same type of mango as we get in Thailand that tend to be the same color inside and out, but a good sweet mango nevertheless. And it worked out great in this dish that way as well.

New cookbooks

It's not that I've been neglecting the blog lately, it's just that we've had stomach flues again and again now and they do not help inspiring your cooking. Right now this feels like "The Year when I only ate sandwiches and take aways", but I don't know, hopefully this will change.

To combat the general murkyness that goes with staying at home being sick I've ordered stuff on the internet. And not just any stuff, I've ordered more cookbooks. So whenever we're ready for same great home cooked goodyness I will be ready!

These are the ones I've got, I'm starting with the English ones:

"Kansha - Celebrating Japans Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions" by Elizabeth Andoh. I'm widely impressed with her former book "Washoku" on Japanese home cooking, so I decided to get this one as well. Looks good this far.

"Moosewood Resturant Cooks for Health" by the Moosewood Collective. Before I had kids the Moosewood book were my go to everyday cookbooks. There are so many great vegetarian recipes in there. Based on dishes from all over the world. Unfortunately their style does not go down well with my son. But I still love them so I couldn't resist this one.

And the Swedish ones:

"Surdegsbröd" (Sour Dough Breads) by Marin Johansson. He has a great blog on sour dough baking.  I've been following it for a while now and decided it was time for me to give something back - so I got the book.

And saving the best for last:
"Om jag var din hemmafru eller hur man får en vardag att smaka som en lördag" (If I was your housewife or how to get a working day to taste like a Saturday) by Lotta Lundgren. The spirit in this one is like nothing I've encountered before, here is a small excerpt (translation errors are all mine):
"Pasta Bolognese, the Swedish households culinary equivalent of the missionary. A reoccurring everyday happening that most of us adults have mastered and do appreciate. But when time goes by we start to ask ourselves, isn't there something we could do to develop, refine or vary it? And then I say, have you ever tried it with a carrot?"

White Chocolate-Cocoa Nib Mendiants

Mendiants are little chocolate discs, topped with anything you like. They originate from France where mendiant means "beggar of alms". Traditionally they used to be topped with blanched almonds, raisins, hazelnut and dried figs in order to represent the white, grey, brown and purple robes worn by, respectively, Dominican, Franciscan, Carmelite and Augustinian friars. But nowadays, of course, anything goes.

I made mine with white chocolate and cocoa nibs. These work wonderfully together, the sweetness and softness of the white chocolate perfectly balances the bitterness and crunch of the nibs.

Other combos I'm curious about are white chocolate and matcha powder. Or white chocolate and bitter beer granules. Not that I've ever heard that anyone has invented those yet, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about them.

Coconut Water

Coconut Water is one beverage that I miss a lot from Thailand. It's the watery liquid found inside young coconuts. It's nothing like coconut milk, which is made by pressing the mature coconut "flesh", but light and delicate with a slight flowery taste. In Thailand, it's usually served with a straw right from the coconut. When the water is drunk you can spoon out the coconut gel - that is the stuff that, when the coconut ages, will transform into regular coconut flesh.

In Sweden there are several canned versions of coconut water. The ones I've tried before have all been really bad, either way to sweet or with a strange artificial note added to it. But at my latest Asian Supermarket haul I came across a good one:

The label says it does contain sugar, but I didn't find it any sweeter than the stuff coming right out of a coconut. Also, you can see the coconut gel floating around in the bottle.

Another thing I learnt in Thailand, if you drink coconut water while having your period the bleeding decreases. This is also true for having star fruit (carambole). I've no idea why but this is something that all Thai women seem to be aware of. Good to know when on a beach holiday :)

Ginger Tea

I've been on a cooking break for 2 weeks now. Started with the kids getting stomach flu. I didn't get "really" sick, but some kind of half way hybrid kind of sick, loosing appetite, big fatigue etc. I'm not going to be graphic on this but let me tell you, when taking care of stomach flu patients you don't really feel like making anything you'll ever might want to eat again. We're all well now but my cooking hasn't taken off since that. But I hope that will change within the next few days!

