SWEDEN – Page 8 – Scandelights

Nettles and wild garlic

Published on May 7, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

The last five days I went back home to the south of Sweden to visit my parents and my friends. I had a lovely time seeing everyone and eating great food and even the weather was cooperating (we had the same glorious weather as in Britain, just a few degrees cooler)!

My parents live in the countryside, close to a lake and some woods and with plenty of fields in the near surroundings. It is just as idyllic as it seems and I have so many happy memories from the woods from my childhood. Now I enjoy more seldom, but it just brings back happy memories walking around there.

This time we stayed for quite a while, picking the first small nettles so I could bring them back with me, but also the wonderful wood anemones for pure decoration. There is also plenty of wild garlic, which I love and I picked plenty of that too before leaving.

I have quite a few recipe ideas using nettles and wild garlic, but before I post them I’d like to remind you of some wild garlic recipes already on the blog. I can highly recommend wild garlic mayo which I eat out of season too (just steam and freeze the wild garlic and use whenever), mother’s delicious wild garlic soup and it is always a good pairing with asparagus, like in this quiche.

A weekend at home!

Published on May 2, 2013April 29, 2013 by Hanna3 Comments

Right now I am on my way home to Sweden. I can’t wait to spend a long weekend here catching up with friends, seeing my parents and hanging out with my best friend Emma.

Food wise I am looking forward to dinner at Atmosfär in Malmö and brunch at Rosen in the same city. Other than that I want to barbecue and go for a walk in the woods and stock up on spring nettles and wild garlic.

Brunch at Incontro, Gothenburg

Published on April 28, 2013April 24, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

Sunday was my last day in Gothenburg and I started with a lie-in while my host went for a run. Then we went to Incontro for an epic brunch.

After being seated and served with drinks it was time to queue up by the different stations and help yourself to the big spread of food.

The cold food, which we started with, consisted of lots and lots of vegetarian antipasti, a large wooden board full of cold meats, olives, freshly baked bread with truffle cream (amazing!) and big chunks of parmesan to enjoy with either a tangy orange marmalade or with a strong balsamic vinegar. (I preferred the latter). Oh, and we had smoothies too.

After a little break we started with the warm spread. Eggs and bacon, naturally, but I actually skipped the a bit too dry-looking scrambled eggs. The bacon was nice and crispy, the ribs succulent, the pizzas very good and so on.

Another break. Longer this time, and then the obligatory breakfast pancake with cream and warm blackberries.

And yet again a longer break before we embarked on icecream, hot chocolate sauce and meringues.

At the pudding table you also had pannacotta, Belgian waffles, strawberry crumble with custard and lots of pastries.

Needless to say I wasn’t hungry for the rest of the day.

The brunch was very good in my opinion. Sure, everything isn’t perfect when sitting on a hot plate, but the staff were great at topping up the food and changing it if it had been out for a while. Our waitress was also very attentive to clearing plates and topping up our drinks.

And it occured to me how great this place is for vegetarians. Most dishes were actually vegetarian and it was a good spread of that too. Most of the antipasti was vegetarian, same for the pasta and they also had a vegetarian pizza.

Incontro
Mässans Gata 24
412 51 Göteborg, Sweden

Dinner at Hello Monkey, Gothenburg

Published on April 27, 2013April 27, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

After cocktails at Hotel Dorsia we (all the food bloggers) continued our Saturday evening at Hello Monkey where we all had had their Monkey Combo menu.

Hello Monkey. Such a great name, don’t you think?! Great food too. And atmosphere.

The starter consisted of three different sashimis that we shared among the table. The tuna was soft and velvety and was paired with creamy avocado and crispy fried shallots.

Norwegian Salmalax (a type of farmed salmon) came with pickled ginger and shiitake mushrooms. My favourite among the three.

The mackerel came on a bed of coconut creme and had mustard pickled chilli on top. Nice although I don’t particularly like coconut.

