(Asian) Fish soup

For my birthday this year, Mrs. Throat-Erator gave me dried curry and kaffir lime leaves - and then things got a little hectic, so I didn't have a lot of time to think about ways to use them for a couple of months...

But I thought they might add a nice touch to a fish soup - more specifically, I was thinking of some of the nice Asian fish soups I've tried, which I would like to emulate, so I tried it out.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 hot chillies, finely cut
- 2 fillets of pangasius, cut in chunks
- 2 fillets of tilapia, cut in chunks
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 leeks, cut in rings, white and green parts separated.
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) fish stock
- 0.5 g^[1] dried curry leaves
- 0.5 g^[2] dried kaffir lime leaves
- 250 g (¹/₂ lb) sunchokes, diced
- 3 tomatoes, diced coarsely
- 24 prawns

A little oil was heated in a large pot, and crushed garlic and finely cut chillies were sautéed for half a minute before adding chunks of fish.

After a couple of minutes, the diced onion and the white leek rings (white rings only) were added and after an additional couple of minutes, the fish stock and the dried leaves were added.

After adding diced sunchokes and large chunks of tomato, the pot was brought to a boil. The heat was reduced, the pot was covered and allowed to simmer for 10 minutes. The prawns and the green leek rings were added, and the pot was brought back to a boil and simmered for a final 5 minutes.

I was very happy with the result - the combination of of chillies, curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves resulted in exactly the fresh kind of taste I was going for, and although perhaps not traditional in Asian cuisine (although I admit I don't know) I thought the sunchokes added a really nice nuance to the flavour.

^[1] As much as you see in the picture..
^[2] ..more than you see in the picture!

Systembolaget - Part II / Swedish Beer - Part I

On my first trip to Systembolaget, I decided to start with the basics and got what I reckoned to be fairly standard, perhaps even classical, Swedish beers.

To be fair, I had only heard of Pripps Blue (a big Swedish brand - infamous amongst some Danes) and Spendrups Old Gold (because I'd seen it sold at Ikea in Switzerland). The rest was based on intuition.

But I like to think I wasn't far off the mark. Most of these were fairly similar pilsners.

Starting on the left, Three Towns (TT) was actually the biggest disappointment to me: very drinkable, but lacking in taste and character and ultimately - to my tast at least - boring. Perhaps a good place to start for those favoring cheap American beer.

Spendrups Old Gold on the other hand was the most extreme in the other direction - although perhaps not as extreme, the first beer it brought to mind was the German king of bitterness: Jever.

The rest of them are much more alike. I got a very favorable first impression of Wisby, bot not so much that I'm sure it really is significantly better than the others. Åbro Sigill is branded as an organic beer, but apart from that I couldn't tell any difference between that and Åbro Original.

If you look closely at the picture, you might notice that Anderssons says "starköl" on the label - although this translates as strong beer, this does not mean it is in a league of its own here (all beers pictured are 4.5-5.2% ABV). Rather it's a curious consequence of the 3.5% ABV limit for supermarket sales: all beers above this limit appear, by definition, to be "starköl" (which is ood to me, having grown up in Denmark where a standard pilsner is 4.6% ABV).

Minty beef wok

Last year when we had a lot of mint on the balcony we talked about trying this recipe from figs, lavender, and cheese. Before we got round to that we went away on vacation and effectively killed our herbs with negligence and then the summer was running out. As we have recently gotten started on growing mint again we decided it was about time we try the idea.

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 head broccoli (separated into smaller bouquets)
- 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) rice noodles
- oil
- 1 red onion (cut in thin boats)
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 red chilli, finely diced
- 200 g (~ ²/₅ lb) beef, thin strips
- fresh mint
- fresh basil

At first the sugar was dissolved in the soy, fish, and oyster sauce - this combined sauce was set aside for later use.

The broccoli bouquets were boiled in lightly salted water, then drained, and set aside. Likewise for the rice noodles.

A wok was placed on high heat, coated with a thin layer of oil and the onion was added - after stir frying for about a minute, the crushed garlic and the chilli was added. After an additional 30 seconds or so the strips of beef were added and stir fried till browned on all sides. Finally the combined sauce (see above) was added together with whole leaves of fresh mint and basil. I used more mint than basil - mainly because I had more mint, but I quite liked the result.

After a final 1-2 minutes the wok was removed from the heat and the minty beef was served on the noodles with broccoli on the side - and a beer.

New herbs

Having decided to make the most of our kitchen window sill during the period of long days we were considering ways to maximise our herb collection.

Mrs. Throat-Erator read up on the subject and learned that both basil, mint, and thyme should be able to sprout new roots if freshly cut stems are placed in a glass of water. We decided to try it out.

In the course of a couple of weeks all did as predicted, and they were planted in their own pots and are doing well several weeks later.

Garden cress

The new residence has east-bound windows and thus the herbs in the kitchen window sill can take full advantage of the 4 am sunrise we enjoy this time of year. Amongst other things we have been growing garden cress: A small tray was lined with cotton pads on top of which were placed seeds of garden cress. The cotton was watered daily and over the course of two weeks the seeds sprouted and grew to some 1-2 inches.


