Wednesday recipe: PepparkaksCheeseCake & Etiquette poll: My or Our?

Since it is that day of the week today, I am taking a break from the cruise stories to give you a Wednesday recipe and a new etiquette poll! I can’t believe that it is Christmas Eve in one week +1 day! We are heading to Spain in exactly one week, flying via Miami to Madrid.

I have been really excited about the cold weather in Spain at the moment (2-4 degrees and chances of snow) but the weather forecast looks depressing for next week – who wants to have THIRTEEN* degrees on Christmas Eve? Oh well, at least I won’t have to worry about bringing long johns to keep warm indoors…

Taxi in Dominica – God is my guide

So, one week to Christmas and I have finally succumb (how do you conjugate that verb?) and decided yesterday to bring out a few Christmas decorations after all. I was first thinking that it was pointless since we are going away for the holidays. However, we then decided to have a small Christmas dinner next Tuesday with Swedish B, her father and his girlfriend, and of course the home has to be a little Christmassy for that!

So I started looking for Christmas recipes and remembered a yummy cheesecake recipe I made in January with some left-over ginger snaps (pepparkakor). It was more popular than the store-bought cheesecake that some guests brought!!

PepparkaksCheeseCake with Lemon Sauce

Base:
~30 Swedish ginger snaps (I find the brand Annas in Walgreens all year around), smashed into pieces
100 g melted butter
Mix together the crushed ginger snaps with the melted butter (in a food processor if you prefer). Spread in a greased round springform cake tin, wrap some aluminium foil around the base since it might leak a little. Bake 5-10 min. in 200 C / 390 F.

First layer:
400 g Philadelphia cream cheese
3 eggs
1½ dl sugar
Stir into a smooth mixture and add on top of the base. Bake in 180 C / 350 F for 35 minutes. Let it cool.

Top layer:
4 dl crème fraiche / sour cream (not non-fat)
1 table spoon vanilla sugar
1 dl sieved icing / confectioner’s sugar
Mix the ingredients and spread on the cool cake. Bake in 180 C / 350 F for 6-7 minutes. Let the cake cool.

Lemon sauce:
freshly squeezed lemon juice from 1-2 lemons
3/4 dl water
1 egg yolk
1 table spoon Maizena
1½ dl sugar
Simmer while stirring. Add 1 table spoon cold butter and let the sauce cool.

Serve the cake with a few spoonfuls of the lemon sauce.

(inspired by a recipe in “Vinterns goda ting” by Anna & Fanny Bergenström)

I love my island-poster in St Martin

The etiquette poll today refers to something that I have noticed people do in all languages and cultures – and regardless of what they refer to; kids or a house (or something else). They always say my kids and my house, even when they obviously share the “ownership” with a husband / wife / partner. Is it just me, or do you also get confused and wonder if they are talking about a child from a previous relationship when people talk about “my daughter” while their partner is next to them? And think that maybe only one of them owns the house they live in (which of course might be the case!)?

Our beer in Antigua

Maybe it’s a silly reflection, and I was told many years ago that I referred too much to “we” when I was doing activities with a boyfriend or friend, so maybe I should have written above that I am going to Spain next week? But wouldn’t some of you then wonder if I was going without O? Of course it might depend on the context – I am sure that I do say “my” or “I” in certain situations when I refer to something that belongs to both O and I, or something we will do together.

We are family – Commonwealth poster in Dominica

Anyway, it is mostly when both persons are present and one keep saying “my” about a child that I react. This happened to me recently when we had Christmas dinner with O’s colleagues and all the women were talking about “mis hijo(a)s” (my children) while the husbands were sitting next to them. Only once did one woman actually correct herself and changed to “nuestras hijas” (our daughters).**

It would be interesting to see how I would express myself if we ever have children!? Maybe not the same thing, but I always refer to the apartment as our home – it is not just mine… (that we don’t actually own it is another issue, ha ha)

And don’t worry, tomorrow I will continue telling you about the cruise!

*) I hope everybody understands that this is a European blog and therefore I ALWAYS talk about Celsius (if not mentioned otherwise) when it comes to temperature 
**) This is especially confusing in Puerto Rico where a lot of people actually have children from different relationships – divorce rates are higher than in most countries.

We are one! Taxi-van in St Thomas, driven by a proud scholar and army mom

Wednesday recipe: Chicken with chèvre & tomato sauce and an etiquette poll on party arrival time

When O comes home and I have cooked a new dish, he always asks me if I have actually followed a recipe or just used it as inspiration. I don’t think that it is “just” to use a recipe as inspiration – it actually asks more of you as a cook than “just” following the recipe to a dot! It is funny, O doesn’t usually use recipes when he cooks, so I never know how to take his comment… I think he is just fascinated by the fact that I LOVE cook books but very rarely actually cook according to a recipe!

