Christmas at Sofiero

Daring Bakers November: Caramel Cake

Oh! Caramel Cake! Allow me to introduce you to November's daring baker challenge - Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting. In my variation I used only organic ingredients, replaced 1/4 of the flour with dark cocoa and about 1/2 the water in the caramel syrup with whisky. And when it came to the carmelized butter frosting I had to skip the powdered sugar - I have never learned to like vile and foul-tasting Swedish version of this product - and the resulting drippy warm carmel sauce tasted perfect anyway, and looked very pretty. This actually stood in for pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving at our place since the little american store in Malmö has been sold out of pumpkin for weeks.

First things first, make your carmel syrup:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)
In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly and dark amber. Then very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back. It is a good idea to have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin. Now whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers - let it cool on a spoon before touching it to test stickiness.

And now the cake:
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan. Cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform. Sift flour and baking powder. Now slowly add and mix about one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients - this is the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method. When batter is uniform, turn it into prepared cake pan and pop it into the oven for about 45 to 55 minutes. Check that cake has begun to pull away fron the sides of the pan and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the cake at room temp while you make the icing - it will keep perfectly at room temp for three days and stay nice and moist.

Now, the caramelized butter frosting:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Brown the butter. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl. Whisk in confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste. Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month. To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix until smooth and light

Recipe courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon on Bay Area Bites. And for more beautiful carmel cake inspirations visit this month's hosts Dolores at Culinary Curiosity, Alex at Blondie and Brownie, Jenny at Foray into Food and Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go.

Bon appétit!

Novembre d'une bonne vivante

Compared to the predominately evergreen forests of my childhood in the Pacific Northwest, the colorful, falling leaves of beeches, oaks and birches are fairy dust, enchanting my autumns in Southern Sweden.

Autumn is passing leisurely this year. The leaves were mostly allowed to remain in peace on their branches for the whole spectrum of color change and then make soft, dry heaps under their very own trees (and not ripped prematurely off and far away into a wet mush by gale force winds and rain like last year.)

I found autumn's last blackberry blossom and admired the new open views to the sky on my walks in Pålsjö Skog. And I managed to get four very energetic dogs to sit still together in the leaves just long enough to snap this picture(!) after a hike on Hallandsåsen Ridge. From left: Billy, my Toto, Smilla and Charlie. Bon automne!

Daring Bakers Debut: Organic Pizzas

I made my Daring Bakers debut this month with these authentic, home-tossed organic pizzas topped with homemade tomato and oregano sauce, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, fresh basil from my windowsill and savory bits of locally raised, cold-smoked Linderöd pork tenderloin.

This recipe (from Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker’s Apprentice") is much easier than I expected it to be and the crust turned out perfectly thin, gently crisp and just tasty. The greatest testament to its success: I ate all of the edges. I never eat pizza crust edges. That officially makes this the best pizza dough recipe ever. May I be so bold here as to suggest that using only organic ingredients and fresh yeast (instead of instant) made my pizza dough even better than Peter Reinharts?

Make a big batch of this easy but perfect pizza dough, keep it in the fridge for up to three days (or longer in the freezer) and then just pull them out two hours before you want to eat, heat the oven, toss/roll and top and bake for 5 to 8 minutes.

Day One
(or in the morning, the same day you want to eat them)
Mix 3 tsp fresh yeast with 1 3/4 cups cold water, 1 tbsp sugar in a big bowl. Then add 1 3/4 cups good olive oil, 600 grams flour and 1 3/4 tsp salt and mix to form a sticky ball of dough. Turn it out on a floured surface and knead for about five minutes until smooth and elastic but still sticky.

Divide the dough in four to eight equal pieces, depending on whether you want smaller individual pizzas or family sizes (...psst, the individual ones are easier to handle later and more fun when everyone gets to top their own) and form the pieces in to balls with floured hands. Place them on lightly oiled baking paper, on an oven pan that will fit into your fridge, and cover with plastic wrap. Pop them in the fridge.

