VESELKA BY NIGHT

When I visited New York last week a couple of friends and myself hit up one of my favorite downtown late night spots for dining - Veselka at 144 2nd avenue - where I indulged in the most delicious vegetarian stuffed cabbage. The vegetarian alternative is filled with mushrooms, onion and rice, and can be served with tomato or mushroom sauce, with this I had some mashed potatoes and their splendid beet salad with horseradish.. Yuuummy..

WHEN I WISH TO MAKE A WISH; I WAVE MY HAND WITH A BIG SWICH SWICH..

..Then I say; "I wish for fish!" And I get fish right on my dish.

(-Dr Seuss)

Summer = grilling season is here! There's even a Grilling group on Facebook ;-)
The other day I marinated tuna steaks in a mix if soy sauce, ginger and balsamic vinegar for 2 hrs. Then covered them in black and white sesame seeds. When I purchased the black sesame seeds at one of my favorite stores in town - Saffran - the woman in the store told me how good the seeds could be for you, a real source of nutrition! Read more about the goodies here :)
One has to be careful when you cook a tuna steak; it can easily overcook and become dry. I like it pan seared.

The BESTEST I've had - which I had a couple of times - is the Blackened Raw Tuna Sashimi (Pan seared and sliced with sesame chili vinaigrette, seaweed salad and wasabi) at Legal Seafood in Paramus, NJ. Yummm..

Then me and 2 friends went out for a fabulous lunch where I had "Salmon plankstek"; the fish version of the popular "Plankstek" dish here in Sweden. Where the salmon file is placed one can usually find a steak. Stek is steak in Swedish and Plank means board. Then you add mashed potatoes, tomatoes, asparagus (vegetables varries) and bearnais sauce. All the stuff on the board (which is usually made of oak for its durability) is already cooked, you then put it in the oven at 225C/437F until mashed potatoes has browned a little. Voila!

MAGNUM TEMPTATION CHOCOLATE

I'm fully aware that bikini season is upon us.. but, I just CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE..! ;-)

Milk chocolate icecream with brownie and white chocolate bits covered in dark chocolate..

Yes..?



Soon to be seen in a hand that could be mine..

IRON MEETING

..Is a little dinner meeting my mom and myself try to have every now and then (first it actually took place once a week, but that surely failed, we're just sooo busy.. not).

At Iron Meeting night Blodpudding is served; a very traditional Swedish dish which is made by cooking swine blood, milk, rye flour, fat, sometimes beer with a filler until it's thick enough to congeal when cooled. Nowadays people buy the already made blodpudding in the supermarket and then usually serve it with bacon, cabbage and/or lingonberry jam!

"Blood food" is very rich in iron and we usually wash it down with a or two of red wine, which also contain a high level of iron. I introduced mom to my new favorite; Sunrise Carmenere.

I sautéed yellow onion, bacon and steamed carrots, and put some lingonberry on the side! Yum!

MEINKLANG

Last weekend my gorgeous friends Malin and Markus (Mrs & Mr) brought me a bottle of the lovely Austrian white wine Meinklang (2007) which I hadn't tried before; it was a dry, spicy and fruity wine, with hints of melon, white pepper and lime. Grapefruit..? A scent of almond..?

The Grüner Veltliner grapes are grown according to biodynamic methods. One can read in several places that it's a very "food-friendly wine" and it's said to be the classic pairing for the otherwise hard-to-pair asparagus.

It was indeed marvelous darlin'..

It's about 79 SEK at Systembolaget. Not bad!

DELICIOUS DORSET

My awesome friend Helena brought me a box of really yummy Dorset Cereals a couple of days ago when she visited for my birthday; it was the Super Cranberry, Cherry & Almond kind that included Chilean Flame Raisins, no less! It was picked up at the cute store Matdistriktet on Rådmansgatan 57 in Stockholm.

COLLECTING CRISP BREAD or KRAZY FOR KNÄCKE

Today I received a home made bag in thin cotton fabric to keep round pieces of Swedish crisp bread (a k a knäckebröd in Swedish) in. The lady that so generously gave it to me had made a whole collection of various colors, I immediately picked a pink to match the interior of my little pink kitchen :)