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.

Made in Sweden

These chocolate truffles are very Swedish. They are handmade in Sweden and filling is made with cloudberry. Cloudberry is a berry that likes the very North of the Northern Hemisphere and for that reason it can be found in the woods in Nordic countries. Have you ever tried Finnish Cloudberry liquor? Super sweet and super delicious!

Red peppers with capers

This is another, very delicious and easy to make, tapas that we had in Spain: roasted red peppers with capers. I am not quite sure how the one we tasted was prepared so this is my try on it. I used lime juice but I believe in original one vinegar was used.

Red peppers with capers

serves 24 red peppers
2 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1 tbsp capers in oil
juice of 1/2 lime

salt

Preheat the oven, 180C. Wash and clean the red peppers. Put them in a baking dish and roast in the oven until soft, about 45 minutes. When done put in a small bowl, cover with plastic foil and let sit for about 15 minutes. This makes it easier to peal the thin skin of the peppers. After 15 minutes peal and cut the peppers in thick stripes.

Heat the olive oil, add minced garlic and capers. Fry for bout 2 minutes. Pour over the peppers. Add lime juice and season with salt.

Pan de higo

Pan de higo, or fig bread is another Spanish delicacy that is made with dried figs, almonds and anise. It is a tasty winter snack that is very easily made at home.

I have not tried to make it at home yet, but I think blending dried figs with some ground almonds, anise seeds, or even better anise liquor gives the same result. And rolling the fig mixture into small balls, adorning with an almond and serving with the goat cheese would give cute and fancy winter appetizer.

Green tomatoes

Something else I bought in Spain were green tomatoes. I have always been curious about fried green tomatoes but I have never seen them at the market. In Spain you can see them pretty much everywhere. I do not know how Spanish people prepare them but I was firmly determined to fry them.

I found the recipe at Epicurious and after reading Wikipedia article I changed the recipe a bit. Green tomatoes turned out very delicious and will definitely stay on the menu. As long as I find them at the market.
And something that has to be mentioned is the smoked paprika. It really made the success here so it has to be included.

Fried green tomatoes 
adapted from Epicurious
serves 2 
2 green tomatoes
1,5 dl breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper
1 dl olive oil for frying

Cut the tomatoes in a bit less than 1 cm thick slices. In a bowl mix the breadcrumbs, smoked paprika, salt end pepper. Heat a pan with olive oil, dip each tomato slice in the breadcrumbs and fry on each side until golden. Put them on the kitchen paper for the excess oil to be absorbed.

Manchego and quince

This is another tapas (small Spanish "snack", usually eaten before dinner) we got to try in Spain. It is Spanish Manchego cheese that is eaten with a sweet paste made of quince. We brought with us two huge pieces of each and I cannot get enough of it.

The cheese is made of sheep´s milk, it is mild in flavour and it is a wonderful companion to the quince paste. In general I just love everything about quince, and this combination has become my new quince favourite.

I also want to try the combination of quince cooked in syrup and Manchego, could be something. The fall and first quince are soon here and I believe I will give it a try.

Shrimps with mango

When you add shrimps and coriander to the Mexican style mango you get the most amazing summer starter. Or you can also add some cooked rice and you will have a wonderful summer main dish.

Marinade and vinaigrette are made with the same ingredients, so you just need to mix everything together and divide between two bowls, one for the shrimp marinade and other one for the vinaigrette.

Shrimps with mango
serves 2

200 gr raw shrimps, peeled
1 mango

1 lemon or 2 limes
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or 1 fresh chili
bunch fresh coriander
salt and pepper

Chop coriander. Grate the lemon peel and squeeze the juice. Put in a bowl and add olive oil, cayenne pepper, chopped coriander, salt and pepper. Divide between two bowls. In the first bowl add shrimps and set aside.

Cut the mango so that you have two halves. Cut each half in small cubes, be careful not to cut through skin. Turn inside out, peel of the cubes and add to the second bowl with the vinaigrette.

Heat a pan. Cook the shrimps until cooked through, about 2 minutes each side. Add to the mango and serve.

Woodland strawberry

Woodland strawberry grows in the woods and it is the queen of all berries. It is very tiny so the taste is very concentrated, flavorful, sweet and different to the taste of the regular strawberry.

My boyfriend who is Mexican has never tried the woodland strawberry and that had to be changed. As we live in Europe right now and woodland strawberry grows here, I bought two plants at the market and they have been adorning our windows for some weeks now.

The lady at the market told me that these are two-year plants so next year we can look forward some woodland strawberries as well. Not that the two plants I bought will give lots of strawberries but for sure we will be able to have a taste.

Oven tomatoes and garlic

This is the most simple and the most amazing way of preparing tomatoes. It is the Spanish way, and Spanish know their tomatoes.

They were served to us as tapas at one of the many tapas bars we visited in Spain this summer.
After some 45 minutes in the oven the taste of the tomato gets concentrated and the garlic transfers into a roasted mushy divine.

Oven tomatoes and garlic

serves 2
4 small tomatoes
6 garlic cloves in their skin
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven, 180C. Cut tomatoes in halves and drop some olive oil on each half. Season with salt and pepper. Put in the oven together with the garlic and roast for about 45 minutes. Time depends on how big the tomatoes and garlic are. The garlic should be soft and mushy when squeezed.
When done, squeeze some of the garlic on each half of the tomato, season more if necessary, drop some more olive oil if you like. I also sprinkled some dried oregano.

Rapeseed, 3rd part

When I returned to check on the rapeseed it was gone. The farmer had done his harvest.

I did find couple of straws on the side of the road and this is how the seeds look like when ready for harvest:

I cannot imagine how many of these tiny seeds you need to get one litre of rapeseed oil. I would have loved to find out and to continue the story about how the cold pressed rapeseed oil is made, but unfortunately my story about the rapeseed field ends here.
And as I mentioned before I only use cold pressed rapeseed oil, I never heat it and I store it in the fridge.