One last Korean thing that is a great pick-me-up when not feeling so good, especially around the stomach area. Ginger Tea. Just smash up a piece of ginger, the older and drier, the more flavour in the end. Boil it for 10 minutes. Add some honey and done.

Cooking on the edge - kimchi with shrimps

I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not but I just started another batch of kimchi, this time I added 50 grams of dried shrimps. Feels like a crazy thing to do, after all, the kimchi is supposed to last for a month or two, and sefood is not something you should keep around that long. But, the recipe called for salted shrimps, and I've read as well that people sometimes throw in raw oysters into their kimchi so I thought, what the hell, I'm giving it a try. Hopefully I'll be able to smell if things are starting to go seriously wrong (does that sound like some last famous words or what).

Kimchi Potato Pancakes and Chilled Cucumber Soup

The recipe for kimchi potato pancakes from "Eating Korean" did not work out very well for me. The pancakes ended up crispy and good looking all right but there was just way to much salt in them. It might have worked if you weren't supposed to add lots of kimchi to the pancakes, but with both salt and kimchi  - no. 

But, if the food is to salty, add something sour - an old Thai cooking trick. The next day, in order to give the pancake leftovers a last chance (not to mention I didn't have anything else to eat for lunch) I decided to make a tart veggie side dish to go with them. I settled on "Chilled Cucumber Soup" (Oi Naengook), consisting of shredded cucumbers in a vinegar marinade.  

If you ask me how come that dish is called cucumber soup I really can't answer. It's not very soupy to me. Maybe I was supposed to shred the cucumbers finer. Or use smaller cucumbers to the amount of liquid. Or maybe the definition of soup is broader in Korea than here, I don't know. But the cucumbers and the pancakes hit it off just great, so in the end I did get a decent meal.

Thoughts on Korean Cuisine

The Flavour Bible (by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg) lists the following foodstuffs as typical for Korean cuisine:

• chili
• fish
• garlic
• noodles (esp. buckwheat)
• rice
• sesame seeds
• shellfish
• soy sauce
• sugar
• pickled vegetables (e.g. kimchi)

Compared to other cuisines in that book, this list has a short and rustic feel to it. The ingredients are cheap and easy to some by (even in Sweden). So far, I really like cooking and eating Korean food. The food makes sense somehow. Maybe it's because it's a cold weather cuisine and now we're having a very cold winter here in Sweden. The chilli warms one up and the multitude of flavours in the pickles makes the meals feel interesting and alive. Then, of course, a part of Korean cuisine is eating animals alive, as seen in one of my favourite movies ever "Oldboy" by Park Chan-Wook, but, don't worry, I'm not there yet.

Remixing: Bibimbap and Kimchi Fried Rice

Can't say I know many Korean dishes, but Bibimbap I've heard of. A bowl of rice topped with whatever good stuff you've got on hand.

My version had a fried egg, some bulgogi (meat marinated with soy sauce, garlic and sesame oil), garlic fried spinach, stir fried carrot and kimchi. The bowl itself was kinda small so the rice isn't visible, but it's down there, trust me.

Bibimbap

A hearty dish with a home cooked feel to it, containing a little bit of everything.

The next day I made another go at using up my kimchi. I decided on trying Kimchi Fried Rice. Funny thing was, when I read the recipe I realised it called for exactely the same ingredients as for the Bibimbap. Luckily I had some leftovers, so I just chopped up the meat and the kimchi and fried everything together, and voilá - a new dish.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Dak Jjim - Korean Chicken Stew

A great winter dish, easy to make, containing cheap ingredients that most people (ok, at least me) tend to have on hand.

Fry up some chicken (it was supposed to be smaller pieces, but I had an idea that the chicken breasts would be juicier if I cooked them whole and cut them up at serving time. I'm not sure if I was right about this.) Throw in chopped onions, ginger and garlic. Then some cubed carrots and potatoes. A few shiitakes. Add some water, soy sauce and sesame oil. Let boil until chicken and veggies are all done. Serve with rice. That's it.

