Tag: Easter

  • Rhubarb tiramisu

    Rhubarb tiramisu

    Something shifted in the air last week. Whispers of a spring hidden under the thick mantle of snow that covers everything around us. It is perhaps the soft sound of water drops gently echoing through the stillness of the pine forest. Or the rich smell of the earth stirring from its winter slumber. The birds, chirping from the treetops not unlike a celebration of the changing of the seasons; their joyful songs filling the air with a sense of wonder? Yes, maybe it’s all that.

    And as spring is slowly emerging, I cannot help myself but bake with rhubarb. At the restaurant it means a crème brûlée; topped with a rocher of cardamom ice-cream, roasted rhubarb, a rhubarb gel, and soft and chewy kola kakor on the new menu. And a rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice-cream, Campari fluid gel and olive oil jelly on our tasting menu.

    At home, I put together a simple rhubarb tiramisu. Delicate lady fingers, rhubarb roasted in a vanilla sugar syrup just so, a rich and velvety mascarpone cream and a dollop of whipped cream with a hint of amaretto. It was the perfect dessert for our Easter lunch.

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    Rhubarb tiramisu

    What better way to celebrate the new season than a delicious rhubarb tiramisu that captures the essence of spring?
    Picture this: a luscious mascarpone cream, layered with ladyfingers and roasted rhubarb, almost like a sweet and tangy dream.
    I like to make mine almost like a trifle, with the sponge at the bottom, topped with rhubarb, and then a thick layer of mascarpone cream and a dollop of cream – whipped with some vanilla and a hint of amaretto, which I of course left out for Sienna.
    You could make thinner layers if you wanted to. In that case, I'd recommend to start with just one ladyfinger at the bottom topped with the rhubarb and mascarpone cream, and then repeat with one more layer of all three before adorning with the amaretto cream.
    Author: Fanny Zanotti
    Prep Time45 minutes
    Cook Time30 minutes
    Total Time1 hour 15 minutes
    Makes 6 ramekins.

    Ingredients

    For the roasted rhubarb

    • 600 g rhubarb washed and trimmed
    • 125 g caster sugar
    • 100 g rhubarb juice or water
    • a pinch of salt
    • 1/2 vanilla pod or a little vanilla paste

    For the mascarpone cream

    • 3 eggs
    • 450 g mascarpone
    • 85 g caster sugar

    To assemble

    • 12 ladyfingers

    For the amaretto cream

    • 125 g whipping cream
    • seeds from half a vanilla pod
    • a dash of amaretto optional

    Instructions

    • Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C.
    • Cut the trimmed rhubarb into 2cm pieces. Put into a large baking tin and sprinkle with the sugar. Add the rhubarb juice, and the vanilla pod and seeds.
    • Cover the tin with foil, sealing the edges, and bake for 30 minutes or until the rhubarb is very tender and just holding its shape.
    • Allow the rhubarb to cool down completely before getting on with the rest.
    • When ready to assemble, start by gently transferring the rhubarb into another dish using a slotted spoon. Save the liquid.
    • Make the mascarpone cream.
    • Separate the eggs and set aside the yolks until needed.
    • Using a hand-mixer or a stand-mixer fitted with the whisk attachement, whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Then add half the sugar and keep on whipping until the sugar has dissolved, and set aside.
    • In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until light and fluffy, around five minutes.
    • Now add the mascarpone, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Whisk together until smooth.
    • Add a large spoonful of the meringue into the mascarpone mixture and mix in energetically using a silicon spatula. Now add the rest of the meringue and fold in delicately until fully incorporated.
    • To assemble the tiramisu, prepare 6 ramekins.
    • Briefly soak two ladyfingers (read note above in case you want to make thinner layers) into the rhubarb syrup and arrange at the bottom of a ramekin. repeat with the remaining ones. I like to break my ladyfingers into halves.
    • Top with a dash of extra syrup. And a generous spoonful of the roasted rhubarb.
    • Finally, pipe the mascarpone cream onto the rhubarb. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until ready to serve.
    • Before serving, whisk the whipping cream with the seeds from half a vanilla pod and a dash of amaretto – if using, until lightly whipped. Spoon a dollop of the cream onto your tiramisu, and serve.

