Cream&Crumb

I absolutely love your blog! I've had a fascination with Scandinavian culture for several years and spent a semester abroad in Oslo last fall. I look forward to more in the future! Also, are there any other Scandinavian food blogs or websites you favor in particular?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:54:39 -0400

Oh my, thank you! I’m so pleased you like it. Cool that you spent a semester in Oslo, it’s a great city. I don’t know that many Scandinavian food blogs other than Scandilicious, which is just great and she’s got two really nice books out. The Nordic Bakery book is also a really good one, they have a couple of cafes in London, which serve traditional Finnish and Scandinavian pastries and their book has all the recipes! Good luck and keep it Scandi x

White Sourdough with a Rye Starter

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:26:00 -0400

Here it is, the first successful sourdough of my baking career. I vaguely followed a recipe from exceptional breads, written by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington for Baker & Spice, a fantastic bakery that happens to have a shop down the road from me in Maida Vale. The method follows that of a traditional San Francisco starter, which uses yoghurt, apple juice and raisins to help the starter ferment, and means it can be used after only a couple of days, rather than the usual week or so it takes just flour and water to get the right amount of stink to it, however I used the simple rye and water starter I had, giving it an overnight ferment.

I think my starter may have a slightly higher water to flour ratio than is needed as the dough turned out rather too sticky to handle, and not having an electronic mixer, this was problematic when it came to kneading. I decided to leave it be, as I know that a watery dough can produce nice big bubbles in the bread, and used a loaf tin instead of shaping it into a baton, to stop it from spreading too much.

Although it’s not as rustic as a lumpy baton would be, it’s gorgeously light and extremely sour. I’m thinking of ways to incorporate it into as many dinners as possible. Mushrooms… panzanella… I will dream of it tonight I am sure.

Edit: Genius idea from Sam Clark at Moro, if you’re baking a sourdough in a loaf tin, as I did, you should take it out of the tin once it’s taken shape so that the sides and bottom can properly crisp up. Thank you!

Clementine, watercress & goat's cheese salad.

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:03:53 -0400

There is a whole galaxy of flavour in this salad: peppery watercress, salty capers, sweet strawberries, zesty clementines and soft, sharp goat’s cheese. Bundle them together and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Perfect for a non-existent summer.

Radio Silence.

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:01:44 -0400

Apologies for the lack of posts, followers, I have now moved back to London and it’s been a rather long process so you must forgive me!

I’m sad to have moved away from Gothenburg, but it’s very nice to be home. It leaves me with a slight conundrum about what to do with this blog, as I won’t have such a steady access to the inspiration and ingredients that came with living in Sweden.

I have decided to broaden my boundaries somewhat, which will allow me to post recipes influenced by London’s many food cultures, but they will remain Nordic in ethos and style. Perhaps this will be a good combination.

Monstrous.

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:54:35 -0400

Monstrous.

Pan-fried Mackerel with Rhubarb, Fennel and Pea-shoots.

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:50:18 -0400

I love rhubarb! This is a super seasonal dish with the first of the Swedish spring rhubarb and perky locally grown pea-shoots. Mackerel is extremely healthy and robust, not as easy to destroy in a pan than other delicate, white fish and will take a bit of bashing around. It goes really well with other big zesty flavours such as the tartness of rhubarb, which is mellowed by roasting.

Recipe (serves one):

1 fillet fresh mackerel
1 stick rubarb
half a fennel bulb
handful of pea-shoots
lemon zest and juice.
brown sugar

Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the fennel and rhubarb in an oven dish, toss the fennel in some oil and sprinkle a little brown sugar and lemon zest over the rhubarb. Pour a little water over the rhubarb. Roast for 15 minutes. Meanwhile heat a little oil in a pan, turn the mackerel in a little seasoned flour and fry for a couple of minutes, skin side down. When it starts to go opaque around the edges, turn and fry for another 2 or 3 minutes. Squeeze a little lemon juice over it and serve with the rhubarb, fennel and pea-shoots.

Wholemeal spelt bread. Popular in this part of the world and a...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:06:00 -0400

Wholemeal spelt bread. Popular in this part of the world and a very ancient grain used widely in Bronze-Age baking! It makes an interesting loaf, quite heavy but very nutty tasting. Great with salty butter (as if anything isn’t…)

I used a recipe I found on the packet of Kungsörnen flour I used which scalds part of the flour in boiling water for 10 minutes before adding yeast and more cold water. The purpose of this seems rather complicated and chemistry-based, a discussion with Dan Lepard about it can be viewed here.