Second book from the right is the “Fast Food”-one, I also love the “Bowl Food. The New Comfort Food for People on the Move*”-book! Who can resist that kind of title?

The other day I used a wonderful little cook book called “Fast Food. Quick and Easy Everyday Ideas for Cooks in a Hurry“ to make my lunch, the book is very inspirational and has photos of every dish (important!). Needless to say I only used the recipe as inspiration, and this is my take on the “Stuffed chicken breast with tomato, goat’s cheese and asparagus” as I thought that stuffing the chicken breast would take too long:

Chicken with chèvre & tomato sauce

1 chicken breast per person
~150 grams of French chèvre (goat) cheese (sold in a roll)
½ cube of chicken stock
1 cup of water
2 tomatoes – skinned (boil them quickly to easier remove the skin) and diced
a handful of asparagus (either canned or fresh – if fresh, boil in lightly salted water until crispy, tender or however you prefer your asparagus)
tarragon, cayenne pepper, 1 bay leaf, salt and black pepper
rice

Boil the rice as you usually do. Brown the chicken breast all around in a frying pan with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne. Add the chicken stock cube, water, diced tomatoes, bay leaf, and some tarragon. Let it slowly boil under a lid and on low heat.  When almost done, add the goat’s cheese and make sure that it melts into the sauce.

Serve with the rice and decorate with the asparagus on top.

Since it is Wednesday it is also time for a new etiquette poll: When do you arrive to a party? 

Of course this might depend on what kind of party it is – a dinner party or a so-called cocktail party where people mingle randomly…  But think in general, when do you aim to arrive?

Maybe a very simple question if you live in Sweden for example and you know the social rules, but we have troubles in Puerto Rico. For example, we were invited to one of my French friend’s for a birthday party and I thought, she’s European so we shouldn’t arrive too late but O warned me that we would be the first ones to arrive – which we were, 30 minutes after the invited time. What I had forgotten to take into account was that all the other guests were Puerto Rican, as well as the hostess’ boyfriend, who was still in the shower when we arrived! Opps!

Birthday party in Brussels before the guests had arrived

So last week when we were invited to my Spanish teacher’s parents’ home for Thanksgiving, I asked him when we were expected to arrive – like if he said 2 o’clock, did that mean 3.30? He laughed and checked with sister and then told me that we could come around 2-2.30. Great! Except that I was going with two Spaniards, and even though O is quite disciplined nowadays, the B-I-L No 3 does live in Spain… so we were not at the party until 3.15. Oh well, it is Puerto Rico after all and not the end of the world if you arrive late  

By the way, my first encounter with Spanish tardiness was when I studied in Italy with a Spaniard (from Zaragoza, just like O!) who would always arrive late to our lectures with the words “Spanish people hate to be late” – completely confusing, so why are you late if you hate it so much?? I later on lived in Geneva at the same time as my friend from Zaragoza, and among the more punctual friends we decided to always give him an earlier meeting time than the rest. So, let’s say that we were meeting at 20.00, but then we would tell Spanish R that it was at 19.30… He still always managed to arrive after everybody else!!

*) I have already published a recipe inspired by that cookbook – “The best pasta sauce ever“…

Wednesday recipe: Amish Friendship Cake and who pays for a wedding?

Last Monday my French friend E called me to ask if she could come to drop off a surprise… I was very curious when she gave me a little container with some liquid, and a small bag with three slices of cake. She explained that it was a “Amish Friendship Cake” and that she would email me the instructions on how to take care of it.

She also told me that her mother had received a similar “chain-recipe” back in France a few years ago, but it was for bread and it was called “Herman” for some reason. The funny thing is that when I spoke to my grandmother a few days later, and told her about my cake project, she also knew of ”Herman” (actually “Här kommer Herman” in Swedish, which means “Here comes Herman”) and the so-called “starter” liquid that you have to nourish before baking! It reminds me of the sourdough that my mother subscribed to back in the 80’s – she would get it by mail. And coincidentally my friend Erika has today written about the sourdough starter (in Swedish) that she keeps in the fridge.

Amish cake starter in a container

Back to the Amish Cake, there are lots of recipes on this kind of cake on the internet, but below are the instructions that I received. It is very easy, for the first five days you don’t do anything, except “mushing” the bag (or in my case, stirring a little in the container). The liquid starts to become a little inflated and bubbly but that’s just the natural “fermentation” and nothing bad. You add some simple ingredients and then continue “mushing” for another couple of days, before adding some more ingredients, divide the mix in five parts and make your cake with one fifth of the fermented mixture.

