I’ve had this blog for quite a few years now and although I don’t always post it here, I go back and repeat certain recipes quite often. And if I’m ever stuck for supper ideas while in the supermarket I just look through the blog on my phone to find inspiration. That’s why I thought I’d share a few seasonal favourites with you from time to time. First up some autumnal inspiration!
Yoghurt pannacotta with baked apples
Some weeks just drag and this one has felt longer than most for no apparent reason. So happy Friday everyone!
Last weekend was pretty uneventful for me as I moved flats the previous weekend and was completely shattered but I feel I have more energy now so really excited to try some new restaurants and catch up with my girls.
Tonight, Sinead and I, are going to Bluebird for dinner and probably drinks after somewhere but we’ll play it by ear. Tomorrow I’ll celebrate my friend Laura’s birthday with drinks at Lab Bar and dinner at Arbutus and on Sunday I’m catching up with my Swedish friend Maria over a coffee. Sooo looking forward to it all!
Is it wine o’clock yet?!
Note: As you may be aware I have two blogs; this one in English and one in Swedish featuring similar content, and as the food blogging community in Sweden is a lot smaller than London and the UK I tend to divide more attention and personalise my Swedish blog more than Scandelights. But since I have quite a few readers here too (just less comments) I thought you’d like to know what I get up to (i.e. eat) at the weekends too so I will include my more personal Friday posts here as well. Let me know what you think! And happy Friday!
When I grew up my mother didn’t really use shortcuts in the kitchen, apart from the odd stock cube here and there, so I was fed wholesome food made from scratch. My grandmothers were equally good cooks and cooked in the same way, so I was a very lucky child.
But then I started preschool and although we had our own cook I got exposed to new foods (some of them processed) and then in school it was almost a traumatic experience eating the often processed food made hours before lunch time and kept warm that whole time.
I definitely preferred the food my mother cooked and she would always pack my school bag full of homemade snacks to keep me going if the school lunch was awful (which was more often than not). But certain processed foods I got used too; like this type of dessert. The most common version of this chocolate dessert was a prepackaged powder in sachets to be mixed with milk and put in the fridge to set. It was tasty, but in a very artificial way and then I actually preferred it to my mother’s homemade additive free version that I just wouldn’t eat as it to me tasted wrong.
Nowadays I certainly don’t fancy the sachets anymore but because they were part of my childhood and teenage years I never learnt how to make these lovely chocolate pots myself. Which is why I had my sweet mother on the phone while I tried this recipe, courtesy of Swedish TV-chef Per Morberg. The instructions were quite sparse I thought, so I have provided a few more details below.
And the result?Absolutely lovely and eons away from the prepackaged sachets. Hurrah!
Chocolate pots, serves 4
Translated and adapted from Per Morberg’s recipe.
800 ml whole milk
100 ml maizena
100 ml light brown sugar
2 egg yolksr
50 ml cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla sugar or 2 tsp vanilla essence
Mix all the ingredients in a sturdy saucepan. Start whisking from the start while heating up the ingredients. When the mixture starts to thicken, lower the heat and keep whisking. It mustn’t boil but let it thicken as much as you dare, then remove from heat. Pour into serving bowls and leave to cool. Then refridgerate until serving. It is nicely served with lightly whipped cream and sprinkles.
On Monday we met with the book club to discuss this book; our summer read. Although it is a book club we care a lot about the food too. We each bring a few things each time and the hostess sets the theme, if any. This time I brought along this bean salad I prepared the day before. It went really well with Anna’s couscous salad with chickpeas and sun-dried tomatoes, garlic bread and celery sticks and dip and to finish we had apple crumble and custard. Such a nice meal! And I will definitely be making this salad again soon.
Bean salad with leek, dijon and feta, serves 4-5
1 tin (400 g) cannellini beans
1 tin (400 g) flageolet beans
1 leek, chopped
oil and butter for frying
1 garlic clove, grated
salt, pepper
2-3 tsp dijon mustard
1.5 tsp sherry vinegar
chopped parsley
100 g crumbled feta
olive oil to finish
Fry the leek until soft in butter and oil. Once it starts to brown transfer the leek to a large bowl. Rinse the beans and drain. Add more oil and butter to the frying pan and add the beans, cook until warmed through. Add the garlic and fry for another minute or so. Season. Transfer to the bowl and mix with the leek.Add dijon and vinegar and leave to cool. Once cool add the chopped parsley and crumbled feta. Adjust the seasoning if needed. Store covered in the fridge until serving. Keeps for 2-3 days.
The more famous cousin to this recipe is the classic Toast Skagen (prawns with mayonnaise and dill served on buttery toast) served at many restaurants and dinner parties over the years. I absolutely love it. But this Toast Öjeby is lovely too and very different in flavour.