  • Homemade cured salmon gravlax

    Homemade cured salmon gravlax

    One of my dearest food memories is the time I had my first taste of gravlax. It was a warm and sunny day in the late nineties. We’d gathered around a table placed in the middle of our street. Paper tablecloth, and rosé bottles in an ice bucket. On the table sat many beautiful dishes. Petits farcis and courgette flower beignets, polenta squares and Nice olives. But really, one stood out with a radiance that was hard to ignore. A whole side of salmon that had been cured to perfection by a dear family friend from Sweden. Its coral-hued flesh glistened in the sun and was adorned with plenty of chopped dill; fennel seeds too!

    The gravlax was served with slices of rye bread, garnished with delicate dill flowers, and accompanied by a sweet and tangy mustard sauce that was unlike any other. And its name? Hovmätarsås, a mouthful in more ways than one.

    Years have passed since that magical day, but the memory of that perfectly cured salmon has lingered in my mind ever since. And it almost feels natural that I would find myself now living in the north of Sweden. Here, gravlax is called gravad lax – literally, buried salmon. During the Middle Ages, fishermen would indeed salt and bury their catch in the cold ground to preserve it and make it inaccessible to animals.

    Although it is eaten throughout the year, it is a compulsory addition to the Swedish Christmas and Easter tables, and I’m more than happy to oblige.

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    Homemade cured salmon gravlax

    This gravlax recipe still transports me to that sunny al fresco lunch in the street down our house in the village of Valbonne. And yet, I'm hoping it will give you a hindsight into what we're eating for Easter, almost thirty years later in the north of Sweden.
    The salmon – and I like to use sahimi-grade fish for this recipe – is cured with salt and sugar. I like to add pink peppercorns, coriander and fennel seeds too, but you could use any spice you'd like.
    After curing, I like to drizzle my gravlax with a dash of aquavit – cognac and gin are an equally excellent choice but just as optional – before dressing it with a thick layer of finely chopped dill, plenty of crushed pink peppercorns, and a sprinkle of fennel and coriander seeds.
    The gravlax is usually served with a sweet and tangy mustard sauce – hovmästarsås -, crisp tunnbröd – a very thin flat bread – or thin slices of rye bread, a generous amount of soft salted butter, and sometimes, boiled new potatoes.
    Author: Fanny Zanotti
    Prep Time15 minutes
    Total Time2 days 15 minutes
    Makes 1 kg cured salmon, serving 8-10.

    Ingredients

    For the curing mix

    • 80 g caster sugar
    • 80 g fine sea salt
    • 1 tbsp pink peppercorns slightly crushed
    • 1/2 tbsp fennel seeds
    • 1 tsp coriander seeds

    For the gravlax

    • 1 kg sashimi-grade salmon trimmed and boned, with skin on
    • all of the curing mix above

    To garnish

    • dill finely chopped
    • zest from 1 lemon and 1 lime
    • pink peppercorns crushed
    • fennel seeds
    • coriander seeds
    • cognac, gin or aquavit optional

    Instructions

    • Make the curing mix by mixing all the ingredients together.
    • Place two large pieces of clingfilm on top of each other on your work bench, press down using a clean kitchen towel to “seal” them together. Repeat with one more double piece, slightly overlapping with the first one to create a large rectangle, big enough for your salmon side to sit on top of.
    • Sprinkle a little less than half the curing mixture on top of your prepared clingfilm, on a surface as big as your salmon side.
    • Place your salmon on the curing mix, skin side down, and top with remaining curing mixture.
    • Lift into a large tray and leave uncovered.
    • Refrigerate for 36-48 hours, turning your gravlax over a couple of times and removing the liquid that builds up.
    • When ready, rinse the gravlax briefly under cold water. Pat dry using kitchen paper or a clean kitchen towel, place on a clean tray and return to the fridge, uncovered for 3-6 hours for the surface to dry further.
    • If using any, drizzle with cognac, gin or aquavit. Then top with freshly chopped dill, crushed pink peppercorns, fennel and coriander seeds.
    • When ready to serve, slice thinly at an angle, detaching the slices from the skin. Serve with boiled new potatoes, soft salted butter, crisp tunnbröd [Swedish flatbread] or rye bread, and hovmästarsås – the sweet and tangy mustard sauce – recipe to follow!
  • Romtårta

    Romtårta

    [Trout roe cheesecake]

    One morning, we left for Byske as soon as K. got home; with, for only reason, the two horses that he’d seen and wanted to show me.

    In the distance, a farm broke through the wall of björkar [birches] that lines the road. As we approached, it became clear that the horses had been moved.