If you are interested in starting a “Amish Friendship Cake” for yourself and your friends, check out this link for a “starter recipe”. I think that it is quite a nice idea to share a recipe with your friends and “pass it on”, especially nowadays when everything is supposed to be so “instant” (all those semi-made cakes and cookies in the TV commercials).

Recipe to Pass On
Accompanying these instructions when you make this bread and wish to give it to a friend should be a Ziploc bag of starter. Keep the starter on your countertop.
DO NOT REFRIGERATE!

Day 1: Do nothing
Day 2: Mush bag two times during the day.
Day 3: Mush bag two times during the day.
Day 4: Mush bag two times during the day.
Day 5: Mush bag two times during the day.
Day 6: Add to the bag:
2 Cups flour; 1 Cup of milk; 1 Cup of sugar
Close the bag, letting out as much air as possible. Mush thoroughly.
Day 7: Mush bag two times during the day.
Day 8: Mush bag two times during the day.
Day 9: Clip off corner of the bag and squeeze into a large bowl.

Add to the bowl:
1 Cup flour; 1 Cup of milk; 1 Cup of sugar
Stir thoroughly. Measure out four 1 Cup starters into Ziploc bags.
Give these bags and a copy of these instructions to other to enjoy.

To the small amount of starter left in the bowl, add:
1 Cup oil; ½ Cup milk; 3 eggs; 1 tsp. vanilla
Mix well then add:
2 Cups flour; 1 Cup sugar; 1 ½ tsp. baking powder; 2 tsp. cinnamon; ½ tsp. salt; ½ tsp. baking soda; 1 or 2 small Vanilla instant pudding mixes; 1 Cup chopped nuts (optional)
Mix well. Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick spray. Sprinkle pans generously with cinnamon and sugar mixture. (1 Tbs. cinnamon & 4 Tbs. sugar) Shake or stir together. Pour batter into pans and sprinkle tops with more cinnamon/sugar mixture generously.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes our clean.
Tomorrow starts Day 1 again.

Amish cake starters for my friends

Comment: Since I prefer cardamom to cinnamon and didn’t have any “Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix”, I decided to use cardamom and some Belgian dark chocolate (Côte d’Or, 200 grams) instead. Maybe a strange combo but it turned out really tasty!

Speaking of chocolate, I read on a couple of Swedish blogs that it was the “Day of the Swedish Brownie cake” (Kladdkakans dag + recipe on Erika’s blog) last Sunday. However, since I started making Elle’s Chocolate Cake many years ago, I just can’t make a chocolate cake with cacao powder (cocoa), it has to be real chocolate! So call me a brownie snob, but try my recipe in the link above and taste the difference! It contains very little butter (25 grams) but 250 grams of dark chocolate…

Amish chocolate cake

And now for the etiquette discussion: One of my friends here in Puerto Rico and I have lately been talking about weddings. Her daugher recently got engaged and now they are starting to plan the wedding. Apparently the future mother-in-law has mentioned that it is custom that the bride’s family pays for the wedding, which we can all agree used to be the custom in most cultures… However, nowadays I would say that, at least in Europe, both families as well as the couple, would share the financial burden of a wedding.

I just asked O if he and his parents would expect my parents to pay for a possible future wedding of ours and he said no (my parents are probably thinking “phew!”). He explained that he thinks that it depends on how many guests the different families are inviting and that there are some expenses that traditionally have been covered by the groom’s family and other ones by the bride’s family. This will be an interesting topic once we decide to organise our “real” wedding…

What do you think? Who paid for your wedding? What is your impression of how it works in other cultures?

Margareta Ribbing, the etiquette expert of the Swedish newspaper DN has written about the same topic here.

Wednesday Food Rant: What’s with the cheese [obsession]? and burger etiquette

The Wednesday recipe is today substituted by a food rant However, if you are interested in an inspirational food blog – check out my friend Erika’s Food Blog (in Swedish). She publishes weekly menus and yummy but simple recipes. It is quite fitting that I refer to Erika today as we share an obsession for the Alpine cheese speciality raclette ever since we studied French together in Annecy, France*!