The key ingredients here are crayfish tails (buy good quality ones), sharp cheese, caraway seeds and honey. Mayonnaise to bind it all together and dill to complement the crayfish. It really is superb and a great example of Scandinavian flavours!
I served mine on thin slices of baguette fried golden in butter and I promise you that’s all you need (bar a nice glass of white wine) to enjoy this.
Öjebytoast, serves 4
Translated from and adapted after Annika’s recipe.
340 gram crayfish tails
125 gram Swedish Västerbotten cheese, which I substituted with sharp cheddar, finely grated
1 tbsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1 tsp honey
3 heaped tablespoons homemade (omit the chipotle) or Hellman’s mayonnaise
Drain the crayfish tails if needed and finely chop them. Mix with mayonnaise, grated cheese, caraway seeds and dill. Add the honey to taste, but you need at least a teaspoon. Season. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Serve on slices of baguette, fried golden in salted butter. And a glass of wine.
For reasons far too boring to explain here, I can’t eat some produce rich in fibre. One of those items is cabbage that I absolutely adore in coleslaw, but even if I eat as little as a teaspoon I get stomach cramps straight away so it’s not really worth it.
So it is very lucky that slaw made from celeriac and carrots taste very similar to coleslaw and works with my tummy. I got the inspiration for this slaw from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book River Cottage Everyday but I have adapted it a bit from the original. And the last time I made it I adapted it even further using wholegrain French mustard instead of Coleman’s regular English mustard and that almost transformed it into a whole new dish. It just added a little va-va-voom I think I am done tweaking now – I’ve find the perfect slaw recipe! I hope you enjoy it too.
Celeriac and carrot slaw with wholegrain mustard
3 large carrots
1/2 celeriac (ca 400g)
5-6 tbsp mayonnaise (homemade or Hellman’s)
2 tsp wholegrain French mustard
1/2 lemon, juice only
salt and black pepper
Peel and grate the root veg. Mix the mayonnaise, mustard and lemon in a bowl and incorporate the grated vegetables. Season to taste. Eat immediately but keeps for a day or two in the fridge.
My favourite time of year in Sweden is definitely the crayfish season! When I was a child you were not allowed to fish crayfish in the lakes until the first Wednesday in August when it was the crayfish premiere. This has since been changed so you are allowed to fish crayfish all year round but because we had this rule for such a long time, I don’t think it feels right to eat crayfish any earlier than August each year.
And that’s why I made sure to have some crayfish when I was at home in August. My last evening there I stayed in with my parents enjoying a nice meal.
We started off with bubbly and some Parmesan biscuits. Then moved onto some leftovers from the party; tandoori chicken drumsticks with garlic sauce, salad and potato wedges.
And then we had crayfish! Mummy thoroughly spoiled us with buying Swedish ones and they were delicious. It is pretty messy eating these babies, sucking and cracking their shells but oh so satisfying. I can still recall the taste… So yummy!
About a month and a half have passed since my summer party back in Sweden and you can really tell that summer’s over. It’s windy, grey and it has started raining again. But I think all Londoners are happy about the fact that we actually had a decent summer this year, so we are mentally prepared to embrace autumn and winter.
Luckily the recipes for the food I cooked for my friends that summer’s day in August works just as well at this time of year – just choose less summery sides.
So, finally, I give you the recipes!
We started off with a simple yet very tasty pre-dinner cocktail made from vodka, mummy’s homemade elderflower cordial, lemonade, lime and mint together with some amazing Parmesan biscuits I have posted on here before. Do try them if you like cheese at all, they are simply divine!
As I mentioned before, this was a pretty relaxed party, so the starter was served on platters. On a bed of rocket, cucumber and radishes I had piled squares of Ottolenghi’s caramelized garlic tarte high which looked pretty rustic. I simply adore this tarte and all my friends loved it too – such a crowd pleaser! I also made some rustic baguettes after my blog friend Helena’s recipe. She calls them faux sourdough baguettes and that’s a very fitting description; they’re chewy and nice but far easier to make than real sourdough baguettes.
For the maincourse I served two types of meat; rare roast beef with a homemade aromatic butter and tandoori chicken drumsticks with a minty yoghurt dip. Not all my friends like red meat so I always try to serve chicken as well and although Indian food is far less common in Sweden this went down really well with everyone. I had also made two substantial salads which went with both meats; one with roasted new potatoes, spinach, spring onions and cucumber and one with roasted peppers, courgettes and aubergines with rocket and feta. Both dressed with a nice olive oil and a touch of balsamic.
For dessert I let everybody serve themselves a sundae with vanilla and mango icecream, whipped cream, blueberries, raspberries and homemade oat crisps. Super easy to prepare in advance and very popular with my friends!
Tandoori chicken drumsticks, serves 4
Adapted from Simon Hopkinson’s recipe.
