Coconut, Rum and Lime Cake

The flavors of a tropical summer holiday in a cake. Need I say more?

The cake is a dense but fluffy with lots of texture from the shredded coconut.  Although it seems fiddly to do a cake, syrup and frosting, it is actually easy to make. You can eliminate the frosting but do cover the cake in the lime syrup because it creates a more intense lime flavor.

Cake:

225 grams butter, at room temperature
2.5 dl sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 3 limes
3 eggs
4 dl flour
2.5 dl dried flaked coconut + 3 tablespoons for pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teapoon salt
2 tablespoons rum

Lime Syrup
juice of 3.5 limes
1/2 dl sugar

Frosting
100 grams butter, at room temperature
100 grams cream cheese
3 dl powdered sugar
2 teaspoons rum
zest of one lime, plus juice of half a lime

Zest 4 limes and squeeze the juice.  Set aside 1/4 of the lime zest for the frosting and a tablespoon of the lime juice.

Turn on the oven to 175C (325F).   Prepare your cake pan by rubbing it with butter.  Throw in 3 tablespoons of shredded coconut and shake the pan so that the coconut evenly covers the bottom and side.  This will both help the cake from sticking to the pan and create a nice crust.  Set aside pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, sugar, vanilla, and rum together until light and fluffy.  Add in the lime zest, flour, salt, and baking powder. Beat carefully until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated but do not overmix. Add in the coconut and stir until it is evenly distributed through batter.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven from 35 to 45 minutes. The cake will be brown and top and a toothpick will come out clean when it is done.

While the cake is baking, make the lime syrup.  Take the juice of 3.5 limes and add 1/2 dl sugar into a small pot.  Put on the stove and bring the lime juice to boiling.  Take the pot off the stove and set it aside to cool.

When the cake is out of the oven, take a fork or toothpick and poke holes all over the top.  Spoon over the lime syrup, trying to cover the cake evenly.  Set the cake aside to cool.

When the cake is cool, make the frosting.  Whip the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl.  Add in about a third of the powdered sugar, the rum, and about half of the lime juice.  Whip together and add in the rest of the sugar.   The frosting should lighten in color and get very fluffy.  If you wish the frosting to be stiff (if you want to pipe it onto the cake and have it hold its shape), then you will need to add more sugar.  I like it looser and I just spoon it on top of the cake.  Adjust the lime juice and to your liking, remembering that the more liquid you add, the looser the consistency of the frosting.

Unmold the cake and put it on a serving plate.  Smooth the frosting over the top of the cake only, letting the sides of the cake show.

Store leftover cake in the refrigerator.

Falkenberg Cakes (Falkenbergare)

There is an amazing bakery called Stålbloms down near my summer house on the west coast of Sweden.  All of their cakes are gorgeous and delicious.  Their Princess Cake is divine. They make the best Semlor that I have ever tasted, a cardamom flavored bun that is filled with marzipan and whipped cream and only served during the Spring.  It always amazes me that this bakery, in a little town in the countryside, rivals the best bakeries in Stockholm.

While all of their cakes are memorable, there is one that I dream about. It is an unassuming plain little cake topped with a glaze and sprinkling of candied orange peel.  Even if I am tempted by one of the more glorious looking cakes to eat for my fika, which I love to take in their pretty garden, I buy one of these to take home with me and eat slowly while gazing out at the sea.
They call these cakes Falkenbergare, after the name of the town Falkenberg, where Stålbloms was founded.  These cakes are sticky and dense, almost custardy.  They are rich but not cloying.  The combination of almond and orange is delectable.  I have googled the name of this cake several times and I have kept an eye out for these cakes at every bakery that I visit.  But I have never found a mention of them on the internet or seen them at any other bakery.

