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By John, 10 February, 2022

Lutfisk in Bacon

"Lutfisk"Few dishes are as mocked and reviled as lutfisk. It has a peculiar gummy texture, a strange translucency, and virtually no flavor.

I've tried cooking lutfisk 4-5 times now, first by the most traditional versions, later with tips from lutfisk fans on the internet, some with melted butter, another with a bechamel sauce... some preparation hold the secret, right?

Finally, I tried my own version. Packaged lutfisk has little flavor of its own, so I wrapped it in bacon because bacon makes everything delicious. 

Except lutfisk. It was amazing! The flavor of the bacon vanished, overwhelmed by the non-flavor of the lutfisk. I had to promise to my diners that my lutfisk studies are ended.

By John, 10 February, 2022

Ertestuing

"Stewed Green Peas"Here's another of the homey-cozy-cold weather dishes that make up the Swedish Christmas julbord: stewed green peas made from dried peas. It's not pretty, but it tastes good and it's a good winter warmer. 

I think of this dish like mashed potatoes, boiled rice, or polenta, a starch backdrop to the rest of the meal. Nevertheless, like many Swedish dishes, I think this one would appeal better to American tastes with a little more seasoning, or some tweaks to the cooking. I added my thoughts in the Notes, below. I hope I don't get in trouble with the Swedish Food Police!

By John, 6 February, 2022

Janssons Frestelse

Jansson's Temptation is apparently hugely popular in Sweden, but I can say that this unassuming casserole of shredded potatoes, onions, ansjovis, and cream was not a favorite at our Swedish Christmas Dinner.

I'll have to look for a few other recipes to see if I did anything wrong, but I am including it here now because of its reputation, and because I did serve it at that otherwise fine dinner.

The recipe calls for ansjovis, which are a sort of spiced and brined anchovy, but with a completely different flavor. I saw them at the Simply Scandinavian Swedish market in Portland, but I didn't buy them at the time, assuming incorrectly that they were just regular anchovies from a Swedish maker. If I try this again, I'll be sure to get proper ansjovis. 

By John, 6 February, 2022

Rotmos

"Swedish Root-Mash"Rotmos is Swedish for "root-mash". As you would expect, this is a simple dish of baked mashed root vegetables.

The basic recipe is quite plain, and indeed much Swedish food is rather plain if you've just spent two years exploring Italian cuisine! You can jazz this up a little by using a strong vegetable stock or other stock, but don't go crazy if you are trying to set out an authentic Julbord.

By John, 6 February, 2022

Rödkål

"Braised Red Cabbage"Here's a festive-looking and flavorful Christmas dish from Sweden that we served on the Julbord at our Swedish Christmas Dinner in December 2022. It includes red cabbage, apples, raisins, lingonberry jam, and other goodness.

This dish is good both hot and cold, and in Sweden is sometimes served on a sandwich.

This is one of those dishes that's better cooked ahead of time to let the flavors come together. It stores well and reheats easily.

By John, 6 February, 2022

Julskinka

"Swedish Glazed Christmas Ham"This is the traditional Swedish Christmas ham. It's an unsmoked ham, boiled and cooled, then glazed with mustard and coated with bread crumbs and briefly roasted to toast the glaze. It's served at room temperature on the julbord, and we enjoyed it in our Swedish Christmas Dinner in December 2022.

You have to plan ahead for this recipe because it takes time for the ham to boil, and even more time for it to cool, preferably overnight. You can save a lot of time by using a pre-cooked ham, which won't be seasoned to your specifications but which will save a day.

This recipe calls for a 5 pound ham, but you can scale it up as big as you like if you are feeding many people.

By John, 5 February, 2022

Quiche au Fromage de Gruyere

"Quiche with Swiss Cheese"Here's a surprisingly simple, delicious pie for luncheon or breakfast that you can whip up in under an hour. It works best if all ingredients are at room temperature when you begin.

By John, 25 November, 2021

Truffles, White Alba

"White Italian Truffles"White truffles, Tuber magnatum, are even more expensive than black truffles, and they are used differently. They are seen more in northern Italian cuisine than anywhere else. The two you see here, one ounce each, cost $590 in November 2021!

White truffles are mostly used as a seasoning, seldom cooked into heavy dishes, as the flavor is reduced by prolonged heat. A brief time in the skillet (as with scrambled eggs) is OK, but you wouldn't cook them into a risotto, rather you would shave a truffle very thinly on top as it is served. 

They lend their flavor easily to butter and eggs. If you combine white truffle shavings into butter or eggs, the food becomes perfumed by the truffle within a short time. You wouldn't use the butter to saute anything, but it would be delicious on cooked vegetables or pasta, in a fondue, or to finish a sauce. 

