Vegetable smörgåstårta

Here is my vegetable version of the Swedish sandwich cake. Avocado and coriander give it a delicious touch of Mexico and eggplant the cute round form.

Vegetable smörgåstårta
serves 2
6 slices bread
2 tbsp hummus
4 thick slices of roasted eggplant
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

4 tbsp hummus
1/2 slice roasted eggplant
2 slices avocado
some whole coriander leaves

Put a slice of a roasted eggplant on the bread and cut out . Mash avocado, add lemon juice, coriander, salt and pepper.

Spread 1 tbsp hummus on one slice of the bread, top with a slice of eggplant. Put the second slice of bread on the top.

Spread half of the avocado mixture, top with a with a slice of eggplant (or tomato). Finish with a third slice of bread. Frost with 2 tbsp hummus and decorate with eggplant, avocado and coriander leaves. Make the second sandwich cake.

Smörgåstårta

Smörgåstårta means "sandwich cake" in Swedish, and it is exactly what its name suggests: a big sandwich that looks like a cake. But delicious and fancy looking sandwich that is.

White sandwich bread is used to create cake layers and it is filled with creamy mayonnaise-based mixture to which shrimps, or smoked salmon, roast-beef, eggs...have been added. And decoration is as important, it just has to look fancy.

It is usually made for big dinner/lunch parties because of its many advantages: it is very easy to make, you can change the size of it in the last minute , it looks fabulous and it is super delicious.
No big parties around here so I decided to make a mini version for a weekend lunch for two. So cute, so delicious.

Smörgåstårta
makes 2 mini individual cakes
6 slices sandwich bread (I used wholewheat bread)
salomon filling
1 tbsp mayonnaise mixed with 1 tbsp crème fraiche
1 big slice smoked salmon, chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill, chopped
shrimp and egg filling
1 tbsp mayonnaise mixed with 1 tbsp crème fraiche
16 small cooked shrimps, chopped
1 boiled egg, chopped
decoration
3 tbsp mayonnaise mixed with 2 tbsp crème fraiche
4 small cooked shrimps
1/2 slice smoked salmon cut in two
2 cherry tomatoes, halved
some dill
16 this slices fresh cucumber

Cut off the bread crust. In two small bowls combine all ingredients for each filling. Season wit salt and pepper.

Put one bread slice on a plate, spread half of the smoked salmon and cover with the second bread slice.

Spread evenly half of the shrimp filling.

Put the third bread slice on the top. Make the second mini cake. Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour or two. Frost the cake with the mayonnaise-crème fraiche mixture, decorate and serve.

Knäckebröd recipe

Good old knäckebröd. I made it for the first time. This recipe is using sourdough, so the taste is very intense. It really does taste like sourdough. If you do not like that you can replace the sourdough with yeast. Any kind of flour can be used as well, do dare to experiment.

Knäckebröd
recipe from DN makes 9 rounds
1 dl rye sourdough (or 15 gr yeast)
2 dl water
4 dl rye flour
3 dl flour (I used white spelt flour)
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt

sesame seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds...

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and knead until you have smooth dough, about 5 minutes. Cover with a plastic foil and let it rise in the fridge over night.
Heat oven to 200 C and put a baking sheet inside. Knead the dough a bit and divide in 9 pieces, each about 80 gr heavy. Roll out each piece in a circle, about 18 cm big, make a small whole in the middle, brush with a bit of water, sprinkle your favourite spice/seeds and pick with a fork.

Carefully transfer to the hot baking sheet and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. Have an eye on it as when it starts to burn it really goes fast. Take out and let cool. 

Saffron pancake

Every year on December 13th Saint Lucia is celebrated in Sweden. Traditionally a white-dressed woman with candles in her hair is chosen to be Lucia and she is followed by girls and boys who all sing Lucia songs. Every region, city, school, kindergarten chooses Lucia each year. There is also one offical Sweden Lucia.

And as most traditions Lucia comes with traditional food as well. Saffron buns (Lussekatter) are eaten on December 13th. They are made of sweet yeast-dough with saffron. But as much as I like these buns (saffron cannot be wrong) I did not feel to make the yeast-dough.

So I looked for another recipe with saffron and chose to make saffron pancake. This cake comes from Gotland (Sweden´s biggest island) and despite the name is not really a pancake, but rather a cake made with rice pudding and saffron. And this cake has nothing to do with Lucia.

I used Japanese rice called mochi but traditionally regular short-grain white rice is used. The cake is eaten with whipped cream and dewberry jam. Dewberry jam can even be hard to find in Sweden so feel free to replace it with your favourite jam.