This summer, I was excited to notice that they had a cookbook for sale.  I eagerly looked through it to see if they had published a recipe for my beloved cake...and YES!  So, now I can have these wonderful cakes any time I like, and so can you.  Here is the recipe, slightly modified from the original:

Makes about 15 cakes

Cake:
250 grams butter at room temperature
500 grams marzipan (mandelmassa)*
1 tablespoon potato flour or cornstarch
5 eggs

Glaze:
About 4 dl powdered sugar
Zest of one orange
Juice of about half an orange
Candied orange peel, to garnish


Preheat the oven to 190C (375F). Butter a muffin pan or other small cake forms. Grate the marzipan to make it easier to incorporate into the butter. Put the marzipan and butter into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer until it is well mixed and creamy.

Add in the potato flour (or cornstarch) and the eggs, one at a time, mixing until each egg is well incorporated. The batter will become lighter and fluffy with each additional egg, but still be very thick.

Divide the cake batter into the muffin tin or forms, filling each form almost full. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes until browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean.  Take the cakes out of the oven and let cool.



While the cakes bake, you can make the glaze.  Put the powdered sugar in a bowl with the orange zest.  Add in some orange juice, a few drops at a time and stir until the glaze feels thick enough to spread easily but not so thin as to be drippy.

When the cakes are cool, unmold them and top each cake with a spoonful of the glaze and spread the glaze around the top.  Sprinkle some candied orange peel on top of each cake.  Eat reflectively and slowly, preferably while staring out at the sea.


* This cake calls for a marzipan that is 50/50 sugar and almonds.  In Sweden, this mixture is called mandelmassa or almond paste.  Marzipan in Sweden is more sugar than almonds about 60/40.

Kladdkaka “Sticky Cake”

This cake is a Swedish classic and it can be found in most cafés, is served frequently for dessert at parties, and a quick version can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store.  It is very similar to an American brownie in texture, being slightly sticky in the center.  Like a brownie, it can easily be overcooked, in which case it will be a more ordinary chocolate cake, still delicious, but not a kladdkaka!  This version is from Lelia Lindholm, a Swedish baker, whose cookbook is one of my favorites. It is a simple recipe and is the best version of this cake that I have tasted.

It is so simple, that have relinquished the baking of this cake to my son Oscar.  Oscar and his friend Konrad whipped up the batch in these photos and had a great time doing it.

50 grams butter

½ deciliter cooking oil

2 eggs

2 deciliters sugar

1 deciliter granulated brown sugar (raw sugar)

2.5 deciliters flour

4 teaspoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla (or vanilla sugar)

1 pinch salt

50 grams dark chocolate  (use a good eating chocolate here)

Get into all the nooks and crannies when buttering the pan.

Put the butter in a bowl and melt it in the microwave, usually about one minute.  When the butter is melted, mix with the cooking oil, and set aside

In another bowl, beat the eggs, and two types of sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Stir in the butter and oil mixture.  Add the flour, baking powder,cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt and stir the batter until well incorporated.

This recipe makes one cake but the boys doubled it.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan.  Chop the dark chocolate into small pieces and sprinkle over the cake batter.

Bake the cake for about 30 minutes.  When testing the cake, it should be still sticky in the center.  The cake will puff up, but then as it cools it will fall in the middle.  This is totally normal, so don't freak out.

Serve with whipped cream.

Juniper Smoked Scallops

This seems to be the summer when I write about Fäviken, the famous restaurant near Åre in Sweden, even though my one meal there was a couple of years ago.  I just posted the recipe for a meadowsweet cordial that was inspired by Fäviken, and now this. Among the many memorable dishes were the fattest scallops that I have ever seen, served in its shell.  The waitor informed us that they were fresh from Norway, which is less than 50km away.  The next summer after we ate at Fäviken, there were fresh scallops in their shells at the fishmonger.  They were expensive, but we had to try to recreate this dish, or to be more precise, Peter had to recreate the dish, grilling and seafood being part of his manly terrain.

It has become an annual ritual of summer for us to eat these scallops, whenever we can get scallops on the shell at the market, which is not that often.  I had thought about putting it on my blog, but cleaning the scallops is time consuming and a bit much for your average cook, and, in fact, I have never done it, only watched Peter.  This year, Gustaf requested these scallops for his birthday dinner.  We were unable to get the scallops on the shell, so we decided to try make the dish using frozen scallops.  The result was splendid, cheaper, and so so easy.  Now, Faiviken's version, as I recall, was delicate, with just a smidge of butter, and a whisper of smoke.  Peter's version is more. More butter, more smoke.  And I think it is even better than the original.