Swiss cheese specialities in Gruyère, Switzerland

Standard question in the US: Do you want cheese with that? which often becomes Don’t you want cheese?* Bitchy Petchie thinks “I would have ordered a cheese burger if I wanted cheese with my burger!” However, most of the time you don’t even have a choice; cheesy omelettes, spinach with cheese, cheesy scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes with cheese, artichoke dip with melted cheese, cheesy hash – the list goes on…

Not the best illustration of a egg-and-cheese-biscuit (since I didn’t open the wrapper) I got as breakfast on the plane last week. I only ate half of the muffin as I had already eaten a proper sandwich at the airport, and didn’t touch the scarily cheesy biscuits…

I read a recipe in Elle Decor (US edition) for Duck-and-egg hash, where it was first of all claimed that “putting potatoes together with meat is distinctly American“, which I would beg to differ – what about the Swedish pyttipanna or the Danish biksemad? But yes, the recipe was distinctly American in the sense that it contained 4 oz of cheddar!

What’s with the cheese obsession in the US? I probably sound like a snobby European, but if you love cheese so much – why don’t you eat the real deal, instead of “cheese”? Processed cheese doesn’t even taste like cheese, and is so full of preservatives and additives. It does seem like there has been a turn lately in the cheese habits of the Americans, at least in the ads on TV it is increasingly common to point out that the pizza is made with “real cheese” or that the cheese is not “processed” but made the traditional way.

I am also fascinated by the little variety of cheese: I head Rachael Ray say once “Gruyère tastes similar to Swiss” – You don’t say, Gruyère IS a Swiss cheese!! And what is “Swiss” cheese anyway, that’s like calling a cheese “French”! Switzerland has 450 types of cheese (and France even more), while the US seems to have American, Swiss, Monterey Jack and cheddar. You would expect a cheese-loving people to demand a little more when it comes to taste, texture and ingredients.

Real Swiss cheese in Gruyère, Switzerland

Don’t get me wrong, I like cheese too, but there’s a time and a place for it! I don’t want cheese in every dish – scrambled eggs are perfectly tasty without cheese, mashed potatoes as well, while I do like a slice of cheese on my morning sandwich. I had breakfast at the hotel in New Jersey last Friday and was a little surprised to realise that there was no cheese on the breakfast buffet. Quite a few types of bread (well, two types of ready-sliced bread, and different kinds of bagels) but only jam, cream cheese and peanut butter. In the end I didn’t have any bread, just some cereal, hash browns and fruit salad.

Our cheese [and ham] drawer in the fridge – and I do not take any responsibility for the tube of Swedish “Kräftost” (Crayfish “cheese”), nor the slices of “Swiss cheese product”!

In our household we eat our fair share of cheese; O’s yummy sandwiches for breakfast on the weekends, and O loves a snack of the above crayfish “cheese” on a piece of bread. I also do acknowledge that this kind of Swedish “cheese” is not better than American processed “cheese”, but to my excuse I don’t actually eat it. The “Swiss cheese product”, next to the cheese tube in the above photo, was left behind by our youngest visitor – whose mother noted that it was obvious that her daugther was American-born since she had refused to eat ”real cheese” when she was in Sweden! O’s family absolutely loves Swedish hard cheese and we always bring a few kilos when we go to Spain from Sweden, while my parents love the Spanish Manchego, a type of sheep’s cheese.

Mexican cheese in a Tijuana market

Finally, I also find it interesting that Rachael Ray (who I by the way, do like) will say that a dish that she is making is really healthy because it has a lot of vegetables, and then she pours in a cup or two of cheese!! Oh well, that’s like putting cream on your breakfast porridge, as shown on ads for Reddi Whip***; just another one of those American phenomena I am so fascinated with. Maybe it is just an ad (let’s hope), but the idea of whipped cream on porridge feels like a sacrilege – porridge that can be such a healthy choice for breakfast…

And for an etiquette question, more or less related to cheese:

When you are in a proper restaurant (i.e not a fast-food joint), and you have ordered a hamburger, with or without cheese, do you eat it with your hands or with cutlery? I always eat it with fork and knife, which I realise maybe is completely against the idea of a burger but I don’t like eating stuff with my hands (too messy) and I usually don’t eat the top part of the bread (usually too much bread for me). What about you?

NB. The question refers to eating a burger in a proper restaurant, i.e not in McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Burger King…

*) We also studied in Linköping but that didn’t leave any long-lasting food memory!?
**) Almost comparable to the reaction you get in the  UK when you don’t want milk with your tea!
***) I won’t get started on what I think about whipped “cream” sold in a can – something I have hated since I was a child and I learnt to order “eis ohne sahne” in German!