The only labour intensive part of this recipe is skinning the drumsticks, which is especially tedious if you make five batches at once like I did. But I assure you, it is worth it.
1,75 g chicken drumsticks
a pinch of salt
2 lemons, juice only
500 g plain yoghurt
3-4 tbsp tandoori spice mix
Remove the skin from the drumsticks, then cut deep incisions in the flesh with a knife. Place the chicken into a bowl and sprinkle over the salt and the juice of two lemons, massaging into the chicken until well coated.
Mix the yoghurt and tandoori spice mix together in a bowl. Pour the marinade onto the chicken and massage into the flesh. Cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge overnight.
Preheat the grill to high. Lift the drumsticks from the tandoori mixture and gently shake off any excess. Place a wire rack over a roasting tin and lay the drumsticks upon it. Grill for 20 minutes, turning regularly, or until richly burnished and the chicken is cooked through. Add more lemon juice to taste.
Yoghurt dip
3-4 tbsp plain yoghurt
a pinch salt
a pinch sugar
5 sprigs of mint
1 green chilli, deseeded and sliced
Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Serve alongside the chicken drumsticks.
Faux sourdough baguettes, makes 3
Translated and adapted from Helena’s receipe.
3 pea sized pieces of fresh yeast (or the equivalent of dry yeast)
300 ml lukewarm water
1.5 tsp salt
25 ml wheat bran
about 380 g strong white flour
Dissolve the yeast in the water and add the remaining ingredients. Stir until all combined and you have a loose dough. Cover with cling and let it rise overnight or at least for five hours.
Turn out the dough on a floured surface and fold the dough in on itself once so both sides of the dough are floured. Pull the dough into a rectangle shape, about 15 x 25 cm. Divide into three equally sized portions and flour all around. Twist the dough pieces into baguettes and place them on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Let rest while preheating the oven to 275C. Before placing the baking tray in the oven spray the inside of the oven with water both up and down, which will contribute to a nice crust. Bake the breads for 13-15 minutes, the leave to cool on a wire rack uncovered.
Aromatic butter for meat
250 g softened butter
2-3 tsp paprika
1 garlic clove, pressed or grated
1 handful parsley, finely chopped
salt
white pepper
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, season to taste. Using clingfilm shape into a roll and cover it with cling. Leave to set in the fridge. Slice before serving.
Split is not a large town so after a few days we had exhausted the town centre and explored different areas of the town and stumbled upon this wealthier area with tennis courts, fancy cars and among others, restaurant Dvor, where we had lunch.
It was placed just by the waterfront overlooking a beach. We sat in the garden enjoying the amazing view and gorgeous food. 
We started off with an amuse bouche; a wooden board with grassy olive oil, crostini toasted in an wood-fired and house charcuterie (prosciutto and salami). Such an amazing way to start out meal.
The menu was charmingly written in perfect English with funny (and slightly arrogant) comments from the chef on it, stating how nice his food was. We had a tough time choosing from the menu as we could eat it all, but in the end Gaby decided on a cod risotto, which to me, sounded a bit strange but it was utterly delicious! A chef who can cook like that is allowed to be a bit arrogant…
I had the homemade tagliatelle with prusciutto, black truffle (which I never seem to be able to resist) and rocket. It was seriously creamy with deliciously strong flavour. I absolutely loved it! 
After stuffing us full with the gorgeous food we sat enjoying the view and our wine for a while people watching. The other guests seemed to be a mix of families, couples and ladies who lunch.
The only downside with Dvor was (unfortunately) the service. Both the food and the lovely setting weighed up, but I still find it inexcusable for a good restaurant to have bad service. Our waiter was both a little grumpy and left us waiting when the kitchen was backed up, the apology arrived at the same time as our food. And when we wanted to settle the bill our waiter was nowhere to be found so we had to wait again.Hopefully it was just a temporary glitch otherwise I would suggesting hiring some new waiters.
Dvor, Put Firula 14, 21000 Split, Croatia
My dear friend and travel companion Gaby loves researching and it was thanks to her efforts we found this sushi restaurant in Split. It appears sushi is more fine dining than take away here and it was certainly the first time I ate sushi on a linen tablecloth. Very pleasant! We also had an amuse bouche (lovely tuna paté with crostini) while waiting for our sushi to be prepared.
The restaurant we went to is called Bota Sera, overlooking one of Split’s many (pebbly) beaches.
We chose four different type or rolls that we shared and they were all very nice. From left to right; salmon skin roll, tiger roll, philadelphia roll and rainbow roll.
We also tried their vegetarian spring roll which was more like a huge croqueta than a typical spring roll. It was very nice though, and I loved the honey dip with fresh red chilli that it was served with.
There are quite a lot of different food influences in Croatia, especially Italian, but it was nice to find sushi as well as I always crave it in hot weather.
Bota Sera, BAČVICE BB, 21 000 SPLIT
Scandelights