Note how Asians tend to treat potatoes as any type of vegetable, not as a sacred source of starch that must hog the whole meal. In most cases I prefer the Asian way.

Korean food

Apart from the beef, that I wrote about in my last post, there is some kim chi still sitting around in my fridge. I've been eating it ever since I made it, about a month ago, using it as some sort of multi-purpose spice. One thing I discovered is that it goes very well with hommous. Also, it tastes good with baked salmon or in stews. But now the fermentation has been going on for a while and it's VERY pungent, so I'm going to reach for its roots in order to finish off the last of it. And that means Korea.

I own one Korean cookbook. It's "Eating Korean" by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee. This might very well be the least foodporny cookbook ever. Everything is in black and white and the pics are so grainy, it's hard to see what they actually present. The recipes are mostly uncomplicated and down to earth (which to me means kind of boring). But I have tried a few of them and they have all worked out fine, so I'll be giving the book another chance now.

Meatfest

Ok, now I'm all done dieting for now and I'm switching back to my regular type of food. We decided that we shouldn't be doing any half measured dieting. Either we do it all the way or we don't do it at all. In that way, we won't be fed up on the food by the time we might might want to take another stint.

So, what will I be eating any time soon? Well, since yesterday there is no shortage of meat in the house. I had another go at ordering from Gröna Gårdar, this time I went for the 10 kg box of mixed beef cuts.

Meatfest

Food and Life Experiment - Carbs and Ketosis

I'm intrigued by the results of the dieting I've been doing for the last few weeks. Eating nearly just fat and proteins made me feel much better, less tired and more energetic, but I couldn't keep up with it. After 2 and a half week hit headache, bad mood, severe fatigue, I basically just felt really lousy. I have no idea why that happened, there could have been several reasons, some suspects are:

• Iron deficiency (lots of meat but no vitamin C to facilitate iron uptake). Unlikely when I ate so much meat, but I've had it before and it felt very much like it.
• PMS, for some reason getting worse than normal
• Being in ketosis for too long my brain suddenly needed some carbs to work properly. This makes sense because as soon as I had a big plate of pasta with lamb meatballs and an orange afterwards the headache went away.

So what I'm aiming for now is to stick to fats and proteins for breakfast and lunch to get that extra energy during day and then have some carbs with my dinner. I tend to get much more tired eating carbs so why not use them as a little something to help me fall asleep easier at night. Safest sleeping aid I've heard of!

Tim Ferriss Diet - Pointers for Success

• Always keep a pot of lentil soup/stew in the fridge. In that way you always have something on hand when you get suddenly hungry.
• Plan ahead when to start the diet. If you have lots of sugary food cravings around pms time, maybe it's not a good idea to start then. Or maybe it is, if you tend to be the most motivated in the beginning of a diet, better kill the demons right away. Anyway, it's worth taking into consideration.
• Think ahead what to eat during the week. You can't rely on making a sandwich whenever you feel like it. It's a good thing to have a plan what to do when your blood sugar levels are zero and you're desperate for chocolate ice cream.

Diet thoughts, pros and cons so far

A little summary of my dieting experiences so far:


Pros:
I feel a lot better, no lunch comas, more energy (as long as I don't forget to eat...) and a general lighter stomach feel. This is only true though when I eat a lot of veggies and beans and not just proteins. With only proteins there is a weird "thick" kind of bodyfeel. It's survivable but not that nice.

I do loose weight and muscle percent (vs. fat) is going up without much suffering.

Cons:
Unsocial. It might work to order a meal in a restaurant (i.e. meat/fish with a greenish salad) but the great Swedish tradition of fika is downright impossible. Ok, I can sit there with a cup of black coffee or plain tea, and ok, mabye stretch it to having a dark bitter little chocolate truffle, but that's just no fun.

