Green asparagus with air-dried ham, goat cheese mousse and wild garlic
: Gustav Trägårdh
: Starter
: 10
This starter was created by top Swedish chef Gustav Trägårdh. Gustav Trägårdh was nominated Swedish chef of the year in 2010 and is head chef at the legendary seafood restaurant Sjömagasinet in Gothenburg.
Ingredients
20 thick asparagus, peeled
20 slices air-dried ham
100g (3½ oz) wild garlic
Mousse:
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons honey mustard
2dl (1 cup) cream
50ml (¼ cup) milk
200g (7 oz) good goat cheese
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon gelespesa/xantana
Instructions
Mousse:
Warm up all ingredients for the mousse in a saucepan, and mix it completely smooth.
Cool and fill up the siphon.
Charge with two cartridges, shake! Serve at room temperature.
Presentation:
Cook the asparagus al dente in salted water.
Roast the wild garlic very quickly, in a splash of oil, in a saucepan. Season with salt and pepper.
Roll the air-dreid ham and siphon the mousse into the rolls.
Serve immediately with the asparagus cut in slices and the wild garlic on the side!
Fresh shrimps with a dill and wood sorrel flavored pesto
: Nadia Nygren, Grythytte akademi
: Appetizer
: 10
Ingredients
1 liter (2 pints) of fresh shrimps, peeled
Pesto:
15g (½ oz) parsley
15g (½ oz) dill
20g (¾ oz) wood sorrel
120g (4¼ oz) sunflower seeds, toasted
200g (7 oz) Västerbotten cheese or other ripe hard cheese, grated
canola oil
1 lemon, juice and zest
Instructions
Pesto:
Mix sunflower seeds with the herbs in a mixer. Add canola oil and mix to desired consistency. Mix in the grated cheese. Season to taste with lemon, salt and pepper.
Presentation:
Turn in the shrimps and serve on crisp bread. Garnish with wood sorrel.
Sourdough toast with bleak roe, red onion and sour cream
: Sofia Hortlund, Grythytte akademi
: Starter
: 2 loaves of bread
Ingredients
Blanching:
1 potato (about 100g/3½oz)
1 bottle (33cl) beer of your choice
60g (2 oz) rye flour
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon fennel
9g (0,3 oz) of salt
Dough:
300g (10½ oz) wheat flour special
100-150 g (1 cup) cold water
5g (3 dr) yeast
Instructions
Blanching:
Peel and slice the potato.
Bring the beer to the boil in a saucepan and add the potato slices.
Let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potato slices are soft.
Remove saucepan from heat and add rye flour and spices.
Stir with a wooden fork and mash the potatoes at the same time. Let rest until cooled.
Dough:
Scrape down the blanching in a bowl and add flour, water and yeast.
Start with a little water and add until the dough has a nice fluffy, but not too firm, consistency. Let it rest for about 30 minutes.
After the rest:
Dip your hand in water and take some of the edge of the dough with one hand. Pull the dough slightly and fold it inward. Take a new edge, pull the dough and fold into the center again. Continue until you come full circle.
You make this move a total of three times with about 30 minutes apart.
When you stretch the dough for the third and last time you let it rise for about 2 hours. Now the bread is baked in two steps.
The first step:
Let the dough rest on work surface for about 20 minutes.
Turn the dough so that the flat side is down. Fold the upper side against the middle and press lightly. Fold the bottom side toward the center and press. Then fold one last time, top to bottom so that it takes the form of a loaf.
Let dough rise for about 1 hour, preferably in a towel with a little support at the sides.
The second step:
Preheat the oven to 275°C/525°F. Lower the temperature to 250°C/480°F.
In with the bread, and throw in some ice cubes at the same time.
After 15 minutes you can open the door and let out steam. If the bread now has much color, the temperature can be decreased to 200°C/400°F, otherwise you can just continue baking.
After approximately 30 minutes, the bread is ready. Remove and let cool on a rack for 30 minutes before cutting into it.
Serve:
Butter toast the sourdough bread.
Serve with the classic ingredients such as finely chopped red onion, hung sour cream and roe (preferably from Kalix). Arrange as shown.
…is a British writer and editor who moved to Sweden in 2001. A former chef turned food and travel writer, he loves everything about food, but particularly the raw ingredients themselves. When not cooking, eating or thinking about food, he can often be found hanging around in butchers shops, fishmongers and grocery stores; a hobby he can pursue for hours on end. He hopes that writing this blog will take up so much time that it halves his food shopping bills.