Swedish bread and brisket - adventures in cooking

On my last trip to that magical blue and yellow flat pack kingdom, I had a feeling of panic and dread as we approached the checkout and realised my trolley was empty, well almost. Even a scrounge in discount corner (can't resist) didn't give me the fix I was looking for. So after the checkout I hit the food store, with a new zeal for Swedish food, having eaten my way around Stockholm a few times now.
Then the trolley was overflowing, with Glogg Wine, Dryck Julmust (strange dark cola Xmas soft drink) Kanelbullar (cinnamon scrolls), Elderflower cordial and marmalade, Pepparkarkor biscuits (too delicious!), various crisp breads and Flerkorn Bread-mix.

Christmas came and went, as did all the food and drink, except for the two bread-mixes which I found at the back of the cupboard this week. So I gave one a whirl today, the instructions couldn't be easier, grease your loaf tin, add 600ml of warm water to the tetrapak, shake and pour into the tin. Rest 45mins, bake for an hour. I didn't trust the 'shake in the container' part, having cleaned up too many pancake and cake batters before (and a very vivid memory of my brother shaking a chocolate milkshake that ended up drenching Mums' net curtains), so I emptied the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl first.

After resting I had expected some sign of rising, and didn't have much hope after seeing it hadn't risen at all. An hour in the oven, continually having to remind myself and my stomach, that although it smelt like delicious chocolate cake in the oven, it was bread. I took it out spot on the hour, and it looked pretty good, and after cooling a slice revealed a nice even bake (I've been paying attention to Mary Berry). Delicious with Vegemite, but oh what I'd give for some cream cheese or Kraft peanut butter right now!

Next experiment for the day is underway, I'm cooking brisket! Years of Seinfeld and Big Bang Theory have convinced me this should be a delicious thing. I bought a premixed bag of pot roast spice and herbs from the German Christmas markets, which unfortunately has no clues of quantities, and no amount of googling supplied an answer. I did however come across lots of pot roast recipes and although not following one specifically, I think I've got the gist. Buying brisket is an economical way of getting good quality, outdoor reared, organic beef here in the UK, plus its so nice to do a slow cook meal on a cold winters day.

After browning the meat, deglazing the pan with red wine, adding the spice mix (random guess of 4 heaped tablespoons), onion and celery I transferred it to a cast iron casserole and topped up halfway with boiling water.

Looks good, so far. Now just have to slow cook it in the oven for 3.5hrs to find out!

Verdict - it was delicious, but oy vey the amount of fat that comes off the brisket is a little scary. I separated the meat from the liquid for the leftovers, and cooled in the fridge overnight. The next day I took a decent crust of lard off the top! At least the leftovers will have less calories then when revived from the freezer.

Posted with Blogsy

Vasa and Vodka

Today I took my husband and a friend on a winters walk around Djurgarden, my favourite island of Stockholm City. Its gorgeous all year, but exceptional in Winter and Autumn.

Continuing to work on the list of Museums, we managed to knock off another two in the afternoon.

We started out with brunch at Koknastornet, the tallest building in Stockholm at 155m (a TV Tower) with a Cafe and Restaurant on the top floors. We went to the Skybar Cafe and enjoyed the view while indulging in too many cakes and coffees for brunch.

view from the sky bar, those little dots are people cross country skiing

Then we jumped on a local bus over to the island and walked around the coastline enjoying the peace, quiet and snow covered scenery.

a little cold at this bar today

We then visited the Vasa Museum, you see and here from everyone that seeing the Vasa is a 'must do' for Stockholm. For some reason when anything is reccomended to me on mass, it puts me off, and if the thought of 'seeing an old ship' didn't interest me initially, I became less interested with every 'have you been to the Vasa, I have blah blah blah' However it had reached a tipping point, where I was over being asked if I had, and then having to somehow explain why I hadn't. I gave up, and decided seeing it, interested or not, was going to be easier at this point.

I won't stretch it and say it's a must see, but it was kind of interesting. I can however condense all my interest into one paragraph and a couple of photos. The thirty second history version - keen to show his greatness Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus built the Vasa, c1628 no expense was spared in decorating and equipping it as one of the largest and most heavily armed warships of its time. Impatient to join the Baltic fleet in the Thirty Years' War, the ship was set sail incorrectly balanced and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile . It was then salvaged, largely intact, in 1961.

Then we visited certainly one of the weirdest museums, The Absolut Museum. Described as a journey telling the story of Sweden's at time dubious relationship with alcohol, it did seem a rather thinly disguised advertising campaign for Absolut Vodka. None the less we had some laughs, there were lots of interactive displays designed to show the impact of alcohol on the body in various ways, and a bizarre smell and taste box you carry around and sample at the appropriate point.

Included in the box is a small confectionery looking fish, the receptionist advised us that it is very strong tasting and not actually a sweet, so do not try if you don't want too. Of course I tried it when we got to that point, big mistake, huge, worst pungent fish tasting thing I've ever eaten and I'm standing in the middle of a museum, no where to spit it out nothing to rinse it down with. Blech.

watching a film about drinking at the Absolut Museum,
this is how home cinema rooms should be built

Highlight of the day though, seeing the groundwork of the ABBA Museum is underway, this has been delayed many times over and I thought I'd never get to see it before we return home to Australia. It is now due to open in May 2013, so fingers crossed, I'll get to go!

