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.

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.

It's all about the Cider

One thing I love about Sweden is the paron (pear) cider. I knew that I would like it as I really like the (non-alcoholic) pear cider from Ikea. It's very different from the range of ciders readily available at home. You get lots of different brands with different flavours (left wih elderflower, above with berries, strawberry & lime, starfruit & raspberry & starfruit) - a lot of these are summer limited edition, I don't think you can get more than the standard in the cold, dark days of winter. In general they are very refreshing on a hot day (although the strawberry & lime was a bit sweet). You can't tell what is made here though - food lableing laws don't seem to require country of origin. The one to the left is one of my favourites, and I had assumed it was Swedish as all the info on the back is in Swedish with no other country mentioned - but it is actually English (I didn't see it anywhere in England though - I think it is made for export to Sweden in the swedish cider style as it is nothing like the other English ciders I have had). 

You can also get the ones up the top in a range of alcoholic contents - you can buy drinks with up to 2.5% alcohol in the supermarket, above that you have to go to the government owned bottle shops (system bolaget). The drinks up the top range from 4.5 % to 7.5% - but Dr M found some of the same flavours in the supermarket in cans with the lower alcohol reading. This means you have to be careful what you take from the fridge!

Jag vill köpa talk pouder (I want to buy talcum powder).

Yesterday was a triumph for the Svenksa lessons. I left my talcum power at home so the first day I was here I tried to buy some in one of the tiny supermarkets - without the Swedish translation for talcum powder - no luck (and it's quite hard to describe if the word powder is not understood!). I learnt & practiced my pronunciation of 'talk pouder' (t-aaaaa-k p-door) over the weekend and when the big shops reopened yesterday I went looking.  I ended up having to go to a pharmacy (apotek) where I used my Sveksa - and I was understood - hooray! I don't know what the Swedish grandmothers get for Christmas as talc seems like a rare commodity (and not available in florally, grandmother scents). I also managed to refuse coffee at breakfast and buy a tea towel and a chocolate bar (separate transactions) without using any English. (I also bought cycling gloves but I used English for that)

Yesterday was for checking out the big shops - I liked the foodhall/supermarket down in the basement.

This food hall is amazing - every time you think you have explored the whole thing you find another section. The counter to the left - 'ost' means cheese. this is by no means the only cheese display in the shop. To the right - one of those fresh bread & pastry selections.

Left - salmon. See the size of the knife handle? That gives you an idea about how big that piece of salmon is.

Reindeer meat selection to the right (they put out a set of antlers so you don't get confused and think you are buying beef).

When you buy something, they change gets handed to you if it is a note, but the coins come out of a machine. I bought a chocky bar here - but it didn't turn out to be very exotic - it was just like a mars bar.

Apart from the foods hall, there are floors of fashion (full of linen and other light soft materials but mainly in white & beige) and furniture - some of it is right out there) but I'll write about those another time.

After a day of wandering and dinner at the apartment, we went to a jazz club. The roof was hung with all manner of bits and pieces. I tried out aquavit, the Swedish spirit (it was not to my taste) and another variety of local pear cider (which was). It was strange walking out of a pub at 11pm at night and it was still light out!

Midsommar Munchies

Breakfast:
A Scandinavian breakfast is very different to what I'm used to. This is what I had yesterday:

Bread
The thing that looks like a slice of chocolate is dark rye bread. This is vastly different to previous rye breads I have tasted. It is soft and slightly sweet and very tasty. The breakfast buffet has about 8 types of breads each day, including hard breads, rolls and sliced bread. My favourite bread looks like a flattened crumpet (it doesn't taste like one though).

Sliced meats
This day I had ham (slinka). I could have had salami, or two other kinds of ham. There might have been turkey available.

Fruits & Vegetables
There's always some fruits - apple, orange, kiwi fruit, melon etc. You can have tomato and capsicum too.

Fish
Salmon is everywhere - there is some Gravad Lax on my plate (cured salmon, not smoked - tastes different)
Pickled fish is popular - this day I tried some tinned sprats (not to my liking). I could also have tried pickled herring, or onion herring.
The stuff that looks like smoosh is seafood mix - my favourite thing. I don't know what is in it apart from prawns & dill, but it is delish.

Cheese
Oh the cheese! At breakfast you get a selection of 4 types - this day I had some brie and some provost (chedder-like). I have never had so much variety of cheeses. (yesterday, across the entire day I would have had 6 types of cheese - the two mentioned above plus gorgonzola, motzerella, fetta & parmesan).

Cookies
yes - those things that look like cookies down the bottom right corner are cookies. It's breakfast dessert.

Drinks
I have had a freshly made berry smoothie each day. If I didn't want this, or the standard tea/coffee/juice, I could have a choice of about 5 different milks and drinking yoghurts (including soured milk - not ready to try this - yet!).

Also on offer - blend your own cereal (different grains with all the trimming to mix together), pickles, mustards, radishes, eggs, pastries, spreads, pate....

Snacks
The Svensk love their hotdogs. There are hotdog stands (grillen) everywhere. It's more about the sausage than the bun as you can see from the picture.

(in the backgound - delicious pear cider, could make you fall off your chair - very easy drinking and reasonably alcoholic)

Cakes and pastries are just as, if not more popular. Self serve is common (even to the point of sometimes you cut your own slice). This is the selection that we picked our Midsommar Eve afternoon tea from:

The cakes are all fabulous. There are a few traditional cakes that you see frequently, but each place always has something a bit new and different to the last. Chocolate, macaroons, berries, meringue, almonds, pistachios and apples all appear in cake displays. It is going to be very hard to return to regular cakeage after this.  Even the supermarkets have displays of fresh pastries - the smell is enough to make me dizzy it all smells so good. I had to send Dr M to get the bread when we were in there today - I couldn't trust myself to get close to the cabinet without selecting a few sticky, warm pastries.