Yum Cha at Berns Asiatiska
Mon-Fri 14:00 – 18:00

Tanuki

Plum clafoutis

For a delicious and quick dessert, do try Pille’s clafoutis. I used plums instead of apricots and it was very tasty. A perfect dessert when you have dinner guests on a weekday and don’t have much time.

Chicken spring rolls with soya and garlic sauce. 60 SEK

Weekdays we usually cook a quick dinner after work and then we try to relax. Those evenings when we’re so exhausted that we just want to sleep we go for something even quicker, take away. Lucky for us we have a Thai take away close by. Nok thai take away, as it’s called, has its kitchen in a truck almost hidden beside a road. The food is excellent but unfortunately, because of the climate, they don’t operate all year. But for now they’re still there and feed us when we’re too tired to cook.

Today was definitly a take away evening and after bringing home the food we sat by the kitchen table and talked about our day at work. Suddenly a roe deer passed by just outside, followed by her two baby deers (photo further down). We’ve seen the roe deers in our garden a lot during the summer, but this is the closest we’ve seen them. And I can’t possible be angry on them, despite the fact that they ate ALL my carrots, ALL my beets and half of the physalis plant earlier this summer. They are too beautiful for that and I love the fact that they come by almost every evening.

Photo taken in rush through the window: Mother roe deer with one of her babies, the second one just outside of the photo.

Chicken skewers marinated in coconut milk, with peanut sauce. 70 SEK

Autumn is here; the end of vacation and start of work. End of sunny days and start of rainy ones. I’ve had my first week at my new job and I’m totally exhausted. Next week I’ll do my best to blog about all those great things that I’ve cooked and baked lately. But until then just a picture of my new cute tea cup that I bought at Koffert, to have at work now when I have my own desk again (with a fabulous view!). Oh, and among all great things at Koffert they have Jelly Belly jelly beans by weight!

We had a minor storm last night and when I woke up this morning some of the branches on the tomato plants were broken. I went out on the terrace in the pouring rain to raise the fallen plants, thinking about all those green tomatos on the broken branches and what to do with them. I first thought of making a green tomato jam, but after looking in one of the cookbooks I saw a green tomato pie recipe. Aha, perfect! I didn’t follow the recipe at all (except for the fact that I used green unripe tomatos) and decided that the tomatos would go well with almond paste and lemon. So I collected all my unripe tomatos, put on my kitchen music (the best of Dean Martin) and just after hearing the first tones F shouted from the ground flour asking what I was baking. For a second I didn’t know what I should say. Should I tell him about my crazy plan, with the risk of having to eat everything by myself as he sometimes is a bit fuzzy with vegetables and vegetable cakes? But I was honest and he answered that it sounded “interesting” wondering how on earth such a thing could be edible…

I used a Donna Hay recipe for the pastry and the filling was just a gamble that turned out excellent! Next time I’ll try with cinnamon instead of lemon or maybe something else. And there will be a next time because we both really liked these mini pies and I’m sure that by the end of summer I’ll end up with more unripe green tomatoes. If you’re tired of making green tomato jam or fried green tomatoes every time the summer ends to quickly or a storm splits your plants resulting in a lot of unripe tomatoes, bake these sweet and delicious pies. As soon as you taste them you’ll forget all about bad weather and the end of the summer.

Unripe tomatoes of different kinds: yellow pear shaped, black cherry and bloody butcher.

Mini green tomato pies with almond paste and lemon
(makes 5 pies, using 12 cm * 2 cm metal pie tins)

basic vanilla pastry (adapted from Donna Hay):
250 gram flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
180 gram unsalted butter, cold and chopped
80 ml ice water
1 vanilla pod, the interior

Filling:
180 gram unripe tomatoes, mixed sorts (mostly cherry tomatoes)
200 gram almond paste
50 gram unsalted butter, softened
zest from one lemon
1 tbsp Grand Marnier
0.5 tbsp flour

milk for brushing
caster sugar to sprinkle on top of pies

pastry:
Combine flour, sugar, vanilla and butter in a food processor. Process until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. While still running the food processor, add water little by little until a smooth dough is created. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.

filling:
Grate almond paste and combine with softened butter. Chop the tomatoes coursly. Add tomatoes, lemon zest, Grand Marnier and flour to the butter/almond paste mixture. Combine.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (convection oven). Lightly grease the metal tins with butter.
Take 2/3 of the pastry and roll out to 3-4 mm thick. Cut out 5 rounds, around 2 cm wider than the tins. Line the pie tins with the pastry and trim the edges.

Divide the tomato filling between the pies. Roll out the remaining pastry and cut in strips. Arrange the strips on the pies to a lattice pattern. Press and trim the edges. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30 minutes, until the pies are golden.