€2 - €2.99

Mar 16 2014

Chocolate Biskvi

I was really hoping to post something “Swedish” today, but in reading up about biskvi, I discovered that apparently they were first made in France, at the end of the 19th century. That said, I’ve never seen them in France, nor have I seen anything really like it outside of Sweden, so I’m going to go ahead and introduce these Chocolate Biskvi as hailing from this country.

They couldn’t be easier to make, although one of the main ingredients might not be widely available everywhere. Almond Paste — mandelmassa in Swedish — isn’t that common in other countries I’ve found. Don’t confuse it with marzipan. While similar, almond paste is usually much looser in consistency. If you’re unable to find it then I would recommend using marzipan, but run it through a food processor with a little bit of sunflower or canola oil. You should achieve a similar result, with the benefit of being able to skip the first step (grating the paste) of the recipe below.

Chocolate Biskvi truly are things which could benefit from an artistic touch. Don’t get me wrong — I love everything about these things — but they’re a bit plain looking, especially when they’re made by someone like me with my sausage fingers and big clumsy man-hands.

[Read more…] about Chocolate Biskvi

Jan 06 2014

Falafel – Crispy, Fluffy… Delicious!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your celebrations were fun-filled and entertaining. I had a delicious meal, ate too much lemon cheesecake, topped it all off with way too many chips and then we set off a few fireworks, which I had wanted to capture, but fireworks are finicky beasts – especially when you’re trying to photograph them from relatively close range, as opposed to from, say, the other side of a field or harbour or the like.

In the end, I ended up with the below picture. Hardly a great start in the field of firework photography but… a start nevertheless. I’ll try to be a bit more prepared next time, although it didn’t help that it was snowing at the time and I had to hide under a porch roof to prevent my lens from getting covered in snow. Nevertheless, it was a memorable evening, and I’ve now determined that I must be the only person who actually loves the smell of smoke from fireworks, at least judging by the amount of spluttering going on around me at the time!

Something which was marginally more successfully than my fireworks photos was my construction of my first ever “snölykta”, or “snow lantern”. Roll a load of snowballs, arrange them in a circle and build them up to a point, like a little igloo. Place a tea-light in the middle and light it up and you’ll have yourself a lovely little glowing lantern on the floor. Build several around the yard for best effects. It was my first time making one and it wasn’t a perfect job, but candlelight hides a multitude of sins so by the time I lit the candle I was feeling pretty pleased with myself!

Before I start talking about the food I thought I’d let you all know that I’m going back to school – of sorts! From next Tuesday I’ll be undertaking SFI. It’s pretty much a full-time course, to bring my Swedish up to a good standard. I’m not sure how long it will take… basically I’m “done when I’m done” but a rough estimate from one of my teachers was that it could take three to five months – sometimes less, sometimes more. It’s quite exciting! It’s a long time since I’ve been to “school”, but I always loved languages in school (indeed, I learned five foreign languages in school to various degrees of accomplishment, though aside from French I’ve pretty much forgotten all of them now). My level of Swedish isn’t entirely terrible right now, so hopefully it won’t take too long. As my wife will also be studying at the same time (obviously not SFI), juggling schedules to ensure someone is home to look after William can be difficult so hopefully we’ll be able to find a good solution.

Suffice to say my already not-really-regular posting schedule will continue on its sporadic way for a while longer since I’ll only really be able to post on weekends but I’ll still be here!

On to the food:

Falafel… ah!

I can safely say that these are the best falafel I’ve ever made, but then I’ve only ever made them twice and the first time I tried my beautifully crafted falafel disintegrated as soon as they hit the hot oil.

After reading A_Boleyn’s post here about her falafel adventures I immediately began craving one such sandwich myself – specifically one that they used to serve in a restaurant in the Marais district of Paris. Falafel restaurants in this area are not uncommon… serving up crisp, fluffy, fragrant falafel in a pita with shredded cabbage, onion, tomato and sauce – but I stumbled upon a place once which had a “secret weapon”.

Aubergine wouldn’t normally be classed as a secret weapon, but seriously – a few good slices of grilled aubergine nestling underneath the crisp falafel will kick your sandwich up a notch from “delicious” to “out of this world”. I forget the name of the place now – it was some years since I went there – but I remember it being just around the corner from another, probably aubergine-less, falafel place called “L’As du Falafel” which apparently is a favourite stop-off for Lenny Kravitz whenever he’s in Paris.

