Anne's Food

Bread

2009-11-21T11:32:00.001+01:00

More or less every weekend, one of us goes to Gateau bakery to buy
bread. It's definitely an indulgence for us, and a delightful one. We
buy bread for our breakfast, and sometimes a pastry. Then we come back
home, make coffee and always some soft-boiled eggs, too. That's our
weekend breakfast routine - what's yours?

Spicy Pork Wraps

2009-11-20T18:07:00.003+01:00

Spicy Pork Wraps
(printable recipe)

1 pork tenderloin
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika (the spicy, smokey kind - Pimentón de la Vera)
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt, black pepper

Mix all the spices. Dice the pork and place in a plastic bag with all the spices - shake it to make sure it's well distributed. Leave the bag in the fridge for at least two hours.

Fry the pork in some oil until cooked through. Serve with tortillas, tomatoes, onions, fresh coriander, grated cheese and some avocado mashed with garlic. Yum, yum, yum!

Recipe in Swedish:
Kryddiga fläskfiléwraps

Quick and late dinner.

2009-11-19T19:54:00.001+01:00

We got home really late today, and just finished a super-fast dinner.
We pan-fried salmon fillets, and served with bulgur mixed with fried
bacon, edamame, leeks, fennel and a handful of cherry tomatoes. For
sauce, some greek yogurt stirred through with dijon mustard and chili
paste.

Mango Chicken

2009-11-18T19:37:00.002+01:00

I'm really excited about all the interest on the apron giveaway - yeay! Still a couple of days left, so don't forget to enter the drawing if you haven't already! I have another little giveaway coming up soon, too - featuring homemade fimo jewelry, shaped like baked goods. Very cute and I hope you'll like it.

Now, something I should have posted about months ago, but I was reluctant because of the lousy photo. So, never mind that - it *does* come out rather brown and boring, like most stews, but the flavor is great. Do what I did and serve it with a colorful medley of veggies - I used various peppers and carrots, and dressed them up with a little bit of butter and cumin.

Mango Chicken
(printable recipe)
Serves 4

2 chicken breasts
2 chicken thighs, boneless
butter
1 red chili, finely chopped
100 water
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 leek, finely sliced
200 ml crème fraîche, full fat or diet, as you prefer
4 tbsp mango chutney
100 g diced mango
corn starch to thicken, optional

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, and fry in butter until lightly golden. Fry in a pot or a deep pan. Add the chili and leeks, soy sauce and water, and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the water has mostly reduced. Add the mango chutney and crème fraîche, and let it cook for about five minutes. Add water if it's too thick, and some corn starch if it's too runny. Fold in the mango dice.

Serve with rice.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mangokyckling

Apron giveaway!

2009-11-16T11:17:00.004+01:00

One of my favorite Etsy stores, PhaseThree, has offered to host a very special giveaway this week! You can enter to win this supercute apron, called "Vintage Fruit", and all you have to do is to visit the store, then leave a comment on this post, telling us which your favorite PhaseThree apron is. Don't forget to include an e-mail address unless you have a google account - I need to know how to get in touch with you if you win!

In addition, they offer free shipping in the US for all of my readers this week, and international shipping for just $5. Just make sure to tell them "Anne's Food" when you order!

The giveaway and the shipping promotion is open until Sunday, Nov 22. Anyone can enter, no matter where in the world you are!

My own personal favorite? I have a hard time deciding - maybe this one? Or this one? I'm indecisive, as always.

Sometimes...

2009-11-15T18:14:00.001+01:00

..an omelet is perfect. I like it for weekend lunches - this one was particularly good, with smoked ham, a little bit of leftover cream and gruyère cheese. The salad is a simple one made from snow peas, and tomatoes dressed with a little bit of olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

Christmas candy: Cashew Brittle

2009-11-14T12:09:00.003+01:00

It might seem a little bit early for christmas candy, but hey, you can always start planning. I got this recipe from a wonderful new book by Karen DeMasco - "The Craft of Baking". She talks about this recipe in her introduction, and I knew I wanted to try it right away - I love brittle in general, but I don't think I've ever tried it with cashews. Using salted cashews help give this candy an awesome sweet-salt balance - delicious! She also includes lots of ideas for other brittles - cooca nib brittle, anyone?

