December 19, 2014 |
No Smörgåsbord is complete without the infamous pickled herring – and this herring dressing is as traditional as they come.
Serve the Mustard Herring with dark rye bread or crisp bread. Always serve herring at the beginning of the meal – along with a shot of chilled aquavit.
Recipe: How to make Senapssill Mustard herring
Author: Bronte Aurell
Recipe type: Starter
Cuisine: Scandinavian
- Recipe Serves 4
- 1 x 220g jar of plain pickled ABBA herring (or equivalent weight of a good plain ready pickled herring)
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 11⁄2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 11⁄2 tbsp crème fraîche
- 11⁄2 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp Slotts Skånsk mustard (or grain mustard)
- 1⁄2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1⁄2 tbsp single cream
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 shallot, very finely chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
- Drain the herring, discard onion bits and brine.
- In a bowl, mix all the dressing ingredients together. Whisk until the mixture is creamy and combined, then season to taste.
- Add the drained herring and marinate for a few hours.
- Enjoy with rye or crisp bread.
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December 11, 2014 |
This dish is a must on most Scandi Christmas Smorgasbord tables. Mostly in Sweden, where it is absolutely essential. No beetroot salad = no Christmas.
It’s super easy to make it – have a go at home, but please do try to use a Scandinavian pickled beetroot for the best result. It just works better.
Recipe: Rödbetsallad Apple and Beetroot Salad
- 1 jar of pickled beetroot 300g (drained weight approx. 280g)
- ½ apple
- 50g Mayonnaise
- 50g Crème fraiche
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- Salt, pepper
- 1 tbs chopped chives (optional)
- Drain the beetroot well and cut into bitesized pieces. Peel and cut apple into similar sized pieces.
- Mix the beetroot and apple in a bowl, add mayonnaise and crème fraiche and stir. You are looking for a good creamy consistency and a medium pink colour (if the beetroot is not drained properly, you will get a runny consistency).
- Season to taste (add sugar if using a tart variety of pickled beetroot). Add more mayo and crème fraiche, if a creamier salad is desired.
- The colour of the salad will go darker once it sets. Leave to set in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight. If it goes too dark, just add a bit more crème fraiche or mayonnaise just before serving. If using chives, add chopped on top before serving.
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December 9, 2014 |
Shop our full range of Scandi food here
Glögg is an essential part of Christmas all over Scandinavia. This is recipe was created by my sister-in-law Annika in her Gothenburg kitchen. It’s so very easy to make glögg at home – give it a go. You can reduce or increase the sugar to your liking – and do play around with adding and taking some spices away to make your own signature mulled wine.
Serve Nordic ‘Glögg’ mulled wine warm in smaller glasses with raisins and almonds.
Make your own 'Glögg' mulled wine at home
Author: Bronte Aurell
Recipe type: Drink
- 1 bottle red wine (quality doesn’t matter)
- 1-2 sticks cinnamon
- 5g dried root ginger
- 5g dried Seville orange peel (or other orange if you can't get Seville)
- 7 green cardamom pods
- 15-16 whole cloves
- 80g/3oz sugar
- To serve: flaked almonds and raisins
- Splash of either vodka, aquavit, rum or cognac (optional)
- Pour the wine into a pan, add the spices and heat to around 80C/176F, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for at least an hour.
- Strain the mixture and return the mulled wine to the bottle - use a funnel to make life easier for yourself. The wine can be kept for around a week.
- To serve, pour the wine into a saucepan and heat it.
- Place a few flaked almonds and raisins in the bottom of your serving cups, and pour the glögg over the mixture.
- If you want to give your glögg a kick, add a splash of either vodka, aquavit, rum or cognac just after you’ve reheated the wine.
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December 5, 2014 |
We have to admit it: We LOVE our new Christmas stockings. Richard the Designer did a good job in placing the Christmas Elk just right – and we can’t wait to hang ours by the fireplace. We believe Santa will favour anyone who hangs up a ScandiKitchen Stocking this year. The stockings are limited additions and there will be no more of this edition once they are gone.
You can get hold of your own special stocking at the cafe shop – priced £4.95 while stocks last. If you can’t make it to the shop and you really really need one, speak to Helena at the warehouse, she has a secret stash and may be able to help you.
The stockings are nice and big (55cm long) and actually fit a whole load of stuff. Loads. A proper big Santa sized stocking indeed.
We’ve decided to fill a stocking with Scandi foodie goodies and give to one lucky winner this week. Yes, a full stocking, stuffed with everything from Christmas beers to ginger biscuits, chocolates, glogg and much more.
To be in with a chance to win, simply answer this easy question:
The animal featured on the 2014 ScandiKitchen stocking is a…
a. Penguin
b. Reindeer
c. Elk
Answer to iloveherring@scandikitchen.co.uk by email before Tuesday 9th December 2014 at noon.
One winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries.
Terms: Yes, we will send the prize to you to a UK address if you win. We will fill the stocking with goodies, all will be ambient goodies (not chilled). No alternative prize. No changes can be made to the stocking. No cheating. No cash alternative. Usual rules apply. Limited edition stockings: only 50 are for sale of these in 2014. No more will be printed in 2014.
November 27, 2014 |
It’s that time of year again…. Time to get super creative with the Gingerbread House Kits from Anna’s.
Every year we run a great competition:
Take one basic Gingerbread house kit and pimp it up to the best of your abilities. Think outside the box – be creative, be crazy, be super attentive to detail: Whatever is your strong side, put that into the little house.
When you are done, send us a picture of our house and we will put the best ones up on Instagram and Facebook and the blog during December.
This year, we once again have 4 categories:
Adult – Beautiful: This is the main award. The most beautiful house you can make from a very basic kit of gingerbread house.
