Scandinavian television is all the rage.  First there was Sarah Lund and her jumper on “The Killing”.  Then there was Borgan and the ins and outs of Danish politics.  And now “The Bridge” with Saga Noren offering endless opportunity for continuing our obsession with female Scandinavian television characters.

And there is also Scandinavian cooking.  It is impossible to get a booking at Noma (although that hasn’t stopped me from trying on the first Monday of the month for the last 6 months!). In 2011 we also saw the release of Signe Johansen’s book “Scandilicious” published by Saltyard, soon to be followed by her “Scandilicious Baking” book in July.

I’ve followed Sig on Twitter for years and have had the chance to attend her #EatScandi brunch and dinner sessions.  And I have her book.  I absolutely *love* her book.  With 80 carefully chosen recipes, the book showcases simple Scandinavian cooking.  Some of my favourite recipes include cardammom cinammon rolls, meatballs (oh my goodness the best meatballs ever!) and this past weekend I made Jarlsberg & Fennel Loaf.

In the book the recipe is for muffins.  But I felt like making a cheesy loaf.  The recipe can be used for both – either scoop into a muffin tin, or bake in a bread pan.  If baking as a loaf, it takes about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  The fennel and cheese combination is WONDERFUL.  I highly recommend this for a savoury breakfast treat.  Or for a lunchtime snack, with melted jarslberg on a slice of bread. Enjoy.

Ingredients

150g wholewheat spelt flour
150g refined spelt flour

(note: I am still baking with the batch of Ideas In Food flour I made, so used 300g of that as a substitute. If you don’t have spelt to hand you can easily use wheat flours)

1 tbsp fennel seeds
½ tsp mustard powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper (I didn’t have cayenne to hand so substituted chili powder, which is an okay although not ideal alternative)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 generous tbsp Marmite or other yeast extract spread (about 20g)
150g whole milk (so 150ml)
1 medium egg
40g melted butter
100g Jarlsberg, coarsely grated

Note: this recipe sucks up liquid.  You probably will need to add more milk or water to get a batter like consistency from the mix.  Don’t worry, just add a little bit more a little at a time until you have a batter rather than a dough.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190ºC.  Grease your muffin or loaf tin so that the batter does not stick.

Sift all the dry ingredients in to a large bowl and stir to evenly mix the ingredients.

Dissolve the Marmite in a tablespoon or two of boiling water, and add to the milk. Stir in your melted butter and also your egg.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add all the liquid ingredients. Stir and then fold in the cheese until the mixture is just combined.

Spoon batter into muffin tin, but not all the way to the top as it will rise.  (Or if you are like me, pour into a bread tin).

Bake for 20-25 minutes for larger size muffins (check with a toothpick – poke into muffin and if clean when removed they are done).  I found the loaf to take about 40-45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.  Sprinkle a bit of extra Jarlsberg on top while it cools for a lovely cheesy topping.

More on Scandilicious

If you want to learn more about the Scandilicious books, and also the cooking classes being offered by Sig in central London, please visit her website.  I highly recommend going to a brunch or supper if you get a chance – the food was outstanding and the crowd of people that attend are so interesting!

If you want some guided tuition on this recipe from Sig herself, I’ve included her YouTube below.  Enjoy!

Pear and Ginger Muffins

“It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption.”
~Edward Bunyard

I tend to cook and bake for and from emotion. I like the feelings that the aroma of cooking or baking evoke in my mind, the sentiments that the mixture of colours can induce, and the passion that the tactile sensations of working with my hands stirs up. I can alter my mood, turn sadness into a mellow joy, or fortify a feeling, making the comfort of home feel more like Home, by making something in the kitchen. Some of these emotions are inherent within things like kneading bread or the smell of freshly milled grain or the feel of butter on my hands. Others are produced through the discovery of something new, the fusion of familiar things into an unfamiliar but very pleasing creation. A first-time elation. This recipe was one of those moments for me.

I love both the delicate, syrupy sweetness of pears and the hot, fragrant spice of ginger. And with these muffins the balance is just perfect; neither overpowers the other. The pears’ juiciness make these muffins incredibly moist and infuse the crumbs with flavour and the ginger adds a wonderful edge that works to enhance, rather than hide, the pears’ sweetness.

Pear and Ginger Muffins
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2  tsp baking powder
1  tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped pears, about 1/4-inch dice
6 tsp raw/turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 400º F.

Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin cups.

Combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and ground ginger in a large mixing bowl.

In another bowl (or large measuring cup), whisk the sour cream, oil, honey, and eggs together.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Add the diced pears.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle each one with 1/2 tsp of the raw/turbinado sugar. (If you do not have raw/turbinado sugar you can use more brown sugar here instead.)

Bake at 400º F for 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

by Erica.

Pie is an occasional weekend treat in my house; mainly because I prefer to make my own pastry and that makes it perfect for a weekend when there is time. I prefer to make and eat savoury pies so the rare occasions I have time that is what I tend to make. Last weekend was unseasonably wet and windy and I holed up at home on Saturday evening to make pie; we had chicken and mushrooms so that became the pie. You can make the pastry ahead and freeze it but I am never that organized plus I like the whole process of making it from scratch at the time. You can buy pre-made pastry, which reduces the amount of work required. Pick one made with butter as it tastes better.

I make the pie filling first so that it has time to cook and cool before starting on the pastry. This pie was made for two greedy people but you can easily scale up the filling to make it for more. This amount of pastry easily covers a large pie dish and would work well for smaller pies if you prefer individual pies. If you need to increase the amount of pastry keep the proportions the same and it will work.