Not PMS compatible. I never have had an issue with cravings, it doesn't happen a lot and when it does I normally just eat whatever I want thinking I must be needing this or that - no problem. But now, things are getting nasty. I'm not sure I'm above doing lots of bad things in order to get my hands on some dark chocolate cake with whipped cream. Or chocolate ice cream. Or just lots of oranges (I have given in to that one).

Iron levels seems to go down if I don't get meat every day, preferable with citrus fruits on the side. I've been very tired the last few days and I think it's iron deficiency (I had it while I was pregnant and it's just the same symptoms). I've upped my meat intake though and given in to my citrus fruit craving to facilitate the iron uptake. We'll see if it does any good.

Acetone breath. Shows up when there are no carbs to burn, but still not very pleasant.

Cooking takes more time and planning ahead than usual. You can't rely on sandwiches and pasta with parmesan whenever you feel hungry.

Home Made Kimchi

When I visited Japan 2 years ago I was impressed by their pickled veggies. When I got back home I realised that my life just would not be complete without a Japanese pickle press, so I got one at Amazon (http://amzn.to/hViyFN) and forgot all about it. Until now, that is, when I decided I needed a little kitchen challenge and decided to go make my own kimchi.

 Looking pretty

I went for the most common type of kimchi, based on Chinese cabbage, and here is the recipe I used.

Kimchi
1 head of Chinese cabbage
125 g salt
3 dl water
half a scallion (green end), shredded
1/2 dl chilli powder (I used a Thai, very hot, variety)
15 g sugar
20 g salt
3 cloves of garlic, minced
10 cm ginger root, minced
2 tablespoons of fish sauce

Boil the 125 g salt with the 3 dl:s of water until salt is solved. Chill.

Wash and trim the Chinese cabbage leaves of all brown spots.

Put the leaves in the press. Pour the salt water over them. Place the lid on top, pressing the leaves down (see picture). Leave it like that overnight.

The next day, rinse the cabbage leaves. Squeeze them to get as much moisture out of them as possible.

Mix grated garlic and ginger, shredded scallion, chilli powder, fish sauce, rest of salt and sugar in a bowl.

Gradually work the chilli mixture into the cabbage leaves, making sure it gets everywhere.

Put everything back into the press and put the lid on.

Leave it like this for 3-6 days (I left mine for 4).

When opening, the volume of the cabbages has shrunk to half its original volume.

Put kimchi in jars. It should be eaten within 3 to 6 weeks.

At first bite it tastes very salty. Almost too salty. But then the other aromas start to come through. There is sweetness from the cabbage, ginger, onion juice... In the end the chilli hits. It's VERY hot but the funny thing is, you don't feel that until the end, and the only way to quench that is to have another bite. I now understand how Korean people can be so addicted to this stuff. It's awsome!

Friday is Judgement Day (no 2)

I hadn't expected to lose any weight this week as I've hardly moved out of my house, but I had lost about a pound.

Weight
Start: 54.4 kg
Week 1: 53.3 kg
Week 2: 52.9 kg

The numbers for body fat should not be taken seriously but more as an indicator. Today I measured both 33.0% and 33.7% within seconds of each others, so they are obviously not very accurate (I picked the number in between to put in the table). Also, these numbers say that I'm verging on overweight, and I really don't think anyone would say so seeing me live, so again, don't read to much into them.

Body fat
Start: 35.4%
Week 1: 33.7%
Week 2: 33.35%

My plan is to stick to the diet for 2 more weeks. If I continue to loose weight at this pace I should be able to get into my pre-pregnancy clothes by then. Yay.

Tjälknöl and me bitching about my week

This week I've managed to stick to my diet, but it has really been more about just surviving rather than enjoying myself eating exotic food. My husband has been sick so I've been taking care of stuff at home, not managing to get to the gym. On top of that the washing machine has broken down, leaving us in a sea of dirty laundry and, worst of all, my youngest is having some kind of phase, sleeping no more than an hour in one go. So this week, every few spare minutes that I've had for myself, I've just dived for my bed, hoping for a few minutes of blissful sleep.

