Ch'ti

On a recent trip to France, I finally had an occasion to try Ch'ti Blonde - something I've been wanting to ever since I saw the French comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. Once again a French beer brewed quite close to the border with Belgium..

It was a quite pleasant experience on the whole. Very drinkable - the 6.4% ABV are well-masked.

Ungerslaw

For a couple of years I lived together with some friends in a house in California. On of them made - from time to time (and as I recall it often as a side to a nice grilled roast, tri-tip or something like that) - a coleslaw that was IMHO the best I've ever had. When I asked him about the recipe he said the 'secret' was the fresh, home-made mayonnaise - and then told me how to make it. As a tribute to him I name it "Ungerslaw".

Ingredients:
- 1 head of cabbage, finely sliced
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 red long sweet pepper, diced
- 1 can of corn
- bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
Mayonnaise:
- 1 egg yolk ^[1]
- zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
- 2 tsp mustard
- 3 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt
- pepper
- smoked paprika
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) rapeseed oil ^[2]
- 2 tsp lemon juice

The mayonnaise was prepared first: The egg yolk was beaten for 15 seconds before adding lemon zest, mustard, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. After beating for an additional 30 seconds, the oil was poured in slowly with constant beating - the mixture emulsified as planned. Finally the taste was adjusted with lemon juice, salt and pepper. As the picture shows the resulting mayonnaise was rather yellow - no doubt my choice of vinegar and the amount of paprika used played a part in this. The mayonnaise was covered and stored in the fridge while cutting the vegetables for the 'slaw. The 'slaw was mixed in a large bowl and served immediately.

For this occasion, I served it with a beef roast that was covered (I didn't prepare, so there wasn't time to marinate) with a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, chopped chipotle chillies^[3], and salt; roasted at 175 C (350 F) for 1 hour and sliced thinly. The chillies made the roast nicely spicy - but only on the outside.

^[1] Since all chickens in Sweden are supposedly free of salmonella I just used an egg yolk from a fresh egg - had I been elsewhere, I might have gone shopping for pasteurised egg yolks or tried to sterilise the egg shell before breaking it.
^[2] Rapeseed oil is a comparatively taste-neutral oil (I see from the label on the jar of store-bought mayonnaise in my fridge that it also based on rapeseed oil). In particular you should be careful basing it on extra virgin olive oil, as it can give an off taste.
^[3] Chipotle chillies are smoked, dried jalapeños. In one of the shops near my new home there's a really good selection of dried chillies - a subject which I am sure I shall return to on this page.

Paprika Glazed Shrimp & Sausage Skewers

The June edition of BACC sneaked up on us: not only have we been busy moving, we haven't even received our June edition of Bon Appetit. Fortunately there's Fluffy White Icing to remind us about it, and the original recipe available at the Bon Appetit website.

As always, a few modifications were made:

• We didn't want to buy a bottle of sherry vinegar just to use 4 tsp of it for this dish, so we used instead a combination of red wine vinegar and actual sherry.
• I thought (as often before) the amount of oil suggested sounded excessive, so I cut it in half - this did mean that there was only enough glazing for the initial glazing and nothing left over for serving, but I didn't really feel I was missing any.
• We couldn't get the suggested sausages at the store we went to. It was hard to tell if any of the sausages at the store were in fact fully cooked or not. We ended up picking up a couple of beef/lamb merguez, which may have been a slight mistake (see below), and slicing them so thinly that we thought they had a chance of getting cooked during the broiling.
• Yes, that's right: we used the oven broiler instead of a grill.

Ingredients:
- ~ 20 shrimp, peeled
- 300 g (²/₃ lb) beef/lamb merguez
- 1 red onion, cut in wedges
- 8 small tomatoes
- bamboo skewers
glazing:
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) olive oil
- 5 tsp sherry
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¹/₂ tsp salt
- ¹/₂ tsp pepper
- 3 tsp smoked paprika
- bunch of fresh thyme
to serve:
- asparagus, broiled
- lettuce on the side

The glazing was made by stirring all the ingredients together.

