Julie’s Kitchen

Sweet Tooth

Kids in Sweden love them. Adults in Sweden buy them at the shops without telling their kids. They are an energy bomb and are the sweet tooth’s delight. What are they? Chokladbollar or chocolate balls! How can I possibly think of including this in a health food blog, you may well wonder. Well, let’s see.

I’ve been working on ways to create this Swedish sweet-tooth’s dream with means other than the usual bomb of butter and sugar. I’ve worked out a version with oats and honey in the past, but that still includes butter. Chocolate balls do have the virtues that you can make them bite-size and they don’t include white flour. However, I’ve got to do better than that.

So here comes my solution: chocolate balls made with dried fruit. Some of us (including me) are sensitive to dry fruit and, in general, medical science is beginning to realize that different bodies have different tolerances for high quantities of fiber. So, choose a dried fruit that agrees with you. I love dried apricots, but my stomach growls when I eat more than just a touch of them, so I combine a bit of dried apricot with dried figs, dried apples and sometimes dried cranberries. The great thing about using dried fruit to make these delicious little sweet quenchers is that the moisture and sugar in the fruit allows you to skip the sugar and butter. A little added honey and you are away. Also, if you are lactose, gluten, milk or egg intolerant, this recipe meets your needs! Here is my suggestion which can be made in many variations.

Chocolate Fruit Balls (makes about 20-25)

2 cups or 5 dl nuts of your choice (a mixture of almonds, walnuts and cashew works well)
1 cup or 2 1/2 dl dried fruits of your choice
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsps honey
either 2 tbsps grated apple or grated rind of one orange plus juice of half an orange

1/4 cup or 1 dl dessicated coconut or unsweetened cocoa powder for dipping the balls in

Grind nuts and dried fruit in a food processor until they form moist clumps. Add remaining ingredients and blend until a smooth paste. Pour the dessicated coconut or cocoa powder into a bowl. Take a tablespoon of the paste and roll into a ball, dip in the coconut/cocoa and place on a serving plate. Keep refrigerated.

Chocolate fruit balls are not just a child’s delight. They are also an elegant finish to a nice meal, particularly if everyone is too full for a major dessert. Just serve them up with coffee or tea after the meal. Very elegant indeed served on a platter and surrounded with a bit of fresh fruit.

Roasted Seed Muesli

With the approach of Valentine’s Day I know that I should perhaps be throwing some oysters, clams and other libido-promoting foods into my pots. I cannot help it, though, I’m stuck on quite different ingredients when it comes to food and love.

Just imagine the house at about 11.00 a.m. filled with the irresistable aroma of dark roast coffee beans. Outside it is snowing and chilly and you’ve got the fireplace going. A solo cello concerto captures perfectly the mood of this ordinary morning that you will nevertheless always remember.

At your simple brunch table you’ve got a bowl of home-made seed muesli and a loaf of warm baked sourdough bread that you’ve just taken out of the oven. The family comes to join you and you sit musing and laughing over life and the passing of the day.

If you are enjoying my romantic brunch thought, then you’ll most certainly want my best recipe for home-made seed muesli. It is full of pumpkin seeds which, if you are interested, is one of those libido-promoting foods. A note: make sure that none of the seeds that you purchase are roasted or salted.

Roasted Seed Muesli

300 g or 1.5 cups pumpkin seeds
300 g or 1.5 cups sunflower seeds
3 dl or 1 1/3 cups linseeds, crushed
3 dl 1 1/3 cups wheat germ
2 tbps gingerbread seasoning consisting of ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom
200 g or 7 oz dried chopped fruit – I use dried cranberries and figs
4 tbsps raw sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200 C or 390 F. Line a deep baking tray with baking paper. Blend the seeds, wheat germ and gingerbread seasoning. Bake 5 minutes, mix with a spoon, and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and blend in chopped fruit and raw sugar if a sweeter flavor is desired. When cooled store in an air-tight container. Serve sprinkled on top of yogurt or buttermilk.

Dalarna Blueberries

I love the very cold spells that we still have down in Stockholm (despite the grape-growing climate that the warming of the planet seems to promise us). It gives the lake ice a chance to become thick enough for us to skate on so that we can explore the islands of Lake Mälaren the way that people used to do in the winter. Our bay is an enormous ice skating rink at the moment and you don’t have to wonder what we will be doing with our Saturday morning!

Don’t go unprepared! Pack some Maple Roasted Nuts and hot chocolate as a snack. Whatever you pack, do expect everyone to be starving and ready to eat your right arm when you get home. The cold has a habit of making us feel truly hungry (a good thing). In this situation, I usually have ready some Chicken Soup for the Cold with a nice dill white cabbage salad (see the next entry!) on the side.

