Cherry Cheesecake

After a heavy barbecue-dinner, there's no room for a heavy dessert. Thus, a light cheesecake is the answer when you're in the mood for something sweet..

3	eggs
80-100 g	sugar
80-100 g	flour
	baking soda & cocoa
1/2kg	cream cheese ricotta cheese
1/2l	whipped cream
1	vanilla sugar
80-100g	sugar
	the juice and zest from 1 lemon about 1/2 kg of cherries (or any type of berry that you like)
To make the chocolate base: beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture has thickened and turned a very pale yellow. Add baking soda, cocoa, flour and stir slowly. Bake in a preheated oven (160°C) for about 15-20 minutes. (I used a 26 cm cake tin, if you want to you can go bigger, but then the cake will be shallower.) To make the filling: Whip the cream & add enough gelatine to make the mixture set (approximately 2 sheets). Add 250 g cream cheese, 250 g ricotta cheese, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest & juice. Blend well. Pour the mixture into the cake tin when the base has cooled and even out with a spatula. The finishing touch of this cake are the berries; slice the berries into desired shape & place them on top of the filling. Let the cake set in the fridge for a couple of hours. Enjoy with some rosé champagne and the company of great friends!

ESC Chocolate Fondue

Of course you have to have the dessert of all desserts; chocolate fondue, when watching Eurovision!

This is so easy to make and the taste is undefeatable (!):
Buy all your favorite exotic (or non-exotic) fruits, slice & dice and serve with melted quality chocolate (min 50% cocoa) mixed with some oil to keep it from coagulating. Tip: be sure to get some ripe bananas, the combination with chocolate is heaven! If you have a sweet-tooth: try dates and dried figues.

Eurovision Song Contest 2010!

Two days ago (25/5) was the first day of Eurovision 2010. 17 entries in semifinal 1 competed and 10 entries qualified for the big final this saturday. Being the ESC fan that I am, I certainly wanted to make the food as tasty as the show was entertaining! Starting off with some Asti Araldica, a sweet sparkling wine from Italy, we raised our glasses and cheered for Eurovision!

Santé!

Skål!

Ziveli!

Words of wisdom

"Luck is believing you're lucky."

True words by genious Tennessee Williams. Although I would like to develop this by adding:

Happiness is believing you're lucky.

Desserts galore

I almost forgot to post the most beautiful part of the tapas dinner; the desserts! After all; baking, cakemaking and creating desserts is the most mesmerizing part of any cuisine.

Banana Caramel-Cream Cake (Version 1)

This cake is inspired by Leila Lindholms gorgeous Banana cream pie. However, I did make a couple of ingredient substitutes. Instead of plain flour, I used rice flour which made the cake not only 100% gluten-free, but tastier and a bit more interesting.
Also, i skipped the caramelized nuts because I wanted the focus of the dessert on the golden dulce le leche, greek yoghurt & cream.
Finished with fresh bananas and physalis!

Banana Caramel- Cream Cake (version 2)

(A bit blurry, but you get the picture...;)

& la pièce de résistance; a Tiramisu fit for kings..
The phrase tirami su literally means "pick me up" or "pull me up", refering to the sugar and espresso used in this delicious Italian dessert!

The main components are savoiardi biscuits (dipped in espresso) layered with a delicious whipped mixture of mascarpone, sugar and egg yolks.
If you haven't tried this yet, make it next on your culinary 'to do' list!

Spanish night, Tapas night!!

Yesterday we had a celebration of the shift between the 'old' and 'new' members of AJF. I was in charge of the food & desserts this year, and with the help of my dear friend Maggie, we executed my vision of a 'tapas-theme'. I'm thrilled with the way everything turned out (and got alot of great response from the guests!).


Some shots of the menu,

Papas arrugadas (canarian wrinkly potatoes). This salty treat is considered one of the most unusual and exotic dishes in all Spanish cuisine, because of the fact that it was invented by sailors who (in the lack of ordinary water) used saltwater from the sea to cook potatoes.

'Traditionally-styled' tapas with beetroot cream salad and Swedish meatballs.

