the last supper

Hehe, not the Biblical one, though. This is the last supper before I´m off tomorrow veeery early in the morning. I hate getting up too early, like 2 or 3 a m , it´s actually killing me.

Anyway, couldn´t be bothered to make anything fancy, so I cooked Nigella´s Crispy pork chops with baby spinach and garlic tomato salad. Yummy!! I made an extra batch so that I could have some tomorrow, because I´m not on the island before 4 pm, and as we all know, there are many things that are better than airplane food...

OK, kitchen closed! I´m off to Greece.

lost my mojo

The 6th of June is Sweden´s National Day that I´ve spent with a very good friend. We were just talking and eating the whole day, I have even taken a few pics.

She arrived for breakfast so we started with a zucchini frittata, inspired by Claryssa Hyman´s Cucina Siciliana. No way that I would serve it like this usually, I was just fooling around with the tomatoes :)

And that was about it. The rest of the pics were blurred. Arrrgh! Of course, there wasn´t anything special , my dear friend being a vegetarian we had mostly simple dishes, but there was a very nice potato salad with coconut milk (I looove coconut milk) amongst others.

Thai Potato Salad
serves 2

300g potatoes

1 red capsicum, chopped

1 scallion, sliced

1/4 frisée salad, torn

Dressing:

50-60ml coconut milk

1 smallish clove of garlic

1/2 lime juice and zest

salt

Cook the potatoes, let cool slightly and cut in thick slices. Mix with the trimmed and chopped vegetables and dress while luke warm.

If you like, you can serve it with hardboiled eggs and bread. For a non-vegetarian alternative, serve with grilled chicken breast and bread.

These might have been the reason why my hands were a bit unsteady :) I don´t need much, I´m not used to drinking so after a glass I was all bubbly myself.

I can´t really call this a drink, as they weren´t any particular ingredients just fresh, mixed strawberries with a sweet, sparkling wine (Asti). Yummy!!

Today I was going Greek. It was unusually warm and I´m never hungry in hot weather. I pulled out Falling Cloudberries and throw together the Chickpea salad with coriander.

For dessert I chose the Mahalepi with milk, rice flour and rose water served with rose water syrup. Quite sweet, but nice and creamy.

my weekend - in food

It´s nice to be back but I´ve had such a nice weekend! Friday night after my last patient I headed to Halmstad with a can of Coke (I reeeeally needed it!) and a turkey bagel as only company. As it turned out, it wasn´t that bad, in fact I loved the combination of cream cheese, turkey, roast paprika and fresh herbs. I´ve never thought of roast paprika on a sandwich before (OK, don´t kill me :)) but this is something I am going to cultivate frequently in the future.

My mother was waiting for me with stuffed paprika, which I guess is a legacy after a 250 years long Turkish occupation. I´ve never made this dish myself but I usually "order it" when I come down to visit her. I haven´t had time to compare this dish to the Turkish or Greek ones, so I don´t know how close or far away from those it is. The Hungarian version is made on Hungarian white paprikas (of course!) and is stuffed with minced pork, rice, salt, pepper and onions caramelized in lard. The filled paprikas are cooked in salted water and when almost done transferred into a tomato sauce. The latter is made of tomato paste and juice, paprika, celery leaves, carrots, salt, pepper.

Later that evening I visited some old friends and there I had some Swedish cinnamon buns and Hungarian kifli. Well, not only the paprikas, but I was getting really stuffed as well.

Next morning my mother had another "surprise" for me, the Hungarian version of Baba Ganoush. The Turkish legacy, again... of course with Hungarian seasoning. We use salt, pepper, finely chopped red onions, vinegar or lemon juice and touch of sugar. I must admit, probably because I grew up with this, I still prefer this version and I am still not able to season it as my mother does...Her "Baba Ganoush" has got a smoky flavour without being bitter, and mine is either too salty, too sour or just blend. It´s no big deal, I know, but I just can´t get it right.

After the breakfast we went to see the festivities. Lot of people all over the place, of course, lots of activities and entertainment but no food!! The only food-related things I found were the Bosnian stand, where they were offering coffee made of freshly roasted coffee beans. Unfortunately I don´t drink coffee, so I couldn´t try it but this was the first time I saw coffee being roasted this way.

Medieval music, medieval clothes, music and artillery were the theme in and around the castle. We have listened to an ensemble called Mare Balticum, which specializes in different types of music from before 1700, primarily from the countries around the Baltic Sea – the Mare Balticum. Wonderful music, I was standing there with tears in my eyes, as usual, and feeling embarrassed about it, as usual.

We took a break and had a hideous ice cream that tasted all artificial. After walking 4 hours in the city, we just had enough and sat down in the park to have a rest. If I´ve known there will be this scanty food, I would have brought something for a picnic...

Greetings from Halmstad and three women:) The lavenders are in full bloom, the sculpture is a 14m/45ft-high piece in reinforced concrete, "Woman's Head" (1971), created by a Norwegian sculptor on the model of a figure by Picasso; my mom is catching her breath (hmm, or waiting for me to do that...) and that´s me. No, I´m not drunk, believe me, I´m just shy :)

Next day we took a long walk in the forest and gathered some elderflower. Our Bev on n.com posted some info and recipes with elderflower and I wanted to try the fritters, having heard of them but never tried before. Usually I´m too greedy to use up the flowers just like that, and I always want to make cordial in a try to bottle up some summer. These were and interesting but nothing that I would become addicted to :D

Elderflower Fritters served with a dollop yoghurt and honey

Elderflower Fritters

50g plain flour 50g cornflour pinch of Salt 50g Butter, melted 150ml water groundnut oil, for deep-frying 1 egg white 12 heads of elderflower, with the main stalk part cut off caster sugar, for sprinkling icing sugar, for sprinkling

Make the batter for the elderflower fritters a couple of hours before you wish to serve them. In a mixing bowl, sift together the plain flour, cornflour and a pinch of salt. Stir in the melted butter. Gradually whisk in the water forming a smooth, creamy batter then set aside for 2 hours. Heat the groundnut oil for deep-frying in a wok or deep fat fryer. Meanwhile, whisk the egg-white until stiff peaks form and fold into the batter. Dip the elderflower heads into the batter then fry in batches in the hot oil, frying for about 1 minute until golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Mom had other things waiting for me. She baked Hungarian kalács (Hungarian sweet bread). I always get nostalgic when having these and I must have it with milk and "coffee" made of roasted chicory root.

Then she made greaves. I would never make that at home but I love it! It´s great with bread and raw red onions. Very simple and very székely.

My Sunday didn´t turn out quite as I thought as I got two unexpected patients, a friend of my mothers and my friends daughter. I didn´t charge any of them and already the next day I experienced "one hand washes the other" being a very true saying... Just before heading home on Monday, I discovered that my windshield whipers were out of function. First patients husband is a mechanic, so... I was on my way home withing an hour :)

Home sweet home...