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Monthly archives: May 2012

Pate, cigarettes and home-brewed beer: a modern version of my father’s legacy

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I have a vague childhood memory: way back when stuffed peppers were the height of culinary fashion, my father used to make a lot of pate. It was classic, 1970s pate: either, shaped like a loaf, and wrapped in bacon, or in a round, earthenware pot with a bay leaf on top, buried under a layer of jelly. In my pre-adolescent world, where I did everything on one speed (fast), it seemed to take an age to make. Especially the part when it had to sit under metal weights in the fridge for two days (two years, it felt like). But it was sure worth it; we loved that pate. Read more » >>

Rob Hincks - Food

May 31, 2012

Elderflower cordial

3 comments

 

Photo by: Dahlstroms (CC BY ND)

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Elderflower cordial
: 
: Drink
 

Ingredients
  • 40-50 umbels of elder
  • 3 lemons, sliced
  • 2 liters (2,2 qt) of water
  • 2,4 liters (2,5 qt) of granulated sugar (2kg/4½ lbs)
  • 30g (1 oz) citric acid
  • 2 pinches of sodium benzoate

Instructions
  1. Add elderberry flowers in a stainless steel bowl, alternating with the sliced lemons.
  2. Boil water and sugar so the sugar melts.
  3. Remove from the heat and stir in the citric acid.
  4. Dissolve the sodium benzoate in a bit of the syrup and then mix with the rest of the liquid.
  5. Pour the hot syrup over the elderberry flowers and cover.
  6. Store the lemonade for three days in a cool place. Stir a few times per day.
  7. Pour the lemonade through a filter cloth and let the lemonade drain into a large bowl.
  8. Pour the lemonade in clean bottles and fill up. Turn the screw cap and store the bottles in a cool, dark place.

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Swedish recipes

May 29, 2012

Sunday, Bloody Sunday: a crisis that never was

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Yesterday was Sunday; nothing unusual with that. I spent five hours in the office; there’s something very wrong with that. When I came home I watered my vegetables (my peas are up, by the way), as I do every day these days. Then something happened. I had what amounts to a mini mid-life crisis. Read more » >>

Rob Hincks - Food

May 28, 2012

Strawberry cake

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Photo: Jakob Fridholm/imagebank.sweden.se

 

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Strawberry cake
: 
: Pastry
: 1 cake
 

Ingredients
Sponge cake base:
  • 2 eggs
  • 2dl (1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 50g (1¾ oz) butter
  • 3dl (1½ cup) flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1dl (½ cup) milk 3%
  • 1 lemon, the zest
  • butter and 0,5dl (¼ cup) bread crumbs to the pan
Filling:
  • 2 liters (8½ cups) fresh strawberries
  • 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
Vanilla cream:
  • 5dl (2¼ cups) milk
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 1,5dl (¾ cup) granulated sugar
  • 7 egg yolks
  • 1,5dl (¾ cup) cornstarch
  • 50g (1¾ oz) butter, room temperature
Decoration:
  • whipped cream
  • strawberries

Instructions
Sponge cake base:
  1. Beat eggs and sugar white and fluffy.
  2. Melt the butter and stir into the egg mixture.
  3. Grate the lemon zest.
  4. Mix flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and carefully mix it into the batter, stir in the milk and finally the grated lemon zest.
  5. Grease a 20 centimeter diameter large spingform pan with melted butter and bread it with bread crumbs.
  6. Fill the batter into the pan.
  7. Bake on a lower oven rack at 175°C/350°F for 25-35 minutes.
  8. When completely cold, divide the cake horizontally into three layers.
Vanilla cream:
  1. Split vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
  2. Add both the pod and seeds in a pot along with the milk.
  3. Bring to the boil.
  4. Beat granulated sugar, egg yolks and cornstarch airy.
  5. Turn over the hot milk while whipping.
  6. Pour mixture into pan and heat gently while whipping.
  7. Do not let it boil!! As soon as mixture begins to thicken, pour quickly into a cold bowl.
  8. Add the butter, let it melt while stirring.
  9. Cool cream.
Strawberry filling:
  1. Run strawberries with the granulated sugar in a food processer.
Decoration:
  1. Spread the strawberry filling over the first layer and the vanilla cream over the second layer, ending with a plain top layer.
  2. Cover the entire cake with wipped cream.
  3. Garnish with strawberries.

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Swedish recipes

May 26, 2012

Tired, Running on Empty, but Full of Ideas: Wednesday dinner just like in the movies

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It’s a working week; a long working week, as it happens. There have been many meetings for Pia and many deadlines for me. On average, we have been coming home around seven in the evening so far (bear in mind that’s like midnight by Swedish standards). But, that’s how it goes sometimes. And sometimes (all too often, it seems) the fridge is empty on a working week night. Read more » >>

Rob Hincks - Food

May 23, 2012