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Scandinavian Cookery Class with Västerbottensost Cheese

June 1, 2015 by manjirichitnis 6 Comments

The mention of Scandinavian foods brings to mind fresh, light dishes and minimal use of ingredients, or at least that was my perception, and oh yes lots of fish. So an invitation to attend a Scandinavian Cookery Class, last fortnight was quite welcome. Courtesy of **Västerbottensost cheese – a premium hard cheese with a strong, aromatic flavour the dishes we were going to cook were all created using this cheese.

Scandinavian Feast wit  Västerbottensos
Scandinavian Feast wit Västerbottensos

Scandi blogger Bronte @Scandiwitchen – was on hand to introduce us to some of the most loved dishes of the region all made using – Västerbottensost, made to a 100-year-old secret Swedish recipe. This cheese has a unique taste and is favourite with the Swedish Royals, no wonder then that is considered the king of Swedish cheeses.

Västerbottensost Cheese
Västerbottensost Cheese

Interestingly this cheese can only be produced at the dairy in Burträsk in Västerbotten County, Sweden. Why? Well, they have many theories including a rather bizarre one. It is believed that the unique taste of this fabulous cheese could be in calcareous soil in Burträsk which is thought to be the result of an ancient meteor strike.

But the most famous theory is the legend of a maid who many think is the secret behind Västerbottensost. In 1872 a young dairymaid Ulrika Eleonora Lindström was distracted from cheese making by a romantic interlude. When she returned fearing that the cheese she left unattended would have been ruined only to find out that a new unique new taste had developed a year later. The recipe she documented is the well preserved and closely guarded secret behind Västerbottensost.

How Västerbottensost  was created
How Västerbottensost was created

Västerbottensost carries the distinguished title, “By appointment to his Majesty the King of Sweden”. This versatile cheese is not just perfect for the cheeseboard, or as a garnish but equally great when used as an ingredient in a variety of recipes and cuisines.

Bronte shared some useful insights into how the cheese is to be sliced using a special cheese slicer. Remember the Swedish know their cheese really well and it is common knowledge that the slicing of cheese and using the right kind of slicer for your cheese –  is something that MUST be done right! Now if that made you nervous reading imagine what it did to us while we worked with the cheese 😉 Thankfully there was plenty of wine kept handy to avoid any possibility of us not enjoying the session.

We worked our way through preparing a Swedish Västerbotten cheese pie, laden with copious amounts of cheese – of course, a raw courgette and rocket salad and the star dish Swedish meatballs and mash.

Raw Courgette Salad with Västerbottensost
Raw Courgette Salad with Västerbottensost

When the table was all set there was so much food and many beautiful and interesting sides. I was mostly in love with the cloudberries really while the rest of the bloggers relished the pickles and Lingonberry jam.

Swedish Västerbottensost Cheesy cheese pie and salad
Swedish Västerbottensost Cheesy cheese pie and salad
Scandinavian Feast wit  Västerbottensost
Scandinavian Feast wit Västerbottensost

After that fabulous meal, I left with lots of recipe ideas popping into my head. After all with cheese this versatile it is not difficult to think beyond the typical wine and cheese pairing. Of course, there is always the danger that one may end up devouring most of the cheese before it ends up in your pan – just keep a good bottle of Red handy while you cook – either you will end up too tipsy to cook or you won’t have any cheese left to cook with 😉

The King of Swedish Cheese -  Västerbottensost
The King of Swedish Cheese – Västerbottensost

REAL Swedish Meatballs made well are quite different from the Danish and Norwegian ones and of course way, way…. wayyyy better than the ones you would eat in say Ikea.