The dish just requires three ingredients: scallops, butter, and juniper.  Somehow, when the scallops meet the butter and both are infused with the aromatic smoke from the juniper, the results are much much greater than you would believe.  The buttery juices are delectable and must be soaked up in lots of crusty bread or a spoon, if you are greedy.

This recipe is more of a method than an exact science.

Gather an armful of juniper.  This is a common plant, so you probably have a juniper tree growing near you somewhere.  You can identify them by their blueish purple berries which can be picked and used to flavor wild game dishes, a commong flavoring here in Sweden.

Allow 2 to 3 large scallops per person, for a starter, more if you are serving these as your main course.  You can use fresh or frozen, the largest that you can find.  I found mine at the local ICA store in the frozen section, about 30 scallops in one bag.  If you are in the USA, Costco has excellent frozen scallops and I recomend those unless you have a really good trusted fishmonger.

Light an outdoor grill with charcoal.  While the coals are heating, you can prepare the scallops. Get ready copious amounts of butter.

Find a cast iron pan or something that will take the heat of a grill and has some edges to capture the juice. We used a Swedish pancake pan, which has convenient depressions. On a cast iron pan, arrange large splodges of butter--more than you think necessary.  Then double that amount.  Lay the mussels on top of the butter.

When the grill is hot, throw the juniper onto it.  It will start smoking immediately. Alot of smoke. Put the rack down and then put the pan with the mussels on top.  Put the lid on the grill.  Let the mussels cook for a couple of minutes until the butter is melted and slightly bubbling. The mussels will taken on some color from the smoke.


Serve immediately, spooning the juices over the scallops with lots of crusty bread to soak up the flavored buttery juices.  Don't be shy about dipping your bread into any juices that might remain in the pan.  Try not to fight over it.

Rhubarb and Red Currant Pie with a Lattice Crust

My son Gustaf is a big pie lover.  He loves it so much that he has pie every year for his birthday instead of cake. Rhubarb is one of his favorites, which is lucky since it is in season during his birthday.  At our summer house, I have planted a rhubarb on a sunny hillside where it basically grows without any care from me.  Every now and then I think about weeding it and then usually decide to do something else.  Depending on the kind of rhubarb you have, the pie filling can turn out to be a greenish shade.  To tip the filling over to red, it is traditional to add strawberries.  This year, I decided to add red currants, which I have in the garden.  This turned out to be an inspired choice because the red currants do not overpower the rhubarb flavor and they give a spectacular color. They also contain a lot of pectin which helps the filling set.

Because I made this as a birthday pie, I decided to use a lattice crust, to give it an extra special feeling.  I think you will agree, that the lattice looks gorgeous with the red fruit filling peeking through.  It is actually very easy to make a lattice crust with this method, which I show in photographs, although of course it does take more time.  I got this method from the amazing Pie by Ken Haedrick.  I highly reccomend this book if you are interested in pie.


Classic all butter pie crust 

(2 crusts)

3 cups flour (350 grams)

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks/225 grams) cold butter, cut into small pieces

½ cup (8 tablespoons) cold water

With a food processor:

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse several times to mix.  Add half of the butter to the mixture and pulse 6 or so times.  Fluff up the mixture with a fork, making sure to get all around the sides.  Add the rest of the butter and pulse again about 6 times.  Fluff with a fork again.  Add about half of the water and pulse 6 times.  Fluff again.  Add the final half of the water and pulse 6 times.  When it is ready, it will be starting to form some clumps.  Don’t let it completely form a big ball, because you will over process it.  You want the butter to be in tiny pieces, not completely amalgamated.  It is the process of the butter melting and steam forming in the dough that makes the pie dough flakey.

