Our friend Russel is growing Sweet Grass (or bison grass) in his garden. Sweet grass is the main flavoring in M:s and my favorite vodka, Zubrowka. Zubrowka is based on rye distilled vodka and the grass gives it a smooth herby taste with a touch of bitterness. The smell is grassy and has a barely noticeable vanilla accent.

Sweet grass has been used for ages by the Native Indians for ceremonies and healing rituals. In many places it’s still grown for basketry. In the 70-ies the US discovered that Sweet grass contains a small amount of coumarin and decided to ban the import of Zubrowka. Coumarin has the ability to thin your blood, the same effect Aspirin has. Well whenever I will need to prevent my blood from clotting, I will prefer a Zubrowka to an aspirin. I also think a cold Zubrowka goes better with herring. Today you can find artificially flavored “Zubrowka” in the US but it’s very distant from the real thing.

In some parts of the world, Sweet grass is growing wild but you can also find Sweet grass clogs on the Internet. Russel planted his clogs last spring and was able to harvest his first straws in September the same year. Russel grew up on a farm so we were quite certain the result would be lovely. As the Sweet grass is a perennial, Russel will soon be able to harvest it again. This time we think the result will be even better as the straws will be fresh and delicate!

for the essence you will need
1/3 liter rye vodka (however we used the wheat grain vodka, Svedka)
8 fresh blades of sweet grass cut into one inch lengths

Let the blades soak in a the vodka in a sealed glass jar for seven days. Any longer and this ‘essence’ tastes too bitter. Take the blades out, filter the essence through a coffee filter and mix approximately two parts vodka with one part essence.

If you mix Zubrowka with apple juice topped with a slice of lime you will have the cocktail that we call a boy scout. In Poland they call the cocktail tatanka or szarlotka (apple pastry).

There is off course other ways to make your own Zubrowka.

We never had spinach when I was a child. Sometimes they served it in school but as a thin and tasteless soup or as a thick compact side dish for fried fish. In my later youth I was told to eat more spinach, as the iron would make me strong and less pale. It’s true that spinach contains more iron than many other green vegetables. But according to Wikipedia my body can’t really absorb it because spinach also contains a small amount of oxalate. And oxalate actually stops the body to absorb the iron! Hm!

True or not, spinach is still a great and healthy vegetable. I am eating it more now then ever before, (at least 4 times a month). The myth has also given me the taste for other green leaf vegetables such as Chard (mangold), Kale (cabbage), Collard Greens, Dandelion, Mustard Greens and a love-hate feeling for the bitter Broccoli Rabe.

Well this recipe is simple and works with many of the green leaf vegetables.

kale with goat cheese

one bunch of kale
olive oil
two cloves of garlic
chopped dried chili (what kind and how much depends on how spicy you want it)
60 ml (1/4 cup) tamari sauce
60 ml (1/4 cup) of water
one - three tablespoons of sour cream
goat cheese (you can use feta as well)

(serves two or three people)

Clean the kale carefully, trim the stems and chop the leaves into one-inch (25.4 mm) pieces. Peel and chop the garlic into tiny slices. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and sauté the garlic and the chopped chili. When the garlic starts to get golden brown, add kale and sauté until the kale starts to get a little soft. Lower the heat, add water and tamari, cover the pan and let it cook for about three to five minutes. Add some spoons of sour cream and some goat cheese. Stir without boiling for one minute (season with salt and pepper.)

Serve the kale with M:s lovely rice, brown pasta or even kasha (buckwheat).

m:s mixed Rice
(serves two hungry people)

one cup (ca 235 ml) of rice, a mix of Brown Basmati and a small amount of black wild rice
two cups (ca 470 ml) of water
one clove of garlic
one big bay leaf

Sort through for the rice for any odd bits and rinse lightly in water. Put the rice and water into a pressure cooker and turn the heat on high. When the water starts to boil add salt, the whole clove of garlic and bay leaf. Stir and close the pressure cooker. Turn heat to medium and when it starts to steam/hiss turn the heat to low. Cook for 30 minutes. When it’s finished take the pressure cooker from the heat and wait for the pressure to go (about five minutes). Open the pressure cooker and discard the garlic and the bay leaf. Ready to serve!

When I was a child, I often helped my mother picking lingonberries. Unfortunately we didn’t live in the north where there are lots of them so it was kind of tedious. I also didn’t like the taste so I couldn’t really get the point of wasting my time. It was different with blueberries.

Well it is even harder to find fresh lingonberries in NYC. But luckily there are plenty of cranberries. You may even find organic berries. Uncooked Cranberries Preserved Jam or what you may call, Raw Stirred Lingonberries (rårörda lingon) is a very common side dish to plenty of Swedish dishes. I have also heard that it is very similar to a cranberry and orange relish that is common on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. In my jam or relish I used lime instead of orange and (of course) sucanat instead of white sugar.