One of my all-time favorite taste combinations: fig-marmelade with a trio of selected cheeses: chevré, blue cheese & the famous Spanish manchego (astonished by the fact that I found it in Linköping, and of such good quality)! Completed with grapes to accentuate the tastes of the sweet and savoury.

Mini-pite (feta cheese-baked puff pasty)

Golden Breakfast

It's funny how I always have a great big smile whenever I open this blog...

One thing that I'm meticuluos about when it comes to meals, is breakfast. I never leave home in the morning without having had something good to eat, and for me, that is the key to feeling on top throughout the day.



Luckily, today was 'late lecture' day: which means more time in the kitchen making breakfast!






Vanilla blinies (small pancakes) with apple caramell compote, njam! (Recipe will be posted a little later...) In the mean time, don't forget to treat yourself to a nice breakfast!








Now, here's what I did to make the blinies (recipe for 3-4 cakes):
Mix 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons of oat meal, 2 tablespoons of wheat flour, ca. 1 dl corn flour and blend well. Add vanilla sugar, salt and flax seed (linfrön) to your liking. Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil and pour it into the batter. Fry the blinis in a non-stick pan and continue with the caramel- compot.

Apple caramel-compot: Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in the same pan as you just fried your binies in. Add about 1/2 of an thinly sliced apple. Let the apple slices soften, then add milk and sugar. Let the caramel reduce to wanted texture (should look somewhat similar to a dulce de leche). Pour the caramelized apples on top of the blinies and enjoy!

Easter prime (in the middle of may)

As you might remember, this easter was, to put it mildly- unusually freaking cold. So I wanted to spice things up a little... Something with bright colours that would take us back to our trips to Spain and southern Europe.

Easter prime
Passoa (sweet element),
Cranberry juice ('zingy'- perfect for sour combos),
Grenadine (enhancement of the sweet and adds gorgeous colour)

Quote of the day

From time to time (when I find them), I will share with you some of my favorite quotes. I love them for the same reasons as I love pictures: they are wise- and sometimes- they are worth more than a thousand words.

Enjoy!

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.

-Edmond Burke, political philosopher

Chocolate- Crumble Bajadera Cake

Now, this is my most recent 'creation'- a very uncomplicated chocolate crumble 'bajadera' cake. It is a remake of a layered cake called "bajadera" in the balkans, very popular amongst everyone!








So folks, this is what I used to make this splendid little thing:

Base
350 g sugar,
100 ml water,
150 g margarin,
200g crumbled biscuits,
200g dried coconut

The first thing to do is to mix the sugar, water and margarin in a skillet. Heat up the mixture but remove it from the heat before it starts boiling. Add the crumbled biscuits and dried coconut into the sugar-mix and blend well.
Put 2/3 of the mixture into a cake-tin of your choice, press it down until it becomes an even base. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours, until the base becomes stale.. meanwhile: start with the filling!


Filling
1 paket of chocolate pudding (dolcela) + milk & sugar
2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
100g margarin

Make the pudding according to the instructions on the pack (you'll need milk and sugar for this preperation). When the pudding cools, add the cocoa (and some vanilla sugar if you'd like to enhance the vanilla flavour) and margarin cut into cubes. Blend well until the margarin is completely melted.


Now it's time to put all pieces toghether (this is the fun part y'all!)
Take out the cake tin with our gorgeous golden coconut base, pour the filling on top, smoothen it out and let it set in the fridge for another hour or so. After this, it is time for the decorations; crumble the remaining (1/3) coconut mixture on top of the cake, so that it looks like a traditional crumble pie!
If you want to leave the decorating at that, you can do so. If you want to add something more, then the only thing that can set boundries is your own imagination!


Bon Appétit!

Mic check 1,2

testing...

Now, what I love most about the culinary world, except for the incredible tastes of course, is the spectra of colours that different ingredients create. That is something that I will try to display in this blog. Showing my wievs of beauty through photos is therefore just as important as the recipies- they will give you a visual- and reinforce my perspective of cooking, baking and creating uniqueness.

So here is my very first photo for you guys! A trio of summer drinks that I composed for a very dear friend of mine.
Katarina, thank you for your everlasting enthusiasm


!