Turn the dough out into a big bowl and knead once or twice, just so the dough comes together in a big ball.  Divide the mixture into two even sized balls.  Wrap each ball in plastic wrap, flattening them out while you wrap.  Put the balls in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  You can also freeze the dough now, if you want to save it for a later use. 

By hand:

If you do not have a word processor, you can do it by hand.  After adding the butter and shortening, use your fingers to smear the butter into the flour.  After a bit, you will find the mixture resembling a coarse crumble.  Try to work it quickly so that the butter doesn’t melt and don’t overwork the dough.  It should not be smooth and even, but have little blotches of butter in it. Add the water and mix the dough, kneading it a few times, just enough so that the dough holds together and can form a ball. Divide the mixture into two even sized balls.  Wrap each ball in plastic wrap, flattening them out while you wrap.  Put the balls in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  You can also freeze the dough now, if you want to save it for a later use. 

Rolling the crust:

Take the ball of dough out of the refrigerator about 15 minutes before you want to use it to let it warm up a little bit. On a floured pastry cloth or floured piece of wax paper, roll out one of the pieces of dough, large enough to fit your pie pan.  Because the dough is cold, it will have a tendency to crack, so don't roll with too much pressure at the beginning.  If the dough is not yet malleable enough to roll, just leave out for another 10 minutes and try again.

Roll the dough over your rolling pin and lift it onto your pan.  Smooth the dough out into the pan, leaving the excess dough hanging over the edge of the pan.  Stick the prepared crust into the freezer while you prepare the filling.  Freezing the crust helps it from getting soggy in the beginning of the baking and also helps to protect the crust when you are putting the filling.

Rhubarg and Red Currant Filling:

about 700 grams of rhubarb (3 to 4 large stalks)

about 150 grams red currants (about a cup)

about 325 grams sugar (1 1/2 cup)

a teaspoon ground cardamum

a teaspoon ground cinnamon

a pinch of salt

5 tablespoons flour

Cut the rhubarb in half lengthwise or in quarters if the stalk is very thick.  Chop into dice about one centimeter wide.  Pour into a large bowl.  Add the red currants, sugar, salt and spices.  Stir until all the fruit is covered evenly with the sugar mixture.  Taste a piece of fruit. If you think it is too sour, add a bit more sugar.  Add in the flour and stir again until the flour is evenly mixed in.

Preparing the pie:

Preheat the oven to 400F(200C).  Take the crust out of the freezer and pour in the filling.

Roll out the second crust and slice into 8 even strips, about 2.5 to 3 cm wide. These will form your lattice.

1) Lay the longest strip in the center of the pie and then arrange two shorter pieces on either side, for a total of five strips.  In this picture, I forgot the middle strip and had to move my strips over to get a fifth strip in, which you will see in the next picture.




2) Pull back the two strips on either side of the center to a bit more than half way.  Lay another long strip in the center, perpendicular.  Fold the two strips back down.










3) Fold back the center strip about a third of the way and the two outside strips, and lay another strip down, perpendicular.  Fold the three strips back.  You have finished half the pie.









4) Now do the same on the other side.  Fold back the center strips and two outside strips.  Lay the last strip down and fold the three strips back.  You are done with your lattice!  Take a second to admire your work.


5) Now, trim the strips and the first crust so that there is an even overlay of about 3 cm.  Fold and roll the crust outside, tucking it underneath the bottom crust, leaving a ridge of about a cm. Crimp the crust with your fingers, or use a fork to make a pattern.  Your pie is done!

If you want to gild the lily, you can brush the crust with a beaten egg, or a bit of cream so that it will bake up shiny and nice.  I had a bit of cream in the fridge, so that is what I used.  You can be happy with that, or you can sprinkle some sugar or nuts over the crust.  I was going to use rock sugar but I didn't have any at hand, so I decided upon some sliced almonds.


Put the pie in the oven and turn down the heat to 375F (190C).  Bake for 40 minutes  and then turn the pie around 180 degrees.  Bake for a further half an hour or until the filling is bubbling thickly in the center of the pie.  It can take up to an hour and a half in total, depending on your oven. Check to make sure it is not getting too brown on the crust, if so, shield it with a piece of tinfoil.  