Shrimp, sausage slices, onion wedges and small tomatoes were skewed, placed on a foil-lined baking sheet and glazed with the glazing.

After 8 minutes under the broiler, they came out and were allowed to stand while broiling the asparagus (which took another 10 minutes).

Then served. The glazing worked really well on the shrimp, but the merguez were too spicy in themselves for the glazing to really make a difference, so in that sense I think another sausage would have been more interesting.

And in writing this, I've just realised that we've ended up using asparagus for every single BACC we've entered into so far... honestly, I swear we don't eat asparagus as often as that might make you think.

Salami & Pesto Pasta

Being out to lunch one day I noticed on the menu that a special of the day was pasta with pesto and salami - I didn't order it, but I thought it sounded pretty good so I made a mental note of it. By the time I got round to trying it I had decided that it would work nicely to add some rocket to the mixture. I've been using Milanese salami for it so far, but that's hardly essential.

Ingredients:
- wholegrain linguine
- pesto
- fresh rocket
- Milanese salami

The pasta was boiled in lightly salted water, the rocket was rinsed and the salami was cut in strips - everything was stirred together with some pesto. Served immediately..

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...

Asparagus & Pancetta Linguine

For the May BACC various circumstances forced a number of modifications on the dish - although I believe it still carries the spirit of the original recipe - to wit:

• Fettuccine did not appear to be available where we went shopping, so instead we went for wholegrain linguine.
• Peas are not yet in season here in Sweden and as we did not feel like using frozen peas we left the peas out.
• Turns out we did not in fact have any garlic (and we did not want to fetch some by the time we started cooking...)
• Although we could easily have gotten some Parmigiano cheese, I decided to use the rest of our Pecorino cheese instead.
• Since we are getting ready to move all our graters had been packed down, so for the cheese and the lemon zest we had to go for 'finely chopped' rather than grated - lending the dish a slightly more rustic feel.
• I did not add any olive oil as that seemed a bit superfluous.
• The dark green parts of the scallions were not stirred in but instead sprinkled on top together with last of the basil and parsley.
  

Ingredients:
- ~ 250 g (~ 9 oz) wholegrain linguine
- 80 g (2.8 oz) very finely sliced pancetta, cut in strips
- 250 g (8.8 oz) asparagus, cut in inch-long pieces
- 125 g (4.4 oz) scallions, sliced - parted by colour
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) cream
- ~ ¹/₂ dL (~ ¹/₅ cup) pecorino romano, finely chopped - parted
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- zest of ¹/₂ lemon, finely chopped
- fresh parsley, chopped - parted
- fresh basil, chopped - parted
- salt & pepper

The pasta was boiled in lightly salted water - when cooked the water was poured off, but about 2.5 dL (1 cup) of it was retained for later use.

While cooking the pasta, the pancetta was fried crisp.^[1] The pancetta was removed from the pan and the asparagus pieces were sautéed in the pancetta drippings for 3-4 minutes before adding the paler ²/₃ of the scallion slices. After an additional 2 minutes this mixtures stirred into the cooked pasta and added cream together with lemon juice, lemon zest, about 1 dL (²/₅ cup) of the pasta ccoking liquid, most of the cheese, half of the parsley, and half of the basil. The mixture was tossed and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

It was served immediately, sprinkled with pancetta pieces, the dark green slices of the scallions and the rest of the cheese, the parsley and the basil.

Delicious - despite all the short cuts performed. I've had pasta dishes with lemon before, but I cannot think of one where the lemon blended as nicely with the other flavours as in this one.

^[1] Pancetta is sometimes referred to as 'Italian bacon' - like other types of bacon it has been salt cured, but in contrast to most other types of bacon it has been spiced. This was actually my first time ever using it, and I found the spicy bacon smell from frying quite interesting. The variety of pancetta I bought was very thinly sliced (I would say that ordinary thinly sliced bacon is about 5 times as thick as this pancetta) - but since it was my first time buying it I don't know if that is the norm for pancetta.