Ingredients

Filling

250g chicken (breast or thigh) – chopped into 2cm cubes
125g fresh mushrooms sliced (whatever you prefer or have to hand)
20g dried wild mushrooms
250 ml boiling water
Small onion finely chopped
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Pastry

125g plain flour
125g chilled diced butter
Pinch salt
50 ml iced water
1 egg mixed with 1tbsp milk

Instructions

Filling

The dried wild mushrooms give this a good depth of flavour so I keep the seasoning very simple.

1. Add dried mushrooms to jug and add 250 ml of boiling water. Soak for at least 20 minutes.
2. Drain mushrooms and reserve soaking liquid as stock for pie filling.
3. Chop wild mushrooms finely.
4. Warm the olive oil in a pan add onion and soften.
5. Add the chopped chicken and colour surface.
6. Add the sliced fresh mushrooms and mix through.
7. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes.
8. Add wild mushrooms and soaking liquid and stir through.
9. Add mustard, stir through and season to taste.
10. Bring to simmer and cook until chicken is tender.
11. Allow to cool.

Pastry

The pastry is a basic rough puff pastry. You can replace it with premade/frozen puff pastry if you wish. Pick one made with butter as it tastes better. I start the pastry off while the filling is cooking.

1. Make a well in flour.
2. Add butter and salt to flour.
3. Work butter and salt into flour gradually using fingertips,
4. When flour is grainy add iced water slowly to form a dough you may not need all of it. Do not overwork dough.
5. Roll into ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
6. Flour work surface.
7. Roll out pastry into 20 x 40 cm rectangle.
8. Fold the two sides into middle and give it a quarter turn.
9. Roll out again and fold as before.
10. Wrap in cling film and put in fridge for 30 minutes.
11. Repeat the rolling and folding process another 2 times. Making a total of four turns.
12. Wrap in cling film and return to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Assembling pie

You can make individual ones but I prefer one big pie. Adapt the process below accordingly if you want to make individual pies.

1. Add cool pie filling to pie dish, season to taste and then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface until it is larger than pie dish and about 3mm thick.
3. Brush edge of pie dish with egg wash and cover with pastry. Tuck pastry in around filling and then press against edge of dish to form a seal.
4. Cut off excess pastry with scissors or a sharp knife and brush top of pie with egg wash.
5. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
7. You can use excess pastry to decorate pie; rollout to 1.5 mm if you want to do this. Cut leaves or crescents with a sharp knife. Arrange around edge of pie. Brush with remaining egg wash.
8. Use a sharp knife to cut a small hole in centre of pie.
9. Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve with green vegetables or salad.

by Donna.

It’s spring time.  This week fennel bulb made a return to my weekly fruit and vegetable box.

Last year we greeted the return of spring with a fennel, chili and mint salad – but the weather was warm and like summer.  This year it is cool and raining, like February or March, except brighter.  It is perfect for baked fennel.

This recipe was inspired by Nigel Slater but we simplify it at home, and also scale it up or down depending on how much fennel we have around.  It is super easy, and with the slow cooking in butter and wine it turns so more-ish.  It creates its own liquor (gravy) and we love serving it with roast chicken.  This will turn even the biggest fennel hater into a fennel lover. I promise

Ingredients

3 bulbs of fennel, chopped into chunks
butter (about a tablespoon or two)
white wine (about a half a glass – but more for the chef)
juice from one lemon
about a half a cup of water
grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Cut fennel into pieces – half, quarter, eighth – until you get bite sized chunks – this helps it to cook faster. 
2. In a Dutch oven or other stove and oven friendly pot, melt a knob of butter.
3. Brown the fennel in the butter.
4. Add white wine, and reduce by about half (simmering).
5. Squeeze lemon, add water (about half a cup).
6. Bake in 180C oven for about 30 minutes, until soft and tender. Keep an eye on the fennel, you don’t want it overly brown – just the edges.
7. Top with grated parmesan and brown to finish under a grill for about 30 seconds.

Enjoy!

by Paukku.

(this post was originally published on Paukku’s blog Zegedines & Bellytimber – he has other non-baking recipes there, so do check it out – it is a beautiful site)

“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.”
~John Gunther

I really wanted to call these Goat Cheese and Spinach Quiche in Bell Pepper Rings. But let’s be honest, this is not a quiche. Sigh. Neither is it an omelet, nor a frittata, nor a strata. I could have gone with œufs dans les poivrons verts. But that is getting carried away.

The girls were hungry and it was time for breakfast. Looking through the refrigerator I found eggs, a bag of fresh spinach, several bell peppers and some goat cheese.

I had no desire to make an omelet, but wanted something fun.

Ah, inspiration!

The concept was simple enough: slice the bell peppers into one-inch slices, beat the eggs, mix in the spinach and cheese, and bake until perfect.

The execution was a little more complex, but not very much so.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Slice the bell peppers into one-inch rings – go for four rings. Coarsely chop the spinach. Crumble the cheese. Beat the eggs with a small amount of water (less than a table spoon per egg used).

Place the bell pepper rings on a griddle on low heat (about 250° F) or a frying pan on low. Drizzle a small amount of vegetable oil into each ring. Pour the mixed eggs into each ring with just enough to completely cover the bottom of each ring with about 1/8-inch of egg. Let it cook until the egg is well set.

Transfer the bell pepper rings to a baking tray covered in baking parchment. Fill the bell pepper rings about halfway with eggs, then add generous amounts of spinach and crumbled cheese. Fill the bell pepper rings up to almost the top with eggs and add more spinach and cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until eggs are set.