Wednesday recipe: Salmon & avocado salad + Etiquette poll on toilet lid manners

It is still Wednesday in my part of the world and here’s a recipe to prove it

Salmon & Avocado Salad
1 piece of salmon filet (~400 grams)
2 tablespoons French Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons dill, parsley or tarragon
1 teaspoon coarse (Kosher) salt
freshly ground black pepper
crispy lettuce (such as Iceberg or romaine)
1 big avocado
1 onion – chopped
1 lemon – juice and peel
a handful of pickled gherkins – chopped

Heat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Mix the mustard, olive oil, black pepper, salt, chopped gherkins and onion, lemon peel and herbs in a small bowl. Spread the mixture evenly on the salmon and bake in the oven approximately 10-15 minutes.
Cut or tear the lettuce and put in a salad bowl. Cut the avocado in small cubes and add to the lettuce, sprinkle some lemon juice on top.
Serve the salad mixed with the oven-baked salmon and some bread.

(Recipe inspired by “Varm laxsallad med avokado” from the book Kärlek, Oliver och Timjan by Anna and Fanny Bergenström)
 

And now to the etiquette poll: Toilet lid manners!

As you know, we have had a lot of visitors to our home here in Puerto Rico, and when you spend time close to family and friends for a while, you notice certain habits… One of the things that has struck me the most is that very few, men and women, put down the lid after using the toilet! The lid, not the ring – which fortunately most men do lower after having done their business…

I have also noticed that in almost every home shown on my favourite tv channel, HGTV, the toilet lid is always up! This in homes that have been staged, styled and designed to be sold! Am I the only person who thinks that it looks nicer if the lid is closed?? Isn’t that the reason why there is one?

So, I am curious – let me know your thoughts on “toilet lid manners”…

Every time I walk past the guest bathroom and I can see that the lid is up, I have to enter and close it… I am sure a lot of people think it is silly and O is definitely one of them! We have been discussing the “raison d’être” of the toilet lid, and I always try to suggest that it might have been invented so to avoid that people accidentally drop something into the toilet, or so that you can use it as a seat but most of all – it is there to be closed!

“You haven’t forgotten anything? Did you lower the lid and flush?” (apparently the French speakers only need to be reminded to flush…)

However, it can’t just be me, because I found these signs (above and below) displayed in the toilets* in the Alliance Francaise!

Might seem superfluous to remind the “users” to flush – but after having worked in a hotel as a cleaning lady, I know that a lot of people seem to forget (??) to do this… In many places in Puerto Rico (and in Greece!) you are asked to throw the toilet paper in the trash can (zafacón is Puerto Rican Spanish) because the sewage system is so bad.

Speaking of toilets, I might have mentioned already that the exterior of our building is being renovated and painted – we have now, after ~3 months, reached the painting phase, which means that the construction workers are doing their second round of the four walls. This morning I heard that they were somewhere outside our master bedroom and decided to go to the loo in the guest bathroom instead. Just when I am sitting there, I can hear the “window-cleaner lift” approaching outside… and voilà, it stops right outside the bathroom window!! Fortunately I was behind a shower curtain, but still, needless to say I didn’t feel very relaxed about the situation!

Outside the bathroom window this morning…

A few minutes later I was sitting in front of the computer in my pj’s when I heard voices behind me – arrggghh, they seemed to be everywhere today! I am starting to feel besieged, and quite frankly tired of having people outside the windows – on the 9th floor!

*) And yes, I am European and I am not afraid of calling a toilet a toilet (or even “loo”) - half-baths, powder rooms etc sound just silly in my ears!

Wednesday recipe: Apple & Pear Cakes and an Etiquette Poll on Tipping…

It is apple harvest times at the moment, which I notice on the blog as the most popular post (by search machines) at the moment is my recipe for apple cake from last year. I decided to make my favourite apple cake on Monday, and when I read the recipe posting, I realised that it was in parts almost identical to my text from last Thursday… Opps, I am apparently repeating myself every year around the end of September – I seem to have an idealised image of autumn in my mind! Anyhow, today is Wednesday and you are getting TWO recipes for cakes:

1. Try my best ever apple cake recipe (see link, the Swedish version of the recipe is at the end of the post) but use both apples and pears (I also used Half-and-half as we didn’t have sour cream at home). O described the flavour yesterday: “The first flavour and texture that you notice is the pear, but then right at the end the taste of the apple hits you” – I think he could become a food critic!
2. For the yummiest Pear-Almond Cake with Chocolate Chunks (see link to Rachael Ray’s Everyday web-site) – this cake is soooo good that I made it three weeks in a row and we had to get more Belgian chocolate brought from Belgium (as I just refuse to cook with American chocolate, sorry!)

 

And now to the etiquette question of the week: Do you tip at the hairdresser’s and if yes, how much?

