Äggakaga (Eggy Cake) is a South Swedish thick pancake that’s baked on top of the stove. This cake is rich in eggs and baked with plenty of butter and pork fat (not for a slim diet). Its creamy and hearty and fills the stomach with pleasure and warmth. Traditionally the cake is served for both lunch or dinner with plenty of smoked bacon and lingonberry jam. As a lunch it will give you strength for a hard day’s work. For dinner it gives you comfort and a good night’s sleep. It will also be enjoyable as a brunch served with ale instead of mimosas.

My version is made with an addition of fresh rosemary and brown sugar is used instead of regular white sugar. The rosemary works really well with smoked bacon and adds a nice touch to this old traditional dish.

Äggakaga with Rosemary 
for 2 servings

4 eggs
1 2/3 cup (400 ml) milk
¾ cup (175 ml) regular flour
1 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt

plenty of butter for frying

½ lb (250 g) smoked bacon, sliced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk them together with the milk. Add salt and sugar. Sift the flour into the batter little by little to avoid lumps. The mixture is done when all is well mixed and has become a smooth batter. Let it rest on the counter while you fry the smoked bacon. Add the rosemary to the bacon when its almost done. Set the bacon aside and reserve the fat, as that will be use when cooking the pancake.

The pancake should be about 1- 1 ½” thick so a regular frying pan (about 10″-11″ wide) that can fit the whole batter will work perfectly. Heat up the pan  and melt a large lump of butter. Lower the heat to medium and pour in the batter. With a spatula, scrape the bottom and move the firm batter into the middle of the pan to prevent the mixture being burnt. Continue until all batter is firm. Turn the cake by covering the pan with a plate before turning. Add some more butter if necessary before sliding the cake onto the pan again, raise the temperature slightly and cook until the cake has browned underneath. Turn one more time. This time add the bacon fat before sliding the cake onto the pan. The cake is done when it’s golden brown on both sides.

Top the cake with the fried Rosemary bacon and enjoy with lingonberry (or cranberry jam). Best served with either milk or beer.

This recipe was first published at Honest Cooking, 26 January 2012.

The day started at an indoor market in Mellah (one of the neighborhoods inside Medina) where I could pick meat and vegetables for the cooking lesson. The market had everything from meat (even live chickens), vegetables, bread and milk. We got some beef, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, chili and olives for the tagine and some apricots, eggs and dark chocolate for desert.

The salad we made was really simple and fresh. Just finely chopped onion, cucumber, yellow pepper and tomato. Seasoned with a splash of olive oil, salt and freshly chopped mint.

The beef tagine was cooked in a traditional ceramic tagine cookware on low heat for about 3 hours. At the bottom we arranged onions, garlic and chopped fresh cilantro. The cookware was placed on the stove and the heat was set to low. The meat was placed on top and spices (ginger powder, cumin, paprika, salt and black pepper) were added at the edges around the meat. When the meat had been turned once we arranged carrots, potatoes, zucchini, one whole chili, ½ lemon, olives and parsley on top. Lastly we poured in a mixture of both olive and sunflower oil. Before the tagine “hat” was placed on top, a little water was added. Now and again we scooped up the cooking liquid and poured it over the vegetables and meat. In this way all ingredients got a nice taste of the spices without moving them around.

The semolina Berber bread  we made was baked on top of the stove in a skillet. In Morocco, bread is  served to almost any meal during the day and a must when having tagine. Raja’s recipe used only semolina flour but I stumbled upon some breads in the city that seem to have a mixture of semolina and wheat flour. Unfortunately they were not as nice. Our local deli (a hole in the wall) in Kasbah sold something that looked like a rye version of the bread. That was amusing!

The sweet dessert semolina pancakes were really the thing that won my heart and also something that was new to me. These pancakes should not be mistaken for the more well known pancake, begrhir. Begrhir is a yeast based semolina pancake that is often served for breakfast with honey. These pancakes are baked on only one side and the yeast create decorative holes on the surface. Raja’s dessert pancakes were sweeter and made with baking powder. They create similar decorative holes but are baked on both sides.