This time I decided to follow A_Boleyn’s advice of letting the mixture rest for an hour and I was rewarded with perfectly done falafel. Crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside – just the way they should be. I’m notoriously terrible at following recipes and I often tend to “go my own way”, but I used A_Boleyn’s original post as a guide for flavours (I hadn’t thought of adding cayenne pepper before – it adds a beautiful background warmth and the fragrant coriander and cumin come through beautifully). I hope you’ll enjoy this easy falafel recipe. Serve it with some good slices of grilled aubergine and of course some of these:

Homemade Pita Bread

…and of course some of this:

Hummus

Serves 4

Falafel

An easy falafel recipe which yields crisp falafel with touches of warming coriander, cumin, and a hint of cayenne pepper.

15Prep Time

20Cook Time

95Total Time

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Ingredients

700g canned, cooked Chickpeas, drained
1 Onion
1 large bunch of Flat-leaf Parsley
1 large handful of fresh Coriander (Cilantro)
1 Egg
3tbsps Plain Flour
4tsps ground Coriander
2tsps ground Cumin
2tsps Salt
2tsps freshly ground Black Pepper
1tsp Cayenne Pepper

Instructions

Start off by blitzing your chickpeas in a food processor until crumbly and no whole chickpeas remain. Remember not to process them for too long as otherwise you'll end up with a paste.
Transfer the chickpeas to a bowl and then peel the onion and cut it into halves. Place into the food processor along with the parsley and fresh coriander (cilantro) and pulse again until completely blended up.
Add the herbs into the chickpeas along with the flour, salt, pepper, ground coriander and cumin, and cayenne pepper and finally crack in the egg and mix everything together well.
Allow the mixture to rest for about one hour and then place about 400ml of Canola or Sunflower oil into a pan and heat it up on the stove.
While the oil is heating, start forming small patties from the mixture. Form balls first in your hand and press them together well, before flattening slightly. You should be able to make about 20 falafel in total.
When the oil is nice and hot - about 160 degrees Celsius - fry the falafel in small batches, flipping them over after a couple of minutes. Once they are nicely browned all over remove and drain on kitchen paper while you fry the next batch.
Serve in pita bread with shredded cabbage, onion, hummus and maybe feta cheese.

Notes

!You'll also need~400ml Canola/Sunflower oil for frying !Serving SuggestionServe with warmed pita breads, shredded cabbage, grilled aubergine slices, sliced onion and tomato, hummus, feta cheese, and tzatziki

https://homesweetsweden.com/falafel-crispy-fluffy-delicious/

Nutrition

Calories: 699 cal

Carbohydrates: 116 g

Fat: 12 g

Sodium: 103 g

Cholesterol: 47 g

Protein: 37 g

Fiber: 32 g

Dec 02 2013

Normandy Pear Pie – or is it?

So, much like my kind-of-sort-of-not-really-Bircher Potatoes, here’s another dish from the annals of my childhood which I’ve forever known as “Normandy Pear Pie”. As is often the case for dishes that aren’t that well known, I usually have a quick peek at Google before writing out the post just to make sure I’m getting the name right, if it actually exists, or even just to see if I can find any information about this dish I know so well but others can only give me blank stares when I mention it.

In this case I was pleased (and a little surprised) to see a great many results for “Normandy Pear Pie” (or tart) when I searched, and then equally dismayed when I discovered that pretty much every recipe I could find had absolutely no similarity to “my” pie at all… some of them even having a frangipane filling! Well, I must say that those do sound delicious but please allow me to present this version to you (which apparently isn’t actually a Normandy Pear Pie at all), and anyway – the title is so much more whimsical than “Pear and Walnut Pie”.

The pie is actually one of the best pies I know. Apple is all well and good but it can get a bit boring sometimes. Pears make for an excellent alternative and the flavours that arise as the walnuts heat and mix with the sugar and pear juice is pure magic. Topped off with a sprinkling of cinnamon and you’ve got something that would be a great rival for the ol’ apple pie any day of the week.

The big freeze has started and I’m now limited to a fairly narrow window of good light each day for taking food photos. If mother nature decides it’s going to be snowy or overcast on that day then that’s it… no chance for photos, so I think I’m going to have to try and find some sort of “daylight” lighting kit. Apologies if there are some yellow-tinged photos for a while until I can figure something out!

On the plus side though – tomorrow is my birthday and we’ve just passed the first Sunday of advent, and so here is a poinsettia covered in glitter to get you in the festive spirit! See you soon folks.

