Tag Archives: illustrated recipe

Mazariner – a Swedish Pastry Classic (collaboration)

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Story by Anna Brones • Illustration by Johanna Kindvall • Recipe by both

Put two Swedes who love to cook in a kitchen together and there will be an immediate discussion of what baked good needs to be concocted for afternoon coffee. After all, we don’t mess around with our coffee breaks, and a serious coffee break deserves a serious pastry. So we settled on mazariner.

Mazariner are the darling of Swedish cafes, a balance of buttery pastry and almond filling topped with a thin layer of icing; the type of thing you bite into and wonder where this food has been all of your life. They’re just fancy enough that you don’t keep them on hand at all times, but you don’t have to put them on a serving tray.

Made in small oval tart tins, they can seem daunting to make, but as it turns out, are easy enough that you don’t need to cruise to your local IKEA to track down the mass produced version – although they do have them if you’re in a Swedish food pinch.

Our recipe search started with a few Swedish cookbooks and a call to my mother who was immediately reciting the ingredients from a page she had ripped out of a Swedish magazine sometime in the late 80s – when you come across a good recipe, you hold on to it. Johanna, being a more skilled pastry “chef” than myself did a creative combination of the many versions, and we both decided that plain icing just wouldn’t suffice. Add a little orange juice and you have a real masterpiece.

Make a batch of these, brew a French press and it will almost be like you’re sitting at a cafe in Stockholm. Almost.

mazariner

dough
7 oz butter (almost 2 sticks)
2 cups regular flour
¼ cup sucanat or organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons whole cardamom (crushed in a mortar, or slightly ground in a coffee grinder)
one small egg

filling
one cup blanched, ground almonds (can be replaced with almond meal)
2 bitter almonds (about 1 teaspoon almond extract, or more depending on how strong you want the taste)
2.5 oz butter
½ cup sucanat or organic cane sugar
3 small eggs

icing
juice from an orange
¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

In a large wide bowl cream together butter, egg and sugar. With your hands, mix in flour – this can be done either in the bowl or directly on a clean counter top. Crush the cardamom with a mortar and pestle as fine as you wish. If you don’t have a mortar or grinder, you can use pre-ground cardamom. Add it to the dough and blend well. Let the dough rest in a cool place for at least 30 minutes.

While the pastry dough rests, blanch the almonds by pouring boiling hot water over them and letting soak for a few minutes. They are ready when the skin slips off easily. Skin all of the almonds and grind them into a fine meal in a food processor. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and set aside to cool. Whisk the eggs together with sugar to a porous batter and add in almonds, almond extract (if you didn’t use bitter almonds) and butter. Stir together until well blended.
Grease small tartlet tins* (see illustration above) with butter. Line the molds with a thin layer of dough (about 1/8”) and fill them almost to the top with the almond mixture. If there is any leftover dough you can freeze it and use it some other time.
Bake in the oven at 400°F for about 15 minutes. The cakes should have got a slightly brown color on top. Let them cool a little before removing the cakes from the mold.

While the mazariner bake, prepare the icing. In a small bowl add the confectioner’s sugar and drip in some orange juice. The icing should be a little thick but still easy to drizzle over the mazariner. Wait until the mazariner have cooled before icing them.

Serve the mazariner for an afternoon tea or coffee break, you’re sure to make some new friends if you pull these out.

*If you don’t have small single cake molds as described you can use mini muffin trays or similar forms. In Sweden, disposable aluminum forms are often used, but stay away from single-use containers and do the best with what you have. We always encourage creativity!

–

Other Swedish baked classics

Semlor – cardamom rich bun is filled with almond paste and heavy whipped cream
Kanelbullar – Swedish Cinnamon Bun
Lussebullar – Saffron Buns
Pepparkakor – Ginger Bread Cookies (at EcoSalon)

This article was originally published at EcoSalon, 15 May 2012

 

Four-Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Sauce (by Stephane Lemagnen)

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One small reason I draw my food is that my cooking results will probably never look as good as Stephane Lemagnen’s creations. It’s silly of me to compare (and I’m not really trying), as Stephane happens to be a well trained chef. On his site Zen Can Cook he shows mouth watering examples of his ability. If you visit the site you’ll also notice that his photography skills aren’t bad either. His cooking and recipes are creative and a great inspiration for many other cooks all over the world. Even if his creations look complicated most of the recipes are easy to follow and can be cooked in a regularly equipped kitchen like mine. My aquavit pork buns were created based on Stephane’s way to cure pork belly.