Day two
Remove the dough balls from the fridge, exactly two hours before you make the pizzas. Press delicately, with floured hands, into discs about 1/2 inch thick and then cover and allow to rest for two hours

When the two hours are almost up, start heating the oven (as hot as it goes!) and prep your sauce and toppings. Combine a pure tomato sauce of 100% squashed organic tomatoes with a splash of good olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a clove of garlic, the leaves from a sprig or two of fresh oregano from your garden and heat gently to infuse the flavors into the sauce. Finish with generous sprinkles of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Now you're ready to toss. Generously flour the counter, the underside of a big oven pan and your hands with flour or cornmeal. Lift a dough ball and lay it across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss. Beginners like myself find it useful to prep with a rolling pin first to get the dough expanded to a nicely round shape and manageable size before doing the proper tossing bit. If the dough tends to stick to your hands when tossing, lay it down, reflour your hands and then continue the tossing.

When you have gotten it to your desired size and thickness place it on the very generously floured pan, top it and slide it into the oven. Bake pizzas one at a time for 5 to 8 minutes in the middle of the oven then serve immediately with a carefree italian red like Dolcetto d'Alba from Alessandria Silvio Azienda Agricola or Cantine Giacomo Ascheri in Piedmont. Buono appetito!

The Living Museum Farm at Fredriksdal

I spent last Sunday afternoon tagging along with Bo Dahlgren, head of the living farm at Fredriksdal's Museums & Gardens here in Helsingborg and continued discovering how lucky I am to have a working farm barely two kilometers from my front door (especially nice since I am participating in the Eat Local Challenge).

The Fredriksdal farm is also smack in the middle of Helsingborg, putting it a scant 10 minute stroll from Kullagatan, our main pedestrian shopping street. And, oh delight, its entire reason for being is to preserve the cultural history and natural diversity of life in the Scanian countryside. This means natural organic methods and heirloom fruit and vegetables, like the chiogga or candy cane beets and borgherre apples above. When volunteers have time to help with the harvesting, the fruit and vegetables are sold in the museum's gift shop at the main entrance. The only thing more local than this in Helsingborg is my own little garden.
Gullros, the pretty Rödkulla cow, and the rest of my animal friends at Fredriksdal are naturally raised, traditional and rare breeds of cattle, pigs, rabbits, goats and poultry.

The pigs require a special mention here (vegetarians avert your eyes).

These are no ordinary piggies. They have been raised up on organic apples and potaotes that ripen within their sight on the farm and are an ancient native breed from the Linderöd Ridge in Stone Age Scania. These Linderöd Pigs numbered only ten adult animals in 1992 but now they are happily making a comeback with the help of Fredriksdal, Bo and Slowfood. According to Slowfood's Convivium Helsingborg website, there are now 350 adult Linderöd pigs registered for breeding and these lucky porkers are the only Swedish native breed of pigs to be granted the environmental support of endangered domesticated breeds by the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

The description of the Linderöd's looks and tempermant on the Slowfood site is so quaint that I must not rob you of it:

The Linderöd Pig is a little round and has sturdy strong legs. The snout is straight and well developed. The colour is gaudily black on a white/grey or brown bottom. Sometimes the black spots can be so big that the animal almost looks black. There is a great variety, and individual animals can be predominantly black or brown. The brown animals are more orange when they are small, but they gradually develop into brown/grey when they get old. Not a single white animal has yet been born, which indicates that the breed is native. The Linderöd Pig has a winter fur and likes being outdoors all the year around. The pigs grow slowly and they are calm, patient and sociable.

What you see below is Linderöd bacon and pork tenderloin, born on the Fredriksdal farm, raised on organic apples and cold-smoked by our local smokery master, Per in Viken. Delicious. But, you say, if you want to preserve the breed, why are you eating it?

Bo explained it to me. The reason that these rare, native breeds are disappearing is precisely because we don't eat them anymore. If they are to make a real comeback and if we are to promote biological diversity, they must become more than museum pieces. This is also why Bo is away from the farm this week and participating in the Salone Del Gusto and Terra Madre annual, international Slowfood events in Turin, Italy, for everyone who is passionate about good, clean and fair food. Bon Courage!

