Bacon & Egg (Spelt) Pizza

Here's a concept that might be somewhat controversial: eggs on pizza. I know Some people don't approve - even I wouldn't want it all the time, but when I do want I think it's absolutely divine.
I made it this time on a spelt dough, but obviously that is optional.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen spelt pizza dough
- durum flour (for rolling)
- ~ 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) chunky tomato sauce with garlic
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 2 eggs
- dried oregano
served with a salad:
- mixed lettuce
- chickpeas


The rolled dough was topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella slices, onion rings and bacon pieces. It was baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F). This time I baked it for 15 minutes, before taking it out of the oven and cracking the two eggs on top of it and putting it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. This was perfect for cooking the egg-whites but leaving the yolks runny.^[1] After removing from the oven the second time, the pizza was sprinkled with dried oregano and served with a simple salad.


And how was it?? In the words of my muse: "Honey, this is the best pizza you've ever made!"

^[1] If you want firmer yolks, I'd try baking 10 minutes before the eggs, 10 minutes with the egg. If you leave the eggs on for the entire baking time they get too much.

Pickled Red Tomatoes 1

I decided to complete my (first) 'traffic light series' of pickled tomatoes with some red cherry tomatoes pickled with cinnamon - another experiment the outcome of which I am looking forward to learning.

Ingredients:
- 450 g (1 lb) red cherry tomatoes
- 220 g (8 oz) sugar
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) vinegar
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) water
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 2 + 2 tsp Atamon
for storing:
- 1-L (quart-sized) glass jar

In a pot the sugar, cinnamon, vinegar and water was brought to a boil before adding the rinsed tomatoes. The pot was brought back to boiling and the tomatoes were boiled for 3 minutes, causing the skin to come off of most of them.

Meanwhile the jar was prepared by filling it with boiling water, letting it stand for a few minutes to warm up the glass, then discarding the water. Immediately before filling 2 tsp Atamon was swirled around in the glass and then discarded.

The tomatoes were transferred to the jar using a slotted spoon.

The liquid in the pot was added 2 tsp Atamon and brought back to a boil before pouring it over the tomatoes in the jar and closing the jar tightly.

As can be seen the jar isn't all the full - I think I could have fit another 300 g of tomatoes in that jar (although maybe I should have reduced the volume of the liquid then).

I'm not sure how long these should stand before they're ready, but I guess I'll give them a couple of week for good measure.

Spelt Pizza Dough

Having discovered how easy it is to make pizza dough, I decided to start making variations. Following my previous recipe for 4 portions of pizza dough, and substituting about half of the ordinary flour with spelt flour gave a dough that was somewhat darker.

Ingredients:
- 5 dL (2 cups) lukewarm water
- 50 g (ca. 2 oz) fresh yeast
- 500-600 g (1.1-1.3 lbs) wheat flour
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) spelt flour
- 4+2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp salt

The yeast was crumbled into lukewarm water, which was then added 4 tbsp olive oil. The first 500 g of wheat flour was stirred in before adding the salt. The spelt flour was kneaded into the dough in portions - towards the end I added just a little more wheat flour to get the right texture. The dough was then kneaded for a couple of minutes more before adding 2 tbsp olive oil, covering and leaving in a warm place to rise for 1.5 hours.

The dough was parted in 4 portions - some was used immediately for a potato pizza and the others were frozen for later use. The final result is a bit different from the standard recipe, but still very good.

Bear Roast

Do you remember when I graduated? Although I took the time to celebrate this back then, there was something that bothered me - something that nagged. More specifically, what nagged was that although I did graduate the one big project that I'd worked on during my entire Ph.D. - the project which I'd estimate I spent some 60-80% of my time on, the project that took up the first 250 pages of my thesis - wasn't finished. It wasn't finished and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had to move on. I had to leave it to persons unknown to me, to a future unknown to me. Would it ever be finished? Would I ever see that work published in any other form than the highly limited edition that was my thesis?

Several months ago now, I heard rumours that it had in fact been finished, but it wasn't till recently that it was submitted to one of the more prestigious journals in my field - and a few weeks later it had been accepted for publication after peer-review. This past Friday it appeared on the web site of the journal in question. In a week or so it'll be two and a half years since I graduated, so this all comes with a sense of justification: if it took this long to finish the project, I couldn't have finished it by just staying 3 months more.

