Sommar tårta

The most entrancing recipe for me in our Swedish Cookbook is sommar tårta (summer tart). The picture has beckoned to me since I first opened the book. Finally I have translated the recipe to give it a go! Translating recipes is strange. I try and figure out as much as I can before going to the translator - I do pretty well with the ingredients (for cakes at least) except I can never remember that vetemjolk is flour - my brain sees the start of the word and reads it as vege oil. The method comes out of the translator quite strange at times and the results can be quite funny (sounds like a recipe off "posh nosh") - so you have to estimate a few bits which might lead to things not rising etc

Sponge

Just out of the oven.

75g butter or margarine, softened
100ml sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons milk
150ml flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Meringue
4 egg whites
200ml sugar
50g flaked almonds

Filling
200ml whipping cream
300g berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)

Line an tray (15 x 25cm) with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the egg yolks one at a time. Add milk and flour mixed with baking powder. Stir until smooth.
Beat whites with half the sugar until you have solid foam. Fold in remaining sugar.
Spread the Sponge in tray, spread the meringue on top. Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
Bake in the lower part of the oven about 25 minutes at 175 degrees C. Lift cake from pan by means of the baking paper. Let cake cool down on paper. Split cake in half. Add the halves with whipped cream and berries between.

Assembled ready to eat.

Result - delicious! I didn't have it in the oven quite long enough so the bottom cake wasn't quite right, and I had too much air in the meringue so it was very unstable when it was layered up. I had to use a tin of tropical fruit salad instead of berries as I made this on a public holiday and the shops were shut. According to the recipe it feeds 12 Swedes, but we found it only fed 4 Australians. I will be making this again!

 

Herring Salad

Pre-Sweden I would possibly not have even tried Herring. Now we have jars of imported Swedish Herring in the fridge. Maybe too much herring, so during the week, while the temperature in the house was not going beneath 35 degrees Celsius (even through the night and the early hours of morning) - I turned some of it into Scandinavian Herring Salad. Not a bad meal in the heat!

Why is it that a country that doesn't get very hot, seems to know how to cope with high temperatures better than countries that experience where the temperature frequently exceeds the upper limits of comfortable?

So if you have some herring lying around and you want to know how to turn it into a refreshing summer dish:
- one granny smith apple, peeled and chopped
- one lebanse cucumber, peeled and chopped
- 2 sticks celery, chopped
- cold cooked potatoes (I used a tin)
- jar of pickled herring, drained, rinsed, patted dry and chopped
Mix, dress with vinegarette made from white wine vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice.
Eat straight away - it doesn't keep very well as the cucumber goes all soggy.

Kanelbulle - Swedish Cinnamon Roll

I miss Kanelbulle. They were everywhere in Stockholm - the smell of the fresh baked sweet bread with cinnamon and cardamon filled the supermarkets. The first one I tried was a bit of a surprise because of the cardamon - but I quickly became a convert!

Now the only way to get a Kanelbulle is to make them myself - so I had a bash at cooking them today using a recipe off the internet.

Kanelbulle

Rolls:                                          Filling: 

1 Envelope Yeast (1 Tbsp)           2 Tablespoons Butter

2 Tablespoons Butter, melted        3 Tablespoons Sugar

1 Cup Milk                                   2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

¼ Teaspoon Salt

¼ Cup Sugar                                Topping:

3 Cups of Flour                             Beaten Egg

1 Teaspoon Cardamon                 Pearl Sugar

Directions:

Combine milk & butter and heat until lukewarm and transfer to a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over milk mixture. Stir until dissolved and let rest. Sift together, flour, sugar, cardamon & salt. Add the dry ingredients, mixing until the dough is elastic and not sticky. Cover bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm area to rise for 30 to 40 minutes

While dough is rising, prepare the filling. Soften the butter and add the cinnamon and sugar to make a thick, spreadable mixture.

When the dough has risen, knead for three minutes, and turn out on a lightly floured board. Roll it into a rectangle about 1/3-inch thick. Spread the filling over the whole top.

Roll up, starting at the widest end, into a long log and cut into 20 slices. (You may want to refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes to help firm it up before cutting.)

Put cupcake papers on a cookie sheet (or place on a greased cookie sheet) and place dough slice in each (see my picture above!). Preheat oven to 425ºF while you let your dough rise for 20 minutes. Brush with beaten egg mixture or milk and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake for 10 minutes (maybe less, watch during the last few minutes until golden.

Delicious. I couldn't get the pearl sugar so I had to use raw sugar, which isn't right. I will be adding more cardamon next time - you couldn't really taste it.

