Recipe from Quick Dishes: Herring à la Maison

This is a typical Scandinavian herring dish.

Prep time: 15 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.

1 large red onion
1 bunch dill
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
3 tbs wine vinegar
2-3 tbs sugar
1 tbs oil
400 g marinated herring

Peel and chop the onion very finely. Mix with chopped dill, pepper, vinegar, sugar and oil. Cut the herring into bite-size pieces (you can also buy it already in pieces). Arrange on a serving dish. Pour the sauce over the herring. Let stand while you cook some potatoes to serve with the dish.

Serving suggestion from me:
Serve as part of a Scandinavian-style cold buffet (smörgåsbord) with other cold dishes, such as Russian style herring salad, smoked salmon, gravlax, ham, and other cold delicacies.

Most, if not all herring dishes are delicious as a topping for rye bread.

Recipe from Summer Food: Rhubarb tart

Prep time: about 20 minutes.
Baking time: about 15 minutes.
Oven temperature: 225°C, centre of the oven.

2-3 plates deep-frozen puff pastry
500 g rhubarb
75-100 ml sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbs cornstarch
2 egg whites
100 g icing sugar

Let the puff pastry thaw in the refrigerator. Wash the rhubarb and cut into small pieces.

Put the rhubarb into a round cake pan or pie dish and sprinkle with sugar. Put the dish in an oven and turn the oven up to 225°C and let the dish stand in the oven until the oven has reached full heat, or until the rhubarb is soft. Drain the rhubarb, KEEPING THE LIQUID. Wash the dish. Keep the oven hot.

Arrange the cold puff pastry pieces in a roughly round shape, overlapping them slightly. Reserve a strip of pastry to line the sides of the pie. Roll out into a round shape, about the size of the pie dish/cake pan, and line the bottom of the pan with it. Line the sides of the pan with the remaining pastry.

To make the meringue, whip the egg whites until stiff and whip in the icing sugar. Brush some egg yolk onto the pastry. Put the rhubarb into the dish. Stir the corn-flour into the rhubarb juice and drizzle over the rhubarb. Smooth the meringue over the top of the rhubarb, but not completely to the edges (allow about 5 cm of rhubarb to show along the edge). Bake as indicated above.

Serve warm with whipped cream.

Recipe from Summer Food: Spicy croquettes

Serves: 4.
Prep time: about 20 minutes.
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Do not freeze.

500 g starchy potatoes
4 eggs (2 raw, 2 hard-boiled)
2 onions, grated
100 g mild block cheese, grated
1-2 slices cooked ham, finely chopped
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
2 tbs butter
1 tbs flour
Salt and pepper
Dash of nutmeg
Breadcrumbs for coating
Oil for frying

Peel the potatoes, cut into pieces and cook in lightly salted water until cooked through*. Drain, dry and mash. Hard-boil 2 eggs and chop finely.

Mix together the mashed potatoes, 2 raw eggs, the boiled eggs, onions, cheese, ham, parsley, butter, flour and spices to taste. Cool the paste so it will be easier to work with.

Make small, sausage-shaped croquettes from the paste. Roll in breadcrumbs and fry in deep oil (or deep-fry), a few at a time. Turn often and fry until they are lightly browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. While you fry the remaining croquettes, keep the cooked ones warm on a serving dish in the oven at 85°C.

Serve with cooked vegetables.

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*I never, ever peel potatoes before I boil them. I would simply cook them whole and peel them afterwards.

