December 2012 – Scandelights

New year’s eve is approaching…

Published on December 30, 2012December 30, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

I have spent the whole day today in the kitchen preparing for tomorrow’s new years eve party. My best friend Emma and her husband Claes are hosting and I’m doing the catering. I’ve had so much fun cooking away today that I thought I would share the fabulous menu with you. Recipes will follow in the next week or so.

New Year’s Eve Menu 2012

Vodka and chives pannacotta on bread base with salmon caviar and dill canapé

Prawn mousse with Melba toasts

Panfried scallops with truffled celeriac purée and apple caramel

Fillet of veal with yellow beet, mushrooms, Pommes Duchesse, red wine jus and thyme foam

(For the fish eaters: Panfried Arctic Char with Pommes Duchesse, herb cream sauce and braised fennel)

Iced nougat with butterscotch sauce and honeycomb

Happy New Year!

Curly kale crisps

Published on December 25, 2012December 25, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

You can easily buy these healthy green crisps at Whole Foods, or even easier; make them yourself. I served them with a Nigella-inspired aperitif consisting of rose vermouth, pomegranate juice, lime juice and a splash of honey, and although the drink isn’t that sweet, these salty crisps complement it perfectly.

Curly kale crisps

2 bunches curly kale

1 tbsp mild olive oil

2 pinches sea salt

Remove the leaves from the stalks and shred into crisp size pieces. Add the oil to a medium-sized roasting tray. Add the leaves and salt and toss to coat the leaves. Place in a 150C oven for approx 20 minutes or until the kale have shrunk considerably in size and turned crispy. Serve.

God Jul – Merry Christmas

Published on December 24, 2012December 24, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

Christmas greetings from the South of Sweden! We celebrate Christmas today on Christmas eve, so after a lunch with boiled eggs and pickled herring, we are awaiting the relatives who will join us for supper. We’re having meatballs, prinskorv (smoked sausages), Jansson’s temptation (potato bake with anchovies), red and caramelised white cabbage and Christmas ham as the first course, followed by salted ling with mustard bechamel, potatoes and peas. To finish we have a very creamy rice pudding called ris a’la Malta and coulis.

God Jul!

Gingerbread cheesecake

Published on December 20, 2012December 20, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

Gingerbread. Is there anything more Christmassy than the mixture of ground ginger, cloves and cinnamon?! I think not.

As much as I love traditional gingerbread, last year I also made this gingerbread cheesecake. The base is of course ginger biscuits, and the cheesecake filling has the same ratio of the three spices as gingerbread. More of cinnamon and ginger, less of the pungent cloves.

Do try this at a gathering or just for your family – it is delivious, and a fun way of serving traditional flavours.

Gingerbread cheesecake, serves 10-12

200 g ginger biscuits (I used Ginger Nuts)

75 g softened butter

600 g Philadelphia cheese

2 eggs

100 ml golden syrup

50 ml caster sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cloves

1 tbsp milk

1 tskp gelatin powder

Topping:

150 ml sourcream

50 ml golden syrup

Mix the biscuits into crumbs in a food processor. Add the butter and mix until the crumbs has the consistency of wet sand. Press the crumbs onto the base of a buttered and lined springform tin. Bake for 10 minutes in 175C.

Beat Philadelphia, eggs, sugar and syrup with an electric whisk. Add the spices and stir to combine. Add milk and gelatin and stir to combine. Pour the cheesecake mixture onto the slightly cooled baked base. Bake for 20 minutes in a low oven or until the cake is almost set.

Mix sourcream and syrup in a bowl and spread onto the cheesecake with a spatula. Bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool, then refridgerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Going home for Christmas…

Published on December 19, 2012December 19, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

It will be a Scandinavian Christmas for me. Even a white one I am told. I am less happy about that though. The landscape where my parents live is completely flat, so the snow blows all over the place and is quite a nuisance.

I’m flying home to Sweden (well, technically I land in Denmark) tonight, and I can’t wait to give my parents a big hug, and then see all my friends from home on Saturday when I’m hosting some Christmas drinks.

Have a lovely Christmas dear readers! I will continue to update you from Sweden.

Impromptu cheesecake with almond butter

Published on December 17, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

When inviting a friend over for dinner the same week as your office Christmas party and other outings, there might not be much time to prepare the meal in question. Luckily, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Make a nice dip and serve with pitta chips while you make the maincourse. Then whip up an impromptu cheesecake with almond butter and you have a very happy dinner guest.

The cheesecake takes literally minutes to prepare and although the ingredients are quite humble – together they are just awesome. So do try this at home.

Impromptu cheesecake with almond butter, serves 2

6 digestive biscuits

200 g Philadelphia cheese

2-3 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

4 generous tsp almond butter

Crumble the biscuits. Place in a ziplock bag and smash with a rolling pin/ wooden spoon until crumbs. Mix Philadelphia and icing sugar either by hand or with an electric whisk. Layer biscuit crumbs, cheese mixture and almond butter in two glasses. Serve.

