For several years running I’ve organised a summer party in our summer house for my friends once a year. Sometimes I’ve had crayfish parties and last year I had a proper 30s bash with three courses and plated food.
This year I went the other way, throwing together a more casual affair, sitting outside with mismatched plates and cutlery, fairly lights in the trees and Beach Boys on the stereo greeting the guests to set the mood.
I’ll post the recipes later but here are some party pics to enjoy.
Even though I go home to Sweden to visit fairly often (at least according to my colleagues) it is difficult to make time for everyone I want to see and everything I want to do. So when I realised that I had time for a lunch in Malmö with my best friend before a joint makeup session (our birthday present to each other) and a dinner party I had to choose carefully. There are quite a few new exciting places in Malmö nowadays and I am way behind in trying them out. Top of my list is Saltimport Canteen, but it was closed the week I was in Skåne so instead we decided on an old classic; Njutbar.
I used to live around the corner from it and I even knew one of the chefs back in the day and I am so happy this place still exists. It is small but cosy, has a deli section with nice charcuterie and cheeses as well as filling delicious salads to choose from and soup to start off the meal. And decent wines too.
As it was a hot summer’s day we decided on a nice salad and a glass of white wine. And when they brought out already chilled glasses with the wine so it would keep cool longer we were so pleased! It is the little things that counts, and by going that extra mile we could enjoy our glass of cold and refreshing wine throughout the meal.
The salad, their version of a chicken Caesar was really lovely and perfect for a hot day! The chicken was incredibly moist, the bacon crispy and the salad substantial with lettuce, tomatoes and shredded cabbage. Instead of croûtons it came with toasted breadcrumbs and their homemade dressing. Lovely!
Njutbar, Stora Nygatan 23, 211 37 Malmö
Mother and I enjoy more or less the same things; cooking, interior and antiques shopping, museums and exhibitions and theatre and opera. Father not as much. So when my visit home to Skåne coincided with an opera performance (in Swedish – a first for me) at Jordberga Manor a short drive from our summer house we made sure to book tickets. When booking said tickets the company suggested you could have a picnic in the park beforehand which we happily did.
In Swedish, Jordberga is called a slott, a castle, but it isn’t really a castle as it doesn’t have a moat (or towers) so in English it translates more to a manor house. Anyway, the grounds are really pretty with an English-inspired garden, a small lake and a large farm on the grounds. The place for the opera was an refurbished old stable mainly used for parties or Christmas markets nowadays.
When we arrived we walked down to the lake and put our blanket and picnic out. We had olives, cheeses, biscuits and hawthorn jam, prosciutto, ciabatta with a creamy salad of chicken, bacon and girolles and homemade ambrosia cake. All washed down with a decent bottle of rosé. We also brought along proper chinaware and glasses, although not as practical as plastic plates but a lot prettier.
I made the chicken salad from left over chicken and what I found in the fridge that would work well together. I find it very satisfying to use things up and this creamy salad with chicken, bacon and fried girolles was a great example or a successful fridge forage. I utterly loved this mixture and it will most certain become a picnic staple of mine.
Nice grounds to have picnic on, don’t you think?!
The opera, performed by Skånska Operan, a touring opera society and it was my first opera sung completely in Swedish. The ensamble was very skilled and we had a great time enjoying the Barber of Seville set in the 1940s.
Creamy salad with chicken, bacon and girolles – a sketch
Fry bacon in smaller pieces until crispy and let it drain on some kitchen towel. Leave to cool. Fry the girolles in butter and add some pressed garlic. Add salt and pepper and leave to cool. Dice the chicken and mix with the mushrooms and bacon. Mix 2/3 mayo with 1/3 creme fraiche, add dijon mustard, salt and pepper and add to the chicken mixture. Add some chopped parsley and serve with baguette or ciabatta.
Nine days pass by quickly; at least the past week and a bit did for me. I went home to Skåne, my county in the South of Sweden, to visit friends and family. It was pretty busy, as always, but lovely too!
The landscape is flat and consists of a lot of fields and all around the coast there are lovely sandy beaches.
I also try to enjoy my parent’s garden, where my mother spends all her free time, and we both love the buddleia attracting lots of pretty butterflies.
