Recipe: English Red Ale

               I have been brewing my own beers for about 20 years now. I brew every lind of beer you can think of, and many you could never imagine. For my first recipe, we're going to do a simple Ale. In Sweden I ordered my supplies from            http://www.humle.se/ 

The recipe goes as follows,

5 kilos/11 lbs cracked pale 2-row malt

1 kilo/2.2 lbs cracked crystal malt

12 liters/3.2 gallons water, heated to 75*c/167*f

additional 10 l/2½ gal. water heated to 75*c/167*f

100 g/ 3.5 oz Fuggles hops

100 g/ 3.5oz Goldings hops

Wyeast #1099 Whitbread Ale Yeast

I'll walk you through the steps,

                           

Step 1-Mash

5 kilos/11 lbs cracked pale 2-row malt

1 kilo/2.2 lbs cracked crystal malt

12 liters/3.2 gallons water, heated to 75*c/167*f

               Take a ice chest and lay a 1 m/3 ft square pc of cheesecloth in it then put your grains in and add your heated water. Stir well and you want to stabilize your temp at 68-70'c/155-158*f. Close tight, lay a blanket over it and let set 1½ hours. During this process you will convert the malt starch to malt sugar.

Note* The range for converting malt is between 65-71*c/150-160*f. At 65*c/150*f you convert more fermentable sugars which give you a lighter beer, like a pilsner, and converting at 71*c/160*f you get more fermentable sugars and some unfermentable sugars which add to a slight sweetness and more body, like a amber-dark ale.

                            

Step 2-Sparge

               Take hold of the cheesecloth and slowly lift it up, letting all the sweet malty liquid drain off, this is called wort. Put something under the grainsack, a rack or a colander to support it while the grains drip. Take a syphon hose and siphon the wort into a large pot ( by large I mean 30 l/ 6 gal.)

*Note: I have seen some people take a old keg and cut the top off to use as a pot and boil it on a gas burner in the backyard.

Take a additional 10 l/2½ gal. water heated to 75*c/167*f and pour this onto the grainsack in the ice chest again to rinse off all the sugars. This process is called a sparge. Let set 5 minutes, stirring, and then siphon off the remaining wort.

Step 3-Boil

Bring all the wort to a boil and add: 100 g/ 3.5 oz Fuggles hops

                                                      60 g/ 2 oz goldings hops

Let this continue on a full boil for 1 hour.

Turn off the heat and..      then add: 30 g/ 1 oz. goldings hops

Let it set in a cool place for 1 hour to cool down. Keep it far away from any vinegar or fruit that could bring in a wild yeast and sour your beer.

Step 4-Fermentation

              Make a solution of 4 l/1 gal water with 4 tbsp household beach. From now on, rinse everything you use with this, and then with clean water, just to keep things sanitary. Siphon your wort, through a screen, into a 30 L/6 gal glass, plastic or ceramic container.
Note: For our recipe, our goal is to make 25 l/5 gal so add some water to bring it up to the right volume.
 Toss in your remaining 20 g/3/4 oz golding hops for a floral aroma. Pitch in Wyeast #1099, Whitbread Ale Yeast after the wort has cooled to at least 20-24*c/70-75*f. Cover with a top & clean towel or fit a rubber stopper with a 1/4 inch line that seals the vessel and goes to a small bucket of the water-bleach solution. As the beer ferments, the sugar will ferment to alcohol, releasing gasses, and if you have the rubber stopper it will continue to bubble until fermentation is complete. Fermentation at room temperature should take 4-6 days.

Step 5-Bottling

Siphon off the liquid through a screen and a cotton towel, being careful to leave the sediment behind.

Note: The sediment you leave behind is a active yeast culture and perfect to pour anther batch of wort on to start another batch. Or you can take a small amount in a jar and save it, up to a month in your refrigerater

Note: Some people use Irish moss or gelatine to clarify bthe beer, I leave it natural, it's a little cloudy in the beginning, but it will clarify after a few weeks, leaving a little sediment in the bottom. 

Take 1 cup brown sugar & 1 cup water, bring to a boil and cool. Mix this in your uncarbonated beer. Mix it very well and siphon into bottles and cap, being as clean as possible. I buy 1 liter bottles at Ikea with self locking swing top (Grolsch style). Let the bottle set in room temperature for 10 days before opening. The brown sugar will produce a secondary fermentation in the bottle but now the gasses can't escape, thus your beer is carbonated. Enjoy!