It's really very easy, but be careful as always when working with hot sugar. This is half a batch - it makes plenty. I use white baking syrup instead of corn syrup - it works well.

Cashew Brittle
(printable recipe)

250 g sugar
40 ml corn syrup (or white baking syrup)
60 g water
55 g unsalted butter
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp flaky sea salt
170 g salted cashew nuts

Mix sugar, syrup, water and butter in a saucepan, and boil on medium heat without stirring. It should turn golden brown. (Count on at least 10-15 minutes, but it will vary depending on temperature and the pan you're using.)

When it is golden, remove it from heat and carefully stir in the baking soda and the salt. It will bubble and fizz a lot. Stir in the cashews, and immediately turn it out onto a teflon or silicone baking sheet (a silpat mat would be perfect). Press on it with the back of a wooden spoon to make it as even as possible before it sets.

Leave to cool completely, then break into pieces and store in air-tight containers.

Recipe in Swedish:
Cashewbräck

Arugula-filled fresh pasta with lemon sauce

2009-11-11T21:25:00.002+01:00

Here's the pasta Feline and I made with the Bosch MUM86. It turned out really great - but we didn't write down the recipe, so it was a one-shot. The pasta dough was very easy to work with - I used three whole eggs, 150 g regular wheat flour and 150 g durum wheat flour which is a harder sort of wheat, perfect for pasta.

The filling has arugula, a few black olives to add saltiness, ricotta, nutmeg and pepper. The sauce is mostly lemon zest and crème fraîche. I did the rolling, Feline did the filling and shaping - it all turned out nice!

My favorite childhood dish - Chicken in mild curry sauce

2009-11-10T16:50:00.002+01:00

I finally made this - my very favorite dish from my childhood, and still something I request frequently from my mom. I've tried, and failed, before, so I was happy to really re-create it this time. And it couldn't be simpler. Really. Poach a chicken - or a few chicken breasts, that's what I did - and pick off the meat. Make a simple white sauce - butter, milk, flour, some cream if you have it, some concentrated chicken stock - and flavor it with lots of mild curry powder, salt and white pepper. Add the chicken. Serve with rice.

See? Hardly needs a recipe. But it's so, so good.

What's your favorite childhood dish?

Coconut Chicken

2009-11-09T17:13:00.002+01:00

This is a fast dinner dish which transports you to warmer climates - which is sorely needed, Sweden in November isn't much fun weather-wise. This dish is sort of thai-ish, but with typically Swedish shortcuts like sambal oelek which is a very popular paste here, made from hot chili and oil - I always keep it in my fridge and use it when I don't feel like chopping fresh chili.

I like to use yellow peppers to give the whole dish a rather sunny vibe! I served this with homemade pappardelle, which came out terrible - I'm not blaming the sauce though, that was lovely. The pasta was watery and slimey - I blame the recipe, which was one I hadn't tried before. (And obviously, never will again.) You can serve this with rice or any sort of noodles or pasta - I'll go for rice noodles next time, since I love their chewiness.

And the recipe does make a lot of sauce - it's somewhere in between pasta and ramen, but with coconut milk rather than broth. Add more, add less - play with it.

Coconut Chicken
(printable recipe)
serves 2

2 chicken breasts (unless huge, in which case one will do)
1 small yellow onion
1 yellow (or red) bell pepper
freshly grated ginger
2 carrots, coarsely grated
400 ml coconut milk
1 tsp sambal oelek
1/2-1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp japanese soy sauce
olive oil

Cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Dice the onion, cut the pepper into strips, grate the ginger and the carrots. Fry the chicken in some olive oil, and when it's browned slightly, add the onions, peppers, ginger and carrots. Fry for a few minutes, then add the coconut milk and season with sambal oelek, fish sauce and japanese soy sauce.

