I have never won anything in my life. When I was training athletics in my youth I always got the consolation prize. I was happy anyway, it meant I could go flirting with the boys instead. Well the guys on the Swedish food blog Matblogg.se have now selected me as the winner for the best-designed (Swedish) food blog. Many thanks to you.
I have never in my life done my own Glögg until now. Glögg is a warm wine drink that is very traditional during Christmas time in Sweden. In fact it’s a very old tradition and I have heard that it was a way to cover up a bad wine!
1 cup rum,or vodka or 50/50
1 bottle of a full bodied red wine (ex. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon)
dried figs
75 ml (0.3 cups) sucanat (or sugar cubes)
blanched almonds
raisins
spices
3 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 peels of an orange
5 whole cardamoms
1 small piece of ginger, chopped
20 raisins
Heat up the wine. It’s important to not let the wine boil! Put all the spices in the warm wine, turn the heat off and let it rest covered for at least 4 hours.
Seive the spices from the wine. Heat up the wine together with the figs to 60º C. In the meantime prepare a stainless steel net (for example a steel strainer) with sucanat or the sugar cubes. When the wine has reach the right temperature, place the steel net over the saucepan. Pour the rum over the sugar and light the alcohol steam below (flambé). Let the burned sugar drip into the wine mixture. Take the saucepan from the heat. Cover with a lid to stop the flames.
Serve the glögg warm with raisins, blanched almonds and the warm figs. Great after a walk in the snow!
(There are many ways to do your own glögg and what you choose to make it out of. I got inspired by Bengt Frithiofssons recipe, “Glödgande Glögg”. Frithiofssons talk about wine on the Swedish TV Channel TV4.
I am not used to celebrate Thanksgiving with all that goes with it. But as many people leave town to be with their families, we nearly always arrange something for those friends who are still here. I am not a turkey fan; I prefer goose, duck or even chicken. Last year our dear friend Russel brought two gorgeous chickens. The chickens came from Iowa, where they were brought up in a tree. Not really true, but as they were always outside, they flew up into the tree during the night so the fox couldn’t reach them. Anyway, Russel got them and the dinner was absolutely delicious.
one organic chicken
one apple
dried prunes
salt and some pepper
thyme
lemon
Clean the chicken and rub it with a piece of lemon, both inside and outside. Rub also the chicken with a mixture of salt and pepper. Fill the stomach with thyme, apple pieces and prunes. Take an oven safe string and bind the legs of the chicken. Grease an oven tin with butter and bake the chicken in the oven at 175° (350 F) for 1-2 hours. The time depends on the size of the chicken, I always count 1 hour per kilo (about 2 pounds), but with the filling it can take even longer. The chicken is done when you can easily loosen the legs. To give the chicken a great golden brown color, poor the fat over it from the bottom of the tin. Let the chicken cool down a little before cutting it.
Heat up some of the fat from the chicken. I always let some of the apples and prunes cook in the fat for a greater taste. Filter the sauce before adding some milk or cream. Heat it up again and when it starts to boil lower the temperature and season with salt, pepper and some lingonberries or cranberries. Serve with boiled potatoes, the sauce, sour pickled gherkins, lingonberries and a salad.
This recipe is from my mother, its how she would prepare a goose. I think many prepare their Thanksgiving turkey in a similar way. This year I will do duck.
This summer we went to Jeffersonville, a small town in upstate New York. It was just a small vacation over the weekend and we were staying at a lovely Bed and Breakfast place call the Fifth Floor Farm. In between our activities and small trips, we enjoyed relaxing in their garden, while our hosts Faye and Fred spoiled us with their treats. This is not their recipe of almond cake, but my try to come close to something I have been longing for since then.
pastry
55 g (ca 2 oz) butter
25 ml (0.1 cups) sucanat
one small egg yolk
150-200 ml (0.6-0.8 cups) flour
Mix flour with sucanat, butter and later on the egg yolk to a firm dough. Let the pastry rest in the fridge for an hour or overnight. Roll out the pastry and cover a greased circular baking tin or some smaller cups.
filling
200 ml (0.8 cups) almonds
200 ml (0.8 cup) sucanat
1 egg
50 g (1.8 oz) butter
Grind the almonds. Whisk the egg gently and mix it with almonds and sucanat. Melt the butter and pour it in the mixture. When the filling is well mixed, pour it over the pastry and bake it in the oven at 175° (350 F) for 20-30 minutes. Let it cool and serve as it is or with some dry sherry.
Update 29th November 2005:
Couple of days ago I did this almond cake again. I decided to reduce the sugar in the filling and instead added some raspberry jam, as I thought it would be a great combination. I must say it was a success!
I have never participated in a Body Cake competition; I don’t think I have the body for it. It’s not about how well or pretty you make them, the winner is the one who eats the most! They are heavy but still one of my favorites of the Swedish traditional comfort foods. There are many different variations of it; some areas do it with raw potatoes and some like them as I do below.
6-7 big potatoes
one egg
300 ml (1.2 cups) flour
one tea spoon salt
200 g (0.45 lb) bacon or salted pork
onion
one teaspoon salt and some pepper
Peel the potatoes and boil them until they are done. Mash the potatoes and mix with the egg and flour. Season with salt. Cut the bacon and the onion in small pieces. Start to sauté the onions. Add the bacon and sauté them together until the bacon is crispy. Season with some pepper.
Form the potatoes mixture into a big roll. Slice the roll in pieces. Press your thumb in the middle and fill it with some of the bacon mixture. Cover the filling and make a ball of it. The size can be a little bit smaller than a tennis ball. Repeat the procedure until you are done.
Heat up water with salt and when it’s boiling, drop some of the body cakes into the water. When the body cakes floats up, boil them for about five minutes.
Serve with lingonberry jam or cranberry jam, melted butter, grated carrots and a glass of beer. I also always have extra bacon pieces on the side. Leftover Body Cakes are great to slice and sauté the day after.
By the way I am now back in East Village from my lovely stay in Sweden, with some great stops in Copenhagen and London.
(This kind of Body Cake you can call Småländska Kroppkakor. This recipe is rewritten from a recipe in the Swedish cookbook Vår Kok Bok, 1975)