Serves 12

Normandy Pear Pie

40Prep Time

35Cook Time

105Total Time

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Ingredients

For the pastry400g Plain Flour + a little extra for dusting

200g Cold Butter, cut up into small chunks
100g Sugar
4tbsps Cold Water

For the filling~10 large, ripe Pears, peeled, cored, and sliced

A handful of walnuts, finely chopped
4tbsps Sugar
3tsps ground Cinnamon

You'll also need3tbsps Milk for brushing

Instructions

Start off by placing the flour, sugar, and butter into a large bowl. Rub the mixture between your fingertips until you have a texture resembling breadcrumbs. Alternatively, you can do this in a food processor.
Add the water to the bowl and mix well to form a dough. Add a little extra water if necessary.
Place the pastry into a plastic bag and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes while you prepare the filling.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius and break off about 3/5 of the pastry. Grease a pie dish with a diameter of about 30cm and then roll the pastry out on a floured surface until about 5cm larger all around than the dish.
Transfer the pastry to the pie dish and press down to the bottom, sides and corners. Trim off the excess pastry from the edges, add in some baking beans and bake blind in the oven for about 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly and then add in the sliced pears, distributing them evenly over the base. Sprinkle the pears with the cinnamon and chopped walnuts, before finally sprinkling on the sugar.
Remove the remaining pastry and roll out on a floured surface until it's big enough to cover the pie. Drape over the pie and seal the edges with a fork. Trim the excess and brush the top of the pie with the milk. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until turning golden brown.

Notes

If you don't have baking beans, you can also use dried beans (chickpeas, kidney beans etc). Alternatively, kitchen foil fashioned into the shape of the dish and gently pressed down will also help to support the sides of the pie as it is baked blind.

https://homesweetsweden.com/normandy-pear-pie-or-is-it/

Nutrition

Calories: 396 cal

Carbohydrates: 65 g

Fat: 14 g

Sodium: 15 g

Cholesterol: 37 g

Protein: 5 g

Fiber: 7 g

Aug 23 2013

Gluten-Free Lemon Sponge

Serves: 8
Cost: ~€2.50 – €3.80 (depending on the eggs used)
Preparation and cooking time: ~70 minutes
Calories: ~215 per slice

Hi folks, I thought I’d share with you today a surprising discovery – a delightful recipe from almost 100 years ago! The very snappily named “Manual for home storage, pickling, fermentation and salting vegetables, with directions for making potato starch, fruit pastes, butters, etc“, first published in 1917 by the “National Emergency Food Garden Commission” dealt with all kinds of things related to war-time food preservation and usage of said preserved food.

One such technique it teaches in the book is how to make potato starch, and thus then lists several uses for your cache of potato starch. The recipe which caught the eye of my wife during her read-through of the book was actually the “Potato Starch Sponge Cake” – which incidentally happens to be gluten free and has no added fat. The original recipe calls for a little lemon, though I would recommend increasing this to turn it into a real lemon cake, as opposed to just a “faintly lemon-flavoured” cake. Preparation couldn’t be more simple though care must be taken when combining the beaten egg whites with the rest of the mixture. This cake owes its fluffy, airiness to your success when whisking the whites. If this step fails then I suspect the result may be a rather sorry-looking pancake!

I don’t tend to bake many gluten-free things. Fortunately, I’ve never needed to follow a gluten-free diet, and ultimately I’ve never really seen the point of just cutting gluten out for the sake of it, especially when you need to add in curiously-named things like “psyllium husk” as a gluten replacement. Seriously – doesn’t that sound like something you’d find in a movie about aliens?

Sir, sir – we’re on their mothership and we’ve made our way into the hatchery. The eggs seem to have all hatched, there’s psyllium husk all over the floor… dear God! <crash> <static>…

Anyway, this doesn’t have any funky-sounding stuff inside – we’re talking literally eggs, potato starch, sugar and lemon here. It can’t get more simple than this, and the result is a springy, fluffy, incredibly light cake. You should aim to eat the cake the same day as it will go dry, though storage in an air-tight container should help extend the life by a day or so. Alternatively, if you have dry cake left over, you could do what my wife did and make a delicious trifle with it!

