Little Swedish meatballs…

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Malin

This is a recipe for all of us who loves traditional gravy to our Swedish Meatballs but living a low-carb lifestyle without dairy and gluten…

Meatballs

500 gram/1lbs. Minced Beef

1 Egg

1-2 tablespoon Better than Bullion (I used kalvfond, try to get your hands on it because it is just unbeatable)

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard

2 Chopped Garlic Cloves

1 teaspoon Paprika powder

¼ cup Thyme and Tarragon chopped

Salt and Black pepper

Gravy

1-2 deciliter or ½-1 cup Water

1 tablespoon Tomato Pure

½ tablespoon Soy Sauce (gluten-free)

A splash of kalvfond (better than bullion)

A splash of Balsamic Vinegar

Chopped Thyme and Tarragon

How to: Mix all the ingredients for you meatballs in a bowl. Wet a chopping board as well as your hands before start rolling the meatball, this will make the batter not stick to your hands. Fry the meatballs little by little in a very hot frying pan and remove them to a war pot when they are done and do the same thing with the next batch.

When all the meatballs are fried add water to the frying pan and whisk with a wooden spoon so all the flavors from when you were frying the meatballs mixes in with the water. Add the rest of the ingredients if the sauce gets to thick just add water.

I served this with Roasted Asparagus, Brussels sprouts, Olives and Tomatoes tossed in Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar…Honestly this was yummy!

Oven baked Salmon with Crispy Vegetables and an Orange Vinaigrette

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Malin

Salmon

500 gram or 1 lbs. Salmon

Lemon pepper

Salt

½ lemon Juice

Dill

1 deciliter or ½ cup Water

Roaster Veggies

Broccoli

Asparagus

Brussels sprouts

Olive Oil

Lemon Juice

Salt and pepper

Spinach

Orange Vinaigrette

½ Orange zest

1 tablespoon Citrus Champagne vinegar (I found this at Dominic’s)

1 tablespoon Olive oil

A splash of white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Put the salmon in a oven safe dish and sprinkle lemon pepper, salt, lemon juice, dill and water over the salmon. Place the salmon in the oven with a temp of 190 C or 350 F for 20-30 min. Scope the water over the salmon frequently, it will avoid the salmon to get dry. The salmon is ready when you can separate the meat.

Mix all the ingredients for the Vegetables except the spinach and roast it till it gets a crispy crust.

Grate the orange peel and mix it with the rest of the ingredients for the vinaigrette.

Place the Vegetables over the Spinach and Sprinkle the Orange Vinegrette over the Vegetables.

I have great friends…

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Malin

We are a few Swedes that lives here on the North Shore and non of us have family nearby and for some reason the US calendar don’t recognize all our Swedish holidays and traditions!! so we try to do our best to show our kids how it is done in Sweden. Anyhow it’s been a long time since we all got together so Annika invited us all over for lunch this afternoon. I was a bit nervous and when I met her outside school yesterday I told her I might eat at home (just so she would not have to make extra food) because I’m so strict with my diet at the moment. Then my great and awesome friend tells me that she already thought of me and that she was making warm-smoked salmon with a roasted cauliflower salad!!! I have to say thank you to all my patient friends that always has and still putting up with me and my “crazy” ideas 🙂

Thank you Annika, Anna, Asa and Elise for a great lunch and fantastic company!

A Bolognese with a touch of heaven

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Malin

Growing up in the north of Sweden we ate a lot of food that we either had grown ourselves, or meat we gotten from someone who had been hunting. Back then I did not appreciate it and thought that my moms “moose stew” was boring and I rather would eat a greasy pizza instead. These days, whenever I make it to Sweden I always ask for moose, reindeer, cloudberries and all the other delicacy I can’t find in Chicago and I tell you, I’ve been looking. So this evening I decided to make a Bolognese that would remind me of those delicious flavors by using thyme, juniper berry and “viltfond” which is like a gamy flavored bouillon that I got my hands on. Juniper berries are actually good for your digestive system, now I don’t think it will make a difference in this case as I only used a few for the flavor.

700 grams minced beef

1 chopped onion

3 chopped garlic cloves

100 grams chopped forest nameko mushrooms

226 gram chopped Applegate hickory smoked bacon

170 grams tomato paste

4 deciliter of water

1 tablespoon Soy sauce gluten-free

1 tablespoon “Viltfond” (unless you have connections use the “better than bouillon beef”)

2 teaspoons oregano

2 teaspoons basil

1 tablespoon thyme

4-6 juniper berries crushed

Salt and pepper

Let the beef and the onions fry together till the meat is done, add the mushroom and fry fora few more minutes. Add some water and the tomato paste, be careful so it doesn’t get to watery and mix in the herbs and the spices. Fry the bacon so it gets crispy and rinse off the excess fat and dry with a paper towel and put it in the Bolognese.

Instead of eating the traditional pasta I shredded cabbage that I sprinkled with Apple Cider Vinegar, salt and pepper another option is to steam cook the shredded cabbage if you would prefer. The rest of the family had the pasta as well as the cabbage.