A lament on Swedish bread.

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:30:00 -0400

A few weeks ago I may have posted about the joys of Swedish bread culture, and I still uphold the pleasing values of home-made bread and sourdough starters, however I do have a bee in my bonnet about something.

A spectre is haunting Sweden — the spectre of sugary bread. I have never bought the same loaf of bread twice here in Sweden, apart from the expensive and therefore rare treat of a home baked poppy seed loaf from my local bakery. That’s because they all have the same oddly sweet taste that doesn’t sit well with ham or cheese or whatever standard stuff you shove on a piece of bread. I’ve been trying to find that gorgeous dark seeded stuff you get in Norway, and though dark Finnish or Danish rye bread is nice and easy to find, it gets depressing after a while. Yesterday I bought a nice, artisanial-looking loaf from a supermarket after spending about ten minutes trying to find something that didn’t have sugar in it, only to take it home and find this horrendous list of ingredients, sugar being the third highest in quantity. Naff.

Poached salmon with sugared cucumber, black beans and radishes.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:10:20 -0400

Too simple to require a recipe, simply poach the salmon for about 5 minutes in salted water and serve alongside cooked black beans with sliced radishes and cucumber that has been marinated in lemon juice and sugar to taste. Sprinkle with parsley and salt & pepper.

Pickled Herring with Sea Buckthorn.

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:11:00 -0400

Sea buckthorn is a bright orange berry that grows all over Europe and Asia and is often used in health foods due to its ridiculous vitamin content. They’re very acidic and difficult to eat on their own, unsweetened but have a very interesting flavour that reminds me of Soleros, and whatever it is they put in those.

Pickling herring is very easy, takes about five minutes and only has to be left for a couple of days in the fridge before it’s ready. Saying that, according to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall it is tastiest eaten five to ten days after jarring.

I’m not sure how much herring I used in terms of weight, but it was enough to fill a regular sized jam jar with room for a quarter of a red onion, some sea buckthorn berries, 1 DL of water, about 1/3 DL white wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar. To this add 2 bay leaves, a few peppercorns, cloves and half a cinnamon stick or some allspice berries if you have them. It’s not a very exact science and you can add or take away any flavourings you wish. If you can’t source any sea buckthorn, reducurrants will give a similar tart flavour and are also a traditional ingredient in Swedish inlagd sill.

My favourite way to eat pickled herring is with buttered boiled potatoes and a salad made from leek, green apple, soured cream, black pepper and lemon zest.

Juniper burgers with Blackberry salsa.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:36:00 -0400

I’m extremely proud of these! They’re sort of inspired by my trip to Finland, where at your local fast-food joint you can get burgers shoved between two slices of Finnish rye bread. These beauties are really dark and mysterious, with the distinctive taste of juniper and a little venison bouillon to make them extra tasty. I tried very hard to find some typical Finnish food during my visit and as I failed, I tried to imagine a recipe inspired by the art and landscape of the country. That may sound a little pretentious but can’t you just imagine the Moomins eating a blackberry salad?

Recipe(serves 2)

For the burgers:

250g beef mince
6 juniper berries
1 teaspoon of venison ‘extract’ (not sure if this can be found outside of Sweden and is a bonus but by no means necessary)
Salt & Pepper

Blackberry salsa:

100g fresh or frozen blackberries
Balsamic vinegar
Fresh mint
Coarse sea salt

Crush and finely chop the juniper berries and add to the mince along with the venison extract. Season. Shape into patties and fry in a hot griddle pan for approx. 5 minutes on each side.

Slice the blackberries in half, drizzle with a bit of balsamic, scatter over some torn mint leaves and a pinch of sea salt.

Serve with something dark green and some strong mustard!

This combination of juniper and game flavours works really well in a Ragu for lasagne or spaghetti as well, try it out.