Let cool, ideally for a few hours so that the filling has time to thicken.  Serve with vanilla icecream.

Slow Cooker: Oriental Beef Stew

This fragrant stew is an easy riff on a classic Chinese dish called red-cooked beef. When I was a child, my Chinese grandmother would make a similar type of dish for special occasions like my birthday enriched with boiled eggs and glass noodles.  The eggs, which were my favorite part, would be boiled and peeled and then cooked with the beef, and would end up colored and tasting of the delicious broth.  The eggs symbolized fertility and the noodles symbolized long life.  Sometimes, my grandmother would have a dish of red colored eggs where the red color meant prosperity, good luck, and happiness.

The flavor of the stew comes from star anise and five spice powder which is a mixture of spices normally including cloves, cinnamon, sichaun pepper, star anise, and fennel. I love using star anise because they are so amazingly pretty.  The five spice powder can be used as a spice rub on meat, in stir fries, or even stirred into mayonaise for a dip.  It makes everything taste vaguely Chinese!  Orange and ginger are complementary flavors that I throw in, if I happen to have the ingredients around.  But the stew will taste also good without them.

For everyday, I usually don't bother to do the extra step of boiling the eggs. Making it in a slow cooker makes it easy to serve on a weekday, but you can also make it on a pot on the stove.

Serves 6

1.5 kilo stewing beef

1 large onion

2 to 3 carrots
2 to 3 turnips or half of a daikon radish

2 star anise
2 teaspoons five spice powder

4 tablespoons soysauce, adjust to taste
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, optional
grated zest of one orange, optional
8 cloves of garlic

black pepper

oil for frying the beef
4 to 6 boiled eggs, peeled (allow one per person), optional

First prepare all the ingredients. This can be done the night before, if you just want to throw it all in the slow cooker in the morning. Cut the beef into bite size chunks.   Chop the onions into large dice.  Peel the carrots and the turnips or radish and chop into large bite size pieces.  Peel the garlic and chop each clove into two pieces.  Peel the ginger and slice thinly.

Take a large pot or skillet and put on the stove on the highest heat.  Put some oil in the pan and brown the beef in three to four batches.  If you try to brown all the beef at once, the heat will drop in the pot and the juices will come out of the meat and you will end up boiling the meat instead of browning it.  For each batch, drop in pieces in a single layer to cover the bottom of the pan, making sure that each piece has contact with the pan.  Turn the pieces over until they are nicely brown on all sides.  Put the browned pieces in a bowl (or straight into the slow cooker pot), and then repeat until all the meat is done.  In between batches, if the browned bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan look like they might burn, throw in a quarter cup of water and scrape the bottom of the pan.  Add this water to the bowl with the browned meat.  It is these caramelized juices that will form much of the flavor of the stew, so you want to make sure you get it all! Then, heat the pan again and add a bit more oil and continue browning the meat.

When all the meat is browned, add a bit of water to the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan, stirring until all the browned goodness at the bottom is dissolved into the water.  Pour this water into the bowl with the meat.

Put the browned meat and the juices into the pot (or your slow cooker), add the vegetables, onion, garlic, and peeled boiled eggs if you are using them, and pour in water about half way up (about 2 cups of water).  Put in the spices and soysauce.  Pepper generously. If using a slow cooker, then turn it on, according to how long you will be away and put on the lid.  

If cooking on the stove, then bring the stew to a boil.  Let the stew simmer at a light boil for an hour with the lid off (this will evaporate some of the liquid to make a stronger tasting broth).  After an hour, taste the stew liquid for salt.  Add some salt or more soysauce if necessary.  The liquid should taste fairly full bodied.  If it tastes a bit weak, leave the lid off to reduce the liquid further, but be careful to salt with a light hand.  If the liquid already tastes good, then put the lid on and lower the heat until the stew is just simmering.  Simmer until the meat is very tender, a further one to two hours. 

Whether made on the stove or in the slow cooker, taste and adjust the salt before serving hot over white rice.  Stir fried bok choy, spinach, or other greens make a nice accompaniment.