The Wrap Up - Part Four

Things that I found odd about hotels in Sweden / Scandanavia / Europe

- The beds! All of them were separate single beds pushed together, with 2 single doonas! It is not unheard of that in an Australian hotel you would have a queen bed made up of two singles pushed together - but they'd disguise it pretty thoroughly. Only a couple of the six places I stayed in even looked like a combined bed (on one frame with a mattress protector) and every single one of them had the two doonas. Some of them looked nothing like a double bed as there was a significant gap between the two mattresses. I could see the benefits - having a husband who twitches in his sleep can be very disturbing - and not once in the 4 weeks on this trip was I bothered by the twitch! I guess with the two doonas you remove the fight over them? But then why bother sleeping in the same bed?

- The alarm clocks - or rather, lack thereof! Nowhere we stayed had an alarm clock. I am not used to this - I see it as a standard issue thing in a hotel that I expect to see there. I really struggled without an alarm clock, as you couldn't use the light quality to determine the time of day. This meant that I wasted a bit of time lying in bed as I didn't realise what time it was. If I'd have known, I would have taken one with me - if I go back I will be packing one in the suitcase before anything else.

- No face washers! Anywhere! I was really surprised by this. I though face washers were European type things. I coped though - I had packed one for when I was traveling around and on the trains - but I ended up using it in Stockholm everyday. This is something you can manage without, but I wonder if the people in the hotels wondered how I got all the hand towels so wet....

Keeping the dream alive - Kraftskiva

One thing that was disappointing about Sweden was that we had to leave before Kraftskiva - the crayfish Party held in August to celebrate (commiserate?) the end of summer. However, with thanks to IKEA, we were able to have our own Kraftskiva on the other side of the world!

Our Kraftskiva was composed of:
- Kraftor (Swedish Crayfish)
- Sill (pickled herring)
- Hallakaka (arctic bread)
- parron dryka (pear drink)
plus salad, potatoes and cheese.

I had to guess how to serve it all as we haven't been to a Kraftskiva, but we thought it looked pretty good.

The moose serviette holder is a Swedish souvenir, as is the official Kraftskiva teatowel!

We finished off with the traditional Swedish dessert of glass med hjortron (ice cream with cloudberries).

Yum.

We might do this every year.

The Wrap Up - Part Three

Things I didn't like about Sweden.

Toilets!

Toilets cost money to use, even in shops. The cost varied but was usually about $1.50. Paying more for a toilet didn't guarantee cleanliness. I don't as such have a problme with paying for a loo, but if I pay I expect it to be good! A bigger problem that having to pay though, is that they just don't seem to have enough! Finding them was pretty good in Stockholm (in the touristy area) but really hard in Gothenburg. They put the handbasin in the cubicle with the toilet, so the cubicles themselves are large, so not many fit in.

Worst part - men get a free urinal, but no such luxury for the women!

Late Opening Hours

Stuff opened really late - the general opening hour was 10am - which tended to be the time they started opening up, not that they were ready for trade at 10am. Some places didn't bother opening until 11am. If you know me, you know that I am not a morning person, so for me to say that things opened up too late indicates just how late it seemed!

Salted Licorice & Lollies that taste worse than you can possibly imagine

The Swedes love all kinds of lollies. Unfortunately this includes salted licorice. Yuck! You get salt chocolate and even salted licorice ice cream. The food in general isn't salty, so maybe lollies is where the Swedes get their Sodium requirements.

Public Service Announcement.

If in Sweden (or nearby) and you see these lollies - STAY AWAY!

The taste of these defies description.

My theory is that the ghost shape is a warning - eating these could be deathly to your tastebuds! 

These are the kind of things you spit out and drink three glasses of water to try and get rid of the taste (it doesn't work). You will be cringing in remembrance hours after eating.

Hopefully you get the point and don't try one.

The Wrap Up - Part Two

More Questions answered!

Q: Is there IKEA stuff everywhere?

A: Yes! Lots of the cafes, bars and restaurants I went to used IKEA stuff. Commonly spotted - IKEA glasses, cutlery, chair pads and most of all - blankets (provided by each place that had outdoor seating so you could wrap up in the cold). It was strange being in the arctic circle and looking at the candle holder on the table and realising that I had the same design at home. I didn't make it into the local IKEA shop - although I did see an IKEA bus - if I hadn't been on my bike at the time I might have jumped on!

Q: Was it dark at all at night?

A: It may have been dark for a few hours in the middle of the night - but the sun didn't go below the horizon until about 10.30pm ish - and it was certainly back up and shining brightly at 4am. (Of course, when we were in the arctic circle it didn't get dark at all as we were there at the time of year of the famous 'midnight sun' - but we slept through it and didn't get up to check how it looked).

And if your next question would be "how hard was it to sleep?" - my answer would be "with difficulty and in a sleeping mask". The curtains were quite good blockouts and we shut them carefully each night, but I really struggle with light at night time - I occasionally use a sleeping mask even when the sun isn't up around the clock! I think Michael coped a lot better with the light - but then his problem with sleep is noise, which doesn't bother me so much.