Understanding true wealth eradicates poverty

When do you feel richest? Laughing with friends, kissing your child goodnight, walking in the sunshine, building a life with your soul mate, enjoying a meal cooked with love, singing in the rain, dancing in the grass, kicking up leaves, and just being alive ... it is all about love. And love is F-R-E-E.

I believe that living well entails much more than indulging in epicurean pleasures. You cannot live the true good life unless you do good and enjoy ethically with respect for all living things and for yourself.

So far today, Blog Action Day 2008, over 10,000 bloggers have posted on poverty. My hope for all of you is that you understand true wealth, live a truly rich life and share this idea with as many people as you can: slowing down, savoring life and doing good is better for your economy, your health and your happiness...and it stops mindless consumption, heals the environment, and eradicates poverty.

You know what you have to do:
1. Read the quotes below.
2. Decide to be the change you want to see in the world.
3. Start doing good. If you have money, spread it around to people in need and the ethical companies that support them. If you have none, volunteer and give kindness from your heart and ideas from your head. Stop supporting any organizations whose business contributes to the unfair distribution of monetary wealth (unfortunately there are A LOT of them and the most basic action we can take to affect a change in this situation is to be diligent consumers, persistent in our demand for information and for the right to buy goods of ethical, sustainable and traceable origin.)

"Every good act is charity."
- Moliere

"Contentment is natural, luxury is artificial poverty."
- Socrates

"Wealth is the ability to fully experience life."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Your wealth is where your friends are."
- Titus Maccius Plautus

"Real wealth is ideas plus energy."
- Richard Buckminster Fuller

"Wealth is not a matter of intelligence it's a matter of inspiration."
- Jim Rohn

"A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world."
- Kahlil Gibran

"It's better to have a rich soul than to be rich."
- Olga Korbut

"Men are rich only as they give."
- Elbert Hubbard

"True happiness is...to enjoy the present, without anxious dependance on the future."
- Seneca

"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."
- Henry David Thoreau

"...true happiness comes from a sense of brotherhood ans sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share."
- Dalaia Lama

This excerpt from the European Commission, Joint Report on Social Inclusion 2004 published on Poverty.org.uk will help you better understand poverty and hopefully spark some ideas on what you can do to help:

"People are said to be living in poverty if their income and resources are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living considered acceptable in the society in which they live. Because of their poverty they may experience multiple disadvantage through unemployment, low income, poor housing, inadequate health care and barriers to lifelong learning, culture, sport and recreation. They are often excluded and marginalised from participating in activities (economic, social and cultural) that are the norm for other people and their access to fundamental rights may be restricted."

Bon courage!

Organic Roasted Vegetable Bisque

I made this for an organic potluck on Friday night and was warmly welcomed when I arrived with my giant pot, steaming with delicious aromas.

Start by peeling and roughly chopping carrots, red bell peppers, red onions and a big chunk of a pink banana pumpkin or butternut squash. Drizzle with olive oil and wine and roast while you prepare the rest.

In a huge pot, brown chopped shallots and garlic cloves in wine, rum and a knob of butter. Add sweet corn kernels, a jar or two of preserved tomatoes/tomato sauce and a few more generous sploshes of wine and rum. When the veggies are nicely roasted, add them to the pot and start the puréeing.

Add cream, milk and/or water in desired amounts to thin this now very thick bisque and salt and peppar to taste. I roasted organic salmon fillets with rum as well and placed a few big beautiful pink chunks into each bowl. Bon appétit!

Gala Dinner by Gastronomy Studio Era 10:3

Thursday was a big gala night in Helsingborg and I was so thrilled to find that the whole dinner showcased organic and local food.

The talented Tobias och Ulrica Millqvist of Gastronomy Studio Era 10:3 pulled it off brilliantly, no suprise considering that Tobias captured the silver in Sweden's National Chef of the Year Championship last year and made it into the top six as a finalist this year. The Millqvists have created a mecca for wine tastings, chocolate tastings, and cooking classes and experiences near Båstad, Sweden, the (in)famous beach town which hosts the Swedish Open.

I loved everything about the food (organic, local, delicious) and was also completely won over by the genuine concern and care they showed for us troublesome sorts with food allergies.

