Norwegianne.net

Category: Food

  • Oh, butter

    Butter is one of those things I’ve been wanting to make for a while.

    My mother used to warn me (and I believe that it also says so on the cream carton) that if I whipped the cream too much, it would turn into butter.

    I was curious to see how long it took.

    The answer – disturbingly little time. (Definitely going to be minding the time when I whip cream from now on.)

    I used the recipe from The Traveler’s lunchbox. as a base. I essentially used the cream I had in the house (0.5 liter), which was about to go bad – so I had to use it for something…

    butter

    I would probably have ended with a better result if I had gone to a farm for cream, and less-processed, more natural yogurt, for the recipe, but what I got with store-bought cream and yogurt was pretty good.

    I sprinkled it with Maldon sea salt.

    At least on a slice of rye bread, with some rhubarb jam on the side. Rye bread aside, it tasted like France.

     

  • Plum cordial

    I have plums. My plum trees are currently maturing like crazy.

    I made plum chutney back in 2011, which was pretty easy and neat. But right now, I wanted to try my hand at something new. (Plus, something easier…)

    My mother has this fruit steamer system that you can make cordial in. Essentially, a pot of water (#1) at the bottom, a pot to collect the cordial in (#2) and one meshed pot to have on top for the berries/fruit to start out in (#3) – from which they will drain to #2 as they get steamed.

    saftkoker

    It’s really quite easy, apart from the clean up. (If you don’t have a steamer, it looks pretty easy to make it in regular pots as well, see link to the recipe below.)

    I used the list of ingredients from this recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller as my basis ( I had 3.4 kg plums with the stones still in them, so I multiplied to match the ratios).

    Since I have the steamer system, I added everything into the steamer straight away. I also included the vanilla pods with the plums, to infuse it even further.saftI found this recipe to be a bit more interesting in terms of final taste than if I’d just added plums and sugar to the mix.

  • Taste

    I am grateful for my sense of taste because it means that I can buy a basket of Norwegian strawberries, take a bite and be transported back to my childhood.

    Sitting on the steps to my grandmother’s garden in the south of Norway and eating the same brand of strawberries with my dad.

    Even if I’m closing in on 30, and it is at least 24 years ago.

  • Trick for Squeezing Lemons from Martha Stewart Food

    Nifty trick for squeezing lemons to get all the juice out.

    Trick for Squeezing Lemons – Martha Stewart Food.

    Admittedly, I haven’t tried it, and it seems like something that could quickly get messy unless you’re doing it as pictured or over a larger bowl.

    But it could be practical for when the recipe calls for the unspecified “juice of  x lemons” instead of tablespoons or milliliters. I’d probably do it over a sieve to catch the stones, though.

  • Babies tasting food items for the first time

  • Once a month cooking

    I’ve been trying out Once A Month Mom cooking this weekend. I now have a lot of delicious-smelling dishes in my freezer.

    It’s breakfasts, lunches and dinners – and you get the shopping lists for all the dishes as well as recipe cards, and the order of cooking to maximize time.

    Lessons learned (remember this next time):

    (more…)

  • Dangerous pastimes

    Ikea in December is a dangerous place if you’re trying to be healthy.

    They have a gingerbread and gløgg-stand every five minutes, and even if you just ate… You will be inspired enough to partake in goods from all of them.

  • Chocolate-talking

    The problem with recommending the new chocolate sauce and mousse-filled dark chocolate bar to everyone… Is that I keep giving myself cravings.

    Help?

  • Kitchen II

    I’m still working my way through Regina Leeds’ book, albeit slowly. Last week I started planning for the game night I’ve got going on, and the trivia weekend the weekend after that – so even though I looked through the chapter on the second part of the kitchen organization, I haven’t implemented much yet.

    My kitchen is so small that I’m not sure two weeks is needed. However, I am getting some good tips from the chapter that I will implement.

    One example is that things that I don’t use often can be delegated to the top of the refrigerator. I will try putting my cake tins there, as they’re very difficult to stack in the cupboard, and I could (probably) use the cupboard space for other things.

    One benefit to this book now is that I’ve finally managed to collect the boxes I used for the Christmas cookies – and will now finally clean and stow them away. Things take time. (I just took down the Christmas lights outside yesterday – it was so nice to come home to lights outside when it was so dark…)