Serve over fresh pasta or other noodles - I think rice noodles would be great here.

Recept på svenska:
Kokoskyckling

A look at Bosch MUM86

2009-11-07T17:34:00.002+01:00

Side by side. Which one do you like better?

I've been borrowing a new stand mixer for a few weeks now - a Bosch MUM86. I am a true Kitchen-Aid fan and have had my machine for many years now, but as I've been baking more bread recently, I'm thinking about getting something a bit more powerful. Hence, the trial of Bosch.

And I have to say, right away - it *is* better for baking bread. A lot better. It's much more powerful at 1600 watts compared to 300, and it doesn't get as warm nor smell funny like my Kitchen-Aid does after a heavy batch of dough. It also has a smarter lid, that actually keeps stuff in the bowl (I hate the so-called pouring shield on the KA - I always end up with a huge mess) and it also has a really smart little shield right where the hook attaches to the engine. So, for baking - I love it, I really do.

Fitted with the pasta roller attachment.

It's sturdily built - it's heavy and since it has little suction feet, it doesn't move around on the counter. However, it's a bit clunky and hard to operate - you have to press down hard at the button to release the arm, pull up hard on the arm itself, yank attachments out with force, etc. Not for the timid! And one thing I really dislike is that the bowl has really sharp edges, and easily scratches the machine body itself.

It has pretty much the same extra equipment available - I've tried the pasta rollers, and they rock. I haven't tried the KA rollers yet though - I hope I'll be able to borrow some soon. But it sure is much more fun than rolling by hand! I've also tried the food processor attachment, which is a bit small to be a real option for me.

And now for the downside: it can not deal with small amounts like the Kitchen-Aid can. I can easily whip up 100 ml of cream, or just two eggs, in my KA. In the Bosch - forget it. It just won't work. And I really love that feature in the KA - I use it a lot for small stuff, like making aioli or a small batch of buttercream.

The flat beater, which is quite different from Kitchen-Aid's.

So, which one would I choose? Both! I don't know if I'll be buying the Bosch, since it's pretty expensive (a bit more so than the Kitchen-Aid, which is already hugely expensive in Sweden), but if I had the extra cash, I probably would. Bread baking is a big hobby for me, and this machine really, really helps. But I feel that the Kitchen-Aid is more of a multi-tasker - and something I'll never be able to be without.

Dinner

2009-11-06T19:56:00.001+01:00

As always, we are really rushed on Friday nights, since Titus goes to
baby swim classes. So, tonight we're having gnocchi in a cheese sauce
with bacon and spinach. Maximum taste, and it took ten minutes to make.

Swedish candy news!

2009-11-05T21:34:00.002+01:00

I recently noticed quite a few news in the candy aisle, and of course I tried them all. All in the blog readers best interest, of course! Of course!

So - first, chocolate. Marabou is the Swedish chocolate giant, and they had three new flavors. "Vinter" is the most exciting in my opinion - it's their signature milk chocolate, studded with crunchy cacao nibs and flavored with ginger, cardamom and cloves. It's very, very winter-y and gives a great christmas feeling, without being over the top gingerbread-y. I love to keep this one in the fridge, it's much tastier when cold. (Incidentally, "Sommar" was milk chocolate with freeze-dried strawberries.)

Then they have two new filled chocolate bars. Toffee & Walnut is very, very sweet and would have been much better with more walnut bits. As it is, it's a walnut-flavored toffee, and tiny bits of nuts. My bar was also quite crushed, which was disappointing, but other than that, I liked it. Raspberry & Yogurt has tiny pieces of freeze-dried raspberries which makes for a nice texture. I liked this one - it's also quite sweet, but not too much.