         

Backaskolan Christmas Buffet Menu

Nouveau Waldorf Salad with Apples, Walnuts & Gorgonzola

Nouveau Waldorf Sallad med Äpplen, Valnötter & Gorgonzola

Tiger Prawns, Baby Octopus, Crayfish marinated with Ginger & Lavender, Baby Greens

Tigerräkor, Bläckfisk, Kräftor marinerad med Ingefära & Lavendel med Fyra Olika Sallader

Coquilles St Jacques Florentine

Pilgrimsmusslor med Spinat Florentine

Cranberry-Pecan Chutney

Tranbär-Pecan Chutney

Lemon-Caper Sauce

Citron-Caper Sås

Millefeuille of Smoked Trout

Millefeuille av Rökt Forell

Slaney Farms, Fresh Irish Lamb Chops, Fresh Herbs

Slaney Farms, Färska Irländska Lammkotletter, Färska Örter

Thyme Roasted Potatoes with Feta, Turkish Olives, Cucumber & Olive Oil

Timjan Rostad Potatis med Fetaost,Turkiska Oliver, Gurka och Olivolja

Fresh Norwegian Salmon Filet, Oven Baked

Färsk Norsk Lax Filet, Ugnsbakat

Pappardelle Alfredo with Winter Vegetables

Pappardelle Alfredo med Vinter Grönsaker

Range Free Fresh French Turkey

Ekologisk Färsk Fransk Kalkon

Black Truffle Risotto

Svart Tryffel Risotto

Gateau Basque, (a rich cherry-rum filling with vanilla bean crust)

Gateau Basque (rik körsbär-rom fyllning med vaniljstång deg)

Autueil,
(white chocolate, star anise mousse, filled with raspberry jam, an almond genoise, cognac syrup)

Autueil,
(vit choklad-star anis mousse, fylld med hallonsylt, en mandel genoise, cognac sirap)

Americans Celebrate Thanksgiving in Southern Sweden

            For the past three years I have done Thanksgiving dinner for 'The American Women's Club', Malmö  Chapter. This particular meal is probably my favorite of all the holidays. Maybe it's the childhood memories, or the fellowship with family & friends or just a great meal and now since I have been living abroad, I feel a sense of patriotism and it's a part of my American culture I want to share with my wife & children. This year I opened the dinner up to 'Democrats Abroad' and 'International Christian Fellowship' to bring in a few more Americans. I had about 50 altogether, mostly Americans with Swedish wives or husbands and their little bi-cultural children. I did a traditional Thanksgiving menu, perhaps leaning a little to the gourmet side, but thats my nature. I put a photos slideshow up on the gadget bar. It was a great day of celebration & fellowship with friends & family, the only thing missing was throwing a football outside afterwards, but this far in the northern hemisphere it's dark outside by 3:30pm.

A grand night in oldtown Ystad

I recently did a very nice menu for a party on oldtown Ystad, hosted by Ray Rau and his lovely wife Maria. Ray is American and has been in Sweden 20+ years. His children, from teenager to mid 20's, are a wonderful blend of Swedish and American cultures, switching from perfect English to perfect Swedish in mid-sentence. They recently moved down from Stockholm and bought one of those fabulous old houses in the centrum. Now in Ystad the churches date back to the 1200's and most of the old houses are from the 1500's, and Ale's Stones, not far away goes back to 600AD. Anyway, Ray & Maria have a absolutely gorgeous home, 3 floors of 4 meter ceilings, like stepping into a museum, but with a comfortable and personal touch. The house sits at the end of a street, next to a park with people strolling. I had come in contact with them through 'Democrats Abroad, Skane Chapter' and Ray was turning 50, and he is quite a excellent cook and was planning on doing the party himself but the guest list had