Stephane grew up in Gascony, France and trained as a cook in the Pays Basque and Paris. In 2006 he opened the avant-garde dessert bar, Room 4 Dessert here in New York City where he offered modern cuisine in the form of a dessert tasting menu. Today, Stephane works as a full time private chef for a well known (secret) client. Lucky them! Recently Stephane started Zenspotting, a space for chefs and serious amateur cooks to publish their photos with links to interesting recipes. I’m flattered to be part of it.

Stephane and I met through twitter two years ago. Ever since then we have had great and inspiring exchanges by email or tweets. I’m happy to host Stephane and I’m really happy how this simple cheese ravioli turned out. Enjoy.

Four-Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Sauce
by Stephane Lemagnen

I’m thrilled to see one of my recipes come to life through Johanna’s illustrations. I have admired her work for a numbers of years now and always loved her recipes and her artistic way of explaining how things are done. And it’s even better with a glass of aquavit! Kokblog is clever, delicious and visually pleasing and it made me wish I stuck with those art classes in 5th grade.

Ravioli are also clever and delicious little morsels of happiness, and for me they are at their best when left simple. An oozy, cheesy filling in a soft envelop of pasta with a tomato sauce flavored with hints of fresh basil is often all you need to put a smile on people’s face. And it’s as easy as… the illustrations. Drawing, in fact, is much harder than ravioli-making and eating them is definitely easier than both. They can be enjoyed right away, or made in batches and frozen for future use which makes them great little discoveries to be made in your freezer.

for the pasta dough

3 cups all-purpose or “00″ flour, plus more for dusting work surface
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 whole eggs
4 yolks
2 tablespoons olive oil

for the cheese filling

8 ounces ricotta (drained)
4 ounces Montasio cheese (grated)
4 ounces Gorgonzola (crumbled)
4 ounces Italian Fontina cheese (grated)
1 egg
½ cup basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper
nutmeg

to finish

Tomato sauce
Basil

for the pasta dough

Combine the flour, the salt, the eggs, yolks and olive oil in a Kitchenaid bowl and combine on low speed using the dough hook (this also could be done by hand in a large bowl). Increase the speed until you get a rough dough. This should take 1 or 2 minutes.
When the mixture comes together transfer to a floured clean surface and knead the dough, turning the inside-out, until you obtain a dough that’s smooth on the outside, adding flour every time the dough starts to feel sticky. The whole process should take less than 5 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Take the dough out from the fridge and place it on a floured surface. Cut it in 4 equal pieces. With a rolling pin make rectangle with the pieces of dough, so that they fit inside the pasta machine. Start rolling pasta sheets on the thickest setting and cut in half (so it doesn’t get too long). Keep rolling reducing the setting every time.
You should be able to see your hand through the pasta sheets when you have reached the right thickness. You want it thin but not so thin that it becomes fragile.

Make an egg wash by beating an egg with a tablespoon of water. Cut sheets of pasta so they have about the same length and lay them on a floured surface.

Pipe little mounds of stuffing on the pasta sheets. Brush the edges and the middle sections with egg wash. Cover with another sheet of pasta. Seal with your fingers and push out any air pockets. Use the back of a pastry cutter the size of the mounds to seal each ravioli. Now use a pasta cutter or pastry cutter to portion the raviolis. Reserve on a single layer on a tray dusted with semolina flour.

for the filling

Combine all the ingredients by hand, or in a food processor. Season to taste. Place in a pastry bag with a round 1/2 inch tip.

to finish

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop the ravioli in the water and cook until they come back to the surface. About 5 minutes. Drain them and toss with tomato sauce. Garnish with basil.

for the tomato sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 28 oz. can San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes, including the juice, (or in season 1 3/4 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large pinch of sugar
1 pinch hot pepper flakes
fresh basil leaves

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the chopped onion and stir to coat. Reduce the heat to low and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft and translucent. Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in a bowl and crush them with your hands or using a potato masher. Add the garlic to the cooked onions and cook for a minute more. Add the tomatoes, including the juice, a few leaves of basil, the tomato paste and pinch of sugar. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a very low simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until it gets thicker. Remove from the heat, if you want you can blend the sauce for a few seconds for a smooth consistency.