Adult – Super Creative. This is the crazy house – like the house eaten by dragons, murder scenes, brothels, discos – whatever you can do to pimp up your house to silly standards with great use of imagination.
Child – up to 7 years old. It’s okay that you Mum and Dad help out, but here we do want to see real kids efforts. We know what seven year olds can do with a ginger bread kit – we want to see kids being allowed to unleash creativity. It’s fine to add Lego men and other toys to the mix or make a gingerbread house for your favourite dolls.
Young person 8-16 – We want to see your imagination run wild here. Make the house your own.
THIS YEAR’S PRIZES:
First prize this year is an amazing T Tab Table Lamp donated by Skadium Design Shop in London (worth £239) – it is an amazing piece of design and will make any desk look super stylish.
We’ve also got a selection of great products from ISAK Design as the second prize for the Create Adult winner. ISAK are the people who make those great mugs we use at ScandiKitchen – see more about them here
Children under 7 prize: Sweeties. And more Sweeties. So many sweeties your Mum will be quite annoyed with us all the way through till January.
Young person 8-16 prize: Sweeties. And more Sweeties. So many sweeties your Mum will be quite annoyed with us all the way through till January, probably.
The rules:
- All entries MUST be made from a basic Gingerbread House kit. We stock the one from Anna’s, which is the preferred one, but if you use the IKEA version that is also fine (they are similar in shape and size). Basically, the basic shape of the house must be the same so we can see just how creative you can be with a pre-fab kit. Any entries not made from the similar in size and shape to the Ikea and Anna’s kit will not be accepted, sorry.
- When you submit photos, you need to state what category you are entering into.
- Only one entry per person
- If more than one person submits the same entry, the prize will be shared (if you win the lamp, you will have to fight).
- No alternative prize, no cash prizes, no exchanges.
- Entries must be received before 18th December 2014 at noon to iloveherring@scandikitchen.co.uk
- Employees of ScandiKitchen ltd not eligible to enter (No, Rebekka, you can’t…)
- Winners will be picked by a jury of lovely people (most likely a selection of our customers – we usually pick 5 judges from Twitter to help us out).
- The judges decisions are final.
- Prizes for pick up from café store
Send your photos to iloveherring@scandikitchen.co.uk before 18th December at noon to enter the competition. We look forward to seeing your creations.
Love
The Kitchen People x
November 18, 2014 |
Every year, Swedish mulled wine makers Blossa come up with a new an exciting flavour. This year’s annual Blossa 2014 glögg is Lavender and comes in a beautiful light purple bottle.
We’ve also now got stock of all the usual ‘Glögg’ mulled wines from Blossa, so do pop by and stock up both in the cafe store and online as well.
To serve Blossa Glogg mulled wine, simply heat gently and serve up in little mugs – with almonds and raisins either in or on the side.
The difference between the Blossa mulled wines:
The red one: Standard Blossa amazingness. 10% alcohol. This is the most popular one.
Green label: Light mulled wine at 2,2% alcohol – but same great taste
Orange label – strong mulled wine, 15% alcohol.
Clear bottles – flavoured with either Cognac or Rum, these are a lot stronger and you do not need very much of it – but a log fire and a cottage in the snow helps to bring out the full ambiance.
Shop for our full range of Glögg online or in our shop in London
Blossa Lätt vinglögg – Low Alcohol Mulled Wine 750ml
£5.50
Blossa Vinglögg Box 10% – Mulled Wine BiB 2000ml
£27.00
Blossa Vinglögg 10% – Mulled Wine 750 ml
£11.00
Blossa Starkvinsglögg 15% – Strong Mulled Wine 750ml
£13.95
Blossa Starkvinsglögg Cognac 21% – Mulled Wine Cognac 500ml
£14.30
Blossa Starkvinsglögg Rom 21% – Mulled Wine Rum 500ml
£13.95
November 13, 2014 |
Our annual ScandiKitchen Hamper box is now available to order online (Edit: sold out). Every year we put together a lovely pan-Scandinavian selection of goodies – perfect for you to send to any scandophile or homesick Scandinavian. All the coodies come wrapped in a really nice red box with a fancy white silk bow.
UPDATE: Check back near Christmas for 2015s version!
We can deliver it all over the UK.
Fancy winning one? Just answer this easy peasy question to be in with a chance of getting a box sent to yourself or one of your friends (what an easy way to sort the presents, huh?)
When do Scandinavians usually open their Christmas presents?
a) 5th December
b) 24th December
c) 25th December
Answer to iloveherring@scandikitchen.co.uk before Tuesday at noon. Winner will be drawn at random from all correct entries by a lady wearing a sparkly dress and a man wearing a fancy top hat. There may be music. Winner will be notified by email. All usual rules apply and no cheating allowed. No alternative prize. One winner. No substitutions. Deadline 18/11/2014
November 4, 2014 |
Shop around for more Scandi food
Every year in Denmark when the Christmas beer ‘Julebryg’ is released, people flock to the bars, wearing blue santa hats. This celebration is known as J-Day (Julebryg-Day). Did you know even though Julebryg is only available 10 weeks of the year, it is the 4th best selling beer in Denmark?
Our J-day is a bit later than in Denmark (but only by one week). Join us for our own traditional London J-day on 14th November at the cafe – from 18:01, we will we celebrating and allowing ourselves to feel the first of the festive cheers.
We have limited spaces – it is first come, first served for the guest list so e-mail names to iloveherring@scandikitchen.co.uk.
We will also be selling Tuborg Julebryg by the case in the cafe as well as online. Please note, we may well sell out so it is absolutely advised that you stock up early to avoid disappointment.
Oh, and if you see any homesick Danes along your merry way this Winter, to let them know about this: they will appreciate it, trust us.
Shop around for more scandi food…