The crowning glory of the day, however, will be this dessert recipe for Hot Blueberry Crumble which everyone will lap up with a warm cup of coffee or tea. Don’t expect there to be any leftovers. If you didn’t know it already blueberries are a superfood packed with antioxidants (cancer shield) and good for eye health. As always, and hard as it may be with something so delicious, eat in moderation since this dish doesn’t just consist of blueberries!

Hot Blueberry Crumble

500 g or 1.1 lbs frozen blueberries
2 tbsps potato or corn starch
1 tsp vanilla sugar
4 tbsps sugar
rind of one lemon which has been rinsed and dried
100 g or 3.5 oz. butter
3 dl 1 1/3 cups oats
1 dl or 1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 dl or 1/3 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 200 C or 390 F. Grease a medium-sized casserole dish. Blend the blueberries, starch, vanilla sugar, sugar and lemon rind in a bowl and pour into the casserole dish. Wipe out the bowl and combine remaining dry ingredients in it. Add the butter in chunks and rub it into the dry ingredients so that a crumble forms. If it is too dry take a little more butter. Scatter the crumble evenly on top of the blueberries. Bake 15-20 minutes. Serve warm with a dollop of whipped cream or a spoon of Turkish yogurt.

Remember to visit the Nordic Wellbeing Cookbook which is a continually growing directory of recipes for your good health this 2009!

The Glorious Filling Grains & Pulses of the Nordic Kitchen

Gröt or porridge doesn’t seem like the sexiest of dishes but things aren’t always what they seem. Porridge in all of its most innovative and traditional forms is being served up as fine cuisine in some of the most fashionable restaurants in Scandinavia. Why? It’s healthy, fresh and delicious.

My own porridge recipe is as simple as it is delicious. Enjoy with some fresh berries, nuts or raisins strewn on top:

Julie’s Porridge for a Happy Morning or a Satifying Evening

4 dl or 1 3/4 cups oatmeal
8 dl or 3 cups milk
3-4 tablespoons honey

Warm all ingredients in a pot, stirring slowly over medium heat with a wooden spoon. Once thickened, and just beginning to simmer, remove from heat. Lap up and enjoy the warmth surging through your body! You can use water or milk substitutes as an alternative to milk if you are allergic.

Vitamin C for Christmas

The citrus fruit that comes up to Scandinavia from Spain during November and December have become a holiday season institution up North. They are a light, Vitamin C-rich contrast to all of the heavy, vitaminless sweet food offerings of December. The aroma of orange or mandarin is a distinct Christmas aroma in the Nordic region.

Aside from placing a bowl of mandarins on your Christmas smorgåsbord, you can also consider making up this simple compote which everyone will eat loads of because it is sweet and, most importantly, light.

Orange Compote with Berries & Cinnamon

8-10 oranges, peeled and sliced in thin cross-sections
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup Cointreau (optional)
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup red currant, alternatively 1/2 cup soaked raisins

Slice round segments of orange into quarters so that the pieces are bite-sized. Place in a mixing bowl. Add orange juice and cointreau, if desired. Sprinkle over the icing sugar and cinnamon. Blend gently. Place orange mixture in a serving bowl, cover and refrigerate for one hour. Serve garnished with red currants or raisins.

Since this dish is light, you can afford a dollop of whipped cream on top which makes it even more festive.

Visit the Nordic Wellbeing Cookbook!

Flavors of the Holiday Season

If you’re not keen on the red wine flavor of the usual glögg that is served at Christmas or if you are allergic to the tannins in it, you might want to try this delightful non-alcoholic alternative which has the benefit that it can also be served to children.

Apple Glögg
(makes 1 quart or 1 liter)

1 quart or 1 liter best quality ecological apple cider
3 tbsps sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
3 whole nutmeg
3 star anise
1 piece of dried bitter orange peel

Place all ingredients in a large cooking pot and warm up, allowing flavors to mingle.  Best served in small glass drinking cups with a handle.

If you want to add in a touch of alcohol for a more festive flavor add in 1/2 cup or 1 dl Calvados (apple brandy).

The Makings of a Great Fruit Salad!

There are fruit salads and then there are FRUIT SALADS. I recently invited some friends over and one of them insisted that she must bring along her fruit salad: “I make a mean one”, she said. “O.K., O.K.”, I thought. Must let the guests participate.

My friend arrived here with several plastic bags full of fruit and promptly asked me for a large bowl. Within a short time, she walked in with the most luscious looking fruit salad that I have ever seen. Just the visuals were a joy to behold. The taste was out of this world. I was humbled. Never doubt the guests!

