Homemade Gravad Lax and Mustard Dill Sauce (Hovmästarsås)

 Gravad Lax which means buried salmon is an ubiquitous dish throughout Scandinvia.  Unlike the “lox” in the US, gravad lax is unsmoked and cured only with a mixture of salt and sugar.  The ratio of salt to sugar is the subject of much debate in Sweden and every family has their own recipe.  I didn’t realize how good it could be until Peter made it for me.  It is ridiculously easy to make, but you have to plan ahead since it needs a few days to cure. Peter’s mother is famous for her gravad lax and she has a special rock that she uses once a year at Christmas to weigh down the salmon.  Peter has searched for a similar perfect stone, and we finally found one which now sits on our window sill at our summer house.

In Sweden, the gravad lax would be served thinly sliced with the mustard sauce on the side as a starter.  I eat the leftovers the next day, American style, on a baguette slathered with cream cheese!  The fish keeps in the refrigerator for a week or so, if you keep it wrapped.  

2 large fillet of boned salmon with the skin on, total about 1.5 to 2 kilos

1/3 cup salt

½ cup sugar

White pepper

Lots of dill

Check that the salmon is well boned by smoothing your fingers over the flesh side of the fish.  If you feel any bones, use a pair of tweezers to pull them out. 

Mix the salt and sugar together.  Pepper generously the salmon sides and then sprinkle the sugar-salt mixture evenly over the flesh side of both salmon pieces so that there is a thin layer over the entire fish, making sure that all the flesh is covered.  

Roughly chop the dill. Take a dish that will fit the salmon, and sprinkle some dill on the bottom. Put a piece of the fish, skin side down in the dish.  Sprinkle a generous layer of dill on the flesh of the fish. Take the other piece of salmon and put it on top of the first pieces of salmon, flesh sides together, like a sandwich.  Sprinkle some dill over the skin. 

Put plastic wrap over the dish, making sure to smooth it over the top of the salmon.  Take a weight, like a large stone and put it on top of the fish.  If you don’t have a stone the right size, find a plate or something else that is about the size of the fish, and then you can put some canned food or other heavy item on top of that.  Put in the refrigerator and leave to cure.  

Flip the salmon over every day.  The sugar and salt will melt, leaving a brine. The fish will be cured in two to three days, depending on the thickness of the salmon.  However, for the best results, continue curing for a week.  To serve, slice the salmon very thinly, arrange on a plate and serve with the classic mustard sauce, below.

Mustard Sauce (Hovmästarsås)

2 table spoons of brown mustard

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons sugar

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

A few drops of Worchestersauce

Half a teaspoon of white pepper

1 tablespoon water

Half a cup of vegetable oil

1 small bunch dill, chopped fine

Mix all the ingredients together, except for the dill, until the sugar is fully dissolved into the sauce.  Take the finely chopped dill and mix into the sauce.  Chill for a few hours before serving to allow the flavors to meld together.

Old Fashioned Drop Doughnuts

I have been wanting to make doughnuts for a long time.  I can remember when I was a child living in Africa, my mother sometimes made doughnuts.  Hot, dusted in sugar, right out of the hot oil, there could not be anything tastier to a greedy child.

In November, I mentioned my doughnut desire to my friend Aiai, and she said that she made doughnuts quite often and offered to make some for me, an invitation which I immediately accepted. Her doughnuts were made from a yeast dough and allowed to rise overnight.  While they were delicious, I was looking for something a little different; a more cakey doughnut.  And, as I am not as energetic as Aiai who thinks nothing of whipping up doughnut dough before she goes to bed, I wanted something easier.

Doing doughnut research, I found a recipe for doughnut holes.  A quick baking powder type of batter, seemed to be just the ticket. Another similar recipe suggested flavoring the batter with nutmeg.  Both recipes dipped the doughnuts in a simple powdered sugar glaze, but the powdered sugar here in Sweden has potato starch in it and I find it gives the sugar an off taste which I do not like.  So, I decided that a sprinkling of granulated sugar would do. Today, using the excuse of a visit from friends Marybeth and Patrik, I tried the recipe.

