coffee... oh how i love thee

One of my favorite "investments" (where the return is pure satisfaction) is our espresso machine. I just adore making espresso or lattes or cappuccinos for us. And I've totally taken it over -- my husband doesn't know how to use it because I insist on making them every time. It's almost like a tea ceremony in that there is the heating of the water, the waiting, and then (yay!) the coffee.... only this also includes a quite loud series of noises, but hey, I can use all the help I can get waking up in the morning.

And returning from Goteburg where we found amazing coffee shops and excellent Italian coffee has even deepened this silliness. Also, someone on flickr who seems to be a great design posted this clever little diagram to help with making various espresso drinks!

potato-tomato salad

In attempting to mimic the potato salad made by our Göteburg hostess, I made up something else. I think I need more olive oil, spicier peppers, and Swedish new potatoes to really pull off what she did. Nevertheless, this was tasty and not your ordinary potato salad.

Ingredients:

• 5 small red potatoes, washed and quartered, skins on
  
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 large green chili pepper, seeds and membrane removed from about half of it, diced
• 1 leek, diced (only use the white part, about 4 inches long)
  
• 1 small red or white onion (the tiny kind with the long green stems), all of it diced
• 2 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped into eighths, juice removed from one tomato
• salt and pepper
• 4 tblsp whole fresh basil leaves
  

Instructions:

1. Boil the potatoes in plenty of water until they are tender when poked. Meanwhile:
2. Heat oil on medium high and add garlic and chili until garlic begins to roast.
3. Add leek and onion, saute until almost soft.
4. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper, and saute for another few minutes.
5. When potatoes are done, drain and put in large bowl. Add sauted vegetables and basil and stir to combine. Some of the potato skins will probably come off but that's fine. Add salt and pepper as desired.
6. Serve warm. Serves 3.
   

Göteburg Food!

I don't have any particular recipes to share from Sweden, but I wanted to post about the delicious food we had there. We ate most of our meals at our friend's home, so we got "the real deal" as far as home cooking in Sweden goes. Here's what we experienced:

• Snaps: highly popular alcohol that basically tastes like vodka seasoned by herbs like elderberry flowers, dill, caraway, etc.
  
• New potatoes: around midsummer, the potatoes are new and small. I've never seen this type of potato in the States, but I am going to do some investigation on potatoes now, to learn more about the variation in taste and season.
• Pickled herring: we lucked out and got to taste home-made sauces that the pickled herring marinated in such as traditional (onion and carrots), lingeonberry, mixed mustards with dill, and a creamy garlic sauce. They were great.
• Fish, fish, fish: we also had smoked mackerel cut from the fish right in the kitchen, gravlox, hot smoked salmon and cold smoked salmon.
• Cheeses: we had a Swedish Cheddar which is white not yellow, and Västerbotten which is a traditional cheese during celebration events named after a town in Sweden.
• Fil mjolk (/feel mee-yelk/): a yogurt to eat for breakfast that is thiner than American eaten yogurt and a bit more tart.
• Shrimp sandwiches: a common lunch time sandwich is the some bread with mayo, slices of hard-boiled eggs, and a pile of delicious tiny shrimp, with a strip of cucumber on top.
• Half special: "sausages," or hotdogs, are commonly sold by vendors on the street, almost like in D.C. or other US cities. The "half special" was a thin hotdog in a bun with an enormous mound of mashed potatoes on top, plus fried onions, ketchup and mustard.
• Weak beer: the alcoholic beverages are referred to by their "class" (1, 2 or 3) referring to the percentage of alcohol in the beverage, because that is how it is taxed. The lowest amount of alchohol in beer is called weak beer and is sold basically like a soda and drinken anytime. We had a weak beer and our half special one late night on the street side after being out with friends.

The food in Sweden that we tried was amazing, and by just a bit the flavors were familiar but not common as they are there, which we enjoyed. In Gotenburg fish is the most common thing to eat BY FAR as a port city, and it is delicious!

curried quinoa, pistachio, and fig salad

My friend Lil listed the ingredients in a wonderful salad she got at the market for lunch. I put my own preparations together and adjusted it a tiny bit and we had it for dinner tonight - it's great! It's one of the those salads that is actually filling, not something you eat and then get hungry in an hour.

Ingredients:

• 1 c uncooked, red, whole wheat quinoa
• maple syrup
• lime juice
• agave nectar
• olive oil
• dash of salt
• 2 c packed (or 1 pre-washed bag or box) mixed greens, rinsed
• 1 tblsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 2 handfuls pistachios, shelled and roasted
• about 15 dried figs, stemmed cut off, quartered

Instructions:

1. Cook quinoa according to package instructions.
2. Meanwhile whisk up the dressing -- mix syrup, lime juice, nectar, oil and salt. The proportions are really up to your taste, but in total you only need less than 1/4 cup. If it is too sweet, add oil. Too tangy, add salt.
3. When the quinoa is ready, in a small bowl mix about 1/2 c quinoa with the cumin and curry.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dressing with the greens, pistachios, quartered figs, and curried quinoa. Add another generous cup of quinoa (without the curry), and combine thoroughly. Serve immediately.
5. Serves 2.