Finnish Beer I / Bear Beer I

I first saw Kahru (Finnish for bear) in Arlanda airport (outside Stockholm), and the label appealed to the mood I was in.

It was also my first encounter of Finnish beer, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out it's a decent, strong lager.

Later I learned that Kahru tries to set itself apart from the competition on the home market by being sold in pint sized cans (rather than the half litre cans the other ones are sold in).

Kötbullar (Swedish Meatballs)

Kötbullar is Swedish for meat balls, and Swedish meat balls are quite similar to Danish meat balls, but there some subtle differences.

Ingredients:
- 2 dL (0.8 cup) grated bread
- 4 dL (1.6 cup) cream
- 2 large onions, finely diced
- oil
- 840 g (1.8 lbs) finely ground 70/30 beef/pork
- 2 eggs
- salt
- pepper

The bread was grated and soaked in the cream.

The onions were finely diced and fried in oil till translucent.

The cream-soaked bread crumbs (and the cream) was stirred into the ground meat. Then was added salt, pepper, the lightly fried onion and the eggs. The mixture was worked till homogeneous (hard to stir as it was rather thick, so using the hands was better). Then it was shaped into little balls and fried in a pan.

Served with boiled potatoes and cucumber salad.

These kötbullar were quite good - but not quite like the ones you get at Ikea. Now I wonder which is more traditional...

Cucumber salad

Cucumber salad is a side dish that's fairly simple, but is best prepared at least a few hours in advance. I guess maybe you can even buy it, but I never looked for it.

Ingredients:
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 dL (ca. 0.4 cup) water, boiled
- 1/2 dL (ca. 0.2 cup) sugar
- 1 dL (ca. 0.4 cup) white wine vinegar
- salt and pepper

First the water was boiled and the sugar was dissolved in the warm water.


While the sugar water was cooling, the cucumber was sliced thinly (conveniently done on the tool shown). Juice was allowed to drip from the cucumber slices while stirring vinegar, salt and pepper into the sugar water.

Finally, the cucumber slices were placed in the liquid, the bowl was covered and left in the fridge for a couple of hours (keeps good for at least a couple of days).

Danish Beer - Part V (Ærø)

On a trip to Copenhagen earlier this year, I picked up a selection of Ærø beers - that is: beers from Rise Brewery on the Danish island Ærø. For reasons that I can't very well explain I had high expectations - very high.

The stout was the most memorable of them - quite sweet, and very much to my liking. The pale ale and the dark ale didn't quite live up to my expectations (which, as stated, were very high), but the true shocker was the walnut bock - I found it anything but the harmonious that their homepage boasts. On the contrary, the taste had odd elements that would have been much more welcome if I was drinking a herbal bitter of some kind. Proceed with caution.

Quinoa Tricolore

I guess I didn't think about it before I moved, but if anyone had asked me if I expected to be able to buy quinoa in Sweden, I might have expressed doubts. As it turns I would have been wrong: not only can I get quinoa here, but unlike other places I have lived so far, both ordinary quinoa as well as red and black quinoa is readily available. Such an abundance begged me to mix them up and get a colourful result...

Ingredients:
- 4 red bell peppers
- 3 fillets of chicken breast
- oil
- salt & pepper
- smoked paprika
- fennel seeds
- the juice of 1 + 1 limes
- 9 dL (3.8 cups) mixed white, red, and black quinoa
- 1.8 L (7.6) water
- bunch of scallion

The bell peppers were rinsed and quartered, and the seeds were removed. The bell peppers were broiled until most of the skin was blackened. After removing them from the oven, they were allowed to cool before the skin was peeled of. The remaining pieces were chopped coarsely.

The chicken fillets were seasoned on both sides with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and fennel seeds before searing in a pan with a little oil. When they were nicely browned on both sides, they juice of 1 lime was poured over, the pan was covered and the heat was reduced to medium. Left like this while cooking the quinoa.

The water was salted and brought to a boil, then the quinoa was added, the pot covered and the heat reduced to low. They were deemed done when all the water was absorbed.

The scallions were rinsed and sliced thinly.

The finished chicken fillets were sliced.

Everything was mixed in a large bowl and added the juice of the last lime. Can be eaten at once, but is also delicious cold.

On this occasion it was served with freshly boiled cauliflower.

Systembolaget - Part III / Swedish Beer - Part II

After having noticed several beers available with different alcohol contents, I decided to see if I could taste the difference. For starters, I chose Mariestads - a typical Swedish lager - thinking that if anyone should know how to make decent low alcohol content beer, it should be the Swedes. At a local supermarket I picked up a few cans of the 3.5% ABV, and later - in Systembolaget - I picked up a few cans of the 'export' variety holding 5.2% ABV.


As you can see they appear very similar - but how do they taste?

When I first tasted the 3.5% version, I thought it wasn't so bad - but it paled by comparison to the 5.2% version once I tasted that. Yes, it true: you can taste the difference, and the higher alcohol content version simply tastes better - it's more flavourful, a more full-bodied, quite simply: a better beer...

Pizza dough

A certain kind of laziness has come to an end: in California, I always bought the pizza dough at Trader Joe's because it was good (and cheap too) and so never bothered to make the dough myself. This option was gone after leaving the US. In the stores in Switzerland, I could only get pizza doughs that weren't as good as those sold by Trader Joe's (and more expensive too) - but at least they were fairly convenient as they came pre-rolled and I didn't have to roll the dough.

Here in Sweden, I bought what looked to be a similar product exactly once - that dough was such a disappointment, that I decided to finally start making my own pizza dough. Thus, dug out my copy of Tyler Florence's Eat This Book and found his recipe. Below follows my description of how I converted the recipe to the use of fresh yeast (which I prefer, although here in Sweden one can buy both fresh and dry yeast).

Ingredients:
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) lukewarm water ^[1]
- 25 g (ca. 1 oz) fresh yeast
- 500 g (ca. 1 lb) flour
- 2 + 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp salt
- durum flour (for rolling)

UPDATE:
Scaling everything up by a factor of 2 is more convenient - that way I use one pack of fresh yeast and get dough for 4 pizzas.


The fresh yeast was crumbled in the lukewarm water and stirred before adding 2 tbsp olive oil, and then the flour in portions. The first half of the flour was simply stirred in using a spoon, then 1 tbsp salt was added and the rest of the flour was kneaded in by hand - when all the flour was added the dough was kneaded some more. The resulting dough should be smooth and elastic, and when pinched neither crumbly nor sticky. The ball of dough was transferred to another bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil, coated with the oil, covered with film and left standing in a warm place for about 1 hour to rise.

The dough rose to about the double volume (or perhaps a little more) and was parted in two equally large portions, which were rolled using durum flour and placed on baking paper on baking sheets. This portion made nicely for two 25 cm x 35 cm (10" x 14") pizzas. Today I topped them with tomato-garlic sauce, dried ham, artichoke hearts, fresh basil, and mozzarella. After some 15-20 minuted in the oven at 200 C (400 F) they were delicious - I'm never going back to other doughs after this...


^[1] made from 1 dL boiling water and 1.5 dL cold tap water