Potato-Spinach Curry

Around New Year I went to London - for the first time ever (as being in Heathrow for a few hours doesn't really count). On one rainy day we went to a busy Indian restaurant and had a lunch special which included three different dishes. This is an attempt to emulate one of those dishes - and the following makes for rather a lot of it.

Ingredients:
- 2.7 kg (6 lbs) small potatoes
- 5 onions, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 orange adjoema chili^[1], finely diced
- salt
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground allspice
- 3 tbsp mustard powder
- 500 g (1.1 lb) frozen chopped spinach
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) cream

The rinsed potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

Meanwhile, the chopped onions were sautéed in oil in a large pan. After a few minuted the onions were softened and all the spices were added, followed by the spinach. The pan was covered while the spinach thawed. At last the cream was stirred in and left on the heat for a minute or two before removing.

The boiled potatoes were mixed with the onion-spinach mixture in a large bowl (or in this case in two large bowls) and served immediately. Goes nicely with naan - but the later will have to wait for some other time.

Update: For the bread, see here.

^[1] I happened to have one of these Surinamese chilies - in case you can't find one, a habanero would most likely work as a good substitute.

Sweet chili glazed salmon

Mrs. Throat-Erator decided we should join in on the Bon Appetit Cover Challenge (BACC) hosted by White Fluffy Icing. Although we didn't start in January, this is not the first dish from that series that we made - but it is the first one to make it to this page (so far).

We scaled the dish down a bit and decided on sherry rather than rice wine - we didn't have either of the two so we had to get one or the other. As it turns out I expect to more readily find uses for the rest of a bottle of sherry and it was also easier to locate sherry in the specific Systembolaget store we ended up in that day. Finally we decided to add some grilled asparagus and serve the whole thing with wild rice.

Ingredients:
- 4 salmon fillets
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₄ cup) sweet chili sauce
- 2 + 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 + 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely diced
- 1 large garlic clove, finely diced
- bunch of asparagus
- sesame oil
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) sugar snap peas- 100 g (3.5 oz) pea sprouts
- 2 tbsp dry sherry
- boiled wild rice

The salmon fillets were placed on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with a glaze made by mixing the sweet chili sauce with 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp ginger. The salmon fillets were allowed to stand at room temperature for half an hour.

While waiting, wild rice were boiled.
The rinsed asparagus were placed on a separate piece of foil in the same baking sheet. The salmon and the asparagus were broiled for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile a little sesame oil was heated in a wok. To this was added the garlic and the rest of the ginger. After stirring for 30 seconds to a minute the sugar snap peas were added and stir fried for a couple of minutes. The sherry was added together with the pea sprouts and the rest of the soy sauce and stirred for about a minute.


I quite liked the end result. A reminder that marinating salmon isn't such a bad idea - most of the time I just have it 'plain'. I also liked the stir fried pea sprouts - in the past I've used them only in salads.

Pear Pie

When I recently discovered I had never made this pie for my muse I was stunned: I didn't make this pie one single time in the past five years? Really? But I used to make it quite often..

Ingredients:
- 150 g (5.3 oz) margarine
- 240 g (8.5 oz) flour
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- ¹/₂ tsp ground ginger
- 1 egg
- 1 can of halfed pears in syrup
optionally for serving:
- whipped cream

The margarine was cut in small pieces and worked into the flour by hand before adding sugar, vanilla sugar and ground ginger. The dough was then completed by working the egg into the mixture. The dough was left in the fridge for an hour before parting in two and rolling each piece.

One piece of dough was placed in a buttered and floured pie shell. Pear-halves were arranged on this pie bottom (in this case as many as could be fitted in - there were an excess of pear-halves in the can I used). The other piece of dough was used to form a lid over the pear-halves, and the pie was brushed with the syrup from the can of pears.


The pie was baked at 200 C (400 F) for 40 minutes - is delicious served warm with a dollop of whipped cream, but also works quite well cold.

Bean-Onion Salad

This is a quick attempt to copy a very nice bean-and-onion salad I tried at a vegetarian buffet not that long ago.