Saffron pancake
serves 6  
1,5 dl rice ( I used mochi rice)
about 6 dl milk
pinch of salt
0,5 gr saffron threads
0,5 dl sugar
1 dl chopped blanched almonds + for the top (optional)
3 eggs
about 1 dl milk
jam and whipped cream to serve with

Put rice, milk and salt in a saucepan and cook on low heat until rice is done. It takes approximately 1 hour for mochi rice to absorb most of the milk and to be done. Let cool. This can be done one (or couple) of days in advance.

Put sugar and saffron threads in a mortar and mix until the saffron threads are transformed into powder. Add saffron-sugar and almonds to the cooked rice and blend well. Add eggs (one by one), and milk as needed. The mixture should be very well mixed and not very thick, but not liquid neither. Pour in a greased and floured baking pan (1,2 litres) and sprinkle some chopped almonds over the top.

Bake in pre-heated oven 180C for about 3o minutes. Serve warm with jam and whipped cream.

Rose hip soup

This week I got to think of rose hip soup and I had to make it. Rose hip soup is Swedish traditional soup made of dried rose hips and eaten with almond cookies. It is usually sold ready-to-eat or as powder where you only need to add water and cook shortly.

But for my immediate crave here in Munich I was only able to find rose hip marmalade. So I simply made the soup with the marmalade, and yes it did work!

This marmalade is sweetened with agave syrup and two other fruit sweeteners made of apples and pears. So it was not overwhelming sweet like marmalade can be. I also served it with sliced almonds instead of almond cookies, yum!

Rose hip soup
serves 2 
6 dl water
2 tbsp corn starch
5 tbsp rose hip marmalade
2 tbsp almond flakes

Dissolve corn starch in 2 tbsp cold water. Pour the rest of the water in a sauce pan and let boil. When the water boils take off the cooker and add corn starch, stirring all the time. Add the rose hip marmalade and return to the cooker, cook for couple of minutes until it thickens.
Pour into 2 cups and sprinkle almond flakes on top. Serve warm or cold.

Cinnamon buns with pumpkin

Today is the "Cinnamon bun Day" in Sweden. Yes, there is a day in Sweden when you celebrate the cinnamon bun, i.e. bake/buy and eat/give away as much as you can.
Swedish cinnamon buns are made of sweet yeast dough that is filled with cinnamon, butter, sugar and sprinkled with nib sugar.

But as the pumpkin season is here I decided to twist the recipe just a tiny bit. I added steamed Hokkaido pumpkin to the filling. It worked really excellent, the buns were more than delicious!

This time I used dry organic yeast Bio Vegan and it worked excellent. I also used bread flour so maybe that was the reason why it worked better this time.

Cinnamon buns with pumpkin 
about 20 buns
80 gr butter
1,5 dl milk
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg, beaten
about 6 dl bread flour
6 tbsp sugar
9 gr dry organic yeast
1/4 tsp salt

250 gr steamed Hokkaido pumpkin
50 gr butter, room temperature
4 tbsp sugar

1,5 tsp ground Cassia cinnamon

1 egg
pinch of salt
100 gr almond flakes

Melt the butter, add the milk and cardamom. The mixture should me lukewarm. You do not want it to be hot as it will kill the yeast. Pour the warm liquid in a big bowl, add flour, beaten egg, sugar, yeast and blend well. Add salt and knead the dough until you have smooth, soft and not sticky dough. By hand it takes about 10 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Cut the pumpkin in cubes. You do not have to peal Hokkaido pumpkin, the skin is edible. Steam for about 25 minutes. When done let it cool a bit and then mash with a fork. Add butter, sugar and cinnamon, blend well.

Roll out dough to a 30x40 cm rectangle. Spread the pumpkin filling evenly and starting at long side (40 cm) roll up the dough. Cut buns, about 2 cm wide and put them on a baking sheet. Cover with a tea towel and let rise for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 225 C. Beat the egg together with salt and brush the buns. Sprinkle some almond flakes on the top and bake for about 12-15 minutes. These buns are best eaten the same day they are baked.

Rhubarb

To me arrival of the rhubarb means spring is finally here! There are two different types of rhubarb that I know about and that I use differently.

The rhubarb on the left side on the picture is the most common one and as it has some woody strings I usually peel it, cut it in smaller pieces and use in pies and cakes. I also freeze this rhubarb for later use.

The rhubarb on the right side is from my parents garden in Sweden. It has shorter stalks, strings are not woody and its flesh is so delicate that you do not need to do much to it as it is perfect just like it is. The young tender stalks of this rhubarb can also be eaten fresh.