The photos of one of the recipe showed perfectly round doughnut "holes" but I was unable to create this and had "blobs" instead, which I think were actually better because the little crispy wisps tasted wonderful. While these are best hot, I can report that they are equally delicious cold the next day, but it it unlikely that you will have any left over.

Makes enough for 4 greedy persons, 6 normal.

5 cups or so of vegetable oil, for frying
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 grams) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

Grated zest of one lemon

Granulated sugar to roll the finished doughnuts in

Cinnamon, if desired

Add the vegetable oil to a large, heavy-bottomed pot so that there is 2 to 3 inches of oil in the pot.  Heat the oil to 350 degrees F, measuring with a candy or deep fryer thermometer.  Prepare one plate with some paper towels on it for draining the doughnuts and one plate with granulated sugar on it (into which you can sprinkle some cinnamon if you like), to roll the finished doughnuts in.

Melt the butter in a microwave or in a small pan on the stove. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, spices and salt. Make a hole in the flour and add the egg and milk.  Whip the egg with a fork and then stir together, incorporating the flour.  Add the melted butter and combine well.

Once the oil has reached 350ºF, drop about 1 tablespoon scoops of dough into the oil, careful not to overcrowd the pan.  You can use two spoons for this job or a small ice-cream scoop.  Fry the doughnut “drops”, flipping them in the oil, for about 2 to 3 minutes or until they're golden brown.  Remember to keep an eye on the temperature and adjust the heat up or down to maintain the oil at around 350 degrees.  If you are unsure whether the doughnuts are done, you can take one out and cut it in half to see that the inside is no longer gooey.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the finished doughnuts to the paper towel-lined plate, just to absorb the excess oil.  Then move the doughnuts to the sugar plate, rolling the doughnuts in the sugar.  Best eaten hot.

Christmas Cookies: Pepparkakor

I love the holidays.  I love the crisp cold air, the festive lights and displays in store windows, the happy smiles of children, and sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows in front of a fire.  Put some mint schnapps in the hot chocolate, and life is even better! I also love holiday traditions, which is probably because I grew up in a house without any holiday traditions.  When I was old enough to care, this seemed to me a great freedom.  One year for Christmas dinner we might have a ham, another year a goose.  Or we might just go out to a Chinese restaurant instead.  We experimented and we had a lot of fun.  I pitied my friends who had to have the same boring ham every year.

On the other hand, my parents didn’t really care about Christmas or the holidays.  While my brother and I were children, they went through the motions.  They decorated a tree, perpetuated the Santa Claus myth, and we woke up to wrapped presents under the tree.  But as I got older, it was always me who decorated the tree and me who planned the Christmas dinner menu.  On the last year before I moved away to University, it seemed I was the only one who cared at all.  No one had made any Christmas preparations, bought a tree, or decorated the house.   The day before Christmas, I went out to get a tree, which was kind of ragged and sad looking being one of the only three left in the tree lot.  I decorated it all by myself.  Everyone laughed when they saw the tree; it was so scraggly and forlorn.

Perhaps this is why, when I had my own children, I was determined to have things for them to look forward to, to create that magical Christmas spirit that they would enjoy, not just as children but as adults also.  So my husband and I have made our own traditions.   Fun traditions.  One of our favorite traditions is making cookies to decorate our tree.  When our first son, Gustaf, was just two years old, inspired by a magazine cover, I decided to make some cookies and hang them on a tree.  I made stars, snowflakes, and gingerbread boys.  Since I was the only one decorating, they were decorated with only white frosting in delicate curlicues with an occasional silver dragee.  They were elegant and looked fabulous on the tree. 

Peter was inspired by my efforts and made a batch of the Christmas cookies of his childhood, a ginger cookie and insisted that I buy a pig cookie cutter, which is a traditional Swedish shape. My white decorations looked fabulous on those, also. 

When the children were very small, they loved these cookies, so much so, that we had to keep a vigilant eye on the tree to make sure that the cookies stayed on through Christmas.  We let them eat one cookie each on the days leading up to Christmas, and then we let them go at it when Christmas was through.