Ingredients:
- 4 cans of beans (mixed brown, white and red)
- 1 large red onion
- 1 large yellow onion
- a large bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- salt & pepper

The canned beans were rinsed with cold water and left to drip off a bit.

The onions were peeled and quartered along the axis, each quarter of an onion was further quartered to give onion wedges.

The parsley was chopped coarsely.

The oil, vinegar, salt & pepper was mixed in a large bowl and everything else was stirred in.

I like the raw onions in this salad - but they become overpowering if not balanced by a reasonable amount of beans. On this occasion I had this salad as a side to some baked potatoes and a piece of baked fish.

Red Seafood Curry

A good friend of mine concluded, after moving to Singapore, that all his previous attempts at making curries had been suboptimal at least in part due to the inferior curry pastes that has been available to him in the US. To back up his claims, he brought me over a selection of curry pastes from Singapore when we met up before Christmas - so thanks to him for providing the curry paste used here.

Generally, mini-eggplants are not available around here, so when I found some when I went to a new store, I immediately picked some up - thinking already of using one my packs of parallelly imported red curry paste.

Ingredients:
- sesame oil
- red curry paste^[1]
- 200 g (7 oz) crayfish
- 100 g (3.5 oz) shrimp
- 200 g (7 oz) squid rings
- 10 mini eggplants, quartered
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- coconut cream
- kaffir lime leaves
- salt
- large bunch scallion, chopped
for serving:
- boiled rice
- roasted peanuts
- fresh Thai basil

A little sesame oil was heated in a wok, then added a dollop of the curry paste, followed by the crayfish. After frying for 1-2 minutes, the shrimp were added and after an additional 1-2 minutes the squid rings. 1-2 minutes later, the quartered mini-eggplants were added, then the chopped bell pepper, dried kaffir lime leaves, the remaining curry paste and the coconut cream. The contents were brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting it simmer for a few minutes. The dish was seasoned to taste with salt. At last the scallions were added and after a minute or so the wok was removed from the heat.

Served with boiled rice, roasted peanuts and fresh Thai basil.
Delicious. For my taste the spiciness of this dish was just right.
Now I just have to find out where I can buy more of similarly good curry paste - or if I can emulate it from more basic ingredients...

^[1] Curry paste brand: Dancing Chef.

Easter 'Hen'

It's funny how sometimes nostalgia creeps up on you and you end up doing things that your parents used to do. Take Easter as an example: admittedly, I don't have a whole lot by way of Easter traditions, but recently I found myself wanting to bake this hen-shaped bread that I remembered my mother making for Easter. As I recalled it, it was mostly the shape that set it apart and I suspected that my mother had simply used her standard bun recipe for the dough. Upon asking I was informed that there was a special recipe, which I would receive via e-mail later.

After receiving said recipe and reading it, I concluded that it was in fact pretty close to the aforementioned bun recipe if only half portion, less sugar, more salt.
Ingredients:
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) margarine
- 3.2 dL (1 ¹/₃ cups) milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) fresh yeast
- 1 + 2 + 1 eggs
- 700 g (ca. 25 oz) flour
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 walnut piece
- white and black sesame seeds
The margarine and milk was heated on medium until the margarine had melted, then the mixture was transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool to about body temperature before adding the sugar and the fresh yeast. One egg was added and the first 500 g (ca. 1 lb) of flour was stirred into the dough. Then the salt was added and the rest of the flour was kneaded into the dough in portions. After kneading thoroughly the dough was left to rise for 40 minutes.


A baking sheet was lined with baking paper, and a hen was shaped - (NB: this was my first attempt and I'm sure there are other ways to do it) - a piece of dough was made into a flat, roundish piece to serve as the body of the hen, while two smaller pieces were cut to make them roughly resemble a tail and a head. For the nest, two rolled pieces of dough were braided. Still having more dough a piece was cut to roughly resemble a wing and with the odd bits of remaining dough some small 'stones' were added beneath the nest.