Below I have tried to translate Raja’s semolina pancake recipe as best I could. Raja used a typical Moroccan teacup when measuring the ingredients, so her cup measure was slightly less than a standard measuring cup. My recipe is as close as I could come!

Sweet Semolina Pancakes
serves 2-4 people

one egg
½ cup sugar ( I used sucanut)
½ cup milk (+ more if batter is too thick)
¾ cup semolina
one teaspoon baking powder
¼  sunflower oil (optional)*

zest from one lemon**
one teaspoon ground cardamom**

I don’t really remember the order Raja mixed the ingredients together but I did it this way: Whisk egg and sugar until well blended before adding the milk. Mix together semolina flour and baking powder. Add the semolina mixture to the batter and whisk well together (make sure there are no lumps). Add the oil, lemon zest and cardamom. Let the batter rest for 15-30 minutes before baking the pancakes.

Heat up a frying pan with some neutral oil (if using nonstick you don’t need any oil in the pan). When the pan is hot lower the heat to medium. Spoon up some batter in the pan with a sauce ladle (You may need to add more milk to the batter if it’s too heavy. It should be fairly easy to pour into a pan). When the pancake has nice decorative holes and starts to get firm on top flip the pancake over. The other side should now have a nice brown color. Press down the pancake with your spatula so the pancake doesn’t rise. Continue until done. Repeat until batter is finished.

It may take some time to get used to how much batter you need for every pancake. A finished pancake should be about 1/8” thick.

Serve the pancakes with sour cream and seasonal fruit and berries for breakfast or brunch. I loved it with a simple apple & orange fruit salad spiced with mint and chopped pistachio. The pancakes can also be done as Raja’s desert, layered with melted dark chocolate (she added some neutral oil to the chocolate) and topped with fresh mint and fruit of your choice. Serve it cool when the chocolate is firm.

*Raja used some neutral oil in the batter and fried the pancakes in a non-stick frying pan. As I didn’t use a non-stick pan I learned that the pancakes got a little greasy with oil both in the batter and in the pan.  They still tasted great but got firmer and easier to handle with oil only in the pan.
**Raja didn’t flavor her pancakes with cardamom and lemon, instead she used 1-2 teaspoons vanilla sugar. I just didn’t have any at home when re-creating the recipe. Both versions are equally delicious.

If you planing to go to Marrakesh and want to participate in a cooking class, I can warmly recommend Raja’s class. Contact Jean Peres at Riad Dar One for details and booking.

Story and recipe was originally posted at EcoSalon on 19th January 2012.

With or without snow there’s not much that’s as heart warming as glögg (Swedish traditional mulled wine). In wintertime, around Christmas, the rich smell is so welcoming its no wonder its such a successful way to treat your guests. Last winter I had to warn my guests that even though the wine was served hot it was not low on alcohol. They didn’t believe me, so I was happy they could all walk home safely after our joyful evening together.

Like other Swedes I’m used to buying glögg already spiced at the Systembolaget, which is the one and only company that can sell liquor in Sweden. Systembolaget has an impressive selection of wine from all around the world and they have over 40 different kinds of glögg, both with and without alcohol. There is even a white glögg which is commonly served cold as an apertif at parties around Christmas. With a selection that great it’s hard to even think of making your own, unless you are a Swede like me living abroad. So I started, and today I can’t ever imagine going back. At Christmas I want my own glögg. And the glögg has to be done with some drama by caramelizing the sugar.

glögg recipe

one bottle of red wine (a decent full bodied wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah)

spices
3 cinnamon sticks
one teaspoon whole cloves
one teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 orange peels
5 whole cardamom pods
one small piece of ginger, chopped
20 raisins
a couple of dried figs

for caramelizing
one cup (240 ml) rum
1/3 cups (75 ml) brown sugar

to serve with
blanched almonds
raisins

Heat up the wine but be careful, the wine should not boil. Drop all the spices into the warm wine, turn the heat off and let rest covered for at least 4 hours (best overnight).

Sieve the spices from the wine and heat it up in a saucepan. Again make sure it doesn’t boil. In the meantime prepare a stainless strainer filled with the sugar. When the wine starts to get hot, place the strainer over the saucepan. Pour the rum over the sugar and light the alcohol steam below. Let some of the sugar drip into the wine mixture before adding all to the wine (if you wait for all the sugar to melt the alcohol will disappear with the flames). Take the saucepan from the heat and cover with a lid to stop the flames. If you think the glögg is too sweet you may add some more wine or rum.