swelled to 30, and he brought me in to take over. We had talked earlier about some cooking lessons, but in the end I recommended buying 'The Professional Chef', a textbook from The Culinary Institute of America to study and practice the techniques and we could talk later. Since then I have been inspired to start doing instructional cooking videos and posting them on my blog & youtube. For the menu, we started  with a gratin of tiger prawns and scallops, on the spinach florentine, this has become one of my signature dishes, and as always, the dish is so impressive served with a crisp white wine. Next we had the seared yellow fin tuna with a five peppercorn crust...smoked & burnt on the outside, raw in the center, served with a spicy mango salsa and the super-fine sweet cream polenta. This dish is always a crowd pleaser! After we cleansed the palette with a cactus sorbet, we went to lamb chops with a herb crust, seared & roasted medium rare, they were cooked to perfection! I served them with a Perigueux sauce, pomme dauphine potatoes, veggies and baby greens with truffle oil. For dessert, I served the 'Moelleux au Chocolat', thats a heavy dark chocolate soufflé, filled with dark chocolate ganache that melts while it's baking and it's served warm so the warm melted ganache runs out of the middle of the cake. I served it with two sauces, a raspberry coulis & a white chocolate sauce. We brought in two professional waiters to serve, everything went flawlessly, the menu and the party were a great success! Often with parties in Sweden they have printed song sheets and sing songs between courses, give speeches, do a roast on the guest of honor, or just toast & drink lots of schnapps. At one point in between courses I looked up and saw a professional classical violinist giving a solo performance from the corner of the room. So Ray Rau turned 50 with style, it was definitely a grand night to remember!

Ann & Richard Carlsson's Dinnerparty at TLB

November is always a very busy month for me. I would like to tell you a little of a few dinnerparties I did. The first was a five course menu for Ann & Richard Carlsson. The venue was 'Three Lily Buds', just outside Vellinge in southern Sweden. Take a look at the video I posted on the gadget bar.They started with a Aperitif of Calvados & Cremant. I like to make the first course very special, a dish that really gets their attention and my 'Coquilles St. Jacque Florentine' is one that all my customers consistently rave about. I pair it with a cold, crisp white wine and the combination is heavenly! Also such a fabulous first course really sets the mood for the evening. The soup was 'Potage Agnes Morrell', the leeks & shallots pureed into a creamy velouté, served with a crunchy parmesan crouton and drizzled with a 30 year old Port. Next came a poached filet of monkfish, that I then baste with brown butter & fresh herbs, I make a super fine sweet cream polenta & lightly sauté julienned carrots, parsley root, red beets & cilantro and circle the dish with a rosemary buerre blanc.The root veggies really stand out with purple, orange, white with green specks. Ann Carlsson said it was absolutely the best she had ever tasted! We cleansed the palate with a cactus sorbet then had roasted breast of guinea hen , black truffle risotto, cranberry-pistachio chutney, carrot-celeryroot-saffron mousse with a peregeuex sauce. Dessert was Tocqueville, of course named after Alexis de, best known for his writings of 'Democracy in America' (1835), anyway, this was his favorite, A dark chocolate mousse, spiced shortbread, caramelized apples with a Calvados syrup. Everyone was very happy with the menu, which is of course such a complement to me!

                                                 

Autumn in Sweden

       Last week I was out with my boys picking wild elderberries to make jelly and sauces for my desserts and I must say....I love autumn in Sweden. Growing up in California, we never really had the four seasons. The brilliant colors of red , orange & yellow never cease to amaze me. I often dream of menus to correspond the colors of my courses with the colors of the season. Or sometimes I have my courses run through the seasons. Start with spring, something fresh & crunchy, perhaps with flowers, perhaps baby zucchini with a large yellow blossom. Then go to summer, do something with berries. I do a three color veggie mousse, say carrots, peas & celery root in layers in a bread mold. Then when you slice it in a triangle it has nice colors of orange, green & white centered on a plate with some baby greens, a raspberry vinaigrette and some fresh raspberries...now that would fit my concept for a theme of summer colors. Autumn could be pink slices of roe deer filet, eggplant tart or roasted pumpkin and of course dessert would have to be white like winter with no fruit. Finding good fresh fruit in the winter in Sweden reminds me of my French girlfriends in Paris...unreliable and usually only available on weekends.

       I've been quite busy lately. Not long ago I did a very nice menu for Peter Uhlemann and a group of executives from Handelsbanken at Three Lily Buds. We started with a Millefeuille of Smoked Trout served with a sweet red onion crème fraîche and a black sesame sauce. That was very popular! After we cleansed the palette with a mango sorbet we went to the main course with medallions of veal, gratin potatoes, a celery-pea mousse (white & green stand out on the plate), cranberry chutney, baby greens with truffle oil & grand venuer sauce. Dessert was a medley of  of rich dark chocolate. Most people have never tasted food of the caliber I do. It's often a eye-opening experience.