Of course this depends on where in the world you live – in Europe, the US or somewhere else… In Europe I have never tipped a hairdresser, as I always assume that service is included when comes to a service, if you see what I mean! Maybe it also depends on whether you go to a big hairdress salon where different people take care of you (washing the hair, cutting it, colouring and styling it etc), or if you go to a small place where the same person does everything?

 

In Puerto Rico the beauty parlours are quite simply called El Beauty – this one is located in the Old San Juan

O and I went to the hairdresser on Saturday – we actually go to Sears where O has his favourite, German, hairdresser. It is funny, I always end up with male hairdressers and O with female ones! I don’t know if this is a Puerto Rican phenomenon or if it is just coincidence?? Anyhow, we are always a little stressed about how much we should tip the hairdresser afterwards, and on Saturday we both paid $5 each in tips. It meant that I tipped my male hairdresser 25% and O gave 33% to the female counterpart. Afterwards we discussed if this was not a little too much, but O, who by the way hates tipping, referred to an article he had read in Women’s Health*:

Tips on tipping:

• Stylist (I guess the one cutting your hair): 15-20% of service
• Colorist: 15-20% of service
• Stylist’s assistance: $10-20
• Shampooer: $3-5
• Blow-out person: $10
• Coat-check girl: $1

Phew!! That’s a lot of tipping (and a lot of money!). However, our hairdressers shampoo and cut our hair, we declined el blower service (funny, in French it is called le brushing) and well, we don’t wear coats in Puerto Rico… I was happy to give a big (?) tip to the guy cutting my hair because he did a really good job – much better than the Spanish girl in Zaragoza who did my hair in less than 30 minutes (including washing and drying!) this summer. So, how much would you have tipped?

A closed down barber’s shop in the Old San Juan…

*) He reads whatever he finds next to the toilet – one of his favourite magazines is the Swedish interior design magazine Sköna Hem – unfortunately he can’t pronunce the name 

Wednesday recipe: Fish “en papillote” & Banana etiquette…

Once again Wednesday and for the first time in a few weeks, I am ready to publish another Wednesday recipe and etiquette poll.

No, I am not telling you to eat hair curlers (papiljotter in Swedish means hair curlers). The recipe is dedicated to Marianne in Cairo, who a few months ago* wrote a blog post complaining about the blandness of cooking fish in aluminium foil in the oven… O and I love making fish “en papillote”, the French name for what my parents call “fish in foil” (fisk i folie) and which they always do on the barbecue in the summer (my father loves this kind of cooking as he doesn’t have to clean the grill afterwards). In France this kind of dishes used to be made in paper instead of foil, hence the name which refers to the curling paper in French.

Not fish “en papillote”, but a dish I ate at Daniel’s Sea Food in Humacao – a simple but great seafood restaurant!

I hope that this recipe won’t prove to be bland – I have been experimenting with different ingredients, for example we think that it is better to make the dish with thick pieces of fish, i.e not tilapia and other thinner types of fish, and this is our favourite. It might even be served for dinner tonight again!

Fish en papillote

O’s spicy olive oil (or another spicy olive oil / use extra spices, such as chilli or cayenne pepper, garlic and some herbs)
1 potato per person
1 carrot
1 tomato
1 onion
fresh dill
1 lemon; juice and peel
4-6 shrimps per person / peeled
1 thick piece of a white fish, such as cod, per person
salt & pepper

Turn the oven to 250 degrees C / 480 F.

Thinly slice the pototoes, tomato, and onion into slices, and the carrot into thin sticks. Spread a little oil on one large piece of aluminium foil per person. Layer the ingredients – first potato slices, add a little more oil and salt & pepper, the fish and then the carrot sticks, onion (generous amounts if you like onion), shrimp and tomato slices. Squeeze lemon juice on top as well as adding some grated lemon peel. Finally sprinkle fresh dill and olive oil over the quite high stacks of fish and vegetables. Close the aluminium wraps and cook in the oven until the fish is ready - 20-30 minutes.

NB. Be generous with the amounts of olive oil, it really makes a difference in flavour, especially if using a spicy oil! In this household we always use olive oil in abundance as is the Spanish way   

The etiquette question can seem extremely silly, but my French friend S and I were actually discussing this on Saturday while eating some bananas and standing on the street (or rather pavement) waiting for our ride to the beach. I made the comment that a mutual friend of ours told me once that she would never eat a banana in public – or at least not biting directly from the fruit. We both agreed that it seems so silly - some kind of paranoia about other people’s dirty minds…

Bananas and a banana flower

Coincidentally, I read some banana etiquette advice of Margareta Ribbing (etiquette expert in a Swedish newspaper) on Monday in which she wrote that in a formal environment you peel and cut the banana with a knife. However, notice the formal environment, where I guess you would eat any kind of fruit cut up in small pieces… She continues her advice by mentioning that in other situations, you can do what the majority of people would do – peel down and take a bite!