I translated the menu for your vicarious tasting pleasure:
Char with Kattvik Apples, Parsely Root, and Spicy Spinach Purée
Fillet of Bjäre Chicken with Sea Buckthorn Berries and Kale
Terrine of Venison with Prunes, Thyme and Pumpkin Mousse
Air-Dried Wild Boar Ham, Chantrelles, Carrots and Scanian Mustard
Anya Potatoes with Cream of Ceps and Chives
Oatmeal Bread with Traditional Swedish Bread Spices and Sour Butter
Chocolate Mousse, Blueberry Compote and Rosehip Lemon Crumble

Organic Caramelized Pear & Camembert Salad

This is one of those delightful 'warm' salads I discovered on a lazy weekend when I couldn't be bothered to go shopping. I had a peck of organic pears from my Årstiderna's delivery on Thursday and a lonely little round of organic camembert in the refrigerator. I googled "pear and camembert" to learn from those who have gone before me if there was something more interesting to do with them than just eat them slice by fresh, creamy slice together.

I found all kinds of recipes pairing these two favorites, including a stuffing for pork tenderloin, a topping for potato pancakes and sandwiches and fillings for savory pies, but I fell for the idea of a pear camembert salad.

This is so easy! Simply slice your pears and sautée them briefly in a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Lay slices of camembert over the pears in the pan until they just begin to melt and then toss the whole with a flavorful lettuce (I used argula) and salt and pepper it to taste. You could even improvise/improve this salad by adding onions, walnuts, basil, thyme, cloves, and more, more, more...bon appétit!

Hot Air Ballooning: Exhilarating and Ecofriendly?

Here I am running towards what could be my first hot air balloon flight ever. At this moment I have yet to decide if I am going to jump into that ridiculous little basket and let myself be whisked up and away somewhere over the rainbow or not.

Hot air ballooning has always appealed to me in theory: rising majestically in a fire-breathing, rainbow chariot over vineyards and verdant hillsides until you can just perceive the curve of the globe in the glorious sunrise, lighter than air and going only where the breezes convey you, landing in a meadow of flowers, toasting with champagne to your new noble title. It is all deliciously romantic, wonderfully French, and it has ME, ME, ME written all over it.

And yet, I hesitate. And yet, I have quite certainly made up my mind that when I do reach that basket I will not be hoisting myself over its side and risking an hour of very unromantic vertigo-induced panic, dangling 300 meters over Sweden with my colleagues. And yet, I do.

Exactly 217 years and one week after a sheep named Montauciel, and his apparently nameless duck and rooster co-pilots, rose above Versailles as the first living beings ever to fly in the Montgolfier brothers' amazing invention, it was my time.

We floated low and slow over lovely Lund, my first hometown in Sweden, and off over the countryside to land in that flowery meadow of my imagination. We toasted with champagne and were dubbed Aeronauts and Counts and Countesses of Haga.

But I still had reservations non-vertiginous. I was bothered. How sustainable is ballooning really? I did some homework and found out that our one hour balloon flight emitted about 29 kilograms of greenhouse gases per person, about the same as an hour in a car, but with clean-burning (though still fossil-based) propane instead of gasoline.

Balloons are also significantly less polluting than airplanes (about 120 kilograms of greenhouse gases per person for an hour's flight), snowmobiles and motorboats. And while there are very valid concerns about the noise level of the burners disturbing the wildlife and the peace and quiet of nature-lovers (we managed to spook deer, swans, cows and horses on our short flight), quieter whisper burners are now widely used. In another positive development, some logistics companies are now putting the balloon principle to work harnessing wind power to pull cargo ships over the oceans, considerably reducing their use of fossil fuels.

In the end, while balloons are a better option for a travel adventure than cars, airplanes, motorboats or snowmobiles, the best ecotravelers will stick to bicycles, trains, and their own two feet to get the lay of the land until no-impact balloon adventures become standard. Bon voyage!