I asked my friend for her fruit salad recipe but she preferred to offer me a few principles which I share with you here:

Tips for the Ultimate Fruit Salad

1. Squeeze lemon juice into the bottom of the bowl.

2. Start with the apples – they are firmest.

3. Cut in small bit-sized chunks – no big challenging chunks!

4. Make sure you remove the peel – the secret to the softness of this delightful fruit salad.

5. Add in other fruits starting with firmest and progressing to least firm. Bananas always come last.

6. Don’t throw in any crunchy stuff – nuts, raisins, etc. – keep this a smooth affair!

7. Just prior to serving, pour over a fruit smoothie with a light color. Make sure you choose a high quality smoothie with low sugar and high fruit content. You can make this yourself or buy one from the supermarket.

8. Garnish with some decorative fruits such as physillis.

I warn you, if you do this right, it is an other-worldly experience!

Divine Aromatic Apples

If there isn’t something sweet available in the kitchen as the day wears on, I begin to hear a certain scrounging going on in the kitchen. Empty chocolate wrappers get frustratedly thrown into the garbage and family members begin to look around in the various little dried fruit jars and other “sweet” storage containers I have around the house. My family is rampant with sweet tooths!

Any doctor will tell you to cut out the sweets. Your body doesn’t need anything sweeter than fruit. Still, there is that longing for a little extra beyond the wholesome apple – so why not make something good with it that isn’t hard to prepare (with a little practice) rather than having everyone scrounging for those wrappers?

17th century map of the first Swedish apple orchards

If there is something that is easy to come by in the autumn where I live, it is an aromatic apple. In a local newspaper article, I just noticed a very interesting historical fact discovered about apple growing in my vicinity: a newly-discovered map drawn sometime during 1630-1640 shows that Sweden’s oldest apple orchards were located near here in a place called Färingsö on Lake Mälaren. In the international apple world, Sweden has a reputation for most flavorsome and greatest variety. It’s got to do with our blissfully long summer days in which there is an intensive build-up of sugars, fruit acid and aromatic substances and our short nights in which those processes take a short break.

Steeped in history, I set about making something sweet for the family using the overflow of apples I have in my kitchen at this time of year. The result was pleasing – 4 out of 5 stars from the family. I used a bit of the leftover apple sauce I had prepared for visiting one-year-old twins this past weekend underneath the fresh cut apples on top of the pie with a tangy and lagom (a very useful word in the Swedish language unavailable in English meaning just right) moist result without loosing the crunchiness. Pie takes a little effort in the beginning but once you perfect the crust, it really isn’t a big deal. Remember – efficiency and convenience is often also about skill honed by practice! You can also go for the ready-made pie crust but it’s not as good and you don’t have control over ingredients which is an important feature of a healthy kitchen.

Lagom (Just Right) Apple Pie

For the crust:
2 dl or 3/4 cup wholemeal flour (grahamsmjöl)
1 dl or  1/2 cup white flour
1 dl or 1/2 cup wheat germ
100 g butter in cubes
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 200 C or 392 F. Grease a 22-23 cm or 9-inch pie dish. Mix all crust ingredients together in a food processor until they wrap into a ball of dough. If the dough is too loose, add a tablespoon of flour. If it is too dry, add a tablespoon of water. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Alternatively use my little trick of rolling it out in between two sheets of floured baking paper, making it easier to lift into the pie dish. Line the pie dish with the dough. Cut away remaining dough (don’t waste it! line a mini-pie dish if you have one with what is left). Bake 7 mins. Remove from the oven and add filling.

For the filling:
4 dl or 1.5 cups apple sauce (preferably made at home with honey – see recipe)
4 medium-sized tart apples washed and cored (if you like a crunchier recipe, keep the peel on)
2 tbsps lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsps brown sugar
1 dl or 1/2 cup chopped almonds
A few small cubes of butter for the topping

Prepare the apples and slice into a bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice, cinnamon and brown sugar, and toss.  Spread the apple sauce evenly over the pie crust. Place apples in a round arrangement sprinkle over the almonds. Place a few butter cubes on top of the pie (be sparing!). Bake 25-30 minutes, making sure that the nuts do not burn.

Honey Apple Sauce

4 medium-sized tart apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
Finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon
2 dl or 3/4 cup honey
2 tbsps corn starch or other sauce thickener
a little cold water for mixing the corn starch into

Place all ingredients except for the corn starch and water in a cooking pan over low heat. Stir gently with a wooden spoon as the honey begins to melt. Allow to cook but not boil until the apples are soft. Test consistency. If thick enough, leave corn starch aside. If too watery, mix corn starch with cold water in a separate bowl and add gradually to the cooking pot until the sauce has reached the desired consistency. Purée if desired. Enjoy just as it is or in my lagom apple pie!

If I’ve just awoken your curiosity about apples (I sure hope so!), check out the archived articles Wisdom Tree and An Apple A Day and the Nordic Wellbeing Cookbook for more superb savory and sweet apple recipes.