When in London I don’t really eat many British sweets as I don’t think they’re as nice as the Swedish variety, so you can imagine that any supermarket with this spread of pick ‘n mix is heaven for me!
I find the ice cream better too! This is the real deal compared to a Mr Whippy; proper soft serve ice cream in a proper waffle cone.
On Saturday while I was waiting for my bestie Emma to finish work, I had lunch with her husband Claes. We were in the Skanör-Falsterbo area of Skåne, Sweden and there are quite a lot of cafés and restaurants around. We decided to try Italian da Aldo, which is a lot bigger now than last time I went probably six or seven years ago.
As you walk in you can buy sandwiches, salads and icecream over the counter or be seated around the tables at the back for proper table service and hot food.
Both Claes and I were starving so more or less the whole menu looked good to us. In the end we decided to share a pasta dish and a pizza.
The pasta was lovely and fresh with tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil and parmesan. But the portion was rather small.
The Margeritha pizza was proper in size and absolutely wonderful. We also got some sourdough to dip in olive oil but the pizza was enough bread for us.
As we were about to ask for the bill our friendly waiter cleverly suggested coffee and ice cream which we thought was a great idea. The gelato looked fabulous as we walked in and I was happy to be reminded of it. We settled for two flavours each; I chose hazelnut and vanilla and Claes hazelnut and his favourite pistachio.
da Aldo is a great place to go to for lunch, icecream or supper if you live near by, but I also recommend stopping here if driving around in the region. It’s well worth a visit!
da Aldo, Mellangatan 47, 239 30 Skanör, Sweden
On Sunday father kindly picked me up from my best friend’s house and on the way home we did what most Swedish people do on weekend mornings; stopped at a bakery to buy fresh bread rolls.
Once we got home we had fika with the rolls, lots of different toppings, coffee, tea and orange juice, on the terrace. Then I went for a wander in my mother’s garden (well, it belongs to both my parents of course, but it is my mother’s domain) checking out the tomatoes and grapes in the greenhouse, the cherry and sour cherry trees and the wild strawberry plants.
Later on we enjoyed a lovely three course lunch, again on the terrace, with some rosé before it was time for me to head to the airport.
The lunch was wonderful, starting with a simple girolle toast with the first girolles of the season, picked by my aunt Pavla in the woods nearby. Then barbecued meat skewers with chicken, pork tenderloin and bacon and a lovely summery salad with new potatoes, grilled pears and blue cheese. Pudding was as simple as can be; vanilla icecream with freshly picked strawberries and wild strawberries from the garden. Absolutely wonderful!
Then it was time to say goodbye and go the airport, but I’ll be back in three weeks time. Can’t wait!
Most people think of Sweden as a cold country, which is partly true, but the summers are warm and absolutely wonderful. Sweden can be magical in the summer and this weekend was just amazing. Here are a few pictures from Saturday night when we, after a barbecue at my friend Linus, went down to the beach and sat there drinking beer, wine and cider listening to music and hanging out. Hope you enjoy them. 
When I was home visiting I had quite a lot of friends I wanted to meet up with. I went for dinner with some of them and the rest I gathered for a late Sunday brunch in Malmö at Rosen Bar and Dining, the restaurant in Malmö’s only five star hotel.
It is nice here, but not too swanky and at 2pm we almost had the dining room to ourselves, which we quite appreciated as we were twelve adults and two children.
As this, especially with Swedish standards, was quite late in the day for brunch, we were really happy with the substantial spread of non-breakfast items.
At the hot plate you could choose between broccoli quiche, tender ribs, potatoes, chicken drumsticks, the obligatory scrambled eggs and bacon as well as order your own dish straight from the kitchen. The menu, consisting of several omelettes and Eggs Benedict (or Florentine actually as it was ham free), was scribbled on a black board just next to the kitchen and it was nice with a little interaction from the kitchen.
I had the Eggs Benedict (Florentine) which was really good. The English muffin was homemade and very tasty, the hollandaise rich and velvety but the egg slightly overcooked. Still really good on the whole.
At another station you found gazpacho, several cured hams (including a local spickeskinka), wild boar sausage and a few cheeses.
At another (chilled) station you found small pots with seafood in a mayonnaise dressing, small portions of Caesar salad, hot smoked salmon and cold smoked, even herring if I remember correctly.