The original recipe calls for baking in an angel-cake pan, or a “deep, narrow pan”. I unfortunately had neither, so just used my regular 22cm pan, though you should make sure the pan is quite deep as the cake will rise a lot! My photos aren’t ideal and don’t truly reflect how spongey and delicious this cake is. Photographing slices of cake isn’t my forte, but I hope you’ll decide to give it a go anyway – let me know how it turns out! 🙂

Gluten Free Lemon Sponge

Adapted from an original recipe here

[learn_more caption=”Video Recipe”]

[/learn_more]

Ingredients

220g Sugar
150g Potato Starch
6 large Eggs
Grated zest from 1 Lemon, and 2tbsps Juice

Instructions

Start off by preheating your oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Separate the eggs and then whisk the yolks and sugar in a large bowl until pale yellow in colour.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and dry in appearance. Fold half the whites carefully into the yolks, and fold in the remaining half when completely combined. Add in the lemon zest and juice and stir gently before sifting in the potato starch, stirring very gently as you sift it in to prevent clumping.
Grease an angel-cake tin, if you have one. If not, use a deep, narrow tin, preferably with a removable bottom. Pour the mixture in and then place into the oven.
Bake for 1 hour until the cake is well-risen and golden. The cake’s surface will be crispy, and when you stick a skewer into the cake you will see that it doesn’t quite come out cleanly – this is nothing to worry about. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes or so.
Remove from the tin and enjoy. Frost it if you wish, or top with cream and fresh fruit. I found it enjoyable to just eat it with powdered sugar on top.

Aug 08 2013

Fresh Coconut and Ginger Cakes

Serves: Makes around 10 small loaf cakes
Cost: ~€2.20
Preparation and cooking time: ~30 minutes
Calories: ~333 per cake, if 10 are made

Summer has been in full swing here – finally – and yet I can’t seem to stop baking! It’s tortuously hot here: ok, perhaps not as hot as some parts of the world… I’m guessing folks in some parts of the US or the middle-East are having a fairly miserable time as well but I’m truly not a hot-weather person. Some people thrive on it… they want to spend their breaks at work sitting out in the sun. I on the other hand walk in the shade and generally lose all energy. My favourite time of the day is when I can come home and stand under a cold shower – and feel actually “chilly” for the first time all day – before sitting down on the balcony, enjoying the quiet and slightly cooler evening air.

Despite the temperatures though I just can’t seem to stop baking. I’m making bread several times a week, I’m making more cookies than I’ve ever made in my life, and then cakes, like these. In fact I think I’m solely responsible for the temperature in the apartment being a constant couple of degrees higher than it needs to be. The heat can’t even be abated by a giant fan I have which is about the size of a jet engine (and about as noisy) but I suppose I should try and enjoy the warm weather while it’s here. It will be gone soon enough!

I saw some lovely little coconuts in the store the other day. To be honest, they’re not really specific to any season any more – I think they can be purchased year-round – but I really felt like having one this time, and doing something “different” with it, as opposed to just eating it straight from the shell. Of course, the first obstacle to getting to the wonderfully pure white meat inside was getting past that shell. Previous methods I’ve employed have usually involved some form of blunt-force trauma which usually results in objects getting broken or dented. This time I decided to cut it neatly in half using a hacksaw. Very effective I must say! Once you’ve cut through the shell itself then you can just insert a cleaver or something similar to force apart the “nut” into two neat halves.

I’d purchased the little loaf moulds during my last visit to England and had been wondering what use I could put them to for ages. Not sure if I’d bother using such moulds again. They weren’t cheap and I think there were only ten in a pack and it seemed very wasteful. They were very thick and well made, but of course as soon as you want to eat the cake then it gets trashed. Not really worth it in my opinion. Overall though, the cakes were great. I considered putting a frosting on them but this would have been complete overkill. They were lovely on their own – not too sweet, and a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee!

August is upon us and that can only mean one thing – no traffic jams in Paris! It’s common here for residents of Paris to take a month of summer vacation during the month of August so it can get very, very quiet. Of course, it’s certainly not a “ghost town”. There are still plenty of people around, but the impact it has on traffic and availability of parking spaces in the capital is remarkable. My wife and I are going to use this opportunity to try and visit as many of our favourite restaurants as we can while it’s nice and quiet!

Have a great day everyone :).

Fresh Coconut and Ginger Cakes

Ingredients

170g Caster Sugar
170g Butter, softened
3 Eggs
170g Self-Raising Flour
80g Crystallized Ginger
Half a Coconut
2tsps ground Ginger

Instructions

Start off by pre-heating your oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, a little bit at a time, and then finally fold in the self-raising flour and ground ginger.
Chop the crystallized ginger into small chunks and finely grate the coconut meat. Stir the ginger and coconut into the cake batter until well mixed and evenly distributed.
Divide the batter between suitable cake cases. I used mini loaf cases and there was enough batter for 10 mini loaves. If you use round paper cases then you’ll probably have enough batter for 20 or so.
Place the cakes into the preheated oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until well risen and golden brown on top. If you stick a cake with a skewer it should come out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!