The good people of Cloudberry Living have kindly donated this beautiful breadboard from top Scandinavian design brand ISAK to a reader of Scandilicious.
All you have to do is like and leave a comment over on my spankingly fresh Facebook page. Competition ends on Thursday 22nd April (just in time for Easter) and the winner will be picked at random. Available to UK residents only.
Good luck!
Sig x
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Len Deighton's Action Cookbook (Trinity Travel Ltd 1965)
I have that grizzly, bearded rascal Tim Hayward to thank for introducing me to the joys of Len Deighton. They don’t make food writers like Deighton anymore (well they don’t really make food writers like Tim Hayward anymore either).
Deighton wrote bestselling thrillers such as The Ipcress File and then turned his hand to writing utterly brilliant cook-strips for The Observer. I’d love to see some comic food genius revive the cook-strip, why not? Who doesn’t love good illustration? As a child who grew up on a comic-literary diet of Asterix, The Peanuts and Lucky Luke I have to admit as an adult I miss reading good comics. It’s bizarrely frowned upon in Anglo-Saxon countries.
Anyway, Leighton is a salt of the earth kinda man, one who loves guns and gastronomy. He is also just plain funny. The perfect writer to wax lyrical about Brains in Black Butter (p.73), Beignets (p. 114) and Milk Pudding de Luxe (p. 124). But of course what caught my eye was his wonderful strip on Danish smørrebrød which you can see below:
The Secret to Danish Smørrebrød: remember the butter
Priceless.
Norwegian sour cream and vanilla waffles
Waffles, who can resist them?
I’m not talking about those faux “Belgian” varieties you get deep-frozen at Iceland but the homemade, sweet, buttery waffles with a hint of tartness from the addition of sour cream every Norwegian grows up with.
My grandmother, always primed for unexpected visitors, habitually kept a bowl with sour cream and vanilla waffle batter in the fridge. Invariably a neighbour or long lost relative from Minnesota would turn up (I’m not kidding, it seems we have millions of relatives in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Colorado, Wyoming, Alaska…) and no one could resist Granny Johansen’s sour cream and vanilla waffles.
This was of course in the halcyon days before The Atkins diet and carbophobia set in, visitors now would probably turn to jelly at the sight of such wholesome carb goodness, or have the audacity to ask if quinoa and amaranth waffles were available, with a topping of alfalfa sprouts and broccoli for good measure. Fascists. Killjoys!
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Tagged cinnamon, Norwegian waffles, orange marmalade, sour cream, vanilla, Waffles
Ham & Davidstow Crackler cheddar filo bites with Savora mustard and tomato
You know you’re at a great wedding when the groom decrees all the guests have big slabs of cheese awaiting them after the church service. One of my best friends from university got married in Oxford over the weekend and not only did this ardent caseophile demand the inclusion of cheese at his wedding reception, but a few bowls of Haribo for good measure.
Image courtesy of Saltyard Books
If you’re kicking about Notting Hill next Friday I’ll be teaching a Scandinavian cookery class at Books For Cooks and thought I’d share the menu here to tempt you along for a couple of hours in this lovely shop.
As there’s a whisper of spring in the air I’ll be featuring some classic and some contemporary Scandinavian dishes to celebrate the segue from winter to spring, hopefully showing you why Scandinavian food is so much more than herrings and meatballs!
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Tagged blueberry juice, coconut, Daim chocolate, hot smoked trout, macaroons, prawns, Scandinavian cookery class
Hot off the press!
A pinch of a blog post to wish you a happy Lent and to share this little pic of advance copies of Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking: Scandilicious which just arrived!
The perfect chocolate chip cookie?
A really good chewy American chocolate chip cookie is hard to come by here. You find approximations of them in supermarkets, but they’re so loaded with sugar and preservatives that the temporary satisfaction of biting into something toothsome is mitigated by the knowledge that essentially you’re paying for sugary preservative-laden-industrially-processed-confection. I have similar beef with doughnuts in this country but shall leave that little rant for another day.
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Tagged baking, Baking Illustrated, brown sugar, butter, chocolate chip cookie, Cook's Illustrated, dark chocolate
Ever wondered what a pinch, a smidgen, and a dash looks like?
Cripes, for the best part of two months blog posts have been percolating in my discombobulated brain and I realised that by the time I actually sat down and typed them all up you would invariably be asleep from the essay-length diatribes about GM, fat, food security and goodness what else had been exercising me at that particular moment in time.
It’s that time of the year again when a round-up is due and you can’t swing a cat for the obligatory “Books of the year” lists published in newspapers, magazines and online. Before you hurl abuse at me for joining the crowd I’m marooned at home with flu, bored senseless and am often asked by family and friends to recommend favourite new cookbooks or old-time classics I can’t do without. Being a tricksy sort I’ve decided just to direct them here.
So let’s start with the easy stuff, the great and the good of 2010. Classics will have to wait til 2011 for cryin’ out loud. I’ve deliberately left out the big guns of Jamie, Nigella, Gordon – you know who they are. I’d rather you pick up Dave Broom’s encyclopaedic World Atlas of Whisky or Patricia Michelson’s Cheese compendium than head straight for the bestseller list of cookbooks this Christmas.
Which food and/or drink books do you rate from the past year? Answers on a postcard please, or just leave a comment below.
Happy Holidays to you all 🙂
Sig x
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Santa Lucia, Oslo December 13th 1985
Every year in Scandinavia December 13th rolls round and marks Santa Lucia day when all kindergarten children up and down the land dress up in white robes and pointy white hats (!), carry candles and have an advent celebration with lussekatter: saffron scented yeast buns shaped into an S and stuffed with currants or raisins.
Being a complete heathen I made these with a pinch of cardamom and soaked some dried sour cherries for extra oomph. After all the name lussekatter is thought to derive from the Devil, Lucifer.
And yes, that’s me in the photo above with a wreath of candles on my head and wearing the Santa Lucia red sash. As you can imagine, my parents’ cups runneth over, as the position of Santa Lucia is a true Norwegian kindergarten honour. Can you imagine health n’ safety rules in this country letting kids run around with live candles??
Anyway, as it’s December 13th I thought I’d share my lussekatter bun recipe with you, it’s basically an adaptation of the recipe for fastelavensboller or cardamom buns I have in my book out next May and a complete doddle to make.
Do you bake Santa Lucia buns? If so, I’d love to know what your recipe is!
Happy Santa Lucia Day, Sig x
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Tagged Cardamom, Christmas Baking, dried sour cherries, Lussekatter, Saffron buns, Santa Lucia, spelt flour
Scandilicious 