Diet Series: Mushroom Soup

As I have alluded to in many of these posts, my life is a battle between my desire to look like I did at 25 and my obsession with eating. Unfortunately, lately, the obsession has won out...meaning an unfortunate weight gain which I have been ignoring until my trainer forced me to step on the scale. That nasty number has driven me back into my starvation diet mode. So, as you can imagine, that will mean less tasty recipes or restaurant reviews for a while. But, I can give you the fruits of my labor in trying to make my diet less onerous. Thus, I will try to publish my more successful and tasty diet dishes. Now, note these ARE diet dishes, and thus they are less tasty then they would be if I added more butter, cream and other luscious items. I will however give you suggestions for these kinds of additions, just in case you aren't trying to starve yourself like I am. Some of the dishes, I note, would be perfectly lovely as they are, if they were say, followed by a steak or triple cheeseburger....but I digress.

Soup is an excellent thing when you are on a diet. The high proportion of liquid makes it (almost) guaranteed to be low cal and relatively filling, although sadly, the satiation effect only lasts about 10 minutes. So here is my mushroom soup. It is a cinch to make and can be gussied up for guests or just eaten as is. It really is pretty good.

12 ounces sliced button mushrooms (that is 1 1/2 of those little pre-sliced boxes...go ahead make life easier on yourself) (75 calories)
1 large handful shitake mushrooms, sliced (15 calories)
1 handful dried porcini mushrooms, crumbled (30 calories)
1 large onion, chopped (50 calories)
a couple cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups (16 fluid oz) chicken broth (20 calories)
1 chicken bullion cube
handful of fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tablespoons butter (200 calories)
About 1 cup water, to thin the soup to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a soup pot on medium heat, add chopped onion and garlic. Cook until onions are soft. Reserve a handful of the button mushrooms, and put the rest in the pot, along with the shitake mushrooms and rosemary. Fry for a few minutes. Add the chicken broth. Assuming that you are using canned broth, add the bullion cube. If you happen to have some really great homemade chicken broth, then nix the cube. Add the water...better to add less than more; you can always thin it out later. Bring to a boil and let cook for about 15 minutes (more time won't hurt at all) until the mushrooms are tender. Take your whoozy whoo immersion blender thingy and whizz it all up until smooth (Need I say that you can also put it in your food processor or a blender, if you lack this essential kitchen tool?). Take the reserved mushrooms and chop them quite finely and put in the soup. This gives it a bit of texture. Simmer it for a few more minutes until the newly added mushrooms are tender. Now, taste the whole thing and add some pepper to taste and some salt, if it needs it. If it is too thick, add some more water (or cream, see below).


It tastes pretty good, huh? It will be quite thick and creamy from the pureed mushrooms. The dried porcini, shitake, and rosemary give it a lot of flavor. If you don't have any dried porcini, then you can increase the shitake to button mushroom ratio. Probably you can just do it will the button mushrooms but the flavor will be more bland. The calorie content of the whole pot of soup is about 400 calories. It will feed 4 people as a starter, and 2 hungry dieters...but even if you eat the whole pot yourself, at this calorie level, you can afford it.


If you aren't on a diet and you want the yummiest soup possible, then clearly, you will be wanting to add some cream at the end. Don't add too much though, the soup is already quite rich. At 52 calories per tablespoon for heavy whipping cream, you don't want to go overboard...You can also throw in some croutons, freshly made with butter, and maybe top the whole thing with some chopped chives, for some elegance. You could instead put a dollop of creme fraiche (or sour cream--26 calories per tablespoon--we don't have to be so fancy) as a garnish instead of the cream in the soup. It will look elegant and not add as many calories. You can also vary the herbs, if you prefer. Dill, thyme or tarragon would also taste good. My rosemary bush just happens to be outside my door and I like that combination with the earthy porcini. If I were just doing button mushrooms, then I would probably use dill, which will give a very different flavor but compliment the relatively blandness of the white mushrooms.

