Weekend indulgence: roast turkey dinner with Sandeman Port gravy

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Roast turkey with red currant jam and port gravy

Roast turkey served with red currant jam and dark gravy laced with port.
Photo Jan-Erik Nilsson, Cheryl Cordeiro-Nilsson for Cheryl Marie Cordeiro © 2009

Growing up in the Eurasian tradition in Singapore, it was my family’s tradition to have a variety of meats especially during the festive seasons. Roast turkey was one for serving on New Year’s Eve. The smell of a roast turkey wafting from the kitchen is indescribably decadent and something I’ve always looked forward to come New Year’s.

Since being in Sweden, I have had little opportunities to bring over a lot of my food traditions, partly because I spend so much time exploring the new and traditional of Swedish cuisine. Come this weekend however, we decided to put turkey on the table!
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A little avocado luxury

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Avocado with shrimp entrée, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Avocado with shrimps, an au naturel entrée
Photo Jan-Erik Nilsson for Cheryl Marie Cordeiro © 2009

Crisp and refreshing, this avocado entrée with shrimps provides a filled with natural goodness, creamy but not too heavy entrée to any dinner party. Most alluring about this dish is that all ingredients can be homemade without preservatives with little time and effort.

The avocado seed is removed with a twist of the knife.

Remove the avocado seed with a slight twist of the knife.

What you’ll need for this are equal parts of crème fraiche and mayonnaise, a dash of black and white pepper, pinch of salt, some fresh dill that is chopped finely, and a squeeze of lemon juice. If you don’t wish for the slight sour tint of flavour that comes from the crème fraiche, you can substitute that with whipped cream instead. Mix all the ingredients till the flavours are well incorporated, then add the shrimp, stirring again. This can be prepared the night before, which I find a real time saver for dinner parties.

Mayonnaise, crème fraiche and dill before the shrimp go in

Mixing the ingredients.

I’ve really only come across eating avocados with shrimp when in Sweden a few years ago. Because of its simple luxury – quick and easy to prepare, something that looks decadent without the extravagant prices, plus it’s as eco-friendly as cooking can get with all natural ingredients – it’s been one my favourite things to eat when living in Sweden since.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Fudge

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Old fashioned chocolate fudge 1, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Smooth and melts in your mouth!
Photo Cheryl M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2009

It was late in the evening and it had been a long day of reviewing papers for an upcoming conference. I didn’t feel a need for a full meal but needed a sugar rush fix of sweet chocolate. I thought I could reach into the cabinet for that packet of chocolate coated Daim bits but alas! Someone else had gotten to them before I. So I settled to make chocolate fudge.

Chocolate fudge or fudge in general is not for the faint of heart calorie counters because it is by definition, a sugar bomb. It’s fairly easy to make because it doesn’t need that much looking after (like kaya or bernaise sauce) and it takes about 30 minutes cooking time.

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Perfect Polar Bear swimming weather!

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Swedish westcoast, iced seas, January 2010

After several weeks of snowfall and -15 C along the Swedish westcoast.
Photo C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2009

It has been several weeks of snowfall and a constant -15 C in Sweden, though this week has warmed to a -8 C. Nonetheless, the temperatures have resulted in a blanket of white on land and an ice capped sea that is currently perfect for the Scandinavian sauna tradition that comes with winter swimming.
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Amaro Montenegro Tiramisù

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Amaro Montenegro tiramisu with shaved chocolate topping

Tiramisù with Amaro Montenegro.
Photo JE Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2009

It was in Venice slightly more than a year ago, that I really fell in love with Tiramisù. It came as a wobbly cake served in a backlane restaurant of the labyrinth of Venice that would have been difficult to locate, if not for the recommendation.

Although many would today experience Tiramisù in the form of a cake slice, this Italian dessert had its beginnings during the 17th century in Siena, a northwestern Italian province of Tuscany, when the Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici III (1642-1723) had a somewhat similar dessert during his visit there in a custard consistency.
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January Epiphany in Frost

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Frosted windowpanes, Sweden, January 2010, Epiphany

Frosted windowpanes, for real.
Photo Cheryl Marie Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2009

Here are two postcards from the westcoast of Sweden today. Epiphany in Sweden is a public holiday, where most would by now, take down their Christmas decorations after 12 days of Christmas. The difference this year is that Epiphany arrived along with snow drift and gorgeous frosted windowpanes!

Snow weathered, Sweden January 2010, Epiphany

Weathered.

Growing up in Singapore, it was always spray painted snow on windowpanes that I saw come Christmas in the department stores. While the decorations were pretty, it failed to convey the real meaning of frost to one so tropical as I.

The windowpanes frost over when the outside is minus degrees and the inside gets from plus to a subsequent minus in temperature, thereby allowing the moisture on the glass panes to crystallize – it all sounds so technically simple. Of course. But fact is, it’s as cold indoors as it is outdoors!

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro reading Anthony Robbins

Some quiet reading with Anthony Robbins.

It being a public holiday and snowy outside, it gives perfect opportunity for me to fold up in front of a fireplace in warm woollen clothes and catch up on some of my favourite reads.