Lamb Mince Sauce

2009-11-04T11:19:00.002+01:00

Quick but yummy pasta recipe today - I think the original comes from Nigella, and is called something like "greek bolognese". I like it a lot - it's simple, tasty and the lamb is so much more flavorful than beef.

Sorry for all these super short postings, but it's hard to find the time to sit uninterrupted at the computer for much more than minutes at a time right now.

Lamb Mince Sauce
(printable recipe)
serves 4

1 yellow onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
150 g mushrooms, finely chopped
500 g lamb mince
250 ml red wine
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp milk
2 tins (each 400 g) crushed tomatoes
salt
pepper
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp dried oregano

Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes, until the onion has softened. Add the mushrooms and let them cook until they've released some of their liquid, and shrunk in size. Add the mince and fry until it turns light brown rather than pink. Add the red wine and let it cook in almost completely on medium high heat. Stir together milk and tomato purée and add this to the pot with the tinned tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper and oregano. Cover with a lid and let it cook for at least 30 minutes.

Serve with pasta, and if you have some feta cheese, it'd be perfect to crumble on top.

Recipe in Swedish:
Lammfärssås till pasta

Cashew brittle

2009-11-03T17:45:00.000+01:00

Making cashew brittle from Karen DeMasco's The Craft of Baking.

Bibimbap?

2009-11-01T17:06:00.000+01:00

This was my first bibimbap ever, on Friday. I liked it, and P loves
it. I'd like to try making my own, so naturally I turn to you. Any
favorite recipes?

Cookbook watch: all about cookies

2009-10-30T08:45:00.000+01:00

Cookies is a favorite for the holidays - or really, at any time of the year. I like baking cookies, and I especially like having a stash in the freezer for unexpected company. I'm happy to bake larger, American-style cookies as well as Swedish classics which are almost always smaller and crisper, but I find that the styles are melding a bit as time goes by.

In Claes Karlsson's Kakfrossa ("Cookie Gluttony", loosely translated), you'll find tons of classic cookies with a twist. The layout is also very pretty and with great photos - I like this book a lot. Some recipes I plan to try out soon are almond cookies rolled in cardamom sugar, shortbread thumbprint cookies with cloudberry jam, and mini meringue cookies with toasted walnuts.

The next cookie book isn't so much about recipes as it is about decorating. It's a follow-up to Cookie Craft, which I've written about before - and it's called Cookie Craft Christmas. The authors, Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer (website here), have done a very nice job collecting loads of different designs suitable for christmas cookies - anything from ornaments (using a simple round cookie cutter) to 3D-christmas trees, and intricately designed partridges. Very cute! I'm aching to host a cookie decorating party with all these ideas!

Creamy Latin Pasta Salad

2009-10-29T18:56:00.003+01:00

One of my fave cookbooks to look through has been Ingrid Hoffman's "Simply Delicioso" - I've used it quite a bit this past summer. This pasta salad sounded so good, and so simple, I had to hunt down evaporated milk. Not an easy feat! Swedish stores now sell condensed milk, but that is sweetened and not what you need for this. I finally got lucky at an Asian supermarket, and scored a can of evaporated milk. (It's basically milk with half the water removed, so it's a much thicker milk.) Next time though.. I'll skip it. It wasn't all that great, and I think the dressing would be wonderful using crème frâiche instead - so feel free to try that.

The original recipe had celery, which I hate, red onions which I didn't eat this summer because of nursing, and ham which I just didn't want this time.

Creamy Latin Pasta Salad
(printable recipe)

400 g pasta shapes - I used fusili or rotelli
125 ml evaporated milk
50 ml olive oil
150 g feta cheese, crumbled
1 big bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
salt, pepper
1 orange bellpepper, finely diced
1 red bellpepper, finely diced
200 ml green peas (thawed if frozen)
150 ml green olives, de-stoned

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water, and drain.

