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.

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...

Kladdkaka

There's chocolate cake and there's chocolate cake - and then there's kladdkaka. I guess it's symptomatic of my level of proficiency in Swedish that until recently I though kladdkaka was simply an abbreviation from chokladkaka, meaning 'chocolate cake' (yes, I assumed wrongly that chocolate in Swedish was spelled chokladd with double 'd') - when in fact it simply means 'goo cake'. The name hints at the fact that when done right, the centre of the cake is in fact quite gooey - soft, viscous and not at all dry.

By now you might be thinking of a good moist brownie - which is essentially what kladdkaka is. Tradition dictates that it is round and that wedges are served with a dollop of whipped cream. This was how I first encountered it, in the cafés in Stockholm where it is one of the staple cakes along with the ubiquitous cinnamon rolls.

I'd been wanting to try my hand at it for a while when a friend directed my attention towards the winning recipe (in Swedish) from the 2009 Swedish championships in kladdkaka (!!) - which I proceed to describe below (with minor modifications). The spiced fudge included in this recipe is pure luxury - the kladdkaka without the fudge is perfectly delicious in it's own right - although I suspect the fudge was part of what set it apart to become the winning entry in the kladdkaka competition.

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 340 g (12 oz) sugar
- 90 g (¹/₅ lb) flour
- 40 g (1.4 oz) powdered cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- ¹/₄ tsp salt
- 100 g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted
fudge:
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) cream
- 1 tsp honey
- 2 tsp powdered cinnamon
- 2 tsp powdered cardamom
- 200 g (7 oz) milk chocolate
to serve:
- whipped cream

The eggs and the sugar were whipped to a white foamy mass. Separately, the flour was mixed with cocoa, vanilla sugar and salt before stirring it into the sugar-egg mass. Lastly, melted butter was stirred in before pouring the batter into a greased and floured spring form (diameter ~ 22 cm / 8.5 inches). The cake was baked in the bottom of the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 20 minutes.


While the cake was cooling a bit, the fudge was prepared. This is where I deviated from the original recipe: as I don't have a mortar I used powdered cinnamon and cardamom rather than freshly (lightly) crushed cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds. The original recipe brings the cream, honey and spices to a boil, then lets it stand for minutes to extract flavours from the spices before reheating, filtering off the bulk of the cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds and mixing with the milk chocolate. Since I used powdered spices, there was no need for filtration, and thus no real reason to let the warm cream stand to extract flavours - I simply let the cream stand long enough to break the milk chocolate to bits before mixing.

The fudge was applied on top of the cake and the whole thing was cooled in the fridge for 1.5 hours before serving with freshly whipped cream - delicious perfection.

It's rather heavy, so I didn't have enough guests to finish it off right away. Leaving it in the fridge overnight, I found that the texture wasn't quite right the next day - at least not when coming straight out of the fridge. Also, I do think less fudge could suffice.

Swedish Beer - Part VII / Carnegie Porter - Part II

Since I'm about to move, I figured it would be a good time to bring out one the bottles of Carnegie Porter I have been storing in a dark, undisturbed corner of a cupboard in my kitchen since last fall and see how the taste has developed over the 7-8 months that passed since I had my first taste of it.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it managed to surprise me no less: Not only is it smoother than I remember it from last fall, but it most notably quite a lot sweeter too - almost (certainly) too sweet for my taste.

However, as I am not moving very far this time, I plan to bring the rest of them with me to my new residence and see how they develop upon further ageing.

To be continued...

Moose Meatballs with Pistachios

This is based on some pistachio containing 'game' meatballs I had the good fortune of tasting a while ago. This didn't turn out quite the way those meatballs were - but still quite nice.

Ingredients:
- 2 onions, finely diced
- 64 g (2 ¹/₄ oz) pistachio nuts, chopped
- 500 g (1.1 lb) minced moose
- pepper
- 2 eggs
- a little milk
served with:
- boiled potatoes
- cornichons
- sliced pickled beet
- lettuce
- tzatziki

Minced moose, diced onions, chopped pistachios, pepper and eggs were added just enough milk to be able to stir the mixture - shouldn't be too liquid. Meatballs were shaped using a tea spoon and fried on the pan in a little oil.

