weekend

Last night I had a whole head of celery so I tried a celery gratin from fannie farmer (an older edition than linked). The sauce was great to dip bread in, but the celery itself…. not so exciting. I’ll have to look around more for something reliable, since I always have this problem (only need a couple stalks for whatever I’m planning, then I have most of a head left over). I suppose stock is always an option.

I also used up the green beans and the last of the bacon, quick saute with garlic and worcestershire, always works out. Finally, another quick saute of crab with butter, garlic, and lime (no lemon in the house). It was ok, nothing fancy. Next time I’ll try crab cakes.

Today for lunch I had one of those fun times when you think you have nothing but manage to throw something together, something good even! I dug up the beluga lentil leftovers, opened a nice can of tuna (ie. not water-logged shreds…), cut up a tomato and an avocado and added some olive oil, mustard, lime, and pepper (no salt since the lentils were over-salted to begin with). It was lovely with a little toast.

For dinner, going back to the SCforA testing with Swedish meatballs and red cabbage. The cabbage called for a bunch of steaming time and I don’t really have a good steaming setup at present, so I used this recipe instead which is pretty similar in ingredients. Didn’t have balsamic, so I had to use plain red wine vinegar. I haven’t tried it yet, but I have to say it doesn’t smell great…

So the Swedish meatballs. They call for a stiff egg white and continuous mixing for FIFTEEN minutes. I cut it a bit short. I used the leftover goat milk from the latest cheese fiasco (seriously, it was supposed to be whey, but it’s still so thick that after a couple of days it had a cream top!). I was amazed at how much liquid the meat and bread absorbed – the meat mix is super light. Looking forward to it.

>> Update: The cabbage was nasty and the meatballs totally fell apart. I’m sad to say that SCforA, though it means well I’m sure, is not a winner as far as I’m concerned. For the smorgasbord I’m putting my faith in Foods of the World…

week

Gravlax last weekend worked well – no recipe in SCforA but there was the mustard-dill sauce that is supposed to go with it – it was good! Used gravlax recipe from Foods of the World book. Made me wish for bagels, but it was fine on regular bread. It’s definitely on the menu.

ready to gift!

Got some blood oranges… starting a simple marmalade right now, total experiment. Debating whether to stick a bit of rosemary in now. Used some juice in a salad dressing last night with lemon, olive oil, and zatar. The salad was parmesan shavings, hella caramelized (to the point people thought they were bacon) shallots, mizuna, and lettuce.

Made apple sauce from the cook’s illustrated book for latkes this week, but haven’t made them yet… the cook’s illustrated was sort of the December book but I’m getting lots of ingredients each week that don’t show up in the scandi book…

Wednesday is present day.

It’s like a present every week, even though I paid for it and know exactly what I’m getting… I have to use apples, bananas, dill, kale, orange bell peppers, carrots, butter lettuce, pears, and shiitake mushrooms this week. Hopefully I’ll try something with some of the fish too. I got dill specifically to try gravlax…. but the rest of the week’s produce will probably not be found in the SCfA index. I got some beef and pork as well, but I’ll have to put off Swedish meatballs as N already staked a claim on the beef for tacos tomorrow. For the shiitake I’m thinking some kind of sauté with onions on crostini…

I need to make invitations.

Norwegian Meat Balls (aka Kjöttboller)

My first recipe from Scandinavian Cookery for Americans

N: “they taste like meat. salty meat.”

I like the instant gravy that comes from rolling the meatballs in flour and cooking them in broth (after browning), but these aren’t terribly flavorful, and the flour coating gets kind of gummy after cooking in the broth. This doesn’t happen with the beef stew I make all the time, meat also coated, then put into liquid… The Danish and Swedish meatball recipes seem a little more normal. They call for eggs, crumbs, onion, pork, etc. But I didn’t have pork in the house and I’m trying harder to cook with what I have, rather than going to the store every day for one thing and buying five that I don’t need. Although I’m not amazed, this recipe is super fast and easy, and I can see making it in a pinch.

Anyway, I put the meatballs and sauce in a pot of leftover roasted potatoes and we’ll heat that up for dinner tonight.

cookbook of the month

is Scandinavian Cooking for Americans by Florence Brobeck and Monika Kjellberg. I need to do some practice for the smörgåsbord.