Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Decorate with a dusting of cayenne pepper and tarragon and maybe a few neatly peeled shrimps.
Photo © Jan-Erik Nilsson for CMC, 2009

Easter is upcoming and I have already started to think about dishes I feel would fit the season. Right now I believe salmon would be great, lamb cutlets are always a temptation and maybe a chicken baked whole and stuffed with some crisp apples would be fine.

We’ll see. The options are many but I have already started planning and that is always a beginning. In the mean time, considering the world’s finance crisis, I thought I’d like to share my best luxurious and least expensive dish ever- Lobster Bisque on a shoestring.

What usually happens when preparing a shellfish meal is that the meaty parts are put to good use whilst the shells of these crustaceans are discarded. The economy in this is that you can use every bit of those crustaceans, separating the meat from the shells and saving the shells for this dish. Here we are replacing lobster with shrimps.

This is a delicate entrée or starter, or something you can serve in-between dishes as a surprise. It fits well to be served in a cup. The value of this dish lies in its exclusivity. It will be a magic wake up call to the guests, and make them very hungry for the next dish. Ideally it should be tied into the whole meal so that the meat parts of the shellfish appear somewhere else. Here I don’t use beurre manie as thickener but whipped cream instead. This is my preferred way of simplifying the cooking, improve the flavor and texture, and mystify my guests.

The following serves 4 to 6 persons.

Peel shrimps
Peel 500 grams (1 lbs) of cooked medium sized shrimps. Put heads and shells, and peeled shrimps in separate bowls. In Sweden shrimps will come salted and might benefit from a slight rinsing in cold water before peeling. If your shrimps are cooked without salt you will need to add some salt to the finished stock.

Prepare stock
Prepare the stock by peeling and dicing 3 shallots, (1 carrot and 1 celery stalk are optional). Melt 2 tbs butter in a pot. Braise until soft. Add the shells, roe, heads and all into the pot. Add 1-2 dried chillies, or less if you are not so used to spicy food, and 2 tbs tomato paste. Add 2 cups of water and 1 cup of white wine and braise under lid at low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. If you actually use lobster shells, extend the time to an hour.

A homemade hearts waffle topped with blueberries, raspberries, vanilla ice-cream and generous whipped cream!
Photo © J E Nilsson for CMC, 2009

In Sweden, which might be the most secular nation on earth, the Annunciation is still celebrated the 25th of March every year by eating waffles.

The waffle day is however named as it is in Sweden due to a misunderstanding of the word Vår Fru, meaning Our Lady or in French, Notre Dame all referring to the Virgin Mary, but sounding like the word waffle or våffla in Swedish, albeit after some phonetical twists. So technically, waffles day in Sweden is a celebration of the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, with the news of Mary’s conception of Jesus. This happy revelation happened exactly nine months before the holy child Jesus was born on the night to the 25th of December, which we celebrate as Christmas.

Historically Sweden was pagan until the twelfth century. With the founding of modern Sweden some four hundred years later, the Swedes left Catholicism in favour for Protestantism. Religion wise it went pretty much downhill from then on however most feasts are still happily celebrated. The 16th century was also the first time that western people were allowed to read and hear the gospel in their own languages. Up until then, the Bible had been only available in Latin, so just maybe, the misunderstanding of the “Vår fru” dates back, all the way to that time too.

Today in Sweden, the celebration of waffles day is mostly concerned with how to make them as sinfully delightful as possible. Here are our suggestions:

A waffle topped with fresh blueberries, raspberries, whipped cream and a light dusting of icing sugar.

Inspired by the Disney/ Pixar movie Ratatouille (2007), here is my attempt at creating just such a ratatouille dish as they did, as a main course.
Photo for CMC by: Jan-Erik Nilsson © 2009.

A few years ago the movie Ratatouille (2007) by Disney / Pixar came out in the movie theatres. I found that a most inspiring film when it came to cooking despite the fact that the best chef in the movie was a rat, however most adorable!

Ever since I saw that movie, I have been pondering how the actual dish fits with the title of the movie, and my guess has been that the Disney/ Pixar gang probably found the title Rat-atouille witty, so that they based the whole story on that, but was then also stuck with trying to compose a main course out of something that is actually a side dish, similar to salsa. This was a challenging task for the film team since ratatouille is nice, but not really a dish so grand as to be presented as a main course in a gourmet restaurant.

Today when a friend who preferred vegetarian dishes showed up, I thought why not; lets see if it is possible to create something similar to a ratatouille, but one that can work as a main course by itself.

Normally a ratatouille is cooked and stirred towards a very soft consistency, it being a dish that might well be best served with a spoon. In the movie it was served warm with a fork, upright standing in presentation and appearing pretty dry. This is a bit tricky to accomplish since the main ingredients are botanically speaking fruits, and as such they will cook very quickly and also melt or fall apart very easily as soon as they get warm.

So, if we are to make a stand alone ratatouille main course, all this would need to be addressed.

My version of Ratatouille à la Ratatouille

The Ratatouille is known to stem from Provance, so taste wise I decided to situate it somewhere in between Southern France and Northern Italy, and brought out some really good olive oil from San Gimignano, some fresh garlic, a few shallots, and then fried this together into a spicy foundation.

Two cloves of garlic, chopped up and braised in olive oil together with some shallots.

Shallots are actually a kind of lily buds and have a much milder flavour than onions. Braise to taste.

A dark purple aubergine, sliced.

I then sliced up one zucchini, one eggplant and some large tomatoes. The zucchini and eggplant I drizzled with salt and left them for about ten minutes to marinate, to make them softer and more flavourful. The tomato and the zucchini does not need more than a warming to cook, but the aubergine is tougher to cook due to its spongy and air filled cells. So I tried to deal with this difference by using a really fresh aubergine and by sprinkling it with some salt beforehand to make it softer. Due to the difference in cell structures, salting the aubergine is actually more important than salting the zucchini prior to cooking.

At the recent Passion för mat food fair 2009 at Eriksbergshallen in Gothenburg, inspirational table settings were presented, such as this layout in varying tones of pinks and oranges for the upcoming spring.
Photo for CMC by: Cheryl Marie Cordeiro © 2009.

The table setting at any party thrown, is an art in itself to pull off. Just as people’s anticipation and excitement can be heightened by looking at the invite card to any event, the table setting upon entering the scene of the event can set the very tone, mood and ambience of the party.

Table settings inspire the mood of the guests from the moment they arrive. They also tell people if you’re genuinely interested in hosting the party, in having guests over and if you’re genuinely all out for having a good time!

A table setting in varying shades of white and contrast green.

The cold spell in Sweden will soon give way to warmer spring temperatures and the restaurants are already discussing and settling their outdoor seatings for the spring and summer seasons. In the next few months all through summer, more people will begin to eat outdoors and with Easter, May Day and graduation parties upcoming, there’ll be plenty of reasons for Swedes to throw parties all the way past Midsummer and Crayfish eating season! Continue reading “Inspirational table settings at Passion för Mat 2009, the gourmet food fair, Gothenburg, Sweden” →