Serve the glögg in small cups together with some blanched almonds and raisins in every glass. Glögg is also great with gingerbread cookies.

My memories of making gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor) are limited to my childhood when my sister and I rolled out dough and cutout shapes like the classic gingerbread men, women and pigs. It was fun for awhile, but our efforts only used up half the dough before my mother took over and cut out about 100 more. There were always too many gingerbread cookies in the house, no one seemed to eat them so they often lasted until Easter. At which point my mother had enough and fed them to the birds.

My mother’s cooking has always been a great inspiration but I’m afraid to say that gingerbread cookies isn’t one of them. So I decided to asked Anna Brones to join me in a gingerbread post. While creating the article together, I realized what my mother’s dough was missing. Anna (and her mother) always doubled the spices!
Read Anna’s gingerbread story (with my illustrations) and get the spiced up recipes over at EcoSalon.

I just opened an online SHOP. In the store I will have a selection of drawings for sale.

Welcome!

While the duck is baking I treat my friends with some spiced duck liver. Often there is not that much liver that comes with a duck, so you may have to add some extra if you like. Many food shops sell duck or chicken livers separately. This dish may be tiny but its definitively worth every bite.

a couple of duck livers (or chicken livers)
one small shallot
half a poblano
one teaspoon coriander seeds
one teaspoon cumin seeds
chili flakes
salt
one or two garlic cloves

lime juice
fresh cilantro

Chop the shallot and the poblano into tiny tiny pieces. Saute in plenty of butter on low heat until soft. In another pan, roast the cumin and coriander seeds on high heat until they start to pop. Remove from heat and crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle to a semi fine powder. Chop the liver into very small pieces. Heat up a pan with some olive oil. When hot add the spices with some chili flakes. Let the spices merge with the olive oil before adding the liver. Sprinkle some salt over and stir constantly until the liver starts to get color. Squeeze some garlic cloves in and cook for just a little bit more. Take off the heat and add some freshly squeezed lime juice and cilantro leaves. Serve immediately with some bread. Enjoy!

I will as I always do, cook duck for Thanksgiving. The reason is the fat. A duck may look slimmer but when cooked it rarely dries out, while a turkey that’s leaner often does. To choose a leaner meat may be a good idea in general, but I definitively prefer something tastier for a holiday like this.

If you think the duck renders too much fat while baking, I suggest you spoon off the overflow for use in other treats. Potatoes fried in duck fat are heavenly and a duck fat omelet is marvelous. When done right duck fat stores really well.

I also recommend using all the parts that come with. The liver can be chopped up and sautéd with shallots, coriander and cumin. Seasoned with lime and cilantro and you have a perfect appetizer. The neck (head and feet) and rest of the giblets make a great base for a stock (see below). This week’s recipe is my own creation, but I learnt the baking method from both my mother and Elizabeth David (French Provincial Cooking, 1960). Happy Thanksgiving.

Duck in Port
4 people

one duck (about 5lb/ 2.5 kg) free range/ wild/ organic
one lemon
2-3 teaspoons salt
pepper

fig and prune stuffing
10 prunes
10 dried figs
one cup (240 ml) port
thyme

under the duck
about 2 lb (almost a kilo) small potatoes, cut in wedges
4 parsnips, cut in wedges
some sprigs of thyme
salt & pepper

for the stock (will be used to baste the duck)
duck neck and giblets (head and feet if available)
one small onion, sliced
one small carrot, sliced
small piece of celery (or any other vegetable that you may have)
one cup (240 ml) white wine
5- 6 leaves of sage (or any other herb you have at hand)
6 black pepper corns
2 teaspoons salt
water

The day before: Cut the figs and prunes into small pieces and soak them with port overnight or at least for 6 hours.

About an hour before you roast the duck you need to prepare the stock. Take out the giblets and the neck from the duck. Sauté the different parts in a saucepan. When brown add the sliced onion, carrots and pour in the white wine. Let it bubble and reduce for a couple minutes. Add thyme, sage, pepper corns and salt. Cover with water and let simmer for about an hour. Taste and season with more salt if necessary.