How do you eat a banana in public?

 *) Well, time flies – it was actually in October last year that she published her competition to find a good fish recipe!

Wednesday recipe: Ensalada rusa and how do you cut?

I am not sure yet of the significance, but I feel that I reached a new level of intimacy with my MIL this summer when she asked me to help her make dinner!! You see, Spanish (and Italian, and probably Greek as well) mothers don’t let just about anybody into their kitchens – it is their territory and they guard it fiercely! I had actually been allowed to cook once before, a Swedish smörgåstårta but that was O’s idea and this time it was on her initiative and we worked together.

An old Spanish kitchen – in the apartment where O’s parents first lived when they got married. One of our projects is to clean and renovate the whole apartment… eventually

The dish we made is called ensalada rusa (Russian salad) and is a classic in Spanish speaking countries. The base of the salad is potatoes and mayonnaise, and the other vegetables are optional and changeable. I love potatoes, and to a certain extent mayo but as I am trying to watch what I eat (sometimes at least, ha ha), I asked if we could go easy on the fattening stuff… My MIL was very kind and decided that we wouldn’t add any mayo and let everybody help themselves to it at the table. (My parents-in-law, O and his brother finished a whole jar of mayo that night, while I didn’t touch it!)

Ensalada rusa
2-3 boiled potatoes
1-2 boiled carrots
a handful of green peas (if fresh, boil them quickly, if frozen thaw them in room temperature) or another type of beans
2-3 hard-boiled eggs
optional: a can of tuna, white asparagus
olive oil
mayonnaise
salt & pepper

Cut the vegetables and eggs in small cubes and pour some olive oil on top. Add generous amounts of mayo if you want a “true” Russian salad.

Spaniards loooove mayo as you can see on this photo with tapas

I was very happy that I finally got to help out at cooking dinner, even if it was just cutting veggies, but I felt so silly… Why? Well, I can’t cut “in the air” – I need a cutting-board!!! In O’s family everything is cut “in the air”; bread, vegetables, chorizo, fruit is peeled and cut without a cutting-board… Sometimes a simple piece of wood is used for cutting bread. I feel like such a child for not knowing how to cut without a board! O usually helps me by peeling the fruit or cutting the chorizo, but you can imagine how silly I feel…

Fortunately the boiled potatoes and eggs were quite soft and I managed to peel them and cut without a cutting board but I could feel how my MIL was watching my [lack of] technique. I would have been in trouble if the potaoes were not boiled and needed to be peeled without a peeler – don’t know how to do that either! And fruit – forget it, if it is too soft to peel with a peeler… but then again, I hardly ever peel fruit anyway.

When we were in Spain in February, we had an indoor BBQ / pic-nic with O’s friends in an old cottage – the Spanish girls quickly made a tuna salad… without a cutting-board!

Afterwards I said to O that we need to buy a cutting-board or two from Ikea to keep in his parents’ house – and he reminded me that we have actually already bought 2 cutting-boards, that are still wrapped in plastic and stored somewhere in his mother’s kitchen! I definitely need to find it for next time I am asked to assist at dinner-making (or maybe she will never ask me again after having seen how bad I am at cutting)

Can it be a cultural difference? Or a generational one? Or a combo? I asked my aunt when she was visiting us, and she said that she always uses cutting-board as well, and that both her mother (my grandmother) and grandmother would always use cutting-boards.

How do you cut? And do you need a proper peeler to peel vegetables?

To finish the post, a quote from my MIL:

My son C is no longer a Spaniard, he likes pepper on his food!

O’s mother never uses pepper in everyday cooking, only salt and sometimes oregano*. I have no idea if that is typically Spanish or maybe regional? C and his German girlfriend have bought a pepper grinder that I use all the time to my MIL’s amusement… Fortunately she doesn’t take it as criticism of her cooking, phew!

*) Everybody is very surprised when they hear that I use fresh or dry basil (albahaca) in cooking – in Aragón it is used to keep mosquitoes away (typically planted beneath the windows).

Wednesday sandwich & a new etiquette poll

Today I am blogging from the big mall, Plaza las Americas, where the Alliance Francaise has an information stand at the moment. I should be informing about the French classes that start next week but unfortunately most people are asking me questions about the mall itself – where are the bathrooms, where has Banco Popular moved etc. I have also helped a surprising number of French tourists, who were very happy to be able to speak French at the mall.

