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.