Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Honey mustard baked Christmas ham, fresh out of the oven. Nowadays this is the centerpiece of most Swedish Christmas tables. I olden times, this place was taken by a complete, baked pig’s head with a red apple in the mouth.
J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2010

While living mostly in Sweden when the opportunity presents itself I occasionally find myself back in Singapore to celebrate the festive season with parents and relatives. On these occasions even solid institutions such as Christmas celebrations and the types of food put out on the Christmas table, becomes a mixture of what we all love the most of the Nordic and the Singaporean Eurasian traditions.

The Swedish “Christmas” table has its roots in old Viking mid-winter sacrifice rituals or even older than that. Then a few centuries ago the East India trade brought the Swedes to South East Asia over the Christmas where they had to wait for the monsoon winds to change before it would bring them back to the North, and today I found the traditional Nordic Christmas ham dressed up to look like a tropical pineapple fruit. Coincidence or not, traditions are built up over time to somehow keep long lost memories alive and who knows what people long after us, will have on their Christmas Mid winter tables. Chicken Mc Nugget?

Here are anyway a few pictures from my Christmas in my two homes, in Sweden, and in Singapore.
Continue reading “Christmas food in Sweden and Singapore” →

Tagliatelle with pork fillet medallions and bacon crisps
with rosemary and whisky flavoured parmaggiano sause.
J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2010

This is long time favourite of mine. It is quick and easy to make, not that expensive, and can make up a the main course of a really nice home cooked dinner for quite a number of guests with no big effort.

Water for the pasta

All in all it takes about half an hour to make, provided that you have the ingredients prepared and at home of course. If so, the first thing to do is to get the water for the pasta started.

Getting the sauce going

Next is actually the sauce since it will need a little while to mature. This will take about thirty minutes, so we estimate the time on this. Basically you just make a white sauce with butter, wheat flour, milk and a few tbs of full cream for flavour. Add freshly ground white pepper and stir in a teaspoon (tsp) of sea salt flakes. Now stir and slow cook this for at least a quarter of an hour while adding milk and cream as needed so that you arrive at the thickness you want. Then add about a cup of loosely ground parmaggiano cheese and melt in while stirring.
Continue reading “Tagliatelle with pork fillet medallions and Parmaggiano sause” →

However much we love cooking, the purpose is eventually always to get to relax a bit and to enjoy a nice meal in pleasant company. Maybe to round off a hard day’s work with a small indulgence. Luckily this could equally well be accomplished without more work than it takes to drizzle a few drops of acacia honey on top of a nice Italian hard cheese, pour the wine …

Testun al Barolo and Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, 2006.
J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2010

… and say, Hi, you are invited down to the kitchen, to your loved ones.

Choice of cheese: Testun al Barolo, an interesting hard cow’s milk Pecorino cheese from Piemonte in northern Italy. It is matured for six months and then covered with nebbiolo grapes and matured for one more month in Barolo wine oak caskets. It’s texture is a little grainy and the cheese as such has soaked up quite an interesting flavour from the dried grapes.

Choice of wine: Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, 2006. I don’t know your taste in wine and this choice could of course be debated. Amarone is a special kind of wine and many of those who have known wine from Valpolicella being something of a joke among wine connoisseurs, love this underdog region being able to get back at the critics by successfully reviving a technique that stems from the days of the Roman empire, and makes the critics eat their words.

It’s fun and it does work brilliantly with certain kinds of food. The thing with this wine is that it changes it’s face over a few hours, from when you open the bottle. I would say the wine fits with most anything at some occasion during its lifespan. Somewhere in the middle I think I would even like to try it with fish. However, the purpose of it all is to have a good time and this Amarone certainly makes for good company.

How did it work out with the cheese? Well, honestly, who am I to decide that? If I need to say something I would say that to me, the combination felt like a big hug by a large family meeting up a cold day in front of the fire place. There are good times and there are bad times, but in the midst of it all, you know you all belong.

Lamb cutlets
with garlic and rosemary fried potatoes and wine poached pears.
J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2010

Just recently I was looking for inspiration in the local food store, when suddenly some of the best cuts of lamb cutlets I have seen in a long while stared me in the face. So that was easy. Nice, thick and juicy cuts from the lower back and with the filé left in place. Perfect.

I always find cooking lamb a bit of a challenge. However we look at it, lamb is far from an everyday dish where we live. In Sweden it’s a traditional meal that belongs to the autumn and winter season and to have lamb is a little event in itself. Because of this, there are a lot of unspoken expectations surrounding these meals. One of which is the hope that it will turns out good, another the fear that it will not.

However, since this dish worked out fine, I will share what we did, not the least so I will remember it myself.

First of all, there are many traditions in which to cook lamb and ours was inspired by Italy and Greece, as in lots of garlic and olive oil, and only a vague idea about keeping tabs.
Continue reading “Rosemary Lamb Cutlets with wine, lemon and honey pears” →