    Instead, we stopped a few hundreds of meters later, way past the runestone that I’m still very curious about (note-to-self: go there again, please). We sat on the car and ate the two apples I had brought along. K. cut some birch branches for the påskris [Easter tree] that was to happen.

    Another day, we sat in the setting sun; to the sound of a crackling fire, and geese heading north above our heads, not unlike a compass of some sort. There might have been korv and baguette, chocolate and kokkaffe. And before dusk settled behind the trees, Kalle threw his first cast into a river that had lost its winter ice.

    Tonight, we heard raindrops against the glass rooftop of our veranda. And really, I had forgotten how wonderful rain can be after months made of silent snowflakes.

    Yes, just like that, spring happened.

    Romtårta
    Adapted from Suss’ recipe in Megafonen n°3 2016.

    From what I’ve gathered, romtårta [litterally, roe cake; a savoury roe cheesecake] is a summer classic.
    It does, however, get made as soon as the sun makes its return in the north; perhaps, not unlike a rain dance.

    This recipe comes from my friend Suss, and I fell in love with it when she made in at the café for an Easter du jour special.
    The earthiness of the bread, which I highly recommend to be a sunflower seed-heavy rågbröd, meddles beautifully with the lemon and the sea-saltiness of the roe.
    Make sure to top your tårta with plenty of vegetables to add texture and freshness. I went for thinly shaved radishes and cucumber, sliced sugar snap peas, and bits of lemon segments.

    You can make it either as a large tart, which I think would look stunning on a dinner table, or like I did, smaller individual tarts.

    In any case, I truly think it will become an Easter tradition in our house. And perhaps in yours too.

    A note on the gelatin

    As you may know, I’ve been trying to write an article about gelatin for – literally – years. And every now and then, I become obsessed with it again.
    I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, as it’s an ingredient that is so tremendously different from one country to another that it makes my job as a chef and a food writer quite difficult.
    I won’t get into details about it now, but let me just tell you that in between France, the UK, and Sweden, I’ve had to adjust my recipes a lot to fit the gelatin available in each place.

    When I first made this recipe, it called for 4 gelatin leaves. The gelatin we get from the supermarkets here is extra guld [extra gold], so I’m assuming its on the higher end of the bloom spectrum for gold gelatin, perhaps 220-230 bloom.
    However, I have found that 4 leaves was slightly too much in this case, so I’ve reduced the gelatin in the recipe below to 3 leaves, bringing it to 5.1g of 220-230 bloom gelatin.

    Please, note that the gelatin here in Sweden is much stronger than the gelatin found in French or English supermarkets, so you might need more. In fact, one leaf here seems to be almost the equivalent of a professional gelatin leaf, both in strength and weight.

    If in doubt, go by weight: 5 grams; and add a couple of grams if your gelatin has a strength comprised between 160-190 bloom.
    However, remember to start with less, as a cheesecake with a creamier texture – although it might look a bit messy – will always be better than an over-set one.

    Romtårta

    Makes 8 individual tarts or one 24cm.

    For the base
    200 g rye bread, pumpernickel, or even crackers
    75 g butter, melted
    a fat pinch of salt

    For the “cheesecake”
    3 gelatin leaves (around 5g, see note above)
    300 g cream cheese
    200 g crème fraiche
    1/2 red onion, finely minced
    juice and zest from a lemon
    a pinch of salt
    freshly ground black pepper
    80 g fish roe

    To finish
    300 g cocktail prawns, shelled
    radishes, sugar snap peas, cucumber, dill, chives

    Make the base
    Prepare eight 8cm-wide rings or a large 24cm ring on a tray that fits in your fridge, and is lined with baking paper.

    Blitz the bread into crumbs, and add the melted butter and salt. Divide the mixture in between the prepared rings, and press to form a base.
    Set aside in the fridge until needed.

    Make the filling
    Soak the gelatin leaves in ice-cold water.

    In a large bowl, mix half the cream cheese with the crème fraiche, lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper.
    Heat the remaining cream cheese – either in the microwave or over a bain-marie – until around 60°C.

    Dissolve the gelatin in the warm cream cheese, and incorporate it into the crème fraiche mixture using a whisk.

    Gently fold in the roe, and divide this cream into the prepared ring.

    Refrigerate for at least an hour.

    Unmould by running a small knife around the rim of your rings and top with prawns and sliced vegetables of your choice.