Chocolate gyllenmust

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Swedish gyllenmust, Vahlrhona cocoa powder, gingerbread cookies

Chocolate gyllenmust (oatmeal drink) with gingerbread cookies.
Photo Cheryl Marie Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2009

As with the United Kingdom, Sweden is experiencing some harshly cold weather these days, averaging a -10 deg C outside with strong winds.

What I find quite comforting for the weather is an oatmeal based hot drink that in Sweden is called Gyllenmust. The finely ground oatmeal once cooked, gives a wonderfully thick consistency that fills the stomach.

Milk in a pot, on a stove with cinnamon, ready for gyllenmust making

A dash of cinnamon into the warming milk starts the process.

Traditionally, Gyllenmust is made with milk and sweetened with raisins dropped in during the cooking process. I like to have mine unsweetened, with a hint of cinnamon and a more generous helping of cocoa powder. A cup of this chocolate oatmeal drink and some gingerbread cookies can make most anyone snug in the cold.

A Swedish westcoast New Year’s 2010

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, Swedish westcoast New Year's 2010

Ushering in 2010 along the Swedish westcoast.
Photo Jan-Erik Nilsson © 2009

New Year’s Eve 2010 was greeted along the Swedish westcoast by a bluemoon (a second full moon this month that happens once every 20 years) that hung low and glowed luminously. Beautiful sight!

Swedish westcoast New Year's 2010

Fireworks in the neighbourhood, Swedish westcoast.

In Sweden, it’s customary that people buy their own fireworks to set alight in their gardens. About fifteen minutes to midnight, people were already setting off their fireworks!

New Year's fireworks, Swedish westcoast 2010

A burst of purple and gold for 2010!

This year, our neighbours had a riot of a time with fireworks, with their children filling the air with excitable screams and shouts as each rocket took off.

1 am into the night and the odd set of fireworks box was still going off. Surreal.

Hönsafest i juletid 2009: homecoming party aboard the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg III ship

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Jan-Erik Nilsson, Anders and Berit Wästfelt, founders of the Gotheborg III ship project, Sweden

Founders of the Swedish East Indiaman Gotheborg III ship project: Jan-Erik Nilsson (right), Anders and Berit Wästfelt (left). They’re standing with Stefan Andersson (in 18th century attire), who provided the main entertainment for the ship’s homecoming party.
Photo JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2009

Definition of Hönsafest by Västsverige

It was with their lives that sailors put out when they set sail to China during the 1700s aboard the Swedish East India Company vessels from the port of Gothenburg. Crew members had to endure storms, pirates, shipwrecks and sudden death. The attraction for them were money, adventure, the smell of warm spices and the possibility of a romp or two with exotic women from distant lands. All crew had to pay a mandatory hösapengen or homecoming money once the vessel reached the Equator. This money went into a big party when they came home again. Perhaps it was the idea of this feast, which lasted for three weeks, that kept up the spirits for the sailors when their teeth fell out in the aftermath of scurvy.

It couldn’t have a been better time to throw a staged homecoming party for the Swedish East Indiaman vessel Gotheborg III than in the wintry months of Sweden, when the ship is safely tarpaulined and docked.

Looking like a large white Christmas package at dockside, guests to the Hönsafest i juletid event that began in late November and continues through December 2009 in Gothenburg, were first invited for refreshments at the main warehouse before boarding the ship.

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Knäck – the classic Swedish Christmas candy

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Julgodis, knäck, Swedish toffee, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Swedish classic Christmas candy – knäck.
Photo Jan-Erik Nilsson © 2009

Not too complicated to make, always appreciated, but demanding of your patience is the Swedish classic Christmas candy – knäck. It’s similar to English toffee but still not quite. Nothing sets the Christmas mood as well as a full tray of knäck. Here is how we made it this Christmas:

Julgodis, knäck in pot, Swedish toffee, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

To use a large pot and to stir all the time is an essential trick of the trade. Possibly more failed candy are eaten straight out of the pot then actually perfected ones. But no worries, as it’s all part of the fun.

You can make knäck with or without nuts. Our batch this year was smooth, without the crunch.

Swedish classic Christmas candy – knäck
3 dl cream
3 dl sugar
3 dl light syrup
2 tbs butter
2 dl sweet almonds peeled and chopped (optional)

1. Chop the almonds. Lose the smallest particles.
2. Mix all ingredients minus the almonds in a large pot.
3. Boil while stirring until it reaches 125 centigrades, don’t even look away.
4. Add almonds
5. Fill the paper tins (ca 100). Don’t let the pot get cold.
6. Store on an open tray.

Julgodis, knäck filling up in paper forms, Swedish toffee, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Find a small good suitable spoon for filling the paper tins or they will topple.

Some useful tips when making knäck:

Use average, not too hot a flame. Stir absolutely all the time. Find a small good suitable spoon for filling the paper cups or they’re prone to toppling over by the weight of the seductive goo. Avoid stacking the filled paper cups since they will stick together. There is a “drop test” in water that you can use to see if the temperature is right.

Enjoy!