There were also plenty of pastries, both French croissants and Swedish cinnamon buns, several bread rolls and breads. All the sweets were gathered at one table offering yoghurt and granola, lots of fresh fruit, mini cupcakes, brownies and rhubarb pie with custard.
Something we all really liked was the thought behind all the small portions, which made it so much easier to taste a wider spread and not to plate more than you could eat and therefore it much lead to less waste.
Also tea, coffee, sparkling and still water and four types of juice were included which I think is great. We will definitely be back, probably next time I am home to visit.
Rosen Bar & Dining, Mäster Johansgatan 15, Malmö
Although Malmö is Sweden’s third largest city (which perhaps doesn’t say that much when the country’s population is similar to London’s, but still) it hasn’t had a lot to offer in terms of great restaurants. There are a few great ones that I return too, but the restaurant business hasn’t been buzzing like in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Until now that is. Now there are plenty of new tables I want to try when I visit home.
But with that said, we did actually return to an old favourite when I was at home last. Partly because of the convenient location a mere five minute walk from my best friend and her husbands flat where we had a pre-dinner cocktail and after dinner musings and partly because it simply is very good.
Atmosfär serves small plates, and recommend 3-4 per person including pudding. I would say 2-3 per person including puds as the dishes are more filling than you expect. I love this more relaxed way of eating good food; it feels less formal somehow not following the conventional starter – main – dessert.
There were seven of us dining together and I managed to photograph most plates, of course I forgot to take a picture of one of my own dishes. Doh!
The wild garlic soup (above) was velvety and nice served with melt in the mouth sweetbreads and red wine mayo.
The salmon tataki with quail’s egg, truffle and chives was lovely and fresh.
And the lamb with sage and pata negra ham was really good too.
One of the most iconic Swedish starters; löjrom toast with creme fraiche and red onions, was delicious (as always).
Deconstructed steak tartare was a hit with the men. I passed on it as I new it came deconstructed and I prefer mine mixed to perfection in the kitchen. But that’s just me. The pickled beetroots added a Scandi touch.
Everyone who tasted this dish (I sadly didn’t) all agreed it was the best one they had that evening. And it looks magnificent, doesn’t it? Duck breast, beets, almond bread, rygeost ( a smoked cheese from Denmark flavoured with caraway seeds) and shiitake mushrooms.
Also the monkfish with Jerusalem artichoke, tomato and pepper was very tasty and the fish was perfectly cooked.
It was the amazingly tender pig’s cheeks with lovage and celeriac I forgot to photograph, but I can assure you it was very good indeed. Personally I would have liked a little less lovage in there, but that’s because I am not a huge fan of that herb other than a substitute for stock.
A few of us couldn’t resist the puddings and most opted for the deconstructed (I sense a theme?) snickers bar with salted caramel, chocolate fondant, vanilla icecream and peanuts, but also the creme brulee was delicious. 
We had a lovely evening here, just as I expected. And definitely the perfect place to catch up with old friends over food.
Atmosfär, Fersens väg 4, Malmö, Sweden
Sweden is a very long country so when I say I am from the south it can mean that I’m from somewhere from the middle and downwards. But I am from the real south, were we get Danish and German television channels because we’re so close to the continent. For us, everything north of Stockholm seems way north.
Anyway, just like the Three-Country Cairn (the northern point where Norway, Sweden and Finland meet) is a popular destination, so is the most southern point in our country; Smygehuk.
Smygehuk is just the actual cape with it’s little harbour, kiosk, fish smokery with shop and café, an old building and a camp site. It is quite pretty when the sun is shining, and I love just taking in the vastness of the sea ahead of you.
There is also a village near-by called Smygehamn with a few shops and mostly permanent residents. But all along the southern coast line you have lots of summer houses mixed with old fishing villages and permanent residents, golf courses and lovely sandy beaches.
I simply adore my part of Sweden and summers here are amazing. It is usually warm and sunny, and the ocean heats up to around (and above) 20C so it is nice to go for a swim or just a quick dip to refresh while sunbathing.
It is light until late in the evenings, so you can easily take an evening stroll at 10 or 11pm without bringing a flashlight. Ahh, how I long for the wonderful Swedish summer!
Scandelights