Potato pancakes with smoked salmon

Potato pancakes, or “rårakor” as they are called in Sweden, has become a delicacy almost always served with whitefish roe, red onion and sour cream. Although you can imagine that it from the beginning “poor man’s food” was, together with “raggmunk” (a similar recipe with potatoes and pancake mix served with fried pork and onion). Råraka and raggmunk is known in Sweden since 1904.

Råraka with smoked salmon

• 6 Potatoes
• 1 Zucchini
• 2 Carrots
• 1 yellow Onion
• Butter
• Salt and pepper

Grate the potatoes, carrots and the zucchini thick. Chop the onion and blend everything together. Heat up a frying pan and add the butter, let it melt. Form a ball of the vegetables, put the ball int the pan and flatten it out with your spatula. Fry until your råraka has a golden colour.

Serve together with smoked salmon, whitefish roe or trout roe and sour cream. We added lemon zest to enhance the different tastes.

Movie: Eaten while watching the immensly thrilling Danish serie “Forbrydelsen II”

Birdie, birdie nam nam

Quail is probably not the first bird most of you would prepare. It´s hard to find but it is rather easy to cook so give it a try. If you serve it as one course in a menu one quail is enough for each person.

Rosted quail with beluga lentils and fig vinegar sauce

• 4 drawn Quails (vaktel, Wachtel)
• fresh Thyme
• 4 Garlic cloves
• 3 dl Beluga lentils
• 2 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 1 green Apple
• 3+5 dl Chicken stock
• 1 dl Fig vinegar
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• Salt, pepper

Start with cooking the lentils in 5 dl chicken stock, thyme, chopped garlic (1 clove), onion and carrot. When they are done, pour away the broth.

Roast the quails in a pan with 2 garlic gloves, butter and 3 thyme sprigs until it gets colour. Cook in 100⁰ C until it reaches 57⁰. Let it rest 5 min before serving.

Fig sauce. Braise an onion and a garlic clove in butter and sugar. Add the fig vinegar and stock. Let it simmer til you have reduced it with 50%. If it is to thin add some butter and even some thickening. Finish it off with salt and pepper.

Warm the cooked lentils in a pan with butter and thyme. Add chopped apple. Serve the lentils with the roasted quail and the fig vinegar sauce.

Music: Listened to the extraordinary album by Movits!

Finally the R-months are here!

It is said that you should only eat sea mussels when the month’s spelling contains the letter r. And now we have September!

Moules marinés

• 2 kg Sea mussels
• 2 Shallot
• fresh Thyme
• 3-4 dl White wine
• 1 dl Cream
• 1 Carrot, sliced
• 2 Celery stems, sliced
• Olive oil
• 1-2 Bay leaves
• Salt
• Pepper

Start by scrubbing the mussels and make sure to throw away the open ones. Heat up the olive oil in a pan and add the mussels, stir. Add the rest of the ingredients; veggies, spices, wine and cream.

Let the mussels boil/ steam until they are open. Serve the mussels in a large bowl and decorate with chopped parsley, lemon zest and grated garlic.

Home made deep-fried potatoes

• 4-5 Potatoes
• Deep-fry oil
• Salt

Cut the potatoes in pieces/ batons. Use a pot or a saucepan with a thick bottom, heat up the oil. To test if the oil is hot enough throw in a piece oaf white bread. The bread should be ready after approximately 1 minute in the oil.

Fry the potatoes twice. The first time for 2-3 minutes, let them cool off in between, and the second time until they are golden.Let them drain on a kitchen paper and add salt.

When deep-frying always keep a lid nearby in case the oil gets to warm and if you have one, a fire blanket. In case of an accident do not use water!

Chili Mayonnaise

• 3 Egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon Mustard
• 1 teaspoon Vinegar
• 2-3 dl Rape oil
• 1 teaspoon Sambal Olek
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Lemon juice

Make sure that all the ingredients have the same temperature before you start. Blend egg yolks with mustard and vinegar. Use an electric mixer and very carefully add the rape oil in a fine jet.  When you feel you have a good consistency add Sambal olek, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Blend and taste it.

Music: The swedish band Movits with their song Äppelknyckarjazz

Korean beef with udon nudles

It is getting colder and colder outside and the need for something warm to eat increases. Why not add spicy as well…

• 400 g fresh Udon nudles
• 600 g Beef
• 1 large Choi cabbage
• 4 Spring onions
• 1 Red Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Lime fruit
• fresh Coriander

Broth

• 1 l Chicken broth
• 2 Chili fruits
• 2 Lemon grass
• fresh Ginger
• 1-2 Garlic cloves
• 2-3 Kaffir lime leaves
• 33 cl Japanese beer

Start with the broth. Boil water with chicken broth and beer, add pieces of chilifruit, lemon grass, ginger, garlic and kaffir lime leaves. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Strain away the spices. Cut and shred the vegetables.