Rinse the bird under running cold water. Rub the duck inside and out with lemon. Rub on some salt and pepper. Fill the duck with the fig and prune stuffing (reserve the remaining juice for the sauce below or add it to the stock)

Put the duck on its side on a rack in a roasting pan. After 30 minutes in the oven @345°F (175°C), turn the bird on the other side and pour ½ – one cup of warm stock over the bird (keep some for later if making a sauce). Let it cook for another 30 minutes. Prepare the potatoes and parsnips. Place them in a bowl and sprinkle on some thyme,  salt & pepper. Toss well together with your hands. Take the duck out and turn the bird facing up. Place the potatoes and parsnips at the bottom of the pan. Stir around a little so the potatoes and parsnips get well coated with the duck fat and stock. If there is too much liquid or fat jut take it aside for later use. Put the bird back into the oven and cook for about 45-60 minutes. The breast should be gorgeously brown and the legs loose. Take out the bird and let it rest for about 15-20 minutes before carving. The potatoes and parsnips should be ready about the same time but depending on the duck they may need less or longer to get ready. They should be soft inside and slightly crisp on top.

While the duck is resting you can make a simple sauce (optional) to go with the bird. Heat up some butter or some of the duck fat that you have set aside. Let a couple of the stuffed figs and prunes cook with it. Add some of the remaining stock and port juice. Let simmer for a bit before adding a little cream. Season with salt & pepper.

Other nice sides are: lingonberry or cranberry sauce, gherkins, string beans, brussel sprouts and baked cabbage (check out my own recipe at the bottom of this post).

This recipe works also with goose or even turkey if you choose to have it anyway. You will have to adjust the recipe a little as these birds often come larger. I have also used this recipe with chicken on other occasions with great success.

Story and recipe was originally posted at EcoSalon on 10th November 2011.

This summer many of my friends in Sweden bragged about the number of baskets of yellow chanterelles they carried home from the woods. I came home with none. But I smiled along and remembered last year, when I couldn’t carry home all the King Boleteus I stumbled over in the woods. I still have plenty left, dried in big glass jars in my pantry.

But, I got to pick other treasures such as Black Trumpets and Funnel Chanterelles which are both equally delicious.

(read the whole story over at EcoSalon… )

Toast of Trumpets
an appertizer for two

about ½ -1 cup dried Black Trumpets (or Funnel Chanterelles)
*½ cup or more white wine (for example, a dry Riesling)
salt and pepper
about 5-7 sprigs of fresh thyme
butter
one shallot
about ½ cup cream
a small handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
freshly grated parmesan
sliced baguette, toasted

Soak the dried mushrooms in just enough white wine to cover all the mushrooms for at least 30 minutes until soft. In the meantime, chop the shallot into tiny pieces. Sauté on very low heat with plenty of butter until soft and golden.
Drain the mushrooms and reserve the wine for later. Heat up a dry pan, set the heat to medium and add the mushrooms. If the soaked mushrooms get stuck on the pan, add some of the soaking water, in this case the soaking wine. When the water is gone add a big lump of butter to the pan. Add thyme and sauté the mushrooms until they start to get some color (can be hard to see with black mushrooms). Raise the heat and add the shallots and the rest of the soaking wine. Let simmer and reduce to about half. Add cream and season with salt and pepper. When the cream has thickened divide it equally over the toast. Top with toasted walnuts and freshly grated parmesan. Serve this Trumpet Toast with a simple tomato salad. Enjoy!

If using fresh mushrooms you should skip the soaking part and only add the wine at the end.

* if you are not able to pick Black Trumpets or Funnel Chanterelles yourself, you can find them dried in well-stocked food shops. There are also plenty of online shops that sell them. Other dried mushrooms such as King Bolete work mighty fine as well.

Story and recipe was originally posted at EcoSalon on 26 October 2011.

More mushroom stories on kokblog:
Mushroom Pie (recipe)
Mushrooms (preserves)

My first article is about Apples in New York City followed by the recipe: Caramelized Apple Tart (see below). Read the whole story here.