        The next week I did sweet petit-fours for 30 for the American Womens Club annual meeting in Malmö. I did a nice assortment............Crème Brulée Tart, Auteuil, Napoleons with Candied Fennel, Gateau Basque, Caribe au Chocolat.

Here's my  crème brûlée tart, except for with petit fours I cut it in small squares, about two bites. I usually set it on a spiced shortbread and if it's plated, serve it with a fruit coulis.

Then two days later I did the exact same menu for a parents meeting at my boys elementary school for 30 again. I found one of the best marketing techniques is whenever the is a large gathering, volunteer to bring desserts and then pass out my cards. Once they have tasted what I do, I have them. Sure enough, the next day one of the parents called to order desserts for a party at The Malmö Concert House. I did two large Auteuil & a large Carribe au Chocolat (see right) The party was for the director of Musik i Syd in Kristianstad and by coincidence I had done their Christmas Party last year. We had a very nice menu with Duck Breast & Caramelized Figs and then for dessert, I dressed up the director in one of my chef coats and taught him to flame cherries in front of everyone. It was alot of fun! I was quite sure he would remember me.

         Over the summer I did many large parties but three of my favorites were 1) a  celebration of their marriage and long relationship for Nanna Grønbech Pedersen ( a fabulous artist, I'll put a link on the sidebar) & Søren Larsen on the island of Thurø. 2) a wedding for Helena Hansen at the Malmö Canoe Club. 3) A 40 year birthday party for Jens & Isabelle Olsson. The menus I did for all three were similar a lttle similar. When I do these menus, I truly love the food I am doing. It's like I'm giving them a gift of love, a deliberate act of love, a servants heart in a sense. Even though I'm being paid for it, I still feel a sense of  fulfillment & satisfaction. Thats why I love what I'm doing!

       I regularly need to fine tune my culinary skills, and what better way than to practice on my friends. Last weekend I did a very nice menu...we started off with a black truffle custard served in a eggshell, seared tuna with mango salsa& sweet polenta, cream of pea soup with grilled tiger prawns, guinea hen breast with fettuccine alfredo, roasted eggplant caviar, figs caramelized in port wine & perigueux sauce. Dessert was moelleux au chocolat, that warm nutty chocolate soufflé that when you cut it warm melted ganache runs out. Everything went very well that night... for wines we started off with Poully Fumé, then went with a rosé, Reserve de Bonnet Rosé Merlot Cabernet Franc and then went to a nice Bourgogne, the Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Dames de Vergy and after finished with 15 yr aged armagnac.

    The last night I did my gourmet version of Mexican food. Growing up in California, I always loved Mexican food. But living in Sweden, good Mexican food is impossible to get...so I have to make my own. I roasted some long thin Hungarian chiles and stuffed them with gouda cheese¨. Then I separate egg white & yolks, beat the whites and fold in the yolks and fry the chilies in this....a perfect Chilé Relleno!...For Chimichangas, I slow cook veak till it falls apart and blend it with my homemade chipotle sauce & cheese and use that to fill a flour tortilla and fry that. Those I serve with crème fraîche and salsa fresca. Main course was Chile Colorado, pork slow cooked with red chilies & tomatoes until it's tender and the sauce is thick & rich. Combine that with Spanish Rice and Cuban style black beans with cumin, garlic and ice cold Coronas and I'm thinking I'm back in Ensenada with salt on the back of my thumb and I keep dropping my lime!

    

 

Magnus Ringmans Dinnerparty

Not long ago, I did a fabulous menu for thirteen CEO's hosted by a major newspaper, Aftonbladet. The setting was in the majestic and colorful rolling hills of Skåne in southern Sweden. The location was a classic Swedish farmhouse, now completly restored & goes by the name of 'Three Lily Buds'. The interior is wonderfully designed with South African art, much of it created by the very talented South African artist Sally Arnold. They have delicious SA assorted olive oils, vinegars & wines. My recommendations, the Reyneke Cornerstone -06, a delicate fruity flavor, much like a fleurie, with hints of red fruit. Another favorite is the Reyneke Reserve -05 Shiraz, a full bodied bouquet, with hints of  blackberries &  pepper. Outside in the fields, a runway is cut out of the grass for light aircraft to land and taxi in. They have a wellness herbal spa in a greenhouse & a fabulous open air kitchen (my favorite), centered around a AGA stove for conferences or dinner parties. A unique experience!