REAL Swedish Meatballs recipe:

Serves: 4: makes around 30 small meatballs

Preparation time: 1 hour, including resting

Ingredients:

  • 150ml meat stock (chicken works well)
  • 30g porridge oats or breadcrumbs
  • 350g minced beef
  • 250g minced pork (min 10% fat)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp. plain flour (or cornflour)
  • ½ medium onion, grated
  • 1 ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp ground all-spice
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper,
  • ½ tsp ground white pepper
  • A dash of Worcestershire sauce or soya
  • 2 tbsp. cream

 Preparation:

  1. Soak the oats/breadcrumbs in the chicken stock for a few minutes.
  2. Blend the ground meat together in a mixer with a good pinch of salt for a couple of minutes to ensure it’s thoroughly combined.
  3. Add the egg, flour, and spices to another bowl and mix with the soaked oats and grated onion, then add this to the meat mixture. You’ll have a sticky, but mouldable, mixture. Leave the mixture to rest for 20-25 minutes before using for best result.
  4. Heat up a pan with a small knob of butter and a drop of oil and shape one small meatball. Fry it until done and then taste it. The quality of meat you use will alter the seasoning required and this is a great way to ensure your meatballs have good flavour. Adjust the seasoning according to taste and fry another meatball to test it until you get it just right.
Meatball Cooking
Meatball Cooking
  1. Shape the individual meatballs in your hands – it helps if your hands are damp, even wet. Each meatball should be around 2½ cm in diameter.
 Meatballs ready to be cooked
Meatballs ready to be cooked
  1. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan with a dash of oil and carefully add some of the meatballs – make sure there is plenty of room for you to swivel the pan round and help turn them so they get a uniform round shape and ensure they do not stick. Cooking time is usually around five minutes. Keep in a warm oven until needed.
  2. Serve with mashed potato, cream gravy, and a spoonful of ‘stirred Lingonberry’ (or store-bought Lingonberry jam).

Inspired to create some recipes with cheese? Browse through some of my recipes below for inspiration:)

  • Easy Ham and Cheese Tart Recipe
  • Indian Masala Cheese Omlette
  • Stuffed Marrow Bake

Tip: You can get Lingonberry jam in most specialty stores and also some supermarkets.

**Västerbottensost can be found at Waitrose, Ocado, and Selfridges,  approx at £19.90/ kg.

All this mention of Lingonberries reminds me of our fabulous adventurous holiday in Finland, why not have a browse through my posts here:

Make the most of your stay in Finnish Lapland with this list of exciting adventure activities to do. Akaslompolo has so much to offer other than skiing!

Fantastic Finland – Top 10 – To-Do list while Akaslompolo, Lapland

While in Helsinki for our first night in Finland we booked an amazing apartment for our one night stay. It was a massive apartment conveniently located for transport links and we had the whole apartment to ourselves:

Helsinki Plus Apartment Kallio in Finland – Overnight stay review

Tempted to fly to Helsinki? Dreaming of an escape from your routine to exciting Finnish Lapland? Check out my review post about our amazing stay at the Eco-friendly backpacker’s hostel in Lapland called 7 Fells. We stayed in a private log cabin which was like a huge private studio apartment fully equipped with its own kitchenette, a lovely breakfast table and a spacious shower-room and toilet:

Stay in a private log cabin in Finnish Lapland at an Eco-friendly backpacker’s hostel called the 7 Fells

*I was invited to be a part of this Scandinavian Cooking Class courtesy of Västerbottensost cheese. No monetary compensation was offered for a positive review. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

Filed Under: Events, Food Tagged With: @Scandiwitchen, Burträsk in Västerbotten County, By appointment to his Majesty the King of Sweden, cloudberry jam, Danish, king of Swedish cheeses, Lingonberry jam, minced pork, Norwegian, porridge oats, raw courgette rocket salad, REAL Swedish Meatballs, Scandi blogger Bronte, Scandinavian Cookery Class with Västerbottensost Cheese, Sweden, Ulrika Eleonora Lindström

Foodie Books that all foodies MUST own!