Organic Creamy French Potato Salad

Summer is definitely over in Sweden now but we took advantage of a sunny day recently to have one last barbecue on the terrace. I love homemade potato salad and I have always used my mom's recipe but since I really committed myself to buying only organic ingredients that has been a little tricky. Things like organic mayonnaise and pickles are not widely available over here (no Whole Foods in Sweden yet but we do have Goodness) and anyway I'm just not happy buying things that I can make from scratch at home.

To make it easy I didn't stop to make mayonnaise or pickles but just combined all those good flavors right in to the potato salad and it was ready in less than 30. M had these yummy organic chorizos (from Swedish Änglamark) grilled to perfection by then. Bon appétit!

Organic Creamy French Potato Salad
Set your chopped potatoes (peeled too, if it pleases you) to boil in well-salted water and get an egg ready to throw in for coddling with them during the last 5 minutes or so of cooking.

While you wait for the potatoes to cook, mix diced red onion and cucumber with a big generous soup spoonful of a really thick and creamy, Turkish-style organic yogurt and another of organic french wholegrain mustard. Splosh over olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. (If you live in Sweden you can get all of these ingredients delivered to your door from Mossagården or pick them up Goodness in Helsingborg.)

Rinse your potatoes and the now soft-boiled or coddled egg in cold water. Drain the potatoes. Peel and chop the egg up a little and put it all together in the bowl of dressing ingredients. I like the egg yolk to still be slightly gooey, making for a very creamy dressing with a beautiful lemon yellow color. Pretty power works on food too!

NY Times: Time to Save the Croissants

Owen Franken for The New York Times & Amélie Dequidt/Office de Tourisme d’Arleux

This headline in the NY Times yesterday captured my attention instantly and introduced a very thought-provoking topic: should UNESCO World Heritage Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage be able to include a country's unique gastronomy? France is having a go at it and they just see themselves as pioneers in getting UNESCO to recognize and protect unique local specialties and rare breeds all over the world. Above are Guy Savoy, who wants to preserve French culinary traditions, and traditionally smoked garlic from Arleux.
Read it and tell me what you think.

This had me thinking of the Slow Food movement, which has been doing just that for years now with their Ark project, and I found it peculiar that this didn't come up at all in this article. But I applaud the journalist Elaine Sciolino for the piece and especially for her quoting the guy who quoted 19th-century food writer Brillat-Savarin who wrote that, “The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of the human race than the discovery of a star.”

I just plain adore that man, not only for writing one of the BEST books ever written on food, but also because it was through the English translation of that book that I became acquainted with the woman who I believe has written even better books on food than he or anyone else has, the infinitely wise and wonderful M.F.K. Fisher. If by some chance you haven't discovered her yet then I will consider myself honored to be the one to introduce you. Bon courage!

Organic Chocolate Marshmallow Cream Cupcakes

Vive les cupcakes! These darlings are my contribution to Sugar High Friday and are inspired by sweet Miss Fanny over at foodbeam who posted the deadly delicious and "so horribly fluffy" s'mores cupcakes last week. My version is made from 100% organic ingredients (and fair trade sugar and espresso) and it also takes a tiny shortcut by putting the chocolate into the lovely little cakes themselves (along with a few other mini-tweaks) but I still slathered on the wonderful marshmallow cream.

Preheat oven to 170°C. For twelve smallish normal cupcakes, first mix 150 g flour, 10 g really good dark cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp good sea salt (less than fanny's recipe since I used lightly salted butter), and 1 1/4 tsp baking powder in a bowl.

In another bowl cream 60 g butter with 85 g raw sugar, then beat in one egg plus one egg yolk (left over from separating the white for the marshmallow cream), a dash of vanilla, a couple tsp good espresso to deepen the chocolate flavour and 160 g milk. Now mix in the flour mixture until just combined, fill your buttered cupcake tin or paper cups and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cupcakes bake and cool, make your marshmallow cream - for this I followed Fanny's recipe to the letter except that I used raw sugar instead of caster sugar. Beat one egg white with a pinch of salt to soft peak stage. Leave them for a moment and in a saucepan, bring the 2 tbsp water and 75 g raw sugar to a boil and let it reach 115°C. Now continue to beat the egg white while slowly pouring in the sugar syrup and keep going until the bowl starts to cool to the touch, watching with delight as the mixture becomes glossy and gooey and wonderful. Spoon a good dollop onto each little cupcake and smooth to the edges with a spatula.