The meatballs were served with potatoes boiled in lightly salted water, lettuce, tzatziki, slices of pickled beet and cornichons.

Cinnamon Rolls (Egg-free)

Now that I'm living in Sweden I partake in 'fika' on a regular basis - to fika is to sit down with friends/colleagues/whoever and have some coffee and cake (although in my case it's tea and cake as I don't drink coffee). The majority of my fika experiences take place at work, and a substantial part of them occur at our weekly group meetings, for which we take turns at bringing bread and/or cake. It's sort of an unwritten rule that it should be home-baked, but that should be doable for someone like me.

Then my new colleagues told me about the tricky bit: our boss is allergic not only to nuts, but also to eggs. Off the top of my head I couldn't think of a single cake recipe in my repertoire that didn't include eggs - although after thinking a bit more about it I came up with one. Naturally, I felt compelled to overcome this challenge. Upon researching the subject, I found that there are in fact lots of recipes for baking without eggs on the internet. Never-the-less, I will post about here about my experiences with it.

For the first round, I chose the perhaps most quintessentially Danish/Swedish cake: the cinnamon roll. These are ubiquitous (if in somewhat different versions) in both Sweden and Denmark.


Ingredients:
dough
- 50 g (2 oz) fresh yeast
- 5 dL (2 cups) milk
- 125 g (4.4 oz) margarine
- ½ tsp salt
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 5 tsp cardamom
- at least 900 g (2 lbs) flour
filling
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) margarine
- 12 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 6 tbsp cinnamon

The milk and the margarine was mixed in a small pot and heated on low heat until the margarine was melted. The lukewarm mixture (let it cool for a little while if too warm) was poured over crumbled fresh yeast before adding sugar, cardamom, salt, and flour. The dough was kneaded for some minutes until smooth. The dough was covered and left to rise for a couple of hours (this was definitely plenty of time - if allowed to stand until the volume has doubled it should be sufficient).

While the dough was rising, the filling was made by mixing all the ingredients on low heat and then cooling the mixture to get a dark brown paste - if it's too runny it will cause problems later.

The risen dough was rolled out using a little little extra flour. The filling was spread evenly on the dough and then it was rolled into a log. The log was sliced and the slices were placed on a sheet of baking paper.

Tip: to prevent the rolls from uncoiling the outer end was stretched slightly and placed under the roll.

They were baked at 200 C (400 F) for 13-15 minutes.

Served warm - they can easily be frozen and re-heated in the oven. For the luxury version, they can be decorated with a frosting made from water and powdered sugar.

Swedish Beer - Part VI / Yule Ales

Living now in Sweden, I expected certain traditions regarding Christmas and beer to be observed. I was not let down. After I returned from Brazil, Systembolaget had rearranged some of their goods to make space for a few shelves dedicated to Christmas beers. Anticipating pre-Christmas visitors I picked up a handful.


Åbro Julbock didn't quite live up to my expectations - while it was dark and clearly in the style of Scandinavian Christmas beers in general, it seemed lacking in taste when compared to the two excellent Christmas beers from Nynäshamn Ångbryggeri and Nils Oscar. The Winter Ale from Oppigård was a pleasant surprise: true to its name, and unlike the others it is actually an ale.

Swedish Beer - Part V / Oppigård

Systemet carries a whole selection of beers from Swedish microbrewery Oppigård - so far I have seen Golden Ale, Single Hop Ale, Summer Ale and Starkporter - and they are generally very good. I'm looking forward to trying the Winter Ale, which I expect to be available any time now...

The great beer aside, there is another detail which I quite like. The brewery started selling beer as recently as 2004 and the labels say Gott öl från Dalarna - Början på en tradition which translates as Good beer from the Dales - The beginning of a tradition. I say: Skål to that.

Swedish Beer - Part IV / Bedarö Bitter

Bedarö Bitter was the first beer made by Swedish microbrewery Nynäshamn Ångbryggeri (Nynäshamn steam-brewery) when they started out in 1990's and it is named after an island in the Nynäshamn archipelago.

I can see why it's sufficiently popular to be widely available in systemet: It truly is a bitter ale - very fresh and delicious. The bitterness is reminiscent of excellent pale ales from the West Coast of the US, but the alcohol content is more modest than those.

Swedish Beer - Part III / Carnegie Porter - Part I

Now, after covering some of the basics, the time has come for considering some quality Swedish brews.