½ kg (1 lb) cranberries or lingonberries
150 ml (0.6 cup) sucanat
peals of one lime

Rinse the berries carefully. Crush the berries with a potatoes masher to make the berries softer. Add the sugar and start stirring with a big spoon. Keep stirring and stirring and stir until the sugar is completely melted and you have a nice consistency. For quicker results, run the berries very briefly in the food processor before adding the sugar. It will make it easier to stir. But please don’t use the food processor too long as it will mash them and its nice to see some whole soft lovely berries in the jam. Finally add the lime peals and let the jam rest overnight.

Serve the jam with duck, chicken, turkey, meatloaf, body cakes (kroppkakor), potaoe panncakes, patties or meatballs. M likes it on his breakfast oatmeal (if there is any left…)

In Manhattan it’s hard to find great pierogi. I often find them too thick and heavy. Well M:s mother happens to be a great pierogi maker. She makes them so thin and light and fills them with sauerkraut and mushrooms, meat, or cheese and potatoes. I easily end up licking the plate. After all she is from Poland and as lovely as she is, she makes tons of them when we are around.
This summer I asked her for her dough secret. I was hoping to get the whole recipe written down, but her answer and recommendation was very short, “make them with warm water”!

dough (approximate 75 pierogi which serves about 6 people)
700 ml (3 cups) regular flour
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk (I used the egg white in the potatoes and cheese filling later)
1 tea spoon salt
175 ml (¾ cup) warm water (heated up, not directly from the tap)

Mix the flour and the salt together with the eggs. Heat up some water and mix small parts at a time into the flour mixture. I did it by hand but I think it works perfectly well to use a food processor. On a flat surface knead the dough until it’s firm and soft. Cover with a damp tablecloth and let it rest on the counter top while you are making the fillings.

mushroom filling
Here I made M:s Spicy Portobello Mushrooms. I used less water, as I didn’t want the filling to be too loose. Instead I used some cream to make it thicker.

cheese and potatoe filling
4 - 5 boiled potatoes
4 table spoons butter or olive oil
50 ml (0.2 cup) milk
1 egg white
about 120 ml (½ cup) farmers’ cheese
salt and pepper
cilantro

topping
melted butter
fine chopped and fried bacon
fine chopped and fried onions

Mash the potatoes with the egg white, some melted butter and milk. Add the farmers cheese as noted or to your own taste. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Lastly add chopped cilantro. Note that cilantro is not really a traditional ingredient for a pierogi filling but I don’t think there are any strong rules on how to make fillings. You take what you have at home. I used a very mild type of cilantro. However many recipes seem to use fine chopped onions or chives. I will try garlic next time.

filling the pierogi
Uncover the dough and if necessary knead it some more. Divide into 4 pieces. Use lots and lots of flour while rolling one piece at the time to a 1/16” (1 mm) thickness. Make 3” circles and divide the fillings on top. Cover the filling and pinch the edges firmly to seal. Pat some more flower on every pirogi so they don’t stick together. If necessary add some more warm water to the dough as the flour makes it dryer in the process. Repeat until you have about 75 lovely pierogi.

Heat up salted water. When the water is boiling drop some of the pierogi in the water. When they are floating up to the surface let them boil approximate 1 minute more. Fish them out with a strainer. Top with melted butter and fried bacon and onions (chopped finely). Serve with a salad and some sour cream.

Well it is a long process… but luckily it was worth every minute. The pierogi ended up super thin and didn’t last very long.

There are many different versions on how to make pierogi. Some use sour cream and some use the egg yolk in their dough. My dough was inspired by several recipes but are quite similar to Kate Hopkins version.

When my sister and I were young and innocent, we used to be out in the vegetable garden ‘helping’ our father. Both of us loved picking and eating carrots directly from the earth. But if one carrot was too small or not fully ready to eat, we kindly placed it back into the earth, so the carrot could continue growing. Our father wasn’t as happy as we were. He wondered why some carrots seemed to stop growing and withered and others didn’t!

2 eggs
200 ml (0.8 cup) sucanat
75 gram (2.6 ounces) margarine or butter
100 ml (0.4 cup) milk
250 ml (1 cup) flour
1 ½ tablespoon bicarbonate
4-5 carrots
200 ml (0.8 cup) walnuts
2-3 tea spoons cinnamon
some grated nutmeg
some juice from a fresh lime

Whisk eggs and sucanat until fluffy. Heat up milk and margarine and pour mixture over the egg mix while mixing intensely. Blend flour and bicarbonate before you stir it into the cake mixture. Peel the carrots and grate them nicely. Add the carrots and chopped walnuts. Squeeze some limejuice over the mixture and season with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake in the oven at 200°C (392F) for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how big muffins you chose to make.