…

Here are some other Ravioli recipes by Stephane:

Veal Ravioli with Culatello, Radiccio, Chanterelles & Sage
Langoustine Ravioli with Citrus-Coconut Sauce, Thai “Bird’s Eye” Chili & Fava Beans
Five-Herb Ravioli with Chanterelles, Roasted Tomato Coulis and Basil Oil

More ravioli reads on Kokblog, Duck Egg Raviolo
Pasta Shaping Work Shop on kokblog

Bite Sized Porcini Tarts

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To avoid us going crazy from all the smells in the kitchen while baking duck for Thanksgiving… I made some finger foods for us to nibble on before the bird was ready to serve…

about 12 bite sized pies

for the dough
75 g (2.6 ounces) butter
250 ml (1 cup) flour  regular flour (or whole wheat)
salt
some water

mushroom filling
250 ml (1 cup) of dried porcini mushrooms (or other mushrooms)
one medium sized shallot
butter
thyme
2-3 table spoons medium dry port (or similar)
2 tablespoons sour cream
salt & pepper
parmesan

Mix the dough ingredients together and let rest for a while in the fridge. Grease a mini muffin pan or small cake tin molds with butter. You may prefer to roll the dough out but I take one portion at a time and, with my bare hands, flatten them out to fit the tiny molds. How many you get depends on the size of the molds you’re using (I had some dough left over that can be used for something else). Pre-bake the shells 10-15 min at 200°C (392 F). Let cool.

Soak the dried mushrooms in cold water for about 30 minutes to an hour. The mushrooms should be ready when they’ve softened. Chop the shallot into tiny pieces and sauté in butter at low heat until soft and golden. Put aside for later. Drain the mushrooms and keep the liquid for later use*. Chop the mushrooms in smaller pieces and sauté in a dry pan on medium heat. If they’re too dry in the beginning you may add some of the soaking water. Sprinkle some salt over and when all the water has disappeared its time to start feeding with butter, thyme, the sautéed shallots and later on the port. When the alcohol has dissolved add some spoons of sour cream. The mushroom filling should be a little thick but not too thick. Add some of the soaking liquid to make it slightly thinner. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Fill the pie shells and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle some parmesan on top and bake for another 10 minutes. Let the pies cool a little before popping them out of the mold. I served mine as finger food with bubbly. However, they work perfectly well as a starter with an arugola & walnut salad.

*I use the  remaining liquid for mushroom stews, stocks, noodle soups and whatever I will be cooking in the next few days. This time I used some in the duck stock .

Tomato Sauce (diagram)

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For this tomato sauce you can either use fresh or canned tomatoes. If you use canned tomatoes I recommend that you to buy a good quality brand.  There are so many bad canned tomatoes out there, they should be banned. Here are some of my favorites: Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, Mutti Cherry Tomatoes and the Swedish brand Willy’s Cherry Tomatoes or their organic whole tomatoes (only sold in Sweden).

This ancho rich tomato sauce is fantastic with pasta, especially with mozzarella and basil. Topped with cilantro it’s perfect for tacos and black beans. I often use either version instead of ketchup for sausages. Its definitely not the same thing but I kind of prefer it.

Also check out recipe for Fresh Tomato Pasta

 

Ragu Sauce

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As its impossible for me to write down a recipe on how I make a ragu sauce, I decided instead to make a flowchart with two feed options. For the minced meat I often use beef, lamb or wild boar. Sometimes I use a mix of minced beef and minced pork (common in Sweden). Lamb works especially well with the anchovy version and the beef with the ancho flavor. Sometimes I add one or two vegetables to the sauce, such as eggplant, carrot, parsnip, celery etc. For both options I add some stock, either my own or the vegetable base from “better than bouillon”  (organic). If the sauce at the end needs a touch of ‘bite’ or sweetness, you can season with some paprika powder or/and brown sugar.

Serve with your favorite pasta and top with fresh grated Parmesan.

kokblog_flowchart