The maincourse was again lots of different plates that we shared among us. First we had these divine shiitake mushrooms springrolls served in a lettuce leaf. So yummy!

Several dips for the dumplings.

These little shellfish cakes made from tiger prawn and scallops were like most generic fishcakes, and it was a shame you couldn’t taste the scallops.

The steamed dumplings with chicken and spring onions were delicious, especially dipped in the soy sauce.

The potstickers with entrecôte (beef) and pork mince had a nice flavour too them, but the texture of the casing was rather strange and slippery.

These crispy lamb wontons were nice too, but not that special. All the different dumplings were served with vegetables (in case that doesn’t show very well) and we also had steamed rice on the side. It wasn’t necessary though, the rice, I was so full at the end of this meal.

Although some dumplings were better than others I really enjoyed this meal. Everything was tasty, nicely presented and well timed for such a large group. The restaurant is cosy and really buzzing on a Saturday night. If I lived in Gothenburg I would definitely eat here a lot.

Hello Monkey, Magasinsgatan 26, 41118 Göteborg, Sweden

Dinner Chateau Beirut, Gothenburg

Published on April 25, 2013April 23, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

The first item on the agenda for the meetup was drinks at Kim’s followed by dinner at Lebanese Chateau Beirut on the Friday evening.

We all had a set meze menu with twelve different dishes, some of them real classics like hummus, stuffed vine leaves and baba ganoush but also a few interesting ones like the creamy tuna dip (delicious) and bulgur wheat falafel.

Stuffed vine leaves

Paprika and garlic dips

Belly dancing

Tabbouleh and tuna dip

The food was really good and authentic in flavour and even the wines were Lebanese. Only downside was the dated decor and the very loud music from the speakers when it was time for the belly dancing.

Chateau Beirut, Karl Johansgatan 7, 414 59 Göteborg, Sweden

Lunch at Amanda Boman, Gothenburg

Published on April 24, 2013April 23, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

On Friday morning when I arrived in Gothenburg the sky was grey and the rain was pouring down. Much like London a few weeks ago.

Since the weather was so miserable I didn’t really want to be outdoors and suddenly I was standing outside Saluhallen, a covered food court with both shops and restaurant. Of course I went it and had a look around. I wanted something warming for lunch and settled for a bouillabaisse at Amanda Boman.

Included in the lunch was also a side salad, freshly baked sourdough, coffee or tea and three types of cakes and biscuits for afters.

The fish soup was fresh with plenty of vegetables as well as chunks of fish and seafood. The two big dollops of lime aioli made it delicious. The bread and cakes were lovely too, and really liked this little oasis in the food court.

Amanda Boman, Stora Saluhallen, 411 17 Göteborg, Sweden

Food bloggers unite!

Published on April 23, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

This past weekend I was in Gothenburg to meet up with other Swedish food bloggers. Last year I met up with more or less the same gang in Ystad, and this time it was time to visit Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, situated on the West Coast.

We ate and drank a lot, did a food tour around town and enjoyed the sun as much as we could. It is such a nice idea to meet up, share ideas and network like this. A more in-dept description of the weekend’s activities is yet to come.

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!

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.

An unusual Christmas Market in the south of Sweden

Published on November 20, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

On Saturday I went to a very different kind of Christmas market. A man known from the Swedish version of the Antiques Roadshow, opened up his private home in Landskrona, in thesouth of Sweden to the public.

The market took place in his actual house (including the kitchen and living rooms), the courtyard, cellar and different outhouses. Yes, it was a rather large house. It was very cosy with Christmassy decorations everywhere, glögg (Swedish mulled wine) served in the courtyard, a café in the cellar as well as lots of vendors and some antiques.

We bought some lovely sourdough bread, herring and dilly prawn mayonnaise with us home and stopped for a hot chocolate/glögg pause to keep the cold at bay. Our last stop was the actual house, and I was utterly jealous when I entered his amazing large kitchen where they were making lussekatter (traditional saffron buns).

The tiles above the stove were amazing too!