Tag Archives: Johanna Kindvall

Chocolate Cake with Licorice

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chocolatecake

My favorite sweet is licorice; sweet, salty or both. Unfortunately its hard to find my favorites outside Scandinavia. This has made me dream of making my own licorice treats.

This winter I finally got my hands on some licorice powder. I was so totally happy that I wanted to tell the whole world about my treasure. One person I told was a sale’s women in my favorite candy shop in Malmö (Sweden). She was impressed (or rather amused) and offered me a taste of some of their exclusive chocolate bars. One of them was a dark chocolate with a touch of licorice. I was sold…

for the Chocolate Cake

2 eggs
1 cup (250 ml) sucanat
4-6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt (only if you’re using unsalted butter)
2/3 cup (150 ml) pastry flour
4 oz (a little more than 100g) butter, melted

Whisk eggs and sucanat in a bowl. In a separate bowl sift flour together with cocoa powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the eggs and stir until combined. Pour in the butter and stir until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a greased 9” pie form. Bake the cake in the oven at 350 F (150°C) for about 15-20 minutes. The cake should be sticky inside. Let the cake cool off.

Ganache with Licorice

2/3 cup (150 ml) cream
½ cup (100 ml) sucanat (use no sugar if chocolate is sweetened)
3.5 oz dark chopped chocolate (I used Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa)
1 teaspoon licorice powder*
two table spoons butter

Bring the cream and the sucanat to a boil. Lower the heat and add the chocolate and the licorice powder. When chocolate is melted take the pan aside and add the butter. Stir until smooth.
Spread the ganache over the cooled chocolate cake and let it cool for at least an hour.

At last I have to say that I got very inspired by the lovely recipes in the new Swedish cook book, Lakrits, Mint & Choklad (Licorice, Mint & Chocolate) by Elisabeth Johansson.

*licorice powder is a licorice flavoring in powder form. Unfortunate I haven’t found this product in the USA. However it may be possible to buy it online from Panduro Hobby (folow this link if you are in the UK)
You can also find licorice flavoring at Essence Fabriken in Stockholm. They take orders by phone or fax. Hopefully they take orders from other countries than Sweden.

Sabine’s Caviar with Lingonberry

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caviar under an old oak

Last summer we went to visit some new friends in Sweden. We were invited to dine under their old oak tree. The lady of the house, Sabine spoiled us with a number of unbelievable and unforgettable treats. One of them became my extra extra favorite: lingonberry cream with North Swedish caviar. Believe me when I say, lingonberries and caviar are a surprisingly good combination!

the cream
200 ml (almost a cup) Creme Fraiche
About two tea spoons of lingonberry or cranberry jam (not too sweet)
Red caviar (mild or slightly salty)

Mix the cream fraiche and the lingonberry jam together. The mixture should have just a slight taste of lingonberry and have a light pink color. Serve the caviar and lingonberries together with thin Swedish crisp bread (knäckebröd) or Finn Crisp.

For Thanksgiving I used my Raw stirred Cranberry Jam and served the caviar with gentle and soft Muscat wine.

Sabine’s version is slightly different from mine. She mixed the lingonberries with whipped cream and served it on a soft flatbread from the north of Sweden. The north Swedish caviar she served was very delicate and not so salty. I normally prefer this myself but I discovered that a slightly salty caviar blends well with the sweetness in the lingonberry cream.

Thanks Sabine and congratulations to your new cooking book, “Restresan”.

Blini with Caviar

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blini with caviar

Some months ago we were celebrating our 90th birthday. We had champagne, caviar and blini – which ended up being a great combination for a great party!

M:s Blini

1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1 1/4 teaspoons fresh yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (237 ml) sifted whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (237 ml) milk
3 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs

Heat the up water to 110°F (about 43°C) using an oven thermostat. Stir together the warm water with yeast and sugar. Let the mixture stand for about five minutes until the mixture gets foamy (small wholes on the surface). This is important! If the mixture doesn’t foam you have to start all over with new yeast. Sorry!
Melt the butter and let it cool before using. Heat up the milk to 110°F (about 43°C) . Add first the flour and salt to the foamy mixture before you stir in the warm milk, the melted cooled butter and the slightly beaten eggs. Put the bowl in a larger pan that is filled with warm water (about 1 inch). Cover the bowl and let the mixture rise in a warm place for about 1 ½ – 2 hours. The mixture should then increase in volume and have bubbles on the surface. Stir the mixture before the next step.
Heat up a sauté pan with either butter or olive oil. Lower the heat. Make small blinis by using one tablespoon batter. Sauté for about two minutes on each side until the blinis gets a beautiful golden color. Keep them warm in the oven.

Serve the blinis with black caviar and creamy sour cream. (They also work well with gravlax)

bubbles

M was very determined to make the blinis as delicate as possible. He did careful research and several tests before he was really happy. The result was created from this recipe…

We also tested several different kinds of caviar and our favorite for this occasion was a quite simple black caviar from Russ & Daughters in the East Village.

Zubrówka

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kokblog_bisongrass

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.