Fry the meat shortly in oil so that it gets a nice colour. Cook the udon nudles according to the manufacturer.

Put the udon nudles in 4 bowls, pour the reheated broth over them and crack an egg in each bowl. Add the vegetables, slice the meat in thin slices and put them on top. Decorate with coriander, chopped cashew nuts and lime.

Serve together with Kimchi salad.

If you want a vegetarian dish simply exchange the beef for tofu and the chicken broth with vegetable broth.

Music: An old classic with Spice Girls – Spice up your world

Tafelspitz with seasonal veggies

Tafelspitz

• 1 kg Tafelspitz (beef from ox) or roast beef
• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 1 clove Celeriac
• 1 Leek
• 8-10 Parsley stalks
• fresh Thyme
• 2 Bay leaves
• 8-10 White peppercorns
• Salt

Cover the meat with water in a saucepan. Bring it to boil for a few minutes. Take the meat out and rinse it with water. Put the meat back in the saucepan with new water, make it boil again.

In the meantime prepare the vegetables and spices. Cut the onion, the leek, the celeriac and the carrot in smaller pieces. Add it all into the water and simmer together with the meat for 1,5 – 2 hours.

After 2 hours take out the meat and let it cool, strain the stock and save it for another time. Put the meat back in the saucepan and put a weight on it, for example a mortar. Leave it for a couple of hours.

Sauce

• 2 hardboiled Eggs
• 1 Red onion
• 2 tbsp Capers
• 1 dl Parsley
• 1 small Pickled gherkin
• 2 tbsp Horse radish

We served our Tafelspitz with potatoes, carrots, leek and radishes that we boiled in the stock.

Music: Salem al Fakir’s singel – Keep on Walking

Fishing for compliments?

Many friends of mine do not understand the greatness of cod. The reason is that we Swedes have grown up with over cooked cod served for lunch in school. If you can get hold of a thick cod loin I promise you, you’ll change your mind about this culinary treasure.

This is an easy recipe that will get you many compliments – Cod fillets with lemon flavoured vegetables and foam from heads of dill.

• 600 g thick fillet of Cod
• 5 decilitre water
• 30 g Salt
• 6 Carrots
• 6 Parsnips
• 2 Spring onions
• 1 Lemon, the juice
• 4 tbsp double Cream
• 3 heads of Dill
• 4 decilitre Milk
• 2 Tomatoes
• Chives

Cod

Make four pieces out of the cod and put it in salted water for 15 min. Wipe the cod dry with a piece of kitchen paper, put the pieces on oven paper and bake it in the oven at 100⁰C until the fish temperature reaches 45⁰C. It takes about 10-15 min depending on the thickness of the fish.

Vegetables

Slice the parsnips and carrots in to roundels (3 mm thick). Braise the vegetables in lemon juice, a pinch of salt and sugar, water (just enough to cover the veggies) and the cream. When the veggies are al dente, add chopped spring onions and pour out the fluid. Use a strain, that is the easiest way.

Foam

Pour the milk, heads of dill, salt and pepper in a saucepan, heat it until it simmer. Take the saucepan off the stove and mix the fluid to a foam with a hand blender.

Garnish

Peel the tomatoes, remove the core and cut the tomato flesh into small pieces. Mix it with chopped chives and a pinch of salt.

Music: the cooking was accompanied by the great last album from Robyn – Body talk pt. 1

Vietnamese spring rolls

How to roll the spring rolls nicely, instruction video.

Unfortunately we failed a bit with ours, we have to give it another go now when we know how to do it. Note that we buy all our Asian ingredients in a local Asian store here in Berlin.

Anyhow we filled ours with;

• sliced cucumber
• sliced carrots
• sliced spring onions
• rice nudles
• shrimps
• sliced radish

I really recommend this dip sauce, it is very taste and you can decide for yourself how strong you prefer it.

• 1-3 tbs water
• juice from one lime
• 2-3 tbs fisch sauce
• 1-2 teaspons of sugar (honey works fine as well)
• 2 cloves of garlic (we prefer grated instead of squeezed)
• fresh chopped red chilifruit or Sambal Olek

Stir everything together or use a shaker. Done!

That was our dinner yesterday.