The old school label of the Carnegie Porter was the first thing about it that appealed to me. Turns out that this label is authentic as well - unchanged since they started brewing this beer in Gothenburg in 1836.

You'll notice that the top of the label reads "Årgang 2009", which translates roughly as "Year 2009" or perhaps "Vintage 2009"... Yes, the Carnegie Porter supposedly matures over time, changing the taste notably towards the smoother and more balanced in a year or two. But the process is supposed to continue for years and years after that, so that a 10-year-old Carnegie Porter is a taste sensation of both extreme richness and extreme lightness. Curiously, however, the smaller label on the back clearly states a Best Before date already some time in 2011 !?!?

At present, the bottle I opened was already a good beer. A good dose of hoppy bitterness makes for a quite balanced taste and thus a comparatively non-sweet porter. Next time I go to Systembolaget, I shall buy some more and store them away for future tasting.

To be continued... here...

Moose roast

The meat section of the Swedish supermarkets are dominated by beef, pork and chicken - which in itself is neither particularly unusual nor surprising, but it is a bit more extreme than I expected. Add to that the selection of cuts available is also narrower than I have been used to, and it becomes quite intriguing that apparently there are practically no butcher shops here.

Nevertheless, a few exotic specialities native to the region are available - particularly frozen: moose and reindeer roasts, f.ex. Having heard much praise thereof (and having already tried a variety of preparations of reindeer) I decided that to try a moose roast and since they are in season now I went for using some chanterelles as well.

Ingredients:
- 900 g (2 lbs) moose roast
- oil
- salt & pepper
- potatoes
- 2 brown onions, cut in rings
- 300 g (²/₃ lb) yellow chanterelles
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
salad:
- fresh spinach
- red lettuce
- caper berries

The roast came in a net. It was rubbed with salt and pepper and seared on all sides in a pan using a little oil. When nicely browned on all sides, the roast was transferred to an oven-proof tray with a little water (ca. ¹/₂ cm (¹/₄ inch)) and roasted in the oven at 150 C (300 F) for 2 hours.

While the roast was in the oven potatoes were rinsed and boiled in lightly salted water.

A salad was prepared from fresh spinach, red lettuce, and caper berries.

After removing the roast from the oven and transferring to a board, the onion rings were sautéed for a few minutes in a large pan, then added the rinsed and coarsely chopped chanterelles. After an additional couple of minutes the cream was added together with the liquid from the roast.

After resting while preparing the sauce, the roast was sliced and served immediately.


So, how was it? Weee-eeell, it was definitely good. It just wasn't as much better than beef as I expected. Perhaps not enough to justify the price difference.

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...

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...

Swedish 'Danish' beer

At a social gathering with my work I noticed this gem of dubious labelling: "Dansk Fadøl" (Danish draught beer).

Regarding it's Danishness, I will just say that I have NEVER seen this beer outside of Sweden. And as for a can of 'draught beer'.. well, I guess I don't really need to comment on that.

To be avoided.

Milk lids

A majority of dairy products here in Sweden are sold in TetraBrik-containers from TetraPak (not surprising given that TetraPak is indeed a Swedish invention).

Initially we were a little disappointed with the most commonly used carton here: it is not possible to close it again after opening it. While this annoyed me on a practical level because it meant I couldn't shake my favourite breakfast fermented dairy products before pouring them without spray-painting the kitchen, it was more a question of principle for my significant other: more specifically a question of germ control.


As it turns out, there exists a small, cheaply available unitasker to solve the problem. As the picture indicates, the makers (or sellers, anyway) of the product seem to be thinking more in line with Mrs. Throat-Erator.

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 taste at least - boring. Perhaps a good place to start for those favouring 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 favourable 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).

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).

Bøf Lindstrøm

Although not the traditional or famous Swedish meatballs these meatballs are Swedish nonetheless. This is one of many great eats with pickled beets. Cooking this time by my muse.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb (250 g) ground beef
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp capers
- 2 tbsp finely diced pickled beets + more for serving
- 1 egg yolk
- salt and pepper

Using your hands mix everything together and shape into 2 patties, which are fried on the pan.
Serve with e.g. with boiled potatoes, more pieces of pickled beet and pickled cucumber.