October 10, 2012 by manjirichitnis 2 Comments

I am a voracious consumer for all things crime,food and books in general.I left behind many beautiful, old hand me down recipe book with traditional Indian recipes given to me by my mother and one very old tattered book with its pages falling apart ….given by my late grandmother to my mother… I felt heavy-hearted doing that… but little did I know that I would soon have my own little collection here in London.

My tiny flat is now crammed with more books than it can hold and MOST of them being recipe books, any surprises here ? Guess not!

On the day I landed my new PR job I had some time to kill after my interview and I wandered around Angel station and hadddd to go and check out Waterstone’s…. they had this curiously different book called The Vintage Tea Party by a beautiful lady by the name ”Angel” That’s right she is an Angel from Angel,London and her book is a quirky collection of all things Vintage,English and Tea Party like. Of course I had to then start trying out her irresistibly different recipes, the next blog post is also based on a recipe from her book.I love her vintage hair do and bright auburn orange hair rolled into a neat bun- not be missed her picture in this book with her holding Chicken and Bacon rolls near her hair , gawd that’s one awesome pic! Incidentally I started writing this blog article before I went to the FBC’12 where someone shared that she has now got another book in print, ummm , my christmas gift to self (amongst many others 😉 !!! I was so engrossed reading this book  almost forgot to get off the train that day, so enchanting is her way of writing,trust me it’s not just recipes!

P aunty who features in my blog post about the Angel market incidentally started off my recipe book collection with some old but amazing hand me down recipe books, If I haven’t mentioned this before she is a cook par excellence’ and she has passed on those genes to her 2 children who can rustle up some mean dishes themselves ! It was at their London pad that I first laid eyes on one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbook’s , I love his carefree banter on his tv shows and his passion for cooking with basic ingredients and turning them into something totally magical!Since then I had been craving to get myself some cookbooks by Jamie.

Last Christmas, W.H.Smith had some offers on books and I gave into the temptation of buying one of Jamie’s recipe books called -Jamie Does …Spain,Italy,Morocco,Greece,Sweden and France- this book has some stunning photographs by David Loftus,and of course Jamie Looks totally DROOL WORTHY   and a book on Chinese cooking called – Ching’s Fast Food by Ching-He Huang.I have a MAD CRUSH on Jamie Oliver and can watch his 30 Minute meal deal shows over and over again! I have a total LOL moment memory associated with watching one such episode on a lazy autumn afternoon with my mum who was visiting us in London last year and at the start of the show as Jamie walks to his herb garden in his wellies and promptly trips over and falls, totally lol and so candid, I love how his no fuss cooking with well used pots and pans live happily in his kitchen in his beautiful Essex home! In Another episode he explains about different varieties of chillies and after cooking throws some seeds over his shoulder apparently into his neighbour’s garden and at the end of this same show his gardener pops a hot chilli into his mouth and has smoke bellowing from his ears …figuratively !

Another unusual book I posses-The Settlers Cookbook by Yashmin  Alibhai Brown – is aptly called a memoir of Love,Migration & Food- I bought her book from a quaint book store at Kensington after a stimulating visit to the Science Museum exhibition and have throughly enjoyed ”reading” her book of recipes, it is actually incorrect to refer to it as a recipe book as it is an interesting rendering of her family history via food and tradition and more so a take about immigrating and yes last but not the least LOVE. Do treat yourself to this gem and make it a part of your collection.

Below I have posted a few pictures of these gems from my bookshelf, my crammed bookshelf and of course it is followed by 2 blog posts with recipes inspired by these books.

Happy Eating,Happy Cooking and yes Happy reading as well folks!

Cheers!

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Angel Adoree, Angel market, blogger, blogs, Chinese Food, Ching's Fast Food, Ching-He Huang, David Loftus, drink, eat, food blogs, France, Greece, Italy, Jamie Oliver, Kensington, london, Morocco, quaint, recipe books, Science Museum, Spain, Sweden, The Settlers CookBook, travel, Vintage Tea Party, W.H.Smith, Waterstones, Yashmin Alibhai Brown

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