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Congratulation, Tom Sjöstedt! He is the chef of the year, 2008. He came in second last year, and he has been in the competition three times. It’s about time he won! The contestants have to make two dishes – one that they can prepare as they like (with some guidelines) and practise ahead, and one out of a secret ingredient basket that they get to see half an hour in advance. The major secret ingredient was Vendace.

Now, I’ll tell you about what I made to accompany the /2008/01/pineapple-chili-margarita.html”>pineapple chili margarita: jalapeño breadsticks. They, too, are from the Mesa Grill Cookbook, but I diverged a bit from the original. I didn’t use actual chiles in mine, partly because the choices here are so limited, and partly because I didn’t want them to get too hot. I used a chipotle chili paste instead, and a very light hand with the jalapeño powder (the one I have is super spicy!) but if you’re craving something spicier, just add more.

They’re really perfect with a margarita – and easy to make, too. You need to start by roasting a head of garlic – it’s very easy and goes like this: Separate the garlic into cloves, but don’t peel. Place them on a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, and scrunch up to form a loose package. Bake at 150°C for 45 minutes.

Jalapeño breadsticks

180 ml tepid water
25 g fresh yeast
2 tsp brown sugar
1 egg
1 whole garlic, roasted and mashed
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp chipotle chili paste
750 ml flour

corn meal
jalapeño powder
flaky sea salt

Crumble the yeast in a bowl and add tepid water. Stir until yeast is dissolved, then add sugar, egg, garlic, salt, pepper and chili paste. Stir well and add the flour. Work by hand or in a machine until you have a smooth dough.

Place in a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size – it should take about an hour.

Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, and sprinkle them with corn meal. Divide the dough into two pars, and roll each one out to a large rectangle. Cut each rectangle into ten (or more) strips. Carefully move the strips to the baking sheet, twisting them lightly as you go. They should be about as long as the sheet are wide, to get nice, long breadsticks.

Sprinkle with some more corn flour and leave to rise, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Mash some flaky sea salt with jalapeño powder in a pestle and mortar, and sprinkle over the sticks.

Bake at 175°C for 20-25 minutes, or until they are lightly golden and crispy.

Recipe in Swedish:
Jalapeño-grissini

You know how sometimes a whole crop of citrus is destroyed due to frost or unseasonably cold weather? If my mom had her way, none of that fruit would go to waste. My mother is the queen of finding a use for everything. I suppose it’s a kind of variation on turning lemons into lemonade or utilitarianism.

Sadly her amazingly prolific orange tree took quite a hit this year. And while she questions if the tree will survive, she went ahead and harvested the seemingly inedible fruit and made absolutely delicious marmalade out of it. She may not have actual Seville oranges, but she certainly has a solution for unripe oranges. Their tangy sour bite is mellowed in the marmalade but brightens up your morning English muffin, toast or scone.

My mom’s recipe came from the Complete American Jewish Cookbook, a book I don’t have, but she made a few changes to it. I’d never made marmalade before, but having a recipe that didn’t require pectin and processing jars made me game to try it. Making your own marmalade means you can make it as thick or thin as you like and as sweet or bitter as you like. Around here we like it plenty bitter and a tad thin so it spreads easily. While bitter oranges are a very seasonal item marmalade is happily enjoyed all year long.

Bitter Orange Marmalade
(more a formula than a recipe)

Ripe or unripe oranges
Sugar

Wash and dry the fruit. Cut unpeeled into quarters lengthwise then slice very thin crosswise. Measure fruit, place in a large pot and add twice as much water. Let stand overnight.

The next day, bring to boil covered then uncover and simmer 1 hour. Let stand 24 hours.

Measure the fruit and liquid and add no more than 1 1/2 cups of sugar per 2 cups of fruit mixture. Boil until it reaches the consistency you like, probably between 10 and 20 minutes or so, it will thicken slightly as it cools.

Sterilize jars in whichever method you prefer. (I wash them with soapy water then fill them halfway with water and microwave for about 5 minutes, until the water boils, remove with potholders and empty them just before filling.) Pour marmalade into hot jars and seal. If your jars do not seal airtight, just keep the jam in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Today is the 25th annual “Chef of the Year” – or Årets Kock in Swedish – competition. Last year’s winner was Tommy Myllymäki, and he served a grand breakfast this morning at a press seminar hosted by Arla (the largest dairy producer in Sweden, and actually the largest producer of ecological dairy products in the whole world). I was lucky enough to be invited!

I only managed the very lousy shot you see above, but that’s of a deliciously creamy ecological yogurt topped with various, lightly caramelized nuts.

We also got crispy oatmeal with an apple and raisin compote, served with milk. Didn’t try that one, but it sounds nice. Three different small sandwiches – one on dark rye bread with liver paste and pickled cucmber, one on crisp bread with Svecia cheese, pear and cress, and finally a delicious toast with smoked ham and horseradish. Was that enough? No, we also had an egg. Not an ordinary egg, but one that had been boiled for an hour, at exactly 65°C, which made it the most creamy perfect egg I’d ever tried. It was topped with a little bit of tomato sauce and bacon crumbs, which certainly helped things as well.

All in all, a fantastic way to start the day. If you want to read more about Årets kock, several bloggers are there and reporting more or less live. They’re in Swedish though – sorry about that. I’ll tell you who the winner is and what he cooked, tomorrow.

-Official website
-Arlas website

A toast to my good health!

Seriously, I’m much better now. Pretty much 100% – which is good, as I’m invited to a really cool breakfast tomorrow that would have sucked if I still felt queasy.

The above drink is a pineapple chili margarita that I made for our /2008/01/thirteen-courses-2008.html”>13-course dinner a few weeks ago. It’s from /2007/12/cookbook-watch-mesa-grill-isabels.html”>Mesa Grill Cookbook by Bobby Flay but I didn’t exactly follow the recipe. I improvised – and it went something like this:

-one pineapple, fruit and juice
-one fresh red chili, without seeds

Combine in a blender.

-pineapple juice, as good quality as you can get

Add this to the blender. You need a big blender.

I poured tequila into the individual glasses and then topped up with the mixture. we had one driver and one pregnant guest, so two got the pineapple chili juice as it was.

It turned out to be pretty darn good – everyone liked it. As I’m writing this, I think some lime wouldn’t be a bad addition, but it depends on how sweet your pineapple is, probably.