Cherry, Cardamom & White Chocolate cake.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:59:00 -0400

My Norwegian grandparents’ neighbour had a cherry tree in their garden and once (only once) they let me sit in it for a whole day and eat as many as I wanted. Naturally I ate so many I made myself sick. I have retained similar levels of self-control and if I ever buy a box of frozen cherries I tend to eat them all in one sitting, still frozen, grimacing through the pain in my teeth. This time I managed to put them to good use in a really tasty cake, inspired by the twin flavours of those fistfuls of scrumped cherries and the (probably imagined) smell my grandmother’s cardamom buns wafting through the window. I also put white chocolate in because, well why the hell not?

Recipe

180g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated orange zest
180g softened butter
160g caster sugar
3 eggs
120g cherries, quartered.
75g white chocolate, chopped into small pieces.

Line a 23cm diameter cake tin with baking parchment and heat the oven to 180 degrees. Sift the flour, spices and baking powder into a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then beat the eggs in one at a time. Gently fold in the flour and add half a cup of water to make a slightly runny, smooth batter. Add the cherries and white chocolate, leaving behind a handful of each to sprinkle on the top. Don’t be alarmed if it turns a horrible grey colour, it will be transformed when it gets in the oven! Spoon into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Bakers gonna bake.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:59:00 -0400

I’ve finally got down to making my first sourdough - it really needed a whole day for rising and TLC. I used Dan Lepard’s nice simple recipe on the Guardian and I’m very pleased with the result! It looks absolutely gorgeous. Could probably have let it rise for longer - I recommend that when you think it’s risen enough, leave it even longer! This means hours and hours. The taste is fantastic, however and I think the older it gets the yummier it’ll be. Sadly I used up all of my starter… Will need to buy a bigger jar!

Just returned from a few days in Helsinki - definitely some...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:51:52 -0400

Just returned from a few days in Helsinki - definitely some recipes to follow! Tinned bear not included.

On Whaling.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:49:00 -0400

It’s hard to find neutral information about whaling, it being a particularly emotive subject amongst environmentalists and an activity fiercely defended by countries in which it is still practised. I am going to write only about whaling in Norway. The situation in Japan, with their lethal samples for scientific research, itself often an attempt to veil commercial hunting expeditions, and unregulated and off-the-record pirate whaling ships, is easier to straight away put into the ‘bad whaling’ category.

I’ve always been very confused about what to think about whaling. My grandparents lived in Sandefjord, in Norway, a town which in the 19th and early 20th centuries was in important whaling port and home to many whalers, a heritage which is proudly remembered throughout the town with statues, and a whaling museum. There is a very popular restaurant in the harbour which serves whale steaks, which, I have to say, I have tried and are very good. The Norwegian government claims their hunting is based on scientific evidence concerning the sustainability of the Minke whale population and that in terms of impact on the species itself (Minke whales are the only species that are hunted in Norway), it is in no danger of becoming threatened. Yearly quotas and the number of whales killed fluctuates, in 2008 the quota was 885 but only 484 were killed, in 2003 the quota was 711 and 646 were killed (source).

My objections to the anti-whaling arguments heretofore have been based on a wariness of humans’ emotional attachment to whales based on their intelligence. The discrepancy in the way we apply this kind of hierarchy means that while we’re happy to put dogs in our handbags and beds, we allow vast numbers of pigs, which have a similar level of intelligence and sociability, to be treated in a way that causes the animals considerable stress and pain.

It is difficult to measure the amount of pain experienced in the slaughter of an animal. Harpoon technology is obviously now more advanced than the simple spears used by Norwegian fishermen in the 19th century. Harpoons are now equipped with explosives that detonate inside the whale’s body, which sounds exceptionally barbaric but is the result of extensive research into the most humane methods of dispatch. Sources claim that most whales die within two minutes of being hauled onboard, but when dealing with such a huge creature, in an unpredictable environment, there is, of course, a margin for error. In this article, it is claimed that volunteers for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society witnessed the traumatic and slow death of a whale that was inaccurately harpooned and took 25 minutes to die, thrashing around and emitting ‘screams’.

The question is how many of these botched deaths occur, a factor which is much harder to regulate and document than the number of whales brought to shore. As long as there is any question over the effectiveness of the methods used to kill whales, and as long as there are harrowing reports such as the one above, I will choose not to eat whale, because no living creature should be under threat of that kind of experience.

Oops.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:09:00 -0500

Warning - If your sourdough starter has done this…

It will probably also do this.