Mix the evaporated milk with feta cheese, olive oil, coriander and lime in a food processor and run until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix the pasta with bellpeppers, peas and olives. Add the dressing and toss well.

Leave it for at least an hour before serving, so the flavors get a chance to marry.

Recipe in Swedish:
Krämig pastasallad från Latinamerika

Cookie galore

2009-10-28T19:13:00.001+01:00

We had a special "fika" at work today. I'm still on maternity leave,
but had to come in for this - everyone was asked to bake something,
and about ren people did. Lovely!

Cherry Apricot Preserves

2009-10-27T11:11:00.003+01:00

You just saw that photo, I know - but I don't have one of just the jam. I find it really hard to take decent photos of jam, marmalades and preserves by the way - I don't want to waste any for just a photo, and I never seem to manage anything that really showcases the jam.. Oh well, you'll have to make it for yourself and see how pretty it is!

I had some fresh cherries but not enough to just make cherry jam. I added fresh apricots, and some of the apricot stones for that subtle almond-y flavor. I removed them after cooking, but you can leave them in for a stronger hint of almond. I also added a lot of fresh vanilla, since I placed a massive Ebay order not so long ago, but feel free to omit it or to use less.

Cherry Apricot Preserves
(printable recipe)

300 g fresh apricots, de-stoned and cut into small wedges
500 g fresh cherries, de-stoned
8 apricot stones
2 vanilla beans
600 g jam sugar (with added pectin)
2 tbsp water

Mix everything in a large, wide pot and bring to a boil. Boil on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat, use a skimmer to remove any scum. Remove the apricot stones if you want. Pour into clean, sterilized jars.

Recipe in Swedish:
Körsbärs- och aprikosmarmelad

And the winners are...

2009-10-26T09:19:00.002+01:00

The results of the superfood sandwich contest are in! A great big thank you to all who participated and help spread the word - it was a lot of fun! Sandwiches are somewhat a "superfood" in itself - in that it's so easy and quick to make - and combined with actual superfoods, it can also be really healthy and good for you. I thought all entries were excellent, and thus I decided on a random drawing of the winners.

Top prize, a six month supply of Fazer Frökusar bread, goes to Laura! You can see her sandwich above - it has a spread made from edamame, avocado, coriander, garlic, lime juice, and greek yogurt. That sounds absolutely brilliant - and when it's combined with some red pepper, even better. Definitely something I will be trying out soon!

The runners-up are Clarissa and Kari and they both win a three month supply of bread. Clarissa's sandwich has, intriguingly, SPAM on it! Now, that's something I wouldn't have tried on my own - but combined like this, with hard-boiled eggs, homemade mayo, alfalfa sprouts and cheese, I'm sure it's delicious.

Kari (who lovingly calls himself and his family for the Family Crocodile Butt - I had to include that!) went for a hearty sandwich on homemade sunflower-linseed bread, with butter, alfalfa sprouts, grated carrots and a homemade hamburger. Yummy! Those of you who read Swedish should check out his great blog, by the way!

In the international category, the winner of the book "In Grandma's Arbor" is Virginie! (She's Canadian, her husband is Finnish, and they live in Norway - quite a mix!) Just look at that gorgeous sandwich! It has red bell peppers, grated carrots, ground flax seeds, Dijon mustard, a fried egg, greens and the magical ingredient - bacon. Sounds like heaven indeed!

Congratulations to all the winners, and a big thanks to Fazer for helping me host this fun contest! I have a very different giveaway/contest coming up in a few days, so check back soon!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Macarons

2009-10-24T17:28:00.002+02:00

I think these are my favorite, from all the macarons I've tried. Chocolate and peanuts are a classic combination, and this is definitely a good place to combine the two. They went down a storm when I served them, so I think most people would tend to agree with me here!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Macarons
about 20 cookies

3 egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp caster sugar
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almonds
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp salted peanuts, chopped

filling:
75 g unsalted butter
85 g creamy peanut butter
powdered sugar, to taste

Combine powdered sugar, almonds and cocoa powder in your food processor, and grind until very fine. Sieve. Re-grind any lumps or big pieces of almonds. Mix carefully (they tend to separate a little bit when sieving, since the sugar falls through first.)