Christmas Sausage

We have started a tradition here in the Fredell household, following our love of pig: the Christmas sausage. Actually, we are not original. In Sweden, the traditional Julbord (Christmas Table) contains many different kinds of sausages and in the good old days, these would have been made by hand. So last year, we started making our own, figuring that we love sausage, it will be fun to do our own, and what the hell, why not at Christmas?! I spoke to my sister-in-law today, to wish each other Merry Christmas, and informed her that Peter and I were elbow deep in pork and she commented that we were not alone. Apparently, it is another Christmas tradition that the King and Queen of Sweden make sausage. Their sausage is proudly displayed on TV on Christmas day. So, we are in good company. This year, our sausage is flavored with orange, fennel, and garlic. Although it is for dinner tonight, we have already tested our creation, and I can tell you it is really good.

I know that everyone might not be up for sausage making, but, really, making the meat stuffing part is simple. If you don't want to stuff all those intestines, for which you need some special equipment, I think using the stuffing to make meatloaf would be equally delicious, or even meatballs! This recipe makes about 30 or so regular size sausages, so if you want to just do a meatloaf, cut the recipe down to 1/4 th or so.

5 pounds cheapest cut of pork (we used shoulder)
1 small packet of bacon
1 pound pork fat (you can ask your butcher for this)
zest of 3 oranges
1 to 2 heads of garlic, peeled
2 large onions
1 fennel bulb
3 to 4 tablespoons fennel seed
salt
pepper
some olive oil
pig intestine for casings (you will probably have to order this from your butcher)

Dice the onion, and fennel bulb. Finely dice the garlic. Saute on medium heat the onion, fennel, and garlic in some olive oil until soft, but not browned. Take the pork and bacon and cut into chunks. Use either a meatgrinder or food processor to grind into mince. If you are using the food processor, be careful not to grind it too finely. You want it chuncky like hamburger meat, not a smooth puree.

Thanksgiving Sides

Thanksgiving is getting closer and I am starting to think about the menu. As we have not been living in the U.S. for the last ten years, Thanksgiving has been an excuse for us to give a big party, rather than the family event it is here. We have had a couple of really memorable ones. One year, when we lived in Stockholm, we borrowed a greenhouse which was part of a cafe in the summer, only a few minutes walk from our house. Peter spent hours filling the greenhouse with candles, and lit the snowy path from our house to the greenhouse with torches. It was really beautiful. The guests had drinks at our house and then walked in the dark, following the torches up the road to see a glowing greenhouse in the white snow. Meanwhile, my friend Marybeth and I furiously cooked in the cafe's kitchen...we got to use their industrial ovens and potato peeler; which was a good thing because we had about 50 guests. The next morning, we staggered back to the cafe, after having had about 4 hours of sleep to clean up the whole thing. We had a plane to catch to Brussels in the afternoon, so there was no sleeping in. After that experience, I always try to remember to hire someone to clean up after a big party...a luxury, yes, but it makes it so much nicer! Another excellent Thanksgiving was in London a few years back. My friend Nancy came and we cooked up a really fantastic spread, with about a million side dishes, two kinds of cranberry sauce, a gorgeous cheese plate, and 3 desserts, including a lemon rose cake. That feast was probably the pinnacle of food excellence for any of our Thanksgivings.

Judging by all the articles in magazines about turkey, people seem to focus on the bird. But for me, Thanksgiving is all about sides. Who cares if the bird is dry? Smother that baby in Madeira mushroom gravy and eat it with potato squash gratin and brussel sprouts with chestnuts, and who is going to notice a little dryness? I like to cook up new sides every year, while still keeping the same categories of potato, squash, and something green. Here are some side dishes that I really like, mostly from that gourmet Thanksgiving in London.

Spicy Sweet Potato (serves 4 to 6)
I do this quite often. I like to serve it with roasted pork belly. The sweet spiciness tastes great with pork. This is really easy to do, but the spices make it a bit dramatic. You could also do the same thing with squash, like pumpkin or acorn squash. It won't be as rich or sweet, but still it will be nice.