We generally use the cress for sandwiches, and a particularly classic combination is with boiled eggs on rye bread (and butter or a favourite substitute).

Bregott

Bregott (literally 'spread well' in Swedish) is very similar to a product which was introduced in Denmark when I was a child (the Danish one is called Kærgården which does not tell you anything about what the product is).

Bregott (like Kærgården) is a modern consumer product that maximises convenience and experience. You know the problem: butter is really hard straight out of the fridge and the altermnative products made from vegetable oils just do not taste the same. By mixing the two (as is done here) you get a material that is readily spreadable straight from the fridge and actually tastes good. I am not going to claim that it tastes exactly like butter, but it sure is a lot better than a product I tried in the US - let's call it I-can't-believe-it's-called-'I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter'...

Swedish 'Danish' rye bread

As regular readers here will now, I have been going on about whole grain dark rye bread repeatedly on this page.

For the first time in years, I am now living in a place where I can buy freshly baked rye bread (yes, so far I have been too lazy to try my own luck with it), which I've always considered a special treat.


Many things Swedish are much like things Danish... with a twist. So also for the rye bread which - despite being sold as 'Danish rye bread' - is actually a little sweeter than the original. The Swedes do like putting molasses in their breads. I have been buying one of these almost every week since moving to Sweden, and I am still enjoying them immensely.

Systembolaget - Part I

In the 19th century, having seen alcoholism as the scourge of mankind, the state of Sweden introduced to the world the concept of alcohol monopolies: the first was in Falun but other local monopolies soon followed. By 1955 all the local monopolies were united into a national alcohol monopoly: Systembolaget.

Systembolaget's monopoly isn't 100% - f.ex. rare wines and whiskies are sometimes sold at auctions, and supermarkets can sell anything with an alcohol content up to 3.5% ABV. I can't tell you why the limit was set at 3.5%, but I can tell you how I know the limit is at 3.5%: In supermarkets one sees all kinds of otherwise familiar beers (e.g. Carlsberg and Pilsner Urquel) that are suddenly only 3.5% ABV (or even less).

In times when the exchange rate was different many people in southern Sweden going to Denmark to buy alcoholic beverages, but currently the traffic is going in the opposite direction (as dictated by the current exchange rate). Supposedly Systembolaget used to be a very drab experience: more like going to the pharmacy and requesting specific items, but in recent years the stores have changed into much more customer friendly boutiques: one can walk the aisles and take a good look at everything. The goods are usually really well described and the staff is friendly.

Had I lived in Sweden 10 years ago I would have undoubtedly been frustrated with the lack of any cheap beers for mass consumption - but these days (being perhaps more mature) I appreciate the wide selection of quality products (and having moved on from student aid to something reminiscent of a real pay I can also much better abstract from the details of prices).

Hot dogs

No, there is nothing wrong with colours of your monitor: these sausages really are bright red.

I don't know why there's a tradition for bright red sausages in Denmark, but kids do seem to love them (I know I did). When I recently went to Denmark for a short trip one of my new Swedish colleagues - who is from Scania in south-western Sweden and therefore has been to Denmark several times - asked me to bring back some red sausages because he missed them so.^[1]

Since I was at it, nostalgia got the better of me and I decided to get a pack for myself and make some good old-fashioned hot dogs. I'm not sure what the colouring agent used is, but is has some water-solubility as the water I boiled them in was nicely red by the time they were done.

For the hot dogs I used ketchup, remoulade, roasted onions and cornichons - had I been in the mood for spending a little more time on it, I would have added finely diced raw onion and substituted the cornichons with home-made cucumber salad. Many next time

^[1] Since that I have discovered that a supermarket close to where I live actually does sell these, so hauling them back from Denmark seems silly...

Danish Beer - Part IV (Nørrebro Bryghus)

Over the past years, I've heard a number of good things about Nørrebro Bryghus in Copenhagen, but as it has only come into existence since I stopped living in Denmark (as a consequence of the relatively recent surge in micro-breweries in Denmark), it wasn't till recently that I had a chance to visit it myself.


When you enter you have the choice of going upstairs (restaurant) or downstairs (bar) - as I came mainly for beer I chose downstairs. I was happy to see that they have a good number of beers that they make themselves (I think 8), but from the way the menu was written I suspect there's isn't quite the same rotation of beers as certain other places I like (although clearly there was some rotation).

I went for a 4-beer sampler and had Ravnsborg Red (ale), Golden Spike (IPA), Globe Ale, and La Granja Stout. While I quite liked both of the first two, I didn't find the taste of the Globe Ale as interesting as the concept (an environmental impact conscious beer) .. and the stout was clearly a mistake on my part. If I had read the description more carefully, I would have surely noticed that it contains coffee - which I don't like. If you want a coffee stout, by all means, check it out. For snacking I had some beer-roasted almonds - which turned out to be hotter than the name suggested as they also contained chilli.


The night ended with Stuykman Wit and Vårsaison ('spring season') both of which were in the Belgian style. Would I return to this place? Yes, indeed I would.