But enough about that. This calls for a celebration! And what better way to celebrate than to take some time to cook a very special meal.


Other recent events include the beginning of bear hunting season in Sweden. I've been eager (to put it mildly) to taste bear for quite a while, so when a few weeks ago I saw a piece of frozen bear at one of the butchers in Östermalmshallen (one of the big in-door markets in Stockholm) I decided to splurge and bought it.

In a moment of karmic balance I decided to thaw the piece of bear on the very day the paper appeared online - that is: before I knew that it was going to be released on that day.

Ingredients:
roast:
- lard
- 4 small cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1.3 kg (~ 3 lbs) bear roast
- salt & pepper
- ~500 g (~ 1 lb) red boiling onions
- 1 L (~ 1 quart) water
sides:
- boiled potatoes
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 170 g (6 oz) crayfish tails
- 200 g (7 oz) black chanterelles
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) cream
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₅ cup) pan juices
- salt & pepper
- pickled green tomatoes
salad:
- green leaf lettuce
- pea sprouts
- sun-dried tomatoes
drink:
- Bollinger Special Cuvée


First I took the piece of bear and slit several deep narrow holes in it with small sharp knife. In each hole I stuffed several thin slices of garlic. Secondly, the roast was rubbed on both sides with generous amounts of salt & pepper. In a large pan on high heat, the roast was seared in lard on both sides until darkened appreciably. The roast was then placed in an oven-proof tray together with the boiling onions and 1 L of water. The roast went in the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 2 ¹/₂ hours (opening the oven occasionally to pour some of the pan juices over the roast) before being removed to a cutting board, covered with foil and left for 20 minutes before slicing.

The boiling onions were transferred to bowl (to be served as a side with the roast). ¹/₂ dL of the pan juices were set aside for the sauce and the rest (about 5 dL) was frozen as 'bear stock'.

While the roast was still in the oven, the salad was prepared, and the potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

While the roast was resting before slicing, the bacon was fried till crisp, then removed from the pan, chopped and set aside. The crayfish tails were fried in the bacon fat for a minute before adding the black chanterelles. After a few more minutes, the cream and pan juice were added. Once heated through, the sauce was ready.

Slices of bear roast were served with mushroom-crayfish sauce and bacon bits on top - salad, potatoes, onions and pickled tomatoes on the side.


So how was it?

The bear was excellent. Very tender and very tasty. This is most 'game' meal I have ever cooked - the meat was clearly recognisable as red meat, but it did have notes of something 'different' and these notes were stronger than when I've cooked venison or moose.

The black chanterelles were as delicious as I expected - this is the first time I've had them fresh (previously I only had dried ones), but I have to admit the crayfish didn't really do so much for the dish as I had hoped. I was going for some sort of Swedish surf^turf, but in the end the crayfish were too anonymous against the rest of the ingredients - so if I ever do this again, I'll leave those out (or maybe try to find something more bold).

This was the first time I tried my own pickled green tomatoes. They were a little firmer than I thought they would be, but the taste was pretty close to what I had in mind - sour, sweet and vanilla flavoured all at the same time. Perhaps a little too much vanilla. My muse didn't really like them, but I thought they went very well with the meat.

Roast Chicken with Spinach-Mushroom Stew

This came about with quite some inspiration from the 'Sunday supper' of the September issue of Bon Appétit. Some ingredients were changed but the main idea is quite similar.

Ingredients:
tubers:
- 8 medium-sized potatoes, diced
- sunchokes (about half as much as potatoes), diced
- fresh thyme
- a little olive oil
- salt & pepper
chicken:
- a 1.3 kg (shy of 3 lbs) chicken
- salt & pepper
- fresh oregano
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) dry sherry
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) water
spinach-mushroom stew:
- oil
- 2 yellow onions, chopped coarsely
- 3 portabello mushrooms, sliced
- salt
- 1.2 kg (2 ²/₃ lb) frozen spinach
- 1 jalapeño chilli, finely chopped
- pan juices from roast chicken

The potatoes and the sunchokes were rinsed, diced and put in a an oven-proof tray together with leaves of fresh thyme, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. The tubers were roasted at 200 C (400 F) for 1.5 hours.