Baked brie with cloudberry jam

Published on December 15, 2012December 15, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

Baked camembert is more or less a staple party food in this country, and this nibble is not far off, but it has a Scandi twist and that is why I served it at my glögg party earlier this year.

The cloudberriy is a berry that grows in the Northern hemisphere. It looks similar to a raspberry and also grows on bushes but is a little bit bigger than the raspberry and has a more sourer taste. It works really well with cheese and is commonly served with breaded and deep-fried camembert in Sweden. This is not a step very far from that, but it feels a bit fresher.

How to:

Place a whole ripe brie in an ovenproof dish and spread a layer of cloudberry jam on top. Pour more jam into a ramekin and place in the tray. Place it in a 180C oven for about 20 minutes. Serve with crackers such as Finncrisp.

Christmas meatballs with thyme and lemon dip

Published on December 13, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

Scandinavia is hotter than ever in the UK, and my friends are readier than ever to try Swedish treats.

When I had some friends over for glögg (our version of mulled wine) I served meatballs as a nibble with a thyme and lemon dip and they were a huge hit. This version of meatballs we refer to in my family as the Christmas version because of the addition of allspice.

Meatballs can vary in size and if I have them for supper I usually make them around 3 cm in diameter, but for Christmas or as nibbles (or in this case both) I tend to make them smaller, around 1.5 cm in diameter.

Christmas meatballs, makes about 35

750 g pork mince

1 egg

3 tbsp water

75-100 ml breadcrumbs

1.5 tsp sea salt

black pepper

3/4 tsp allspice

Mix egg and water in a large mixing bowl. Add the breadcrumbs and spices and let it sweel for a few minutes. Incorporate the mince using a wooden fork or your hands. Mix throughly and shape into small hands, dipping your hands in water in between rolling to make it easier to shape the meat. Place the meatballs on a greased roasting tray and place in a 180C oven for 15 minutes. Then fry in butter in a frying pan for a golden crust.

Lemon and thyme dip

200 ml creme fraiche

3 tsp dried thyme

grated zest from 1/2 lemon

1/2 tbsp nice oil

salt, pepper

Mix all the ingredients, leave for 15 minutes for the flavours to develop. Keep chilled until serving.

Taste of Christmas 2012

Published on December 12, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

On our way to the Taste of Christmas fair on Saturday, Gaby and I were really excited about, although we had to go all the way east to the ExCeL for it. A few hours later we were tired and grumpy and rather disappointed. It was far too crowded for anyone to be able to have a good time, and without any sound proofing it was pretty loud in there too. We queued up to watch Michel Roux Jr (next to rubbish bins) on stage but couldn’t get a spot where we could even remotely see him, or even hear what he was saying. And it was the same wien Mary Berry was on stage before him. Later in the day when people had given up, and the probably lesser known Simon Rogan (of l’Enclume and Roganic) was on stage, Gaby and I suddenly liked it again, as we got seats to watch him cook. Compared to Taste of London in the summer, there were only a few restaurants represented, but a handful street food places were there as well, which was a nice addition. The first thing we had was a foie gras burger from Comptoir Gascon. We expected a burger with foie gras in it, but received a big sliver of perfectly cooked foie gras with some dressed lettuce in a brioche bun. Absolutely delicious! Next up was street food from Mark Hix; a fish dog with french fries and tartare sauce. Apart from the sauce which was weirdly bitter, it was really good. At Saltyard we tried comforting and yummy truffle mac ‘n cheese which really hit the spot. And the street food place The Bowler, served two types of meatballs, so good we tried both varieties. Left is the Thai meatballs in coconut milk and right is the pork shoulder meatball with cumin soured cream. Both were delicious, but the shoulder variety in tomato sauce was a tad better than the other one. Both were served with slaw and rice.

All in all I had a good day, party thanks to the company, and partly because it was less crowded in the afternoon. It was really not worth going around lunch time. Hope it will improve until next year.

Truffle brie

Published on December 9, 2012December 9, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

When I went home last time, my parents and I went to Helsingor in Denmark for a few hours, and as we always do, we went into the cheese shop in town; Lynhjems eftr. Ole Jensen, and as ever we couldn’t resist buying some nice cheeses.

Dad went for a typical Danish stinky hard cheese called Sorte Sara (Black Sara, because it has a black rind) and mother had some blue cheese I think. And I, I wanted the truffle brie.

I’ve never seen truffle brie before actually, and it just looked so good I had to try it. Suspiciously I asked the shop assistant if you could actually taste the truffle much. You could. Hallelujah!

The cheese consisted of two cheeses really layered together. Brie of course; which had a nice taste and wasn’t overpowered by the soft cheese flecked with truffle.

I had it with my favourite cheese biscuits; Carr’s water biscuits, and acacia honey and it was soooo delicious! Can’t wait to have it again, even if it means a trip to Denmark…