Scandinavia part 2: pancake cookies that look like Pringles

As well as their famous meatballs and infamous Allen keys, IKEA also do a pretty mean almond and chocolate 'Daim' cake, so following last week's potato dumplings, I had a look at the sweet section of the Scandinavian Cooking book. Like Daim cake, the baking chapter is heavily dominated by almonds but with a disappointing representation from the chocolate contingent. I plumped for Pancake cookies, which are coated in almonds and curled around a rolling pin whilst still warm. I assume the end result is supposed to look like a Pringle, but there are precious few photos in the book and nothing at all on the Internet for guidance (now wondering if the author just had an obsession with almonds and these aren't traditional Scandi biscuits at all...).

Ingredients:

200g butter

133g sugar (I used golden caster sugar)

2 eggs

112g plain flour

1/2 cup mixture of chopped flaked almonds and sugar for the topping

Note: aperol spritz not an ingredient for the cookies, just for the cook

Method:

- Melt the butter and let it cool. Cream until light and frothy then add the sugar and eggs

- Stir in the flour

- Drop teaspoon sized blobs onto a greased baking sheet leaving room for them to spread (can't recommend Lakeland's Magic Carpet enough for this kind if baking). You probably need to do this in batches but the baking time is really short and thus method leaves plenty of time to sample the raw cookie dough. Several times.

- Bake for 5 minutes at 180C, take the cookies out of the oven and sprinkle with the almond and sugar topping

- Return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Have another sample of cookie dough. 

- When cooked and starting to brown, remove the cookies from the oven and shape them by curling them round a rolling pin. Some of the topping will probably fall off. Leave to cool.

- Repeat until all the dough has been cooked or eaten, then lick the bowl

Delightful with a cup of tea or aperol spritz (note, not the same glass of spritz as in previous photo)

Scandi part 1: giant stuffed gnocchi

I love Scandinavian design (IKEA excepted) and some of their dishes are pretty tasty (meatballs being the one good reason to go to IKEA), but I hadn't cooked many, if any, recipes from our Nordic neighbours until I found this 1976 book written for the US market - I think we picked it up at a secondhand book stall in Cambridge.

There are so many tempting recipes, and unsurprisingly a lot of pickled herring involved, that I've made two dishes, a savoury one this week and a sweet one for next week. Spoiler alert: neither of them contain herring.

I've noticed that 70s dishes are not conducive to dieting, and this week's recipe is no exception. Not that I'm dieting, but I do know this is a popular pastime amongst my extensive readership and I can only apologise. Potato dumplings stuffed with bacon and onions are not likely to feature in any weight loss plan, which of course means that they are absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

For 4 people

4 very large potatoes

112g plain flour

1 egg

1 onion

250g streaky bacon

Butter

Allspice

Salt & pepper

A note on potatoes: the book helpfully notes that these dumplings can't be made with an American baking potato like the Idaho, because the potato dissolves when you boil the dumplings. I've no idea what an Idaho potato is, so turned to Felicity Cloake in the Guardian for her analysis in making the "perfect gnocchi" which this seems to be a giant stuffed version of. She recommends Desiree potatoes, or King Edwards at a push. I could only get King Edwards and they did work - just (it was a nerve-wracking few minutes of boiling and they did dissolve a bit), so get Desiree's if you can.

Method:

- Peel, boil and mash the potatoes 

- Peel, chop and sautéed the onion in butter until soft

- Fry the bacon until crispy then chop into small pieces and mix with the cooked onion, seasoning with a bit of allspice 

- When the mashed potato has cooled, add the flour and egg to make a soft dough, and season with salt and pepper

- This is where is gets messy! On a floured surface, roll the dough into long sausages, about 5cm wide, and cut into 5cm pieces - like giant gnocchi. You should get about 16 dumplings (and 4 per person is plenty!)

- Actually, this is where it gets really messy (and the Bearded Argentinian had to act as guest photographer) - poke a teaspoonful of the bacon & onion mix into the middle of a dough ball and seal the potato around the stuffing

- When all the dumplings are stuffed, carefully lower them into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. You might need to do this in batches then keep them warm in the oven. Any less than 10 minutes and they'll just taste like potato next to some bacon and onion, rather than getting a gnocchi-like consistency, but it is nerve-wracking watching the potato start to dissolve...

- Serve with a drizzle of extra vigil olive oil and kale dressed with something tangy like lemon or balsamic vinegar to cut through the richness.

Låt oss äta! (thank you google translate)

It's summer - quick, make some ice cream!

This week's recipe is another one from the book that Dr Gemma calls "the book with legs", ie "Recipes from the Dairy", which has a whole chapter dedicated to ice cream.

I suspect a 70's Barbican kitchen wouldn't have had a digital ice cream maker from Lakeland but it's such a faff without one, I treated myself (and they're half price in June 🙂). As the book explains in detail, all you really need is a freezer, a thermometer and a box to put the ice cream in.  And some patience. The photo above includes what they used in the Ham House dairy, even less technical! 

I chose Brown Bread ice cream because I have a traumatic memory of Mum making this when I was a teenager for a dinner party, and as Chief Taster I got to try some. It was delicious... So delicious, in fact, that the inconsiderate guests ate the lot and there were no leftovers for her poor neglected children the next day... years of therapy.

Ingredients:

100 ml wholemeal breadcrumbs

500ml whipping cream (36% fat)

185g dark muscovado sugar

1 tbsp rum (optional.. Hah, of course I used rum)

Method:

- Whizz the crustless bread in a food processor to make breadcrumbs then toast under the grill for a few minutes until evenly browned. Or not so evenly browned in this case.

