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A World War 2 Trilogy
By FRED NATH (Novelist and Neurosurgeon)
Fred's Blog
Fred's Blog
Blog
Swedish Christmas Ham
| Posted on 20 December, 2018 at 3:29 |
comments (2)
|
My sons asked me for this recipe so I thought I'd put it here for ease of reference and to share with anyone who wishes to try something new. Swedish Christmas Ham The main problem when you buy a
smoked or ‘green’ ham is that when you roast it, commonly, it is very salty.
This ‘recipe’ if that’s what you’d call it, allows you to get the salt out of
the ham and roast it in what in my family, has always been the traditional
manner. Start by removing the rind or
skin so you have a layer of fat remaining. Put a few string ties around to
keep the shape. Place in a big saucepan in cold
water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Discard the water and start
again. This time once it reaches boiling point, discard the water and replace
with cold water so the ham is covered. Leave in a cool place for 24
hours or overnight at least. Next day, dry it off and coat in
Coleman’s brown French mustard (lots of it). Roll the beast in a mixture of
demerara sugar and breadcrumbs. Roast in a hot oven, basting
often. The outside is often rather carbonised, but it makes no difference to
the taste. At least 2 hrs. If the ham has little or no fat,
basting is a problem. I have on occasion after half-an-hour drizzled olive oil
over the oven and that eventually percolates through and you can baste with it. Leave to stand for min ½ hr
before carving. Swedish Meatballs Definitely not
for Vegetarians. [You have to
have a food processor for this with sharp blades that can grind meat to a fine
texture] Ingredients:
1 onion
1 egg
1 pound
of minced steak
1 pound
of minced lean pork.
1 large
cup of wholemeal dried breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons
of ground ginger
1
chicken stock-cube.
Two
tablespoons of salt
Pepper
to taste. Procedure:
Chop
the onions (easy in the food processor)
Mix the
breadcrumbs, ginger, salt, pepper in a large mixing bowl.
Add the
onion and the meat. Mix with a wooden spoon.
Add the
egg.
The
texture will be rough so you probably need to add a small glass of water or
milk. When it
is all mixed well, grind it thoroughly in the food processor. Thoroughly I
said. Read my lips ‘thoroughly’. You may need to do that in several lots.
The
texture should be roughly like a firm dough and very fine after the thorough
mixing. Get it?
Pick up
maybe a dessertspoon sized bit of mixture and using clean wet hands roll it
into a ball. When you’ve rolled the lot, you need to fry them really hot so the
outside goes a deep brown. If it gets carbonised it’s no big deal, it just
tastes better!
So,
each frying-pan of meatballs is placed into a large pan containing about ¼ of a
pint of water containing the stock cube. Empty the frying pan into the stock
and quench the pan with about half a cup of water and add that water to the
stock.
You
should end up with enough liquid to cover the meatballs. Simmer for twenty
minutes or so. Add cream to taste. If
you’re a purist, you could drain the meatballs before adding cream and make a
roux and use the stock to make a thicker sauce and then add cream and put the
meatballs back into the sauce, but I like a thin sauce with meatballs. Serve
with potatoes and peas. If you
intend to freeze them, don’t add cream, do it when you warm them up.
The
only unusual thing about this recipe is the fine texture, without which, it is
just a round hamburger burger. I suppose adding ginger seems a bit odd but it
really is a fantastic taste!
Merry
Christmas, hope you enjoy them.
If you
have a comment or you get into difficulties, email me on
>[email protected]<
|
A Swedish Christmas Recipe
| Posted on 22 December, 2016 at 1:53 |
comments (3)
|
This is a typical Swedish recipe passed to me through my mum, who baked loads of stuff at Christmas. It makes really nice sweet bread that goes a treat with coffee especially on Christmas morning. The cardamom adds a hint of lemony fragrance. Vätebröd - Swedish Buns - makes
24 buns or 2 loaves. Ingredients: 25 g
Fresh yeast or 15 g of dried 70 g
butter 2 1/2
dl of milk 1/4 tsp
of salt 1 dl of
sugar 1 tsp
ground cardamom 425 g
flour (Strong white) (if
using dried yeast use tepid water as on packet) Break
up yeast in a bowl. Melt butter in a pan
and add the milk and warm gently. (Finger
temp) Mix
yeast with a little of the liquid. Then
add the rest of the liquid. Add salt,
sugar, cardamom and nearly all the flour through a sieve in stages. Save some flour for kneading dough. Work dough in bowl. Let rest to rise in bowl for 30 mins. Covered in warm place. Put the
dough onto a floured board and knead it until smooth. Either
divide dough into two if making loaves or plaits or make little buns. Leave
to rise for another 30 mins. Then brush
a little beaten egg over and top with granulated sugar and finely chopped
almonds or hazelnuts. Bake in
oven (temp 180 C) for 5-7 mins. (If loaf
15 -20 mins at 180C). This recipe works for me! You may wish to
alter the individual quantities to ensure that the dough rises. |