Two whole, raw eggs were washed and then placed so it looks like the hen is sitting on them in the nest. Finally the entire hen was brushed with a beaten egg, decorated with sesame seeds and a walnut piece (as the eye), and baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

Served while still warm. The baked eggs in the nest are very much like hard-boiled eggs and my mother would usually add one for each person taking part in the Easter brunch. As I made it just for two people, I only used two. If one wishes, one could easily get more creative with the decorations.

'Shish Shawarma'

In the past, I resorted to buying my shawarma spice mainly because I couldn't find out exactly what went into the mix. When I recently came across a good recipe it turned out the only ingredient I didn't already have was cloves.

Although perhaps not very authentic, I decided to try out broiling the pieces on bamboo skewers after marinating - making it some kind of 'shish shawarma'.

Ingredients:
- ¹/₄ tsp ground cloves
- 1 ¹/₂ tsp ground allspice
- ¹/₂ tsp ground coriander
- ¹/₄ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- ¹/₂ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- juice of ¹/₂ lime
- 350 g (12 oz) strips of beef
- 2 onions, cut in wedges
- 4 potatoes, sliced 6 mm (¹/₄ inch) thick
bulgur:
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) bulgur
- water
- salt
- juice of ¹/₂ lime
- 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- fresh parsley, chopped

All the ground spices were mixed (this is what I'd consider the shawarma spice mix itself), then added salt, crushed garlic, olive oil and lime juice. The strips of beef and the onion wedges were marinated in this mixture for a little over an over.

Potatoes were peeled and sliced. The marinated beef and onion were put on bamboo skewers together with the raw potato slices and broiled for 12 minutes.


The bulgur was boiled in lightly salted water, then mixed with lime juice and chopped parsley and chopped cherry tomatoes.

The end result might not be conventional: 'shish' is normally as in 'shish kebab', and I don't think I've ever had shawarma or kebab with broiled potato before - but I thought it was quite good.

Cauliflower in Vinaigrette

After seeing this recipe in a newspaper I wanted to try it - it was suggested as a side for roasts, but I felt like something fast, so I just had it as a main with some creamy polenta on the side.

Ingredients:
- 2 heads cauliflower
- 2 red onions, finely chopped
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp mustard
- salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp capers
- large bunch fresh parsley, chopped
creamy polenta:
- 5 dL (2 cups) vegetable broth
- 1.25 dL (¹/₂ cup) cream
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) polenta
- pepper
- grated pecorino cheese

The cauliflowers were rinsed and cut into florets, which were boiled in lightly salted water for 5 minutes.

While boiling the cauliflower florets, the vinaigrette was mixed by stirring together oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.

The boiled cauliflower was mixed with the chopped onions, the capers, the chopped parsely and the vinaigrette in a large bowl.

The cooking time of polenta varies quite a bit, but the general guideline is to boil with stirring until a suitable thickness has been attained. To make creamy polenta, the vegetable broth and the cream was brought to a boil, the heat reduced and the polenta was stirred in. It turned out that the polenta I used was of a fairly quick-cooking type, so after a few minutes I had a polenta the texture of a thick porridge. The pot was removed from the heat, and pepper and freshly grated pecorino cheese was stirred into it.

Served immediately. Upon tasting, the first thing we noticed was that somewhat reminiscent
of this potato salad - which in hindsight isn't surprising.

Huevadillas

One Sunday morning I found myself with a few taco-sized flour tortillas that needed using and a couple of eggs. Thinking back to how I like melted cheese sandwiched between tortillas, I decided to have eggs in a similar fashion.

Ingredients:
- oil
- small flour tortillas
- eggs
A little oil was heated in a pan, and a flour tortilla was placed in the pan - on top of the tortilla, an egg was placed, the yolk was punctured and a second tortilla was placed on top. Cooking on medium-high heat the egg quickly solidified sufficiently to flip the thing over without getting bits of egg all over the place.


I call them 'huevadillas' - and ate the first batch with some ketchup, but I think I will revisit them later with some more elaborate fixings.

