Black currants. Jam, cookies and berries of the sun.

When I lived in the Faroe Islands, we always had black currant jam at home. Since it's not sold in Swedish stores in other form than jelly, we decided to give it a try and loved it. In danish, the language on most of the food packaging over there, black currants are called solbær, which translates to sun berries. Best name ever.

We have a lot of berry bushes growing around the outside space at work. Last week red currants peaked, next week the gooseberries will be red and ripe, and this week it was time for the black currants. They are huge, almost black and shiny. I picked a huge bunch and froze most of them, but turned some of them into jam. I love the tart, sweet and chunky jam they make, perfect on toast, pancakes, cookies or porridge.

Black currant jam

1000 g black currants
100 ml water
600 ml sugar

Put the currants in a pot with the water and boil until softened. Add sugar and boil on high heat until thickened. Put into can. Eat!

Today I used them for thumbprint cookies, which also is a really simple cookie to make.

125 g non-dairy margarine
175-200 g flour (I used 150 g all-purpose and 25 potato starch, which makes them more delicate)
50 g sugar
a tiny bit of baking powder

Mix all ingredients. Make into balls and put on parchment paper or into small paper liners. Make a well with your thumb and add jam. Bake in 175 C until slightly golden.

 Bonus pic from this weekend´s awesome BBQ. Zucchini, red onions, veggie burgers, white bread and tomatoes, served with potatoes, tomato sauce and green salad.

Monday July 15

 A windowsill grown beef tomato. A french variety called Marmande. The small ones are also grown on the windowsill and are called Sub Arctic Plenty. Both varieties are the best I've had, and there's plenty more on the way!

My bike. It takes me places. Like summer cabins, forests with blueberries, work, downtown and the super market.

I bought a new lens for my camera! A 17-50 mm, which will make photos like this possible in endless varieties.

We bought a dishwasher!! To celebrate, we made tacos with a lot of stuff in different bowls, to truly enjoy not having to wash the dishes by hand. Also, sale on avocados made for guacamole!

Wheat tortilla (whyyy can´t you buy corn ones here?) with soy mince, zucchini, lettuce, corn, cucumber, pickled red onions (Viva Vegan), guacamole, onions and salsa.

Dessert. Water melon and coffee. 

July 13

After getting off work this Friday, I went home and jumped on my bike. I rode 25 K in the blasting sunshine through the city, beside the freeway and most of the time, on a winding country road through a beautiful landscape filled with fields where rapeseed, rye, wheat and hay was growing. I arrived to the destination, my mother in laws cottage and while she and Martin made dinner, I jumped into her small cold swimming pool. I cooled down and spent the rest of the evening sitting on the porch.

I woke up to an even warmer and sunnier day, after a nights sleep close to my favorite person in the most cute summery bedroom there is. Tiny with only a bed and very little floor space, light colors and bed sheets with roses. The day was spent doing a little garden work, floating around in the pool, listening to summer radio shows, doing headstands in the pool and firing up the BBQ.

We went home in the early evening, warm and tired from a day outside, and cooked up some cold noodle salad. We were greeted by Lucia the cat and some tomato plants desperately screaming for water.

Days like these is what we live for. 

A weekend in Gothenburg

Last Friday when I got off work I took the train to the west coast to see my family. I stayed with my sister in her very first own apartment, and we celebrated by getting thai take out. There were 20 + dishes on the menu, all of witch could be had with tofu instead of meat. Feeling overwhelmed by alternatives, I went with peanut sauce, always a winner.

Late summer night soy cappuccino in my mother´s garden.

And barbecued nectarines!!!! 

July

I eat my homegrown tomatoes almost every day, picking them off the shrubs when they get ready. Tonight I made oven roasted fennel and tomatoes. Ate it with pasta and sat out on the balcony over flowing with plants and talking about our trip to Iceland in late summer. After dinner I spend an hour re-potting some chili plants and a brand new huge basil plant.

This is high season for couchsurfers. I get a lot of requests, but say no to most people. I say yes to the ones that writes nice requests and sounds interesting. So far only girls have made the cut for some reason, and there's been three french ones, one greek and now two lithuanian ones. Letting strangers into my life is satisfying and fun, trusting people should be a given.

We spend the weekends in my mother in laws summer cottage. I play in the small pool like a kid, listen to radio and fall asleep in the sofa in the early evening. We eat rhubarb and strawberries and can't wait for the rest of the berries to get ripe in gardens and the forest.

I'll be better with sharing my food with you, until they, enjoy summer.

My first home grown tomato!

Sub Arctic Plenty. 

Rice salad with veggies and pan fried tofu

This morning, I woke up at 5.30 by myself, 5 minutes before the alarm was about to get off and 30 minutes before I usually wake up after 6 snooze sessions. That gave me the time to make a marinade to put some tofu in. I mixed soy sauce, strong chai tea, sugar, oil, salt, black pepper and rice vinegar and put chunks of tofu in it. So when we came home tonight after running errands and attening a 7-year olds birthday party, dinner was easy. I pan fried the tofu, made a simple cold sauce and a salad (brown rice + roasted carrots + snap peas + red onions + leek) with a dressing with orange marmalade in it. A good start for the weekend!