2 large sweet potatoes
1 floury potato (you can just use another sweet potato here, as I have often done, and nothing bad happens, but the spiciness is a bit less pronounced)
1/2 stick butter
some fresh rosemary
1 fresh red chili (heat of chili according to taste)
3 to 4 cloves of garlic

Peel and boil the potatoes until tender. Mash. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan. Lightly chop the rosemary. Peel the garlic and slice. Finely slice the red chili. Add spices to melted butter. Cook until butter is golden brown. Add hot butter and spices to mash. Stir it in and serve hot. The mash can be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator. To serve, heat up the mash in the microwave, remember to stir to make sure it is evenly hot, make the butter spice mixture, and mix.

Antonio Carluccio's Savoy Cabbage with Pancetta (serves 4 to 6)
Bacon and cabbage always taste great together. Actually, bacon tastes good with most things, I find. Anyway, this is really easy and really nice.

1 large Savoy cabbage (this is the medium colored green one with really crinkly leaves)
4 tablespoons olive oil
100 grams unsmoked bacon or pancetta, cut into matchsticks
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 dried red chili, crumbled
300 milliliters water
salt and pepper to taste
Quarter the cabbage, core and slice thinly. Heat oil, add bacon, garlic and chili. Fry for two minutes. Do not brown the garlic. Add the cabbage and water, season to taste. Stir and cook covered for 10 to 15 minutes until the liquid is largely evaporated and cabbage is cooked tender. I like to leave a little bit of bite in the cabbage, but others like cabbage very soft. Do it as you like.

Lemon Green Beans
This is from Nigella Lawson's cookbook called Feast. Simple and tasty. I love the freshness of the lemon in contrast to all the other heavier, creamier, side dishes.

1 kg fine green beans, topped and tailed
75 grams butter
few drops olive oil
1 lemon
Sat and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to the boil, throw in some salt, and blanch the beans for about 6 minutes after the water comes back to the boil. The beans should have lost their raw taste but retain crunch. Strain them and put them back in the pot on stove on low heat with. Throw in the butter and olive oil. While the butter melts, prepare the lemon. Peel the lemon, making sure to take off all the white pith (the easiest way is put the lemon on the cutting board, and slice off both ends. Then set the lemon on one end, and slice off the skin downwards, turning it as you go). Slice the peeled lemon, letting it fall apart into bits. Push the sliced lemon bits and any juice into the pot of beans. Stir the pan and add salt and pepper to taste.

Truffle Potato Gratin
I made up this recipe because I had a bottle of gorgeous truffle oil, and I needed something to do with it. What could be yummier than cream, potatoes and truffles? The recipe below isn't actually how I did it. I just sliced the potatoes, layered them with salt, pepper, cream and truffle oil, then I baked the whole thing until the potatoes are tender. However, I have always felt that my potato gratins don't have the right lucious texture and it is often a hit or miss thing. I have recently read a couple of recipes that do this pre-cooking and I bet that is the trick to a really good dish. So, I am giving you the recipe that I am going to make NEXT time I do this dish, based again on one of Nigella Lawson's recipes.

500 ml mil
500 ml heavy cream
1 onion
2 to 3 bay leaves
4 peeled cloves garlic
1 1/2 tablespoon salt
2 kilo floury potatoes
truffle oil to taste
butter for greasing the dish

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C (about 450 F). Put milk and cream into a large pot that will be able to fit in all the potatoes. Cut onion in half, put in pot along with bay leaves, garlic cloves and salt. Bring the cream mixture nearly to the boiling point. Turn off the heat, cover, and let the onion and bay leaves infuse.

Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut into slices (about 1 cm thick, or a bit more than 1/4 inch). Put the potatoes in with the cream in the pot and brink back to boil with lid on. Lower the heat to simmer, taking off the lid if necessary to avoid milk overflowing the pan. Cook the potatoes until they are tender, but not dissolving into mush. Fish out onions and bay leaves. Season with truffle oil, pepper and salt, to taste. Grease a large roasting pan with butter and pour in the potato mixture. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes or until the potato is bubbling and brown on top. Sprinkle some more truffle oil on the top. Let stand for a bit before serving.