Thankyou Fanny for the tastiest, easiest recipe for marshmallow cream ever. I just love finding homemade solutions for things you typically have to buy and now I will never buy marshmallows again - this is going to top my hot cocoa forever more. Bon appétit my friends!

Ecotourism in the NY Times: Camping? Yes. Roughing It? Not Quite.

Eco-glamping (i.e. glamorous camping) is right up this ethical bon vivant's pretty, green alley so I was enormously pleased to see this article, written by Jennifer Conlin, published on the NY Times Travel pages today. The photo above shows a guest tent at the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort on Vancouver Island.

"If the eco-friendly idea of falling asleep under the stars and roasting marshmallows around a campfire appeals to you, but the reality of pitching a tent and sleeping on bumpy ground does not, glamping, the new term being used for upscale — or glamorous — camping, could be your ideal green vacation.

Though dismissed by hard-core leave-no-trace campers (who don’t so much as move a rock for fear of affecting the area), glamping can still be an environmentally sound outdoor experience, even if it does include creature comforts (like not having too many creatures inside your tent)..." Read more on the NY Times Travel pages.

Classic Tarte Tatin with Organic Apples and Soft-Whipped Vanilla Cream

Authentic Tarte Tatin is one of the many delicious French 'accidents' that has gone on to become a classic favorite. Our thanks go out to the sweetly scatterbrained Stephanie Tatin who, in 1898, botched a recipe for a proper apple tart and served the result to her guests at Hotel Tatin in Beuvron.

Start by making the pastry crust and, need I say it, use all organic, locally produced ingredients. Mix 1 cup wheat flour and 1 tablespoon raw cane sugar in mixer or food processor and add 6 tablespoons of real butter (lightly salted kind), one at a time, mixing well after each. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of water. Make the dough come together in a soft ball and wrap and chill while you prep the apples and caramel sauce - about 20 minutes.

Now combine 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet/pan (no plastic handles allowed - this is going into the oven soon) and cook while stirring over medium heat for about 10 minutes until almost chestnut colored and nicely smooth and caramelized but not burned. Remove from heat but keep stirring for a few more minutes until the pan begins to cool. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and let the caramel mixture cool in the pan while you peel, core and slice your apples (4-8 depending on size) into wedges.

Finally, arrange apple wedges in any pattern that pleases you on top of the caramel sauce in the pan, roll out the pastry and drape it over the apples, tucking in the edges, and bake for about 45 minutes in the oven. The crust should be golden brown and the juices should be bubbling at the edges. Let it stand for 5 minutes or so before inverting it onto a pretty platter and then serve warm with soft-whipped cream that you've spiked with a dash of vanilla, sugar and maybe even a squirt of good single malt...bon appétit!

Sofiero Garden Show 2008

Sofiero Castle is the former royal summer residence with exquisite gardens in Helsingborg and last weekend they opened the castle gates to their annual grand Sofiero Garden Show.

The sun was shining on blooming artichokes and dahlias, herb gardens framed by low apple-tree hedges, apple trees trained up trellises, the fairytale juniper-hedge maze and a lovely maiden playing a harp in the ravine.

Local organic food and Mediterranean gardens seemed to be the strongest trends of the show. The best foodie gems were Boels Blå, a gold medal creamy blue cheese from Holmana Organic Dairy Farm in Halland, a champagne and tapas tent, and perfectly ripe apples and squash galore from Fredriksdal's traditional kitchen garden and orchards. With whitewashed stone walls, rosemary bushes, fig and olive trees and cicada-song soundtrack, the Mediterrean show garden below seemed to effectively raise the perceived temperature of the day by least 10°C.

Photo by: Sven Olof Larsén

Lately named Sweden’s most beautiful park, the grounds of Sofiero play host to flower festivals, art exhibits, rock concerts, Shakespearean plays and classic car shows during the spring and summer and is an utterly tranquil haven for autumn and winter walks.