Napa cabbage for dinner

Tonight's dinner was fried rice (brown rice + onion + edamame + broccoli + miso) with button mushrooms and napa cabbage seasoned with sriracha, garlic, japanese soy sauce and rice vinegar. Vinegar on slightly wilted warm cabbage is heavenly, something I learned while WOOFing in England. 

Quinoa salad with beans and toasted cumin seeds.

I flipped through Appetite for Reduction and my eyes found this recipe. I've never really been considering making this before, for reasons that are unknown to me. Because when I finally made it, it was so good! I subbed red beans for the black ones and chives for the scallions. I will definitely make it again, but I would probably eat it along with something, such as tofu or perhaps some steamed veggies. Or why not as a side dish to BBQ?

Rhubarb lemonade with cinnamon

2000 gram rhubarb stalks
juice of 1 lemon
600 ml water
2 cinnamon sticks
500 ml sugar/1000 ml rhubarb juice

Chop the rhubarb finely and add to a big pot with lemon juice, water and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil and let simmer covered until the rhubarb is very soft. Strain with cheesecloth or a kitchen towel, make sure to get all the juice out of it. Add sugar and let come to a boil, stirring all the time. Pour the lemonade into bottles. The lemonade will have to be cut with water, try it out to see how much you need!

Cabbage-lentil-rice bake with chantarell sauce.

To me this is a dish that feels truly Swedish. Perhaps a bit more appropriate for fall, since it's true comfort food, and chantarelles grows in fall. Also the lingonberries, which is a must as a condiment for me. However, both chantarelles and lingonberries keeps well, if dried and freezed, and who doesn't need a little bit of comfort even in summer?

How to:
1. Cut cabbage in desired shape, as in thin stripes or small cubes. Cook it in a big pan together with onions, soy sauce, thyme, salt, pepper and desired sweetener until soft but chewy.
2. Mix in boiled green lentils and rice, and adjust seasoning.
3. Put in oven safe dish and bake until browned and crisp on top.
4. Dehydrate the mushrooms if dried or sautee them if fresh. Mix into your gravy of choice.
5. Serve with lingonberry jam.

A night in Swedens most primitive hostel.

We headed north this Saturday. North-east to be specific, and we wound up in the forest.

The reason for heading north, as if needing one, was a night in this little hut. It's a reconstruction of a hut just like the ones the people who made charcoal back in the days took shelter in while watching the process. Now, there's a place just outside of Skinnskatteberg with reconstructed huts where you can stay over. The place is called Kolarbyn.

 The huts were surrounded by green. Moss, low vegetation, pines and birch.

We took a walk along this path, down to the lake.

I went for a little swim. I love the feeling of wild water around me. 

Soon, it was time for dinner. With no electricity or running water, the dinner was cooked over open fire.

Brought a wheat berry+veggie salad and a sauce, and fired up some veggie burgers. 

We spent the entire evening lying down in our hut, reading, talking and watching the fire. I feel asleep early on the hard surface and slept well for 11 hours.

We had fire toasted bread for breakfast, and the smoky taste paired with the sweet orange marmalade.

 One last look at the pretties little hut ever.

Non-ripe tomatoes and chili peppers.

I have no garden, but big windows and a big balcony. This year, I'm growing tomatoes, chili peppers and some borlotti beans. Above is a tomato called Sub Arctic Plenty. 








































Marmande.



















Bhut Jolokia, on a plant that I've kept from last year.

Friday taco night!

 Like everyone else, we're eating tacos for Friday night. Nothing authentic about them, but very Swedish. Wheat tortillas, corn chips, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, bell pepper, salsa and red beans and rice in tomato sauce. Eaten on the balcony. Summer!! I really wish one could buy corn tortillas in Sweden. And some of all the amazing salsa sauces I ate while in the Pacific Northwest.

By the way, what is the best way to use canned tomatillos?

5 months of 2013

 Hi, how you've been? I've been good. The winter's been long and cold and with a spring not really existing, it's now Summer. I've finished school and got a job right away, so I'm now working as a technician managing a municipality's waste and drinking water facilities.  I'm growing tomatoes and chili peppers, hugging my cat and drinking coffee with my friends. And cooking of course.

Lucia. With a Cornish pasty, sleeping, sunbathing and admiring a portrait of herself.

 

My cooking this spring has been uninspired. I'm also not eating all vegan anymore, but mostly and will keep the other things off the blog for now. I need to step up my game and start cooking more interesting and healthy foods.

 I took up running in March. Ran for about 6 weeks until I got shin splints. Now I've been resting for about 3 weeks and my leg are finally starting to behave so hopefully I will run again soon.

So, see you soon again!