Foodwise, we made this Swedish type of roast, named Tjälknöl, at the beginning of the week. It was huge, so we've been eating of the same piece of meat, just varying the veggie preparations to go with it. Good if you've other things to see too than cooking.

Tjälknöl

1 frozen roast, I've tried this on beef and elk.
lots of salt
a little sugar

The night before eating, remove the roast from the freezer. Put into a 75 degrees C warm oven and let it roast in there over night (12 hours). No need to bother yourself with doneness, pink meat or any of that stuff. The meat will have shrunk to 2/3 of its original size and be very dry and sad looking in the morning. That's ok.

Fill a pot, big enough to the roast to fit into 1/2 way up with water. Make it boil. Solve as much salt as possible in there. It should be saturated saltwise. Add a few tablespoons of sugar as well. Chill.

Dump the meat into the saline solution, let soak for 6 hours.

The meat will be tender and have a nice salty tang to it. Cut it in thin slices and serve it as you would serve any type of cold cut roast.

I didn't manage to get a photo of the Tjälknöl, but here are some veggie preparations that went with it:

Easy bean salad with celery, tomatoes and white beans.

Asparagus with egg, butter and lemon sauce.

Armenian chickpea and spinach stew. Same as last week.

Georgian and Armenian Goodness Galore

The food we had during last week tasted SO GOOD. Maybe it was because of the state of ketosis that comes with a strict GI diet ("Hunger is the best spice", the Swedish proverb explains it all), mabye the sense of taste get heightened when sugar is cut out or mabye the food just was just really really good.
I managed to stick to Georgian/Armenian food for most of the week. This is what we tried:

Tuesday: Vospapur - Armenian Spinach and Lentil Soup.
A hearty stew of red lentils, spinach and tomatoes gently flavoured by garlic lemon and cumin. Filling and warming - yes. Photogenic - no, so no photo of this one.

Wednesday: Chakhokbili - Georgian Chicken Fricasse with Herbs and Tomatoes. This was a good one. Real chicken (real meaning the type with skin and fat still intact) first fast fried for a good crisp, then stewed with onions, white wine and lemon juice until onions disintegrate. Lots of fresh mint, basil, parsley, cilantro and tarragon added at the end along with fresh tomatoes. I served it with baked zucchini rounds.

Thursday: Lulya Kebab - Herby Lamb Meatballs with Niveg - Armenian Spinach and Chickpea Stew. Another hit. The meatball paste was really meant to be barbecued on a spit but that seemed a bit unpractical. Ground lamb with generous additions of cumin, dried mint, fresh parsley and cilantro. Might have been the best meatballs I've ever had. The chickpea stew was maybe not that special, but great as a supportive side dish.

Friday is Judgement Day

I've decided I'll weight myself on Fridays. As Saturday is the cheat day, I figured it would be best to do the weight check the day before, so I won't be disappointed. We have this scale that also tells you how the percentage of body fat you're carrying around. I've no idea if it's correct, but, well, for me to have any kind of indication of my fat/muscle ratio is a lot more interesting than knowing your exact weight in kilos.

Ok, here goes:

Monday:
Weight: 54.4 kg
Body fat: 35.4%

Friday:
Weight: 53.3 kg
Body fat: 33.7%

That means (if I've calculated correctly):
Fat mass DOWN 1,3 kg
Muscle mass UP 0,2 kg

I'm considering that to be good for 5 days of easy diet and exercise.

More diet thoughts

This is the first time I do the GI dieting thing (with the exception of a few days of forced co-dieting while staying at my parents house) and it's proving itself to be great. I had expected it would be harder to get started, people have been telling me how they felt all strange in the beginning, fighting sugar addiction and all sorts of cravings, but I haven't had any of that. I just feel much better, more energetic, no mood swings and a generally lighter stomach feel all over. When I've felt hungry I haven't felt those ravenous cramps that I'm used to, instead there has been a very polite feeling telling me it's time to get some nutrition. And at the gym, I normally last around 5 minutes on the treadmill (I know, that's bad, but I just get so bored), yesterday ran for 16 minutes and the only reason for getting off was that my core class was starting. I could easily have stayed on the mill a lot longer. I suppose I'm one of those people that's genetically predisposed to stick to a GI type of diet, so I'm very glad I tried it, otherwise I just wouldn't have found it out. The only drawback this far is that it's impossible to get a dietwise correct meal at restaurants, not good for my social life. And I can't say I've gotten any thinner, but I suppose that's a lot to ask for in just 3 days...