Caramelized Apple Tart
4-6 people

dough
1 ¼ cup (about 300 ml) regular flour
3.5 ounces (about 100 grams) butter
3 tablespoons sucanat*
1½ teaspoons finely crushed cardamom
splash of water

filling
4 apples (preferably apples that are sour + firm inside, ex. Granny Smith)
4-5 tablespoons sucanat* (depending on how sour the apples are)
juice from one lemon
2½ ounces (70 grams) butter
½ cup (100 ml ) almonds, toasted and chopped

heavy cream, whipped with a little sugar

Start by mixing together butter, flour, cardamom and sucanat. When the butter is well divided add a splash of water. Work the dough together and let it rest in the fridge for at least one hour. Line a greased 9 inch (about 23 cm) spring form. Pre-bake at 400°F (200°C) the pie shell for about 10-15 minutes until it has got some color. Let cool.

Wash and peel the apples. Cut in half, take out the seeds and slice the rest of the apple in thin slices. Sprinkle the slices with sucanat and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat in a frying pan until they start to get juicy. Add ½ of the butter. Keep cooking the apples until they starts to caramelize. If you think the apples need more sugar you may add some now and let cook for a little bit more. The color should be golden and have some brown spots. Remove from heat and add the rest of the butter and toasted almonds. Let cool a little before arranging the apples inside the baked pie shell. Bake at 450°F (230C) for about 15 minutes until the apples have gotten some nice color. Serve with whipped cream.

*Sucanat is a brown sugar extracted from sugar cane. It’s perfect to bake with and gives cakes and cookies a richer taste. In the U.S. you can often find Sucanat in organic shops. If you can’t find sucanat you may use muscovado sugar or even regular brown sugar instead. When I’m in Sweden I use Farin sugar which works really well too.

(damn good) Vanilla Ice Cream
by Johan Kohnke

100 years ago,  ice cream (and chocolate) became more common in Sweden.  Ever since then, the Industry has made efforts to cultivate the taste of ice cream and make it more economically. Still, there are few things in life that beats ice cream made at home. Home-made vanilla ice cream contains cream, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla bean.
At Savoy Hotel, Malmö (Sweden) they always have a bucket of their own vanilla ice cream. It’s served in simple silver bowls. To sneak a scoop from the cold-buffet manageress was the absolute prime joy of the day. You can play with flavors endlessly but I stick to just plain vanilla ice cream. If there are no fresh or frozen berries to serve warm with the ice cream, then a simple chocolate sauce is super. It’s the simplest thing in the world: Mix together one dl sugar, one dl cacao, one dl water. Bring to a boil and let cook to a just thick enough consistency. You can make the sauce any time but the ice cream needs at least two days to be really good.

Vanilla Ice Cream
(about half a liter)

5 dl half & half (or 50 milk and 50 heavy cream)
115 gram egg yolk (grrr so complicated: use about 5-6 egg yolks if you don’t have a scale)
125 gram sugar, (1.75 dl)
17.5 gram honey, (one large table spoon)
one half or a whole vanilla pod (depending on the size and the taste)

Whip sugar and egg yolks until the sugar has dissolved and the batter feels airy.
Scrape out the beans from the vanilla pod and place pod and beans together with the half & half in a saucepan. Heat the cream mixture to just about 100ºC. The liquid should just simmer and not boil. Add the honey.
I have a digital thermometer to specifically control the next step. Pour in the sugar and egg yolk batter. Whip like crazy and let the temperature just reach 82ºC. (Any higher temperature and the ice cream mixture will be wasted!!!) Cool the whole thing immediately in a water bath in your kitchen sink. The temperature should reach 8ºC before placing in the fridge for 8 hours. Its no good skipping this part, I have tried! If you do, you just better buy ice cream instead! The fat in egg yolk needs time to swell, end of story!
Before you run the batter in an ice cream maker, fish out the vanilla pod. Store in the freezer and you have simple vanilla ice cream at hand for your special treats.
The recipe is adapted from the Swedish confectioner Mikael Palm’s ”gräddglass” recipe.

See other posts by Johan Kohnke here on Kokblog.