 

When the children got a bit older, they were not content to let me decorate the cookies by myself, they wanted to help.  I can confess that the first year that they decorated; I let them eat their creations and only hung up my own.  But the next year, they were old enough to notice that I wasn’t hanging up their cookies and insisted that theirs be up there too.  So, I hung up their cookies, with their blobs of frosting and off-kilter smears.  When the cookies were all hung, I realized that even the worst decorated cookie, artistically speaking, still looked great.  All the colors just blurred into a happy, comforting, delicious looking tree.  When the boys were 4 and 7, I asked them what was their favorite thing about Christmas, expecting the answer to be the presents, but both boys said without hesitation, “Decorating the Christmas cookies!”  They still love it and so do I. Here is the recipe for Swedish pepparkakor, a spiced ginger cookie.

2 dl sugar

1 dl water

1 dl light syrup

125 grams butter

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

½ tablespoon ground cardamom

½ tablespoon ground cloves

½ tablespoon ground dried bitter orange peel (pomeransskal)*

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Grated zest of one orange

7 dl (about 375 grams) of all purpose flour

½ tablespoon baking soda

Cut the butter in pieces and put in a large bowl.  Measure out all the spices and put them in the bowl with the butter.

Combine sugar, water, and syrup in a saucepan and heat on the stove until it reaches a rolling boil.  

Pour the hot sugar mixture over the butter and stir until the butter is melted.  Let the mixture cool until room temperature.  Mix in the flour and baking soda to form a loose dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight (or longer).  The dough will firm up as it sits.

When ready to bake, take a small portion of the dough and knead a bit.  Roll out the dough on a floured board and use cookie cutters to cut into whatever shape is desired.  You can use a thin spatula to help you lift up the cut cookies.  Lay the cookies on a buttered baking sheet or a sheet with parchment paper.  Bake in an oven 180 C (350 F) for about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookie.  Keep an eye on the first batch to see when it is done because these cookies are easy to burn.

You can garnish the cookies with almond halves, if you like.  Press the halves firmly into the dough before baking.

*Pomeransskal, dried bitter orange peel, is readily sold in Swedish stores.  If you cannot find this, you can increase the amount of fresh orange zest or omit it all together.

Madeleines

Oscar informed me this morning that he was going to make Madeleines, the French scallop shaped teacake that Proust has made so famous.  He said he had promised all of his teachers to give them some.  Oscar has loved madeleines since we lived in Berkeley where they are commonly sold at Starbucks.  A couple of weeks ago, he asked me to buy him some but I told him that I had never seen any here in Sweden.  I then mentioned that we had a madeleine pan and that we could make them.  He said no more about it and I assumed he forgot, but this morning I understood I was wrong!  He asked me to buy the ingredients and so I googled madeleines and found a myriad of recipies.  I read blogs about the cakes which discussed at length whether or not to refrigerate the dough over night and whether you must freeze the pans.  The size of the bump seems to be important, though it is unclear what size the bump should actually be.  It all looked daunting and I felt a bit tired before I even started.

Finally, I found two recipes that interested me.  One was by Martha Stewart which used cardamom and orange instead of the traditional lemon as flavoring.  The second was in Epicurious and this one I liked for its simplicity.  No refrigerating the dough, no messing about with the pans, and no bump discussions.

Oscar and I made both kinds, traditionally flavored with lemon, and ones made with orange and cardamom. They turned out to be easily made; the batter only took a few minutes to put together. Both flavors were delicious, particularly  when hot straight out of the oven, which is the way I believe they are intended to be eaten.  Slightly crispy on the molded side and tender on the other side. Most recipes say to dust with powdered sugar but they did not need the extra sweetening.

The Martha Stewart recipe specified a simple orange juice and powdered sugar glaze to brush over the finished cakes.  If I thought that the cakes would last more than an hour in my house or I was making them in advance, I would be tempted to do this because I suspect it would help keep them fresher.  But it is gilding the lily.

Makes 24 madeleines

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel or orange peel

½ teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Pinch of salt

1 cup all purpose flour

10 tablespoons (140 grams) butter

Powdered sugar, if you like

Preheat oven to 350°F (175 c). Generously butter and flour pan for madeleines). In a small pan, melt the butter with the lemon or orange peel and cardamom, if you are using it.  In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs and 2/3 cup sugar with a whisk just to blend. Beat in vanilla, and salt. Add flour; beat just until blended. Gradually add cooled melted butter in steady stream, beating just until blended.