- Lightly beat the cream, sugar and rum together, then add the breadcrumbs.

- Chill thoroughly, stirring occasionally as the crumbs fall to the bottom, then put into an ice cream machine for about 20 minutes until thickened.

- Serve with chopped nuts, chocolate sauce (not giving away my secret recipe) or a shot of almond liqueur. Or all three. 

Just don't bother waiting for the sun to come out...

By special request: Poor Man's Stroganoff

When I posted my first recipe many moons ago (April?), I used my Granny's Delia Smith Evening Standard cookbook and was inundated (2 people) with requests for Granny's/Delia's Beef Stroganoff. Never one to disappoint my fans (all 2 of them), this week I'm recreating the temptingly named "Poor Man's Stronganoff" from the same book.

I should also admit that the other reason for picking this one was that the Bearded Argentinian arrived home last Saturday with a kilo of beef brisket "because it was on offer"... Whether £14 of meat from Waitrose deli counter was quite what Delia had in mind when devising this recipe, I guess we'll never know...

Ingredients:

For 4 people:

1 kg of beef brisket or similar cut suitable for slow cooking (or whatever's on offer)

4 tbsp butter

2 onions, sliced 

4 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 tin of condensed mushroom soup

150ml carton natural yoghurt

Grated nutmeg

Method:

- Using the sharpest knife you have, slice the meat into thin strips (or get someone else to do it like your butcher or Argentinian boyfriend).

- Cook the sliced onions gently in the butter for about 5 minutes then add the meat to brown on all sides.

- Stir in the flour to soak up the juices, then add the tomato purée, mushroom soup and yoghurt.

- Grate in a bit of nutmeg, season, put the lid on and either simmer gently on the hob or put in the oven at 160C for 1 - 1.5 hours until the meat is tender.

- Serve with rice and a sense of disbelief that this actually works (although you might wonder where the mushrooms are, and it wouldn't break the poor man's bank to fork out for some).

Grub's up!

Room for dessert? An Italian creme caramel

This week's recipe comes from "Italian Desserts and Pastries", published in 1974 and another gift from generous Aunt. The inscription in this one says that the translator has confused 'marinated' with 'macerated' but I haven't found it yet!

It's a sizeable compendium, with recipes from Breakfast (Granny's Bun Ring anyone?) to After Theatre (mainly alcoholic, I'm sure they'll be making an appearance here at some point), as well as covering the four seasons and a number of special occasions, feasts and festivals. The instructions are minimal but easy to follow and the photos are wonderful, such as this Friit Salad Flan in the Midday section*:

*please note fruit salad is not a dessert

I chose creme caramel (in the book as cream caramel) because it's in the summer section and one of the Bearded Argentinian's favourite desserts.

Ingredients:

1 pint of whole milk

1/2 a vanilla stick

2 medium eggs

4 medium egg yolks

150g sugar

Method:

- Make the caramel by gently heating 50g of the sugar with a couple of tablespoons of water in a heavy based pan Stir until all the sugar dissolves then turn the heat right down and wait for it to turn red-gold in colour.

- Carefully pour the caramel into your pudding tin or mould, making sure to get some up the sides.

- Heat the milk with the vanilla stick, removing from the heat as soon as it bubbles up to boiling point and leave to cool.

- Beat the eggs, egg yolks and the rest of the sugar (100g) together until they increase in volume.

- Gradually add the cooled milk, stirring vigorously.

- Place the mould in a bain-marie - ie a large pan half filled with boiling water - and make sure it's stable before pouring the egg mixture into the mould. First time I did this the mould fell over and I lost all the yummy mixture into the water and had to start again :(

- Cook in the oven at 160C for about 50 minutes until the mixture is thick and elastic (which I checked by eating a bit from the middle - it'll be on the bottom remember, no one will know!)

- Chill thoroughly (overnight if you have time) and unmould just before serving, making sure the caramel drips down the sides. This unmoulded very easily but the shape was nothing like a rabbit...

... It was, however, absolutely delicious! 

The same recipe can be used to make individual creme caramels in ramekins (or saved GU pots), which would be easier to handle than a wobbly rabbit mould and can be cooked in a roasting tin half filled with boiling water - just cook for half the time.

Buon apetito! 

Now for something a little bit different... Milk punch

This week's recipe is adapted from a book that arrived from a day trip to Margate, along with Mr Beetroot, an addition to our small but growing family of incredibly ugly pots with faces:

The book, Recipes from the Dairy, was published in the 90's, but the recipes themselves go back to the 1600's, so I reckon that counts as "old"! The front cover is amazing - from the dairy at Ham House - look at those legs!

Our day-trippers requested the milk punch, described as "an incredibly smooth and delicate lemon-flavoured liquor which is deceptively strong and should be treated with respect". In other words, you feel like you've drunk a glass of cold milk, then been punched in the face. In a good way...

Ingredients:

3 lemons

200g granulated sugar

500ml water

375ml rum (I used Sailor Jerry's for a spicy kick)

125ml milk

Method:

- Peel the zest from the lemons using a vegetable peeler, place in a large bowl and squeeze over the juice

- Stir in the sugar, water and rum

- Heat the milk to boiling point and pour over the ingredients. This forms a curd (the white lumps) which help filter and clarify the punch, while the whey adds flavour and smoothness.

- Cover and leave somewhere cool for 24 hours

- Line a sieve with two or three layers of muslin - I folded a single piece of muslin in half - and filter the punch into a large bowl or jug

- To store, pour into a clean bottle and keep in the fridge

- Serve cold, with respect

Delicious for a warm summer day picnic, as long as no one has to drive, or function normally in any way for a few hours. Cheers!