The chicken was rubbed with salt and pepper - and leaves of fresh oregano was put wherever I could find a spot (inside, under the wing, under the leg, in every crease of the skin .. etc.). The chicken was placed in an oven-proof tray and added the sherry and the water. The chicken was roasted in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 1 h and 10 minutes.

The coarsely chopped onions were sautéed in a little oil, then added sliced portabello mushrooms and salt. After some additional minutes, frozen spinach was added together with a finely chopped jalapeño (not de-seeded). The pot was covered, but stirred occasionally until the spinach was thawed and heated through. Finally, the pan juices from the chicken roast were added and the stew was seasoned to taste with salt.

The tubers could quite possibly do with shorter roasting time, but the chicken - meat falling off of the bones goodness. The spinach-mushroom stew was a nice touch, and one that I think I'll be making variations on in the future.

Pickled Yellow Tomatoes 1

When I recently pickled my first own batch of green tomatoes, I started thinking about pickling other tomatoes and using other spices.

First up are some yellow cherry tomatoes, which I decided to try out with jalapeño.

Ingredients:
- 450 g (1 lb) yellow cherry tomatoes
- 200 g (7 oz) sugar
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) vinegar
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) water
- 1 jalapeño chilli, halved
- 1 + 1 + 2 tsp Atamon^[1]
for storing:
- 2 ¹/₂ L (pint-sized) glass jars

The jalapeño was rinsed, halved but not de-seeded. The two jalapeño halves were put in the pot together with sugar, water and vinegar. After bringing to a boil, the rinsed tomatoes were added. The pot was brought back to boiling and allowed to boil for 2 minutes. This caused the skins to come off of the tomatoes and I decided they had probably had enough.

Meanwhile the glass jars were prepared by filling them with boiling water, letting them stand for a couple of minutes, and then discarding the water before swirling a tsp of Atamon around in each of them (Atamon discarded afterwards).

Using a slotted spoon the tomatoes were transferred to the warm glass jars, making sure to put one half of the jalapeño in each jar.

The liquid in the pot was added 2 tsp Atamon and brought back to a boil before being removed from the heat and poured over the tomatoes in the jars. The jars were then closed tight.

It looked like I could have used another 100-200 g of tomatoes and still have them fit in the jars I used - although it might have required concentrating the juices a little after boiling the tomatoes.

I'm not sure how long these should stand before opening and tasting them. According to my little pickling book, pickled chillies need some 4 weeks before they're ready...

^[1] Brand-name aqueous solution of sodium benzoate used as preservative.

Oude kaas

When you go out for a drink in the Netherlands you can typically order some snacks with your meal. The selection of snacks varies from place to place, but there are certain classics which you find time and again.

One of those is Oude kaas: quite simply blocks of aged Gouda. Simple, yet brilliant.

On the way back from my most recent trip to Amsterdam I couldn't resist the temptation of bringing home a nice big piece of it. I had a lot of nice cheese this summer, but I think this one takes the prize ... so gooooooooooooooood!

Cucumber Chilli Salad

The inspiration for this came partly from a traditional simple cucumber salad - and partly from the likes of green papaya salad.

Ingredients:
- 2 cucumbers, very thinly sliced
- 4 tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 4 red chillies, de-seeded, thinly sliced
- large bunch scallions, sliced
- large bunch parsley, chopped
dressing:
- juice of 1 lime
- approx. same volume of sesame oil
- 1 tsp honey
- salt and black pepper

The cucumbers were sliced and left in a sieve to allow excess juice to drip off while slicing the other ingredients. After mixing the dressing all the ingredients were tossed in a large bowl. The chillies and lime add a nice spicy and fresher touch to this cucumber salad.

Swedish Beer - Part VIII / Wisby Klosteröl

This summer I spent a little time in Visby, home of Gotlands Bryggeri - makers of Wisby Pils (which I had already encountered). It turns out they make a whole range of beers, something which became clear to me during my time on Gotland.

While there I tried a couple of their beers, and I found Wisby Klosteröl ('monastery beer') particularly pleasing. They call it a 'fresh' beer because it's neither filtered nor pasteurised, but I found it a very refreshing and tasty as well.

I'm currently looking forward to tasting their Bulldog series of pale ales...