Spoon 1 tablespoon batter into each indentation in pan, so that is almost completely filled. A small icecream scooper makes this an easier job. Bake until puffed and brown at the edges, about 10 to 15 minutes. Gently remove from pan. Repeat process, buttering and flouring pan before each batch.

Dust cookies with powdered sugar, if you wish.

*A metal mold with scallop-shaped indentations, sold at cookware stores.  If you are using a non-stick pan, then you do not need to flour the pan.

Christmas Stollen

The holiday season brings upon a flurry of baking in my house.  This year, I was inspired by a recipe in the Wall Street Journal to make a Christmas Stollen, which a German sweet bread studded with rum soaked fruit.  Perusing different recipes for stollen, I came across one on the BBC which incorporated a swirl of marzipan.  In order to get the correct proportions of yeast and flour, I had to find a Swedish recipe which was adapted to the live yeast that you can buy here.  Collating and cross referencing these different recipes took a bit of time, with the result that it took me almost all day, even with the dilligent help of Gustaf, to bake these loaves.  Then, distracted by making dinner, I messed up on the final baking of the loaves, baking them at too high a heat, an error I did not notice until I checked on the loaves about half way through the cooking time and saw that they were already quite brown on top.  I had to take my loaves out in order for them not to burn, with the sad result that the center of the loaf is a tiny bit gooey and underdone.  Peter assures me that it tastes better that way but he is a guy that steals raw dough as I am making it.  While the final result is a bit dissapointing to me, the flavor is excellent and I can see that it would have been perfect if not for that too high temperature.  But now you are forewarned, so yours will perfect.  I promise.

Enough for 2 stollen

100 grams candied orange peel

200 grams raisins

200 grams other dried fruit (for example, currents, cranberries, apricots, pineapple, figs, citron peel etc), chopped into appropriate sized pieces

1 dl rum

2 dl almonds, slivered

35 grams yeast

2 dl Milk

2 eggs

200 grams butter, at room temperature

5 dl (270 grams) strong bread flour

5 to 8  dl (about 300 to 450 grams) all-purpose flour

50 grams sugar 

1 pinch salt

1 whole Lemon or orange zest

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

400 grams Marzipan, optional

The night before you want to make the bread, mix the raisins, orange peel, and dried fruit together and add the rum, mixing it all together.  Let the mixture stand overnight to absorb the rum, stirring occasionally if you can be bothered.  When you are ready to begin the bread, strain the fruit, reserving the residual rum to brush onto the bread after baking.

Make the starter by crumbling the yeast into a large bowl.  Warm your milk in a small pan on the stove to about 100 degrees F, slightly warm to your finger.  Be careful not to warm to much because you will kill your yeast.  Stir the warm milk into the bowl with yeast until the yeast is fully dissolved.  Add 2 dl flour, mix well and allow the starter to stand for half an hour, after which the yeast will have puffed up the mixture.

Into the bowl with the starter, add 5 dl of bread flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cloves and zest of either one lemon or orange.  Stir the ingredients together, to form a stiff dough.  Add about one quarter of the softened butter, alternating with a decilitre of all purpose flour.  Knead with your hands, in the bowl, until the butter and flour are incorporated, and then add more butter.  Continue until all the butter is incorporated and you have a nice dough that is still soft but not too sticky.  You should have used about three to four deciliters of the all purpose flour.  Turn the dough out onto a generously floured board and knead for at least 15 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth.  During this kneading process, incorporate a further decilitre or two of flour.  Once the dough is fully kneaded, spread it out a bit on your board, sprinkle with some all-purpose flour, and pour over about half of your dried fruit.  Draw the dough over the fruit and knead together, addingmore flour when the dough gets sticky.  When the fruit is incorporated, repeat the procedure with the remaining fruit.  Finally, add in the slivered almonds. 

Shape the dough into a neat ball and put into a bowl and cover with a towel to rise for about an hour until the dough doubles in size.  At this point, you can also put the dough in the refrigerator and let it rise more slowly overnight, if you prefer, in order for you to bake it the morning. A slower yeasting brings out more complex flavors in the bread, and is commonly used among artisan breadmakers to get a finer more flavorful bread.  However, in this case, the bread is so highly flavoured with spices and other ingredients, that it seems to me the subtle flavour differences brought upon by a slow yeasting are irrelevant.  However, you still may want to use the slower yeasting to adjust the timing of baking your bread to fit your schedule.