Recipe from Summer Food: Cauliflower pie

Serves 6-8. Prep time: about 25 minutes Cooking time: up to 45-50 minutes. Oven temperature: 200°C Do not freeze.
Pie pastry: 150 g butter Salt, pepper, paprika 2 eggs Ca. 300 g (500 ml) flour	Melt the butter and allow to cool a little. Mix in 1tsp salt, a dash of white pepper and 1 tsp paprika. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture foams. Stir in the flour, a little at a time, until the pastry is smoth. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
Filling: 1 medium head of cauliflower 300-500 g sausagemeat or minced meat 1 onion, grated 2 bunches parsley 1 egg Salt and pepper 1 lemon 2 tbs butter 1 1/2 tbs flour 200 ml cooking cream 50 g cream cheese with herbs (use plain and add some herb seasoning if you can't get it)
While the pastry cools, divide the cauliflower into small florets, wash and simmer in lightly salted water for about 5 minutes. Drain well and keep the cooking liquid. Mix the egg, grated onion, 1 bunch finely chopped parsley, juice and grated peel of 172 lemon, salt and pepper, into the sausagemeat/mince. Pie: Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish (about 22 cm in diameter) with it, bottom and sides. Prick the pastry well. Cut out a strip of aluminium foil wide enough to cover the rim of the pastry and cover the rim with three layers of foil. Bake at 200°C for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and let the pie crust cool a bit. Smooth the sausagemeat over the bottom of the crust and lay the cauliflower florets on top. Melt the butter, and over low heat whisk in the flour and add the cream and cream cheese and enough of the cooking liquid from the cauliflower to make a smooth sauce. Sauce shoult be thickish. Adjust the flavour with lemon juice, finely chopped parsley and salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the pie filling. Bake at 200°C for 30-40 minutes until the cauliflower and meat is done through. Serve with crusty bread and a fresh salad.

Recipe from Summer Food: Cold cucumber soup

Serves 4. Prep time: up to 20 minutes. Cooling time: about 1hour.
1 large cucumber Salt 3/4 to 1 litre vegetable stock 2-3 small onions 300 ml plain yogurt 1/2 lemon White pepper 1 bunch parsley
Peel the cucumber and cut in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds. Cube the cucumber, sprinkle with salt and let stand for about 10 minutes. Peel the onions and dry the cucumber pieces well. Purée the onions and half the cucumber pieces and the lemon juice in a blender. Mix the stock and yogurt into the purée and adjust the flavour with the spices. Refrigerate. Mix in the remaining cucumber pieces before serving and sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

Recipe from Summer Food: Golden Delicious Apple-white wine punch

Serves 6-8.
Prep time: about 15 minutes
Standing time: about 1 hour

4 sweet apples
1 vanilla pod, split lengthwise
85 g (100 ml) sugar
The juice of 2 lemons
1 bottle semi-dry white wine
1-2 bottles mineral water (presumably fizzy)

Wash and peel the apples (keep the peel) and remove the center and seeds. Cut into thin sections. Put the apple sections, the peel and the vanilla pod in a punch bowl. Sprinkle the sugar over them and add the lemon juice. Pour in enough wine to just cover the apples, cover the bowl with a lid or cling film and refirgerate for about 1 hour.
Remove the apple peel and add the rest of the wine and ice-cold mineral water.

Non-alcoholic version:
Replace the wine with apple juice and reduce the sugar.

Cookbook of the week #4: Hjemmets Kokebokklubb: Sommermat (Summer Food)

This cookbook comes from a series published by Hjemmet, which I think also publishes the womens' weekly magazine of the same name. I have this book in the original Norwegian, and several others from the Icelandic edition of the series. The theme is "summer food", i.e. picnic food and dishes with fresh seasonal ingredients, cold drinks and fruit and berry desserts. Since summer is showing definite signs of ending soon, I decided to test this book before autumn sets in, although I generally don't cook different dishes in the summer than I do in the winter, formerly seasonal ingredients now generally being available year round.

Here are some of the recipes I would like to try:

Apple-white wine punch. I would try to make it into a cocktail.
Barbecued pork kebabs with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. I can almost taste them…
Cauliflower Pie. I like baked cauliflower, and this looks like the next step up.
Spicy potato croquettes. These would be nice served on the side with the kebabs.
Cold cucumber soup. Sounds very refreshing.
Rhubarb tart. I love rhubarb and I have some of last year's crop still in the freezer.
Glazed fruit tart. I love these, but have never tried making one.
Chocolate ice-cream. I always make vanilla and then add extra flavour by using sauces and liqueurs, but I would like to try making chocolate ice cream for once.
Strawberries Romanoff. I think these would be quite nice as a dessert after the kebabs.

I think I have a meal planned already :-)