This morning I sniffed my sourdough starter (second attempt - the first was colonised by some nasty...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 04:57:31 -0500

This morning I sniffed my sourdough starter (second attempt - the first was colonised by some nasty mould) and the force of it was like having someone jab a poker up my nose. Perhaps it’s time to put it in the fridge.

Making lefse.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:53:00 -0500

Norwegians like to go for walks, they like drinking coffee and they like consuming carbohydrates. None of these things are an obstacle to the other, and as long as it can be poured into a thermos or wrapped in foil and greaseproof paper, it can be taken for a brisk country excursion. Lefse, by merit of being conveniently portable, squishable and freezable, often accompanied these walks and I have been conditioned to feel joy at the sight of any triangle-shaped, flat foil packages which may contain these silky, floury and buttery pancakes, lined generously with sugar and cinnamon. With equal regularity they appear on the coffee table in the afternoon to replenish everyone’s blood-sugar and family gossip levels. I believe other people fill them with various things, but I have only ever eaten them spread with salty butter and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and folded in half, and that is what I shall continue to do until the end of time. Some things, like eating pancakes with blueberry jam and lemon, are instilled in me since early childhood and should not be messed with.

This is my first attempt and despite having absolutely no idea how much potato I was using and therefore having a severe cream-overload, they’ve turned out pretty nicely. I think as long as you end up with the right balance of dry and wet ingredients, they’re probably hard to ruin. I used this recipe from one of those scary American ‘I bake perfect muffins with the help of God’ blogs, but I was seduced by the claim that it was the Best Lefse Recipe Ever.

Copenhagen and Herring.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:05:15 -0500

Yesterday I undertook the 7 hour return train journey to Copenhagen from Gothenburg. My father was there for work and promised me lunch and an opportunity to pick up my laptop, in exchange for an enormous brick of Norwegian goat’s cheese for my mother. Each time I go to a Nordic capital city I fall in love with it and decide it is a place I need to live. This is a regularly refreshed cycle.

Arriving at the address I was provided with, my father met me on the doorstep of a tall, central Copenhagen townhouse where one of his oldest friends, Gunner lives. This beautiful flat was, to my delight, where we were to have lunch and laid out in front of us was a cornucopia of herring. I thought the Swedes enjoyed it, but it seems for the Danes to be eaten with a kind of religious fervour. We ate Bornholm smoked herring on rye bread, served with two raw egg yolks in an egg cup, to be poured on top, along with herring cured with some kind of piquant red paste, ordinary pickled herring with chives and onion, all on that heavenly Danish rye bread so dense you could use it as a weapon. For want of a photograph I have kindly provided you all with a drawing from memory of a selection of these beauties. Incredibly accurate, as you can see.

This is the kind of food culture that I need to import back to England when I return home. I am just going to have to pickle my own herrings.

Lingon Medisterkaker.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:36:00 -0500

These are another Christmas food that are too good to deny oneself, especially when the Gothenburg weather, having tantalised us with a couple of gorgeous spring days, has decided to resort to its default status: feeble snowstorm.

Medisterkaker are a Norwegian meatball that I think totally stomp on the oddly spongey Swedish style ones. I would probably lance anyone who gets in my way of a plateful of those at IKEA, but I think the intense hunger one feels after a circuit of the shop coupled with a kind of cultish tradition veils one’s normally discerning palate.

This is a recipe of my mother’s which I have decided to alter somewhat by packing them full of Lingon (those cranberry like things from my previous post. The meatballs themselves are quite heavy with spice and the sharpness of the berries adds a nice contrast to this, and provide an alternative to serving them with cranberry sauce, although by all means don’t deny yourself this if you don’t want to!

Recipe makes around 17

500g pork and beef mince
1 tsp salt
2.5 tbsp potato flour
1.5 tsp black pepper
1.4 tsp ground nutmeg
1.4 tsp ground ginger
2.5 DL milk
75g lingonberries or cranberries

Heat oven to 200 degees. Add the salt to the mince and work it in. Then add the milk gradually, working it in with your hands. Add the flour and spices then the berries carefully folding them in and mix with your hands until sticky but firm enough to form into small patties. Heat some oil in a pan and add the meatballs a few at a time. Make sure not to move them around too much in case they fall apart, just nudge them occasionally to make sure they aren’t sticking. Once browned all over transfer to an oven-proof dish and bake for around 10 minutes or until completely cooked through.