Once the bread has finished its first rise, knead it for a minute or two and divide the dough in half. (You can also bake one large loaf, if you prefer.) 

For the marzipan swirl, take each half of the dough and roll out, using a rolling pin, to a rectangle.  Take half of the marzipan (200 grams) and roll out to a rectangle, slightly smaller than the dough.  Use powdered sugar to keep the marzipan from sticking to your board.  Put the marzipan on the dough and roll up the dough on the long side of the rectangle.  Pinch the ends shut and pinch the dough to seal it on the edge, making sure there is no marzipan sticking out.  Place the roll on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.  Repeat for the second piece of dough.  If you prefer not to have the marzipan in the dough, then simply shape each ball of dough into a long loaf shape.

Cover with a towel and let the bread rise for the second time, for about an hour or until the loaves double in size.  Bake in a 180 degree Celsius (350 degree F) oven for 35 to 45 minutes until the loaves are brown.  Do not be tempted to raise the temperature to get a faster bake because the sugar in the dough will make the loaves brown too quickly, while the inside will remain uncooked.

When the loaves have cooled but are still warm, brush the loaves with the leftover rum from soaking the fruit.  Then brush with melted butter and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar.  When the cake is cooled, you can sprinkle some more powdered sugar over, if you like, to make a more even “white” surface.  Cut into slices to serve.

Lucia Rolls

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  Santa Lucia is a holiday in Sweden celebrated on December 13th.  Leading up to the day, the prettiest girl in town is chosen to represent the saint in a candlelit procession.  Lucia is an Italian saint who lived in Sicily about 1,800 years ago and who died for her Christian faith.  She became very celebrated throughout Italy and her day has been marked on the calendar and celebrated in Sweden since medieval times.  However, today's Swedish tradition dates very much from the lat 19th century and has more to with a celebration of light than Christianity.  What is important about the holiday, is of course, the food.  Traditionally, saffron flavored sweet rolls are served along with copious quantities of mulled wine.

Lussekatter, as these rolls are called in Sweden, are a slightly sweetened saffron bread.  They are actually a bit bland to eat, but the flavor grows on you;  the first mouthful is a bit dull but by the end of the roll, you are ready for another.  I wanted to liven the traditional recipe with some candied orange peel and perhaps a topping of rock sugar, but my family protested terribly against any alteration from the traditional!

•  200 grams butter
• 1 gram powdered saffron
• 5 dl milk
  ½ dl whipping cream
  50 grams live yeast
  2 eggs
  1 pinch salt
  2 ½ dl sugar
  16 to 17 dl bread flour
  For garnish, a handful of raisins and an egg for the wash

• Melt the butter in a large pot on the stove with the saffron.   Take off the stove.  Measure out the milk.  Pour the milk into the butter until the mixture feels  just warm to your finger.  Set any remaining milk aside.  Crumble the yeast cake into the butter/milk mixture and stir until the yeast is fully dissolved.  Add the rest of the milk and the cream to this mixture. 

In large bowl, measure out 14 dl of the bread flour, the salt and the sugar.  Make a hole in the middle of the flour and break in the two eggs.  Beat lightly with a fork and then pour in the milk/butter mixture.  Stir the flour and liquids together with a large wooden spoon until it is combined.  If you feel that the mixture is firm enough to knead, you can turn it out onto a floured board.  If it is still too sticky, add more flour until you feel it is firm enough. 

Generously flour your hands and the board and knead the dough, adding more flour when the dough gets sticky.  Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Put in a bowl and cover with a towel and leave to rise for an hour.

Punch the dough down and knead for about a minute to get the air bubbles out.  Cut the dough into four pieces and then cut each quarter into 6 to 8 pieces.  Roll each piece into a long snake.  Curl the snake in opposite directions on each side until you meet at the middle.  Stick a raisin into the center of each curl.  Place onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, leaving plenty of room for the buns to rise.  Cover with a towel and leave to rise for about an hour.

• Beat an egg and brush the tops of each bun. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for 8 to 10 minutes until golden on the top.
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