When I cook it I usually dip it in sugar and bake covered in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, just until soft, and serve with mascarpone, ricotta or yogurt. Here in Germany there is strawberry quark that is perfect to serve with this baked rhubarb.

C&C - Chai and Cookies

I haven’t been to India….yet….but India has found a way to me. Chai is Indian spiced milk tea and it is the most amazing milk tea made of black tea and different spices like cardamom, anis, cloves…sugar and milk. There are many ways of preparing Chai but after trying for some time I got the spice combination I like the most. And on a chocolate-craving day Chai Hot Chocolate is a perfect rescue.

And what goes better with Chai if not cookies. I made cookies called “dreams” in Swedish. And as I was into spices already I also added my precious cacao-beans I bought on a farmers market in Mexico. And “dreams” turned into “dreams with wonderful touch of true chocolate taste”…so I called them “true dreams”.

These cookies are made with baker's ammonia and that is the only way to get the "dream" texture that makes them so distinguishable from all other cookies. 

I will be enjoying my Cookies and Chai Hot Chocolate while checking all wonderful recipes of this month’s “Waiter there’s something in my…” round-up.


Chai Hot Chocolate
serves 2
5 dl milk
3 cinnamon sticks (all together15 cm)
1/2 tbs green cardamom pods
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 pinches ground ginger (2 ml)
2 pinches crashed anise seeds (2 ml)
1 pinch ground cloves (1 ml)
1 tbs Darjeeling black tea
70g dark chocolate

In a saucepan mix milk and spices and heat to a simmer. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it steep for another 15 minutes. Heat it up to the boiling point and add tea, let steep for 5 minutes.
Chop chocolate finely, take the tea out of the milk and add chocolate to the milk, whisk until smooth. Return to the stove and heat until desired temperature.

True Dream Cookies
100g butter
2,5 dl sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 dl corn oil
1 tsp baker's ammonia
4,5 dl four
1,5 dl cacao nibs

Preheat oven to 150˚C. Mix butter, sugar and vanilla sugar for 2-3 minutes. Add the oil gradually. Mix together flour, baking soda and cacao nibs and add it to the butter mixture. When everything is mixed make about 50 balls (3 cm in diameter), flatten them a bit and place them on a parchment paper. Bake cookies for 20 minutes and when they are done place them on a wire rack until they get cold.

Budapest role and strawberries

Budapest role is a wonderful cake that is very popular here in Sweden. The traditional version is made of soft meringue-cake and filled with whipped cream and mandarin/tangerine. It tastes lovely. But as the Spanish strawberry season has reached Sweden I decided to make a Budapest role with a touch of Spain, strawberries that is.
 
I made the basic meringue-cake, filled it with strawberry mousse and strawberries and named it Madrid role...had to give some credit to those strawberries for tasting strawberries despite the long journey to the North. In any case I am looking forward to the Swedish strawberry season which is getting closer and closer (mid June)…

I made strawberry mousse that takes slightly more time to make as it needs to be in the fridge over night. It always turns out great so I stick to the technique.

Madrid role
6 egg-whites
300 ml (250 g) of sugar
1 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbs of cornstarch
100 g almond flakes

500 g strawberries
2 tbs lime juice
100 g white chocolate
300 ml cream
4 g of gelatine (2 leaves)

To make mousse: purée 250gr strawberries in a blender and add one tablespoon of lime juice, set aside. Put the gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes. Chop chocolate and put in a big bowl. Heat 150ml cream up to the boiling point and pure over the chocolate, stir until blended. Add the soft gelatine sheets, blend until gelatine melts. Add strawberry purée and the rest of the cream. Cover with plastic foil and put in the fridge over night.

Next day start with the meringue-cake: preheat oven to 140˚C. Grease lightly parchment paper and dust with flour. Whip egg whites until soft peaks. Add 250 ml of sugar gradually and whip until stiff peaks form. Mix the rest of the sugar with cornstarch and add to the meringue. Mix in the lemon juice. Fill a pastry bag with meringue. Pipe lines on the parchment paper, the cake should be 30x30cm. Sprinkle with almond flakes and bake for 1 hour.

In the meantime prepare another sheet of parchment paper which you sprinkle with caster sugar. I also used sugar sprinkles with strawberry taste. When the cake is done, let it cool for about 10 minutes, invert it on the ready parchment paper and peel of the parchment paper where the cake baked on. Let it cool.

Cut the rest of the strawberries in smaller pieces and add one table spoon of lime juice, set aside. Take the strawberry mousse out of the fridge and whip it until the stiff peaks form, fold in the strawberries.

When the cake is cold spread the mousse over it. Role the cake to form a log and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.