Georgian Food with a GI Twist

In the Timothy Ferriss GI diet there are 3 groups of foods you're allowed to eat. They are:

• Protein (meat, fish, eggs and nuts)
• Legumes (beans and lentils)
• Vegetables (all non root vegetables, but no fruit)

As I've said before I figured out that Georgian or Armenian food should be the best match to GI-adapt since it contains lots of beans, veggies and nuts in itself.

Now, I haven't ever been to Georgia or Armenia but my source of Georgian/Armenian food is the book "Please to the Table - The Russian Cookbook" by Anya Bremzen. It has recipes for food from all over the former Soviet Union Territory and it's a must if you're into home based culinary travel. At least I haven't come across i.e. Uzbek and Thadjik recipes anywhere else.

The first recipes I tried out were Beef Shishkebabs, Green Bean and Walnut Salad and Garlicky Cheese Spread.

The shishkebabs were marinated in red wine with grated onion and garlic.
A close up:

The green beans were bathing in a dressing made with ground walnuts, lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, chopped onions and cilantro.

And, finally, the cheese spread. This one was really good. It's supposed to be based on a mix of farmers cheese (whatever that is) and yoghurt, but since cottage cheese is the only dairy product allowed in my diet, cottage cheese it what I used. I'm including my recipe of this one.

Garlicy Cheese Spread

1 cup cottage cheese
3 tablespoons walnuts
1 tablespoon parsley
1 clove of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste.

Run everything in a blender until smooth.

Thoughts on my upcoming Tim Ferriss diet

This diet that I'm about to embark on is the one Tim Ferriss describes in his book "The 4 Hour Body" (meaning that he claims that you could have the perfect body by only 4 hours of maintanence work per week). I think 4 hours of workout per week is a lot, but maybe that's just me.

There are 5 "rules" in this diet.

• No "white" carbs. Actually, he says that all foods that could be white should be avoided. So no rice, bread and pasta of ANY kind. This will be hard...
• Same foods over and over again. This will be hard since I hate repetition. I want a new world every day.
• No calories from beverages. Easy since I mostly drink only water and coffee. But curiously enough, you're allowed to have 2 glasses of red wine per day.
• No fruit.
• One cheat day per week where anything is allowed.

 So, what will I be allowed to eat. Meat and eggs are ok. Beans and lentils also. And vegetables and nuts. I've been browsing my cookbooks trying to find one that matches the criteria and I think that Armenian and Georgian food seem to work the best. Lots of stews with meat and beans thrown in together. Not cuisines that are widely known. This will be interesting.

Crazy Asian Stuff - Collon Cream Chocolate Biscuits

Today I went to the Asian Supermarket nearby to stock up on some necessary items, and guess what I found:

Apparently they are some kind of rolled up, cream filled, biscuits. They come in strawberry, vanilla and , yes, chocolate flavour. For some reason I don't think they sell very well outside of Asia...

New year - back to reality

In my opinion, the single most boring topic of conversation are peoples diets. The only thing I think is even worse is reading about them in blogs. So, I'm really sorry to say, but I have those post pregnancy kilos that really have to go now. And I'm afraid that I'll be blogging about it here...

But, if anyone is still reading, I think it will be fun. I've picked the GI-inspired diet from Timothy Ferriss book, "The 4-hour Body". It doesn't feel like the most sensible or in the long run health promoting one, but it promises great result and I really admire that guys way of using himself as a lab rat. So I'm giving it a try.

Since I'm on antibiotics now I won't be starting until next week, but stay tuned and I'll let you know all about it.