The information booth at Plaza las Americas

While waiting for prospective French students, I take the opportunity to share a new Wednesday recipe:

Bocadillo Cubano (Cuban sandwich)
- half a “pan de agua” (or baguette)
- a few slices of ham
- a few slices of roast pork (pernil)
- mustard
- a few slices of cheese
- pickles (sliced whole gherkins)

Fill the sandwich with these ingredients, heat it if desired, and enjoy! It is a classic sandwich in Puerto Rico (and Cuba, I guess) that you can find in panaderias and cafeterias all over the island.
My aunt and I tried it for the first time in La Bombonera in the Old San Juan together with my Peruvian colleague M. The sandwich was a bit too big for me but I love the combo of pernil, cheese, mustard and pickles!

Bocadillo Cubano and lots of fries – not the healthiest of lunches…

And to the etiquette question of the week:

When my aunt arrived to San Juan two weeks ago, she talked about her experiences of travelling alone. Everything went fine but she thought that it was a pity that nobody was really interested in talking to her on the two flights. We had a long discussion about whether or not we talk to people next to us on planes, and if yes, when during the flight…

My travels are almost always done alone, for example O and I have only travelled together to / from Puerto Rico a few times as I usually stay longer in Europe than O. When I was single I would very often travel alone to visit family & friends, i.e my holidays were not spent alone, only the travelling to and from places. I actually prefer not talking to other people when travelling – I bring a book, magazines and music (and I sleep like a baby on planes, trains, buses and cars*!).

If the person next to me starts talking to me, I fear that with a little encouragement from me they will never stop and leave me alone to do my thing (reading, sleeping…). Another reason might be that I have met my fair share of freaks when travelling alone and I prefer avoiding those kind of experiences!! My poor aunt was wondering if people had thought that she was a freak when she tried to speak to the passengers next to her but I don’t think so! Maybe I am the “freak” for not wanting to be more social and friendly when crammed together in a plane for hours? Let me know what you think!

*) My best friend and I once travelled by train from Switzerland to Hamburg – I turned on my walkman and fell asleep… and woke up just before Hamburg! My friend was sooo bored, ha ha!

Wednesday recipe & etiquette: O’s Yummy Sandwiches and the same dress twice

Since I am busy packing for Europe and preparing the apartment for our next visitors, O’s brother C and German girlfriend G who will arrive one day earlier than us to San Juan end of July, the Wednesday recipe will be very short and concise:

O has become an expert sandwich maker in the last 4 years and he is in charge of making our breakfast sandwiches on the weekends. He is a sandwich artist!! Always using cucumber and tomatoes for decoration, he has completely adopted the Swedish way of making sandwiches, however using olive oil instead of butter:

O’s yummy sandwiches
- whole grain bread, lightly toasted (since I broke our toaster we nowadays use a grill pan on the stove – even better than a toaster!)
- a flavourful cheese, such as Manchego – we love a rosemary goat’s cheese that we buy in Costco or why not just some slices of Brie
- salami / chorizo / ham
- thin slices of cucumber and tomato
- olive oil, O’s spicy olive oil for example
- salt & pepper

Pour a little olive oil on each toasted bread slice. Add the tomato and cucumber slices, salt and pepper and finally the cheese or sandwich meat. Enjoy!

O has a different way of putting the vegetables first and then the cheese / meat on the sandwiches. It actually tastes really great as the bread gets more of a flavour from the tomato juices combined with the olive oil.

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And for this week’s etiquette question (from DNs Etikettfrågan):
Would you wear the same dress* twice?

Of course you probably would, if you are not extremely rich and wasteful. But let’s say that you have been invited to two weddings the same summer and more or less the same guests will be expected to both weddings, would you then wear the same dress to both weddings? It is an interesting issue, which I find only applies to us women – men can wear the same suit to all weddings, parties and even funerals, maybe just changing the tie and shirt.

This summer I only have one wedding, but we have been invited to another one with the same group of friends, but unfortunately we won’t be able to make it to Ireland in August for my dear friend O’s wedding. However, for many summers in a row I had several weddings but I always managed to avoid this issue by the fact that there were different guests at each event. I also have a few different dresses that I can choose from for every wedding as I definitely recycle outfits. For my friends who are going to attend both weddings this summer, I doubt that they will wear the same dresses for both events but I am actually going to ask them next week when we meet in Strasbourg!

Maybe if I had such an amazing dress I would wear it twice in a row

*) As most of my readers seem to be women…