Beat egg whites and sugar until you have a thick, glossy meringue. Don't overbeat. Stir in the almond-sugar powder, and fold together. Don't overmix this - most seem to say that you should use less than 50 strokes. (You can try it by dolloping a little batter on a baking sheet - if the peak falls down, it's ready. If it doesn't, try a few more strokes.)

Pipe small rounds on a baking sheet with baking paper. Sprinkle half of them with salted peanuts. Leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, to form a skin.

Bake at 150°C for 15-20 minutes. (I have a convection oven, and 15 minutes was perfect for me.) Let them cool completely before filling. Unused shells can be frozen, or kept in an air-tight container for a day or so.

For the filling, beat butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar to taste - start with a few spoonfuls and keep going until you find it sufficiently sweet, and sturdy enough to spread. Spread onto half of the shells - the ones without peanut sprinkles - and top with the other shells.

Recipe in Swedish:
Choklad- och jordnötsmacarons

Underwater baby!

2009-10-24T00:08:00.002+02:00

Obviously not about food, but so cool I have to show you! We go to baby swimming classes with Titus, and have just completed our first eight-week course. It's been so much fun, and he just loves it. He gets excited when he sees the pool, and he loves water so much he even tried to swim in the shower yesterday! He really *does* swim, too - he can't hold his balance or float properly, but he'll definitely propel himself forward. It's impressive indeed, and I really recommend this to those of you with small babies. It's so much fun! We'll be doing a course until christmas, and we'll probably get a second set of photos a bit later on. These are taken by an underwater photographer, and we have more that'll be up on Titus' blog a bit later.

Happy 5th birthday!

2009-10-22T16:17:00.006+02:00

It's that time of year again - blogaversary! My blog turns five years old today - I can't believe how time flies!

I really wanted to make a proper cake, but it didn't go so well. I tried creating something from scratch - a crispy peanut layer with apple mousse and cinnamon jelly - but it didn't work all that great. Tasty, but ugly - I'll show you eventually, but not today. So, I opted for the ever-simple jelly roll, topped with whipped cream. It tasted great, and took just a few minutes to put together! I added a whole vanilla bean to make it a bit more luxurious - but that's just because I have a lot of it at the moment. (Ebay score!)

I used home made cherry apricot jam, which obviously made things a lot tastier but also less instant - but use whatever you happen to have!

Vanilla Bean Jelly Roll
(printable recipe)

3 eggs
150 ml sugar
200 ml flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp water
1 vanilla bean

sugar for sprinkling
jam for filling

Beat the eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Fold in the baking powder, flour and water, and the seeds of the vanilla bean.

Spread in a lined rimmed baking sheets, and bake at 250°C for five minutes. Remove from the oven. Sprinkle with sugar, and immediately turn the cake up side down onto a second baking sheet, lined with paper. Peel off the first paper, and place the rimmed baking sheet on top to preserve the cake's moistness while it cools.

When cool, spread with your favorite jam, and roll up tightly. Wrap in plastic and store in the fridge until you need it.

Recipe in Swedish:
Rulltårta med vaniljstång

Last year - a Swedish version of the Black Forest Gateau.

Finally!!

2009-10-21T11:58:00.002+02:00

Readers of my blog know that I have a shameful obsession with Starbucks. Well, it's finally happening - they're opening in Sweden! At least almost... they'll open at Arlanda airport, just like they have done in Denmark. At least this means I can get a frappuccino if I fly somewhere - or with lots of luck they'll open outside of the security check, and I can go there all the time. (I would, too.)