Arlanda airport is getting the ABBA groove going

The Eurovision contest is to be held in Malmo, Sweden in May too - fingers crossed we can make a trip and catch Eurovision madness and ABBA in the same trip. 

I do hope I get to go, yes I do, I do I do I do I do I do.....

Stockholm Natural History Museum

I decided to head for warm shelter today, and revisited Stockholm Natural History Museum. I took along my black paper Moleskin and pastel pencils for a bit more practice.

First stop the bird displays, the pastel pencils seem to lend themselves well to the softness of feathers. The added bonus is that the museum was full of kids, schools looking for warm outings in winter too, and most kids just run straight past the bird displays so it was about the quietest area I could fine.

This one was under pressure as I knew closing time was coming, really just should have focused on the snow leopard head and that beautiful hare. I drew the hare first and then lost interest the further into the leopard body I got.

Incredibly those two pages, a coffee stop, and a general wander seeking out what to draw represent a four hour visit at the museum! 

As always, during the winter months, the walk through the snow back to the nearest tunnelbana [subway train] was breathtakingly, forehead numbingly cold!

Almgren Silk Weaving Museum

Oh happy days, I'm back in Stockholm again. This really is one of my favourite European cities, of those I've visited. I think its the fact that you are never far from water, or open space or both. As a tourist who doesn't speak the language its also such an easy, non threatening place to get around.

There are some 85-87 Museums in Stockholm [the number seems to fluctuate up and down each time they update the seasonal brochure!]. I try each time I come to go and see something else off the list. This trip I went to the Almgren Silk Weaving Museum. It didn't jump out as one that I was enthusiastic to get to, but I'm getting to that point on the list. The Mill is on Sodermalm, the island we usually stay on, and it was gorgeously white with snow outdoors so I decided to rug up and walk to the museum. It wasn't easy to find, barely signed at all from the street, especially so for a non Swedish reader.

It is a working museum, and the history of the building and company were actually quite interesting. The mill was founded in 1833 and the Almgren family ran it for five generations until it closed down in 1974. Seventeen years later a few of the grandchildren of the last managers reopened the mill as a working museum, once again producing silk on the 170 year old looms.

The woman operating the loom on the day was more than happy to stop and chat, explaining to me how the loom worked and the quantities produced from a days efforts. The loom is huge and extraordinarily loud and appears very non ergonomic, but she assured me that she can happily work at it all day with no aches or pains and the added bonus that she never has to go to the gym [the operator leans against a bar rather than sits, with both arms and one leg in constant motion].

Upstairs in the loft was an interesting display around the history of the industry, details of the Almgren mill - once Scandinavia's largest employer of women. Everything from fabric samples to old wage books were on display. Unfortunately the reason for the mill closing in the 70s also prevented me from buying a souvenir from the store, of silk produced on site, its expensive, very expensive.

Facts that I noted in my sketchbook - 1kg of silk represents 350kg of mulberry leaves and 8000 eggs from 20-30 moths. Silk thread is approximately 0.02 mm, a human hair is 0.05. Today, on a manual loom with a flying shuttle [the operators pulls a chord for the shuttle to fly across carrying the cross thread, rather than manually pulling it across], produces around 1-1.5m x 56cm, using punchcards to 'programme' the woven pattern. To set up a loom for a new weave takes two weeks. There are very good reasons why hand woven silk is expensive!

On the wall in the loft a quote was painted, which had formerly appeared on a sign in the mill in its working day, one day I think I'll paint it above my kitchen sink;

"Det fordras också känsliga fingertoppar som inte fa fordarvas av alltför, mycket grovsysslor hema"

"your fingertips must be sensitive and not ruined by domestic work" 

                               Amen to that!

Cross stitch correction

I've really been getting stuck into the cross stitch again, [I last wrote about it here] and have covered off a few more pages, and finally passed the half way point. When working at such a scale, with so many colours and blends, it's so easy to make a mistake and so hard to notice it until further on. It wasn't until I had progressed quite a bit that I started to notice this group of dark brown stitches [top left corner] stood out suspiciously.

It took a while and a lot of counting but eventually I managed to match up these stitches with the pattern and identify which colour they should have been.

Then it took even longer to unpick them [I guess it's good to know all the time spent securing threads at the beginning and end works, just not so good when you want to pull them out!] Using a combination of a quick unpick, manicure scissors, a needle, patience and a dose of swearing, I got there.

Restitched in the correct colour. It's easy to see in this shot why it took so long to notice the error, this background section of the 'painting' does have a smattering of contrasting colours, just not quite as dark as the mistake stitches were.

So back to it. The background areas to the left and right, lower than the yellow, represent three weeks worth of stitching, approximately 8000 stitches! 

I think that leaves me with around 40,000 stitches to go. Whenever I start doing a quick mental calculation of stitches done, or left, the 'Seasons of Love' song from 'Rent' pops into my head. If, like me, you've never seen the musical, you may not know this reference by name, but it seems to be one of those songs that has planted itself in my brain somehow "Five hundred, twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, How do you measure, measure a year"...and I have a sneaking suspicion its courtesy of Team America or South Park more than anything to do with Broadway!