Stromboli

Stromboli - or 'pizza roll' as one might be tempted to call it - is nothing less than American addition to the palette of Italian food, supposedly named after a 1950 American-Italian film starring a Swedish actress as a Lithuanian on the volcanic island Stromboli (near Sicily). One month ago I hadn't heard of ANY of these, but that all changed when a colleague brought some stromboli to work for lunch one day.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- ca. 150 g (5.3 oz) tomato sauce
- 120 g (4.2 oz) thinly sliced smoked ham
- 200 g (7 oz) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 red onion, cut in boats
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- 1 jalapeño chilli, finely cut
- bunch of fresh marjoram
- egg for brushing

The dough was taken out of the freezer the night before and left in the fridge to thaw, then rolled with durum flour just as when making pizza.

The rolled dough was topped with everything - not getting to close to the edges is a good idea here. The dough was then carefully rolled and transferred to a baking sheet lined with baking paper, brushed with a beaten egg and baked at 200 C (400 F) for half an hour.

After baking served as slices with a little rocket (arugula) - looks quite pretty doesn't it..

Linguine with Feta and Pickled Beets

My muse introduced me to this idea in the purest form: simply pasta, feta cheese and pickled beets. Here it's given a little extra..

Ingredients:
- 200 g (7 oz) wholegrain linguine
- 100 g (3.5 oz) feta cheese
- 100 g (3.5 oz) pickled beets
- rocket (= arugula)
- 1/2 red onion
- 4-5 tbsp beet pickling juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- dried rosemary

The linguine was boiled in lightly salted water.

While boiling the linguine, the rest was prepared: the rocket was rinsed and left to drip off. Feta cheese, pickled beet and the onion were all chopped semi-finely.

When the linguine was cooked, the water was discarded and everything was stirred together in a large bowl - served immediately.

Italian Sausage Pizza

Long time ago - when I was still living in California - I made a pizza with Italian sausages. Recently, I started thinking about this one again, and I thought I'd give it a go when I found some salcissia at the supermarket - although I was somewhat doubtful that these would be exactly like American "sweet Italian sausage".

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- 285 g (10 oz) salcissia fresca
- ca. 150 g (5 oz) tomato sauce
- 1 onion, cut in thin boats
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- bunch fresh basil
- salt and pepper

While frying the sausages in a pan, the pizza dough was rolled out using durum flour for dusting. The tomato sauce was spread evenly on the dough. The onion was cut in boats by dividing into 16 pieces along the axis. The onion boats were laid out on the pizza.

When the sausages were done, they were sliced and placed on the pizza, followed by slices of mozzarella and leaves of fresh basil. The pizza was baked at 225 C (450 F) for 15 minutes.

Sprinkled with salt and pepper and served hot!

Chickpea and Red Pepper Soup

Chickpeas and red peppers are some of my very favourite ingredients, so when I stumbled upon this soup, I knew I had to try it.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 5 large red peppers, de-seeded, coarsely chopped
- 3 onions, coarsely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 red chillies, de-seeded, finely chopped
- 2 tsp ground coriander seed
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 3 cans chickpeas, each 240 g (8 oz) drained
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) vegetable broth
to serve:
- fresh mint
- lime juice


In a large pot, using a little oil, the onions were sautéed till just soft before adding the bell peppers. After an additional 10 minutes the garlic, spices, chickpeas and vegetable broth were added. The pot was brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting the soup simmer for 40 minutes. The soup was partially liquefied with an immersion blender and seasoned to taste with salt and black pepper.

Served immediately with a little freshly squeezed lime juice and a few leaves of fresh mint.

Juullip Immiaa

Someone close to me recently went on a business trip to Greenland and brought me back a bottle of Godthaab Julebryg (Nuuk Yule-brew).

Many elements of Greenlandic culture are in a sense also Danish - perhaps particularly the beers, as the brewing tradition was introduced to Greenland by the Vikings. Godthaab Bryghus (Nuuk Brewhouse) operated in close collaboration with a small chain of local breweries in Denmark, and true to Danish tradition they make this semi-dark Yule-brew. Fortunately for me bottles were still available when my friend was there in February.

Of course I'm interested in trying their other products, but it appears I may have to go to Nuuk and visit their bar to accomplish that...