By John, 25 November, 2021

Scrambled Eggs with White Truffle

"Scrambled Eggs with White Truffle"This classic combination is amazing, and amazingly expensive! I happened upon an opportunity to buy some white truffles in season from Alma Gourmet at a time when I had some extra cash to blow on an extravagance. I had read about and heard about white truffles, but I had never had the opportunity to try them myself, so I grabbed the opportunity, even though it was $295 for a one-ounce truffle. At least the shipping was free!

We tried them three ways: shaved over scrambled eggs, shaved and mixed into the eggs to absorb the flavor, and shaved over pasta with butter and cheese, the way Richmond had enjoyed it at a memorable culinary experience in Venice. This was my favorite way to enjoy them.

By John, 17 November, 2021

Cauliflower Pizzaiola

"Cauliflower Pizzaiola"This is a simple, tasty dish that you can make whenever there are cauliflowers in the supermarket. The main flavors are cauliflower, tomato, and oregano. It's good enough as a standalone vegetarian dish or as an accompaniment to anything with an Italian flair.

I have also seen this prepared with the cauliflower sliced into steaks, with the sauce and cheese on top of each steak.

By John, 13 November, 2021

Sole Poached in White Wine

This is a base recipe for a number of classic French white fish recipes. I use sole here, but you could use the same recipe for any white fish: cod, hake, flounder, haddock, etc. This works with trout too.

By John, 30 September, 2021

Italy All-Star Feast: The Middle

The antipasto platterOn September 5, '21, we celebrated the cuisine of central Italy with our friends and summertime neighbors Lance and Lynda Hylander. For this project, one of three recorded on this blog, I defined "Central Italy" as the six regions north of Campania/Apulia and south of Emilia-Romagna and the Po River valley, to wit: Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Abbruzzo, Molise, and Lazio (Lazio is where Rome is).

As usual for these dinners, we started out with Vermouth in cordial glasses and an Antipasto course of a fine salumi platter that represented all of the regions featured in the dinner.

The Insalata course was a hearty Insalata di Lenticchie, or lentil salad, with delicious tender lentils from Umbria, an area known for its lentils. This also showed that not all Italian cuisine demands tomatoes! With the salad we opened a couple of local white wines, a Trebbiano d’Abbruzzo (from Abruzzo) and a nice Frascati (from Lazio).

2021 - Florida from Jacksonville to Key West and Back

We didn't get to take a vacation in 2020, the plague year when everything was locked down to prevent the spread of Covid-19. By late spring of 2021 things were gradually opening up again, and everyone wanted to see distant loved ones. Melissa had come to visit her mother, and then we all went to Florida so she could see her father in Palm Coast, just south of Jacksonville in the north.

While they visited, Lorna and I drove from Jacksonville to Key West and back.

Here's how it went:

Day 6 - New Smyrna Beach and Big Cats

Shuffleboard in New Smyrna BeachBy Thursday we were winding down from our sprint along all of Florida's Atlantic coast. We joined Melissa and Bob for a leisurely drive to New Smyrna Beach for the afternoon, and then up to a Big Cat sanctuary north of Jacksonville to wrap up this adventure.

New Smyrna Beach is a nice town, with far better shopping (per Lorna) and coffee (per me) than we had seen in Key West or even in Miami Beach. I was surprised to see ten public shuffleboard courts, all well occupied with even young people playing. 

Shrimp & Grits at Third Wave, New Smyrna Beach

After they finished shopping and I had caught up with note-taking and coffee, we had a fine lunch at Third Wave, where I got to try another celebrated southern specialty: shrimp and grits. We dined outside in a shady courtyard with a pleasant breeze and no street noise.

As evening approached we returned to Palm Coast and split into two cars so Bob could join us to see the Big Cats north of Jacksonville, near the airport hotel where we'd be staying that night.

Day 5 - Flamingos and the Space Coast

Flamingo GardensKey West is a long way from anywhere, and Marathon is just an hour closer. The drive back to the mainland, reversing the drive down, was uneventful, until we got to Key Largo. Then the rains came, in buckets. The road up to Homestead is straight and limited access, so everyone just pushed on at a slightly slower speed. The rain continued until we were just north of Miami. 

We had to get all the way up to Palm Coast that day, and we had two stops planned, so we could ill afford to lose the time to the rain.

Peacock at Flamingo Gardens

I had originally wanted to see the Everglades, with a backup plan for the Flamingo Gardens in Davie. When Lorna learned of that, the alligators lost and the birds won. 

I'm glad it worked  out that way. We arrived at the Flamingo Gardens just as the rain was ending, but it was still pretty wet and quite hot so we took a very good tram ride around the property, seeing not just flamingoes but peacocks (including a white one), ibises, toucans, and other tropical birds. The driver was knowledgeable and happy to answer questions. And of course I found a book in the gift shop.

Our only other stop that day was up in Sebastian, at the south end of the "Space Coast". This was to visit Lorna's cousin and his wife for dinner, and then to get out to Route A1A to see the water views.

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