So this was the environment for Magnus Ringmans dinnerparty. The customers have cocktails while I flame scallops in a starched white chef coat. The scallops recline on a bed of spinach florentine and are drizzled with a white wine cream sauce, served in their shells. The flavors of lemon, shallots & cream meld together with the seared scallop under a gratin. Second course is a warm blue cheese tart, served with crunchy sliced fresh pear, baby greens & vinaigrette. I like to use Bleu d'Auvergne, for a rich yet subtle flavor & the result is a perfect marriage of texture & flavors....rich & salty, crunchy sweet, peppery greens & tangy vinaigrette. As a young chef training in the 1980's, I was greatly influenced by two Masterchefs-Wolfgang Puck & Jeremiah Tower. The next course- Seared yellowfin tuna (raw in the center) with a 5 peppercorn crust with a julienned root salad & a Thai style lemongrass sauce. This dish was right out of the California cuisine genre, creating a fusion of cultures with Asian, seafood & fresh locally grown products. We cleansed the palette with cactus sorbet and went to the main course....a fresh Irish lamb chop, I pull out every other bone on the rack, I sear it & roast it and then cut a fat double chop, roll it in fresh herbs and lean it with one roasted bone standing straight up on the plate. The lamb was complemented with a Grand Venuer sauce, black cherry chutney, celery-root mousse with a touch of saffron and my ever-decadent pomme dauphine potatoes with a golden gratin. For dessert I created a cylinder of white chocolate-anise mousse, filled with fresh raspberries on a pistachio genoise soaked with cognac syrup and served with a fresh raspberry coulis. By the time the dessert was finished I had them on their feet cheering. Magnus told me thay all agreed it was the best menu they had ever had at a conference and many thought it was the best menu they had tasted ever! These are people that travel the world, stay in fine hotels, eat in fine restaurants. It was, simply put, the ultimate complement!

Reflections on Inspiration

My culinary talents today are a direct accumulation of all my experiences throughout my life. One of the most profound was shopping on the Rue Mouffetard in Paris. I first heard of it while living in Colombia, reading Hemingways 'A Movable Feast'. He lived on the Place de la Contrescarpe, and would often stroll down the Rue Mouffetard for espresso or shopping. Then when I had my flat on Rue de Poissy in Paris, I learned I was only a few minutes walk to Hemingways old neighborhood. I was fascinated with open air markets of Paris. It was busy & bustleing, you had to push and elbow your way into a cloud of cigarette smoke to buy something while the vendors shouted out their wares. Le poissonnier would be holding a trout in one hand and a crayfish in the other, with a cigarette butt smoking from the corner of his mouth, while he yelled why his fruits de mer were absolutly the best you could possibly buy. Then a old women would push a greasy folded newspaper filled with salty pomme frites in your face while she smiled next to her vat of boiling oil. Strolling amongst the chaos, I was filled with hundreds of ideas, the possibilities were endless. My infinite inspiration and creativity was truely challenged. Back at the Hotel Ritz, I would spend hours discussing, examining & dissecting my culinary inspirations with the brilliant minds of Masterchefs Philip Moreau & Christof Bellet. There are moments in life when you experience a awakening, a profound enlightenment that changes the way you conceptualize the life that moves around you. For me, my morning walks down the hill of the Rue Mouffetard was definitely that experience. From then on I got to experiment with gastronomic delights on my friends with several courses in a dinner party, carefully matching wines with each course. It was a time to perfect my skills to excellence. My biggest problem was that after usually staying up late on friday nights, I would wake up late and halfway through my coffee have to run out the door, because in Paris all the markets close at 2pm and if you miss that, you can't shop until monday morning.

Custom Menus

I often design a special menu for my clients, using fresh & local products, seasonal berries or wild mushrooms for example. I like the the idea of using natural, locally grown fresh ingredients to produce my dishes. I try to mostly prepare traditional french-international cooking on available ingredients including abundant seafood. Fresh vegetables, lightly cooked, and fresh fruits, berries, and herbs characterize my cuisine generally. I was influenced less by grand Parisian restaurants that served a predictable menu than by more modest establishments whose chefs visited the markets each day and invented the meal on the spot. La cuisine du marché, market cooking, relies on improvisation and experimentation and puts shopping on an equal footing with technique. While I worked with Dominic Fonseca at the Hotel Ritz, everyday we would look through the cellars of The Ritz kitchen and create a menu with whatever we had. Take a look at other menus I've done in the past.